Fr. Chrysogonus ocso

Fr. Chrysogonus Waddell

I learned from the OCSO Order Necrology that Fr. Chrysogonus died at Gethsemani Abbey November 23, 2OO8 :

Community Note: Our beloved Fr Chrysogonus Waddell entered into the joy of the Lord on this solemnity of Christ the King. Blessed with many talents and an exuberant spirit, Fr Chrysogonus returned the gifts generously and tirelessly. His musical compositions are known and played throughout the world.

His scholarly contributions are highly renowned and acclaimed. Humble and faithful, humorous and devout, he sought the face of the Lord with zeal and tenacity. May his song in heaven be jubilant and eternal!

The memory of Fr. Chrysogonus is very moving to me from when I first got to know him at the time we shared some study days at Monte Cistello 1960s.

Two days ago I was dusting bottom library shelves in the books on Our Lady and I came upon a print-off from LITURGY, the quarterly periodical produced by Fr. Chrysogonus. He published the article, THE BLESSED VIRGIN COMPARED TO THE AIR WE BREATHE by Gerard Manley Hopkins with Conference Notes of Thomas Merton. (LITURGY Vol. 25:1 3-19, 1991).

The Blessed Virgin poem above forms an apt Memorial for the thanksgiving and prayer of the life of Chrysogonus we cherish.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN COMPARED To THE AIR WE BREATHE

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

(Stonyhurst, May 1883)

With Conference Notes of

Thomas Merton

Getsemani 1954

Wild air, world-mothering air, Nestling me everywhere, That each eyelash or hair Girdles; goes home betwixt The fleeciest, frailest-flixed Snowflake; that 's fairly mixed With, riddles, and is rife In every least thing's life; This needful, never spent, And nursing element; My more than meat and drink, My meal at every wink; This air, which, by life's law, My lung must draw and draw Now but to breathe its praise, Minds me in many ways Of her who not only Gave God's infinity Dwindled to infancy Welcome in womb and breast, Birth, milk, and all the rest But mothers each new grace That does now reach our race— Mary Immaculate, Merely a woman, yet Whose presence, power is Great as no goddess's Was deemèd, dreamèd; who This one work has to do— Let all God's glory through, God's glory which would go Through her and from her flow Off, and no way but so. I say that we are wound With mercy round and round As if with air: the same Is Mary, more by name. She, wild web, wondrous robe, Mantles the guilty globe, Since God has let dispense Her prayers his providence: Nay, more than almoner, The sweet alms' self is her And men are meant to share Her life as life does air. If I have understood, She holds high motherhood Towards all our ghostly good And plays in grace her part About man's beating heart, Laying, like air's fine flood, The deathdance in his blood; Yet no part but what will Be Christ our Saviour still. Of her flesh he took flesh: He does take fresh and fresh, Though much the mystery how, Not flesh but spirit now And makes, O marvellous! New Nazareths in us, Where she shall yet conceive Him, morning, noon, and eve; New Bethlems, and he born There, evening, noon, and morn—

Bethlem or Nazareth, Men here may draw like breath More Christ and baffle death; Who, born so, comes to be New self and nobler me In each one and each one More makes, when all is done, Both God's and Mary's Son. Again, look overhead How air is azurèd; O how! nay do but stand Where you can lift your hand Skywards: rich, rich it laps Round the four fingergaps. Yet such a sapphire-shot, Charged, steepèd sky will not Stain light. Yea, mark you this: It does no prejudice. The glass-blue days are those When every colour glows, Each shape and shadow shows. Blue be it: this blue heaven The seven or seven times seven Hued sunbeam will transmit Perfect, not alter it. Or if there does some soft, On things aloof, aloft, Bloom breathe, that one breath more Earth is the fairer for. Whereas did air not make This bath of blue and slake His fire, the sun would shake, A blear and blinding ball With blackness bound, and all The thick stars round him roll Flashing like flecks of coal, Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt, In grimy vasty vault. So God was god of old: A mother came to mould Those limbs like ours which are What must make our daystar Much dearer to mankind; Whose glory bare would blind Or less would win man's mind. Through her we may see him Made sweeter, not made dim, And her hand leaves his light Sifted to suit our sight. Be thou then, O thou dear Mother, my atmosphere; My happier world, wherein To wend and meet no sin; Above me, round me lie Fronting my froward eye With sweet and scarless sky; Stir in my ears, speak there Of God's love, O live air, Of patience, penance, prayer: World-mothering air, air wild, Wound with thee, in thee isled, Fold home, fast fold thy child.

