SPRING 2017

CONTEMPLATION IN ACTION “The of compassion does not aim at a blind experience of God that is devoted exclusively to one’s own interiority, but to the disruptive experience that occurs when dealing with others, in the dynamics of interpersonal encounters, face to face. This is an experience that is mystical and political at the same time.” ~ Johann Baptist Metz pages 2–7

IN THIS ISSUE 2 Message from the : A Time of Need and Gratitude 2 In Memoriam: Br. Emmanuel Wassinger, OSB Cam 3 Br. Emmanuel: Stories Gathered Along the Way 4 Contemplation in Action 5–6 Subversive Orthodoxy—Robert Inchausti 7–9 Reflections ­­ on a Comtemplative Life in Action 10 Becoming Shelter—Deborah Smith Douglas 11 Spirituality with Open Eyes—Prior­ General Alessandro Barban quoting Johann Baptist Metz 12 World Day of Peace—Fr. Consiglio 13 and Contemplation in Action— Fr. Robert Hale 13 Vita Monastica 14 of the Risen Christ 14 Development 15 Activities and Visitors

62475 Highway 1, , CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com Message From the Prior In Memoriam: Br. Emmanuel A Time of Need and Gratitude Wasinger, OSB Cam

As many of you know by now, the central coast of was walloped by an atmospheric river of rain this winter, which destroyed sections of Highway 1 and badly damaged our own entrance road. Our property is right in the middle of the most fragile part of the coast, and the worst damage to Highway 1, called Paul’s Slide, was just south of our own entry road. So we were totally cut off at several points from all comings and goings. Even now we locals can only leave the coast and reenter during short windows each early morning and evening during shift changes in the construction crews.

This risk of precarious isolation is part of living in a wild remote place like Big Sur and what being “a place apart” entails. It is also part of the special beauty that people love about the Hermitage, and why guests and retreat- ants keep coming back. The community here at the Hermitage, and our loyal staff, have been “holding this space” through the storms and rockslides not just for ourselves but for the sake of our larger circle of friends, oblates, and fellow monastics near and far. These months have actually been a good experi- ence for us. Since we were adequately stocked for fuel and provisions, we rode out the storms and have not minded the extra silence and solitude, with little to keep us from our prayer and meditation. It has also been an Our beloved Emmanuel, age 89, died opportunity to reconnect with our neighbors and bond with new ones, serenely early morning March 6 at the Windsor especially those who were stranded when we were. care facility in Monterey. He had had a heart attack ten days previously and was airlifted to Recent photograph of Paul’s a hospital in Salinas, but he never fully recov- Slide on Highway 1 just ered. He was joyful to the end. below the Hermitage. You can see the roadwork and erosion control required. Richard Wasinger was born October 14, 1927, The Hermitage’s own entry to a German-speaking household on the family road appears in the upper farm near Loretto, Kansas. In his last days he left hand corner of the often spoke dreamily of Kansas and the wheat photo. The Hermitage’s road fields. He became a Benedictine , taking has been itself critically dam- aged, and the photo shows the name Joseph, at Holy Cross , Canon how the active slide (and City, Colorado, making first vows in 1957. He roadwork) continues to be a then followed his , Fr. Joseph jeopardy to the Hermitage’s Diemer, to New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big road as well. Sur in 1965, seeking a more contemplative life. Photo courtesy of Madonna He was always a warm and friendly presence Construction via Caltrans. and was very dedicated to the Eucharist, the Divine office, and also to the and Way However, hospitality is our primary source of income, and not being able of the Cross. He delighted in taking care of our to receive guests for nearly three months has already been a huge financial generators (which provide all our electricity), blow. So like many others here on the coast, we need help getting through maintaining and operating the heavy equip- this season of destruction and reconstruction. They have already begun ment, and keeping our roads clear, as well as the work of rebuilding Highway 1 just below us, only after which we will occasionally planting corn. He is also remem- need to figure out the best way to repair our own road, which we expect bered for having a special kinship with nature, to be an enormous, costly project. You may perhaps have already seen animals, plants, and even the weather. our extra electronic appeal for donations; if you have already responded we are deeply grateful. If you have not, please consider giving now at Despite the slides and road closures, we were www.gofundme.com/newcamaldolirelief so that we can continue to able to bring Br. Emmanuel’s body back and hold this space for everyone. celebrate his funeral and burial on March 17. He is survived by his sister Bernadette and Blessings, thanks, and prayers, brother Edwin, and a nephew, Shane, who is a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. 2 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage contemplation.com ~ 3 “Today oil poured out of the generator and all over the Br. Emmanuel: Stories Gathered floor. In thanksgiving this didn’t happen at 2 a.m.” Along the Way “Help us to see the flies as gifts for formation.” All but the last of these anecdotes are told from the point of view of Fr. Isaiah who lovingly gathered the stories below. “For the three people killed in an accident on Highway 1, that they might live through this.” And, in addition, Rich Veum has written a beautiful personal recollection of Emmanuel (“Farewell, Faithful “We had 10 inches of rain today. Former record is 6 inches. Servant”) on the blog “To Sur, With Love.” We pray to the Lord.” https://medium.com/@richveum/farewell-faithful-servant- “A frozen branch fell on a man in New York. Killed him. For c99bf7390633 his well-being we pray…”

Once Br. Emmanuel was working in a wet ditch and “Thank God for all the beauties of nature. Amazing birds—a­ emerged covered with mud. He said, “Good thing God is pair of flycatchers has been nestin’ in my shed for the last everywhere.” five years. Well, one year they didn’t, but the other four they did. Right above my truck.” Once at the beginning of one of my retreats, he and Zacchaeus came to my private Mass. Zacchaeus prayed “Let us ask Our Lady of Comfort to comfort us in these hot that I be “set on fire by the Holy Spirit” during my retreat. days. It was 117 degrees in Phoenix yesterday. Supposed to Br. Emmanuel added, “If he comes out of his cell on fire, be pretty hot today.” don’t put him out.” “For the protection of the turkeys on our property. That they We had a dog named Buddy that Emmanuel was especially might live out their full lives and fulfill God’s plan for them.” fond of… he’d give them rides in the bucket of his skip-load- er. One time Cyprian was coming down at Vigils, and there “Help me to live cheerfully today, because God loves was a beautiful full moon. He ran into Emmanuel who said, a cheerful giver.” “Wish I could put the moon in a box and give it to Buddy.” “For Br. Gabriel…I don’t know where he is. I went looking for Once at a prayer convention I shared a motel room with him this morning and he wasn’t there.” him. He had a snore that would fairly lift the curtains. I told him about it and the next morning he said, “I found out I had another gift.”

