New Camaldoli Hermitage SPRING 2018 In Fire and Flood “Human kindness is seldom released so reflexively as when we’re brought together by suffering.” Pico Iyer, “Loving What Lasts” 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com In This Issue Elements of Transformation: An 2 Elements of Transformation: An Overview Overview Lisa Benner, Oblate OSB Cam Lisa Benner, Oblate OSB Cam 3 Loving What Lasts Pico Iyer This past year was one of life-changing extremes in several arenas. Intense weather caused destruction and devastation. 5 Climate Change: A Christian Perspective Regions of our country and parts of this world experienced Matt Fisher, Oblate OSB Cam record breaking high and low temperatures. Heavy rain, which would ordinarily have been welcome in drought-stricken 6 The Anthropocene and the Incomprehensible areas, ravaged the west coast and carved permanent new Holy Mystery Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam features into the landscape. We learned new terms like “atmospheric river” and “bomb cyclone” which had to be 7 What’s Next for Big Sur? quickly understood to navigate safety and survival. Hurricanes (an interview with Magnus Torén) ravaged parts of the country, provoking apocalyptic fear. Fires seemed to come out of nowhere. Up and down the 8 Christian Aid Ministries Jerri Hansen California coast horrific wildfires wrought havoc. Destructive flames danced and jumped into towns, neighborhoods, vine- 9 After the Fire Dennis Maloney yards, and valleys. In other parts of the world earthquakes, fire and rising sea water decimated whole communities. 10 Reflections on Fire and Flood Those impacted by these catastrophic events could only hope for reprieve and continue to pray for help. Even those 13 We Got Through—with a Lot of Help from Our not directly affected felt their helplessness to stem the tide Friends Fr. Robert Hale, OSB Cam of upheavals that seemed relentlessly to rise. 13 Liminality and the Great Benedictine Vows Not only has fire and flood wrought devastating loss in the Mike Mullard, Oblate OSB Cam landscape, but also other tempests and upheavals have tormented and divided our nation politically and socially. 14 Upcoming Events Political positions have hardened, rifts widened, violent anger reared its ugly head in public life. Now it seems we 14 Activities and Visitors are a nation and a world reeling and wounded, struggling to cope and to make sense of sudden world-rocking change. 15 What the Monks Are Reading And yet Scripture tells us that fire can be revelatory, transfor- mative, cleansing, triumphant. Moses heard the voice of God Special Thanks to Deborah Smith Douglas speaking from the burning bush; Jesus promised to bring fire to the earth; Wisdom assures us that the souls of the righ- After four years of dedicating so much time, passion, teous shall run like sparks through the stubble. The world integrity, wit, creativity, and her own substantial lost much in the Great Flood, but Noah saved a remnant to literary gifts to serving as lead editor of this newsletter, begin life anew and received God’s promise of redemption. Deborah is stepping away now in order to dedicate more time to her family, to her own writing, and to Where and when have we known floods and fires in our other projects of great importance to her. During own inner or outer lives? Perhaps you have had to contend her leadership, this newsletter has become more with an actual flood or fire. Or maybe you have lost a job or of a journal—with a specific and substantial thematic a relationship or have been plunged into financial crisis. Or focus each issue, a wider range of contributing perhaps it was a crisis of faith that shook you to your core. voices, and a simultaneously more robust and more artful outlook in general. Deborah’s last issue How does this translate to our lives? Are we able to prepare as lead editor, “Poetry and Prayer”—a particularly for the potential disasters in our lives by taking Noah’s lead personally important theme for her—was so well and relying on God and further trusting the Divine to show received it required a reprinting. us the way? When we feel overwhelmed and things are out of control, are we able to remember the stillness of that Deborah, as editor, creative cohort, and friend, has burning bush—silently persevering in the heat but safely been a complete delight to work with, and we will contained by God? miss her dearly. At the same time, Lisa Benner steps in graciously and generously with her own gifts to become the newsletter’s new lead editor. Where in this devastation is there hope for new life? As in the paschal mystery, from death comes new Life. Where 2 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage can we find new vitality after the flood waters have cleared, after the fires have been extinguished, after the relationship Loving What Lasts has been restored or left behind? May we allow ourselves Pico Iyer to enter into the resurrection of Jesus to renew our faith and hope in God’s transforming purposes for our lives. I climbed all the way up the mountain to where our family home had been—for thirty-three years—and found nothing In these pages you will find inspiring words of hope and but ash. Statues were debris, my parents’ cars were husks. ideas to challenge and perhaps enlighten new thoughts. I’d actually been in the house the previous night as the Matt Fisher provides a Christian point of view on the urgent flames surged down from a far-off valley, to encircle our issue of climate change. Pico Iyer warmly invites us into an home, moving at seventy miles per hour; soon, stranded experience of loss and the blessed dichotomy of discovery, on the narrow road underneath the three-story structure, too. Prior Cyprian’s essay about the Anthropocene gently I was watching the fire pick through my bedroom, our reviews the past and current choices made by humans newly built library, every physical thing we owned. By the and the impacts of these choices—reminding us of “the time the evening was over, more than 450 houses had holy mystery that is the center of our being human, pres- been reduced to nothing, in what was then the worst fire suring us to evolve to spirit and participate in divinity, that in California history. we really become human.” Chris Lorenc interviews Henry Miller Memorial Library executive director Magnus Torén in a discussion about the recent devastating losses in Big Sur which were both personally felt and also have brought the region closer together. They ponder what the next steps are for this wild coastland. We can root ourselves in what’s beyond ourselves—beyond all As the new editor-in-chief of our newsletter, I’d like to thank Debo- comprehension—and what rah Smith Douglas for her diligent and eloquent contributions over the last years. She served as editor-in-chief with grace and style, endures, or we can found our and I am honored to carry the torch which she has passed to me. hopes and lives on what can too I am thrilled to begin this new role with this dynamic team. This newsletter has been lovingly cared for, and I hope to continue the often prove tiny and perishable, fine work as conscientiously. A little about me…I live in a suburb at the mercy of the elements. of Phoenix, Arizona. For the last 18 years I have been working as a therapist in the addictions and mental health field. I am an oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage and always love visiting my spiritual home at the Hermitage. I am also a certified spiritual director and teach meditation classes at my parish. – Lisa Benner In time I would come to see that being stripped to the boneWe toothbrush I bought from an all-night supermar- ket that night became my only possession—was not a ter- rible thing. Starting over gave me the chance to do what I might always have been too shy or scared to do otherwise: live with fewer things, take myself to the country that had claimed my heart (Japan), attempt in fiction what was no God is our refuge and strength, longer possible in non-fiction, as my notes for my next eight an ever-present help in trouble. years of writing were gone. After I wrote an article about the fire, a torrent of support from strangers across the Therefore we will not fear, globe all but overwhelmed me, as unmet friends sent along though the earth give way good wishes and doll’s house furnishings and crumpled and the mountains fall into fifty-rupee notes. I was reminded that human kindness is seldom released so reflexively as when we’re brought the heart of the sea. together by suffering. Psalm 46: 1-2 Yet what also struck me as we began to remake our lives, and our home, was that everything we could replace— books, furniture, clothes—was, by definition, worth very little; and whatever was worth anything—our photos, my notes, that bear my parents had given me when I was two—could never come back. Eight months later, seeing me sleep for weeks on a friend’s floor, a thoughtful friend suggested I go to the place where contemplation.com ~ 3 he took his high-school classes every spring: a Benedictine rebuild. Every time I returned to the Big Sur chapel, an hermitage three hours to the north, called New Camaldoli. empty chair reminded me of a new absence.