Via Vitae Way of Life
Bened ict ine Oblates of The World Community for Christian Meditation
Our journey is a way of solitude. True, it is the end to loneliness and isolation. Solitude becomes the crucible of integrity, personal wholeness, which the love of God transforms into communion, into belonging and inter-relatedness at every level of our lives. But still it is an
ascesis. The solitude
of the path is a continual purification, a continual refining in the fire of love. Monastery without Walls: The Spiritual Letters of John Main ed. Laurence Freeman osb
BENEDICTINE OBLATE NEWSLETTER NO. 18, JANUARY 2014
Living Oblation in Our Time (Talk given at the Third World Congress of Benedictine Oblates Rome – October 2013)
St Benedict urges us in the opening paragraph of the Rule
– Listen carefully, to my instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart. This is advice from one who loves you; welcome it and faithfully put it into practice. To listen carefully, attentively, in any situation we ourselves need to be silent, to let go of our inner voices. In the chapter on restraint of speech even good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence. In the Rule we are guided by a way of life that does no harm and we include nature and the environment. Never do to another what you do not want done to yourself. 4:9. Benedictine Monk, John Main wrote – everyone is safe in a Benedictine heart. We take Christ as our model for self giving, the self emptying of Kenosis. This is not annihilation of the ego. We need an ego to function, but as a servant not as a master. Metanoia: to turn and be turned enables transformation. We turn from self, open and unencumbered to the Other preferring nothing whatever to Christ. RB 72:11. How can our Oblation be fruitful within family life, especially with the young and elderly, at work, in the parish, and in the social, political and inter-religious arena? We are involved in all or some of these areas according to the circumstances of our life, and as we all know, our circumstances do change over time, however oblation remains constant. The circumstances in which we Live Oblation in our time are many and varied. Looking at the posters brought to the Congress, and hearing from each other in our Group meetings, oblates are involved in many arenas of spiritual and civic life. There are increasing numbers of poor and marginalised people in our cities. We can’t solve all the problems but we can solve some, by lobbying councils, by bringing food and clothing and by listening. Listening is an important aspect of being with people. In RB 4 “The Tools for Good Works” we are guided in so many practical ways. First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. 4:1,2. We not only love our neighbour, but see Christ in our neighbour. The sick and frail elderly who are often marginalised in society, are given special care and consideration in RB 36. How can we tap into this in practical ways for example, in hospitals and Aged Care facilities? “The Qualities of the Abbot” (Ch 2) has much to offer social and corporate entities as does Ch 3 – in the how decisions can be made. Some oblates may be in a position to offer a Benedictine view of decision making in the boardroom, the office or in the daily management of companies and in parishes. Ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue is being addressed by oblates. The oblate community itself is ecumenical. Inter-faith meetings are organised and held regularly by oblates in my own city.
The World Community for Christian Meditation
Refugees and Asylum Seekers from war ravaged countries are not treated by many governments in a compassionate and dignified manner. However there are increasing numbers of people, among whom oblates offer a way of being with those involved in such work. Visiting those in prison is also an ever expanding ministry.
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 Protecting the environment is a work on an international scale. In all the above we bring a spirit of humility, restraint and respect for those we meet and accompany in their difficulties. As the numbers in monastic communities, both male and female, decrease there is a continuing surge of lay people knocking on monastery doors enquiring about the Rule of St Benedict and asking guidance to live an oblate way of life. How do we approach these and how can we work together for the greater good? Our experience as Benedictine Oblates is grounded in Ora et Labora prayer and work. The words Ora et Labora are not specifically written in R B but on reading RB 35 –“ Kitchen Servers of the Week”, we see this in action. Those starting their week of service pray – O God come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me. And when finishing their week, they pray – Blessed are you O Lord, who have helped me and comforted me. We can make these prayers our own when starting out and concluding a ‘work’. Living our oblation is not a task. More and more we become who we are called to be. We are on mission and aspire to live and teach in the Lord’s school of service by example. St Francis urged his monks – to rarely use words.
we receive”. Apart from the practical formation in the Rule, and teaching spiritual practices guided by a mentor, there is an increasing need for continuing Spiritual Accompaniment according to the Monastic Tradition. For some oblates, this course could provide a wealth of spiritual and psychological insight largely untapped at the pastoral level. With so many lay people embracing the oblate way of life, this would be an opportunity for those who sense a call, to be involved at this depth. Meeting with our oblate director in our monastery, where this is possible gives us an opportunity to continue formation. Annual retreats also offer times for prayer, reflection on how we live our oblation. For those not able to visit their monastery because of distance or circumstance Benedictine Oblate Cell days offer formation for all in the cell. In our “Monastery without Walls” for example, we meet regularly during the year. We pray the Office, followed by Christian meditation then Lectio Divina, which is concluded by sharing the fruit of our Lectio. We break for lunch and catch up with each other. After lunch we have an hour study of R B and alternate this with a spiritual book each time meet. We also have an annual retreat at the monastery of St. Benedict nearby where we have an enduring friendship with the monastic community for over 26+ years.
R B 4 guides us in our Oblate way of life. These and the other ‘tools’ urge us to renounce ourself in order to follow Christ who calls us to ‘follow him’.
As oblates living a contemplative lifestyle, our lives are very full with many competing needs. Living Oblation in our time can be very demanding, and we need to discern with the help of another which ‘work’ we are called to.
The vows of Stability, Obedience, Conversatio guide us in our personal life and in our work. We become grounded in this way of life and place our hope in God alone. 4:41
In all that we do and all that we are in times of joy and struggle we need to remind ourselves – The call of God will never lead us to where the grace of God cannot keep us.
Formation is high on the agenda for oblates. Mentoring offers formation for the Mentor as well as the newcomer as they work through a discernment process. “It is in giving that
Trish Panton, Sydney, Australia Email: pantonamdg@ozemail.com.au The WCCM Oblate Community is a unique kind of oblation in a
monastery without walls. Yet it now participates fully with other oblate communities from around the world and makes its con-
tribution to the regular Benedictine Oblate Congress initiated in recent years by the Abbot Primate. Photograph of John Main talking to the Abbot Primate Victor Dammertz in 1982, Victor Dammertz was Abbot Primate from 1977-1992.
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 is Advent. Anyway if you get lost just email Trish or I and we are happy to help.
