Via Vitae
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
Way of Life Ben ed ict in e O bla tes of The World Community for Christian Meditation
Ÿ
It is possible to enjoy a deeper, more positive fraternity rooted in a
common awareness of the potential of the
human spirit, rather
than the limitations of human life. It is the
specifically Christian
task to sink the roots of this awareness
deep into modern
man’s understanding of himself and his world.
The World Community for Christian Meditation
John Main OSB
A GREAT AND LIVING TRADITION
Every morning after breakfast at Meditatio House in London the resident oblate
community meet to discuss the day’s section of the Rule. We sit in the well-lit and warm area of the sun porch that seems to draw residents and visitors alike throughout the day. I am moved and illumined by these discussions. They link the timeless wisdom of the Rule to the daily life of the community and to the individual’s personal journeys. They are building into a new kind of commentary on the Rule drawing on the merged experience of oblation and meditation. A summary of these conversations is posted on the WCCM website. Even when we are reflecting on a section like Chapter 15 – ‘The times when ‘Alleuia’ are to be said’ – the depth of personal sharing, the quality of insight and the sense of relevance are unusual and striking.
When we had a visit recently from the monks of Turvey we, monks and oblates together, were able to share and reflect on the common source of our different forms of life. Benedictine life over the centuries has always rejoiced in diversity and tolerance of new expressions. Clearly today – but this doesn’t mean we know where it is leading – the ways the Rule are lived and interpreted are changing. Monasteries may be closing but Oblate life is becoming more attractive to young and old as a way of shaping their commitment to ‘truly seek God’ through the precepts of obedience, stability and conversion, to balance their lives in a rhythm of prayer work and study and to be true to the real values of life even when we feel overwhelmed by distraction or temptation.
Soon after the Monte Oliveto retreat we will be starting the week of study and practice on ‘Meditation in the Monastic Tradition’ at Sant’ Anselmo, the Benedictine university nobly positioned on the Aventine Hill overlooking the city of Rome. This is the Benedictine centre of studies where John Main and many generations of monks were trained in theology and spirituality. Today the numbers of monastic students is declining but the College is seeking new ways to teach the monastic wisdom that seems more than ever to be needed in our chaotic world. The Institute of Monastic Studies in the College is eager to develop its relationship with our oblate community which, like the oblate life in many other ways, is transmitting the charism of Benedict to future generations. All this illustrates the rich relationship between the World Community as a monastery without walls drawing on the Christian desert for its inspiration, our oblate community and other contemporary forms of the monastic tradition.
John Main believed that each time we meditate we enter into a great and living tradition. At times he was sad that more monasteries did not take up and integrate this dimension of ‘pure prayer’ into their communal life, a frustration felt by other prophetic monks of his era like Thomas Merton and Bede Griffiths. But, like them, he felt that the monastic archetype was ineradicably planted in the human psyche and would find expression in whatever ways the times called for. The world will always have and will always need monks, those who love the world but don’t quite fit into it. The role to be played by different forms of oblate life in fulfilling this need has been recognised by the recent Oblate Congresses that the present Abbot Primate has convened and in which the WCCM Oblate Community plays its part.
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
Thanks to a spiritual use of technology we are able to share virtually this experience of the evolving meaning of Benedictine life with a community spread throughout the world. But there is no substitute for the experience of living together and the witness it makes.
I am sure you will also keep Patti Posnett in your prayer as well as Charles and their family. As an oblate she has made a great contribution to sharing the gift of meditation with children. We thank God for her life among us and celebrate her entry into the Kingdom while giving our condolences to those who in faith are grieving.
That is why we are beginning to look for a larger spiritual home for the WCCM, which will be served by a core group of oblates, as a centre for formation, hospitality and retreat. We are open to where and how the Spirit will call us and if you have inspirations or suggestions or can help financially or in other ways please let me know. In any case please keep the project in your heart.
EDITORIAL Dear Oblates,
the new website that the Benedictine Sisters of Erie have set up (Joan’s monastery in America): www.monasteriesoftheheart.org
Just a note to tell you of a few on-line resourses for reading the Rule:
Mary Kelly Robison, national Oblate Coordinator for WCCM-USA, continues her excellent ‘Reflections from Daily Reading of the Rule of St Benedict’. The website is http://wccmoblateblog.blogspot.it.
Laurence Freeman OSB 2015-06-17
This gives excellent introductions to Prayer, Lectio and Good Works as the three pillars of Benedictine life and wisdom not just from Joan but from the other sisters of that community. Membership is free.
Stefan Reynolds
There is now a Facebook page for WCCM Oblates. If you Facebook then sign up to ‘The Rule of Benedict: Reflections From Christian Meditators’. This has been set up and has regular blogs by Andrew McAlister who is currently living at the Meditation House in London. Andrew has given reflections so far on Chapters of the Rule 39-60 and have been greatly appreciated. They are as available (for non-Facebookers) on a new website: www.theruleofbenedict.wordpress.com where you can sign up for the reflections to be sent as an email.
Those of you who have appreciated Sr Joan Chittister’s commentary on the Rule of St Benedict may well be interested in
So, don’t go stale on your reading of the rule, these are three ways to freshen up our appreciation of it. For those who don’t use the internet – like those who don’t drink wine – you are the real monks. Love and prayers from Stefan
Following is an excerpt from Stefan’s forthcoming book Learning Mindfulness with the Christian Mystics to be published by Canterbury Press in the Autumn.
