with Joseph Gabriel. It's very good to be here. i'm coming off our retreat our community retreat so uh... hopefully all be able to build upon that as well but what i'd like to do in the course of retreat get enough uh... about my background will be a little anecdotes here and there you can receive them or reject them as you will uh... you'll find out enough uh... it will concentrate the retreat on the rule and on aspects of Benedictine spirituality, and I'll also try and shape a lot of what I say based upon the particular charism of Mount Savior, and I'll make mention of a few of the ways in which that will enter in. But I always like to begin with what we know Saint Benedict provides as the priority in our life, and it is prayer.

[01:04]

particularly our public and private prayer. And so I'd like to take from the rule, chapter 19, words that Benedict gives us on our divine office. We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that at every place the eyes of the Lord are watching the good and the wicked. But beyond the least doubt we should believe this to be especially true when we celebrate the divine office. Let us consider then how we ought to behave in the presence of God and his angels and let us stand to sing the Psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices. Well, we know monks pray. Some do it more frequently and with greater edification than others. We certainly know that we're going to start a retreat, it's a healthy thing to review our prayer life, and I'd like to this morning do that in three different forms, our public prayer, our private prayer, and our Lectio.

[02:20]

Certainly, if we look at Benedict's comments on the Opus Dei, the work of God, we see it's both the principal duty we have and it's the overriding activity of our daily life. We know in the rule we have those 12 chapters that go into great detail on the description of the work of God, how it is to be performed. And he gives us some very good hallmarks towards the end of that liturgical code in chapters 19 and 20 on our prayer. He said it should be done with a profound awareness of God being present with a harmony of mind and voice, with purity of heart, with brevity. What Benedict doesn't say, but what we know monastic history affirms, is that this public prayer of our community is very revealing of our corporate personality.

[03:23]

If there's attention in the community, it's going to emerge in the divine office. If there's reverence for persons and space, that's engendered by our community life, it's going to be reflected in the way we pray. And like so much of our life, the measure of service, to use that famous phrase of Benedict that the office provides, is a very good test of anyone's ability to live in community. If you really look at people who reach that point, and it comes sometime, it's after the first fervor, of course, but we know they are in the community, they are not just comfortable with, but they are invested in the prayer life of the community. Something about the cycle of the Psalms and the Kims, the reading and the silence, that takes us into this liturgical rhythm of life. And, of course, it's different than the rhythm of the rest of the world that we know is out there, which is very abrupt, and especially today with our social media and technology very abbreviated and is led by fits and starts.

[04:37]

I think there's also this discipline of rising early and interrupting our daily patterns of work that characterizes what we do as monks we have a few younger monks in our community, and I was asking them about changes in their life, and they commented on getting up early, and one of them asked me, did you have to go through that problem? Was it difficult? And I granted when I was 19, but I think from about the age of 30, I've just been naturally getting up about 4 or 4.15, wherever I go, whatever season, and I think it just reflected at a certain time in my life, that was it. That was the rhythm I was living, and it was a good rhythm. We also know that Benedict, in chapter 58, says that eagerness for the work of God is a criterion for the novice's entrance into the community.

[05:40]

And we know, of course, the famous quote in chapter 43, that nothing is to be preferred to the work of God. Even, you know, when Benedict talks about the guest in chapter 53, they're led in the community, they're led, first of all, to pray with the community. So whether we call it the liturgy of the hours, the divine office, the work of God, these hours of our day and night, where we come together and worship, are key to understanding the rhythm and the energy of a community's spiritual life. We know, too, that this public prayer coupled with the daily celebration of the Eucharist is the engine that runs anything else we do. Whether it's the farm work, we can see that every extension of the community and individuals who work in the community comes from the divine office. I find it very interesting, too, in the rule you get those areas where perhaps we least expect

[06:48]

a principle is established in what is known as the disciplinary code, chapters 23 through 30. Benedict is dealing with the monks who've messed up, as my students like to say, and what he does to motivate them is take them away from the divine office. They can't be there at that public prayer. It's a type of shunning, and of course in the Mediterranean world of Benedict's time, it created a sense of shame as well, but I think most of all Benedict wanted the monk to feel that disconnect from the lifeline of the community, not being able to go to the divine office. It is truly a major means of our spiritual sustenance, and I think The way we pray our divine office is a very accurate measuring stick of a community's spiritual health. Over time I just can recognize that the divine office reveals the personality of our community in a way no other activity can.

