Now, it's said that Bernadotte and I are together to rob. That's of course a thing in which the whole community, I'm sure, is eager to take a part. how they do it in this way that we have taken some pictures and might as soon as possible develop those and I'm sure that Father Martin would be delighted then to explain it sometimes in the evening to have somewhere shown and with it kind of give you a picture of the external things, the things that we saw and so on. We had, this is not exactly the traveling season, and we also had reason to see why it isn't, but on the whole we were quite lucky too as far as the

[01:12]

Weather is concerned, we froze a little, I think, in Rome. So there is Father Joseph's happy days, Father Joseph's great Augustine. Yes, I have a stove. We didn't have any stairs. It's too comfortable. But it's of course very... I would like very much to touch on some points of the things that we talked about and that have an importance for the community. Of course the first thing is the divine office. As you remember, we got this permission as a temporary thing during the period of building the monastery and so on.

[02:22]

Of course it wasn't only a practical thing, it was also a way of, some way of Now getting the ball rolling concerning the monastic office, because it was evident that there is a certain unrest also within the Benedictine Confederation. And the problem of monastic worship is very acute for many acts. As always in those cases, we have seen it during this whole period of the Council, there are those who stand on the Semper Iden, which of course has also its great and important reasons. In some way in all these things of custom and tradition there is In some way, they are in the...

[03:24]

a favorable position. As I say, it's not without a very deep reason. However, we also know that times in many ways are changing, that the Church, just through the Council, through all the things that have dawned on us in these last years, and there are lots of new aspects and new problems are rising, which are absolutely not rising out of any kind of stupid, you know, copita snowball of a childish longing for change, not which are really have their deep inner meaning and their reasons and their real needs, their spiritual needs, there's no doubt about it. Now, and that was the reason why we did this.

[04:32]

It's also the reason why we printed it and why we send it to the various habits all over the Confederation. And there was a very vivid echo from cars in different ways, from all sides, all great interests were shown. It was evident that as soon as the news, and one cannot in such a case simply keep a permission like that under the cover of science, it's impossible. The way the church is built and is working, what happens in one little spot, you know, it's right immediately all over the place. So therefore it was also evident that as soon as this became known that we had this privilege, some abbots uttered their misgivings about it and I also received

[05:35]

especially one letter to that effect, you know, in which it was, regret was expressed that such a precedent had been allowed by the avid primate. And so, under the, I can say, the also understandable influence of those voices, the avid primate became a little, let's say, a little jittery. And the way I tried to cope with that was first to assure him of the We asked all the members of the community about their attitude towards the divine office that we have been saying. As you know, 24 were asked, of these 24, 22 expressed themselves in favor of it, so there was a more unanimity on the part of the community.

[06:41]

And then there was also, if there were some voices which had misgivings about giving us this permission, there were other abbots in the Confederation who were very happy that we did this and had this permission. And so I asked several abbots in order to give the Prime to the Prime a kind of balanced picture. because I just don't see why, in cases like this, the Beate Posedente should be the only one who are being heard and therefore allowed to kind of dominate the seat. There are others and Audiato et Altera Pars is, I think, a completely legitimate procedure in a case like this. And for the avid primate, it seems to me that the avid primate's function is to be above. values, opinions, and that means also to give to everybody the possibility of expressing himself.

[07:43]

And so with that we went to Rome and I found there that then that the Abbot Primate was very nervous about the whole thing, but that wasn't only the Abbot Primate, that was the entire situation there. Those in charge, you know there was this controversy about the motu proprio with which the liturgical constitution had been put into practice on February 16 and the interpretation of it and was it drawing back from what the council had already decided upon and what it was not. So all these things, there was great excitement and then as it is in those cases, maybe sometimes also one may say in Europe, those variety, these differences of opinion take a kind of a kind of acute character and one is kind of ready to hit the other one over the hip and things and then tensions arise and of course certainly the spirits get heated up which is bad you know in a case like that it's really bad but

[09:03]

That was the situation which we found. And personally I must say that I had immediately, I had the feeling that if the Abbot Primer told me that he would not anymore say a word in favor of our keeping this office. That was, as I say, partly was in order to kind of cleanse himself of any impurities that he had contracted in the past. Well, you know, I imagined that, but that was the thing. And then one must say, so I was interiorly thinking it over. First I was disappointed, but then On the other hand, thinking it over in the context of the whole situation, I must say that I really wasn't too sorry about it.

[10:04]

I think by the very fact, you know, that we comply with this demand of the church ecclesiastical authority, First of all, it really kind of gives, exonerates, as it were, the other planet gives him a better position in the future. And also, in some way, gives us a better position in the future. I mean, that way, too, I must say that Our proposition, the proposition that Father Wafer has made in this divine office, as he composed it, cannot be merely considered as the ultima ratio, as the last word, as the thing. Because there are many pros and cons in this thing. not continuing it in this way. I think the community does and contributes to what the ecclesiastical authority wants and I think rightly so and wisely so.

[11:15]

To say now dear friends let us not in this moment of excitement rush into all kinds of things that really in the future may not stand. the critique of the future times, but let us really go in this way, let us go slowly and let us think really about what we are doing and let us plan it together. And that of course hadn't been done up to now. Noah Abbott knew what the other Abbott was doing. That was another factor which contributed to the tension that there were Arabs who not only expressed their favorable attitude towards the permission that we had to receive, but who also asked for special privileges for themselves.

[12:16]

For example, to introduce and have the office set in the vernacular that of course at this moment and under the circumstances which were there in Rome and where this question of the vernacular had been kind of again made acute by some regional bishops conventions through the media had declared you know and publish a text and so on and they're doing things in vernacular also in the mass and there was a question now do these texts have to be approved by the central authority of Rome, what time, before anything could be done, or could it be after things have been put, all these kinds of questions where they are buzzing about, you know, and contributed to the as I say general nervousness there and of course then the demand of doing things in the office in vernacular where again not to say received favorably also for this reason that at this moment one cannot possibly grant to this abbot this privilege and to another abbot another privilege and so on it's just not the way we can do it I mean

[13:42]

Council has given, and this whole time gives us such a good example, I think, that the Church simply is not made that way. We have one great, let's say, advantage in the Roman Catholic Church and under the central authority, in the clear authority of the Holy Father, then it is this, that we must do things really, working them out among ourselves. That's of course by the nature of the differences which are there, that is a thing that just cannot be done from one day to the other. So that in that way I think it's a good thing for us to applying to do this and to do it really is a sacrifice but I think the whole community should make this sacrifice in order that this cause of a peaceful evolution and in order to prevent a kind of revolution which would start a chaos all over

