The Assumption BVM

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15. 2008)

Abbot Raymond - Abbey Mass

If we compare Mary’s title as Mother of God with the privilege of her bodily Assumption into heaven then it is obvious that it is a greater thing to be Mother of God than to be bodily assumed into heaven. There can be no comparison. To be Mother of the Word incarnate is, in an absolute way, greater than any of the other graces with which Mary was favoured. All her other privileges were either a preparation for this or a consequence of this.

However, one thing can be greater than another in one way and yet less than another in another way. For instance one thing can be more beautiful than another yet less useful; more flexible than another yet less strong, and so on. So there is a point of view from which Mary’s Assumption has its own pre-eminence in her destiny. Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven was the climax, the rounding off, the completion of her earthly existence; the icing on the cake, as it were.

In saying that we are considering the Assumption as a personal privilege of Mary, but there is another viewpoint of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. We can look on it not just as something personal to Mary but also as something which is intimately connected with the destiny of us all. Not that we can all hope for a bodily assumption into heaven after we die, but Mary’s bodily assumption, like the ascension of Christ himself, is a kind of pledge and guarantee of the ultimate destiny of our own body of flesh and blood. Christ, the New Adam, has entered the New Paradise, of which the Old Paradise was just a foreshadowing, and Mary, the New Eve, has been given to him as his first companion in the fullness of her humanity.

When the doctrine of the Assumption was first defined, our separated brethren asked, “Where is this in Scripture? We can’t believe what is not in Scripture”. But we can answer that this wonderful event in the history of God’s dealings with his children is well prepared for in Holy Scripture. The mind of faith is prepared for it by such events as the lifting up of Elijah from this earth in the fiery chariot. We are prepared for it by the disappearance from this earth of the bodies of Enoch and Moses for example. But by far the most important foreshadowing of Mary’s Assumption takes place in the very first chapters of Genesis where it is said of the first Adam: “It is not good for Man to be alone”. There were plenty of other living creatures around, but none “like unto himself” to share his life with him on a fully human level. So too surely it must be with the New Adam in the new Paradise. There are plenty of angels and spirits of the just there too but, for the fullness and perfection of all that beauty and truth, he needs one by his side who can share his life in the fullness of his human nature, body as well as spirit. Yes even for the New Adam in the New Paradise “It is not good for Man to be alone”.

ALL FOR JESUS THRO MARY WITH A SMILE

ALL FOR JESUS
THRO MARY
WITH A SMILE

Birthday 13^th August

Email from William:
“What a delight sharing Thomas Merton's journal!
At the office my successor is on and off the internet between jobs, . . .and extends his meanderings to me, he looks up anything he can get me to talk about... one being Thomas Merton. He copied down for me the photo (below) of the flyleaf of a first edition of "No Man is an Island", signed by the author and the Abbot of Gethsemane. Can you make out the words on the rubber stamp?
I have printed it as a bookmark for my 'Sign of Jonas'! (William).”

Reply to William:

Your fascinating flyleaf from ‘No Man Is An Island’ and the stamp of Abbot James Fox, "All for Jesus -Thro Mary - With a Smile" reminded me of Abbot Malachy and his Pectoral Cross. I thought he used the same text but I have found Ab. Malachy's Cross and you will see from the photographs that it is a variation of the same theme. “ + Per Jesum ad Mariam.”

There must be a story to the Gethsemani version – my guess is that it originated with Abbot Frederick Dunn from a memorable Annual Retreat given to the community. It is now listed among ‘merton-artifacts.com’.

It was my birthday today, 13the August.

Yesterday I was away for a cousin’s funeral. At 74, one of our helpers wryly commented that I have many cousins’ funerals and have now run out of Grannies. . .!!

A Birthday is a time to make a new resolution. And already to hand was William’s question about the rubber stamp of Abbot James at Gethsemani.

So what better birthday resolution than, "All for Jesus -Thro Mary - With a Smile".

There were five young children and their parents and their Grannie among those at the Mass this morning. So I will try to speak “with a smile” and not with a glum face.

Also a Birthday is a good time for a change of gear, and that was presented to me in the Gospel commentary by Saint Cyprian on Mt.18,15-20
«I am there in the midst of them»
There is a telling little phrase in the Eucharistic Prayer,
"Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church." St. Cyprian’s words seem to lift the whole perspective from both a mercenary view of answer to prayers and an individualist outlook. If ‘the two or three are united in prayer’, they are the Church. Look not on our sins but on the FAITH, the prayer, the love of the Church.

As St. Bernard believed when he was counselling a monk who said that he had lost his Faith, he said that the Faith of the community, of the Church, makes up for the darkness of the monk tempted to unbelief..

St. Cyprian's are the words of a Saint who had that great perspective of the living Church. Hence my quote below:

"The Lord said: "If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

These words prove that much is given not to the mere number but to the unanimity of those who pray. "If two of you agree on earth," he says, putting unanimity and peaceful concord first, teaching us to agree firmly and loyally. But how can one man agree with another when he disagrees with the body of the Church itself, with the whole brotherhood?... The Lord's words were spoken about his own Church and addressed to members of the Church. If they are agreed, if, as he commanded, but two or three are gathered together and pray with one mind, then, although they are but two or three, they can obtain from the divine majesty what they ask.

