Benedictine Monks Holy Cross Monastery 119 Kilbroney Road Rostrevor Co. Down BT34 3BN Tel: 028 4173 9979 Fax: 028 4173 9978 [email protected] www.benedictinemonks.co.uk

Christmas 2012 (Letter n°40) “He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord. He himself will be peace.” (Mi 5:3-4)

On 24 September, in her home in Rostrevor, Mrs Josephine Nolan, the mother of Fr Mark-Eph- rem, passed away peacefully at the age of 88. Since the end of July, the state of her health had been slowly deteriorating. The first secular oblate of our Monastery (under the name of Sr Benedict), a wo- man of faith and prayer, she was loyal in her support and friendship for our community. On 27 September, we held her funeral in a crowded church, in the presence of our John McAreavey, Bishop Raymond Field, the Auxiliary Bishop of , the deans of the Anglican cathed- rals of Downpatrick and Armagh, and many friends of all denominations. Mrs Nolan is henceforth re- posing beside her husband Ian, in our Monastery’s cemetery.

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At a time when Dr Rowan Williams has recently resigned as , we in- vite you to reflect on a sermon he delivered on 25 December 2004 in Canterbury cathedral.

It used to be said that if you were travelling by ocean liner, the worst thing you could do was to visit the engine room; and I’m afraid it’s a point people make to discourage you from visiting the Vatican or Church House, or even Lambeth Palace... Getting too close to the centre of things (or what people think is the centre of things) can be alarming or disillusioning or both: you really don’t want to know that, people will say; you don’t need to know how things work (or fail to work). Get on with it. And that’s where Christmas is actually a bit strange and potentially worrying. When we’re invited into the stable to see the child, it’s really being invited into the engine room. This is how God works; this is how God is. The entire system of the universe, ‘the fire in the equations’ as someone wonderfully described it, is contained in this small bundle of shivering flesh. God has given himself away so completely that we meet him here in poverty and weak- ness, with no trumpeting splendour, no clouds of glory. This is how he is: he acts by giving away all we might expect to find in him of strength and success as we understand them. The universe lives by a love that refuses to bully us or force us, the love of the cradle and the cross. It ought to shock us to be told year after year that the universe lives by the kind of love that we see in the helpless child and in the dying man on the cross. We have been shown the engine room of the universe; and it ought to worry us – us, who are so obsessed about be- ing safe and being successful, who worry endlessly about being in control, who cannot believe that power could show itself in any other way than the ways we are used to. But this festival tells us exactly what Good Friday and Easter tell us: that God fulfils what he wants to do by emptying himself of his own life, giving away all that he is in love. The gospel reading sets this out in terms that cannot be argued with or surpassed. God is always, from all eternity, pouring out his very being in the person of the Word, the everlasting Son; and the Word, who has received everything from the gift of the Father, and who makes the world alive by giving reality to all creation, makes a gift of himself by becoming human and suffering humiliation and death for our sake. ‘From his fullness we have all received’; Jesus, the word made human flesh and blood, has given us the freedom, the authority, to become God’s children by our trust in him, and so to have a fuller and fuller share in God’s own joy. We live from him and in him. The whole universe exists because God has not held back his love but allowed it to flow without impediment out of his own perfection to make a world that is different from him and then to fill it with love through the gift of his Son. And our life as Christians, our obligations, our morality, do not rest on commands alone, but on the fact that God has given us something of his own life. We are caught up in his giving, in his creative self-sacrifice; true Christian morality is when we can’t help ourselves, can’t stop ourselves pouring out the kind of love that makes others live. Morality, said one prominent modern Greek Orthodox theologian, is not about right and wrong, it’s about reality and unreality, living in Christ or living for yourself. Being good is living in the truth, living a real life, a life that is in touch with ‘the fire in the equations’ and that lets the intense creativity of God through into his world. The goodness of the Christi- an is never a matter of achieving a standard, scoring high marks in a test. It is letting the wonder of God’s love knock sideways your ordinary habits, so that God comes through – the God who achieves his purpose by reckless gift, by the cradle and the cross. When St Paul in his second letter to the church in Corinth insists on the need for gener- osity towards the poor in the church at Jerusalem, he appeals, not to an abstract moral prin- ciple, but to the fact of God becoming human. ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’, he writes, ‘that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich’ (II Cor. 8:9). He doesn’t argue that we must simply reverse the relations, so that those who were poor become rich and those who were rich become poor, but rather for a situation in which everyone has something to contribute to everyone else, everyone has enough liberty to become a giver of life to others. When material poverty is ex- treme, it is difficult to have that dignity – though, miraculously, so many poor people have it; the greatest gift we can give to another is to let them give as freely as they can, so that they can supply what we are hungry for. Love is given so that love may be born and given in re- turn. That is the engine of the universe; that is what we see in the helpless child of Bethle- hem, God so stripped of what we associate with divinity that we can see the divine nature only as God’s act of giving away all that he is. (…) No-one could or would deny that we face exceptional levels of insecurity and serious prob- lems in relation to an unpredictable and widely diffused network of agencies whose goals are slaughter and disruption. (…) We struggle for a secure world; so we should. But what if our only passion is to be protected, and we lose sight of what we positively and concretely want for ourselves and one another, what we want for the human family? We are not going to be living in the truth if we have no passion for the liberty of God’s children, no share in the gen- erosity of God. (…) ‘I have come to cast fire upon the earth’, said Jesus. We may well and rightly feel a touch of fear as we look into this ‘engine room’ – the life so fragile and so indestructible, so joyful and so costly. But this is the life of all things, full of grace and truth, the life of the ever- lasting Word of God; to those who receive him he will give the right, the liberty, to live with his life, and to kindle on earth the flame of his love.

