Colophon

Laetare Sunday 2010

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-14T06:09:52+00:00

The fourth Sunday in Lent is Laetare Sunday, so-called from the first word of the entrance antiphon, "Rejoice!" And rejoice we do: rose-coloured vestments, flowers on the altar, musical instruments, all tokens of our gladness at being children of God. Contrary to popular opinion, Sundays in Lent are not fast days (the Church does not fast when she commemorates the Resurrection), so the relaxations allowed today are mainly liturgical. The historically-minded will recall that it was on this Sunday that the popes used to bless the Golden Rose sent to Catholic sovereigns. Nearer home, Laetare was also called Mothering Sunday, a day when people made a special effort to attend the cathedral or mother-church of the diocese. (The modern Mother's Day is really an American import which for most people has taken over from Mothering Sunday.)

By a nice irony, today's gospel (Luke 15) is all about men: a prodigal son, a scratchy elder brother, and a generous father. Of course, at the heart of the gospel is the teaching about God's tender love for his wayward sons and daughters which transcends all questions of sex. John Paul I described this love of God as "motherly" and one can see why. In fact, for me, the missing character in the gospel is the mother. Has she been written out of the story, as women have so often been written out of the story of the Church?

In asking that question, I am not seeking to make a cheap point. The abuse scandals which have hurt so many are not about celibacy, not about the clergy alone: they concern the Church as a whole, you and me as much as bishops and priests. They are about an abuse of power, collusion and cover-up: the Church failing to nurture and protect, seeking things other than the Kingdom. Attempts to apportion blame get us nowhere. What we need above all else, I would suggest, is to regain a sense of the Church as Mother, of our mission of service, of profound humility before God and one another. A humble, servant Church will still be a Church of sinners; but God has no problem with sinners, even if we do. It is hypocrisy that corrupts and destroys.

This is a very good day on which to pray for our Mother the Church and for ourselves.

Mums and Kitchens

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-13T05:17:55+00:00

Quite often I find the day's section of the Rule or the psalms of a particular Office coincide very neatly with what is happening in community or the world at large. Today, half Britain will be scurrying off to buy Mum a bunch of flowers or box of chocolates to celebrate Mothering Sunday; and I daresay tomorrow morning, many a harassed mother will patiently await a loving offering of cremated toast and half-cold coffee to mark her "special day". Meanwhile, this week-end, we boring Benedictines will be reading RB 35, On the KItchen Servers of the Week, and meditating on the Church as Mother. Given that women still seem to do the bulk of household tasks, including laundry and cooking, there must be something there to ponder.

Two elements of Benedict's treatment of the subject stand out: all are to share equally in the burden of cooking unless some other business of overriding importance to the community has to be attended to, and help is to be given whenever needed. The spiritual motive and benefit are never far from the surface. Serving in the kitchen "secures a richer recompense and greater love"; so all are to "serve one another in love". The trouble is, kitchens can be hot and steamy places, and I am not referring to the pots and pans. There is nothing like having to produce a meal for others when one is tired or the store cupboard is low to make one irritable. Feeling guilty because temper has flared only makes matters worse. (If you do not recognize this scenario and cheerfully move around your designer kitchen, glass in hand, producing fantastic meals from fresh organic produce, sourced locally, for an admiring circle of family and friends, the likelihood is that you have no need to cook for others but do so for sheer delight. Lucky you. Or maybe, not so lucky: meals are sacramentals, and to provide them for others is a wonderful form of service.)

Perhaps this is a week-end when Mums could be freed from feeling guilty for all the times they are manifestly not "the angel in the house". It is difficult to love an angel. Human beings, with all their shortcomings, are much more lovable. Be human.

Catching Up

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-12T07:34:03+00:00

Yesterday we drove D. Teresa's sister back to Malvern after a very pleasant week during which she helped us enormously by sorting through D. Teresa's personal and family papers and much else besides. Unfortunately, there is still a daunting amount to do. Once we have finished in the house, we must begin on St Cecilia's. At the moment, we are JUST managing to keep the service going, but we have visions of some blind user being terribly disappointed to discover that the audio book on Mother Teresa he has been awaiting has somehow transmuted into volume III of Hans von Balthasar's Theology of Glory!

However, we do have some good news. Thanks to generous gifts, the future of this web site looks assured for another year, at least as far as hosting and ancillary matters are concerned. (Inspiration depends on the Holy Spirit.) Myles' s Jazz Evening together with the Raffle organized by Mary and Damien raised £446 for our work for the blind, which was a brilliant result for a small village in the bleak midwinter.

Today we have a lot of catching up to do. There are about 80 letters of condolence to which we must reply and some work and admin deadlines to meet so there are likely to be a few tense moments. It is just as well that Digitalnun has given up worry for Lent. "Cast all your burdens upon him, for he has care of you" as we sing at Compline. That is a sentence to treasure throughout the day.

An Ordinary Day

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-11T06:10:40+00:00

Thursday during the third week of Lent: an ordinary day, if the community diary is to be believed. Earlier I watched the dawn stealing across the sky and now the clouds are tinged with pink and there is birdsong hinting at our long-delayed spring. Duncan is snoring contentedly somewhere in the room (no early riser he!), no doubt quite happy that he can safely leave Crufts to his children and grandchildren. The liturgy provides much to ponder, while today's section of the Rule is a reminder that equality is not the same as justice and even in a monastery the superior will have to weigh individual needs - and take the consequences if she gets it wrong.

As the day unfolds there will be work to do, people to see, unexpected delights and probably moments of difficulty or disappointment also. The holiness of the ordinary is something we do not always appreciate as we ought. It is, however, on ordinary days such as these that our salvation is worked out. Whether we are full of energy and hope, or tired and a little grumpy, the present moment is the only one in which we can meet God. We may forget that most of the time: the important thing is not to forget it all the time. The ordinary is really not so ordinary after all.

Welcome

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-10T06:16:43+00:00

Later today we expect a visit from our bishop. He is always very approachable and our welcome tends to be correspondingly low-key and Lenten in its simplicity: he is easy with us and we with him, which is a great blessing. I did hear a vacuum cleaner being hauled into the library yesterday, but clearly Great Works were not being undertaken.

It made me think about how we welcome others. So often we concentrate on the adjuncts of hospitality: food, drink, setting. The really important element of welcome, giving time and listening to the other, is something we are less good at. Why? It is surely easier than killing fatted calves or organizing great celebrations. The analogy with prayer is obvious. God asks of us a listening heart rather than great sacrifices, but we often seem keen to give him sacrifice (often trivial) rather than obedience. It doesn't work the other way, of course. God gives us everything and listens to us, too. Perhaps we should think more about how God has welcomed us into his life than how we try to welcome him into ours. Look at the crucifix and see how his arms are spread wide to receive us, eternally.

Techie Trials

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-08T06:27:10+00:00

Digitalnun is off to the JR this morning and has decided that a good way of passing time is to meditate on how to revalidate the RSS feed for this blog. It works fine in Safari, as Safari users will know; but at some point during the past two years, something broke. Perhaps a blogging nun used "an illegal character" (or two, or three or four); or during a reloading of the site some files got moved around and suffered corruption (sounds like the digital equivalent of relic-hunting, doesn't it?). It matters, because people who haven't time to visit this site but who like to keep an eye on the blog often use a RSS reader to keep them up to date with changes. Any suggestions for revalidating the feed are therefore welcome.

Meanwhile, anyone who has an administrative or managerial role may find it helpful to listen to the Rule today and tomorrow. Chapter 31, on the Cellarer or Bursar of the monastery, is a succinct treatise on the spiritual aspects of management. Goods and tools are to be accorded the same care and respect that we give sacred altar vessels. People can be more awkward to deal with, but even the most demanding must be treated with courtesy and respect. When there is nothing else to give, there is always the good word which is above the best gift. A good word. Surely we can all speak one today?

Genetics and the Story

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-06T06:14:37+00:00

Having a biochemist in community makes life very interesting. Anything to do with genetics, for example, is discussed avidly. Digitalnun noticed a small item on the BBC web site about the Lemba whose DNA appears to confirm that they have Jewish ancestry, including in their priestly tribe the gene found only among cohanin (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8550614.stm). Not another "Lost Tribe" story, but an instance of the survival of religious belief and practice under very unfavourable circumstances. One could find parallels in Spain and Portugal where some families have retained elements of Judaism since the time of the Expulsion, or in Japan, where the story of the Nagasaki Christians is well-known.

What is it that enables some people to maintain their religious identity for centuries while others fall away or reject it quite early in life? The theologian may argue the case for grace, the sociologist for cultural influences and endogamy, and so on and so forth. I suspect there is no one answer. Religious communities reinforce a sense of identity by their use of common texts (e.g. for us as Benedictines the Rule and Customary), common rituals (our ways of dress/worship) and common history (the retelling of the story of how we came to be). During Lent we are particularly conscious of the latter: the telling of the story. On Easter Night we shall listen by the light of the paschal candle to the whole of salvation history, culminating in the gospel of the Resurrection. The fact that the Son of God became man for our sakes, shared our flesh and blood and identified with us in both his birth and his death, is breath-taking. In Jesus there is not a single selfish gene, only the purest, most generous love. That is a story worth telling again and again.

Pure Praise

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-05T06:02:18+00:00

The women of Cameroon have chosen Psalm 150 as part of their theme for Women's World Day of Prayer today. It is a psalm of pure praise, calling on everything in creation to praise the Lord. Very often our praise of God is qualified in some way: we ask something, or we remind God of a little flaw in what he has created or ordained (we are always helpful, especially when we address the Almighty). Our "yes!" somehow mutates into "yes, but". It is the price we pay for growing up and growing away from the simplicity of children.

True praise is beautifully simple and leads to ecstasy in the literal sense. We stand outside ourselves, our gaze wholly focused on the other, our very body language reflecting the joy and delight we experience. Children and dogs are good teachers of how to praise. When we were reunited with Duncan the other day his whole body was one ecstatic wiggle of delight (PBGVs are well-named "the happy breed"). In England our worship of God tends to the stately rather than the ecstatic, but perhaps we should allow our praise a freer flow. David danced before the Ark, indifferent to the disapproval of his wife or any other onlooker. I doubt whether we'll be wiggling in choir today, but I hope our singing of the psalms will be full of a similar transcendent joy. Let everything that lives and that breathes, praise the Lord!

Excommunication

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-04T06:18:59+00:00

Today's chapter of RB, How the Abbot must have Special Care for the Excommunicated (RB27), is one that deserves close attention. We are dealing here with an imperfect situation, with people who have offended against the community in some way and incurred the penalty of excommunication. Excommunication takes many forms, and in the Rule we see a graded system at work according to the seriousness of the fault. Benedict, however, is anxious that excommunication, separation from the community, should never become absolute. Indeed, the abbot is commanded to have a special care for the excommunicated, to send experienced and wise brethren to comfort the offenders and encourage them to reform. Love is to be reaffirmed and everyone is to pray.

This is a real challenge to anyone who has ever had to "take disciplinary action" because it is easy to assume that all blame lies with the offender. It may do, but that doesn't mean we can wash our hands of responsibility for his/her conduct. It is also a challenge to the Churches as we struggle with our interior dissensions and disputes. How do we maintain that "bond of unity which the Spirit gives" when some of our members seem to be adopting positions diametrically opposed to the historic faith and belief of our Church? How do we reconcile all this "comfort-giving" stuff with the need to be clear and firm in our belief and practice?

Benedict is wise enough not to answer that question. Instead, he demands of the abbot an almost super-human degree of effort to win back the straying brother, reminding him that he has undertaken the care of weak souls not tyranny over strong ones, warning him not to give up just because the task is difficult. Ultimately, he uses the example of the Good Shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness and going in search of the one that is lost. He adds a poignant detail, however. He assumes the lost sheep was found and that the Shepherd "had such great compassion on its weakness that he deigned to place it on his own sacred shoulders and so brought it back to the flock."

It is rare to find such a clear statement of the obligation to be compassionate, to take on one's own shoulders the burden of another. We can dodge it; we can fudge it; but we can't finally escape it, because it is part of what it means to be Christian and a member of society. I hope that thought makes you as uncomfortable as it makes me.

Amen

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-03T05:45:29+00:00

Several disagreeable things happened yesterday, so that by the time we prayed Compline I was in anything but a pious mood. I was brought up short, however, by that little word "Amen". We say it so often: at the end of every collect and the "Glory be" following every psalm, after the Lord's prayer, after the versicles, at the conclusion of every Office. It is a litany in a little. How many times a day do we say "Amen", affirming our belief and our acceptance? It is a wonderful prayer for Lent: a way of blessing instead of cursing. When things go right: Amen. When things go wrong: Amen. When another bill plops through the letterbox: Amen. When a friend sends the letter or email we have been longing for: Amen. When we see the snowdrops in the grass or the red kite in the sky: Amen. When we are troubled, or anxious or angry: Amen. Best of all, "Amen" unites us with the prayer of Jesus himself, and what could be more powerful than that?

Home sweet home

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-03-02T07:11:19+00:00

Colophon did not take itself off to Rome during its week of cybersilence, but it did enjoy four days of contemplative calm at the Royal English College, Valladolid. It is likely that some photos will follow once Digitalnun has finished unpacking and begun to catch up with all the correspondence which has accumulated in the meantime. The reason for this unexpected trip to Spain was twofold: the unveiling of a stunning altarpiece by Juan de Roelas, newly restored and returned to the College (you may have seen the photograph in the Times), and the launch of the second ACSA volume, "The Fruits of Exile", designed and typeset by Veilpress in English, Latin, Greek and Spanish. It was, of course, a great penance to enjoy the very liberal hospitality of the College, the beauty of Old Castile, and the treasures of Valladolid and Tordesillas, about which more anon.

It is, however, good to be back in the routine of monastic life and the simplicity of Lent. Lent seems so long when we begin but passes so quickly, we need to make the most of it. We have decided that this year we shall drop our usual programme of Lenten talks, etc as we have a great deal to catch up on and it is silly to overstretch ourselves. We shall, however, honour all our existing commitments to the CWL and local parishes.

Today marks the thirtieth day since the death of D. Teresa, the completion of the "month's mind". Now we must begin in earnest the sad work of sorting through her effects and dealing with all the legal business which is more complicated than usual so will require more time. One of her sisters will be staying with us for a few days, so please keep her in your prayers. Our audio service to the blind continues but please bear with us while we try to disentangle various elements. D. Teresa was the audio librarian and the only one of us really "au fait" with the system.

A Time for (Temporary) Silence

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-22T17:36:29+00:00

The Feast of St Peter's Chair has always been held in great affection by the English. In Anglo-Saxon times, visiting Rome and praying at the tombs of the Apostles was something both kings and clerics delighted in doing. It may seem curiously quaint to some, but praying for our pastors is very necessary; and much more useful than criticizing them!

Talking of prayer, Colophon is not off to Rome, but the monastery bloggers and podcasters feel the need to take more in if they are to give out anything worth reading or hearing. So, no more blogging, podcasting or tweeting until the 1 March; and to make sure she is not tempted back into cyberspace before the feast of St David, Digitalnun is not even going to update the Prayer Box. Instead, you can listen to the daily section of the Rule below; and if you find yourself wondering how to feed your Hendred podcast addiction (oh, the arrogance! Ed), there is still a longish one on Lent on the podcast page, plus 80 others. That should mortify you sufficiently, should it not?

February 23

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February 24

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February 25

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February 26

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February 27

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February 28

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A Missionary Faith

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-19T06:39:52+00:00

Yesterday we received an interesting suggestion for our next Virtual Chapter: how to reconcile Ash Wednesday's gospel, Matthew 6, with the demands of a missionary Faith. Digitalnun's distractions have been working overtime on the subject so, in an effort to provoke you into joining in the Chapter which we'll hold when we are slightly more back to "normal", here are a few of her half-baked reflections.

On the very day when the gospel told us to let no one know we were fasting, Catholics were walking around with great ashy smudges on their foreheads to proclaim their penitent condition. They may not have been having trumpets sounded when they gave alms, but they were definitely seen by others in church as they attended Mass or other devotions. What are we to make of this? And how do we reconcile the interiority of Christianity with the duty to proclaim the gospel?

First, I think the discrepancy between what the gospel says and what we actually do is worth noting. Ash Wednesday highlights a perennial problem for Christians: we are rather picky about how we interpret the scriptures. By Maundy Thursday we shall be following the gospel literally, washing feet and celebrating a festive meal, but on Ash Wednesday what we do is diametrically opposed to what the gospel says. Or is it?

I myself think that the gospel is pointing to the way in which we can use religion for irreligious ends, to draw attention to ourselves, to portray ourselves as rather better than we are, and certainly better than the next man or woman. Sadly, we can end up believing our own myth: because I go to church on Sundays, tithe my income and fast regularly, I really am a good person. Well, you may be, but you may also be a conceited fool with a heart of stone, blind to your own shortcomings. (A nun's anger, said Newman, is like rapsberry vinegar: sweet acid; I plead guilty).

But what about the duty to proclaim the gospel? It seems very un-English. While Catholics are quite happy to walk around with ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday, they tend to become tongue-tied when asked to explain what they believe. One does not often see them nowadays standing on street corners and proclaiming the Word of God. It may be something of a cop-out to suggest that there is more than one way of proclaiming Jesus Christ. As a contemplative nun, for example, I am sure that the most important thing I can do to spread the gospel is to live monastic life as well as I can, devoting myself to prayer and service in the monastery. I am encouraged in this by the thought that probably the greatest missionary of the nineteenth century was a French Carmelite nun called Thérèse.

But there are times when one must go beyond simply "performing the duties of one's state in life". None of us knows when those times may come, but we can be absolutely sure that we will be given grace when we need it. God never asks what he is unwilling to grant. The problem for us is being ready to listen.

Ash Wednesday 2010

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-17T07:54:37+00:00

I love Lent. I suspect every monk and nun feels the same sort of exhilaration when Ash Wednesday dawns. There is something immensely attractive about the simplicity of it all. The liturgy becomes very spare: no musical instruments to sustain our voices; no flowers to adorn church or oratory; and only the rich, sombre tones of Lenten purple for vestments and furnishings. Food becomes simpler, too, because we fast every day during Lent (except Sundays, of course). If there is a downside, it is that everybody is so determined to be helpful, to perform little acts of kindness and generosity, that one has to be always on the alert. (Opportunities for almsgiving inside a monastery have to take the form of service because we don't have money to give.)

Part of this year's Lenten chapter talk may be heard on our Podcast page, and there are a few notes on Lent itself on our Liturgy page. One custom we did not mention is that of reading through in its entirety one book of the scriptures as assigned by the superior. This year at Hendred we shall be reading Genesis and Deuteronomy. Without doubt, we shall discover new things in each, just as Lent itself will teach us a great deal.

The life of a monk ought always to have a Lenten quality, says St Benedict. It ought always to be open to the possibilities God offers us. Perhaps that is one lesson we all have to learn anew every year. The simplicity to which we return during Lent is an important part of what we have to learn. As we shed our superfluities, we also shed the carapace with which we try to protect ourselves from God. It is a thought worth pondering as we contemplate what to do for Lent.

Shrove Tuesday 2010

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-16T06:37:51+00:00

Shrove Tuesday is the day on which traditionally we prepare for Lent by receiving the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation. For many the idea of confessing one's sins ("being shriven" in old parlance) is hard to understand; for many more it is hard to practise. It may be useful, therefore, to recapitulate what the Sacrament is and why it matters.

Only God can forgive sin. The priest acts in God's name, in accordance with the power and charge given him in the Sacrament of Order; and forgiveness is by no means automatic. The penitent must confess, make satisfaction, perform the penance imposed on him and have a firm purpose of amendment for the future. It is not enough just to rattle off a "laundry list", whip through an Act of Contrition, reel off an "Our Father" or two and assume all is well in this world and the next. Sin matters because it binds us and God wants his children to be free, but we have to do our part in responding to the invitation God makes in this Sacrament.

The first stumbling-block for some is the act of confession. To examine one's conscience in the light of the gospel can be painful in itself. Try reading 1 Corinthinans 13, putting your own name where St Paul puts the word "love" and you will soon see where you are wanting! Trying to articulate this murky side of oneself is certainly humbling, but it is also remarkably liberating. Sin's power over us is the power of darkness and concealment which confession breaks by allowing light and healing in. In a sense, the Sacrament is already work when we realise that we are sinners and have fallen short of God's glory.

Being sorry for one's sins is sometimes another difficulty. Here it is important to remember that it is not what one feels but what one intends that matters. If one is resolved to try one's hardest not to commit a particular sin again, there is no need to try to manufacture a feeling one doesn't honestly feel.

Making satisfaction for one's sins is often overlooked but is absolutely essential. If, for example, one has harmed someone by speaking ill of them, one must do all one can to put matters right. That may require a public humility which makes one squirm. Tough. Sin is serious; so is grace. Or there may be sin that no one but oneself knows about, but that too must be put right if one can. Confessing one's sins to a priest not only reveals them for what they are, it also makes one aware how clever we can be in finding excuses for them or minimizing their importance: having to do something about them strips this false comfort from us.

The penance imposed by the priest refers to the temporal punishment due to sin. By confessing we acknowledge we have injured the whole Body of Christ and we are required to make amends, hence the penance. It must be performed diligently and as soon as possible. Finally, there is that firm purpose of amendment for the future and our gratitude to God for what he has done for us.

Conversion, confession, celebration: this is the threefold pattern of the Sacrament of Penance which prepares us for Lent. It is not all doom and gloom. But before we clear our larders of eggs and fats for the Lenten fast, before we set our first pancake sizzling in the pan, let us remember what Lent is about. It is our great Festival of Freedom as Christians, and a necessary part of our preparation is the acknowledgement of our entanglement in sin.

This week's podcast (to be posted tomorrow) will be longer than usual and will be part of the prioress's Chapter talk for Ash Wednesday.

Ars Amandi

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-14T11:14:37+00:00

St Valentine's Day does not feature in the monastic calendar. Usually on 14 February we are celebrating the dull but worthy SS Cyril and Methodius (may our Slav brethren forgive me) and meditating on the beauties of Old Church Slavonic rather than the loveliness of the beloved. There is not a red ribbon or rosebud in sight. The feast is too minor to merit a glass of wine or piece of chocolate: everything is suitably drab and dreary. While the commercial world goes into a spin in the name of lurv, we remain relentlessly focused on the spiritual, rejoicing in the preaching of the gospel to our eastern neighbours over a thousand years ago. No wonder many think the Church hopelessly out of touch with the world in which "ordinary people" live and work, unbearably serious and a bit of a kill-joy.

By a happy accident, St Valentine's Day coincides with Sunday this year, so we had the Beatitudes at Mass. I daresay many a preacher compared the two ways of loving, Christian and commercial, contrasting the self-giving of the one with the exploitation of the other. I wonder how many dared to argue that Christian love, as expressed in the Beatitudes, is the most romantic of all loves, because it catches us up into the mystery of Christ's love for his Church, looks to the Other rather than to self and is eternal rather than ephemeral. There are no ribbons and rosebuds to express such love as this, no poetry adequate to proclaim it. Only a morsel of bread and a sip of wine, transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, can contain the Love "which moves the sun and lesser stars". This is the love-feast of the Christian, the source of all his joy; and we celebrate it, not on just one day of the year, but on every day save Good Friday and Holy Saturday. For us ars amandi, ars vivendi: the art of loving is the art of living.

The Wasteland Blooms

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-13T06:46:58+00:00

Came back from a short trip into Wantage to find our steps covered with a profusion of flowers, orange, white and that delicate shade of green which is almost silver; now the whole house is filled with their scent. It reminds me of the story of the anointing of Jesus' feet. When the jar of nard was broken, says the evangelist, the whole house was filled with the scent. I think monastic life should be like that. There should be a "sweet savour" from the life we lead in Christ which spreads outwards, just as scent spreads outwards from its source. And just as nard was the costliest of scents, stored in alabaster vials, so monastic life should be lavish in its gift of self, however inadequate its human vessels.

To be a vessel of the Spirit is the vocation of every Christian, of course, but monks and nuns are called to empty themselves out even more completely, if possible, that God may be all in all. Only so can the inner wasteland bloom.

Between Sunshine and Snowshowers

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-11T06:41:09+00:00

Yesterday we had true "Scholastica weather" and buried D. Teresa amidst sunshine and snowshowers. It was an exhausting day, but we are grateful to all those who came (lots) and all those who helped (lots). I think we managed to combine the monastic and the parochial elements, at least we tried to. It was good to have so many monks and nuns, oblates and friends with us: the church was full, with people having travelled from as far away as Canada in order to be present. A tribute to the huge impact D. Teresa had on those with whom she came into contact, and the high regard in which she was held, not only by us but by many others also. Now we return to the more mundane business of getting on with things, including the dreary "sorting out" that follows any death and the legal matters which can be so time-consuming.

Life has not stopped in the meantime, of course, and we have done our best to keep the business going (needs must pay the bills!) and answer as courteously as we could those who wanted time and attention. Lent is perilously close, but we have decided to scale down our Lent programme for this year as we shall lack one of our principal speakers. There will be a weekly Holy Hour and possibly a couple of talks. Details will be announced later.

St Scholastica 2010

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-10T05:39:22+00:00

Today is the feast of St Scholastica, sister of St Benedict, a day when strong monks become soppy and strong nuns smile knowingly into their wimples. Scholastica was, above all, a woman of prayer who inspired not only affection but respect in her brother. She knew her own mind and when it came to reconciling the apparently contradictory demands of love and law, seems to have had some insight into the mind of God also. At any rate, she taught St Benedict a lesson he never forgot, for his Rule always sets mercy above judgement, but not in the careless, wishy-washy way of those who are afraid to look Truth in the eye.

This is also the day on which we shall lay D. Teresa's body in the earth, far from her native Trinidad, but in a pleasant English churchyard where the swallows swoop in summer and bats and owls fly about at dusk. The readings at Mass will be Isaiah 25. 6-9; Romans 8.14-23 and John 14. 1-6. I suspect D. Teresa is rather looking forward to the promised Banquet.

Reception of the Body

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-09T08:36:00+00:00

Yesterday we clothed D. Teresa in her habit and cowl and laid her in her coffin. Tonight we shall bring her body into church in preparation for the Requiem Mass and Funeral. This "bringing the body to church" has great significance. The church is the place where we are baptized into the life of Christ, where we hear God's word and receive his sacraments; where we worship him in faith and love. It is, in the most literal sense, our "home from home"; for "our true home is in heaven".

So, tonight we shall greet the coffin at the church door and process into church with psalms and prayer. The paschal candle will be lit as a symbol of our hope in the Resurrection. The coffin will be sprinkled with holy water as a reminder of baptism then placed before the altar; the Bible and a Cross will be placed on the coffin as a reminder that we live by the word of God and are made perfect through conformity to Christ's sufferings. FInally, we shall pray, both out loud in words and silently with prayer which needs no outward expression. The Everlasting Arms hold D. Teresa safely in their embrace.

The Importance of Lectio Divina

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-08T06:56:45+00:00

Lectio divina is, first and foremost, the slow, prayerful reading of sacred scripture. Anyone who has read the Rule of St Benedict will recognize its central importance in the life of a monk. One could say that it is the characteristic activity of monastic life since nearly everything we do in choir is, in fact, another form of lectio divina, undertaken by the community as a community rather than as individuals. I, for one, would not confine lectio divina to scripture, anymore than I would claim always to read scripture as lectio divina. Sometimes I read because I have to, or to gain information, and my hurry tends to make me skip some sections and skim others (oh, the advantages of education!), so that I end up with what I want to gain from the text, not necessarily what the author wanted to impart. This is the Fast Food approach to reading, and its consequences can be equally dire.

Lectio divina demands a more leisurely approach, where quality rather than quantity is sought. An important part of the process is the quest for God, allowing the text to speak of God and lead one to prayer. Thus, intention is important; but it is surprising how often one may sit down to something with no conscious intention of doing anything particularly "religious" then find that one has been granted an insight or brought up against a question that forces one to one's knees. My novice mistress looked decidedly sceptical when I confessed that reading Homer turned into prayer and utterly nonplussed when one of my fellows volunteered playing tennis!

What is essential is that lectio divina should be practised regularly, even if for only a few minutes each day. Unfortunately, when very busy, lectio divina tends to get postponed, reduced to a bare minimum or even dropped altogether. During the past week we have had to reduce the time we devote to reading, and we certainly feel the want of it. But perhaps because it wasn't laziness that caused the reduction, I believe there have been compensations. We live in a world where everything and everyone can speak to us of God.

In Praise of Water

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-07T07:41:57+00:00

Digitalnun has often had occasion to remark that cold water is one of the oldest tastes known to humankind. During the last week she has been reminded how good it is. Whilst prostrate with pain (slight exaggeration: gastro-entiritis is unpleasant and leaves one limp, but it is pretty low in the pain stakes. Ed), she could drink nothing. Then came the craving for water, gallons of the stuff, fresh from the tap, sipped and slurped and really tasted, for the first time in years probably.

Water is one of our commonest sacramentals, beautiful in itself and even more beautiful as a channel of divine grace. It is our "natural element" as Christians. It surrounds us in the womb, it cleanses and refreshes us throughout life. Here in England we usually have enough water to meet all our needs and often all our wants (not quite the same thing). We are never very far from a source of cheap, pure water. Most of us are not very far, either, from a river or sea where we can simply enjoy the gift of water reflecting light back into the air. Perhaps in our weak and wobbly moments, when we feel like water ourselves, we can remember that. Water, just by being water, can make everything luminous; and if you don't believe me, just go into the Fens and look up at the sky.

St Paul Miki and Companions

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-06T20:26:37+00:00

The feast of St Paul Miki and Companions is a good one for reflecting on loss and gain from a Christian perspective. In case you don't know their story, these are the twenty-six Japanese men and boys (Jesuit priests and brothers, secular Franciscans, cooks and carpenters) who were martyred In Nagasaki by crucifixion in the sixteenth century. As he hung on the cross, Paul Miki, a Jesuit brother and probably the best-known, said, "I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ . . . I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain." The persecution of that time looked like the end of everything. It is estimated that a further 40,000 Christians were put to death between their martyrdom in 1597 and the lifting of the ban on Christianity in 1873. The methods of suppression sound familiar: being required to trample on sacred images, not being allowed the scriptures, banning meetings, offering financial inducements to informers and betrayers. Yet when Christian missionaries returned to Japan in the late nineteenth century, they found thousands of Christian living around Nagasaki who had preserved their faith in secret through centuries of fear and oppression.

Why should that surprise anyone? What happened on Calvary must have looked like the end of everything for the first followers of Jesus; but it wasn't. With the benefit of hindsight we can see that the death and resurrection of Jesus are the fons et origo of our life as Christians, quite the opposite of what they must have seemed at the time. The crucifixion of those Nagasaki martyrs must have looked like the end of Christianity in Japan; but it wasn't. It was the beginning of something that even today places the whole Church in their debt.

Just as a community is not really a community unless it numbers the old and sick among its members, those who, in economic terms, are net consumers rather than contributors (the language is as ugly as the attitude), so too a community is not fully a community until some of its members have died and the communion of saints has become a personal reality on both the vertical and the horizontal level. The Nagasaki Christians experienced that when those brave men and boys died on the hill outside their city. It is something our community here in Hendred has begun to experience with the death of our dear D. Teresa. We have suffered the blow; we now confidently await the blessings to follow.

Norovirus

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-04T09:19:15+00:00

Many thanks for all the kind messages of sympathy and offers of help. Unfortunately, we brought the Norovirus home from hospital with us so it will take a while to respond. We think the funeral will be on Wednesday, the feast of St Scholastica.

D. Teresa Rodrigues, R.I.P.

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-01T20:41:49+00:00

Peace and Justice

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-02-01T07:16:12+00:00

Peace is often elusive at both the personal and the communal level yet it is something we all desire and strive to attain. For a Benedictine, peace is to be found in the daily living out of the Rule in community, in the celebration of the liturgy, prayer, work and study. For each one of us peace will have a different accent, be found in slightly different ways. It may be a line from the psalms that sets our hearts at rest; it may be a theological truth expressed with brilliance and clarity which transforms everything; it may be something as simple and everyday as a shared smile or a PBGV gently indicating that it is time for a walk that stills the inner turbulence. The important thing is not to pretend that the inner turbulence does not exist. Everyone knows moments of doubt and confusion, anxiety and stress. They are part of being human, and it seems to be part of being human that troubles multiply when we feel least able to cope with them. Colophon hasn't any clever suggestions to make, but there is one thought we can perhaps hold onto during the coming week, whatever it brings.

Peace is not the mere absence of war, nor does it exist in a moral vacuum. It is intimately connected with justice; and justice in this context means more a sense of "right order" than what we commonly think of as justice. The right ordering of our lives and of society will never be easy, will always require some effort. Here in the monastery we have a frequent reminder of that. Whenever we go into choir, we make the sign of the cross with holy water. It reminds us of our baptism and serves as a ritual purification before we enter the holy of holies. Sometimes it is more than that: a dose of cold reality to pacify an inner rage or cool a hot temper, even, at times, a welcome draught to water a dry and shrivelled heart. It brings us up short, makes us think what we are doing, challenges us to set right whatever is wrong in our lives. It is an invitation to enter into the peace of the Lord. "Peace and justice have embraced" sings the Psalmist; and where else can they do so but in us?

Hospital Visits

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-31T06:31:33+00:00

We have spent the last few days commuting between the monastery and the John Radcliffe Hospital (where D. Teresa is "making progress", D.G.). This has brought us into contact with many people we don't know and who don't know us. It has been instructive. Inevitably in Oxford, some people seem to think we might be Muslims because of our long habits and veils: they tend to keep a cautious distance, avoid eye contact and seem to be wishing either we or they might disappear. Very telling. Others go into "panic mode", probably afraid of "holier than thou" sermonizing on our part. They also keep their distance. A few (often, but not always, Irish) ask for prayer or a blessing or call out a greeting that is an invitation to spend a few moments at their bedside. The great majority are straightforwardly pleasant, tolerant of our oddities and happy to exchange a few words and a smile. The stories they tell can sometimes be distressing, a powerful reminder that suffering isn't something that can be measured or rationalised: it can only be endured. And many people endure their suffering with a grace and good humour that is both humbling and inspiring. I think we have learned something during the past week, thanks to all with whom we have come into contact, something we would not have learned had we stayed quietly in our monastery. Exactly what that "something" is, I am not yet sure; but if you are feeling marginally out of sorts, preoccupied with various cares, may I suggest that a visit to your local hospital may give you a valuable new perspective? It is not those who are visited but those who do the visiting who benefit.

