The Monk is the Moral Parchist, in gross peril, the man of my peace, in whom I have put my trust. Now, peace is, as we know, the totality, totality of love. The school of the Department of Service The rule of a monastic life teaches us the art how to love God. To love God in peace means to love God on every level of our human existence. Yesterday we gave some thought to hospitality. I tried to explain to you hospitality as an integral part of the belonging to the totality of love, or let us better say, to the totality of agape, that means of God, divine, that is sending and saving love.

[01:19]

that God is our host and we are the guests, strangers that are taken in beyond their own merits into the home of their heavenly Father. And I try to show that the statement of St. Benedict in his rule that guests are never lacking in a monastery, is not simply a historical and therefore maybe accidental statement, perhaps provoked by the fact that at St. Benedict's time there were not enough places to house chaps, and that since there are enough today, therefore this function of monastery has ceased. I try to show that St. Benedict's statement is a theological statement.

[02:25]

It's based on the theological essence of things and not on any merely practical, historical, and therefore perhaps passing material needs which could be covered in a better way, more convenient, for the travelers as well as for the monks. That is not me. But hospitality is, as I try to show, a mystery. It is part of the mystery of the divine descending law and belongs to its fullness. We are theologically and eternally As human beings, we are guests here on this earth. And God is eternally, even in heaven, he is our host.

[03:30]

The incarnation itself, the word of God taking on human nature, is the basic act of divine hospitality. That is the example of all hospitality. The world taking on divine nature into that intimate bond of the human nature, into an infinite bond of the unity of the person. That is the mysterium hospitalitatus divinae, its clearest expression. And that is what we imitate in hospitality. We who are guests in God's house, through this basic act of divine hospitality, the incarnation completed in the passion of resurrection,

[04:41]

We who are guests in God's house, we are urged, impelled to be composed to those who have no hope and are looking for hope. But we become hosts in the way in which the incarnation is fulfilled. We take on, as it were, and take in with a modest step, the guests, not changing them, leaving them, as it were, in their nature. So to speak, you understand what I mean. A guest is not an object of transformation. That's not the meaning of hospitality. gift, and for that matter, is taken for what he is.

[05:45]

Therefore, true hospitality, as St. Chrysostom explains it so beautifully, does not ask many questions. So, but takes them into the unity of the person. That, I think, is the essence of our union, of our monastic hospitality. We leave the guests what they are, We don't make them into knots. But we take them intimately into the person, into that oneness, which is, of course, for us, what makes us one person, so to speak. It's not only still. It's the sharing in the Word. And that's what we do in the sacraments, in the refectory, in the teaching. And then now the same, what we try to show there, the same is true for the whole round of the activities which fill the day of the monk.

[06:52]

The monk is called to love God at every level of his being. That is perfection, totality, peace. And there again, the same is true what we said before. Hospitality is not a matter of material conveniences or inconveniences. So also the work of the mind and the wholeness of its life is not simply a matter we can dog-warn the elements if we think, you know, it isn't, you know, practical anymore. That's a dangerous way. It's a wrong way of thinking. That way I completely agree with the teaching of Father Hubert von Seder in his commentary on the Holy Room. He says, to appreciate the Benedictine way of life, it is necessary to see the whole thing as an equally balanced triangle of prayer, work, and reading.

[08:03]

Whatever the personal preferences, either in St. Benedict's mind or in the individual mind, and whatever the practical considerations which govern the distribution of hours actually involved in the respective duties, this three-sided frame or foundation is the explanation of the rule of the Benedictine vocation of the monastic tradition which has survived every sort of pressure from the out and every sort of false stress from within. It's absolutely true. We have to take in that way the monastic way of life as formulated in the whole of St. Benedict as a whole. This wholeness which constitutes the essence of the Vatican peace.

[09:07]

This wholeness is based on two things, the oneness of God and the wholeness, unity and variety, of God, whom God has created to be his lieutenant on this earth. the head and crown of this creation, its principio in the sense of the sub-token of the whole cosmos, world, a microcosm. Only if we keep this in mind are we able to understand the nature of the second Adam as the head in whom again all things receive their order. Only in this light are we able to understand the close relation between man and nature, which is so evident in the Old Testament.

