Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010!

A !W! ay!of!Life

The Benedictine Oblate Community of The World Community for

The Contemplative Oblate Today

Sometimes people ask me – what led you to become a Benedictine monk? Before I answer I usually think of the desert father whose reply to the question ‘what is a monk?’ was this - ‘ a monk is one who asks himself question equally honestly in several different ways. Here today I would ask you ‘why did you become an oblate’?

The Benedictine life has perhaps the greatest range of manifestations of any religious order in the Church – from missionaries and educators, to farmers and hermits. As St Benedict says early in the Rule ‘there are different kinds of monks’. He says the coenobites are the best but also that the whole Rule is only ‘a little rule for beginners’ who are being trained for the ‘single-handed combat’ of the desert of solitude. He seems to see solitude in some form as the goal of monastic life. Only experience reveals what solitude means in terms of the individual vocation. The multi-dimensional approach to monastic identity explains the rich ARTICLES IN diversity and adaptability of the Benedictine charism over 1600 years. And all these different THIS ISSUE aspects of Benedictine identity apply equally to oblates. The What draws a person to become an oblate? How do they live oblation at different stages of Contemplative 1 -7 their lives – as young parents or working professionals and later in retirement? What does it Oblate Today mean to be an oblate today at a time of great crisis in monastic history when many monasteries are closing or struggling to survive? I would like to explore some of these The Congress – 7 questions within the challenging theme of this Congress and especially through the a personal view understanding of contemplation. This will lead us to look at the praxis of realizing this, the Houston Oblate practice of meditation. 10 Community Traditionally Benedictine life has been seen as ‘mixed’ – that is neither solely contemplative nor active. Monks are meant to earn their own living. are not mendicants. This The Oblate distinguishes them from Franciscan friars and Buddhist monks. Again, this mingling of the Path – My First 10 contemplative and active dimensions of the Christian life has stimulated a great diversity of Step expression. says that ‘no life is completely contemplative or completely active’. That is good Benedictine common sense. And perhaps there is an even deeper Final Oblation 10 meaning in merging contemplation and action, as this is what Jesus seems to mean by the ‘one A Reflection – thing necessary’ in the Martha and Mary story. Jean Leclercq used to say: was Jesus a monk? If My Final 12 so, should we not all be monks? If not, do we have the right to be a monk? This tension of Oblation identity is at the heart of the Benedictine life and the Gospel and indeed of human life itself. Even the bi-hemispheral structure of the brain illustrates this tension of complementarities. It Canada 13 is a tension that Benedict handled wisely and brilliantly in his Rule. Monks and oblates live it out differently by their obedience to the same Rule. Book Corner 13

In a secular age like ours, filled with conflicts and confusion and with shifting ideas about the In Loving 14 meaning of religion and spirituality, the Benedictine wisdom accumulated in many eras and Memory cultures has immense potential and value – provided we are ready to grow with the times. The monk is like a tree planted beside fresh streams – rooted in stability and so able to grow, to be Editorial 15 like a Kingdom-tree in which the birds of heaven come to roost, to be continuously converted. The growth needed today is a recovery of the contemplative energy of the Rule. Contacts 16

1 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! Recovering the contemplative dimension spiritual experience in order to ‘find the other half of (his) soul.’ Main, who channelled a specific monastic Peoples’ search for spiritual experience in our time often form of contemplative prayer to the world, was led to leads them to leave the Church. Many feel that form a new kind of Benedictine community based on Christianity has little to offer except rituals, moralistic meditation, the ‘pure prayer’ of the desert tradition. This certainties, rules and conformity. Yet monasteries are has since taken shape both as a ‘monastery without walls’ often an exception to this rejection of ‘religion’ in the and in a particular new form of Oblate life. Including West. Perhaps this is why the present Pope urges meditation in the Office and liturgy was one of John monasteries to renew Europe and create a ‘civilization of Main’s great insights. This is what he said about it: love’. Monasticism retains a genuine fascination and represents a real alternative way of life. The phenomenal Each of our four sessions of meditation is in popularity of the film ‘Into Great Silence’ clearly community. It is difficult to overestimate the reflected this. importance of this physical and spiritual being together. Shared silence is a self-authenticating faith Since the Second Vatican Council there has been a in God’s presence among us. Learning to meditate in widespread recovery of contemplation in the mainstream common is the greatest of our exercises of of the church’s life, faith, theology and prayer. The communal love. In these moments we hold open marginalization of contemplation that followed the with and to others the most precious part of separation of prayer and theology after the 12th century, ourselves – the heart where our treasure also is, our its increasing ‘specialization’ in cloistered communities faith in the presence of Jesus.2 and the suspicion with which it has often been held since the 16th century have all diminished dramatically. People It is a hopeful sign that each of these three very modern of all walks of life – in many forms of vocation – and prophetic monks remained within the monastic practice serious forms of contemplative discipline in institution and the church. But, in order to achieve their their prayer that formerly would have been seen as vision they were pushed closer to the edge. Is not this strictly ‘monastic’. itself a lesson for us as we consider the contribution of Benedictine spiritual culture to our world? Monasticism In Vita Consecrata, John Paul II pronounced on this re- by its very nature, like Jesus, is marginal. It gives most emergence of contemplation into the mainstream of when it is closest to the edge. This is certainly how it ecclesial life very clearly: began – in the desert and as ‘flight from the world’ and from ecclesiastical hierarchy. Desert monks dreaded to Even in the simplicity of their life, cloistered be made priests. Benedict himself was not a priest and communities, visibly represent the goal towards which was cautious about introducing clerical status into the the entire community of the Church travels. As an lay-structure of the monastic community. Living on the expression of pure love that is worth more than any edge is hard to sustain. By the end of the great ‘age of work, the contemplative life generates an monasticism’ in the 16th century monks had largely been extraordinary apostolic and missionary effectiveness. 1 assimilated into the institutions of church and state.

No opposition between contemplation and action here. Great spiritual flexibility and freedom from status was Since the Council every Pope has called on monastic often to be found in the monastic life of the oblate or lay orders to renew their contemplative life and to share it brother. But this had become devalued by an excessive with the people of God. Thomas Merton, emphasis on the clerical status of the ‘choir monk’. and John Main are three of the many prophetic figures in When John Main originally entered the monastery he this process. Yet, let us remember that their prophetic asked to be lay brother. The dismissed this by vision led them to unusual and even disturbing insights saying it was an impossible option for a university and experiments. Contemplatives tend to rock the boat professor. The weakening of the spiritual influence of and challenge complacency. monasticism is connected to its loss of marginality and the confusion of the monk with the clergy and of the How contemplative is Benedictine life? – The prophet’s monastery with religious and secular institutions. The response high price of this institutional respectability and acceptance by the centres of power in the church was the Merton was quite critical of his monastic culture for its decreasing quality of contemplative experience. Medieval lack of contemplative depth. He was more popular monastic culture is one of the great achievements of outside the cloister as ‘Thomas Merton’ than within it as western civilisation. But how contemplative was it really? ‘Fr Louis’! Griffiths felt he had to leave his English Research shows that the big monasteries were often monastery and go to India and immerse himself in its more like prayer-factories while the deeper centres of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 John Main, Monastery Without Walls, The Spiritual !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Letters of John Main, Canterbury Press Norwich 2006, 1 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, p.29

2 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! spiritual life were more likely to be found in the small discover different priorities from those we have come to priories and granges at the edges of the monastery’s take for granted. political empires and estates.

