Of Podcasting and
Patience
30/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
We have been
very remiss for people who have a special interest in
the problems of visual impairment. It has taken us
until now to prepare our first podcast, and we
cheerfully admit that it is a bit wibbly wobbly. Our
web site is almost entirely visual, for which we
apologize. We do intend to tackle the question of
accessibility as soon as we are able, but it all has
to be done gradually. Perhaps if and when we are able
to buy sufficiently good digital recording equipment,
we will be able to make more extensive use of the
possibilities. For now we intend to offer you a
weekly prayer or short reflection in audio format. We
hope you will pray with us.
SS Peter and Paul,
App
28/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
First Vespers
of SS Peter and Paul. It's amazing how this feast
turns one's thoughts to Rome and memories of the
city: long hot afternoons spent in the coolness of
Sta Sabina or among the narrow alleys in Trastevere;
the busy hush of St Peter's; moist greenery in the
Protestant Cemetery; rubbish blowing sadly through
the Circus Maximus; dust in the cart ruts of the
Forum. Always, the sense of being somehow at the
heart of the Church, a feeling that "Roma, caput
mundi" is as true today as it was two thousand years
ago, despite all the evidence to the contrary. And
sometimes, on a wintry evening, one can imagine the
city as it was and hear the wolves howling in the
darkened streets as they were heard a thousand years
ago. What a shock to emerge from the daydream and
plunge into the Roman rush-hour!
RB 20: On Reverence in
Prayer
27/June/2007 Filed in:
Chapter Talks
This brief chapter is a
concentrated treatise on prayer. The Latin text is
full of alliteration and other devices which make it
easy to remember. Notice that there is nothing about
"technique", merely a reminder that humility and
respect are necessary preconditions for prayer, which
is linked with "purity of heart" and "pure devotion".
The pure heart, of course, is one which focuses all
its energy, all its love, upon God. How strange,
then, that "puritas cordis" should be the translation
of the Greek "apatheia", the original, pagan meaning
of which was "detachment". In the Desert Fathers as
in Evagrius of Pontus, we find the word "apatheia"
occurring again and again, and let's be honest, there
are times when the athletic asceticism of the desert
strikes a chill note. But the detachment of Christian
Tradition is something of a paradox. We are
"detached" because we are supremely
attached
to the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, our prayer is an
expression of this, and St Benedict warns that it
needs few words, indeed none at all.
There is much that we should pray about today – those
suffering from the effects of the floods, the
sufferings of the peoples of Africa and the Middle
East, those who have asked our prayers for particular
needs – but let us remember that the most important
prayer is the prayer of simple love and adoration.
The Father knows what we need before we
ask.
Audio Books
26/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
We are
(slowly) getting ready to produce audio books in
DAISY format, as recommended by the RNIB, but the
required equipment list is getting longer by the
minute. Often it is the basic things that stump one.
What now would be the best equipment for readers to
record onto, given that cassette recorders have gone
the way of all things analogue? Do we opt for
personal digital recorders? Which would be best for
voice recording? Can we input the recordings directly
into the Mac for monitoring of sound levels? Is there
someone out there who can advise us, or is it time
for wet towels round the head? So many questions, but
how important it is to remember visually impaired
people need access to books just as the sighted
do.
Wet Mondays
25/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
The rain has
been sweeping across the Downs for forty-eight hours,
and there are sad little groups of pigeons seeking
shelter in the garden. Normally, I have no sympathy
for pigeons, but it is difficult to remain
hard-hearted in the face of so much damp misery. Is
this Climate Change or merely one of those changes in
climate that have occurred regularly throughout
history? And why do we talk about saving "our" planet
as though we owned it? I like St Benedict's concept
of stewardship and his reverence for all that is.
When he tells the cellarer (bursar) to look after
everything as though it were a sacred altar vessel,
he got it exactly right. We do need to treat
everything with care, but we don't need to get
complicated about it, and we certainly don't need to
claim ownership. We are at best tenants with a
repairing lease.
St John the Baptist
24/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
St John the
Baptist is the most monastic because the most joyful
of saints, "that one-joy man" as Daniélou called him.
The opening verses of a hymn written by one of the
community seek to capture that joyfulness:
As John the Baptist leaped for joy
Within his mother's womb,
So Joy himself at Eastertide
Dánced from the empty tomb.
The burning and the shining lamp
Which all rejoiced to see
Was but a pointer to the Son,
Glád in his shade to be…
We had quite a big group here yesterday and were
struck by the honesty and generosity with which the
members seek to face up to the "messiness" of life –
wounds from the past, uncertainties about the future,
difficulties of so many kinds. Trust in God is the
key. Perhaps that is why we felt a spirit of joy fill
the house. St John the Baptist must have been praying
for us.
Holy English Nuns
23/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
Feast of St
Etheldreda and All Holy English Nuns, so why do I
find myself thinking about the unholy
nuns of
England? Probably because it is easier to identify
with sinners than saints. The humanity of some of the
Anglo-Saxon saints is impressive. Rudolf of Fulda
tells a lovely story in the
Vita Leobae about novices jumping up
and down on a harsh superior's grave at Wimborne.
Shock! Horror! Most un-nunlike! Personally, I have no
difficulty understanding why a novice might want to
stamp on her novice mistress's grave, and it is
reassuring to know St Leoba did not, either. She
really was
holy, a woman
of intelligence and character, an inspiration to all
of us today.
SS John Fisher &
Thomas More, MM
22/June/2007 Filed in:
Chapter Talks
This morning we had Mass
in St Amand's Chapel, Hendred House. It is always a
privilege to worship where Catholics have worshipped
for centuries – the communion of saints is a lived
reality, after all – and especially in a house where
descendants of St Thomas More still live. But today's
feast is more than just a celebration of two great
and holy men; it is an invitation to reflect on the
demands of Christian living in a society which, by
and large, has adopted secularised values. How easy
it would have been for Fisher and More to submit to
Henry VIII's demands as so many other good and
sincere men had done. All sorts of reasons might have
urged them to do so, including that most seductive
argument, that it was for the common good. But as St
Thomas Aquinas reminds us, we have a duty to oppose
tyranny. With the benefit of hindsight, tyranny is
obvious. It is rarely so clear-cut to those caught up
in events. Indeed, the person who stands up to the
tyrant is often derided by his/her peers, silenced,
ostracised (does not Aquinas say that one of the
fruits of tyranny is to destroy friendship?), most
painful of all perhaps, laughed at. There are many
forms of tyranny in the world today, and Church
institutions in their human aspect are not exempt. It
takes wisom and humility to recognize tyranny, so we
must pray for those gifts. We must also pray for
courage. Whether it wear a crown or a cowl, tyranny
must be opposed: we are God's servant
first.
Oscott College
21/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
To Oscott
yesterday for a meeting of the Midland Catholic
History Society. Everyone most kind and hospitable.
Excellent papers on the work of Selly Park and the
Mercy Sisters in the archdiocese of Birmingham, and a
feast of Pugin. The sanctuary is a delight: all gleam
and glitter, and some nice medieval panels above the
high altar. More delights in the Domestic Chapel,
where four newly-restored Flemish altar panels of
about 1520 have been hung against a plain white wall.
It was good to see the Catholic Church in this
country caring for its heritage. We detoured on the
way back to visit Brailes. What a gem! The barn
chapel (1726) is as plain as a meeting house, but
with panelling and altar rails still intact, and
pleasing windows. The chapel is reached by an
exterior staircase so one has a real sense of what it
was like to go to Mass in Penal times.
A Morning Walk
18/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
Up early and
walked out onto the Downs. Saw a heron, grey as the
morning light, and a fox slinking alongside a field
of rape; swallows and house martins over the village,
and out on the Downs the skylarks singing; lots of
hares, with their silky ears and lolloping gait. No
one else about. Perfect.
Luke 7:36–8:3
17/June/2007 Filed in:
Chapter Talks
There is so
much to like about today's Gospel. The unnamed woman
who made her way into the house of Simon the Pharisee
and, heedless of the stares and mutterings, expressed
both her love and her sorrow so recklessly is at once
an inspiration and a rebuke to us who are less
generous, less courageous. All sin, no matter how
"tiny", is a terrible rejection of God, something we
need to repent of; but it is a still greater sin not
to believe in God's readiness to forgive. To accept
forgiveness is to acknowledge that we are indeed
sinners, but forgiven
sinners.
Sometimes it is easier just to hug one's unloveliness
to oneself. It is so much safer. The woman in the
Gospel was supremely forgetful of herself, of her own
"safety". That is why Jesus was able to see so
clearly into her heart: she had not put up any
barriers, nor was she going to hold anything back,
not even her sin.
Elderflower Champagne
16/June/2007 Filed in:
Jottings
Our annual
Garden party is little more than a month hence, but
the hedgerows have been full of good things for some
weeks past and we have a satisfying amount of
Elderflower Champagne bubbling away in the monastery
kitchen, ready to slake the thirst of our guests. The
smallest quantity we would ever think of making is 5
gallons, so, if you would like a taste of monastic
Olde England, here is our recipe (with apologies to
those who can only work in metric measures):
- 50
heads of elderflowers
- 6lb
sugar
- 11
tablespoons of white wine vinegar
- 11
large lemons
- 40
pints of cold water
Pick the
elderflower when fully out and shake to remove any
insects. Put into a large tub with all the other
ingredients (we usually scrape the zest from the
lemons into the water before slicing the fruit fairly
thinly) and leave for 72 hours. Strain through muslin
into a pressure barrel and leave for at least four
weeks, occasionally releasing some of the pressure.
At the end of that period you will have a delicious,
not too alcoholic, fizzy drink. If you don't have a
barrel, strong plastic lemonade bottles are just as
good; but if you are forgetful, do store them
somewhere where an explosion won't matter. My first
attempt at brewing beer in the monastery was slightly
veil-raising as I unintentionally doubled the amount
of priming sugar and only discovered my mistake when
the barrel started whistling at me. You have been
warned!
Solemnity of the Sacred
Heart
15/June/2007 Filed in:
Chapter Talks
The Solemnity
of the Sacred Heart is one of those feasts
Benedictines sometimes get a little embarrassed by.
There is so much syrupy devotionalism associated with
childhood memories of the day that some people feel
they have "grown out of it", as one might grow out of
a passion for jelly babies or sherbert fountains.
Nothing could be more wrong. Grown-up religion is
exactly what this feast is about. If you go to Netley
Abbey in Hampshire, you will see at the base of one
of the ruined piers of the old Cistercian monastery
the familiar symbol of Christ's wounded heart. It is
a reminder that the whole superstructure of
monasticism, or indeed any form of church
organisation, is raised on something simple and
strong: God's love for us – a love that led him to
suffering and death. St Benedict certainly understood
this. The constant exhortations in his Rule to
"prefer nothing to the love of Christ" or to act "out
of love of God" and so on, are put there precisely
because he knew his followers would try to rob the
cross of its power to shock and settle for a religion
that was all niceness and good taste. The brutal fact
is that the crucifixion wasn't
nice nor in
good taste. As monks and nuns we are called to follow
a crucified Lord, and just as his heart reached out
in compassion and love to all at the very moment of
his greatest suffering, so must ours. Surely only
someone who has really grown up can attempt
that.
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