"Where two or three are gathered, I (he said) am with them." That means, of course, with the single-hearted and peaceable, with those who fear God and keep his commandments. With these, though but two or three, he declared his presence, as he was present also with the Three Children in the fiery furnace, and, because they continued single-hearted and of one mind, refreshed them with the breath of dew as the flames surrounded them (Dn 3,50); or as he was present with the two apostles in prison, because they were single-hearted and of one mind, and himself opened the prison gates (Acts 25,25)... So when Christ lays down with authority: "Where two or three are gathered, I am with them," he is not separating men from the Church which he founded and created. But he rebukes the faithless for their discord and with his own voice commends peace to the faithful".

Later, Abbot Raymond was commenting on the effects of the annoyances and resentments we project on to the distasteful or objectionable actions of others. Even the suppressed tendency to curse or swear against a situation has its baneful influence. The effects have a BOOMERANG effect on ourselves, he said. It is echoed here again in Mt.18,15-20, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Sign of Jonah Retreat Sunday

The monthly Retreat Sunday found me again, dipping into “The Sign of Jonas”. (10th Aug 2008)

If I am supposed to be keeping a kind of Chronicle of the community, I can hardly find a better template than The sign of Jonas, ‘The Journal of Thomas Merton – day experiences and meditations’, as the blurb of the first Edition has it. The hard-back cover is now a collector’s piece so I have laminated it before it gets any tattier.

The Sign of Jonas.

The monastic life is by its very nature "ordinary." Its ordinariness is one of its greatest blessings. The exterior monotony of regular observance delivers us from useless concern with the details of daily life, absolves us from the tedious necessity of making plans and of coming to many personal decisions. It sets us free to pray all day, and to live alone with God.

But for me, the vow of stability has been the belly of the whale. I have always felt a great attraction to the life of perfect solitude. It is an attraction I shall probably never entirely lose. During my years as a student at Gethsemani, I often wondered if this attraction was not a genuine vocation to some other religious Order. It took me several years to find out that all con­templative Orders have much the same problems. Every man called to contemplation is called to some degree of solitude. God knows well enough how much each one needs. We need faith to let Him decide how much we are to obtain. My own solution of this problem is the main theme of the present book. Like the prophet Jonas, whom God ordered to go to Nineveh, I found myself with an almost uncontrollable desire, to go in the opposite direction. God pointed one way and all my "ideals" pointed in the other. It was when Jonas was travelling as fast as he could away from Nineveh, toward Tharsis, that he was thrown overboard, and swallowed by a whale who took him where God wanted him to go.

A monk can always legitimately and significantly compare himself to a prophet, because the monks are the heirs of the prophets. The prophet is a man whose whole life is a living witness of the providential action of God in the world. Every prophet is a sign and a witness of Christ. Every monk, in whom Christ lives, and in whom all the prophecies are therefore ful­filled, is a witness and a sign of the Kingdom of God. Even our mistakes are eloquent, more than we know.

The sign Jesus promised to the generation that did not understand Him was the "sign of Jonas the prophet" - that is, the sign of His own resurrection. The life of every monk, of every priest, of every Christian is signed with the sign of Jonas, because we all live by the power of Christ's resurrection. But I feel that my own life is especially sealed with this great sign, which baptism and monastic profession and priestly ordination have burned into the roots of my being, because like Jonas himself I find myself travelling toward my destiny in the belly of a paradox. (Prologue - concluding paragraphs)

. . .

The blessings of my Cistercian vocation are poured out on me in Scripture and I live again in the lineage of Bernard and I see that if I had been deeper in Scriptures all my past temptations to rune to some Order would have more quickly lost their meaning, for contemplation is found in faith, not in geography: you can dig for it in Scripture, but you will never find it by crossing the seas. (Aug. 8 1949).

It is a pity that Merton never had the chance of staying in the Holy Land. Bernard’s antipathy to monks going to the Holy Land seems to have rubbed off on Cistercians. Merton shared Bernard’s literary eloquence in the description of the Biblical sites but neither can claim asense of the physicality of the land trod by Chris. Bernard and Pope Eugene were to regret their mobilization of military forces for the Crusades but not the monks to serve in the lands of the Bible. By way of some compensation the monks at Latroun in Israel today preserve a precarious foothold of that Cistercian presence.

. . .

There is no reason why a monk should not have a definite attitude towards the place which, in relation to his monastery, is “town.” I do not think that being a monk means being living on the moon. (Nov 11, 1950)

In ‘Fire Watch’ Epilogue Merton reproaches himself first for failing in silence and then for filling that emptiness with talk about it.

