​+ One of our worst fears is to be alone, to be without friends, without help. The realisation of our own inability in the face of many situations, daily and occasional, increases with age and sickness. We need support. We need assistance. We cannot survive alone.
 
If this is true for our material life in the world, how much truer it is for our Christian life! We cannot save ourselves from sin and death. We need a Redeemer. We need God's grace and strength which we receive in baptism and in the other sacraments, most particularly in the sacrament of Confession which cleanses our sins anew, and in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist which gives us strength and nourishment to persevere in the duty we have to be faithful to Christ in every circumstance, every day.
 
This is almost an impossible task: to be faithful every day, in each circumstance. But again, we have help. Almighty God does not leave us alone after we receive the sacraments. He gives us each an angel - a guardian angel - to accompany, to guide and to protect us. We will celebrate the feast of the guardian angels next week, on October 2nd.
 
But, as today's feast teaches us, Almighty God also puts at our disposition the Archangel Michael, the great soldier of God and defender against the devil. For sometimes - maybe even often - we also need his strength and protection!
 
Saint Gregory the Great teaches us in matins this morning:
“As often as anything very mighty is to be done, we see that Michael is sent, that by that very thing, and by his name, we may remember that none is able to do as God doeth. Hence that old enemy whose pride hath puffed him up to be fain to be like unto God, even he who said, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be like the Most High (Isa. xiv. 13, 14), this old enemy, when at the end of the world he is about to perish in the last death, having no strength but his own, is shown unto us a-fighting with Michael the Archangel, even as saith St John (Apoc. xii. 7): There was war in heaven Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.”
 
So, we are not alone! We have a powerful soldier who will come to our assistance and to our aid, especially when the devil tempts us to great evil, especially when all seems lost - as can often be the case in a person's life when he or she has wandered far from the teaching of Christ.
 
So too, in the world - and even sometimes in the Church - when people or institutions move away from the truth of Christ, we can and must invoke St Michael (the “guardian angel of France”!) to defend and protect us. We cannot combat all the evil in the Church and in the world by ourselves. We need help. To invoke his help by praying the traditional prayer to Saint Michael is an excellent devotion to which we can have recourse, particularly in times of temptation and distress.
 
So too we should seek to imitate the humility of Saint Michael - he who adored God, rather than rejecting Him, as did Lucifer in his pride. Do we adore God or ourselves? Before the Truth of God taught by His Church are we humble or full of pride - a pride that brings about more and more evil in ourselves and others? Am I prepared – as the Gospel of this Mass insists – honestly to face and decisively to deal with the problems and temptations that I have before they destroy me and drag me down to hell?
 
So too we should imitate St Michael's determination to defend the Truth. He invites us to fight for what is good, to act and to react in order to defend the Truth: he calls us to choose our side, just as he himself chose the side of Almighty God in the face of Lucifer’s rebellion. Let us stand with him in the full light of day ready to wield the sword of Truth against those whose shadowy obfuscations and servile lies seek to cloud the ways of God.

As we assist at this Holy Mass in the company of all the saints and angels and once again, with the incense we bless ask St Michael to carry our prayers to the throne of Almighty God, let us have much confidence: for no matter whom or what assails us, we are not alone. Help is available - if only we will ask for it.
 
Saint Michael the Archangel, show us the way with your light!
Saint Michael the Archangel, protect us with your wings!
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us with your sword! +

Today the monastery blessed and inaugurated a new set of vestments in honour of Saint Michael
specially commissioned from Paramentica in the USA
and given in the memory of a young man of the same name who died a few years ago.
Requiescat in pace. 

Le week-end dernier, nous avons eu le plaisir d'accueillir environ 400 visiteurs au monastère à l'occasion des Journées annuelles du Patrimoine, au cours desquelles les bâtiments historiques sont ouverts au public. Nous avons été particulièrement heureux qu'un grand nombre d'entre eux assistent à la messe et aux divers offices monastiques, ainsi qu'aux visites guidées dans la clôture monastique et du réfectoire.
 
This past weekend it was our pleasure to welcome approximately 400 visitors to the Monastery for the annual Journées du Patrimoine when historical buildings open particularly for the public. It was a particular joy that large numbers assisted at Mass and the various Monastic Offices and to give guided tours of the monastic enclosure and refectory.
 
De plus, nous avons été ravis, grâce à l'aide généreuse des oblats et des amis du monastère, de pouvoir offrir un café pour que les visiteurs puissent se désaltérer. La présence de plusieurs artisans sur le site permis un aperçu de leurs artisanat traditionnels.
 
