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BENEDICTTHE BLESSED ONE
Can the pursuit of a spiritual path lead to the very egocentricity it is trying to escape? Not infrequently. The
Desert monks were acutely aware of this danger especially in solitude and relied above all upon the abba-disciple
relationship to avoid it.
It was however Benedict of Nursia (480-550) who devised a masterly, sapiential formula of training for the mystical life
based on community rather than a personal master. His Rule, though, is masterly especially in its modesty - and despite
lacking any direct mystical doctrine.
Even his name is anonymous, meaning the ‘blessed one’ as the Buddha was often called by his followers. The story of
his life is known to us through legendary miracle stories collected as theological illustrations by Pope Gregory, a former
monk under the Rule. These inspired innumerable works of art, most beautifully in the frescoes by Signorelli and Sodoma
at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, worth a week’s retreat in themselves.
Benedict began his monastic journey in an archetypal desert mode. He dropped out of school in Rome, (‘wisely
ignorant’), curiously so for the founder of the system that saved learning in the Dark Ages. He took the habit from a
nearby hermit and then spent years in a cave (Sacro Speco) in Subiaco, near Rome and still one of the most presence-
filled and holy places in the world. He taught the Gospel to
the pagan peasants around him anticipating the missionary
branch of his spiritual progeny in future centuries. When
some leaderless monks in the vicinity begged him to come
and be their abbot, he kindly but unwisely accepted.
He was too strict for them and, not for the last time in
monastic history, the community tried to murder their abbot.
He left them, but stayed in the coenobitic (community)
form of monastic life rather than returning to solitude. He
formed twelve monasteries each with twelve monks. Modern
sociologists reading the rule note the emphasis on smallness
for healthy group dynamics. Even in the big community he
organises the members in ‘deaneries’ of ten. Yet in Chapter
One of his Rule on ‘The Kinds of Monks’ he sees solitude as
the goal. After an unspecified ‘long’ period of time in the
monastery those who have ‘built up their strength … go from
the battle line in the ranks of their brothers to the single-
handed combat of the desert.’
The military imagery might seem better suited for men
playing at soldiers. Yet women, including Benedict’s own
sister, Scholastica, whom one story shows praying better and
Benedictine Oblate Newsletter No. 14, December 2011
Via Vitaeway of life
Benedictine Oblates of The World Community for Christian Meditation
2
more wisely than her brother, respond as much as men,
with certain adaptations, to the psychological wisdom of
the Rule. The point of the military symbol is not the use of
force but solidarity, obedience and good management on a
collective mission. The short Rule was probably composed
over many years and seems to have a second ending
attached. Most of the material is lifted directly from the
Rule of the Master one of the many other contemporary
monastic rules. Pope Gregory, with Roman centralising
efficiency, selected Benedict’s for use throughout the
western church.
Benedict’s genius is seen in what he left out of his
original and in the Prologue which is his own. He was aware
that he was forming a softer rule than that of the golden
era. ‘We read that monks should not drink wine at all but
since monks of our day cannot be convinced of this, let
us at least agree to drink moderately.’ This via media and
common sense backed up by a firm but flexible structure
of life and perennially valid principles of time management
made the Rule, after the Bible the most influential text in
European civilisation for a millennium. Abbots and business
leaders still join and turn to it for light on contemporary
social issues. And interestingly the best commentaries on
the Rule may not be written, as is often claimed, in hotel
rooms, but certainly are often composed today by women
and no doubt one day by Oblates.
The Rule is a masterpiece of rationality, modesty
and self-transcendence. In the last, and usually least
commented upon, chapter Benedict calls it a little Rule
for beginners. Those who want to move on to high school
or even graduate school should consult Cassian and the
fathers. So in what ways does this little Rule train those
who seek God and hunger for the contemplative experience
of seeing God and listening to God’s Word? Firstly by
identifying the call itself: ‘is there anyone here who yearns
for life and desires to see God?’.
Quoting psalms and the Wisdom literature as he often
does, Benedict identifies seeking God with the goal of
human life. That life does not cease to be human and
variable once the goal is being pursued. When the ‘first
fervour of conversion’ wears off your brethren no longer
seem saints or even best friends. Stability then is one
of the vows Benedict defines and requires both physical
and mental perseverance. He would have enjoyed the
rabbinical saying ‘you are not obliged to succeed, but you
are not allowed to give up.’ But being Benedict, he knows
that people will, and so gives the monk three strikes before
he is out and not allowed to return.
To balance stability which otherwise becomes static, his
second vow stresses commitment to an ongoing conversion
of life and manners, a form of the endless pursuit of God
in the mystical life described by Gregory of Nyssa. And
obedience—ideally or eventually practised without delay,
spontaneously and from love not out of fear—completes the
triad. Obedience must be practised vertically to the abbot
and horizontally to each other and thus becomes Christ
like. Unlike later religious orders who saw the will of God
in the superior’s commands, Benedict allows the monk an
appeal if he is commanded to do what he finds impossible.
If it fails, he has to do his best to obey and trust in God.
The monastery is the laboratory in which the vows and
the ‘tools of good works’ train the monk for the higher
slopes. If it works well it becomes such a loving and freeing
place that it feels like the summit but this depends on
good management. Firstly time-management, getting the
balance right between physical work, lectio (spiritual
reading) and prayer, which correspond to the human
person’s composition as body, mind and spirit.
The kind of prayer Benedict describes is communal
psalmody and reading – a collective lectio which serves
as preparation for true contemplative prayer. Stress is
the disruption of natural human harmony. Peace is their
working well together. Murmuring (gossip and moaning)
is picked out especially for its corrosive attack on peace.
Organisational management in the Rule shows the Roman
virtues of paternitas and gravitas with not much left (at
least officially) for hilaritas. Overall, the abbot has an
impossible task. He must be able to keep the list of the
tools given out for work each day and constantly adapt
himself to each different temperament. He has the final
word but is himself subject to the Rule and must consult.
It is a wonderful, brief, vivid and humane description of
the Christian lifestyle in which ‘all the members will be
at peace’. Exceptions prove any rule and Benedict makes
many of them, especially for the old, sick and children,
the most vulnerable members of any society. Weaknesses
Benedict: the blessed one ........... 1
Editorial ................................ 3
Salt, light and yeast .................. 4
The only thing required .............. 5
Marriage & monastic oblation ....... 6
The hidden depth of the rule ....... 8
News from New Zealand ............10
An old symbol; Sydney oblate cell;
Christchurch ..........................11
The journey inward ..................12
Preparing for birth; Ash Temple ...13
Book corner ...........................14
2012 events; Contact info ..........16
CONTENTS
3
EDITORIALof body and character are treated with patience – a
rare feature in most spiritual doctrines. Yet there is a
single-mindedness (‘prefer nothing whatever to the love
of Christ’) that never turns moderation to compromise.
