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Fr. Jarek Kurek OSB: This year feels so much under the shadow of the 2025 Jubilee Year, with all our travelling to Rome, going through the Holy Door and so on.

But it should not escape our notice that it is also 1700 years after a very important council which took place in Nicaea. This was a very significant moment in the history of the Church, and so it is not by chance that this place has been chosen by our new Pope, Leo XIV, as the destination of his first papal visit.

What was the Nicaea about? 318 bishops from all around gathered to discuss the most fundamental issues of the Christian doctrine. The most lasting legacy of the assembly is what we commonly know as the Nicene Creed, the foundational statement of our faith in God as Trinity, which, with some additions, we proclaim so often in our churches.

In 325 Nicaea, which is situated in what is now the north-western part of Turkey, was a part of the Christian empire. But when Pope Leo goes there in November, he will visit a Muslim country. 

I do think it’s becoming more and more essential that we grasp the dynamics of the Christian-Muslim interreligious context. So this morning I would like us to look at the Most Holy Trinity, this key element of our belief that we are celebrating today within this frame, through the lens of a certain Benedictine abbot, called Peter the Venerable.

Why him? Because this French abbot realised, and we are talking about the 12th century, that there was an urgent need to reach out to the Muslim world, to get to know about their beliefs. So he commissioned the first translation of the Quran into Latin and also composed very important works about Islam, which includes addressing the Muslim believers themselves. 

In his dialogue with the world of Islam, he was rather outspoken, to put it mildly. And the idea that mattered to him most was precisely the concept of God as Trinity, distinctively missing in the doctrine of the Muslim faith. 

That was the first thing he dwelt upon, clearly very important to his penetrating mind. 

Now the question: do we ever reflect upon this great mystery, the mystery of the Trinity in God?

Sadly, as one contemporary theologian noted, there is nowadays a tendency to regard all the mysteries as mysterious, obscure, beyond our comprehension. So also the Trinitarian mystery has been relegated to the list of objects and concepts considered virtually useless for a practical dimension of our Christian life. This doesn’t help at all.

But how about the idea that the Trinity shouldn’t be considered only as the theoretical foundation stone of Christianity, a relic of the dim and distant past, but become the practical, concrete, and existential basis of our Christian life today? 

It is up to us, each of us attending this liturgy to make a choice. Am I interested in getting to know the deeper meaning of this mystery? Do I want to learn the truth about Trinity, as much as I can? Do I want learn more about God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit?

If you say yes to it, why not pay a special attention to it today while pronouncing the Creed, while it is sung by our congregation in a few minutes’ time? Why not take it up again at home, trying to penetrate the meaning of the words and their significance? 

In doing so, we will be well advised to take the powerful suggestion of Peter the Venerable given at the time to the Muslim brothers? To him the true knowledge of God should never be neglected. It must be investigated, debated and examined until the one who does not grasp it understands it.

Blessed Peter the Venerable was full of holy audacity in his attempt to penetrate the essence of God who is Trinity. May it become so also with us, may we strive to deepen our understanding of this mystery in the belief that the more we try to get it, the more it will be revealed to us, by God. 

Believe in the message of today’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit will declare those things to you.

Fr. Mark Patrick Hederman: Today is red letter day. The Holy Spirit is moving through the airwaves. You could be the person needed for a next move in plans for the universe. Each of us has been fitted with a connecting link inside our identikit. It is important to take time to look around inside yourself and find the switch; Especially if you are making life-changing decisions or sitting important exams; The help-line is there if you are humble enough to use it.

There are two ways of living in this world: on your own or in the company of those who made us. The word ‘company’ comes from the Latin ‘cum pane’ meaning ‘with bread’ – Panis Angelicus – we who eat the bread of life together are companions. Companions with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Companions with all those who have left us and who make up the company of the saints in heaven. They are all around us here this morning, we only have to reach out and touch them with our love.

The Holy Spirit is our Sat-Nav on this journey through life. The signals are often silent and always discrete. We have to listen carefully and stay awake. There is no attempt to force us or to impose. The invitation is private, privy sealed and personal. There is total respect for your free will and mine. It is always your choice, my choice. So, my advice is this: plug in; turn on; and do what you’re told. That, for me, is the recipe for happy, exciting, and meaningful life. 

‘Today, if you should hear this voice – harden not your heart.’

The annual Summer Retreat will take place on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th June, and we invite you to join us!

This day-long retreat gives an opportunity for prayer, reflection and renewal in the midst of the busy summer season and has been a feature of the Glenstal calendar for many decades. The theme of this year’s retreat is ‘Teach Us to Pray’ and the retreat talks will be given by members of the monastic community.

Please email events@glenstal.com or telephone 061 621005 for more information.

Just published! Get your hands on a copy of The Glenstal Prayerbook right here: http://shorturl.at/jYZkj

Fr. Simon Sleeman: A friend gave me some advice when I told him I was preaching at the Parents Day Mass. ‘Good luck with that’ he said….’I know you have a great message, a message of peace, of freedom and living without fear but, but your congregation will  have other things on their minds… BBQ’s and bacon, sunshine and showers, music and sports, prizes and awards. Here’s what you do.’ Make your introduction concise, the ending abrupt with nothing in between.” So here goes…

We are here on assignment. The Christian assignment is not about getting more, it is not about doing more or even knowing more.It is about ‘becoming more’. Bearing fruit. Fruit that will last. Growing up into the full stature of Christ.