He could be so childlike. After his cataract and knee operations he was full of praise and wonder. But even smaller graces could fill him with excitement. One time he interrupted a gathering of monks to say, ”I just want to tell people about this back pain I had and the relief I got. I had this back pain that hurt worse than anything I’d had before. then got me some medicine.” ”What was it, Brother?” (Long pause.) “Was it Therapak?” “No, that wasn’t it. Bede took me over and showed me.” “Was it an ointment or a pill?” “It was a pill.” “Was it Tylenol?” “YEAH— THAT WAS IT.” “God bless the U.S. Texas has too much water, California When I go to town, I try to say a private Mass that day. Br. doesn’t have enough. Lord hear our prayer.” Emmanuel and Br. Gabriel would always join me. There’s a sweet intimacy in the little chapel, gathered around the [From a retreatant:] On my first visit to the Hermitage my . Br. Emmanuel said once, “It’s like being in Heaven.” car barely made it to the trailer where I was to stay. It was smoking or steaming or both. I asked at the bookstore if After a solemn procession to the cemetery, Br. Emmanuel there was any help to be had and they sent Emmanuel. He piped up, “Who’s going to dig my grave when I die? I dug came along, very serene. I could immediately feel that he all these graves mahself.” had an affection for and understanding of machines. He might have brought other tools with him but all I remember Brother Emmanuel had a unique way of joining in the was the big roll of duct tape. He poked around, jiggled hoses public prayer petitions at Lauds and Vespers. People and then wrapped a bunch of things up with the tape. He loved to hear him chip in, and sometimes it really got gave the engine a good tap and said, “Well, that and prayer our attention. Here are some memorable ones… should do the trick.” And it did. I got home safely.

contemplation.com ~ 3 Contemplation in Action The editors

The theme of this issue of the newsletter is not political in the narrow sense in which we usually use the word political. But the Greek word polis implies the whole com- munity: seeking and serving the common good. We now stand at a moment in history that calls (like all moments in history) for our clearest and most engaged response to what the Gospel teaches about how we are to treat one another and especially how we are to love and serve those who are most vulnerable and in most need. Our faith always requires such clarity and engagement from us, but these days raise essential Gospel questions into an even more demanding light.

What is our responsibility when voices even in some Antoinette Betschart, Phil McManus, Peter and Betty churches distort the teachings of the Gospel into an anti- Michelozzi, Ziggy Rendler-Bregman, Elliot Martin, Sylvia gospel of greed and aggression to lend a false legitimacy Deck, and Rafael Landerreche form another chorus of to a political agenda of racism, torture, scapegoating of im- voices as they share their personal experiences of the migrants, denial of refugees based on confusing “national interdependence between prayer and engaged work in the security” with religious intolerance, attacks on the dignity world. The voices of these eight friends of the Hermitage of women, depredation of public lands, an aggressive suggest a heartening range of social action that immediately skepticism about science (which, among other things, runs calls to mind Jesus’ injunction in Matthew 25 that “Whatso- counter to Francis’ Laudato Si), denial of public care ever you do to these the least of these you do to me.” for those in need, and an underlying cynicism about the nature of truth itself? Cultivating the practice of nonviolence among communities in Chiapas and among other communities in America; How do we oppose such a corrupt agenda with the moral working to create more affordable housing in Santa Cruz; forthrightness required while also taking care to not echo writing and artwork; building interreligious understanding the fear and contempt of those promoting it? and fellowship; leading meditation practice at Soledad; not only feeding the poor, but using one’s expertise to And how do we support one another to keep our prayer improve the nutrition of each meal served; guiding spiri- lives maturing into just action—while also bearing witness tuality sessions for those in recovery; bearing witness at to the equal truth that just action deepens and matures Standing Rock. our prayer lives? Two other “voices” in these pages are artistic in a pictorial In addition to the familiar voices and clarity of Prior Cyprian sense: Corita Kent and her contemporary William Copley. Consiglio, Fr. Thomas Matus, and Fr. Robert Hale, we also Corita Kent’s compassionate, clear-eyed call for justice draw from the thought of Prior General Alessandro Barban and social action in another era of protest came readily to because the idea of “spirituality with open eyes” that he mind as we considered the theme of this issue. And we’re cites in a recent letter accords so closely with the theme of grateful to the Corita Art Center, San Francisco Museum of this newsletter. And many oblates and other friends con- Modern Art, and the Harvard Art Museums for their gener- tribute importantly as well, helping us grapple with these ous permission to include this work. questions from the perspective of their own lived experi- ence of “contemplation in action.” Robert Inchausti draws And finally in Deborah Smith Douglas’ “Becoming Shelter,” from his remarkable study Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, we stand at a window in Boston in the aftermath of the Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise to remind us Boston marathon bombing. And we feel how concrete and that Christianity’s relationship to culture and the common visceral prayer itself can be. Not prayer in default of ac- good is always crucial and that within the modern Christian tion. But prayer so ardent that it doesn’t merely “shelter in tradition we have “a great cloud of witnesses” to help guide place,” but instead can transform us and our communities us now. And Audette Fulbright Fulson gives us a poem that into becoming shelter for others “whose need is beyond she rightly understands might have already become our telling.” CJL own “Prayer for the Morning” these days. 4 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Corita Kent, for emergency use soft shoulder, 1966. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Denise Hartman. © Estate of Corita Kent. Photo: Don Ross.

