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Fr. Denis Hooper: 

THE GLASS IS HALF FULL

THE GLASS IS HALF EMPTY

SOME OF US ARE SAID TO BE BORN OPTIMISTS

SOME OF US ARE SAID TO BE BORN PESSIMISTS

I DON’T THINK THAT IS ENTIRELY TRUE. THERE ARE TIMES IN OUR LIVES WHEN THE GLASS IS INDEED HALF FULL. THERE ARE OTHER TIMES IN OUR LJVES WHEN THE GLASS IS INDEED HALF EMPTY

RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE ON PEOPLE WHO ARE GENERALLY OPTIMISTS. THEY LIVE LONGER AND HAPPIER LIVES AND HAVE GOOD AND LASTING RELATIONSHIPS

TODAY IS THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT – GAUDATE SUNDAY. GAUDETE AS THE LATIN SCHOLARS AMONG US WILL KNOW TRANSLATES TO ENGLISH AS “REJOICE”

THE COLOUR OF THIS WEEK’S ADVENT CANDLE IS PINK – IT SYMBOLISES THE LORD’S IMMINENT ARRIVAL – CHRISTMAS DAY IS ALMOST UPON US

“WHAT DO WE HAVE TO REJOICE ABOUT” SOME OF US MAY SAY? THE DAYS ARE DARK – THE WINTER SOLSTICE – THE DARKEST DAY OF THE YEAR IS A WEEK AWAY. OUTSIDE, IT’S BEEN MISERABLE FOR THE PAST MONTH OR SO. REJOICE? REALLY?

LET’S MOVE TO TODAY’S GOSPEL. JOHN THE BAPTIST IS IN PRISON.  A RECENT REPORT INTO MODERN PRISONS IN IRELAND TELLS US THAT THREE PRISONERS TO A CELL IS NOT UNCOMMON

BRENDAN BEHAN IN THE BORSTAL BOY GIVES US A GLIMPSE INTO THE CONDITIONS HE ENDURED IN PRISON:

“A HUNGRY FEELING, CAME ORE’ ME STEALING

AND THE MICE WERE SQUEALING IN MY PRISON CELL

AND THE OULD TRIANGLE WENT JINGLE JANGLE

ALL ALONG THE BANKS OF THE ROYAL CANAL”

BUT IN THE PALESTINE OF JESUS PRISONS WERE HORRIFIC WITH NO LIGHT, NO RECREATION, INFESTED FOOD – AND THE LIST GOES ON. YOU STOOD A FAIR CHANCE OF NEVER COMING OUT OF THEM ALIVE

TODAY WE READ THAT JOHN THE BAPTIST IS IMPRISONED. THE IMAGE I HAVE OF HIM IS THE DARKNESS OF HIS CELL

IF YOU REMEMBER, JOHN BAPTISED JESUS IN THE RIVER JORDAN. JUST IMAGINE THAT DAY, THE SUN WAS SHINING, JOHN BAPTISED THE MESSIAH, EVERYONE WAS IN GREAT FORM, EUPHORIC. THE VOICE OF GOD WAS HEARD TO SAY: “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON”. JOHN DECLARED THAT JESUS WAS “THE LAMB OF GOD”. THERE WAS HOPE IN THE WORLD: THE GLASS WAS HALF FULL

BUT NOW JOHN IS IN PRISON, UNDERGROUND IN A DARK AND DANK CELL, JOHN IS STRUGGLING. HE IS HAVING DOUBTS ABOUT WHAT WAS ONCE SO CLEAR TO HIM. HIS GLASS IS NOW HALF EMPTY

THE MAN JESUS SAID WAS “THE GREATEST PROPHET BORN” IS NOW IN THE DEEPEST DARKNESS OF A PRISON

JOHN IN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO ASSURE HIMSELF AND TO QUELL THE DOUBTS OF DARKNESS HE TELLS HIS FRIENDS TO GO AND ASK JESUS IF HE IS THE MESSIAH AFTER ALL. WHAT A CHANGE FROM THE MAN WHO BAPTISED JESUS