Have men of our age acquired a Midas touch of their own, so that as soon as they succeed, everything they touch becomes crowded with people. (Epilogue ‘Fire Watch’)

Was Merton a monk? Was Merton a hermit? Or was he a full time browser? Very soon he would have become a star Blogger. Or would his Abbot been after him in the manner of a very recent headline, “Priestly Blogging – Has it Got Out of Hand”, (Catholic Herald Auf 1, 2008).

I had never heard of FILLION, nor I am sure had Merton but his ‘POST’ on the subject is a gem from the blogosphere of his day.

. . .

Fillion, a Scripture scholar whom I am appointed to read, encourages young priests to study Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Itala, Arabic, Syriac, Assyrian, Ethiopean, Coptic, Armenian, Persian, Slavonic, Gothic, and the three main Egyptian dialects, namely Salidic (spoken at Thebes), Fayoumic, (spoken in the oasis of Faymoum), and Memphic (spoken at Memphis. Besides being grounded in oriental archaeology and ethnography, the young priest should also possess a smattering of botany, zoology, geology, and have more than a nodding acquaintance with the Talmud. Also he says one ought to read a few Yiddish novels, by way of recreation.

When you have mastered all this you will be able to elucidate the ivy passage in Jonas, for instance, and you will come to the conclusion that Jonas in Nineveh sat down under a castor oil plant (ivy) and became attached to its shade.
On the whole, I think Saint Teresa's interpretation of Jonas's ivy is more interesting, and she didn't know one word of Egyptian either.
Yet on the other hand, at Mass this morning, I was momentarily distracted with a mild fit of compunction over the Little Flower's statement that if she were a priest she would learn Hebrew and Greek in order to read the revealed word of God in the original languages.

From Fillion, The Study of the Bible, p. 220:
"One day Cardinal Fillion, Archbishop of Lyons, said to me: 'Why is the cat, that charming animal, not mentioned in the Bible?' (Is it so charming after all?-Fillion's comment.)

"I answered: 'Your Eminence, it is mentioned in the Book of Baruch or to be more exact in the letter of Jeremias at the end of that book; the prophet shows it walking over the heads and bodies of the Babylonian idols.' "

So I rush to the Book of Baruch (6:20-21) and find:
"Their faces are black with the smoke that is made in the house.
Owls and swallows and other birds fly upon their bodies and upon their heads, and cats in like manner."
It is the first time I have read the sixth chapter of Baruch and it is a wonderful chapter, written by Jeremias to the Jews going to Babylon, into captivity, to preserve them against temptations to idolatry. "For as a scarecrow in a garden of cucumbers keepeth nothing, so are their gods of wood and of silver, laid over with gold. They are not better than a white thorn in a garden upon which every bird sitteth ... ." .(Aug 19, 1949)

. . .

Daniel delivered Susanna by a judgement inspired by the Holy Spirit and Christ came down to the Temple from the Mount of Olives to deliver the adulteress with the grace of counsel. The Mount of Olives is the mount of chrism, of anointing, of inspiration and counsel and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. (March 18 1950).

I walked the Mount of Olives as often as I could and it became my special place in Jerusalem. By paradox, even if Merton never set foot in the Holy Places, his few words on the Mount of Olives seem to resonate beautifully.

Monthly Retreat:
To be continued: Simon bar Jonah - more on the sign of Jonah.

TEMPLE Medieval site of KnightsTemplar

The Muster of KT of the Preceptory of Saint Bernard of Clairvausx

Dear Archie,
It is a week since you were so king to bring me to the KT Lecture of Ian Robertson and then also to visit the site of your own Preceptory site of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

The attached photos make a good Chronicle of the eventful day.

Ian’s talk was a substantive contribution to the myriad faces of the Templar history. The discussion opens up so many other avenues.

The visiting Knights from Newcastle brought another interesting links in the chain of monastic sites like, Brinkburn Priory, Rothbury, Northumberland.

I am sure Ian was drawing on his special research. He could have very well given some promotion to his own publications, “Quest for the Celtic Key”, Rosslyn and the Grail.

TEMPLE/Balantradock.

Thank you, Archie, for taking me to Balantradock. At last I was able enjoy getting my feet on the ground in the place of your new Preceptory at Temple Village.

The picture I took of Deuchar’s Arch, the entrance arch to the Medieval Preceptory, reminds me of your comments on its history.

May I ask you if you would be good enough to remind again of the details?

Like all the other aspects of this fascinating place, the arch is only another a very small tail wagging a very large dog of as yet uncovered records.

When the archaeological research has progressed, it might become possible to create a VIRTUAL RECONSTRUCTION of the ‘Temple’ at a level under the subsequent Church of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and the still later Old Kirk now in ruins.

The lecture had us immersed in the heraldry and symbolism with which Templar history is seeped. It even brought us into the realms of Liturgy, more familiar to the monks as discussion touched on the Pelican, the Phoenix, the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), the rallying call and banner of the Templars, “Beauseant”.

It is very interesting from, the Cistercian point of view, to hear the explanation of the Black and White flag. ‘Symbolically, the black section is said to have depicted the sins of the secular world that the Templar knights had chosen to leave, while the second section was white - depicting the purity that the order offered them - a sort of transformation from darkness to light’. Another interpretation of the PIEBALD design can only be miles off the mark if the idea of the single mindedness and dedication marks Templars or monks.

