So I'm just saying that as soon as I was to find that the visual images supported what I was discovering in the text itself, but above all that it elaborated for me and deepened for me my understanding of what I'm making, the starting point of what I'm saying this evening, the sense of order and of having a place to stand. Because one of the ways of looking at the classical medieval monastery is to look and see it as an interplay between stable places and the pathways that lead between them, so that monastic life itself can be seen as movement to and fro, centered spaces, but always, always returning to the center, and above all, life revolving around

[01:12]

the church as I have. That's very nice. I hope that that cat will stay because of that. Always revolving around the church, which is something that even in the short time that I have been here seems to be so much the pattern of the flow of life in and out of the church here. Because the church is the centre of the centre. It is here that the monk makes his profession. Standing there, surrounded by his brothers, he finds his identity. It establishes and defines him. And what imagery this is, which we can also apply to our own selves. The monk stands in his place in choir in ordered rank next to his brother.

[02:16]

And there he is at home where he belongs. And the novice seeking admission to the community is asked if he can stand. Stand in his place in the community as it moves through daily life from one center of activity to another. And ultimately that simply means standing before God in his proper place. And the excommunicated brother finds himself outside. He isn't standing where he properly belongs. He is dislodged from his own center. All order needs a center.

[03:22]

Where is the center of the universe for us? We need a center to make sense of the whole. The human person stands in need of a center so as to experience his life as oriented. Those are the words of John Eudes Bamber, the abbot of Genesee, in an article that he wrote in 1980. And I think as we set out on this time of study and reflection and retreat and prayer together, that is a very good question. Where is our center? Where is the center of the universe for us? Do we actually have the place in which we are standing firmly?

[04:24]

Because Benedict's concern isn't order for the sake of order. That could be about control, about being organized, about being safe. Benedict's concern for order goes deeper than this. It's about inner order. It's about space. Not order for the sake of order, but order for the sake of making space for God. So the real question is, how do I carry that space for God in my external life and inside of myself? A space

[05:29]

is such a wonderful concept that it's a pity if we've used up that word in 60s jargon. But again, think of the space of this abbey church here as you know it. At night, after Compton, when it's empty, the space in the crypt, the space at the start of the day. And here Benedict is concerned with inner space, with interior space. so that we carry around with us the sense of space in order to have space for God so that we can listen to God all the time, wherever we are, whatever we may be doing, we may listen to God, hear him, and respond to him.

[06:37]

Listen is, after all, the very first word of the rule, and we could spend the rest of this conference, the rest of this weekend, the rest of our lives simply with that one word. It's the covenant of the Old Testament. Listen, wherever you may be. It is a dialogue between two people. And every morning, the monk would start his day by saying, today, if you will hear my voice, harden not your heart. Familiar words to those of us who belong to the Episcopal Church and say Matins daily, because that psalm, the 90, is part of the office with which we too begin our day, taken from the Benedictines just for this purpose, to give us the key to the day, to set us in tune

[07:50]

to listen to the word and to respond to it. And to listen totally, not just a cerebral exercise, not just with the left-hand side of the brain or our mind or our intellect, but to listen with the ear of the heart. Benedict has this great gift of words, the happy phrase, the aphorism, something that you hold in your hand like a precious stone, just a pebble, and feel its weight. The ear of the heart, which is a most lovely phrase. For the ancients, the heart is the center of our being.

[08:54]

The heart represents the true self, the whole self. And Benedict is all the time addressing us with our whole selves, our total humanity, body and mind and spirit and all our five senses. As a novice, when he or she enters the community and lays the three vows on the altar quotes the words of the Psalmist, Shoshepeme, accept me, O Lord. And then the concluding phrase is, and then I shall live.

[09:56]

Do not disappoint me in my hope. And surely that is Benedict's great gift to us. Surely that is really what the prologue is all about. The prologue which is such an amazing piece of writing that we have to read time and again. The prologue which was almost certainly part of a homily, a catechetical homily delivered at baptism and so it applies to all of us whoever we may be following our Christian discipleship under our baptismal vows and Benedict's message to us and promise to us and gift to us is to say wake up

[10:58]

come alive, come to life and live life to its fullest. And this, this surely is what we, all of us, want. When Joseph Campbell was having such an amazing popular effect, People said to him, you're talking about a search for the meaning of life, and that's why you're popular. And he said, no, what I'm talking about is the experience of being alive. fully alive, alive in the whole of ourselves, body and mind and spirit, our five senses, full of energy. And what a prospect this is, because that means the living out to the full of our whole full humanity, our life as affirmation,

[12:13]

But what generally happens, if we look at the shape that most of our lives take, perhaps the chances are that we're half alive, living under pressure. half-present. The reality is more often likely to be drift or laziness or tiredness, nothing very dramatic perhaps, but something only too familiar. And it is just this Benedict Wood challenge Because one way of looking at his rule is to see it as a guidebook to fullness of life.