Understanding the historical problem of the contemplative element in Benedictine life forces us to look closely at the Rule – what it has and what it doesn’t have. There are many elements in the Rule that allow us to see it as part of the Eastern mystical tradition of the monastic life from which it came and which Benedict looked back to with reverence and even a certain nostalgia.

Benedict’s emphasis on ‘peace as the quest and aim’ of the life has often been reduced to a local and domestic security (no small thing in a world where things are falling apart). But he understood it more in terms of the ‘hesychia’ of the desert – the silence and stillness of heart For example, Benedict does not speak much about the in which contemplation arises. The opening of the heart Mass. Probably it was not celebrated daily in his to the abbot echoes the relationship of disciple to master communities. This does not mean he did not love or in the Desert monasticism to which he looked back as a revere the mass or see it as an essential and formative golden age. Benedict emphasises the constant need for part of the monastic life. Nor does he speak about a control of thoughts – the guarding of the heart that is at method of contemplative prayer – although he says that the core of desert ascesis. And he saw spiritual progress in all forms of prayer should be prayed in a contemplative terms of the stages of humility. The Rule is geared way, - that is, with attention and mind and voice in towards achieving the state of contemplation, a way of harmony. But he does point, beyond himself and the preparing for the coming of the Kingdom of heaven at Rule, to the great practitioners of the inner life within an interior level. If the Benedictine life does not mean a our tradition for more detailed instruction on what he direct path to contemplation what on earth is it for? himself does not speak specifically about. Education, social work, a quiet, secure life without responsibility, an escape without a return, a taking This issue is handled with refreshing and radical clarity without giving? These are indeed the dangers of by the eminent Benedictine scholar of the Rule of St monastic life Benedict and of pre-Benedictine monasticism, Adalbert de Vogue in his essay ‘From to John Main’. But what does Benedict say specifically about how to He identifies what he calls a ‘lacuna’ in the Rule and says develop and maintain this state of contemplation? Are that John Main’s contribution to modern Benedictine life the opus dei of the monk and his lectio divina enough? offers a genuine way to fill the missing link. Benedict himself seems to say ‘no’, when he says that the full observance of the life is not contained in his ‘little The role of mediator played by Cassian in Main's rule for beginners’. He does not speak about particular story is interesting in several ways. First of all, in the forms of prayer apart from those of the daily Office and historical dimension it offers an example of having lectio divina – although he refers to the personal prayer of recourse to a pre-Benedictine author to enrich and the monk being extended beyond prescribed limits, by correct the post-Benedictine tradition. As Baker had the direct action of the Holy Spirit. The life he regulates already done - but somewhat differently, as we shall for in the first seventy-two chapters of the Rule is see - Main returns to a source of the Rule to supply designed to create the optimum conditions for for a lacuna in it which is left open or imperfectly 3 contemplation. But then comes the all-important last filled by those who make use of it. chapter. Here, for those who want to go further into John Main had become a monk in the 1950’s and was contemplation, he simply but decisively points to other told to give up the form of simple, non-conceptual and authorities – especially to John Cassian whose image-free meditation that he had originally learned in Conferences he had already drip-fed into the monastic the East – essentially the ‘monologistic’ or prayer of one formation by having them read daily at mealtimes. word that he was introduced to and later called the

‘mantra’. Later, while headmaster of a Benedictine school Contemporary and contemplative in Washington DC and at a very busy period of his life, I would like to suggest that if Benedictine monks and he was approached by a student fresh from the ‘trail of oblates, today are to contribute to the spiritual and social !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! crisis of our time that this Congress is considering, then 3 Adalbert de Vogue, From John Cassian to John Main, we must examine more closely this question of how we in John Main: The Expanding Vision, ed. Laurence pray in the Benedictine life. In the process we may Freeman, Canterbury Press, Norwich 2009

3 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! the mystic East’ with a simple but pointed question. Was From this moment of discovering Cassian’s teaching on there anything in Christian monasticism that meditation, his ‘how to’, John Main’s sense of the corresponded to the meditation practices of the East? In monastic life was transformed. He continued as helping this young seeker – with his very contemporary headmaster for a few years. He then established a lay question about experience – John Main was led first to community – proto-typical ‘oblates’ – at his monastery Augustine Baker and then to Cassian. Here he where he led them in an intensive novitiate formation recognized a method of contemplative prayer that grounded in meditation and integrated with the familiar Benedict would have known, that we find in the forms and structures of daily Benedictine life. His vision medieval tradition and that is enshrined in the Orthodox had a destiny. It expanded to become a ’monastery church as the ‘prayer of the heart’. This is what he called without walls’, The World Community for Christian Christian meditation. Meditation. Within this community, over the past thirty years, a new kind of Benedictine Oblate Community has De Vogue notes that Latin Christianity did not retain a developed. More recently, and still emerging within the parallel to the Jesus Prayer of the Eastern Church. With Oblate Community, a residential Oblate identity has Cassian’s formula or mantra, however, there was indeed a formed. This allows for an oblate to make final oblation parallel method and one to which Benedict pointed. But and at the same time to commit to residential life in a it became largely forgotten or neglected in Benedictine stable Oblate community for renewable three-year monasticism. John Main’s recovery of it, according to de periods. In 2007 The World Community and The Vogue, is an evolutionary moment of significance for WCCM Oblate Community received canonical status our time. He points to an irony in monastic history. during the 25th anniversary of John Main’s death. His Benedict adopted Cassian’s mantra “Deus in adiutorium insight that ‘meditation creates community’ has been meum intende” (O God come to my assistance) as the proven true by the development of this global spiritual opening of the Office, perhaps as a reminder of what the family. Office is preparing us for. At what level do monk and oblate become one? Cassian's role as liaison in this matter is all the more essential as Latin monasticism has not produced a John Main did not think that this form of meditation, the phrase analogous to the Jesus Prayer, nor has it even oratio pura or pure prayer of the Desert monks, was the used any other Christian mantra in a sustained way. only way to pray, or even the best. He took it for It is something strange and cause for regret that the granted, however, that as it did not replace other forms Deus in adiutorium recommended by Abbot Isaac has of prayer, it would only enrich lectio and sacramental as far as we know not been used in the West in the prayer. His contribution to the contemplative renewal of way the author of the Conferences suggested. No Christianity has been recognized by the monastic world. echo has come to us of a school of spirituality which To Bede Griffiths John Main was the ‘best spiritual guide cultivated it as a phrase for continual prayer. Instead of his time’. De Vogue saw him as bridging Christian to of this unceasing, personal practice at which Cassian the non-Christian world as Cassian had bridged Latin aimed, we find only examples of liturgical or ritual and Orthodox churches. But his teaching has been more use, whether in the Rule of St. Benedict himself or in widely practiced outside the cloister. Only a few his contemporary and countryman Cassiodorus or in monastic communities have recognized what de Vogue the Franco-Celtic monasticism of the following understood as the ‘lacuna’ and learned what John Main century. 'These do witness indeed to the fact that the understood when he filled it in his new form of message of Abbot Isaac was heard: the verse he Benedictine community – the integration of times of recommended is greatly respected and its richness of silent meditation with the times of lectio, divine office and meaning is perceived. But it is not used for mass. Many Oblates of course do this normally, continuous prayer. The very end which Cassian had integrating meditation morning and evening with their in mind has been lost sight of.4 Office, lectio and daily routines. In his Tenth Conference of Abbot Isaac, Cassian describes the reasons, the theology and the stages of this way of prayer. The reason is to control the problem of distractions. The theology is the poverty of spirit to which the ‘single verse’ leads and deepening union with Jesus in the glory of his Resurrection. The stages illustrate the fundamental ascesis of the monastic life and indeed the achievement of its primary goal – the purity of heart by which the vision of God is reached.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4 ibid.

