Author: Justin

On the solemnity of All Saints the monastic community will present their recently elected abbot Columba McCann OSB to the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly to ask for his blessing.

Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly will ask God to bless and strengthen Abbot Columba as he begins his service as leader of the community of twenty six monks, with the new abbot then receiving a copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the symbols of his new office.

The abbatial blessing takes place on Friday 1st November 2024, the solemnity of All Saints, at 3pm in the Abbey Church and may be followed online at www.glenstal.com/abbey/webcam

There will be no 12.10pm Conventual Mass on that day.

Fr Brendan Coffey OSB

Today we have the account of Jesus’ famous prohibition on divorce. The temptation is to skip over it, talk about something else and hope nobody notices, because today’s Gospel makes fairly stark reading and we can easily come away from it thinking that Jesus doesn’t have much sympathy with those of us who make mistakes in life. And yet, that just isn’t true, is it?

He understood us very well indeed, as we see from his conversation with the woman at the well, who had five husbands and the man she was with when she met Jesus was not her husband at all; or when he was confronted by the woman taken in adultery. He was the only one who showed her any compassion. The crowd wanted to stone her to death, but he shamed them all into slinking away by writing in the dirt with his finger, just as God wrote the commandments on the tablets of stone which he gave to Moses. The law is there to give life and set us free, not to place heavy burdens upon us. Jesus understood this better than any of us. So don’t tell me that Jesus doesn’t have sympathy with those of us who make mistakes, because that’s utter nonsense; we know perfectly well that he does.

It is we who do not see and it is we who are so unteachable, just as he said. If you need proof of that, look at the wonderful job we have made of managing the world today! It is we who choose to see in part and we who do not open our eyes to the Divine Light. But from the beginning of Creation he made them male and female. And there we have it; the echo of three seemingly insignificant words. Three words that are of vital importance. In the beginning. They are not just any three words, these are the first three words in the Bible. “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” Jesus is saying to us, go deeper, go back to the beginning. If you really want to understand life’s more difficult questions, go deeper and look at the bigger picture. It’s easier to gloss over everything and find a quick fix. There is no quick fix, some wounds are just too deep. So where do we begin?

What God created was good. Jesus, more than any of us was aware of this, and in seeing that goodness, he also saw the value in marriage and family life which is beyond price, and precisely because he understood this he was also able to respond to the reality of human heartbreak when he confronted it in the woman at the well or the adulterous woman. We can only really do the latter properly, if we can first do the former.

We are very mistaken if we think that life is simple, it is not and neither are Christ’s words about life. To understand him we have to go deeper, we have to go back to the beginning and really try to understand why Jesus so insists on the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage. It is important for each of us to do this and take seriously what he has to say, because unlike most of us, he actually does know what he’s talking about. And so he came and walked among us, as one of us, to show us how to live and how to be alive.

On the solemnity of All Saints the monastic community will present their recently elected abbot Columba McCann OSB to the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly to ask for his blessing.

Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly will ask God to bless and strengthen Abbot Columba as he begins his service as leader of the community of twenty six monks, with the new abbot then receiving a copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict and the symbols of his new office.

The abbatial blessing takes place on Friday 1st November 2024, the solemnity of All Saints, at 3pm in the Abbey Church and may be followed online at www.glenstal.com/abbey/webcam

There will be no 12.10pm Conventual Mass on that day.

Fr William Fennelly OSB

“Who is the greatest among us?” This question seems petty to us, but for those first followers of Jesus it was a very real question. It can be hard to understand just how deeply ingrained  status was in first century Israel. Your standing affected how you lived your life from day to day, how you related to other people and they to you. Working out the appropriate honour and respect due to an individual was a constant task whether in worship, or in discussions, or in eating family meals, or receiving guests, or seating them, or greeting people in public and so on. The disciples were no different to anyone else in asking such a question. The real difference comes with what Jesus has to say on the subject.

It is understandable that at this point in the narrative the issue has arisen. Shortly, before Jesus had singled out three of them, Peter and James and John, and  led them up a mountain to witness his transfiguration and not long afterwards the brothers James and John asked to sit on his right and his left in his glory.