Editorial For Breviary Users who have got lost Dear Oblates and Friends,
Hope you enjoy this winter newsletter, it is here to give you encouragement and support on the way. There are many ways of living out Oblation as these beautiful articles express. For our Stefan Reynolds community the twice daily meditation is central but for many the praying of the Office with and alongside meditation times is also a key to their practice of Benedictine spirituality. In the last editorial I explained the various 'On line' options which are available for that. Many however like myself are old fashioned and prefer books so we use the 'Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary'. The English version is published by Liturgical Press. There are of course other options, some use the more compact 'Glenstal Book of Prayer' or various versions of Morning and Evening prayer and Benedictine Breviaries in languages all over the world. The advantage of the On line version 'Universalis' is that you cannot get lost. It is always on the right day with the right readings. As a breviary user I do often get lost, especially after a 'season' when we go back into 'ordinary time'. Sometimes I do not know readings-wise which week I am in (either in the 1-4 weeks of Morning and Evening Prayer or the 34 weeks of Ordinary Time or those for Seasons for the Office of Readings). There are annual small 'Liturgical Guides' published which help – Trish recommends to her Australian Oblates 'ORDO' which tells you all you need. But if you get lost both Trish and I are happy for you to email us and we can put you back on track!
Anyway that is basically the mechanics of the Breviary. Not very thrilling but it is part of Benedictine spirituality to have a regular form to our prayer, just as our meditation practice is regular. If you read the Rule of St Benedict you will notice how many Chapters are devoted to the structure of the Office. These may not be the most thrilling Chapters to read but they remind us that prayer is supported by a certain repetition of form. This repetition is focused most purely in our use of a fixed prayer word or Mantra in our meditation. Benedict gives us inspiration but he is also very practical; prayer and meditation is something which, as Oblates, indeed as Christians, we are called to do and to build into our every day. Not everyone, I know, can or may want to do the whole Office, but it is an excellent preparation for and expression of our meditation. There are other ways, 'Pray as you can not as you can't' the English Benedictine Monk Abbot Chapman said, but most Oblates find having a fixed form very helpful. Now that's the structure: If you need inspiration then can I recommend again the excellent WCCM Oblate Blogs given by Mary Kelly Robison (wccmoblateblog.blogspot.it). If anyone is still unsure about how Daily Prayer can be practiced, or why it is considered to have important value then I am happy to email further explanation and encouragement. If this is not your way then please don't worry, just keep on keeping on whichever way you do, and remember that for us the daily meditation is the key to our practice.
At the risk of boring you a word about the Liturgical year ahead can help. Please ignore this if it is not relevant to you. We have just started a new year: Sunday 12th January — The Baptism of the Lord concludes the Season of Christmas.) so Monday 13th begins Ordinary Time – Divine Office/ Hours/Psalter (however you name it) begins as Week 1 both in Morning and Evening Prayer and in Readings. This goes on until Ash Wednesday (this year 5th March) when we switch to the Lent readings. On the first Sunday of a Season the Hours of that Season begins (This year: Sunday 9th March – First Sunday of Lent – Hours, Week 1, Sunday 16th March – Second Sunday of Lent – Hours, Week 2, etc). If we use the Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary the Introduction to the "Proper of Seasons" is helpful if we take it slowly. (For Lent for example in this breviary it is explained on p. 1435. This 'Season of Lent' goes on to Holy Week which begins with Palm Sunday (p. 1474 of Benedictine Daily Prayer, continues through 'Holy Week' followed by 'Easter Season' which concludes (this year 8th June) with Pentecost Sunday. From there (this yearMonday 9th June) we revert to Ordinary Time – Week 10 (where we had left off at the beginning of Lent). From there we go right through in Ordinary Time (with Saints and Feast Days) until the next Season which
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With much love, Stefan Dr Stefan Reynolds Glenville Park, Glenville, Co. Cork, Ireland stefandreynolds@gmail.com
Table of contents Living Oblation in Our Time .......................1 Editorial......................................................3 To Pray in Desolation.................................4 Living my Oblation with Children ...............6 Ecuador Retreat Reflections.......................8 A Kerry Woman’s Story..............................8 Meditation is Not What you Think ..............9 3rd World Benedictine Oblate Congress...10 The Rule of St Benedict on the Mantra.....11 Boundaried and Beyond ...........................12 Not a Book Review ..................................14 End Point .................................................16
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
To Pray in Desolation
by Ross Miller
This psalm, it seems to me, could be a serious embarrassment to conventional faith.
It reflects the situation of Israel and of many believers in our day who sense they are living in a world in which there is no answer. The Psalmist wants to know how he or she can respond at all to Yahweh’s inexplicable absence. Psalm 88, Grail Psalms
my God, I call for help by day; L ord I cry at night before you. Let my prayer come into your presence. O turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is filled with evils; my life is on the brink of the grave. I am reckoned as one in the tomb; I have reached the end of my strength. Like one alone among the dead, like the slain lying in their graves, like those you remember no more, cut off, as they are, from your hand. You have laid me in the depths of the tomb, in places that are dark, in the depths. Your anger weighs down upon me; I am drowned beneath your waves. You have taken away my friends and made me hateful in their sight. Imprisoned, I cannot escape; my eyes are sunken with grief.
But the Psalmist does not choose atheism. This is something we learn from Israel in her sufferings. The failure of God to respond does not lead to doubt or to the rejection of God. It leads to more intense address. In Christian contemplative faith and prayer this means the realities we know and practise -- silence and stillness, waiting and consent. What we do not do is rush to easier psalms in our haste to feel better. Walter Brueggemann, a Christian Hebrew scholar, asks (rhetorically, I think) what a psalm like this is doing in our Bible. But in reply he says, first, these amazing poems, the Psalms, speak of all of life, not just the good parts. And so Psalm 88… militates against every theology of glory, against every theology that imagines that things can be resolved, that there are answers, and that we go “from strength to strength”. Secondly he points out, in the bottom of the Pit Israel still knows it has to do with God. It cannot be otherwise. People who come to mind include Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. Utterly shamed, ill and hopeless, he wrote De Profundis (the Latin title of Psalm 130) from Reading Prison: … I find hidden somewhere away in my nature something that tells me that nothing in the whole world is meaningless, and suffering least of all. That something hidden away in my nature, like a treasure in a field, is Humility. It is the last thing left in me, and the best...” In the depths he found humility.
I call to you, Lord, all the day long; to you I stretch out my hands. Will you work your wonders for the dead? Will the shades stand and praise you?