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It is not surprising that this does not happen in most Remembering what Benedict points to beyond his own monasteries. The perception that silent prayer of the Rule can help monasteries to explore new forms of heart is the ‘personal prayer’ of the monk, whereas the commitment within the community or parallel to it. The Office and Mass constitute the collective prayer of the ancient form of oblation offers many examples that can community is deeply set. There is, however, an older be adapted for modern circumstances. Benedictine life is tradition that points to community prayer as including not supernatural. The Rule is very down to earth. So, we both silent meditation and the Office. It would be should not be surprised to see that forms of the unlikely that that this older tradition could be recovered monastic life that do not evolve and adapt will become in existing monastic communities with their long- extinct. The vow of conversatio morum has never been established practices and customs. But for newer more relevant and deserves our attention today even manifestations of Benedictine life – such as the oblate more perhaps than the often idolized vow of stabilitas. communities that both John Main and Bede Griffiths saw as emerging in the monasticism of the future - are In the past the cohabitation of the vocations of oblate more ready to integrate meditation with the Office or and monk in a monastery was normal. There were very lectio. They see them as complementary precisely because creative variations and combinations. Some scholars they see that they are distinct and different. Meditation is claim that the richest periods of monastic spirituality different from lectio, lectio from oratio… but contemplatio is coincided with an increased diversity of forms of the goal of all prayer. oblation. In that historical perspective of depth and variety we might foresee new, more flexible forms of Meditating together is a powerful experience of faith and Benedictine life evolving around oblate communities. love. It can deepen and heal the wounds and friction of This was Bede Griffiths’ strong intuition and John Main community living. In a Benedictine community the had already begun some constructive experiments in new experience of meditating together (as well as of praying forms of life obedient to the Rule and incorporating the Office and celebrating Mass) creates a perception of communal meditation. personal and corporate union within the prayer of Christ. In Christ, at this level, there is neither monk nor oblate. Four times a day we meditate together for half an hour – the ‘short time’ of prayer suggested in the Rule. Each meditation period follows the appropriate hour of the Divine Office. The Office, Oblates yesterday, today and tomorrow which we see as a form of communal lectio, is our way of preparing for the silence of meditation by an How does this experience of unity in shared 5 contemplative experience affect the forms of attentive listening to the Word in scripture. commitment and common life of a Benedictine Communal times of silent meditation is not a new idea community? This is a real challenge. It can also create big to monastic tradition but it is rarely found today. Oblates problems. Contemplative experience creates a sense of encourage the recovery of this custom – the opening to unity and equality. Oblates and monks are one and equal the full spectrum of prayer - through their life in the in this contemplative dimension of the life. It enables world. The meditating oblates of the World Community, them to love Jesus’ teaching on discipleship as a way of for example, have already embraced the discipline of mutual service not a competition for precedence or twice-daily meditation before they begin the novitiate about who can be closer to the teacher. year. As they then learn to weave the Office and lectio This equality and unity is hard to live in daily life. The into their daily spiritual life a fruitful symbiosis happens in which the Word leads to silence and silence empowers Rule, however, is good at resolving such problems. It has th helped many generations to solve their difficulties of the Word. Cassian in the 5 century already describes adapting to the times. After all, the Rule is good for this marriage-relationship between lectio and meditation learning how different and often quite odd people can in his Tenth Conference. He was surprised to find how the imageless prayer of the mantra led to a deeper live together in love. Monks can feel threatened in their 6 identity by sharing community with other kinds of reading of scripture. The modern oblate, living in the commitment. Often this cannot work. Certainly it cannot world can balance daily prayer and work (lectio, worship without shared contemplative prayer. Then again, oblates and the prayer of the heart) and bring to light the entire tradition of oblation and its potential for our time. may not want to be formally monks or live with them even though they do love the Benedictine life. These are It does not, then, really matter whether the oblate is the kinds of challenges of identity, vocation and meaning living in the world or in a residential community. that we face in monasticism today. It is an aspect of what Grounded in this balance and liberating discipline in we call the ‘crisis of vocations’ but which is in fact a their daily life the oblate soon becomes the witness and crisis of perception. It means can we adapt or do we cling to the death to old forms? The future of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Benedictine life depends on first facing and then risking 5 Monastery without Walls, op. cit., p.27 some new ways of living these challenges. 6 Cassian, Conference 10.5

5 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! the teacher for others - a development common to all Conclusion forms of Christian discipleship. The contemplative dimension of the Rule has often been As Augustine Baker remarked in the 17th century, a under-emphasized because Benedict seems to certain re-prioritizing of life activities may be necessary if concentrate on the challenges and structures of a person wishes to live a contemplative life in the world. community life rather than on the interior journey. The He mentions going out to dinner less often. We might oblate and the monk are, however, enriched and made add less time in front of the television or online. But as more flexible in their respective vocations by Baker stressed, long before Vatican II, the call to remembering the full mystical import of the Rule. Seen contemplation is universal. Recovering this in the light of Chapter 73, the mundane details of the contemplative dimension of the Benedictine ethos in the Rule acquire a rich symbolic meaning that points to the oblate life could provide a model and influence for goal of contemplation in every aspect of life: ‘so that in monasticism generally which faces so many difficulties all things God may be glorified.’ The goal of the today. A rediscovery of oblation may save and renew monastic life according to the first monks was simply monasticism for our time. ‘continuous prayer’.

