Author: Justin

Advent (from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival”) is a period of preparation for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, who, as the incarnate Word, is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of universal history. The first part of the season focuses on the second coming of Jesus as the hour of great liberation for humanity and the cosmos. As the Nicene Creed puts it, “the one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, […] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”

In the Middle Ages, this event was often interpreted as a dies irae, a day of punishment and wrath. However, in the early tradition of the Church, it was understood primarily as the culmination of the redemption that Jesus Christ had accomplished through his Paschal mystery. Indeed, the Parousia, or second coming of Christ, is the moment when the wounds of history will be finally healed. At his return, Jesus, appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead (cf. Acts 10:42), will embrace the world with divine love – a love that unites mercy and justice in complete harmony. On that day, every wrong will be made right, every injustice will be resolved, and all creation will be renewed in the peace of God’s redeeming truth.

This culmination of God’s saving purpose is portrayed in the Book of Revelation as the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth, and as the descent from heaven of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (cf. Rev 21:1-2). Then a loud voice declares from the throne of God: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with humankind. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any longer, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:3-4).

During Advent, the Church voices her deep longing for the fulfilment of this promise crying out, “Maranatha! Our Lord, come!” This is the prayer of a people deeply committed to the renewal of the world. It is the heartfelt entreaty of those who know that they will not see the full realisation of God’s kingdom at the end of time unless they labour to establish it here and now, unless they strive to make God’s justice, peace and love a reality in the midst of human history. That is why Saint Paul reminds the Corinthians – and all believers across the ages – to live out their ethical responsibility, saying: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10). At times, such a prospect may seem too daunting for anyone to face it with confidence. Yet we will be judged by one of our own flesh and blood – the One who called all believers his own family (Mt 12:49-50) and who said, after his resurrection: “Do not be afraid” (Mt 28:10) and “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19, 21, 26).

One might wonder why, in the first and longer part of Advent, the Church directs her gaze to the Parousia, turning only in the final days – from December 17 to 24 – toward Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem. It is because only in the light of the end can we fully understand the beginning. The child whose birth we await is the same Lord who will come again in glory to bring creation to its fulfilment. By contemplating his return, we see more clearly the meaning of his first coming: the Redeemer born in humility is also the judge and king who will make all things new. This vision stirs our hope and calls us to conversion, to vigilance, and to an openness of heart, so that we may welcome Christ not only as he once came in history, and not only as he will come in glory, but also as he comes to us now – quietly and yet powerfully – through faith, love and mercy.

Lino Moreira OSB

In 1969 Pope Paul VI visited Uganda and made a plea in Kampala for Africans to become Missionaries in and for the Church themselves. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria established the National Missionary Seminary of St Paul in September 1976 and invited Kiltegan priests of St Patrick Society in Ireland to assist in the formation programme. Around the same time, inspired by the same call from Pope Paul VI, monks from our monastery at Glenstal Abbey in Ireland founded a Benedictine community at Ewu, also in Nigeria.

I taught philosophy and theology for three years from 1992 to 1995 at Gwagwalada, where the MSP have their headquarters and their seminary near the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, One of the classes I taught were celebrating their silver jubilee of ordination in October this year and they invited me back to preside at their Jubilee mass and conduct the retreat which preceded this happy occasion. Abbot Christopher Dillon who had served in Ewu as prior and novice master from 1990 to 1992, and who has visited there on a yearly basis until they became independent in 2006, is now helping them to finance the building of a new church due to open in 2026. We decided to go together from the 9^th to the 26^th of October this year. Christopher went directly to Benin while I remained in Abuja with the MSP, following on later to join him at our daughter house in Ewu.

Pope Paul’s initiative has come to fruition. Both these enterprises are now thriving: MSP has almost 400 missionary priests all over the world [including fourteen of their members working in parishes in Ireland]; while the monastery at Ewu has a community of 62 members and have foundations in Calabar and in Angola.

Whereas Saint Patrick’s Society in Kiltegan have no longer any vocations in Ireland and have moved their central organisation to Nairobi in Kenya, their onetime thriving motherhouse at Kiltegan is now a retirement home for returned missionaries. This means that Africa has become a focal point for global Catholicism and the expansion in Nigeria, both in its contemplative and missionary wings, is in full flight. Nigeria has become a beacon of light for the Catholic Church as a whole.

Mark Patrick Hederman OSB

Among the students of Glenstal Abbey School going home for the Christmas holidays in 1990 was sixteen-years old Peter, who carried with him in a black plastic sack a sapling walnut tree, five feet high, complete with root ball, and pruned to a few short branches.

