Nch Spring 2014

Camaldolese Monks, OSB a quarterly newsletter New Camaldoli Hermitage Spring 2014 • Vol. 20, Issue 2 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831-667-2456 • www.contemplation.com Brother Cassian Begins Novitiate, Other Formation and Vocation News traveling around Egypt and conversing with celebrated monks, gleaning all their Fr. Isaiah T e ichert, OSB Cam. wisdom and writing it down. His Conferences were called by Abbot Butler “the first considerable scientific exposition ever composed on the spiritual life, and it remains to this day in many respects the finest and best.” In the last chapter of his rule, St. Benedict urges the monks to read Cassian’s works. We also have a fine man from Louisiana with us on observership presently, John Bick, who is a highly accomplished chess master and carpenter. So the Lord is blessing us with fine men eager to try our life, and for this we are grateful. Br. James Makil became a novice on February l2th, the feast of St. Bruno Boniface. At that time he received the monastic habit and a new name: Cassian. The novitiate clothing ceremony is a solemn and beautiful one. The new name (a closely guarded secret up to that time) is announced to the assembly, and then each piece of the habit is blessed, and the postulant is clothed with them. So, for example, with the tunic, the prior says, “May the Lord clothe you with the new person, created in the likeness of God, in righteousness and holiness.” With the cincture (belt) he prays, “May the Lord gird the loins of your body and strengthen in the Gospel the resolve of your heart.” Each piece of clothing is deeply symbolic, and the prior proceeds to invest with the scapular, which represents the Lord’s easy yolk, and the hood which stands for the hope of salvation. A young neighbor, watching all this, said the next morning, “It was wonderful to see Br. James turn into a monk.” F r . I saiah serves as our vocations direc- tor as well as guestmaste r , s o if you or any man is interested in discerning a vocation with us, please contact him at <a href="mailto:[email protected]." target="_blank">[email protected]. </a>St. Cassian, James’ new patron, was a 4th century monk. He is famous for Hermitage Hosts Icon Writing Workshop Sylvia Deck, workshop participant Sixteen students, both intermediate and beginning, participated in a seven-day Icon-Writing Workshop in early March. Their teacher was master iconographer Dmitri Andreyev from the Prosopon School of Iconography which was founded by his father twenty-five years ago. The workshop introduced the students to the ancient RussianByzantine tradition of iconography, using only natural materials, including ground pigments in egg tempera. From the school’s website: “Apprenticeship in this discipline of the hand, mind, and heart can lead beyond technical competence; the method of study promotes the incarnation of the principles of the painting experience into all aspects of one’s life.” <a href="/goto?url=http://www.prosopon-" target="_blank">(www.prosopon- </a>school.org) Participants agreed that the experience affected them profoundly Master iconographer Dmitri Andreyev. on many levels, and many are looking forward to the next workshop March 3-11, 2015 for beginners and March 12- 20 for intermediate students (which is almost full). The subject for next spring’s workshop will be Michael the Archangel. 2 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage The Little Ones Prior Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam. An interesting piece of liturgical trivia appears on Thursday of the 7th week in Ordinary Time Year II. The 1st reading, from the Letter of James (5:1-6: Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Y o ur wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten…), which is on its own cycle, is paired with this reading from the Gospel of Mark (9:41-50), which is also on its own cycle (meaning they are not intentionally chosen to go together): And that is the second part of the moral imperative of the Eucharist that follows from the reception, what Nathan Mitchell calls an “economy of the Eucharist” that we are not free to ignore: to go out and be Eucharist, broken and poured out for the world. What both of these readings also call to mind is how all of us are tied together, indeed how everything is bound together in some way. And that is part of the mystical meaning of the Eucharist. What I look out and see in that moment of realized eschatology is one body, the Body of Christ. And then I need to expand my vision to not only all of us gathered here, but to all the baptized. But not only all the baptized: all of humanity which is in some way “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna,” one body, as Saint Augustine said. But even farther, to all creation I sometimes think the most important word in the Mass What’s interesting to me about that is that those same two readings collide in Year B on the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, when they are also not on the same cycle. If this was not intentionally calculated by the compilers of the Lectionary, which would have taken some manipulation and planning indeed, it still calls to mind the adage that “There are no coincidences with God.” I thought of a story (that I am not sure comes from Greek