[10:20]

The fall of man means a derangement of the whole cosmos. The judgment of man is an act which involves the whole of this creation. The powers of heaven shall be moved. And, of course, the resurrection of all creation can be understood only in this God. So therefore, this basic law of all creation, that is a solemn, eternal, never-shed statement. On that, the whole of the divine daughter rests. And man cannot come and simply for reasons of practicality of the moment,

[11:29]

True or not, the man as individual, that is to say, hopelessly involved, you know, in various violence and destructive tendencies, which after the fall of man filled the world, the mundus, we understand that word as the world was its left of creation, after man's fall. There, of course, the individual may, through practical necessities, just be pressed, killed, forced into a one-sided way of life in which the balance is lost. But nobody with his five senses would greet that, even in the world, as a great achievement, rather as a suffering, Because something there is dangerous for the progress, for the future of mankind.

[12:34]

But where will a man, a human being, impaled by the love for the one God, to give his whole to God, where he withdraws from the disorder and chaos of this fractured, punctured world of ours into a monastery, then we should do everything possible not to be drawn into the same destruction and chaos. But there is then a contemplative life, contemplative life is there to keep that onus. Not again, you know, let us say, to run off in the one direction, for example, of the mind. or from intellectual activities, but keep their course. That's the meaning of the monastery. For that, in my mind, is the deepest meaning of the monastery as paradise, restored, paradises.

[13:38]

Because our Jesus is not just two flying clouds. It is what's mine. It is the wholeness of man plus the work that's abounding in this place. That's paradise. So, therefore, that is evident. And therefore, even wrongly, you know, for that matter, in one of course, the alone with the alone that we interpret it in that way. That means the whole with the one. Monarchs. The whole man with the one God. Therefore this basic law of all creation is in the most solemn way stated in this majestic sentence which our Lord himself declares to be the sum total of God's will with man. Here in Israel, the Lord your God is war.

[14:43]

And then the following sentence. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with all your substance, all your possessions. Viribus. That's what it means. The heart stands for the inner man, the inner scepter. We call it sometimes in Latin, the mens, the mind. The soul, lineage, means the whole vitality of man, what makes him move, and all that is moved or moves in him. It lifts life. And therefore, including the life of the senses, the life of the will, the driving power of the will, the life, the vegetative life of man, everything that, for that matter, lives.

[15:56]

That's lit with your whole soul. You must keep that in mind to understand what follows. Then, meot, is really the sum of man's means and powers, or all that God has entrusted to his care in the concrete circumstances of his life. We would say his substance. This sometimes today we say his fortune. That is meant. That is therefore, come on with all that be most. See, therefore, three concentric circles. The inner man, the heart, the person, the message, that means the whole individual, the living individual, and everything, the world around this individual.

[16:59]

which God has put under his command, into his possession. That is, therefore, the love of God. And you can right away see, of these three, not one element can be left. If it would be, then it would be a denial of the unity of God and the destruction of the wholeness of man. And that was one of the reasons, for example, why the first commandments, I mean the explicit commandment of God directed to man, was do not eat this. Do not eat from this tree. And eating is there taken as the central act in which all these three things are involved.

[18:01]

Because eating, of course, in the Old Testament, as is fulfilled in the food that God prepares us in this world, and in the material food, and finally, our property, what belongs to us. That's all void, as it were, in the eating. So therefore, this first commandment, do not eat of this tree. the knowledge of good and evil. So, man therefore loves God on all levels of his life. That is so beautiful here expressed, and I just give you that as a little quotation from Elizabeth Browning, a Portuguese psalmist, one of the Portuguese. How do I love him, if you think of this life change?

[19:04]

How do I love him? Let me count the words. I love him to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach. When feeling out of sight, for the ends of being can die deeply. It's a wonderful description of the inner longing of the heart, which is restless until it rests in the world. I love him to the level of every day's most quiet needs, by a certain candor. I love him with the great smiles, tears of all my life. And if God choose, I shall love him better after death. So that is, that is what is meant here. One cannot leave out any of these things in a kind of arbitrary, whimsical way.

[20:16]

Man is servant of God, God's servants with everything he gives. The fullness, the way God has created. He cannot go and say, the mind, that's the only good. The rest doesn't. So therefore you can see right away now, in this, the monastic life is to learn the order of God. And how to love God. And the first of it of course. Is the offering of the heart. With all one heart. As the poet expresses it. With that inner reaching out. Beyond the limit of sight. To everything that is being. And it is ideal grace. And that is prayer.