Focusing on the mundane as he does, Benedict achieves
something astounding. We see God reflected in the ordinary
– Christ dancing in a thousand places. And yet this, he
insists, is still the spiritual kindergarten, just the beginning.
with much love
LaurenceThis article originally appeared on www.wccm.org
‘Weekly Teachings’ 20/11/2011
Hope blooms as hopes die. Hopes are veiled desiresor fantasies which we use as substitutes for reality
or as defenses against disappointments and sufferings.Often we have to tremble on the brink of despair
and the evacuation of desirebefore discovering the meaning of hope.
Before we get to that brink we start clutching at false hopes. The John the Baptists of our lives
–those who alone give authentic consolation– are not harbingers of doom but preachers of reality.
But at the graced moment of emptiness we are visited by hope that enlightens us about the meaning of the process
we are passing through.Even if we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel
yet we know–with a kind of night-vision–that we are on the way and even the feeling of failure
or of being forgotten are part of the processthat will flower in the light of love.
LAURENCE FREEMAN(from Advent Reflection Week 2:
http://www.wccm.org/category/category/advent)
V. May the word of Christ flourish among you,R. As you guide each other from the fullness of wisdom.
Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary p. 949
These words touch me each time I pray them, as they speak to me of the meaning of our oblate community.
They encourage fidelity, perseverance and internal fortitude among other virtues. The ‘word of Christ’ can be understood as our mantra when meditating and as the word or phrase that touches us during Lectio Divina. Being faithful to these spiritual practices along with the Rule of St Benedict enables us to guide each other in a manner that is different from the world’s way.
Mentoring is a firmly established Benedictine practice
and noted in RB Ch. 58:6: “A senior chosen for his skill in
winning souls should be appointed to look after them with
careful attention”. However, we don’t use the word ‘senior’
as that implies a hierarchy that does not exist in our oblate
community. It is worth noting that elsewhere St Benedict
calls the whole community together knowing full well that
“the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger”. Two
different situations but relevant with regard to mentoring. Co-ordinators have written to me of the reluctance in
their oblate communities from those who have made their Final Oblation, to be involved in the ministry of mentoring. Mentoring is a most appropriate way for the oblate to continue his/her own formation that does not cease at Final Oblation. Speaking from my own experience, to mentor another as they discern God’s will regarding oblation is a gift to be cherished. To quote St Francis: “It is in giving that we receive”. To assist those new to mentoring, there are written ‘Guidelines for Mentors’ as well as supervision. Becoming an oblate within our monastery without walls is not a private affair, but grounded in all aspects of community. Being open to the promptings of the Spirit, “The will of God will never call you to where the grace of God cannot keep you”.
We welcome Mary Robison who became the oblate Co-ordinator of the USA in September. We wish Mary every blessing as she steps into this role, and endeavours to acquaint herself with the U S oblate community. This will take time. Mary’s email address is on the back page for those who would like to welcome Mary.
We bid farewell to Bob Kasarda who accepted the role of US Oblate Co-ordinator when Greg Ryan resigned in July 2010. We are grateful to Bob for his generosity of time and energy in getting to know and work with the oblate community, but understand the needs of his other commitments. We wish Bob every blessing and as with his predecessor hope to hear from him from time to time.
May the blessing of peace and the peace of blessings surround you, your family and friends during the Christmas Season and remain with you during 2012.
With love and prayerTRISH
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You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste,with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anythingbut to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. …
You are the light of the world.A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;it is set on a lamp stand, where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. … The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixedwith three measures of wheat flouruntil the whole batch was leavened.
As oblates, we share the privilege of service; not only to
our own community but also to the world at large and
in this relatively secular age we have many opportunities
to honour the commitment that my wife Patricia and I
made at our Final Oblation. “The three basic vows of
the Benedictine Rule are principles of life to which the
oblate makes a commitment of heart and mind – Stability,
Obedience, Conversion. These general principles are lived
out in personal ways. There are, however some particular
elements of the oblate commitment which also highlight its
meaning. In the context of this reflection: Sharing in some
way in the work of the community to pass on the Christian
tradition of meditation.”1 This particular element speaks
clearly to the work Patricia and I are involved in. This
service is never a burden - we both continue to be amazed
and humbled at the way in which the saying “in giving we
receive” manifests itself in everything we do.
During the past few months we have begun to realise
1 Freeman, Laurence: Monastics in the World, http://www.wccm.org/content/monastics-world
how much we can learn from meditating with children
and as we approach Christmas it’s particularly interesting
to recognise how we can savour the new “salt light and
yeast” that comes to us from the children’s childlike
understanding of the infant Jesus.
Unfortunately many children get very little in the way
of a solid grounding in Christianity from their families but
interestingly one of the priests who attended a recent “in-
service training day” put forward the view that one of the
main sources of evangelisation in the future may well be
directly from the children.
One way that this can begin to happen is if we recognise
the huge benefit and impact of Christian meditation on the
“precious lives” we have been entrusted within our schools.
We have been amazed and delighted at the way in which
teachers have recognised and grasped this opportunity in
beginning to implement this beautiful prayer of the heart
in the schools where they work. In an age where religious
instruction has sometimes been relegated to a simple
mugging up of facts from the Bible in order to regurgitate
those facts in an exam, there comments are truly “salt and
light”:
“It feels like this is life transforming”
“This will have a huge impact on our children’s
behaviour”
“It’s what I’ve been looking for”
“I like the emphasis on prayer – not just a de-stressing
technique”
We know that by encouraging our children to enter their
“inner room” or “heart room” they can not only get to
know themselves better but also get to know God better at
a personal level and this is a gift that they take with them
for the rest of their lives.
We are helping them to make their religion a living
reality by helping them to practise those Christian values
they learn in their own lives in such a way that they
naturally share true Christian love with those around
them. In other words, they become a light in a relatively
secular and dark world and spread that light in a loving and
persuasive way.
People often think that the art of persuasion is
dependent on well chosen words delivered in cleverly
constructed phrases, but we are becoming increasingly
convinced that the deep silence of meditation is infinitely
more powerful. This seems doubly impressive when so many
people actually fear the absence of noise and rush to fill
that so-called deathly silence, with the bombardment of
noise from the radio, television or iPod.
By contrast, notice how small children really enjoy
quietly looking around their environment in pure
SALT, LIGHT AND YEAST
5
amazement – silently absorbing the wonders of nature
around them and noticing things that we, as adults, may
become so accustomed to that we pass by on the other
side.