St Thomas Aquinas

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-28T14:05:22+00:00

Once upon a time, when Digitalnun was even more of a bookworm than today, she decided to read Proust's "Recherche" and Aquinas' "Summa theologica" all through; and having both a modest degree of self-awareness and a respect for the rules of the library, she announced her intention to the monastery librarian. Both agreed she was more likely to stay the course with Proust. Both were wrong. Proust was abandoned long before the madeleine was reached but Aquinas was diligently read to the last sentence. It took two and a half years. He was read early in the morning by the light of a weak bulb; he was read late at night to the accompaniment of gentle snufflings from sleepers in rooms nearby; he was read while hands were numb and nose-tips blue with cold in winter; he was read while heads drooped drowsily in midsummer and the dragonflies danced by the monastery pond. I cannot claim that it made Digitalnun into a scholastic theologian but it did give her a respect both for the task Thomas set himself (a bit like Milton's "to justify the ways of God to men", though expressed with characteristic humility) and for his achievement (he himself would have been the first to acknowledge its incompleteness and imperfection).

I was thinking about Aquinas while reading the pathetic arguments of A. C. Grayling that God cannot exist if he allows tragedies like Haiti. St Thomas would have argued Grayling's case rather better than Grayling himself, I suspect, then demolished it elegantly. "Elegance" is not an obvious word to use in connection with Aquinas but I think it is just. His arguments are always tautly constructed and expressed with an economy of language I find pleasing (but then, I probably have a medieval mind). He would have made a marvellous blogger and a first-class tweeter. He was a man of deep prayer, engaging humilty and endearing humanity (he was rather plump). Above all, he was wise enough to know when to keep silent. In 1273 he laid aside his pen, having been granted an experience in prayer that made him realise that all he had written hitherto was "so much straw" compared with what he now perceived. May St Thomas aid with his prayers those who people the blogosphere and grant wisdom and understanding to us all.

Jazzing up Monday

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-24T18:24:12+00:00

Others can blog about St Paul, we'll just provide a little winter cheer in the form of an advertisement for a Jazz evening on Saturday, 27 February, in Snell's Hall, East Hendred. Doors and bar open at 7.30 p.m. Admission £4. In aid of our work for the blind and visually impaired. We promise there won't be a nun in sight, so do please come and enjoy! Tickets from John Clement, Myles Madden or the monastery.

Benedict XVI and Blogging

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-24T12:10:22+00:00

By now everyone who is interested will have read Benedict XVI's encouragement to priests to start blogging. Some of us may think this a little late in coming, but we welcome any recognition that there are many ways in which the Gospel can be proclaimed. We are great believers in using the internet to reach out to people who would not otherwise encounter Christianity. We hope many priests will start blogging. There is, of course, one tiny problem. Unlike the homily, which in the Catholic Church is reserved to priests and deacons and allows of no "come-back" from the congregation, blogging is, by its very nature, open to discussion and disagreement. If one has nothing to say, or if what one says is disputed by others, there WILL be come-back; and one wonders whether that will be difficult for some priests.

Blogging could also be a great help in improving the standard of preaching and I personally hope that our seminaries are encouraging their students to get to grips with all forms of media. At the same time, I hope no one in the Vatican will decide that nuns ought not to blog. "Vita Consecrata" grudgingly allowed us, under certain conditions, to use fax machines at a time when the rest of the world had long abandoned faxes for emails; so we'll continue to hope we may go on inflicting our thoughts and prejudices on the world at large. You can listen to our take on Unity in this week's podcast, which is the nearest any of us will get to preaching in the Catholic Church (Digitalnun is sometimes invited to preach in churches of other denominations, perhaps because the sermon can always become an address and is therefore freed from clerical associations). Preaching, however, is always secondary to prayer for us. The past week has brought much to pray about. Please continue to support the people of Haiti with your prayers, pray and work for Christian unity, and ask for wisdom and charity in discussion of the Equality Bill.

Where did the Week go?

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-23T06:31:51+00:00

The past week has been . . . taxing. After our wimple-raising drive to Ringwood and the devastating news from garages across Oxfordshire (do they have a system for sharing bad news, one wonders, if so it may explain why there are so many pigeons flying about), our nice old Skoda is bound for "fresh woods and pastures new". Meanwhile, we have emptied our bank account and single-handedly rescued the British second-hand car trade by buying a "new to us" Ford. All this was accomplished on Thursday, just before our Virtual Chapter, which may explain why Digitalnun could barely string a sentence together and Bloggie was confusing everyone, including Digitalnun, by using Cybernun's computer. We even managed to rewrite scripture in our confusion. If you listen to the recording, you'll be astonished to learn that Saul anointed David king over Israel, although, to be fair, there was a hesitation which suggested that the speaker was wracking her brains for the right name. Poor dear.

Such things we can laugh about, but within minutes of ending the Chapter we learned that the brother of one of the community had been taken ill. We don't yet know how seriously, but it was a great shock to his sisters, one of whom found him on the floor where he had lain for some time; so please pray for them all. It brought home, in a small way, what the people of Haiti are suffering on a much larger scale without the services we take for granted.

In between whiles, there has been much activity: an edition de luxe for the English College, Valladolid, has been sent to the printers, all 800 pages of it, painstakingly typeset in Greek, Latin, English and Spanish, with some amazing illustrations tweaked in Photoshop to overcome the effects of centuries of wear and tear; two clients' web sites have been brought almost to the point of completion; the new recording technology for our audio book service to the blind and housebound has been exhaustively tested; and we have done our best to maintain the regular round of prayer and praise, welcome to visitors and the 1001 household tasks that make up the everyday life of any monastic community.

However busy we are, we do not forget God. How much less could he ever forget us?

A Busy Day

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-21T07:00:34+00:00

Drove through the snow yesterday to see our accountant but had no time to eat our lunchtime picnic in the New Forest as we usually do. Instead we got back as quickly as possible and made a rapid tour of second-hand car dealers near home as we have to replace our car. That is something we have done only once before and causes brain-fatigue in community as we try to ensure we are well-informed about "what to look out for" in particular models. The monastic habit usually has one of two effects: either the salesman (usually it is a man) seems to think we'll buy any old rubbish (not a hope, sir) or becomes unusually tongue-tied and addresses us as "Er, ladies, Er". I suspect the test-drive reintroduces some of them to the practice of prayer as SpeedyNun flings the car round corners and along the bumpier stretches of the A417. We haven't made our final choice yet, but we are getting closer . . .

Car-buying distractions notwithstanding, we are hoping that everything is now set for the Virtual Chapter on Vocation at 7.30 p.m. tonight. You can join us by clicking on the widget in the sidebar or by following the instructions on the Podcast page. The Chapter recording will be available for listening to afterwards.

In the World Not Of

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-19T08:26:20+00:00

Two thoughtful correspondents have articulated the same concern this week: how to be in the world, not of the world. It's an age-old concern, and from time to time, some of those outside the cloister express the same concern about those of us inside: are we in danger of having our spiritual energies dissipated by contact with the world/technology/complete as appropriate. I am pretty sure the same question will be raised during our Virtual Chapter on Thursday evening and it deserves to be taken seriously.

I think one must begin by stating the obvious. If one is a Christian, one is dedicated to Christ and does one's best to live one's vocation as well as possible. To do so, one must make use of the various helps we are given: prayer, scripture and the sacraments above all; but also faithful and persevering performance of one's duty (to husband/wife/family/community/whatever) and generous service of others. Inevitably, there is a falling short. Who has not got to the end of the day and felt ashamed of all the missed opportunities, the wrong turnings taken, the petty selfishness that is all the more galling because it is petty? The important thing is that we TRY. We try because we "hold nothing dearer than Christ". We may never say so explicitly (frightfully un-British!), we may even be uncomfortable about admitting as much to ourselves, but it is a fact of our existence.

It is precisely because we are rooted in Christ and because we attempt to keep our commitment deep through prayer and the sacraments, for example, that I think we can be confident that we can pass through the world unscathed, in not of. St Paul was clear that our freedom as children of God is more than just a figure of speech. The trouble is that we don't always live up to that freedom, don't always trust the Holy Spirit. Freedom isn't something we can take for granted, it has to be worked at. So too with Christian freedom: we have to put some effort into ensuring that our conscience is properly informed, be ready to accept correction, live with humility. Only then can we experience the kind of freedom St Paul wrote about and recognize that how the world perceives us may be unimportant, even seriously flawed. What matters is how God sees us. The world in which we live is the one God designed for us; the situations in which we find ourselves are the ones in which we are to live our Faith and become holy; today is for each one of us the day of salvation.

Preferring Nothing to the Love of Christ

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-18T07:29:46+00:00

Today's section of RB ends with Nihil amori Christi praeponere: to prefer nothing to the love of Christ or to put nothing before the love of Christ. That sums up the whole purpose of monastic life. Those who are not monks and nuns may well ask why we Benedictines make such a fuss about what should be true of any Christian. The answer is, of course, that we don't. Chapter 4 of RB has its origins in a collection of precepts for Christian living which would have been used in adult baptismal catechesis. It is, in highest degree, lay spirituality, a reminder of the centrality of baptism, of our immense dignity as children of God. On a murky Monday morning when a multiplicity of urgent tasks presses upon us it is heartening to recall that this isn't "all there is". For each and every one of us there is something more, a share in the life of God himself.

(Note: this week's podcast will not go up until this evening. Blame those urgent tasks referred to above.)

Wedding Feast at Cana

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-17T07:22:16+00:00

I have sometimes wondered what the wine at Cana was like. The palate of faith assumes that it outdid the finest Falernian, whatever that tasted like. Was it drunk, as the wines of Galicia were drunk in my youth, from a wide and spreading cup, shaped rather like the drinking bowls one sees on Attic vases? Was it poured from a great height to aerate it a little before it foamed in the bowl, as the apple wines and ciders of Asturias are poured? Presumably, it was mixed with water, because in the Classical world it was a sign of brutish behaviour to drink one's wine unmixed like the Persians. Was it red or white, or that strange tawny colour which is neither one nor the other? Did it smell of the vineyards of Engedi, so beloved of the Song of Songs, or had it a fragrance impossible to define, flavoured with herbs we would never use today? Was it, like most wines before the twentieth century, low in alcohol? In short, a wine like none that we have ever known, any more than the wedding guests at Cana long ago?

So many questions, so many distractions. One should never be afraid of allowing one's distractions a moment or two of freedom now and then. They have a way of making the stories of the gospel come alive with a freshness and vigour they might not have if we always insist on viewing them through our "scriptural spectacles" . Mooching around the water-jars, metaphorically speaking, I cannot help but hear the quiet insistence of Mary's "Do whatever he tells you." That is a command directed at you and me today, not just the servants of two thousand years ago.

Preparations

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-16T06:11:54+00:00

Preparations are well under way for our Virtual Chapter on Thursday evening. Please continue to send in your questions/suggestions on the subject of vocation as it is helpful to have been able to do some thinking in advance. Among those we have already received:

how can I know God is calling me?
how and when should I tell my parents what I want to do?
is it useful to have some work experience before I enter the seminary/religious community?
how important is it to share the same Faith in marriage?
what is the difference between nuns and sisters?
is it a vocation to be single?

(We have, of course, kept some under our wimples.) Oblate Alex is currently in Sri Lanka but will do his best to join in from there, so provided you do not have to get up in the middle of the night because of the difference in time zones, we hope that those with questions to ask/points to make will join us.

For some reason Twitterfeed is now indexing the Google code we use for the "translate" widget, so we are experimenting with a different position on the blog page, in the sidebar. With luck, there will be a few more behind-the-scenes tweaking of various parts of the site over the week-end. If we manage to break anything in our enthusiasm, please let us know.

Finally, the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity is almost upon us. For many people the whole concept of unity seems to have lost its urgency. Either there is a sense that "none of the differences matters" or "it's not achievable, so why bother?" Dare one say that unity isn't optional and that the Octave of Prayer matters very much indeed?

Authority and Obedience

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-15T07:46:21+00:00

It seems fitting that we read the end of RB 2, On the Kind of Person the Abbot Should Be, on the same day that we keep the feast of SS Maurus and Placid, St Benedict's exemplary disciples. Authority and obedience are intimately related but it can be "interesting" to see how they work out. For example, one may derive much quiet amusement from the kind of Catholic who invokes the Pope whenever the matter in hand is one on which he wishes to slap others down but who accuses the same Pope of heresy or worse whenever the papal line does not accord with his own. This can be tiresome when the papal champion turns out to have a very sketchy knowledge of what the Pope actually said/did/wrote, as is often the case; or when the "obedience" is so selective as to verge on the ridiculous (no examples, lest I forsake charity).

I was thinking about this recently because of the number of emails and letters which have come our way about the new translation of the Missal. Most are, frankly, ill-informed, whether "for" or "against" and show the writer to have little grasp of history or theology. (Sometimes they suggest "little Latin and less Greek" and a tin ear into the bargain, not that I am prejudiced, you understand, merely a woman of definite opinions.) The liturgy should NEVER become a source of disunity, should never become something we squabble over. It is too important for that. If you have time to read only one book about liturgy, let it be The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Ratzinger and remember that “There is no ‘pre-’ or ‘post-’ Conciliar Church. There is but one, unique Church that walks the path toward the Lord…” That surely is what authority and obedience in the Church is all about.

Horror in Haiti

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-14T06:41:59+00:00

Yesterday two questions dominated our inbox: why does God allow suffering, and what do you think you are doing by praying for the people of Haiti? One is reluctant to comment on the tragedy that is Haiti except on one's knees, but the questions are being asked by many. So, here is a stumbling, inadequate response. Experts in theodicy will find much to criticize, but it is not written for them but for those who, like us, are shocked by what they have heard and deeply saddened.

Whenever we are faced with a natural disaster, or the suffering of those we perceive to be innocent of having brought suffering on themselves, our belief in a good and loving God is tested. We know that God does not want to inflict pain. He is not a sadist; he derives no pleasure from death and destruction. Why, then, does he allow them to happen? Why has he allowed the people of Haiti, who are so poor and have suffered so much, to suffer even more? The honest answer finds no favour with those who do not want God to exist or who want the kind of God we would all despise.

God is creator of the universe and respects the laws of nature, gravity and so on, which inform that universe. He is not a puppeteer, an interventionist. The earthquake that tore Haiti apart was predictable, although we do not know enough to have been able to predict when it might occur. The island lies between two great fault lines and the tectonic plates are in constant movement: it was, indeed, a natural, seismic disaster. The fact that God did not intervene to prevent the catastrophe does not mean that God is indifferent. Far from it. We know that the very hairs of our head are numbered. The language we use to speak of God is inadequate, analogical; he is involved in the suffering of his children. He too "grieves", in a sense, "feels pain". We have only to look at the cross to see that God has identified so completely with us that in Jesus he has made himself vulnerable and experienced in his own flesh suffering and death.

That helps to explain why we pray. We do not pray for any particular result. We do not tell God what to do. We simply allow God to be God, knowing that he can use our readiness to align our will with his. It is part of the covenant between God and ourselves. "How" it works is beyond our understanding; but that it does work is certain. Our response to the earthquake in Haiti was therefore to pray, to give a little more than is comfortable to one of the relief funds, and to go on praying rather than follow in minute detail news bulletins and the like.

May God bless the people of Haiti and have mercy on the souls of all who have died. Amen.

Haiti and Hilary

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-13T08:23:02+00:00

Late with the blog this morning as we have dedicated an extra half-hour to prayer for the people of Haiti. There is nothing useful we can say on the subject, except to urge everyone to pray and contribute to the relief funds being set up to help. Our prayerline is always open, and we are glad that many find it a way of expressing their deepest hopes and fears. Just now it is full of petitions for families in Haiti.

Here the snow has been falling all night and is falling still: everywhere looks so beautiful that it has proved a great distraction. We were half-way through Vigils before I remembered that today is the Memoria of St Hilary of Poitiers (died c. 368). The "Hammer of the Arians" is such a contrast to St Aelred, whom we commemorated yesterday: a pugnacious, slightly irritable man, who could write like an angel when he wasn't skirmishing with rival authorities, the Emperor in particular. A convert from paganism, he was married with a daughter, Apra, when he was chosen as bishop of Poitiers. His zeal for orthodoxy was intensified by his experience of Arianism, which he distrusted and feared because it imperilled the eternal salvation of souls committed to his care. His comment on the Arians is revealing, "They didn't know who they were." Hilary knew perfectly well who he was, a child of God, a God who was a Trinity of Persons:

For one to attempt to speak of God in terms more precise than he himself has used: to undertake such a thing is to embark upon the boundless, to dare the incomprehensible. He fixed the names of His nature: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Whatever is sought over and above this is beyond the meaning of words, beyond the limits of perception, beyond the embrace of understanding."

(Hilary, De Trinitate)

Not knowing who one is seems as much a problem today as it ever was. Perhaps that is something that will come up in our next web conference on 21 January: vocation is about what one is, not just what one does; and it applies to everyone, married or single, monastic, clerical or lay.

St Aelred of Rievaulx

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-12T08:42:40+00:00

The feast of the English St Bernard today, and I was thinking of quoting a few lines from his Oratio Pastoralis (Pastoral Prayer). To my surprise, no English translation seems to be available on the internet, but you can read the Latin text here, which is better than reading a translation anyway. Aelred is an interesting saint. The son of a married priest, brought up at the Scottish court, he was an early enthusiast for the Cistercian Reform. As novice master and later abbot at Rievaulx, he demonstrated exactly what Benedict meant by "aptus sit ad lucrandas animas", having a talent for winning souls. Community numbers greatly increased under him, but the growth was short-lived and couldn't be sustained once he had died. It is for his writing, however, that he is chiefly remembered today.

Fashions in monastic spirituality come and go, and it is Aelred's De Spirituali Amicitia (On Spiritual Friendship) which is probably most read nowadays, possibly because the homoerotic elements (real or perceived) noticed by Foucault and others have sparked a vigorous debate. I suspect we are not sufficiently allowing for the differences between the twelfth century and our own. I find it easier to identify with the slightly world-weary Aelred, conscious of sin and loss, wanting to do better and echoing St Augustine as he says:

See, dear Lord, how I have wandered the world and (have seen) those things which are in the world….In these I sought rest for my unhappy soul, but everywhere (I found) labour and lament, sorrow and affliction of spirit. You cried out, Lord; you cried out and called. You terrified me and shattered my deafness. You struck, you flogged, you conquered my hardheartedness. You sweetened, you flavoured, you banished my bitterness. I heard you calling, but, alas, how late.

Yes, that is the voice of the monk (or nun) in every age and time.

Note: our next Virtual Chapter will be on the theme of Vocation: 7.30 p.m. GMT, Thursday, 21 January.

Ordinary Time

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-11T08:49:37+00:00

Back to Ordinary Time today, and a brief and breathy podcast, just to test whether we still can. (I almost added, banal: we do seem to go on and on about trying to live our spirituality in the here and now, but to be fair, there's nowhere else to live it until we become "as the angels in heaven".) HandyNun has been busy putting up polythene double-glazing round the windows on the east side of the house and has found some old heavy curtains to act as an extra windshield, so our thoughts have not been entirely other-worldly.

Harriet Harman's Equality bill is exciting debate in religious circles but as we have not yet studied its details, we shall defer comment for the moment. In the meantime, we are indebted to Heresy Corner for providing biographies of the thirteen "inter-faith" advisers appointed by John Denham to act as the present Government's "sounding-board" in all matters connected with faith. The emphasis is definitely "inter-faith" (not a single Catholic among them). There are some excellent people among the appointees but, like many others, we are still doubtful what, if anything, will be achieved. They are hardly likely to be called in to advise on the Equality bill, are they?

A Point of View

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-10T07:16:25+00:00

With the Baptism of the Lord we come to the official end of Christmastide, and we end as we began, with a Mystery that challenges all our preconceived ideas about how things ought to be. God made man should not have been born in a stable, should he? No more should Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World, have been baptized by John. John himself was reluctant, but Jesus countermanded him, saying , "Let it be so for now. We must do all that righteousness demands." (Matthew 3.15) With that answer we are given a glimpse into the relationship between Father and Son and are reminded, yet again, that God does not see as we see.

St Ephrem (who died c. 373) wrote a magnificent hymn about the Baptism of the Lord. (It is hymn XIV if you want to read it for yourself.) Ephrem begins with the hiddenness of the Messiah: "The Bride was espoused but knew not who was the Bridegroom on whom she gazed: the guests were assembled, the desert was filled, and our Lord was hidden among them." Then follows a lengthy dialogue between Jesus and John in which all John's objections are overruled, one by one, "'Small is the river whereto Thou art come, that Thou shouldst lodge therein and it should cleanse Thee. The heavens suffice not for Thy mightiness; how much less shall Baptism contain Thee!' 'The womb is smaller than Jordan; yet was I willing to lodge in the Virgin: and as I was born from woman, so too am I to be baptized in Jordan.'"

Gradually, the themes unfold: the espousal of the Church to her heavenly Bridegroom, the forgiveness of sin through baptism, the gift of priesthood, and finally, the revelation of the Trinity:"The heavenly ranks were silent as they stood, and the Bridegroom went down into Jordan; the Holy One was baptized and straightway went up, and His Light shone forth on the world. The doors of the highest were opened above, and the voice of the Father was heard," This is my Beloved in Whom I am well pleased." All ye peoples, come and worship Him. They that saw were amazed as they stood, at the Spirit Who came down and bore witness to Him. Praise to Thy Epiphany that gladdens all, Thou in Whose revelation the worlds are lightened!"

Ghiberti's sculpture of the Baptism of the Lord is outside the baptistry in Florence. One has to look up to see it: the angle is awkward, the pigeons are a nuisance, it is not how we are accustomed to seeing depictions of the Baptism. But for me, it expresses the divine paradox we have returned to again and again during the Christmas season, "Father, through the lowliness of your Son, you raised up a fallen world." That is more than a point of view. It is Salvation Incarnate.

Courage and Cowardice

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-09T08:20:56+00:00

Two recent stories have set Colophon thinking about the difference between courage and cowardice.

Constable Peadar Heffron was grievously injured yesterday when a bomb exploded under his car on the Milltown Road, Belfast. The attack was both cowardly and vicious in the fullest sense of the word. The perpetrators (thought to be dissident republicans) exposed themselves to minimal risk, but the lives of their victim and their victim's young wife will be changed for ever by what they did. (At the time of writing, Mr Heffron's survival is by no means certain.) What Colophon chokes on is the fact that this act was carried out by people who, presumably, had at least a nominally Christian education, who grew up in a society in which both civil and religious law assert that the unjust taking of life is wrong. So, we have a cowardly act by cowardly people and the whole world is diminished by it.

Contrast that story with one from Portsmouth. Angela Mahon was being driven to hospital to give birth when the car she was in became stuck in the snow. As her contractions worsened, she knew she had no choice but to walk. Dressed only in her nightclothes, she walked the rest of the way, arriving at the hospital covered in snow and saying, "Help, I'm in labour." This story has a happy ending, with the birth of twin boys a few hours later; but the comments Angela made to "The Portsmouth News" are revealing: "I was so scared . . . I was really panicking. I think I was in shock. I just wanted to get there for the twins." I don't know whether Angela Mahon has any religious beliefs, but what she did was genuinely courageous and self-sacrificing. Real courage takes risks, and knows the risks it takes. It puts others first. Above all, it is life-giving whereas cowardice is death-dealing.

What can the Churches do to encourage a culture of life rather than a culture of death? The public pronouncements of our religious leaders are often thoughtful but can sometimes seem inept, out of touch or even crass, perhaps because the language used is, by and large, no longer a language the world understands or values. Having said that, I am reminded of Chesterton's remark that it is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting but that it has never been tried. Perhaps those of us who claim to be Christian need to try harder, to show by our actions that we really believe what we say we believe. It isn't easy to be brave, to stand up to hostility or derision or risk our own comfort or ease, but on the whole I think it preferable to causing others to weep because we have been cowards.

Numb Brains

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-08T07:14:23+00:00

Our brains are numb with cold so today we offer just three photos and no thoughts: the monastery under snow, the ice-house, sorry green-house, currently out of bounds to HandyNun as the door is frozen shut, and the view from our breakfast terrace across to Hendred House and its ancient chapel.

Plans Awry

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-07T06:58:48+00:00

Today's section of the Rule is about sharing by patience in the sufferings of Christ. Often described as the fourth Benedictine vow (the others are obedience, stability and conversatio morum, usually translated as "conversion of life" or "to live monastic life as it should be lived"), patience is one of those seemingly unheroic virtues absolutely necessary for anyone trying to live as a human being, let alone as a Christian. The Latin roots of the word, patientia (=endurance) and pati (=to suffer), should alert us to the fact that patience is more than a weary, passive acceptance of an imperfect situation. Patience requires courage and steadfastness: it isn't for wimps, and it isn't for losers.

Why do we find patience so difficult? Is it because we want instant solutions, instant results (even in prayer); so when we don't get what we want, we behave like spoiled children and go off in a huff, with a metaphorical flick of our hair and a metaphorical stamp of our feet? Or is it because we just don't see how patience can lead us to a deeper union with Christ? We haven't time, we say, we are too busy. Now, one of the funny things about time is how elastic it is. A five-minute wait can seem like eternity, while a whole day spent with someone we love can go by in a flash.

For many of us in Britain the snow and ice are giving opportunities we hadn't expected to change gear, to reconsider. We can't get on and do some of the things that last week looked important, even urgent. Here in the monastery we have had to reschedule meetings and journeys that have been in the diary for months. Other things have come to take their place, like clearing paths and dealing with burst pipes in church: not nearly so "important" as what we've had to cancel, but not things we can put off.

The key point about patience is not what we are asked to do but how we accept what is asked of us at any given moment. God, as we know, has an inconvenient habit of seeing differently from us. We can choose to co-operate, or we can refuse. Ultimately, patience is about preferring God's will to our own. Our plans may have gone awry, but His may not.

Snow

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-06T09:42:18+00:00

Sheep may safely graze, but only because the farmer has been out dropping feed. The scene by Hill Farm at eight o'clock this morning.

St Mary's Church glimpsed through the hedge a little later. The silence was almost complete, suggesting that the A34 rush-hour didn't happen this morning. Snow is a very effective muffler of sound, so Digitalnun began thinking of all her favourite quotations about snow, ending with "Soft as roosting birds falls the snow". That one is from scripture. If you have nothing else to do today because you can't get to work, why not spend half an hour looking at references to snow in the bible? You might be surprised how many there are.

Update: we have just heard of the death of Mgr Graham Leonard. Please pray for the repose of the soul of this great priest and pastor, for the consolation of his widow, Priscilla, and for his many friends who mourn his passing even as they rejoice that his sufferings are at an end. Requiescat in pace.

Clergy Unions

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-05T07:59:13+00:00

From time to time Colophon peeps over the fence to see what others are up to and generally finds much to ponder. The idea of Anglican clergy joining a Trade Union is not new, but the current spate of openness about the reasons for doing so probably is. Bullying is something all Churches condemn but are sometimes guilty of, at both the individual and the institutional level. Bishops bullying parish clergy; parishioners bullying clergy; choir directors bullying clergy and parishioners: the list of possibilities is endless. While we smile, there is a serious issue which needs to be addressed, though one doubts whether Unionisation is the answer.

Religious authority is difficult to get right. For the believer, obedience is a good thing, but it means taking a huge risk. We may believe that God's authority is mediated through human beings; but human beings, as we know, tend to get things wrong. When someone charged with authority identifies his/her own will with that of God, the consequences can be terrible. (When someone not charged with authority identifies his/her will with that of God, the results can be equally dire but they are not invested with the religious significance of episcopal/clerical utterance.) Benedict was well aware of this tendency, of course; but the checks and guards he provides for the monastery only really work when everyone agrees that they should and is genuinely seeking the good of all in a comparatively small society. The exercise of authority in the wider Church can be more complicated. Injustices do occur and are not always righted. Part of the trouble, I suspect, is the high value we place on "autonomy". Autonomy is a fine thing when everything is going well, but when it isn't, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

Light

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-04T06:55:34+00:00

Did you notice how beautiful the light was yesterday? The tree branches were rimmed with silver; even the gloomiest patches of laurel were transformed. I was thinking about that this morning when I got up and realised we faced three hours of darkness before daybreak. Peter of Celles used to love the long dark winter nights because they gave him more time for prayer. In the twenty-first century we are more inclined to switch on electric lights and deny the darkness. We need to get on, do what we want to do; the natural rhythms of night and day are barriers to be overcome.

New Year resolutions are probably already looking a little limp, but perhaps we could spend a moment or two today asking how far we have allowed ourselves to become strangers to the natural rhythms of night and day, the season, even our own bodies (hands up those who went to bed last night muttering that they had spent too long in front of the television?). The connection with prayer may not be immediately obvious, but one of the first requirements of the contemplative is to look and take notice, to allow God the opportunity to speak. And when God speaks, things happen.

Epiphany 2010

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-03T19:51:01+00:00

Epiphany is one of my favourite feasts, steeped in beauty and mystery, with many levels of meaning. The Magnificat antiphon reminds us of the miraculous ways in which Christ manifested his glory. "We honour the day adorned with three miracles. Today a star led the Magi to the crib; today water was made into wine for the wedding-feast; today Christ willed to be baptized in the Jordan." Thus, Christ showed his glory to the gentiles, prepared the Church as his Bride and made holy all the waters of the earth, taking away our sin. There in a nutshell is what Incarnation and Redemption is all about. Theology expressed as poetry, music and ritual is probably the only way some of us can begin to grasp such sublime Truth.

Life is not all theology, however. One of the things that keeps me Catholic is the fact that it is such a cheerful religion: it doesn't fudge death and judgement, heaven and hell; doesn't promise (contrary to what many believe) an easy forgiveness for sin; but it does allow us to be human and to take seriously what it means for God to become human also. As an Englishwoman, I especially like the way in which it lets us use humour as a means of approaching God and the things of God.

The photograph above from Autun shows a medieval sculptor's idea of the Magi on their way to the crib: all three cosily tucked up in bed, two of them with eyes fast shut, the third being gently awoken by an angel touching his little finger and pointing out the star they must follow. Medieval ideas of the majesty of kingship crumble before this tender portrait. It too tells us something about Epiphany. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords is as humble and approachable as a baby in a manger; and who would not smile at such a welcome and welcoming thought?

Larkin Was Wrong

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-02T07:46:44+00:00

Larkin was wrong. St Basil the Great (c. 329-379), whose Memoria we keep today, is a prime example of someone who made good because of, rather than in spite of, Mum and Dad and everyone else in the family circle. He was indisputably brilliant (nature? nurture? a bit of both?), one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church. His early career was not without traces of a self-satisfied vanity which even great gifts cannot make attractive. But family tradition made a speciality of holiness, and poor Basil suffered a thorough-going conversion, largely through the influence of his sister, St Macrina the Younger. She had useful foundations on which to build: their grandmother had been St Macrina the Elder, their father St Basil the Elder, their mother, Emmelia, was the daughter of a martyr and instilled in all ten of her children what used to be called "habits of piety". If that sounds dreary, remember that we are talking about people who were highly educated, with myriad interests and minds like quicksilver. I doubt that conversation at the dinner table was entirely on heavenly things.

Macrina the Younger was not satisfied with turning Basil's life around: she had a profound effect on the life of another brother, Gregory of Nyssa, also a saint. (It is from Gregory that we learn of Basil's early worldliness. Given Gregory's love and admiration for his sister Macrina, we may wonder whether there was a little fraternal exaggeration of Basil's shortcomings.)

Basil was also lucky in his friends. St Gregory Nazianzus (also known as Gregory Nazianzus the Younger: names in this period are disappointingly repetitive) was devoted to him and wrote a rather fulsome life which contains much interesting detail. A later, painful estrangement only served to highlight the closeness of the earlier years of their friendship. He was not always so lucky in relations with his superiors who sometimes felt overshadowed by his gifts, and there were periods of exile and estrangement which must have cost him dear. Basil's letters provide fascinating insights into his many undertakings, his disputes, his concerns and his enthusiasms. It is, of course, as a promoter of coenobitic monasticism that he is particularly honoured by Benedictines, with the Long and the Short Rules both being important sources.

It is, however, as a child positively influenced by his upbringing that we might think of Basil this morning. His life is an encouragement to parents unsure of the effect they are having on their offspring. It is even more of an encouragement to elder sisters (especially bossy ones). I wonder if that holds for monastic communities, too.

A New Year

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2010-01-01T07:12:32+00:00

With two thirds of the community currently hors de combat, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God and Octave Day of Christmas is being celebrated in rather low-key fashion: no choral liturgy (if you except the cacophony of coughs, sneezes and wheezes that resounds throughout the house); no fine festive fare (unless you consider a bowl of thin soup a gourmet delight); and no toasting of the feast and of the year with a glass of decent wine. But we did greet the midnight chimes, as always, with a Vigil of Prayer, held hermit-style in separate rooms, and the dissipation of Digitalnun, at least, extended to a cup of a well-known blackcurrant cordial afterwards (and, alas, enough antibiotics to make her rattle!).

How different all this was from what we had planned. It is good to begin a New Year with the realisation that we are not in charge, that "there's a divinity that shapes our ends/ rough-hew them how we will." For some that is a stumbling-block, something to be feared and rebelled against; for others, it is a freedom, a liberation from the tyranny of believing that we must do everything ourselves. Perhaps 2010 will be the year when we all finally learn that human pride and folly are destructive and undergo a change of heart, what Christians call "conversion". We none of us know what this year will hold; but the community here will be constant in prayer, please God; and prayer, as we know, can achieve great things.

May God grant you your heart's desire this year, and more important, His heart's desire for each one of you.

(Podcasts will resume when one of the community can manage a few words without splutters.)

Holy Innocents

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-28T06:34:39+00:00

The Flight into Egypt by Nicholas Mynheer
Copyright © Nicholas Mynheer. Reproduction prohibited.
Used here by kind permission of the artist

Today's gospel is Matthew's account of the flight into Egypt. When I first typed those words I wrote "light into Egypt" which not only seemed peculiarly appropriate but also called to mind the above painting by Nicholas Mynheer. No, I am not going to "explain" the symbolism but just let you meditate on all the imagery suggests. You can find more of Nicholas's work at his new web site, http://www.mynheer-art.co.uk/

Christmas 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-25T05:57:36+00:00

VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST

We wish all our oblates, associates, friends and cybervisitors
a very happy Christmas.
May the Prince of Peace fill your hearts and homes
with joy and gladness.
We shall keep you in our prayers.
Mass will be offered for your intentions
on Monday, 28 December.

THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH

JOY TO ALL THE WORLD

Christmas Eve 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-24T05:55:49+00:00

Two years ago Colophon observed:

One of the most beautiful parts of the Christmas Eve liturgy is the singing of the Martyrology which situates the birth of Christ in time and place. When we reach the words "All the earth being at peace . . ." the music becomes more and more intense, until finally the Incarnation is announced on a falling cadence. When God has uttered his Word, there is no need for further speech.

No need for further speech, true, but we continue to babble because we are afraid of that mysterious silence out of which the all-powerful word of God speaks. Somehow we need to recover a little interior silence to allow what we celebrate to remain at the heart of all we do and say. It won't mean our being any less genial, nor, alas, less busy, but it might make Christmas less stressful because we shall be more relaxed about the inevitable gap between expectation and reality, especially the expectation we have of ourselves.

If that seems paradoxical (relaxed? at Christmas?) just remember, Jesus was content with very little: a shelter, his mother's milk, somewhere to lay his head. We do not have to be perfect to pease him, nor do we have to be perfect to please others. Those we love are lovable with all their shortcomings; so are we. Married, single, widowed, divorced or separated; alone or with others; as a member of a religious community or as a hermit; we need to slow down (yes, slow down!) and lose ourselves, just for a moment or two, in wonder at the nearness of our God. "Tonight is born for you the Saviour of the World." Let us be glad and give thanks.

O Emmanuel

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-23T05:41:54+00:00

(For information about this O antiphon, text, music and recording, please see our liturgy page.)

Today's Mass readings are Malachi 3. 1-4, 23-24 and Luke 1. 57-66. The responsorial psalm is taken from psalm 24, and, instead of the antiphon of the day, O Emmanuel, we have a version yesterday's (O Rex Gentium). Once again Colophon will be perverse and consider the Mass readings in the light of O Emmanuel, the last of the Great "O"s.

According to Malachi, the advent of the Lord was to be preceded by the coming of his messenger, the prophet Elijah. The identification of Elijah with John the Baptist was made by the Lord Jesus himself ("I tell you solemnly, Elijah has come…") but it is easy to see in Luke's account of the Baptist's ministry parallels with that of Elijah, especially in that fiery zeal for God which must have been so uncomfortable for his listeners. But it is the end of today's gospel passage which draws our attention. "'What will this child turn out to be?" [the people] wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was upon him."' Here, just before the birth of Christ, we are asked to consider the birth of his forerunner, the man who would prepare the way for him. John's birth was strange and there is a sense that something stranger still is about to take place. Who could have foreseen that the Son of God was about to be born? We know that John will be driven out into the desert by his love for God; that he will live on the margins of society, dress in weird garments and live on an austere diet; that he will be fearless in proclaiming the truth, challenge the kings of this world and pay the price exacted for such courage; that he will point his own disciples towards Christ and rejoice that he himself must diminish. And all because "the hand of the Lord was upon him."

Tonight's antiphon prepares us for the coming of Christ by heaping upon him titles which explain who he is and what he has come to do. As King and Law-giver he fulfils the promise of the Old Testament; he is the one for whom, whether knowingly or unknowingly, the whole of humanity (= the gentiles) has been longing; he is the Saviour of all. It is as Emmanuel, God-with-us, that we invoke him and ask him again to come and save us.

O Rex Gentium

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-22T04:34:54+00:00

(For information about this O antiphon, text, music and recording, please see our liturgy page.)

Today's Mass readings could be described as a celebration of the Magnificat, a sustained exposition of Mary's song of praise. We begin with 1 Samuel 1. 24-28, the story of Hannah's dedication of the infant Samuel to the service of the Lord; as responsorial psalm we sing her song of triumph, 1 Samuel 2. 1, 4-8, on which so much of the Magnificat is based; the alternative gospel acclamation echoes the O antiphon of the day, O Rex Gentium, while the gospel is the Magnificat itself, Luke 1. 46-56.

What are we to make of all this joy and gladness? Why do we exult? Surely it is because we have been given a rare privilege. For gentile Christians being adopted into the "family of God", sharing in the promises made to his Chosen People, and coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord is something beyond our wildest dreams. When we look at our Saviour, we can say with Hannah, "This is the child I prayed for, and the Lord has given me what I asked"; and with Mary, "The Almighty has done great things for me; holy is his name." At our baptism we received the gift God offered us, made our profession of faith (or had it made for us by our godparents) and so were welcomed into the community of believers, the Church. We were baptised into Christ's death that we might rise with him to newness of life. This is the new creation we sing about with such wonder and gratitude. Of course, we "know all that"; but these last days of Advent are a good time for reminding ourselves of truths that sometimes slip from view. Just as the snow is making us look at the world about us with fresh eyes, so the liturgy can help us focus anew on the miracle of salvation.

Tonight's O antiphon provides an exquisite setting for the Magnificat. It expresses our deep longing for redemption and recalls the act by which the Lord Jesus opened the way of salvation to all. Jew and gentile have been made one through his sacrifice on the Cross. He has become the corner-stone because he alone can save, can breathe new life into those he formed from the dust of earth.

O Oriens

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-21T05:32:45+00:00

(For information about this O antiphon, text, music and recording, please see our liturgy page. Please note that the concluding prayer (veni …) is in the plural form, not singular as it was yesterday. Now read on.)

Today at Mass we read either the Song of Songs 2. 8-14 or, as we do in community, Zephaniah 3. 14-18, and the account of the Visitation we had yesterday, Luke 1. 39-45, with verses from psalm 32 as responsorial psalm. The gospel acclamation ignores the O antiphon for the day and instead provides shortened forms of those for 20 and 23 December. We shall not do likewise because to address Christ as the Morning Star (O Oriens) on this, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, is symbolic of our hope both for this world and the next.

The exuberant joy of the passage from Zephaniah finds a lively echo in the gospel. Neither Elizabeth nor John can contain their gladness at the nearness of their Lord, and although we do not read the next few verses of Luke today, we know that they contain Mary's own hymn of rejoicing, the Magnificat. There is a world of difference between such Spirit-filled outpourings and the forced jollity of some of the "worship songs" inflicted on innocent congregations. But the presence of such delight in God begs the question. How often do we receive the gospel as Good News? How often do we welcome the coming of God as cause for celebration? Too frequently, I suspect, we are a little piano, unwilling to risk all that admitting God into our lives "with no holds barred" may involve. We prefer the dimness of the familiar and safe to the brilliance of the unexpected.

Tonight as we sing the Magnificat antiphon, hailing Christ as Splendour of Eternal Light and Sun of Justice, we shall be reminded that we are children of light, not creatures of darkness. As Christians we are, so to say, professional risk-takers, ready to be light-bearers in any and every situation. It requires effort, of course, just as it required effort on Mary's part to be a Light-bearer to Elizabeth; but only so can our prayer embrace the whole human race, "Come and free those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death."

O Clavis David

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-20T04:43:54+00:00

(For information about this O antiphon, text, music and recording, please see our liturgy page.)

This is the day on which, throughout the Benedictine world, a sermon or talk known as the Missus Est is traditionally given to the community, in keeping with the gospel for 20 December, Luke 1. 26-38. It is not difficult to link the Annunciation with the antiphon O Clavis David, but the readings of the Fourth Sunday of Advent take precedence over the ferial ones; so instead of the Annunciation, we are invited to reflect on the Visitation, Luke 1. 39-45, together with Micah 5. 1-4, Hebrews 10. 5-10, and verses from psalm 80.

Unusually, all three Mass readings focus attention on the body of the one we are awaiting. There is the mysterious prophecy in Micah of "the time when she is to give birth gives birth"; in Hebrews there are references to the "body you prepared for me" and "the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"; and the gospel has Elizabeth's lyrical outburst, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" while the unborn John the Baptist senses the nearness of his God and dances for joy in his mother's womb.

This concentration on the sheer physicality of birth and the "bodyliness" of the Lord Jesus should make us think. We do not worship a God who is somehow "out there", remote, uninterested, uninvolved. On the contrary, we worship a God who, in Christ Jesus, has experienced what it is to be human, who has promised to be with us always, to the end of time. As Christopher Smart said so well, he is "a native/Of the world he made." He is also, as Isaiah prophesied, the Key of David, the Sceptre of the house of Israel, to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been committed; but unlike many politicians who strut about the world's stage, sometimes leaving things a little better but often much worse, not culpably or intentionally but because their interests are limited to their own time or their own country (think Copenhagen), Jesus' ambition, so to say, is cosmic. There is nothing and no-one beyond the scope of his love and mercy. He wants to free us from the prisons we have made for ourselves, the grubby little sins and shabby half-truths that prevent our becoming what he desires us to be. Tragically, we often prefer a half-life in chains to living fully the glorious freedom of the children of God. If we could only believe how much he loves us, we could pray with perfect confidence "come and free from prison one who sits in darkness and the shadow of death."

O Radix Jesse

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-19T03:52:18+00:00

(For information about this O antiphon, text, music and recording, please see our liturgy page.)

Today at Mass we read Judges 13. 2-7; 24-25 and Luke 1. 5-25, with verses of psalm 70 and a shortened version of O Radix Jesse before the gospel. Once again we reflect how God brings life and hope where previously there was only death and despair. The theme of the barren woman miraculously made fertile is found throughout the Old Testament and lies at the heart of the promise made to Abraham and Sarah. The birth of Samson and of John the Baptist belong to this genre and have some striking parallels. The appearance of the angel of the Lord, the giving of the promise (only half-believed by Zechariah), and the setting apart for God's service of the child who will be born (indicated in both cases by the requirement to live as a nazirite, abstaining from wine and strong drink) can blind us to differences which are perhaps even more telling than the similarities.

The Lord blessed Samson, his Spirit moved him, but Samson's ultimate failure was as tragic as his vocation was heroic. There was no such failure with John. He did indeed inherit the spirit and power of Elijah, was filled even from his mother's womb with the Holy Spirit and proved great in the sight of the Lord. ("I tell you solemnly that among those born of women, there has arisen none greater than John the Baptist.") Yet we know that, great as John was, his role was to point to someone greater still. Mary would not doubt the angel's message but embrace God's will with joyful alacrity (genoito moi kata to rhema suo has much more eagerness in it than our rather feeble "Let it be done to me according to your word" can convey), and God would work in her a wonder the world had never seen before and never would again. Jesus would be born of a virgin, not a barren woman; and he would prove to be the true Deliverer of Israel, before whom kings would fall silent and in search of whom the gentiles would come.

How does this tie up with O Radix Jesse? The symbolism of the antiphon is clear enough, but Paul helps to articulate the theology underpinning it, especially in Romans 15. 8-13. He says Christ became a servant of the Jewish people to maintain God's faithfulness by making good God's promises to the patriarchs and by giving the gentiles cause to glorify God for his mercy. He quotes Isaiah also, for Christ is that scion of Jesse who will rule over the gentiles and in whom they will place their hope. What is this promise to Israel, this mercy shown to the gentiles, this hope we all share? Surely it is freedom from sin and death and the enjoyment of eternal life made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary? The Messiah for whom Israel has prayed and longed is become the Saviour of the World. All the jangling discordances of humanity are quieted; the divine harmony is restored; but here on earth we have yet to experience the fullness of redemption. So we pray, "Come and free us; delay no longer!"

O Adonai

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-18T06:18:17+00:00

(For information on this O antiphon, text, music and recording, please see our liturgy page.)

For today's Mass readings we have Jeremiah 23. 5-8 and Matthew 1.18-24, with verses from psalm 71 and an abridged version of O Adonai as the link between them. The passage from Jeremiah is fascinating. Here is a portrait of true kingship; honest, wise, full of integrity, instilling confidence and enabling Israel to live in perfect freedom. This vision of messianic kingship is realised in Christ Jesus, who is indeed the "virtuous Branch of David", the fulfilment of the psalmist's dream. He is also to be identified with the all-Holy One who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who gave the Law on Sinai and saved the Israelites with outstretched arm, just as the outstretched arms of the Lord Jesus on the cross brought salvation to all the world.

The gospel reading contains lots of difficulties for scripture scholars but we can derive much to think about without becoming too narrowly academic. Here we have a second Joseph, a man of dreams and integrity like the first, but one who, as a descendant of David, can confer on the Son who is to be born of Mary, all the privileges and expectations of his royal ancestry. There is something very likeable about Joseph. He is perplexed by Mary's pregnancy, tries to find a human solution to the "problem", but is utterly accepting of the angel's reassurance and command. No wonder he has become a model of Christian obedience. What draws our attention here, however, is the name disclosed to Joseph: Mary's Son is to be named Jesus, Joshua, because he is the one who is to save his people not from material slavery but from slavery to sin. We have entered into a new order of creation: God's ideas are so much bigger than our own. Well may we pray that he will come and save us with his outstretched arm.

O Sapientia

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-17T20:03:15+00:00

In these last days of Advent we sing the "O" antiphons at Vespers with great solemnity: candles, incense, church bells, a special book from which to sing . . . all intended to focus mind and heart on the significance of the words. Colophon commented on the antiphons in 2007 and on our liturgy page you will find texts, music, and recordings (fear not, sung by others!) with some suggestions for scripture to ponder.

So it is with a cheerful conscience that we turn to the Mass readings for inspiration. Today we have Genesis 49. 2, 8-10 and Matthew 1. 1-17, together with Ps 71 and a curiously abridged version of O Sapientia as the Gospel Acclamation. The opening prayer of the Mass, with its breath-taking "may we share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity", will still be ringing in our ears when we hear the gospel. Some people find the Old Testament genealogies tiresome. Even the genealogy of Christ is sometimes read as though it were meaningless. But today we shall be reminded forcefully that God became man in Jesus Christ, that he came of an ordinary human family, and like all of us, had a few skeletons in his family cupboard. Look at some of the names in Matthew's list and you will see what I mean: alongside the great and good are the decently obscure and a few instances of what we might most kindly call folly.

We begin, of course, with Abraham, our father in faith, and go on through the patriarchs, some a little dodgy it is true, but made respectable by their antiquity; but what about Rahab? A prostitute is not the kind of ancestor most people glory in, unless she happens to be the paramour of kings. And Ruth, why, she wasn't even Jewish. David may have been the great hero of Judaism, the kind of king Israel hoped to find in the Messiah, but his son Solomon was born of adultery with Bathsheba. Only when we come to "Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ" does this long list of begetting reach its end. With Christ we come to the perfect fulfilment of creation, of everything the Divine Wisdom brought into being; and it is Christ whom we shall invoke tonight under the title of Wisdom and ask to come and teach us the way of prudence.

Zoom, Zoom

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-16T05:44:40+00:00

As readers of this blog (all three of 'em?) will know, we want to update the equipment we use for making audio books for the blind and have been trying to find the most suitable then raise money to buy it. Our friend Joe has been helping Technonun research digital audio recorders and at (long) last they have agreed: the Zoom H4N is their recorder of choice to replace our outmoded and increasingly rackety cassette recorders. It is the only affordable digital recorder with a big enough screen and buttons for our "mature" volunteers to use comfortably, something that may be of interest to anyone with a similar problem.

Digitalnun is pleased about this choice as she already uses the H4N's baby brother, the HandyZoom, to record podcasts for our web site and is enthusiastic about the audio quality which can be obtained. She may not be quite so enthusiastic when she realises that to replace all the recording equipment used by our volunteer readers (i.e. the people who record the texts for us) is going to cost around £6,000, but never mind, Christmas is coming and one can always hope. Replacing the recorders will enable us to introduce phase 1 of our changeover to mp3 files and CDs and memory sticks. Introducing DAISY CDs for more complex books will take a while longer, not least because the kind of equipment needed is more expensive and the process involved more complicated, but at least we can expect to make a start in 2010.

Meanwhile Technonun is continuing to research OpenSource library software for the audio library. Perhaps someone reading this could make a suggestion about which would be most suitable? We have under 1,000 audio titles at present, but we need to keep track of who has what as well as maintaining a proper catalogue, preferably online as well as in St Cecilia's itself. We have two volunteers who are willing to do the keying-in for us and we don't want their enthusiasm to evaporate while we dither. We'd prefer a little more "zoom, zoom" all round, in fact.

Tuesday

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-15T06:15:11+00:00

I'm not sure where Monday went: in a flurry of telephone calls, chauffering community members to various appointments and an inbox groaning with emails and letters, I suppose. All the ordinary things, praying, working, reading, cooking, tend to recede into the background on such days (though it did register with me that I was making apple pies at 9.00 p.m., practically midnight in monastic terms, because of the number of visitors expected at the week-end!).

The trouble with Advent is the difficulty of matching expectations with reality. We want to give more time to God, to prepare thoughtfully for the coming feasts of Christmas and Epiphany, and we know that silence and solitude are important aspects of that. But we can't opt out of the busyness of life which seems so much more intense at this season of the year, and we certainly can't refuse to answer the doorbell unless we have hearts of stone (which perhaps we do: awful thought). The alternative is to embrace the busyness, to see it as part of the preparation. In other words, to stop railing against the demands on our time and energy and accept them as the way in which we are enabled to celebrate properly, a necessary part of our sanctification.

I am a long way from having achieved that myself. I am quite sure I shall continue to go to bed each night mentally comparing my "to do" list with my "have done" list and fretting about the discrepancy. I am equally sure, alas, I shall continue to be grumpy whenever someone asks me if I could "please just" do something or other. I'll continue to wake up most mornings looking like a lemur. BUT, I also trust that somewhere, somehow, in the midst of all this apparent failure, grace will be at work, that even what I see as failure can be transformed; is, in some small way, part of God's plan for my life and the lives of those with whom I come into contact, so that when I come to celebrate Christmas, it will be as a humbler, possibly less selfish, person than would otherwise have been the case. I hope so; I really hope so.

Conditor alme siderum

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-13T05:58:37+00:00

The kindest thing anyone has ever said about our musical ability is that we are "brave" to sing the whole of the Divine Office. It is with some trepidation, therefore, that one dares to say anything about the Advent Vesper hymn, Conditor alme siderum (O Loving Creator of the stars), but the combination of shooting stars overhead and Gaudete Sunday is irresistible. For anyone who lives in a monastery, the melody of the hymn is so evocative that one might almost say it is Advent.

Opinions differ as to the hymn's authorship. Some ascribe it to St Ambrose himself, others more cautiously credit it to "Anon. seventh century". Either way, in just five classical Ambrosian quatrains plus a doxology, the writer gives us an overview of salvation history, all the more powerful for being expressed with great simplicity and economy: Christ himself is the creator of the stars of night, the light of all believers, who came to save a fallen world under sentence of death; as Bridegroom of the Bride, he came at evening time from the spotless womb of the Virgin; now all creation acknowledges him as Lord and awaits his Second Coming and the Day of Judgement. These are the great themes of Advent and the melody of the accompanying chant, haunting in its simplicity, is one of the most beautiful in the repertoire.

For those who would like to ponder the hymn as lectio divina, the text, translation and music are given below (click on the icon to download the PDF). Finding a non-copyright recording has been more difficult. We tend to sing the hymn as taught by our mentors, with a light, almost dancing movement (hence shooting stars . . .). There is a slightly ponderous recording from Belo Horizonte here. Best of all, however, would be for you to learn to sing the hymn yourself. If plainchant is new to you a good place to start is the excellent Musica Sacra site.

Conditor download

There is a recording of our latest Virtual Chapter on the podcast page. We now know that the echo chamber effect is caused when someone uses an inbuilt computer microphone rather than a headset, so technically this last recording is a great improvement on 28 November's. The next Chapter will be in the New Year.

This week's prayer podcast is on the podcast page. Gaudete!

Surprise, surprise!

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-12T20:35:47+00:00

After the novice has made his vows Benedict refers to him for the first time as novicius frater, the new brother. Until then he has been completely anonymous: is qui (he) or noviter veniens (someone newly coming to the monastery). I always find this sudden tenderness on the part of Benedict strangely moving. The patriarch of western monasticism dissolves into something much more human. People often surprise us, especially when they prove to be nicer or kinder than we had expected or reveal qualities which, for good or ill, we are reluctant to allow them.

One of the questions we face during Advent is what kind of God shall we be welcoming at Christmas? The Jesus born at Bethlehem wasn't the kind of Messiah many in Israel had been hoping for, and my guess is that he won't be the kind many of us are hoping for today. The daily Mass readings for Advent express our longing for redemption but also make us aware that the Saviour we are awaiting is going to be very different from anything the world has ever known, and we prefer the familiar. Perhaps the cribs being prepared in many of our churches can teach us something we need to learn again and again. If we have a tendency to think of God as always enthroned on the cherubim, to think of him in nappies forces us to admit the enormity of his humility and graciousness. Our (limited) ideas have to go if the (infinite) reality of God is to make any impression. It won't be a comfortable experience, but falling into the hands of the living God never has been, has it?

Reminder: Virtual Chapter today at 11.00 a.m. GMT

Chapter 58

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-11T06:09:13+00:00

RB 58 is about the procedure for admitting newcomers to the monastery, the tests to be applied, the qualities to be looked for and so on. Whenever we read it in community we are reminded of the tension between the "charismatic" and "institutional" aspects of discerning a vocation. Vocation isn't something one has, it's something one is, something one lives. An ability to cope with the imperfections of others is an absolute prerequisite, but it is remarkable how difficult that often is in practice. It can be helpful to remember that all Benedict really asks of the novice is to eat, sleep and meditate: living in community and studying the Rule will do the rest (I exaggerate slightly). What is asked of the novice master is that he should have a talent for winning souls and watch over the novices to see whether they are genuinely seeking God and are zealous for the Work of God, obedience and things that humble them. That is rather more difficult, demanding skills very few novice masters would claim to have. The experience of the last sixteen hundred years would tend to suggest, however, that Benedict's recommendations work, that Chapter 58 is a valuable tool for the discernment of vocation.

Benedict assumes, of course, that there will be a steady stream of people knocking at the door of the monastery and asking for admission. In Europe that has not been the case for several years. Some communities have died out, others have dwindled in numbers. The "explanations" offered by those who have never lived monastic life often seem shallow. The plain fact is that those of us who do live a monastic life are not very good at communicating what is so wonderful about it. The reasons for that are many and various, but one must ask whether we sometimes lack conviction and are therefore not convincing. For myself, I can only say that I find monastic life my natural element, a pearl of great price, something I want to share with others; but I am happy to leave the outcome to God.

Perhaps we should have devoted tomorrow's Virtual Chapter to the subject of vocation but we've received quite a lot of questions about prayer and how the internet helps or does not help spread interest in and information about religion, religious life and kindred topics; so, if you are free to join us at 11.00 a.m. tomorrow, let us know what you think. Hopefully, Digitalnun will not be locked out of the system this time so the Chapter will go ahead at the intended hour!

A Bright Spot in the Gloom

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-10T06:28:47+00:00

Shhh! Approach Colophon with caution today. Digitalnun is sunk in gloom at the cynicism and cowardice, as she sees it, of the Chancellor's pre-Budget report which does not seem to have grasped the gravity of the country's financial state and decidedly tetchy about the swingeing increase in charity bank account charges from RBS. It is rumoured that Duncan the dog has been working so hard at his eyes-like-melting-chocolate-drops-look-of-sympathy technique that he is prostrate with exhaustion. However, there is a bright spot in the gloom. Digitalnun is a great admirer of Mouse and his blog and is delighted to be able to point you in the direction of his new Twurch of England web site. Why doesn't the Catholic Church in England have something as imaginative? There's no tax on brains — yet.

Conviviality

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-09T05:49:50+00:00

Christians have a reputation among non-Christians for being uncongenial companions, loudly disapproving everyone else's harmless little indulgences while hypocritically covering up some heinous sins of their own. (The vocabulary is as predictable as the attitudes: Christians are always "hypocritical", their sins "heinous", whatever Church they belong to; Catholic is now commonly preceded by "child-abusing"; and when was "cloistered" popularly used in anything but a pejorative sense?). Colophon wonders where and when this dourness crept in. Christians OUGHT to be the most convivial of people. Our most important liturgical act is, after all, derived from a sacred festive meal. Our hope for the future is (scripturally) expressed in terms of banqueting, of "food rich and juicy and fine strained wines".

Today's brief chapter of the Rule reminds us that the monastery ought to be a place of conviviality, of shared life, where guests are welcomed to our table as they are to our liturgy and other aspects of monastic life. We have three separate groups meeting here from 2.30 p.m. onwards and the community will be working flat out to be welcoming, to give each visitor time as well as the endless tea/coffee/biscuits which seem to fuel church gatherings. Inevitably, the question will arise: is what we are doing a bit irrelevant? Budget cuts, climate change, family concerns are all much closer to people's hearts than anything we may be discussing in our meetings. So why do we bother?

I think the clue lies in the word conviviality: feasting, shared life, is never very attractive to the outsider, the onlooker. One has to be involved, to take part. The challenge for us as a community is the same as for the Church as a whole. We need to draw people into the life we share in Christ, and we can only do that if we are living that life as deeply and generously as possible through prayer and sacrifice as well as service. Advent is a good time to ask ourselves whether we are so busy giving out that in reality we have nothing of value to share. The answer may shock us into reassessing how we live. It won't make the budget cuts any less painful; it wont solve the problems of global warming; but it might, just might, make us nicer to know: real Christians, in fact.

Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M.

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-08T06:17:43+00:00

As promised on Saturday, we are today putting online a little ebook Digitalnun made many years ago (see Digital books page). It was inspired by the Chapter House paintings of D. Werburg Welch, a nun of Stanbrook Abbey, Worcester, who was widely regarded as one of the foremost religious artists of her day. We are very grateful to the Abbess and Community of Stanbrook for allowing us to make the ebook available and would ask everyone to be scrupulous in respecting Stanbrook's copyright and other restrictions.

Magnificat was begun on the feast of the Immaculate Conception 1999. The Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. must be one of the most misunderstood feasts in the calendar. Even Catholics tend to stray into unconscious heresy when asked to explain what it means. What the Catholic Church actually teaches is that "the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instance of her conception was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race." (Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, 8 December 1854) In other words, Mary, although conceived and born like the rest of us, was not cleansed from original sin by baptism as we are but was preserved from such sin because of the merits of her Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Maximus of Turin uses a lovely phrase, he talks of "original grace" at work in her in contrast to original sin at work in us (see Nom. viii de Natali Domini). Mary was not exempt from the temporal penalties of sin such as pain and death, nor was her sinlessness something she herself achieved. It was entirely the gift and grace of God, a fruit of the redemption wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ. Only he can save us from sin. Thinking of the Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Copenhagen, I am tempted to add, only he can save us from ourselves.

Advent II

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-06T05:52:23+00:00

The Second Sunday of Advent takes us out into the desert with John the Baptist and that lonely Voice urging us to prepare for the coming of the Word. There is something immensely attractive about John which this painting by El Greco conveys better than any words. We see the saint in a rocky landscape with a diffuse light about him. Everything except John's face seems to resolve into triangles, even the sheep near his feet. A distant city at the foot of the mountain is shrouded in gloom, but there is a beautiful light playing on the cross John holds in his hand, and on his face, the only truly rounded shape in the whole painting, there is a radiance and sweetness which is utterly compelling. El Greco has captured both the gentleness and the loneliness of Christ's Forerunner, the contradiction of the prophet in every age.

Today also happens to be the anniversary of the wreck of the Deutschland, which inspired Hopkins' greatest poem. I suspect John's prayer was very like that of the dying Franciscan, '"O Christ, Christ come quickly" since he was, as Daniélou perceptively remarked, "a one-joy man". For those of us whose hearts are not quite so focused, there are these lines, especially the last, to offer encouragement:

I kiss my hand
  To the stars, lovely-asunder
Starlight, wafting him out of it; and
   Glow, glory in thunder;
     Kiss my hand to the dappled-with-damson west:
  Since, tho' he is under the world's splendour & wonder,
    His mystery must be instressed, stressed;
For I greet him the days I meet him, & bless when I understand.

Saturday Shopping

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-05T06:33:11+00:00

Today is apparently the busiest day on the High Street, and how glad we are that we do not have to join the fray. We tend to shop online, making use of our Easyfundraising page which splits the retailer's referral fee with us. Painless giving is something we heartily endorse, so we are happy to record that during the past two years 37 supporters have helped raise £372.07 for our charitable works just by channelling their online shopping purchases via the Easyfundraising site. As there are over 2,000 retailers participating in the scheme, it is worth investigating for your church, school or charitable organization, but can we be shameless and suggest that if you do not wish to support us, you might nevertheless use our referral link to find another cause to help?

For those already exhausted with pre-Christmas shopping there is an alternative on Saturday, 12 December, when we shall be hosting another Virtual Chapter. Talkshoe has explained that they were rebooting their servers when we scheduled the last one (if only we had known!). Let's hope for better things next week. We have received a number of questions about prayer so will make that a major theme, but you are welcome to suggest other topics. It is helpful but not essential to submit questions/suggestions in advance.

Finally, Digitalnun recently came across an ebook she made ten years ago. It's entirely possible it may appear on our Digital Books page on 8 December. Can anyone guess what it is?

Craftmanship

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-04T05:46:02+00:00

Here is a photo of our latest acquisition, the craftsmanship of which so delighted Handynun. It may seem very ordinary to you, but having started with nothing and quietly worked to make an oratory fit for singing the praises of God, we hope you will not begrudge our pleasure in adding to its "treasures". Those who inherit great riches from the past know the joy of association with the first age of their history; those of us actually in the first age have a rather lonelier and sometimes daunting path to tread!

Yesterday Benedict spoke to us about the oratory. Today and tomorrow he speaks to us about guests. The two subjects are closely linked, especially for Benedictines, because the God whom we seek in prayer is to be encountered, reverenced and served in those who come to our door (which in our day includes the digital door). It can be difficult to get the balance right, and many a monastic community has lamented the demands of hospitality and sought to limit or distance its guests. The truth is, of course, that once one sees hospitality as an expression of love of God and love of neighbour, talk of "balance" begins to seem inappropriate. Purity of heart, that ability to recognize what God is asking and respond to the sacrament of the present moment with alacrity and generosity, becomes much more central. Here at Hendred we do our best to be welcoming but we are aware of our failures. "The life so short, the craft so long to learn" can apply to monastic living, too.

RB 52: On the Monastery Oratory

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-03T09:36:51+00:00

Having just completed our online grocery order for Christmas, it is a relief to turn to today's chapter of the Rule. There's nothing wrong with commercialism as such, one doesn't mind being exhorted to buy this or that for a perfect Christmas, but then, we know Christmas is going to be perfect "whatever". Thinking about the place of the oratory in our lives is, however, a valuable corrective to Christmas stress; and it reminded us to donate to CAFOD and some other favourite charities.

We all need a sacred space but comparatively few have the luxury of an area devoted only to prayer and worship. We have to cultivate instead an inner space, a holy ground of mind and heart, with time we reserve for God alone. The Lord Jesus understood that. When he told his disciples to go into their inner room and pray, he must have meant withdrawing into the inner chambers of the heart since there were few private rooms in first-century Palestine.

I think we can apply what Benedict says about the monastery oratory to this inner space, this sacred time. We need to value the time we devote to prayer, ring-fence it round with a little selfishness even to ensure that it becomes as regular a part of our life as breathing. Reverence and silence on our part are fundamental attitudes but we tend to learn them gradually and have constantly to relearn what we thought we already knew. During Advent we have the example of John the Baptist waiting in the wilderness for the appearing of the Saviour. Perhaps his family thought of him as being lost to them during that time, possibly wasting his life. These days before Christmas can be "wilderness days" for all of us, but they do not have to be lost days. Prayer is never a waste of time.

Just to show that we are not above a little commercialism in a good cause ourselves, here's a reminder about John and Penny's Christmas Book Sale this afternoon. Enjoy!

Preparing the Liturgy

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-12-02T06:04:20+00:00

There is a copy of the Portsmouth diocesan Ordo or Liturgical Calendar on our Liturgy page together with some notes on Advent and recordings of the O antiphons which may be useful to those who have to prepare liturgies/school assemblies during the next few weeks. This afternoon at 2.30 p.m. and again at 7.30 p.m. we shall be hosting a "guided discussion" of the Sunday Mass readings, something we'll do every week until Christmas. Usually we get a nicely ecumenical group taking part and everyone seems to benefit, from learned scripture scholars to simple pew fodder like Digitalnun.

Redecorating the oratory has had to be postponed because of work pressures, but we are delighted to record the purchase of a Glastonbury chair for use by the presiding priest at Mass. Handynun put it together on Saturday with much muttering about its being properly made, no glue anywhere, nice patina under the grubbiness, and so on and so forth. Even after a preliminary cleaning and waxing it looked very good; and the monks who said Mass for us on Monday and Tuesday both declared it "very pleasing" so we are distinctly gruntled. Our friend Neville has made a new oak base for the processional cross which is a great improvement on the metal one, so we have begun Advent feeling that the oratory looks much more dignified than before. Next we must think about replacing our red lectern fall (which is looking a little sad) but this is a good time of year to be looking for red fabric. Reindeer and Fr Christmas patterns not required.

Advent 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-29T06:00:55+00:00

We begin Advent with three days of as near-perfect silence as we can manage, to allow time for reflection on the mystery of the Word who became man for our sakes. Choir continues, of course, and the angels are allowed to sing (think Hilton, angel-song . . .) but otherwise we try to keep speaking and writing to a minimum. So, no blogging and no tweeting until Wednesday unless there is some overwhelming reason for doing so.

Our podcast for the first Sunday of Advent will be found on the podcast page.

Finally, our apologies to all who had difficulty getting into the Virtual Chapter on 28 November: Digitalnun was locked out of the system for half an hour and when she was finally allowed in, there were some "audio issues". Beelzebub having his own back perhaps? We are grateful for all the positive feedback and will arrange another Chapter in a fortnight's time, on Saturday 12 December, when we'll explore the subject of prayer. There is a partial recording of the 28 November discussion on the podcast page.

