No. 26, July 2020
BENEDICTINE OBLATE NEWSLETTER
the Online Meditation in a Time of Pandemic. There have also been national gatherings of Oblates online, some like that of the Filipino community have been open to all. There is also an expansion of new Oblates in New Zealand, which you can read about below in the News. There is also the wonderful online resource: acontemplativepath-wccm.org We also celebrated recently the 40th Anniversary of Fr. Laurence's ordination. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Crowley in the chapel of the mother house of the Congregation de Notre Dame in Montreal on June 8th 1980. His journey can be traced in “Monastery Without Walls” where John Main speaks of the support Fr Laurence was to him, and to the whole development of the community and work of Christian Meditation.
VIA VITAE MEDITATION PRACTICE SPIRITUALITY HEALTH EDUCATION SOCIETY SCIENCE ENVIRONMENT ART
JOIN THE PATH
A Contemplative Path Through the Crisis
Time Line of Fr. Laurence OSB’s Monastic and Priestly Journey in the words of John Main (Source: "Monastery Without Walls") two-year trial period […] Brother Laurence Freeman, who had joined the monastery after six months in the lay community was in simple vows and had started his theological studies, also volunteered to come. MINOR ORDERS (pg.99)
THE CALL TO MOVE ON (pg.11) Word of the Meditation center at Ealing was spreading widely, through personal contact and our first publications. By a perculiar series of connections, it reached Montreal and led to an invitation from its archbishop to make a monastic foundation there […] At the beginning of 1977, the community bravely accepted his proposal for a
At the end of August 1978 Laurence Freeman was about to make his solemn monastic profession at Mount Saviour Abbey in New York. He had been ordained to minor orders, the first step towards ordination to the priesthood, in early September. Bishop Crowley had come to us at Vendome for compline and meditation and bestowed the orders at a ceremony in which several of our friends participated. It also fell to Brother Laurence to greet our former abbot, Francis Rossiter, from Ealing, who came from England to attend the profession and meet our new brethren at Mount
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