[21:18]

Prayer is this reaching out of the heart for everything that is God's actual grace, due to the ends of being. Now this prayer again, as you know, said Benedict, immediately again starts the holiness, and therefore it's due for the public and the private. Because man, in fact, in the Old Testament, man is not full and whole. He is not a member of God's people. To the wholeness of man belongs the community of men. And notice even more in the New Testament. where the one head of Jesus Christ fills the whole of mankind with his body to constitute the Anthropos, the man, who with his head reaches to heaven and with his member fills the earth.

[22:30]

So public and private, And public, of course, I cannot treat those things in any exhaustive way. But let us just remember essential things which may be helpful for ourselves, for all of us, to be a better author and lover of the whole public. Public means man as a member of God's people. Public prayer, the prayer of man as a member of God's people. Now, in what relation, what's the relation of God's people to God? God's people appearing before the face of the king of the gnomes. That is the people. It's the holiness of man of mankind appearing before God as the king of the universe, king of the whole of mankind.

[23:42]

How is that, how is that expressed in this relation, expressed the king judging? Judging is a uniqueness of act. But what is judging in the Old Testament? Judging is to bring into the wholeness of God's peace. That's really the meaning of judgment. To establish peace in its wholeness. That is judgment. One can also say in this way, to be penetrated into every fold and loop of one's being by God's truth. Together with us. Together with all of God's children. Penetrating into every fold and nook of what's being.

[24:47]

By God's truth. Together with all of God's children. And in this way to be united. To become one. This kind of relation is expressed in the Jewish term for public official trade, tefillah. That is translated, it seems to me, in Latin, all right, by the word officio. Officio. Officio. Because officio expresses the public character. Ophiuchus is like what one does before the king in the court, the king's court, Ophiuchus. So one does it as the meleus Christi, as the soldier.

[25:48]

Therefore, you see, this kind, tefillin, is not, now I would like to emphasize, it's not the same as shiite. Shiaf in Hebrew is the spontaneous outpouring of one's heart on the individual person's heart before God. The classical example is there at the beginning of the New Covenant in the Old, that means the beginning where David, you know, begins to appear on the scene, is the prayer of Anna in the temple. Or in the first book of Samuel, the book of Samuel opens. There we find Manah in the tent. What does she do? That's not tepidah. That's shiach. That's the outpouring of the paths of the individual that pours out all misery of needs and of longings before God.

[26:56]

But that's not typical. So therefore, a feature. Therefore, this is not a spontaneous outpouring of oneself. But what is it? It's a receiving. It's a being in journey. So being penetrated by the divine truth of the king, the ruler, from the outside, one is being entered into or drawn into the kingdom of God, God as Lord. Therefore, this kind of prayer is prescribed And it is bound to certain orders. And the prayer which constitutes the tefillah, or what we call the divinum, the divine office, are not the expression of something that is already alive in us.

[28:05]

If that were the case, then the whole divine office would be hypocrisy. then it would be absolutely wrong, Protestants, of course, have a strong feeling, absolutely wrong to ring a bell at certain times and say, now we have to try. Nobody can be commanded to pour out his heart at a certain time. That's impossible. That's private. But St. Benedict doesn't, for that matter, appoint any times for private. If he says, you know, just at the end of the office, but just short. Because that cannot be assigned to any time. So, therefore, it's not expression of what is already alive. Therefore, I cannot say, oh my, there rings the bell.

[29:07]

I don't feel like praying. And therefore, I shouldn't pray. Because if I do, if I don't feel like praying, I'm just lying before God. It's a false pretext. That's not true. God is our King. And for that matter, God can, when He wants, He states the time and the time in which He, what does He do? In which He gives us the prayer. See, the divine office is given. And it is given, see, in the form of the word. That means the manifestation and the outpouring of the answer, you know, towards us. And therefore, St. Benedict must say, you know, I've quoted that out to you so often, but just for the, we are not gods. who are starting on the monastic way, but I repeat it again, that means the mind should be in harmony with the word.

[30:15]

St. Benedict does not say the word should be in harmony with the mind, but the mind should be in harmony with the word. The word is the canon, that's the raven, that's the public expression of God's will. of God's truth, I would say. Of God's truth. And that is, of course, done in God's way. That is the Holy Scripture. And in our doctrine as well. So that is, therefore, what is given to us. And the prayer is, now here you come, and you open your heart, and you let this divine truth penetrate into your inner self. And therefore, these prayers are not the expression of something that is already there. Therefore, if I don't feel like praying, that is the blessed invitation and admonition that I should pray.