[14:53]

that we do it in the service of a quiet and organic evolution. That is simply also the wish of the ecclesiastical authority. I would, if I consider especially the position, for example, of the Congregation of Religious in this time, I know that's a organic evolution is really what they want, and I think that's a very wise position, and we can only be glad to know that that is the general attitude, also doubtlessly the general attitude of the Holy Father. How, in the concrete moments and cases, you know, this, let us say, this caution and this organic evolution is being predicted, that is not up to us. That we must simply receive it, and in that way answer to it in obedience. But of course, an obedience does not prevent us from, at the same time,

[15:59]

developing, and thinking, and meditating, and also praying about the problems that we are facing. It's a question of how do we serve God best, and how through the service of God the souls are being saved. That is the essential question, also for us. But of course that's a thing that just cannot be done from one day to the other and it cannot be done piecemeal. That's just impossible. So in that way I'm glad, you know, that we do it this way and we have to do it this way. I'm sure it's a sacrifice which can only be blessed. And in the meantime, of course, the problems as such, they take their way. You know, when I got to Rome, the Abbot Primate was very hesitant.

[17:01]

the mere idea of sending out to the habits a kind of circular in which he even would invite, you know, to an expression of opinions and a ventilation and real discussion of the problems concerning the culture. with the help of God, he just came at the right time there, and as it turned out, also with the full backing of the higher authorities, the Abbot Private then decided and formulated a circular, which then was sent out to the presidents of all the various congregations, and to be then also said to every abbot, to the effect, no, that at this moment individual abbots and also congregations should not ask piecemeal for this or that privilege, but should rather in every monastery, in every abbey, in every congregation,

[18:14]

all over the world really seriously study and discuss the question of monastic worship and that they should then hear results of it, you know, should be made known also and read to the other private So that in this way then the Abbott's Congress of 1965 would be prepared in a way that the Abbott's in 1965 would not meet, completely unprepared, and then in five days try to decide questions for which nobody really knows enough about it to make any decisions. So, and that is now in motion. That is especially, I must say, to find. great joy also received very favorably here in this country and the American Habits are especially eager and especially open for the questions of monastic worship and very eager to discuss them.

[19:28]

I have a meeting then at the beginning of this coming week in Chicago where So this, you know, is being discussed and how to go about it in various Abbeys and congregations. So, as I say, on the whole, I think that was one of the most important also results of our trip that's in that way a organic really and quiet and deep and searching clarification of our position as monks and monastic office and so on in our life and the form of it in that way can be It's kind of begun, has begun. So that I say it's really a thing that's not only in the United States, but it's also in Europe.

[20:37]

Just before I left for Europe, I got an invitation from the abbot of Saint-André to visit him. He explained his own position and he was eager to have something just on the problem of divine office started. made already established contact with various abbots in Europe. Then when we came to Munich, there were some abbots there, Bavarian, from Bavaria. And we had spent the whole Sunday also discussing these things. And I had asked Father Wafer to come to Munich, so we had, I must say, a very fruitful, really very fruitful meeting there. We could also see that many of the points of view, that points of view that Father Wafel brought into the discussion, where to several habits, you know, just completely new, just a completely new kind of, one can say, kind of revelation, and also they help you.

[21:53]

That's of course what we want. We don't want to make propaganda for the Mount Saviour office, you know. But we want to help, you know, the whole plastic cause, you know, in this stage of inner transformation, you know, to find the right way, you know, of divine office. So in that way I think the trip was very rewarding and in its way important. And I wanted to ask you, you know, in these days and also during this period of Lent, and to make that your special one of your intentions. All these considerations can take place in peace and in order and as a real evolution can take place which in the end also may be hoped for in the Benedictine Confederation then when about a real

[23:09]

moral unanimity or certain propositions that we could then make to the higher ecclesiastical authorities. It's impossible. The ecclesiastical authorities cannot deal individually with every individual. That is absolutely impossible. There must be on the part of the whole confederation, and not only of confederation, but of the entire monastic order. For the Trappists belong to it, the Cistercians belong to it, and Kvalnulis, and so on, all these various groups, a kind of inner more unanimity be reached. But you can see there, of course, that there is a matter that cannot be done from one day to the other, so that we are good patients, positive and constructive patients,

[24:12]

Let us deal with those things. And let's at the same time, too, in our own circle, our own community, get together and discuss. And so in that way also make it for ourselves, you know, clearer what we really want, and not only what we want, but what we want under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It's not a matter of individual wishes and so on, but it's a matter of finding out what God wants for us in these days. So, as Father felt it. Thank you for the letters you have written. for Rome and what made me rejoice as they and several mentioned that the Lenten season was a fruitful one and having its inner effect on the heart.

[25:19]

So with the this week this coming Sunday we entering to the last phase of it. The time that we call the passion talk. Let me try in this little conference to help for us all to enter into that spirit more deeply at the hand of Holy Scripture and to drink in the Word as it were and to chew it so to make it really deeply our own. I'm thinking tonight of the Word of John 3.16 John 3.16 which is God so loved the world that he gave up, which I quoted here according to the translation of Ronald Knox.

[26:29]

Thou so loved the world's that he gave up his only begotten son that those who believe in him may not perish but have eternal life. And let us try it a little, let us go through it word by word. It is always the words of Holy Scripture. Tremendous and so that it is impossible, as you know, to really do justice to them, as we used to say. Agapism, agapism. God loved the world. That means he loved it, not in a kind of general innate attitude. of the Father, the Universal Father and Creator of all things, but loved as a historical fact in a certain definite event.

[27:45]

A historical event. God loving the world. in a definite way here on earth, and in a recognizable way, so that his love, this act of his love, can become the object of the church's tradition, the church teaching, the church preaching, preaching it with good tidings the gospel as St. John says in his first letter in the beginning our message concerns that word who is life what he was from the first and what we have heard about him

[28:52]

what our own eyes have seen of him, what it was that met our gaze and the touch of our hands. In that concrete way we speak and we understand, we see the gaze, the experience, you know, recognize God's love. in this historical concrete event of the incarnation, of the death and the resurrection of the Word of God made flesh. Then the object of this love is love the world, the cosmos. And let us think about what that is and how it is described in Holy Scripture and especially in the beginning, the prologue of the Gospel of Saint John.

[30:00]

The world, God so loved the world, if one reads it there in its immediate sense, the cosmos, yes, evidently it is. It is man's world. and man's world considered as a unit and as something let's say organized as a unit which is opposed to God as a whole this opposition to God is not because the world will be bad out of itself by its being material or visible because we hear in the Prologue that it was created made by God that God owns this world he came into his own but his own received him not and also this world it was not so that

[31:15]

came out of the hands of God, it was good as it came out of the hands of God, the Creator. Not that God would have left it to itself, left it alone, but God then sent his light, and the light came that illumines every man born in this world. The light, then, is the light of a covenant. It's the light of God's wisdom. It's the light by which God invites man and declares and reveals to man the covenant, that covenant that he makes. Beyond the Order of Creation is the Order of the Covenant. The Order of Creation concerns the existence of this world.