In this passage Jesus and his disciples are back in Galilee. In the earlier chapters, Mark described how Jesus went through Galilee teaching, healing and casting out demons. The crowds followed him everywhere he went. The crowds were amazed at the authority with which he taught them. Jesus’ status grows from that of someone unknown to that of a great prophet, teacher and healer. Now he is back in the same region and in the very same town of Capernaum, but this time there are no crowds because nobody knows that he’s there. Mark says this is because he is teaching his disciples. Mark singles out his teaching that “the Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” (9.31) The way Jesus puts it, there is no question of it not being true. It will happen. On top of that, Jesus doesn’t just say it once. He keeps saying it. But the disciples can’t understand him. Before this, many times they’d asked him to explain something that they didn’t understand. But now they don’t even bring up the subject. Mark tells us that they are afraid to ask.

And so Jesus speaks to them about status in his kingdom. And he does it in an extraordinary way. First, St Mark says that he sits down. This detail is important because it tells us that here Jesus is teaching them in a very formal way, indicating to them the importance of what he is about to say. Moreover, he calls the twelve to him. It might seem obvious that the twelve men who are named earlier as apostles should be there among his disciples but again this underlines for us that this teaching is being given to those who will be sent to proclaim the gospel. He says, “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” In effect he tells them that in terms of their culture and their thinking they should seek to take the place of lowest status. Of course he himself is the first of them to do so, when he submits to the shame and humiliation of the cross. Here he uses the word “last”. In him, the first becomes the last.

I remember once hearing a French priest, preaching in English on this gospel, and he mistranslated these words from his French bible as ‘they were arguing which of them was the tallest’! Grand means tall as well as great in French. It was a happy mistake because only children argue about who is the tallest and the disciples are in fact acting just like children. Perhaps that is why Jesus uses the example of the child he sets in front of them. Certainly the lesson that Jesus gives them is a gentle one. He understands them, he loves them. They’re his family. But it’s more than that. The key point about being a child at that time was that a child had absolutely no status whatsoever. A child was totally dependent on others and in this sense powerless. If you wanted to select the least important person to make a point then a child was a good choice. Jesus puts the unimportant child in the centre of the room. He gives the child the most important place and then takes the child in his arms. The one of no status is given the position of greatest honour. The last is placed first. It is in receiving such a person notwithstanding his or her total lack of standing or status or importance, that a follower of Christ will receive God the Father. Jesus turns their whole way of looking at themselves and others completely upside down.

If we were to list those in our world to whom effectively we accord no status it would be a very long list. This gospel passage asks of us that we begin to rethink our attitude to many people, and it should lead us to ponder all the more deeply what Jesus is doing when he becomes last of all and servant of all on the cross.

Fr John O’Callaghan OSB

Today’s gospel asks a question that we all have to answer, many times
throughout our lives, and it is not by words but by actions that we answer: Christ asks ‘Who do you say I am?’ So, let us consider how relevant is Christ, and discipleship, to ourselves in particular? One might think one’s parents and friends, a rugby coach and a music teacher are all I need. In the future would not a marriage partner, a friendly bank manager and a few golfing buddies be entirely sufficient?
In Jesus’ own time lots of people questioned his relevance: some were
astonished by the authority of his words, but they would nonetheless dismiss him with a sarcastic rhetorical question: ‘Is not this the son of the carpenter?’ Others saw him as religious and indeed political threat to their own position. Some dismissed him completely as deranged, possessed by a devil. And Peter did not do much better! Although he recognised Jesus as a messiah, he had a very different view of messiahship than Jesus. He wanted a social and political one, who would expel the Roman army from Jerusalem. As today’s gospel
reveals, for Peter it was absolutely out of the question that the messiah would endure the physical suffering and public humiliation of crucifixion. Jesus had a different idea: “Get behind me Satan. The way you think, Peter, is not God’s way but man’s!”

But those who dismissed Jesus as irrelevant or a danger did not have the benefit of encountering the Risen Christ! They hadn’t an inkling of his future resurrection. And that changed everything! The resurrection of Christ was not only the indisputable divine seal of approval of Christ but it shows that God has the last say in what survives; and it demonstrates that Christian discipleship opens onto eternity. The followers of Christ are called into a relationship with him that is not only to transform their present life, but also introduces us into a new one. Following Christ calls us actually to be heroes now, not shrinking form suffering, not sinking back from a tough challenge, so that we can claim a final victory. We all know heroes – perhaps in our own entourage, but also elsewhere. The Olympic games were full of a type of hero. We see and admire such people, especially the para-Olympic champions, who overcame particularly demanding odds. We also encounter them in hospitals and cancer wards; people rising to the very best in themselves, surpassing themselves in courage, often upheld by the love of others and faith in God’s love.