The Virtual World

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-28T05:49:08+00:00

This afternoon at 2.00 p.m. we shall again be hosting a Virtual Chapter or web conference during which participants will be able to discuss monastic/oblate life (some suggestions for discussion were listed in yesterday's post). Some people are very enthusiastic about this kind of online engagement, others are more sceptical, a few are uncomfortable about the idea of something so open and "uncontrollable". The community here takes the view that if we as Benedictines don't make use of the opportunities offered, we can be quite sure Beelzebub will, and a few little hiccups along the way are immaterial.

There are, however, important questions about the relationship between the real and virtual worlds we all need to consider. Readers of Colophon know we have a strict policy regarding the blog. It only gets updated when we have time. So, too, with other aspects of the web site. Indeed, the only part of the site unfailingly attended to is the prayerline, which is given the same priority as requests for prayer received in any other way. For us, these self-imposed restraints are a way of ensuring that the virtual never becomes a substitute for or an escape from the real. Not to have an online presence, however, seems tantamount to not existing. The Catholic Church is slowly waking up to that fact and has been consulting the likes of Google and Facebook (but not Twitter!) about how to improve its e-cred.

Digitalnun would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the recent (12-15 November) Vatican conference on the internet. Some of the published statistics are revealing, showing a rather half-hearted embrace of what is possible. Lots of cardinals and bishops are happy to blog and Youtube apparently, but an amazing 70% of church-based web sites have no interactive features. Monsignor Jean-Michel Di Falco, bishop of Gap, made an eloquent plea for a cadre of Web 2.0 savvy priests to re-evangelize the (real) world, using a flurry of high-flown metaphors which read well in French but are slightly bathetic in English. "Pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, lay people - with the Internet we enter a marketplace, a free and spontaneous space where everything is said about everything, where everyone can debate everything," he concluded. Is it my imagination, Monseigneur, or did you forget about nuns?

Shame

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-27T05:42:40+00:00

The publication of the Commission of Investigation's Report into the Catholic Diocese of Dublin has shocked those who have read it and shamed all who must acknowledge a personal or institutional failure to deal with the abuse it records. I have never understood why some Churchmen (not only Catholic Churchmen) seem to make light of such a serious matter, nor have I ever been comfortable with the way in which, for example, priests "under a cloud" have sometimes been sent to houses of nuns to withdraw them from the public gaze. Quite apart from the contempt that shows, surely everyone realizes that paedophiles are highly manipulative and cannot be "policed" by cloistered religious or anyone else? Moving the problem on is not to deal with it.

The worrying thing about the publication of this report is that we may not learn the lessons. In our revulsion at what has happened we may simply condemn the whole Church as being corrupt from top to bottom, holding those presently serving responsible for what occurred in the past. That is dangerous, typical of the lack of historical perspective now common in our public debate. As members of the Church we can acknowledge the sinfulness of what has been done, express our sorrow and shame, our determination not to allow similar things to happen in the future (present Safeguarding procedures in this diocese, for example, are excellent though no procedure will ever be sufficient protection against someone determined to do wrong). We can also seek to make reparation in some way, but we cannot undo what has happened, cannot, I think, apologize in any meaningful sense for what we ourselves had no part in. Sin remains sin although redeemed. Many, however, will expect an apology; will demand that we all be held responsible; will assume that what happened in Dublin happened elsewhere. No doubt there will be a rush of legal cases seeking financial compensation. Given the tacky concern of some to preserve their financial assets at all costs, that may seem fitting, but am I alone in recalling that when similar cases occurred in the diocese of Boston it was the poor who suffered most from the closure of Church schools and hospitals (oh, and the sisters, whose convents were sold to pay the debts incurred by the diocese)? If one good deed can have untold consequences, so, sadly, can an evil one; and it is always the most vulnerable who suffer.

Web Conference
Preparations are under way for our second public Virtual Chapter at 2.00 p.m. GMT tomorrow. There is still time to submit a question/topic for discussion (or you can make your point live during the Chapter). Several of the questions sent in concern the living of a Benedictine spirituality in the world, so tomorrow we shall explore some of the following:

how can a lay person "live" the Rule of St Benedict?
how can a lay person live a life of prayer?
does being an oblate help?
why are Benedictine communities all so different?

and, in lighter vein (?),

why did you become a nun?

If we get round to that last question, let's hope there are several nuns taking part, not just those from Hendred!

Thanksgiving 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-26T07:11:00+00:00

The Bow in the Clouds: East Hendred 8.30 a.m. 26 November 2009

Thanksgiving Day is a good idea. Here is Digitalnun's personal grateful list for 26 November 2009: for family and friends, especially the awkward ones, and life in community; Duncan's comical nose, snuggled into his blanket; the soft gleam of the sanctuary lamp and the quiet of the oratory; books spilling into every corner; night-scented stock still blooming against the wall; the shock of cold water; grey light on the horizon; the busy patter of squirrels in the roofspace; the De Profundis chanted trustingly at Vigils; fresh bread baking in the kitchen; a manageable inbox; the promise of another day. For all, Deo Gratias.

Update: Coming back from walking the dog at 8.30 a.m. we saw this double rainbow in the sky over Hendred House (you can just make out the second bow at the east end of the house). The bow in the clouds is a sign of God's first covenant, a covenant made with the whole of creation. Something more for which to give thanks.

Confused Standards?

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-25T05:54:04+00:00

Colophon is confused. The Government requires that public bodies such as Charities should adhere to the strictest standards of accounting and disclosure but seems incapable of understanding that similar standards are expected nearer home. The incompetent handling of the parliamentary expenses revelations is a case in point; the news that last October the Bank of England effectively covered up enormous loans to two of Britain's failing banks is another. One wonders whether the concept of public accountability and integrity is becoming as alien as it seems. Happily, there are many good and decent people, quietly devoting time and talent to the service of others, which gives one hope; but no amount of legislation will compensate for lack of example. The latest Government proposal, to tackle violence against women and girls, is good in principle (though one must ask how the school curriculum is going to be able to accommodate all the "extras" being pushed into it) but it may be undermined by instances of violent behaviour in official places gleefully revealed by investigative journalists.

What is the role of the Church in this? No doubt there will be supportive statements from our leaders, condemning this and applauding that. Diocesan departments will beaver away producing strategies to ensure that all involved in active ministry conform to "best practice", but there is a danger that most of this will wash over our heads. Values are not instilled by legislation. Law has a directive as well as compulsive force, true, but it is up to us as Christians to show by our whole manner of living what we hold dear, what we believe to be the right way of relating to God, people and the world around us. That applies to those of us who live in monasteries as much as to those who live in the world. To be honest and truthful will always be costly; to be prepared to stand up to bullies will always mean running the risk of a bloody nose or worse; but ultimately, trying to live by the standards of the Lord Jesus means we can sleep easy o' nights, because we shall be at peace with him and with ourselves. No confusion there.

Tantrums in Choir

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-24T07:06:32+00:00

Not quite what the headline promises, but a way of drawing attention to Benedict's little chapter on faults committed in the oratory. He is writing not only about carelessness in choir (which can indeed lead to tantrums!) but about pride in general and the difficulty many of us have in admitting we have made a mistake. It is easier to flounce out of the room, maintain a hard silence or utter what is intended as a withering remark than simply, humbly and gently admit that we might just conceivably, on this one single occasion, of course, have been (perhaps) a teensy-weensy-bit wrong.

St Clement of Rome

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-23T06:40:58+00:00

The memoria of St Clement which we celebrate today takes us back to the earliest days of the Church. Clement's Letter to the Corinthians is remarkable for its simplicity and directness, and for the fact that it is written in the name of Rome, urging the quarrelsome and rebellious Corinthians to mend their ways (obviously little had changed since the days of St Paul). The appeal for unity and peace is eloquent but there is also a hint that failure to respond adequately will not go unnoticed. Do we see here the germ of papal authority in action? Lightfoot thought so. There is also an interesting formula used of the Trinity, which looks back to Old Testament usage: "As the Lord lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives and the Holy Spirit lives". All these would be mere curiosities, fascinating to the scholar but of little interest to the average reader, were it not that the Letter to the Corinthians takes us back to the heroic age of the Church, to the martyrs of Nero and Domitian, some of whom are named in the text. It is rare that we come so close to them: we feel the menace under the surface of Roman life.

One has a similar feeling standing in the basilica of San Clemente. Above ground all is beauty: the mosaics are luminous, there is light and air and the incessant chatter of tour guides and their charges. Down below, in the gloom of the Mithraic shrine we touch a darker world altogether. From time to time we need to be reminded of that world because something of its darkness infects us all at times. I had not noticed until today that we read RB 44 on St Clement's feast. The ritualisation of making amends Benedict gives us in that chapter is powerful. So often we think a cursory "apology" will make up for a wound we have dealt another. Unfortunately, just because we have decided it is time to forgive doesn't necessarily mean the other thinks so, too. Benedict, like Clement, knew that it takes time to heal such injuries, but healed they must be because a wound left to fester will do untold damage to the Body of Christ. Peace may begin with a smile, but it is only a beginning.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-22T07:59:34+00:00

On this last Sunday of the Church's year, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. One suspects few now read Quas primas, Pius XI's 1925 encyclical establishing the feast and his reasons for doing so. The concept of the kingdom or reign of God and of the kingship of Christ was by no means novel, it is after all entirely scriptural in origin; but what was perhaps new was Pius XI's impassioned insistence that the evils under which the world was labouring were attributable to the fact that people had abandoned Jesus Christ and his holy law and that there could be no lasting peace unless individuals and nation states returned to what he called "the Empire of our Lord". For many today the language of kingship and empire is unacceptable, indeed outmoded. Does that mean that the theology underlying this feast is also outmoded? If we look at the preface for the day, we find a very clear exposition of the major themes:

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.

You anointed Jesus Christ, your only Son,
with the oil of gladness,
as the eternal priest and universal king.
As priest he offered his life on the altar of the cross
and redeemed the human race by this one perfect sacrifice of peace.
As king he claims dominion over all creation,
that he may present to you, his almighty Father,
an eternal and universal kingdom:
a kingdom of truth and life,
a kingdom of holiness and grace,
a kingdom of justice, love, and peace.

And so, with all the choirs of angels in heaven
we proclaim your glory and join in their unending hymn of praise . . .

The kingship that we celebrate in this feast is a sacrificial kingship based on truth, holiness and grace, which makes possible for us a life of justice, love and peace. Can such a kingship ever be "outmoded"?

Reminder: all podcasts are now located on the podcast page.

Dies Memorabilis 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-21T06:06:06+00:00

Dies Memorabilis, when we recall the transfer of all the rights and privileges of the pre-Reformation English Benedictine Congregation to its post-Reformation successor, the Church in general celebrates the Presentation of Our Lady and, excuse for a slightly better dinner than usual, Digitalnun keeps her Clothing anniversary. Here in Hendred we have no Mass, nor any realistic prospect of going to one elsewhere, although the Abbot of Downside will be celebrating Mass for the Newman Society in Oxford this evening and there are more R.C. priests in Oxford than anywhere else in Europe except Malta and the Vatican, or so we're told. Still, there's no use lamenting. There are many parts of the world where Mass is rarely possible, and we are very grateful to our monk friends who do their best to ensure that we can celebrate the Holy Mysteries as often as possible in our oratory.

Our relaunched veilshop has already sold a chasuble, which is very pleasing, and we have received a number of questions/suggestions for the next Virtual Chapter on 28 November. Some we shall probably hold over as it makes sense to group ideas according to general themes, but we'll see. In the meantime, SOMEONE is preparing a podcast for the Solemnity of Christ the King. As for me, at some point I think I shall allow myself half an hour with Catullus. Life in a monastery is not all duty. As Newman once remarked, it is the most poetic of pursuits, though I'm not sure what he would have made of my choice of recreational reading.

Moonlight and Mammon

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-20T06:09:50+00:00

Our friends at Moonlight Publishing have come up with a wonderful idea to help our audio book service for the blind and visually impaired. On Thursday, 3 December, from 3.00 p.m. until 7.30 p.m. they will be hosting a Christmas Children's Book Sale and Tea Party at the King's Manor, East Hendred, and sharing the proceeds with St Cecilia's Guild. If you don't already know their imaginative range of children's books for ages 1 to 12, Colophon advises you to go and have a look at their web site, www.moonlightpublishing.co.uk. You are sure to find something tempting for that special Little Person in your life, even if you can't make the journey to East Hendred.

More prosaically in the service of Mammon (no mulled wine or mince pies on offer, unlike at Moonlight Publishing), Veilshop has just been relaunched. We have only put a few items up for sale at the moment and are limiting shipping to the U.K. until we get round to that web site makeover which seems to be receding ever further into the future. If you encounter any problems with the shopping cart, please let us know. Even the most exhaustive testing sometimes seems to miss some snag or other.

Lest you think our thoughts are wholly this-worldly, on Wednesdays during Advent we shall be holding Advent Liturgy preparation sessions at 2.30 p.m. and again at 7.30 p.m. in the monastery library. We'll be looking at the Sunday Mass readings and prayers as a way of preparing for Christmas. As always, these sessions are open to anyone who wishes to come along and refreshments will be served. Please pass the word on to anyone you think would like to know about them. Advent is such an important season and passes so quickly that it's good to take a little time, if we can, to explore what the liturgy offers us.

Finally, advance notice that Vespers on Sunday 22 November will be said privately (i.e. not open to the public) as the prioress is off to Choral Evensong at St Peter's College, Oxford, where she has been invited to preach. References to dogs walking on hind legs will not be appreciated!

Vocation Questions

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-19T06:02:12+00:00

A sociologist of religion would find much to ponder in the questions that come to us via our "Ask Sister" vocation feature. Some are extremely thoughtful and show that the questioner is serious in her desire to know and understand. Trying to answer such questions isn't easy: we try to make sure we cover all the points as honestly and completely as we can. Other questions are more light-hearted or even deliberately provoking (this seems to be especially true of those sent in by men!): we answer those in kind. There are complicated canonical questions we refer on to those who can give an authoritative answer; quite basic questions about Christianity; intrusive questions about community members; and so on and so forth. Some people are looking for God; others are looking for a security that, frankly, monastic life cannot offer; others are looking for themselves, but don't yet know that. To all we try to respond, however inadequately.

Many ask why vocations seem to be few in England yet flourishing elsewhere, something we find difficult to answer since both call and response are gifts of God. (We who are monks and nuns might nevertheless ask ourselves some hard questions about our communities and whether we inspire others or simply live off a reputation from the past that is no longer valid). It can be quite informative to spend a little time looking at some of the web sites younger people turn to when they are thinking about vocation. Inevitably, there is interest in the more "accidental" features of monastic life: the form of the habit, photos/videos of profession ceremonies, descriptions of monastic practices (the odder the better) and views of buildings (the older the better, it seems: wonder if our gothick cellars qualify?). None of this is in the least bit unexpected or troubling. What is deeply troubling is the burden of debt so many young people seem to be under and which holds them back. Some communities are rich enough to be able to help but I suspect that most in this country aren't. Perhaps these are question for the wider Church in England: how much do we value religious life; what can we do to help those whom God calls? Is religious life now on the endangered list, and would it matter if it disappeared?

It would be interesting to know what you think.

In Praise of Caxton

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-18T06:07:02+00:00

On this day in 1477 William Caxton issued the first book in English actually printed in England, or so we believe. It was Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres (Sayings of the Philosophers) translated from the French by Anthony Rivers, second Earl Rivers, a learned man and brother-in-law of Edward IV, beheaded in 1483 by the future Richard III. The colophon (detail illustrated above) is fascinating. It shows type trying to look like handwriting but with some ugly word spacing and contrasting weights of letter-forms. Having said that, the page is remarkably evenly inked, while the use of punctuation (a Cistercian innovation of some centuries earlier) makes the text easy to read. No wonder many in Westminster were deeply worried about this new technology. It was to have a great future. You wouldn't be reading this if it hadn't.

One of the developments of Web 2.0 we particularly welcome here at Hendred is the renewed interest in typography, specifically typography for onscreen use. Our current site is typographically merely "functional" but there are many examples of really beautiful work on the web which is quietly raising standards. Sadly, many people are happy to stick to Arial (probably the worst typeface ever designed in our unprejudiced view) or Times (an excellent typeface, but over-used) or "don't see what all the fuss is about". It is the latter which sends Digitalnun into despondency. If you want to know why, read Beatrice Warde's little gem on the importance of typography, The Crystal Goblet. It will open your eyes.

St Gertrude of Helfta

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-17T05:54:25+00:00

Colophon probably said all it wants to say about St Gertrude in 2007 (under her universal feast day, 16 November); but St Edmund of Abingdon pushed her out of the calendar yesterday, so we are keeping her feast on the anniversary of her death, which seems appropriate given that popular piety associates her with a prayer for souls in purgatory rather than anything else. Personally, I find the idea of a Benedictine nun "suffering a conversion" rather enchanting, and while I take a very British attitude to the revelations and raptures, which, to be fair, embarrassed Gertrude herself so much that she begged God to allow no outward manifestation of the graces he bestowed, her love of learning and graceful Latin style warm the cockles of my heart. Her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is well-known. Less well-known is her influence on St Teresa of Avila, Yepez and other great Carmelites or the fact that she is Patron Saint of the West Indies. She died at the age of forty-five or six, still marvelling that God had allowed so sinful a creature as herself to live on earth.

That last sentence shows how different some saints are from ourselves. We are very conscious of our rights, of our dignity. We react with outrage if those rights are infringed (it may help if a tabloid comes along to record our outrage, but not all are so "lucky"). Nothing wrong with that, of course, until we look at our Lord Jesus Christ and mark the dignity of the Man of Sorrows. Then we can begin to feel uncomfortable, feel that we are strutting about like the proverbial cock on a dunghill. It is difficult to combine modesty about ourselves with a proper sense of our own worth as children of God, created in his image and likeness. St Gertrude was shaped and formed by the Rule of St Benedict, and I think her sense of herself as simultaneously the worst of sinners yet redeemed by grace is attributable to her having absorbed the Rule's teaching on humility. Only the truly humble can keep the two in tension. Like Luther, she knew herself to be simul pecctor et iustus, or as Hopkins put it
I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.
Coal and diamond are both forms of carbon. I wonder which you and I are, don't you?

Washday Blues

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-16T07:22:48+00:00

Monday is washday in the monastery and it is raining. I suppose we ought to be downcast, but we aren't. It reminds me of the effect that laundry blue used to have on our grandmothers' washing. It seemed to make the whites glow more whitely and was especially noticeable on a grey day. Perhaps that is why one notices the cheerful faces of the community: the contrast with the weather is so marked.

Where does the cheerfulness come from? I'd like to think it stems from a sense of purpose, from a lively faith, a warm charity and a genuine hope. I suspect it may also have something to do with the prospect of a nice, quiet monastic Mass for St Edmund of Abingdon (co-patron of our diocese) and a decent dinner afterwards! We are not angels yet. Of course, we also have some unexpected blessings to smile about. Yesterday, coming out of Mass, a parishioner gave me an envelope. Inside was a very generous donation towards our work for the blind and visually impaired. That means a lot to us because keeping St Cecilia's going as a free service is high on our list of priorities but we have faced completely empty coffers before now. People tend to assume that all religious communities are well-off. If we were, I think we'd be a different kind of community, but I hope we come some way towards realising Benedict's ideal of the monk as one who "lives by the work of his hands as our fathers and the apostles did". That is not to downplay the importance of the help we receive from friends and benefactors, far from it, but it can be comforting to others to know that the community faces similar challenges to everyone else.

So, washday blues are not part of the agenda for today, or any day for that matter.

Special Gifts

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-15T06:26:17+00:00

Sunday is always special in a monastery, the gift of a day which has its own unique character. Although in one sense we are busier than ever, with a more elaborate liturgy and a commitment to more prayer and reading than on ferias, there is a silence and spaciousness about Sunday which is a valuable corrective to the rush and racket of the rest of the week. Visitors often drop in, and somehow there is always time to share a cup of tea or coffee with them, even if the cook is going quietly demented in the kitchen and the dog is indicating that he wants some "me time" out on the Downs.

Yesterday I spent a few moments looking at a special gift we received earlier this year. When we began planning our guest room, we asked our good friend Martin Wenham if we could commission him to do a painting. (if you take to heart what Benedict says about treating guests as though Christ, you will understand that only the best is good enough. Add to that the prioress's inconvenient and potentially expensive preference for original works of art over Catholic kitsch, and you'll see we couldn't put just anything on the wall.) Typically, Martin produced a painting which he simply gave to the community. The reproduction above does not do it justice. It shimmers and shines as the light changes and is a beautiful reminder of the friendships God brings into our lives to enrich and sustain them.

Today we shall receive another special gift. "Someone else" is doing the cooking, and she-who-cooks-Sunday-lunch every week in the interval between Mass and Midday Office is sending up unseasonal "alleluias" as she contemplates all that she will do, or rather not do, with the time this generous act of a friend will give her.

Gifts don't have to be complicated to be special. They don't have to be huge or expensive, though they always cost the giver something. One of the gifts I remember best may strike you as a mere nothing, although the memory of it has stayed with me for years. I was working late in a University Library on a sweltering hot summer's day and the Librarian looked exhausted. As I returned a book and thanked her, she gave a brilliant smile. A smile like that can only come from the pure in heart, from those who see God and reverence Him in others. "Smile Sunday" anyone?

This week's prayer podcast will be found in its new position on the Podcast page. There is also another talk on the Talks page, by Dr Annette Goulden OCDS on St Thérèse of Lisieux.

Virtual Chapter Update

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-14T06:25:16+00:00

Very many thanks to all who took part in yesterday's Virtual Chapter and to those tried to but were defeated by the TalkShoe™ installation process. Digitalnun has prepared an informal guide with screenshots which you can download from the sidebar: just click on the PDF icon. We suggest that you try out the software by listening in to another talkshow on the TalkShoe site. We've found that it works quite well: the wind here was gusting terribly throughout yesterday's recording but there wasn't too much degradation of audio quality. On a good day the quality is excellent.

If anyone wishes to hear how our first experiment went, you can listen again by clicking on the widget in the sidebar here or the one on the podcast page.

The echo effect you can hear at times was caused by one of our participants having set his output volumes a little high, but that is easily remedied. There was more use of the chat option than is likely to be the case in future (we were trying to help people get online), hence some of the silences. All we need now is some feedback and questions/ideas/suggestions for any future events. Thank you to those who have already given encouragement. We were very apprehensive!

Now Saturday can be a "normal" day. One wonders what it will hold. Scroll down to comment . . .

All Benedictine Saints 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-13T06:13:44+00:00

Salve festa dies! Rather a lot of people to celebrate today, from St Benedict himself, Father of Western Monasticism, to Dorothy Day, Benedictine Oblate and Servant of God. (Before anyone asks, the stages of canonisation, or official proclamation as a saint in the Catholic Church, go Servant of God–Venerable–Blessed–Saint).

One of the things I like about Dorothy Day is the fact that she was so honest: about her life ("Don't call me a saint – I don't want to be dismissed that easily"), her temper ("I hold more temper in one minute than you will hold in your entire life"), and God ("If I have accomplished anything in my life, it is because I wasn't embarrassed to talk about God"). She was certainly never held back by embarrassment in any sphere, and thank God for that. She was prickly and prophetic, utterly centred on Christ.

Honesty is very closely linked to the humility St Benedict saw as the foundation of monastic living. It isn't easy to be honest. Most of us make all sorts of accommodations and compromises to shield ourselves from the truth, even though we know, deep down, that letting the Light into our lives is the only way to freedom and peace. St Benedict urges us everyday to open our eyes to the light that comes from God. Isn't it encouraging that we have so many men and women as different as Benedict and Dorothy to show us the way?

News and Views

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-12T06:06:48+00:00

Yesterday afternoon we learned that D. Maria Boulding of Stanbrook had died after a long and painful illness. She will be known to many for her books and articles, but we think of her primarily as the person we knew in community, including the years she lived as a hermit on the Welsh/Herefordshire borders: prayerful, delighting in nature and her dog, Bryn, blessed with a keen intelligence and a singularly beautiful speaking voice. Please pray for her and the community which has now suffered two deaths in a comparatively short time. Later today we shall be singing a Dirge for her, that magnificent collection of psalms and prayers which affirms our belief in the triumph of Life over Death even as we ask for mercy and forgiveness.

The Virtual Chapter
What is a Chapter? some have asked. Chapter is the name given to a meeting of the monastic community. Usually, as tomorrow, there is some form of input such as a reading from the Rule of St Benedict followed by a short talk from the superior, then a discussion, which may or may not be linked to the input. The kind of things discussed vary enormously: business matters, the admission of candidates to community, liturgy, discipline, anything that affects the material and spiritual well-being of the community. Some of our own chapters have been about the way in which we should use the internet and the limits to our involvement. Tomorrow, it's largely up to you, the participants, what we discuss.

To take part you will need:

Headphones for listening (or turn the volume of your speakers up)
A microphone for talking (if you have a Mac you can use the built-in one)

To connect:

click on the widget on our home page or in the sidebar of this blog OR
paste this link into your browser http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/69374

We recommend that you use VOIP to connect so that you do not incur call charges. The simplest, surest way of doing this is to download the TalkShoe Live™ software and use the integrated ShoePhone application to connect (the blue button below the purple one). However, it is not absolutely necessary.

Blind leading the blind:
To begin with, you'll find that you are "muted", i.e. you won't immediately be able to talk. That will give us time to welcome you, and you time to explore the TalkShoe™interface if you are unfamiliar with teleconferencing. After the introductory talk, you'll be invited to speak. We'll guide you through the process if you need any help (that's the blind leading the blind bit). Then it's over to you. Digitalnun will try to ensure we don't all speak at once but please be patient as she is a novice at this kind of thing and will probably get muddled, poor old thing (Mouse, you have much to answer for).

If you miss the Chapter:
If you miss the Chapter, you'll be able to listen afterwards as it will be recorded. Just click on the widget again and you will be able to hear the recording.

A shared Cloister:
We have it in mind to hold a number of themed sessions on vocation, liturgy, prayer and so on but we'd really like feedback so that we can work on what might be genuinely useful. We also want to keep things simple and low cost. If you find tomorrow's session worthwhile, please spread the word. Spreading the Word being, of course, what it's really all about.

Meandering Thoughts

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-11T06:35:52+00:00

A day beloved of all monastics (horrible word!), the feast of St Martin of Tours, pioneer of monastic living in the west, but also the ninety-first anniversary of Armistice Day, the first on which there will be no survivors of the First World War to remind us of the horror and waste of that conflict. St Benedict gives us a chapter of the Rule (34) in which he spells out how the ban on private ownership is to be worked out in the monastery: we are to have what we need, not what we want or think we need. Perhaps it's my quirky apology for a brain, or the fact that I live with such generous and inspiring people as the community here, that makes me find a connecting thread in that tension between need and desire, the sacrificing of self for the good of others.

Martin was an ascetic. In fact, even his contemporaries sometimes wondered whether his tendency to have visions was the result of overlong fasts; but he was a man of deep and genuine compassion, always ready to emerge from his solitude to plead the cause of his people or come to their aid. He understood very well that his monastic retirement was not for himself alone. His ability to live on very little taught him to be aware of the need in others.

At 11 o'clock this morning we shall be remembering the causes of the First World War, and how the seeds of the Second were sown in the punitive settlement that ended it. The desire to make Germany pay meant that, ultimately, everyone paid. Perhaps there is a message here for all who exercise power. Conflicts begin because we want something we don't have but think we have a right to, and they go on because we forget that winning is not the whole story. A wilderness is not peace. Sometimes sacrificing "victory" is the best way to ensure that history does not repeat itself.

And what of Benedict, the man of peace? The Benedictine motto is the word peace (pax) surrounded by a crown of thorns. It reminds us that peace is a struggle, that it requires a daily renunciation of all that is not peace, of the disordered desires that so often make us unhappy. Above all, I think it reminds us that for a Christian peace can only be attained through union with the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, assuming the condition of a slave". And all for love of us.

Anglicanorum Coetibus

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-10T05:55:18+00:00

No time to do more yesterday than post a link to the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. If you haven't read it yet, you will find it in English here. (Link opens in new window). My first thought was, this is the fulfilment of the old prayer we used to say at Benediction and which as a child I prayed with great fervour since all my favourite family members were Anglican:

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England, thy dowry, and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee. By thee it was that Jesus, our Saviour and our hope, was given unto the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more. Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross, O Sorrowful Mother. Intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold, they may be united to the Chief Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith, fruitful in good works, we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee in our heavenly home. Amen.

My second thought was, this is a generous document and I hope it will be received as such.

The preamble is important because it sets out very clearly that the papal offer is made in response to a perceived pastoral need; the pope's concern is, as always, for the unity of the Church. This is his solemn duty. Throughout the document there is an awareness that the Catholic Church does not act apart from the Orthodox in certain matters, a point worth making because some developments in other churches have been made in isolation, thus calling in question their understanding of the nature and practice of authority. There is clarity also about the Catechism of the Catholic Church being the authoritative statement of the Church's faith, while the Ordinariates are placed under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This will reassure those who have been worried by some of the wilder speculations we have read recently. Reassuring, too, will be the statement that former Catholic priests who left to exercise ministry as Anglicans will not be eligible for reinstatement as Catholic priests in the new Ordinariates.

The arrangements for priestly formation, for liturgical continuity, for religious communities and so on are generous and repay careful study. There will be much picking over the details, especially as regards the admission of married men and the permission now given for priests to have secular jobs in order to support their families, rather as Anglican non-stipendiaries currently do and as Catholic "Worker Priests" used to do. Unspoken here is the recognition that should large numbers of Anglican clergy choose to become Catholics, there isn't enough money to support them and their families in a decent manner.

As one might expect, the relations between the Ordinariates and the Bishops' Conferences are given several paragraphs. There are some real surprises here. The principle that bishops should be unmarried is maintained but married former Anglican bishops are, apparently, to be allowed to attend meetings of the relevant Bishops' Conference (where they will be accorded the status of retired bishops) and, if they so petition, allowed to use episcopal insignia (pectoral cross, ring, etc.) As a lapsed medievalist, I can see plenty of scope here for ecclesiological wrangling. Indeed, one of the questions I keep coming back to is, what is a bishop, what is his function in the Church? I hope I won't give offence if I say that the concept of the "flying bishop" has always been troubling to me (for theological rather than pastoral reasons, which I understand), while the use of episcopal insignia by one who is not regarded as a bishop I find confusing. Perhaps the concept of the "mitred prelate" is a valid analogy.

Anyway, I am sure that there is already masses of comment much better informed than Colophon's. We must continue to pray because no matter how good everyone's intentions are, no matter how hopeful everyone is that we will all obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the human cost will be huge. I notice that the Apostolic Constitution was signed on the feast of St Carlo Borromeo and issued on the feast of the Lateran Basilica, anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall came down. Significant?

Virtual Chapter

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-09T20:01:56+00:00

Two little changes to start the working week. First, we've noticed a number of people using translation services to read this blog. To make things a little easier, we are now experimenting with a Google™Translate widget which will provide a rough and ready translation in several languages. Try it and see! The results can be more exciting than the original post.

Virtual Chapter
Secondly, at 4.00 p.m. GMT on Friday, 13 November, God willing, we shall be hosting our first Virtual Chapter using TalkShoe™, a teleconferencing service based in the U.S.A. There will be a short talk from the prioress on the feast of the day (All Benedictine Saints), followed by an opportunity for discussion. As this is our first attempt at a Virtual Chapter, please bear with us as we struggle to master the technology and hit the right buttons. Digitalnun will be quite ruthless about muting anyone who tries to hog the conversation or causes annoyance to others, but if all goes as we hope we'll certainly introduce more online sessions.

How to take part
There are two main ways of taking part over the internet using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) so that you do not incur the expense of a telephone call to Pittsburgh.

(1) If you wish only to listen/use the live text facility (which allows you to type your comments in real time), you can click on the TalkShoe badge in the sidebar of this blog to connect over the internet or you can paste this link into your browser http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/69374. (2) If you wish not only to listen/text but also to talk, you should (preferably) first download the TalkShoe Live software (which is free) and follow the instructions for installing it on your computer (Mac or Windows) then make use of the integrated ShoePhone application to join in.

If you don't want to use VOIP, you can, of course, use an ordinary landline or mobile to connect, but please check call charges before you do so as we wouldn't want anyone to incur an unexpected telephone bill. You would need to telephone the U.S.A. (724) 444-7444 and add the call series ID which is 69374.

TalkShoe™ Software
You can read more about TalkShoe and download TalkShoe Live software here. A guide to taking part will be posted the day before the Virtual Chapter in case anyone is still confused.

Prayer Podcast
There is no podcast this week but when the series resumes, the link will be found on the Podcast page, not Colophon. We need a more logical grouping of media files. At present our site reflects the fact that, like Topsy, it "just growed", and as we add more content navigation becomes more complex. Not a good idea!

Remembrance Sunday 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-08T05:56:01+00:00

The sound of half-muffled bells from Worcester Cathedral on Remembrance Sunday is always evocative and brings back memories of snatches heard across the water meadows. It is one of the few days in the year when all fifteen bells are rung and those who know about such things get terribly excited about musical tenths. For us, it is simply part of the sound of Remembrance Sunday, along with blood-red poppies and the moving sight of former servicemen and women laying wreaths in memory of the fallen. This year hearts will be heavy with the knowledge that loss of life continues. The Great War to end all Wars ushered in another, and many have followed since.

Have you ever asked yourself what is going on during the Two Minutes' Silence? Many will be thinking about family members or comrades they have lost, or the pity and horror of war in general; others will be praying for all who have died in war and for those who grieve or suffer as a result; others again will be asking God to guide us into the ways of peace. But what will God be praying? If the question startles, consider. When we pray, we tend to concentrate on our part in the prayer and forget God's. We cry out to him readily enough in moments of sorrow and distress but how rarely do we hear God crying out to us? We are not good at listening, still less good at acting on what we hear because we know that what God says may challenge us in ways we would rather not be challenged.

Today is not only Remembrance Sunday, it is also the anniversary of Enniskillin. Those of us who remember that horror were deeply impressed by Gordon Wilson's willingness to forgive the brutal murder of his daughter. Wasn't that an example of someone listening to God's prayer and responding with a generosity most of us could never match? Perhaps this morning during the Two Minutes' Silence we could humbly await God's word rather than filling the silence with our own clamour. He knows and understands our need, and only he can turn our hearts to better things. If our prayer is powerful with God, shouldn't his prayer be even more powerful with us?.

