In the beginning, shall I say, I say a word of apology, let's simply speak, because there might be those who say, oh, you hear him all the time. And at least you have a retreat. And I don't deny the utility of that, you know, the reason for that talk. It's true that in many places, very often in community, the retreats means for community really to hear that they have found somebody else, somebody in the outside, and always remember it by your life, because they are rather avid pilgrims, sometimes pilgrims, but they're out now, I say things that make no impression. Somebody comes from the outside, says the same thing to everybody.

[01:04]

They find it's wonderful. So that is true because somebody who comes from the outside has a fresh approach that he can give a new slant to speak on things and that is also that for no decades in our life is has come through clothes and with a new jacket, now we enter into a new phase of our history. And I think that is also evident from the fact that now, after these ten years, for the first time, we are all together. Those who have studied during these years, they are back and they are with us. So I think everybody here has the feeling And in a very special way, we are now a group of integrated whole. And with this group, this nucleus, which we constitute now, that we enter into the second decade of our existence.

[02:13]

And I think that at a moment like that, it's not so much the new slant which is needed, but, as they say, the old slant. It is a restatement of the aim that we have and for which this monastery has been founded. And then it's certainly also true, and you realize that, that the superior of us in many ways knows better. what is really needed at the moment, the word which is needed for a community. Then there's another reason, and that is that a retreat is not only, it doesn't consist only in giving conferences to a group, but the retreat should provide the time and the possibility for a personal meeting, personal word of guidance.

[03:15]

You know well we always speak of the theme of Christ. The theme of Christ is there for the whole of the community. And for that matter it can best be stated by the one who is responsible. And the same thing also, there is the theme of Christ for every individual. And that also must be stated by the spiritual. Cannot for that matter come only from the outside. That must come from within. So therefore I also wanted to write my hope in the course of this retreat to see every one of you individually for that reason. And also you may already use this time in your own thoughts to think about the special personal word, that personal thing that each one of you has, and to become again clear about it, that is not the purpose of the retreat.

[04:26]

But naturally in these conferences, the only approach was a general thing for the community as such. and there I wanted to say first a little personal word and that is that in looking forward towards this retreat I became so very conscious and alive that so many things have happened in these past years which were not always easy But I think they have produced a bond, a bond of real friendship and of real love, mutual. At least I can say that of myself, that in thinking of the community, and I wanted to say that at the beginning of the retreat, I don't want to make this week a week of

[05:37]

all kinds of complaints and of criticisms. It is true a retreat has also this, that everyone individually should become deeply conscious of his thoughts and of the necessity of conversion. After all, we have vowed the conversion of Muslims. And therefore a retreat also has to bring about this very conversion. But I don't want to make this, I say, a kind of complaining about this or that. I don't feel like it at all. I feel much more impaled interiorly to, and that is the reason why I asked this morning that the verse go partially Should be celebrated.

[06:38]

Because in this. There is propenship. On exceed how. Our heavenly father you feel. Consider him. You may speak that way. Humanly. The human way. Consider this all. As I say his old office. His old function. Towards mankind. To speak. The word. And the retreat certainly is keeping the world in a very special way. But the world is the expression of the world. The words that the heavenly God speaks is essentially a world of peace. And that is what I wanted to restate. The first thing, that really this monastery was not built or founded for any great accomplishment, either in the world of science or study or theology or research, nor in the world of any material

[07:58]

But it was funnily to be a place where our Heavenly Father speaks the word that he, out of the depth of his heart, addressed us to be. And that is the word of peace, the expression of his love. And that is the beautiful, you can see that here in this Mass, or touch, or I may just refer to it. We have there, first of all, in Detroit, we have the longing of the community for peace. And that is naturally is the situation of man, and it is the situation of God. He looks for it, waiting for it. That he may come, and that he may come and speak the word of Christ.

[09:06]

God can't say not only a word, but God speaks, it is a gift. God does not speak simply an intellectual concept, but what he speaks, that he creates. So he gives us peace. And that, remember, is the foundation, the foundation of the holy food, and to be conscious of it, that is one of the most important things in the community life, that God, the Heavenly Father, speaks, gives, hears, speaks, to those who wait for it. So there must be that depth of desire and belonging. And that depth of desire and belonging can only be there where there is the popular realization of the need.

[10:16]

That's the truth. He is forgiven to those who hunger and thirst for justice. not for the ones who, in any way, instead of patiently, you know, sit on their spiritual or material throne. Impossible. So therefore, the first thing also for us to do is to renew, in the depth of our thoughts, the realization that enough songs of rap There is no peace. That we cannot achieve peace. That God, our Heavenly Father, has to give us peace. And then, the word adopted. And that's a beautiful thing, because then you see and you find why the word is another premise to speak of

[11:26]

Of our faith. One of the essential things. On which the spirit. Of this community stands. And that is to raise itself. The curious. The Lord. Who appears. To his cross. Says. Please speak. Read this. Give this. And in that way draw us into this. And that is, of course, again, you know, that is our situation. Our way as monks, we in that way, we are this festival and those who stand in the place of the apostles. We may, you know, have all kinds of anxieties and fears, And in that way, the doors may be closed, but the Lord, the risen Savior, passes through all the doors of our anxieties, feeds us, and He speaks, and gives His peace to us.