Nowhere is this enjoyment of “being” rather than
“doing” more evident than in the gentle silence of Christian
meditation where the apparently ordinary experience of
sitting quietly in our own “inner room” is shot through
with the extraordinary experience of enjoying some real
value-time with our Creator. One is even tempted to
wonder whether Jesus actually taught Mary to ponder all
those things in her heart. And, at what stage, did Jesus
learn to enjoy the benefits of going to the hills to pray all
by himself? Certainly children seem to enjoy the discipline
of meditation and are able to share with others really
easily. So much so that many of the children who learn to
meditate in school, also begin to meditate at home, and
often teach it to their parents.
The hunger for silence seems particularly universal among
the schools we have visited and may well be the “yeast”
that both children and teachers are searching for. We need
to lighten the daily drudgery of the secular concentration
on targets, to-do lists and exams.
If we can spread this belief in “living silence” – rather
than “deathly silence” then it may well be a source of
evangelisation in our schools and families and bring a new
meaning to the “risen” Christ in all our lives.
If you would like to find out more, please contact:
CHARLES and PATRICIA POSNETT UK Special Coordinators, Christian Meditation with Children
The reception of Teresa Decker as an Oblate Novice, with other oblates who participated in the International School Retreat, Fara Sabina, Italy, 3-9 September. Teresa is the only meditator in Uruguay discerning a call to the oblate way of life. Front row L-R: Kath Houston,
Australia; Angela Gregson, UK; Mary Robison, USA; Christiane Floyd, Germany; Giovanni Foffano, Italy. Back row L-R: Mario Bossu, Italy; Fr Laurence; Teresa Decker, Uruguay; Kim Nataraja, UK; Giovanni Felicioni, UK; Stefan Reynolds, UK.
THE ONLY THING REQUIREDFrom a letter to the Canadian Oblate Community, 6 August 2011
My dear Sisters and Brothers of St Benedict,
Being an oblate of St Benedict is an affirmation of one’s
solitary, monastic self. The self in whose depths the
Prayer of Christ rises ceaselessly. We must, as scripture
says, be always in the state of prayer. Do not shout from
the roof-tops, but go into the quiet room. …
The longer I meditate, the stronger this inclination
becomes – to be monk, alone – yet not alone. We are, all of
us oblates, are monks. Father John often said that tonsure
and habit, even a monastery, does not a monk make.
We are, each of us, responsible for the discipline of our
life of prayer, which is nothing less than the communion of
our Spirit – lost (and found) in the spirit of Christ.
Our primary responsibility is to live out of this profound
Reality – as we promised when we took that leap of faith
into the Unknowing. And we must take it again and yet
again, each time, surprised that we are always caught.
Therefore, whatever life may throw on one, I hope to meet
with confidence, because I know that I am loved.
So let us be very very serious about our fidelity to the
mantra, to meditation. Father John’s talks, those Monday
and Tuesday night talks, so thoroughly prepared and
given with so much love, passion and urgency. They were
meant for you and me. This is where the teaching is. If the
teaching of Christian meditation is to survive in its absolute
simplicity for future seekers – validate it in your own
experience, listen to Father John. Let us be more mature
and confident as we stretch out our hand to one another.
As far as praying goes, the bottom line is that we are
One, in and with, the Prayer of Christ, always. Is this
enough? The only thing required of me is that I stay
faithful.
POLLY SCHOFIELD, Canadian Oblate [email protected]
6
Are you still reading that book?” My fiancé asked me
after she had seen ‘The Rule of St Benedict’ travel with
me on various journeys. I had to try to explain to her that it
was one of those books which one never finishes. I became
an Oblate in 1996. Last year I got married. Two forms of
vows; different, but compatible. Surely the criteria of the
call is similar: ‘Is there anyone here who yearns for life and
desires to see good days?’ (Ps. 34.13). The married Oblate
is also a coenobite; he/she lives in a community. I have a
few reflections.
1) Before I was married, in my bachelor days, I was
free to do what I liked with my
holidays and when I came back
from work. In that sense every
bachelor is a sarabite: ‘Their Law
is what they like to do, whatever
strikes their fancy’ (Rule Ch.1).
To be married is ‘to love not our
own will, nor take pleasure in the
satisfaction of our desires’ (2nd
Step of Humility, Ch. 7). One has
to take into consideration what
the partner wants. My wife does
not fancy a holiday in an Ashram
in India.
2) In that sense to be married
is to be under obedience. I have
to listen to my wife. It is not just
me anymore. ‘Constraint wins a
crown’, as St Benedict reminds.
That crown is the ability to live
beyond my ego and its desires;
being able to live with others. My
wife is Christ to me, in that sense
she is also my Abbot.
3) If the root of obedience is to listen and respond, that
is key to marriage. If I am asked to do something (“Can
you hoover the house/ take the dog for a walk/answer the
door, etc.”) - unless I have some real reason why I can’t -
then why not assume that this is what I am called to do. So
I try to respond promptly. I don’t quite match those who
‘immediately put aside their own concerns, abandon their
own will, and lay down whatever they have in hand, leaving
it unfinished’ (Ch. 5). At least I should not annoy my wife
by leaving undone, or postponing without reason, what has
been asked.
4) “Let’s go to Venice for our summer holiday!” In this I
have to be like the monastic cellarer: ‘If anyone happens
MARRIAGE AND MONASTIC OBLATIONTwelve Steps of Humility
to make an unreasonable demand, the cellarer should not
reject that person with disdain and cause distress, but
reasonably and humbly deny the improper request’ (Ch.
31).
5) I don’t have children yet but reading the qualities
needed for an Abbess or Abbot I get some idea of the
demands of parenting: ‘They must know what a difficult
and demanding burden they have undertaken: directing
souls and serving a variety of temperaments, coaxing,
reproving, and encouraging them as appropriate’ (Ch. 2).
And change nappies!
6) What about the teaching
on silence (Ch. 6)? Well, in my
experience, it doesn’t work in
marriage. However ‘Speaking
and teaching are the teacher’s
task; the disciple is to be silent
and listen’. In my experience
marriage and teaching do not
go together. My wife does not
want to listen to my theological
opinions at breakfast or at any
time. I have to climb down
off my retreat-giving pedestal
before I am ready for an
evening cuddle. There are no
Zen Masters in the bedroom.
For me silence is the silence of
heavy opinions.
7) What about sex? In
marriage is to ‘love chastity’
(Ch. 4) really a tool for good?
‘Do not gratify the promptings
of the flesh’. Well, it plays
more of a role in marriage than just getting children.
Maybe the rule has taught me a little that sex is more
about giving than begetting. Sex may be part of that ‘good
zeal’ which Benedict sees as ‘fostering fervent love’ (Ch.
72): ‘No monastics are to pursue what they judge better
for themselves, but instead, what they judge better for
someone else’. It gives meaning to Benedict’s injunction to
remove one’s knives before going to bed! (Ch. 22) In sex we
are all vulnerable and joyful, it is not a place for power or
moralising.