A historical review of oblature may be very helpful The Life of Benedict reveals the saint as healer, spiritual in the reconstruction of monastic communities. We father and mystic. His vision of the whole world have seen how oblature has been remarkably gathered together in a ray of divine light pervades the responsive to the spiritual needs of the times, and therapeutic insights into the human soul – alone and in has always cherished the precious legacy of monastic community – which has made the Rule a major part of prayer. Consider the variety of legitimate roles and Christian wisdom literature. There is only one Rule for functions that oblature provided in the Cluniac all forms of Benedictine life – for monks, nuns and familia, in large cenobia, in small priories, in oblates living in the world. It has no clerical bias and, like eremitical orders. It has shown a remarkable the desert tradition, does not elevate one form of elasticity--not shapelessness, but a creative response vocation above another. The monk who clings to his to the needs of a particular situation interpreted status in distinction to others is not yet a free monk. The through a vital tradition. The Oblate may live for life oblate who sees himself as less of a disciple, because he in monastic communities as mortui mundo, having is not a monk is not yet a free oblate. What matters is to given himself and his property to the community ‘truly seek God’. without reservation (a plenus oblatus, a persona ecclesiastica). He may face the challenge of living "in This spirit of equality and fraternity is a direct fruit of the world" by the principles of the Rule in fraternal contemplative consciousness and pure prayer. It rings union and affiliation with the monastic community. true with the modern mind. And it creates a This is the option that probably most oblates in contemporary and flexible form of following Christ history have taken. It allows for a diversity of through the ancient tradition of oblation. The Rule accommodations to persons and situations. Perhaps embodies the contemplative dimension of the Gospel by it is now time to consider yet another option which laying the moderate, ascetical foundations for the interior has recurred in history, and may have much to offer journey. Seen like this, new forms of monastic life can be prayerful people in our time--the creation of creatively imagined and courageously risked. The oblate residential communities of Oblates of St. Benedict may live in the monastery or in lay communities of who may minister to their fellows in a new oblates that are probably closer in form to the monasticism to a world crying out for the silent, monasteries that Benedict himself knew. Or, the oblate generous prayer which it has to offer. The free and can continue in the more conventional form to live in supple structure of oblature adapts well to a wide the world as a spiritual friend, associate or member of a variety of religious temperament and social monastic community. In whatever form of commitment circumstance. It seems to present marvelous and the oblate seeks God through prayer and work and makes large opportunities for the life of intensive Christian peace his ‘quest and aim’. meditation and prayer; it is a rich inheritor of, and contributor to, the life of evangelical humility and In our modern confusion Benedict offers us a clearer simplicity envisioned by Our Holy Father Benedict, understanding of the nature of these three spiritual a man of God for all times.7 elements of life. Prayer is more than ritual and mental prayer. It needs to nurture and lead into contemplation – the prayer in which as Cassian says ‘all the riches of thought and imagination’ are surrendered. Work means !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more than making money. It is about service and the 7 Derek G Smith, The Oblate in Western Monasticism, making of a just world that consciously and continuously Monastic Studies 14, 1983 awaits the coming of the Kingdom. And peace is not just a passing state of mind, a temporary relief from stress and anxiety. Peace is the mind of Christ because ‘he himself is our peace.’ 6 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010!

If the oblate today recovers this latent contemplative energy in the Benedictine life we could expect to see a greatly increased influence of the spirit of the Rule in our world. This would affect not only monasteries but all the institutions of society: in the ways in which dialogue is conducted, the church is run and families raised. Benedictine monks and oblates face the same challenges and so are equal partners in this work of seeking God through the wisdom of our Holy Father Benedict.

Laurence Freeman OSB Talk to the Second World Congress of Benedictine Oblates, Rome, 3rd October 2009 Congress group photo taken in the grounds of the Salesianum

Further reading: The Congress – a personal view John Main, Community of Love , Medio Media 2009 I had a lovely time! It was, as one oblate put it, ‘like Laurence Freeman, The Selfless Self, Canterbury Press 2009 going home to Grandma’s at Christmas and meeting all the distant relatives’ - over two hundred of them from all Paul T. Harris, John Main: A Biographical Memoir, over the world - such was the sense of our gathering as Medio Media 2009 Benedictine family. Indeed it was good to be in the company of oblates from so many places, all representing their monasteries – some I’d heard of (‘oh, you’re from there!’), many I hadn’t; great was the bond between us, born out of common interest, familiarity and “Tradition is not what has been done but what is being vision, great, too, was the obvious witness of enormous lived in continuity with the past and in a hopeful thrust love and warmth and loyalty to our own monasteries, the towards the future. The word itself, traditio, means a tug to our own spiritual homes. ‘passing on’, a ‘transmission’. Christian faith is effectively lost, though the structures of Christianity may It was good to live and share our faith through the remain powerful for a while, when tradition becomes liturgy, though a challenge at times as we embraced archaic rather than a contemporary reappropriation and celebrations in five languages... thank goodness for the projection forward. What is being regained and passed commonality of Latin, used increasingly in the Eucharist, on is not something that can replace the necessity of our and through conversation, at times an even greater personally experiencing it. The life of a tradition is challenge as we (I) wrestled with languages that weren’t precisely this multiple personal experience forming and our (very poor) second, but we shared ideas and ideals awakening the ecclesial reality. Experience and tradition and meals, the agape nature of which always won are inseparably integrated in John Main’s teaching and through. his insistence on the need for ‘personal verification of the truths of our faith’.” It was so good to have walked the way of St Benedict as we joyfully and prayerfully visited those ‘oft heard-of’ John Main: The Modern Spirituality Series Benedictine sites, the abbeys of Subiaco, Montecassino !from The Preface by Laurence Freeman OSB and Sant’ Anselmo – reflections on these places alone would be full of superlatives and could run to thousands of words. How wonderful it was to kneel in prayer in St Benedict’s cave at Subiaco and renew our Oblations in