[12:47]

And His peace, of course, is the fruit of His womb, the fruit of His Son, the fruit of His death. And that, of course, we should not forget. To wait for the Lord means for us, as monks, to find ourselves in the state of repentance. Monastic life has as an essential note that of thanks. It is a meditation. You cannot enter the monastery and expect peace, you know, to enter into your soul without death of your own people. We have to love the peace that our Lord Jesus Christ gives us, which comes from the God, which is the sharing in his new love.

[13:55]

The sharing in this risen life has not entered into us without our dying with it. It's impossible. There is perhaps sometimes a faith that worries you. Complain, but it worries you. Because I feel in many cases that death is missing. That one considers perhaps sin as a certain wound which we in some way may be able to patch up. But that is not a violence. Sin is not only something that can be patched up. But sin is a debt. And to dust shall return. And that return to dust, that is an essential part of the last life.

[15:02]

Therefore, we have to realize the seriousness of sin. And we have to realize the necessity of our debt. How often we forget it. Our awful and superficial attitude will shout out our claims for this or for that. Forget the humility. Forget that we are just and absolute. Forget that we are humble and blind and beasts of word. All that we don't like to hear. But we have to have that in mind that this world of peace That our Lord Jesus Christ speaks. Now it's spoken, or let us say, it's spoken to us as to another language. The Lazarus who is four days in the tomb.

[16:05]

And he speaks. He holds their noses. But they are the heroes with the same. The peace. comes in his almighty power and in his infinite love, and he says, violence. You see, that word of peace is violence. If you are too high to violence, it is too bad. This word cannot have existence. If one sits on any high horse, One doesn't even see the need, you know, for Christ. So peace, that's what I wanted to say. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ is a resurrection. There is no resurrection where there is no death. And that's what I believe. That's very often the behavior, our behavior, our lips and our minds, shows that we don't realize death.

[17:16]

the tomb in which we are buried. So this is the word of peace that the curious novelty of this Christ brings. And that we will see, I think, starting a new life, a new life. Not only repairing, but starting all over again Then you give really room to listen. And what is domestic life? What is the desire of the Lord? To give room to listen. To be a spiritual man. But don't think the Spirit is just a little motor, just a little aid, just a little encouragement. It's a new life. It proceeds from the real thing.

[18:20]

of the one who died to us. That's the only source. Let me hear a beautiful, an orchestral, beautiful, if you think about it, meditate about it. The Jews that are in Jerusalem sent a peace to the Jews that are in Egypt. And there is also, that is, our situation. In some way, in the course of time, we are constantly finding ourselves in the totem. We find ourselves in each, one way or the other, in exile. And again, we hear the word that comes from Jerusalem. And that is what is also the opposite function of retreating constantly. Our Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of monastic people, that are all monastic parts, and are those who are our exemplars, our prophets, those who are the majority community of the saints, the fathers of the church.

[19:43]

They are the chosen. And they speak to us. And they send us that salutation, that meeting of faith. And the first is, may God be gracious to you and remember his covenant that he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his faithful servants. First, there are those in Jerusalem Remind us of the fact that God does make his covenant with us. That is, God's will, God's institution, he has established us in. Our covenant with God is first of all and basically our baptism. That's our covenant. Later God has established us in peace.

[20:48]

So that any retreat is a return into that peace which God has established and which God wants to maintain. Remember that there is a retreat You must remember, remember what God our Heavenly Father has done to us. And he has spoken that word of peace. He wants us as his children. He is our Father. And this God, and now the Jews in Jerusalem explain it to the Jews in Egypt. And they say, give you all a heart to worship me. Give you all a heart to worship me.

[21:53]

See, that's of course, and that has always been the deepest desire of the monastic mood of everyone. Worship God, but from the heart. Through that heart which God gives us, worship is not a matter of duty. Worship is not a matter of external ceremony. Worship is in that way not a contribution. It's not something, a price that I pay. But worship from the hearts that God has given to us. It's a dime over block. And therefore is in the depth of the heart. Nobody can worship who has not seen, who has not seen a degree of interiority.

[22:58]

Honest life is interior. It's interior. It's a matter of the heart. Therefore, not a matter of pomp and of ceremonies, external things, it's a matter of God. And therefore also keeps that simplicity, humility. A monk is a man who is the hidden man of God. Anything in monastic life, really, and the wounds are what they want to accomplish. that the individual may be effaced. A monk wants to disappear. That is one of his deep inner lies. He doesn't want to stand on a stage. He wants to disappear. He does so. He does so through the community life. He does so also in community worship.