INSPIRE BEFORE YOU ASPIRE: Some reflections on St. Benedict’s saying, “Do not aspire to be called holy before you really are, but first be holy that you may more truly be called so”1 We need to breathe in before we can breathe out. So it is in the spiritual life. The word ‘spirit’ comes from the Latin spirare meaning ‘to breathe’. Spirituality should be an inspiration not an as-spiration. We shouldn’t be trying to be holy but should let God be God in us. Then we can breathe freely, both in and out. Our inner and outer lives will connect. If spirituality is an inspiration then it is not an end in itself. The end, as St. Benedict says, is the “good life”, life in all its fullness. We shouldn’t aspire to a spiritual life, we should aspire to life, learn to appreciate life as it is. (1)
—2—
The Rule of St Benedict, Chapter 4, Verse 62
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20,June 2015
Belief in God and a sense of Divine presence inspires us to do the humble practice of being present to what is. Spirituality does not mean trying to impress ourselves, or others. It means getting real. The aspiration of Christians is to be like Christ. But to do that we have to be inspired – given the Spirit – we have to breath in Christ who breathed out his Spirit to the Father: “Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit; and having said this he breathed his last.” 2 After his Resurrection Jesus breathed again, this time over the apostles: “He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit.” 3
In the beginning God spoke creation into being and the breath that carried that word was the Spirit. In breathing in Jesus by being present to the whole of creation – life in all its fullness – we receive the Spirit that makes us holy, the Holy Spirit. “Breathe only Christ,” St Anthony of the Desert said.4 Then all life’s happenings become a source of in-spiration.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers read spiritual practice broadly as ways of being aware of all that goes on in and around us. Making sure we ‘inspire’ before we ‘aspire’ meant continually checking what inhibits our breathing – the various passions which keep us short of breath. Spirituality for them was not about supernatural experiences or esoteric theories but about how to deal with the blocks that keep us from fullness of life. There is a cautionary tale in the sayings of Abba Poemen: A very distinguished foreigner once visited him, he had come specially to see him, he was ushered into Poeman’s presence and started talking. But Poemen averted his gaze and refused to speak to him. In dismay, the visitor went out and asked Poemen’s disciple what was going on. The embarrassed disciple went inside to plead that his master would say something to the visitor who had travelled so far. But Poemen explained to his disciple, “Our visitor is from above and speaks of heavenly things, but I am of the earth and speak about earthly things. If he had spoken to me about the passions of the soul, then I should have answered him. But if he speaks of spiritual things I know nothing of them.” The visitor tried again by saying, “What shall I do, abba, I am dominated by the passions of my soul?” Abba Poemen said, “Now you are speaking rightly.” 5
neath. That is why the Desert Fathers and Mothers have been called the first psychotherapists. Spiritual life, for them, was dealing with the hidden unconscious motivations that rule our life – the passions. Mindlessness, on the other hand, is unwillingness to pay attention to what is happening in and around us. We prefer fantasyland. The opposite of being mindful is being forgetful. The Desert Fathers and Mothers said that three things go before all sin: forgetfulness, negligence, and desire: “For truly every time forgetfulness comes, it engenders negligence; and from negligence desire proceeds; and desire causes a man to fall.” 6 The Desert Fathers and Mothers are not very interested in morality. Measuring behaviour as good or bad was really not their business. But they were worried about carelessness, of not facing up to what one was doing. Carelessness made one a liability to oneself and to others. “Unawareness is the root of all evil,” one monk said. 7 For the Desert Fathers and Mothers this laxity came from a state of mind they called Acadia, which can be translated as listlessness, despondency or boredom. Acadia makes us want to distract ourselves. It keeps us from being simply present to what is unfolding here and now.
However, Acadia is not exactly the same as sloth or laziness. The person suffering from Acadia can be very busy, but doing the wrong thing. Evagrius in his book Practikos (The Practical Way) says that diligence starts with the mind, not with trying
Mindfulness is motivated by a sense of value and interest in what presents itself to consciousness however mundane or even awkward. It is not really our opinions, views and philosophies which are interesting but what goes on under-
Table of Contents
Y
A Great and Living Tradition ....................................1 Editorial ....................................................................2 Inspire before you Aspire .........................................2 The Meaning of Oblation for Me................................6 The Contemplative Oblate Today ..............................7 Stability, Obedience and Conversion ......................13 Oblate Community Day ...........................................14 The John Main Seminar, New Zealand 2015..........15 End Point ..................................................................16
Luke 23:46. John 20:22. (4) Quoted in Oliver Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 204 (5) The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, trans. Benedicta Ward, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1975), Saying 8, p. 167 (6) The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers: Systematic Sayings from the Anonymous Series of the ‘Apophthegmata Patrum’, trans. Benedicta Ward, (Fairacres: SLG Press, 1975), Saying 141, p. 40. (7) Ibid, p. 65 (2)
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to amend our behaviour exteriorly: “The mind is easily moved indeed, and hard to control,” he writes, “the war fought on the field of thought [is] more severe than that which is conducted in the area of things and events.8 Cassian tells the story of a monk whose fixation on a task distracted him from any time for rest that he desperately needed to recover.9 Workaholics try to give meaning to their life through what they do, rather than discovering that life has meaning in itself. The witness of the early monastics is that a sense of value and interest in life is augmented and encouraged by a belief that “the divine presence is everywhere.” 10 Spirituality inspires but should we aspire to be spiritual?
St. Benedict was deeply influenced by the desert tradition particularly as handed down through Cassian. But he lowers the level of aspiration from the ‘pure spirituality’ that was something of a tendancy in the Desert. Instead of saying that we should get rid of our thoughts he advises people to seek God “as ever present within our thoughts.” 11 Benedict’s Rule shows how God indwells all life experience; our thought, the people we meet and live with, the activities of our day. There is no split between the religious and the secular. “All guests who present themselves [from the outside world] are to be welcomed as Christ.” 12 One doesn’t need to be spiritual to carry the presence of Christ, all people do by the fact of their existence for “not one thing was made except through Him.” The utensils and tools of the monastery kitchens and workshops “are to be regarded as sacred vessels of the alter.” 13 “All our actions, everywhere, in the workshops, in the fields, on a journey, not just in the Oratory, are in God’s sight.” 14 Living in God’s sight means learning to live with ourselves, facing up to who we are. Gregory the Great (540-604) in his Life of St Benedict says that in his cave “Benedict lived alone with himself but under the gaze of God.” 15 Gregory goes on analyse what it means to ‘live with oneself: Every time we are drawn outside of ourselves by too much mental agitation, we are not ‘with ourselves’, even though we think we are. Because we wander
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
here and there in our minds we do not see ourselves […] I would say that this venerable man ‘lived with himself ’ because he was always on guard and watchful. He was always aware of being before the eyes of the creator. He was constantly examining himself and he did not let the eye of his mind wander about.16
For the Desert Fathers and Mothers it is not what we do that is important; what matters is that there should be a real human being there to do it. “If you have a heart you can be saved,” Abba Pambo said.17 Mindfulness involves accepting our situation as imperfect human beings who are loved by God and capable of loving others through all mishaps and mistakes. Mindfulness is not about perfectionism. It is a way of being real, humble, down to earth. Humility offers a way of facing our negative tendencies, without collapsing into guilt and low self-esteem. St Benedict believed the more humble we are, the more rooted in the rich soil of self-awareness, the more we are able to bear fruit in good works. “No lotus without the mud,” as Thich Nhat Hahn says. At the end of Benedict’s list of good works he reminds the monk that even if he fails to keep them any of them he should “never despair of God’s mercy.”18
Humility should be balanced by vigilance though. Benedict’s predecessor and mentor in the East, Basil the Great (330-379) already believed “the mind is idle and careless for a lack of belief in the presence of God.” 19 If we were to meet the Queen or the Pope our eyes would remain intent – we would not look here and there; so with a sense of God’s presence the mind becomes intent and focussed.20 The Desert Fathers emphasised the preciousness of time: “An old man said, ‘He who loses gold or silver can find more to replace it, but he who loses time cannot find more’.” 21 When the monks prayed, “Give us today our daily bread” it was not so much for physical food – for that they had to work – but for attentiveness to receive the unique gift of each day: “An old man said, ‘Having arisen in the early hours, say to yourself, ‘Body,
Evagrius Pontus, trans. John Eudes Bamberger, Cistercian studies, 4 (Spencer, Mass.: Cistercian Publications, 1970), Saying 48, p. 29. John Cassian: Conferences, trans. Colm Luibheid, (NY: Paulist Press, 1985), 2:5, pp. 64-65. (10) Rule of St Benedict, 19:1. (Based on Proverbs 15:3) (11) 7:14. (12) 53:1 (13) 31:10 (14) 7:13 (15) The Life of St Benedict, III:5, trans. T. Kardong, (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2009), p. 22. (16) III: 5,7, pp. 22-23. (17) Alphabetical Collection, Saying 10, p. 197. (18) Rule, Chapter 4, Verse 72 (19) Basil of Caesarea, ‘Short Rule’, Ascetical Works, trans. Monica Wagner, Fathers of the Church series, (NY: 1950). (20) Ibid, 201 (21) ‘Anonymous Collection’, Saying 133, p. 39. —4— (8)
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you must work to feed yourself; soul, be vigilant in order to receive the inheritance’.” 22 For St Basil the sense of Divine presence the first step in prayer, the second step is to let go of the day’s impressions, of worries and fears that smother the soul.
