Fr. Basil, Superior, has asked that I make clear that these reports represent my perceptions and not necessarily that of the monastery as such.
My Friends, Mid-July, 2024
It was mid-summer when I left the Hermitage Spiritual Retreat Center for the monastery, but in spite of the heat wave, the pastures were more green than brown, yet without any flowers remaining. The first noticeable feature at the monastery was the lushness of the garden, with promise for the best sweet corn ever. The church was adorned by roses from the Garth, with red dominating a lonely yellow one. Black-eyed Susan’s seem to be winning the garth trophy over the Tiger Lilies, presided over by a monumental Sun Flower. The swallows are faithfully conducting their thrice daily mosquito swoops. At each place in choir, there is now a supplementary Vietnamese Hymnal. Above all, the air conditioning is working to perfection, with some resemblance to a refrigerator. The Nazareth Hermits have been occasionally using the Church as a prayerful refuge from the heat. Each cell now has an independently operated A/C as well. The Refectory sports a new set of 24 drinking glasses. Our readings at lunch are recorded voices reading about something or other that I doubt any of us can really make out. The three sets of double exterior doors have been re-stained, with repainted frames. The Kitchen has settled down to a new blue-grey color, and Mary Tu continues her painting enterprises by reworking the Visitors Kitchen -- with monastic help. Fathers Alberic #2, Bruno, and Peter are presently in Vietnam. Fr. Bernard, a respected older Vietnamese monk, is presently with us, and will likely file a positive report about our Ava Foundation. The Vietnamese monks seem intent on bonding -- with games, table tennis, pool, walks, and “picnics.” This is important, but to a Trappist eye, this might be distractive from time for solitary spirituality and practice. Now, for those of you interested in such matters, there are 34 lights in our church ceiling; 27 quilted crosses on the edge of our altar cloth, 27 vents on our heating/cooling system, and 17 stars among which the prophet is pointing on our Compline booklet! :-)
There were two surprises. The first is that Fr. Cyprian has graduated from a cane to a new battery-operated wheel chair, which he has already mastered with precision. I am pleased as this minimizes the chance of his falling. The second surprise was to discover that the rear doors to the monastery are all locked. The explanation is that several weeks ago the Sheriff came to the monastery to tour our safety precautions -- apparently because of an increase in “mentally disturbed” strangers in the county. Shortly thereafter, an unknown person wondered in after Vespers, identifying himself as “a Zen Warrior.” Later he broke into Family Brother Wally Hendrick’s old hermitage, where he was apprehended -- and in a trial pressed by the Abbey was forbidden entrance into Douglas County. Mary Tu was rightfully worried, often living alone in the Guest Wing. So the “inevitable” decision was made to place electronic coded locks on all exterior doors and the door to the Superior’s office; and automobile keys were hidden. This incident and the decision recalled when a number of years ago an invader trashed our church, sacristy, refectory, and kitchen. We decided then that as monks we should practice non-violence, being vulnerable to threats of the world, ready for martyrdom if necessary on behalf of the Christ whose broken body and poured out blood are to be pattern for our living. Thus we would have no locks. Yet we made a compromise -- to lock the Guest Wing, unwilling to impose on retreatants our own version of Christian practice. This whole issue is of particular import for me as we do not lock our buildings at the Hermitage Spiritual Retreat Center, although retreatants can lock their hermitage if they so desire.
My labora was Antiphon Reader for all offices, hearing Confessions, being Deacon on Thursday, Communion Steward on Friday, and Presiding Priest on Sunday. I opened the Sunday Confession at Mass by recalling that on this day in 1925 John Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution. May this event remind us that the Holy Spirit continues to provide faithful Christians with new discoveries and awareness’s, for which we need to be open. So I focused our forgiveness on those times when we have blunted the Holy Spirit in the new struggling to be born.
I began the homily by stating that it is impossible to deny that our nation is in deep trouble, for like Jeremiah says today of his time, we too are being shepherded by those
who are misleading and scattering us. The fight for electing a new Presidential shepherd seems to be between two candidates lacking whole-hearted support from either side --both wounded persons. Congress is polarized, and support for the Supreme Court is at a record low. In my last book, “Remnant Christianity,” I made the case that the selfish, competitive Capitalistic drive has so invaded our major institutions that greed and avarice is driving our society relentlessly toward collapse. With all politicians in need of vast amounts of money to run for office, it is the corporations and the wealthy who alone are able to buy and sell candidates, rendering them beholden to increase the outrageous profits for the rich at the detriment of all the rest. Even churches have been so captured by this dynamic that they attempt to provide spiritual support for this extreme. This leaves undealt with such issues as environmental restoration, gun violence, the death penalty, health care, homelessness, racial inequality -- and many more crises.