Conference Notes of THOMAS MERTON

The theme of the poem: the Universal Mediation of the Blessed Mother.

The poem develops in the form of an argument to prove that Mary's influence is as ever present, as necessary, as perfectly efficacious in producing spiritual life and keeping it in existence, as the air we breathe is necessary for preserving bodily life.

1. The all-pervading presence of air - the presence of Mary everywhere. Air is everywhere; it surrounds all things, it penetrates them all. "World mothering" air. Things are "nestled" in the air as children in the arrns of another. "Nestling Ire everywhere."

The smallest, frailest things - "frailest flixed snowf'Lake " - are "fairly riddled " with air. It is a

Needful, never spent
And nursing elerrent.

We are "nursed" by the air - it is our "meal at every wink" .

Hence the surrounding air is a Mother that protects and nourishes her child. This makes him at once think of Mary, and her presence.

She is Mother first of all to "God's infinity - dwindled to infancy". But also she "Mothers each new grace - that does new reach our race."

Hence the great power of Mary, a power that was never attributed to any goddess although she is a mere woman.

Her whole mission, her "vocation" is to be the medium which "lets all God's glory through" as the sky filters the light of the sun and pours it through on to the world .

. . . . ... . . . .. who

This one work has to do—

let all God's glory through,

God's glory, which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so.

2. Here he takes up the same idea and deepens it, makes it more concrete and precise. To be surrounded by her influence is to be surrounded by ''mercy''. Mary is present not only as a remote influence, not only in the gifts she brings to us. She is herself the mercy that surrounds us, so that we live in her. (Like a spirit she is present where she acts.)

I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
As if with air: the same
Is Mary, more by name,
She, wild web, wondrous robe,
Mantles the guilty globe . . .

Nay, more than almoner

The sweet alms' self is her

And men are meant to share

Her life as life does air.

Mary is the life of our life. We breathe Mary. We live entirely by her.

As children within their mother's womb.

In other words, she is Mediatrix of all grace.

The doctrine of Mary' s Mediation of all grace:

God, who could have given us . all without Mary, freely decreed and positively ordained that grace should not be given to us without her intercession. " ... from her flow off, and no way but so." (see above)

The mediation of Mary is clearly subordinated to God. "Since God has let her dispense - her prayers his providence." She is "more than almoner," she is the "sweet alms' self", because all His gifts cane to us not only through her but as it were in her.

It is secondary to the mediation of Christ. She received all from and in Him. But it is universal.

a) In time - she has been since the Assumption the administrator of all grace for all people.

b) She is the administrator of omes et singulaegratiae [each and every grace] .

- sanctifying grace and the annexed gifts.

- actual graces - together with temporal goods and preservation fram evil.

- the graces of the sacraments - in so far as she merited de congruo the institution of the sacraments, and in so far as her intercession disposes us for a proper reception of the sacraments and obtains for us opportunities so to receive them.

This is summarized by Gerard Manley Hopkins as follows e

If I have understood,

She holds high motherhood

Towards all our ghostly good

And plays in grace her part

About man' s beating heart,

Laying, like air's fine flood

The deathdance in his blood;

Yet no part but what will

Be Christ our Saviour still.

Note the "action" of the imagery:

a) Mystery - is simply evoked. "If I have understood", and the word "ghostly" - ancient English word for "spiritual" - but sane resonance from modern usage of the word,

b) Action - ''man's beating heart" - "the deathdance in his blood." Rapid pulsing movements as of a thing precariously alive - fragile, palpitating life of the heart, and the inseparable presence of death within man I s very life (through original sin), since every heart beat is a renewal of life but a closer step towards death. But "like air's fine flood" - a smooth sweeping, uniform, silent action (suggesting efficacy, irresistible power') , Mary "allays", quiets, soothes, silences the "deathdance" - the agitation of man's sinful heart.