8) Getting married normally (and certainly in my case)
goes hand in hand with becoming a householder. Setting
up house has its demands. For an academic like me I am
reminded that in manual work (cleaning, shopping, cooking,
7
gardening, DIY) we are living like real monastics (Ch. 48).
Cooking for one another, according to the rule, is a way
of ‘fostering love’ (Ch. 35). ‘Consequently no members
(husband or wife) should be excused from kitchen service’.
For me ‘toiling faithfully’ in the house and its life and
stability in the marriage is the ‘workshop’ where love
flowers (Ch. 4).
9) I certainly give more dinner parties than I used to.
With house and home, especially in the country, hospitality
plays a new role. ‘All guests who present themselves are to
be welcomed as Christ’ (Ch. 53). Though my wife does not
meditate in a formal sense, we share the same faith. For
me this is nowhere more clear than in trying to ‘show every
kindness’ to our guests. In welcoming them we welcome
more than them and realise that our home is more than our
home: ‘God, we have received your mercy in the midst of
your temple’ (Ps. 48:10)
10) Before getting married I reflected on Benedict’s
‘Procedure for Receiving Members’ (Ch. 58) as parallel to
the commitment of marriage. As Benedict says it is not to
be taken too lightly. Dating is a sort of postulancy (though
a bit more fun!). Engagement is a sort of novitiate even,
in Benedict’s view involving moving in to see whether
things really work. Then we get our ‘marriage preparation’
meetings where we were told ‘all the hardships and
difficulties that will lead to God’ on this path. Then the
vows: ‘For better and for worse, for richer and for poorer,
in sickness and in health, till death do us part.’ Or as
Benedict puts it: ‘They must be well aware that, as the law
of the rule establishes, from this day they are no longer
free to leave the monastery, or shake from their neck the
yoke of the rule which, in the course of so long a period of
reflection, they were free either to reject or accept.’
11) Marriage is a sharing. In the house things are no
longer labelled ‘yours’ or ‘mine’. Even our bodies belong
to each other. Benedict’s description of profession fits the
self-giving of marriage; ‘without keeping back a single thing
for themselves, well aware that from that day they will not
have even their own body at their disposal’ (Ch. 58).
12) Marriage is an enclosure; ‘faithfully observing God’s
teaching’ we are ‘in the monastery until death’ where ‘we
shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ
that we may also share in the eternal presence’ (end of
Prologue). Commitment. Patience. Monogamy. Monotony.
But also depth. Deepening love. Unconditional love.
Unending love. As Leonard Cohen puts it: ‘The bed is kina
narrow, but my arms are open wide, and here’s a man still
working for your smile’ (from the song ‘I tried to leave
you’).
Twelve steps of humility. I am sure those who have been
married longer than me will have more experience. I would
do better ‘to be silent and to listen’ (Ch. 6). Still Benedict
wrote his rule so that ‘by observing it in monasteries, we
can show that we have some degree of virtue and the
beginnings of monastic life’ (Ch. 73). In the monastery of
marriage I am still a junior. I have many venerable elders
under this profession for whom I rise and offer them a seat
(Ch. 63). I ask for their blessing. But my wife is my Abbot
and Prioress. Her orders take precedence (Ch. 71).
I have recently taken up, with my morning and evening
meditation, chanting the Office to myself. “Go into the
garden if you are going to make that racket”. I obey,
and have built myself a little garden Oratory. ‘Nothing
else is done or stored there’, I am not ‘disturbed by the
insensitivity of another (!)’ and if I ‘do not pray in a loud
voice’ then I figure ‘I will not interfere with anyone else’
(Ch. 52). The moral of the story is that we should all ‘walk
according to another’s decisions and directions, choosing
to live in monasteries and to have a prioress or abbot over
them’ (Ch. 5). Or as they said in the sixties: ‘Make love not
war’.STEFAN REYNOLDS, UK
We cannot love or serve others seriouslywithout discipline.
We cannot be free without learning discipline.A spiritual practice followed as a discipline
raises consciousness beyond the ego level of perception and awakens a new way of seeing.
It helps us to see the fruits of the practice in a new way and this gives access to a level of energy
beyond what even the biggest orbest-directed ego can imagine.
It is the non-coercive power of the Spiritwhich the ego’s desire for control and domination
can never achieve.
LAURENCE FREEMAN First Sight: The Experience of Faith, p. 62.
8
One of the most amazing experiences we had lately in
our daily practice was an incredible feeling of depth of
the Rule, gradually unfolding and becoming accessible to
perception.
It’s like the spiritual experience as a whole - at the
very beginning we learn about the many spiritual realities
logically (the existing of the Divine Reality outside and
inside us, the basic laws of cause and effect, the path of
spiritual growth), and it can be supported by some mystical
feeling, growing within us. But at the beginning we cannot
really feel all the beauty and grandeur of these things (and
in our early spiritual experience it was just like this), - that
is why we can accept and honor them mostly mentally, at
the level of concept. Then at a certain point we begin to
experience the true depth of the reality to which we have
started to go at the beginning, relying on the wisdom and
discipline.
Beginning the every day’s reading of the Rule, each of us
felt the aspiration and sympathy for this ancient text. But
major portion of this sympathy surely was based on logic,
and at the beginning we faced the interesting feeling.
The Rule for us was like the nut, inside which something
important is hidden, but it’s under protection of the
nutshell, or, it’s better to say, the protective fence. The
discipline of daily meditation and reading obviously is the
way of action which can lead us to the very heart of the
Rule. However, we felt that moving to the centre of the
Rule is related to success in moving to our own hearts - to
the inner peace and concentration. It is very difficult for
modern people, who live in a huge flow of information
and who are replete with this information, to feel the
spiritual importance of the such simple and practical texts
as the Rule. Many people, including us, are accustomed
to “understand” any book at once, at the moment of
THE HIDDEN DEPTH OF THE RULE
opening and without any efforts. But the Rule is similar to
meditation - the outward simplicity, which opens its doors
only when some work was done, which involved all three
components of each person - body, mind and spirit.
So, the Rule, seen by us at the beginning as something
uncompromising simple and severe, begins to disclose its
depth step by step. Constancy, humility in silence of body
and mind, calmness and discipline - all the things we’re
trying hard every day to make them the axis of our life - all
these things make our vision sharper. And only then we can
see that there is something that the Rule says, not literally
in the words and terms, but only in experience, which we
can get in its simple and practical chapters.