Reflections on a “Subversive Orthodoxy”

Robert Inchausti Consider ’s description of America written Robert Inchausti is the author and editor of several books at the height of the “Cold War.” including Thomas Merton’s American Prophecy and Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other “We are living in the greatest revolution in history—a huge Christians in Disguise. spontaneous upheaval of the entire human race: not the revolution planned and carried out by any particular party, In Gustav Janouch’s book Conversations with Kafka, a college race, or nation, but a deep elemental boiling over of all student is speaking with the writer at the Accident Insur- the inner contradictions that have ever been in man, a ance Company. In the street below, a Communist rally is revelation of the chaotic forces inside everybody. This is taking place, and the student says to Kafka: “You are a critic not something we have chosen, nor is it something we are of modern world. Why aren’t you down at the rally?” free to avoid...We do not know if we are building a fabu- lously wonderful world or destroying all we ever had, all Kafka replies, “This is the problem with the modern world. that we have achieved! All the inner force of man is boiling Everything goes by false names. The Communists call and bursting out, the good together with the evil, the good themselves revolutionaries; they are really totalitarians. poisoned by the evil and fighting it, the evil pretending to The Capitalists call themselves free-marketers; they are be good and revealing itself in the most dreadful crimes, really monopolists. They say I have a good job here at the justified and rationalized by the purest and most innocent insurance company; it is really a form of penal servitude. intentions.” Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966) p. 54 Tonight I am going home, have a little dinner, and do some writing. Not so. Tonight I am going home to my prison cell. Or Dorothy Day’s thoughts on the mystery and complexity Lock myself in. And try to find my soul.” of poverty.

I don’t believe Kafka is saying that the world is a lie. I think “We must talk about poverty because people lose sight of he is telling us that it hasn’t yet been accurately described— it, can scarcely believe that it exists. So many decent people and reminding us that folly is a commitment to virtues that come in to visit us and tell us how their families were are not really virtues and to truths that are not really true. brought up in poverty and how, through hard work and decent habits and cooperation, they managed to educate The great writers—I am thinking now in particular all the children and raise up priests and to the of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and G.K. Chesterton—point Church. They concede that health and good habits, a good out very much the same thing. They too sought truth by family, take them out of the poverty class, no matter how exposing the prevailing hyperboles and the clichés that mean the slum they may have been forced to inhabit. No, turn other people into caricatures of our own fears and they don’t know about the poor. Their conception of poverty anxieties. contemplation.com ~ 5 is something neat and well-ordered as a ’s cell. And maybe no one can be told, maybe they will have to experi- ence it. Or maybe it is a grace which they must pray for. We usually get what we pray for, and maybe we are afraid Prayer for the Morning to pray for it. And yet I am convinced that it is the grace we most need in this age of crisis, at this time when expendi- Audette Fulbright Fulson tures reach into the billions to defend ‘our American way of life.’” Did you rise this morning, broken and hung over Or G.K. Chesterton’s honest observation that there is more with weariness and pain going on in our so-called “age of progress” than progress. and rage tattered from waving too long in a brutal wind? Get up, child. “We live in a time when it is harder for a free man to make a Pull your bones upright home than it was for a medieval ascetic to do without one.” gather your skin and muscle into a patch of sun.

Draw breath deep into your lungs; In our highly politicized time when cynics call themselves “realists” and crass blowhards claim they are just being you will need it “honest,” it is easy to forget that our great Catholic writers for another day calls to you. and activists like Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day had I know you ache. very little interest in changing the world. They didn’t use I know you wish the work were done words to build mass movements, defame their opponents, and you or even as advertisements for themselves. They were anti- with everyone you have ever loved politicians and anti-propagandists who wrote to describe were on a distant shore reality in the light of God’s all-inclusive and redemptive safe, and unafraid. love. But remember this, tired as you are: And if in the process, they sometimes said things that were you are not alone. in conflict with privileged interests or contradicted popular Here culture or required them to reconsider their own convic- tions—well, let the chips fall where they may. For they and here knew it is more important to live in the truth than it is to and here also be right, admired or successful, and this simple imperative there are others weeping put them on the far side of a very important political and and rising ethical divide: on the side of the poor, the outcast, and the and gathering their courage. humble against the Caesars, the Pilates, and the princes of You belong to them this world. and they to you and together, Not that The revealed to them we will break through exactly what was to be done. It did re-direct their attention and bend the arc of justice away from the speck in their neighbor’s eye to the log in all the way down their own and—by so doing—allowed them to see through into our lives. the distortions of opportunists, ideologues, extremists, and their own occasional lapses of hubris and self-righteous- ness—however furtive and unconscious.

For men and women of conscience, it is unlikely this situ- ation will ever change. But we can take some solace from another great Catholic novelist Léon Bloy who wrote: “You do not enter paradise tomorrow, or the day after, or in ten years. You enter it today when you are poor and crucified.”

That is to say, whatever our failures or disappointments, personal or political, all things still work to the good for those who love God (whether we understand the mecha- nism or not). A blow to the ego can be a victory for the soul if it is met with humility, contrition, and understanding.

Audette Fulbright Fulson is an ordained Unitarian minister in Cheyenne, Wyoming. 6 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Reflections on a Contemplative Life in Action

Franciscan author Richard Rohr captures the “contem- We’ve invited eight friends of the Hermitage plation in action” theme of this newsletter very well to reflect upon how their own practice of when he writes, “If our prayer runs deep, our whole view “contemplation in action” lives itself out in of the world will gradually change from fear to connection because we no longer live inside our fragile and encapsu- their own commitments and experience. lated self anymore. In contemplation we are moving from ego consciousness to soul awareness, from being driven to being drawn. We will go back to our life of action with new vitality.”

Over the years this is what our contemplative time at the Hermitage has given us as we have walked the Hermitage’s winding road, rested on its benches which expand vistas both outer and inner, sat quietly in the chapel, and ab- sorbed the pervasive silence.

Upon early retirement from careers in education, we began to volunteer in the development of affordable housing for families living in substandard conditions in Santa Cruz County. Then we moved on to the same kind of work in Central America, work which involved publicity, fundraising, and organizing teams from the U.S. who worked on hous- ing projects in Guatemala.