So too we were delighted, thanks to the generous help of oblates and friends of the monastery, to be able to provide a café available for peoples’ refreshment as well as the presence of several artisans on site to demonstrate their traditional crafts.
 
Nous nous réjouissons d'accueillir bientôt nos nouveaux amis au monastère et de participer à nouveau à ces Journées l'année prochaine.
 
We look forward to welcoming our new friends to the monastery again soon, and to participating in these days again next year.

​+ Deeply rooted in the Old Testament Jewish tradition, the Sacred Liturgy of the Catholic Church celebrates with particular solemnity the annual feast of the dedication of a church. So too, in any diocese, it celebrates with equal solemnity the dedication of its Cathedral church, which is what we are doing today, on the anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral of Fréjus, in which diocese this church has been located since its construction more than a thousand years ago. We might well ask why the Church goes to such lengths in celebrating thus, this year supplanting the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost? The answer is twofold.
 
In the first place, this is because Christianity is not an idea or a philosophy or a system of personal beliefs, but a tangible, sacramental relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, the definitive revelation of God in human history, who became man for our salvation. Put simply: Christianity is an objective, tangible reality and not something nice thought up by someone to appease the difficulties of human existence. Jesus Christ, God become man for our salvation, wishes to reach out and touch us to heal and strengthen us and to share with us that life which will endure beyond human death. So too, we can reach out and touch the hem of His garment (cf. Mt 9:20-21) seeking the help we need to become whole.
 
Whilst Almighty God can, and occasionally does, work through extraordinary ways, normally He works to give us a share in His divine life through the Sacred Rites of the One True Church founded by His Son—primarily through the sacraments, beginning at our baptism. This is why the Introit of this Mass sings: “How terrible is this place! Indeed, it is nothing other than the house of God and the gate of heaven;”—terrible, that is, in the positive, awe-inspiring sense that truly wondrous realities of eternal significance take place in our churches (as the preface of the Dedication of a Church enumerates so clearly): through the Sacrifice Christ on the Cross, renewed in every offering of Holy Mass on our altars, sinners such as we find forgiveness and healing and are given new life and grace to become the men and women whom Almighty God calls us to be! What could be more terrific? What could be more beautiful?
 
This is why Christians from the very earliest centuries have spared no effort or expense in setting aside places for worship, indeed in building worthy houses for the saving activity of God amongst us. Those unknown people who, over a thousand years ago, quarried and carried and cut and placed these very stones in that harmonious style we admire today under the name of “Romanesque” did so to win any aesthetic competition or praise. They did so for the Glory of God and so that the people who come into this church—which, in God’s Providence includes you and I—would have their hearts and minds lifted to Him and come to that compunction, that conversion of our lives, that willingness to seek the forgiveness of our sins which is necessary if we hope to share in God’s life now and for all eternity.   
 
It is appropriate that this feast falls on the annual weekend of the Journees du Patrimoine when it is our pleasure to welcome many people to the monastery to see, indeed to experience, the beauty of this ‘terrible’ place. For whilst this building is indeed an historical monument of significance and beauty, it is no longer just a beautiful old building. It has been our privilege to return to it the life for which it was built. It is now once again a living monument to the eternal Truth and Beauty and Goodness of God—an invitation, indeed a call addressed to each of us to share in and live from those realities, now and forever.    
 
But today is not the feast of the dedication of this church. Today is the feast of the dedication of the Cathedral of Fréjus—the church in which we find the cathedra, the seat of the teaching authority of the Bishop of Fréjus (since the nineteenth century of the combined diocese of Fréjus-Toulon). Celebrating this feast is, then, a manifestation of Catholic communion with the Bishop. But let us be clear: communion is a theological reality implying unity of faith—of fundamental beliefs or teachings. It is not a reality that imposes a uniformity of opinion or practice according to the despotic whim or political program of any particular bishop (or pope for that matter). Disagreements—even conscientious disobedience in matters of policy and discipline—are possible, even as we are bound to pray for our bishop (and, indeed, for the Pope).
 
In celebrating this feast we are affirming our communion in the one Catholic Faith with Dominique Rey, our bishop (and his coadjutor) just as we are affirming our communion in faith with the first Bishop of Frejus, Acceptus (+374) and all of his successors. The presence on the altar this morning of the relics of the four great Western Doctors of the Church (Sts Gregory the Great, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome) is a further witness to this communion. In doing so we pray especially for our bishop, that he may be a faithful and worthy steward and guard and teach the Catholic faith intact. So too we pray that we may ever remain faithful to all that the holy Catholic Church teaches, believes and proclaims to be revealed by God.” +

​+ There is a common conception that a Christian is someone who is usually quite “nice”, who cares and who is helpful and does good for others somewhat more often than others might. And there is no denying, as the Holy Gospel of this Mass insists, that loving charity gives the other person the same priority as one gives oneself is of the essence of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. The Church’s great religious orders and institutions—monasteries included—have rightly been caring for those in need for centuries before any secular state became thus involved.
 