the presence of the relics of St Benedict at Montecassino! Magnificent too, and humbling, was the generosity shown to us – Benedictine hospitality indeed: dining in the fine refectory of Montecassino and feasting in the cloisters at Sant’ Anselmo as night fell on our last evening, and then being serenaded by the Abbot Primate, Dom Notker Wolf, on his flute (Brother Christian accompanying him on the piano – what patient humour he’d shown to us all week in the chanting of the liturgy... dulcet-toned most of us weren’t); what an end to the Congress, Abbot Notker making his concluding 7 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! remarks and sending greetings, his ‘very best wishes, road of dialogue with the world. I have to admit that I don’t from the big heart of a small man to all oblates, everywhere.’ care for the word ‘dialogue’; it seems a bit ‘fuzzy’ and I’m not sure what it means. My dictionary offers the It was so good to be at this wonderful Congress, the following: conversation, chat, interview, discussion, organisation of which was a mammoth task in the first exchange of ideas... all of which somehow miss the mark, place, and was to be heroically carried through with love for without an adjective –‘deep’, ‘warm’, ‘intimate’ – they and generosity - and not a little patience and self-sacrifice seem cold, but wait... what about this offering - ‘channel - whilst there. I am grateful for the opportunity to have of communication’... this surely opens the way of love been present and thank all who supported me with their and attention to others for it goes to the very heart of love and prayers and have taken interest. Trinitarian love – picture Rublev’s well-known icon in which the Three Persons of the Trinity incline their The object of the Congress, though, was not simply for whole being to the other. When we incline our whole us oblates to have ‘a lovely time’, but was surely to give being to others, when we pay real attention to them, us a sense of the wider Benedictine family to which we when we really listen to them with both our ears and belong and to focus our minds and hearts on the nature heart – rather than putting ourselves in the centre – our of Oblate vocation, a vocation which one of our Sisters thoughts, opinions, advice, solutions – we may just... described as ‘prophetic’, for at a time when monastic just... recognise that Other who dwells within them. vocations are decreasing, those of the lay oblate are increasing. Within this general objective, however, the As oblates we are mindful of the wisdom of St. Benedict specific one to be addressed at this Second World when he begins his Rule with the instruction to listen: Congress was entitled ‘The religious challenges in the ‘Listen carefully, my child, to my instructions, and attend to world today – the Benedictine answer’. This was a tall them with the ear of your heart’. The importance of listening order; at the end of our week could we even begin to permeated all our talks and discussions on inter-religious think we came up with ‘an answer’... or to even begin the dialogue: the need to listen receptively and not process of finding an answer; is it that ‘answers’, like judgmentally; to listen, not in order to negotiate or fruit, will grow slowly from good stock? First of all, of compete but to contemplate the other, an oblate from course, we need to understand the question. Hawaii, spoke of a beautiful phrase used in her culture, that of ‘listening with fourteen hearts’. The brief we were given stated that the societies in which we now find ourselves living are becoming ever more multi- Opening our hearts and listening to others, of course, ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious, as a result of which tends to soften – to expand - the heart and it makes us Christianity is challenged to open itself to a new situation which vulnerable; might it be that society – Christians in society contains an ‘other’, meaning, that which was formerly distant, - may see risk in this sort of dialogue with the fear of is now living on the same floor. We are now facing the ‘isms’ getting the upper hand -relativism, syncretism, challenge – and frequently the fear – of ‘difference’; who secularism and indifferentism - resulting in the view that is this ‘other’? The ‘our’ in the Our Father is brought it’s less risky to keep up a defensive and insular front... or home to us in a very tangible way which we might not a low profile, battening down the hatches. Such concerns have thought about that much in the past when churches are surely born out of the fear that comes from not really did not live side-by-side with mosques and temples and knowing our own identity as Christians; there is council literature did not come translated in all those therefore a real need for us to know the tenets of our ‘strange and squiggly’ languages; we are now jolted into faith and ‘the reason for our hope’ (1 Peter 3:15-16), and having to consider who ‘our’ means... who is our to be firm and confident in following Him who is ‘the neighbour, whose neighbour am I, and are our attitudes way, and the truth and the life’ (John 14:6); with such consonant with the Gospel precept of universal ‘armour’ we surely have nothing to lose but everything to brotherhood? gain.

We need to address the realisation that ‘we’ are not the So, how may we build those bridges and break down the centre of the universe – that others have received gifts walls which separate us so as to build this ‘civilisation of from God; this we may ‘know’ in our minds... but how love’? Many thoughts were shared by our keynote do we know it and ‘live’ it in our hearts, in the depth of speakers of the different faiths and by oblates, but I our being... how are we to live and love as brothers and would like to focus on the practice of contemplative sisters to those who are ‘different’, to those who worship prayer – or meditation - as presented by Dom Laurence at different altars – both religious and secular? How, it Freeman, seeing it as a tool which enables us to incline was asked, are we to build bridges and break down walls our whole being to recognise the presence of God which keep us separate and perhaps suspect of those dwelling in the other, a tool whereby we may both come who are ‘not the same as us’? How are we to envisage to know the beauty of our own identity but not let our and build a ‘civilization of love’ which was the dream of own ‘me-ness’, ego – blot out God and the other. (1) Pope Paul VI? As Benedictines we pray the Divine Office which is Our brief put forward the hope that this dream could be essentially vocal prayer, that is, mental, and St Benedict is realised by Benedictine oblates setting out together on the prescriptive as to how to do this in twelve minutiae-filled 8 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! chapters, we, as oblates, praying it as we can, in the may recognise Him dwelling in those who are, after all, circumstances of our lives. Indeed Benedict’s ‘minimum not so different from us after all... for we are all made in Rule for beginners’ is filled with minutiae; it may seem His image; in ‘knowing’ this in our hearts and minds we pernickety but in reality it contains the essence of a may indeed go forward positively to build that beautiful spiritual teaching. It provides the means to get civilization of love. along with others and to live regulated - and balanced - lives in which ‘good zeal’ may be practiced which leads I had a lovely time at the Congress... and I unexpectedly to preferring ‘nothing whatever to Christ’ (ch.72), this discovered …… ‘the pearl of great price’... preference enabling his followers to ‘walk in his paths by the guidance of the Gospel’ (Prologue), ‘that in all things Sue Thomson, U K., God may be glorified’ (ch. 57). The Rule, then, provides Email : [email protected] the optimum conditions for contemplative prayer, ______Benedict alluding to this in his last chapter (ch. 73) when he points to the teaching of the holy Fathers. The Rule (1) For a transcript of Fr Laurence’s talk, ‘The puts ‘stuff’ into place; it surely puts the ego in place, that Contemplative Oblate Today’, go to www.wccm.org. which grows big and becomes out of hand so that we fill (2) One of our speakers reflected on a Buddhist’s the big picture and not God or others –others who are perception of the Cross in Western Christianity as being ‘different’ to us - members of our own communities, an upright, representing ‘I’, that is ‘me, me, me’, with the parishes or families... or, in the context of our theme, crossbeam being ‘your boss, Jesus, who came to cut your those of different colours or creeds or customs.(2) ‘I’ off’... (3) On different expressions of prayer, vocal, meditation This is not the place for a thesis on what constitutes and contemplative, see the Catechism, nos. 2700-2724

‘contemplative prayer’; (3) what does seem plain though is that we have to exercise self-discipline so as to put ourselves into the position that we might contemplate and that is the work - the ascesis - of meditation. Fr Laurence’s teaching is in the Christian monastic tradition of the desert, of Cassian, referred to by St Benedict, and recovered by Dom John Main; it is simple... we only need to withdraw, sit still, be silent and say our sacred word interiorly for 30 minutes, twice a day, every day. In meditation we don’t measure our ‘success’; we put ourselves aside and enter that poverty of spirit where we come to union with Christ, where we are ‘all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28), whatever our religion, culture or ethnicity.

We might baulk at such a practice for it is demanding; ‘what, sit still...what a luxury to be able to do that, when will I find time in my busy life...it’s alright for monks and nuns who have a timetable which allows for such...’ we might say, except we who know something of life in Paula Holmes, Trish Panton and Sue Thomson monasteries know that the framework might be in place at Montecassino but it’s no easier, there are always things to do and minds are full of clutter. There will always be tension between ‘doing’ and ‘being’; nobody’s life can be completely contemplative, the question is, how do we integrate these strands? If Martha has been called ‘the saint of stress’ Door to Silence. John Main OSB - “By a strange paradox, as because her anxiety over ‘doing’ lead to fragmentation, we journey into the infinite space of God’s being we we may surely look to St Benedict as ‘the saint of come closer to one another. True communion depends integration’ because of his balanced way, and so we, as on people plumbing the depths of their own being, oblates, seriously seeking Christ, have to seek balance, knowing themselves, and then revealing themselves live our lives ‘in the world’ but take time away, to known. Love is fulfilled in the revealing of our true self withdraw. to another who is equally real.”

