My Retreat — 2017

The week of July 9 looked like a good one to go on retreat at the monastery. July 11 is St. Benedict's Day, and it's good to be able to celebrate it in a Benedictine house. The week would be six months since Ryan became a postulant and three years since Brother Ignatius took temporary vows, so it was likely that Ryan would become a novice and Ignatius would make his permanent vows. In my first post about my February visit, I mistakenly said that Ryan was a recent college graduate. Actually, he was a senior at the time: he graduated in May this year.

Ryan did indeed become a novice. In previous years, the ceremony was held in the Abbey Church, which meant it would be public. The abbot has decided that it should take place in the monastery's chapter room, which makes it private. Only the monks and guests in the monastery were present.

Chapter room set up for reception of novice. Abbot's chair is at right, novice's in center, monks' around three sides. A couple of the chairs for guests are visible behind the monks' chairs to the left.

When I got to the monastery on Sunday, two of Ryan's classmates were also present as guests, but one had to leave early Monday morning to start his new job. One more classmate arrived during the morning, so the guests were the two classmates and me, and possibly one other man, maybe a professor. The ceremony was at noon. Ryan was given the name Aloysius. It took no more than fifteen minutes altogether, and then we went to the cloister yard for lunch and photos.

 Novice, Brother Aloysius, with Abbot Mark.

 Bro. Aloysius, Abbot Mark, & Novice Master, Fr. Peter.

 

Bro. Aloysius with three abbots: l.-r. Abbot Matthew (1986-2012), Bishop Joseph (Abbot 1972-1986, Bishop of Portland, ME, 1989-2004), Abbot Mark (2012-present).

 Monastic community (missing: three who are at dependent priory in CA, and two who are ill). (Brother Ignatius, who made temporary vows in 2014, is standing sixth from left with window frame around his head.) At left in regular clothes is the classmate who had been there overnight, and at right you can see a bit of the shirt and pants of the classmate who arrived that morning.

I first met Brother Ignatius the evening I arrived for my retreat in June of 2014. He was a novice at the time, and the Abbot called me over to meet him. I've felt a sense of connection with him ever since. He and another novice, Brother Paul, were to take temporary vows on July 11, and I returned for that event, giving each of them an icon of the saint whose name they had received. As I reported, I was very pleased to get a thank you note from him when I came there the following year. Since then, Brother Paul left, but Ignatius has stayed, and I was looking forward to seeing him take final vows during my stay. But when I asked about it on Tuesday evening he said, "Possibly next year." That was  a disappointment. Since final vows usually come three years after temporary vows, the delay indicates that either he or the community or both aren't sure that he should take those permanent vows. On the other hand, at least nobody has yet decided he should leave the monastery. I like him, and the monastery needs monks, so I hope the ultimate decision will be that he stay. But if it's not really the right place for him, then it's best for him not to stay.

This year for my retreat I brought a book titled A Retreat with Therese of Lisieux: Loving Our Way into Holiness, by Elizabeth Ruth Obbard, O.D.C. (The letters indicate that she is a member of the same order of nuns as Therese was: the Discalced Carmelites.) Therese was born in Normandy, in northern France in 1873, joined the Carmelites in 1888, and died in 1897. After her death, autobiographical material she had written was published, and her "little way" of holiness became famous.

The book has seven chapters,  containing things she wrote as well as explanations and reflections by the author. I took two chapters each day Monday through Wednesday, and the final one on Thursday. Some of the points I took from it include the following.

• Holiness isn't achieved by performing religious practices like extra fasting and penances, but by accepting God's love for us.
• The conviction that we are loved frees us from being motivated to follow rules out of fear. Only the knowledge of being loved enables people to respond freely from the heart.
• We need to have confidence in the love that comes from God.
• We have to battle selfishness in order to be free to love Jesus and others.
• We need to be with Jesus in his sufferings.
• Love calls for everything, not just a little bit more.
• Jesus praised Mary for hearing the word of God and keeping it. Most of her life was very ordinary.
• "Let God give and take what he chooses."
• Believe that you are loved absolutely and unconditionally.
• Accept everything as coming from God and thank God for it.
• Overcome obsessions, compulsions, and lack of freedom to do what is good.
• Living in love means giving without measure, banishing all fear, and possessing a great treasure in an earthen vessel.
• Holiness includes a willingness to suffer a great deal.