Our Lord’s teaching on the judgement of the sheep and the goats which comes later in St Matthew’s Gospel (25:31-46), should give us all pause. What do we wish to hear on that day? If we do not love our neighbour as ourselves we risk hearing the terrible condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 
 
In this respect Christianity is not “nice”. It is, in fact, quite dangerous. It is dangerous because it makes demands of us—exclusive demands which go beyond simply social ‘do-gooding’ which have eternal consequences and that ‘interfere’ as it were with each and every aspect of our life. And often Christianity says “No. This or that behaviour is not acceptable. It is not of God.” It sets boundaries. “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it,” Our Lord teaches. (Mt 7:13-14)
 
One of the demands of Christianity--the primary and fundamental demand on anyone who claims to be a Christian—is also enunciated by Our Lord in the Holy Gospel: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment,” He teaches. This comes first, before anything else; before any social activity no matter how good or necessary that may seem to be.
 
This is, of course, the commandment to worship the Lord our God, and not merely to have some residual or cultural sentiment towards Him, and to worship Him with all our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our mind. It makes the ultimate demand on us: I must recognise and humbly submit to the truth that I am God’s creature and give to him that honour, love and obedience that is His due in daily personal and public worship and witness. To put it another way, this commandment demands that I must accept that God is God and that I am not. I must make a personal act of faith in Him. And only when I have done this shall I truly be able to fulfil the second, consequent commandment, to love my neighbour as myself as a son or daughter of God, and not simply as a social worker or someone promoting a merely humanitarian cause howsoever noble.
 
In the light of current controversies there is another aspect of this commandment which is important. Our Lord teaches that we must love “the Lord your God…” This is a quotation from the Book of Deuteronomy (6:5). To the modern ear the expression “your God” may suggest the possibility of a subjective choice, that we can each find our own different path to God, that all religions are of equal validity, that it does not matter what religion you follow so long as somehow you love that which you believe to be God (or gods), that no one religion is exclusively true.
 
Let us be clear: Our Lord is not teaching post-modern syncretism. The commandment He uses by no means repudiates the fundamental tenet of the fiercely monotheistic Jewish tradition—that the One True God has revealed Himself in human history and that salvation is found only in worshipping Him. That Our Lord Himself is the definitive fulfilment of this revelation, the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him (cf. Jn 14:6), is a truth of the very nature of Christianity—one for which over two millennia countless missionaries have expended decades of labour and for which many martyrs have given their lives, firm in the faith that “whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith unless everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity…” (Athanasian Creed).
 
Certainly, Almighty God can in His mercy grant salvation to those who through no fault of their own do not have explicit faith in Christ (cf. Catechism n. 847) but we may never presume this, nor use it as an excuse to cease seeking to convert people to the One True Faith. For the Gospel’s command to Love the Lord your God is no invitation to shop in a supposed “supermarket of religions,” but to humbly submit ourselves to the definitive revelation of God in human history in Jesus Christ, and in so doing to be able all the more to love and serve our neighbour as witnesses to the saving truth that is found only in Him. For that humility, and for the strength that it imparts, let us beg Almighty God as we now approach His altar to render Him the worship that is His due. +  

+ Here in Europe the world has been ‘back at work’ as it were for a week or so now, with holidays over and ‘normal’ business regaining its momentum—even its control over our daily activities. For some, this is a welcome relief to the relative inactivity of the summer: an opportunity to push forward with various projects and ambitions and to contribute further to the good. For others, the return to work marks a return to something more mundane or even of questionable value, or even to routines that serve only to augment a sense of quiet despair in a world that, it can so often seem, has long since left me behind.
 
For monks, too, the end of the summer marks a return to studies and to projects set aside during the summer with its constant flow of guests and the increased demands of the garden and of the animals. So too, we must resume our interaction with the various authorities responsible for historic buildings and so on, planning and working to advance their restoration, etc. (And here, even monks can be tempted to despair!)
 
Amidst our resumption of ‘ordinary’ activity, however exciting or depressing that may be, the Sacred Liturgy of our Holy Mother the Church addresses to us a most extraordinary exhortation. She does so in the Epistle of this Holy Mass in the words of the Apostle Paul written from his imprisonment in Rome to the Ephesians. In fact, it is a prayer of Saint Paul, which the Church addresses to us this morning (as she has done on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost for centuries). Saint Paul prayers that the Father “may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.”
 