The Greek word for the withdrawal of thoughts from past and future and coming back to the present moment is anachoresis, literally άνά – back, and χώρησις – to the original.23 Anachoresis, St Basil says, enables us “to carry about with us, in all that we do, the holy thought of God stamped upon our souls.” 24 Basil does not propose adding a thought of God from outside, so to speak, to every task and activity. This would mean doing one thing and thinking about something else. Such mental duplication would be distracting and impossible to maintain. Rather, for Basil, the awareness of God is stamped within us as we go about our daily tasks.25 In his Episcopal homilies Basil extends anachoresis beyond monastic practice to the simple pleasures of life. When eating a raison be aware, be grateful. When you sit down to dinner with your families, pray! When you take bread, thank the giver! When you strengthen your weak body with wine, think of him who is giving you this gift for the delight of your heart and the elimination of your weakness! When you put on a garment, give thanks to him who gave it to you. When you slip on your overcoat, grow in your love for God who has provided us with suitable clothes for summer and winter […] When you look up to the sky, contemplating the beauty of the stars at night, pray to the lord of the Universe who, in his wisdom, has created everything […] By keeping all things in mind in gratitude you will in this way pray without ceasing, not limiting your prayer to words, but uniting yourself in your whole life, inner and outer, with God, so that your life is a continuous appreciation of God’s presence in all things and so you will come to uninterrupted prayer.26
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
Coming back to St. Benedict: “Do not aspire to be called holy before you really are, but first be holy that you may more truly be called so.” We tend to say someone is holy when they go to Church a lot, or when they say a lot of prayers, or talk about ‘spirituality’ but all this is ‘outer’. Inner holiness, Benedict says, comes from not trying to be holy but from being holy in ourselves. We only become holy when we open our hearts to God’s Spirit, God’s inspiration. We do this in meditation. In saying the mantra we are not aspiring to be spiritual in our eyes, in the eyes of others or in God’s eyes. In saying the mantra we are being open and attentive to God’s Spirit who is always with us. Humility is not about aspiring to be spiritual but, as St. Benedict says, it is about repeating to God the verse of the Psalm: “I am of no account and lack understanding, no better than a beast in your sight, yet I am always in your presence.” 27 Like St Basil Benedict reminds us that God is present in everything we do; eating, drinking wine (not to excess), getting dressed, looking at nature. being holy is letting God be God in us.
Ibid, 135, p. 39. ‘Long Rule’ 6:1 (24) 5: 2 (25) This is pointed out by Pia Luislampe, ‘Living in the Presence of God: Comments on a Discipline of Benedictine Life’, ABR 40: 4 (Dec 1989), 416-442. (26) ‘Homily on the Martyr Julitta’, Bibliothek der Kirchenväter 47, pp. 214. My translation from the German. (27) Rule, sixth step of humility. (22)
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Dr Stefan Reynolds Glenville Park, Glenville, Co. Cork Ireland stefandreynolds@gmail.com
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
THE MEANING OF OBLATION FOR ME
Oblation for me is a reminder. I said that in my final oblation, at Meditatio House, in London, in the beginning of 2012. And this is still a good way to summarise it. It is a “selfreminder” about the way I can serve, using the gifts I have received. I am a journalist, I always liked to write, to spread news. I also love internet since I first used it, because I saw the potential to connect people. I try to use all of this to help people to find the way of meditation. Why? because I am sure that is a path that can change people’s lives and there are few things in life we can be sure of.
Oblation is an offering and today what I can offer is to help people to know some good news: the gift of meditation. I started to meditate in 2008 when I joined a group in Porto Alegre, South Brazil. I always was a quiet guy and I knew intuitively that there was something special on silence. The practice made sense for me, and I was able to built up the discipline to meditate twice a day. Gradually my life started to change: less anxiety, less fear, more serenity and confidence.
I had the opportunity to live in community, at Meditatio House, in 2011. That was my “oblate year”, a year to go deeper into the meditation practice, life in community and self-knowledge. Also an opportunity to know more the Community and to meet so many new friends. After that, back in Brazil, I started to work as Director of Communications for WCCM.
Leonardo Corrêa
Since then I have been lucky to offer my work as a way to help the Community's mission. Recently I was speaking with another journalist. He works at a big newspaper in the USA. He asked me if I “miss journalism”. I replied that I am still doing it, maybe even in a stronger way than when I used to write about sports or technology. I said it because I know that the message I am passing on today is much more important than the highlights about who scored the goal in the match last night or the very new gadget in the market.
So, today I work based in Brazil, managing the WCCM website, doing the newsletter, interviews, podcast, online radio, social networks. I go to some big retreats and events, recording talks in audio and video, doing interviews. I always try to be curious and find new ways for people to learn about meditation.
Sometimes I think I am not a “good oblate”, when I don't do the full Office, or skip the night meditation (that is not so frequent I should say). But I realized this is not the way I should think. The goal was never about being perfect. What is important is to try my best, with full heart, accepting success and failures, virtues and limitations. The oblate path in our Community is one of the ways to serve but I think it is always good to be reminded that there are a lot of people that really offer themselves and are not “officially” oblates.
Y
about change by Margit Dahm
•
we cannot change the world
but we can change ourselves in order to change ourselves we have to wake up
and in order to wake up Susanna Melzer’s Oblation Novitiate at Meditatio House, Thursday 21st May. Susanna may join Christiane Floyd as the second WCCM Oblate from Germany.