Another contemplative discovery in pain or desolation is joy. It emerges, gently, rising from the pain, in stillness and silence. The Scottish hymn writer George Matheson, newly blind and abandoned by his fiancée, wrote of “Joy, that seekest me through pain”. It is one of the loveliest of hymns:
Will your love be told in the grave or your faithfulness among the dead? Will your wonders be known in the dark or your justice in the land of oblivion? As for me, Lord, I call to you for help; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face? Wretched, close to death from my youth, I have borne your trials; I am numb. Your fury has swept down upon me; your terrors have utterly destroyed me. They surround me all day like a flood, they assail me all together. Friend and neighbour you have taken away; my one companion is darkness.
O Love, that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be. Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch Jewish woman, was transported to Auschwitz where she died on 30 November 1943. Two months before, they all began their final journey in freight cars. Etty wrote her last letter. It was thrown out of the train as it left Westerbork: I am sitting on my rucksack in the middle of a full freight car. Father, Mother, and Mischa are a few cars away… We left the camp singing…
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 What they sang would have been these Psalms in Hebrew. In her letters and diary Etty describes how she passed her time caring for people and reading the Psalms. She found the joy:
With joy comes the corollary, realizing that pain and mortality are not frightening me any more. It’s an exhilarating freedom – presumably also a gift to those closest to me, who are trying to put up with me.
…though I am sick and anaemic and more or less bedridden, every minute seems so full and precious… I rejoice and exult time and again, oh God, I am grateful to you for having given me this life.
I wrote much more for this article, but space was limited. I wrote about the realities of clinical depression, of the effects of tragedy, of the relentless processing of memories, the progress of chronic disease, of sliding into senility… and of the realities for carers and lovers. I wrote of simply lying awake at 2 am going over it all. I wanted to write something about the hideous murder by poison gas of some 400 children in Syria… that was when I knew the article had got out of control...
My one companion is darkness, writes the Psalmist. Anne Perry, the very successful and insightful novelist, is actually Juliet Hume, who at age 16, in 1954, joined with her schoolfriend Pauline Parker to murder Pauline’s mother in the Port Hills of Christchurch. The two girls of course went to prison for about ten years. Many years later, Juliet/Anne has described how eventually in her cell, in the medieval disgrace which is Auckland Prison1, ill, alone and hopeless, she found the light of utter sorrow leading to deep repentance. These rich themes of sorrow and repentance later emerge movingly in her series of World War I novels. I have written before of the Hebrew inscription I found at Auschwitz, on a wall. It was from the Book of Job: O earth, cover not my blood And may my cry find no resting place… The darkness is real. Sometimes no light is to be seen. Sometimes the darkness may be appropriate. It interests me that the Psalmist calls darkness a companion. It is a familiar if malign presence, which has first to be acknowledged for its own truth. And yet God is here, not somewhere else where all is well. God, please listen to me. I am full of sadness, I am crying. I feel lonely and scared. Do you really love me? I’m calling you, God. Please comfort me.
What I know is what the writer of Psalm 88 had yet to discover: O God our Light, to thee we bow, Within all shadows standest thou…
For me the surprise in the abyss was joy -- paradoxically, impossibly, not because faith and endurance had generated it in any way, but because of grace, of mercy. Still, silent, accepting and consenting to God, a gentle inner unmistakable joy emerges. Grace seeks us through pain. 1
Christ in the Wilderness—The Scorpion painting by Stanley Spencer
Contemplatives learn what Rowan Williams meant by a ray of darkness, a loving, keeping, sustaining, healing light, once we have permitted ourselves to cease raging, to set our own agendas aside, to be waiting, still and receptive.
nevertheless accorded Category 1 by the NZ Historic Places Trust
t is possible to enjoy a deeper, more positive fraternity rooted in a common awareI ness of the potential of the human spirit, rather than the limitations of human life.
It is the specifically Christian task to sink the roots of this awareness deep into modern man and woman's understanding of themselves and their world. John Main —5—
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
'Unless you Become Like One of these Little Ones':
Living my Oblation with Children Several years ago, while chatting with Fr. Laurence about my plans for my future, he offered me
by Elizabeth Cardone
practice in a completely voluntary and joyful way. To that end, I thought it might be a good idea to start an after school meditation club. This would allow the students that
strong encouragement for my then
truly enjoyed it to deepen the practice, while also opening
lukewarm decision to pursue a career
meditation to the entire student body.
in education. Fr. Laurence inspired me
Once again, I received encouragement from my principal,
to undertake this new venture with the
and I began offering meditation after school once a week.
simple directive: “Do it to serve God.” With the idea presented to me with such clarity and simplicity, I was immediately inspired to begin the journey. After three years of graduate studies, I recently began teaching at a private Catholic elementary school. I was hired at the very end of the summer, and I was excited to be offered the position of 3rd grade teacher. Although my qualifications would allow me teach in a public school setting, I relished the opportunity of being in a Catholic school where I could eventually perhaps introduce my students to meditation. However, it was made clear to me at the start of school year that the school and its attending families were on the “conservative” side of the Catholic aisle. I myself generally refrain from such distinctions, as I think that making unnecessary divisions in a body that is meant to be united is a profitless activity. In any event, I suspected that the school administration and parents would be a bit wary of the idea of Christian meditation and perhaps assume that the practice was somehow a watering down or “easternization” of the faith. To my surprise and delight, a parent of one of my students came to me, having read my resume, and suggested that I start meditating with the children. After receiving unexpectedly enthusiastic support from the principal, I began meditating with my third graders for about 5-7 minutes a few times a week during religion class. Many of the students seemed to enjoy it, and the students who took to it most naturally were, surprisingly, the most chatty and disruptive boys in the class. When meditating, they took on a new disposition, and always asked to keep meditating after the time was up. After a few weeks, some of the students in the class (mostly girls) seemed less enthusiastic about the process. I always let the students vote as a class as to whether or not we would meditate. Although I think it is always valuable to spend time in mediation, I wanted them to approach the
For the first several weeks, only 2 or 3 students came. Although the numbers were small, I enjoyed the time spent with the students. There was ample opportunity to get to know them. We would also have a light snack before meditation, in addition to a simple craft or activity (painting a prayer stone, for example). Apparently word spread, and for the past few weeks, at least 12 students have come to each session (There are only 85 students in the entire school). The students range from Kindergarten to 6th grade. The hour that we spend after school together is very enjoyable. The students are full of energy after a long day of disciplined school work, and they enjoy the time to have a snack and make a craft with their school mates. During meditation, they often ask to be allowed to ring the chime or light the candle. Many of the students are still learning the basics of silence and stillness; some don’t remember to keep their eyes closed, while others giggle from time to time throughout the session. Many are still learning the mantra, and a few of the 6 year old students have delightfully creative ways of pronouncing “maranatha.” I try not to critique their behavior too much, but rather try to model the quiet, still disposition that is conducive to this way of prayer. I cannot be sure that the meditation segment of our afternoons is the most exciting or enticing to the students. Perhaps they really enjoy the craft and the snack, and the meditation is merely an afterthought. At this early stage, I have no way of knowing. I just want them to have a positive association with meditation. I do hope that they find meditation “fun” at this early stage. By that, I mean that I want the practice to deeply engage their deepest selves. The first time I meditated with a WCCM group, I immediately perceived that the practice was inherently enjoyable – not in a superficial, pleasurable or fleeting way, but in a deep and mysterious way which I still to this day to not
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 entirely understand. My greatest hope for my students is
practice the serious attention it deserves. Though I am far
that they would enjoy the practice, and be open to its gentle
from perfect, I hope to become more like students. Their faith
working in their lives, both while they are young and as they
and openness is so simple, so enthusiastic, so hopeful, and
grow.
