Br. Aidan Hunt Cistercian Monk died 30 March 2011

Please pray for

Brother
Aidan HUNT OCSO
of this community who died

on Wednesday 30th March 2011
in his 77th year and
the 48th year of Monastic Profession.

Date of Birth                           13/12/1934

Entered Nunraw                    11/11/1960

Novice                                    16/04/1961

Temporary Profession            21/04/1963

Solemn Profession         `      21/04/1966

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I am the resurrection and the life
he who believes in me,
though he die,
yet shall he live.

Sancta Maria Abbey

Nunraw

OCSO Necrology

Necrology

Never swerving from God's instructions, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom....and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.   Rule of St Benedict, Prologue and ch.72

Nunraw

Wednesday, 30 March 2011 17:54

March 30, 2011 : Brother Aidan Hunt. Born in 1934 in Isleworth (England), he entered Nunraw in 1960 and made his solemn profession in 1966. Brother was 76 years old and had been in monastic vows for 47 years when the Lord called him.

Of Gods and Men Atlas Monks

 COMMENT

---- Forwarded Message ----
From: Sr. N....
Sent: Mon, 28 March, 2011 20:38:07
Subject: Re: Pope's Book

I like Donald's blog on discipleship, quoting from Benedict XV1's book "Jesus of Nazareth". 

Yours . . .
N....

At last some of us were able to view the award winning film of the Atlas Monks of the Cistercian Community of Our Lady of the Atlas, Algeria.

It was full house at the final showing at the Edinburgh Festival Film House.

After the fateful decision not to leave for France, Fr. Christian has the look of the anguish of responsibility as he walks out through the woods. As he comes to the lake, he reflects a sense of peace. Previously Christian had written, anticipating death, with love of his Muslim brothers and thanking God for all His children.

• Later Br. Luc seemed to have acted ‘mine host for a celebration of the community decision of remaining in Algeria. He put on a tape to play the music of Swan Lake of Tchaikovsky. He served wine with a touch of elegance. It was a moving prolonged moment in the film, a moment of communion of brothers.. The facial expressions ranged the reactions of men pending assassination. 
• The story gave a powerful account of the life of Cistercian monks and the insightful friendship with the village community.
• “Why did they not leave?” was the question. One of the viewers could not understand, as also the Algerian Officials. In fact the villagers asked the monks them to stay to be their best protection from the terrorists.
• This film is a unique picture of the life of the monks and of the poor Muslim villagers in the situation of constant threat and intense risk of life.
• The film only touches on the controversial political background. The conclusion fades away in the snow suggesting a death march. 
• One evening Vespers was dinned by a hovering helicopter with a large gun trained on the Church. It was a frightening experience shattering the quiet of the cloister. The monks moved out of their seats to the centre of the choir. They united their voices to sing a Hymn on light out of the darkness. They embraced together in courage. It was another moment of special communion. 
• Artistically the armed helicopter was visually overpowering. It anticipated the reality in the actual killing of the monks in later weeks.  Information is piecing together on how the kidnapped monks were gunned down by an helicopter action in the hills.  
  
  



Atlas

•  The possible sequel of this film will be a very different story. Unavoidably, the fate of the monks and the accurate account of their deaths will be a very painful, gruelling, and historically accurate. 

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Testament of Christian de Chergé

Prior to the capture of the monks, Dom Christian, the superior, wrote a testament to be opened and read if he died by violence. The text was opened on the feast of Pentecost, 26 May, shortly after the monks were killed.

Fr. Christian

If it should happen one day - and it could be today - that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners living in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church and my family to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country...

Testament of Dom Christian de Chergé

(opened on Pentecost Sunday, May 26, 1996)

Facing a GOODBYE....