My conclusion is that our hope lies in the promise that God makes today in the Jeremiah reading, saying: “I myself will gather a REMNANT of my people and bring them back, to feed them in green meadows where no longer will they fear and tremble.” This Christian remnant will hear today’s psalm with new commitment: “The LORD is our shepherd, we shall not want . . . and though we walk through the dark valley we will fear no evil for you are with us.” This is what Jesus tries to provide in today’s scripture, when the disciples have just returned from their intensive evangelical trip -- and Jesus’ response is this: “Come and rest.” But people are coming and going in great numbers, making it impossible for the disciples so much as to eat. So they embark by boat to find a deserted place. Yet people see them leave, resulting in a great crowd awaiting them when they land. So out of pity, Jesus ministers to the crowds, because they are like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus’ invitation to “come and rest” from all our doings is what today’s Church desperately needs to hear -- for the ability to shepherd the lost sheep necessitates our being rooted in alone time with Jesus. To be restored by drinking deeply of silence means that the Church, and world, needs what we as Trappists and Cistercians have to share. Pope Paul VI declared this to us forcefully:
“Silence is the most precious inheritance of your orders.
Speak to the world by your silence, looking only at God,
desiring only God, and attached to God alone -- and thus
your contemplation will benefit the whole church. Without
this, the entire mystical body will suffer and be impoverished.”
Precisely, and yet this past week I read a study that makes abundantly clear how absent is this life of prayer, providing a key to the plight of our Church. It is a study of Roman Catholic seminarians and their teachers among whom personal prayer is rare, for whom God is not intimate but is out there somewhere, for whom this absence of Divine closeness relates to the students’ fear of being alone, and for whom when they do pray it is out of duty rather than being a spontaneous sharing in Divine companionship -- centered more in themselves than on God. Any experience of God that they do profess is primarily through relating to other persons, and in presiding at Mass. This alarming truth means that their relation with God is much like being married to a person for whom they do many good things, but are mystified as to why they should spend time alone together or even profess deep love to the beloved. The situation is like that of Jesus and the disciples, so consumed by doing that there is no time for silent aloneness. And yet while Jesus is aware of the absence, the seminary students and many priests are rarely aware of it being missing. Thus they regard prayer as a guilty waste of time -- because unless they can see in it some benefit for themselves, they are not interested.
The tragic consequence is that the heart of the good news is the unconditional love of God in Christ Jesus, so experienced that one is transformed as lover. But if this love of God is not being experienced in depth, the good news for them remains distant, theoretical, doctrinal, lacking in real substance. Prayer must be seen as the first priority for Christians. Therefore we can see how important our mission is as monks. We are to be the spiritual center that ignites and nourishes the contemplative soul of the Church as the Body of Christ. We are to do this for its own sake, as model for others, and as invitation for retreatants to share our life. In this way we are enabled to live life as described by Wesley and Ignatius when both of them declared: “Lord, I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you; let me be full, let me be empty -- I yield all to your will.” In this way we can help the Remnant walk as did Jesus -- one step at a time, being led by our Good Shepherd. Our deepest need is for Christ to be our intimate companion, so that we can walk through our present valley of the shadow of death without fear.
# # #
After Mass, I prepared to leave for a week at our Colorado cabin with my extended family of sixteen. There is nothing quite like a 13,000 foot mountain peak to bring things into perspective. And so as we enter together into the crucial political struggle now before us, may we be nurtured by a prayerful centering sufficient for the long haul.
Grace. Beauty, Serenity, and Love, wrapped in Hope.
Fr. Paul
Alas, that sermon was never to be heard out loud, nor the trip to Colorado
consummated. I think it was Friday morning when I took a short nap and
inadvertently rolled off the bed and onto the floor. The floor was cold concrete,
like sandpaper and I found that I had no power in my legs or in my arms. I tried
to raise myself onto my knees but every attempt was almost a not quite. I tried
again and again, just resulting in bruise after bruise. In desperation I reached
out for anything I might use to help me get up. The result was that the clothes
rack simply tumbled on top of me and I couldn’t move. Trapped that way I was
for 24 hours, until Fr. Cyprian found me at 8am on Saturday.
The result is that I am in Mercy Hospital in Springfield undergoing treatment
and tests and will likely be released in one or two more days. Hopefully, healing
will be complete. Pray for me.
IF YOU DESIRE TO RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF MY “SHORT LIFE OF JESUS,” THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE -- BY EMAILING YOUR MAILING ADDRESS TO hsrc3@juno.com.. THEY ARE ALMOST ALL GONE.