Chapter 20: Reverence in Prayer
This chapter is one of the most short in the Rule, and
maybe it’s very important. In our view St Benedict tries
to express the most important things with the maximal
brevity, helping the disciple to find the most concise
way to the logical silence of pure experience. We find
in our daily meditation the humility and the reverence,
referred to as the essence of the act of prayer. The more
we are faced with a difficult but rewarding experience of
meditation as a discipline (rather than as a hobby, which
can be postponed for a day or two), the more we realise
that the daily concentration and peace are the greatest
possible reverence and humility before existence. When we
put off at certain times of the day all that we have - our
work, thoughts, desires, memory and identity - we start at
100% to participate in something that is and that is offered
to our attention initially. The result of our daily practice
(as in our own experience, so in the experience of most
meditators) is something that St Benedict understands as
the best sacrifice for God - the purity of heart and sincerity,
Maria and Albert Zakharovi, Ukraine,with Fr Laurence following their Final Oblation in Poland
19 October 2011
Maks Kapalski, Poland; Maria and Albert Zakharovi, Ukraine;with Fr Laurence following their Final Oblation in Poland
19 October 2011
9
the absence of bifurcation. Maybe, we can compare it with
something that Buddhists call the “suchness” (tathata).
Acting every day according to our oblate discipline, we
begin to open ourselves more and more - and sometimes it’s
the discovery of something not best in ourselves (such as
irritability, or laziness, or weakness). But accepting it and
moving on through the path of discipline and concentration,
we understand that it’s the only way to live in the presence
of God’s attention, not rejecting it, making it the witness
of every moment of life.
Brevity of our mantra and the simplicity of what we
should do every time, help us to remove the self-ego. It
brings us the tremendous freedom that allows us to accept
all the components of every day’s life, which manifests the
Divine presence - as the difficulty of compliance with the
schedule of the day, and also, for example, the beauty of
the sunset observed by us after the evening meditation.
Such an experience we felt in the recent weeks of our
practice, and these reflections on the Rule became for us a
special expression of our own inner feelings.
ALBERT and MARIA ZAKHAROVI, [email protected]
Handoyo Gazali being received as an Oblate Novice by Fr Laurence. The ceremony was held at the conclusion of the Indonesian National Conference held during Fr Laurence’s visit to Indonesia 30 November-5 December. Handoyo is the first of two Indonesian meditators discerning their call to the Benedictine oblate path.
There is nothing more sought after
and desired in our time
than the gift of peace – interior peace and world peace.
Interior peace is the gift of a heart
that knows the experience of Divine Love.
When we are no longer afraid,
no longer caught in the guilt and anxiety
that block our experience of love,
we know peace.
Taynã Malaspina Bonifácio being received as an oblate noviceby Fr Laurence at São Paulo, Brazil in November
When the rhythm of the twice-daily meditationbecomes part of the fabric of our being,
entirely natural and so always renewed and renewing,then our life is being transformed from the centre outwards.
Then we are learning to seeeven the appearances of our ordinary life, work, relationships,
with the vision of love.The Christian is called to see all reality
with the eyes of Christ.
JOHN MAINThe Present Christ
Peace is the result of handing over
our very lives to the Divine Other,
knowing that Divine Love is completely trustworthy
and that all we need will be provided–
that there is nothing to fear.
Because it is indigenous to human nature
to extend what is known in its own heart,
the experience of interior peace
that we now know is extended in our world.
We become peacemakers.
EILEEN O’HEA Woman: Her Intuition of Otherness, p62
10
Our New Zealand oblate community came together for
our annual contemplative time of reflection at “The
Home of Compassion”, Island Bay in Wellington on 14-16
November. Thirteen of the seventeen NZ Oblates attended.
Included in our group were four postulants who had
discerned with their mentors their readiness to take the
next step and were received as oblate novices. Three
were from Christchurch, the city that has seen so much
instability from earthquakes this past year. So it was with
great warmth and enthusiasm that we welcomed Margaret
Moore, Sally Dunford and Margaret Nouwens. Jane Hole has
been their mentor and will continue during their novitiate.
Our fourth postulant, Ruth Kinilau is from Rotorua in the
North Island, her home town being famous for hot pools
and boiling mud areas, and our welcome to Ruth was just as
warm. Ruth has the continuing support of her mentor, Stan
Martin.
It was fitting therefore that the conferences over the
three days we were together would centre on the precepts
of Stability, Obedience and Conversion and what they mean
especially during the time of novice formation.
Stan Martin in leading the reflection on Stability
introduced the paradox that Stability, in Benedictine
spirituality, implies, of necessity, change. We are required
to advance in perfection, ever striving daily to come closer
to the presence of God in our ordinary lives. Our stability is
grounded in fidelity to the community while we move each
day to a growing awareness of the Spirit.
Front: Sally Dunford, Margaret Murphy, Jane Lys, Jane Hole, Stan Martin; Centre: Paddy Walker (partially obscured)
Ruth Kinilau, Janet Price; Back: Elizabeth Isichei,Hugh McLaughlin, Barbara Welsh, Margaret Nouwens, Ross Miller
Jane Hole, in her presentation on Obedience, mentioned
the difficulty of moving from our idea of obedience
as a child (“doing things I didn’t want to do”), to the
Benedictine aspect of obedience. “Benedict calls a
community to obedience, but he does not call it to
servitude.”1 We are called to listen and in the listening to
learn to respond to the call of the Spirit.
And then we become distracted
And God’s love calls us to return
We listen and return
And we become distracted again
And comes the call of love again
We listen and we return
… And so on
… And so it is and so it will be
Ross Miller offered the third thread of Conversion. Both
Hebrew and Christian faith, he said, understand Conversion
as a process in which a person “returns“ as in the parable
of the prodigal son and changes by the grace that is always
offered. It is not so much we are great sinners. It is more
that we are daily re-encountering love and grace, as sitting
still and silent, we become entirely open to God.
Another thought he presented was our expectation and
consent to changes in our life. The surprise often is that the
changes are not necessarily where we expected them to be.
For an oblate each day is new. Each morning brings our
return to Jesus. Both in the Hebrew and Greek of our
scriptures the word conversion comes from the verbal root
to return to where we belong.
HUGH MCLAUGHLIN, Oblate Co-ordinator, New [email protected]
1 Chittister, Joan: The Rule of St Benedict: Insights for the Ages, Crossroads, New York, 1993.
NEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND
Our relationship with the Divine Other
will always move us to relationships with others
in a life of love and service.
Since our prayer leads us into Christ’s own consciousness,
our life will pattern
of what was most characteristic of Jesus’ life,
a life of relationship and service
to the Other and all others.
Like Jesus, our life will grow
in its expression of the inseparableness
of love of God and love of neighbor
as we allow ourselves to be drawn
more deeply into intimate relationship
with the Divine Other.
EILEEN O’HEAWoman: Her Intuition of Otherness, p. 63
11
AN OLD SYMBOL
Put a steadfast spirit within me. O God … Indeed you love truth in the heart;
Then in the secret of my heart teach me wisdom.
