We'll start with a quote from Donald Nickel from his book Testing of Hearts. Monasteries tend to be good communities capable of lasting for centuries, whilst hotels are non-communities which spring up and vanish like mushrooms. Monasteries examine carefully the trustworthiness of those wishing to enter, whereas hotels only ask for your credit card. relates a bit to the chapter we'll consider today on hospitality. He's probably talking about candidates coming to be looked at more carefully, but also our guests, chapter 53, receiving Christ with meekness and love. The chapter on hospitality in the Holy Rule is one of the finest and most important in the Rule of Benedict. Let us start by saying that a characteristic of our monastic life, and of every monk in particular, is that of being a stranger, a pilgrim on earth, a stranger to the ways of the world, Benedict says specifically in the Tools of Good Works, a guest of God journeying toward our heavenly homeland.

[01:10]

So first of all, we are guests ourselves. The Desert Fathers speak about our need of being received into God's tent, like a wanderer in the wilderness or a sojourner in exile. I think of your chapel very much a feeling of being in a tent, God's home. Like Christ, we do not possess a lasting dwelling on earth, but journey in faith to the eternal homeland. Journeying in faith. to a permanent dwelling, and so we think again of those who have gone before us. I knew Father Placid here and also at my own monastery, a very vivid presence to think of him as gone, but having reached that permanent dwelling in heaven, so he's really not gone. We're like people in the desert, in Israel, on their way, pitching tents, moving toward the promised land, trusting that God will look out for us, giving us rest and nourishment along the way.

[02:18]

It is in this context that we monks see hospitality extended to others as an important dimension of our life together. As the monk is a stranger received by God, brought into God's tent, so we must be receiving others as well, in imitation of God who said, what you do to others, you do to me, Jesus' word in Matthew 25. And as I have so loved you, you also must love one another, the great command of love. At the same time, another essential characteristic of our monastic life is stabilitas. It's a vow we make, stability. And how then to reconcile these two? Stability of the monastery with the impermanence proper to a guest. Yes, the monk is a nomad because of a continual search for God, one who is always on the move, but also in this continual going in search of God toward the future lasting homeland, the nomad finds his stability.

[03:29]

And I think this is part of the wisdom of the Cenobium. We have a place in which to do that, searching. The monk is settled, stable in his exclusive search for God, in that burning love which ever attracts us, God himself, which no one else or anything else can compare with. The monk, while going in search of the Absolute, is also then stabled and settled in that very person in God. God gives the direction and is the goal of the pilgrim on earth. That is a saying to God, it is God who wakes and God who slakes our thirst. There's another aspect worth underlining here. The monk must acknowledge himself as a sinner who has received the mercy of God. And we've all, or most of us, have sung our Sushipeme, uphold me Lord, receive me O Lord, a profession.

[04:30]

And we can say we feel a weight removed from our shoulders because God will be there to sustain us in the trials and difficulties that inevitably will come along and be forgiving our sins also. We experience the compassionate hand of God in being received in God's house, the monastery, into the heart of God's family, the holy community, the koinonia. So once again, as God has so loved us, we also must love one another. Fundamental to every good work we do is what we've already received, a gratuitous undeserved love from God. freely given. And so, the creator of the universe desired and came to earth as a guest. We have just finished reflecting on that in the Christmas season. A stranger, a pilgrim. He who gathers all things and everyone into his heart, came to teach us the way of self-forgetting love and mercy, hospitality, help, self-emptying.

[05:44]

And being a pilgrim, he looked for hospitality in his followers and continues to look for it. We have to accept that Christ has become our guest. And so it's not just a matter of our being received by Christ, who has mercy on all, but he is looking to be received by us as well. It is important to recognize and acknowledge that our God desires to be received as he is in poverty, simplicity, or one of us. Because Benedict quotes from Matthew again, I was a stranger and you took me in. Christ obviously identifies with these strangers who present themselves. How easy to take in the clean, well-dressed guests who present themselves, but how difficult when it comes to the poor, marginal unkempt who arrive. Both types require our care without distinction. There may be different ways of dealing with them.