If it should happen one day - and it could be today -
that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf
all the foreigners living in Algeria,
I would like my community, my Church and my family
to remember that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country.
I ask them to accept the fact that the One Master of all life
was not a stranger to this brutal departure.
I would ask them to pray for me:
for how could I be found worthy of such an offering?
I ask them to associate this death with so many other equally violent ones
which are forgotten through indifference or anonymity.
My life has no more value than any other.
Nor any less value.
In any case, it has not the innocence of childhood.
I have lived long enough to know that I am an accomplice in the evil
which seems to prevail so terribly in the world,
even in the evil which might blindly strike me down.
I should like, when the time comes, to have a moment of spiritual clarity
which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God
and of my fellow human beings,
and at the same time forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down.
I could not desire such a death.
It seems to me important to state this.
I do not see, in fact, how I could rejoice
if the people I love were indiscriminately accused of my murder.
It would be too high a price to pay
for what will perhaps be called, the "grace of martyrdom"
to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he might be,
especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.
I am aware of the scorn which can be heaped on the Algerians indiscriminately.
I am also aware of the caricatures of Islam which a certain Islamism fosters.
It is too easy to soothe one's conscience
by identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist ideology of its extremists.
For me, Algeria and Islam are something different: it is a body and a soul.
I have proclaimed this often enough, I think, in the light of what I have received from it.
I so often find there that true strand of the Gospel
which I learned at my mother's knee, my very first Church,
precisely in Algeria, and already inspired with respect for Muslim believers.
Obviously, my death will appear to confirm
those who hastily judged me naïve or idealistic:
"Let him tell us now what he thinks of his ideals!"
But these persons should know that finally my most avid curiosity will be set free.
This is what I shall be able to do, God willing:
immerse my gaze in that of the Father
to contemplate with him His children of Islam
just as He sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ,
the fruit of His Passion, filled with the Gift of the Spirit
whose secret joy will always be to establish communion
and restore the likeness, playing with the differences.
For this life lost, totally mine and totally theirs,
I thank God, who seems to have willed it entirely
for the sake of that JOY in everything and in spite of everything.
In this THANK YOU, which is said for everything in my life from now on,
I certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today,
and you, my friends of this place,
along with my mother and father, my sisters and brothers and their families,
You are the hundredfold granted as was promised!
And also you, my last-minute friend, who will not have known what you were doing:
Yes, I want this THANK YOU and this GOODBYE to be a "GOD-BLESS" for you, too,
because in God's face I see yours.
May we meet again as happy thieves in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both.

AMEN !   INCHALLAH !  

Algiers, 1st December 1993
Tibhirine, 1st January 1994 

Christian + 

The Disciples - Jesus' prayer as the source of his preaching and action

This morning, Abbot Mark took flight from Edinburgh  airport.

We prayed for blessings with him and with the community of Our Lady of the Angels of Nsugbe, Nigeria. 


Meanwhile, we continue the subject of 'Formation'  in the Community Report. The excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI, "The Disciple" gives gives a deeper NT perspective on "the formation of the community", (Disciples).

Jesus of Nazareth I From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI Book Marks; p.168 listen to the most important texts that show the formation of the community of Jesus' closest disciples. p. 170 The calling of the disciples is a prayer event; it is as if they were begotten in prayer, in intimacy with the Father. The calling of the Twelve, far from being purely functional, takes on a deeply theological meaning: Their calling emerges from the Son's dialogue with the Father and is anchored there. This is also the necessary starting point for understanding Jesus' words, "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38): We cannot simply pick the laborers in God's harvest in the same way that an employer seeks his employees. God must always be asked for them and he himself must choose them for this service. This theological character is reinforced in Mark's phrase: "Jesus called to him those whom he desired." You cannot make yourself a disciple -it is an event of election, a free decision of the Lord's will, which in its turn is anchored in his communion of will with the Father. p.172 Let us return to our text from Mark. Jesus appoints the Twelve with a double assignment. p.175 It enables him -in the communion of the whole body of Christ- to oppose these powers, knowing that Lord's gift of faith restores the pure breath of life: the breath of the Creator, the breath of the Holy Spirit, which alone can give health to the world. p. 182 special attention to Jesus' prayer as the source of his preaching and action.