Many thanks again for the hospitality,
the interest and the
summer feast laid out for us by your family.

Edith Stein

The Reading for the Night Office of St. Teresa Bendicta of the Cross, Carmelite, was later outclassed by Fr. / Strange writing in The Times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4488202.ece

Edith Stein – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Carmelite.
Life and death of a German Jewish Christian nun

Edith Stein was a lapsed Jewish atheist who converted to Catholicism on reading the biography of Teresa of Avila

By Fr. Roderick Strange.

On August 9, 1942, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a Carmelite nun, was among those gassed at Auschwitz-Birkenau. A few weeks earlier the Dutch Catholic bishops and other religious leaders in the Netherlands had composed a pastoral letter in which they described themselves as “deeply shaken by the measures taken against the Jews” and their “terror of the latest regulations” to deport men, women, children and whole families to “the territory of the German Reich”. They pleaded that these regulations should not be carried out. To no avail. Rather the contrary. The Nazi authorities who had agreed to defer the deportation of Jews who had converted to Christianity on condition that no public protest was made against their treatment of Jews reacted to this letter without mercy. Sister Benedicta, Jewish by birth, was taken from her convent at Echt on August 2. She arrived at Auschwitz five days later and was put to death two days after that, August 9, 1942.

The loss of every life in such circumstances is heartbreaking. Why draw attention to this one in particular? Because in her person and life many elements are combined and reactions to her death have aroused fierce debate.

Sister Benedicta was known in the world as Edith Stein. She was indeed Jewish by birth, but as a girl abandoned Judaism for atheism. She was German by nationality. She studied philosophy and sought academic posts at universities. She was unsuccessful, not because of any inability, but because of her gender: women were not appointed, victims of discrimination. Her studies also led her to explore Christianity. She turned gradually away from atheism. One night she sat up reading Teresa of Avila’s autobiography. “This,” she declared the next day, “is the truth.” Soon after she was baptised as a Catholic. For some years she continued to teach and hope for a university appointment. Then she came to recognise a vocation to religious life as her true calling.

She joined first the Carmel in Cologne, but Nazi violence made her presence there a danger to her community. She moved to Echt in Holland in 1938, where she was to be arrested. She was joined the following year by her sister, Rosa. They were taken away together. And then they were killed.

These elements in the life of Edith Stein are not like pieces of a jigsaw which can be fitted together neatly to reveal a smoothly coherent picture. There are rough edges. There is, for example, that clash between a Christian sense of Jewish origins, the Jews as our ancestors in the faith, and the Jewish sense that those Jews who embrace another tradition betray what they have left. Again, honouring Stein may seem to some to be a way for Christians to appropriate the Shoah (Holocaust). That must never happen. The Shoah stands out as a defining symbolic moment for Jews. Christians have rather to confess with shame their thousand years of anti-Semitism from the First Crusade to the Holocaust, to echo the Chief Rabbi recently at Lambeth. It is not possible to make all the rough edges smooth. But nor need we stand paralysed.

To honour Edith Stein as a Christian martyr is not to lay Christian claim to the Shoah. We need rather to remember that the essence of martyrdom is not a desire to die, but acceptance of the demands of loving, however extreme they may be, even ultimately to death. Her words to Rosa, as they were arrested, “Come, we are going for our people”, are not to be misunderstood. That “for” is not condescending, still less expiatory; it affirms a bond. Her sense of being Jewish made her identify with her people; her sense of being Christian shaped the way she accepted her death.

The elements in her life that formed her — Jewish, German, a philosopher, a woman, a Christian, a Carmelite — make her stand out. She was one of millions, but she was also outstanding, an exemplar, a witness, a martyr. Each one of us is a mystery. We respect mysteries not by solving them, but by contemplating them. The mystery of Edith Stein should prompt in us neither triumphalism nor resentment. We cannot smooth all the rough edges, but we can ponder with humility.

Monsignor Roderick Strange is the Rector of the Pontifical Beda College, Rome

With acknowledgement to The Times Newspapers Ltd. August 8, 2008

CISTOPEDIA - Encyclopædia Cisterciensis

CISTOPEDIA - Encyclopædia Cisterciensis

Summer Chronicle 3

Summer Chronicle 3

SS. Ninian and Triduana Parish, Restalrig, Edinburgh.

There have been Buses coming to Nunraw since the foundation of Nunraw Abbey.
More recently, for 13 years, the visit has been lead by Pat Healey. All the preparations and provisions were provided by the helping group.