[32:23]

The Order of the Covenant concerns the deeper union and communion with God, the sharing of His life. That is the Word. The Word is the Light and the Word is the Life. And the basis of the Covenant is the Word of God. So, that was the Word. The Word is the object of God's creation, the first free act of love. And of God's Covenant, the other free act. called the supernatural world, the order of grace, as we say. Man was created and he was created in grace. So those two, but then the world did not comprehend the light.

[33:26]

The world did not recognize the light. And by not recognizing the light, then the world was darkness. And there's darkness opposed to God. So that is the world, that's the cosmos. There are the three things that we should keep in mind when we speak about the cosmos. The creation and the covenant. and the rejection on the part of man, which makes the world darkness. And this darkness did not receive him. So God loved this cosmos. He loved it freely, because He created it, because He divided it into the union of the covenant, and after rejection still love this world and still more freely and absolutely gratis and franco as we say and not because of the goodness of the world but because of himself God loves the world

[34:45]

Therefore, in this way, the cosmos is the object of God's law, as creation in the enlightenment hence then in this pure love in which God sends his Son. Not because of the cosmos, but because out of its own infinite absolute goodness the world has no title to be loved, and still is freely absolutely loved. Not, as I say it again, in an attitude, a general attitude, but by a deed. And that deed is characterized with the word Hutos, in such a way, not only in this way, but in such a way, to such a degree, one can say,

[35:54]

extraordinary, unique, supreme degree. And what was it? That he gave his only son. God has a son. This son is not, as in Philo's speculations, the cosmos himself. But the son is one whom is in the Father's bosom, the other one whom the Father loves, but as a constitutive, we could say that in our human words, a constitutive element of His divinity. So therefore, the one whom He gave when he loved the cosmos, is the Son.

[37:00]

He loved him in this way, that he gave his only Son. In other words, the love of the Father is not concerned with adding to the world greater power and greater perfection, something of any kind. but he loved the cosmos, the world, by giving his son. The son was in the father's bosom, therefore not giving something, but giving his son. The one who is in the father's bosom and in relation to whom God really is eternally love, whose existence in God and towards God, fast on to on, is constitutive, is essential for God, and for His only, His unique, His only one.

[38:17]

And Him, God gave Edokan gave his only son not more nor less than his only son that means himself and he gave him in that way I think, by the Knox's translation is so right, this giving is really a giving up, a handing over, a delivering into the hands of the enemies, because he gave them to the cosmos. But the cosmos, in the way we describe, in the way we find him, has darkness, therefore has enemies of the light.

[39:22]

He came in the world, and the world to his own, and his own received him not. And therefore he gave him up. He handed him over. Now, not to the cosmos, therefore, gave him the Son of God, we can say the constitutive part of God, handed him over to the world, to his enemies, exposed him, delivered him into the hands of his enemies. And that we must ponder, we must ponder that deeply. Because it is not easy for us to understand it. If we understand it in, let's say, or try to approach this mystery on ontological terms, you know, let us say Aristotelian terms that govern, which of course in themselves and in their own right, in their field of the philosophical thinking are true.

[40:45]

That God is, but can never in his perfection be touched or let us say exposed, can be exposed to any danger as it were. Still if we think about this word that God gave, I say it again, not something, but his only begotten Son. Therefore, the second person, we can say, of the Holy Trinity gave him up into the hands of the enemies. It really means God, only to say it in human terms, exposing himself to danger, the danger of being killed. But I mean, of course, you understand, not in a philosophical sense, but in the sense of faith, of biblical categories of revelation handed him over, targeted.

[42:03]

That indicates, that is the way in which God loved man first. Not that man loved God, but God loved man first. If one translates that into English, and modern English, one could say, and God loved man radically. in a radical, in an absolute way, he loved him first. And this love of handing over his only begotten son into the hands of the enemies, into the hands of the cosmos, into the hands of darkness, As later in the Gospel of Saint John, our Lord Himself says that this is the hour of darkness.

[43:09]

So to that degree, in such a way, in such a radical way, God loved the world. So this world which God had created freely, and which God had established a covenant with, this world that had rejected the light and the covenant, this world God loved so radically. And what is the result, what is the fruit of this love? That those who believe in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. That those who believe in Him may not perish. Therefore the meaning of this giving up of the Son is salvation.

[44:19]

God and the cosmos as darkness, In this opposition to the light, the cosmos is lost. Darkness means chaos. Darkness means nothingness, lostness. The cosmos is lost, perishes. But God does not want this. God holds on to the cosmos. He wants to save the cosmos. He does not want to let it fall into nothingness. He does not want to undo its creation. Not only in this way that the world may not perish, but more. that it may have eternal life. Eternal life, that is what corresponds to the Light of the Covenant, the fulfillment of the Covenant.

[45:30]

Eternal life is communion with God Himself, as it is promised through the Light of the Covenant in the Old Testament. So God's love in the person of the Son sent into the world is the solemn fulfillment confirmation of the covenant not only to save the world that it may not perish that it may not lose its existence but to bring eternal life and that means communion personal communion with him sharing of the divine life and this will happen to those who believe who believe believe in the sun who are those who believe what does that mean to believe here let us consider that too because here we come in

[46:41]

That is now our part of the story. We try to grasp first, let us say objectively, what it means, in what way, in which way God has agapicen, has loved this world. The concrete act of sending his Son, made man so gave him up for it, for us. So gave him into the hands of his enemies, into the hands and into the hour of darkness. That means gave him up on the cross in death. That is the objective thing, and that is what we must try to interiorly approach with deep open hearts.

[47:42]

It's those words, you know, and they are repeated so often to us, and we have heard them from our youth, And still it is so difficult that we have to be born as it were again and again in order to understand, to begin to understand what it means. But we must then see it, must do it by making it clear to us what this does not mean. God has not loved the world, to say in a general fatherly attitude. He has not loved the world by making it bigger and making it more beautiful, or helping it to rise out of its own inner dynamics, you see, this kind of inner worldly optimism. That is not the message of the Church. But the message of the church is that God gave up his son.

[48:48]

That's a completely different, infinitely different proposition, as earth is different from heaven. as the thinking of man is different from the wisdom of God, as the love of man is different from the love of God. He gave up his son as a constitutive part of himself, God himself. So that we can say in Holy Greek, God died. Now then, that has to be grasped by those who believe. Believe in the thought. Who are believers? Believers are those who are members of the cosmos. They are members of the cosmos, the believers. They are not taken out of this world, as our Lord says that explicitly.