In conclusion, any ascetic practice we take on must surely have only one aim, ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus – “that in all things God may be glorified” (ch. 57), and if, in integrating meditation into our lives, we are able to be centres of contemplation in which we rest in God, we

9 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010!

before seemed to have been a preparation for this. I felt Houston Oblate Community a deep inner joy within at having come to this moment.

He gave gifts…so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4

On January 3, in the dark stillness of the New Year, WCCM Oblates in Houston gathered to begin again as a Community of Love. Each Oblate responded to the question, “What gift do you want to bring into the world in 2010?”

How would you have answered this question? Here are our responses. We want to:

! be at peace; to love what is. ! discern through stillness and listening deeply ! be filled with joy ! love ! love even more ! become; to find our own voices ! be present, sometimes in absence ! wait and to accept not knowing ! reach out and bring others to meditation ! be spontaneous channels of life ! be stubbornly hopeful

As we give these gifts to the world, God gives them to us. May all who receive these gifts, and all who use them do so to the praise of His glory as we grow in Unity and the grace-filled goodness of Oblate Comm-Unity.

Carole Keating - Houston, Texas, USA Email: [email protected] Niloufer Harben , Selangor, Malaysia Email: [email protected]

The Oblate Path – My First Step Final Oblation In taking the first step of postulancy on the first September, 2009, I felt blessed indeed to be making this When I began the process of exploring a call to Oblation commitment within our meditation group that meets within The WCCM it came as a bit of a surprise. I say weekly at St Mary's Cathedral, Kuala Lumpur. that because as an Anglican Parish Priest I thought I had fulfilled my ‘vocation’. Of course in one sense I had; but As we've been gathering to meditate for over a decade, I also realised, some years on, that something still felt to their presence and support meant a lot. The music that be missing. led us into the time of meditation, Raag Pahadi, played on the bansuri (bamboo flute) struck a deep chord within In thinking about the term 'oblation' as an offering, it me. Poignantly registering the call of the Divine, it spoke spoke to me of being called to 'offer' my life to God in a also of an indelible spiritual connection with India, the particular way. I realised quite soon that the path of country of my birth, where meditation and interior Christian meditation, The Rule of St. Benedict and the silence are at the heart of the contemplative life. After process of oblation was touching something I had not meditation, I read the words from the Postulant Chart felt before. and then signed it in front of the group. It felt like the culmination of many steps. So much that had happened Early in the process of postulancy I spoke to my mentor about how I felt it had filled a space in me that was empty. She responded by saying: "perhaps you were 10 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! previously full of empty things and in learning, now what wasn't so clear once, that they are (and practicing) a way of emptying yourself you make complimentary to one another. I believe they have space for Him to get closer to you, and to love you in the awakened in me a new vigor to live these as fully as I am way that brings a richer meaning to all other loving able. relationships." I know I have grown, and continue to do so, in my I feel that has spoken true of things for me throughout understanding about community. Being part of this this whole time leading to making my final oblation. I community has helped me to understand how I can believe the practice of meditation in the tradition of The relate to communities in general more fully. It has WCCM; The Rule of St. Benedict and the process of opened me to the relationships in the community oblation has been giving new life to me and has allowed connected with my work life. I don't say those me to open the way for God to come closer and so relationships are always easy, but that's part of the issue enrich so many different aspects of life, including my of working at community life. I know this will benefit me vocation as a priest. both in my working role but also in my daily life with all my relationships. I have certainly felt whilst testing my call to oblation that I have had tremendous support from my mentor and the Through all of this the path to oblation has given me a meditation community in general. I am conscious of the newness and an experience I want to share with others. difficulty I have of getting to events due to my work role It may not always be that they want to hear it yet but I and often the long distances for the events which would am keen to help them feel and experience something I mean needing to take time out which is simply not believe has brought freshness to my spiritual journey. normally available. However, I have felt that this gap has I continue to follow my practice of meditation and to been bridged by the contact I have had with my mentor follow the Rule of St Benedict and the working out of and others at the oblate days in December. I am aware I my commitment to Obedience, Stability and Conversion as may be fortunate in having had a positive experience of fully as I can. Making the step to full oblation is for me support from my mentor but I have certainly felt that the culmination and affirmation of all I have and am she has always been encouraging and affirming whilst committed to. making me think and reflect on the necessary areas Stephen Gott relating to oblation. It has been helpful to exchange Email: [email protected] email correspondence and to be able to ask advice or her thoughts where there were issues of concern. It has been ! a really positive part of the process for me in aiding me to think seriously and deeply about the call to oblation and what that has meant. Silent Meditation Retreat

I feel it has been good to be able to share and exchange Led by Laurence Freeman OSB thoughts and reflections in an open way. There has always felt to be a sense of working at this together, and Giovanni Felicioni which I feel is how it should be. Rather than it being a matter of one side ‘having the answers’ and ‘testing’ me Saturday 5 June – Saturday 12 June, 2010 to see if I passed; instead it felt that it was a shared RETURN TO THE CENTRE experience and we were exchanging thoughts and Theme: working through issues together, supporting and helping Fr. Laurence will lead the retreat with a daily conference one another. I really believe the mentor approach is of and evening contemplative Eucharist. Giovanni Felicioni immense value to the work of the oblate community. will lead daily yoga. This humane, typically Benedictine balance is blessed by the beauty of the setting and the During my time of pondering oblation I have learned friendship of the monastic community with whom the much about letting go of self; though I know only too night prayer peacefully concludes each day. well there is a great deal more of self to let go of. I believe I have grown in my understanding of patience as The brochure with full details and registration form may I have waited through the process of becoming an be downloaded from - www.wccm.org oblate; something I am sure will be good news to many people who I work and live with. As a parish priest I was Further information email - [email protected] or familiar with oaths of obedience but have come to value the concept as much about mutual obedience as that of phone +44 ( 0 ) 20 7278 2070 authorative obedience. The value of course is in mutual respect. At the same time I have learned so much about stability and conversion. I love the contrast between stability and conversion. Yet at the same time how they open up to each other and bring each other alive. I see 11 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! A Reflection - My Final Oblation in the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in one of her sonnets: June 7, 2008 “First time he kissed me, he but only kissed I began this journey of Studying the Rule of St. Benedict The fingers of this hand wherewith I write; on December 2, 2006. Since then I have tried to remain And ever since, it grew more clean and white.” faithful to the daily readings and meditation, and I have conscientiously worn the St. Benedict medal each day as So too, the language of our spiritual life is a language of a reminder of my commitment. symbols:

Today, Don has asked me to say a few words and I “You have called us to find freedom in a love that knows no would like to begin by reading a prayer from the bounds.” Benedictine Daily Prayer: A Short Breviary - This love is like the ocean. It is like the prairie. It is like “Lord God, you have created us in your own image, to find freedom feeling we have in a relationship in which we are treated in a love that knows no bounds. Lead us further today along this tenderly and with respect, in which we are loved and path of freedom, to which you call us, through Jesus, your beloved we’d like to go on in such a relationship forever. God’s Son our Lord.” love is like that.