[24:04]

So to worship him, if you are hard to worship, ask to do for his will with a great heart and a willing mind. Call the Father, Lord, and I will be with you. Eat not of the horrible things. God loves the cheerful. Call the Father, Lord, and I will be with you. That's the other aspect of the world. The monk is the hidden man of the heart, yes. But at the same time, he wants something, longs for something great. His life is not simply and only the average of an ordinary man. But he is a total surrender, and therefore also a new logic in locality.

[25:12]

Absoluteness is a characteristic of the monastic life of the world. He is not satisfied with just assigning a certain place to Christ within a great work of life which is dictated by the needs of the world. But he makes Christ the scepter. Love your God with all your heart. And with all your strength. And with everything that belongs to you. And that is what the one is. No meaning. A great heart and a willing mind. And there too, my dear friends, I sometimes worry. Do we have to destroy that generosity? We shall think that we shall have this pathology of it, the pathology of it.

[26:16]

But I feel sometimes that we are, of course that is human faith, that goes with every human mind. In some way we take back what we have put on the altar. In many ways we are merely too timid Even to enter into that absolute. We think, oh my God, we can't do that. Why? Because we look at ourselves. We don't look that God gives the heart. That God gives that big heart. And that the more we open ourselves in faith, to that word of love which God speaks to us, and which is peace, which is power, resurrection, a new life. And therefore, we don't dare to give ourselves to them.

[27:18]

But we take and keep something for ourselves. then may he open your heart in his law and his commandments. You see, that word of God which comes from the heart, which is the wisdom, who breathes the Spirit into our hearts, into the interior of our hearts, this God is there. One who also imposes his will in the form of his law and of his command. And therein, sometimes it is difficult. We have that, that we are on a base. We would not sit here, as most, if we were not clear and of this desire to be the hidden man of power.

[28:24]

We realize that monasticism is not a matter for that really the deepest essence of legislation. It's absolutely true to say that monasticism cannot be legislated into being. Absolutely true. No form, no external form can ever produce a man. Impossible. That we must speak that gift that the Father has given to us. That heart to worship and that heart to offer. But then too, this heart and this will needs, not as it needs to give it a great power, but as a means to guide it, and a means to make it fruitful.

[29:29]

It needs the law of man. It needs, in other words, the rule. It needs an order of life. And therein sometimes I wonder, do we realize the safety of this order of life? And do we have the respect and the willingness to establish that order of love without at the same time considering then the salvation and the saving of all our problems. That certainly is not the case. But we have to strike a wide balance between the interior spontaneity of the spirit and then also the external force. And that is the communion verse of this verse. And that is the last word of this.

[30:30]

That our Heavenly Father attests to us. And there it is in its reality in the sacrament, the celebration of that holy meal where the Heavenly Father is the host. The fruit that he gives to earth is his Son. And we are the guests in the Father's house. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, says the Lord. I wish and I pray to God that at the end of this retreat, the Holy Spirit hears us.

[31:30]

But that may be a real illness, you know, that Mount Segal is the house where the Heavenly Father is the host, where he gives us the peace, his song, in holy communion, his sacramentum, is the Holy Mass, the center of our life. And that there we are, our response, our answer, that we worship him. We worship him from the depth of our heart that he has given us. Give him glory. as that we do as we'll have him done. Oh, with a great big heart, and we don't settle for some kind of an average solution in which both things are kept.

[32:39]

God is under foot, appeased, and we have our own little place, our own firm heart to ourselves. Our liberty, our liberty, And as in that way that also we are willing to take upon ourselves the yoke, the yoke of its Lord, its commands. And in that way have that guard, that guard of the willing, that of the nasty guard. We haven't given it to ourselves, God has given it to us. So I recently realized that when we do that, and I have the feeling, I must say so often, just the other day when I was there at Christmas, you know, listening to the choir, I must say that, that's really what happens.

[33:49]

We're feeling that, and that is, there is a way. There is that, that God has given a heart to worship. And it is, it's expressed in our singing, the way of our worship. There's no doubt about it. You may not realize it because you hear it every day or maybe you don't even have a chance to listen to yourselves. But what does one realize? That the tremendous, a tremendous gift And so we should also use this retreat in that way to be thankful to one another. We are also hosts and guests towards one another. There is one word which I wanted to do with those who thought. I just wanted to end on it. That is a word of the psalm that strikes me.

[34:50]

That may be the theme of our retreat. Holding purchase air in close cover. The man of peace for whom I live. In whom I live. Whom purchase me in prosperity. It is absolutely true that our heavenly God speaks out of the silence of his loving heart the word which is this. who is our peace, and who gives us that peace. But he is waiting for the response. I was looking, as he said in the song, I was looking for a friend, and there was no one. That is, may we say, the great suffering.

[35:54]

that Christ will give him what he has to take. The suffering of God. He's looking for the band of peace. In healing, God puts his hope. And may I say also, you know, in thinking of him, looking forward to his redemption, at every moment, at this moment, And as a fruit of this retreat, and as a blessing of this retreat, I hope that also as the representative of God, I may find everyone a whole righteous man of peace, in whom I have put my trust in life.

[36:45]

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