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we must know that
we often fall asleep
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
THE CONTEMPLATIVE OBLATE TODAY Talk to the Second World Congress of Benedictine Oblates, Rome, 3rd October 2009
Sometimes people ask me – what led you to become a Benedictine monk? Before I answer I usually think of the desert father whose reply to the question ‘what is a monk?’ was this – ‘a monk is one who asks himself every day what is a monk.’ I find I can answer the question equally honestly in several different ways. Here today I would ask you ‘why did you become an oblate’?
The Benedictine life has perhaps the greatest range of manifestations of any religious order in the Church – from missionaries and educators, to farmers and hermits. As St Benedict says early in the Rule ‘there are different kinds of monks’. He says the coenobites are the best but also that the whole Rule is only ‘a little rule for beginners’ who are being trained for the ‘singlehanded combat’ of the desert of solitude. He seems to see solitude in some form as the goal of monastic life. Only experience reveals what solitude means in terms of the individual vocation. The multi-dimensional approach to monastic identity explains the rich diversity and adaptability of the Benedictine charism over 1600 years. And all these different aspects of Benedictine identity apply equally to oblates.
What draws a person to become an oblate? How do they live oblation at different stages of their lives – as young parents or working professionals and later in retirement? What does it mean to be an oblate today at a time of great crisis in monastic history when many monasteries are closing or struggling to survive? I would like to explore some of these questions within the challenging theme of this Congress and especially through the understanding of contemplation. This will lead us to look at the praxis of realizing this, the practice of meditation
Traditionally Benedictine life has been seen as ‘mixed’ – that is neither solely contemplative nor active. Monks are meant to earn their own living. Benedictines are not mendicants. This distinguishes them from Franciscan friars and Buddhist monks. Again, this mingling of the contemplative and active dimensions of the Christian life has stimulated a great diversity of expression. The Cloud of Unknowing says that ‘no life is completely contemplative or completely active’. That is good Benedictine common sense. And perhaps there is an even deeper meaning in merging contemplation and action, as this is what Jesus seems to mean by the ‘one thing necessary’ in the Martha and Mary story. Jean Leclercq used to say: was Jesus a monk? If so, should we not all be monks? If not, do we have the right to be a monk?
This tension of identity is at the heart of the Benedictine life and the Gospel and indeed of human life itself. Even the bi-
Laurence Freeman OSB
hemispheral structure of the brain illustrates this tension of complementarities. It is a tension that Benedict handled wisely and brilliantly in his Rule. Monks and oblates live it out differently by their obedience to the same Rule.
In a secular age like ours, filled with conflicts and confusion and with shifting ideas about the meaning of religion and spirituality, the Benedictine wisdom accumulated in many eras and cultures has immense potential and value – provided we are ready to grow with the times. The monk is like a tree planted beside fresh streams – rooted in stability and so able to grow, to be like a Kingdom-tree in which the birds of heaven come to roost, to be continuously converted. The growth needed today is a recovery of the contemplative energy of the Rule.
Recovering the contemplative dimension
Peoples’ search for spiritual experience in our time often leads them to leave the Church. Many feel that Christianity has little to offer except rituals, moralistic certainties, rules and conformity. Yet monasteries are often an exception to this rejection of ‘religion’ in the West. Perhaps this is why the present Pope urges monasteries to renew Europe and create a ‘civilization of love’. Monasticism retains a genuine fascination and represents a real alternative way of life. The phenomenal popularity of the film ‘Into Great Silence’ clearly reflected this.
Since the Second Vatican Council there has been a widespread recovery of contemplation in the mainstream of the church’s life, faith, theology and prayer. The marginalization of contemplation that followed the separation of prayer and theology after the 12th century, its increasing ‘specialization’ in cloistered communities and the suspicion with which it has often been held since the 16th century have all diminished dramatically. People of all walks of life – in many forms of vocation – practice serious forms of contemplative discipline in their prayer that formerly would have been seen as strictly ‘monastic’.
In Vita Consecrata, John Paul II pronounced on this re-emergence of contemplation into the mainstream of ecclesial life very clearly:
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Even in the simplicity of their life, cloistered communities, visibly represent the goal towards which the entire community of the Church travels. As an expression of pure love that is worth more than any work, the contemplative life generates an extraordinary apostolic and missionary effectiveness. (i)
No opposition between contemplation and action here. Since the Council every Pope has called on monastic orders to renew their contemplative life and to share it with the people of God. Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths and John Main are three of the many prophetic figures in this process. Yet, let us remember that their prophetic vision led them to unusual and even disturbing insights and experiments. Contemplatives tend to rock the boat and challenge complacency.
How contemplative is Benedictine life? The prophet’s response
Merton was quite critical of his monastic culture for its lack of contemplative depth. He was more popular outside the cloister as ‘Thomas Merton’ than within it as ‘Fr Louis’! Griffiths felt he had to leave his English monastery and go to India and immerse himself in its spiritual experience in order to ‘find the other half of (his) soul.’ Main, who channelled a specific monastic form of contemplative prayer to the world, was led to form a new kind of Benedictine community based on meditation, the ‘pure prayer’ of the desert tradition. This has since taken shape both as a ‘monastery without walls’ and in a particular new form of Oblate life. Including meditation in the Office and liturgy was one of John Main’s great insights. This is what he said about it: Each of our four sessions of meditation is in community. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this physical and spiritual being together. Shared silence is a self-authenticating faith in God’s presence among us. Learning to meditate in common is the greatest of our exercises of communal love. In these moments we hold open with and to others the most precious part of ourselves – the heart where our treasure also is, our faith in the presence of Jesus.(ii)
It is a hopeful sign that each of these three very modern and prohetic monks remained within the monastic institution and the church. But, in order to achieve their vision they were pushed closer to the edge. Is not this itself a lesson for us as we consider the contribution of Benedictine spiritual culture to our world? Monasticism by its very nature, like Jesus, is marginal. It gives most when it is closest to the edge. This is certainly how it began – in the desert and as ‘flight from the world’ and from ecclesiastical hierarchy. Desert monks dreaded to be made priests. Benedict himself was not a priest and was cautious about introducing clerical status into the lay-structure of the monastic community. Living on the edge is hard to sustain. By the end of the great ‘age of monasticism’ in the 16th century monks had largely been assimilated into the institutions of church and state. Great spiritual flexibility and freedom from status was often to be found in the monastic life of the oblate or lay brother. But this had become devalued by an excessive emphasis on
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
the clerical status of the ‘choir monk’. When John Main originally entered the monastery he asked to be lay brother. The abbot dismissed this by saying it was an impossible option for a university professor. The weakening of the spiritual influence of monasticism is connected to its loss of marginality and the confusion of the monk with the clergy and of the monastery with religious and secular institutions. The high price of this institutional respectability and acceptance by the centres of power in the church was the decreasing quality of contemplative experience. Medieval monastic culture is one of the great achievements of western civilisation. But how contemplative was it really? Research shows that the big monasteries were often more like prayer-factories while the deeper centres of spiritual life were more likely to be found in the small priories and granges at the edges of the monastery’s political empires and estates.