Day of Recollection

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-07T06:46:04+00:00

We have the local branch of the C.W.L. coming here today for a Day of Recollection. We are always very edified by their kindness and zeal. More often than not, we find teams of them using some of their precious free time to help out with the washing-up or perform other apparently small but valuable acts of service during the day. It is a reminder to us as a community of the importance of detail in monastic life. As Cassian remarked, "If you just remove a little dust from the oratory for the love of God, you will not be without your reward."

Now, there's a very interesting phrase in that sentence quoted above: if you "just". How often do we hear "if you just" or "could/couldn't you just" and know that we are in for something the speaker either does not realise, or is not willing to admit, will be anything but "just"? In the practical sphere it may be something like, "Well, couldn't you just fit these 3 pages of closely written A3 sheets into an A5 flyer for me?" Answer, "Yes, if we may delete at least 95% of what you have written" which usually leads to a wobbly. Or, discussing the manifest deficiencies of another, "I don't see why he doesn't just . . . .", when it must be perfectly obvious why he doesn't "just" whatever.

It all becomes more serious when it is God who is "just" asking something of us. One sees it in monastic life. People give up all the big things — marriage, family, career — then stumble over something as small and inconsiderable as being required to eat one kind of food when they prefer another. Of course, it is not God who is asking this directly of the monk or nun; but living a common life is part of our response to God's invitation to become a monk or nun. It is quite easy to opt out of the common life, to make little accommodations that gradually whittle away the substance of what we have vowed. If we "just" do this or that it may not amount to much in our own eyes, but when it comes to evaluating something we need to look with God's eyes, not our own. Most of us are not called to do great and glorious things for the love of God, we are "just" called to get on with the business of everyday, and do whatever it is we have to do with love and fidelity. The ladies of the C.W.L. are a wonderful example of "just" being good Catholics. A reminder, if we need one, that life and death, heaven and hell, can all turn on that little word, "just".

(N.B. We don't know why comments are disappearing from this blog: the problem seems to be with JS-Kit as others have reported the same. We'll investigate.)

Bonfire Night

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-05T06:35:02+00:00

We are rather hoping that the local pub will be having a firework display this evening. The monastery is such a tall building that it is quite easy to walk along the upper corridor and accidentally on purpose linger by one of the windows to watch the fun. There is something very reassuring about 5 November, when all good Catholics cheerfully ignore the burning of papal guys down in Lewes and indulge in nostalgia for bygone days.

Of course, we are in the heart of Thames Valley Recusant country here. From our terrace one can look across to the medieval chapel of the Eyston family which has never been out of Catholic hands since it was built in 1256. Mapledurham, Milton, Stonor, all are within a short distance, while Campion and Challoner are names to conjure with for their local associations as well as their place in history. I mention this because one of the more amusing aspects of recent comments on the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution (thank heavens for some light relief amid the turmoil) is the belief that Catholics in this country have no history, or at any rate, none worth talking about. On the contrary, we have an interesting history, shadowy in parts it is true, but fascinating to those who can identify with it. Digitalnun was regaling us with the darker side of her family's activities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Apparently, they stuck to their guns (those who know Digitalnun will understand that it's in the genes) and had some slightly dodgy characters like John the Monk (an ex-monk of Canterbury, pensioned off after the Dissolution) among their number, but then made the fatal mistake of meddling with politics. You can guess the rest.

Colophon does not advocate the view that the Church should steer clear of politics. On the contrary, the Church must necessarily be engaged wherever people are. It will always be difficult to decide how that engagement should be worked out and mistakes are bound to occur, but today we can salute all those who, at various times and in various ways, have tried to make the world a better place through their political service. Guy Fawkes' solution isn't one that appeals to us nowadays, especially since we have become all too familiar with the use of terror and murder as political weapons, so perhaps we might spare a grateful thought for those whose quiet integrity gives the lie to the belief that politicians are universally corrupt. Remember what ten just men might achieve and pray for all our politicians.

Supernun

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-04T05:31:20+00:00

Digitalnun is having a crisis. Not a big crisis, you understand. No terrible internal debate about questions of faith or morals, no sudden onset of doubt about the value of monastic life; not even a niggle about The Purpose of the Universe. No, Digitalnun is wondering whether she should let others into her Dark Secret. She is not Supernun. There, it's out! And the moon is still silvery in the sky, the dog is still chasing rabbits in his sleep, and the world has not fallen into a Black Hole.

By the time we have reached a certain age, most of us suffer from various delusions, one of the most deadly (literally) being that we must always say "yes". This affects Christians of all kinds, and is especially prevalent among the clergy and members of religious communities. It is easy to see why. We so want to be always ready to do the will of God and devote much time and effort to trying to discern what He is asking. We know He often speaks through those with whom we come into contact so we are always on the alert. Those of us who have "signed up" to an obviously full-time commitment often allow a very human element of guilt to creep in when faced with demands that tax our strength. Are we doing enough? Dare we say "no"? The problem is that we cannot always handle the reactions of others if we do say "no". We can be imprisoned by fear, and that is quite the opposite of the freedom love confers. A cowardly "yes" is morally no different from a cowardly "no": it just sounds better. And we all like to be liked.

So, Digitalnun, who is not Supernun, has a proposal to make. Let's make today a day on which we all take stock, not of the demands we make on others nor of the demands others make on us, but of the demands we make on ourselves. How far are they consistent with what we are called to be? Are they really a covert source of pride? Little tin fig leaves we create for ourselves which ultimately are rather ridiculous.

All Souls

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-02T05:09:45+00:00

All Saints would be incomplete without All Souls: the Church is one and transcends time, space and the limitations of mortality. I am looking forward to Mass this morning. We ran over the chants just before Vespers last night and the juxtaposition proved very helpful. For Catholics November is a month which confronts us with the fact of death at every turn. After All Souls we have four weeks popularly dedicated to praying for the souls in purgatory; our monastic calendar has commemorations for deceased friends and benefactors as well as deceased members of the monastic order. It is all so counter-cultural. Only a few days ago we read of the possibility of centenarians having the bodies of fifty-year olds. Why should anyone want that (unless, of course, we are all feverishly working until 100+ to pay off the enormous debt we have all incurred, courtesy of current economic policy)? Many people are afraid of death, or at least of dying. It is common to entrust the last offices to undertakers, then construct funeral services which try to avoid all mention of death, sometimes lapsing into an embarrassed "celebration" of something, certainly someone, that never was. Perhaps that is why unacknowledged grief, the sheer impossibility of grieving in our society, wreaks so much havoc. A stiff upper lip needs a wobbly lower one if we are to remain human. Happily, in the monastery we are much more matter-of-fact about death and the business of dying. We prepare our dead for burial ourselves, and the Requiem Mass and funeral rites speak of hope and penitence, joy and sorrrow in equal measure. If we live by the mercy of God, do we not also die by His mercy, too? That is, I trust, a comfortable thought for the morning of All Souls.

All Saints

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-11-01T04:37:20+00:00

One picture is worth a thousand words, although, of course, it takes words to say that. So, here is a a favourite Fra Angelico and a podcast about the Solemnities of All Saints and All Souls.

Of Saints, Spooks and Serendipity

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-31T06:09:40+00:00

November is a festive month. The long dark nights are illumined by little sparkles of joy and thanksgiving. We begin with the great feasts of All Saints and All Souls, a wonderful celebration of the whole Church, both here on earth (the Church militant), nearly there (the Church being prepared in purgatory for the joy of heaven) and already enjoying that for which we long (the Church triumphant in heaven); on 13 November we shall celebrate All Benedictine Saints and there are a number of lesser celebrations in between which will provide opportunities to pray for dead members of our families and communities. If you've lived in southern Europe, you'll understand the wistfulness affecting some of the community. Southern Europe understands the link between the living and the dead: lights and flowers will adorn the graves of the beloved dead, while prayers and partying will go together. It will be warm and human, and the divine will be welcomed in an uncomplicated and direct way. Our cold northern obsession with spooks seems quite literally soulless by comparison. Fortunately, First Vespers of All Saints will be a splendid beginning to two days of liturgical exuberance.

So where does the serendipity come in? Think communication, think Church, saints in heaven, saints on earth . . . the song of the saints . . . Are you with us yet? Here's a clue. Regular readers know we intend to make changes to this site. This will be the last week-end that the weekly podcast will be linked to the blog page (we're hoping our oldest nun will do the podcast this week but she doesn't know she's being asked yet, so please don't let her know). The podcast is moving because we have a great new feature we are hoping to introduce in November: the virtual Chapter. This will give anyone who wishes an opportunity to listen via VOIP (i.e. via their computers, no call charges) to a live talk from one of the community followed by a live discussion over the ether: an opportunity to visit the monastery without actually making the journey. Initial tests have been encouraging so we have tentatively scheduled the first Chapter for the afternoon of 13 November (All Benedictine Saints). We are allowing fifteen minutes for the first session and will see how it goes. All you need to take part is a computer with internet connection, speakers or headphones (i.e. some way of listening), and if you want to take part in the discussion, an inbuilt microphone or one you can hook up to your computer. Full details will be posted; if no-one joins us, it won't matter because as everyone knows, contemplative nuns can talk the hind legs off the proverbial donkey given half a chance.

In the meantime, may you all have a blessed time celebrating what God has done in and for His people. Pray for the lonely, the bereaved and those who may find some aspects of this week-end a little frightening. "Cliffs of fall. . . hold them cheap who ne'er hung there". (A lazy misquote, but you get the drift.)

The Penal Code in RB

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-30T05:17:38+00:00

Today we begin reading Benedict's chapters on how to deal with those who offend in some way against the community and/or the monastic way of life (not always the same thing). The list of faults begins with insubordination, then makes its way through disobedience, pride, grumbling, despising the Rule and contempt for the orders of senior members of the community. We could turn the list on its head and say that the very qualities Benedict seems suspicious of are qualities our society rather admires: independence of mind and action, a sense of self-worth, a critical attitude, freedom from convention ("pettyfogging little rules") and a healthy disregard for the Old Guard and its outmoded opinions. Nothing wrong with that, is there? Read RB 23 again. What Benedict is actually addressing is the tendency in each one of us to forget that we are not the centre of creation, to make ourselves separate and special at the expense of others. Whether we like it or no, we have to live with other people and that means accommodating ourselves to the needs of the group (family, community, organization or what you will). The faults Benedict lists spiral outwards from the interior to the exterior, from attitudes to concrete actions. He sees this as a kind of spiritual malaise which throws us off-balance. His approach to bringing us back to our senses is graduated: a private warning, followed by a public rebuke if that doesn't work; then excommunication from meals or prayer in common or, if we are really thick, some form of corporal punishment (in the sixth century, usually a fast or strokes of the rod: nowadays this is NOT practised!). Perhaps the message for us today is to think about our membership of the various bodies to which we belong, how we build them up, how we weaken them and what we should do about both.

Cloister Updates

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-29T05:32:06+00:00

Excellent talk on St Thérèse by Annette Goulden last night. We'll be putting it up on our Talks page once we've been through the recording. As a Child Psychiatrist, Annette made a good case for Thérèse's having survived what was, by any standards, an extraordinary childhood to become a woman of rare confidence and courage, far removed from the sickly-sweet "Little Flower" of popular myth. Another group expected today and more people at the week-end, so the kitchen is piled with dishes waiting to be cooked or frozen as appropriate. Next week-end we have a group wanting a day on Hildegarde of Bingen so we have elected the prioress to give a talk on her. The news was greeted with a dangerously "blotting-paper" look, so we wonder what we have let ourselves in for. The new choir psalters are proving a success: much better layout and printing than heretofore, although the paper is not all it might be. The garden is still full of colour, which is a joy, and last Sunday's short talks after Mass on the work of St Cecilia's have resulted in some generous offers of help. More about that at a later date. So, life continues as usual, with various activities going on in different parts of the monastery, all held together and given coherence by the regular round of prayer and worship largely unseen (or not adverted to) by those outside the cloister. Thérèse wanted to be love at the heart of the Church. Perhaps for a Benedictine it is a case of wanting to be love and praise at the heart of the Church.

Prayer

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-26T20:56:04+00:00

RB 20 On Reverence in Prayer follows naturally from RB 19 On the Discipline of Singing the Psalms. Our practice of learning the Rule by heart means that these few sentences have been prayed and pondered throughout our monastic lives. They have become quite literally a core teaching (from the Latin word for "heart"), something to which we return again and again. They remind us first of the tremendous majesty of God, the God whom we came into the monastery to seek and serve. God is indeed our loving Father, but there should always be awe and reverence in His presence. When we come into the oratory we show by our whole demeanour that we are in the presence of the Most Holy. The oratory is the most important room in the house, the place where we perform our most important work, receive the Sacraments, take our profoundest need, our deepest joys and sorrows. The heart of each us must also be an oratory where Christ prays unceasingly to the Father.

Benedict reminds us that the dispositions for prayer come from within: profound humility . . . pure devotion . . . purity of heart . . . tears of compunction. Read those lines in Latin and the alliteration alone will make them memorable. They are the attitudes of one who has learned that she is nothing and is no longer bothered by consciousness of her own nothingness: her gaze is fixed on Another. There is a part of the eye where there is no distortion, where we see perfectly. It is called the fovea. Prayer is like cultivating the fovea of the heart, focusing on God alone.

If that seems a bit high falutin' for us as Benedictines, remember that parody of the psalm, "My eyes are always on myself. My feet are always in the snare". We learn principally by our mistakes. As St Bernard liked to point out, humility is usually learned only after we have plunged into the depths of pride. Prayer is a gift that is poured into our hearts at a time of God's choosing and in God's way, often when we have privately decided that this prayer business is not all it is cracked up to be and we'd be better off doing something useful. When we are "disgusted" with prayer, that's when we must stick at it.

There is, as we all know, another temptation, though it tends to come at the earlier stages of getting to know God, the temptation of revelling in moments of joy and consolation, delighting in the gift rather than the One who gives. Benedict will have none of it. Our prayer is "always to be short and pure unless perhaps prolonged by the inspiration of God's grace" and in community "very short". We have little difficulty in making our prayer short, but do we have what it takes to make it pure? That is the challenge of today's chapter. Yet again Benedict has reminded us that however long we may have lived in the monastery, we are beginners all our lives. Prayer is new every day.

A Death A Minute

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-26T05:13:53+00:00

I was preparing to say something about RB19 and mindfulness of God when I came across the above statistic. It refers not to death from war or starvation but to death in childbirth, and the shocking truth is that "maternal mortality rates" (brutal phrase) are amazingly high in the U.S.A., the richest country in the world. Why should that be? We tend to assume that poverty, malnutrition and lack of basic hygiene are the biggest contributors to death, but that scarcely applies to First World countries. No doubt we shall be hearing more about causes and possible solutions as the week unfolds (the BBC promises to give attention to the subject) but it made me rethink today's posting on the Rule.

To talk about the discipline of psalmody might seem like evidence of an arcane and distant spirituality, a sign that the Church, or at least the monastic part of the Church, is far removed from the realities of life. Perversely perhaps, I think the opposite is true. One does not enter a monastery to flee the world's problems but to embrace them at the deepest possible level and bring them to God in prayer. For a Benedictine, the psalmody of the Divine Office prayed hour by hour, day by day, week in, week out, is the context in which this prayer is articulated by the Holy Spirit and taken up into the great High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. The psalter reflects so many moods and concerns, including our moments of doubt and rebellion, bewilderment and pain. Yesterday evening, when news of the Baghdad bombs had reached us, the psalms of Compline with their infinite trust in the goodness of God were the prayer we most wanted to utter. Evil cannot ultimately triumph. Death is not the end of the story. The eternal God is our dwelling-place and underneath are the everlasting arms.

No podcast this week as Digitalnun has nothing to say and the rest of the community is "unavailable for comment".

Fear of Rome

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-25T06:01:46+00:00

The last few days have been thought-provoking for those who believe in both freedom of speech and what our grandmothers would have called "civilized behaviour". At the risk of sounding hopelessly fuddy-duddy, I must admit I don't believe that everything one thinks or feels should be expressed, especially if hurtful to others; nor should the way in which it is expressed intentionally give offence. I presume everyone with any heart or brains deplores the antics of the BNP, but the rumpus over Nick Griffin's appearance on "Question Time" (which, being TV-free, we did not see) seems equally deplorable to me. Similarly, many of the comments on the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution and the questions now facing many Anglicans have been, to say the least, ill-judged and wounding. We have returned to the polemics of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but without the magnificent language in which insults were then traded. It makes one wonder what we Christians really do believe if we treat one another so badly. Perhaps I should take Colophon's advice and devote myself entirely to prayer and reflection, but there is one point on which it may be possible to say something constructive. My remarks concern the situation in England where Anglicans greatly outnumber Catholics and the Church of England is the Established Church.

A major strand running through both Anglican and Catholic reactions in this country has been fear of Rome and what she is "really" doing. We have had talk of "poaching" and "undermining", righteous anger, unholy glee, and everything in between. One has sympathy with those who feel the announcement was made in an awkward way, but would the timing and manner of such an announcement ever have been "right"? The simple view, that the pope has taken at face value the requests made to him and responded by saying, "Very well, we will welcome you Anglicans into Full Communion, if you wish, and allow you to retain many elements of your spiritual tradition" is too simple for most. Some Anglicans who have dreamed of this for years are, now the offer has been made, asking themselves whether it is what they wish after all (I base this assertion on responses from a few of my own Anglican friends). Some Catholics are quietly uneasy about how an influx of former Anglicans would change the complexion of the Catholic Church in England. Others are wondering whether all those considering the pope's offer are aware that plurality in liturgical and disciplinary matters does not extend to doctrine. The novelty of the canonical structures the pope has proposed has taken everyone by surprise, yet I would argue that it is the most hopeful and reassuring element in the whole mix.

The Catholic Church is often portrayed as a top-down organization, rigidly hierarchical. I have to say, from my own experience, that it is not. Every Catholic has the right of recourse to Rome. It isn't a question of going through endless bureaucratic channels: it is direct and immediate. A few years ago, when faced with a difficult question of conscience, I went to Rome to ask advice. The Prefect and officials of the Congregation I consulted were immensely helpful and thanks to their innovative approach, the outcome was positive. The whole process showed me a very human side of the Church, of people anxious to help others, prepared to create new structures to meet new situations, a welcome sidelight on the pastoral concern that underlies canon law. Benedict XVI's pontificate has demonstrated a similar willingness to respond to pastoral needs with new canonical solutions. Some have not been an unalloyed success, witness the continuing difficulties with the SSPX, but they make one hope that the working out of the pope's proposal will be more acceptable to all than may now appear. At least, I think we can expect a degree of humanity and kindness that, sadly, has not always characterized the doings of the Catholic Church, or any other for that matter.

None of this takes away from the fact that situation at the moment is troubled and troubling. Prayer and reflection are indeed needed. Happily, this is the Lord's Day, and of one thing we can be sure: Christians everywhere, of whatever tradition, will be seeking God's guidance in all their undertakings.

A Plodding Perseverance

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-24T05:15:58+01:00

Here we are, half way through RB 18, On the Order in Which the Psalms are to be Said (not the most electrifying chapter), on the eve of the Thirtieth Sunday of the Year (not the most exciting celebration), with only the prospect of the clocks going back tonight to cheer the incipient gloom. Welcome to the joys of a plodding perseverance! Joy may be a bit of an overstatement, reminiscent of those relentlessly enthusiastic ambassadors for Christ who make one feel weak and wobbly in faith the moment thy ask, "Are you saved?" (Truthful answer, I don't know, I rely on the merits of my Saviour, but I haven't finally persevered yet.)

Perseverance is something Benedictines like to think they are good at doing. Indeed, every time a novice is formally questioned about her willingness to continue in the monastery, the ceremony is known as "The Novice's Perseverance". She has to ask permission to persevere, and it is only granted after she has received a little talk about the dura et aspera, the hard and difficult ways through which we go to God, usually made more memorable by a few observations about how the novice might pull her monastic socks up.

Plodding and perseverance seem to go together. We misprize them at our peril. Think for a moment how much of life would grind to a halt if we couldn't take for granted the fact that water will flow from our taps, electricity at the flick of a switch. We rely on others getting on with their jobs, day after day, and only become aware of how much we rely on them when something goes wrong (as with the postal strikes now). And let's not forget our families, friends and communities, the people to whom we behave the worst and who ultimately treat us the best (even when they are being maddening), simply because they acknowledge their connection with us. Every Benedictine I know prays daily for the grace of perseverance. It may not be something we think about very often, but it is not to be taken for granted.

Blogging Nuns

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-23T06:06:26+01:00

Yesterday we had quite a lot of questions via our Ask Sister! feature on the Vocation page. Most will receive a personal and specific answer, but the question "why do nuns blog" may interest those who have wandered into Colophon from another part of the net. We'll let Digitalnun give the answers — for now.

Q. Why do nuns blog? Is it because they live a largely silent life, so blogging allows some self-expression that might otherwise be unavailable?
Digitalnun: Possibly, especially if one isn't a superior and therefore able to regale the community with one's views on a regular basis! Blogging is also very suited to short reflections. Colophon readers know that our blog doesn't happen if the community is busy with something else. It's important as a means of sharing our life, but it isn't a priority. We blog in the hope of interesting/being helpful to others but the views expressed can be highly individual, even quirky; so although it's a community blog, it doesn't really fit any particular category.
Q. Do you think people have stereotypes of nuns and how does the blog deal with that?
Digitalnun: Undoubtedly. Sometimes they make us all laugh, sometimes they irritate profoundly; Colophon reflects both reactions. People may assume that because we're nuns we're (a) brain-dead ; (b) incompetent; (c) kill-joys. One thing which genuinely does annoy is the way some people criticize if we don't live up to their expectations of what a nun should be/do. For example, someone thought it a "sin against poverty" that a nun should wear a gold ring (after profession we wear a plain gold band on the right hand as a sign of our consecration) while being quite happy about monks having holidays (which nuns usually don't). Most of us received our rings as gifts from our families or bought them ourselves before we gave away our worldly possessions, but does it really matter? I think the blog allows us occasionally to challenge some of the sillier stereotypes, but it isn't why we write.
Q. Where do your own blog posts originate?
Digitalnun: From distractions in prayer or reading; from what I hope are little jolts of the Holy Spirit; from the sheer perversity of what passes as my brain; my dyspepsia; oh, and the fact that I live in company with others who are much holier and nicer than I am and who constantly amaze me with their goodness and wisdom.
Q. Why don't you link to other blogs and web sites as others do?
Digitalnun: We don't actually do much surfing of the internet (no time!) so any links would probably just duplicate those easily available elsewhere. I think we also assume that people come here to read what we've said rather than get a news round-up, so we try to keep things simple. That said, we are thinking about adding a links section to our revamped web site but whether we'd have time to keep the links current, I'm not sure. Out of date links are a pain.
Q The comment box is now working properly. How did that happen?
Digitalnun: Ouch! You'll see I've done something about the blog archive on the left-hand side.
Q. Will you say anything about future plans?
Digitalnun: Not much at this stage because we're never sure whether we'll be able to stick to our hoped-for schedule. However, we have finally decided to end support for Internet Explorer 6 users. We want to strip out a lot of redundant code from the web site so that it loads more quickly and we can introduce features and material we've been working on for a while. I think there will be some interesting developments in the months ahead.

Christmas is Coming

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-22T06:59:07+01:00

About a month ago we began filling in next year's diary with bookings for 2010, preparing Advent talks and days of recollection and generally preparing for Christmas. It's good to see that the Churches are running a worthwhile advertising campaign this year (excellent summary by Mouse here), and that the BBC has drawn attention to the widely varying charitable contributions made by sellers of so-called Charity Christmas cards (summary below). Digitalnun gave up printing Christmas cards years ago since it is impossible to produce them at the same price as those who buy in millions. Perhaps that explains why we tend to get sackloads of drunken reindeer/cartoon nuns skating on thin ice. We know Digitalnun has designed a series of eCards which she thought of making available from our web site but when asked about it yesterday she gave a little grunt and muttered something about probably no one being interested and she gets jittery about scripts being hijacked by spammers, etc, etc. If she has a sleepless night, they'll probably appear. In the meantime, we were surprised to see that the comment box loaded in the correct place yesterday without any tweaking of the code. Perhaps that explains why Digitalnun is a bit grumpy. She can't claim any credit. Pity the nun who, like George Washington, cannot tell a lie!

Charity Christmas Cards and the Proportion of the Purchase Price going to Charity
W H Smith: 20% - 100%
Asda: All at 50%
Waterstones: 20% - 50%
John Lewis: 10% - 25%
Clintons: All at 21%
Paperchase: 16% - 18%
Debenhams: All at 17%
Waitrose: All at 15%
Morrisons: All at 13%
Post Office: 10% - 13%
House of Fraser and Next: 6% - 13%
M & S, Tesco, Rymans, Sainsbury's, Selfridges: All at 10%
(Source: "Which?" magazine, via BBC)

Apostolic Constitution

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-21T14:16:47+01:00

It was tempting to update Colophon yesterday when news broke of the forthcoming Apostolic Constitution which will allow Anglicans entering into Full Communion to retain aspects of their Anglican tradition. It has been useful, however, to have a little time in which to pray and reflect and digest some of the statements issued by various persons and groups. If you have not yet read the statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or the Joint Statement issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury (Anglican) and Westminster (Catholic) you can do so here.

First, let's be clear what an Apostolic Constitution is. It is the most solemn, public form of papal decree and the canonical structures it introduces have binding force. As one canon lawyer remarked, "Rome can do anything", and in this case, Rome has. We ourselves know how creative Rome can be in response to a situation it believes requires special treatment, and what a shock such creativity can be to those who weren't expecting it or who feel in some way threatened by it. That is exactly what happened yesterday as a quick trip through the blogosphere will demonstrate.

Secondly, the Apostolic Constitution will be concerned with Anglicans and Catholics worldwide, not just those in the U.K. The Catholic Church always takes a global perspective. Some of the responses in this country have inevitably taken a rather narrower view. It is sometimes said, with some truth, that the Vatican doesn't really understand Anglicanism or the hesitation some English Catholics feel about the prospect of former Anglicans joining their ranks. Paul VI certainly had a better understanding than most and it is no accident that under him the Catholic-Anglican dialogue advanced further than at any period before. But where are we now?

No doubt, over the coming months, many Anglicans will consider their position. Some will want to enter into Full Communion; others will prefer to stay with the Church in which they are. There will be joy and grief and much secret agonizing. The human cost will be huge. Others will argue that they already are in Communion in all that matters, and there will be a continuance of the sad situation whereby Catholics upholding the doctrine and discipline of the Eucharist will be subject to some quite unpleasant attacks (we know, for we have been there). There will be hope and disappointment, difficulties in adjusting, bafflement and blessing.

What of the Catholic side? There will surely be a mixture of reactions, ranging from a raucous triumphalism through indifference to downright hostility. A few have commented on the position of Catholic priests who have embraced celibacy as part of their vocation but would much rather be married. How will they feel? (And let's say at this point, that despite the appalling stories of abuse that have come to light, most priests, like most other people, are good and decent men.) In England we have a lot of Catholics whose families built schools and churches out of their poverty rather than their abundance, who are accustomed to being laughed at for their lack of education or sophistication but who, together with the Recusant families, have kept the Faith alive through several centuries. Their reactions are also likely to be mixed. Then what of the bishops? It is no secret that the welcome accorded to Polish Catholics in recent years has sometimes led to awkward situations, the bishops broadly favouring integration into existing local structures and Poles generally preferring to retain a distinct identity under the Polish Catholic Mission. The prospect of "Anglican Ordinariates" may lead to something of the same. It certainly raises some important questions about our understanding of what a bishop is and the way in which a diocese operates.

As we said earlier, this is a time for prayer, reflection and studying the experience of other places and peoples (Amritsar, India, comes to mind). In this country we shall be praying for Archbishop Rowan (especially + Rowan!) and Archbishop Vincent who will need not only wisdom but charity and courage in large measure. Let us pray also for all who are afraid that they are about to lose something very precious, who are not sure where they stand or what to think, who are troubled and anxious. Let us pray that we follow the promptings of the Lord rather than the dictates of our own wayward and often selfish hearts.

Beauty in Worship

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-20T06:15:43+01:00

St Benedict reminds us today of the sevenfold pattern of unceasing prayer which characterises the monastic day (RB 16). It is both a privilege and challenge to maintain that round of prayer and provide a fitting setting for Mass and the Divine Office. We have been doing our best here at Hendred, gradually acquiring the furnishings and vestments necessary for liturgical worship. Our taste may be Conran, our budget Ikea, but friends and oblates have been generous with gifts and our cellarer (bursar) understands the importance of the jar of nard. Happily, one of the community is a fine needlewoman and our altar linens are second to none (alas no, we are not able to accept commissions for making altar cloths, etc as we can no longer source the kind of fabric we would wish to use). We're quite good at simple woodwork and have learned to be dab hands with paintbrushes. So, although our oratory is very plain, it is a good place in which to pray. We may dream of one day having a church of our own, but prayer is something that happens here and now, wherever and however we happen to be. If we waited for perfect circumstances, we would never begin at all.

Protective Courtesies

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-19T06:27:23+01:00

To Malvern yesterday, to collect Convalescent Nun. It is good to have the community reunited, but having to fit in a number of engagements in and around the journey made supper a late meal and the interval between going to bed and getting up this morning seems all too short. What a good thing no one can speak until after Lauds! We all need "protective courtesies" at times. They can be simple things, like "manners" — learning how to eat with others so one does not annoy one's neighbour, for example — or complex rituals, like those associated with death and mourning, that allow people a little space in which to grieve. Monastic life still contains many courtesies that society as a whole does not value or has neglected. It can be quite thought-provoking to go through the Rule and see how Benedict treats many potential difficulties/flash-points in community: relations between old(er) and young(er), strong(er) and weak(er) brethren; those in authority, those subject to authority; the timing of requests and the right way of meeting or refusing them; the interaction of members of the home community with visitors and guests, and so on and so forth. There are guidelines for comforting the brother or sister who is feeling down in the dumps, for dealing with the loss or damage of common property, for making restitution and preserving peace (nothing new about restorative justice except the name). Perhaps we'll all need to draw on these today. The image that comes to mind is of a little tin-hat with "Pax" emblazoned on it. Now I wonder why that also conjures up the vision of a tortoise withdrawing into its shell . . .

Sunday Vigils

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-18T06:10:50+01:00

I love the time before Vigils, especially on Sundays. The house is quiet and still, and at this time of year it is dark as well. Excellent conditions for prayer — or distraction. Afterwards, I love the way the grey light steals into the oratory and the flickering of the lamp beside the tabernacle is gradually muted in brilliance by the growing day. There is a cascade of marigolds and nasturtiums by the altar, dimly illuminating the shadows. One of the gifts of Sunday is to have time to appreciate the wonder of the ordinary: bread broken and shared, the Body of Christ, "the heart in pilgrimage". Thank you, Lord.

Gifts and Call

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-17T06:23:13+01:00

I was dozing quietly over my lectio divina or "prayerful reading" earlier this morning when a phrase from Romans leaped out of the page with a freshness and urgency I had not experienced before. "The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable." It set me thinking about failure (yes, I know I'm perverse). We're all flawed and fallible beings, and each of us has a personal history of failure. Most of us are obscure enough to escape the searchlight of history and can keep our shortcomings to ourselves. That doesn't make them any easier to live with, and I daresay most of us have discovered we are pelagians at heart, believing we can overcome our faults by our own efforts. When we find that we can't, we either dismiss our weaknesses as endearing little foibles (i.e we lie to ourselves), brazen things out ("O evil, be thou my good"), or abandon hope. I suspect that despair is the most dangerous. It is no accident that St Benedict ends his list of "Tools of Good Works" with "Never despair of God's mercy." That has been my lifeline on more than one occasion, because it ties in with what St Paul is saying in Romans. God never gives up. He never despairs (and heaven knows, we give Him enough reason to do so). There is something humbling about a God who is prepared to wait for His children to turn to Him. Irresistibly attractive, in fact.

Advance notice: in November we shall be making the first of a series of changes to our web site. The weekly prayer podcast (didn't happen last Sunday because of "the bug") will be moving from Colophon to another page as we have a new feature we want to introduce. Just to tease your interest, think "live", think "interactive" . . . And thank you for all the feedback you send. Although we do test everything, we can't always know how things will look on your screen/operating system so we rely on you to let us know.

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Kindly Fruits of the Earth

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-16T05:42:27+01:00

No doubt someone will ask why Colophon is quoting from the Book of Common Prayer, but "the kindly fruits of the earth" is an apt and beautiful phrase to describe the plentiful harvest we have enjoyed from our own garden and those of our friends. At the moment, the thought of food is still a little unwelcome to the community, but with that selfless determination characteristic of Benedictines, we thought we should enter into the spirit of World Food Day (a pity it didn't coincide with CAFOD Family Fast Day on 2 October) and spend a moment or two reflecting on how we share resources with others. We are usually quite good at sharing what we have in the way of facilities, food and drink, time and so on, but whether we always do so in a kindly manner is more debatable. It is possible to "perform an act of charity" in such a way that there is nothing "charitable" about it, especially when we're tired or harrassed or just plain out of sorts. Zeal is sometimes double-edged, and feelings of guilt, like feelings of shame, do not often lead to conversion of heart but rather trap us in negativity.

One area where we acknowledge that we ought to do more concerns those whose plight is largely ignored by the media. We have already commented on the persecution of Christians in various parts of the world. Just yesterday we received an appeal from Faith Without Fear concerning the 50,000 Christians forced from their homes in Orissa, India, last year. There are still 4,000 displaced and persecuted. We continue to hold them in prayer, but can we ask you to go to the Faith Without Fear web site and sign the petition? It is a small thing to do, but as we have been reminded many times during the progress of St Thérèse's relics, life is made up of small but significant acts. Perhaps our photo is worth a second look, too, as we think about the Orissa Christians. Some have predicted that in years to come shortages of food and water will lead to increasing strife among peoples. If we have not begun to learn to live peacefully with one another before then, how shall we celebrate the "kindly fruits of the earth" we are meant to share? Scroll down to comment.

