Saints of the Benedictine Family

Contemplative Life Today

The 2^nd Reading of Vigils this morning spoke so clearly and resounding, it gave us the thought for today’s celebration of the ALL SAINTS of the Benedictine Family/

All Benedictine Saints 13 November [Based on Some Thoughts on Contemplative Life Today, by Clifford Stevens in Review for Religious, July-August 1991] The pattern of contemplative life has neither changed, nor will it change. It is still a life of solitude, of withdrawal from 'the world', of silence and seclusion. However the image of contemplative life is changing from an ascetic protest and rejection of 'the world' to the cultivation of intimacy with God in the sacrament of solitude. It is the personal pursuit of closeness to God, not from a sense of exclusivity, but from a deep sense of 'commonalty' with the rest of the human family. The contemplative life is just one way of seeking and finding God, in no way minimizing other pathways and in no way deprecating the infinite variety of the Christian life and Christian holiness. Every person, in the most secret part of his or her being, is contemplative. Every human being has a passion for God, a hunger for the known or unknown Divine that bursts into flame when, at certain moments, a glimpse is caught of the magnitude of God. To speak of the contemplative life is to speak of a kind of life that all people hanker after in the deepest part of their being; the formal contemplative life is simply an extension of this basic human hunger, a hunger for God that is perhaps the very blueprint of our existence. In the depth of our being, then, we are all solitaries, and each one of us has a primitive face we show to God alone, a part of ourselves we can reveal to no one else, however intimate our relationship or profound our affection. We show to others only a small part of our total personality while, at the core of our being, we are all God-centred. The contemplative life begins in astonishment at the overpowering reality of God's love, the magnitude of His plans for every human being. It is this fascination with God that draws a person into solitude, for only the freedom of solitude is adequate to contain that fascination and the probing of that astonishment. The contemplative has, in very truth, been astounded and struck with the wonder of God in a way that is beyond explaining. And it is this wonder and astonishment that draw him or her into solitude where the wonder can be nurtured and the astonishment explored and probed with all the energy of heart and mind. This, indeed, becomes the lifetime occupation of the contemplative, with the secluded life itself simply the setting and necessary environment for it. Contemplatives are driven into solitude as lovers are drawn together, and for the same reason: to cultivate an intimacy beyond their power to put into words, but which embodies everything they have ever desired and is expressive of the deepest and most intimate longing of their being. The contemplative life reaches out to intimacy with God just as human lovers reach out to intimacy with each other, for the sheer joy of that intimacy and for the love that binds two together in an inseparable and deliberately chosen companionship. And do You, Lord, have mercy on us.

All Benedictine Saints and Dom Blaise

There is also a Cistercian Blog from Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank.

http://subtuum.blogspot.com/2008/11/all-benedictine-saints-and-dom-blaise.html

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The community celebrates the Saints in heaven and speaks also beautifully of Dom Blaise of Spring Bank.

13 November, All Benedictine Saints vultus.stblogs***org/2006/11/13-november-all-benedictine-sa.html Thanks to Father Mark on November 13, 2006 Today we celebrated the feast of All Saints Who Militated Under the Rule of Saint Benedict. One might also translate the name of the feast as "All Saints Who Soldiered Under the Rule of Saint Benedict." It's enough to make a Jesuit envious! I thought that Spinello Aretino's depiction of Saint Benedict exorcising a demon might be appropriate for today's feast. Saint Gregory the Great recounts the whole story in his life of Saint Benedict. The painting, however, tells more than the story. The monks are engaged in a building project. The undertaking comes to a halt when a "heavy devil" decides to sit on a stone. No one can lift the stone. This happens not infrequently in community life. Saint Peter reminds us that we are all "living stones" destined by God to be "built into a spiritual house" (1 P 2:5). Sometimes one "living stone" becomes heavy to the point of being immovable. Then the upbuilding of the community stops and the "immovable stone" becomes the focus of much frustration and unhappiness. What can be done when a "heavy devil" fastened itself to a brother or sister in order to impede the building of the community? Prayer and fasting, and recourse to the power of the Cross and the intercession of Saint Benedict are efficacious means by which the devil can be detached from the poor soul on whom he crouches. Once rid of the "heavy devil,"