News from N.S. de la Soledad

The principal purpose of my visit to La Soledad is to meet with fellow North American superiors. We share news of our communities as well as our difficulties, seeing if pooling our experiences can lead to stronger observances in our communities and a more evangelical witness. Tomorrow, we will be discussing whether there is room in our communities for men and women who are more inclined toward work than choir duties. Lay brothers were almost all absorbed into the choir after Vatican II, but there is clearly still some sense that an arrangement of different brothers in different capacities can be fruitful for all involved. We will also discuss the problems of the internet and email. Last year we discussed how to make lectio divina the spiritual center of our personal conversion to Christ.

However, it is always edifying to visit other communities with similar observances and simply watch the community. My brothers back home perhaps shudder when they think about the ideas with which I will return. It reminds me of singing under Bruce Tammen, when he would yearly take a couple of weeks to sing under the great Robert Shaw. He would always come back on fire for choral music…and the choir would tremble!

At recreation the past two evenings, we have had presentations from each superior on the story of the founding of their houses, then presentations by each of the brothers on their call to monastic life. This sort of sharing is very powerful. One quickly realizes, with the rabbi Gamaliel in this morning´s first reading, that if God desires something, then we cannot keep it from coming to be, and if something is not of God, then it will not flourish. Every one of the eight houses represented here (the oldest of which can realistically date its founding to the 1950´s, though most were founded in the 1980´s) has experienced devastating crises but even more significantly, incredible acts of salvation. God provides. What else need we say about the fact that our odd group of monasteries is flourishing? After all, the success of the Early Church was clearly against all odds, were it simply a human phenomenon. Yet here we are 2000 years later, and the gospel is being proclaimed in virtually every language in every corner of the earth. Glory to God in Jesus Christ!

We should bear these facts of our salvation history in mind. So numerous today are the ´prophets of doom´ (to quote Pope John XXIII)! The Church is always changing, of course, because it is a living Body. But change is not comfortable for us many times. We should welcome it in faith. How else can faith and hope grow if we never have to trust God, if everything simply continues according to our own estimates of what is good? Let us ask everyday for the gift of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, so as to allow God to be more and more, to be finally All in All.

Nueva entrada

Greetings to you from El Monasterio de la Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Atotilco, Mexico! I am here visting another one of Christ in the Desert´s dependent houses. It is an absolutely beautiful monastery, though like us new and relatively small. I am quickly learning to piece together the bits of Spanish that I know.

Their history is somewhat like our own. Fr Aelred Wall of Christ in the Desert arrived here first, but eventually two monks, Fr Ezekiel and Fr Fernando, came from an active Benedictine house in Tepeyac. Like our founders, they were seeking a more contemplative life than can typically be found in American religious life today. Fr Aelred died many years ago, but the two founders are still here, and they have managed to accomplish a great deal.

Founding a monastery is not an easy thing. Historian Peter Brown quipped that it is easier to found an empire. I would add the rejoinder that all things are possible for God, easy or not, and if God wants more contemplative monasteries, He will bring it about. But a prerequisite for these foundations to survive is for their founders to be tested. Tiles fired once tend to crack and fall apart, whereas tiles fired many times become hard as granite. A monastery intended to last can´t be propped up by money or projects, but ultimately makes it or fails based on the willingness of the founders and those who follow to be faithful to Christ. The Devil (and I have this on good authority) hates monasteries. So he is especially interested in dissuading (to put it lightly) those who attempt to start new ones. Monastery founders can expect one trial by fire after another, and if they are really saints, possibly to be tossed out by the second or third generation. Such is the pattern given to us by saintly founders since the Resurrection. That´s alright. Christ is our all, wherever we serve Him! So far my brothers haven´t expressed the intention to toss me out.

God´s blessings to you all. I apologize for any accidental accents or ñ symbols. Mexico´s keyboards are slightly different than the ones I am used to.

The Future of Benedictinism

Pressed for time this morning, I am printing a reflection from two years ago that I had never quite finished...

