A couple of nights ago over dinner my brother-in-law asked exactly that, “what is a monk?” I had to stop and think. I could get out, “a group of people who live apart.” Monk comes from “monos” a Greek word which means “alone.” Wikipedia also defines a monk as a person who practices “religious asceticism.” Either of those definitionns could apply to a number of people and not be limited to a group of men or women living in a monastic community. Continue reading “What is a monk?”
Minus 5
It’s minus 5 outside tonight and as I looked outside I spotted two deer moving through the snow. They crossed the road in front of our home. I could see their silhouettes in the street light. It must be cold even for deer. They move with such stealth. They could be angels and perhaps they are. They have such grace. They slip into the darkness and vanish from my sight.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? –Psalm 42
True Sanctity
True sanctity does not consist in trying to live without creatures. It consists in using the goods of life in order to do the will of God. It consists in using God’s creation in such a way that everything we touch and see and use and love gives new glory to God. To be a saint means to pass through the world gathering fruits for heaven from every tree and reaping God’s glory in every field. The saint is one who is in contact with God in every possible way, in every possible direction. He is united to God by the depths of his own being. He sees and touches God in everything and everyone around him. Everywhere he goes, the world rings and resounds (though silently) with the deep harmonies of God’s glory.
Thomas Merton. Seasons of Celebration. (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1950): 137
Silence is the only voice of God
It’s 7 degrees Fahrenheit here right now and it’s been very wintry all day. I didn’t try to make it to Mt. Irenaeus this morning. I figured the weather might make it impossible to drive up Roberts Road. I opted instead for a challenging winter drive to Piffard, New York and the Abbey of the Genesee. I stayed on the main roads as I didn’t want to slide into any ditches or get stuck in a snow bank. My journey took me through Rushford, Canadea, Houghton, Fillmore, Portageville and Nunda. From Nunda to Mt. Morris the weather was especially nasty with visibility at times less than a tenth of a mile. I finally made to Geneseo and then to the Abbey, but not without seeing a less fortunate driver who was parked in a corn field.
When I finally arrived at the Abbey I decided to sit quietly by the window overlooking the Genesee River valley. I just soaked up the silence and the delightful smell of Monks Bread coming from the bookstore/breadstore in the next room. After stopping to read a passage from Genesis I made my way to the chapel. I love this chapel. It’s a second home to me. The smell of incense, the sight of the Madonna and child, the empty stalls for the monks, the vigil light. It’s like visiting God’s home. Herman Melville once said, “silence is the only voice of God,” and I couldn’t agree more. The silence of this chapel speaks volumes to me.
Guns not butter
Tonight’s Olean Times Herald had a front page item that proclaimed that our new federal budget will break Medicare. The Times Herald is a pretty conservative paper. They have been unabashed apologists for much of the Bush agenda. Earlier today I read that for the first time in American history the defense budget has 12 zeros in it. That’s a one-trillion dollar budget for war. We’re not really defending anything except the status quo. The status quo in the United States is the military-industrial complex. We’re not fighting conventional forces yet we continue to fund battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines as if we were still locked head to head with the former Soviet Union. Continue reading “Guns not butter”
Ash Wednesday
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent this year. Today many will return from Lenten services with ashes on their heads. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do for Lent this year. I’m going to spend more time in contemplative prayer. I’m being drawn more and more to silence and solitude. The more time I spend in silence the happier I am. It’s funny but silence speaks to me. I’ve also been asked to pray for a couple trying to become a mother and father. Please pray for peace also. Pray for our country that is going to spend more on war and weapons than at anytime since World War II. Pray that this year we elect a leader that will bring change.
An expanding universe
Thomas Merton gives voice to a recurring thought of my own and that is the Word in a world where we understand more than when the words were first recorded.
I must get to know something of modern physics. Even though I am a monk, that is no reason for living in a Newtonian universe or, worse still, an Aristotelian one. The fact that the cosmos is not quite what St. Thomas and Dante imagined it to be has after all some importance. It does not invalidate St. Thomas or Dante or Catholic theology, but it ought to be understood and taken into account by a theologian. It is futile to try and live in an expanding universe with atomic fission an ever present possibility and try to think and act exclusively as if the cosmos were fixed in an immutable order centered upon man’s earth. Modern physics has its repercussions in the monastery and to be a monk one must take them into account, although that does nothing whatever to make one’s spirituality either simple or neat.
Thomas Merton. A Search for Solitude. Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham (San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1996): 132
Jesus Wine of Peace
Today was very cold. I think it was about 7 degrees fahrenheit this morning as I ventured up to Mt. Irenaeus for Mass. The roads up to the mountain were snow covered but passable. My journey was very peaceful. There is something very contemplative in winter. A stillness that occurs when the earth and most everything on it is frozen. The chapel was full this morning. Mostly St. Bonaventure University students. They were Students for the Mountain, which is a ministry group organized by the Franciscan Friars who live at Mt. Irenaeus and minister on campus at St. Bonaventure. There were some familiar faces among the students there. Chris a senior at Bona and Monica a sophomore are old friends. There were new faces there too. Names I don’t recall. Fr. Dan Riley’s homily invited lots of comments. The mood today was both animated and prayerful. The communion hymn today was “Jesus Wine of Peace,” by David Haas. I love it’s lyrics and the melody. Jesus is truly the wine of peace and today these lyrics moved me deeply.
Jesus wine of Peace, wine of love, may we drink of you, may we taste your presence, your promise, our future. Drink well and live.
More true today than ever
Excerpts from a speech given at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in April of 1967, by one of the greatest prophets of my time. This man is a saint in my book, though he has never been officially recognized as one. Martin’s words ring as true today as they did then. Thank God for Martin Luther King. Peace and all good to you.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U]
WWJD?
Viewing Roots again in its entirety reminded me once again of the fallacy of our alleged Judeo-Christian roots. From 1619 until sometime in the 19th century before the end of our own Civil War twenty-million Africans were brought to the Americas for slave trade. Add to that fact the millions of Native American people who were murdered as the American colonies and later the United States expanded west. Religion was actually used to defend the institution of slavery and manifest destiny. We have a long legacy, perhaps the greatest in the history of the world, of genocide and atrocity.