[07:54]

Something like what used to be the family dinner table. Michael Casey, who I will probably quote at some length, I'm a great fan of what Michael Casey has this to say, he says, it's my belief that even a rudimentary fidelity to the Opus Dei is often sufficient to keep a precarious community on life support until better days arrive. almost have a wry smile with that, but I think of even monastic history, there's the famous scene of Bede as a young man, first going into Wyrmouth, Gerald of sickness has taken away the whole community and he's there with uh... Wilfred and others, the two of them are saying the divine office and somehow they keep it up and uh... other monks come in, but it was that saying the office together that kept them going and you know we do that aware of how the divine office exposes us to our vulnerability.

[09:00]

Every community, no matter how small, how big, we've got the fidgeters, we've got the coughers, we've got the tone deaf. We're all together and we're trying to make this something beautiful for God. I'm always mindful of Benedict in chapter 72 talking about the weaknesses of body and behavior. We certainly experience them in the divine office, and we expect that somehow the Lord will meld all that human fallibility into something that is praiseworthy. And I think it becomes clear what happens when we don't have the divine office. There's a discernible spiritual void in the life of the community. Whenever I'm outside the monastery, I really feel that absence, there's a spiritual void. We know that the ancient monks adopted the divine office as a means of complying with that scriptural exhortation of praying always.

[10:07]

And of course, John Cashion in his conferences, especially conference nine, wants to insist upon that importance of persistence in prayer. staying with prayer. And a lie to that is the way in which monastic tradition has always looked at the puritas cordis, the purity of heart, that is essential to establish that. You know, we had, of course, the Beatitudes in our Gospel reading today, and we had that assurance of seeing God It's a lifelong thing, this purity of heart, and we'll talk a little bit about distractions, but it's being fixed on one thing, and it's having that clarity and single-mindedness that allows us to always have the object in mind, which of course is Christ. Cassian, of course, gives us that image of an arrow going straight to the target,

[11:13]

But I think for Benedict, that purity of heart is also accompanied always by compunction. If you look in the rule, that quality of compunction, literally, that the prayer with tears, the prayer that comes from the recognition We have sinned, and our heart is literally punctured with our sorrow for that sin, but we also are aware that our sins have been, through Christ's redemption, taken away. And there's this sense of being completely taken up with the immensity of this gift that allows us to pray. And I think, too, you know, the invocation constantly, Pope Francis is made of God's mercy, that idea of compunction so closely connected to feeling, feeling God's mercy at work with us. At prayer, sometimes it just comes in a way that we realize, especially in the Psalms, God's mercy constantly in our life, being with us.

[12:21]

The structure of the divine office, too, is a natural corrective to our human weakness. You know, we, left to our own devices, we're probably not going to be as disciplined as we will be if we're attentive to the divine office each day. Just going there, being present. And that recognition is a weakness we all share is important. But, of course, our public prayer is always balanced by the private prayer of the community members. Both of them have to go together, and Benedict certainly respected that in chapter 53. He wants to let those people who want to linger stay, and I think he recognizes that here, too, there's a striking balance and rhythmic alternation. And, you know, our private prayer can take on many different norms and practices, but it has to be an integral component in our life.