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 On 25 July, we learned that Luce Lamy had died after a long illness. She had been a friend of our community and former president of St John the Baptist’s Circle, founded in 1944 by Cardinal Jean Daniélou and Mother Mary of the Assumption. On 17 November, Br Thierry was in Paris to attend a Eucharist in memory of Luce.  From 29-31 July, Fr Mark-Ephrem took part in the annual chapter of the Protestant community of the sisters of Grandchamp (Switzerland), where he acted as a Catholic adviser.  From 29 July to 10 August, Br Thierry was on a visit to his family in Corsica.  On 7-8 August, we welcomed Bishop , the Anglican (Northern Ireland).  On 4 August, in Belfast, Fr Mark-Ephrem presided at a Eucharist in memory of Fr Ronnie Mitchel.  On 21 August, we learned of the death of Canon Joie (Joseph) O’Hagan, a priest of our diocese aged 101. Fr Mark-Ephrem had been his confessor for several years. On 23 August, he preached during the vigil of prayer, which was organised for the reception of the body in the church. On 24 August, he took part in the funeral in the parish where Canon O’Hagan last served God’s people.  On 21-22 August, a meeting of the editorial board of the review One In Christ was held at the Mon- astery. For this occasion, we welcomed Br John Mayhead (from the Monastery at Turvey, ), John Bolger, the editor of the review, Br Martin Browne (from Glenstal Abbey, Ireland), and Sr Ger- aldine Smyth, a Dominican nun and director of the Irish School of Ecumenics (Dublin).  From 21-27 August, Br Joshua was at the Abbey of Bec in France, where he took part in a session for young monks and nuns of our Benedictine Congregation.  From 24-26 August, Bishop Harold Miller, the Anglican and Dromore (Northern Ireland), was at the Monastery, where he preached at a retreat of ordinands from his diocese and the diocese of Kilmore (Ireland).  On 26 August, we welcomed some sixty members of the European Society for Ecumenical Re- search. The Societas Ecumenica was founded in 1978, and brings together those responsible for ecu- menical studies departments in European universities. Fr Mark-Ephrem spoke to them about the history and ecumenical ministry of our community, and then we prayed the Office of Compline together in church.  On 29 August, Mrs May McAreavey, the mother of our bishop, died in Banbridge. On 31 August, Fr Mark-Ephrem took part in the funeral service.  On 3 September, some fifteen members of the Little Sisters of Jesus (from Scandinavia, England and Ireland), spent the day in the Monastery.  From 6-9 September, Bishop Darren McCartney, the Anglican Auxiliary Bishop of the diocese of the Arctic (Canada), preached at a retreat of ordinands from the diocese of Connor. Bishop Darren was originally from Northern Ireland, and was ordained bishop last June.  From 10-12 September, it was the turn of Archbishop Michael Jackson, Anglican , to preach at the retreat of a group of ordinands from the dioceses of Connor and Dublin.  From 12-17 September, Bishop Leo O’Reilly, the Catholic Bishop of Kilmore (Ireland), was on re- treat in the Monastery.  From 16-21 September, Fr Mark-Ephrem was in Rome for the Congress of Benedictine Abbots and . It is perhaps appropriate to recall that the Benedictine Order is a confederation of 20 Benedict- ine Congregations, at the head of which is an Abbot Primate. Every 4 years, the Abbots and Priors from all the Monasteries gather at the Abbey of St Anselm (Rome) for a Congress, during which they reflect on various questions of relevance to the entire Order. This year the term of office of the Abbot Primate was at an end. On 21 September, on the feast of St Matthew, Dom Notker Wolf was re-elected for a further 4 years.  