Monastic Tradition, June 21, 2012



The grave of Thomas Merton. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Only a true sense of monastic tradition can preserve sanity and peace in monasteries.” Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

This is true because, with this sense of tradition, monks know what kind of life they are trying to live. This is no less true in relation to the Tradition of the Church; without it we do not know how to live as Christians; we would be continuously "reinventing the wheel," always rediscovering, or inventing out of whole cloth, the Christian life. All the while we'd risk getting further from the Truth, thereby losing our sanity.

Monastic Musings, Monday, Febuary 7, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Why do we need to know about our negativities? Because, such negativities surface without our ability to control them at times. Think, for instance, about being in a line at a grocery store. Make it a rather long line, say, with 10 people. Just as your turn is about to come, the manager comes and closes that line and you have to move to another line, which is as long as the first one originally was.


Listen to the feelings that go on within you. Some people can accept such happenings without any kind of negative reaction. Others cannot. The early monks and nuns were well aware that we must listen to our thoughts as they are provoked by our feelings and begin the battle for freedom at that level. In our present culture, there is at times an enormous emphasis on listening to our feelings and honoring them. That can be most misleading to any of us.

Certainly we need to know our feelings and in that sense honor them. Feelings are not yet actions or choices, but they condition our choices very often. It is not easy to resist anger if everyone around you is angry. On the other hand, a person of peace, walking into a crowd of anger, can change the atmosphere incredibly. The peace and love must be very deep, however, to resist the tug of the anger of others.

From Abbot Phillip’s (Christ in the Desert) Notebook, Wednesday, February 2, 2010

From the Desert Fathers, Sunday, January 16, 2010

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions. A penitent is the inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into vigorous awareness. 

St. John Climacus 

From the Desert Fathers, Sunday, December 19, 2010

When we lay bare the hidden meaning of the history, scripture is seen to teach that the birth which distresses the tyrant is the beginning of the virtuous life. I am speaking of the kind of birth in which free will serves as the midwife, delivering the child amid great pain. For no one causes grief to his antagonist unless he exhibits in himself those marks which give proof of his victory over the other.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses.

From the Desert Fathers, Sunday, December 12, 2010

Those who seek humility should bear in mind the three following things: that they are the worst of sinners, that they are the most despicable of all creatures since their state is an unnatural one, and that they are even more pitiable than the demons, since they are slaves to the demons. You will also profit if you say this to yourself: how do I know what or how many other people's sins are, or whether they are greater than or equal to my own? In our ignorance you and I , my soul, are worse than all men, we are dust and ashes under their feet. How can I not regard myself as more despicable than all other creatures, for they act in accordance with the nature they have been given, while I, owing to my innumerable sins, am in a state contrary to nature.

                                                  St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, Vol. IV.

From the Desert Fathers

Macarius said to Zacharias, 'Tell me, what makes a monk?' He said, 'Isn't it wrong for you to be asking me?' Macarius said to him, 'I am sure I should ask you, Zacharias my son. There is something that urges me to ask you.' Zacharias said to him, 'As far as I can tell, abba, I think anyone who controls himself and makes himself content with just what he needs and no more, is indeed a monk.'

The Desert Fathers, Sunday, November 21, 2010

Abba Poemen said, 'To throw yourself before God, to not measure your progress, to leave behind all self-will -- these are the instruments for the work of the soul.'

                                                       Abba Poemen the Shepherd

From the Desert Fathers

Humility protects the soul from all the passions and also from every temptation.

Dorotheos

What Was I Thinking?

When I wrote the previous post, I was thinking that to write on a broader range of topics than those relating to Benedictine monasticism, I really should start another blog not referred to as an Oblate blog. What was I thinking?

The rational I used to justify the new blog was that William of St. Thierry, a Cistercian father, wrote a book that didn’t deal directly with monastic topics but rather focused on what it takes to be a Christian. I was thinking that he wasn’t writing in the monastic tradition, why, I don’t know. He most certainly was, because after all, what is the point of a monastery except to form a community dedicated to seeking God? What is the point of being an Oblate, except to seek God within my own vocation. It means, as I have said so many times before, that the whole point to the Rule, is to create a way of life that encompasses all important aspects of our human condition, work, prayer, conversion, community, hospitality, or dealing with authority and the importance of obedience. It’s all in there. I don’t know what made me think a study of the most important tenants of my faith, or commenting on what is going on in my world would be subjects not to be covered on an Oblate blog. What was I thinking?