Psalm 51, Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary, p. 1106
Lying sick in bed last week, I doodled with a pencil
trying to map the journey of my soul that has brought
me to this day. The many strands weaving in and out,
from baptism in the Presbyterian tradition, to coming
seven decades later as a Catholic to seek entrance into a
contemplative Benedictine community began to resemble
one of our Canterbury shingle rivers seen from the air,
with many tributaries coming and going. Gradually, more
recently, the many strands entering and leaving have
seemed to come together as one steady single flow that
knows its way to the sea. The Waimakariri river, always a
potent symbol for my family, now carries this new meaning
for me as it makes its way from narrow rock-confined
mountain gorge, through wide meandering plains to
eventually form a single coherent flow, ocean bound.
This present river comprises the weaving together of
many years of spiritual direction under the searching eye
of a Jungian analyst, the start/stop/start again movement
of various meditation practices, and a gradual giving in to
the soul’s desire for the depth and mystery of the Catholic
faith.
The difficulties of the last two years—learning to be
a widow, breaking bones and the on-going stress of
co-existing with Ruamoko, the earthquake god, have
been a thorough testing ground for my first steps on
the Benedictine oblate path. I have found a strong and
dependable firm base from which to push off, and a wealth
of inspiring people and writings to energise the way ahead.
I haven’t found it to be an easy path, but in submitting to
its rule I’ve been finding the rewards: a firm structure that
contains my scattered, excitable and often undisciplined
nature; a cooling influence to my tendency to be hot-
headed, and a joyful sense of being caught up and held in a
world-wide fraternity that plugs gaps of loss and change.
SALLY DUNFORD, NEW ZEALAND;[email protected]
SYDNEY OBLATE CELL
From 5-11 October, three meditators from Argentina—
Marina, Isabel and Martha—visited our Sydney
meditation and oblate community. At this time, Marina
Müller was preparing to make her Final Oblation during Fr
Laurence’s visit to Latin America, 1-20 November. Marina
was the instigator of this visit that evolved out of the close
connection Marina had with her mentor over the years.
The purpose of their visit was to learn about the
Australian experience of teaching the teachers to introduce
Christian meditation to children, and to generally exchange
ideas regarding our respective meditation communities.
During the Sydney visit our October oblate cell day had
been planned, and they participated wholeheartedly in
every aspect of that day.
Over the six days our time together was very much Ora et
Labora (prayer and work), but also included an element of
‘play’, as they relaxed and enjoyed the generous hospitality
of two oblate families in particular, who ensured they
were taken out to dine and visited places of international
interest around Sydney.
From Sydney our visitors travelled to Townsville, to learn
firsthand from Ernie Christie and Kathy Day about their
experience of the teaching Christian meditation to children
in all the schools of the Townsville Diocese. Another very
positive and delightful experience for all. TRISH PANTON
SYDNEY OBLATE CELL DAY, 8 OCTOBERFront L -R: Janet Sorby, John O’Neill, Trish Panton, Isabel Arcapalo. Back L-R: Ann Bergman, George Bryan, Judi Taylor, Penny Sturrock, Marina Müller, Martha Miglietta, Paul Taylor, David Chauncy.
CHRISTCHURCHGetting back on its feet
I suppose you'd have to say that being in the city of Christchurch is inexpressibly sad (in the damage to homes and lives)and inexpressibly wonderful (in the strong instinct of people to be together,
and the ingenuity, courage, humour and energy being poured into getting our city back on its feet).I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
JANE HOLE, NEW ZEALAND; [email protected]
12
We hear promises of expansion of life through Christian
Meditation. Expansion of life was definitely nowhere
close to Beaumont, Texas for me as I grew up on the Gulf
Coast south of Houston. All I had ever seen of Beaumont
was I-10 as we made car trips through it to Louisiana,
or the odor-evident petrochemical plants spanning the
horizon, or the local university to which we made quick and
intense band trips for competitions.
But here I was, choosing to spend most of my precious
Labor Day weekend at a retreat center with a Beaumont
address. Bottom line: Great decision!
I made it in faith, and once again the Holy Spirit took me
to ordinary places with ordinary people to witness subtle
transformation. I know to wait for it - but it never fails to
surprise and to touch me.
Our excellent retreat leader Gene worked with our
excellent retreat center hosts Michael OSB and Peter OSB to
create a respite, carved as it were out of our usual busy-
ness in the “real” world.
They used rhythms of both sitting and walking meditation
periods, multiple and throughout the waking hours;
didactics with discussion carefully inserted into our
overall silence; and frequent brief personal time periods
encouraging the traditional balance of work, study, and
prayer.
They created a strong sense of our being safe and cared
for through hospitality in the Benedictine tradition - the
meeting of Christ in the stranger. All three leaders provided
spiritual mentorship and guidance, formally and informally.
Gene’s didactic sessions were based on the sharing
of wisdom in the Christian meditation tradition with its
history, Christian foundations, and fruits. He skillfully led
the way in encouraging some of us to start our discipline
and others of us to maintain one. We all took part in
nurturing new meditators and empowering them to share
their new practice in their home communities.
Our whole group participated with Michael and Peter as
they pursued their regular worship practices of the Daily
Office.
Our location in the southern reaches of the East Texas
Piney Woods (who knew they went that far into Beaumont?)
steeped us in quietness and the healing presence of nature.
I began to experience a restoration through these
rhythms, returning to a physical and emotional balance
away from my usual over-busy life. My willingness to be
kind to myself was tested and won out through luxuries
of naps and solitary walks during hours usually invested
in other things. I found myself re-setting daily patterns.
By the time I left I felt a renewed ability to start my day
THE JOURNEY INWARDREFLECTIONS ON A SILENT RETREAT
earlier with a more natural period of Christian Meditation
as the day was breaking. Such peace! Such inner beauty!
It was not until after I had departed on the last day that I
realized how internally quiet I had become and how long it
had taken to get that way (literally on the 3rd day). Driving
back into Houston, I felt like I was being rudely jostled back
into too much insanity. I didn’t want to avoid life, but I
wanted to walk through it in a different way from everyone
who seemed so un-peaceful.
About that time I realized that I had re-emerged into
the rest of the world with some really good tools, and I
still call them up to serve me. Among the most powerful
are particular memories based on physical sensations I had
while in the Beaumont woods:
Hearing the miraculous meshing of unmatched voices and feeling the energy of breath work as we chanted psalms in the several worship periods of each day;
Realizing I was humming some snatches of tonal chant patterns at other times under my breath;
Smelling moisture in the wind after a so-long period of drought in our area;
Watching raindrops as they dripped across soaked and thirsty vegetation (yes, during that weekend Beaumont was blessed with welcome rain from a tropical storm);
Moving my arms gently to spread a light prayer shawl around my body with sensation of the fabric falling across my knees in the cool air, as I began work of the mantra where we sat in the dimly lit chapel;
Viewing our line of meditative walkers, winding peacefully under covered walkways in a slow and soundless thread of beautiful human diversity;
Being struck by changes in fellow retreatants, remembering when I saw the faces and expressions of the last morning back to how they had appeared on the first evening, and then marveling how even through silence we get to know things about each other.