[13:27]

Father Robert Barron, who is quite the name right now in Iberian Catholic circles, is a priest at the Chicago Archdiocese. I don't know if you've seen the Catholic City of Sierra Leone. And he's a graduate of Benet Academy, which is a nearby school. But Barron grew up, you've probably heard this if you've seen him, in the 70s and 80s, and he felt deprived, you know, he just had very little in terms of content for what he would call catechesis. But he also said, you know, what he felt deprived of was a devotional life. A number of us in this room, if we grew up at a certain time, and I barely qualify, but I'm a cradle Catholic, and I mean, 40 hours devotion, daily rosary, Way of the Cross, I mean all those things were part of our lives. We just, you know, it was the fabric we lived in. As you were saying the memoriary last time, I remember saying the memoriary, learning it at the age of six and seven.

[14:35]

Well, again, I've taught adolescents for 35 years and I've also dealt with their adults. That's an incredible void. That devotional life of private prayer is not something you can presume. Father Barron mentions how, in many respects, he had to try and retrieve that, recover that, when he was an adult. So, I say that with regard to private prayer, we have to nurture what I would call a devotional life, and I think we see that today, the great desire for Eucharistic adoration So many of the symbols and forms that were long associated with the devotional life of the church prior to the 1970s and 80s, those are the things we need to respect. But, you know, we will have our private prayer, but we'll also have our distractions, what the ancient monks called the logismoi, or thoughts.

[15:41]

And the monk, no less than other Christians, knows the struggle of seeking to spend time in prayer with the Lord, and it's always being undercut by these crazy things, you know, we're talking about our past, what memory does, you know, we're thinking about lunch, we're thinking about the latest critique we've just gotten from our confrer, all that just coming in. And we need to see that the origin of most of this is the evil one. And it's also coming from the detritus of our egos. And I always think, at least for me, I mean, I love the Jesus prayer, and I suggest if you haven't tried it, to take that Jesus prayer as a means of coming back to the Lord when distractions come. But Benedict gives us that image in chapter four of the rule, And it's a striking one, of course, it's from the Psalms, Psalm 137, to dash our evil thoughts against the rock of Christ.

[16:43]

And I think, you know, it's just a marvelous way in which we take that very resource we treasure so much, scripture, and use it. And in our weakness and vulnerability, we entrust Christ to do what he can. I also have always been fond I was fortunate, when I was a young monk, someone gave me the letters of John Chapman. I don't know if you've ever read them, but he was an English abbot, early 20th century, and one of the famous quotes in those letters is on prayer, and he says, pray as you can, and don't try to pray as you cannot. Take yourself as you find yourself. The only way to pray is to pray, and the way to pray well is to pray much. The less one prays, the worse it goes. And boy, that is so true. And that's just a healthy realism, and it runs throughout, I think, the Benedictine tradition.

[17:48]

You know, we've had mystics, men and women with extraordinary gifts of prayer, but The wider space in our Benedictine legacy is allotted to people who, you know, have weaknesses of body and spirit requiring these supportive structures of prayer in our communities. And even though we may not be experts or teachers of prayer, I think there's a cumulative effect when a climate of prayer exists that you learn that this is the spiritual pulse of the community life, and that if you take part in it, our transformation is at work. The conversatio that we'll talk about later is going to take place. And for those who come to monasteries with a desire to pray, it's evident that

[18:50]

There are other people who want to do that as well, and we're going to have visitors who want to associate with us. And the key, of course, you know, we want to avoid becoming some arcane museum or religious theme park for prayer. That's not what it's about. We're about having people come in and really become part of our prayer. And to my mind, at least a challenge for you at Mount Savior, is to see how closely allied your history is with the liturgical movement of the church, which of course started in Europe in the late 19th, 30th, 20th century, and was taken over to this country, not just by Virgil Michael and St. John, but certainly Damasus Winsden. And I think, you know, I don't know, how many people have been to Maria Locke? You know, there's really something about that abbey and what it did in Germany in the 1920s and 30s especially, that Damasus Winston journalized that I just think was a marvelous way of anticipating

[20:08]

what we know took place at Vatican Council II with Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. And there's this steepened understanding of how the liturgy, but prayer, the Church, is for all. And there's this essential idea of having everyone participate fully and actively in it, guests included. And to make, as well, a conscious connection between the moral life of the baptized Christian and the liturgical life of the Church, allowing everyone to enter more deeply into the mystery of Christ, if we look at Even again, Damasus Winston, I think, and I'm sure you're aware of Martin Shannon has chronicled this, what he did at the time of Vatican II and trying to incorporate a psalmody in the vernacular that was going to respect the rich liturgical tradition but also invite a fuller participation.

