Trappist

A pious monk

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This came in today’s mail. I received this in another mailing just last week and I think it’s an appropriate response to all that surrounds us today. I do not consider myself integrated in the war-making society in which I live, but the problem is that this society does consider me integrated in it. I … Read more

A question of relevance

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Are monks and hippies and poets relevant? No, we are deliberately irrelevant. We live with an ingrained irrelevance which is proper to every human being. The marginal [person] accepts the basic irrelevance of the human condition, an irrelevance which is manifested above all by the fact of death. The marginal person, the monk, the displaced … Read more

Under His wings

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About 5:15 pm I decided I’d drive the 52 miles north from my home to Abbey of the Genesee for Compline and a chance for some goodies from the bake shop. I climbed in the car and sped along the roadways until I arrived about ten minutes early for the final prayer of the Monk’s … Read more

Illusion

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This came in today’s mail from the Merton Institute and there is a profound truth here. All we are with all our noise, war mongering, power struggles, ego drives are illusion. Those who love their own noise are impatient of everything else. They constantly defile the silence of the forests and the mountains and the … Read more

On the road

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I’ve been on the road for four days and four nights. Each day has found me somewhere between Western New York and Southwestern Georgia. Each night I’ve retired in a different motel. I’ve seen some lovely sights. Lots of beautiful spring flowers. I’ve seen lovely azaleas, rhododendrons, dogwoods, apple blossoms, and flowers I can’t even name. I’ve seen hundreds of people, thousands of cars and trucks as I’ve motored on over two thousand miles of roads. I’ve been to Allbany, GA; Plains, GA; Clemson, SC and tonight I’m in Winchester, VA. Tomorrow I plan to visit Holy Cross Abbey.

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Website of Unknowing

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Last night following a search for more contemplative reading material I came across a truly lovely site that I’d like to draw your attention to. It’s author works in the bookstore at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery in Conyers, GA. It’s title, Website of  Unknowning, invited me to explore it in some detail. … Read more