In June of this year, Archbishop , the Anglican and primate of the , announced that he was going to resign in September. On 21 September, in Armagh cathedral, Br Eric represented the community at the Thanksgiving Service for the ministry of Archbishop Harper.  From 1st-3 October, the 11 Anglican of Ireland met in the Monastery to choose their new Primate and Archbishop of Armagh. Fr Mark-Ephrem addressed the bishops before and after the ap- pointment of the new primate, Archbishop , until then and Kildare (Ire- land).  On 13 October, on the occasion of the opening of the Year of Faith, the diocese of Derry (Northern Ireland) organised a day of reflection for the whole diocese. Fr Mark-Ephrem took part in this day, dur- ing which he gave a talk on Lectio Divina.  On 15 October, Rev Kevin Graham, an Anglican minister in the diocese of Down and Dromore (Northern Ireland), made his profession as a secular oblate of our Monastery.  From 15-20 October, Br Pascal was on retreat.  On 17 October, within the framework of the Year of Faith, Fr Mark-Ephrem was in Ballymena (Northern Ireland), where he gave a talk on the theme of prayer.  From 18 October-12 November, Br Joshua was in Mexico visiting his family.  On 21 October, Fr Mark-Ephrem took part in the installation service of Rev Ruth Patterson (of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland) as Ecumenical Canon in the Anglican cathedral of Belfast.  On 24 October, Fr Mark-Ephrem attended a meeting of a Belfast ecumenical group Anglicans/Meth- odists. He opened the discussion with a reflection on the meaning of Catholic liturgy.  On 26 October, while Fr Mark-Ephrem was at a meeting with the Benedictine sisters of Kylemore (Ireland), Br Eric represented the community at the funeral of Fr Maurice Fearon, the former of the Dominican community in Newry.  From 26-28 October, Bishop Raymond Field, the Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, was on retreat at the Monastery.  On 27 October, Br Eric was in France for the marriage of his niece Florence to Max.  On 5 November, Fr Mark-Ephrem and our Bishop John McAreavey were in Derry for a conference on the use and impact of the internet on members of the clergy.  On 6 November, within the framework of a meeting of priests from the diocese of Armagh (North- ern Ireland), Fr Mark-Ephrem was in Enniskillen, where he had been invited to stimulate reflection on the challenges facing priests today in Ireland.  From 12-16 November, Dom Martin McGee, a Benedictine monk from Worth Abbey (England), was on retreat in the Monastery.  On 13 November, Fr Mark-Ephrem was on a visit to our confrères at the Benedictine Abbey of Eal- ing (England) for a meeting of the Council of the Union of Monastic Superiors of the United Kingdom and Ireland.  From 17 November-1st December, Fr Mark-Ephrem was on a visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Malta for a time of retreat and rest.  On 26 November, we learned of the death of our neighbour Rose Farrell, aged 88 years. She was a faithful participant in our weekday Eucharist. On 27 November, we went to sing the service of Com- pline beside her body. On 29 November, Br Thierry concelebrated the funeral service, which was held in the parish church.  On the evening of 2 December, we opened the season of Advent, by taking part in a Service in the Anglican church of Rostrevor.

 “In order to establish a relationship of peace and com- munion with himself, and in order to bring about fraternal union among men and women, and they sinners, God decided to enter into the history of mankind in a new and definitive manner, by sending his own Son in human flesh.” (2nd Vatican Council, Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, n°3)

 The community of Holy Cross Monas- tery wish you a very Joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2013