And I love to think of how a so-small experience of
Beaumont in my previous life has now been lifted and
enlarged. Thanks be to God and to all the helpers of the
Kingdom!LINDA A. SCHMALSTIEG,USA
Faith is the light of consciousness found in the heart.The price of the ticket into the heart is the loss of self.
Meditation is the act of faith that leads uson the journey from the head to the heart.
It is made as it is felt.
It is made in the stillness from which action flows.
LAURENCE FREEMANFirst Sight: The Experience of Faith, p. 69.
13
ASH TEMPLEA pile of asheswhich the windcould blow away
leaving a blackened spot.This remains
of what my ego builtand celebrated many years.
It proudly stoodbefore
like Job,I bowed my will to you,
perceivedaccepted
in my heartthat what you want
from me,had wanted all along,
was loveunconditionalembracing all.
A love which saw the sacredin the eyes of each
respected themworked for their good
becausein loving themI’m loving You
in hurting them,its full of pain to say,
I’m hurting You.
At my ground zeroplace of blackness,out of these ashes
Phoenix-likeYour joy and love
arise within my heartI lift my hands
my heartin gratitude to You
Source of all wisdom
LoveWho came to megave me my sight
persuading mepersistentlybut gently
that Your way is best.Ash Temple
marks the spotwhere what was of no worth
within my heartwas tried by fire.
I am committed now.Each time I find
unworthy thoughtsand ways and deeds
within my lifeI’ll bring them
here.
RON DICKS, [email protected]
My inspiration for this poem came when I was having coffee and saw a van belonging to a dental company which had the name of Ash Temple.
If we really want to know the truly spiritual meaning of Christmas, the celebrations and rituals at home and in
worshipping communities, we have to know with well-prepared and peaceful hearts what it means to enter the space where celebration becomes joyful. This is what the daily pilgrimage of meditation teaches us from within. In that simple and humble journey we discover what it means to make space in our heart. We feel what it means to prepare the heart for the great celebration of life. As we prepare, and as our spiritual materialism and egocentric expectations drop away, it dawns on us that the event we are preparing for precedes us. The great liturgy has already begun in spirit and in truth.
So often we have the experience and miss the meaning. Afterwards we know the hollowness and disappointment at what was merely said or done in external signs that did not connect us with their underlying realities. This is the sad result of being unprepared, of being lost in the superficial. But once we have found true relationship at depth, everything that happens to us is drawn into a meaningful pattern. It is only necessary for us to prepare our hearts and we are prepared for everything.
One reason that Christmas can still mean so much to us spiritually, despite all the materialism and busyness which accompanies it, is that it continues to remind us of our innocence. Often, however, our sense of innocence is romantic rather than Christian. We think of a period of ‘lost innocence’ and are filled with that great enemy of all maturity, sentimentality, and that great enemy of prayer, nostalgia. In any season the spiritual balance and clarity of life can be disturbed by emotional self-indulgence, by the cultivation or indulgence of an image of self. These are the common ways we stifle our sensitivity to truth and our
capacity for empathy with others.
JOHN MAIN
An extract from the letter ‘Preparing for Birth’, included in John Main’s Monastery Without Walls, The Spiritual Letters of John Main, Canterbury Press, Norwich, 2006, pp. 144-145.
PREPARING FOR BIRTH
14
This book is important for Oblates of WCCM because of
its subject, its occasion and its author. As to subject the
first two chapters speak for themselves: ‘The Monastic Ideal
According to John Main’ and ‘The Extension of the Monastic
Ideal to the Laity’ and goes on to look at ‘The Future of
the Contemplative Life in the Church’. He encourages the
growth of small lay communities and meditation groups
drawing from monastic wisdom but independent, recovering
the simplicity of the early church. As to the occasion the
book is an edited transcript of the talks given by Fr Bede
at the 1991 John Main Seminar in New Harmony, Indiana
where, as Fr Laurence explains in his Introduction, WCCM
took “its first form and structure”. If John Main can be
seen as the founding father of WCCM Fr Bede was its God-
father at this moment of naming and orientation. As to the
author Fr Bede was a Benedictine monk who witnessed to a
contemplative meeting, even marriage, of East and West.
In these talks he highlights the influence another monastic
prophet had on his integrative vision. From the beginning
this book is rightly generous in its appreciation of John
Main.
For these reasons it is a book worth returning to many
times and is in many ways a sequel to ‘Monastery Without
Walls’ as a description of how WCCM developed from the
teaching on meditation John Main rediscovered. Fr Bede
was a scholar and a mystic which can be seen in his careful
study of John Main’s teaching. He was also a prophet who
saw the contemplative renewal within the church coming
from the laity. He also saw it as a fruit of the encounter
of the world religions. He draws attention to the fact that
John Main’s recovery of mantra meditation for Christians
came from his study of the monastic tradition of prayer but
also his encounter with an Indian monk witnessing to the
less obscured contemplative wisdom of the East. Fr Bede
sees John Main’s teaching as the fruit of open mindedness
and depth, an integrative vision which actualised in the
practice of meditation is what the world needs so much
today.
There are many gems of wisdom in the book like the
story of Father Jules Monchanin, founder of Fr Bede’s
Ashram in India who, Fr Bede says; “approached a group of
school children and asked them, ‘Where is God?’ The Hindu
children pointed to the heart and said God was there.
The Christians pointed up to the sky.” Fr Bede comments:
“These are two different ways of understanding God and of
course they are complementary; we are all learning today
how to reconcile opposites.” It is this experience of non-
duality that Fr Bede sees at the heart of meditation; God
is in us and we are in God. For the Christian, Fr Bede says,
this integration is lived out in human relationships. Oneness
with God leads to oneness with others. Jesus prayed in the
spirit to his Father; “I in them and you in me, may they be
completely one.” Like John Main, Fr Bede sees the non-
duality of the trinity through analogy to the interpersonal
communion that it makes possible: “I think that love is the
key. In love, there are two, and each has to go beyond the
other. They have to transcend their differences and meet at
the point where they become one.”
Fr Bede and John Main met a couple of times and, as
Fr Laurence says in this introduction to the book, the
fruit of those meetings was a sense of joy and laughter.
Here were two very different people, whose monastic
journeys took them away from England (no prophet is
accepted in their own household?) in opposite directions
and yet they discovered the same thing. As Oblates of The
World Community for Christian Meditation, in all parts of
the world, we are heirs of their wisdom. As a foundation
document ‘New Creation in Christ’ reminds us of our
commitment as Oblates to study John Main’s teaching and
the monastic tradition from which it comes so as to serve
the unity of all. It still challenges us today to try to realise
that vision through the openness and hospitality of our
meditation groups and the community of our Oblate cells.