For three weeks in November I visited Standing Rock, As we grew older, we retired from that demanding work, North Dakota. The months-long protest of the oil pipeline but not from outreach to those in need. We’ve moved into was rising to a peak as the pipeline’s completion drew near prison ministry and continue to lead meditation groups for and public attention grew. Snow hadn’t yet fallen on the inmates at Soledad State Prison. northern plains, and the camp was bustling as it prepared for winter and for stopping the pipeline. has recently created a new Vatican office to minister to “migrants, the sick, the excluded and And three weeks at Standing Rock was enough to teach me marginalized, the imprisoned, the unemployed, victims that contemplation and action are inseparable. of armed conflict and natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture.” And the section of the office Even as the protest grew, Native leadership remained at dedicated to refugees and migrants will be led by Pope the center of the movement. Standing Rock has become Francis himself. the largest gathering of tribes in recent history, and the place has intentionally remained “Native space,” and true This is a stirring reminder to each of us to allow compas- to Native traditions, prayer remains essential. Direct sionate actions to grow out of our own rich moments in actions, like blocking construction or demonstrating in contemplative prayer. Bismarck, always begin and end in ceremony and prayer. Many present found themselves praying perhaps for the first time, and this seemed to sanctify everything. Prayer brought meaning and unity into consciousness, and action revealed them. The efficacy of prayer and action was tangible—from marches to food lines—and their necessity together was directly experienced.

A week after returning home, I heard an activist who’d also been at Standing Rock begin a talk at a gathering I considered “secular” in prayer. I attribute the motivation to Standing Rock.

Even in dark times God gives a spark. Perhaps the world is awakening.

Elliot Martin is a pilgrim based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He first Peter and Betty Michelozzi live in Aptos. They have been experienced the Hermitage three years ago; he is now an . making retreats at the Hermitage for many years.

contemplation.com ~ 7 Reflections on a Contemplative Life in Action Reflections on a Contemplative Life in Action

Two words have resonated in my life for some time friends at Santa Cruz Zen Center, and sharing in Eucharist now: “showing up.” From early childhood, I’ve been and lectio divina at my , inspire and strengthen me. “showing up” because I didn’t want to miss anything. I have shown up for liturgy, prayer services, interfaith events, faith I go to The Hermitage often, to dip into the profound silence sharing, ministry opportunities, formal and informal conver- and liturgies there and thus return home with renewed sation. My thought always was: what if something extraordi- clarity and energy. As Prior Cyprian has said, “now more nary happens, and I’m not there to experience it—a power- than ever” we must be disciples of Christ and bearers of ful homily, a spiritual moment when I was touched by music, the “Good News.” We all are waiting and working for the a word, a touch, or gaze? promise of peace and joy that is “already and not yet.”

Lately, however, showing up has come to mean something Ziggy Rendler-Bregman is an artist and poet who has lived in entirely different. What if someone misses me because I Santa Cruz for more than 40 years. She is a longtime friend of am not there? I have come to realize that someone might the Hermitage. Her recently published collection of poetry and art need me here—or there—or wherever I am. My showing “The Gate of Our Coming and Going” is available in the bookstore up might matter to someone else. It may not be clear who at the Hermitage. that someone is or what is needed; but if there’s an empty, waiting space, shouldn’t I be there as Christ’s ambassador “For Jesus, there are no countries to be to fill it? conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, This reversal of perspective came about slowly and surely no people to be dominated. There are only in the silence of contemplation. As I learned to be silent children, women and men to be loved.” and listen to the still, small voice within, I discovered that ~ the word, touch, or gaze of love so dependent on “showing up” was my own. It’s made quite a difference. Contemplative prayer and a deep awareness of the Sylvia Deck is a lay volunteer in liturgy at Holy Cross Church mystery of God’s love for all Creation has always been the in Santa Cruz where she is also an active member of Sangha foundation and springboard of my work in the world. Shantivanam. She made her first of many retreats at the Hermitage fifteen years ago, and ten years ago made pilgrimage In recent years I have been privileged to come closer to to Shantivanam in South . those in need. In inner city Washington, DC, I worked to improve the nutritional value of meals served to poor and homeless persons, and trained many of them to become assistant chefs. Often it was the first time anyone had taken a personal interest in their growth and development.

Guiding spirituality sessions for those in recovery in San Francisco has been another profound experience. Participants have been remarkably free in sharing their faith and experience of God. Their witness continues to deepen my own faith.

Serving meals in the parks of Berkeley and meeting people where they are expands my circle of friends in our community. The intention to show love and respect to people on the street is invariably reciprocated by their acceptance and trust. In all of these experiences, the Holy Spirit continues to be “Wake up,” said the Buddha. palpably present among us, especially in these very coura- “Stay awake with me,” Jesus said. geous people. As an artist, I sometimes wonder how my creative work can impact peacemaking and social justice. Sitting in my studio The darkest times invariably draw me into the Pascal writing or painting can feel completely selfish—but then I Mystery. New life continues to be created among and within remember that I really don’t know what God may be doing us as we are becoming God’s “New Creation.” in and through me. As Prior Cyprian urges us, “Now more than ever.” Now more My job is just to “show up” and to “stay awake.” than ever we must be totally committed to putting our con- templation into action. When I do, I become aware of the suffering and sin so Antoinette Betschart is a biological scientist, oblate prevalent in the world and in myself…and discover yet and spiritual director. She lives in Berkeley and has been coming to another chance to ask forgiveness and guidance. the Hermitage for over 30 years. Sitting zazen (meditation) regularly with my Buddhist 8 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Reflections on a Contemplative Life in Action Reflections on a Contemplative Life in Action

William Copley, Untitled, 1967. Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum, gift of Sarah-Ann and Werner H. Kramarsky, M23413. Photo: Imaging Department © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.”

Those words might very well be addressed explicitly to our superficial, complex, consumerist, violent society. Often, even as I strive to promote active Christian nonviolence in the midst of deeply religious Indian communities in the highly explosive (and exploitative) state of Chiapas, I feel in my heart that these words are addressed to me.

