may not exactly fit the purposes of a day of recollection, but still it does, because recollection as such is not something in which we take kind of leave from reality and withdraw in a vacuum, but the meaning of it is always a visitation, and a visitation, that means an encounter, and that therefore is a penetration, let us say mutual penetration of the absolute and the relative, the divine and the human realities, God and ourselves, and God as ourselves as a community and as individual persons. So you realize that this trip there had not only one purpose, but many. I start first with the personal one.

[01:04]

That means personal in this way that it concerns members of our community. I mean Father James and Brother Thomas. You know that both have been away from home for two years and that meeting with them certainly was needed and had a good purpose. That was the case first with Fr. James. I was delighted. So it was a great experience and joy for me to get there at 8 o'clock in the morning and to approach the station in Termini, you know, that looks terrible around that time of day. And the world looks great, you know. Gray, gray, gray. And it was very gray and you are in this, you jump over the ocean there and swishes, you know, and of course the swishing doesn't allow you even to close your eyes.

[02:13]

after this trip then there and then to see the faith and the dear person of a brother in Christ is really great joy and he was, I must say, also in good shape and good spirits, although he had in his modesty and so on, really had asked Father Augustine for enough financial aid to make this trip. In fact, the ticket check didn't even arrive before she left. So he was rather in strains and therefore he had to do it all on a shoestring. But the shoestring had to, you know, was a long one from Jerusalem all the way over, you know, to Beirut and then to Ephesus, you know, and then all to Asia Minor.

[03:16]

always in porn, you know, I had traveled under great difficulties and then up to Istanbul, which he loves very much, and then from Istanbul in trains, you know, of very doubtful quality. It's called the Orient Express. This Orient Express is in a terrible shape because the concepts of the people down there about, you know, any kind of cleanliness or anything are completely different, you know. And so he, but he loves it, Father James loves those things. And so he had traveled there long hours, you know, from Istanbul to Thessaloniki to Athens, and then from Athens to Corinth, and then they got, he got a cheap boat, you know, that would go through the Isthmus of Corinth and then over to Brindisi and then in Brindisi again, you know, a long train and that had finally brought him to Rome just at six o'clock in the morning.

[04:35]

So, but he was in good spirits. And when I met him he had already offered Mass at Santa Maria Maggiore at our Salus Populi Romani, which is very close to his heart. And then that was the first thing we did. We both went there to Santa Maria Maggiore and we offered Holy Mass to Our Lady for her assistance also in this meeting, our talks. He is thinking and all that is on the line of monasticism and he is of course very much in love with the holy places, the holy land. He looked so well and he looked

[05:36]

A little army man can see the country there is a country of hardships and of course he is at times must feel quite lonely but in fact he really lives very much in a very intense way to the company of our Lord. That meeting, the following days, we had wonderful talks and we had wonderful little walks, you know, an hour together. We were behind St. Peter's there, these beautiful, marvelous Vatican gardens, you know, just as it only can be in Rome. Father James, of course, as I say, is very much interiorly fears that the Holy Land in some way is, so to speak, his destiny. But he also realizes, of course, his obligations to the

[06:42]

community and he is interiorly really very much a part of Mount Saviour and therefore he is now working on his licentiate and then when that is over next year, so on, he plans then and realizes that his first obligation then is to come here to Mount Sevia for a certain time in order also to then communicate and share with the community various riches that he has gathered up there in the Holy Land during these years. and then how things develop later. You see, Father James, I think it's important for us that we kind of live, you know, we must realize we are all one in the eyes of the Lord and everyone has his function there, you know, that everybody must realize, you know, in his own best way.

[07:57]

But I think, Father James, you realize that Father James is Yes, it was first, you know, very much in love with the Jewish chosen people. Now he is very much in love with the Arabs. That doesn't mean that his love for the Jews has cooled off completely. But it isn't as acute, you know, at the moment, because you love what you see, that's of course clear. But it's amazing, he has a great knowledge, really, of the Near East now, in every direction, I mean, it was down to to Iraq, you know, and in every direction, Ankara, Constantinople, and so on, all over there. And he has the gift, I must say that, of making contacts and of being a friend, at least on that kind of basis, you know.