Understanding the historical problem of the contemplative element in Benedictine life forces us to look closely at the Rule – what it has and what it doesn’t have. There are many elements in the Rule that allow us to see it as part of the Eastern mystical tradition of the monastic life from which it came and which Benedict looked back to with reverence and even a certain nostalgia.
Benedict’s emphasis on ‘peace as the quest and aim’ of the life has often been reduced to a local and domestic security (no small thing in a world where things are falling apart). But he understood it more in terms of the ‘hesychia’ of the desert – the silence and stillness of heart in which contemplation arises. The opening of the heart to the abbot echoes the relationship of disciple to master in the Desert monasticism to which he looked back as a golden age. Benedict emphasises the constant need for control of thoughts – the guarding of the heart that is at the core of desert ascesis. And he saw spiritual progress in terms of the stages of humility. The Rule is geared towards achieving the state of contemplation, a way of preparing for the coming of the Kingdom of heaven at an interior level. If the Benedictine life does not mean a direct path to contemplation what on earth is it for? Education, social work, a quiet, secure life without responsibility, an escape without a return, a taking without giving? These are indeed the dangers of monastic life
But what does Benedict say specifically about how to develop and maintain this state of contemplation? Are the opus dei of the monk and his lectio divina enough? Benedict himself seems to say ‘no’, when he says that the full observance of the life is not contained in his ‘little rule for beginners’. He does not speak about particular forms of prayer apart from those of the daily Office and lectio divina – although he refers to the personal prayer of the monk being extended beyond prescribed limits, by the direct action of the Holy Spirit. The life he regulates for in the first seventy-two chapters of
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the Rule is designed to create the optimum conditions for contemplation. But then comes the all-important last chapter. Here, for those who want to go further into contemplation, he simply but decisively points to other authorities – especially to John Cassian whose Conferences he had already dripfed into the monastic formation by having them read daily at mealtimes.
Contemporary and contemplative
I would like to suggest that if Benedictine monks and oblates today are to contribute to the spiritual and social crisis of our time that this Congress is considering, then we must examine more closely this question of how we pray in the Benedictine life. In the process we may discover different priorities from those we have come to take for granted.
For example, Benedict does not speak much about the Mass. Probably it was not celebrated daily in his communities. This does not mean he did not love or revere the Mass or see it as an essential and formative part of the monastic life. Nor does he speak about a method of contemplative prayer – although he says that all forms of prayer should be prayed in a contemplative way – that is, with attention and mind and voice in harmony. But he does point, beyond himself and the Rule, to the great practitioners of the inner life within our tradition for more detailed instruction on what he himself does not speak specifically about.
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
pointed question. Was there anything in Christian monasticism that corresponded to the meditation practices of the East? In helping this young seeker – with his very contemporary question about experience – John Main was led first to Augustine Baker and then to Cassian. Here he recognized a method of contemplative prayer that Benedict would have known, that we find in the medieval tradition and that is enshrined in the Orthodox Church as the ‘prayer of the heart’. This is what he called Christian meditation.
De Vogüe notes that Latin Christianity did not retain a parallel to the Jesus Prayer of the Eastern Church. With Cassian’s formula or mantra, however, there was indeed a parallel method and one to which Benedict pointed. But it became largely forgotten or neglected in Benedictine monasticism. John Main’s recovery of it, according to de Vogüe, is an evolutionary moment of significance for our time. He points to an irony in monastic history. Benedict adopted Cassian’s mantra “Deus in adiutorium meum intende” (O God, come to my assistance) as the opening of the Office, perhaps as a reminder of what the Office is preparing us for. Cassian’s role as liaison in this matter is all the more essential as Latin monasticism has not produced a phrase analogous to the Jesus Prayer, nor has it even used any other Christian mantra in a sustained way. It is something strange and cause for regret that the Deus in adiutorium recommended by Abbot Isaac has as far as we know not been used in the West in the way the author of the Conferences suggested. No echo has come to us of a school of spirituality which cultivated it as a phrase for continual prayer. Instead of this unceasing, personal practice at which Cassian aimed, we find only examples of liturgical or ritual use, whether in the Rule of St. Benedict himself or in his contemporary and countryman Cassiodorus or in the Franco-Celtic monasticism of the following century. These do witness indeed to the fact that the message of Abbot Isaac was heard: the verse he recommended is greatly respected and its richness of meaning is perceived. But it is not used for continuous prayer. The very end which Cassian had in mind has been lost sight of.(iv)
This issue is handled with refreshing and radical clarity by the eminent Benedictine scholar of the Rule of St Benedict and of pre-Benedictine monasticism, Adalbert de Vogüe in his essay ‘From John Cassian to John Main’. He identifies what he calls a ‘lacuna’ in the Rule and says that John Main’s contribution to modern Benedictine life offers a genuine way to fill the missing link. The role of mediator played by Cassian in Main’s story is interesting in several ways. First of all, in the historical dimension it offers an example of having recourse to a pre-Benedictine author to enrich and correct the postBenedictine tradition. As Baker had already done – but somewhat differently, as we shall see – Main returns to a source of the Rule to supply for a lacuna in it which is left open or imperfectly filled by those who make use of it.(iii)
John Main had become a monk in the 1950’s and was told to give up the form of simple, non-conceptual and image-free meditation that he had originally learned in the East – essentially the ‘monologistic’ or prayer of one word that he was introduced to and later called the ‘mantra’. Later, while headmaster of a Benedictine school in Washington DC and at a very busy period of his life, he was approached by a student fresh from the ‘trail of the mystic East’ with a simple but
In his Tenth Conference of Abbot Isaac, Cassian describes the reasons, the theology and the stages of this way of prayer. The reason is to control the problem of distractions. The theology is the poverty of spirit to which the ‘single verse’ leads and deepening union with Jesus in the glory of his Resurrection. The stages illustrate the fundamental ascesis of the monastic life and indeed the achievement of its primary goal – the purity of heart by which the vision of God is reached.