Jesus of Nazareth I From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI CHAPTER SIX  pp 162-182 The Disciples In all the stages of Jesus' activity that we have considered so far, it has become evident that Jesus is closely connected with the "we" of the new family that he gathers by his proclama­tion and his action. It has become evident that this "we" is in principle intended to be universal: It no longer rests on birth, but on communion with Jesus, who is himself God's living Torah. This "we" of the new family is not amorphous. Jesus calls an inner core of people specially chosen by him, who are to carryon his mission and give this family order and shape. That was why Jesus formed the group of the Twelve. The title "apostle" originally extended beyond this group, but was later restricted more and more to the Twelve. In Luke, for example, who always speaks of the twelve Apostles, this word is practically synonymous with the Twelve. There is no need here to inquire into the widely discussed issues concerning the development of the use of the word apostle; let us simply listen to the most important texts that show the formation of the community of Jesus' closest disciples. 169 ~ POPE BENEDICT XVI The central text for this is Mark 3:13-19. It begins by say­ing that Jesus "went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him" (Mk P3). The events leading up to this had taken place by the lake, and now Jesus ascends "the mountain;' which signifies the place of his communion with God-the place on the heights, above the works and deeds of everyday life. Luke underscores this point even more vigorously in his parallel account: "In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles"(Lk 6:12f.). The calling of the disciples is a prayer event; it is as if they were begotten in prayer, in intimacy with the Father. The calling of the Twelve, far from being purely functional, takes on a deeply theological meaning: Their calling emerges from the Son's dialogue with the Father and is anchored there. This is also the necessary starting point for understanding Jesus' words, "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38): We cannot simply pick the laborers in God's harvest in the same way that an employer seeks his employees. God must always be asked for them and he himself must choose them for this service. This theological character is reinforced in Mark's phrase: "Jesus called to him those whom he desired." You cannot make yourself a disciple -it is an event of election, a free decision of the Lord's will, which in its turn is anchored in his communion of will with the Father. The text then continues: "And he appointed [literally: "made"] twelve, whom he also called apostles, to be with 170 ~ JESUS OF NAZARETH him, and to be sent out to preach" (Mk 3:14). The first thing to ponder is the expression "he made twelve," which sounds strange to us. In reality, these words of the Evangelist take up the Old Testament terminology for appointment to the priesthood (c£ 1 Kings 12:31; 13-33) and thus characterize the apostolic office as a priestly ministry. Moreover, the fact that the ones chosen are then individually named links them with the Prophets of Israel, whom God calls by name. Mark thus presents the apostolic ministry as a fusion of the priestly and prophetic missions (Feuillet, Etudes, p. 178). "He made twelve": Twelve was the symbolic number of Israel-the number of the sons of Jacob. From them the twelve tribes of Israel were descended, though of these practically only the tribe of Judah remained after the Exile. In this sense, the number twelve is a return to the origins of Israel, and yet at the same time it is a symbol of hope: The whole of Israel is restored and the twelve tribes are newly assembled. Twelve-the number of the tribes-is at the same time a cosmic number that expresses the comprehensiveness of the newly reborn People of God. The Twelve stand as the patri­archs of this universal people founded on the Apostles. In the vision of the New Jerusalem found in the Apocalypse, the symbolism of the Twelve is elaborated into an image of splen­dor (cf Rev 21:9-14) that helps the pilgrim People of God understand its present in the light of its future and illumines it with the spirit of hope: Past, present, and future intermin­gle when viewed in terms of the Twelve. This is also the right context for the prophecy in which Jesus gives Nathanael a glimpse of his true nature: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and 171 ~ POPE OENEDICT XVI descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn 1:51). Jesus reveals himself here as the new Jacob. The patriarch dreamed that he saw a ladder set up beside his head, which reached up to heaven and on which God's angels were ascending and descending. This dream has become a reality with Jesus. He himself is the "gate of heaven" (Gen 28:10-22); he is the true Jacob, the "Son of Man," the patriarch of the definitive Israel. Let us return to our text from Mark. Jesus appoints the Twelve with a double assignment: "to be with him, and to be sent out to preach." They must be with him in order to get to know him; in order to attain that intimate acquaintance with him that could not be given to the "people"-who saw him only from the outside and took him for a prophet, a great fig­ure in the history of religions, but were unable to perceive his uniqueness (cf Mt 16:13ff). The Twelve must be with him so as to be able to recognize his oneness with the Father and thus become witnesses to his mystery. As Peter will say before the election of Matthias, they had to be present during the time that "the Lord Jesus went in and out among us" (c£ Acts 1:8, 21). One might say that they have to pass from outward to inward communion with Jesus. At the same time, however, they are there in order to become Jesus' envoys-"apostles," no less-who bring his message to the world, first to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but then "to the ends of the earth:' Being with Jesus and being sent by him seem at first sight mutually exclusive, but they clearly belong together. The Apostles have to learn to be with him in a way that enables them, even when they go to the ends of the earth, to be with him still. Being with him includes the missionary dynamic by its very nature, since Jesus' whole being is mission. 172 ~ JESUS OF NAZARETH What does the text say they are sent to do? "To preach and have authority to cast out demons" (Mk 3-14f). Matthew gives a somewhat more detailed description of the content of this mission: "And he gave them authority over unclean spir­its, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infir­mity" (Mt 10:1). The first task is preaching: to give people the light of the word, the message of Jesus. The Apostles are first and foremost Evangelists-like Jesus, they preach the King­dom of God and thereby gather people into God's new family. But the preaching of God's Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an event, just as Jesus himself is an event, God's Word in person. By announcing him, the Apostles lead their listeners to encounter him. Because the world is ruled by the powers of evil, this preaching is at the same time a struggle with those powers. "In following Jesus, his herald has to exorcise the world, to establish a new form of life in the Holy Spirit that brings release to those who are possessed" (Pesch, Markusevangeliurn, 1, P: 205). And, as Henri de Lubac in particular has shown, the ancient world did in fact experience the birth of Christianity as a liberation from the fear of demons that, in spite of skep­ticism and enlightenment. was all-pervasive at the time. The same thing also happens today wherever Christianity replaces old tribal religions. transforming and integrating their positive elements into itself We feel the full impact of this leap forward when Paul says: "'There is no God but one: For although there may be so -called gods in heaven or on earth­ as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords' -yet for us there is one God. the Father. from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord. Jesus Christ, through whom 173 ~ POPE BENEDICT XVI are all things and through whom we exist" (1 Cor 8:4f). These words imply a great liberating power-the great exorcism that purifies the world. No matter how many gods may have been at large in the world, God is only one, and only one is Lord. If we belong to him, everything else loses its power; it loses the allure of divinity. The world is now seen as something rational: It emerges from eternal reason, and this creative reason is the only true power over the world and in the world. Faith in the one God is the only thing that truly liberates the world and makes it "rational:' When faith is absent, the world only appears to be more rational. In reality the indeterminable powers of chance now claim their due; "chaos theory" takes its place alongside insight into the rational structure of the universe, confronting man with obscurities that he cannot resolve and that set limits to the world's rationality. To "exorcise" the world -to establish it in the light of the ratio (reason) that comes from eternal creative reason and its saving goodness and refers back to it -that is a permanent, central task of the messengers of Jesus Christ. In the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul once described this "exorcistic" character of Christianity from another per­spective: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principal­ities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this pres­ent darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:10-12). This portrayal of the Christ­ian struggle, which we today find surprising, or even disturb- 174 ~