Christian heroes are prepared to be generous, to love beyond their comfort zone, to be truthful and thus courageous; they forego the soft options that cowardice can invite us to take. The do not allow suffering to direct their lives. Easier said than done! but it is our Christian way. Young people and adults who rise to it are saints – which we are all called to be. What would a life be if we were only egocentric, selfish and cowardly? Profoundly boring and achieving nothing! If you make yourself the end of all that is the end of you! But the relationship with our brother Jesus Christ fills us with courage and generosity even now and promises a brighter future. We Christians are called to move mountains in society, in our personal lives, to stand up for what is right and true. It is in that struggle that true peace can come into being, in place of an apparent peace, beneath which lie hidden hypocrisy and all kinds of weakness and conflict.

Jesus did not avoid the challenges, and he warned us of them but he added: ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light’. May he help us all to take up whatever cross we may be carrying and follow him to victory!

Glenstal Abbey was pleased to welcome and host a large group of guests to the monastery for our day-retreat titled ‘The Garden of the Risen Lord: From Recognition to Action’ on Saturday 7th September.

The retreat explored  Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus through the Gospel text, art, chant and contemporary ecological and feminist readings, with Dr Margaret Daly Denton as keynote speaker. A biblical scholar who began her career as a church musician, composer and liturgist, Margaret spoke first about the garden where the encounter with the Risen Lord takes place and the many echoes it has for readers familiar with the Biblical and Ancient Near East background on the Garden of Paradise.

In the afternoon, Margaret went on to discuss how the encounter leads to action and ended with a strong ecological reading on how we are to assume our stewardship of God’s creating activity.

Fr Luke Macnamara presented an opening paper titled ‘The Divine Bridegroom in Search of the Spouse’ which gave a scriptural perspective on the spousal motif in John’s Gospel and how the Risen Lord’s encounter with Mary Magdalene is its climax.

Later, Br Cyprian Love and Br Pádraig McIntyre gave a combined organ and chant improvisation session, before Br Emmaus O’Herlihy concluded the retreat day with an exposition and discussion of his newest painting of Mary Magdalene.

To stay up-to-date with our upcoming events, visit: www.glenstal.com/abbey/events

Fr Denis Hooper OSB

I have known my oldest friend since we were seven years old. There are two days separating our birthdays, he is the older – by two days!
Next month, please God both of us will be celebrating another significant birthday.

When we got to our 40th birthdays we scratched our heads and asked “how is it that we have come to the age of 40?” The same for our 50 th and 60 th birthdays – and now once again we ask the same question.
Simon and Garfunkle wrote a beautiful song “Old Friends”. The image in the song is of two elderly men sitting on a park bench on a bleak Autumn day in New York City.

And Simon and Garfunkle imagined what it might be like when they reach the age of the two old men. The words of the song are pretty stark:

“Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy”.

I suppose approaching old age it isn’t all that bleak – but old age creeps up on most of us – and when it does – we don’t feel that we are old.
I have a T-Shirt which says “I can’t believe I am the same age as old people”. I also have the usual “Grumpy Old Man” T-Shirt.
But getting old does have its lighter side. I went to an antique shop recently and they asked me to stay.

My sister said that at my age I should do something that I have never done before in my life. So I thought about it and decided to get a tatoo.
I went to the tatoo artist and asked if he had any suggestions. He said that he would tatoo my name and address on my forehead so that when I get lost they will know where to send me home.

I had an MRI done on my hip a year ago. When I saw the doctor, I told him “I suppose the MRI shows I have arthritis’.
He said “no, you have the early onset of rigor mortis”.

We get very much set in our ways the older we get and I think that there is a lot in today’s gospel that speaks to that reality. Even young people, even secondary school students can get set in their ways and very often, they don’t like change.
“This is the way we’ve always done it”.
“If it’s not broken, why fix it?”

