Br. John Aidan Cook was buried here at Pluscarden on Saturday 6th December. He was not a monk of our house, though he had spent time trying his vocation with our community in 2018.
Br. John/Aidan had first tried his vocation with the Benedictine monks of Norcia in Italy. While still a Junior, both physically and mentally he found himself unable to continue on there. He came here in 2018 to see if he could live this vocation at Pluscarden.
Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt 3:2).
Once again we hear the cry of St. John the Baptist, always valid, always relevant, always urgent. John calls us to prepare for the coming of the Lord: to know that the Lord is even now among us; to be certain that nothing whatever in our life is more important than knowing him, receiving him, listening to him, following him.
The Community retreat, 10-15 November, was preached this year by Fr. George Bowen C.O., a member of the London Oratory. Fr. George has many years of experience of work as a school and prison Chaplain. But very notably he has been acting recently as Postulator for the Cause of promoting St. John Henry Newman to be a Doctor of the Universal Church.
Homily for Sunday 33C, 16 November 2025: Luke 21:5-19
According to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, in Jerusalem in the days immediately preceding his Passion, our Lord spoke about terrible things to come. This is often referred to as his Eschatological Discourse. We always hear some part of it read at Mass at this time of year. The language our Lord used here was that of Jewish prophecy, and of inter-testamental Jewish apocalyptic. So sometimes it’s not easy to be sure, in any particular place, whether he’s being poetic or literal.
Ezk 47:1-2,8-9,12; 1 Cor 3:9c-11,16-17; Jn 2:13-22
Chapter 10 of St. John’s Gospel records the presence of Our Lord in the Jerusalem Temple during its solemn Dedication Feast (10:22). That annual celebration had been decreed by Judas Maccabeus, following his purification of the Temple in 164 B.C., after its pollution by the wicked King Antiochus Epiphanes. Jewish congregations also celebrated that Dedication feast in the synagogues of the diaspora.
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