If we think that endings are tough, we should try and remember how important good beginnings are. There is a line in the Rule of St Benedict that says, “Always we begin again.” For monks in their monasteries, their life, the measure of their success perhaps, is perseverance in the round of repeated tasks and jobs and prayers. But this is true of the Christian life as a whole, repetition is so much of what it is to run the race of the our life, a race that in many ways seems to be perpetually beginning. But rather than a bore, this is a blessing.

September is a month of beginnings, especially for children returning to school and doing so this year in stranger circumstances than we can remember. It is also a month of change and endings where the nights have drawn in, the leaves are turning and a distinctly autumnal smell is on the air. September is a month of possibilities. If we have ever complained to ourselves, “if only there was time to do that,” or “if only I had the chance to begin again with this,” there is certainly no time like the present. The virtues, those strengths of mind and character that shape us into the likeness of the Lord always get going with the smallest of beginnings if we are to see them flourish towards the end for which we strive.

In this month of possibilities, maybe we should all try with new heart. In the spiritual life we don’t always have the feeling of being armed with a new pencil case and pristine shoes for our new beginnings because God gives us the grace we need to get started in more subtle ways. With his help, now is the time to begin with baby steps along the way of patience, and courage, even of returning to Mass, the practice of prayer, not to mention all the little kindnesses that create a climate for doing the good we ought to do, but sometimes feel daunting in the getting started. And may the Lord who begins this good work in us, bring it to fulfilment.

It’s a bit difficult to tell at the moment whether we are witnessing a transition of the seasons from summer to autumn, or if this rain is actually still a continuation of the traditional English summer!

Nevertheless, we can tell that autumn is on its way because various other things are also happening. People are arriving home from holidays, the first students are returning to the university, and families everywhere are preparing for the first day of school.

This annual cycle of familiar events helps us to keep some kind of track of that most elusive commodity of time. There never seems to be enough of it. And yet, however much we may feel that we don’t get half as much done as we might like to, when we look back from year to year, we can see a surprising amount of progress in so many ways.

We should all be in the habit of examining our consciences each night to ask our Father’s forgiveness for our shortcomings, and to ask his help to do better tomorrow. What we don’t talk about so much — though we should! — is looking back over the day and seeing the good as well. We should spend some time each evening thanking God for the things that didn’t go wrong, for the help he gave us with the temptations we did overcome, and for all the other blessings we receive every day, and sometimes take for granted.

And just as it’s a good idea occasionally to look back at our moral lives over a longer period of time to see what progress we’re making on the path of virtue, every so often, we should look back and thank God for the bigger things too.

Another reminder that Autumn is coming is the feast of Our Lady’s birthday on the eighth of September. This day doesn’t just mark another year since the birth of the Mother of God and the beginning of our salvation. It is also a special date for the Oratory in Oxford, as the anniversary of arrival of Fr Robert and Fr Dominic in 1990. And this year marks thirty years of Oratorian life in the city of Oxford.

If we look back just one year, it might be harder to see much of the good that has happened in the past year. (Although on that date last year, Br Benedict was ordained deacon, and it is now not so long to go until the Church has another priest!) But if we look back thirty years, we see that there truly is a lot to give God thanks for.

We will be doing just that next Tuesday, with a Solemn Mass at 6pm. Please join us if you can, in person, or through the live stream, and in your prayers. Please keep praying for the Oratory in Oxford. With the help of your prayers, who knows what we might be thanking God for 30 years from now.