This year, the 8th of September, Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, marked the 75th anniversary of the official Restoration of Monastic Life at Pluscarden.
This was also the day chosen for the official blessing of our Building Site, in preparation for the construction of a new Guest house for ladies to the South of the monastery, to be called St. Joseph’s.
I want to speak about our second reading today: 4 verses from the end of Romans Chapter 11. This is St. Paul’s outburst of wonder and awe and amazement; Paul’s bowing down in silent worship before the unspeakable greatness of God; Paul’s proclamation of his own invincible faith and confidence - even as he recognises the severe limits to what he can know and understand of the inexhaustible mystery of God.
On Thursday 17 August John Mustard's Cello Studio and friends put on a fund raising concert in our Abbey Church.The beneficiaries of the evening were two. First our own new Guest House building Project. Then quite a new local charity called SurfABLE. This organisation helps people with impaired abilities to enjoy the surf around the Moray Firth coast line.
He answered her not a word.
St. Matthew doesn’t tell us why the Lord withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. St. Mark, in his slightly fuller account of the same incident, adds the detail that Jesus wanted to remain hidden there. At any rate, he certainly didn’t go to pagan territory in order to preach or teach or perform miracles. Why? Because Jesus was a faithful Jew, obedient to the law, as well as to his own mission from the Father. According to the law given to Israel, the Jews are a people set apart, a consecrated nation, a holy people of God. As the Psalm puts it: they are the sheep of God’s pasture, and the flock led by his hand (Ps 94/95:7).
Once again the Abbey hosted a special weekend for Oblates, from Friday 11th to Monday 14th August. Also once again Bishop Richard Moth, who is a Pluscarden Oblate, gave a series of talks for those attending. Bishop Richard has been coming to Pluscarden very regularly and faithfully since he was a teenage seminarian.
Daniel 7:9-10.13-14 2 Peter 1:16-19 Matthew 17:1-9
We know the basic meaning of today's feast. On Mt Tabor Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of the light of Easter, of Christ's divinity and of the glory of heaven. All that to strengthen their faith and “to remove the scandal of the Cross”, as we heard in the martyrology yesterday. I'm not so sure that “the scandal” was in fact entirely removed. You have to stumble over the humiliation of Jesus, over His suffering and over the finality of His death, in some ways that's the whole point – and all disciples would in fact stumble over it. They would be left grief-stricken, confused and utterly humiliated themselves – as those who staked their very lives on Jesus being the Messiah.
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