philosophers or from the monastic tradition) which sort of ties the two together. A man was seen throwing a bag of gold into a well. When he was asked why he would do such a thing he replied, “Better for me to drown it that for it to drown me.” One of the teachings of our late liturgist scholar Cipriano Vagaggini that I liked very much was his application of the four senses of Scripture to the Sacraments. So, just as every Scripture reading can be understood for its literal meaning and symbolic meaning, in its moral sense and its mystical sense, every Sacrament too has a literal meaning, a symbolic meaning, and also a moral meaning. The moral is right at the end––“Go!” which Paul tells us Christ holds together in himself is one body too––‘til God be all in all. Lucien Deiss has a good commentary on this reading from James. He says that, “The Christian religion cannot live solely in the bosom of beautiful liturgical celebrations, sheltered from social problems. Each one, for his or her part, must face and combat [the] ‘structures of sin’ which oppress the poor.”1 In the Letter of James, the problem is not necessarily the riches themselves; it’s the injustice that the rich are committing to gain, shore up or protect their wealth. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts, James scolds. That’s part of the moral meaning of the Eucharist too. Even if we are not necessarily confronted with abject poverty in our backyards, even if it is not our vocation to do active apostolate with the poor, or to involve ourselves with the political sphere, we are still part of a body that is suffering mightily. Pope Francis meaning is the obligation that it implies. And I think this teaching especially applies to the Eucharist: there is a moral imperative in preparation to participate That ache, that itch, and that groan become my prayer for the little ones who have no voice. is the loudest but not the only of the last five popes who have spoken about this strongly. We live in a world where countless people are suffering from injustice, from exploitation, from the greed of in the Eucharist. In order to approach the altar worthily I need to make peace developed nations, from our culpable ignorance. What global- ization in this sense (not in the commercial sense!) could give us is a sense of the human race as one tribe, one body. Even someone who is considered a stalwart of conservatism and classic “old world values” as Pope Benedict XVI wrote as much in his World Peace Day message in 2007, that the human family, “which today is increasingly unified as a result of globaliza- tion, also needs, in addition to a foundation of shared values, an economy capable of responding effectively to the requirements of a common good, which is now planetary in scope.” That too with my neighbor. But even more than that, I need to wash his or her feet, the great choreography that we celebrate on Holy Thursday. Then comes this the amazing moment––I think as a presider in a parish it was always my favorite moment at the Mass––when in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord we raise our arms or join our hands and sing Jesus’ own prayer, the Our Father. Just for a moment, I like to think, this is realized eschatology; this is what the world was meant to be; this is the way God created us to be here, like this, right now. But then we don’t get to stay there. We get sent out. I sometimes think the most important word in the Mass is right at the end––“Go!” 1God ’ s W o rd Is Our Joy, vol. IV, 296. <a href="/goto?url=http://www.contemplation.com" target="_blank">www.contemplation.com 3 </a>from the pages of… Someone sent us this translated excerpt from Dante Allighieri’s Vita Monastica Paradiso, especially beloved of our Italian confereres due to Dante’s mention of Saint Romuald himself [Paradiso 22, 49]. The prior likes to rummage through old copies of our Italian Camaldolese revue called Vita Monastica (“Monastic Life”) to brush up on his Italian as well as to cull material for his Chapter conferences. Especially powerful and moving are the writings of our former Priors General, don Anselmo Giabbani and don Benedetto Calati, who in the mid-20th century were largely responsible for the renewal of the Camaldolese congregation through a ressourcement–return to the sources. We hope to offer some of those pearls of wisdom in each issue. This is don Anselmo writing in 1947 about our Camaldolese stemma, in an article entitled Colombe al calice, “The Doves at the Chalice.” “The Love of God” The love of God, unutterable and perfect flows into a pure soul the way that light rushes into a pure transparent object. The more love that it finds, the more it gives itself; so that, as we grow clear and open, the more complete the joy of loving is. And the more souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love, for mirror-like, each soul reflects the others. …the immolation of Christ is the supreme ideal of the Camaldolese; the thirst of Christ for the glory of the Father and the salvation of his brothers and sisters is its secret and strength; to drink of, to be inebriated with, the blood of Christ, so that others may become inebriated and fall in love with Christ. This thirst gives wings to climb from the cenobium to the hermitage, The Little Ones – Continued from page 2 that is made precisely and solely for Deum vivum sitientibus.