[06:45]

If someone obviously really is a mental patient, we may need to help them find their way to the help they need. But both are to be received as Christ, who in fact, as St. John tells us, experienced rejection. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. John 1, 11. The attitude of humility and meekness that monks must cultivate is that of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ if he comes to us as a poor one, a pilgrim who needs to be received, helped, and maybe not as one who comes to bring us gifts or to honor us. In this our meekness is put to the test and proven, but there seems to be no reward attached to the one we're receiving. God alone may know if it is genuine meekness or not that we receive this guest with. So chapter 53 begins with the word omnes, all, every guest who arrives should be received as Christ.

[07:47]

We can't make distinctions, but must be ready to receive Christ in everyone. Christ has given words to us on which we should ponder. Again, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. This saying is often put to the test in monasteries when the odd or unattractive stranger appears. Certain guest masters have a great ability to deal with these with genuine love, others less successfully. We find the Lord presenting himself under many guises, and in faith we receive him as long as we have our monasteries, as Donald Nichol was saying. They usually go on for centuries. This calls for humility and meekness and graciousness to render honor due to Christ to all our guests, the rich, the poor, the attractive, the unattractive. Meet them with every mark of love, Benedict says in this chapter. But Saint Benedict also has us take a certain caution.

[08:50]

Apparently, Benedict had some bad experience with, as Terence Cardon calls them, troublesome persons infiltrating his monastery. And to this day, we need to determine if a guest is coming to meddle in the affairs of the monastery, to disrupt the other guests or the brothers, and to begin then with a prayer and a short conversation. It can be a very good way to begin with a stranger. Most monks also have a right then to see if the guest is coming in the peace of Christ, and not all guests are, we know from our experience. And our guests must sense that we are men dedicated to God. They have a right to this if we are publicly professing consecration to God. If what we do is the work of God, then God than the guests, rather, should find us rendering the divine majesty of service that is at once humble and noble." It's a little quote from Perfecta Caritatis, the Decree on Renewal of Religious Life of Vatican II.

[09:56]

The reference about rendering the Divine Majesty a service at once humble and noble, is more about choral office. But as de Vaugoy points out, we mentioned that prior to Saint Benedict, all that the monk did was consider the Opus Dei, the work of God, and so not just the choir. It's all part of our life of prayer. The way of being of a monk should help those who come to the monastery understand, or at least intuit, our secret. that we live for someone, that we are ever in the presence of the one who is God. And so respect, goodness, care, we extend to the guests, arises out of our love, first of all, for God, to whom we are consecrated. Otherwise, it's philanthropy, just being good to people, but without a religious motivation. The meeting of guests and monks is really a discovery of the nearness of Christ, and hence the call to honor one another.

[11:07]

It is Christ who receives the guest, and it is Christ received by the monk. That is, we are Christ for the guest, and the guest is Christ for us. We need humility, like Christ's, to receive Christ Himself, who presents Himself, and we need humility to be Christ for others, the stranger in need. We can say, too, the guest is a festive sign of God's presence, and so Benedict dispenses with the normal fast for the abbot and the guests. Breaking bread together, the disciples of Emmaus recognize the Lord. So there's this idea perhaps in Benedict's mind of our sharing a meal with the guest is the sharing with Christ himself. The friends of the bridegroom don't fast while the bridegroom is with them, Jesus tells us. So some kind of celebration occurs, no fasting. Further, Benedict has the abbot and the whole community wash the feet of all the guests.

[12:14]

We no longer do that. Here's a quote you should recognize. The plumbing facilities are there to take care of such needs. That's from Rev. Fr. Damasus in his conference on the reception of guests that was published in Monastic Studies in 1974. A very excellent look at the reception of guests. But many other acts are in fact a way of washing the feet or the hands of our guests, preparing the meals, setting the tables, helping find place in choir books, serving a table, reading a table, washing dishes, cleaning and making beds, providing books from the library, corresponding, arranging stays, visiting with guests at the appropriate times. All those things can be ways of washing the feet of the guests. All of them meant to refresh the guest, make his or her stay a life-giving, peaceful nourishment for his or her body and soul. We are serving Christ in these guests, and so we strive to do our best in whatever is entrusted to us for their welfare.