[21:24]

I mean, that was an incredibly prophetic and an incredibly important pathway for so much of our understanding of what monastic life can do for the Church. And I just think it's important for you to revisit that from time to time to see if you have a responsibility to maintain that tradition. Another expectation that some have about Benedictine men and women is that we're specialists in prayer and all things liturgical. Little do they know, huh? You know, I remember I was out of the monastery two years, and I had to get a master's at the University of Notre Dame, and then I was with the Jesuits in Chicago for a year. And in both places, I was really raw and green. And I was a Benedictine, so any question of the liturgy came up, and they came to me, and they asked, what do you do?

[22:30]

And I said, I don't know. But it made me recognize, I mean, that this was expected. I mean, I'm a Benedictine, I should know these things that we do liturgically. And there is, you know, with the years again, a great learning by osmosis that takes place within the monastery. We have people, first of all, who love the liturgical life, love the life of prayer. We can learn. And certainly, it doesn't necessarily make us liturgical specialists, but if we're going to spend a greater part of our life in a setting of prayer, I think we develop this habitual, instinctive sense of what is good and what is helpful in prayer and what we need to exclude. And a lot of this, of course, again, is this rhythm of the spoken word in silence, the alternation of the choirs, the active engagement, passive reflection.

[23:39]

This is what our spiritual life is all about, and certainly it's a good sound model we can pass on for others. And we do it too in this place where the places can do so. You know, Benedict uses that wonderful Latin phrase, Domus Dei. The monastery is the house of God. And, you know, if we consciously enter each day with that mindfulness, it's going to reflect itself. We will pray better. Again, coming back from retreat, we also have a jubilee day after our retreat, and I was the jubilarian this year, 40 years of priesthood, and one of the people on our jubilee day came up to me and said, They're wonderful. What kept you here? I expected me to go a long time ago. And I really, you know, said in as sincere a way as possible, it's the daily rhythm of the life.

[24:42]

There's something in it that sustains us and nourishes us. And, you know, it's not easily explainable. You don't unpack that and boop, [...] and bullet points, but I think you live it. And if people see a certain radiance there, they will pick up on that. And I think I had a sense of that. One of the places I went for my formation was in Rome, in San Anselmo. And again, I was a very young man, and I remember going out into the cloister at San Anselmo after a morning office. And we had some very holy people there. In fact, I'll name one, if you, Cipriano Vagacini, who was instrumental with Father Damasis in doing a lot of this work of incorporating document allergy. But they would be walking, and there was this radiance that just came from that. I mean, you had to know this person had spent his whole life getting closer to God.

[25:48]

And, you know, it was not put on, it was very authentic. And it just struck me, and there were several other people like that, that this is the real thing. And it is worth staying the course if you can experience some of that deep joy and radiance that they had. I think another treasure of our monastic tradition that we should at least allude to in this opening conference is Alexio Divina. You know, it's something that has entered now the general lexicon of the Church's spiritual life. It's quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We know it's practiced by increasing numbers of people, non-monastics. I mean, there are Ignatian Lectio Divina, there's Carmelite Lectio Divina, there's all types of different people who've kind of given their little stamp on it. But it's something that has been the beneficiary of the renewed importance given to Scripture by the Catholic Church in the wake of all the reforms of Vatican Council II.

