Author: Justin

Robert Porter writes in today’s Irish Times about his recent retreat at Glenstal Abbey: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/no-more-excuses-everyone-should-go-on-retreat-three-days-a-year-1.4378839

‘Lord, it is good for us to be here’ – spend time contemplating Jesus’ Transfiguration in this latest video from the Icon Chapel:

“That caused quite an amount of worry in the nation” – Mark Patrick looks back on his life and surprise election as Abbot of Glenstal in this week’s #MeetTheMonks

We send our very best wishes to Fr Placid Murray OSB who celebrates his 102nd birthday today.

Ad multos annos, Pater!

Where do you find your coordinates in life, now that the old map is gone?

Reflect with Father Simon in this week’s episode of the Mindful Monk:

Glenstal Abbey’s Church and Guesthouse will close from midnight on Tuesday 6th October until further notice.

The closures are in accordance with the Government of Ireland’s Level 3 restrictions in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

To access the online broadcast of the Mass and Divine Office visit: www.churchservices.tv/glenstal

We are sharers in Christ’s baptism, depicted in this Baptism of the Lord panel of our Russian Festal Icon:

HOMILY OCTOBER 4  2020, 27^TH SUNDAY 

MT 21,33 -PARABLE OF THE VINEDRESSERS.

In today’s Gospel,  a rather terrifying picture may be presented to some.

The owner of the vineyard sends, at time of harvest for his share of the produce;  The tenants mistreat his agents and beat them, killing one and stoning another. Then the Master sends another group, more numerous than the first. These the tenants treat roughly likewise.  Finally, the master sends his own son and heir.  But him the tenants kill, hoping to seize for themselves the inheritance.

So when the Master arrives in his power and fury, how will those tenants be treated?

It is indeed not unjust to surmise, with the scribes and Pharisees, that justice might be done and that the wicked may be wickedly destroy. Our Saviour, the Son of God was killed and crucified, and still to this day we neglect to build,          His kingdom.

Now this earth is the vineyard and we the tenants, and the Lord is owner and master,  for the Lord’s is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its peoples. Is our behaviour such that the Lord may repent him for letting loose such a crazy species as ourselves upon an otherwise delicate environment?

Nature may survive, but with terrifying carelessness will cut off those who misbehave and poison the poisonous. However,  there is good news.

Our relationship with the Lord is not that of abject tenant and extortionate landlord. Indeed, by the teaching of Christ, we dare to call the God of the Universe  OUR FATHER.  And  of Christ we hear:  BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, BEHOLD HIM WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD.

For while The Lord’s is indeed  the Earth,  the text continues: the world and all its peoples.  We are His people, the sheep of his pasture.  In Him we live and move and have our being. He is that by which we perceive everything good and beautiful upon the earth.  Indeed, the whole sum of our past deeds, good and bad alike, have now become part of God’s creation and form the ground on which we stand in His presence, awaiting his love and mercy, not in vain. At every moment The Lord in His mercy says: Behold I make all things new. This is the dawn of creation.

So when we find  the roaring waves beating on the storm beach of Grafton Street, let us rejoice and be glad: this is the first day of the rest of our life, and the Lord is with us still, ever patiently, creatively and mercifully  building the Kingdom even on these flimsy foundations.

We rejoice today in the first profession of vows of Br. Oscar McDermott OSB, a native of Lifford in Co. Donegal. Ad multos annos! 

Join Father William on his journey from lawyer to monk in this episode of #MeetTheMonks