[31:18]

But in the way in which the Tefillin indicates. That means, take in yourself and receive the word which is given to you. But therefore, this word, for us, it's the sun. They penetrate into us, and therefore, their effect is to create in our heart the light and the zeal and the truth. And that, of course, is perfect and completed in our Lord Jesus Christ. who has given us, by himself, not a sword, not a sword, like St. Francis's sword, the sword, for Lord Jesus Christ has not given us any sword, that kind of thing.

[32:21]

He has given us the Our Father, but the Our Father is really the subtotal of the whole soul, the subtotal of the whole intestine. of his population. So, again, you know, one would say, you see, if you look at the Our Father, one couldn't say, oh, there is this thing about, you give us today our daily bread. I think it's rather materialistic, I think. We better leave it out. So, the Our Fathers, again, you know, this parable is given to us, praying to us, is tefillah. And of course, our Lord says that in Mormon, it is the apostles' study. How should we pray? What should we pray? They don't know. And then the Tefillah didn't. Therefore, it's so right to say a Christian can spend his whole life just to penetrate into the Our Father and make it his own. A similar meaning, of course, is the legacy.

[33:24]

Lectio, and the Lectio is also an important thing, you see. It is, of course, there and belongs, you know, to the whole realm of the Tiffin. Also, the Lectio could not be understood in its importance if one doesn't understand, you know, that this here, the inner way in which our heart is formed is through the divine truth which is given to us in the Word of God. in Holy Scripture. And that becomes then the soil or the out of which our prayer, that means our spontaneous answer, the private prayer, the mental prayer, rises up. It rises up. It's a reflection of it, as I said, so often to you. Therefore, also for us, you know, in my mind, great blessing to have even a monastic life, you see, where the wall is tending towards the wall, to have the whole of Holy Scripture read once again for them all.

[34:38]

That is a kind of form of perfection. I wouldn't say that that is the ideal thing for every parish in the future, you know, that those things are being discussed. I hope you pray for the one thing, that the domestic life may not again, you know, be drawn, par force, into a scheme of the parochial life, which is meant for a different status in the Christian. I may add here perhaps one little word about, just to remind me, of monastic worship. You can see that already in St. Benedict's old ordinances in the Holy Rule, that he certainly makes a clear distinction between public prayer, the office, and the oratio. And the ovatio is that spontaneous outpouring of life, which is absolutely necessary for the fullness, you know, again, of the whole elastic life.

[35:48]

The circle is only then really closed, the circle of life. where the word descends from the heart of the Father, is received by the heart of man, and then is poured out again, given back to the Father, as it were, in the Holy Spirit and in Christ. Therefore, that belongs together. Also, the intimacy, the holiness of that matter, And therefore also the freedom of the men who fight. That is absolutely deceived. The Holy Spirit, you know, stirs us up. Then, you know, we should hesitate and simply enter at all times. He may simply enter into the oratorio and there he may try. So that is absolutely true. But we can also see who, as I said just before, there is certain rabies of ratio after the public divine office is indicated by St.

[36:59]

Benedict as a part of monastic, again, of monastic worship. Why? Because there is no doubt that a monastic service, this inner willingness of the heart, And also the familiarity with the word of God, you know, is ignosable. Therefore, monastic worship cannot, you know, have this kind of idea that here, you know, with delegated people, you know, that they rattle down certain hinges and we do this, you know, as a juridical performance. That, for the moment, is not that. that belongs to an atmosphere, general atmosphere, where the law prescribes immunity for, let us say, the ordinary average. And therefore, you see, if you have on one side, and that's a very interesting thing, if you

[38:02]

And observe, you know, as we said before, aria is causa episcopi, aria is causa antiporo. One thing is the bishop's problem, another one is the monk's problem. Yes, it was said beautifully, you know, I told you on this quotation. And one can see that, you know, also evidently. The divine, of course, you know, it's a difficult thing, you know, for the public average. And then you have these chapters, you know, with these old deans, you know, after they had served, you know, long in the service, you know, of the... parish, who then they gather around, you know, the bishop as consuls, and as those who then rattle down the divine office, you know, in public, you know, for the diocese. In this country they have dispensers who in that way, in some way, consist. But in Europe, not. And therefore one can see these spectaculum, for example, in St.