[49:53]

But we are members of the cosmos. and as such also taking part in the general condition of the cosmos, in the cosmos opposition. And we feel that in ourselves. There is ambition, there is the life, there is the resistance, there is that eagerness to cling to our own independence. There is that fight to give up control of ourselves. All that resistance is there. Surrender is the most difficult thing for the cosmos and for men living in the cosmos and being part of the cosmos. And the believers are members of the cosmos and as such they take part in this opposition. And we know that, we know it from our own experience.

[50:57]

And the act of faith in itself does not eliminate the opposition. I mean in such, I would say, in a kind of a physical way. It only eliminates in a spiritual way, but so that the inner position still is there, still is alive. That's the reason why we live a life of repentance. Why the metanoia, the thinking anew, the conversion is a life business. That's why for the monk it is a status. And so, taking part in this opposition. But the one who believes, he recognizes, in the mission of the son, in the tradition, the giving over of God,

[52:06]

He recognizes the Son as Son, that means as God. And he recognizes in what the Son is doing, giving Himself up. He recognizes the will of God. He recognizes the will of salvation. And therefore faith is always judgment over one's own resistance and over the cosmos' resistance. So we believe, we believe in the sun and in its law against ourselves, but at the same time for ourselves. Not because those who believe would be that kind of people who have a kind of a natural tendency or natural attitude towards such recognition.

[53:10]

As one says then and hears it sometimes, those who believe are a certain category of people, weaklings, people that have the need, you know, to be supported or to grab, you know, the next thing that they can get a hold of. Not the kind of weakling, you know, of people that are timid, you know, unsure of themselves. That has nothing to do with faith. The believer is in that way not the natural weakling. But he is the one who accepts, who accepts the fact that God dies, that God has given over himself. He accepts that convertio, that God has become man.

[54:19]

that man may become God and is the essence of faith. So faith in that way, the glorious thing, it replaces as it were, it accepts that God takes man's place so that man may take God's place. Therefore faith realizes in the man in the Word made flesh realizes in the Son of Man the presence of God and God's power in this event of handing Himself over. And one who believes receives from this one, the Son who has been sent, the Son who hands himself over, from the Word made flesh, he receives, he sees the glory, sees the power, and receives from there God's might.

[55:35]

And in God's might, liberty and the need, the necessity, the inner urge to give witness, to become a martyr for God made man and to follow him. All these are words, at least the terminology one can say of Christ's majesty. The believer is the follower, the believer is the disciple, The believer is a witness, all terms of majesty. For the believer is the one who is taken into the rain, into the radiation of God, of the power of the Son of God, who hands himself over, and therefore his faith makes those who believe

[56:38]

We were not born from this world, but born from above. Born from above. They are not, those who believe, are not ecto-cosmos. They are not out of the world. They are not, as we say in English, off the world. But they are as Christ Himself, the Son of God who is sent into this world, died for us, is not of this world. So also those who believe in that way are born from above and not of this world. I have given them, as Christ says in his sacerdotal prayer, I have given them, that means to his disciples, thy message, and the world has nothing but hated for them, because they do not belong to the world, as I too do not belong to the world.

[57:48]

He is saying, not being of the world. He could also put it in a positive way because those who believe through faith in the Son of God and beholding, and that is the act of faith, beholding God's glory in the flesh, they are born from above. It happens to them what is the real meaning of the Traditio Filii. They are in this act, in this inner connection, in this incorporation, in this rebirth in Christ and through Christ's glory, the glory of the world made flesh, they are saved. They share eternal life. And then, what happens to them, to those who believe, that then happens to what involves, I can say, the entire cosmos.

[59:02]

As the following verse, I mean verse 18 of the same chapter shows, when God sent his son into the world, It was not to reject the world, but so that the world might find salvation through Him. The world might find salvation through Him. Those who believe, therefore, we can say, don't only stand for themselves, but they stand for the world. And the world as such is, let us put it that way, is involved in our faith. Our faith is of such a nature that it takes a stance for other people, that it takes the world as a whole into it. And that therefore also through our own faith,

[60:08]

the work of Christ's salvation is for the world is being fulfilled. That is why those who are disciples are apostles and they are witnesses and their faith is a faith that radiates. So let us think about these things and in contemplating and meditating on these on these deep truths that are really the very center and heart of our Christian faith. Let us make it clear to ourselves what is the object of this faith. That is not a little more or a little less or a little better. and if I may say so, elated and I think in a good sense, especially through a little meeting that we had yesterday in the novitiate, the novices.

[61:20]

I had since really quite a while the feeling that the community life as such, also the say, the common spirit in the novitiate that much to be desired. And that is not the fault of this one or that one. It's not the fault of the novices or the novice master or the associates or anything like that. You know, we don't look into those directions, but we simply go and accuse ourselves and everybody strikes first of all. his own breast. If we think today of the meaning of this feast, St. Benedict's Feast, so providentially placed into the Easter time as the transitus, what a wonderful privilege it is that we can celebrate the feast of our spiritual father in this magnificent and essential context of the Pascha Domini,

[62:36]

and the transitus sancti patris benedicti, when we think what kind of transitus it was, it's evident that it was the transitus from the flesh into the spirit, and that means also from the narrow self-concernedness of the old man into the largeness and the liberty of the new man and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. was the transit who was also for Saint Benedict from the cave to Monte Cassino, from the solitary to the one who was the abbess and father of the community, and who then in the fullness of the Holy Spirit laid down a rule, a rule that means an inner norm, I would say an inner spiritual norm, for our community life.

[63:38]

And that is what we are celebrating today. And we certainly shouldn't be celebrating it only, let us say, in a liturgical sense. But something like that simply needs, it cries for, it demands before God, it demands a realization, and a concrete realization. In our case that, for example, is to my great delight and my great joy is being done by our juniors, the novices. who get together in order to just, as a community, as a whole, to enter into this transitus. And it begins with this, you know, that we are conscious of the fact that our community life is not what it should be, that something is wrong. That is not only a condition which is especially, let us say, so tremendously acute in our months.

[64:49]

Here at Mount Saviour it is there too. The general, the general situation, the whole Church during this Lenten season gets together because they feel, the Church as Church feels, that something is wrong. that we have to, as St. Benedict says, we have to make up for the faults of the times past. So in that way, the Lenten season demands that, demands that we as a whole publicly repent, and as a group, and I think that is so important for any good spirit, Nothing is more dangerous to group spirit than a kind of hypocritical chasing after the mostly illusory community glow. But it is also wrong, I think, not to have the courage to help to bring certain things to light which everybody feels, which everybody has the feeling something there is wrong, something is not as it should be.