so unashamedly genuine. These past few months with them
As an oblate, I strive to incorporate the practice of medita-
have been a great gift. If I have managed to share the pre-
tion into my life, while supporting the work of the community
cious gift of meditation with them in some small way, than
and living in the spirit of the rule given to us by St. Benedict.
I am truly thankful. The gift of meditation is a gift that does
In my own practice, I probably resemble my own students.
not belong to me, or to anyone. It is the gift of the very life
My practice is far from perfect; I often find myself distracted
and love of God, who gives himself to all the world, if we
and irregular in my meditation schedule. I frequently focus
but sit down, and listen to the mantra that has always lived
on the fellowship and activities that flow from a meditation
in our hearts, the mantra of love.
session with my own peers, rather than perhaps giving the
I
n its social role and significance, monasticism is essentially classless and timeless, symbolized by the customs of the monastic life which are passed on down the centuries. But it is also utterly contemporary. ‌. When it is truly timeless it is most prophetically contemporary. The reason is that the dimension of time in the monastic life is measured against its times of prayer What can look like a mechanical and boring routine, from the outside, is known from the inside as an expansion of consciousness beyond the normal limitations of time and space. Continuously returning to those times of prayer creates the grammar of each day, the structure of a lifetime. In every prayer period, time and eternity intersect. In our ordinary, fallible, mortal consciousness we are opened to the consciousness of Jesus dwelling within us. The intersection of our consciousness with his, sparks the moment of love, and it becomes increasingly evident that this occurs not just at the times of prayer but is incarnate in us at all times. Light Within: The Inner Path of Meditation Laurence Freeman OSB, p.113
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
Ecuador Retreat Reflections “International Living” magazine has listed Ecuador as one
of the top places in the world for Americans to retire. And so JoAnn and I, forty years married, did just that: we settled our affairs in North Florida and moved here two years ago. We have come to love our beachfront home on the Pacific Coast’s Manta Bay in this small fishing and vacation village of Crucita. At 78 and 73 we find this a great time and Crucita-by-the-sea a great place, to meditate. Our meditation received a great boost the week before Christmas when Fr. Laurence made his first visit to Ecuador. His itinerary brought him to Quito, Ecuador’s capitol city, for a three-day, December 16-18, silent meditation retreat. His theme was “Christ The Teacher Within, The Way of The Heart”. Fr. Laurence presented in English with an excellent Spanish translator. My aging ears especially appreciated the pauses for the translation—they gave me time for the wisdom of his statements the better to penetrate to my understanding. I usually take notes whenever I have a chance to hear Fr. Laurence. Mainly I write since my note-taking helps me focus my monkey mind. For me, Fr. Laurence’s message, as usual, reinforced John Main’s and WCCM’s: meditate using “Maranatha” as my word or mantra, laying aside all thought. Do this twice a day for 20 to 30 minutes. Do this every day.
Wally Saunders (352)505-1905 (FL/USA#SKYPE)
deeply in love with God. That’s how children meditate. They teach us. They’re not solemn about it. And we do not try to repress thought or imagination—we just do not give them our attention. I felt a bit tongue-tied when I had my ten minutes of one-onone time with Fr. Laurence: my heart was so full I did not know how to phrase whatever question I had. He intuitively, it seemed to me, responded by speaking of perfectionism, and expanded on this in a subsequent talk. That is a lesson I need to go on learning, probably for the rest of my life: that life-long lesson of self-acceptance, of love of myself, rooted in God’s love for me. As the early Christians put it so concisely, Fr Laurence reminded us, “God became man so that Man could become God”. In meditation I get to enter into, “jump into”, that stream of love between Jesus and the Father, embracing the Spirit, who loves me as I am, a child, with lots of warts. I especially appreciated the Benedictine hospitality demonstrated by the composition of the forty or fifty retreatants. Mainly Roman Catholics, the participants included Southern Baptists, at least one Buddhist, and non-believers. They all expressed their appreciation for the opportunity the communal silence, stillness and simplicity of meditation afforded them. The experience of meditation once more did its work of creating community from a group of strangers.
Meditation’s power to create community shone forth with the forty or so of us in the midst of the silence of the retreat. Fr Laurence reinforced our commitment to the silence of the retreat. He encouraged us to use two books: (1) the book of nature in this beautiful setting of the Bethania, Valle de los Chillos, retreat center and (2) the Bible, doing reflective reading, Lectio. In all this we are focusing on the presence of God, remembering that we always find Jesus in the present. We are on a journey without end, always falling more
The six of us who made the trek from the Ecuadorian coast to the Andean retreat center were all grateful that we did. We have already met several times over the past few weeks, utilizing the WCCM-produced “Time Peace” CD with John Main for meditation, followed by discussion. Out of this an ex-pat meditation group has been born. We plan to meet to meditate together here in Crucita every Thursday afternoon. The Ecuadorians from the Sierra, the Quito area, will strengthen their one group and expressed much interest in creating others. Meditation does create community!
A Kerry woman’s Story
by Lillian Casey, Cork, Ireland
I
grew up in John Mains ancestral county. I have deep roots in the countryside and I had felt all along that there has to be something else besides saying prayers, but I kept plodding along on the old strict ways which were ok too and eventually meditation arrived unknown to me. I was invited along to a service to mark the 10th anniversary of John Mains death on a cold January evening. I barely knew the man’s name and I knew nothing about him but in my heart I was curious and ready for something.