Since I have been at the Guest House, five years, I always heard Pat declaring that this would be her last year to organise the event.
After refreshments there was little incentive by the weather to enjoy the grounds, and then it was time to make the drive to the Abbey Church for Vespers and Benediction.
At the end of the afternoon, there was a very lively Raffle of the abundant gifts to satisfy many winners. On the previous day I had a similar experience in a local Masonic Lodge, surprisingly named the Lodge of St. Mary. At the Raffle there, it so happened that I drew the first ticket and won the first prize.
To cap so much gift giving, we held a presentation for Pat to mark the years of her organizing these happy events. She received an attractive wooden carving of the Virgin and Child.
It was a spontaneous gesture for all that she has done for the St. Ninian and Triduana Pilgrimage - but we were not entirely unmindful of the possibility that she might feel persuaded to continue for next year.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Summer Chronicle at Guesthouse 2

Summer Chronicle at Guesthouse 2

University of Latvia.

Dr. Alfs Trepes of the University of Latvia has been bringing Pilgrimages by coach for many years. It seems to be as much a Cultural as an Ecumenical experience mostly for persons associated with the University. The focal points of the Tour were IONA, NUNRAW (two nights), Edinburgh, (the Festival featuring the late evening Military Tattoo), Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Stratford-on-Avon (Shakespeare).

At the morning Mass some of the Readings and Prayers were in Latvian. The Catholic pilgrims communicated, others (mainly Lutheran) received a Blessing.

The Abbey Shop was able to provide a good supply of Catholic materials and books not easily available in Latvia - or even in Edinburgh for that matter.

One lady has come on other occasions and says that she finds a special magnetism at Nunraw. A favourite writer for her is A. J. Cronin, the Scottish novelist, dramatist, and non-fiction writer, and author of the best selling works, The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom. She teaches Catholic Catechetics to children in Riga.

Pictures:
Travel by coach, - Lativia to Scotland via the
English Channel.
- Latvians at Nunraw
- Leader Dr. Alfs Trepes (R)

Guests add Video

Progress in the technology of Video has received a boost from two Guests on Retreat.
Methodist Deacon, David, brought his Cam-Corder and proceeded to record Interviews with several members of the community.
The filming can produce very large files, too large for "You Tube".
Coming later, Anne Marie, took the Video Clips and showed me how to Edit and compress the footage of one Interview.
Using myself as the Guinea-Pig I will experiment by Posting the following Video.
My thanks to David, and Anne Marie, for their help.
Video, PLAY: Click picture

Summer Chronicle

Summer Chronicle at Guesthouse

The Picture Gallery is the easiest may to record the groups of ‘pilgrims’ who arrived from near and far during these days.

St. Margaret's, Airdrie, is Abbot Raymond’s home parish. There are many other friends and helpers who are well known at Nunraw.

On Thursday, 31st July, we welcomed the Parish Pilgrimage lead by the two priests Fr. Owen Ness and PP., Fr. Daniel Rooney

Fr. Ness produced a surprising ‘Pilgrimage Manuel’ giving a special character to a very prayerful day. For the purpose of the leaflet he used the texts and illustrations from the Nunraw Website and included the meditative text, “PRAYER” According to the Monastic Tradition by Fr. Columban of Mt. Melleray. The more able-bodied walked up hill from the Guesthouse grounds to the Abbey, others availed of the coach. Abbot Raymond, well known in the Parish, introduced the time of silence and prayer.

The Pilgrimage began with the morning Mass before leaving from St. Margaret’s. It came to its climax in the Abbey with the Holy Hour of Adoration, Prayer of the Church and Benediction.

Significantly, the apse of the Church of St. Margaret, is filled with the large mosaic of Emmaus – Jesus meeting with the two disciples after the Resurrection. It is an apt picture of Jesus encountering the Pilgrims on their road on this special day.

Gethemani - Visit within visit

A Sunday of quiet, finding Merton's "Fire Watch" as for the first time -
(In the peaceful mid-afternoon our fire alarm system blared out).
"You, who sleep in my breast, are not met with words, but in the emergence of life within life and of wisdom within wisdom".

The Voice of God is heard in Paradise:

"What was vile has become precious. What is now precious was never vile. I have always known the vile as precious: for what is vile I know not at all. What was cruel has become merciful. What is now merciful was never cruel. I have always overshadowed Jonas with My mercy, and cruelty I know not at all. Have you had sight of Me, Jonas My child? Mercy within mercy within mercy. I have forgiven the universe without end, because I have never known sin. What was poor has become infinite. What is infinite was never poor. I have always known poverty as infinite: riches I love not at all. Prisons within prisons within prisons. Do not lay up for yourselves ecstasies upon earth, where time and space corrupt, where the minutes break in and steal. No more lay hold on time, Jonas, My son, lest the rivers bear you away. “What was fragile has become powerful. I loved what was most frail. I looked upon what was nothing. I touched what was without substance, and within what was not, I am.”

The Sign Of Jonas, page 362
By Thomas Merton

Separate the precious from the vile.
DRB: Jer 15:19 Therefore thus saith the Lord: If thou wilt be converted, I will convert thee, and thou shalt stand before my face; and thou wilt separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.

Visit to Gethsemani

The picture of Merton’s Hermitage reminds me not of the place but gives me a new memory of the presence that fills his writing. It was 10 years after his death that I was shown the place. It was perhaps 10 years before he became the hermit that he wrote the Epilogue to ‘The Sign of Jonas’.