[09:10]

I don't know how enduring as always is, you know, in the individual case, but there is a great all-embracing, really, openness and love there in the way in which he speaks about his experience, about his encounters, about what he sees and his many, many friends, you know. Every direction shows that, you know. There is a great inner openness, you know. And that is, of course, is something which is important for us, for us as a monastery. It's exactly, you know, too, what we are striving for. You realize that this group here is not in that way let us say, missionary, or imperialistic, or eager to teach here, teach there, and set people straight, and so on.

[10:13]

But it is a matter in which now John XXIII is now a constant example, you know, this complete inner openness in the love of Christ. And that is really there in Father James, and that cannot be taken for granted. You must realize, and it's important also in the whole eschatological perspective of a Sunday like this, that there are too many people and too many Christians and too many representatives, even monks, you know, in habits and power and all kinds of things, you know, and still behind all these and underneath all these covers there is still, you know, that kind of nationalistic, narrow feeling, the cultivating, cultivation of chance, rarities, all this kind of thing that will just explode into

[11:26]

the meaningless bubbles in the moment in which the glory of Christ really reveals itself before us. Now, two, and the monk should live in that perspective. He shouldn't live, you know, in these narrow things, you know, that constantly say, Well, it's all right, but it doesn't reach, you know, to my level, or to our level, to all this kind of thing, you know. And there is, I mean, at least in Father James, it's absolutely clear there's a real all-embracing good, you know, Christian, and genuine, not affected, in no way affected, but genuine love of the people. and of the Jews as well as the Arabs in all their various shades, you know, that are there, you know, and of course that the Syrians, you know, or other people say, oh, the Syrians, you know, keep away from the Syrians.

[12:38]

But there's all these kind of generous statements, you know, that go up and that form barriers, you know, And then the true universality of the Holy Spirit doesn't have a chance. But in that kind of a friendly and an open heart, you know, as a way in which Father James meets these people, there he is there. a chance, you know, for the Holy Spirit. I wanted, therefore, and Ronald didn't want to talk about Father James and that specific thing without putting that into the bigger context of the present situation. which was brought home to me in a very acute way through the arrival of Father Vincent Martin in Rome, who, as you know, was on his way to Palestine and wanted to help Abbot Leo in some way, shall I say, to save the Domitian.

[13:49]

I would say, to kind of save this kind of benedictine toehold, you know, that we have there in the Holy Land, in the Dormition and Tabgha, which, of course, represents a tremendous problem. And the fact that, of course, we see that clearly, that Western is, at the moment, not able to to give the support that a place like the Dormition needs, then the question of course arises, what shall we do? Should we hold on to it at all? So very difficult and very, you can imagine, very responsible questions and problems. And Fr. Vincent Martin, of course, you know, is a very light, you know, and a very perceptive mind, and also a mind who penetrates through these circles.

[14:58]

That one must say, too, that Fr. Vincent Martin and the level on which he moves, again, is completely free, you know, from any kind of these, you know, prejudices and so on, which so often are just a kind of protection, really, of an inferiority rather than the expression of, cannot be the expression of any truth. superiority. And therefore, Fr. Vincent sees these things under theological, one can say esgena, would say eschatological, he would say prophetical point of view. And the connection with the Jews and Arabs, there are these three, Christianity, Judaism, and Mohammedanism. and their relation. Of course, a very acute thing and is so alive to in the mind of our Holy Father at the present time, especially through the visit in the Holy Land and the Pope's ideas and dreams about establishing a ecumenical institute somewhere there, but not ecumenical in the sense in which, for example,

[16:20]

secretariat for unity works, but an ecumenical thing in the line and in the terms and the ideas, divinely revealed ideas of the economia salutis, the economy of our salvation. And that is, of course, true. From this point of view of God's historical approach to mankind in various states, Mohammedanism and Judaism and Christianity form an intimate whole. They are closely, and in a very unique way, they are related. Of course, unfortunately, there is a tremendous gap and hostility and hatred between Jews and Arabs. But, of course, what is the function of the Christians?