In the afternoons, instead of a coffee break, I go to the tiny college chapel to do my twenty minutes meditation. My work colleague reminds me its” Maranatha time”. She threatens to peep in sometime to see what I am doing. Another colleague jokingly calls it Marrakesh.
The wind from the sea in Ballinskelligs blew in my direction and just carried me along gently and it continues to carry me and hopefully I will carry with me all the people I meet in my lovely neighbourhood and in my busy workplace.
I look forward to our monthly oblate meetings. Being an oblate has put a seal of discipline on my two periods of meditation.
The question was what God has done through Fr. John in my life. My wish is that little ripples from what I have gained from meditation would pass on to others. I have more joy in my life and I am less judgemental.
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
Meditation is not what you Think Two pleasant surprises have made me realise that medita-
tion is not what I thought it was. The first was at the Third World Congress of Benedictine Oblates in Rome and the second was listening to a Christmas broadcast presented by the Queen of Great Britain.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” is one of those familiar Christmas phrases that refers to God’s Word becoming human at the incarnation. But as Father Michael Casey reminded us, in a brilliant lecture at the Oblate ConCNPosnett gress, it is repeated each time we open our hearts and our lives to God’s word and allow the Holy Spirit to operate through Lectio Divina. What I hadn’t realised about Lectio Divina is that the fundamental gift of grace passes through five stages very similar to those experienced in Christian Meditation. Firstly, we experience the power of silence in a similar way to experiencing the powerful impact of the written word. Secondly, we catch a glimpse of God’s spiritual glory in a silent enlightenment.
by Charles N Posnett
claims that Scripture is a mirror in which we can see ourselves more clearly; but so too is meditation, if we allow it to reflect and adapt our innermost being. The Third world Congress of Benedictine Oblates was held in Rome in October and was a wonderful opportunity to meet with other oblates from across the world. Our own working group (pictured below) reached these conclusions about “Oblates listening in the world.” The members of this group believe unanimously that oblation is a vocation – a unique calling within the Church and to the world. We believe that living the life of oblation gives structure to our formation in Christian service. We agree that the practice of lectio divina develops in us new skills for listening to the Word of God and the needs of the world. We agree that the cultivation of silence is essential to the process of listening, but also that silence itself can be part of our gift to the world. As one of our members reminded us, “Silence speaks.” From those of our group who are part of the Monastery Without Walls, we were reminded that listening is being attentive, and that being attentive is love – love that is so needed by our world today.
Thirdly, we give assent that our faith is deeper than mere words. Fourthly, we acknowledge that we can only turn this faith into action by regular practice of periods of silence every day. Fifthly, this faith can only be truly authentic if it becomes a regular discipline and if it is characterised by perseverance in our daily lives. Thus our faith-filled reading of God’s word and our faithfilled observation of regular periods of meditation both play their part in strengthening our spiritual life. But the similarities go deeper than mere process. Just as God’s word “smites us with the grace of compunction”, so too do the absence of words allow us to see and hear things that we might overlook because they are drowned out by the busyness of our lives – in the shape of radio, television, the Internet and social networking. We need to be alert and attentive to that still small voice of calm, rather than exposing ourselves to the danger of imposing our own and other people’s interpretation on our thoughts and on our lives. Lectio Divina strengthens our faith, guides our behaviour and leads us into prayer. So too does Christian Meditation and the fruits of meditation are visible for all to see in the way that they modify our social behaviour. St Athanasius
Two months later and in a completely different context I was listening to the Queen’s Christmas broadcast; so imagine my surprise and delight on hearing her speak these words:"We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock. Be it through contemplation, prayer, or even keeping a diary, many have found the practice of quiet personal reflection surprisingly rewarding, even discovering greater spiritual depth to their lives.” So meditation is not what you think. It’s not just for the contemplatives, it’s for everyone. As the Queen rightly said : "For Christians, as for all people of faith, reflection, meditation and prayer help us to renew ourselves in God's love, as we strive daily to become better people. The Christmas message shows us that this love is for everyone. There is no one beyond its reach.”
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CNP : 30th December 2013
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
The 3rd World Benedictine Oblate Congress in Rome A Front Row Viewpoint from Canada
by Cathie Jarvis, Canadian Oblate
My pilgrimage began when I was asked and then accepted to participate as the Canadian Representative from the Canadian Community of Christian Meditation of the World Community for Christian Meditation at the 3rd World Benedictine Oblate Congress held in Rome.
October 4th 2013, the first day of the congress attracted over 150 oblates from around the world at the Salesianium Conference Center to pray, listen, learn, discuss and travel as a community of love together with the Abbott Primate, Notker Wolf OSB, the organizing committee and the Benedictine monks. We were all blessed with this opportunity to share our particular vocation as followers of St. Benedict in relation to our personal, communal and global lives. I considered it a week of retreat, renewal and affirmation that the Benedictine Order with the motto “that in all things, God may be glorified,” would be manifested. Our week began with Holy Mass to thank and offer our week to God. The mass and the divine office were celebrated in Latin, which was quite a challenge for most of us. Group meditation was led by Trish Panton at 7 A:M: in the chapel. The theme of the congress, “Obsculta” the oblate listening in the world, was presented in many and all activities of the congress. These included the addresses of the main speakers and the four working group sessions. Our two main speakers, Mary John Mananzan OSB from the Philippines whose presentation included listening in the depth of your heart, listening in scripture, listening to God’s people and listening in creation and Michael Casey O Cist from Australia who presented Lectio Divina as the “Word became Text and dwelt among us.” Working groups were arranged
according to language and the four sessions enabled us to discuss the Rule, the relationship with the monastery, or in my case the monastery without walls, living our oblation and the Benedictine mission. Results of these group meetings were presented on the Tuesday to the whole assembly. The group I was in, which included oblates from Canada, the UK, the USA, Africa and Argentina was a very vocal group with intelligent discussions on the four main topics. The second session: that of our relationship with the monastery and the monastery without walls was a very controversial session. Since most participants were first time participants, the WCCM was a community that was not known to them. Their first exposure to the WCCM was reading the prayer card which was included in their registration package. The idea of an oblate without a monastery was unfamiliar and not well received. At noon on Sunday we visited St. Peter’s Square for a public audience with Pope Francis and then after lunch the Sacro Speco of Subiaco. With presentations, dialogue, discussions and reports attended to, our attention on Tuesday and Wednesday was directed to travelling and visiting the monasteries of St. Anselmo and Montecassino. The hospitality shown to us from the monks was that of receiving everyone as Christ. The monks took pleasure in serving us a meal, celebrating mass, leading vespers and at St. Anselmo very excited in performing a folklore musical for us. Thursday has arrived and after mass and lauds it was a time to say, “until we meet again.” Now there are new friendships, new knowledge, and new memories to process as we continue as oblates, living our promises of obedience, stability and conversion on this new pilgrimage in our journey to the Father. PAX
from The Rule Chapter 20: Let us be assured that it is not in saying a great deal that we will be heard (Mathew 6:7) but in purity of heart and tears of compunction. Our prayer, therefore, ought to be short and pure.