[26:57]

And I think, as Benedictines, we have a very primary responsibility for fostering the spirit and spiritual legacy of Lectio in its origins. certainly we know that in the rule Alexio was practiced. Benedict assigns it a privileged space, gives it a special time, and it's always prime time. It's there on Sundays, we read that in chapter 48, more of the time is allowed during Lent. It's at that time when we're at our peak receptivity, and certainly Benedict wanted it to have a central place, and that's why it's always heartening to go to monasteries where we see the primacy of place given to it. Obviously here, in that period of Lectio in the morning, that is the activity that should dominate that part of the day, and when everyone is doing it together,

[28:08]

It really creates a type of force field where this can ensure, okay, we are being obedient to this vital and absolutely essential part of our life. And I think that's the one thing that's carried through in the years since what I would call the retrieval of Lectio Divina. It's not a luxury option. It's just at the heart of what we need to do if we're going to enter more deeply into our spiritual life. And again, you can see the difference in people who have done Lectio. Of course, in our patristic readings, we marvel at the depth of the patristic readings we have at office. Well, these were people who were doing Lectio. And I think today, some of these authors who are most popular are people who have done very serious Lectio Divina. We do need to see that the end of Lectio is formation.

[29:16]

It's not information. It's a formation that is generative, that leads us to Christ, takes us deeper into the paschal mystery. It's also helpful to remember the words of our Abbot Kleinman, Nodker Wolf, He said that the future health of Benedictine life and our world is intimately tied to how faithful and how fruitful we are in doing our Lectio Divina. I think, you know, the monastery should be this natural habitat for Lectio. A great quote, if you know, Sister Irene Noel, she's a sister of Atchison at the Mount St. Scholastica Abbey, and just a wonderful presence. But she says, it's our native language. And I think she's very correct. Anyone who does Lectio on a regular basis

[30:21]

has got to see that something happens. And it's grace at work, it's our heart being touched, it's entering into a special culture, a culture of the word, where there is transformation and formation taking place. And certainly it's a very good measuring stick. If we talk about prayer, the less one prays, the worse it gets, well, if Lectio disappears, the spiritual life of the house is going to go south very quickly. My own experience of Lectio, and again, if there was this devotional void I was talking about with respect to Father Barron, We did spiritual reading when I went into the monastery, and I only was able to develop a practice of Lectio somewhat later.

[31:25]

But I'm surprised at how widespread it has become. You know, I teach two classes of theology at Marmion Academy, and I introduce the students to Lectio, and I'm just very gratified. If I give them, we occasionally have a free period on a Friday, and I would say Lectio or some other activities. They love to do the Lectio, and they do it with incredible intensity and sincerity. I help with the Oblates, and when occasionally for one of our formation times, I'll ask, should we do Lectio? Oh yes, we want to do Lectio. People have a sense of the potency of Lectio Divina, and they're hungry for it. You know, we do need to model this, and group Lectio certainly has had a very positive effect.

[32:38]

Private Lectio, I just think, is one of those things that you marvel over the years has all types of different layers of formation. Which is not to underplay the challenge, you know, it's a discipline, it demands assiduous practice, a focus of all of our resources, and it certainly puts us in opposition to a lot of the modes of what we do today. You know, memorization, of course, has gone out. Close reading, deep reading, that's something we simply don't do anymore. Lexio is the antithesis of all the modern technological electronic social media, and I think all the more important that we maintain it. And I think there too, you know, if someone asked me, can I do my Lexio on my, you know, e-reader, well, or the evier than not at all, but there's something about the text that's important.

[33:46]

This is the way it's done, and I think having even that visceral contact with the text is something I'd like to keep. But certainly, you know, our cultivation of Lectio is going to be vital for our contribution to the Church and to one another. So I think a goal for the retreat would be to cultivate our skill in performing and renewing our appreciation for the divine office, monastic liturgy, private prayer, and Lectio, and hopefully we can take time to do that. And I will enter into other dimensions of that as we go on. And before going on, I might just say there is a sign-up sheet here for appointments. If you'd like to make them, you certainly can do so. Put your name right there. And I'm not going to be going anywhere else this week, so I'll be around.

[34:50]

But thank you for your attention, and we'll see you at prayer.

[34:55]

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