M.P.s Expenses (Again)

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-14T06:05:50+01:00

Retrospective legislation in any shape or form is always abhorrent, and to that extent one can sympathize with M.P.s who feel that the Legg enquiry's conclusions are unfair and make all Parliamentarians look shady and dishonest. The trouble is that some M.P.s (and members of the House of Lords, too) have behaved dishonourably while others have acted on the basis that "if it's allowed by the rules, then it's it's all right" and made expenses claims which have a definite whiff of sulphuretted hydrogen about them. The fact that certain acts are legal does not make them right and it is surely time we all acknowledged as much. Personally, I'd have more sympathy for our M.P.s were I not troubled by the poverty afflicting so many of our fellow citizens: the young who have no jobs, nor any prospect of getting one; the elderly who must often make impossible choices between eating and heating; people who must struggle with anxiety and debt on a daily basis — the list is long. All credit, then, to those M.P.s whose expenses claims have been modest in the extreme or who have not claimed at all. Some people still believe in the ideal of public service. At least now we know who they are and can honour them for the example they give.

Feeble Twitters

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-13T05:49:08+01:00

"Looking as white as a wimple" has taken on a new meaning as the community struggles to recover from a malady which struck with great swiftness at the week-end (after mushroom pasta, so we're not infectious, just a little wan). Feeble twitters are all we can manage. This fact seems to have impressed Digitalnun who chose yesterday to sign us up for a Twitter account and says she'll be adding a Twitter stream to the web site "in due course". Meanwhile, the monastery is putting its telephone off the hook and adopting an eremitical lifestyle for the duration. Enjoy the silence while it lasts . . .

Mark's Gospel and the Mary Rose

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-11T05:50:59+01:00

There is a phrase in today's gospel (Mk 10. 17-30) which lies at the heart of every vocation: "Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him." It can be hard to bear another's gaze, especially "the beams of love". When we are not very happy about something we've done or feel uncertain about the reception we'll meet, we can be reluctant to meet someone's eyes. After eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve fled the Lord God in the Garden of Eden and we've been doing the same ever since. It's only when the Lord Jesus looks at us, long and steadily, that things are put right, that we recognize shame for what it is, a barrier we erect, and can open ourselves to grace. In the Old Testament God is sometimes likened to the refiner sitting by the fire, watching closely the process of purification. It can be painful as the dross is burned off, but the result is beautiful. I often wonder about that young man in the gospel. He went away sad, but did he experience a change of heart, remember the look the Lord gave him, and let go of his wealth in order to find his true treasure in Jesus? We don't know.

And the connection with the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's favourite ship, which went down in 1545 with the loss of 400 lives? Today is the anniversary of its being raised from the Solent in 1982. An examination of the teeth of some of the sailors whose bodies were recovered with the vessel revealed that many of them were Spanish, probably press-ganged into service after the wreck of their own ships in Cornwall six months earlier. One theory why the Mary Rose went down is that the crew had an imperfect command of English and did not understand what they were being asked to do to avoid being run down by the French. It takes time to learn a new language. As with the crew of the Mary Rose so with us, if we are not to make shipwreck of our lives, we need to tune into another language, the language of the Gospel. There is, however, an important difference. We have the assurance that the Lord has first looked at us and loved us — as we are, not as we might be. We are safe in his hands. (Podcast tomorrow, all being well.)

The Fun of Being Fickle

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-10T06:04:16+01:00

Well, well, well. President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize (because he is not President Bush?); Archbishop Williams gives a thoughtful exposition of Christian concerns about the war in Iraq and is rounded on (because he is not warlike enough?); Silvio Berlusconi announces that he is the most persecuted man in history and the world laughs because the notion is so preposterous. The media are having fun. They barrack Barack for "not having done anything yet to merit his prize" and pontificate about the archbishop's "lack of patriotism". True, Obama was only ten days into his presidency when nominations for the Nobel Prize closed, so the award can only have been made on the basis of hope/promise rather than achievement. True, Rowan Williams has a difficult role vis-à-vis the Establishment, but most of those kicking up a fuss will not have troubled to read the text of his sermon — or seen much of life in Iraq or Afghanistan. Only about Berlusconi can we all agree. When we have stopped shaking our heads/smiling over yesterday's headlines, we are left wondering what our own attitudes are, not just to big questions like war and peace and international order but also to "smaller" ones like our expectations of public figures and the lives they lead. Instant communications mean that we can know more, more quickly, than at any time in history; but we rarely have time to digest and reflect adequately (Colophon is guilty here, too). Opinions — even our own — can change overnight. It is fun being fickle, but not always wise or fair.

Psalms of the Passion

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-09T05:57:56+01:00

We pray the whole psalter every week, which means that on Fridays we sing the great sequence of Passion psalms, including some of those the Roman Office currently thinks unseemly on the lips of Christians. Nuns take a robust view of these things on the grounds that Christ is the true singer of the psalms and we want our prayer to be one with his. So, today we shall be cheerfully uttering such lines as "Break the teeth in their mouths!" while St Benedict will be exhorting us to "speak gently and without mockery, humbly and seriously, in a few well-chosen words, and without raising your voice" (see RB 7. 60–61). The irony will not be lost on the community. We can and must control what we say and the way in which we say it because, as Colophon has remarked several times in recent weeks, words affect others, often more deeply than we realise; but the thoughts and emotions of the heart are more troublesome, less subject to reason and control. That is precisely why we need to bring EVERYTHING to prayer, not just the bits of ourselves we think "acceptable" or "good". When I pray the vengeful lines of the psalms, I'm uncomfortably aware of all the unforgiveness in my own heart, the half-acknowledged desire to pay back hurt for hurt. It isn't very nice, anymore than the psalmist's thirst for revenge; but there is only one way of allowing the grace of Christ into areas of sin and darkness, and that is by praying. Here is a suggestion: pray Psalm 21 with Christ on the Cross, then follow it up with Psalms 108 and 34 (numbering as in liturgical psalters). If that doesn't bring you to your knees or your senses, try praying them every Friday. Conversion is the work of a lifetime.

St Cecilia's Guild: Catalogue Posted

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-08T11:52:46+01:00

We've done a little more web "housekeeping" today. As some of you will be aware, we had to change the email address for St Cecilia's Guild because we were getting so much spam. You can find the new address on our Contacts page. One unintended consequence of the change is that we have been slow to put up the promised catalogue of audio books for the blind and visually impaired as so many links, both online and printed, had to be amended. However, an almost-up-to-date catalogue of the more religious titles is now available as either a PDF or Word download from St Cecilia's page. If you are visually impaired, please remember that you can set the download to read aloud to you, although we have to admit the results are not entirely satisfactory. We have it in mind to put up a catalogue in audio form alongside the electronic files.

Lepanto, Our Lady, and Life

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-07T06:00:13+01:00

Given that the Man Booker prize has gone to a historical novel (Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall) and today is the anniversary of the Holy League's most decisive defeat of Ottoman war galleys (Battle of Lepanto, 1571), in thanksgiving for which the Memoria of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted, we thought we might allow today's jottings to follow a vaguely historical and liturgical course. We were shocked out of our comfort zone, however, by a chance find on the internet. As many will be aware, flooding in southern India has caused huge problems and, like many others, we have been keen to contribute what we can to help, especially to some of the poorer Christian communities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. I was doing an internet search for a small Christian organization we know about in Tamil Nadu (where the population is predominantly Hindu) and stumbled across a Forum, hosted in Britain and featuring mainly posts from people in Britain, about Tamil Nadu. It was deeply upsetting. In the crudest possible terms Tamil Nadu Christians were attacked, their Faith vilified, and the prospect of their murder contemplated with relish. We can dismiss this kind of thing as being beneath contempt, one of the downsides of the internet being that people often express themselves with too little thought or restraint. But it set me thinking about free speech and the limits of religious tolerance.

I know that our Hindu friends would be the first to distance themselves from the sentiments expressed on the Tamil Nadu Forum. They, like me, believe that respect for others is a fundamental principle and value the tradition of free speech we enjoy in the U.K. Above all, we share the belief that life is sacred, that it comes to us as a gift and is not to be insulted or mistreated, still less bludgeoned to death.

The language of invective is, of course, a constant in history: some of the insults bandied about in eighteenth century England, for example, would make ears burn today; and many a threat may be uttered in the heat of an argument that the speaker has no intention of carrying out. But I am still left wondering how it is that words which from a Christian would be actionable are somehow tolerable when expressed by someone who is not a Christian. Don't get me wrong, I am not asking for "special treatment" for Christians here or elsewhere, nor am I suggesting that the freedoms enjoyed by any religion should be curtailed. It would be dishonest not to admit that inequalities can be very striking — Christians in Saudi Arabia do not enjoy the freedoms that Muslims enjoy in Rome, for instance — but we have a duty to try to create a just and equitable society wherever we happen to live. Part of that duty must surely involve indicating the acceptable limits of the freedoms we take for granted. Words do matter: they can be a source of life or death.

Making God Laugh

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-06T05:33:56+01:00

"If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." How very true. What with power-cuts (2), telephone calls (innumerable), visitors and minor domestic emergencies, the last few days have not gone according to plan but there have been many good things, including time spent with old friends, a lovely quiet monastic Mass yesterday morning and a completely unexpected but utterly thrilling "owl concert" last night. Just how many were hooting at the moon, I couldn't decide, but it sounded like every owl in Oxfordshire. I wonder whether medieval saints like St Bruno, whose feast we keep today, took such things for granted or were delighted by them as we are. Chesterton once remarked that medieval writes didn't write much about green hills but sat on the green hills to write. We, by contrast, are losing many of the green hills, though we write about them often enough. Is that a manifestation of collective nostalgia or genuine ecological concern? It can be difficult to decide. Monasteries tend to be good about some aspects of conservation but eccentric, to say the least, about others e.g. I have known communities where driving miles to "recycle" a small quantity of paper (which ended up as landfill anyway) was almost an article of faith. As with our personal plans, so with our plans for the environment, we need to remember we are not in charge. That does not relieve us of responsibility, far from it, but it does give us another perspective; just as St Bruno, the founder of the Carthusians, should make us think for a few minutes at least about the place of solitude and prayer in our lives. Our spiritual environment is just as vulnerable as our physical environment. (We have decided to postpone the podcast till the week-end as the diary is slightly overloaded this week.)

Contentment

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-04T06:51:20+01:00

It is not often that the Sunday Mass readings and the daily portion of RB suggest a single theme as they do today. "Contentment" is not a word to inspire flights of oratory or deeds of derring-do. There is something undeniably domestic and vaguely middle-aged and middle-class about it. Perhaps we are inclined to dismiss contentment in this way because we have become lazy thinkers or have been seduced by the language of ambition, which urges us always to want more whether we are capable of more or not. If we look at the roots of the word "contentment", we get a better idea of what it means: not mere containment of desire (which could be rather a struggle), but the satisfaction of desire, happiness in fullest measure —tellingly, however, a happiness and satisfaction found in what is rather than in what might be. Of course we need our dreams and ambition or we'd still be running around in animal skins and grunting, but the art of being content is a skill very necessary to civilization as well as human happiness. It is tougher than it looks because it makes bigger demands than we might think. It is certainly not to be equated with complacency. We are reminded by today's gospel (Mk 10: 2-16) that marriage is more than serial monogamy, and by today's section of the Rule (RB 7.49-50) that the monk must learn to be content "with the meanest and worst of everything" if he is not to dissipate his spiritual energy. Both marriage and monasticism require whole-hearted and persevering commitment if they are to work, but it is surely no accident that a happy marriage and a happy monastery tend to shed a little welcoming glow around them. Contentment as welcome is slightly more interesting than contentment as containment. At least, I find it so. Our podcast will go up sometime later today (we had another power cut yesterday).

100 Million Bubbles

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-03T06:02:02+01:00

Champagne is, as everyone knows, a Benedictine invention. Each bottle contains 100 million bubbles, or as Dom Pérignon might have put it, 100 million stars. I find this useless fact quite entrancing as I sit with eyes like poached eggs, surrounded by piles of proofs (the Catholic Directory for England and Wales, if you must know, 964 close-set pages at the last count), ruler in one hand, red pen in the other, while "a drowsy numbness pains/ My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk". The digital revolution has not yet eliminated the need for old skills like proof-reading, but I have to admit that people of my generation are not nearly as speedy or accurate as those who went before. Indeed, one of the best proof-readers I ever knew, with a mastery of grammar, syntax and punctuation second to none, was a former compositor who left school at fourteen. He had a passion for books, printing, learning; and that transformed his life. Once we start talking about "transforming passions" of course, we are on common ground. Most of us have an interest of some kind that gives meaning and beauty to our lives, puts the fizz into our existence, so to say. For Benedictines, it is the search for God that, even at the worst of times, should make us sparkle. I must remember that as I sigh over my proofs.

The Fourth Degree Again

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-02T05:10:14+01:00

The natural disasters in Sumatra and Samoa are very much on everyone's mind, but today's section of RB (7. 35–43) is such a key text for Benedictines that a brief comment seems permissible. It has been attacked by some as encouraging passivity and even quietism among the monastic "rank and file". At times the Fourth Degree of Humilty has indeed been invoked in ways contrary to its intention, but that is the nature of things: "the devil can cite scripture to his purpose" and frequently does! What these verses do make clear, however, is the dynamic of humility. True humility is about as far away from passivity and Uriah Heep as it is possible to get. To put it another way, to be humble you need a strong will and a good sense of self. Paradoxical? Yes, of course. Benedict is here spelling out the realities of life. Humility has to be lived in imperfect circumstances. We all know how easy it is to be "holy" when there is very little to trouble or vex us and someone else does all the cooking and cleaning and we have nothing to do but consider the beauty of our souls. It is more difficult when we are tired and overworked, worried about our health or finances, grieving for someone dear to us or just plain down in the dumps; when someone is constantly niggling us; when we are subject to injustice or hate campaigns or must live under the shadow of false accusations. It is in precisely these situations that we are called to heroic virtue, to joyful endurance, "to bear and to bless". That is not passive. That is not namby-pamby Christianity. It is, like a popular soft drink, the Real Thing — and it's not for wimps.

How to Silence Nuns

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-10-01T06:45:52+01:00

They have found a way to silence nuns at last. We have no electricity from 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. so Digitalnun has been beavering away in the night hours to get today's quota of work finished and Mass will be a candlelit affair. Is this power outage a Vatican plot to rid the world of cybernuns or shall we be back tomorrow? Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

St Michael the Archangel

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-29T04:59:54+01:00

My favourite image of St Michael is copyright, so on the grounds that a mighty spirit cannot be reduced to pixels on a page, this post will leave nearly everything to your imagination.
Today's feast used to be extremely popular in the Midddle Ages. The Masses and prayers recorded in various sacramentaries testify to a rich liturgical observance, paralleled by a lively cluster of customs and traditions, from the Michaelmas goose (yummy) to Michaelmas fairs (fun) and Michaelmas rent-paying (depends whether paying or receivng, I suppose).

The old Catholic Encyclopedia neatly summarises the role of St Michael as

To fight against Satan.

To rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death.
To be the champion of God's people, the Jews in the Old Law, the Christians in the New Testament; therefore he was the patron of the Church, and of the orders of knights during the Middle Ages.
To call away from earth and bring men's souls to judgment ("signifer S. Michael repraesentet eas in lucam sanctam", Offert. Miss Defunct. "Constituit eum principem super animas suscipiendas", Antiph. off. Cf. The Shepherd of Hermas, Book III, Similitude 8, Chapter 3).

Note that the first of these is to fight against Satan. One of the worrying trends many of us have come up against is the increase in occult activity which can have devastating consequences for those involved. Some are drawn in the first instance by sheer curiosity and have no inkling that they are playing with fire. At the risk of being labelled impossibly old-fashioned and credulous by those who prefer to laugh at the idea of evil, here is the prayer of Pope Leo XIII which John Paul II asked everyone "not to forget and to recite . . . to obtain help in the battle against the forces of darkness and against the spirit if this world" (Sunday, 24 April 1994).

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host —
by the Divine Power of God —
cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
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Desire

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-28T05:59:18+01:00

"My every desire is before you", says the psalmist (Ps 37 [38]. 10); so also St Benedict in today's portion of the Rule, (RB 7. 19-23). It's a good way of examining one's conscience: where has my desire been? Yes, I know I said I was doing such and such, or my avowed motive was so and so, but in reality? What was I really seeking? Overdo the inspection of desire and motive and one ends up with what we used to call scruples — which is just as bad, in its way, as never questioning at all. I suppose the answer, as always, is balance; but that is trickier than it sounds if one thinks about it too long, just as one would never succeed in skating across ice if one concentrated too hard on the action of one's skates. So, perhaps on Monday morning we should just get on with things and trust in God. It's all most of us can manage, anyway!

Saturday Mornings

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-26T20:56:58+01:00

Saturdays are precious. In the monastery we don't usually do anything different from what we do on other week-days, but we sense the general air of relaxation that fills the village and, if we have no groups in, try to find time for a longer walk in the early morning. The Downs are empty, save for the occasional rider. The sky stretches overhead and the only sounds are natural ones, birds and small animals for the most part, with the hum and whip of the wind a constant backdrop. It's an excellent time and place for thinking and the past week has provided much to mull over. Dare we hope that President Obama's acknowledgement that nuclear warfare belongs to the past is going to resonate with the rest of the world's leaders? Or must we fear that the revelations about Iran's nuclear programme are going to cast a long shadow over the future? We are not far from Harwell, the name of which is virtually synonymous with the UK Atomic Energy Authority (although it is now also associated with a range of hi-tech research projects including those of the European Space Agency and Diamond Light Source). Looking down from the Ridgeway at the Harwell campus, one experiences a curious mix of hope and fear: hope that so much effort and ingenuity will result in great benefits, and a nagging fear that it could all go so horribly wrong. We know the men who first split the atom had reservations about the consequences. It is difficult to forget them this morning. The larks and the lapwings that so delight the Saturday morning visitor to the Downs are in decline, and it seems to be because of our careless stewardship of the earth. Folly is not only a great sin, it is dangerously easy to fall into.

The Proper Use of Speech and Silence

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-24T05:36:38+01:00

We read RB 6, On Restraint in Speech, today (you can listen to it via the Prayer Box on our Vocation page). I see we last commented on it on 24 September 2007 which is either a mark of our own restraint, or more likely, an indication of our difficulty in mastering this most necessary art. Perhaps this morning we could look at the subject from a slightly different angle which ties in with this week's podcast. If you read the Bible straight through from end to end looking at how God speaks, you get a a most wonderful sense of how creative his word is; so that by the time you reach the Prologue to John's Gospel, the presentation of Christ as the Word of God seems utterly "right". (In Hebrew dabar means both word and deed, which helps my argument; when God speaks, he also does.) Christ the Word is the ultimate expression of God's nature, his very being. That is why, for a Christian, words matter. Speech is a divine gift; so too is silence. Words come out of silence and return to silence, showing what is within the one who speaks. This is the background to what Benedict says here and elsewhere in the Rule. Notice in chapter 6 Benedict is not talking about either speech or silence as such, but the proper use of both, for which he uses the word taciturnitas, which means restraint in speech, rather than what we commonly understand by taciturnity. Throughout the Rule he indicates that there are privileged times of silence (night, for example), occasions when silence is to be preferred to speech because of the danger of dissipating recollection (when late for choir, when meeting a guest, when one has been outside the monastery and is tempted to traveller's tales, and so on), but also times when a good word is to be spoken (to encourage a wobbly brother, when one cannot meet a request, to greet someone coming to the monastery, etc.). In short, Benedict expects us to use speech and silence as the gifts they are, not thoughtlessly, not rashly. The trouble is, words tend to tumble out of our mouths before we think! Wasn't it Horace who said that "words once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again"? I wonder how much whistling I'll be doing today.

Obedience

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-22T06:07:08+01:00

We begin RB 5 On Obedience today and I'm grateful for Cyberoblate's comment on this week's podcast, because the root of the Latin word for obedience comes from the verb obaudire, to listen hard: another of those fundamental Christian dispositions. We can hope that there'll be some close listening done today when President Obama tries to get Israel and Palestine talking to each other; more listening at the UN when global warming is discussed; some listening on all sides as "the Jungle" is razed. Such big issues may make our local preoccupations look petty, but it is a mistake to think that small matters don't matter. In community we are busy about many things, like Martha, but none of them is without value or purpose. During the past couple of years a lot of effort has gone into providing guest accommodation, making the gardens more attractive and smartening up the public areas of the monastery as time and money became available. This is part of our welcome to others. Currently, we are trying to improve the oratory, which is the heart of the house, part of our welcome to God if you like. We're very grateful for some beautiful gifts promised or received recently, including a chasuble and a small monstrance, both of them from Oblates of the community. We are hoping to redecorate the oratory itself just before Christmas (Handynun is not very good at high ceilings so tends to find lots of urgent jobs at floor level when ceilings are on the menu, one wonders why) and are gradually trying to make the furnishings more dignified. If you happen to know of an unwanted faldstool or presidential chair available at a sensible price (i.e. being sold for liturgical use rather than "themed decor"), please get in touch. We don't want that lovely new chasuble to be wrecked on the chair the priest is currently using!

Birdsong

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-21T12:04:10+01:00

Suddenly the garden is full of birdsong. It has come unexpectedly, with the sunshine, and is breathtaking in its intensity, as though the birds had forgotten how to sing and are now flinging their rapture heavenwards in a new-found ecstasy of delight. What a contrast with the way we all fell apart during the Kyrie at Mass this morning! Why is it that it is always when the most musical monks come over from Douai to say Mass for us that we waver and quaver? Must have something to do with the humility yesterday's blog was about. This week's podcast makes no great claims for originality but it may spark a thought or two in you. (The hiss is temporary, we hope.)

Back to Earth (+ or - Bump)

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-20T06:09:31+01:00

Well, yesterday was very nice. We had friends here for the day and several people emailed or telephoned to congratulate us on the web award (Church Mouse, we forgive you for describing us as "three elderly nuns": two of us are comfortably under 60 which is the earliest we'd allow for "elderly", but perhaps sensitivity on the subject proves you're right. Sigh.) Today it is back to normal. "Normal" is worth valuing. It is daily bread, daily routine, "the little, nameless, unremembered acts/ of kindness and of love" that make up everyday life in family and community. One of the great strengths of Benedictine "normal" is the liturgy: the slow unfolding through the day of the psalms and scriptures that focus us on the mystery of God. It is a work of constant recall, of ebb and flow. Today's gospel (MK 9.30-37) reminds us that humility is, or should be, the "normal" disposition of the Christian: an openness to the truth about God, ourselves and others that frees us from many of the false values that create stress and strain. It doesn't mean that life will be any easier. In fact, it is likely to mean that we'll have to put up with misunderstandings, scorn, derision, all kinds of things that can hurt dreadfully; but we'll be grounded in God, which is the safest of all places to be. Whenever we accept his "little children" into our lives – the apparently unimportant, demanding, difficult, or messy circumstances of our existence – then we have the opportunity of welcoming Him too. That's not bad for "normal", is it? (We'll podcast this evening, all being well, and you can comment, as always, by scrolling down and waiting a brief eternity for the comment box to load.)

People's Choice Award 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-19T19:56:41+01:00

Why should we have quoted "Not to hug good things to oneself" as the clue to this morning's announcement? Take a second look at that photo in the Marginalia box on the first page. Yes, incredible though it seems to us (and probably to you, too), our monastery web site has been awarded The Original Christian Web and New Media Awards People's Choice Award for 2009. We are still trying to digest the fact that our home-grown site should have won the popular vote. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter if you don't have much money or expertise, the important thing is to try. (Digitalnun can be very trying. Ed.)

Premier Christian Media pioneered the concept of recognising and rewarding Christian bloggers and web site designers in the UK in 2007. Since then, the awards have continued to grow, reflecting the increasing range of Christian achievements in technology. You can read more about the various award categories and winners at http://www.christianblogawards.com/. You'll be as impressed as we were by the other entrants, whose sites really deserve a good look. We weren't at the award ceremony in St Stephen's Walbrook last night but were asked to make a short video of our acceptance speech. It had to be made on Tuesday morning, when the sun refused to shine. Happily, Oblate Mary was with us for a Quiet Day, bore cheerfully with the sound of nuns clambering up and down stairs looking for enough light to shoot a frame or two, and smilingly agreed to be filmed herself. You can view the rather shaky result below. Our best thanks to Premier and all who voted for us. Now we really must get on with that site make-over, get the blog comments working as they should and allow Internet Explorer users equal access to all features! The comment box will load after the video: please be patient as it will take a while.

Elementary, my dear Watson

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-18T06:02:49+01:00

Began the morning musing haphazardly on bankers' bonuses, missile shields, guests expected this week-end and the to-do list (which seems to get longer and longer!), so decided to get a perspective by reading today's portion of the Rule before doing anything else. I'm glad I did. Read or listen to RB 4. 1-21 and you have a "back to basics" programme without the unfortunate associations of the Majorite one. I've always been encouraged by the fact that Benedict regards the possibility of murder in the monastery a real one. I don't know how often I've come close to being finished off myself, but I have surely been tempted once or twice to terminate the existence of the brethren, in thought at least. Theft? Thomas Merton regarded wasting time as a sin against poverty, so I plead guilty to that, too. It all begins to get quite uncomfortable when one moves on to honouring everyone (v. 8) and not doing to others what one wouldn't want done to oneself (v. 9), because unless one is a saint, which most of us are far from being most of the time, these trip one up at every turn.

The next section is positively deadly, it's all so demanding. Renounce oneself to follow Christ (v. 10)? That is the work of a lifetime, which may explain why monks and nuns seem to live so long (though the late Fr John Macauley attributed it to three meals a day and someone to look after you when you go ga-ga). Not to hug good things to oneself (v.12)? Ouch, easy to say, not always easy to do. Delight in fasting (v. 13)? Well, we'll see how that goes down today as the winter fast begins. Corporal works of mercy abound: there are many ways of relieving the poor and comforting others, though I hope I won't be called upon to bury the dead (v. 17). But perhaps I may be called upon to help someone lay to rest a quarrel from the past or free themselves from some bad memory, that would certainly be burying the dead. Finally, Benedict goes to the heart of the matter: prefer nothing to the love of Christ (v. 21). Yes, that is elementary, but in the sense of being a basic building-block of human life. It puts the distractions with which I began the day into some sort of order. I shall still be thinking about those things, but hopefully rather than with an interior grumble or two.

Today we end with a little tease. Tomorrow's blog may contain an announcement that will surprise you . . . Think RB 4.12. Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

St Thérèse Relics

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-17T06:17:36+01:00

Yesterday our diocese welcomed the Relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux with a series of special liturgies and an all-night Vigil at Portsmouth Cathedral. Today the relics will begin their progress around the country where similar events will be held. Veilpress has been busy with the printing requirements for these celebrations, not only in our own diocese but elsewhere, especially among Carmelite communities. It has made me think yet again about St Thérèse herself. I have to admit that although I admire her and recognize that Thérèse was a true saint, with a steely interior inside all the sentimental twaddle with which others tried to surround her, she does not speak to me as eloquently or powerfully as some others do. I suppose it all comes down to a matter of taste. Some like their religion a bit abstract, others prefer something warmer and more "human"; some like a Latin slant, others prefer a more Northern cast; some are drawn to ritual, others to a Quaker plainness and sobriety. Many English Benedictines (by which I mean English people who happen to be Benedictine) are reserved about religious experience and sometimes manifest discomfort in the presence of relics (having lived in Spain, I have no such problems myself), but there are others for whom the visit of the relics of St Thérèse will be a spiritual highpoint. I am reminded that in "Religio Medici", the wise Sir Thomas Browne remarked that, while a true Protestant, he loved to use the service of his hat and knee in the practice of his religion. Most of us need external forms more than we care to admit. There will be a lot of prayer and a lot of sacrifice accompanying the progress of the relics. I have no doubt that so much prayer will effect transformations as yet undreamed of. So, I too have no difficulty in saying, St Thérèse, pray for us! Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Consultation not Consensus

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-16T05:21:20+01:00

It is no accident that St Benedict follows his lengthy treatment of the abbot with a chapter on the role of the brethren in giving counsel. Today and tomorrow we shall trace the outlines of his thought, and depending on our age and which side of bed we got out of, we'll probably flatter ourselves that Benedict agrees with our view of the subject. O dangerous complacency! Mistress Shallow, look again! Benedict was not a democrat, nor was he a champion of youth over and against the middle-aged and elderly. He was, however, remarkably clear-eyed about the needs of a community and sensitive to the way in which the Holy Spirit tends to whisper rather than shout. The abbot cannot abdicate responsibility to the community but must listen to everyone, even (especially) those held in least regard. Wisdom is often found where least expected, as every superior can attest. Of particular interest in the passage we read today (RB 3. 1-6) are the guidelines Benedict gives for the way in which counsel is to be sought and given. What we are to aim at is a process, consultation, not a specific result, consensus. That is why courtesy and charity are essential. If we disagree, then we must learn to disagree agreeably. I do not need to remind the community that respect for others must flow over into respect for what they say. We must listen to what is being said (which may not be what we think is being said) and that requires effort and attention our part. Let us resolve to try to become better listeners to each other, in the hope that in so doing we may become more attentive to the Holy Spirit. As St Benedict reminds us in the Prologue, we need to bend close the ears of our heart if we are to hear the voice of God which cries out to us every day. Let us not forget that, sadly, becoming harder of hearing can afflict us as we grow older . . . Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-15T05:46:41+01:00

A single candle stands beside the processional cross today, a reminder of Mary's steadfastness beside her Son. It can lead to quite a lot of heart-searching, for most of us are aware that we are much less dependable than she, despite all our good intentions. Perhaps it is those very good intentions that sometimes make us so unreliable. As St Paul remarks, we want to do what is right but perversely end up doing the very thing we don't want to do. The experience can be crushing so we end up deciding not to try at all. That is doing the devil's work for him! Let's look again at that solitary candle. The flame flickers: it wouldn't take much to extinguish it; but it goes on burning and it illumines a surprisingly large area around itself, especially when the shadows lengthen. It won't do to press the analogy too far, but we can take it as an encouragement. Trying to live with integrity, being faithful to prayer and to the Gospel, doing what we can to be of service to those around us and fulfilling the duties of every day may not sound very heroic, but it does require heroism of a kind. Mary stood beside her dying Son because she had watched over him every moment of his life. That daily fidelity enabled her to go on being faithful when fear might have constrained her to act otherwise. We are called to the same kind of constancy, innnumerable little acts of heroism that might, just might, one day make us holy. Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Exaltation of the Cross

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-14T06:49:50+01:00

Today we celebrate the Exaltation or Triumph of the Cross. We can become over-familiar with the image of the Cross, especially when it is trivilialised as a clothing accessory; but it still has power to shock. Why else would Socialist Governments in Spain and South America be so keen to remove crosses and crucifixes from schools and public buildings? Here in the monastery our processional cross will be adorned with bay leaves as a sign of victory. Flowers and candles will surround its base and it will provide a strong visual focus for our worship in choir, a beautiful yet brutal reminder of all that God has done for us. This is a day for rereading "The Dream of the Rood" or John Donne's "Good Friday, riding westwards"; a day for making a little silence in the midst of Monday's clamour. Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Ride and Stride

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-12T06:47:13+01:00

This might be called Heritage Saturday. No only is the National Trust opening up many of its properties and sites free to visitors today but all over the country people will be walking, riding and cycling from church to church in order to raise money for the Historic Churches Fund. In this corner of England we have not only several very fine medieval parish churches but also a unique collection of Recusant chapels at East Hendred, Mapledurham, Milton and Stonor. Here there are currently three churches/chapels to visit, and next year we'll probably add the monastery oratory to the list so that we can offer weary travellers a wayfarer's dole — not bread and beer as at St Cross, Winchester, but a glass of elderflower wine and a homemade biscuit. Surrounded by so much that we have inherited from the past, we can be tempted to take it all for granted. It can be sobering, therefore, when we encounter ignorance and indifference even among people we might reasonably expect to be "culturally literate." Visitors to our churches are sometimes puzzled by what they see because the bible is no longer a familiar book; others seem to have lost any sense of the sacred. On Wednesday two of us were guests of the Midland Catholic History Society on a visit to "Catholic Winchester". We had a wonderful time, with Mass at Winchester College, visits to the cathedral and St Peter's, and a walk between sites, including the temporary home of the Benedictine nuns who later settled at East Bergholt and Haslemere (sadly they are no more). What distressed us was learning of the amount of vandalism that had taken place in the cathedral as recently as the Sunday before, when carvings were stolen from the Lady Chapel. Such a theft diminishes our heritage; it is also sacrilege. Let us hope that as visitors explore the beauty of our historic churches today, they will also be touched by a sense of the numinous. A church is a holy place, a dwelling of the Most High. May it also be, as George Herbert said of prayer, "something understood".

Anniversaries

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-11T05:53:48+01:00

Today many people will be recalling the attack on the WTC and the terrible loss of life that followed both then and in all the years since. There will be great sadness, probably some anger and bitterness, hopefully also forgiveness and a determination not to let death and violence be the distinguishing mark of this century. It is easy for Christians to sound detached from the pain and bafflement of others. We follow a Master who forgave even as he hung upon the Cross, and whenever we fail to live up to our calling (which is often, as we know only too well), we are condemned as hypocrites or worse. The anniversary of 9/11 is another opportunity to reflect on the way in which we respond to the political realities of our time. Take the case of Iran. Few in the west are comfortable with the idea of Iran having a nuclear technology capable of producing a bomb, but for the nuclear empowered nations of the west to tell Iran it should halt its current programme leads us onto questionable ground. At the moment we seem to be preoccupied with the economy and the situation in Afghanistan. Iraq has slipped from view; and as for the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sudan, for example, we barely register their existence. At the risk of sounding preachy, it would be a good idea to spend a few minutes today asking the Holy Spirit for the gift of wisdom and right judgement. The beautiful prayer of consecration in the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity ascribed to Pope Leo expressly asks "through the gift of your Spirit, Lord, give her . . . right judgement, kindness with true wisdom." Kindness is not the least important element of that mix.

Birthday of the B.V.M.

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-08T06:26:28+01:00

The Church celebrates only three birthdays: those of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist. The Birthday of our Lady, which we celebrate today, is a lovely feast, full of light and joy. In the East, it is one of the twelve so-called Great Liturgies. The earliest sermon for the feast is by St Andrew of Crete (though my favourite is by St Bernard) and the day was once marked by a special procession or litania from the Forum in Rome to Sta Maria Maggiore. In England look out for the autumn crocus, the popular name for which, "Naked Lady", is a reference to Mary.