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
The Rule of Saint Benedict on the mantra The
contribution of the Holy Rule for the contemplative tradition of the Church for the benefit of all and not only for monks and nuns, is found in the specific approaches of Saint Benedict on topics relevant to Christian Meditation such as Humility (§ 7), Silence (§ 6) and notably the Prologue, verse 28. Laurence Freeman OSB wrote a commentary on the RB Chapter 6 in Via Vitae No.9, December 2008. Chapter 7, considered one of the principal ones of all the RB in any sense, is quite extensive and complex for a short article (see “Patrologia Latina” 66, 377-378 and the monumental commentary on the RB by Adalbert de Vogué OSB: “La Règle de Saint Benoît : commentaire doctrinal et spirituel”, Éditions du Cerf, Paris, 1977). Therefore this paper addresses the fifth section of the Prologue, particularly the 28th verse.
St. Benedict delivering his Rule to St. Maurus and other monks of his order. France, Monastery of St. Gilles, Nimes, 1129
The prologue of a work introduces the text to the reader, but the prologue of the RB has a different purpose: it is an exhortation, a call to monastic life (and to Christian life in general) and at the same time, a catechesis, a statement that describes the vocation of the monk and the broad lines of his spiritual route. The fifth section containing the verses 22-34 (reading for January 4th, May 5th and September 4th) is inspired by the Psalms 15 and 137. The Psalm 15 comprises ‘the way of tent’. In the desert Yahweh dwelt in a tent, as the whole people of Israel. Sukkot, the Feast of Tents (or Tabernacles), one of the great feasts of Israel, commemorates these events annually (Exodus 23:14). It is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals (Shalosh Regalim) mentioned in the Bible. The temple of Jerusalem (the ‘abode of Yahweh’) was also called ‘the tabernacle’ in this verse from Psalm 15. In the context of the Prologue, ‘to dwell in the tent’ is equivalent to defi-
by Marcelo Melgares
nitely penetrating the eschatological Kingdom. The way to get there is laid down by Christ (v.24). This section contains a promise of happiness and a catalogue of good works that evoke for a Christian reader the eternal bliss and the demands of the Gospel. To dwell in the abode of God, to rest in the holy mountain, the allusion of the tent is the picture of the monastery inside our hearts. We must never think that the Kingdom of God is something that is just given to us without our having to respond to it. This is one of those great debates in the history of Christianity: the relationship between grace and good works, between grace and free will, between salvation as a gift freely given and salvation as something we must strive for. Saint John Cassian (4-5th Centuries), whose writings profoundly influenced St. Benedict, was accused of semi-Pelagianism because of his emphasis on the need to work for salvation. Other early Fathers have been accused of Quietism because of the emphasis on God's work in salvation. A classic statement of how these two aspects of salvation work together is this: we must pray as if everything depended on God and we must work as if everything depended on us. We must understand and put into practice above all the internal conversion to recognize the presence of Christ by our side and enjoy the joy of His holy presence. This is the first reason of an enlarged heart. Many of the Desert Fathers and other early monastic writers were convinced that the heart of the spiritual life lies in the understanding of thoughts and how to deal with them. Perhaps today it could be added that the understanding of both thoughts and feelings and the wisdom of knowing how to let thoughts and feelings lead us to Christ is the heart of the spiritual life. The Greek philosophers often taught that self-knowledge was the most important element in living a wise and good life. Christian philosophers would add to that self-knowledge the ability to spend our energies for Christ. The 28th verse of the Prologue contains the personal recommendation of St. Benedict to the spiritual resource of the mantra: “He has foiled the evil one, the devil, at every turn, flinging both him and his promptings far from the sight of his heart. While these temptations were still young, he caught hold of them and dashed them against Christ.” But the path of goodness is also the path of faith. The Gospel is the ‘good news’, and so we walk under the guidance of the Gospel of Him who teaches us faith. The Way that is the same Jesus who said: “I am the way” (John 14:6),
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 and “Whoever does not take up his cross daily, cannot be my disciple” (Matthew 10:38). It is the imitation of Christ. It is the way of faith. Whoever imitates Jesus is ‘God's temple’: his heart is pure and his tongue is pure; he does not harm his neighbor and he dwells in the tabernacle of God. St. Benedict has here a beautiful allegorical interpretation of Psalm 137 to show the definite and strong attitude that we must have when facing evil: to dash against stone1 our darkest thoughts, our inclinations towards evil. The stone is Christ. We should have a similar attitude and realize the desires from God to us. It is all or nothing, because we know that He is with us and demands everything. As was the case with Saint Paul: “by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:10). This phrase of St. Paul is nothing more or less than God requires from us.
Our challenge as oblates today is to live the Gospel fully and totally in a manner that shows the love of Christ to all who encounter us. The tradition embodied in the RB, applied to the discipline of reciting the mantra as taught by John Main, guides us to abandon our thoughts and feelings to find the Holy Spirit who prays in our hearts. Oblate life calls for a real discipline on our part and the willingness to give ourselves over to learning that discipline. The discipline is for the sake of putting ourselves at the service of Christ. Marcelo Melgares is a WCCM Benedictine Oblate, married and Family Physician in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil. The author wishes to kindly thank Dom Alexandre de Andrade OSB, monk of the Saint Benedict Monastery in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, for his suggestions and contributions. Contact: marcelomelgares@yahoo.com.br
The composition of the Book of Psalms spans at least five centuries. Some of the Psalms are contemporary of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (10-7th c. BC) when cruel Assyrian warriors invaded some cities of Ancient Near East and sometimes killed the local little children dashing them against stone. The picture of Psalm 137 is taken from this context. 1
Boundaries and Beyond
by Jim Green
At the Benedictine Monastery of Christ our Saviour in Turvey, UK, a group of psychotherapists, psychiatrists, spiritual directors, monks and fellow seekers met on St Andrew’s Day 2013 to consider, through a day of dialogue, what we mean by “Setting Boundaries”. These reflections arose from that day.