[66:03]

Then, as a group we act against it in the Holy Spirit. And that is what I hope and pray and I invite all the Professors too in their prayers to remember the Gnomuses. They are on their own. I don't want to be there myself. I told Fr. Gregory not to be there. That this group as a group has the opportunity to rely on the Holy Spirit that at this moment is invoked and is working in the group as a group. We have, in the past, we have suffered from that. Even one can say that Mount Saviour was founded from the very beginning, not to be an institution, but to be a living family. However we have, and in that way, we also have tried various ways, sought in a good way to fulfill that and we have for example therefore pointed into a relation and the possibility of a more personal relation from one monk to the other.

[67:18]

I think however that the Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit, I mean that Spirit which is given to us as Saint Peter Damien says that so beautifully in his classical sermon that we have heard today during Matins, that Holy Spirit comes for us as monks only then when we interiorly, when we are ready to leave everything, relinquir omnia. And especially, not only, that means of course in the line of poverty, but it means most of all, as St. Peter Damian points that out so well, to leave oneself. The greatest tyrant to man is man himself, is his own self. How can we tackle that problem? We can't tackle that problem And we know that very well. Only, for example, in one of our regular Chapter Meetings, Chapter of Thoughts, we know that that is a kind of an institutional thing, that really and truly the Holy Spirit as a group spirit, you know, there does not have the chance to come to a breakthrough

[68:37]

And that is what we need. We need a breakthrough into the liberty of the Holy Spirit, not only from one monk to the other. because then it takes a tremendous time to get through all the various monks to establish that. But what we need is that relation among ourselves as a group, the experience of a group in the Holy Spirit. And to my mind the most certain and most sure way is, the better as I would want and wish also for the novices today, that that may be a reality. to come together, first of all, in the humble, not panicky, humble, not complaining, humble realization that not everything is good and glorious. That's the first thing. That we are under God's judgment. And these days the celebration of Holy Week, celebration of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, puts us under judgment.

[69:45]

And that we therefore come together and we say, yes, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, nostra culpa. In that inner, humble, general attitude, not everything is wrong, not everything is good. But not complaining, not with the attitude to accuse this one, or to accuse that one, or to make this or that institution responsible. No. The community as such, the spirit which is in the group as such. And in that way we get together. And then, of course, the next step is that we get together with the willingness and everyone to be ready first to accuse himself. and therefore to enter into it as individually and personally on the line and in the spirit of repentance, which, in last analysis, is a matter of the individual.

[70:53]

I, mea culpa, that is, wherever it comes to sin, it has to come down to the individual, equal to the I. And if that is there, and the individual is there and comes with the eagerness, you know, to accuse himself and to say, now here, there, and there, I have failed against the community spirit, and to invite, for example, to say, now, dear brethren, tell me what I could do better, and help me so that I can see my own faults more clearly in the mirror of the community. That is the second step. And then the third step in my mind is that we come together as a community in the spirit of healing, in the spirit of mutual help, realizing that what we have looked for and what we are looking for very often in personal relations, in relations of friendship, which as you know by no means do I condemn that.

[72:10]

by no means, but everything and every friendship and every connection like that and meeting between individuals has to be put under Christ's judgment. He is the Lord, not we are the Lord. And therefore, the thing is then that we, in that inner that we let the group as group, not only from one individual to the other, but the group as group, as a whole, we find the healing, loving power of the Holy Spirit. And we know it. that all the deepest and the most beautiful and the most noble and the most satisfying relations from one individual to the other, from one monk to the other, come out of the source of a real community spirit. of that inner freedom, of that inner love.

[73:12]

Here is my home. Nobody can come to the monastery and can say, yes, I'm a friend of Father So-and-so, and therefore I think I should be here at this place. That's just not the foundation. We cannot live on that foundation. It is the monastery as a whole, the community as a whole, that has to be my home. And I have to feel that, I have to realize that. And no efforts, and individual personal efforts of this person or that person, this monk or that monk, can ever make up for the lack of that inner community spirit, that spirit that lives in us as a group. And therefore I wish, my dear friends, that sons in Christ, that if the novices do that, the solemnly professed have to do the same thing. and they have to get together, and I wish from the bottom of my heart that this holy week, it has not passed, in my mind it would be, it would be a failure before Christ, before the Futurists.

[74:24]

It would absolutely, to my mind, would be a sin before the Futurists, if we would go through the whole let us say, the whole ceremonial of this Holy Week, without touching on the point where we feel that has to be touched, that has to be brought into the open, and then has to be done as a community and as a group, in the spirit of mutual respect, in the spirit of mutual love, in the spirit of healing, not in the spirit of argument, not in the spirit of fighting and struggling against one another, God beware, but in the spirit in which St. Benedict, you know, suffered his own wounds, the fluids of the flesh, in the spirit in which Saint Benedict entered into the community live in Monte Cassino, the spirit in which he in the oratory with a tremendous generosity and beauty and liberty gave his soul into the hands of his Creator and his Redeemer.

[75:38]

So that is what I wish with my whole soul and let us prepare that and during Holy Week that we want to do that, think about it, I'm thinking myself about it, sometimes always the concrete, you know, realization of these things, they are certainly not a genius in those things of organization, but to my mind doesn't need organization. If that inner point is ready, you know, then if we are inner, interiorly on that point, where we can, in the liberty of the Holy Spirit, as a group, meet, fine, then it's good. See, that is the meaning to my mind, the last meaning. Now the whole situation of the church in our days, the central problem is that of collegiality. But what do we mean by collegiality? In a theoretical sense, that isn't clear yet, you know, not by any means.

[76:40]

Even in a theological sense, you know, there are people still in the theologians don't know now what is the relation between the Pope, you know, and the bishops and so on, and what is it? All these things are there. But let us not, for heaven's sake, let us not miss the point over to radical and theological final considerations. Collegiality is the point, and then the point is this, you see, that the Holy Spirit does not work only in the vertical from one individual to the superior, but the Holy Spirit works on the horizontal from one to the other. In the College of the Apostles, when the Holy Spirit descended, it didn't first descend on St. Peter, and then St. Peter was laying the hands upon all the other apostles. But the Holy Spirit as a whole descended, and then divided, and descended upon every individual.

[77:47]

And in that way, they together, in that individual person's spontaneity, they sang the Mancariote. That is, of course, here, too, in our case, that's the same thing. And we would, as Benedictine monks, you know, we would miss the whole point also here at Mount Savior if we would simply continue in this age, let us say, of collegiality, that means where the Holy Spirit invites us so solemnly, and in this time, for example, in the laity, we have this tremendous movement that Guillermo just in the other day alluded to it, the Corsillos. What are the Corsillos? Corsillos are simply the breakthrough of the Holy Spirit in a group, but in such a way that really every member is vitally touched and vitally involved.