JESUS' HIGH-PRIESTLY PRAYER What is the meaning of the three sanctifications (consecrations)?

   

Monastic LENT READING.
An Excerpt from the Holy Father's new book.
"Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week -- From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection," 

"Sanctify them in the truth . . . ”

As a second theme, I should like to explore the idea of sanctification and sanctifying, which points strongly toward the connection with the event of atonement and with the high priesthood.

In the prayer for the disciples, Jesus says: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth .... For their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (]n I7:17, I9). Let us also cite a passage from the controversy discourses that belongs in this context: here Jesus designates himself as the one sanctified and sent into the world by the Father (cf. 10:36). Hence we are dealing with a triple "sanctification": the Father has sanctified the Son and sent him into the world; the Son sanctifies

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himself; and he asks, on the basis of his own sanctification, that the disciples be sanctified in the truth.

What does it mean to "sanctify"? According to biblical understanding, sanctity or "holiness" in the fullest sense is attributable only to God. Holiness expresses his particular way of being, divine being as such. So the word "sanctify" (qadoš is the word for "holy" in the Hebrew Bible) means handing over a reality-a person or even a thing-to God, especially through appropriation for worship. This can take the form of consecration for sacrifice (cf. Ex 13:2; Deut 15:19); or, on the other hand, it can mean priestly consecration (cf. Ex 28:41), the designation of a man for God and for divine worship.

The process of consecration, "sanctification", includes two apparently opposed, but in reality deeply conjoined, aspects. On the one hand, "consecrating" as "sanctifying" means setting apart from the rest of reality that pertains to man's ordinary everyday life. Something that is consecrated is raised into a new sphere that is no longer under human control. But this setting apart also includes the essential dynamic of "existing for". Precisely because it is entirely given over to God, this reality is now there for the world, for men, it speaks for them and exists for their healing. We may also say: setting apart and mission form a single whole.

The connection between the two can be seen very clearly if we consider the special vocation of Israel: on the one hand, it is set apart from all other peoples, but for a particular reason-in order to carry out a commission for all peoples, for the whole world. That is what is meant when Israel is designated a "holy people".

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Let us return to John's Gospel. What is the meaning of the three sanctifications (consecrations) that are spoken of there? First we are told that the Father sent his Son into the world and consecrated him (cf. 10:3⁶). What does that mean? The exegetes suggest a certain parallel between this expression and the call of the Prophet Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jer 1:5)· Consecration means that God is exercising a total claim over this man, "setting him apart" for himself, yet at the same time sending him out for the nations.