There are boundaries everywhere we look in every part of
the data provided by five (simultaneously connecting and limiting) arbitrary senses. We are ultimately defenceless in the face of the awesome powers of the universe (ask Job, King Lear, the person sitting next to you in the doctor’s surgery). The Buddha called it dukkha. Often translated as ‘suffering’, the word is actually closer to something like ‘unsatisfactoriness’.
As in so much else, St Benedict provides us with many clues in our search for discernment. His Rule has long been celebrated for its flexibility. It quietly affirms this central value by conforming itself to the needs and abilities of individual persons, honouring where they are at this particular time and place in their lives. As such it is significant, as Joan Chittister points out, that the accurate translation of the title is not Rule but Guide. As that famous little phrase from the Prologue insists, it is hoped to introduce “nothing harsh or burdensome”. Throughout – as long as we are able truly to listen with the ear of the heart – the Rule guides us through boundaries from the legalistic and limiting towards a place of openness, connection and human growth.
Why is the world – why are we – like this? The Buddha is too wise to ask this question. This is simply the way it is. He concentrates on looking into this ‘given’ nature of reality and at how we can start from here. Others might say that the state of affairs we encounter is ‘God-given’, with perhaps some reference to the Fall, another attempt to account for the limited nature of our existence. The brief version is that God made a beautiful garden and placed us in it. He set boundaries, we experienced them as limitations, we breached them, and now we find ourselves even more limited. Fallen. And no longer in the nice garden.
our world. All things seem to have a beginning and an end. Everything has an edge. But not all points of contact or separation fulfil the same function. Perhaps learning to name them with greater accuracy will help us to live more skilfully in an endlessly liminal world, help us to know a road-block from a threshold, an invitation from a refusal.
LIMITS There seem to be some non-negotiables in our human condition. Most starkly, we are born and we will die. Beyond that, our experience of reality will always be a kind of reconstruction, brilliantly cobbled together by the brain from
Which takes us to Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. They’re another version of Adam and Eve, showing us just what a tight place we’re in: nothing to be done and nowhere to go. It’s difficult to think of any two characters who are more limited. We are stuck with them for a couple of hours (or eternity, whichever comes first). After a lot of talk and fantasising and desperation and cheering each other up, they decide, at last, to go. They do not move.
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 LIMITATIONS Every self-help guru will tell you that you are much, much more than you think you are. We all build glorious palaces and then live in tawdry, tumbledown shacks next to them. How come? What makes us have such a low opinion of ourselves? It may, of course, often not be a conscious belief that I am in some way unworthy, not deserving of love and praise, incapable of great things. Such a decision can be (is usually) taken at an early age and then buried. I have disappointed Mummy. I have made Daddy angry. I have failed to do what they want me to do. I don’t deserve their love (but I desperately want it). I have failed. I will always fail. These terrible life-sentences, visited upon your self, by your self, are delivered, and live on, in the murky gloom of the unconscious. Too often we are governed by these limiting beliefs about ourselves which are secretly preserved as a kind of perverse holy writ. And then we try to lead our lives under the secret rule of these cruel limitations. No wonder many of us end up feeling like ‘hungry ghosts’ or ‘beasts of burden’. DEFENCES What’s happened in these cases is that we have retreated behind our defences. What motivates this disappearance behind the castle walls is the desperate desire to preserve something we believe essential to our very existence, to avoid loss or even annihilation. Behind the ramparts, different fantasy versions of the self can flourish: omnipotent, undeserving, ideal, grandiose, hated… but ‘safe’. The only trouble is that this course of action is always going to backfire. If the defences behind which we seek protection are high or impervious enough, then we shall lose contact with others, with ‘reality’ and – tragically – with our Self. There can be no health when a barrier is impermeable. When we become convinced that parts of life, parts of ourselves, parts of the human race must never have contact, when we believe that one side is acceptable and the Other is definitely not, then the unhealthy walls get built. We look to Palestine, to Belfast, to Berlin and we see the truth of that. If we are brave enough we can see it too when we look into our own hearts. CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES We know (many of us from agonising personal experience) what catastrophe follows from the transgressions which simply ignore boundaries. Abuse and violence at the personal and collective level destroy lives. In the exploited child, the victim of rape, the innocent bystander killed by a missile, we see the continuing crucifixion of the Body of Christ. But the image of the Cross also shows us another way that we can live with, and through, boundaries. Even more than Beckett’s Everymen, Vladimir and Estragon, we see in the crucified Jesus the supreme example of limitation. What could be more limiting than being nailed to a
piece of wood in a public place, all boundaries crossed, all defences down? And yet…… The mysterious revelation of the Cross seems to be that the total acceptance of this apparently complete loss of freedom and power (these limits) is transformative. By assenting to being completely local and particular (nailed to this cross, here and now, with this unique pain and despair but not closing the heart) Jesus manifests Christ, the universal. In this unifying field all boundaries are crossed, but through love, not out of fear. With this kind of crossing, there is the possibility – the assurance – of growth. At a personal, psychological and emotional level, our first task in life is to establish healthy boundaries (rather than simply have them set for us). We can’t transcend or let go of something that we don’t yet have. Going further though, we might challenge ourselves by affirming that it is our life’s task to know our limits, limitations and defences, and to work to transform them into boundaries. And then to dare to go beyond them. Paradoxically this is done, not by shedding all gravity and expanding into the shiny ether of an unreal heaven, but by assenting to being here, now, and sitting on the ground with our own unique shape, our unique unsatisfactoriness, our limits and limitations. I remember the first time that I was introduced to the practice of Christian contemplative prayer over twenty years ago. Jim Finley (who had Thomas Merton as his novice master) was leading a Christian Zen retreat in Los Angeles. His final instruction to the group as we prepared for our first meditation session was this: “Sit and experience your own crucifixion”. At that moment (a moment that has never ended) I understood, in the heart rather than the head, why this was something worth doing. It’s a strange and counterintuitive message: voluntarily choose the extreme restriction of meditation (no movement, no thought, no sound, no sight) and the Kingdom of Heaven will be yours. But this Kingdom is utterly beyond our capacity to understand or possess. And as soon as we seek guarantees (I’ll experience my crucifixion as long as it definitely leads to resurrection) then we are lost again. Resurrection is not our line of business. It comes, when it comes, as Grace, the benign dissolution of all limitations. Of course none of this, as The Cloud of Unknowing usefully reminds us, can be grasped by thought: “By Love he can be caught and held, but by thinking never”. And once again Benedict provides the central clue: “Prefer nothing to the love of Christ”. What’s on our side in making this real is the fact that meditation, with its steadfast tolerance of everything that seems unsatisfactory, is – above all – a work of love. The discipline of this work promises to guide us beyond all boundaries.