* is part of the moral obligation of our participation at the Eucharistic table. and makes them unfold for the supreme flight of love in cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo.** Activity and contemplation meet each other thus and base themselves in all three grades of Camaldolese life; and these two doves nourish themselves on the same vital nectar, on the background of blue which recalls a longing for the homeland: volabo et requiescam.*** Our “preferential option for the poor” comes right from here, right from scripture, right from the example of the life of Jesus who had a special love for “the little ones.” To harm or ignore them is to take a stab at or ignore the very heart of the Gospel. So, we should not come away from the Eucharist satisfied. We now have a moral obligation. When Saint Basil, in his critique of the eremitic tradition, asks his famous rhetorical question, “Hermit, whose feet will you wash?” I don’t think we have to take that as a challenge to leave the mountain and go out into the world. We have the poor in our midst and we serve each other in our poverty. But also, as our Saint Peter Damian reminds us, the Church of Christ is united by such a bond of love that in each member the whole church is present, the church suffering, the church poor, the church persecuted. That’s what I see in the elevated host. After I receive the Body and Blood of Jesus, I am still aching with the rest of the Body, I’m still longing for that full unity, I’m still groaning with the oppressed maybe even more than before, and still itching to do something to gather the body that is still scattered. And I am called to be especially aligned, as Jesus always was, as his cousin James was, with the least, with the poor, with the little ones. At the very least I carry that ache, that itch and that groan to my prayer. Or, maybe it’s better to say, that ache, that itch and that groan become my prayer, my prayer for the little ones who have no voice. *“thirst for the living God” **“I wish to dissolve and be with Christ” ***“I will fly away and be at rest” 4 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Making Nothing Happen Deborah Smith Douglas, Oblate O.S.B., Cam. A monk friend of mine told me recently that the community often get letters from people who have come to the Hermitage on retreat—heart-felt letters thanking them for making possible some enormous transition in—even transformation of—their lives. <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">ness—a depth of silence—that can be the </li><li style="flex:1">ise of deliverance, immediately sending a </li></ul>triumphant message to the king to prepare to get very wet indeed. “In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain” (I Kings 18: 45). beginning of our awareness of God. A “nothing” that can let the healing fountains start. A “nothing” that can allow God to happen within us. Saint Romuald’s “brief rule” recommends the deliberate creation and reception of this spacious “nothing” quite specifically: “Empty yourself,” he urges, “and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, Out of nothing, out of the implacable vast emptiness of the desert sky, a tiny cloud appears. Not a Cecil B. DeMille Technicolor boiling of sudden black thunderheads shot with lightning, but a small, silent change that had to be patiently watched for, had to be recognized for the inconspicuous action of God that it was. Later in the story Elijah must learn to hear the voice of God beyond the calamitous noise of earthquake, wind and fire. Once again, the sign he was waiting for, the message God was sending, was to be found only in waiting, listening, being still, paying attention to small things. Our lives are tyrannized by drama, crowded with urgencies, cacophonous with noise, beyond anything Elijah could have imagined. It is hugely important for us to learn to desire the profoundly counter-cultural “knowledge of nothing.” And there are precious few places left in the world where we can do that. Monasteries offer this priceless gift of “nothing.” At New Camaldoli, what our friend Pico Iyer calls the great blue silence surrounds us on every side. On retreat, we are given the great gift of those fathomless empty skies above the mountain—emptied, as Saint Romuald urged us to empty ourselves, that we might know the purposes of God—emptied as the skies over Mount Carmel that Elijah might receive the promise of redemptive rain. Some letters, for example, are from troubled clergy who came to the Hermitage having decided to leave ministry but who left with quieter hearts, knowing they like the chick who tastes nothing and eats were called instead to stay. Others arrive persuaded that they are helplessly trapped in some difficult situation or relationship, and come to realize their freedom. Sometimes people simply find the strength to bear with unbearable pain. “But,” my monk friend continued in bewildered consternation, “often these letters are from people we don’t know. Sometimes they don’t even sign their names. We haven’t been particularly aware of their presence, much less aware of their struggles. We would have been glad to listen, to offer counsel, to pray with them. But we do nothing, really.” Hopelessly hard-wired English major that I am, these