From this moment of discovering Cassian’s teaching on meditation, his ‘how to’, John Main’s sense of the monastic life
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was transformed. He continued as headmaster for a few years. He then established a lay community – proto-typical ‘oblates’ – at his monastery where he led them in an intensive novitiate formation grounded in meditation and integrated with the familiar forms and structures of daily Benedictine life. His vision had a destiny. It expanded to become a ‘monastery without walls’, The World Community for Christian Meditation. Within this community, over the past thirty years, a new kind of Benedictine Oblate Community has developed. More recently, and still emerging within the Oblate Community, a residential Oblate identity has formed. This allows for an oblate to make final oblation and at the same time to commit to residential life in a stable Oblate community for renewable three-year periods. In 2007 the World Community and the WCCM Oblate Community received canonical status during the 25th anniversary of John Main’s death. His insight that ‘meditation creates community’ has been proven true by the development of this global spiritual family.
At what level do monk and oblate become one?
John Main did not think that this form of meditation, the oratio pura or pure prayer of the Desert monks, was the only way to pray, or even the best. He took it for granted, however, that as it did not replace other forms of prayer, it would only enrich lectio and sacramental prayer.
His contribution to the contemplative renewal of Christianity has been recognized by the monastic world. To Bede Griffiths John Main was the ‘best spiritual guide of his time’. De Vogüe saw him as bridging Christian to the non-Christian world as Cassian had bridged Latin and Orthodox churches. But his teaching has been more widely practiced outside the cloister. Only a few monastic communities have recognized what de Vogüe understood as the ‘lacuna’ and learned what John Main understood when he filled it in his new form of Benedictine community – the integration of times of silent meditation with the times of lectio, divine office and Mass. Many Oblates of course do this normally, integrating meditation morning and evening with their Office, lectio and daily routines.
It is not surprising that this does not happen in most monasteries. The perception that silent prayer of the heart is the ‘personal prayer’ of the monk, whereas the Office and Mass constitute the collective prayer of the community is deeply set. There is, however, an older tradition that points to community prayer as including both silent meditation and the Office. It would be unlikely that that this older tradition could be recovered in existing monastic communities with their long-established practices and customs. But for newer manifestations of Benedictine life – such as the oblate communities that both John Main and Bede Griffiths saw as emerging in the monasticism of the future – are more ready to integrate
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
meditation with the Office or lectio. They see them as complementary precisely because they see that they are distinct and different. Meditation is different from lectio, lectio from oratio… but contemplatio is the goal of all prayer.
Meditating together is a powerful experience of faith and love. It can deepen and heal the wounds and friction of community living. In a Benedictine community the experience of meditating together (as well as of praying the Office and celebrating Mass) creates a perception of personal and corporate union within the prayer of Christ. In Christ, at this level, there is neither monk nor oblate.
Oblates yesterday, today and tomorrow
How does this experience of unity in shared contemplative experience affect the forms of commitment and common life of a Benedictine community? This is a real challenge. It can also create big problems. Contemplative experience creates a sense of unity and equality. Oblates and monks are one and equal in this contemplative dimension of the life. It enables them to love Jesus’ teaching on discipleship as a way of mutual service not a competition for precedence or about who can be closer to the teacher.
This equality and unity is hard to live in daily life. The Rule, however, is good at resolving such problems. It has helped many generations to solve their difficulties of adapting to the times. After all, the Rule is good for learning how different and often quite odd people can live together in love. Monks can feel threatened in their identity by sharing community with other kinds of commitment. Often this cannot work. Certainly it cannot without shared contemplative prayer. Then again, oblates may not want to be formally monks or live with them even though they do love the Benedictine life. These are the kinds of challenges of identity, vocation and meaning that we face in monasticism today. It is an aspect of what we call the ‘crisis of vocations’ but which is in fact a crisis of perception. It means can we adapt or do we cling to the death to old forms? The future of Benedictine life depends on first facing and then risking some new ways of living these challenges.
Remembering what Benedict points to beyond his own Rule can help monasteries to explore new forms of commitment within the community or parallel to it. The ancient form of oblation offers many examples that can be adapted for modern circumstances. Benedictine life is not supernatural. The Rule is very down to earth. So, we should not be surprised to see that forms of the monastic life that do not evolve and adapt will become extinct. The vow of conversatio morum has never been more relevant and deserves our attention today even more perhaps than the often idolized vow of stabilitas.
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
A historical review of oblature may be very helpful in the reconstruction of monastic communities. We have seen how oblature has been remarkably responsive to the spiritual needs of the times, and has always cherished the precious legacy of monastic prayer. Consider the variety of legitimate roles and functions that oblature provided in the Cluniac familia, in large cenobia, in small priories, in eremitical orders. It has shown a remarkable elasticity—not shapelessness, but a creative response to the needs of a particular situation interpreted through a vital tradition. The Oblate may live for life in monastic communities as mortui mundo, having given himself and his property to the community without reservation (a plenus oblatus, a persona ecclesiastica). He may face the challenge of living “in the world” by the principles of the Rule in fraternal union and affiliation with the monastic community. This is the option that probably most oblates in history have taken. It allows for a diversity of accommodations to persons and situations. Perhaps it is now time to consider yet another option which has recurred in history, and may have much to offer prayerful people in our time—the creation of residential communities of Oblates of St. Benedict who may minister to their fellows in a new monasticism to a world crying out for the silent, generous prayer which it has to offer. The free and supple structure of oblature adapts well to a wide variety of religious temperament and social circumstance. It seems to present marvelous and large opportunities for the life of intensive Christian meditation and prayer; it is a rich inheritor of, and contributor to, the life of evangelical humility and simplicity envisioned by Our Holy Father Benedict, a man of God for all times.(vii)
In the past the cohabitation of the vocations of oblate and monk in a monastery was normal. There were very creative variations and combinations. Some scholars claim that the richest periods of monastic spirituality coincided with an increased diversity of forms of oblation. In that historical perspective of depth and variety we might foresee new, more flexible forms of Benedictine life evolving around oblate communities. This was Bede Griffiths’ strong intuition and John Main had already begun some constructive experiments in new forms of life obedient to the Rule and incorporating communal meditation. Four times a day we meditate together for half an hour – the ‘short time’ of prayer suggested in the Rule. Each meditation period follows the appropriate hour of the Divine Office. The Office, which we see as a form of communal lectio, is our way of preparing for the silence of meditation by an attentive listening to the Word in scripture.(v)
Communal times of silent meditation is not a new idea to monastic tradition but it is rarely found today. Oblates encourage the recovery of this custom – the opening to the full spectrum of prayer – through their life in the world. The meditating oblates of the World Community, for example, have already embraced the disciple of twice-daily meditation before they begin the novitiate year. As they then learn to weave the Office and lectio into their daily spiritual life a fruitful symbiosis happens in which the Word leads to silence and silence empowers the Word. Cassian in the 5th century already describes this marriage-relationship between lectio and meditation in his Tenth Conference. He was surprised to find how the imageless prayer of the mantra led to a deeper reading of scripture.(vi) The modern oblate, living in the world can balance daily prayer and work (lectio, worship and the prayer of the heart) and bring to light the entire tradition of oblation and its potential for our time.