The Desert Fathers decided to tackle the matter radically and so left the world to devote themselves to the one thing necessary. This way, the monastic Christian tradition bore abundant fruit throughout the centuries, but somehow As a young man facing compulsory conscription and around the middle of the 20th century began to show some the moral challenge of the horrendous suffering in limitations. Vietnam, I encountered practitioners of “active nonvio- lence” and experienced my first sense of vocation: working Secluded monks like Thomas Merton started longing for the for peace and justice and the building of what Martin Luther world outside even in order to realize their contemplative King, Jr. calls the Beloved Community. Years later, encoun- vocation. Conversely, those of us who are engaged in the tering the rich cultures and searing poverty of Latin America world crave the silence of the monastery even in order to revealed other aspects of my vocation. Reading the Gospel better engage the world. To leave the city and to go to the and sharing the Eucharist in the company of poor commu- desert is necessary but not enough. Today contemplation nities and courageous nonviolent activists in Latin America has to be lived in the heart of the world, even this hectic lit the way for decades of work and has been one world of ours. As Simon and Garfunkel put it, “the words of the greatest blessings of my life. of the prophets are written on the subway walls / and tenement halls…” Since I was a teenager, the wildness of Big Sur is where I have experienced the deepest “sense of place.” In midlife, “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, seeking discernment, I found my way back to the Hermitage but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the and a sense of home in the warmth of monastic solitude cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiri- and the embrace of a loving community. Becoming an tual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). oblate was a way of saying “yes” and affirming a structure to sustain my practice. So, like Martha, let’s sit at Jesus’ feet that we may receive from Him the strength to confront these powers. No doubt each of us finds elements of our society that discourage our hope for the Beloved Community. And how do we compare our troubles at home with the overwhelming images of suffering that reach us from countries reduced to rubble or made unlivable by violence? Among the prac- tices that help me stay on the path: nurturing a long view in practice; drawing on the wisdom traditions that best speak to us and place present troubles in context; accepting and reciprocating the love of those closest to us; proactively seeking ways to support those who are most vulnerable.

Working with people in Latin America whose struggles faced long odds, whose work routinely placed them in danger, and who often paid a high price for their faith-based witness, I have been struck by the vibrancy of their hope. When people come together in virtuous common cause, hope, a virtue, does indeed arise.

Phil McManus, an oblate, lives in Santa Cruz and oversees grant- making in Latin America for a private foundation. He first visited Rafael Landerreche is a lay missionary and nonviolent activist the Hermitage in 1982. among the Tzotzil Indians of Chenalhó, Chiapas, Mexico. He was a guest at New Camaldoli Hermitage in the spring of 2015. contemplation.com ~ 9 Mostly, as the hours passed, I simply prayed against the Becoming Shelter darkness itself. Not the soft darkness of the April night, but Deborah Smith Douglas, Oblate OSB Cam the invisible darkness that seemed in the small hours to be rising like an unseen tide. Deborah Smith Douglas has degrees in literature and law, and is the author of The Praying Life: Seeking God in All The very air felt electrically charged—wild, unstable, danger- Things. A spiritual director and retreat leader, she has ous—as though hidden lightning were all around. As though published essays in Commonweal, Weavings, Spiritual Life, anything might happen. As though the violence and hatred and the American Benedictine Review. that had been unleashed, tearing frail flesh and pouring blood on the street, were prowling the night, looking for It has been more than three years now since two home- more to devour. made bombs (pressure cookers filled with nails and ball bearings) ripped into the cheering crowds at the Boston So I stood in that window—like a radio operator behind marathon finish line, killing three and wounding hundreds. enemy lines—or like a lighthouse in a storm—trying steadily, with all my small strength, to send out an opposing signal— Since then, the world has paid tribute to the heroic cour- a beam of light to pierce the darkness. age of the first responders—those by-standers who ran not away but into the smoke, toward the explosion, to help As grandiose as it sounds now, that night I felt compelled to the wounded—and the doctors and nurses who worked choose a side, plant a flag, take a stand in that window for feverishly to save lives and limbs in every hospital in town. life against death, for love against hate. Alone, but power- fully bound to others whom I knew must be praying too, As everyone knows, Boston Strong did itself proud that across the city and around the world. horrific day and in the days that followed, demonstrating remarkable solidarity and resilience. Clare of Assisi, legends tell us, once stood in the up- But that first night, Boston Strong was also still Boston stairs window of her and held a monstrance aloft, Shattered. repelling invading enemy hordes with the power of the love of God that radiated from the Blessed Sacrament. Ambulances wailed; rumors flew; the bombers were still at large. Far into the night, it was feared that other bombs I would never presume to compare myself with her (and I had been planted in unknown locations. No one really must say I’ve never held a monstrance in my life). But there knew what was happening. The mayor of Boston went was something abroad, that night, that seemed to demand online and on radio to ask everyone to stay off the streets, defiant resistance like hers. to “shelter in place” until public safety could be restored. The hatred that had deliberately filled improvised bombs with nails and timed their detonation to do the most dam- age to the innocent seemed to call urgently for a counter- weight of love.

That was all my prayer that night, as the slow hours passed. Having learned, a little, to “bear the beams of love” in William Blake’s phrase, I tried to send them out into the night.

William Temple was the of Canterbury during World War II. He knew something about hate, and darkness, and fear, and prayer. He observed that prayer is “a great means of increasing the volume of love in the world.”

I think that is what I was trying to do that night. Increase the volume of love in the world. Not in the sense of turning I don’t think anyone in Boston slept that night. I know I didn’t. up the volume, cranking up the decibel level as though to Alone in our tiny apartment, I found myself, in my adrenalin- drown out hate with louder noise—but actually expanding fueled insomniac pacing, drawn to stand in the window the volume in the way physics might describe increasing the and look out on the darkness. volume of a sphere: enlarging it from the inside, extending its reach. I felt an overpowering, visceral instinct to pray: for the injured, for the dying, for those who cared for them. “Keep Making space for it somehow—letting the breath of God watch, dear Lord,” I whispered Saint Augustine’s night fill the lungs of the night. Magnifying love, as Mary in the prayer, “with those who work or watch or weep this night; Magnificat sang that her soul “magnified” the Lord. tend the sick; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted…” By letting us align ourselves with the love of God, prayer 10 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage makes God’s love more active, more present, more spacious “Spirituality with Open Eyes”— in the world. a Mysticism of the Justice of God Intercession this deep and wide is light-years away from our ordinary sense of asking God to do things that we think In a letter to convoke next fall’s General Chapter at need doing, and to remember people and situations we Camaldoli, Prior General Alessandro Barban OSB Cam think God is neglecting or is ignorant of. names two spiritual orientations that he sees particularly attracting people today. The second of the two orienta- Prayer like that makes us real agents of grace. And it does tions is towards eco-spirituality. But the first, which Don not necessarily involve words at all. Most of our deepest Alessandro references through a collage of sentences from prayers, I suspect, are wordless, as mine were that night. theologian Johann Baptist Metz, is a “spirituality with open eyes.” This idea is so closely aligned with the theme of this Sometimes, as Saint Paul knew, words fail us. current newsletter that we are citing this section of Don Alessandro’s letter here. But God never does. Don Alessandro’s full letter convoking the General Chapter When we cannot find speech to frame our longing and our is available on the Hermitage’s website. pain, God’s own Spirit prays within us, “with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). https://contemplation.com/convocation-of-the-general- chapter-2017-spirituality-in-the-camaldolese-monastic-life In that kind of wordless prayer, we do not just clear a space in our minds or in the darkness for the light to shine. We Don Alessandro begins, can become that kind of space. In our persons, in our lives, we are called not simply to “shelter in place” but to be the I refer to the idea of Johann Baptist Metz… place of shelter for those whose need is beyond telling.