final words resonated in nothing but what his mother brings him.” This is also perhaps akin to the concept of nada, the Spanish word for “nothing” that is at the heart of Carmelite spirituality. “To come to the knowledge of everything,” the 16th century Spanish Carmelite Saint John of the Cross famously advises, “desire the knowledge of nothing.” (As- cent of Mount Carmel, Book I, chapter 13) Discovering—and beginning to desire—the mystical wisdom of this paradoxical “nothing” has occupied contemplatives for centuries. In his diagrammatic rendering of the mystical ascent of the mountain, Saint my mind with a line from the English poet John wrote the word nada not once but W. H. Auden’s poem “In Memory of W. B. Yeats.” seven times above the peak—a lot of nothing, to be sure. And a significant clue Grieving Yeats’ death and celebrating to the mystery of nada. the undying power of his poetry, Auden cryptically stated, “Poetry makes nothing happen.” Despite that apparent declaration of the uselessness of poetry to affect meaningful change in the world, within As a Carmelite, John would have been intimately acquainted with the story in I Kings 18 of Elijah’s own ascent of Mount Carmel, and of his contest with King Ahab and the priests of Baal to see the context of the poem it is clear that that whose god had authority over the rain— “nothing” is not an object but a subject. That “nothing” is not negative, but positive. It is an event; it happens; it is mysteriously alive and powerful. whether Yahweh or Baal had the power to end the devastating drought. Elijah and his servant climb the <ul style="display: flex;"><li style="flex:1">mountain. Elijah bows himself to the </li><li style="flex:1">In that emptiness, we are invited to </li></ul>wait, like Elijah—to see what tiny cloud, full of blessing, might rise from the sea. To listen beneath the earthquake, fire and wind for the still small voice of God. Those people who write letters of thanks to the Camaldolese are, I suspect, thanking the brethren for exactly that “nothing” that they do (thank God) for us all. Later in the poem in fact Auden states ground in an embodied prayer for rain, that poetry is “a way of happening,” and he ends with a rousing charge to poets to “follow right to the bottom of the night,” sending his servant to the top of the mountain to search the sky for the longedfor approaching storm. “There is nothto find and share a specific kind of healing ing,” the servant replies. Again and again and freedom and (yes) worship: to “let the Elijah sends him back to look toward the healing fountain start,” to “teach the free man how to praise.” sea; each time the servant reports that “there is nothing.” This “nothing” that Auden’s poem identifies and celebrates has a lot in common with the “nothing” that Camaldolese hospitality provides. A positive empti- The seventh time, the servant comes back and reports a tiny cloud, “no bigger than a man’s hand,” rising in the distance out of the sea. Elijah recognizes the prom- Making nothing happen—now that is really something. contemplation.com ~ 5 The Reading List We often get asked what the monks are reading these days, so we have decided to let you know. If you are interested in any of these titles please contact Rich Veum, the manager of our bookstore, at rich@ contemplation.com. Lectio Divina: The Christological Reading Fr. Robert: Prayer of the Heart, George Maloney, S.J; The Practice of the Pres- ence of God, (critical edition), Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Fr. Bruno: The Disappearance of God: Five Ninteenth Century Writers, J. Hillis Miller. Then Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.” (Mt 18:21-22) Fr. Thomas: Quo V a dis, Henryk Sien- kiwewicz (latest read); also goes back to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Fr. Isaiah: The Betrothed, Alessandro Manzoni; Witness to Hope: The Biogra- phy of John Paul II, George Weigel. Fr. Zacchaeus: Alter Christus: Saint Paul Speaks to Priests, John J. Gilchrist; Forty Y e ars Behind the W a ll, Fr. M. Raymond, OCSO. In our meditative and prayerful reading of Scripture, we might take the above text as simply an exhortation to us to forgive again and again and again. Indeed, an alternative reading of that last line has not just “seventy-seven times” but “seventy times seven.” That would be 490 times! And in any case the text’s immediate intent is certainly to urge us to never stop forgiving. But there is another reading of the lines, found in the New Testament itself and the Fathers and medieval writings, based on the conviction that Jesus would never lay on us a requirement that he himself would not, first of all, live himself. He “walks the talk.” With this “Christological reading” the text immediately acquires a whole new depth and foundation. It is Christ first of all who is prepared to forgive us again and again and again—without limit. And so with many other texts of the New Testament, such as “go the extra mile,” and “turn the other cheek,” etc. it is Christ who first of all is revealing himself to us in his tender mercy. The Beatitudes are primarily a portrait of Christ himself. So also in the Parable of the Good Samaritan it is Christ who is represented by that caring, merciful figure, etc.

Nch Spring 2014

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