Apart from that, I had brought some books to read between times of prayer and retreat. Two that I spent several hours on were A Song for Nagasaki about a Japanese doctor who became a Catholic and was in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb exploded and devoted himself to caring for the victims of radiation, and The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise, which debunks the common idea that medieval Spain under Muslim rule was a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in one happy community where arts and science flourished— there was slavery, segregation (including self-segregation), and restrictions on women comparable to those in places like Saudi Arabia and Taliban Afghanistan.

It was an enjoyable visit and a worthwhile retreat.

Here are a few more pics, including my room and some campus scenes.

 Section of choir. I usually was near the pillar at the left.

 Statue of St. Anselm in front of Alumni Hall.

 Part of cloister yard.

 Sunrise, seen from the porch of Alumni Hall.

 Blessed Sacrament chapel off nave of church, seen from choir area.

Flowers in cloister yard.

Clicking on pictures enlarges them. I recommend it for clearer view.

2017/07/16 — 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year A

This past Sunday's readings include the first of the "Parables of the Kingdom" in chapter 13 of the gospel of Matthew. This parable, like the next few, has an agricultural theme, and the first reading uses related imagery. These images are used to tell us of God's word.


The first reading — Isaiah 55:10:11 — uses the metaphor of rain to illustrate the action of the word of God, which will accomplish God's will. We can think of God's word at creation: when God says, in Genesis, let something be or happen, it is created or happens. When the prophet announces God's word, we can be sure that God will cause his will to be done. We also should think of the opening of the gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:1, 14) Jesus, the Word of God, accomplished the purpose for which the Father sent him into the world — the salvation of the world, the establishment of the Kingdom of God.


The responsorial psalm — verses of Psalm 65 with a refrain based on the gospel — has us reflect on the action of rain as described by Isaiah in the light of the bountiful harvest which good soil produces.


The second reading — Romans 8:18-23 — is part of a series of selections from Romans continuing over several Sundays. It tells us of fallen creation's need for the redemption brought by Jesus. We share in that need. Of course, by the time Paul wrote, Jesus had done the work of redemption, but it was not, and still is not, brought to complete fruition in people or the other elements of creation. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, the Book of Revelation assures us, in which all creation will be raised from its fallen state along with human beings. This will happen when Jesus returns at the end of time.


The gospel — Matthew 13:1-23 — gives the parable of the sower and the seed. Then there is a discussion of the reason for Jesus' use of parables, followed by an interpretation of the parable. The seed is the word of the Kingdom, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. In Isaiah, we heard that God's word accomplishes his purpose. Here we learn that God accomplishes his purpose through us, as seed needs soil. Some people can fail to further God's purpose. We are not passive. We can refuse the grace which would enable us to further the kingdom, or we can accept the word and provide a "multiplier effect" for the word sown in us and thus be instruments for the accomplishment of God's will.

If we haven't rejected the word, it is important that we not lose sight of its centrality to our existence. We mustn't let created things draw us away from doing God's will for us, because it is in doing God's will that we give the witness to our faith which can draw others toward God's Kingdom and help to make them good soil.

The basic thought in the explanation of why Jesus speaks in parables is that some people refuse to listen to the word of God. It is their choice to be hard, unreceptive ground. For them, no presentation of God's word will matter, but for those who are open to God's word, the parables bring a better understanding than a dry, theological treatise.


When we believe the word of God and conform our lives to the teachings of scripture, we become fruitful in accomplishing God's purpose of establishing his kingdom among us.