I guess I just wasn’t, so I decided to correct the situation in the name of stability, another topic covered in the Rule.

Don't Know Much About History . . .

Image via Wikipedia

The business man too does not lay aside the desire of procuring wares, by means of which he may more profitably amass riches, because he would desire gain to no purpose, unless he chose the road which leads to it: and those men who are anxious to be decorated with the honours of this world, first make up their minds to what duties and conditions they must devote themselves, that in the regular course of hope they may succeed in gaining the honours they desire. And so the end of our way of life is indeed the kingdom of God. But what is the (immediate) goal you must earnestly ask, for if it is not in the same way discovered by us, we shall strive and wear ourselves out to no purpose, because a man who is travelling in a wrong direction, has all the trouble and gets none of the good of his journey. And when we stood gaping at this remark, the old man proceeded: The end of our profession indeed, as I said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven: but the immediate aim or goal, is purity of heart, without which no one can gain that end: fixing our gaze then steadily on this goal as if on a definite mark, let us direct our course as straight towards it as possible, and if our thoughts wander somewhat from this, let us revert to our gaze upon it, and check them accurately as by a sure standard, which will always bring back all our efforts to this one mark, and will show at once if our mind has wandered ever so little from the direction marked out for it.

This is another lengthy quote from John Cassian’s Conferences in which he discusses purity of heart. What I find interesting about this section is his description of what it takes to gain purity of heart – single-mindedness. I think the greatest enemy today to faith, I know it’s my greatest enemy, is getting lost in all the distractions available: too much television, too much internet, even too much Bach, all make a shambles of my very best intentions to spend more time in prayer and sacred reading. But what I find even more interesting is that this isn’t a new problem. Evidently, monks and, I’m sure other Christians, have struggled with this throughout the centuries. Remember, this was written in roughly the 4th or 5th century A.D., over 1,500 years ago. There was no television, no internet, no news magazines or newspapers; there were still distractions, things that make our thoughts wander.


We like to think that those of us living today have somehow evolved and become different from those who lived before us. We think we’re better just for having come later. We think we have nothing to learn from those who went before us. Obviously, we are wrong. We have a great deal to learn from those who experienced life perhaps in its most real form. We can learn from the desert monks, if only we would. Reading them isn’t always exactly easy, and there are no brilliant pictures or graphics accompanying their writing, it takes some effort. I can’t help but feel that the reward would make the effort worthwhile.

From Fr. Michael at Getheseme Abbey

Image via Wikipedia

Our gospels tells us of how Jesus, as he went around to all the towns and villages and saw the crowds, how “his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.” Are these words reminding us of something terribly important if we are going to have new vocations to the religious and priestly life today? Do we find our own hearts moved with pity and do we recognize sufficiently how many, especially the young, are troubled and abandoned? Do we see the crying need for persons to guide and instruct the crowds of our own time? Have our affluence and technological advances stolen from us this sense of pity and compassion, this sense of urgent need, blinded us even to how troubled and abandoned the people of our time truly are? I find myself asking these questions and wonder if they might be a way of deepening our prayer and attracting vocations.

Listening to Tradition, William of St. Thierry

Image by h.koppdelaney via Flickr

Consider, brethren, the circumstances of your own calling. Where is the wise man among you? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this world? Although there are among you some wise men it is by the means of simple men that he added the wise to your ranks, he who of old subjected the kings and the philosophers of this world to himself by means of fishermen.

William of St. Thierry, The Golden Epistle

Listening to Tradition, St. John Climacus

Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions. A penitent is the inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into vigorous awareness.

St. John Climacus

Listening to Tradition, William of St. Thierry

Yet, brethren, let all exaltation be far from the opinion you have of yourselves, from your littleness and lowliness, from one your mouths. For exalted thoughts are death and it is easy for one who sees himself perched on high to grow dizzy and be in mortal danger. Give another name to your profession, inscribe your work with another title.