Alongside the book are the original tapes and CD’s of the
John Main Seminar which are available and bring to life
Fr Bede’s inimitable charm, his humility and his humour.
Either as Audio or as Lectio these are the conferences of a
founding father of a community and vision to which we are
continually recommitted in our daily meditation.
STEFAN REYNOLDS, [email protected]
BOOK CORNERTHE NEW CREATION IN CHRIST, Bede Griffiths
Christian Meditation and Community
It is fitting in this year of celebratingthe 20th Anniversary of
The World Community for Christian Meditationto return to the wisdom and teaching in
‘The New Creation in Christ’
15
The room spun, and I reached a sweaty hand toward the
table in front of me, attempting to steady myself. The
gavel struck. I had expected to hear a deep echo, the echo
you hear in the movies when the judge’s gavel exclaims the
finality of judgment. There was no echo. There was only a
dead thud, muted in the same way as my expectations of a
last-minute miracle.
I was sentenced to twelve years in prison, and with good
behavior I would serve at least ten of those years. I sat in
my cell afterward thinking about what I would do with all
that time, and still somewhat flummoxed that God had
failed to provide a miracle.
But God had provided a miracle, and the miracle was the
decade I would spend in prison.
I was introduced to the Rule of Saint Benedict at the
end of my first year in prison. I fell in love with it almost
immediately, and saw great depth and insight. The parallels
of prison life and monastic life were striking, but as I
learned to live the Rule as best I could under those harsh
circumstances, I was experiencing tremendous personal
growth.
When I was released from prison ten years later, I
continued applying the Rule to my daily life, and found it
to be replete with lessons for personal growth in “normal”
daily life.
“A Way in the Wilderness” is not simply a commentary
on the Rule of Benedict. Rather, it is a guide to using the
Rule to help us through our own wildernesses in life. I draw
from experience in prison and from my own life outside of
prison. I also include basic instructions of daily meditation.
Though some of the content is based on prison experience,
it is intended also for “the rest of us” who live in prisons
of our own constructions. The full text of the Rule is
included and I read several different translations of the
Rule of St Benedict. Each one was useful and helpful, but
I recommend one with a dated daily reading of the Rule to
encourage this good habit.
You may know or work with prisoners who would find a
sympathetic insight to Benedict’s Rule and its application
to prison life. You may be feeling somewhat imprisoned
yourself, perhaps by busy schedules, work, or just by
all that life tends to throw our way. Whatever your
circumstances, I invite you to journey with me. It will not
be a journey of escape, for no growth comes from escapes.
Rather, I have found a path forged by St Benedict, a “way”
to live while we are in our wildernesses. I invite you to join
me on this way in the wilderness.JAMES BISHOP
A WAY IN THE WILDERNESS, James Bishop
I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.Isaiah 43:19
Eileen’s writings capture the distilled wisdom of a woman
who has been seeking God all her life and who had
come to know the God who was also seeking her within her
seeking …
Her last writings possess the clarity, precision, even
terseness of a teacher skilled at her craft. They carry that
sweet pain that truth cuts us with as it slices through old
fixed patterns, melts down comfortable self-deceptions,
and opens us to the wonderful formlessness of the real.
They also have that radical refreshing humility of a genuine
teacher who is in passionate love with the truth, not her
reputation.LAURENCE FREEMAN
MANIFESTING IN FORM, Eileen O’HeaFinal writings and poems 1994-2005
To receive the love of a friend,
husband, wife,
or any person – or even a pet –
is to know the experience of Divine Love.
All is one.
Love of God and love of neighbour
are not separate realities.
EILEEN O’HEAManifesting in Form: Last writings and poems 1994-2005
NATIONAL OBLATE CO-ORDINATORS
USA: Mary Robison, [email protected]
UK: Eileen Dutt, [email protected]
NEW ZEALAND: Hugh McLaughlin, [email protected]
ITALY: Giovanni Foffano, [email protected]
IRELAND: Rowena O’Sullivan, [email protected]
CANADA: Polly Schofield, [email protected]
BRAZIL: Marcelo Melgares, [email protected]
AUSTRALIA and INTERNATIONAL: Trish Panton, [email protected]
VIA VITAE, No. 14, December 2011
EDITOR: Trish Panton PO Box 555 Pennant Hills, NSW Australia 1715 Tel: +61 2 9489 1780 Mobile: +61 409 941 605 Email: [email protected]
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Alexandra Irini, Australia
MONTE OLIVETO RETREAT 9-16 June 2012
The essential nature of the human journey is like
meditation: it cannot be analysed or measured. Ends
and beginnings meet and cycles of growth make for fresh
change and development. But we need a sense of the
journey and its main stages in order to make meaning of
our lives and to endure their dark nights.
The theme of this year’s Monte Oliveto retreat explores
how we can perceive what is happening on the inner
journey and how this can bring us to self-knowledge, true
personal freedom and the confidence to love.
Using traditional imagery such as the Ars Contemplativa
figures at Chartres Cathedral as well as contemporary
psychological insights Fr Laurence’s talks—together with
the unique atmosphere of beauty, peace, silence and
community which have come to characterise the Monte
Oliveto annual retreat—present a special opportunity to
grow in wisdom and peace by understanding what the
journey of our life is and what it means.
Bookings and further info: www.wccm.org
Jamb figure of Abraham, with head turned hearing God's messageNorth Transept Central Portal, Chartres Cathedral
JOHN MAIN SEMINARSPIRITUALITY & ENVIRONMENT
16-19 August 2012INDAIATUBA/SP, BRAZIL
with
LEONARDO BOFF, FREI BETTO OP, LAURENCE FREEMAN OSB
PRE-SEMINAR RETREATBE WHO YOU ARE
Led by Laurence Freeman13-16 August
The Christian understanding of Jesus as the Word made
flesh transforms the way we see our own humanity and
also the natural world we are part of. "Nothing that is not
against nature is against Christ" (Clement of Alexandria)—
this liberating insight has to be more courageously
embraced in our own time so that the mystery of Christ
can become fully transformative. But this is not only a
theological project. It begins—and finds its culmination—
at the deeply personal level of experience. And this is
why meditation inour own tradition is such a blessing and
necessity—it opens us to the mystery of the inner Christ and
to the cosmic Christ simultaneously. Our daily meditation
leads us to self-knowledge and also gives us new words with
which to understand and communicate the Word itself.
Bookings and further info:www.johnmainseminar2012.com
www.wccm.org
The John Main Seminar is an annual event designed
to broaden and deepen the teaching of Christian
Meditation. It brings together meditators from around the
world and those wishing to discover the practice.
THE BOOK OF THE HEARTSTAGES OF CONTEMPLATION