What does freedom in a love that knows no bounds look I would like to share one brief story about hands as like? symbols – I worked in courts and prisons and on the street for Ocean - I grew up by the sea. I am used to seeing the several years, nearly 25 years ago. One day I met a man ocean as far as my eyes could sea. It was a great expanse named John. He had been doing 30 days in the old of water with no bounds. I appreciate, sometimes with Nicholas Street Jail. Previously he had been in Kingston tears, how John Masefield felt when he wrote: Pen for several years for blowing up banks. “I must go down to the sea again, the lonely sea and the sky, I invited John home for dinner before he went to stay at And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” the Salvation Army. There is such a freedom when I am there that Jean, my We were sitting in my living room and my young son, wife, observes, “You are different when you are here.” John, who was then three years old, came into the room. Prairie - In 1955 I spent the summer in Saskatoon and He stopped momentarily when he saw the stranger but visited 850 homes in a new sub-division and helped in big John held out his hands and arms and John went to starting a new congregation. The home where I lived him. The presence of my young son brought forth looked out over a vast field of wheat. Wheat as far as the tenderness in this bank buster and big John’s extended eye could see. hands brought forth trust in my young son. I was very touched by this experience. Remember the words of the old song: Finally, in the Anglican Eucharist there are words I have Oh give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above, said hundreds of times: “And here we offer and present unto Don’t fence me in. you ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy and Let me ride through the wide open spaces that I love, living sacrifice... Don’t fence me in. Kneeling in the pew I always said these words with my Yes, indeed, we all long for freedom in a love that knows hands outstretched in offering. In a sense I have offered no bounds, pictured here by the ocean and the prairie. myself to God many times in this way and obviously he took me up on it, too. In my earlier years I worked with children a lot and enjoyed teaching them choruses about the spiritual life. E.M. Forster once said, “We must be willing to let go of the life One of them had the following words: we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

Wide, wide, as the ocean, High as the heaven above, Today, that is where I stand. I am ready and willing to Deep, deep, as the deepest sea, is my Saviour’s love. continue to study and live by the Rule with its intention I, though so unworthy, still am a child of his care, to guide me in study of sacred writings, of worship and For his word teaches me, that his love reaches me, to work in this Community of Love in making real here Everywhere. the Kingdom of God.

Clearly, the language of our feelings is a language of Ron Dicks – Ottawa, Canada. Email: symbols. Catch the depth, the sacredness of relationship, [email protected]

12 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010!

that we should graciously accept your resignation now that the time has come for it.”

Don began meditating in 1979 and started the first group in Ottawa in 1980 and they continue to meet. In May of 1981 Don was received as an oblate by Fr. John. After the Priory closed Don began organising meetings for the local oblate community and continued in this role then became the national oblate coordinator in late 2005 when Hilda Frost OSB resigned.

At the John Main Seminar held in in 2007 I was delighted to meet Don after communicating with him via email for nearly five years. As our emails went back and forth I knew I could rely on Don’s experience, Final Oblation - L to R Ron being received by willingness and generous spirit. Don Myrick I was sorry for Don and Therese when Don informed me that it was time for him to step down. I’m most Canada grateful for having worked with Don and wish him and Therese every blessing. Yesterday 12 Oblates of Ottawa met with Don Myrick, Coordinator for Canada, to welcome Alan and Sandra Fr. Laurence asked Polly Schofield if she would take on Dickinson, of Kanata (near Ottawa) as oblate novices. this role and she has graciously accepted. Polly and her Alan and Sandra have been meditating for some time husband Mark were among the first oblates of the and were very happy to be taking this step. They community in the early days of the priory in Montreal. discerned their call to oblation with their mentor, Marian The Canadian community will continue to be nurtured Charbonneau. Over the years Marian has been a faithful and I look forward to working with Polly. Trish Panton and committed mentor for many meditators discerning their vocation to the oblate way of life.

BOOK CORNER

JOHN MAIN The Expanding Vision CHARLES TAYLOR, PETER NG, SARAH BACHELARD, YVON THEROUX AND OTHERS Edited by LAURENCE FREEMAN OSB and STEFAN REYNOLDS

This book evolved from the proceedings of the 2007 John Main Seminar, organised by the Montreal Alan & Sandra with Don and Marian Community. By re-presenting Christ’s call to renounce the desire for power by embracing simple poverty of Ron Dicks spirit, John Main’s teaching shows us how to remain Email: [email protected] spiritually alive personally, and to breathe new life into tired religious language and structures. A quarter of a Oblate Coordinator - Canada century after his death, John Main: The Expanding Vision celebrates a remarkable legacy of spiritual teaching for Because of illness in his family, Don Myrick has found it our times. necessary to step aside as coordinator of the Canadian oblate community. The following tribute to Don by Fr. Together, the contributors reveal both why John Main’s Laurence speaks for those of us who knew and worked influence and vision has expanded so widely and deeply, with Don over many years: and why it continues to be so profoundly relevant to a world in search of peace, unity and the true “You have cared for and led the oblate community in understanding of human wealth. Canada very generously and wisely over the years. We are all immensely appreciative of that and it is only right 13 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! IN LOVING MEMORY In her commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, Joan Chittister captures this beautifully when she says, ! “Benedictine simplicity gentles us into the arms of God. Benedictine community supports us on the way to God. “When someone we love dies and when we experience Benedictine balance makes a wholesome journey their dying we return to our own living with a clearer and possible.” Amen. purer perception of the true perspective of life simply because we have participated in the death of one we love Carole Keating – Houston, Texas, USA – in a death of a part of ourselves. Email: [email protected] And death itself, especially the death of someone we have loved, teaches us what love teaches us. It reveals to us that the more deeply we love and enter into communion, so the more radically we must become detached and non-possessive.”