[17:24]

And especially what is the function, again, of the monks? monks is always to see bridges, to build bridges, and in that way to bring people together and do that, you know, from the eschatological really point of view. And I must say in that way I feel very much encouraged. There are people and men who really devote themselves in a very serious way to to these problems connected with them. Because the role for the Jews as well as the role of the Arabs is the real one. The Christians cannot simply overlook it. They cannot simply consider these nations, these religions, as objects for conversion. There is something more there, because there is the one living God there, the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[18:36]

And of course, of this God too, Mohammedanism is related to it and forms, shall we say, a part of this bigger community of the living God, the father of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac, and Jacob. And therefore, the Arabs know it. Mohammed knew it. It would be for us of tremendous importance and tremendously a personal thing to realize what caused Mohammed to reject Christianity and to go back really to Abraham and to the God of Abraham. And then you come to all these things, you come to Abraham and the God of Apon, the living God, the God of the desert, let us say.

[19:39]

And then you come to the law. Judaism, I mean the Jewish people, is the people of the law. What is the law in this whole context? It is in some way the preparation for the incarnation. for that, you know, meeting and then living together, day by day living together of God with his people. and then Christianity as the fulfillment of the Incarnation. So, in that way, not an iota will perish of the law until all things are fulfilled. And therefore, evidently the Jews today, what is their mission? For example, also Jewish Christians. All these Christians are very important and unfortunately, I mean that is the Somewhere mysterious and sad, the thing that Father Vincent Martin pointed that out so clearly, to me that today there is simply, as far as the Jews are concerned, there's absolutely, theologically, there's a gap.

[20:58]

He had a long talk, long conversation with his father, Lübeck, in Rome. It's there. It's in Vitus. And he He was surprised to see that even a man like Pedro Luba simply says, no, the Resurrection and Pentecost, that's simply the end of any special role of the chosen people. Of course, these things are very, very doubtful and simply need a deeper And I wouldn't say not only intellectual study, but this thing, I think this whole trinity, so to speak, of the Jewish people, Mohammedanism, Christianity. Three things. In some ways, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is really reflected in this trinity of religions.

[22:05]

All that needs is simply prayer. Any dialogue, any encounter is necessarily based on prayer. It's a confrontation with the Triune God, deep in her. And there's just this problem of Judaism, Wahhabism, Christianity may help us to deeper understand, you know, even the essence of our own faith, but also in its historical development and in these various relations. So I just wanted to mention that because I think we should in this big context, you know, it really is not in any way foreign to us. But it's very close to us as monks, you know. It's a fact, you know, that Father James was, he is a foothold there for us. He is there on an outpost and he does things, you know, there in a concrete way.

[23:11]

He lives now in Bethlehem. The Christian brothers, you know, are very happy that he's there. He serves as their chaplain, which also gives him a basis, you know, a material basis for his staying there and all that. And at the same time, he can teach there and in that way. And he has time enough to study in relation to the call biblique. So he is there and we should be thinking of him, praying for him, and see that there in him our saviour is engaged in some way in this really tremendously important place in which these three key religions meet in such a concrete way. It is, of course, it's a big question what one can do there in a concrete way, and it seems to be the best thing would be to, and that was Father Martin's aim, to kind of get this special house that they have there, to institute there a kind of biblical

[24:43]

a biblical institute, depending on San Anselmo, and also get the interest of various abbots, especially American abbots. Abbot Baldwin of Collegeville is very interested in there, and to grant there a possibility of of giving, for example, also to younger monks a kind of initiation into theology. I won't want to expand too much on that because it might abstract you from an eschatological point of view. And then we have the second, you know, is our brother Thomas. Our brother Thomas I met, as you know, I went up there to Bootson, or Bolzano. And that is in Tyrol, up there. So I had this terrible trip there.

[25:47]

And then I went also to Bolzano because there was the strength of Iron Baldwin. Lenny Schwarz, you know, were there in Mehran for a vacation. And we had a good opportunity also to meet and to talk together. And then Father Thomas came to the end of this day. I had four days up there. And on the third day, Father Thomas came in the afternoon. And we had then a good time. there to talk together and that was fruitful and was blissed, you know, in a different way. Father James, I mean, Father Thomas could see that there is mind, you know, really, and also during these two years of study and so on in Munich had

[26:50]

moved, you know, considerably away from monasticism in such a way that he really come to the conclusion that the monastic life was not his vocation and not the will of God for him. Now you realize then that that is a very, of course, difficult and sad thing for us and for me too, and it's also in some way, of course, a dangerous thing. Oh, God alone can judge, you know, and I'm sure that that is why I wanted to mention it also today, this connection that we take this brother really very deeply into our prayers. Because I could see, see it's really and that that became very clear there just in in kind of living with him, so hour by hour, and seeing his various reactions.