Digitalnun apologizes for her hasty condemnation of JS-Kit's commenting apparatus. A little research last night indicated that the main reason the blog page is not appearing correctly on all screens is because the dreaded Windows Internet Explorer is causing some of the code to scramble (sigh). The page actually appears better in some earlier versions of IE than the current one, so this is another problem that will have to be worked on. In the meantime, we recommend the use of Firefox which is a very fast, stable, cross-platform browser. By way of compensation, we are reintroducing the commenting option, but you'll have to scroll down the page to do so. The good news is that in October the site is to have a makeover, with some new content to look forward to and possibly a whole new look . . .

A Kitchen Makeover

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-07T13:42:44+01:00

The prioress usually contrives to mark our foundation day in some way and this year was no exception. When we went into the oratory on Sunday morning we saw that the old "book rests" we have been using for the past five years had been replaced by some waxed pine "reading desks" with space for folders and books underneath. They are very simple and workmanlike, and they come with the promise of being replaced by stalls when we are in the happy position of being able to do so. For now they are a big improvement on what went before.

The major change, of course, is in the kitchen. We usually try to redecorate most of it on a regular basis to keep the mould at bay, but for various reasons haven't been able to do so for the last couple of years. A number of fixtures and fittings were also beginning to look the worse for wear, so on Bank Holiday Monday we girded our loins and the makeover began. Had we videoed the process, we might have marketed it as a comedy!

Any Victorian house without a damp course is likely to have fungal problems, but the collapse of the doors on the kitchen units did not enhance the general appearance of the room. (And no, we had not been swinging from them.) We called in Chris Castle to help us with the eradication of the mould and putting a damp sealant on the walls. Initially, everything looked worse than ever. The dingy green bits looked quite striking against the dingy "white" bits!

Handynun wisely decided to leave cupboards and seals to the expert (Chris) and busied herself with more accessible problems; but one thing leads to another . . . and in places six coats of paint. However, the effort was worth it. The kitchen is lighter and brighter, and as the photos below show, it should be easier for us to maintain a more monastic atmosphere.

We are especially pleased that the gap round the window has at last been sealed and hope it will make the kitchen warmer in winter. Our grateful thanks to those whose generosity made it possible for us to undertake this, and to Chris who remained resolutely cheerful throughout ("mould can't hurt you" was his mantra).

There are a few finishing-off jobs to do, but essentially the kitchen is DONE (for now). It is no accident that this week's podcast also takes an "active" approach to Christian living. (The commenting option will be restored as soon as possible. If you have difficulty reading this post, please let us know.)

Foundation Anniversary 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-06T05:29:15+01:00

Sunday, 6 September marks the fifth anniversary of the canonical erection of our community, in other words our foundation day. We have so much to thank God for, not least our survival in the face of quite daunting odds. It helps, of course, that although a new community, we have a long monastic tradition and experience to draw on so have been able to avoid some pitfalls (while blithely stepping into others, no doubt!). The financial precariousness of our origins have proved a blessing. We have a sense of building the monastery little by little. The involvement of friends and oblates in this process has been a powerful reminder of God's Providence and a joy in itself. There have been times when things have been "difficult" or our critics have tried to undermine us, but on each occasion the community has received help, often from unexpected quarters, and emerged a little stronger, a little more confident in God's purpose. We hope that during the next five years some at least of those who have been drawn to our community will take the step of actually entering; but we know that we must wait upon God's time, which cannot be rushed. As we have often said, we cannot offer the kind of security some look for in religious life (though what greater security can there be than God himself?) and must learn to be patient, which is often spoken of as the fourth Benedictine vow. Please pray for us and for our larger community of associates, oblates and friends, all of whom have a special place in our hearts. We'll update you on Monday with news of our celebrations, a podcast and a few photos. Today we have two Masses, a full day of Divine Office and a rather grander dinner than usual to enjoy! Oh, and following Barbara's comment (see entry below and Digitalnun's reply) we are temporarily withdrawing the commenting option as the problems are all apparently linked to the commenting engine we are using.

An Anglican Evening

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-05T05:06:51+01:00

Yesterday attended the Institution and Induction of the Revd Elizabeth Birch as Rector of East Hendred and the other parishes which make up Wantage Downs Benefice. It was, as one would expect, gracefully and generously organized and we were made to feel very welcome. As a lapsed medievalist, I was fascinated to see enacted many of the rituals which the Catholic Church of our day has dispensed with and could not help reflecting how much poorer we are as a result. Both priest and people could be given a much richer sense of what they are about, the rights and responsibilities of being the Church here in this particular part of the world. Instead we simply wake up one Sunday to find a new face at the altar and a brief introduction beginning "I am Fr X, your new ParishPriest/Priest in Charge/Administrator of this Parish" (delete as appropriate). While silently noting the ancient custom of placing the Rector's hand on the church door, the handing over of keys and ringing the church bell, etc, what most impressed me was the solemn reminder that a priest must be, first and foremost, a person of prayer, one who studies the scriptures and celebrates the sacraments. Perhaps too many of us in the Catholic Church encounter our priests only as celebrants of the sacraments or, worse still, administrators who sign our certificates and look after things we never think about. We conveniently forget that we must support our priests in their quest for holiness, encouraging (allowing?) them to take time for prayer and study. During this Year of the Priest we might consider what we can do to translate good intentions into action. In the meantime, let us be grateful that God calls so many to his service. Indeed, looking at the number of clergy, religious and lay people assembled in the parish church last night, I couldn't help thinking that East Hendred should be a village of saints. I rather think, however, we are a community of sinners . . . who keep on trying. Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

St Gregory, War and the U.S.A.

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-03T06:11:47+01:00

Today we remember St Gregory the Great, Apostle of England, and one of the most creative popes ever to occupy the chair of St Peter. There are plenty of sites where you can read a resumé of his activities, listen to some of the chant that bears his name or read some of the magnificent prayers with which he graced the liturgy. If you are a Benedictine, you will, of course, treasure his regard for St Benedict.

The Catholic Culture Library contains all Gregory's writings in English translation. King Alfred the Great wanted all the English clergy to read "The Pastoral Care". Get a taste of Gregory here: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/ (link opens in new window).

This morning, however, I was thinking about two other anniversaries and pondering a connection with St Gregory that probably only exists in my mind. Today marks the anniversary of Britain's entry into the Second World War in 1939. The role of the papacy during that war continues to be debated. During the Lombard invasions of Italy, Gregory not only tried diplomacy to avert the worst horrors but emptied the papal treasury to help persecuted Jews, making him "the Father of the City [Rome], the joy of the world". Also on this day, but rather earlier, England accepted the independence of the United States of America. Gregory was very pragmatic man, and although the history of his dealings with the East is not "straightforward", he did much to ensure that Italy accepted the political realities of the day. In fact, the more I think about it, there was something very English about St Gregory. Perhaps that is why the English admire him so much. (The illustration is a tenth century ivory now in Vienna, showing St Gregory writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit — perched as a dove on his shoulder — with three monk scribes toiling underneath.) Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Early Morning

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-02T05:20:29+01:00

Up betimes this morning (which seems appropriate, given the reading from RB Prol. 8–20 today) and therefore able to have an hour before the Blessed Sacrament before anyone else began to stir. Such quiet times are very precious. The oratory is dark and shadowy, illumined only by the glow of the sanctuary lamp which throws little spills of light on the great cross and tabernacle. The fragrance of the last of the sweet peas hangs incense-like in the air. Muted sounds drift in from outside: the occasional bark of deer or fox, an owl perhaps, and as dawn begins to lighten the sky, the heron flies overhead "on creaking wing". One of the concomitants, so to say, of the cloistered life is that it gives one an intense sense of place: one tends to notice every little change or development, from the gradual uncurling of a leaf to the slow spreading of lichen and moss. I imagine that is how many of our forefathers experienced life in their villages and hamlets. For some that was enough for a happy and fulfilling life; others it propelled into going further afield, always seeking, seeking. Both stay-at-homes and adventurers are necessary for the health of society. That is true whether the society under consideration is Church or State. The paradox is, of course, that the contemplative, bound to his/her little place on this earth with a stability others sometimes wonder at, must make the longest and most adventurous journey of all: the journey into the depths of God. Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads as Digitalnun has not yet addressed the Echo problem. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Slightly Mad?

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-09-01T05:51:26+01:00

Although St Bank does not feature in the monastic Ordo, the prospect of a Monday without visitors led to some whirlwind activity by the community over the week-end. Yes, at long last, we are doing our best to eliminate the latest crop of mould in the kitchen and preparing to redecorate. Hence our cyber-silence and the absence of a podcast this week. "Before" and "after" photos will be posted with a health warning for those of squeamish disposition. More seriously, 1 September is a day of sad anniversaries. We think of the beginning of the Second World War and the millions of people who died so tragically or whose lives were wrecked as a result. We think of the schoolchildren who died at Beslan. As we go about our daily round, perhaps with a little grumble or two about the cheerless Bank holiday weather, let us remember how much we have to be grateful for, and pray for those who struggle with difficulties we have never experienced. Prayer, like peace, achieves victories beyond the compass of war and action. Scroll down to comment and please be patient while the comment box loads. You can edit the "Guest" tag to use your own name or nickname.

Beheading of John the Baptist

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-29T05:52:56+01:00

Orthodox Christians keep the Martyrdom of St John the Baptist as a strict fast — no meat, wine, oil, fish or dairy — as a reminder that our lives should be different from those of Herod whose luxury and self-indulgence led him into sin. Some will not use plates today (because the Baptist's head was presented to Salome on a platter), and it is quite common to serve food that does not need a knife to cut it (because John's head was cut off with a sword). I daresay some people will smile as they read this; others will perhaps stop to think. When we live in a world that really understands sign and symbol such usages are more than just pious practices. They become a means of entering more fully into the celebration of the liturgy and so of the Mystery celebrated. In the west we have tended to concentrate on words, and as our respect for words has diminished (along with our grasp of meaning, grammar, syntax etc.) so our understanding of the liturgy has become impoverished, too. We are all eager to know exactly what form revisions to the Missal will take (leaked versions have been circulating for some time but until we see the definitive version, it is idle to speculate what will/will not be authorized for use in England) and are hopeful that we shall have something rather better than we have had in recent years. That is not to knock the current Ordo Missae which has its strengths as well as its weaknesses. Hope, it is worth recalling, is one of the three theological virtues, although sometimes in practice rather a cinderella virtue. It is also, with humility, pre-eminently the virtue of today's great saint. Scroll down to comment.

An African Bishop

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-28T05:52:42+01:00

A lot of blogs will contain comments on St Augustine today, so there is really no need for us to add to their number; but there is a question that has nagged at me since my student days. Did Augustine's development of the doctrine of original sin precede or proceed from his adoption of infant baptism? I suspect it could be argued either way. (And no, it is not my intention to initiate a debate on the question which would require a rather more scholarly apparatus than Colophon can provide.)

To move from the sublime-ish to the more mundane. The community has recently bought some new chasubles for use in the oratory. (This is instead of the new freezer we had been promising ourselves for the past year: good to see that even nuns believe in the jar of nard, isn't it?) Those who know our vestments will agree that Fr Bruno set a very high standard of design and finish in the chasubles he made for us but unfortunately they do not include all the colours needed for the liturgical year. Most of the commercial offerings we looked at were either hideous or expensive or both, and we felt we could not afford to commission anyone in Britain to make a vestment to order. Then we received a timely gift from a Friend and discovered a vestment maker in India who has produced three chasubles for us, including a gold one for solemnities. They are in the semi-Roman style currently favoured by Pope Benedict XVI, which means they hang beautifully, and have matching burses and chalice veils. They are not as stylish as Fr Bruno's, but they are dignified and serviceable. Next on the wish-list will be a black chasuble for 2 November and a small monstrance for Adoration. Is there no end to this amassing of ecclesiastical treasure?! Most communities, of course, start with the basic liturgical necessities already provided. We are building ours up little by little, and one of the lovely things about doing so is that nearly every item has a name and personal association attached to it. Something for our successors to cherish. Scroll down to comment as Digitalnun is prohibited from tampering until she has solved the problem with the white space.

One in Six

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-27T08:54:51+01:00

We learned yesterday that one in six British households does not have an adult in work. That is a sobering statistic. We can say, weakly, that it is "better" than the situation in Spain or other parts of the European Community, but to do so is to hide from the reality behind the figures. Britain is a rich country but there are still too many people living in poverty. Low morale and poor self-esteem are not theoretical constructs but the daily experience of many and should be a source of shame to those of us who enjoy rather different circumstances. If we look to the Church for leadership, we can assert that Catholic social teaching, as developed over the past century, gives some very clear and unequivocal guidance, although the application of its principles remains as difficult as ever. If we look across the Atlantic and consider the position of the American bishops vis-à-vis Obama's healthcare proposals, we can see just how difficult. Some have condemned the bishops for apparently being prepared to derail the proposals on the issue of abortion; others have rejoiced that the bishops have been prepared to uphold traditional teaching on the matter. Those of us who are not directly involved have a double duty. First, to pray for guidance and right judgement for those who have to make decisions that ultimately affect us all; secondly, to inform ourselves adequately. No Benedictine, no Christian, can omit the latter simply because he/she is diligent in prayer. It is part of being human, of our dignity and responsibility as children of God. (Domestic news: D. Teresa returns from hospital today. The surgery has been pronounced a success D.G. so no further bulletins will be issued.) Scroll down to comment.

Doing the Impossible: RB 68

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-26T07:55:59+01:00

A very thought-provoking chapter of RB to grapple with today. Who doesn't feel that he or she is being asked to do the impossible from time to time? There's a great deal of common sense in this chapter, along with a clearly enunciated spiritual ideal. Yes, accept a duty or obligation with gentleness and without argumentativeness; but if one can see that one is unequal to the task, acknowledge the fact, again with gentleness, and at an appropriate time. Often it is choosing the right moment that proves so difficult, or one feels awkward and therefore speaks awkwardly, too. It is a case of mutual give and take, of respect and realism on all sides. We can't avoid being stretched, but we can avoid making life unbearable for everyone. (Today's experiment is with a new form of blog archive tool which should reduce the length of the column on the left. We'll see. All three Trinity 2009 Lectures are now available as part of the "listen again" feature on our Talks page.) Scroll down to comment.

Digital Update

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-25T05:52:53+01:00

Perhaps we should have entitled this "The Vanishing Comments". Digitalnun is eating vast quantities of humble pie at the moment as she has encountered a problem she has conspicuously failed to solve. In an effort to reduce the unsightly space between the blog post and the box where you can respond/argue/contradict or what you will, she has been tweaking various bits of code. One unintended consequence is that all previous comments have now been consigned to cyber oblivion (until she recovers them, as she'd better!). We have extracted a promise from her that she will confine her experimenting to a test site and not touch this one until she is reasonably sure that her latest "solution" will actually work. As she is notoriously optimistic about the workarounds suggested by fellow cyber slaves, extracting this promise has involved threatening to set Duncan on her to tear her limb from limb/unplugging the computer/making her work on a Windows machine. The latter has brought her to her senses, at least for now. Please bear with us while we bear with her. Scroll down to comment.

Ring of Fire

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-24T06:34:19+01:00

In recent years we have become accustomed to hearing of terrible fires raging throughout different parts of the world but there is something especially poignant about the fires now threatening Athens. Last night we heard that Marathon was ringed with fire. While we pray above all for those whose lives are in danger, and for the ecological disaster that is unfolding, there is also is also a regret, a sadness, that sites of such antiquity and importance should succumb to flames. There is a magic in the very names. There is magic in the name of St Bartholomew (Nathanael), too, whose feast we keep today. He was hailed by the Lord Jesus as "an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile." What a wonderful thing to be, innocent of all guile! That's certainly worth pondering as we munch our gingerbread, one of the foods traditionally associated with St Bartholomew. Late-breaking news. Digitalnun is one of the participants in A Small Business, on Radio 4 at 4.02p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday 25 August. Scroll down to comment.

Summer's Lease

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-23T18:06:29+01:00

The garden is beginning to look a trifle ragged; the lambs are almost as big as their mothers; and there are golden glints among the leaves. Clearly, summer is about to turn into autumn, and over the next few weeks we shall notice chills and mists we haven't experienced for months. So, today has been a day for enjoying the sunshine and delighting in all the sounds and scents of summer. The podcast comes a little late in the day but was recorded as dawn showed pink in the sky, so be gentle with it and its sleepy-headed maker! Scroll down to comment.

Difficult Decisions

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-22T07:12:30+01:00

The release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was bound to create a furore so it is no surprise to see how quickly the British Government and others have moved to distance themselves from the decision. The full facts will probably never be known, but the cynical will speculate whether there was some covert agreement on the part of the U.S.A. since the prospect of sharing in Libya's natural resources is so tempting to the energy-hungry countries of the west. What interests me is the way in which the arguments for and against Megrahi's release have typified differing moral stances. Christians, for example, believe in the virtues of forgiveness and compassion, which have to do with what we claim or aspire to be rather than what the person to whom we show forgiveness and compassion is or does — an important point when one considers the enormity of the charges against Megrahi. Like many people, I have some doubts about the soundness of his conviction and if it is true that he has only a few weeks to live, the decision to release him strikes me as an eloquent contradiction of everything that the Lockerbie bombing represents. But I could not help noticing that on the same day that we read of Megrahi's ecstatic welcome back to Libya we learned that seventy-three African refugees had died of starvation and thirst after being adrift for over three weeks on the open sea. They had been passed by a number of vessels, none of which had offered any help. For me, the knowledge of those deaths is harder to bear than the thought of Megrahi's release. If someone is hungry or thirsty, even if he is my sworn enemy, my duty is plain. Sadly, there is more than one way of being a murderer. Scroll down to comment.

RB 64 The Abbot: part 2

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-21T05:50:17+01:00

Today's section of RB 64 acts as an examination of conscience for anyone entrusted with any kind of authority or responsibility, not just monastic superiors. Benedict reminds the abbot that he must constantly reflect on the kind of obligation he has undertaken: service of the community must never become automatic, unthinking, because there is a danger that pride may creep in. Instead, the abbot is to be learned in the law of God and a wise steward. Note the qualities Benedict singles out: the abbot is to be chaste, sober and merciful. In other words, his emotions mustn't run away with him, there must be no self-indulgence of any kind. For the abbot there is no "off-duty" time. Benedict next considers the question of wrong-doing in community and gives the abbot some guidelines for dealing with it: kindness and mercy are the keynotes, but there is to be no weakness or collusion. The translation of verse 15 is one I have changed my mind about over the years. I think we should understand Benedict more literally, "the abbot should take pains to be more loved than feared." Yes, there should be some godly fear in our love for the abbot because he represents Christ in the monastery and is entrusted with maintaining the spiritual vigour of the community. Finally, Benedict paints a picture of the perfect superior: not moody, anxious, given to extremes, obstinate, jealous or too suspicious, never driving others too hard but always encouraging them to do better. One can see why RB has become a fashionable teaching aid for managers! Let's remember, however, that it is given to us to make us grow spiritually and to enable our communities to be places where the love of God is made tangible. If each of us takes this chapter to heart, not only the monastery but the world in which we live will be, not exactly transformed perhaps, but different from what it is now. It will have become a little more what it is called to be.Scroll down to comment.

RB 64 The Abbot: part 1

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-20T05:44:49+01:00

It may be rash to comment on RB 64, Benedict's second consideration of the role of the abbot, but anyone entrusted with the care of a community has a duty to reflect on the nature of the task; and I think there is something in this chapter for all of us because, in a sense, we must all be abbots for each other, must all take responsibility for one another and for the community.

The first sentence of today's section is challenging to the point of being troubling. The criteria for appointment of an abbot are not those of liberal western democracies. Benedict is conscious of the role of the Holy Spirit and allows, first, for methods of election that would surprise today (reread the account Jocelin of Brokeland gives of Abbot Sampson's election at Bury and you'll see the senior vel sanior pars in action) and then requires qualities which would not necessarily impress a voter: goodness of life and wisdom in teaching. Clearly, the abbot is to be so shaped and formed by the Gospel and the Rule that he becomes a living embodiment of both. As Benedict says elsewhere, the abbot is to teach by every means available to him, adapting and accommodating himself to the needs of the brethren. That is daunting and would be overwhelming were it not that we know grace is offered in accordance with our need. Whatever our personal limitations, we can trust God.

Benedict next adds a few sentences that are often overlooked. He specifically mentions the role of "the local bishop" and "neighbouring abbots and Christians" in ensuring that a community lives up to what it has professed. In other words, the kind of scrutiny we now tend to think of in connection with the Quadriennial Visitation was for Benedict much more of an ongoing scrutiny by the people among whom the community lived. That is worth thinking about in the context of our life today. Here much of our life is open to scrutiny, and we can all think of occasions when visitors and guests have made useful (and sometimes not so useful) observations. The point I want to stress, however, is that this kind of scrutiny is something we should welcome, should see as a way in which the Lord takes care of us and expresses his will for us. It is also something those we live among need to think about, too. We have responsibility for one another and we can't dodge it, however difficult or disagreeable it may seem at times.

St Bernard, whose feast we keep today, was an incomparable abbot, blessed with a charm and eloquence that the centuries have not lessened, but he was first and foremost a monk, one who sought to prefer nothing to the love of Christ. That is what people saw and admired in the early Cistercian monasteries and explains why they had such a huge impact on society. I pray that we too may be equally focused on following Christ through a life of generous fidelity. We can safely leave the outcome to him. Scroll down to comment.

Cloister Courtesies (RB 63 contd)

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-19T05:44:33+01:00

The ideal stated in the first half of RB 63 is today articulated as a series of ritual courtesies. Some people have no time for ritual or courtesy, seeing them as being empty of meaning, mere formalities. Nothing could be further from the truth. Look at the way in which Benedict introduces a mutuality into relations between senior and junior monks. The junior monks (usually younger, but not always,) are to revere those who are senior to them while the senior monks are exhorted to love those junior to them. You could put it another way. Those who have power (possessions, talents, what you will) are to treat the powerless (those who have no possessions, fewer talents) with love and concern; those who have no power are to treat those appointed to serve them (which is what authority in a monastery is about) with loving respect. Notice, too, the way in which Benedict is sensitive to how we use language to assert equality or exalt status. No one in the monastery is to use just the bare name, we give each other titles of honour such as "Brother" or "Reverend Father". Yes, it is possible to hiss the word "Sister" in a most unpleasant fashion, but on the whole the fact that everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, uses the same form of address means that even the most insecure and vulnerable shouldn't be wounded by being treated with condescension while even the grandest of grandes dames should have a check on her self-importance (self-important, moi? Never!)

At the core of this section is Benedict's consideration of the abbot. He is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery and is therefore accorded a title and a reverence given to no other; but he is reminded, in no uncertain terms, that this reverence is not for himself but for his Lord and he must act accordingly. After mention of Christ Benedict passes on to the details of blessings given and received, of giving up one's seat to another (a rather unfashionable courtesy these days) and returns to one of his favourite scriptural texts, Romans 12.10. We must outdo one another in showing honour. The courtesies of the cloister are not remote from everyday life because they are concerned with how we express our recognition of other people's dignity and worth. I wonder how many people will think of giving up their seats on the Tube this morning. It's not wimpish, it's rather beautifully Benedictine. Scroll down to comment (comment box may take a moment or two to load).

RB 63 Community Rank

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-18T05:44:32+01:00

Or as one of the community prefers to translate, Community Order. This chapter of RB repays careful study. The portion we read today must have seemed extremely radical in the sixth century: deciding community rank according to the simplest means, the order in which we came though the door, overturns any covert expectations of preferential treatment because of personal or family distinctions. Even age is no guarantee of precedence, although Benedict elsewhere indicates that the old and the young are to receive especially tender treatment. We all find humility attractive in others; required of ourselves it can be trickier. But Benedict is no egalitarian. He gives two reasons for amending the way in which community order is established: the goodness of our lives or the abbot's decision (which, as he says, must never be an arbitrary act of authority: the abbot will have to account for his judgements). What we have in this chapter is a finely nuanced attempt to remove some of the major causes of friction that can arise in any body of people. It is not those who are leaders or managers or heads of departments that we have trouble with (which is not to say we are necessarily unquestioning, but their right to lead, manage and head is generally acknowledged), it is those who are on the same level as ourselves, so to say, who are more challenging. All those little jostlings for precedence, for ensuring our opinion triumphs, are a waste of time and energy and lead to a weakening of the body as a whole. RB 63 is a good reality check on the health of our relationships at home and at work. As we shall see, mutual respect is at the heart of Benedict's teaching. Respect! Scroll down to comment.

Assumption 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-15T20:54:31+01:00

Today we celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady. Sadly, because we shall be joining the parish for Mass, we shall not be singing the Assumption Day alleluia, one of the most glorious to be found in the Gradual, but that lack notwithstanding, we shall do our best to "sing to the Lord with cheerful voice" throughout the day. The doctrine of the Assumption confuses some people who are convinced that it means that Mary did not die. On the contrary, the doctrine of the Assumption is actually all about death and the promise of Resurrection. Mary's privileged sharing in the merits of her Son did not exempt her from dying or from the necessity of being redeemed by him. In Munificentissimus Deus, promulgated on 1 November, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a dogma of the Catholic Faith. Similarly, the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium that "the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things (n. 59)." It is a hopeful doctrine, as today's vodcast makes clear. (No podcast this week, because we have given you pictures instead.) Scroll down to comment, because we still haven't cured the commenting gap!

Wimple Wrinkles

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-15T05:50:04+01:00

We have had several enquiries about monastic life this week. One of the themes common to many is "my friends think I'd make a good nun". I often wonder what that means. Many people seem to think of nuns as being essentially "other". Probe a little and you'll find that the expectations they have range from slightly naive to seriously disordered (nuns should be saintly at all times, smile sweetly, put up with the most outrageous treatment, listen patiently to bores, live on nothing, never get tired, irritable or ill, unless they can contrive to die young of consumption, float around in beautiful habits which never require any time spent on them nor hinder them in the performance of any duty, maintain a spotlessly clean and ordered house, library and garden, and above all, be always available whenever called upon by personal visit, letter, telephone or email etc, etc, etc). Here at Hendred we fail on every count, except occasionally and accidentally. Nuns are real people, as flawed as the next person, but possessed of minds, hearts and opinions which can be as dotty or deranged as anyone else's, (even yours). I think it's fair to say, however, that most know they are imperfect beings and are doing their best to live lives of genuine humility and compassion. One cannot come to choir several times a day, day in day out, without being forced to face some inconvenient truths about oneself and others. One cannot live alongside people one would never otherwise share a house with without being forced to learn a give and take that will stretch one beyond what one might think possible. The unity of a community comes from charity and shared ideals, not from similarity or personal liking. It certainly doesn't come from behaving according to some stereotype that doesn't exist outside the popular imagination. Monastic life isn't a soft option, but it is an immensely worthwhile way of spending one's life. And the emphasis in that sentence is on "spend": it is indeed a reality "costing not less than everything".

St Maximilian Kolbe

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-14T05:41:33+01:00

St Maximilian Kolbe is a controversial figure. No one disputes his valour or his heroic charity: his readiness to offer his own life for that of Franciszek Gajowniczek makes the rest of us realise how very cowardly and ungenerous we often are. But there are two problems. Not everyone is comfortable with the fact that Pope John Paul II canonised him as a martyr (i.e. one who was killed out of hatred for the Faith, which is difficult to argue in the context of Auschwitz) whereas Pope Paul VI beatified him under the title of confessor (one who defended the Faith in time of persecution, which Maximilian surely did); and there is some unease about the anti-semitic tone of some of the articles published by the Militia Immaculata which he established. The Church needs controversial figures, models of holiness not perfect in every degree, people we can argue about as well as revere; so perhaps we should welcome the fact that St Maximilian is a complex character. One of Maximilian's attractive qualities is that he chose the best and latest technology for his printing ventures. Today he would surely be at the forefront of using the internet for godly purposes. If you walk past Westminster Abbey today, look up at his statue above the West Door and ask a blessing on all who try to use the internet and associated technologies for good.

Fox and Hound

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-13T10:18:47+01:00

Another fox in the garden this morning. This one seems to find rats a tasty morsel, but we don’t mind, being fairly indifferent to both rats and pigeons. Fortunately, we haven’t any guests staying with us at the moment, so no outraged squeals of disapproval to contend with!

Today’s chapter of RB (53: On the Offering of the Children of the Nobility and the Poor) tends to elicit lots of comments from guests, usually of the questioning rather than indignant variety. The point of the chapter is surely what it says about oblates (who today are always adults). The offering of self is expressed in written form and usually takes place within the liturgical action of the Mass, being closely associated with the offering of the bread and wine which will become the Eucharist. The oblate’s chart, like the nun’s chart of profession, is placed under the corporal: a reminder that the promises we make are made to God and are identified with the sacrificial offering of his Son. Oblation is a serious step in anyone’s life, and we are lucky here at Hendred to have a body of really admirable oblates and associates drawn from various ecclesial traditions. Happily, they all seem to like the resident hound, who is totally unmoved by the presence of foxes in the monastery garden.

The blog commenting system is still causing headaches. If you experience any difficulties, please get in touch. We are currently using JS-Kit's Echo, only released on 6 August, so teething problems are not surprising.

The Glorious Twelfth

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-12T06:54:34+01:00

No doubt today will be celebrated on many a Scottish grouse moor with the popping of guns (and corks? I’ve never been on a grouse moor on 12 August: it sounds like a deadly combination). Here in the monastery it will be that most blissful of occasions, a green feria: in other words, an “ordinary day”. No special liturgical complexities, no culinary complications, hopefully not too many surprise guests (forgive the misanthropic confession, but even nuns have to see to such mundane tasks as laundry, gardening, housework, repairs and book-keeping as well as earning their living, and it isn’t always easy to give the warm-hearted welcome Benedict expects when one is conscious of needing to get a job into the post or fix something that is broken before the rain begins). Perhaps we take the holiness of the ordinary for granted and have to be surprised into fresh awareness every now and then. It is cloudy and overcast this morning but if I look out of my window at the sweet peas in the bed immediately below, I can count fourteen different colours of bloom. Magical. (We continue to experiment with the commenting system and hope to get the Facebook link working today. For those who wish to view the BBC link referred to yesterday, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00m5x70/What_to_Eat_Now_Series_2_Episode_6/ (link opens in new window).

Holy Poverty

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-11T17:10:24+01:00

Benedictines don't go in for poverty as such. The Rule exhorts us to frugality and austerity of life, which is not inconsistent with institutional splendour (think solemn liturgy, fine libraries, works of art); so not for us the glorious freedom of St Clare, whose memoria we keep today. There is something very appealing about her espousal of poverty in its strictest form. Easier to achieve in Italy than in England, perhaps, although many Poor Clares have lived out her ideals in our greyer climate and brought some southern warmth and sunshine to Church life. Our thanks to all who emailed after last night’s TV programme. We haven’t seen it yet although the producer is sending us a DVD to look at on the computer (if we get round to it). It is slightly mystifying to us why food programmes are so avidly watched. Far better, surely, to go into the kitchen and make something oneself or hoe a row of onions in the garden. Could it be that Benedictines not only lack Franciscan poverty but also something of their joie de vivre? And before anyone answers in the affirmative, please remember that a sense of humour is as important in monastic life as it is in marriage. We are to become saints ourselves, not make saints of others.

Another White Rabbit Moment

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-10T15:50:08+01:00

Yesterday we remembered Fr Baker, a great teacher of prayer, and a formative influence on the community of English nuns at Cambrai from which we trace our descent; St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, better known as Edith Stein, the Carmelite martyr whose philosophical studies led her to embrace Catholicism without rejecting her Jewish past; and, in rather more homely fashion, celebrated a community birthday with a nod towards today’s feast of St Lawrence by holding a barbecue. Duncan was quite interested in the sausages but the liturgy seems to have left him unmoved — he slept through it all quite peacefully. The struggle with the blog commenting engine continues. We have enlisted the support of others to understand why there is such a long gap between the blog post and the comments widget. In the meantime, we can only ask our readers (if there are any left) to be patient with us. This week’s podcast seems to be suffering from faintness and hisses in sympathy with the blog (turn up the volume on your set if you really want to listen). HOWEVER, we have replaced the photo of the house on the main Life and Work page with a more recent one showing the garden in bloom. And, oh yes, you can watch us looking gormless in this evening’s episode of “What to Eat Now”, BBC 2 at 8.30 p.m. We won’t see it as we are “TV free”!

Red in Tooth and Claw

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-08T14:03:00+01:00

Saw a fox on the lawn early yesterday morning. She stalked one of the pigeons, then proceeded to devour her kill, finally making off as the grey light became brighter. Foxes are messy killers, but I was glad to see that she actually ate what she had killed (I admit to having little sympathy for the pigeon which had devoured our sugar peas and much else in the garden). Living where we do, one cannot become sentimental about nature, but I must confess it was a strange start to the day. “Murder in the Monastery” sounds like the title of a bad crime novel, doesn’t it?

Transfiguration 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-06T12:29:18+01:00

Near the front entrance of the monastery we have a rose which has bloomed throughout the summer, allowing us to fill vase after vase with creamy peach rosebuds that open slowly and gloriously. According to Armenian tradition, the feast of the Transfiguration goes back to the early fourth century, when St Gregory the Illuminator substituted it for a pagan celebration of Aphrodite under the title Vartavarh (Roseflame). He kept the old name for the Christian feast because "Christ opened his glory like a rose on Thabor." I like to think of that whenever I look at our rose. I also like to think of the monks of Cluny who popularised the feast in the Middle Ages. Best of all, I like to think of the mystery of light which so informs the Transfiguration story and the collect for the Second Sunday of Lent which seeems to express both the event and the necessary response with an economy of words I can only marvel at. Did the transfiguration occur at night? What did Peter, James and John really see to leave them so awed and dazed? Would it be presuming too much to guess that they experienced in a unique way what is occasionally given in prayer for a moment or two (though how does one measure time in prayer?) and that it took a lifetime of reflection to make sense of it? That it could only be made sense of in the light of Easter, so that we too can only "make sense" of the mystery through the life of grace begun at baptism and sustained through prayer and reception of the sacraments?

Of course, for us now, there is another and darker aspect to today. Who can forget that 6 August is also the anniversary of Hiroshima? Light connects the two, though there is a world of difference between the divine illumination of the one and the diabolical glare of the other. The statistics of nuclear stockpiles make sobering reading. More sobering still is the knowledge that human beings have not learned the lessons of the last sixty-four years, that homo sapiens is only a whisker away from descending into homo vastans. We need a transfiguration of minds and hearts, something for which to pray today.