In Jesus' words, too, consecration and mission are directly linked. Thus one may say that this consecration of Jesus by the Father is identical with the Incarnation: it expresses both total unity with the Father and total existence for the world. Jesus belongs entirely to God, and that is what makes him entirely "for all". "You are the Holy One of God", Peter said to him in the synagogue at Capernaum, and these words constitute a comprehensive Christological confession (Jn 6:69)·

Once the Father has "consecrated" him, though, what is meant when he goes on to say "I consecrate (hagiázõ) myself" (17: 19)? Rudolf Bultmann gives a convincing answer to this question in his commentary on John's Gospel. "Hagiázõ, put here in the farewell prayer at the beginning of the Passion, and used together with hypèr autõn (for them), means 'to make holy' in the sense of 'to consecrate for the sacrifice' "; Bultmann quotes in support a saying of Saint John Chrysostom: "I sanctify myself-I

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present myself as a sacrifice" (The Gospel of John, p. 510, n. 5; cf. also Feuillet, The Priesthood of Christ and His Ministers, pp. 35 and 44). If the first "sanctification" is related to the Incarnation, here (‘the second sanctification’, Edit) the focus is on the Passion as sacrifice.

Bultmann has presented the inner connection between the two "sanctifications" very beautifully. The holiness that Jesus received from the Father is his "being for the world", or "being for his own". His holiness is "no static difference in substance from the world, but is something Jesus achieves only by completing the stand he has made for God and against the world. But this completion means sacrifice. In the sacrifice he is, in the manner of God, so against the world that he is at the same time for it" (The Gospel of John, p. 5II). In this passage, one may object to the sharp distinction between substantial being and completion of the sacrifice: Jesus' "substantial" being is as such the entire dynamic of "being for"; the two are inseparable. But perhaps Bultmann meant this as well. He should, moreover, be given credit when he says of John ITJ9 that "there is no disputing the allusion to the words of the Lord's supper" (ibid., p. 5IO n. 5).

Thus, in these few words, we see before us the new atonement liturgy of Jesus Christ, the liturgy of the New Covenant, in its entire grandeur and purity. Jesus himself is the priest sent into the world by the Father; he himself is the sacrifice that is made present in the Eucharist of all times. Somehow Philo of Alexandria had correctly anticipated this when he spoke of the Logos as priest and high priest (Leg. All. III, 82; De Somn. I, 215; II, 183; reference

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found in Bultmann, ibid.). The meaning of the Day of Atonement is completely fulfilled in the "Word" that was made flesh "for the life of the world" (Jn 6:51).

Let us turn to the third sanctification that is spoken of in Jesus' prayer: "Sanctify them in the truth" (IT17). "I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (17:19). The disciples are to be drawn into Jesus' sanctification; they too are included in this reappropriation into God's sphere and the ensuing mission for the world. "I consecrate myself, that they also may be con­secrated in truth": their being given over to God, their "consecration", is tied to the consecration of Jesus Christ; it is a participation in his state of sanctification.

Between verses I7 and I9, which speak of the conse­cration of the disciples, there is a small but important difference. Verse I9 says that they are to be consecrated "in truth": not just ritually, but truly, in their whole being this is doubtless how it should be translated. Verse 17, on the other hand, reads: "sanctify them in the truth". Here the truth is designated as the force of sanctification, as "their consecration".

According to the Book of Exodus, the priestly consecration of the sons of Aaron is accomplished when they are vested in sacred robes and anointed (29:1-9); the ritual of the Day of Atonement also speaks of a complete bath before the investiture with sacred robes (Lev I6:4)· The disciples of Jesus are sanctified, consecrated "in the truth". The truth is the bath that purifies them; the truth is the robe and the anointing they need.

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This purifying and sanctifying "truth" is ultimately Christ himself They must be immersed in him; they must, so to speak, be "newly robed" in him, and thus they come to share in his consecration, in his priestly commission, in his sacrifice.

Judaism, likewise, after the demise of the Temple, had to discover a new meaning for the cultic prescriptions. It now saw "sanctification" in the fulfillment of the commandments-in being immersed in God's holy word and in God's will expressed therein (cf Schnackenburg, The Gospel according to Saint John III, pp. 18Sf).

In the Christian faith, Jesus is the Torah in person, and hence consecration takes place through union of will and union of being with him. If the disciples' sanctification in the truth is ultimately about sharing in Jesus' priestly mission, then we may recognize in these words of John's Gospel the institution of the priesthood of the Apostles, the institution of the New Testament priesthood, which at the deepest level is service to the truth.