[39:08]

Peter's in Rome. Always remember that our Fr. Our Albert Humberstedt and my novice master who always have a little suspicion why this man comes to the Protestant Hanover. If he goes to Rome and sits, you know, at St. Peter's, the cabins, you know, Madeline Dahl, the divine officer, he loses faith. Now it wasn't that bad, you know, thanks to him, because he had kind of cushioned me, for sure. Well, now there it was, you see. So on one side we had to... And then, you know, as you have it, it's a wonderful thing in some way. And then after, you know, as you have it, it's a holy week. Certainly the week where mind and word, you know, should be in harmony with the whole Ecclesiae. And there you have, of course, the emphasis always put on the wrong place. They have the sound of Miserere, which was the tremendous thing, you know, for every, let us say, office, you know, in Holywick.

[40:15]

And then the sound of Miserere. On one side, you know, the cannot rattling down one verse in a terrific voice, but then comes the whole choir, you know, and the flirt of melodies and tones for the second verse. And then that is all that brought them together, isn't it? It's down to earth, up in heaven. Down to happening. And that is really unbelievable. Guess what? But you have the same thing, you know, you have it often, you have it once in a side chapter, you know, and it will say the countess of St. Peter. and so on. And then all attention is paid to who is present and who is not present. And then comes, you know, the mass, the soul mass. And there goes, it's a terrible thing, you see, for the mass of humans that really doesn't belong, you know.

[41:22]

Why? You see, to kind of, you see, make up, you know, to wake up, you know. And it's understandable for people who live in the world. The vanity by worship, let us say, must be something that really takes them out of the everyday. Because they are so, their whole life is so determined by the everyday low, you know, how to call it, low gear. I mean, as far as religion is concerned. And therefore, on a Sunday, there must be, you know, some opportune circumstance just to get out of that low-gear business, you know, which just dominates, necessarily, the man who lives in the world. And therefore, massacring with innocence and everything, it's very understandable if you

[42:29]

So, do you see now, in the heavy clip, you know, there's a scene in the instance for a gospel that we think, so all those things fall into pieces, but then doesn't realize that we are not a cathedral, you see, and that therefore we are not, you know, at most, you know, we don't live on that, you know, let us say, low gear thing. For us, therefore, what makes an anesthetic, of course, part of the art of loving God, If the art of loving God, you know, is too much wound up with the incense, that's not quite the wrong status. But the art of loving God for us, you know, is of course built up on the essential order of things as God has eternally established. The incense is for that matter not an eternal car. And clearly this, therefore, but the word, that's it, you know.

[43:32]

Therefore, for us, the solemnity, for example, the solemnity, we have, as monks, a different concept of solemnity. The monk is certainly not a cold fish, you know, that has to destroy, you know, every, let us say, every emotion, every affective state. I mean, I told you that before. We have to keep it. But at the same time, the affective state of the monk must be, and in that way it's absolutely true, the law that our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims. And we will worship him in the spirit and in the truth. In the spirit and in the truth. For the monk, you know, that is absolutely a must. The one who wants to learn the art of loving God in a perfect way. And therefore there is the word, and the word becomes the text of the Mass in some way, the determining factor for the solemnity.

[44:39]

The text of an office, of a feast day. Therefore the solemnity of the Mass is so much more based on the vigilance. And the mass of the catechumens is really a thing which is not at home in a monastic life. But then it is a typical parochial need. Therefore it's called mass of the catechumens. The monks are not, for that matter, catechumens. But then it's a public thing, where the truth of the church has to be spread. So when in the epistles of St. Paul, Paul says, now if somebody comes into you, you should then hear the truth. That's the verse of the catechism. It comes from the outside. For that matter, that is not genuine monastic. Therefore, there is constant conflict between the religious and the religious. We do sometimes the gospel, you know, now, among priests today, as it listens and announces the gospel three times.

[45:48]

First in features, then in his private moments. And that's conventional. That's a number of perfections. But you understand, you see. And therefore, you see, for us, And there is the great area, to my mind, I mean, I don't understand anything about music, but there is the great area, the great function of the Roman chapters. Because there it is a form with this sublita spiritus, which is an essential monastic concept, the sobriety of the Holy Spirit, where that is expressed. But it is expressed at the same time as the song. You see, as soon as an organ, you see, as soon as an organ, I have gifted a genius of an organist, but then, you know, he starts. Now that is...