[13:25]

And we can even pray, Lord, let me wash the feet, let me wash your feet, as you washed the feet of your chosen band at the Last Supper. It's interesting that so many of these humble services we've just mentioned center around the common meal. Not all of them, but a lot of them are related to that common meal, as they did for the Lord and his disciples. That's where he washed their feet, at the table. The Lord offers us many opportunities to wash the feet of one another. To the extent that St. Basil, who was not very enthusiastic about hermits, whose feet will you wash, he asked the hermit, because love must take shape in actions. With this in mind, though I should say Basil later has other thoughts positive about hermits, and many of the followers of St. Basil today in the East are hermits, but just that one notion that he had, whose feet will you wash if you're a hermit? With this in mind, we should see guests then not as a burden or invasion of our territory, but as a gift from God.

[14:32]

Many times you've probably heard of two guests saying, it must be terrible having guests around all the time. I say, well, we take it for granted, it's part of our life. Benedict presumes the guests will not be welcome into all aspects of community life, thanks be to God, and that's one of the reasons we can survive, maybe, with guests all the time, because they're not in every nook and cranny of the monastery. But a genuine welcome, extended with love, patience, generosity, we should be able to give. And so I don't need to remind you of the importance of your guest house for the spiritually starving people who arrive. Even a few hours among us can act as a real remedy to pain, the deep longing for God. And it may not be even a conversation with a brother that happened, but simply being in the presence of a community that is living in love and praying together. So we don't necessarily have to do much, but provide a place and time for people to share to some extent in our prayer, work, silence, food, to go away with a renewed heart.

[15:41]

And if we are convinced of the importance of this work, we can rejoice in the continual flow of guests coming to the monastery, and not be overwhelmed by fatigue or discomfort that caring for strangers can bring. And we know, too, that sometimes guest houses try to do too much, and the guests feel even a need at times to back off of all the attention or care. We don't need to do that much. And as we give something important to the life of the guests, they too bring us spiritual gifts. The Lord doesn't give empty-handed, so we're called to believe the guests somehow are enriching our lives as well. I'm sure you know it just from your day-to-day experience. You can say they've enriched your lives and continue to do so. We seek to acquire an always-growing spirit of hospitality as Benedictines, admitting we fall short by a curt remark or ignoring a need of a guest.

[16:44]

I've done it plenty of times. But striving, as Henry Nouwen calls it, to convert our hostility into hospitality. And that doesn't mean, again, compromising our cloister, our silence, our energy. Gee, I haven't spent two hours with the guests today. I must be failing in my apostolate. No. But being attentive, helping guest master especially to do his job well, as he is the chief representative of the community to the guests. And so if we have a complaint about a guest, sometimes there are legitimate complaints about guests, We need to take it, most likely that would be your custom too, as it is ours, to the guest master and not to the guest directly. It's just a prudent measure for greater peace in God's household if the one who is appointed takes care of the problems with the guests. The entire community is invested with the ministry of love and service to the guests with varying degrees of involvement.

[17:48]

But all of us are called to it, not just the guest master. The guests who come normally are looking for a haven of peace, a place where the presence of God is found in the beauty of the place. You certainly have that. Love between the brethren. I think I've seen that too. The quality of prayer in common, yes. And sensing at the monastery then the mystery of the church in action. The monastery is seen as the church in miniature, which is really the mystery of unity and love. And how much a guest receives from a united community? Much more probably than from a community where a few or one or two members are experts at hospitality and the rest just doing their own thing, oblivious to the presence or needs of guests in their midst. A spirit of faith and sincere love is the ideal ground for flourishing of hospitality, if we may call it this, flourishing of hospitality.

[18:51]

We're asked to believe that each guest carries a grace for us to receive in faith, even when the guest is less than edifying, bothersome, or troubled. We can always grow in patience, understanding, willing service, paternal love, and guests present us regularly with an opportunity to do all of these. We need to be convinced, too, that the best type of hospitality is not necessarily accompanied with a lot of exuberance, clever speech, or artificial formality. Instead, and probably what we most prefer when visiting others, is a simple cordial reception without affectation, interest in guests without curiosity, attentive concern, yet with a certain degree of reserve, and really leaving the guest free to basically be him or herself within the context of a monastic environment.

[19:55]

So we can say basically be themselves because the monastery environment may require a guest to change some, to conform some, to some restraint that is not part of his or her everyday experience. And they usually respond very well. please don't speak so loud, or we don't talk here, or please arrive to the meals on time, or could you come to the office a couple minutes before we begin. A certain amount of conformity. We are supposed to be men of the unum necessarium, the essentials, and we lead the guests along that way too. Silence, peace, austerity are all part and parcel of our life, and the things that we are communicating to the guests as well. Silence, peace, certain austerity. And they usually thrive on it. We're not called to give up our cloisters, I'm saying, to compromise what we have with the guests, but to lovingly invite the strangers to share in them to the degree that we can let them.

[21:06]

I recall reading in the early 70s, I suppose, from that monastic exchange that Trappist used to publish about all these various experimental monasteries. Christ in the Desert was among them at the time as an experimental monastery, but some of them reflecting on why they had, or why they closed their monasteries, or the experience of closing some of these houses, and what were some of the negative things that they experienced as a community. And I just recall one of them saying, well one of the reasons we didn't survive as a community was we were a little group, three, four, five, or less, I don't remember, somewhere around three or four men maybe, Every time a guest came, every brother had to get involved and be attentive to that guest. It was destructive, ultimately, to the community. So we can't compromise the life we have, but we have a structure to help people share in our lives. The essentials that we are seeking reduce our words, our possessions, our preoccupations, and normally guests greatly respect and learn from this approach.

[22:17]

And of course we're called to be hospitable then to our brothers in community as well. Our hospitality begins really with one another and then goes out to others. Charity begins at home, we were taught as children. And guests quickly pick up if a community is at peace or at war with each other. We want to be true contemplatives, men attentive to developing the interior life in union with God and one another. So we believe if we are good hosts to one another, we can be good hosts to the guests who come, and good hosts to one another, one good guest to one another. Living thus, our hospitality will be authentic. We remain seated at the feet of the Master, listening throughout our monastic life. We are poor and we are pilgrims, each of us, returning together to the house of God. And all who enter our lives are part of that process, whether we would choose them or not.

[23:23]

In an ideal world, it's another matter. We may not. That doesn't matter. They're part of our life, part of our process of going to God. Not to be quickly dismissed then, but welcomed along with us as we go to God's house. Conclude with a quote from John of Lycopolis. history of the monks of Egypt, or the lives of the Desert Fathers, I guess it's called in the Cistercian publications series. And so you too, my children, should cultivate stillness and ceaselessly train yourselves for contemplation, that when you pray to God, you may do so with a pure mind. For an ascetic is good if he is constantly training himself in the world, if he shows brotherly love and practices hospitality and charity, if he gives alms and is generous to visitors, if he helps the sick and does not give offense to anyone, he is good.

[24:29]

He is exceedingly good if, for he is a man who puts the commandments into practice and does them. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. It was a short contract and a difficult thing to work out in practice. If you work with one side, you have to receive it. But it's kind of the same thing. Most of the time, you work with a full-made professional. But I learned more. you know, but then there is a separation, and by the way, we wonder how it worked out in the monastery.

[25:38]

And it's not a sense even of, well, they must have been really rare events to have against, because they say this, that the rose monasteries are quite available for pilgrims and people looking for a place to stay. And we know, too, that if we receive a guest with too much, say, fanfare or formality, they really feel put off, too, in his day and age or his culture. They want to flee, you know, if we give them too much attention. when we came over here with the temple, we kept some of the same practices as we do in other places, in other communities. I can imagine, yeah, be more like the brothers. Well, I remember that visiting the monks in Paris, from the Solemn Congregation, a very convenient location, right by the metro and all.

