Given on 27th September 2025 at Ealing Abbey for the priestly ordination of Dom Bede Karl Grey OSB.
Dear friends, dear brother Bede, this is a good day. A good day for this monastic community, for the parish you serve, for your family and friends, and for you, Brother Bede.
Sisters and brothers, today we witness and are partakers in, the ordination to the priesthood in the presbyterial order of this man, our brother, friend and fellow pilgrim.
Bede, from your studies and knowledge you understand that by your ordination you become a co-worker with the bishops, joined to the order of bishops in the priestly office.
You will be working under and with your Abbot, who in the Benedictine tradition “holds the place of Christ” and is called to model the priest’s own role as servant‑leader in the monastery.
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council remind us that priestly obedience is obedience rooted in the love of Christ, not simply serving an institution.
In all your pastoral activity Dom Bede, the wellbeing of the People of God is paramount. St Benedict reminds us that, “nothing must be placed before the love of Christ.” This supreme love becomes the cornerstone of all priestly service seen most clearly in our service of the body of Christ, the Church - the People of God.
In your baptism Bede you were already made a sharer in the common priesthood of all the faithful.
You have served this community, monastery and parish as a deacon, and now you are called to serve as a priest in and for the Church of Christ.
As anyone who knows the Benedictine tradition will understand a priest within the monastery is always called to that office in order to be of service to the monastery, and here in Ealing for the parish.
Bede, as for every monk and disciple, your first and foremost call is to live out, to fulfil, your Christian vocation as a baptised person, sharing daily in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
Your own search for God and the Lord’s will for you has brought you from Dagenham, Essex to Middlesex, via Bath and Buckinghamshire, and your experiences in the worlds of engineering, accountancy, chemistry and the warehouse.
It has encompassed studying and teaching in Bishop Ward school, now All Saints Barking, and at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Harlesden; and walking a while, with the Jesuits and Carmelites. You bring a wealth of experience to this community, monastery and parish.
Dom Bede, you found your stability here in Ealing. Thinking of stability brings to mind those three monastic vows: stability, obedience and conversion of manners -a conversion of life.
It seems to me that those three vows give you, as a priest monk, a firm foundation for your priestly ministry and can be instructive to all Christians. Allow me with some trepidation to reflect on this in this moment.
Stability is a promise to put down roots in one community; an undertaking to walk with that community in all the seasons, vicissitudes and joys that come from making your home somewhere, not just anywhere.
The Rule of St Benedict teaches that the monk’s life is a “school of prayer” in which listening to God’s voice shapes every action. This attentive prayer‑and‑work, now forms the very soil from which your priestly ministry will spring and be nourished
Obedience, by which you listen attentively to the Word of God, the experience of persons entrusted to your care and the prompting of the Spirit in your own life. That listening can lead to obedient service: an obedience, grounded in love, which leads to true humility and service.
And lastly, conversion of manners …of life. The monk’s vocation, or that of any disciple, or seeker after truth, is never a final destination in truth; it is a continual journey of conversion towards an ever‑higher love of God.
Everything you do, from washing up, having meetings, deciding to read, to watching TV or joining social media: Everything you do is your spiritual life. It is only a matter of how consciously you do these ordinary things, how attentive you are to the opportunities they offer for growth and for enjoyment, and how selflessly, how compassionately you perform them.
In all this, as you know only too well, the monastery’s rhythm of the Divine Office becomes the priest’s rhythm of the Holy Mass. In other words, “the monk’s life becomes a fruitful synergy between action and contemplation”.
As a priest monk, you now receive the sacrament that authorises, empowers, you to celebrate the Eucharist, preach the Gospel, and minister the sacraments for the whole People of God. The very people assembled today to hear and to respond to the word of God.
Every pastoral act, every confession, every homily, must be offered “with the love of Christ above all”.
Every priest in his own way represents the person of Christ himself. Every Christian priest knows that he is called as a servant, not relying solely on his own gifts, (though not denying them), only too conscious of our own inadequacies, but rather relying on the action of the Holy Spirit. Dear Bede, trust and open yourself to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
You are called to bring good news in your preaching life and work to all who seek life and desire to live it well. You are called to be a sign of hope.
Dear friends, we - you and me - are called to support this newly ordained priest. Offer prayers for him, welcome him into your lives, and share in the joys and trials of his ministry.
May the Lord who called you, Bede, to monastic life, now pour out on you the fullness of the Holy Spirit as a priest. May you always listen to the voice of God, obey with love, and serve with the humility of a monk who prefers nothing to the love of Christ. Always remember the example of the good shepherd who came not to be served but to serve, and to seek out and rescue those who were lost.
This is a good day.