[27:53]

It must be clear that monasticism is the pledge, you know, to constantly follow after what we call perfection. I mean, constantly we are not, you know, we are not we are under the obedience, and that obedience means that inner radical, inner readiness, you know, that not our will be done, but that God's will be done in the monastic, how could I say, scheme, pattern of things. freely accepted by us in faith, is of course the living, what St. Benedict says, according to somebody else's will. That is, in that concrete relation of obedience to the representative of Christ, there that inner, what we call, detachment, that

[28:57]

renunciation of one's own wills, propries voluntatibus, as Saint Benedict taught it, propria voluntatis, you know, because these, on that level, you know, of the self-will, it's always many various things, and many various, and there are my purposes and my intention and my will, see it's not a unified, you know, deeper thing. But it is, it's on the level, you know, where the self comes in right away, multiplicity sets in, you know, and sometimes contradiction sets in. And that is very evident, you know, too, I mean, in Father Thomas' case. But I say, I don't say that in any way to exert. I only say that the thing like that, and Father Thomas, who then was another purpose too, went to Rome because in doing this and talking about this case, you know, in a personal way to the

[30:04]

various authorities there, the Abbot-Pirate as well as the Congregation of Religious, makes it of course easier also to obtain then the necessary dispensation, which was then also granted, immediately granted. I wanted to mention that too, that If you realize that, you see, I mean that the solemn vows are set, to say, externally, you know, so easily dispensed from, you know, that could also, if we move in kind of political directions, you know, if our mind is not really concentrated and rooted, you know, in the eschatological view of things. That I think would be a great, great mistake. One should see, one should absolutely have inner, great inner

[31:10]

or say, admiration for the wisdom, you see, and also the humanness of those who, for example, in the Congregation of Religious, represent the Holy Fathers, the head of the church, and in things like that which concern the church as a whole, And this, of course, every time that insolent vows are dispensed with, there's no doubt about it, a kind of wound, you know, is inflicted upon the church. Something, you know, is kind of shaken up, you know, and is destroyed, you know, which by its inner nature demands, you know, complete surrender. And that complete inner surrender, of course, that was here, was the Thomas thing, was the big question, you see.

[32:12]

perhaps, we can in these things we can only guess, never was really fully and in a mature way has come to pass, you know, and certainly at this moment of our meeting it was clear that he had interiorly decided, you know, that it was, but in a very conscientious way, I mean, it's not, no kind of light, lighty and flighty attitude whatsoever. I mean, that's absolutely clear. Brother Thomas has really struggled, you know, deeply struggled with this decision. If he really sees it, you know, in the, say, in all its the gravity, you know, that is again that we cannot judge about it. That is clear, you know, that if one follows and enters into such a relation, discussing and talking about a situation like this one, one realizes, you know, that simply this monastic ideal of perfection simply, you know, has faded away.

[33:33]

And in Brother Thomas' case, it has faded away, first under the impact, you know, of the general kind of upheaval, theological upheaval of, let us say, new approaches to obedience and so on, a new discovery of the values of Christian as a layman, and so on. And then also the realization of, let's say, that monasticism is really, and that is of course for us too, before God and before Christ and his revelation on the last day was a very important thing. Is monasticism, is it convincing? For somebody who, like Brother Thomas, is of course by nature, by temperament, critical. He is outside, he cannot associate easily.

[34:36]

The question of adjustment, you know, is a constant problem. Again, you know, it is something which is and beyond his own, of course, making and so on. It's simply a fact. But once this general attitude is there, you know, and then come, for example, I'm sure that the experience of his trip to Mount Athos, you know, has in reality done a great deal to alienate him, so to speak, from the monastic idea. Because I wasn't aware myself really to what degree Mount Athos at this present time is a person who gives a picture of real misery and of one can say, petering out, you know, petering out in a world, you know, there's Greece, you know, there's all that which is full, which is throbbing, of course, with the life, I wouldn't say the eschatological life, but I mean the, you understand, it's all

[35:53]

thing, you see, that is going on there, and of course takes the whole imagination of the younger generation and directs them in any direction but, let's say, the second coming of Christ. So then he sees at the same time too that these representatives of monasticism are just, I mean, hopelessly hopeless. behind their times, you see, that they are simply not up and completely estranged or more foreign, you know, to any kind of theological thinking, to exegesis or anything that since, let's say, the 10th century has happened in the church. And that is something which is of course is discouraging and in a young man of course brings problems.