                                                                        William of St. Thierry, The Golden Epistle

Listening to Tradition, The Desert Fathers

The way of humility is this: self-control, prayer, and thinking yourself inferior to all creatures.

                                                                                              Abba Tithoes

Listening to Tradition, Thomas Merton

Our God also is a consuming fire. And if we, by love, become transformed into Him and burn as He burns, His fire will be our everlasting joy. But if we refuse His love and remain in the coldness of sin and opposition to Him and to other men then His fire (by our own choice rather than His) becomes our everlasting enemy and Love, instead of being our joy, will become our torment and destruction. 
When we love God's will we find Him and own His joy in all things. 

Merton, Thomas, New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions, 1961, p.124

Good Stewards

I was in the doctor’s office the other day waiting for my appointment and picked up a car magazine, Car and Driver, to be specific, to while away the time. I don’t often read car magazines, I haven’t subscribed to any in years, even though I am a bit of a car nut. I grew up in Detroit after all. The first story I spotted was a column by David E. Davis, whom I have always enjoyed reading simply because he is a good writer.

Davis’ column started on cars his family had owned when he, too, was growing up in Michigan, I remember mention of a 1939 DeSoto, which does date Mr. Davis a bit. However, he soon turned to the topic of last year’s “Cash for Clunkers” program. When I realized that, I almost flipped the page; I’m getting more than fed up with political news and stories at the moment. Still, I read on and Davis was making a good point. He pointed out that, while he was growing up, used cars were something of a blessing (he didn’t use the word, but it was implied) for his family. Used cars represented affordable transportation that would not otherwise be available to them. He points out that, for many families around the world, not just in the U.S., used cars represents the same blessing, the opportunity to have enough mobility to travel greater distances to find work, having the freedom to move beyond the limits of a village or small town, or just the expansion of markets beyond those limits. If new or only slightly used cars were all that was available, those benefits would be lost. 

The “Cash for Clunkers” program, by taking thousands upon thousands of perfectly good autos off the road, needlessly denied them to people who could benefit from their use. It was hugely wasteful. Reading this, of course, I thought immediately of St. Benedict. What would he say about that? One way to know is to turn to The Rule. In Chapter 32, he writes:

Chapter 32: On the Tools and Property of the Monastery

For the care of the monastery's property
in tools, clothing and other articles
let the Abbot appoint brothers
on whose manner of life and character he can rely;
and let him, as he shall judge to be expedient,
consign the various articles to them,
to be looked after and to be collected again.
The Abbot shall keep a list of these articles,
so that as the brothers succeed one another in their assignments
he may know what he gives and what he receives back.
If anyone treats the monastery's property
in a slovenly or careless way,
let him be corrected.
If he fails to amend,
let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.

Benedict is pretty clear on how monastery property is to be treated, they should be “looked after . . . to be collected again.” He also says, “if anyone treats the monastery’s property in a slovenly or careless way, let him be corrected, if he fails to amend, let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.”

Destroying useful tools, and as much as I hate to say it, an automobile is a tool, deserves correction, even punishment. What does it say about us, as a society, that we condone such wanton waste?

Listening to Tradition, William of St. Theirry

"We have an obligation not only to love each other but also in our love to make ourselves as loveable as possible so that it is easy for our sisters and brothers to love us."

William of Saint Thierry, Cistercian Father

Listening to Tradition, Bernard

“He who labours as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.” Bernard of Clairvaux

It All Matters

We come to a distinct monastery and congregation, to the Rule, to be taught, not to teach them. We come to be directed, not to direct, to be formed, not to form. If we allow all those things to happen to us in humility we quite likely WILL be elements of change for the better in the community's history, but that change will be one planned by God, not ourselves.  Br. Jerome Leo

This quote from Br. Jerome's daily meditations on the Rule (today's edition), reminded me that, when talking about a vocation, every element of that vocation matters.  Typical of Beneditine spirituality, everything is a gift of God, no matter how trivial it seems, and we can be grateful for all of it.