‘Becoming more’ is not getting bigger – Pliny the elder said that the Romans when they couldn’t make a building beautiful, made it bigger. ‘Becoming more’ is not bulking up with steroids or weights.  It is not even becoming nicer… ‘Becoming more’ is, ‘growth in the sense of the other’ – be that other my neighbour, or my God. Space for the other.

Before your mind takes you down the rabbit hole of ‘do-it-yourself becoming’, or asking yourself, ‘how can I get this done with ‘just one click’?  know that this growth is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, the Divine Artist who teaches you everything – an almost impossible proposition to hear, convinced as we are, that we can self-engineer anything we want or desire.

Our assignment is to cultivate that delicate instinct that responds to the slightest movement of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives leading us to life… and then hold onto your hats.

Fr. Anthony Keane: In today’s gospel, which gives us the farewell discourses of Jesus,  dearest brothers and sisters, we are confronted with the mysteries of Life and Death. There is the horror of betrayal  even by one who shared his table – Jesus was deeply disturbed and declared:  ‘one of you is going to betray me’, and there are the chilling words of the text: As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out.  It was night.

Lest we be too afraid, we also read:  and light shines in the darkness of that night, and the darkness could not overpower it.  And of divine Wisdom:  compared with light she takes first place for light must yield to night, but against Wisdom evil cannot prevail.Despite the murderous threat of the Jewish establishment and the weighty Roman Empire, to which is added the treachery from among one’s own,  despite all of this horror,  Jesus says:‘Now has the Son of man been glorified’                                          

– Glorified because the life of the Giver of Life has been confronted, existentially threatened and, thereby,  gloriously revealed in all its power of  love  which overcomes death itself.

And in this power, ever ancient and ever new, we receive a new commandment:  Love one another.  This comes naturally, supernaturally,  to us when we see the wonders that God works.   For,  Wisdom, unchanging,  renews the world, and generation after generation, passing into holy souls, makes them into God’s friends and prophets.                           

Fr. Mark Patrick Hederman: It is interesting how the liturgy provides readings for special occasions. Next Wednesday the conclave begins to elect a new Pope. The Gospel this morning is about St Peter, the one chosen by Jesus to head up his team of disciples, to be the rock on which Christianity is founded. It would have been difficult to choose a less likely candidate. ‘I will never leave you, I am ready to die for you, you can definitely count on me!’ His oaths of loyalty are a penny a dozen: all blow and no go!

 Jesus is patiently realistic: ‘Before the cock crows tomorrow morning, he tells his over zealous disciple, ‘you will have denied me three times.’

There are only two scenes in the New Testament where a burning charcoal fire provides the setting. Here on the beach, after the miraculous catch of fish, where Jesus is waiting to meet both Peter and ourselves. The last time we sat warming ourselves beside a charcoal fire ‘A servant girl saw us, looked closely at us and said, “This person was a follower of Jesus.” And we all stood up with Peter and denied it. “Woman, we said, “I don’t know him; I know nothing about him.”  A little later someone said, “You must be one of them.”

And about an hour later another insisted, “This guy was certainly with him, his accent betrays him.” And Peter, like the rest of us, began to curse and swear saying “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”  And as he said it, a cock crowed. The charcoal fire kept burning and Jesus turned and looked at us straight in the eye. And Peter remembered the words he had spoken to him: “Before the cock crows, you will have disowned me three times.”  And Peter went outside and wept bitterly.

Here, today, in front of a similar charcoal fire, Jesus asks Peter three times ‘do you love me’ and Peter is offended by his asking him three times. But both Jesus and the charcoal fire are making a point. If you deny me three times, you must tell me three times that you love me. Not like Judas who hanged himself after his terrible betrayal, we are invited to say how sorry we are and that, in spite of everything, our weakness, our cowardice, our treachery, we really do love him. The charcoal fire is yet one more symbol of God’s burning love, it stands like the paschal candle here as a reminder that whatever we do, however we fail, we must never give up on God’s love for us. 

On Wednesday next, 133 cardinals will assemble in conclave to vote for the next pope, a new Peter. 108 of these electors [that is 80%) were appointed cardinals by Pope Francis. Was he shortening the odds or, maybe, increasing the oddballs? No one can say who will eventually be chosen. In Italy it is forbidden by law to place bets on the result. If you want to cash in, you have to access international aps such as Ladbrokes or Paddy Power. It would be foolish to predict. All we do know is that, by the end of next week, someone will have become a household name, an international celebrity and that person, whoever they may be, no matter how incompetent, how pathetic, how foolish they may have been in the past; that person will receive from that moment on, the guidance and the courage they need to do whatever the Holy Spirit has arranged for them to do. Such a process will have happened seven times during my lifetime and in each case I have to take my hat off to the Holy Spirit because, for the most part, they have been a credit to him or her, certainly in comparison with other internationally elected leaders during that time span. 

And why is this so? Because that fire of love is still burning on the beach by the waters of the Sea of Galilee.   Our God is a blazing fire; the Trinity is iron, coal and burning heat; the axis of the universe; what makes each of us and all of us complete. The three sang with one voice from the heart of the fire: blessed be God, alleluia.