Apply this to contemplation of Mary - how close we are to hesychasm, although Gerard Manley Hopkins arrived at it purely spontaneously. Every breath, Mary invades our whole being, silencing, pacifying, smoothing out our life. Taste the sweetness of the air and feel its silence pour into you when you meditate. Mary. Quickly comes to constant sense of her presence. (cf. Yoga)

3. The life that is nourished and grows in us each moment is the life of CHRIST. At each breath of grace in our soul, Christ takes flesh, or rather "takes spirit" in us new:

And makes, O marvellous

New Nazareths in us,
Where she shall yet conceive
Him, morning, noon, and eve ...

Men here may draw like breath

More Christ and baffle death;

Who, born so, canes to be

New self and nobler me

In each one and each one

More makes, when all is done,

Both God I S and Mary' s Son.

So by the fact that we live in her, Christ is mothered in us. It is the doctrine of Bl. Guerric on the soul as the "mother of Christ" - but simplified by Gerard Manley Hopkins. To make Christ live in us, we need only to "breathe" Mary. Christ thus born in us is our true self ­"New self and nobler ne." And this takes place in all - his horizons widen out and embrace the whole Mystical Body, person by person: "in each one and each one."

4. As the purity of air filters the light of the sun without diminishing it, spreads it out, evenly and distributes it in the many colours of all things, so Mary’s purity does not "stain" the light of God, but brings it to us perfect.

Yet such a sapphire-shot,

Charged, steeped sky will not

Stain light. Yea, mark you this

It does no prejudice.

The glass-blue days are those

When every colour glows ,

Each shape and shadow shows ,

Blue be it: this blue heaven

The seven or seven times seven

Hued sunbeam will transmit

Perfect, not alter it.

5. Nevertheless, the air softens the harsh light of the sun.

And Mary' s mediation also brings us the light of God in a way that is bearable to our weak sight, without changing it. He comes to us "made sweeter, not made dim."

There are sane lines that remind us of Blake - a sudden picture of the sun without the protecting atmosphere of the earth –

Whereas did air not make

This bath of blue and slake

His fire, the sun would shake,

A blear and blinding ball

With blackness bound, and all

The thick stars round him roll

Flashing like specks of coal,

Quartz-fret, or sparks of salt,

In grimy, vasty vault.

These are some of the most marvellous lines in the poem. Brings out the feeling of a "hostile" heaven full of fires to which we are not tempered, whose sight hurts and frightens us - fires set in a vast emptiness in which we are likely to blow away.

This is the picture of the Old Testament God: "So God was god of old."

But the Incarnation has made "our daystar much dearer to mankind" .

Whose glory bare would blind
Or less would win man I s mind.
Through her we may see him
Made sweeter, not made dim,
And her hand leaves his light
Sifted to suit our light.

6. The closing lines are a beautiful prayer to Mary Mediatrix of grace.

Be thou then, O thou dear
Mother, my atmosphere;
My happier world,
wherein to wend and meet no sin;
Above me, round ne lie
Fronting my froward eye

With sweet and scarless sky;
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God I S love, O live air,

Of patience, penance, prayer:

World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.

The final lines take up the first words of the poem and show all their meaning in a summary of the poem: our life consists in being clasped to our Mother’s breast, as we are "isled" and "mothered", that is to say, surrounded by the air.

Mary is all around us. We need to be aware of her to be "isled" in her, folded in her arms. This awareness is something she must give us, it being one of the great graces she procures for us. Thus we ask her to "fast fold" us, her children, in her arms.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LENT 1st March 2009

LENT 1st March 2009

Community Chapter Sermon Fr. Hugh

The liturgy throughout Lent emphasises that this is a special time of grace when God's self-giving is especially operative. “Behold now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation." St. Benedict in his chapter on Lent also emphasises this point when he calls Lent 'a holy season'. At first sight his words about tent seem a little grim -'a monk’s life should always have a Lenten character' - suggestive of purple vestments in the liturgy and scant fare in the refectory. Yet if we see St. Benedict's chapter in the light of St. Leo's Lenten sermon from which it is taken we get a different slant on it.