(This essay was originally published in Weavings’ winter 2016–2017 “The Christian doctrine of redemption dramatized the issue, vol.xxxii no.1) question of guilt in Christianity and lessened the question of suffering. But that has not crippled the most basic sen- sitivity to the suffering of others, nor has it obscured the biblical vision of the great justice of God…

“Have Christians not distanced themselves too quickly and too soon from the biblical appeal to matters of justice?... Have we not, too early and without worrying about it any further, banished the cry of people that wells up from the profound histories of their world from our language and experience of Christian faith?...

“These are eyes wide open, alert eyes that take a stand, responding to the senselessness of innocent and unjust suffering...The mysticism of compassion does not aim at a blind experience of God that is devoted exclusively to one’s own interiority, but to the disruptive experience that oc- curs when dealing with others, in the dynamics of interper- sonal encounters, face to face. This is an experience that is mystical and political at the same time…

“This Christian ‘spirituality with open eyes’ does not deal only with public common life...Wherever this spirituality is in act, it teaches, primarily to Christians, that we must go and meet each other at ‘eye level,’ face to face, more than what would happen in our community experiences... It is becoming increasingly important today for believers I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in to share experiences with one another, an exchange in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from which the story of faith and one’s own life story can come me you can do nothing. together...However, is this not indeed the essential criteria ~ John 15:5 that would be the starting point for new forms of ecclesial communities?”

Sadao Watanabe, I am the True Vine, 1979. contemplation.com ~ 11 Families and local communities are “the indispensable World Day of Peace crucible in which [we] learn to communicate and to show Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam generous concern for one another, and in which frictions and even conflicts have to be resolved not by force but New Year’s Day in the Catholic tradition was officially by dialogue, respect, concern for the good of the other, designated World Day of Peace by Pope Paul VI in 1967, mercy and forgiveness.” Then from within families and exactly fifty years ago, inspired by Pope John XXIII’s encycli- communities “the joy of love spills out into the world and cal Pacem in Terris. radiates to the whole of society...The politics of nonvio- lence have to begin in the home and then spread to the And just as in Gaudium et Spes, the Church resolutely entire human family.” addressed “not only…all who call upon the name of Christ but the whole of humanity as well,” so Paul VI addressed As we did when the new year began, let us pledge our- his first World Day of Peace message not simply to selves once again to the way of Jesus, to the way of peace Catholics but to all people: “Peace is the only true direction and nonviolence, that the joy of love may spill out of our of human progress,” he wrote, “and not the tensions homes and communities and into the world. caused by ambitious nationalisms,” not the “conquests by violence, nor repressions which serve as mainstay for a ¹ I would urge you to read Pope Francis’ message for this false civil order.” year yourself. It’s entitled “Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace.” In it he not only addresses wars in different Pope Paul also warned about the danger of believing countries and continents but also “terrorism, organized “that international controversies could only be resolved crime and unforeseen acts of violence; the abuses suffered by means of deterrent and murderous forces” instead of by migrants and victims of human trafficking; and the by the ways of reason and “negotiations founded on law, devastation of the environment.” justice, and equity.” ² José Pagola, Jesus: An Historical Approximation, 105. ³ Pope Francis, “Nonviolence: a Style of Politics for Peace,” #3. In the intervening fifty years, every subsequent pope has done what Paul VI did, using the World Day of Peace as an occasion to issue a letter to the whole world. These letters have addressed over the years support for the United “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the Nations, human rights, women’s rights, labor unions, oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages economic development, the right to life, international the tormentor, never the tormented.” diplomacy, peace in the Holy Land, globalization, terrorism, and the environment. One can read these fifty messages ~ Elie Wiesel issued on the World Day of Peace and get a summary of Catholic social thought.¹

José Pagola wrote, “Acceptance of the reign of God begins The quarterly newsletter is published by the within a person in the form of faith in Jesus but it is realized Camaldolese of America for our friends, in the life of the people wherever evil is being overcome by oblates, and sponsors. God’s saving justice.”² Director: Father Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam All Christians are called to reflect the image of God in whose Editor: Deborah Smith Douglas, Oblate, OSB Cam image we are made, and participate in building God’s king- Associate editor: Chris Lorenc, Oblate, OSB Cam dom of justice and peace. Design: Debi Lorenc Development: Jill Gisselere As Pope Francis has written, “To be true followers of Jesus today also includes embracing his teaching about non- Photo credits: violence.” Then he quotes his predecessor Benedict XVI Debi Lorenc: cover, pages 6, 7, 8 who said that even though nonviolence may seem im- George L. Westlund: page 15 practicable, it is actually very realistic “because it takes into ta_samaya /stock.adobe.com: page 10 account that in the world there is too much violence, too much injustice, and therefore that this situation cannot If you have questions or comments, please email be overcome except by countering it with more love, with [email protected]. more goodness.” And he says, “This ‘more’ comes from God.”³ It can only come from God. New Camaldoli Hermitage 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 But it doesn’t necessarily start in grand public political gestures. Francis goes on to say that, “If violence has its Visit us at www.contemplation.com and source in the human heart, then it is fundamental that “New Camaldoli Hermitage” on Facebook. nonviolence be practiced before all else within families.” 12 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Oblates and “Contemplation in Action” From the Pages of Vita Monastica Fr. Robert Hale, OSB Cam Fr. Cipriano Vagaggini, OSB Cam