Over the past week at mass we have been listening to various accounts of Jesus confronting Pharisees about their insistence on keeping to the ways things had always been done. There is nothing wrong with upholding traditions. There are so many things in our lives that
we owe to tradition. But for me the message of Jesus today is that the most important thing is not about blind adherence to the way we always did things. Times change. People change. The world
changes.

People can react to change by looking to the past and striving to go back there. All we have to do is to look at some people’s reaction to immigrants in this country. They blame them for disrupting our culture and traditions. And what of MAGA – as if there was some great
mythical time in the past that was better than the way it is now. There wasn’t. There isn’t.

Today’s gospel tells us that there never was a Golden Age and sometimes by sticking to the old ways we can justify putting obstacles in the ways of people’s lives. Jesus tells us that anything that gets in the way of our relationship with him and the Father – whether it be a tradition or not – must be avoided.

When I first came to Glenstal, Vespers on Sunday was at 4.00pm. Every other day Vespers was at 6.10pm. The reason for 4.00pm was that this was the time of Sunday Vespers in Maredsous Abbey in
Belgium. Glenstal was founded by Belgian monks from Maredsous almost a hundred years ago. And on Sundays, people used to take the train from Brussels to Maredsous for Vespers. The train arrived in the nearby station at 3.40pm and it took people about 20 minutes to
walk to Maredsous.

This tradition was carried on through to the Glenstal timetable.
Then people began to question the time of Sunday Vespers in Glenstal. Why 4.00pm? A carryover from the way things were done in Maredsous. Some traditions are accepted as the norm – even if they have no basis on present needs or realities. We all need to take stock every now and then – and in the context of today’s gospel especially, to examine things in our lives that get in the way of our relationship with God.

I will leave the last word to English writer Thomas Hardy,
“Time changes everything
Except for something inside us
Which is always surprised by change”

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB

Our first impressions of Jesus are that he is hugely successful in his ministry. While we cannot ignore his end on the Cross, for the most part we celebrate his successes: his preaching to great crowds, his many healings and exorcisms, his ability to still storms, etc. Today we get a more realistic view. We learn that many of the disciples left him and stopped going with him. In fact it appears as if only the Twelve remain. The large crowds at the Capernaum synagogue have evaporated.

What provokes so many to leave? We have a clue since they say: “This is intolerable language, How could anyone accept it?” Jesus’ teaching asks too much of them. Does it ask too much of us? The second reading from the Ephesians is often paired with the Gospel of John chapter 6 in the lectionary. There is a common theme of self-giving love.

In the Gospel Jesus gives us his body to eat, his flesh to drink. The language is symbolic of the extent of Jesus’ love and gift of himself for us, which will be manifest at the Last Supper and at the Cross. As a pregnant mother lovingly gives of her body and of her blood to the growing infant inside her that the child may have life, so Jesus lovingly gives of himself for us, that we might have eternal life. This is a great and costly gift, but one that leads to eternal life.

In the letter to the Ephesians, the reading opens with the line “Give way to one another in obedience to Christ.” This sets the scene for the further teaching for wives and husbands to be obedient to one another. The self-giving love is primarily directed to Christ who loves us first and infinitely more, and this is the context in which we are empowered to exercise this self-giving love for one another. Marriage is a privileged relationship in which to exercise this self-giving love, to which all the baptised, married, or celibate are called to practice.

Where might we practice this self-giving love in our lives? There are many possibilities, but they begin here at this altar. It is here that we offer our very selves along with the gifts of bread and wine that they and we be transformed into the body and blood of Christ, that gives life to the world. By virtue of our baptism we are empowered to exercise our priestly role in communion with Christ in this self-gift. We make this gift of ourselves in love which leads to our transformation already here and now for our true destiny, eternal life. Our participation at this altar enables us to practice this self-giving love in our lives.

Simon Peter responds to Jesus’ question as to whether the Twelve also will go away: “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life.” Simon understands Jesus’ teaching on self-giving love as the path to eternal life, a path discovered by many married couples through the challenges of life, also by true friends, faithful neighbours, and all who love. Yes this love comes as a cost to us, but it produces life, most immediately for those we serve, but also true and eternal life for our ourselves.

Over the years many people have united their prayers with those of the monastic community by joining our live-stream of services on the webcam. The stream goes live just before each liturgy commences, and we invite you to pray with us at: glenstal.com/abbey/webcam