St. Leo, who died about twenty years before Benedict was born, was Pope during an unusually difficult period. It was a time of serious Christological problems concerned with establishing both the divinity and the sacred humanity of Christ. The Huns and the Vandals were oppressing Rome and the old order of things seemed to be vanishing. Yet Leo was full of joy and deeply aware of the privilege of being a Christian. 'O Christian recognise your dignity', he said. He has left us twelve sermons on Lent and nearly everyone of them starts off by directing our attention to Easter. Like St. Benedict, Leo sees Lent as a time of preparation for Easter which is the principal feast of the Church’s Year. Every thing builds up to it and flows from it.

His fourth sermon on Lent from which Benedict takes his thought, acts as a sort of enlarged photo of the chapter on this subject in the Holy Rule. It shows us what St. Benedict meant by 'a holy season' and 'a Lenten character'. Leo sees Lent as a time of opportunity. 'Behold now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation'. 'For though there is no season, ' he says, 'that is not filled with the divine gifts and though at each moment we have through his grace access to the Divine mercy, Yet now is the time in which the souls of all people should be stirred to greater fervour .... so that purified in body and soul we may celebrate the supreme mystery of the Passion of Our Lord.'

It is because Lent is the prelude to Easter that it is a special time, a time of opportunity. Throughout Christendom it is a time of special effort, or perhaps rather a time of greater awareness of God's desire to share his life with us and of His infinite generosity. Frequently in the Lenten liturgy we are urged to listen. This is not just, an intellectual exercise but to be receptive of new values. 'To incline the ear of the heart' as St. Benedict says. It will probably take the form of a deeper awareness of truths we have long known.

Whatever happens in the Mystical Body of Christ affects all its members for better or for worse. As the whole Church strives for greater holiness during this season it is bound to have repercussions throughout the Mystical Body which is interrelated. In this diocese, as elsewhere prospective converts are being prepared during Lent for reception into full communion with the Catholic Church at Easter. No longer does this take place in private in the presence of two witnesses but in public in the liturgical setting of the Parish Paschal Vigil.

Station Masses are held during this time in each of the deaneries of the diocese presided' over by the Archbishop, in the same way as they are held in various Roman Churches. The purpose of these special masses is to emphasise and to strengthen the unity of the diocese around its bishop.

All this makes' of Lent a special time when God's grace is especially operative. This clearly requires a response. St. Leo says that: "we should be such in the presence of God at all times as we are obliged to be for the Paschal Feast. But since few can live up to this, a period of forty days has been given to us to restore the purity of our souls.

Thus a Lenten character is a Paschal character with those qualities which would be fitting for the Easter celebration. The traditional Lenten austerities exist to promote this. It is to do with developing the life of the risen Christ which was given to us at baptism and which will reach its full development after death.

“Behold now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. A time of joint effort, a time of God’s special bounty.”

+ + + + + + + + + +

God’s “Yes” to us

Abbot Raymond

Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009

Subject: God’s “Yes” to us.

Second reading 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 ©

I swear by God’s truth, there is no Yes and No about what we say to you. The Son of God, the Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you – I mean Silvanus and Timothy and I – was never Yes and No: with him it was always Yes, and however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him. That is why it is ‘through him’ that we answer Amen to the praise of God. Remember it is God himself who assures us all, and you, of our standing in Christ, and has anointed us, marking us with his seal and giving us the pledge, the Spirit, that we carry in our hearts.

God’s “Yes” to us.

St Paul tells us that Jesus is God’s “Yes” to us regarding the truth, the sincerity, the earnestness of all his promises to us in the Old Testament. They all find their affirmation in Christ.

The Old Testament is like a jig-saw puzzle in which the answer to all the clues is “Jesus”. Whatever the puzzle, whatever the event or story in the Old Testament, if we apply it to Jesus we find it springs into meaning.

In the Old Testament God declares Israel to be his Chosen People, a People set apart. In the New Testament Jesus affirms this promise and tells that its fulfilment is by way of a Rebirth, a new life, a new form of existence as the Children of God by Grace in a way that the Old Testament hardly dreamed of.