It is not a bad prayer, is it? We may well want to include some of its demands on our Christmas wish-list this year! But let us consider its teaching and implications a little more seriously.
 
We are busy. There is too much to do. There are too many stresses—personal, familial, social, political, ecclesial, etc.—in our lives. We may well achieve some things, but the pressure to do more is constant. And then there is always the threat, indeed the reality, of sickness and the frailty of old age that beckons on the horizon, however distant we may think it may be. The world grows more godless—indeed it becomes more and more anti-God—in its positivist partisan political turmoil and even the One True Church founded by Jesus Christ seems to be rent by rampant syncretism, moral relativism if not heresy at many levels. There are notable exceptions, thanks be to God, but the overall demographics do not look good. In such a situation our own efforts in the world, in the family, in the monastery or wider Church can seem futile. Why go back to work? Why even try?
 
We may cynically answer that we need to earn a salary in order to survive. OK. But that simply renders our efforts purely utilitarian if not ultimately futile. Certainly, to work for the bread we eat is a consequence of the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve (cf. Gen. 3:17) but even amidst its sweat and toil by the grace of Baptism we enjoy the dignity of sons and daughters of God Christ. Hence St Paul can indeed pray that we may “be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that…being rooted and grounded in love [we] may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.”
 
For with this dignity, with Christ dwelling in our hearts, nothing is futile no matter however menial or trivial it may seem; nothing is merely utilitarian. No suffering or illness or frailty can ultimately destroy us or take away the life and love of God that dwell within us. Nothing, that is, except our freely chosen rejection of the life of God through mortal sin.
 
As the world busies itself with resuming its mundane tasks, it is time for us to get back to work spiritually, as it were—to renew our good habits of daily prayer, of regular penance, fasting and almsgiving and, where necessary, to seek the restoration of the grace of Baptism in our souls through the forgiveness and healing that is available to us in the Sacrament of Confession.
 
In this resumption of spiritual work let us not forget, most particularly today on her feast, to ask the assistance of the Blessed Virgin Mary. May she who was filled with the fulness of God in a singularly privileged way, and all the saints who join us join us at this altar in giving God the worship that is His due, win for us the grace of perseverance in faith, hope and charity in the duties that are ours and in the sufferings we must endure. Amen. +

​+ As any postulant discovers quite rapidly, the contemplative live in a monastery is quite busy. Certainly, in the early hours of the morning we drink deeply of that silence and stillness in which God never fails to speak to those willing to make the time to listen, but the remainder of the day is full of prayer and work and (we are finding here increasingly) ‘interruptions’ sent by God in His Providence in the form of people seeking something at the monastery. Contemplatives do not spend their days in idle pondering. We are busy about all that needs doing—manually, intellectually and, increasingly, pastorally.
 
At the centre of this activity is, of course, is the Work of God—the optimal celebration of the whole of Sacred Liturgy—the beating heart of the monastic life, pumping the life of grace through our veins constantly through its seven offices each day as well as one in the night, through our participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered conventually (and for monk-priests, also privately). A minimum of some four to five hours of each day is spent in our choir stalls praising God, listening to His Word, giving Him the worship that is His due to the best of our ability and interceding for the Church, the world, for ourselves poor sinners that we are, and for the many people around the world who ask for our prayers.
 
Thus, a monk is of his very nature busy man: busy first and foremost about the things of God, and then, like anyone must rightly be, about providing for himself and others, maintaining a house, working in the garden or the workshop or at the desk, welcoming guests and dealing with all the exigencies that the state of the Church and the world throw up. St Benedict teaches us that idleness is a grave danger for monks (cf. Rule, ch. 48). The fact is that any monk who takes the Rule and its liturgical duties seriously has little time to be idle (!) which is, of course, no bad thing.
 
Nevertheless, whilst peeling the vegetables or cleaning the building or getting on with any number of menial tasks, the monk’s mind should not be empty or wandering. Rather, having been filled by the Word of God sung in His praise and attended to its liturgical proclamation, the monk should be constantly turning over that which he has been given—digesting it as it were—and continually drawing from its riches the nourishment and inspiration for his daily perseverance and ever more complete giving of himself to God through his faithful observance of the Rule under the obedience of his superiors. Yes, the golden early hours of lectio divina are given over exclusively to this, but the riches contemplated in word and song and ritual and in art in the Sacred Liturgy rightly overflow into every element of the monk’s day. Have you ever had a musical melody stuck in your head? Well, a monk is one in whom God’s ‘tune’ has taken root, and which does so ever more deeply, bringing forth its fruit in due season (cf. Ps. 1:3).
 
