The eight Beatitudes are familiar to us from the account given in St Matthew at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. However, if our understanding of the blessed ones as limited to these we would be at fault, for there are many examples of those who are described as blessed in the Bible.  The Catechism speaks of our vocation to Beatitude: ‘The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching….the Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness.  This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfil it. (CCC 1716, 1718)’.

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These talks were given during 2015 at the School of the Annunciation, Buckfast Abbey, Devon. We are grateful to them for permission to publish them on our website. For more information on the School of the Annunciation, a Centre of Adult Education for the New Evangelization, go to this link