(Note for commenters: haven't quite got the comment engine working as it should but we will sometime in the next twenty-four hours, we hope.)

Oh happy day!

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-05T12:26:33+01:00

Much anticipated rejoicing at Hendred today. There is a new altar cloth on the altar and all is set for Mass and commissioning of the tabernacle later in the day. One of our oblates has sent the most amazing lilies to grace the sanctuary. Greenfingernun has pointed out that the "Lovely Lady" lilies she planted outside the parish rooms are also in full bloom, so that what with the lilies, the sweat peas and incense, we shall be in a state of sensory overload despite the "Constable skies" overhead. Digitalnun is looking more cheerful about the web site commenting system; and we are all looking forward to Pauline Matarasso's talk on Wulfric of Haslebury tomorrow evening. Pauline is a most distinguished scholar, poet and translator with a delightful sense of humour and deep appreciation of spiritual things. She is an oblate of our community so we shall be welcoming her as "one of our own". Don't forget to put the talk in your diary: 7.30 p.m. on Thursday at the King's Manor (opposite the Eyston Arms), East Hendred. Admission free, with a glass of wine or juice to follow.

War and the Curé d'Ars

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-04T05:53:53+01:00

Today is the anniversary of Britain's entry into the First World War, the Great War for Civilisation, which was to end all wars. How hollow that hope seems now, nearly a century later; how hollow it looked in 1939. One can trace the movement from hope to disillusion in the poetry of the time. Somewhere in the house we have a recording of Sassoon reading his war poetry in the parlour at Stanbrook: an amatuer recording, with hissy tapes and the coughs and snuffles of the listeners, but fascinating because Sassoon reads much less emphatically than many contemporary readers of his work do. He knew war from the inside; we don't. There is something of the same quality in the psalms. Israel is always battling against someone or something, at either the individual or the communal level. "Break the teeth in their mouths!" we cheerfully sing on Fridays; but it is a bit limp, because it's a long time since breakfast and lunch is just around the corner. Sung in Afghanistan it would be different, but we aren't in Afghanistan, we're in rural England. One of the lesser known aspects of the story of St John Vianney is his constant battling with the powers of darkness. He knew from the inside what the struggle against evil entails; many of us don't, but that doesn’t mean the struggle is any the less real or terrible. So, a prayer today for all who fight for what is right and good and true. The First World War involved millions; the Curé d'Ars battled alone, as most of us must. The psalms remind us that it isn't numbers that assures the victory but obedience to the will of God.

Sunday in the Monastery

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-02T10:54:12+01:00

The monastery is looking beautiful this morning. Clearing the shrubberies and replacing them with flowers has brought so much more light and life into the garden. When time allows, we must post more photos on the gallery pages but Digitalnun is determined to get the new blog working as soon as possible, so doubtless photos will be on the "to do" list for a bit longer. Today's Mass readings focus on the Eucharist, and as listeners to this week's podcast will realise, that is a theme very close to our hearts as we prepare for the commissioning of our tabernacle on Wednesday. Spare a thought, however, for those for whom the beauty of this morning is a painful contrast to their feelings of pain and loss. Over the week-end we were told about several deaths. We hold each one in prayer but it is hard for those who must cope in a society which no longer accepts that death is a part of life.

New Blog Engine

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-08-01T17:33:45+01:00

Today was the day we had hoped to introduce our new blog engine but sadly Digitalnun has had too many interruptions to complete the changeover. It probably will not be possible to complete the work now until sometime next week.

Rights and Duties

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-31T06:47:12+01:00

Yesterday the Law Lords decided that the Director of Public Prosecutions should clarify the law on assisted suicide. Inevitably, many hailed the decision as "compassionate" and "a step forward". Surely, no one could be indifferent to the suffering and anguish of those who long for death as a release from something they find intolerable, nor can one be unmoved by the suffering of those who must watch one they love struggle with terminal illness. But we need to be clear about what is at issue. At the moment, assisting another's suicide is illegal. The DPP is being asked to clarify the circumstances in which, for example, a relative who helps someone to commit suicide would not be prosecuted. Advocates of "mercy killing" are right to say this is not the same as permitting euthanasia, that it is a limited measure with limited scope. However, one can see where it is likely to lead, particularly once the language of rights is invoked, as it so often is in the emotive "right to die" argument. So, two points to make. (1) We do not have a right to die, we have no moral claim on death. On the contrary, death has a claim on us. (2) If we do have rights in this matter, then we also have duties. Do we therefore have a duty to die once we are considered a burden to ourselves or others? Who makes the judgement and on what grounds? Catholic teaching on these subjects is remarkably clear and consistent. Living up to its demands is tough but personally I don't want to abdicate responsibility. It's part of being human. And I want to go on being human until I die, which I trust will be at the moment of God's choosing, not mine, nor anyone else's.

Slavery Revisited

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-30T10:11:44+01:00

One of the great unwritten works of our time is "From Wulstan to Wilberforce: the abolition of the slave trade". St Wulstan (or Wulfstan, if you prefer) was the last Anglo-Saxon bishop of Worcester, the only one to retain his see after the Norman Conquest. He is remembered, among other things, for his valiant opposition to the slave trade. Nearly a thousand years later another Englishman, William Wilberforce, whose anniversary is today, was still battling for the same end. All credit to Wilberforce and his supporters for challenging entrenched attitudes and financial interests. The "churchmanship" of Wulstan and Wilberforce was very different, just as the societies in which they lived were very different, but I can't help feeling they are both united in heaven praying for an end to slavery on earth. For the tragic fact is that a slave trade still exists, and human beings created in the image and likeness of God are still being enslaved. The razzmatazz that surrounded 2007 should not blind us to the fact that much remains to be done.

SS Martha, Mary and Lazarus

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-29T12:02:38+01:00

We keep today as a feast of friendship but we are also reading what St Benedict has to say on the subject of work and lectio divina or prayerful reading (RB 48). I suppose one could identify Martha with the holiness of work, Mary with the holiness of contemplation; but what of Lazarus? According to medieval legend, Lazarus was a sad man to the end of his days because he had glimpsed heaven and been brought back to life on earth. Fanciful it may be, but perhaps we can identify Lazarus with the "divine restlessness" in ourselves, the part of us that is not satisfied with anything less than God. Or again, we can see in the family of Bethany an image of the Blessed Trinity: Julian of Norwich captured the essence of this in her meditation on the nature of the Godhead. Either way, today is a day for celebrating the warmth of human love and friendship and being awed by the friendship God desires to maintain with us.

Almost there . . .

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-28T10:37:55+01:00

Fr Anthony de Vere and Neville Mason came yesterday to position the tabernacle in our oratory. Neville can be seen kneeling with the beautiful oak plinth he made to match the mensa of our altar (which he also made). Fr Anthony seems to be having trouble with the tabernacle lock, but within minutes the two are hard at work. Very tidy workmen they proved, with Neville detailing Fr Anthony to hold a dustpan while he drills the wall.

Then there is the sanctuary lamp, the gift of Fr Alex Lane, to be fitted. It obviously takes more people to fit a lamp than a light bulb!

Fr Anthony will commission the tabernacle next week. He has enriched our community with many liturgical gifts and left behind a lovely, simple lunette for use here at Hendred. Now, all we await is the Presence.

Grandparents

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-26T20:50:41+01:00

So much for the leisurely Sunday afternoon we had promised ourselves! It merely proves the truth of the old quip, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. The podcast will have to be done sometime tomorrow after I get back from Oxford — hopefully before Fr Anthony and Neville arrive to fix the tabernacle in position and a guest arrives for a few days. The connection between all that and grandparents may not strike you as obvious, but there is indeed a connection, and it has to do with kindness and the way in which we rely on others. Had today not been Sunday, we would have been celebrating a Memoria of SS Joachim and Anne, the maternal grandparents of the Lord Jesus. Grandparents, as any sane person (i.e. anyone under the age of seven, after which the rot sets in) will tell you, are immensely important people. They are kind, helpful and lavish with the gift of time. When one is young and needs to show off, grandparents can be relied upon to be indulgent. They can be quite good at ignoring parental rules and regulations and often seem to have endless reserves of patience (perhaps because they can wave the grandchiild goodbye at the end of the day, but that's another matter). Parents are too often worried about this and that, especially the future which never comes; but they too know how valuable grandparents are, especially when they need help with childcare as they juggle their busy lives and conflicting commitments. I was thinking about this as I watched a grandparent deal with a fretful child. The stress levels of the parents were visbly mounting and a tug of war looked likely, but the moment Grandma took the child on her lap, all was sweetness and smiles. The bond between the young and the old is very precious. Unless, sadly, they have learned otherwise, the young rely on the old with simple trust and a cheerful expectation of kindness and help; and thankfully, they are not usually disappointed. We may not be grandparents, we may ourselves be very young, but it is worth asking where we fit in this scheme of things. Do we trust, are we trustworthy?

Excommunication: RB 44

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-24T11:48:21+01:00

Today's chapter of the Rule takes up where chapters 23 to 30 left off and addresses the difficult question of how to restore peace when there has been some rupture or disturbance. It is interesting that Benedict's first suggestion is to ritualize, literally act out in silence, one's sorrow for having offended. Words are not always the best way of making amends. They can easily sound hollow, and the effort sometimes required to speak them can make them sound false or even aggressive to wounded ears. Comparatively few have the gift of being sincere and appearing sincere at the same time, although when one meets such qualities, they are utterly disarming. Perhaps this would be a good day to take stock of any unresolved quarrels/misunderstandings and reflect whether there is some gesture we could make which would lessen the tension and restore harmony. One who seeks to make peace must be prepared for rebuff and failure, however. Grace does not move every heart at the same pace or in the same way. I daresay that even in Benedict's monastery there were some who took a rather mean delight in seeing Brother So-and-So lying with his face on the ground, making satisfaction. Tant pis pour lui.

Black Sheep, White Sheep

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-23T06:44:09+01:00

Very much looking forward to James France's lecture on the Cistercians tonight. James lives nearby and is active in the Friends of HTM so opportunities to discuss aspects of Cistercian history are happily frequent. His ground-breaking work on the iconography of St Bernard will be known to some (and was the subject of a memorable "historians' tea" here at Hendred) but tonight's talk will be more general in nature. Benedictines sometimes get a little nervous about Cistercian claims (no wonder, when the Benedictine in the "Dialogue Between a Cluniac and a Cistercian" is so utterly trounced!) but I like to remind people that we stem from the same stock, that many a Black Monk (or nun) has a secret hankering after the more rigorously coenobitic life of the White Monk, and that we have much to learn from one another. For years my myopic gaze looked at the rose window at Stanbrook and saw what I thought was a black sheep and a white by the figure of Our Lady holding the Child Jesus — immensely satisfying to one whose first historical researches were in Cistercian history. Alas, new spectacles revealed that the black and white sheep were a miniaturized ox and donkey. I hope that is not going to prove prophetic of James' theme tonight!

St Mary Magdalene

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-22T05:43:41+01:00

Today's feast is a little Easter, full of the joy of the Risen Christ. It's impossible to think of St Mary Magdalene without remembering her running through the darkness in search of her dead Lord and finally seeing him, through a mist of tears, Risen and Glorious, never to die anymore, in a quiet garden. I like to think of that scene suffused with early morning light, the Sun just risen . . . . One thinks also of Julian of Norwich seeing Jesus "in a stained and dirty kirtle", again in a garden. Perhaps the English love of gardens has something to do with this sense that they are a privileged place of meeting. The monastic garden is above all somewhere for prayer and reflection. We all seem to have a favourite corner and a favourite time when we like to be alone in the garden. We don't shoo others away, but we make it quite clear that we need SPACE, please. My times are early morning and evening when no-one else seems to be around. Come to think of it, those are times specially associated with the Resurrection: Mary Magdalene would understand.

Tweaked!

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-20T10:54:47+01:00

Digitalnun is pleased to report that Broadband access has now been restored and the new router is a vast improvement on the old (well, so far . . . ) The network within the house has also been tweaked, with a few further refinements necessary (a booster station will be required: has anyone got an Apple Airport Express they would like to sell on? If so, please get in touch.) We hope to get the latest podcast up later today and have set a date of 1 August for implementation of the new blog engine. We'll have a trial period for enabling comments and just see how it goes. As we have often said, there are more useful things to be doing than monitoring unsuitable content! There are a number of changes and additions we want to make to the site but we will give advance warning about feeds and urls, in case we miss some redirects (even Homer nodded). In the meantime, the eco-awareness of today's chapter of RB is something we could all ponder. For Benedictines, the emphasis on asceticism is paramount, but it is also a nice reminder that using daylight rather than artificial light is a fundamental "green" option.

Thought for Food (RB 39)

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-18T06:01:25+01:00

The sixth century monastic diet as advocated by Benedict in today's chapter of RB would not have led to heart disease. In fact, by modern nutritional standards, its emphasis on frugality, regularity, fruit, vegetables and wholegrains, together with the absence of red meat except in case of sickness, would probably recommend it to health professionals. I wonder whether "The Benedict Diet" could become an attractive alternative to all the whacky schemes for so-called "healthy eating" that seem to obsess people in the West? Benedict wanted as much as possible to be sourced locally, from food to clothing (zero food miles, low carbon footprint, he ticks all the right boxes, doesn't he?); there's a long wisdom traditon behind RB; and just enough "mystery" to lend it a certain "otherworldly" charm. Where it might fall down is in its contemporary manifestation. So many monks and nuns are of a "comfortable" shape rather than fashionably slim. No use arguing that that's because most of us don't adhere in every detail to Benedict's principles or do as much manual labour as in the sixth century. Then, too, Benedict's diet would require too much self-discipline to appeal to a celebrity, so I suspect it's a non-starter. We did our shopping yesterday and I couldn't help noticing that some of the food items we bought come a long way from where we live (pasta from Italy, oil from Spain, for example) though I don't think there were any extravagances (conscience not quite clear about some of the items bought for our guests, but that's another matter) and I think Benedict would have approved most of our choices. Digitalnun returned in grumpy mood to find the Broadband "down" yet again, so finally got round to changing the router (the one supplied by BT has caused many headches) and is now muttering about tweaking the wireless network. Internet access is therefore patchy and intermittent while she tweaks and we suspect there is a huge build-up of email on our server. It's rather like cholesterol building up in the arteries . . . .

On the Old and the Very Young (RB 37)

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-16T05:47:49+01:00

I like the way in which Benedict adds this short, compassionate chapter immediately after his thoughtful treatment of how the sick are to be looked after in the monastery. He expects us to be sympathetic to the weakness of others (which tells us he must have been a kind man himself) but he is aware that authority must protect the vulnerable or there is a risk that we may become harsh or neglectful. Interestingly, he singles out food and the timing of meals as an area of concern. It is easy for a monastery to become a little inflexible: the need for a certain routine can lead to rigidity about what are, in the end, comparative trifles. Happily, I don't think that is likely to happen here. It is a struggle to make ends meet, be faithful to prayer and reading and keep all our charitable works going; so we have learned that we must be ready to adapt and accommodate. The horarium (timetable) of the house provides a structure for the day, but it is precisely that: a structure on which to build, not a cage to constrain or clamp down. Perhaps this would be a good day to take stock of elements in one's life that are meant to support but sometimes weigh heavily. How much do we take on (or impose on others?) that isn't really necessary? The "vulnerable" is, after all, a category that includes all of us at some time or another.

BBC Oxford Feature

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-15T09:44:30+01:00

The even tenour of life at the monastery was interrupted yesterday by BBC Oxford, which sent Claire Price to do a small TV feature on us (to be screened on Friday evening, if it survives the editor's cuts). Inevitably, the camera broke down and Claire had to dash away to another appointment sooner than she expected but one has to admire the sheer professionalism of BBC staff. Lugging heavy equipment, falling off a rickety chair in search of a new angle, digesting huge amounts of information in short order and doing apparently "off the cuff" interviews with grace and good humour are all part of a day's work. I'm sure there's the making of a chapter talk in that. Talking of talks, you can now listen to the inaugural lecture in our Trinity Lectures 2009 series, given by Henrietta Leyser on Christina of Markyate, the twelfth century nun. It's on our new talks page and lasts about 50 minutes. Please bear in mind that it's a live recording to which we did just a little editing, so you can still hear the laughter which greeted some of Henrietta's quips. It is very generous of her to allow us to share her talk in this way so please respect her copyright and get in touch with us if you wish to link to or otherwise make use of her material. As Benedict says, "Do not do to another what you would not want done to yourself." Otherwise Digitalnun will do wicked things with her ht.access file!

Swine 'Flu and the Kiss of Peace

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-14T05:54:34+01:00

The latest news about the spread of Swine 'flu makes grim reading for anyone with a respiratory problem. Apparently, the current virus tends to hit the airways harder, making the development of pneumonia more likely for those at risk. While it remains true that for most people symptoms will be mild and recovery unproblematic, one does wonder why our bishops have still not done anything about suggesting that we stop exchanging handshakes in church, given that hand to hand transmission is so prevalent. My own attempts to replace the handshake with a gracious monastic bow and warm smile have been met with baffled incomprehension and the suspicion that we nuns are being horribly stand-offish. No, people, we're just trying to be prudent as two of us are a bit more at risk of complications than most and it's obvious the poor old NHS is going to be struggling. Oxfordshire is already on red alert and we're still only in July. Perhaps this is something we could all think about. We may be fine about catching 'flu, knowing that the chances of a speedy recovery for ourselves are good; but what about our neighbour? The Kiss of Peace as Kiss of Death? What a horrible thought!

Kitchen Service

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-13T14:00:24+01:00

An idle thought. How many abbots nowadays take their turn at kitchen duty? Benedict, as usual, has a point. Every form of service in community is important, and we can be quick to cry off some by pleading the excuse of "more important business", which may mean only something we find more congenial. A medieval kitchen wasn't a very pleasant place to be in summer, nor was kitchen work an easy option, so it is challenging to find Benedict claiming that it increases charity. The question is, in the cook, or towards the cook? If my experience is anything to go by, one sometimes needs a little tin hat to fend off the brethren's not-so-affirmative remarks and one is left feeling that the milk of human charity has turned to yoghurt in one's veins. Perhaps it is all a question of degree. Working in the kitchen provides many opportunities for service, provided one cultivates the right attitude. Love shows in the cooking.

Final Oblation

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-12T10:17:58+01:00

On the Feast of St Benedict Alexander made his final oblation. He is shown here displaying his chart which, just like the monastic profession of vows, is written out by the oblate in his/her own hand, signed on the altar and then laid there while Mass is celebrated. It is a powerful reminder that that we are the living stones of the Church, the true oblata which must be united with the offering of Christ himself. The medal that he is wearing is the medal of St Benedict. Those we give our oblates come from Monte Cassino, where we took care to have them blessed by an English abbot (local patriotism demanded as much). In case you are wondering, Saturday's oblation took place in Alexander's own chapel rather than the monastery oratory: he jetted back from Italy the night before so it was a case of catching him before he took flight again. Fortunately, not all our oblates have to travel quite so much! Today's podcast takes up the theme of what the oblate is and does. There are many ways of being Benedictine. Common to all is the humble, persevering search for God, following the teaching of St Benedict.

St Benedict's Day

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-11T06:15:51+01:00

Happy feast of St Benedict! We don't keep today as a solemnity (that is the "proper" feast of St Benedict, the Transitus on 21 March) but what Benedictine worth her salt would overlook any occasion for rejoicing in our holy father's name? A it happens, we have a stream of visitors booked in this week-end, and today we shall be admitting another oblate; so opportunities for celebrating will not be wanting. In between whiles Digitalnun hopes to finish editing the recording of Henrietta Leyser's superb talk on Christina of Markyate, the first of our Trinity Lectures for this year. Henrietta has graciously given permission for it to be streamed from our web site, so look out for a new TALKS page in the near future. That is where you will also find the community's talks on medieval English mystics and anything else we think worth making available in that format. I can't end this post, however, without drawing your attention to today's chapter of the Rule, 33. Benedict was very severe on private ownership. He saw it as corrupting of community life and insisted that all things should be held in common. Those of us who dwell in monasteries know how easy it is to become attached to this or that, to treat the common property of the monastery as our own; but there is another form of private ownership that we tend to ignore or not take seriously although it can be a great disturber of the peace. We become very attached to our particular way of doing things, of asserting (non-existent) rights over the way in which the community acts or does things. It can even be in trivial matters like how the vegetables are cooked for dinner! Dare I say, it isn't only monks and nuns who fall victim to this? This is a good day to examine how far we demand that others adhere to our standards or adapt themselves to our likes and dislikes. Benedict's ideal of monastic life was to prefer nothing whatever to Christ, to outdo one another in paying respect, to choose always what is better for the other. That's not a bad standard for family life, too.

What To Eat Now

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-09T04:49:05+01:00

"What To Eat Now" came to Hendred on Tuesday in the shape of Valentine Warner and his team who filmed part of the current series here in the monastery, beginning with Mass in the oratory which, as readers of Colophon will appreciate, is where all our thinking about food and the rituals of eating actually begins. Filming began at 8.00 a.m. and went on for the next twelve hours as we dodged heavy rainstorms to view the garden, then back into the kitchen for cooking sequences, repeated twice over to ensure suitably luscious close-ups of the food. We were assured that kitchens always look better under TV lights (running off our electricity as Scroogenun observed), which is just as well as the kitchen is "atmospheric" in the extreme since we have still not found time to eliminate the mould and redecorate. We do not have TV ourselves, so we won't be watching the finished programme (probably it'll be part of episode 5 or 6 of the current series) but no doubt someone will tell us what happens. We're not going to reveal what Valentine cooked, but tonight's guest speaker, Henrietta Leyser, will be enjoying something he prepared. So, tonight we'll have a feast of history and food! (The inaugural Trinity Lecture, on Christina of Markyate, takes place tonight at 7.30 p.m. in the King's Manor, East Hendred: entrance via the red gates opposite the Eyston Arms. Admission free.)

Printing and Prayer

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-06T09:13:06+01:00

A long time ago I used to give days of recollection entitled "Printing and Prayer". I'd take people through the fascinating history of the Stanbrook Abbey Press, with many an example of fine printing for people to see and hold. Then I'd start to articulate the way in which all the beauty they had enjoyed was a by-product, so to say, of prayer: printing wasn't the purpose of the monastery, although for Benedictines especially, working with words and books has always been a good way of expressing our monastic values. If you think about it, the disciplines involved in printing are quite similar to those needed for a life of prayer. Qualities of honesty and perseverance are necessary for learning any craft; and as with the printer's art, so with the one who prays, simplicity costs. There has to be a stripping away, a glad loss of ego and self-concern. Obedience to the Word is fundamental. Just as the printer thinks as much about the white space on the page as about the words and images that will constitute its contents, so one needs to give some thought to the setting or conditions for prayer. Yes, one can pray anywhere, but it does help to set aside a regular time or choose a particular place, preferably as uncluttered as possible. The colour of a typeface, the differences in black inks, the look, feel and behaviour of different papers, all are taken into account by the printer who knows her stuff. Happily, prayer is a little less complicated and seeks no particular result, so one must not push the analogy too far. The illustration above is telling in its way. It's a page from the Rule of St Benedict that I use every day. It's an imperfect copy of a lectern edition printed at Stanbrook in 1930 on handmade paper (made up of discarded sheets we used as lining paper). The capitals on this sheet are incorrectly placed and some of the word spacing would cause a sharp intake of breath if it were allowed to go forth into the world unadjusted. It reminds me that only God is perfect, that prayer is a gift, given in His way and at a time of His choosing. (Second edition of this post, the first was corrupted on upload.)

End of the Retreat

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-07-05T08:41:37+01:00

Our retreat ends today. Our apologies for all the unanswered letters and emails but we do try to limit ourselves to prayer requests and urgent business, otherwise we'd never get a free minute. The concert on Tuesday was excellent. I think Jubilate! sang even better than last year, and there was a very convivial atmosphere in the gardens afterwards. Thanks to some spectacularly generous sponsorship the evening raised £2614, all of which will be devoted to our work for the blind (boring but necessary items like electricity bills, telephone bills, insurance and accountancy fees in the first instance; next, replacing stocks of blank cassettes and labels + a much-needed computer for office work; then we can start thinking about planning for the future. We'll be putting up an equipment list fairly soon, so you'll see how costly many of the items we need are. This is just the start of our fund-raising for St Cecilia's). Meanwhile life in the monastery has not been dull. Wasps decided to build a nest in the library during our retreat: we spotted them on the hottest day of the year, which was fun. Handynun decided to have a mammoth bake-in on the second hottest day of the year, which was also fun, especially for anyone who dared to enter the (admittedly tiny) kitchen while work was in progress; and Digitalnun was heard printing concert programmes at half past midnight on the day of the concert itself, which was . . . fun. At least she had the decency not to sing "Sleepers, awake!" Apparently, she has done something about the blog engine and assures us that from the middle of the month onwards, you will have the opportunity of commenting. The web site will probably be offline for an hour or so while she makes the switch so there will be an announcement when the changeover is to take place. Although our retreat was not quite as leisured or quiet as we might have hoped, we were immensely impressed by the retreat-giver, Fr Jeremy Driscoll OSB, and value very much the input he gave. Probably some of it will appear in this blog over the next few days. There were other joys, too. Walking along some unfamiliar woodland one evening we heard a nightingale singing. It was a heart-stopping moment. The kind of thing that makes every sense come alive with a tremendous affirmation: yes, God, YES.

The Music of Shakespeare

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-28T21:37:37+01:00

This year's Music for Midsummer is scheduled for Tuesday, 30 June and promises to be a wonderful evening, with weather to match. If you haven't yet got a ticket, there are still some which will be available at the door. Come and hear Jubilate! under their director Simon Whalley and some fine actors give us The Music of Shakespeare in word and song. Afterwards we shall meet in the gardens of Hendred House (adjoining the church) for wine and canapés as the shadows lengthen over the grass and the swallows wheel overhead. Very English, very enjoyable and an excellent way of helping our work for the blind and visually impaired, about which we shall say something during the evening. The community retreat continues until 5 July but an exception will be made for the concert: the nuns will be allowed to speak! (podcast resumes next week.)

Michael Jackson, R.I.P.

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-26T04:55:48+01:00

Already (5.00 a.m.) our prayerline is humming with requests to pray for the repose of the soul of Michael Jackson. Perhaps people will be more generous in death than they sometimes were in life to someone who was clearly both hugely talented and deeply troubled. No doubt the media will have a brief "Wacko Jacko" feeding frenzy which will tend to eclipse the real grief of his family and friends. Let us hope that his family will be given the space they need to come to terms with the shock of his death, and that those who had something against him will be able to forgive and let go. We all face death: surely none of us would want to enter that good night with unresolved quarrels or conflicts, or some kind of "unfinished business" hanging over us. Catholics customarily pray for the grace of a happy death, one in which we are at peace with God and others. We also believe that we can help with our prayers those who have already died; so let us pray today for Michael Jackson and all to whom death has come suddenly. Requiescant in pace. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Three Feasts

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-23T10:06:01+01:00

At this time of year we celebrate three feasts that are great favourites with the community. Yesterday we had SS Thomas More and John Fisher, today we have St Etheldreda and All Holy English Nuns, while tomorrow we have the Birthday of St John the Baptist. More and Fisher were great Englishmen with whom we have a number of connections that make them not-so-distant figures. At Hendred House over the way you can see More's drinking cup and Fisher's cane, with which he walked to the block, while we look to a nearer connection through D. Gertrude More, disciple of Fr Baker and a worthy great-great-grandaughter of the martyr. As English nuns,we have no difficulty in identifying with our predecessors when, for example, we read about changing into night shoes in the Regularis Concordia and quietly note our own custom today, though none of us is wearing a hairshirt under a purple tunic, nor is the prioress's veil edged with gold as some of those found at Shaftesbury were. John the Baptist is the most monastic of saints, the most joyful, the most attractive because the closest to Christ. No doubt I'll write more about him tomorrow. Meanwhile, on the principle that one should taste and see that the Lord is good, I'll mention that we tend to associate these feasts with different foods. For More and Fisher fried eggs (More loved them, apparently); for English nuns a bowl of cherries, the first of the season; and for St John the Baptist, the first new potatoes of the year and honey at supper. No locusts, and no strong drink, but plenty of good cheer all the same.

Solstice

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-21T08:40:26+01:00

Early this morning, soon after the sun had risen, we were chanting that line from Psalm 71, "May his name be blessed for ever/ And endure like the sun." When I was younger, I used often to pass Stonehenge. Indeed, I am old enough to remember being able to go right up to the standing stones and touch them though sadly I never saw the midsummer sun rise over the plain (I did once manage the winter solstice, but that's not quite the same). Stonehenge, Avebury, and other ancient sites give one an impressive sense of the sun — one needs little imagination to understand the role it plays in many religions. But the sun in the psalms as an image of Israel's God-King has a peculiar brightness and warmth about it. The Shepherd of Israel shines from his cherubim throne and beams a blessing on all creation. Today is the day of the sun and of the Lord: let us rejoice and be glad in it.

A Small Anniversary

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-20T10:43:15+01:00

Yesterday was the second liturgical anniversary of this blog which began on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, 15 June 2007. It's interesting to see how things have developed. As we have neither time nor interest in "moderating" comments, we decided early on to leave the blog as just an open diary of our lives. We soon realised that many people really value interaction and feel a bit "short-changed" by our policy, despite an impressive number of email responses, to which we do try to reply faithfully. Digitalnun keeps promising to change the blog engine in order to improve the format, but in a small community such as ours the urgent is always driving out the important so we look like having to wait a bit longer. A Facebook site is under construction; the Benedictine Forum was launched in March to provide a more open environment for discussion, but support from other communities has been a little slow in materialising. Perhaps the day of the forum or bulletin board is already over. The latest chuntering from on high (where said Digitalnun's lair is) is all about using Moodle to provide an interactive web course on the Rule of St Benedict. There is a distinctly enthusiastic humming under the wimple. Possibly another community with greater resources will pip us to the post, but that doesn't matter. It would be best as a collaborative effort but sometimes one just has to do a little pioneering in order to inspire others to act. We value silence and seclusion as great helps in the life of prayer and are therefore highly selective about the activities in which we engage; but in order to share with others what we can of monastic life and values while preserving the peace of the cloister, there is really only one way to go. If the U.K. is to become "Digital Britain", we'll try to do our bit to make sure it includes "Digital Benedictinism".

Year of the Priest

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-18T05:53:08+01:00

Tomorrow the Pope will initiate the Year of the Priest (just as we are coming to the end of the Year of St Paul). The focus will be clearly on the presbyterate. At first reading, Cardinal Hummes' letter to the bishops announcing the decision seems to be almost wholly concerned with discipline: reaffirmation of the value of clerical celibacy and the bishops' power to discipline the clergy under them. A significant addition is the requirement to regularize the position of those who have left active ministry without obtaining dispensations — bishops now have the ability to begin the laicisation process for any of their priests who have been five years or more away from their ministry. John Paul II made it quite difficult for priests to obtain laicisation so one most hope that this latest development is a pastoral response to situations that are often deeply distressing to those concerned. One cannot help wondering, however, whether the real challenge is being overlooked. So many priests seem to have low morale, to be uncertain about their purpose, to feel lonely and unvalued. It is difficult to be a priest but sometimes one has to ask where the initial love and enthusiasm went. The priesthood cannot be separated from a life of prayer. No amount of action, however good, can substitute for that. Let us pray that the Year of the Priest will offer all our priests a deepening of their life of prayer, joy in their service of God and the Church and a renewed sense that what they are and do is truly pleasing to Our Lord. And incidentally to all of us, too. Tell your priest how much you value him!

Green Shoots?

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-16T09:35:13+01:00

Like everyone else we ponder the news and have our own opinions about what may or may not happen, as ill-informed as the next person's, so take today's post as the rambling of a nincompoop if you will. North Korea's attitude to nuclear weapons; the political turmoil in Iran; the sickness and suffering of millions of people caught up in their own private griefs and tragedies, they are all part of the concern of our prayer and so of our reflection. I have been thinking a lot lately about the implications of the economic changes affecting us all. Green shoots there may be for those who concentrate wholly on such things as manufacturing figures, but the situation is decidely sticky and will be for some years. But, once a historian always a historian, so I find myself wondering more and more about the political and societal instability that is likely to follow our present economic woes. I wonder how we'll meet the challenge. Quite specifically, I wonder what role the Church in the west will play in the shaping of things. The Catholic Church has a wonderful record in terms of articulating the necessity of virtue considered as social justice but we've never been in quite this situation before. For a start, we've never had such instant communications among such vast numbers of people. Reverence for authority is not what it was, probably because much authority has shown itself less and less worthy of reverence. Green shoots . . . exploration . . . tentative beginnings. There is hope, but it will not be easy. If we Christians fail to pray our part, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. (And yes, I did write "pray".)

A Sleepless Night

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-15T05:12:47+01:00

In community the traditional remedy for a sleepless night is to say something like, "Oh goody! I'll make some extra prayer." Usually, as soon as one does that, one nods off (not very edifying but true). Last night I prayed and read but sleep still would not come. So I listened to the sounds of the night, and how beautiful they are: the strange, alto bark of the dog fox as he made his nightly passage across Hill Farm; the soft snuffle of the hedgehogs crossing the lawn; the occasional alarm of a bird wakened from sleep; and other, less identifiable sounds, which might have been deer beyond the fence, or even a badger though I haven't noticed signs of any setts around here. The nights are so short at this time of year, and there is a long gloaming and dawn in which to enjoy the flight of bats and beetles and the abundant buglife of this little corner of Oxfordshire. As Psalm 150 reminds us, "Let everything that lives and that breathes/ Give praise to the Lord. Alleluia!"

Corpus Christi 2009

Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred — 2009-06-14T11:46:47+01:00

It seems so odd to be celebrating this feast on a Sunday, with a parish Mass and no procession — and no Benediction at Vespers. Ah well, there are other graces to acknowledge, as this week\s podcast makes clear. The Preface of the Day is a jewel of theological exposition, and for those who will be celebrating in the Extraordinary Form, the use of the Preface of the Nativity is a powerful reminder that the Bread of Life born at Bethlehem (literally the House of Bread) is our sustenance still. It is important to link the Incarnation and the Eucharist. Time to dust off some of those Advent and Christmas sermons of the Fathers, perhaps, and rethink them in the light of today's feast.