Our Camaldolese Translation and introduction by Fr. Thomas Matus, OSB Cam family consists of Fr. Cipriano Vagaggini, OSB Cam, great theologian of Vatican II monks and oblates. and a true contemplative-in-action, is again our teacher, as we Especially our more continue with his book-length article in Vita Monastica, the quar- than seven hun- terly review published by our mother-house in . The last dred oblates are time, he left us with this thought: “Imagine that you are trying to engaged in living think abstractly about something or you are listening to some- out their prayer in one who is speaking in abstract terms. While this is happening, action in the “real in the back of your mind, in a more or less hidden part of your world.” Not that psyche, you are aware of your own spirit. You see it obliquely, the monks aren’t like something seen out of the corner of the eye. This is an engaged in action. experience of your own self.” He goes on to explain that this two- We have monks fold awareness makes it possible to know “by connaturality.” who are teachers, artists, musicians; monks engaged in various ministries connected with our hospitality ministry; What is the experience of knowing by connaturality? (St. Thomas monks ministering online… Aquinas also calls this knowing “affective, intimate, a knowing by inclination, by instinct, by intuition.”) You can define it as But our oblates are really out there and in amazing num- knowledge of something distinct from yourself that you experi- bers. Might I note a few forms of action flowing out ence as present to yourself. It is present through the effects of of prayer, carried out wonderfully by so many of our the harmony or disharmony, attraction or repulsion that you oblate? I shall not name names so as not to embarrass feel. As we said before, when we are thinking or listening, we anyone, but there are so many ways to put contemplation are intuitively aware of ourselves and our nature. When we into action. know by connaturality, we are aware not only of ourselves but also of what the thing or person that we know means for us... Consider: + Mothers and fathers, also grandmothers and grand- Every sentient being, with the full weight of its being, structure, fathers! Are they not living actively and lovingly their and dynamic energies, aims to realize and actualize its own prayer in a particularly wonderful way to the great ben- possibilities. Contingent creatures achieve this actualization in efit of their children and grandchildren? a relationship with something other than themselves. The sen- tient creature knows the “something other” by being naturally + Medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, and counselors, in tune with it—this “tuning” is what we call “connaturality,” carrying on the healing of Jesus in the cities and towns and it is written in the structure and energies of the creature, of today. which aim at the perfection and fullness of the creature’s be- + Professors and teachers, sharing wisdom and knowl- ing. When the creature is elevated by grace to a supernatural edge with so many students in so many areas of learning state, these energies are reinforced and aim at its supernatu- and at so many levels. We believe that the classroom ral perfection. is indeed sacred space. So when you, as a living and knowing being, are aware of + Social justice workers, in Catholic Worker communities yourself with all your actions, tendencies and aims, you also and on their own, feeding the hungry, giving shelter to perceive and experience—however dim, generic, and implicit the homeless, protecting abused women, witnessing for this experience may be—the end toward which your acts and peace…This is pure Gospel, and they are ministering to tendencies aim by their natural structure. You experience this Christ. end as distinct from you and transcendent, but at the same + Our oblate , oblate priests, and pastors of time, you know that it is an intimate part of you. In fact, the various churches, preparing homilies and celebrating end is as it were written into the deepest level of your nature; liturgies and pastoring and counseling and helping in so as you tend toward it, you realize that it is part of you and you many ways. are part of it. The same is true when your nature is supernatu- rally elevated by grace: you share in the nature of your super- + Writers and poets, bringing the truth and beauty of words natural ultimate end. to so many, illumining their own and others’ lives. Created nature is distinct from its end, but in no way are they + Artists in diverse fields, producing beautiful works that extraneous one to the other. A sentient creature, as it experi- enable us to glimpse the source and fulfillment of all ences its own nature, also has a unique experience of the end beauty, God. that abides within it, structures and guides it, and attracts and arouses its energies and acts.

contemplation.com ~ 13 Monastery of the Risen Christ From the Development Office Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam Jill Gisselere

I am stepping in for Fr. Daniel in this issue to give an up- The year 2017 began with an onslaught of rain, mudslides, date on our newest Camaldolese community, the Mon- road closures and finally the collapse of Pfeiffer Canyon astery of the Risen Christ in San Luis Obispo. As you may Bridge—dividing the coastal route in Big Sur in half with no know, in 2013 the Olivetan Benedictine monks there asked way to pass through on Highway 1. New Camaldoli if they could come under us and join the Camaldolese Congregation. Our chapter overwhelmingly The impact on the Big Sur community generally and for the accepted their request, and we sent our Fr. Daniel Manger Hermitage in particular has been enormous. down there to accompany them for the first three-year trial period required by Canon Law for such a transfer. As Prior Cyprian recounts elsewhere in this issue of the Our Br. David (formerly Isaac; he has returned to his bap- newsletter, the Hermitage has necessarily been closed tismal name) is also living there now. So along with Fr. Ray to retreatants since early February. Following the initial Roh (who died in February: see page 15) and Fr. Stephen closure and storms, Big Sur was hit by a massive storm in Coffey, they have built a thriving little community. mid-February which effectively destroyed the Hermitage road, leaving monks and staff stranded for weeks. The three-year trial period ended January 1, and after another positive vote from our chapter, we officially wel- With limited resources and the loss of income from the comed Frs. Ray and Stephen with a rite of solemn transfer ministry of hospitality, the monks decided to launch an of vows on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, January 6, mak- online emergency relief campaign through GoFundMe, ing the Monastery of the Risen Christ a dependent house hoping to raise $300,000, the estimated cost to repair the of New Camaldoli Hermitage. Hermitage road. The story of Big Sur’s isolation as a result of the onslaught of slides and road failures—the story of In my homily for the day I compared our newest brothers Big Sur as temporarily an “island”—has gained worldwide to the wise men from the East. Like the Magi, these “wise news coverage. And within the wider story of Big Sur, the men from the south” didn’t come to us empty-handed; particular situation of the Hermitage has often been fea- they came bearing gifts. Fr. Ray had years of pastoral tured with awareness and sensitivity. And the response to experience and was the founder of the community in 1992 our campaign has been overwhelming. Within the first 24 when he came from Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey in Pecos, hours over $30,000 had been raised. To date, as friends New Mexico, from which the Risen Christ community was around the world have made over 1700 donations, the founded under David Geraets. goal of $300,000 has very nearly been met.