Attendance at the Cistercian Central Commission Meeting at Conyers c.1976 had the additional bonus of a visit to Gethsemani. Strangely, reading Merton’s ‘Fire Watch’, now some thirty years later, converts that casual site-seeing into a sense of what the place meant to him. To use his expressive search for words, it has become the memory of a ‘visit within a visit within a visit’.

By the same warm hospitality of the monks at Gethsemani, I was taken to visit Dom James Fox, now ironically, living in another hermitage some distance from the abbey.

Retrieval – Trip to US Autumn 1976
GETHSEMANI has been so much, as it were, a presence in the Order that I approached it in some awe. This was another occasion of a group invasion by members of the Consilium Generale and again the monastic scene was so rich and varied that one clings to the memory of fleet­ing moments, meeting Dom Flavian again, the roof top expedition with Br Octavius and my camera, the jeep visit to Dam James in his hill hermitage, the time (all I could manage) listening to the unreleased tapes of Thomas Merton. I am convinced he is at his spiritual best when he is operating in his own field of literary appreciation as I found e.g. on his tape on Faulkner.

COMMENTS
Thanks for that Fr Donald and I found it very interesting.
As a humbled servant of Christ, I am moved by the Spirit of Merton and men like him.

In His Steps,
Derek

Dear Father Donald,
Wow! What a wonderful opportunity given to you to visit the Abbey of Gethsemani... oh my..
Thomas Merton's writings have had an enormous influence upon me.... as you describe, "the presence that fills his writing".
And thank you! - for the 'Sign of Jonas’is so rich, and personal, the ‘Fire Watch’ intensely so... you write of his expressive search for words...
"The illusion of sound only intensifies the infinite substance of Your silence".
This journal, a treasure to treasure.
Thank you Father.
William.

Dear Father Donald
Thank you for these wonderful thoughts and reminders about Thomas Merton. It reminded me of my strange introduction to Thomas Merton twenty years ago this August. I have just finished reading One Child by Torey Hayden, about the power of unconditional love in teaching and about to start her Silent Boy - I would recommend her reflective and insightful writing. . . .
Elizabeth

Abbot Raymond Celebrates

20^th. July 2008, Sixteenth Sunday.

Abbot Raymond celebrated his 75 Birthday today.

He had the HOMILY for the Concelebrated Mass.

Since Jesus himself gives a Commentary on Mt: 24-43, “The parable of the weeds among the wheat”, he chose the Second Reading for his reflection.

Rom 8:26-28 And as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words; and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God. We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.

PRAYER WITHOUT WORDS

“The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness”, St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans. “For when we cannot find words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words”.

What are words anyway? The language of words is, on one hand, one of the greatest gifts bestowed on human nature by God, it sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Yet, on the other hand, we all know the limitations of human language. When we feel something very deeply we instinctively feel ourselves at a loss for words; we know that our words can never do justice to what we feel. This ‘fact’ forces itself on us especially in prayer, when we try to communicate with God. How inadequate our stammerings and babblings are then! However we must realise that God is a Loving Father indeed and just as any loving father is delighted to hear the babblings and stammerings of his children as they make their first efforts to communicate, so also our Heavenly Father is greatly pleased by our efforts to communicate with him.

But, to get back to our sense of the inadequacy of our words to express ourselves at any really deep level: When words fail us in our dealings with each other we instinctively resort to other means of communication; means of communication which are certainly less precise in what they communicate, yet are deeper and stronger for all that. It is something like the difference between a great artist’s painting of a storm at sea, for instance, and the same scene conveyed by a great musical composer. The painting is more precise and detailed, but the music is much more evocative and moving. So, in our dealings with each other we resort to bodily signs such as a smile of pleasure or a hug of joy or an embrace of compassion.

In the same way then, in our dealings with God, we should try to discover within ourselves the inner world of the spirit which has its own corresponding movements of the soul. The soul has its own inner smile of love, its own inner embrace of compassion, it holds out its own inner pleading hands, and it has many other forms of expression that are beyond the spoken word.

But it takes solitude and silence to enter into these areas of our being, areas which are so tragically unknown to our so crowded and noisy and busy world.

But the most wonderful thing about our efforts to express ourselves in prayer is that we have a power within us that lifts us up to the level of God himself, because that power is in fact the divine power of the Holy Spirit himself. Let us be confident then, Paul tells us, as we approach the throne of Grace, because God has no defence against the power that is in us, he cannot stop his ears to the voice of his own Spirit, nor can he hide himself from the gaze of this same Spirit as it shines through the gaze of our own Faith.

It is so important for us to realise the greatness and power of the Christians prayer because he does not pray on his own, but he prays through and with and in, the Holy Spirit.

A friend, David Smith, Methodist Deacon, has been on Retreat in the Community. During the past few days he has used his CamCorder to have Interviews with members of the Community.

I would like to have the Interview with the Abbot to add to this Post. It is a daring move but I am trying YouTube. The File is probably too large. Is it possible to compress the Video Clip?.