JESUS COULD HAVE ANSWERED IN A YES OR NO TO JOHN’S QUESTION. BUT HE DOESN’T.  HE KNOWS THAT JOHN NEEDS TO HEAR MORE. HE SAYS: “TELL JOHN WHAT YOU HEAR AND SEE: THE BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, THE LAME WALK, THE LEPERS ARE CLEANSED, THE DEAF HEAR, THE DEAD ARE RAISED AND THE POOR HAVE GOOD NEWS BROUGHT TO THEM” 

THAT’S ALL JOHN NEEDS TO HEAR. THE GLASS IS ONCE AGAIN HALF FULL

THERE ARE TIMES IN OUR LIVES WHEN SOME OF US CREATE PRISONS OF OUR OWN – EVERY BIT AS MISERABLE AS THE PRISON JOHN THE BAPTIST FOUND HIMSELF IN

WE FIND OURSELVES IN TOTAL DESPAIR – JUST LIKE JOHN. THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY OF US ON OUR OWN ESCAPING THE WALLS WE HAVE CREATED FOR OURSELVES

IT IS AT TIMES LIKE THESE IN OUR LIVES WHAT WE NEED TO LOOK AT JOHN THE BAPTIST AND TO SEEK REASSURANCE THAT LIFE IS INDEED GOOD. THAT THE GLASS IS INDEED HALF FULL

AND WHEN WE DO REACH OUT TO JESUS AS JOHN THE BAPTIST DID, WE WILL FIND HIM WAITING FOR US READY TO FREE US FROM THE CHAINS THAT BIND US. WE ONLY HAVE TO ASK. THE ANSWER WE GET FROM JESUS IS NEVER AN LAZY YES OR NO. IT IS ALWAYS DIRECTED PERSONALLY AT US. IT IS ALL WE NEED TO FREE OURSELVES

AND WE WILL KNOW LIKE HOW JOHN THE BAPTIST DID AFTER JESUS REPLIED TO HIM- THAT THE GLASS IS INDEED NOT JUST HALF FULL BUT FULL TO THE BRIM

AND WE WILL INDEED HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT GAUDETE SUNDAY MEANS NOT JUST FOR OURSELVES BUT FOR THE WHOLE WORLD

I LEAVE THE LAST WORDS TO ANOTHER IRISH WRITER AND POET, OSCAR WILDE IN HIS POEM “THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL”:

THE WARDERS WITH THEIR SHOES OF FELT

CREPT BY EACH PADLOCKED DOOR

AND PEEPED AND SAW WITH EYES OF AWE

GREY FIGURES ON THE FLOOR

AND WONDERED WHY MEN KNELT TO PRAY

WHO NEVER PRAYED BEFORE

ENJOY YOUR GAUDETE SUNDAY. AMEN

 

Fr. Christopher Dillon: This season of Advent in which we find ourselves has a prophetic character; and prophets are regularly anti-Establishment, insofar as they call the Establishment and its keepers to account for their ministry or the lack of it. During the past week, we have heard the prophet, Isaiah, excoriate the hypocrisy of the priests and those conducting the sacrificial ritual of the Temple worship, because it bears no relation to their everyday behaviour of corruption and greed. 

Today, the same theme is continued under the aegis of the Baptist. When the representatives of the Jewish Establishment appear, in the persons of the Pharisees and Sadducees, John is quick to observe the discrepancy between their apparent readiness for penitential reform and their actual behaviour; “If you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, and do not presume to tell yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; that is, ‘We are members of the Chosen People’”. 

We, here, might all say of ourselves, “We are Mass-going Catholics”. The Baptist responds, “So what?!” Our ploughing through the ritual of our prayers and services counts for nothing, unless our behaviour manifests the goodness, the holiness and the generosity of the Father.