[46:49]

I would say that's fine when I'm curious. I think everybody is invited, you know, to take part, you know, hundreds of thousands of people to be, you know, just out by themselves looking at the, let us say, the whole scene, you know. But that is, again, you know, that has a function, you know, to get man out. And I can very well imagine, you see, that in a monastery where people are day in and day out, you know, I mean, busy, and they have to fight, you know, with boys, schoolboys. If they go to church, you know, that's, I would say, they really want to hear at an organ as well, you know, you see, with all types and everything, you see, just to... get that right. And that is really true. I mean, the organ, you know, first of all, one can see that. More of the pressure of the outside world. In Greece, the more, you know, these attempts were made, like the Gothic cathedrals, and they don't provoke churches, and they provoke churches, and the organ are two things which belong very much to this history.

[48:03]

So, Yeah, but that has its place. Well, it has its place on the, let us say, on the causa episcopo. But causa non-acquotum is different. And there in the causa non-acquotum you always, you know, that the real affectus, the fullness of pure joy, is based and is derived from the ascension. from the world, from the divine manifestation. And then, you see, it is always expressed then in such a way that the whole man is taken in God's impartiality. That means in the measure, in the mensurum, sovietatis. That he is not simply fluttered by something. So, we can say... So that, of course, determines, you know, also the monastic worship.

[49:06]

And therefore, I want to just to remind you of something else, for example. I know that some people, we have the altar and there is the cross, isn't there? You see, and then, of course, the people, I can absolutely understand it, you know. Now, there is this, the poor altar, you without the cross. But then, you see, the monk has to go really, to go into the essence of things, you see. The altar in itself, first of all, for centuries it has, in itself, you know, had that meaning, in its cross. The altar is consecrated, if there's a cross on it or not. The altar in itself, our altar has even that consecration. Flemish, you know, and that quality that in itself the very table constitutes a cross. So that this idea of that the cross is the altar is in our, in the simple form of the altar itself, which is the best way to do it.

[50:12]

If you have an altar which is all marked, which is all, you know, there's a panel which has this, and there's another panel, there's another panel. Yet then, in the end, you need a cross to make people realize what is the essence of this whole apparatus. It needs, then, the accent of the cross to make people aware of the essence of it. Because there are so many details, you see. And many others it is. But our altar, thank God, is very simple. And the form of the altar is a cross. So this altar is a cross. And therefore we bowed before it. If we want to have a cross here, first there is always the inconvenience that the cross is one-sided. I mean, towards one side it shows the crucifix. So if somebody comes in here, many people have expressed that to me, yes, I like the cross, but I would like to look always at its back.

[51:14]

If I see it, I want the front, you see. Now, the front, of course, of the cross is turned towards the priest, because he is the official representative of the congregation. But, of course, when he is celebrating, therefore, when the priest is celebrating, the cross is there, basically. And he is seeing, you know, whatever, before his eyes. That is something which has a wonderful meaning, you see. But as such, you know, the altar is not in function. The altar itself is the crucifixion. And of course we have it in such a way that also the altar here in some way blends, you know, with the icon of the crucifixion which we have in the Blessed Sacrament, behind the Blessed Sacrament altar. And that too, to my mind, has a beautiful meaning. I think the set of dioceses now is a very good set. So, but you see, that is, of course, you know, it's good for the monk, you see.

[52:19]

He can, in that way, you know, absorb it, and as a contemplative, give himself to it. For example, the same thing is the celebration of the divine office. Then one has the feeling, oh my, there's no cross. So it seems as if the presence of Christ is somehow lacking. But of course, that's not the truth. For the presence of Christ is in the fraternities, is in the gathering of the brother brethren. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in their midst. I am in their midst. And there is, of course, the presence that the monk, especially in the Vita Communis, that he realizes. And that is why we gather together. I wish people who gather together would see it in their world. There is Christ in the unity of all of us.

[53:23]

It's a wonderful concept. But of course, it's a spiritual concept. It's not a concept which is immediately, as I say, evident, you know, to eyes who, as the ordinary people, are only, you know, trained to look at concrete steps. But this is a thing which belongs to the order of the spirit and the truth. But I wish to see that more and more as the monastic life goes on, every mind of this community would again penetrate into the true reality. The true reality is the reality of the spirit. And the one thing that will remain of our Saviour, it's not this altar, it's not a cross or no cross on it, you know. It's not even the Blessed Sacrament, but it is a communal sanctum where we are all together in the beatific vision and Christ is in our midst.

[54:35]

Let us pray. O Lord, we message thee, restore thy people within and without, that inasmuch as it is not thy way that they should be held back by the things of the body, thou mayst make them to be strong in the intent of the Spirit. So nourish them from the things that pass, that thou dost cause them to cleave rather to the things that bow to Christ our Lord.

[55:05]

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