I am enjoying the 'life' of Fr. Charles immensely.
A couple of quotations in the most recent pages, above.
During the winter
of 1982-1983 Fr. Charles continued to go to Soleilmont regularly for confessions
and a talk or two to the community, and from time to time went for ministry to La
Paix in Chimay or to the Bernardine nuns in Charleville, but otherwise his activity
was limited by a recurrence of his illness. On April 13 he underwent surgery at
Saint Luke Hospital. Before long, however, it became evident that this last operation
had not had the desired result. The two specialists who had been treating him decided
that a radical operation was necessary. So it was that in the middle of August
he was operated on for a definitive ablation of the ileum.
When this eight-hour
operation was all over and he was coming to the first thing he heard was a nurse's
voice urging him to "Breathe! Breathe!" After having successfully gone
through this extreme ordeal, the doctors did not want to lose Fr. Charles simply
because it didn't occur to him to breathe! But let the patient tell his story:
After the operation, while I was still under the effects of the anaesthesia
I felt so happy that I refused to make the effort that the nurse was asking of me,
that is, to breathe! Finally she said: "If you don't breathe, you are going
to die" ... I was praying to the Blessed Virgin, with the Hail
Mary in Greek!: χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία,.
I hadn't recited it in the original for more than twenty years. But
there was the word "fruit" -καρπὸς- that I couldn't think of. And when I decided to breathe and to live, to the
surprise of the nurse and doctor I cried out triumphantly: καρπὸς;!, which I had to explain. I believe
that the Blessed Virgin was somehow present (Sept. '83). [pp. 96-97] (
from page 101
For him, Saint Bernard’s Sermons on the Song of Songs were the key
to the whole Cistercian genius, and he would have liked to have seen the General
Chapter take more interest in the Cistercian Fathers' teaching.
Even if Fr. Charles was at last freed of
his most important health problem, he continued to be plagued by other ills. The
next year he underwent two operations: one in July for kidney stones and the other,
in October, for prostate problems. Between the two operations he went to Caldey
to rest. Like most monasteries, Caldey had changed considerably during the post-Vatican
II period. Perched high on a cliff one day, he thought back over the years when
he taught the juniors on Caldey Island, and wrote:
"Here I find nothing of the life I knew in the '50s. Only the
sea and the rocks are the same. Since then, generations of sea gulls have come
and gone. And what remains of the young monk of those days? Maybe a little of
this desire for the absolute and eternity which I sometimes go to find at the edge
of the waves" (5.26.86).
When Father Charles got back to Scourmont he learned that the book
Prieres aux quaire temps had just come off the press."
Note 29. More than ten years later, Fr. Charles saw a letter in The Tablet by a British lady who
had had an analogous experience during which she felt the Blessed Virgin's presence.
Fr. Charles wrote to her and they compared notes, so to speak.
Scourmont Abbey:
see the Abbot's Chapter and Homily word, http://www.scourmont.be/Armand/arm-fra.htm
see the Abbot's Chapter and Homily word, http://www.scourmont.be/Armand/arm-fra.htm
Writings of Fr. Charles.
Here are three of his more recent publications:
Here are three of his more recent publications:
Charles Dumont Monk-Poet
A Spiritual Biography
A Spiritual Biography
Elizabeth Connor OCSO;
Foreword by Mark A. Scott OCSO
Introduced to the spiritual theology of the twelfth-century Cistercian Fathers when he entered the abbey of Scourmont, Belgium, Charles Dumont shared his ever deepening knowledge as editor of the Order's French-language journal,Collectanea Cisterciensia, in articles and translations of texts, and in lectures in Europe and North and South America. He has also written and published poetry, combining his love of language with his love of the Fathers and their language.
Introduced to the spiritual theology of the twelfth-century Cistercian Fathers when he entered the abbey of Scourmont, Belgium, Charles Dumont shared his ever deepening knowledge as editor of the Order's French-language journal,Collectanea Cisterciensia, in articles and translations of texts, and in lectures in Europe and North and South America. He has also written and published poetry, combining his love of language with his love of the Fathers and their language.
Elizabeth Connor earned
an M.A. in Classics at the John Hopkins University
ISBN: 978-0-87907-040-3
ISBN: 978-0-87907-040-3
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