Homily of H.E. Mons. Miguel Maury Buendía,
Apostolic Nuncio in Great Britain
Quarr Abbey – Friday 11th July 2025
- Dear brothers and sisters, I am very pleased to be here at Quarr Abbey this morning and to celebrate this Mass on the Solemnity of St Benedict. I would like to express my gratitude to Abbot Xavier Perrin for his gracious invitation, and to the monastic community for the warm welcome. I wish you all a very happy patronal feast!
To each of you, I bring the greeting and blessing of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, with whom I met last month. He assured me of his closeness to all people of good will in this land. Please, do keep him in your prayers, too!
- As we celebrate our devotion to St Benedict and ask for his intercession, we also give thanks to God for the great contribution that the Benedictine spirituality has given to Europe and to our world. In a time marked by noise and conflict, the Benedictine charism remains a quiet but radiant light. It teaches us that peace is possible when Christ is at the centre and that service is the true path to greatness.
- The readings the Church gives us today speak of wisdom, virtue, and of humble service—each a key thread in the tapestry of St Benedict’s life and Rule. The First Reading, from the Book of Proverbs, calls us to “listen”, to be attentive to the Word of God, and thus to receive the gift of Wisdom. How true this was of St Benedict, whose first word in his Rule is “Listen.” The world is in such need of this message: to truly hear with a listening heart, enabling us to have compassion for our neighbour and to be drawn closer to God, who so often speaks in silence.
The Gospel we have just proclaimed relates the new teaching on leadership which Christ establishes. Authority is based, not on power, but in service. Christ came among us as “one who serves” (cf. Luke 22:27), and we are called to follow His example. How beautifully this is expressed in the consecrated life, rooted in sacrificial love and self-giving. St Paul, in the Second Reading, speaks in terms of ‘putting on’ these virtues of compassion, humility and patience like clothing. And so it is with the monastic habit: an outward sign of the inner transformation as we enter this “school of the Lord’s service” (c.f. Rule of St Benedict, Prologue).
- In his recent visit to the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls – cared for by the Benedictines, as well you know – Pope Leo XIV reflected on the connection between St Paul’s writings and the Rule of St Benedict. The Holy Father said (I quote), “Saint Paul starts by saying that he received from God the grace of his vocation (cf. Rom 1:5)… At the root of every vocation, God is present, in his mercy and his goodness, as generous as that of a mother who nourishes her child with her own body… How can we fail to mention, then, as we speak of love as the source and driving force of the preaching of the Gospel, the insistent appeals of Saint Benedict, in his Rule, to fraternal charity in the monastery and hospitality towards all.”[1] (end of quotation)
5. During the celebration of this Eucharist, we ask for St Benedict to pray for us – that we might truly grow in love of God and of each other. And we ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, model of Christian virtue, that we might, in the words of St Benedict, “prefer nothing to the love of Christ.”[2] Amen.
[1] Pope Leo XIV, Homily during Mass at St Paul Outside the Walls, Tuesday 20th May 2025.
[2] Rule of St Benedict, Ch.4, 21.