F r om the A bb ot
Virtual Reality
It has been my experience that when we witness a crisis, or world event, or social distress, we turn to describe what is being experienced. Journalists, television personalities, bloggers, and even monks in monasteries grab onto catchwords that rise out of the discussion of our experience. The word, it seems to me, that we have been tossing about with much regularity these days of COVID-19, is the word “virtual.” We have virtual Masses, virtual classrooms, virtual meetings, virtual personal interactions, virtual shopping, virtual fundraisers, virtual marathons, virtual-and-thelist-goes-on – most of these are gifts during these difficult times, and some are grace-filled.
a Triduum and Easter like none other we had experienced. First and foremost, because we were being called to encounter each other in new and different ways, serving each other in profound ways, reaching out to others in ways that might be foreign to what we know. Whether we are in “lockdown,” or bound by a stay-at-home order, or our lives return to something resembling “normal,” we will always be called to encounter the person of Jesus Christ – the human and divine Christ – always in new and exceptional ways; for the one we so earnestly seek is the same Lord and Savior, and we are the same Body of Christ, everywhere called into an encounter with him.
What we are experiencing in these “virtual realities” has been necessary for this time of pandemic. However, virtual can never replace reality, or at least we need to consider the consequences when it does. This is not the beginning of an Orwellian commentary on technology, but rather a lead-in to our monastic community’s experience of this time of “stay-at-home,” and how we tried to allow others to encounter our experience in reality in their homes during the Holy Triduum, Easter Sunday, and beyond. And, “in reality,” our experience is the encounter with Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
That Body of Christ has never made more sense to me than precisely in times like these – times in which the support we provide each other, inside and outside the monastery, highlights the beauty of our lives, the beauty of the life of the Church, and the beauty of the Christian faith we all share. Know that we continue to pray for you each and every day – the constant in our lives – working to reach out to you in new ways as we are doing through technology.
At our weekly Tuesday evening community meeting the day before the stay-at-home order went into effect for the State of Kansas in March, from which we went into “lockdown” at the monastery, I offered to my brothers that it would be
When it became painfully obvious that the word “cancellation” would be used in these times as much as “virtual,” we, as a community of monks, had to think differently. We were challenged by reality to continue to live our lives together as monks; however, we have been called in new ways to share that unity with others. It was in this “new reality” that Fr. Jay Kythe, our Retreat Master,
How could we not share the privilege we continue to have during this time? While it is provided through tech nology, the Body is ever present, forming us in Christ Jesus. - Abbot James Albers
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