In the Old Testament God proclaims his love for his People. In the New, Jesus is the living proof of that love: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”.

In the Old Testament God proclaims his closeness to his People. In the New, we see in Jesus just how close.

In the Old Testament there are many beautiful stories of God’s loving forgiveness but which of them can match the words of Jesus on the Cross: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. In the Old Testament David expresses his forgiveness for Absalom in those poignant and unforgettable words: “O Absalom, would that I had died instead of you” These prophetic words are affirmed in the death of Jesus for us. In the Old Testament the death of Samson is proclaim to be his greatest triumph. In the New, these words too find their fulfilment in the death of Christ.

In the Old Testament Isaac says to his Father Abraham: “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the victim” In the New Testament Jesus shows us who the victim is, but unlike Isaac, he was well aware of who it was to be from the very beginning. “Sacrifice and oblation you did not want; instead, here am I”.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Pictures Cistercian Monastery

Cistercian Monastery, Our Lady of the Angels, Nigeria

JANUARY VISIT TO OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS MONASTERY 2009-02-14

My visit to the Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels at Nsugbe in Nigeria this January of 2009 was undertaken initially for very formal and official reasons. Firstly there was an election to be held and then an official Visitation to be held in order to send a report to the abbot general. In the event, these two tasks were completed well within the time I had allotted. This gave me the opportunity of spending a week with the Community in the more natural framework of their normal day to day life.

This was a very rewarding experience and gave me a much better appreciation of their zeal and fervour for the Cistercian way of life and so brought me to a much greater appreciation of the depth and earnestness of their commitment. They are a community well worth supporting and helping as much as we can.

Dom Raymond Jaconelli O.C.S.O.

PICTORIAL of the Election of the 1st Titular Prior

Snnday February 8th

Abbot Raymond returned from the Foundation of Our Lady of the Angels,
Nsugbe Nigeria.
In February 2009 the first Titular Superior was elected by the community.
Prior Dom Rafael Ndubuezi received the Blessing from the Father Immediate, Dom Raymond

Abbot Raymond. Sunday February 8th

Mass 5^th Sunday Ordinary Time

A Reading from the Book of JOB (7:1-4)

“Job began to speak”

The book of Job is pure poetry. It is composed in the style of the great Shakespearian soliloquies such as: “To be, or not to be! That is the question”. The soliloquies of Job are dramatic meditations on the sufferings and tragedies of life. As such, we are bound to find a bit of exaggeration and poetic licence in them. Nevertheless the Jerusalem Bile’s translators have taken quite a liberty in putting into Job’s mouth a phrase which no other translation does. The Jerusalem Bible translators have Job say that life on earth is nothing more than pressed service. We know, of course, that there is so much more to life than its sufferings and sorrows. Life abounds with joys and pleasures beyond description. Nevertheless, the phrase “nothing more than pressed service” would pass as a reasonable exaggeration, a reasonable figure of speech, on the lips of one who is so overwhelmed with life’s tragedies and miseries as Job was. But the fact is that Job said no such thing. Then why put it in at all if it is not in the original text? Nor can we find any other translations that does insert this phrase.

But, to get back to Job! Job, in all his lamentations, is voicing for us all, the inner sentiments of everyman who finds himself simply overwhelmed by life’s burdens and sorrows. And surely, no one goes very far through life before finding himself in such a situation.

By giving us the Book of Job, God is assuring us that he is well aware of the greatness of the burdens and sorrows of life. Life, as he calls us to it, is an undertaking of tremendous magnitude. We might reasonably complain indeed that it is really something quite beyond our strength as mere human beings. It’s burdens too great for us; it’s pains unbearable for us; its problems insoluble by us. Who can reasonably be expected to cope with it all? In all its oppressive cruelty, life makes the same demands on all: the weak, the strong, the young, the old, the innocent, the guilty. No one is spared its cruelty. No one is spared its burdens.

In this book of Job, God assures us that he is with us in it all and that, through it all, he holds us in his hands until we come to realise, as Job did, that: “We know our Redeemer lives and that we shall at last look upon him with our very own eyes”.

& & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & &