27/05/2020
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St Augustine of Canterbury at Downside Abbey. He is the patron of the English Benedictine Congregation, of which we are a member, and with a cohort of monks from the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, he brought Roman Christianity to England in 597 AD. He left the comfort of his monastery in Rome, along with Roman food and sunshine, for the wilds of northern Europe. They didn't get too far before Augustine was sent back to Pope St Gregory the Great (also Abbot of St Andrew's) to say that it was all too difficult and an impossible task. Nonetheless, St Gregory sent him back and the rest, as they say, is history.
Responding to a vocation is not always easy, and there may be obstacles on the way, whether real or imagined. But we need to persevere and power through if we believe that God may truly have called us to follow him as a priest, monk or nun. If we are called, he will give us the grace we need to answer that call, and to live the life to which he calls us.
So be courageous, and step out in faith to follow Christ, wherever he may lead!