[26:54]

We stayed there a couple of times. And truly, the monks are on the outer parts of the refectory and the guests are in the middle. fed really, really nicely. It was a very nice community, very hospitable. But I could see such a contrast just in what was being fed to the guests versus the brothers. I felt terrible. Fine meats were presented to us and the brothers were eating a simpler fare. But I felt awkward because of that, the contrast. But as I say, as a community, they were very hospitable. You know, like, it was a big house, a large house. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, and that led me to this whole field system. You know, we were founding Duker to be my family's bedroom, and I had to take care of that for a couple of weeks or so. Yeah, this Russian, Rusikon, what's he called, Pantsan Pantileimon, had rooms for a thousand guests and you can still see it because it's right on the shore of part of Mount Athos.

[28:09]

Most of it is burned out now, burned out in the early part of the century, I believe, but enormous eight or ten story buildings, two of them I believe. That was the guest house for a thousand people. It's unbelievable. Maybe it's in there, but also it's in that book called, I think it's called, Reaching Out, Three Movements in the Spiritual Eye, Hostility to Hospitality, Loneliness to Solitude. Did he used to come here also? He spent a good amount of time here. The Genocide at one time? No, this was before that. It was just for one summer, he did.

[29:26]

He wrote the article, of course, after. I think I forgot, or it may have been part of that book that he was writing, I just forgot. But he had a book all set, that he had to go through. He started working, and he only talked to one person in 12,000. How interesting that he died back in his own country, I mean, being all over the world for so much of his life, and then to be right back in his own diocese and all when he died. is up in thy church, O Lord, the spirit with which our holy Father Benedict Abbott was animated, that filled with that same spirit we may strive to love what he loved and to practice what he taught. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Holy Father Benedict, pray for us.

[30:29]

Saints Morris and Placid, pray for us. Begin with another Hasidic story. A man got a telegram telling him that a relative had died and left him some valuable property. He was to contact the rabbi for details. Excited, he went to the rabbi only to be told that the relative was Moses and the valuable property was the Jewish religious tradition. and then a comment by Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, Who Needs God. I suspect the man in the story was disappointed that the legacy was religious wisdom and not downright real estate. We've looked at prayer, work, lexio, hospitality kind of together. being such essential parts of our monastic life as Benedictines. I'd like to back up to chapters 33 and 34 of the rule, Monks and Private Ownership and Distribution of Goods According to Need.

[31:36]

As you know, two fairly short chapters touching on the theme of monastic poverty, or maybe better said, how monks own things. Common ownership, not destitution, is stressed in Saint Benedict's concept of poverty. And we recall we don't make a vow of poverty, but we have the same reality as implied by the vow that many or most active religious, as well as contemplative Dominicans, Poor Clares Carmelites make in their specific vow of poverty. The same reality is implied It implies for them and for us what Saint Benedict is describing, common ownership, distribution according to need, reflecting the reality of the acts of the apostles and the early Christian community. It's not easy in our times when independence, private ownership of goods, is something valued in our society.

[32:42]

But Benedict is insistent that this general approach of common goods, ownership, is vital to safeguard the character of a monk. It's one of the things that makes us different from people in the world. Let us look at three areas described in these two chapters, 33 and 34. the goods held in common, personal detachment from goods, and finally mature and joyful acceptance of dependency and of limitations imposed by embracing a monastic lifestyle. Concerning the reality that monks could and probably would arrive at the monastery with private ownership, goods, or perhaps somehow acquire things after entering the monastery, St. Benedict begins chapter 33 with a very strong statement. Above all, this evil practice of private ownership by individual monks, that is, he's not condemning private ownership in itself, but by individuals, it must be uprooted and removed from the monastery.

[33:50]

Now, it's an idea that Benedict is getting from earlier sources, including John Cashin, in the Institute's seven on Avarice, considers this whole area. But especially Benedict bases his doctrine on the intentional community of the early Church, described in chapter four of the Acts of the Apostles. All things should be the common possession of all, Benedict says, so that no one presumes to call anything his own. And in the Acts chapter 4, 32, ìNow the whole company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.î For Benedict, there is a further, though implicit, doctrine to be derived from the example of the apostles and the early Christians, namely, that monks may not have the free disposal even of their own bodies and wills.