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Month of Precious Blood

Today is 1^st July and so we begin the Month of the Precious Blood. It is a very ancient devotion but it has been updated very effectively by the Apostolic Letter of Pope John XXIII ON PROMOTING DEVOTION TO THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, June 30, 1960.

Before coming in this morning I made a detour through the adjoining room of the Guesthouse Chapel to look at the hand made tapestry of this miracle of Jesus, “The Calming of the Storm”..

Saint Matthew 8,23-27

The Gospel vignette appears in the three Synoptics. St. Matthew is different from Mark and Luke in a significant detail. In Matthew Jesus reminds the disciples of the faith they have even if it is little, “O you of little faith”, before he calms the waters. In the case of Mark and Luke it is only after the miracle that Jesus’ reproach is for the lack of faith.

There are two questions. The disciples ask one question and we can ask the second.

1] he disciples ask, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey”.

2] And we can ask then question what kind of faith is that of the disciples.

An answer to the first might be the words of

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350), who commented on the words of Matthew on the Calming of the Storm.
"What sort of man is this?"
If any one wishes to show piety towards God, let him worship the Son, since otherwise the Father does not accept his service. The Father spoke with a loud voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Cyril goes on to enumerate some of the names of this ‘sort of man’, Jesus.

The Litany of the Precious Blood composed by John Paul II also takes up the theme of the 'sort of man this is'::

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father,
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God,
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament,
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony,
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging,
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns,
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross . . . . . .

The answer to the second question, is in the consistency of Matthew in the cases where Jesus looks for the signs of faith before his miraculous response. The scene with the blind man, for example, shows Jesus asking, “Do you believe that I can do this?” They answered, “Yes, Lord”, and Jesus said “According to your faith let it be done to you”. (Mt. 9:28-29). It was the same in the scene with the woman who touched the hem of his garment, “your faith has saved you”. Have faith and something will happen, way beyond expectations.

The disciples were sure they were sinking, their faith was in turning to Jesus not only as their only alternative but also in the measure of their unqualified turning to Him.

Whenever we feel our boat is sinking, just have faith. Something greater than we planned for, will surprise us.

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Irenaeus & Cyril of Alexander

Best Seller in the Making

Cyril of Alexander and Irenaeus of Lyons.

It just so happens that these two major early Fathers of the Church

are celebrated on the consecutive dates June 27th and 28^th.
What makes it interesting is that they will both be part of the ‘best seller in the making’ of Benedict XVI.

From the year 2006, the Holy Father has been using his weekly Wednesday Audiences to give a substantial sketch of the Apostles, fathers and Doctors of the Church.
Cases in point are the feasts of Irenaeus and Cyril of Alexandria, the one a voice of gentle clarity in the Gnostic polemics, the other a fiery controversialist with the Nestorians.

Ironically Irenaeus, the friend of Pope and of dissidents, living up to his name of PEACE and reconciliation, in a later century, 1562, having his shrine in Lyons destroyed by Calvinists.
Cyril, much later, and noted for his more robust or aggressive attitudes receives the most scathing comment on his achievements, that IF he had been more patient and diplomatic Nestorianism might not have arisen or continued so long.

Their lives make an interesting contrast and Pope Benedict XVI personal insight into Church of the Fathers will make it all the more enthralling and instructive.

In his Audiences the Pope is explaining to the faithful not so much the “what” of the Church, but the “who,” beginning with those who guided it during the first centuries, building up the great Tradition from which the Church of today draws. He highlights each time not only the originality but also the perennial relevance of the work of each Father of the Church.

Here is what the Pope has systematically presented to date:
In the manner of prolegomena
Christ and the Church
The Apostles, Witnesses of Christ’
The Gift of "Communion"
Safeguarding the Gift of Communion
Communion in Time: Tradition
The Apostolic Tradition of the Church
The Apostolic Succession
The Apostles
The Sub-Apostolic continuation
Fathers of the Church

Papal Audiences, Wednesday 2006-2008
See Vatican Website
2006
3 May 2006, The Apostolic Tradition of the Church

17 May 2006, Peter, the fisherman

24 May 2006, Peter, the Apostle

7 June 2006, Peter, the rock

14 June 2006, Andrew, the "Protoclete"

21 June 2006, James, the Greater

28 June 2006, James, the Lesser

5 July 2006, John, son of Zebedee

9 August 2006, John, the theologian

23 August 2006, John, "the Seer of Patmos"

30 August 2006, Matthew, the tax collector

6 September 2006, Philip, the Apostle

27 September 2006, Thomas, "the twin"

4 October 2006, Bartholomew

11 October 2006, Simon and Jude

18 October 2006, Judas and Matthias

25 October 2006, Paul the Apostle

8 November 2006, St Paul's new outlook

15 November 2006, St Paul and the Spirit

22 November 2006, St Paul and the Church

13 December 2006, Timothy and Titus

2007

10 January 2007, Stephen, the Protomartyr

31 January 2007, Barnabas, Silas (also called Silvanus), and Apollos

7 February 2007, Priscilla and Aquila

14 February 2007, Women at the service of the Gospel

7 March 2007, Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome

14 March 2007, Saint Ignatius of Antioch

21 March 2007, Saint Justin, Philosopher and Martyr

28 March 2007, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

18 April 2007, Clement of Alexandria

25 April 2007, Origen of Alexandria (1)

2 May 2007, Origen of Alexandria (2)

30 May 2007, Tertullian

6 June 2007, Saint Cyprian

13 June 2007, Eusebius of Caesarea

20 June 2007, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

27 June 2007, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

4 July 2007, Saint Basil (1)

1st August 2007, Saint Basil (2)

