New Camaldoli Hermitage ADVENT/CHRISTMAS 2019 IN THE QUIET 62475 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920 • 831 667 2456 • www.contemplation.com In the Quiet Thoughts from the Editor Lisa Benner, Oblate, OSB Cam. The holidays are upon us! From Thanksgiving to Christmas, In This Issue we experience a blur of gatherings and events, shopping and spending, eating and drinking, perhaps indulging too. 2 Thoughts from the Editor It’s loud and fun, it’s a festive and bright time, and for some Lisa Benner, Oblate, OSB Cam. it’s very chaotic and busy. 4 The Desert, the Silence, and the Mother of Ten Thousand Things In between all of this, Prior Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam. the church offers us this short season of Advent. 6 Into the Quiet A reminder of the need Paula Huston, Oblate, OSB Cam. for quiet, to be still amidst the festivities. 7 Finding Our True Selves in the Poverty of Silence These four weeks lead- Br. Martin Herbek, Novice OSB Cam. ing up to the feast of 9 Seeking Quiet Christmas are tucked in Dr. Greg Giuliano between all the glitter and décor to ask us, to 10 Reflections on Quiet urge us, to ponder and Fr. Raniero, OSB Cam.; John Marheineke, Oblate, OSB Cam.; become quiet. Lorienne Schwenk; Marilyn Buehler, Oblate, OSB Cam. A definition of Advent 12 Oblate Community and Peer Mentoring is “the arrival of a dis- Fr. Steve Coffey, OSB Cam. tinguished person or 13 Development Update Winter 2019 event.” Scripture tells of Jill Gisselere the quest of Mary and Joseph, the journey they 15 Activities and Visitors undertook because they heard and followed the 15 What the Monks Are Reading voice of God. Their Ad- vent began with the deci- sion to heed that voice. Elizabeth and Zechariah, too, had their own ad- vent, awaiting the birth of a baby, a blessing, which they had assumed would never happen for them. Quiet was crucial Cyprian has two new musical projects recently for each to listen and un- released. The first is Hermit, Preacher, Wanderer: derstand the directions Songs and Stories from the Road, which is equal of the Divine. parts songbook, travelogue, and reflections Nativity icon written by Stéphane René on interreligious dialogue, available through A favorite verse of mine, from the Gospel of Luke, is after OCP.org or Amazon.com. The 20 songs are Mary had been visited by the shepherds and heard their also available online as an album or with the stories about her newborn son: “She kept all of these purchase of the book, as well as on Spotify and things and reflected on them in her heart.”1 This speaks the regular downloadable sites. Also available to the contemplative in me. Amidst the major life events is the concert film “Arise, My Love” from a live that had just happened to her, I imagine her sitting quietly performance in June 2018 in Santa Cruz. The pondering all that had been revealed. Perhaps in that time DVD is available through the Hermitage store she was able to be still and be in peace. It evokes an image and digitally at Amazon Prime Video. of serenity and splendor all at once. Thanks for your support! The season of Advent is brief and ends on Christmas when we celebrate the birth of a baby who is light, love, hope, and joy. How will you let Advent invite you in to the quiet? 2 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage contemplation.com ~ 3 Are you willing, amongst the busy schedules and activities, to find quiet time to pause, reflect, and be still? This issue of our newsletter is an invitation to ponder these questions. In his essay, Prior Cyprian shares his recollections from his recent sabbatical. He reflects on his time travelling throughout the desert southwest as well as Italy—a journey rich with moments of quiet. Paula Huston’s thought- ful essay is about a current theme that has impacted many. She eloquently explains the importance of silence and turning to the quiet in all seasons of life, in trials and in triumphs. She gently urges us to remember that God is present and invites us to be still and know. Br. Martin reminds us about the need for quiet and the sacred Seek This relationship between faith and silence. He Take the dark path encourages us about the importance of let- through coastal forest ting go and letting the into a high meadow quiet seep in slowly, where not a single bird sings gently in hopes that nor breaks the pale we begin to live in the blue dome of this day. quiet- deeper each day. Wander past Mother Madrone Greg Giuliano wisely Rooted. Season after season reflects on stillness. her limbs bear and break. Returning to the quiet Watch a single cloud drift and allowing it to pen- while slender grasses bow. etrate our bodies and surroundings, here My box of watercolor then, are we met by the ground of our being. This stillness is clarifying and peace of interest to bees, provoking all at once—a healthy dose of quiet and stillness brushes whisper does a person good! to a slow moving creek. I let this green-blade morning We hope that you are inspired to create your own quiet, to wash over me, live a little more deeply into the silence, and to relish the pool into the bark and root peace found in such places. In the quiet of this season may we all be blessed with moments of sacred silence. In the of my bones, my weary body. quiet of our days may we be filled with profound peace. In the quiet of our lives may we be aware of God’s abundant – Ziggy Rendler-Bregman presence. 1Luke 2:19 contemplation.com ~ 3 There is an evocative verse from the prophet Hosea that The Desert, the Silence, stays with me all the time: I will now allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.2 Remember and the Mother of the Ten “wilderness” and “desert” are interchangeable words in Scripture, and so you will understand if the way I remem- ber it—addressed directly to me—is: I will lead you into Thousand Things the desert with me, and tenderly speak to your heart. I think of the monastic cell in this way: It is both a love chamber Prior Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam. where God speaks to the heart, and a desert, a place of trial and cleansing. Those things always go together, like two sides of a coin. Our solitude is not just a concession to As I write this article I am in the last days introversion. If it were, we could easily fill our aloneness up of my three-month sabbatical. I have with noises and books and trivia. The challenge is to let it ended the sabbatical as I began it, in be a desert, so that it can also be a bridal chamber. solitude, on retreat. As I was planning That is the nugget of scripture that I had on my lips, in this period away from my duties, I kept my mind, and in my heart as I ventured off in early July— telling the brothers and my friends that I I will lead you into the desert with me, and tenderly speak to your heart—driving through the Mojave Desert, then was “craving heat and solitude.” In other Nevada and the vast expanse of Zion National Park in words, I was longing for the desert.1 I lived Utah, on my way to my first stop in Colorado. There I spent a week in a hermitage high in the Rockies. On the way, I in Arizona for the better part of fourteen happened upon a talk by the writer and political commen- years before joining the Hermitage, and tator David Brooks. He was speaking about the time when his life fell apart and how he slowly got put back together. the ethos of the desert got into my bones He, too, spoke about the wilderness, and gave evidence of and has remained there even after all his own understanding of the conjunction between love and purification, saying, “You go out alone into the wilder- these years living within the sound, sight, ness. You go out to the place where there’s nobody there and smell of the ocean. to perform, and the ego has nothing to do and it crumbles. And only then are you capable of being loved.”3 4 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage contemplation.com ~ 5 The other thing associated with the desert is silence, but I am reminded of the last conversation I had with Fr. silence isn’t just the absence of input and stimulation; Thomas Keating, when he said to me, in regards to the use silence is also being relieved of the expectation to say of a mantra, “At some point you just listen to the silence.” something, to present something other than one’s unvar- That is when we discover that the silence is not silent, just nished being. So, as a performing musician, teacher, and as the barren wilderness is not barren at all. I find it no- public speaker, my ears especially perked up at Brooks’s table that the Tao Te Ching begins by stating that the Tao use of the phrase “nobody to perform.” One of my favorite that can be named is not the immortal Tao, and the name books about meditation is by the punk rock bassist and that can be named is not the immortal name—there’s the Zen priest Brad Warner, somewhat irreverently entitled silence; and yet it goes on to say that when it is named, it is simply Sit Down and Shut Up.