It is rightly said that the monastic life is simply the Christian life: it is just that it is Christian life organised to be lived in the enclosure of the monastery which serves to protect weak men from at least some (hopefully many) of the snares of the world. That is to say that the duty of contemplation of the Word of God is not the sole preserve of monks. Every Christian is called to ponder, to interiorise, all that is revealed in Jesus Christ, the definitive revelation of God in human history, the unique Saviour of mankind.
 
To be sure, we want our airplane pilots and bus and train drivers concentrating on their work. Doctors should attend to their patients, most especially during surgery and lawyers should study both the law and the cases before them. Cooks must cook with care: no one likes burnt food! But no matter what our duties in this life, be we in the cloister or without, we must each allow the Word of God to penetrate our hearts and minds and take root and grown therein. Otherwise, in the world or in the monastery, we shall become mere activists—efficient machines, hopefully good at what we do, but with no inner core that will sustain us and enable us to endure when the activity stops, or when it is abruptly brought to an end.
 
This is why our Holy Mother the Church insists that we must participate in Holy Mass at least each Sunday and day of obligation: that we might be at least minimally nourished by the riches she has developed and handed on in her liturgical tradition. This is why, this morning, she addresses to us the magnificent passage of Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians which can serve as a vademecum for the whole of the Christian life, and the moving healing of the son of the widow of Naim. This is why she sings so beautifully in her ancient melodies the prayers that arise in our hearts, seen so poignantly in the Introit and Offertory of this Mass.
 
My brothers and sisters, as rightly busy as any of us are, if we are not to become empty functionaries we must nourish ourselves on the things of God. As we worship before His altar this morning, let us “taste and see that the Lord is good,” for as the Psalmist teaches us, eternally “blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” (Ps. 33) +

Two months ago, we took our small veteran Fiat Panda to the garage for some minor repairs only to receive it back later in the day together with a long list of mechanical and other faults that require urgent attention if the car is to be roadworthy again. Studying the list it quickly became apparent that the cost of ‘patching up’ the car would well exceed its value and would perhaps sustain it only for a year or two at most. With almost 140,000 kms on the clock it has done good service in its 13 years, particularly in our earlier pilgrimages and in helping to move the monastery to our new home in 2020. But the fact that has confronted us is that it is now neither reliable nor viable.

We have maintained two cars for some years now, which enables us the security of a vehicle on site if the other must be away. Living in a rural area this ensures that we are able to reach essential services in case of an emergency, do necessary shopping and collect and drop off guests from the bus, the airport, etc., if the other vehicle is in use. With an increasing number of guests, we are particularly concerned to have this facility in case of emergencies.

Our principal vehicle, a six-year-old Dacia Duster, is in good condition mechanically and does much of the heavy work of hauling grain in a trailer for our poultry, collecting firewood from our carpenters, moving larger items around the property, transporting the dogs, etc. It too has done the long-haul trips that have been necessary, but it is becoming ever more a ‘home’ vehicle, which is necessary for the heavier work. With almost 100,000 kms on the dial now it is not prudent to rely upon it for that many longer journeys in future years.

Considering all of this, and studying the options, we have decided to invest in a medium sized sedan car to be reserved for the transportation of people, particularly on the medium to longer journeys that are occasionally necessary. In France, it seems that the best option available to us at the moment is a Peugeot 308 petrol-fuelled sedan with manual transmission and basic-level interior options. This model is the least expensive: a hybrid or electric vehicle would be an expense we simply could not justify. We need a medium sized car that can safely, comfortably and reliably transport the increasing number of monks and guests, but not a luxury one! The Peugeot 308 offers all of this with the advantage of being entirely made in France and therefore being more reliably serviceable into the long-term future. Certainly, there are second-hand options, but over time the initial economies gained can often prove to be false ones.

Thus, we have placed an order, and the car is due for delivery in October. This is certainly a significant investment in our future, but we believe that it is a prudent and justifiable one. By reserving the vehicle for ‘normal’ use in transporting people, it should serve us for far more than a decade into the future.

This is, however, an utterly unexpected expense of over 25,000 euros (we are awaiting the trade-in offer on the Fiat for the final figure) which is necessitating drawing on funds set aside for architects’ fees, building restoration works, etc. We believe that the investment is necessary and justified, but we would most certainly welcome and appreciate any help with the costs that is possible: we had hoped that our little Panda would be able to run around the local area for many more years to come. But sadly, that is now not the case.

Therefore, we are appealing to the generosity of our friends and supporters to help us meet the October payment deadline. Any contribution, no matter how large or small is welcome and is a blessing.