Naturally, he was subjected to ribbing by his companions on the train – jealous really at his being favoured, but he could forget that when his mother exclaimed her delight on meeting him with his tree at the station in Dublin. She was skilfully developing the landscaped grounds of their property, acquired some years previously, and decided at once that there would be a suitable place beside a stream flowing through the centre of the grounds for this gift from Glenstal.

She knew that during the term Peter had been a steadfast and strong volunteer working with Fr Brian Murphy OSB and myself in the Terrace Garden, in our endeavours to rescue it from its very overgrown state. Fr Brian had taken a cutting from a walnut tree in the vicinity of the garden, rooted it expertly and had it develop into a sapling, which he presented to the surprised Peter.

Thirty-five years later it remains prominent in the family’s tastefully developed parkland, a very big, magnificently shaped, tree yielding annually a bounteous harvest of walnuts – truly ‘a tree planted by flowing waters with fruit that never fails’ (Ps 1.3).

For Peter it is an appropriate reminder of happy and fruitful days in the school, and it is also a testimony to thelate Fr Brian, who continued ever afterwards to work in the garden up to the day before his sudden death in 2022.

Fintan Lyons OSB

The monastic community is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of a book by Br Emmaus O’Herlihy OSB.

Paintings will be published on 15th December 2025 and features Br Emmaus’ artwork alongside theological reflections animated by the early Christian conviction that “the flesh is the hinge of salvation.”

This 150-page coffee-table book brings theology and art into vivid conversation, exploring the implications of the Word made flesh and the role of the human body in Christian faith.

It emphasises physicality, vulnerability, and the human form’s openness to grace. Paintings aim to expand the visual imagination of faith and invite fresh insight into the Gospel’s call to life.

Available to pre-order in our online shop!

Extract from the Annals of Glenstal Priory for 18^th and 19^thDecember, 1927:

‘He [Father Superior, Dom Gérard François] came back [from Belgium] during the night before December 18^th. The next day, it being a Sunday, the six members of the new foundation being assembled in Sir Charles Barrington’s former smoking-room, at the bottom of the main staircase, Dom Gérard declared that the Lord Abbot of Maredsous and the Lord Abbot President of the Belgian Congregation had delegated him to erect canonically the new priory. Consequently, the regular community-life was to start this afternoon.

From the next morning onwards, Matins were said in choir at 5.20 in the morning – one hour later than in Belgium. In that first community conference, Father Prior pointed out that our work was going to be a long an arduous one; and that we were not likely to reap ourselves the full fruit of the seeds we were sowing…’

• 18^th December 1927 – Glenstal Castle erected as a Simple Priory.
• 19^th December 1927 – Conventual life begins with the recitation of Matins.
• December 2027 marks 100 years of sowing the seed of monastic life at Glenstal.

CHRISTMAS LITURGY TIMES/OPENING HOURS

Wednesday 24^th December (Christmas Eve)

6 pm – Vespers I

11.20 pm – Vigil followed by Midnight Mass

Thursday 25^th December (Christmas Day)

8 am – Solemn Lauds

10 am – Morning Mass (no music)

12 noon – Solemn Conventual Mass

5 pm – Vespers II

Friday 26^th December (Feast of Saint Stephen)

7 am – Matins and Lauds

12.10  pm – Mass

6 pm – Vespers

Saturday 27^th December (Feast of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist)

7 am – Matins and Lauds

12.10 pm – Mass

6 pm – Vespers I of the Holy Family

8.35 pm – Vigil

Sunday 28^th December (Feast of the Holy Family)

7 am – Lauds

10 am – Mass

12.35 pm – Sext

6 pm – Vespers II

8.35 pm – Compline

Monday 29^th December (5^th Day in the Octave of Christmas)

7 am – Matins and Lauds

12.10 pm – Mass

6 pm – Vespers

8.35 pm – Compline

Tuesday 30^th December (6^th Day in the Octave of Christmas)

7 am – Matins and Lauds

12.10 pm – Mass

6 pm – Vespers

8.35 pm – Compline

Wednesday 31^st December (7^th Day in the Octave of Christmas/New Year’s Eve)

7 am – Matins and Lauds

12.10  pm – Mass

6 pm – Vespers

8.10 pm – Vigil

Thursday 1^st January 2026 (Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God)

7 am – Lauds

12.10 pm – Mass

6 pm – Vespers

8.35 pm – Compline

The normal liturgical time resumes from Friday 2^nd January 2026.

Confessions

A priest will be available on Christmas Eve from 2pm – 5pm in the Abbey Church.

Guesthouse

Closes on Sunday 21st December and reopens to guests on Monday 29th December.