It does not, then, really matter whether the oblate is living in the world or in a residential community. Grounded in this balance and liberating discipline in their daily life the oblate soon becomes the witness and the teacher for others – a development common to all forms of Christian discipleship.
As Augustine Baker remarked in the 17th century, a certain re-prioritizing of life activities may be necessary if a person wishes to live a contemplative life in the world. He mentions going out to dinner less often. We might add less time in front of the television or online. But as Baker stressed, long before Vatican II, the call to contemplation is universal. Recovering this contemplative dimension of the Benedictine ethos in the oblate life could provide a model and influence for monasticism generally which faces so many difficulties today. A rediscovery of oblation may save and renew monasticism for our time.
Conclusion
The contemplative dimension of the Rule has often been under-emphasized because Benedict seems to concentrate on the challenges and structures of community life rather than on the interior journey. The oblate and the monk are, however, enriched and made more flexible in their respective vocations by remembering the full mystical import of the Rule. Seen in the light of Chapter 73, the mundane details of the Rule acquire a rich symbolic meaning that points to the goal of contemplation in every aspect of life: ‘so that in all things God may be glorified.’ The goal of the monastic life according to the first monks was simply ‘continuous prayer’.
The Life of Benedict reveals the saint as healer, spiritual father and mystic. His vision of the whole world gathered together in a ray of divine light pervades the therapeutic insights into the human soul – alone and in community – which has made the Rule a major part of Christian wisdom literature. There is only one Rule for all forms of Benedictine life – for
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monks, nuns and oblates living in the world. It has no clerical bias and, like the desert tradition, does not elevate one form of vocation above another. The monk who clings to his status in distinction to others is not yet a free monk. The oblate who sees himself/herself as less of a disciple, because he/she is not a monk is not yet a free oblate. What matters is to ‘truly seek God’.
This spirit of equality and fraternity is a direct fruit of contemplative consciousness and pure prayer. It rings true with the modern mind. And it creates a contemporary and flexible form of following Christ through the ancient tradition of oblation. The Rule embodies the contemplative dimension of the Gospel by laying the moderate, ascetical foundations for the interior journey. Seen like this, new forms of monastic life can be creatively imagined and courageously risked. The oblate may live in the monastery. Or in lay communities of oblates that are probably closer in form to the monasteries that Benedict himself knew. Or, the oblate can continue in the more conventional form to live in the world as a spiritual friend, associate or member of a monastic community. In whatever form of commitment the oblate seeks God through prayer and work and makes peace his ‘quest and aim’.
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
In our modern confusion Benedict offers us a clearer understanding of the nature of these three spiritual elements of life. Prayer is more than ritual and mental prayer. It needs to nurture and lead into contemplation – the prayer in which as Cassian says ‘all the riches of thought and imagination’ are surrendered. Work means more than making money. It is about service and the making of a just world that consciously and continuously awaits the coming of the Kingdom. And peace is not just a passing state of mind, a temporary relief from stress and anxiety. Peace is the mind of Christ because ‘he himself is our peace.’
If the oblate today recovers this latent contemplative energy in the Benedictine life we could expect to see a greatly increased influence of the spirit of the Rule in our world. This would affect not only monasteries but all the institutions of society: in the ways
in which dialogue is conducted, the church is run and families raised. Benedictine monks and oblates face the same challenges and so are equal partners in this work of seeking God through the wisdom of our Holy Father Benedict.
September 2009
i Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, ii John Main, Monastery Without Walls, The Spiritual Letters of John Main, Canterbury Press Norwich 2006, p. 29 iii Adalbert de Vogue, From John Cassian to John Main, in John Main: The Expanding Vision, ed. Laurence Freeman, Canterbury Press, Norwich 2009 iv ibid. v Monastery without Walls, op. cit., p. 27 vi Cassian, Conference 10.5 vii Derek G Smith, The Oblate in Western Monasticism, Monastic Studies 14, 1983 — 12 —
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
STABILITY, OBEDIENCE AND CONVERSION
I have been practicing Christian Meditation for about 7 years. Before that I practiced meditation in Buddhism and had no knowledge of meditation in the Christian tradition. When I had contact with the community, the feeling was really to be back home. I started practicing with a group at a parish near to my home and later attended a retreat. As experience is our greatest teacher I soon felt called to increase my commitment to spiritual life. And so began the path to be oblate of WCCM (CMMC in Brazil). For the first time in my spiritual path I took a decision on my own and with a clear sense of discernment. Throughout life, we go through some ceremonies and rituals within our tradition, as the first communion and confirmation, but often as part of a "social norm" and without understanding in depth what it means. However, the decision for Oblation was different.
The oblate is someone who sincerely seeks God. And the vows we make are linked to three precepts of the rule of St. Benedict: stability, obedience and conversion. In the context of modern life, marked by materialism and distractions, to live with these three precepts brings space for our soul to breathe. We learn to live with our hearts rooted in Christ.
Stability is linked to rooting in essence, in our center, which is God. Stability is to find God everywhere, not only in the church, in monasteries or other holy places. Stability helps me to persevere in times when the mind wants to fool me asking: "What's the point of always repeating the mantra." In moments of weakness, stability is strength. I think stability enabled the early monks when they fell always to rise again. Before my meeting with Christian meditation I was not able to create roots for spiritual practice and in my search for God. The stability allows the base to the spiritual life become more and more solid and rich, and so the fruit ripens.
Obedience is a constant and active listening to the Word. It is to live with the eyes of my heart opened, to see God and understand what he expects from me. The path of meditation led me to the center of my being and in this center I can find my true "meaning" and realize how many of my motivations were illusory. So, I started to follow this center, which is actually God. And obedience to God is totally related to listening to God. The word obedience comes from the Latin obedire, which has the root audire (to hear). The challenge is to stay with active listening in this center. If there is not continuous obedience our hearts can be quickly hardened and not listen to that voice.
Saint Benedict said that obedience is the first step of humility. Whenever I obey only my will and moved by selfish interests
Taynã M. Bonifácio, Oblate in Brazil
I know I'm far from my center. Whenever I consider others and transcend my ego, I know I'm being obedient to God. Perfect obedience is the one made with joy, without delay and without grumbling. Listening, renouncing one’s own will, obeying God requires humility. And the great example is Christ, the true oblate.
For me, the crucial point is that compliance is not restricted to listening, it is realized when we share with others. We need contemplation to develop listening and we need action to connect our life in the world with what we hear from God. We have to be obedient to the word and the will of God. With obedience we need to hear the question that God puts to us every day and obedience is our response to that question in the world. It is both a path toward the center and an expansion towards another. Thomas Merton said: “When I want what God wants for me in each moment this keeps me in touch with the center of who I am; this reality of the will of God demands a response. This should guide my choices so I stay in constant relationship with this center of freedom.”