[78:51]

And can we in such a time, you know, simply continue, you know, in a kind of formalistic way, you know, and try to live our community life simply and openly according to some rules? The Holy Spirit has to be there. that inner experience, but it cannot be there without repentance, without conversion, without putting ourselves under Christ's judgment, and then also rising with Him. So I invite you all to cooperate interiorly in this thing, to prepare it by your prayers, and then maybe on Monday and on Tuesday evening we can get together also to solemnly profess in order to kind of really in that spirit of deep interior peace, but of personal liberty and of frankness and sincere and holistic things. but thou, O Lord, and you is forever.

[79:55]

Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Zion, for the time is come to have mercy on it. I think that very well expresses our inner disposition and our own situation in days and especially today the last day so to speak before the great triduum begins. We hear that we take part, we put on the mind of Jesus whose drink in these days was mingled with weeping for having lifted me up and has cast me down. And we experience that in our own life and in our own existence as a community in a, I think, in a very profound and very good way by the fact that we use these days in order to fit one another in all frankness but also in all charity in this whole thing, the attempt of the vision of life.

[81:05]

I have heard from several members of the community of the solemnly professed that they might be given the chance to continue still tonight in the same way in which it was done yesterday because it wasn't yet finished and I'm glad to know about that. I gladly give the permission to do that. One thing that we have to have in mind, of course, I said that also to the novices, is that in this kind of, where is it, where the, you know, call it the intestines of the community are, kind of come to the fore, that it's done in the always in a healing way, and in the Holy Spirit, because the meaning of it is of course healing, the meaning of it is unity, just as the sufferings of our Lord pointed to them.

[82:15]

that his judgment, the judgment that he undergoes, of course, consists in this, that he himself, the judge, takes the place of the one who is being judged. That is the deep mystery and that is, of course, for us a great way also for our own salvation and for a fruitful meeting during these days and during these sessions. One must have, while one meets in that way, the actual feeling that the Holy Spirit is present, that we are there gathered together under His actual influence. For example, if that feeling would come over the community as such, that this presence of the Holy Spirit is maybe by the rashness of our human nature, or by all the various sicknesses, you know, the tears from which we suffer, which our drink is mixed with, if that presence would, for example, be as it very well can be, just be chased away, because the presence of the Holy Spirit is not compatible with a spirit of, for example,

[83:44]

revenge or spirit of maybe hurt feelings that want to have their own satisfaction. Things like that. Incompatible. As soon as that takes place, the Holy Spirit simply withdraws. We have to take that very seriously. And therefore, it might come, a moment might come, while one is together, that is felt, and then it's better to my might and all humility to say, now we have to bow to this fact, and we have to see our own weakness, and we have to withdraw this time together. the same principle that St. Benedict has for the whole over argumentation. The prayer should last as long as the Holy Spirit is active, is really there.

[84:50]

If he withdraws his presence, then one should in all humility just accept that, you know, and withdraw. So that might be what I I leave that to your own judgement, but I just wanted to point that out. The meaning of this whole thing is certainly peace, healing and saving worlds. Dear Son in Christ, you have waited for this moment for a long time. You realize that there is a veil, it was a long year in many ways. That is a picture of a Christian life, you know, the monastic life already in itself.

[85:56]

And today you can say, and we all say, this is the day. And this is the day which the Lord has made. And we should reflect for a moment, just also at this moment where you come to offer yourself to enter into this day, the day of the Lord, in a special way, in a way which is indicated in the rule of Saint Benedict. This is the day which the Lord has made. That is really meaning of the monastic life. This exclamation, this is the day, gives us a feeling of two things. One is the presence. The day is in itself essentially presence. It is time, it is just there.

[86:59]

The moment that has come. And therefore, it challenges us. The power of the day, the light of the day, this moment of decision and of urgency that requires of us full cooperation, full readiness. The answer to this proclamation, this is the day, the day has come, is Atsum, here I am. And that is what you say at this moment, by coming here to this community and asking to be received, Atsum, here I am. So the Lord is the day, Christ, the risen Lord. The one who has conquered death and who has solved the burden of our guilt

[88:04]

and who therefore for us represents peace by conciliation, the presence of the Father with us in Him and through Him, the presence of the power of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit. All that makes the day, this day, that is the monastic day and that, God willing, my dear son, will be also your day, provided you say and repeat from the bottom of your heart, that Ek Che Atsu, here I am. That is necessary. The day of the Lord could not have begun without Our Lady saying, I am ready to do the will of God. Here I am, the Handmaid of the Lord. And that is also for you.

[89:09]

Your Echiatsu, that is the opening of the day for you. Don't forget it. Keep that inner readiness that you have at this moment. And be not surprised if the day of the Lord that begins today is just like the day that we have celebrated in these beautiful, wonderful Paschal celebrations. Evening and morning, one day. Evening and morning, one day. We have seen that today in the Gospel. this beautiful Gospel, this wonderful day, the Easter Monday, such an integral, essential part of the Easter celebration. We can all exult and rejoice and be glad in the moment in which the sun rises, and when the sun then

[90:17]

gives the new light its splendor to us and fills our hearts with hope, with joy over the presence of that life-giving light, then the day of the Lord is different. It starts really in the evening. Evening and morning won't And that we realize the day after we have celebrated the rising of the sun, we realize again with the gospel and the spirit of those two disciples, we realize the evening with which it begins, the twilight, the twilight of our perplexity, the perplexity of these two disciples. who have put all their cards, as it were, interiorly on Jesus Christ, whom they believed

[91:27]

would be the Savior whom they believed would bring a new age and a new age of earthly happiness and of satisfaction where everybody would be content and everybody would be satisfied in the abundance that this Messiah, the Jewish people, would bring to these people in the moment in which the presence of the kingdom was solemnly to be announced. That was the solution in their minds of all human problems, of all political problems, of all earthly problems, of all material problems, and of all psychological problems. And then again it is different. There they are, it's the end of the day that the Lord has made, and the evening sets, and they say, my, they have killed him.

[92:32]

We don't know where he is. Some women, and of course we know what the words of the women has, the value and weight it has, especially in the minds of men in the Orient. These women, they tell us something about that he has come back, the tomb is empty and so on. We don't know, but there we are in that complete perplexity in which we find ourselves constantly. And then in this perplexity there comes the one who is the day. who is at home with his father, who is the kingdom of God, who is the presence in whom we rejoice and are glad. And he comes to them as a stranger, as a stranger, as somebody who here on this earth has no home anymore.