[13:19]

And that might seem surprising since, for people, Benedict means a rule. Manatee means vows. Surely this is restraint. Surely this is discipline. Surely this is saying no. But what we are really being offered is freedom and saying yes. Wake up. Come to life. live life to its fullest, it's on offer. And there's that wonderful image which comes early on in the prayer log of the Lord in the marketplace and there are all the passers-by, all of us, you and me,

[14:20]

Some rushing and some drifting. And the question is, do you want life? Do you want good life, fullness of life? And it's always possible not to hear, and it's always possible to be too busy to stop. It's always possible to drift by. But there's also the possibility that we say, yes, Yes, Lord, accept me, support me, and I shall live. I find the prologue an attempt to rouse us from sleep. And Kathleen Raine, the modern English poet, says that the modern condition is too much of a sleep, that we've been lulled, that we need to be aroused and woken.

[15:39]

And so here comes Benedict with his note of urgency, saying, the time is now. Today. Today. You can't postpone it. Today and not tomorrow. I like defined this theme of being awoken, arised up from sleep, caught up again later on in the rule in one of Benedict's most down-to-earth and practical chapters and situations. This is one of the things that one finds about the rule that I really so much enjoy that many of those thoroughly down-to-earth and practical chapters which we might be tempted to dismiss as irrelevant or too mundane

[17:02]

actually can throw a great deal of spiritual light on our lives. So, chapter 55, which is about the monks' sleeping arrangements. The monks sleep with all their clothes on, on the ground. in a room that remains lighted. Their rising is quick and they go at once into the church to say the first office of the day. So the monks sleep in a state of availability. They're always ready. to answer the signal and to take up at once what is the most important thing in life, the work of praising God.

[18:11]

And we think, of course, of all those parables of Christ's return. So the monks and all of us resemble the servants in the gospel who await their master's return in the dead of night. But night is also the time of hope when we desire the light and we desire Christ's coming. And we wait. We wait prepared totally ready for that day of his coming which will pierce the night of this world. And there, of course, is the further resonance of the resurrection, the putting away of darkness, the putting on of new life and light.

[19:19]

And so the external mirrors the inner reality and asks of us the question, are we also available, waiting, attentive? So Although we all know that Benedict stands for balance and for moderation, it's also important to establish right at the outset of encountering or re-encountering this man and what he means in our lives. To recognize that moderation and balance are not the same things as mediocre, playing safe, choosing the middle way because it's easy or because it's undemanding.

[20:39]

Of course, Benedict writes about balance and moderation and the via media. And of course, He uses all those great Roman concepts. Gravitas, mensura, stabilitas, and somebody called him the last of the Romans. But he is also passionate and charismatic. The ardor, the urgency, the sense of fervent love. What does the word fervent mean? It means burning. It means white hot. are some of its most compelling features. And what is looking for us is a totally radical demand. At one point, he uses semper, and the Latin comes across particularly, almost like hammer blows, insistently, always, always, always, to be aware of God's presence.

[21:54]

That is what the whole point of having the space and the order in our lives, is always to be attentive, alert, waiting to the sense of God's presence in our lives. And so he is totally evangelical. His is the cry of the passionate creature. Turn to Christ today and not tomorrow. Don't postpone it. No half measures. Nothing is to be preferred to the love of Christ. No evasion. and no delay. And frequently the text makes use of such vigorous expressions as omnino or sumus to show the seriousness of this requirement.

[22:56]

Absolute. But, just as in the Gospel, Here we have the possibility of fullness of life, but it's on offer and it's a gift. And you can always say no to a gift. In his gospel, John affirms of Christ, in him was life. And all the time what Benedict is doing is pointing us beyond the text of his role to the figure of Christ himself. And there, that is the drama that John is writing. Jesus came to offer life

[23:58]

And we humans refused it and yet we are searching for life. And we have this promise that they might have life and might have it to the full. And John gives us a succession of images because it's so amazing when Jesus says, I am life. The living water, the bread of life. The light, the door of life. And Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, if only you knew what God is offering. Because it's on offer. It's a gift. We don't have to earn it. It's a gift. And we can always refuse a gift. And perhaps we think about it the wrong way, this gift of life.

[25:03]

We may think it of as cold, intellectual, cerebral knowledge. But life won't come out of knowledge. We remind ourselves of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. But it will come out of a living relationship based on love. And in the end, ultimately, this is what the rule is. It is a handbook to living out love. And one of the conferences, we must hold them together. Benedict is asking us to reach out with the whole of ourselves, and that means our heart as well as our mind. And again, as this weekend unfolds, so those two, I hope, can be brought into play.