But there is more, much more, to what the Baptist has to communicate to us; he has a profound sense of the unique transcendence of his divine cousin and of the relative littleness of us, mortal human beings. “I am not worthy to carry his sandals”, he says of himself; and of Jesus, “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” What he meant by that, what he understood by that, is for the scholars to discuss; but it is clear that he appreciated the littleness of human achievement in the context of the grandeur of God and, by association, the insignificance of the Pharisee and Sadducee agenda. Incredible as it may sound to our ears, both Pharisee and Sadducee, whatever the difference in their theology, believed that the merits of Abraham before God were such as to guarantee the favour of God for every Jew, simply because he or she was a descendent of Abraham. 

For all of us, here, today, the Baptist is calling us to take account of our real situation, to consider the meaning of our existence in the vastness of God’s creation. We, Christians, could be at risk of presuming too much on the merits of our Baptism; for our faith teaches us that God became human so that we humans might become God. “Not so fast!”, the Baptist interposes, “Show me the fruit of your Baptism”. Through the centuries, the history of the Church as the community of those who believe that Jesus has risen from the Dead, for all its sins and faults, has been uniquely characterised by its care of the poor and the sick; just think how many religious orders have been founded for precisely that purpose, providing hands and feet to work God’s kindness among his people. 

Working God’s kindness among his people, that is the meaning of our existence; that is the fruit of our conversion, as we make our way through the maze of life, to realise the glorious goal for which God has created us, the goal for which God became a human being in Jesus of Nazareth. Only by this means, only by this work, does our attendance at Mass and our other religious practice have any value, any meaning. Advent is the time to consider these things.

Fr. Luke Macnamara: The vision of the end of time is compared to the flood in the days of Noah. Strikingly, the people swept away by the flood are not described as great sinners; they are simply going about their ordinary lives—eating, drinking, marrying—yet they are unprepared for the coming of the Lord’s salvation. Noah, whose Hebrew name signifies “rest,” embodies in his person what the Lord desires to offer his people. It seems that most were too busy with their daily tasks—perhaps even neglecting the Sabbath rest—and so failed to respond to God’s call in their lives.

Isaiah presents a hopeful vision of all nations streaming to the temple of the Lord. There, all will hear the Lord’s teaching and learn how to walk in his ways. The Lord’s instruction brings about profound change: not only do the nations gather together as one, but their relationships are transformed.

The teaching of the Lord promises change to all who heed it. The word of the Lord, which caused the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus to burn, can smelt the hardened metal within us, transforming it from weapons of war into tools for tilling the land—tools that provide food and foster peace. These metal objects can be seen as symbols of our human capacities: our ability to relate to God, to ourselves, and to one another. St Benedict’s vision is that these capacities become tools of good works. If some of these capacities have become instruments of conflict, the transforming word is given to us to smelt and reshape them. The metal that enters the foundry of the word is the same metal that emerges again; nothing of our human capacity or energy is lost—rather, it is transformed and redirected toward good works.

Tools must be properly crafted to fit our hands and to be of service. God has revealed to us the proper shape our capacities—our will, our energy—should take in order to live in communion with God, with ourselves, and with others. This shape is revealed in Jesus Christ, which is why St Paul can speak symbolically of Christ as our armour.

We require armour—not swords or spears—but the tools of good works. These are the tools that will keep us aligned with Christ when the burglar arrives at an unexpected hour. Conformed to Christ, we and our households are safeguarded against the shifting tides of human relationships, the disappointments of life, and the shattering of dreams. Christ reveals our true destiny in a sustaining vision: that we will all come to the one house of the Lord, dwell there together, and continually hear his word, which holds us in peace in his presence.

Let this vision guide our hope and shape our lives. Let the word burn within our hearts so that our capacities may be transformed for good. And let this vision and this word open us to welcome and receive the empowering gift of the Eucharist at this Mass.

 

 

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.