Fr. Stephen is well known to many as a fine preacher and The monks have been deeply moved by, and remain deeply teacher. Besides having taught at Mount Angel grateful for, this outpouring of support. Seminary in Oregon, he also served a term as prior at Pe- cos. Both of them have ministered extensively with oblates Most of the staff who work at the Hermitage live here. For and are much sought after as spiritual directors. those who do not, it has been impossible to get to work most days since early February. But then there’s also Grace There have been many small changes there over these McManis, the assistant manager of the bookstore, who was three transitional years—using the Camaldolese Liturgy so determined to come to work during even the heaviest of the Hours, the addition of a labyrinth and prayer walk storms and road closures that in the spirit of Big Sur with a beautiful Celtic cross and statue of Kateri Tekak- independence she used the chainsaw she carries in her truck witha—but the essentials remain. It is a beautiful rural to cut through a downed tree on the road, parked on the far location just outside of San Luis Obispo, coincidentally at side of the rockslide blocking Highway 1, and then walked the foot of a hill named “Cerro Romauldo” (unfortunately three miles uphill to reach the Hermitage. misspelled!), where the monks live a quiet, simple life of prayer, study and work, welcoming guests as they would The monks very much look forward to the day when they Christ. can warmly welcome all guests, friends, and oblates to the Hermitage again. If you are in the San Luis Obispo area, please stop in and visit the chapel and bookstore. They celebrate Lauds at 7:30 each morning, Eucharist at 11, and Vespers at 5:30 “It is a huge danger to pretend that awful each evening. They also have three beautiful retreat rooms things do not happen. But you need enough available for overnight and extended stays. hope to keep going. I am trying to make Rejoice with us in this new addition to the Camaldolese hope. Flowers grow out of darkness.” presence in California. ~ Corita Kent

14 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Activities and Visitors JANUARY Rev. Scott Sinclair, scripture professor from Dominican NOVEMBER in San Rafael, offered us his annual week of lec- Br. Joshua spent time with his family in Santa Cruz. We held tures. January 6 we had an all-Camaldolese gathering here our second annual Open House, organized by our Develop- with the brothers from Berkeley and San Luis Obispo to ment Director Jill Gisselere, which was again a great suc- celebrate the solemn transfer of the Monastery of the Risen cess. Our new “tiny home,” manufactured by our local friend Christ and mark the transfer with a special ceremony. Cypri- John Handy, owner of Treebones Resort, arrived just in an traveled to St. Louis where he was the keynote speaker time for that event. Br. Bede was home from Berkeley and for the Liturgical Composers Forum. offered a retreat here with our oblatePaula Huston. Our Financial Advisory Board met here for two days. Kate Olsen, a reporter from PBS’ Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly, was here for three days interviewing monks for a story on our oblate program (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandeth- ics/2017/01/27/new-camaldoli-hermitage/34280). Our Br. Gabriel spent some time in the hospital for a medical pro- cedure and then some days in a rehab facility. Our kitchen master Br. Benedict put on a magnificent spread for us on Thanksgiving—only days before his 65th birthday!

DECEMBER Fr. Cyprian spent a few days with his family in Arizona and then offered an Advent retreat for the World Community for and the Hesed Community of Oakland at San Damiano Retreat House in Danville. Br. Michael participated in a retreat at St. Clare’s Retreat Center in Santa Cruz. We trimmed Christmas trees in the FEBRUARY refectory, chapel, and recreation room on December 19. For the most part, we simply hunkered down and weath- The next evening, as they do every year, Ken and Rosa ered the storms throughout February and waited to see Harlan, the owners nearby of Lucia Lodge, treated the how the roads and the land would respond. Our Fr. Ray monks to a sumptuous Christmas dinner (and sent all the from the Monastery of the Risen Christ died on February 8 leftovers home with us as well). December 28 we voted after a brief brave battle with a serious illness. We celebrat- to officially accept the solemn transfer ofFrs. Ray and ed his funeral at the Nativity of Our Lady Church in San Luis Stephen of the Monastery of the Risen Christ from their Obispo with Bishop Richard Garcia presiding. Olivetan Congregation to our Camaldolese Congregation and to accept the Monastery of the Risen Christ community MARCH as an official dependent house of New Camaldoli. Fr. Raniero made an extended silent retreat at the Vajra- pani Institute in Boulder Creek. Our beloved Br. Emmanuel suffered a heart attack, had to be evacuated by helicopter to Salinas, and died a peaceful death on March 6. We were able to bring his body back and celebrate his funeral and burial on March 17, joined by his nephew, Fr. Shane Mark Wasinger, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Min- neapolis, and several local friends. Fr. Daniel organized a benefit event at the Mission in San Luis Obispo, with Cyprian leading the crowd of nearly 200 in song and prayer followed by a delicious soup supper prepared by oblates and friends.

APRIL Due to the road closures we had very few visitors with us for Holy Week and the Triduum this year, but we were joined by four of our Franciscan friends from St. Francis Retreat in San Juan Bautista, who have been coming for several years. Fr. Robert led a retreat for our oblates at Incarnation Monas- tery and while there celebrated his 80th birthday on April Mud Creek slide further south of the Hermitage. As you can see, like Paul’s 21. That same weekend, Sangha Shantivanam of Santa Cruz Slide, the Mud Creek slide is fully active and ongoing. On May 20, what were sponsored a very successful fundraising event, followed by collectively four slides (that could be heard two miles away) caused this a retreat day, both led by Cyprian. The last week of April we devastating new movement of the Mud Creek slide that has drawn world- wide attention. As this issue goes to print, Highway 1 is completely closed wel-comed Frs. Mario Zanotti and Giuesppe Cicchi for our at three places: Paul’s Slide, Mud Creek, and Pfeiffer Bridge. official canonical visitation of all three of our California com- munities in preparation for our Camaldolese General Photo credit: U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior/USGS. Chapter in October. contemplation.com ~ 15 Corita Kent, community, 1982. © Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles. Photo: Arthur Evans.