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Jim Green December 2013
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
Not a Book Review. . . If I stand back a little I am surprised that I am actually writing
this contribution for Via Vitae. It is not something I have done before. I would have had some fear and pride to expose myself – as I felt – to all these people. However here I am sharing some of my life as an ordinary novice oblate (still).
The first idea of contributing came to me when I heard of a request to write a book review. I love reading books. However I soon learned that there wasn’t a book as such waiting for me to be reviewed. I had to pick one myself. Which one to choose? I was already reading a book, but that was published 20 years ago; nobody was waiting for a review on that book. When I was struggling with this a totally unrelated big event was happening in my life at the same time and somehow the two brought me to a different perspective. The last few months were difficult and painful as my best friend and buddy Diana was entering the last phase of her life on earth. She was given only a short period of time to prepare for her death because of her fast moving illness. I was very privileged to have been able to share these last few months with her in all their beauty and pain. When I visited her in the hospice we sometimes just spoke about ordinary everyday things, other times the experience of her impending death or we sat in silence together holding hands, quietly meditating. We had shared almost twenty years the ups and downs of our lives. The easy part was that for the first 15 years we only lived around the corner from each other. Five years ago I moved out from the city to the country, a two hour drive away and yet our friendship continued and evolved. My life in a rural area at the foot of an old mountain range in the heart of Ireland was becoming simpler, more in tune with the rhythm of nature and Diana loved coming to visit. She found an inner stillness in the tasks of the land of sowing and weeding and the clamping of our heap of turf (putting the sods of turf on top of each other into a dome like shape) brought great joy to her. Diana who was almost deaf had a great voice and loved singing and her exuberant Alleluias often rippled and echoed over the fields. We always ended our garden days meditating together in the beautiful meditation room which was especially built with love and attention by my partner Tony. Singing, writing her own poetry or lip reading the poems of others, often helped Diana dealing with the painful challenges in her life. One poem of the 12th century mystic Hildegard of Bingen had a special meaning to her.
From the poem Rivers of Fire: Again I am in turmoil Should I speak or must I be silent I feel like a gnarled old tree, withered and crooked and flaky All the stories of the years are written on my branches The sap is gone, the voice is dead But I long to make a sacred sound I want to sound out God I want to be a young juicy, sap-running tree So that I can sing God as God knows how. O God, you gentle viridity O Mary, honeycomb of life O Jesus, hidden in sweetness as flowing honey, Release my voice again I I I I I
have sweetness to share have stories to tell have God to announce have green life to celebrate have rivers of fire to ignite.
(From: Praying with the Women Mystics, selected, compiled and interpreted by Mary T. Malone) As a hearing person I don’t know what it is like not to be able to hear. However for Diana the loss of her hearing had also
silenced her voice, her true voice. A restless search took years and brought her to many places and experiences. However she knew herself that “letting go” was her great challenge and this became all the more urgent in the last year knowing she had only a short time on earth left. In her last few weeks I noticed some changes: she became more able to receive love and letting it flow through and touch all around her. I
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014 don’t know if she fully succeeded in the task she knew she had to do. How do we know? However I experienced her becoming more at one with herself in that last phase of her life and she died peacefully in the end. Here was such a lesson of” letting go” for me too: it is okay to let my voice be heard, to reach out and be a little bit more part of the community. Therefore, the urge to share singing out God and celebrating Diana with my voice with all of you in the global community became impossible to ignore anymore.
What about the book review? Maybe that is not my task at the moment. Most books, often beautifully written, have often one message: sit and meditate. The way to the heart and to letting go of self lies in stillness, silence and saying the mantra, not through reading books. I know from my own experience how often I am tempted to choose book over silence. So I sit and become stiller, still. And if the temptation becomes too much.... there are always the psalms! Thank you God for Diana, Alleluia! Mieke Scholte maria.scholte@gmail.com
St Benedict presents the Monks with his Rule
Among the many miracles which made Benedict famous, the man of
God’s teaching also
flashed forth brilliantly. For he wrote a Rule for monks that was outstanding for its discretion and limpid in its diction. If anyone wants to examine his life and customs more closely, they can find in the same Rule all that he modelled by his conduct. For the holy man could in no way teach other than he lived. Gregory the Great's Life of St Benedict Dialogues XXXVI, 1:
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 18, January 2014
END POINT
The Journey
by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
was terrible. It was already late
what you had to do, and began,
enough, and a wild night,
though the voices around you
and the road full of fallen
kept shouting
branches and stones.
their bad advice – - though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
Rule of St Benedict Chapter 36: On the Sick
‘Mend my life!’
Before
But you didn’t stop.
all things and above all
each voice cried.
But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice, which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company
things, care must be taken of the sick,
You knew what you had to do,
as you strode deeper and deeper
so that they will be served as if they
though the wind pried
into the world,
were Christ in person; for He Himself
with its stiff fingers
determined to do
said, "I was sick, and you visited Me"
at the very foundations – - -
(Matt 25:36), and, "What you did for
though their melancholy
the only thing you could do – - – determined to save
one of these least ones, you did for
the only life you could save.
Me" (Matt. 25:40).
N AT I O N A L O B L AT E C O - O R D I N AT O R S USA: Mary Robison, maryrobison@mac.com UK: Eileen Dutt, eileendutt@yahoo.co.uk
NEW ZEALAND: Hugh McLaughlin, hungnz1916@yahoo.com
ITALY: Giovanni Foffano, foffano@libero.it
IRELAND: Rowena O’Sullivan, rowenaos@gmail.com CANADA: Polly Schofield, wccm.oblates@bell.net
BRAZIL: Marcelo Melgares, marcelomelgares@yahoo.com.br
AUSTRALIA and INTERNATIONAL: Trish Panton, pantonamdg@ozemail.com.au
VIA VITAE No. 18, January 2014
Editor: Dr Stefan Reynolds Glenville Park, Glenville, Co. Cork, Ireland + 353 214 880103 stefandreynolds@gmail.com
Graphic Design: Anne Dillon, USA