Most places I travel the Benedictine houses are basically healthy and stable. We seem, as a confederation, to be moving toward a median house size which is perhaps between 10-25, and away from a time in which giant houses such as Gethsemane and St. John's were the flagships. While Benedictines generally exude a robust and creative fidelity, vocations tend not to flood in, as one might expect from the opining of certain talking heads who blame the vocations crisis on a flagging of orthodoxy.

The truth is that the monastic life, by the standards of the modern world, is deliberately boring. This is not at all to say that it is without challenges; indeed, the very ordinariness of the life brings daily challenges of fidelity and trust in God's providence. But it is to say that what monks do is a stumbling block to the world. This has always been part of the prophetic function of the withdrawal to the margins that is as fundamental aspect of the monastic commitment. Every generation has its blind spots, and an overemphasis on activity is one of our greatest. Hence, monasteries will not be rewarding places for those out to change the world b y doing good, by spreading the faith and so on. These are noble activities of course, but the enthusiasm that drives them is susceptible to abuse and burnout because of our cultural short-sightedness.

If this is the case, have Benedictines hope for the necessary vocations to continue our institutions? As I hinted above, many important houses continue to shrink, but many more smaller houses seem to be growing, if slightly. Obviously, I believe that faith in God and a willingness to invite people to monastic life means that communities will always be able to find a few willing to take the life on. On the other hand, the tradition is clear that the bias is in favor of turning newcomers away, or at least making them prove themselves. In a fickle world, any initial opposition is liable to turn a candidate's interest toward somone else. But a too-quick acceptance of candidates and a less-than-thorough probing of the novice's motives will allow in many who cannot live the life in its full parameters. Most communities adopt something in between: not making life tough on newcomers and making some allowance for their personal brokenness, hoping to mend it in some measure by monastic formation, and at the same time making the discernment process longer and keeping a certain burden of work always at hand which tends to discourage those unable to make the leap of faith necessary to understanding the 'hard and difficult way' by which we go to God.

Visitation

I am in England right now to assist at two 'canonical visitations'. These visitations are legislated by the Constitutions of the Subiaco Congregation, to which the Monastery of the Holy Cross belongs. During the visitation, the Abbot Visitor (an elected office, presently held by Fr. Anselm Atkinson of Petersham, Mass.) and the co-visitor (presently yours truly) meet with each brother at another monastery of our province. We hear their vision for the monastic life and the particular house they are in, we hear their concerns, and we attempt to draw up a report that will strengthen our brothers in their efforts to follow Christ in the monastery.

The Monastery of the Holy Cross had its visitation this past August. It was an upbuilding time for us, and I hope that I can return the favor by assisting here at St. Michael's and next week at Prinknash Abbey in Gloucester, England.

We have finished the interviews, save for one with a brother whose age and health have made it necessary for him to live outside the cloister with professional assistance. Also a part of the visitation is the reading of the community's Chapter minutes and votes and the financial reports. All of this could sound rather intrusive and controlling. In fact, the visitors have a very limited canonical power; I can say with real assurance that the goal is nothing of the centralizing sort that might be envisioned, say by the Apostolic visitations of American seminaries and Mother Angelica's monastery a few years ago (I don't believe these are meant to be assertive of Roman control, either, though they tend to have more of that feeling, since Rome has more authority than either Abbot Anselm or I). I just finished an hour's visit with the Bursar of St. Michael's, discussing the ins and outs of financing not-for-profit ventures such as ours, including the tricky points of insuring priceless objects (their vestment collection here is eye-popping!) adn how to draw up a realistic balance sheet for public records. With my limits accounting ability, I was actually able to suggest some changes to the reporting scheme they presently have, and he was able to advise me similarly.

There are cases when visitations reveal real abuses and irregularities, but how much better to have friendly advice on a regular schedule than to wait for potential scandal to erupt! It is a real privilege to be a part of this, and a joy to be a part of a monastic confederation that has such helpful tools for building up our common life.

Peace be to you all!