[34:55]

Says this again in chapter 33 verse 4. Ideas borrowed from Cassian and from Basil. Here's something from Cassian on this. For no one is allowed to preside over the assembly of the brothers gathered for prayer or even over himself before he has not only deprived himself of all his property but has also learnt the fact that he is not his own maker and has no authority over his own actions. I think here we're finding this theme of freedom from care, one of Cassian's main arguments for cenobitic dispossession, according to Cardon, in an article from his book Together Unto Life Everlasting. Later in the rule, chapter 58, the procedure for receiving brothers, we find concerning the profession of a new brother that it's made well aware that from that day he will not have even his own body at his disposal.

[36:03]

And some scholars, as you may be familiar with already, see an inspiration of this, in part, at least to be found in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 4. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. The rule RB1980 points out, this suggests an interesting analogy with the marital situation and the Benedictine idea of dispossession, even of one's own body and will. Do we possess our own bodies, even as celibates? You can say, in a sense, no, it belongs to the community. Our wills are availability or service. And it's all wrapped up in the fundamental and radical option of a monk, to leave everything to follow Christ, in imitation of Christ, who emptied himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[37:13]

So sometimes it transcends the material reality that our living situation may not radically be changed by joining the monastery. Father Martin and I were talking about third world countries, very often it's a step up for people to join the monastery. Maybe in our culture, maybe in our monasteries specifically, it can be a step down for people. But there's something more than just you know, how good are the buildings, or how warm is it in the buildings? It has to do with our disposition, our disponibilità in Italian or Spanish. Sometimes I read, I can read both Italian and Spanish, sometimes I don't know which language I'm reading, but I can understand it. So this word, I guess it's Italian, disponibilità, is very important for the monk to be disposed to what needs to be done to give his whole life. The same Christological hymn of Philippians we find in the Rule of Benedict on humility.

[38:16]

The third step of humility is that a man submits to his superior in all obedience for the love of God, imitating the Lord of whom the Apostle says, he became obedient even to death. And this is a traditional text from the Rule read at Good Friday chapter meetings. relates again to our obedience, our handing our lives over. And this fits perfectly, too, with another Pauline text, 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, concerning Jesus, who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Benedict doesn't incorporate this particular text into the rule, but certainly the spirit of it is contained within Benedict's general pattern of giving up that we may have Christ in His fullness. Only in the light of the mystery of Christ as the model and goal can we authentically live evangelical poverty and hold our goods in common.

[39:30]

In the light of the mystery of Christ, only by God's help can we be truly free to drop the false self, which constantly wants to rise in forms such as the cult of comfort in our own time, and a society progressively attached to things and to prestige, which things can carry. We don't pursue that in the monastery. And we're taught from childhood to pursue some of those things, and it can be difficult for newcomers especially, maybe, to the monastery. In a world valuing highly self-sufficiency and independence, monks stand as a strong witness to healthy reliance on others, the Christian monastic community to which he belongs. But this dependency, sometimes a scary word today, implying weakness, codependency, inability, immaturity,

[40:30]

It has to be the opposite. It has to be free, mature, faithful, agreed upon, and not forced. So I guess that's another way of saying it has to be free. And it can't be a dependence against one's will. If so, it cannot be called mature or free, and it can't then really be a help to people's growth. Saint Benedict speaks of this mature form of dependence or reliance on the Father of the Monastery, quoting from the Rule, for their needs they are to look to the Father of the Monastery. Again, in the context of the Acts of the Apostles and the agreement understanding that we have already distribution made to each one as he had need." A communitarian agreement. I couldn't read the word Ed written here.

[41:33]

A communitarian agreement that distribution will be made to each as he has need. Benedict is strong, too, that favoritism be avoided, but weakness is taken into account. Hence, it's not identical what each one receives. Some need more and some need less. One of the workshops that Father Martin and I both attended at Gethsemane a few years ago was given by Ray Carey, this diocesan priest who helps communities with the assessment of candidates. A very good presenter and very good ideas, and one of the things I remember from his talk that I held on to, that I should have already known, but is really true. Treating equally does not mean treating each the same. Because what Brother Gabriel is going to need may not be what what Brother Sebastian needs or what Brother Timothy needs. But each deserves to be listened to equally. But it doesn't mean everyone's going to receive the same thing.

