Who do you say that I am?

Really none of the disciples at Caesarea Philippi needed advanced qualifications in rocket science to answer this question. For them, and for readers of St. Matthew’s Gospel, the answer must be stark staring obvious. That is, unless you believe with the Pharisees that Jesus is a blaspheming imposter, or else possibly a raving madman: in either case he would have to be acting with the power of all the demons of hell.

A couple of months ago I spoke at Mass here about the Holy Eucharist, based on a book I’d recently read by an American scholar called Brant Petre. That book was called “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist”.

“As the rain and snow come down from heaven …and water the earth … so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty.”

Our brief first reading today, from Isaiah Chapter 55, is familiar as part of a longer passage we have in the Easter Vigil.

These days, more and more, the Pluscarden brethren are aware of our need to pray for vocations: to ask the Lord to send us men, who want to be, and will become, monks.

The quarterly magazine which generally includes a letter from Fr Abbot, a diary of recent activity at the Abbey, book reviews and articles by monks, oblates or visitors.