[26:14]

And what he would wish, Benedict would wish for us, is that we live with open eyes and open ears. Apertis, open, alert, attentive. And again, during this weekend, there will surely be time and what a place, too, this is in which to do contemplative walking, walking slowly and deliberately, consciously, using all of our five senses, open, alert, and attentive. Because, after all, that's Christ's message in the Gospels, to see and to hear amongst the most used words in the Gospel.

[27:27]

So much about seeing and hearing, amongst God's greatest gifts to us. So much about blind receiving sight and deaf receiving their hearing again. So at the start of this time together may we ask that we open our eyes and we open our ears but above all that we listen with the ear of the heart to this offer that Benedict gives us of fullness of life and this promise that he will help us to find a place to stand

[28:40]

and help us to find the space and the center from which we can build for ourselves a place of certainty and therefore, of course, of energy. however much it may seem that otherwise we might be fragmented and torn apart. Tomorrow morning's conference is going to look at the three Benedictine vows as a commentary on this theme of coming home, being at home,

[29:44]

And then tomorrow evening, I'll be showing slides to support what I've been talking about with some images. Now, in the time that there is between Compton, I think I'd suggest, first of all, that if there are any general questions about things that I've said that you would like me to clarify, perhaps we could have five minutes just of general question and answer. And then, Either those who wish to have a more reflective time simply to go away on their own or spend time and travel between now and Compton.

[30:57]

Otherwise people get themselves into smallish groups and talk about perhaps anything that's come up in what I've said or the place of the rule in your own lives. 8th? 8th of December, yes. And lately, we don't talk about it because it's a bit of a buzzword right now. We used to talk about it in school, but it's hard to talk about it in the community. You know, we used to talk about it in school a lot. I'm glad you're going to be a part of this experience.

[32:00]

I'm sure it's going to be wonderful for you. Happy Thanksgiving. Watch it. It's so beautiful. I think essentially there's something that we have to do ourselves, but I do think that some form of support is of enormous value. Because otherwise you make your good resolves. But it is so easy for time particularly to be eaten into. And so much of what I've been saying is rhythm and structure. and framework. So that to have the support of others sharing that I would have thought would be immensely, immensely strengthening. And I think that most lay people do

[33:05]

do need to belong to, I mean, some sort of, perhaps even a succession of interlocking communities, family, colleagues, work, interests, whatever they may be. And one of those communities really ought to be one that is specifically to support one's religious life and prayer life. you I'm actually going to talk, listening is so much a key that we're going to go further into this, but very much something that is a lot wider than just oral.

[34:52]

are listening as we use it. Listening to the extraordinary range of ways in which God can be reaching us. Really listening with the totality of ourselves. That means through all our five senses being aware that God can reach us through sight and touch. Listening to other people, Benedict is very clear that the abbot listens to all the brothers and that wisdom may lie in the youngest. Listening through nature, through circumstances, through events, There are a huge range of ways in which we have to be open, attentive and aware of how God will reach us.

[36:01]

I'm going to talk a little bit. We must look at that more fully. It is a very wide understanding, listening. Do you think it might be a nice idea, since I don't know whether everybody knows each other really well, that perhaps people just spent 10 or 15 minutes in groups of sort of six or seven, I don't know how many have seen a program like that. First, I show all of the really fantastic design and have a conference here. Like lunch, which we'll have, a buffet style, we'll have at that time.

[37:13]

I haven't heard weather reports since tomorrow. Somebody had said earlier that tomorrow is not so good. That's where it was. Tomorrow is not so good. Saturday is supposed to be better than Sunday. So anyway, we might take a walk in the afternoon. But we kind of agreed. And then in the evening, we'd go to get a seat at a restaurant or a restaurant. We could do this wall here. And then Sunday, after that, we'd go. Wow. And, uh, that's, uh, Monday we would have it.

[38:23]

Cooks are on their own for lunch on Monday because we figured so many people are heading back that day. Hard to find people. Yeah. So, uh, if you're interested and want to stay on the I'll compliment you. Thank you. Now, that began in the middle, didn't it? A little bit in the middle. I didn't, I can't remember. You were about to begin, right? Really? No, it'd be about ten. You were about two minutes before. I just wondered if it doesn't make sense that I should add something to the camera.

[39:29]

If you lift it and it doesn't make any sort of sense. I didn't have to add anything on the start. You can't add anything on the start, can you? Not at the start, but it could be edited. It could be transferred. You can add whatever you want. Well, you let me talk to him, and then we'll go from there. Probably it will, but don't do it. My brother gave her your bike, right? Nice to meet you. I thought you were having it in a large room of the monastery. I have been told. So that's why you were... I suppose these are more common called chairs. Is that why we're here? I'm sure some of them are, not all. Did you give a little synopsis at all of your own background and how you became... That might be nice to put in somewhere. That would be nice to put in somewhere. That would be nice to put in somewhere.

[40:30]

That would be nice to put in somewhere. [...] That would be nice to put in somewhere

[40:53]

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