Monastery Reception and Shop

The following are the opening hours of the reception and monastery shop from Monday 22^nd December to New Year’s Day.

Monday 22^nd – Wednesday 24^th December: 10am – 2pm

25^th, 26^th, 27^th, 28^th December: CLOSED

Monday 29^th – Wednesday 31^st December: 11am – 4pm

Thursday 1^st January: CLOSED

Friday 2^nd January return to normal working hours of 9am – 5pm.

The Winter 2025 edition of the Glenstal Abbey Chronicle has been published, and is now available to read on the website here.

One-Day Advent Retreat: Saturday 29th November 2025

I have always liked – but for no morbid reason – the month of November, a month when the turning of the seasons mirrors the cycle of life and death. There is something about the days growing shorter and nature itself dying back into winter that connects in my being. For our Celtic forbears this was a liminal time, Samhain, when the veil between worlds became more transparent and the connectedness of both worlds became present. In all of this, nature herself calls us to remember those gone before us. The month is laced with ritual, beginning on All Hallows’ Eve, to the great interwoven feasts of All Saints on the 1^st November and All Souls on the 2^nd November, days of remembrance and remembering. These feasts, rooted in time and tradition, connect, celebrate and offer prayers for the departed as expressions of hope in the resurrection and eternal life.

The practice of commemorating the dead finds deep resonance in our Benedictine tradition. At the Abbey of Cluny in medieval France – one of the most influential monastic centres in Europe – the remembrance of the dead was woven into the very fabric of daily life. Founded in 910, Cluny became renowned for its spirituality, liturgy, learning, and architecture, but also for its spiritual concern for the souls of the departed. The Cluniac monks introduced the practice of offering regular Masses and prayers for the dead, formalising what would become the Feast of All Souls. This innovation spread throughout Christendom, shaping how generations of Christians would remember their ancestors and loved ones. This emphasis on remembrance was an act of profound faith in the communion of saints, a belief that we, the living, remain united with our dead in Christ through prayer and love. This in essence is what we remember during this month of November.

As in all parishes, this tradition finds quiet continuation here at the abbey in Glenstal. Woven through the monastic rhythm of prayer, reflection and work, is this thread of remembrance. Each day, at the conclusion of the various hours we pray ‘May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace’. In particular, at Midday Prayer on Sunday, we commemorate all our deceased brethren, relatives, friends, and benefactors as we chant;

‘With your holy ones, O Christ,

give rest to all your servants in a place of peace,

where there is neither pain nor sorrow but joy in everlasting life. Alleluia!’

In addition, within the Abbey grounds lies the Monastic Cemetery and the adjacent Garden Cemetery, a tranquil resting place set in nature. Here, monks, friends and benefactors of the Abbey are laid to rest amid trees, stone, and silence. It is a place of serenity. The graves are simple and the landscape itself through the seasons seems to pray. Many have chosen to make the Garden Cemetery at Glenstal their final resting place and in so doing support financially the work of the monastery.

Rather than a place of desolation, the cemetery here becomes a witness to continuity; between life and death, between past and present, between earth and heaven. The autumnal dying light, the rustling leaves, and the scent of damp soil all seem to join in the liturgy of remembrance. In this setting, history breathes gently and memory is renewed through the quiet chant of the monks.

Thus, for a Christian, November’s commemoration is not nostalgia; it is an act of faith and love. To remember our dead, ‘those gone before us marked with the sign of faith’, is to affirm that life transcends mortality; that those gone before us remain part of us, part of our spiritual family, as one day will we for those left after us. Remembrance is a sacred bridge between them and us, between here and there, between time and eternity.

May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed,

through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen

Pádraig McIntyre OSB

Find out more about Glenstal’s Garden Cemetery here.

Br Timothy McGrath OSB passed away peacefully aged 79 on Saturday 18th October 2025. He is mourned by his community, his family and a wide circle of friends and colleagues.

He made profession of vows as a monk of Glenstal Abbey on 6th July 1973 and his work of service was rich and varied: novice master, teacher in our Abbey School, rugby coach and career guidance counsellor to senior students.

Facing up to significant illness over the last ten years with courage and a zest for life, Br Timothy left us suddenly, yet aware that his health was precarious. He was particularly saddened by the death of his brother Leo only three weeks before his own.

Eternal rest, grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Funeral arrangements: reposing at Glenstal Abbey from 3.30-5pm on Friday 24th October, followed by removal to the Abbey Church and celebration of the Office of the Dead. Funeral Mass at 11.30am on Saturday 25th October, followed by burial in the Abbey Cemetery.