[42:36]

So that sometimes is a problem in community. Well, he got new shoes, I should get new shoes. He's got a new sweater, where's mine? Well, it doesn't work that way. But we equally are treated. And that's one of the things Ray Carey was stressing. For those coming to community life, We're all going to be treated equally, but that doesn't mean the same. And all should live at peace. This is Benedict's notion too, or with one mind and one heart. Terence Cardon says in an article in Cistercian Studies, it probably found its way into one of his books too, this notion of being at peace may be one of the most significant phrases in the whole of the Rule of Benedict. Chapter 34, verse 5. Here we find the famous peace pox of the Benedict. Firmly situated in a definite context, the peace of the rule of Benedict in this chapter is nothing less than the fruit of justice.

[43:40]

Peace as the fruit of justice, what we really need, that should be given to us, or will be given to us. taking care of a shaker story I heard years ago about a brother who poured sugar into his coffee cup towards the end of his meal, but never drank the sugar. He just pushed it aside and finally one of the others asked him, why are you doing that? He said, I'm entitled to my sugar even if I don't eat it. And this sister that was commenting on this, Sister Mildred from the shakers in Maine, said this was a very unshaker-like attitude. It's a very un-Benedictine-like attitude to Where's my sugar? No, I'm not going to eat it, but I deserve it. In chapters 33 and 34, we find Benedict's fundamental teaching on our poverty. Inspiration from the Christian community in Jerusalem, patristic teachings from Evagrius, Cassius, and Augustine.

[44:44]

And realizing it is an ideal. and probably never fully realized in the early Christian community, nor in the monastery. But it's something to aim for. Salute. Just like perfection, purity of heart, true love. Who achieves it perfectly in this world? But that's never a reason to abandon the quest. I'm enjoying your library because you have things that we don't have, and you also have things we have, but I never have time to look at, so here I have some time to look at them. Today I was looking at some of the presentations from the Word Out of Silence presentation in 1972, and there was a nice quote from Brother David on his environment as guru, quoting from T.S. Eliot. For most of us, this is the aim. Never here to be realized. We are only undefeated because we have gone on trying.

[45:52]

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business." From the Four Quartets. So we strive for these things of real common ownership, of only asking for what we really need, accepting the reality, we don't have the money or the resources to get this or that, what I think I need. Even after infidelity in these areas, we do not lose heart or give up. As we said before, the monk is one who falls, but gets up. He falls and gets up. It's an important Desert Father theme, and it's still valid. And to help us, it is important to keep in mind that all we have, the earth and all that is in it, is at the service of all. And so we have to keep focused at the same time on the heavenly Jerusalem beyond the earth, but also the spiritual riches, the treasures that are given to us in this life.

[46:57]

Only in the love of God that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit can we think more to the good of others than of ourselves. Only this love of God can create a new person and a renewed community, a renewed humanity. So the ideal of the early Christian community must inspire each monk and each monastery. Committed Christians and religious today probably have a fairly good sensitivity to collective poverty, conforming with the words of Perfecta Caritatis, a document on the renewal of religious life, where we find Voluntary poverty in the footsteps of Christ is a symbol of Christ which is much esteemed, especially nowadays. Religious should cultivate it diligently, and if needs be, express it in new forms. With regard to religious poverty, it is by no means enough to be subject to superiors in the use of poverty.

[48:04]

Religious should be poor in fact and in spirit, having their treasures in heaven. So I guess, in part, we're saying, it's not just up to the superior. Well, if he says no, then I won't worry about it. But we need to be mature enough to reflect on what we really need, or what we could do without, or what we could share with others, not just leave it up to the superior. Again, some thoughts of Terence Cardone to conclude. He says, given the gravity of the problems of poverty today in the world, does the teaching of Benedict seem significant still? And he says, it can be argued that Benedictine sharing of goods over many centuries has produced less suffering among its practitioners than the two major economic models of the world today. Writing in 1985, okay, it's maybe changing in the world. But capitalism and communism, the two major economic models. But the point is still valid.