Meditation leads me to this center where freedom comes from God, obedience gives me discipline to stay on it, listening. God made me seek the offering of myself and the decision to be oblate is my response to the world.
And finally, conversion, which is connected to a process of continuous transformation, death and resurrection every day. I try to look at every day as a blank sheet and ask myself in every situation that life invites me to: What would Christ do in my place?
Anyway, the way of Christian Meditation brought a new dimension to my spiritual life by making me seek this offering of myself. I began to meditate for a partly selfish reason and because I wondered: What do I want out of life? Along the way this question has changed to: What does God want from me? And it caused me to devote myself to projects that really filled my soul with meaning, for example, the project to bring Christian Meditation to children.
I believe that the “middle way” proposed by Saint Benedict is essential today. I remember when I started to have a little more discipline in my spiritual life my mother asked me: “If you had not married you would be a nun.” And I said no, because for me it was clear that it was not enclosure and isolation that put me before God but the relationship with another, with others and with the world. Being an oblate of WCCM is to live the Kingdom of God here and now in the huge monastery without walls that is called the world.
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
OBLATE COMMUNITY DAY Saturday 25th April 2015—London “In Benedict’s dining room, where everyone serves and everyone washes feet and everyone returns the utensils clean and intact for the next person’s use, love and accountability become the fulcrum of community life.” So comments Joan Chittister.
Though exception was made for the sick and those engaged in some important business of the monastery, no doubt all in their time had taken part in this work and Benedict says “… such service increases reward and fosters love.” (The Rule of Benedict Chapter 35)
This was the chapter of the Rule for our quarterly Oblate Community Day at the Meditatio House, Hamilton Road, Ealing, and which for a short time we were able to embody together.
The day has a simple pattern – a warm welcome by the resident Oblate community, and a time of gathering, greeting, introductions and plans for the day, followed by Midday Prayer and meditation. Shared lunch provides a time to greet old friends and meet new, all in the lovely setting of the house and garden. Lectio Divina commences the afternoon, followed by the Rule and then Evening Prayer and meditation. Before departure, there is time for a drink and informal discussion on the day.
Fr Sergio from Argentina led us in Lectio Divina on John 10: 11-18, “I am the good shepherd.” His gentle guitar music
added, for many of us, a different and attractive dimension to our reflections. He gave us this quote from Enzio Bianchi, Monastery of Bosse, “Let your reading become listening, and let your listening become obeying. Slow down! It is necessary to relax with the readings because they are made to be listened to. Then the Word will make itself heard! In the beginning was the Word, not the Book. God speaks in Lectio. Our reading is our means of listening to God. ‘Hear, O Israel!’ – this is God’s constant call. It resounds in the text and echoes from the text out towards you”.
Y
to forgive
by Margit Dahm
•
when the spirit of forgiveness
Angela Greenwood
Annual UK Oblate Gathering 2015 Monastery of Christ Our Saviour, Turvey, Beds
5
has entered our heart,
Saturday 24th October
we are also able to say:
Sunday 25th October with Fr. Laurence
first for our own faults,
Contact: Eileen Dutt
‘I am sorry’ –
and then for the faults of the other
email: eduttobl@christianmeditation.org.uk mobile: 07721574757
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
JOHN MAIN SEMINAR Hamilton, New Zealand, January 2015
2015 was a milestone in the Meditation Community of New Zealand as we were the hosts for the John Main Seminar 2015 held in January in the Waikato University, Hamilton, in the North Island. The majority of the 270 meditators who attended were from New Zealand and Australia but others from Fiji, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, England, Ireland and Canada added their own appeal to make the occasion a very special and spiritual week. January is summer time in the Southern Hemisphere and for the whole period the sun shone with temperatures around 27 degrees every day. The university was built on what was originally farmland and comprises over 60 hectares of landscaped gardens and lakes giving ample opportunity for quiet meditative walks through some very beautiful scenery.
16 out of the 22 new Zealand Oblates were able to attend and many of them spent a lot of time helping to make the seminar a success, directing the traffic as people arrived with their luggage on the enrolment days, helping in the dining room to make the long queues run smoothly at meal times, and conveying some of the more elderly by car to the conference room two kilometres away for each session. It was also a momentous occasion for four of the New Zealand Oblates who made the final oblation and two more who began their novitiate year in the presence of Father Laurence.
Of course the success of the JMS was mainly due to the two speakers. Fr. Laurence presented Meditation as a Modern Spiritual Path in his own unique style and David Tacey’s presentation of Spirituality and Religion in a secular age was brilliant. Both these offerings are on the website and well worth reading. Hugh McLaughlin NZ Oblate co-ordinator Wednesday 22nd April 2015
Y
Ÿ
The stillness of mind and body to which the mantra guides us is a preparation for entering silence and for our progression through the spheres of silence – to see
with wonder the light of our own spirit, and to know that light as something beyond our spirit and yet the source of it.
John Main OSB
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Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 20, June 2015
END POINT
my offering
by Margit Dahm
•
oh source of my life, may my aim always be
to serve and rest in thee: guard my mind from too much noise that wants to undermine your voice:
Whenever we want to ask some favor of a powerful
person, we do it humbly and respectfully, for fear of presumption. How much more important, then, to lay our petitions before the God of all things with
the utmost humility and sincere devotion. We must
in your presence let me speak
that which with my soul I always seek and when one day from here I part, let your love enfold my heart
know that God regards our purity of heart and tears of compunction, not our many words. Prayer should, therefore, be short and pure, unless
perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace.
RB 20: 1-4
N AT I O N A L O B L AT E C O - O R D I N AT O R S USA: Mary Robison, maryrobison@mac.com UK: Eileen Dutt, eileendutt@yahoo.co.uk NEW ZEALAND: Hugh McLaughlin, hugh.mclaughlinnz@gmail.com ITALY: Giovanni Foffano, foffano@libero.it IRELAND: Stefan Reynolds, stefandreynolds@gmail.com CANADA: Polly Schofield, wccm.oblates@bell.net BRAZIL: Marcelo Melgares, marcelomelgares@yahoo.com.br AUSTRALIA and INTERNATIONAL: Trish Panton, pantonamdg@ozemail.com.au ARGENTINA: Marina MĂźller, marina.r.muller@gmail.com UKRAINE: Maria, Albert Zakharova, info@wccm.org.ua POLAND: Maksym Kapalski, maks.benedyktyni@gmail.com
VIA VITAE No. 20, June 2015
Editor: Dr Stefan Reynolds Glenville Park, Glenville, Co. Cork, Ireland + 353 214 880103 stefandreynolds@gmail.com
Graphic Design: Anne Dillon, USA