[93:35]

They don't recognize him. Then happens the first thing in this evening, exactly the thing that happened to us when we celebrated the Easter vigil. He speaks to them. He explains to them the Old Testament, the law, and the prophets, and the Psalms, all the things that are about him there written. And from which it is clear, he had to undergo death in order to bring life to us. And then while he is speaking, then their heart, our heart was burning. One heart of the two was burning in the unity of the faith. And that is the first part, the announcing of the word.

[94:39]

That's the doctrine. That's the teaching. That is the way in which the day begins to dawn. It is the light. But it's the light, as it were, the light of the artificial land. That kindly light, you know, that teaches us and that we have experienced in the Easter vigil. But then comes the second part, and that is the initiation, the sacramental initiation, where beyond our thinking, beyond our faith, and transcending as it were, the mind, a new reality enters into our lives, a new day as it were. And that is called the breaking of the bread, the breaking of the bread. That's something different from the word, this breaking of the bread.

[95:43]

There, in breaking bread, enacted something. He did something. What did he do? The bread is the symbol of himself. Breaking it, he gives himself toward it. He surrenders himself. He hands himself over, himself as he is, as a life, he hands it over to his disciples. Each one takes a piece and eats it, and they all then, in a new sense again, become one mind and one heart. That is the second part, our initiation. Now, that is also in our life. The monastic life into which you enter, dear son, in this moment, the day of the Lord, as we live it, is made up of these two things, the Doctrina and the Exemplum.

[96:54]

These two things. The Doctrina is the word which is addressed, you know, to our hearts and that easily may make the hearts burn. But then comes the second part, and that is the Vida Comunis, from day to day, in all its reality, and that is breaking of the bread. Nobody remains whole and untouched, but everybody in that way is broke. And everybody gives a piece of this, his broken being, to the other one. And in that way the Vita Communis is enacted. That means in humility, that means in selflessness, that means in obedience. All that is contained in the Fractio Panis, in the breaking of the veil. And that is the community life into which you enter.

[97:55]

And that's then, if it's really done that way, I mean so that one really hands oneself over. Then the eyes are open. Then suddenly they recognize there is the day. That is what we are striving after, dear Son of Christ, and that I hope you understand and you will say your Exe Atsum and live it until then the morning star dawns. That morning star when the teaching, that little lamp of our faith fades away before the splendor of the last and absolute day. This is the day that the Lord has made, coming before the glory of Christ.

[98:58]

And that is the time and also the initiation as I come into life, that breaking of the comes to an end in this way, and it ends in the mirror, where Christ himself, in his glory, goes around and is the living bread, and serves everybody in glory, in the beatific vision. So that is our life. Now into that you enter and I wish from the bottom of my heart that in the future that you first keep this essential first thing and always remind yourself this is the day which the Lord has made and I rejoice and I am glad But don't think it's the solution of all your psychological, material and political problems.

[100:02]

But be absolutely clear that the realization of this day, of this basic presence, this basic happiness and gladness, is only possible in two ways, by listening and by breaking. I think we are all glad that we have this bocherry goose celebrate holy week with Father Herbert here among us. I think this time unfortunately he has to leave today. because Father Pryor there in Weston, his mother, had a stroke. He has to seek help in the situation. That leads us back to Holy Thursday and that is back to the other Thursday in Passion Week.

[101:06]

It was preceding it. There's always the figure of St. Mary Magdalene the woman and the sinner and the, in some way, a incarnation of mankind in its most, now I can say, on one side lovable aspect, and on the other hand, of course, in its weakness. the loveliness of mankind, which can, of course, become a weakness and a draw for the devil, as it was in Saint Mary Magdalene. And then the attitude of the Lord towards her.

[102:07]

Of course, in her we see ourselves, one whom the Lord allows to wash his feet and to anoint them in the house of the cool and cold Pharisee who represents the ethical, categorical, imperative, you know, this whole cold light, you know, of the divine absolute. house and the house of the Pharisee he receives the that woman you know how hard can he ever have any contact with that woman he throws himself away throws himself away and then after Easter this wonderful meeting that we have today in the gospel where this on a different

[103:12]

level now, after he has died, and then the world is in a new light, and the loveliness of Mary Magdalene, and all that, and his own, the Lord, as the friend of mankind, in his loveliness, as the God, and there, and he recognizes it. It says, Maria, and he calls her by her name, and the name here expresses all that Mary Magdalene is. All her loveliness, all that human, how can we call it, charm, you know, where the image of God is most ethical to us Christians. Sometimes to the pagans, the image of God, the image of man, The image of God in man is that he is the Imperator, you know, he is the one who has his reason.

[104:16]

And with this reason he can organize the world. rule that, and that's that dangerous business. But there is a completely different aspect to man as image of God. Man really is the image of the Sun, first of all, because he is created, he has received the stamp of the Sun. And the Sun, of course, in the Divine Trinity, how wonderful that is that we have through God's revelation, because the One, the Son, who is in the Father's bosom, has told us about it. Certainly there is that second person of divinity, the Son. The Son who comes then and says, my teaching is not my teaching, but the teaching of the One who has sent me. And the One who is obedient unto death. or that without losing his divinity, without compromising his divine dignity, without throwing himself away, that is the important thing, the Lord goes and comes over to our side, to Mary Magdalene's side, to our side, to the side of this group, of these disciples, not many wives has God chosen,

[105:45]

Not many powerful has God chosen, but what is foolish and little and unimportant in the eyes of the world, that God has chosen. Why? Because by doing so, God really shows us how he, as it were, transcends all our human concepts of his transcendency. that he becomes and enters and carries in himself a dimension which is beyond all that we consider as actus purus and as the absolute one, as the immovable one, and all these things. That he becomes that kindly light, you know, that leads us, that is the world, and that is the sun. And he has, of course, created the world, but then he also enters into the world, where the world is darkness.

[106:54]

That is that, as the kindly light, not as the lightning of omnipotence that would destroy the world, not as a conflagration that will simply consume the world, Whereas the kindly light, which is the friend, as it were, of darkness, which comes to our side and, without throwing himself away, becomes one of us, obedient unto death, in the likeness of our sinful flesh, and in that way the friend of Mary Magdalene. the friend of these disciples, of these apostles, who were human beings, but completely their brother. That is the true manifestation of God's absoluteness in the Christian sense.