[36:58]

See that or not. So the situation, per se, as it is in... I mean, I'm completely objective, I hope, but there you are, you see what I mean. Munich, you know, and monastic Munich has evolved. Monasticism at the present time is not exactly flourishing in Munich. But that is not only the October Visa that I might have some influence there, but there are people too, this highly intellectual Karl Warner and the whole thing. I must confess that Father Thomas' kind of, how can I say, general skepticism did not stop at Karl Warner and his thinking either.

[38:01]

And that is another thing that I wanted very much, you know, to recommend to you, and was one of the main things, you know, at this moment, you know, what is then the next step, you know, also for him. And there, things are sometimes on a practical level are very difficult. It's theology, and in some way, It seems at the surface, you know, that theology might be even the easiest thing at the moment for various reasons, you know. I couldn't help thinking about this and judging it, you know, the best I could to advise against that and to to really try what I could to convince him that he should rather devote his mental energies to the field of philosophy. because there he is more free, you see, and he has that searching kind of spirit which, you know, attacks every wall that stands, you know, in order to get deeper, you know, and so on, and I think

[39:22]

For that kind of attitude, philosophy may be a better field. And also later, you know, he is simply more free, you see, there. And so there was a brother, Thomas, and I wanted him too, you see, that he is very much at a stake, you know, this brother who is such a good person, deeply good person, but I mean, who, I guess, is simply the The structure of his character, his past, his resentments that are there, and so on, which still are very much alive, and so on, which just kind of push him on a level, and to live on a level, and I think that's where he feels that he can really

[40:24]

And they'll say, be his own, you see, and on his own, or in his own, you see. if he moves freely and outside this whole pattern and this, say, of obedience, of surrender, you see, in a way which also is generally is obedience in his surrender to God, but not in this acute way of giving up his own will, you see, and that is absolutely clearly, and I think everybody here in the community, too, we should constantly be aware of that. You know, in Brother Thomas' life, I could see that in every decision practically that he had to make, you know, also concerning his coming to Bolzano, his staying there, moving Greece, and then what he would do later, and so on. There was constantly the

[41:26]

simply the following of his own propria voluntatis, you know, and in that way incompatibility and an inner competing or unwillingness to to live according to any other pattern but this. And I say this is a decision that he makes before God, and convinced he makes that in best faith, you know, but what, at the second coming of Christ, how this thing looks to him, in what light he sees himself, that is, again, of course, a mysterium, a mystery that is completely taken out of our judgment. But one can clearly see there the One can say that the happiness, and to my mind the inner whiteness, you know, of course there were vocationists of the monastic approach in relation to, for example, the level on which Brother Thomas from now on is going to live.

[42:41]

I think that is today's time still. So let us then also think very much of these two brothers in these days and take them in our prayers and also they are all signs always for ourselves. Always something God wants to tell us something in a deeper inner meeting. with uh rocks like those two james and thomas Lord have mercy.

[43:52]

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. one's retribution to the poor and the sick and suffering for all that we see, one love of God for all that we gain, through the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. Lord, spirit of repentance and compulsion for our sins, we submit to the union of the Churches. Let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy. O Lord of all the sheep of the house of Israel, let the deepest grief that draws thee to Israel and the church of David come not in vain.

[45:00]

Let us praise the Lord. Lord, have mercy. For this holy house, for all of us who dwell here, for our sins and burdens, that we may be delivered from the war and the fall of the United and Eternal Chalice, that living in humility, obedience, and reverence Lord have mercy. On the grave of the ever-virgin Mary, mother of God, and child of the Father, Holy Spirit of the Holy Spirit, let us humble ourselves before the Father, and call upon the Holy Spirit, Christ our God. Through the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord have mercy. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord have mercy. What? What? What? Q. I have a question.

[47:14]

There is a community that remains stable and self-sustaining. Most cities have basically been grabbed by thousands of thugs, trying to get by with the comforts of their communities. We hope for our community to be able to stay up on the streets and spend a better time with the students and our teachers and friends. There is a common ground. We can't fight the thugs who are all around us, but all around us, we have to understand that for the thugs, there is no escape. And it's a jaded time for the underworld, for the blind and the deaf.

[48:16]

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