8 August 2007, Saint Gregory Nazianzus (1)

22 August 2007, Saint Gregory Nazianzus (2)

29 August 2007, Saint Gregory of Nyssa (1)

5 September 2007, Saint Gregory of Nyssa (2)

19 September 2007, Saint John Chrysostom (1)

26 September 2007, Saint John Chrysostom (2)

3 October 2007, Saint Cyril of Alexandria

10 October 2007, Saint Hilary of Poitiers

17 October 2007, Saint Eusebius of Vercelli

24 October 2007, Saint Ambrose of Milan

31 October 2007, Saint Maximus of Turin

7 November 2007, Saint Jerome (1)

14 November 2007, Saint Jerome (2)

21 November 2007, Aphraates, "the Sage"

28 November 2007, Saint Ephrem

5 December 2007, Saint Chromatius of Aquileia

12 December 2007, Saint Paulinus, Bishop of Nola

2008

9 January 2008, Saint Augustine of Hippo (1)

16 January 2008, Saint Augustine of Hippo (2)

30 January 2008, Saint Augustine of Hippo (3)

20 February 2008, Saint Augustine of Hippo (4)

27 February 2008, Saint Augustine of Hippo (5)

5 March 2008, Saint Leo the Great

12 March 2008, Boethius and Cassiodorus

26 March 2008, Octave of Easter

9 April 2008, Saint Benedict

14 May 2008, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

21 May 2008, Saint Romanus the Melodist

28 May 2008, Saint Gregory the Great (1)

4 June 2008, Saint Gregory the Great (2)

11 June 2008, Saint Columban

18 June 2008, Saint Isidore of Seville

25 June 2008, Saint Maximus the Confessor

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Man Fully Alive is the Glory of God
St. Irenaeus

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him. It is impossible to live without life, and the actualization of life comes from participation in God, while participation in God is to see God and enjoy his goodness.

The Word became the steward of the Father’s grace for the advantage of men, for whose benefit he made such wonderful arrangements. He revealed God to men and presented men to God. He safeguarded the invisibility of the Father to prevent man from treating God with contempt and to set before him a constant goal toward which to make progress. On the other hand, he revealed God to men and made him visible in many ways to prevent man from being totally separated from God and so cease to be. Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation gives life to all who live upon the earth, much more does the manifestation of the Father through the Word give life to those who see God.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA.
The following quote is from the New Catholic Encyclopedia and it expresses Cyril's theme.
"Only if it is the one and the same Christ who is consubstantial with the Father and with men can He save us for the meeting ground between God and man is the flesh of Christ. Only if this is God's own flesh can man come into contact with Christ's divinity through his humanity. Because of our kinship with the Word made flesh we are sons of God. The Eucharist consummates our kinship with the word, our communion with the Father, our sharing in the divine nature-there is very real contact between our body and that of the Word."

More than himself, God could not give. Less than himself, he would not give. We can state that God could not give any less. God gives each person the necessary time to find the Deity and that can be for some a lifetime while for others it is everyday. Merely to receive the Eucharist, but once, is an invaluable and precious gift, but God calls some to a greater good daily. But, to whom much is given, much shall be required.

Above, Pope Benedict XVI’s view of Cyril of Alexandria is that of the very clear cut DOCTOR of the Church. The sculpture of Cyril in the Basilica of Prague portrays, in violent contrast, a very different aspect. A description from ‘catholic.com’ does not mince words on the redoubtable over forceful ecclesiastic. The description expresses it rather humorously. See opposite

“One of four Roccoco statues c. 1760 by Frantisek Ingac Platzer of the eastern Church Fathers that stand in front of the four supporting pillars of the dome .

This sculpture is St. Cyril of Alexandria engaged in some rather unsaintly gloating while he pokes Nestorius of Constantinople with a big stick. Personally I think St. Cyril is rather a disagreeable saint; as patriarch of Alexandria he drove the Jews from the city and attacked various groups that disagreed with him. He disagreed with Nestorius over the status of Mary as the Mother of God and managed to persuade the pope to condemn Nestorius allowing Cyril to depose him.

He is considered to be a top drawer theologian, writing many highly regarded treatises. Quite a number of these were clarifications on the doctrine of the trinity ensuring that Nestorianism would never gain credence in Christian tradition. Cyril and Nestorius really didn't get on.”

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