Community of Love: “Death - The Inner Journey”. John Main OSB

We Loved June Goodbye June and Bill On October 5, 2009, June Holly entered into the full presence of God. Diana Halloran Her death was the peaceful end that she and Bill had always talked about. It was what Fr. Laurence Freeman 27th November 1943 – 18th September 2009 would call a “good death”. The New Zealand Meditation and Oblate Community June always welcomed each of us and made SPACE for have been mourning the loss of Diana Halloran, Oblate each of us and there was always a sense that there was and Auckland Meditation Regional Co-ordinator, who more space if needed. As June became increasingly died on 18th September 2009. fragile, we, her Oblate community, drew closer, giving love and support to her and to each other. We stayed in Diana was one of those people who was so ready for close contact via e-mail and telephone. meditation that when she joined the Massey parish group in West Auckland, from day one she didn’t look back. On Sunday October 4, in her hospital room, we gathered She began praying the Liturgy of the Hours about ten around June for the last time. We made a circle that years ago and when Fr. Laurence received her Final included June in her bed. We meditated together, June’s Oblation in 2005 both meditation and the Divine Office breath being the only audible sound. We celebrated were a regular part of her life. When I came to the Eucharist, after which each person went to her with a parish in 2004 she asked if she could join me in teaching touch, a hug, with personal words lovingly whispered meditation at our parish school, and this became her real into her ear. As one of us said, “We loved June love. goodbye.” In June 2008 Diana experienced the death of her fourth We trust that the experience of companioning our sister daughter, Tiffany, and it was the courage and openness and friend to the end of her life was comforting to her, with which she bore this loss that demonstrated the real but what we know for sure is that it has been comforting fruits of her meditation practice. She made no secret of and transformative for us. Our experience with June has that. At the time of her daughter’s death she herself had turned our grief into gratitude, and it has crystallized our been diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent community, which is exactly what June would have surgery immediately afterwards. The cancer reappeared wanted. It has also created a deep sense of her in the first quarter of 2009 but she remained active till continued spiritual presence with us. the end. My lasting memory of her was at the National Catholic Education Convention, where we were giving a Furthermore, it has given us a deeper understanding of seminar on meditation with children; the purpose of this our Oblate commitment: We live together and we die work, she said, was to offer the children the opportunity together. In community, we love each other in this life of a real relationship with Christ. Diana had little formal and, finally, we love each other into the arms of God. education but she had no difficulty in speaking to diverse

14 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! groups of people about the significance of this work, trust that it was part of God’s plan for her. Throughout such was her love for it. Mary’s life, her faith was a predominant theme and she was an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist in both One of the particular elements of the oblate Tasmania and The Entrance. Mary took her commitment is: “A sharing in some way in the work of commitment to Oblation seriously and was involved in the community to pass on the Christian tradition of the teaching of meditation and forming groups with meditation”. To offer children the opportunity of a real Ernest, where ever they lived. relationship with Christ was Diana’s gift to New Zealand. Diana is being sadly missed. RIP. Mary entered Eternal Life surrounded by the love and comfort of her family. Mary is survived by her husband Peter Murphy, New Zealand Ernest, and their seven children, twenty three Email: [email protected] grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

Ernest Lindfield, The Entrance, NSW, Australia. Email: [email protected]

Diana Halloran Mary and Ernest

Mary Lindfield . 21st November 1928 – 25th November 2009 EDITORIAL In 2009 we mourned the loss of three women of faith Mary was born in the London suburb of Islington, and commitment. They were great role models for us. In coincidentally in the same locality as St. Mark’s expressing our gratitude for having known them Myddelton Square. personally, or through hearing/reading of their work, we Mary started meditating in 1986 with her husband Ernest hold all whom they loved and who loved them, in prayer. when they were living in Tasmania. They found It was indeed a wonderful experience to have Fr. Christian meditation via a correspondence course on Laurence speak at the Congress. The conversations John Cassian and another on the “Cloud of around the table with him at meal times afterwards were Unknowing”. Mary opened up her home to others who appreciated for their teaching opportunities as well as wished to meditate with them. At the time of leaving their social aspect. His departure came all too soon, as Tasmania for New South Wales in 1999 there were some delegates were still hoping to meet with him. active meditation groups in Devonport, Sorrell and Wynyard. Carole Keating is now easing into the role of coordinating the Houston Oblate Community tended by In 1992 Mary and Ernest attended the National Forum June Holly over many years. We thank Carole for in Melbourne and in time were drawn to the oblate path. accepting this role and offer her our prayerful support. They were both received as oblate novices in 1995 and Fr. Laurence received their Final Oblation at Monte The generosity of Sue Thomson in allowing me to Oliveto in June 1996. Shortly after Ernest was include the article she wrote for her oblate community at appointed as the first Australian oblate Coordinator, and Prinknash Abbey is much appreciated. Sue was one of as in all their enterprises, Mary supported Ernest in this the delegates from the U K who unexpectedly found ‘the role unstintingly until her health declined in 2001. Prior pearl of great price’. New friendships formed through to that, Mary was actively involved in the meditation common bonds bring their own life, energy and joy. groups they had started at The Entrance, just north of Sydney. When Mary was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s With love and peace, Trish Mary responded to this news with a calm acceptance and 15 Benedictine Oblate Newsletter - No. 11 - January 2010! OBLATE JANUARY!2010! !! COORDINATORS EDITOR: ! Trish Panton U.S.A.: Greg Ryan P.O. Box 555 Email: [email protected] Pennant Hills, NSW Australia 1715 U.K.: Eileen Dutt Tel +61 2 9489 1780 Email: [email protected] Mobile: +61 409 941 605 NEW ZEALAND: Hugh McLaughlin Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] ITALY: Devis Maccarelli AUSTRALIAN DESIGN: Email: [email protected] Leon Milroy IRELAND: Rowena O'Sullivan PO Box 246 Email: [email protected] Uralla NSW 2358 Email: [email protected] CANADA: Polly Schofield Email: [email protected] Visit the Community’s Website at: BRAZIL: Carlos Siqueira http://www.wccm.org Email : !"#$o%@wccm.com.br Be sure to visit the Oblate pages regularly updated by Greg Ryan. !!!!!!!!!!AUSTRALIA and INTERNATIONAL"!!! Australia’s Website is on Trish Panton http://www.christianmeditationaustralia.org Email: [email protected] !!

Please notify the Oblate Coordinator in your country if you have changed any of your contact details. !! !!

CONTACT DETAILS “The journey into the God who is Love cannot be Each oblate coordinator or their delegate does their followed in isolation. We cannot pre-determine the utmost to keep accurate records of their respective itinerary of our pilgrimage or the conditions of our oblate communities. It is so disheartening when emails commitment. Indeed when we find ourselves planning are returned and even more so when copies of Via Vitae our inner journey, steering a course so as to catch the are ‘returned to sender’. sights on the way, it is a good sign that we have yet to take our hand off the wheel. We have yet to let the God- All we ask is, could you please inform your oblate driven direction reveal itself. We have not yet placed our coordinator, listed above, if there are any changes to centre of consciousness outside of ourselves. your contact details. If you do this by email, could you Community is the context in which we learn to do this. please cc to me also. For those not connected to the We learn directly about the truth and power of other- internet, perhaps you could ask someone from the centredness. Fidelity to the community is our loving community to send an email on your behalf if you do not openness and freedom with others. It is the complement have the phone number or postal address of your to our fidelity to the mantra. It is all about generous, coordinator. magnanimous poverty of spirit.

In our monastery without walls, it is essential to keep Monastery Without Walls: The Spiritual Letters of John Main. connected. Please spare a minute or two to ensure that Edited by Laurence Freeman OSB, Ch. 6 your contact details are up to date………………Trish !!

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