[49:07]

Maybe it still comes closer to Jesus' law of self-abnegation and mutual concern that all things are held in common and that each one gets what is needed in the monastery. A Christian rule of life based on the Gospel, and it is the exact antithesis of the theory of modern capitalism where it is assumed that there will be enough for all if each seeks his own good. We have a model that has stood the test of time, and we are proud of it, but we need to carefully cultivate it in the monastery. Finally, a little story. One time a pilgrim went to see a holy rabbi. The visitor was surprised to see the house of the rabbi consisting of a single room with some books and only a table and chair. Where's your furniture, asked the pilgrim.

[50:10]

Where's yours, replied the rabbi. Oh, I'm just passing through. I don't live here permanently, said the pilgrim. So am I, said the rabbi, just passing through. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. And I think even in communities, sometimes you look back on somebody's life in the community and say, well, well, you know what he did in 1977.

[51:13]

That whole idea of forgiveness and saying, he can go on and he can grow like any of us. Not to hold it against them, which is a tendency. Father Mark, I think I found a drawing of you also in that cross-currents where all those articles were, from the Word Out of Silence. There's a little drawing, you know, it's got all these, what was his name? Frederick, Frank. It was sort of a group of... Oh, I see, yeah, a lot of them. Somewhere in the... I said, now, who's that? I think that's supposed to be Father Mark, 25 years ago. How many were here for the whole of it? unto my assistance.

[52:58]

O Lord, make haste to help me. Praise the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. For Thou art the Word, and the Truth, and the Life, [...] Maker of all, Maker, Maker, that which no man were once or more, you guide and keep us all on the path. Help me when I'm lost in the night. Wake me when I'm dead, when I'm old and blind.

[53:58]

Never let me go out of this way. Reserve us for a love unworthy. Father of my dignity, Lord, through Jesus Christ, the Lord, your Son, Who ever see you in every age or form Who reigns in you forevermore Amen When I call concerning your God of justice How great we should each be of mercy and give.

[55:11]

O men, how long in your hearts he goes, In your love of his mirror and sleep of his arms. He is the Lord, you may say, whence to those whom he calls. The Lord hears me whenever I call him, Dear Hindu God, see me no longer, I know that I have been seen. May you just instructs our hearts and forces in the world. What can bring us happiness, let me say. Let me lift up the light of your face, I was so cold. You have put into my heart a very, very dear one. Then there are one abundance of corn in every one.

[56:12]

I would like a little peace and sleep once at once. For you alone glorify me well. We will rouse in the shelter of the Most High, And abide in the shade of the Almighty, Sensing the Lord at my refuge, My stronghold, my guard, and my trust. It is He who will free you from the snare, Of the Father who seeks you in this life, He will conceal you with his spirits, and on his lips you will find breath and blood. You will not hear the terror of the night, nor the horror of the quiet silence, nor the vapour qualms in the darkness, nor the scourge vanquish grace but you.

[57:24]

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand fall at your guide. Your wisdom never abhors, its faithfulness is what we mention. Your body will cycle me through the world, receive all the weak and all the faint. You are what I said, Lord, my refuge, and I let my faith alongside your glory. Upon you, our egos shall fall, no plague approach when you die. For you may I seek a final destiny, to keep you in all your pain. We shall bear you upon their horns, lest you strike your holy lips of stone.

[58:32]

Of the fire and the lightning you would tremble, and entrap all the young lion within. This God beset on me, so I will rescue thee, protect him for you alongside me. When he calls, I shall answer, I am with you. I will save him with distress and give him glory. With faith in God's light, I will contend with you. I shall let him sleep, I'll save him from you. O come, bless your Lord, all you who serve the Lord. who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Lift up your heads to the holy place, and bless the Lord through the night.

[59:38]

May the Lord bless you from his eye, O Lord, he who made God heaven and earth. Praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and forever and ever. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

[60:44]

Amen. Come down, ye beseeched who abhorred upon this house, and drive far from it all sinners of the earth. Let your holy angels dwell in it, and keep us in peace. Aum, [...] Aum Junque genuinisti, datur abbiante, gloris sanctum in genitore.

[61:50]

Ego pius, apos ebrius, apri etnis amore, sumens in unate, and that you are all worthy.

[62:13]

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