[107:55]

This absoluteness does not make him as to where the prisoner of our human concepts of his omnipotence. But this absoluteness consists, in the last analysis, in the freedom of Islam. The freedom of Islam. And in that freedom of Islam, the Word of God, the Son, empties Himself. Empties Himself. It's very important to consider every word there. He empties Himself. And does not think it probably to be equal to God. There we feel the breath of freedom. There we feel the breath of the new spring that Christianity has announced to the world. And we should be so grateful for that, you know, because that is really what leads us out of darkness into the admirable light, that kindly light, that of lumen,

[109:02]

loveliness, of human friendship, of sympathy with us, of taking our part without throwing himself away again, and therefore transcending the rigid barriers of Parisism, the rigidity of Jewish, late Jewish monotheism, and also in our days the rigidity of Islam, of Mohammedanism. There are all these things where this whole idea of incarnations are hollow. They think that God throws himself away, but in this wonderful, just inexpressible way he becomes obedient unto them. without throwing himself away. That's always the emphatic statement of Christian faith, of the faith of the Church, that the one who dies for us absolutely remains God.

[110:10]

Those two things are therefore, as it were, you know, coexisting, or they are united in a much bigger and higher concept, you know, of God's transcendency. I would simply call it the freedom of Islam. And that's what we celebrate also. And that is why we are the Drigiric, you know, also this community here, the Populus Acquisitionis, you know, the people of his free choosing, the people of his covenant. Why does God make a covenant with man? In the Son he makes a covenant, in the one who therefore follows the will of the Father. becomes a medium. The hymn makes a covenant, but a covenant that lasts through man's guilt and through man's sin that leads us that way into the freedom of that judgment where God himself in Christ, in the second person, the Word of God made man, becomes himself the accused one, becomes himself the judged one,

[111:33]

and takes, you know, the punishment for our sin upon himself. That is the last expression of divine freedom, the freedom of his absolute love. And that way, you know, it's so beautiful that we started this, the vigil on Easter with that light of the candle, you know, in the evening, in the dark, O kindly light, O holy glory, kindly light, you know, not that light that, as I say, that burns and kills. Holy glory, holy glory, that means the glory that is man's strength, of the undying Heavenly Father, the holy, the blessed Jesus Christ, The sun has set, and now seeing the lamp that lights the evening, he praised the Father and the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

[112:38]

Praises you need at all times from dutiful lips, O Son of God, O Giver of life. Therefore does the world give you glory. all rejoicing on the feast of the Annunciation, the Incarnation. And the two, it's so beautiful that the Church puts those two in her tradition, liturgical tradition, those two things together, the Incarnation and the death and the resurrection of Christ. To make it clear, to kind of indicate that Christmas and the whole Christmas cycle and everything that's connected with it and therefore also the person of Our Lady is not one thing and then the death and the resurrection another thing.

[113:42]

But Our Lady is there. She is there at the incarnation, at the birth and also at the death on the side of the cross. And so we are, so is the church and the two are really one mystery and in this mystery is our own life as monks is so deeply rooted. That is the basis, that is the foundation on which we stand. If one considers the Old Testament and the role of virginity in the Old Testament. I think one can, in the context of the Old Testament, formulate it this way. It is the virginity there, the Virgo Israel, the Virgin Israel, the chosen people. that virginity is the willingness of Yisra'el to listen to the word, to listen to the law and to have her life directed by the law and in loyalty to the one husband to whom she is betrothed and that is Yahweh, that is the one God and the virginity

[115:08]

in Israel, the reflection of that devotion and divided devotion to the one God, in the listening to and in the execution of God's word of God's command the law and however as soon as one enters into the new testament then there we see a a new and a deeper aspect of virginity that way but the virginity becomes is certainly in one way and that is reflected in the mystery of the incarnation or the annunciation of Our Lady, it certainly is listening. And it is that here I am, the handmaid of the Lord, the recognition.

[116:11]

I am the servant and you are the Lord. And with you, no word is impossible. So, I give my loyalty to the word. I receive it, I listen, and I want to follow the direction. But then, the direction is not then put into a law. There is for that matter no Mount Sinai. There are not the Ten Commandments, or the Twelve Commandments, or the 139 Commandments, or however one may count them. But there is then the Virtus Altissimi, the Virtue for Mankind, the Power for Mankind. which overshadows the Virgin. And that characterizes, of course, the inner essence of our listening, of our faith. and that is the reason why for us in the realm of the word of God made flesh and serving the incarnation where the highest is reconciled to the lowest as we sang that so and heard it in such a beautiful way today in that

[117:31]

Hallelujah! There is the power from on high. We are born, not out of the will of man, not out of the will of the flesh, not through the initiative of man, but all those who believe In his name they are born from God. And that is of course, that is Marx, Our Lady's virginity. Her reception, her receiving the word as it were, it's already in that way, accomplished as it were in her own immaculate conception. But then of course took that special formed in her annunciation. And there we see her, the Virgin, of course on one hand she is creature, she is servant, but on the other hand, through the power of the Most High, she becomes Mother.

[118:42]

through the power of the Most High. So, she is not Mother of Christ as Saint Augustine and all the Fathers have always formulated this. She is not Mother of Christ according to the Spirit. As far as the Spirit, as far as divinity is concerned, as far as the divinity is concerned, she is daughter of Christ. She is born But as far as the flesh is concerned, she is the mother of Christ. Then of course, then also then, this fact that she is the mother of Christ's body, naturally also makes her the mother, in a spiritual way, of all the members of the body of Christ. Nevertheless, as curious in his divinity, Christ is, as it were, the mother and the father. So that is, of course, that is also in our own life. We, in our monastic life, we live the same mystery.

[119:51]

The virginity is simply as it were here on earth. It's suspended between heaven and earth. There cannot be virgins without the absolute obedience to the word that the Father sends. And at the same time, we cannot really give birth to Christ. We cannot be, let us say, mothers in Christ. and to those, our brethren, to the community in which we live without the power from on high overshadowing us and without participating that way in the resurrection of Christ. That's why virginity for us, I think, has these two aspects. One, why we are servants and we listen and we receive the word.

[120:52]

But this word is not a word of a law, an empty word. It's a word that is filled with the Holy Spirit. We open our mouth and we draw in the spirit, as the psalm says. That is so true for us. But then the continuation of it, the fruitfulness of it, is then the power that is given to us from above. It's the power of the resurrection. and then it's in monastic life, or one can say in Christian life. The meaning of virginity is in these two ways. It is the obedience to the word and it is motherhood in the power of the resurrection. And that is then also so important if we consider that for, let's say, the work, for what we do in the monastery, the way in which we help, as it were, to form the members of Christ.

[122:01]

All our, what we call our works, all that then rose out of charity, must have the splendor of the resurrection over it. And therefore there must be the freedom of the resurrection.

[122:18]

@Transcribed_v004
@Text_v005
@Score_90.67