So the Lord be with you. We really are very grateful to be able to have Sister Marie-Juliane with us because she has long been a friend of the monastery and of Fr. Damasus when she was provincial of the Eastern Province of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur. And then her term in Namur as the head of the international congregation, and lots of experience with her sisters throughout the world, but especially, of course, in Africa, with the difficulties and all they had there. So she's a woman of a lot of experience, both in religious life and in really in the worldwide problems of today. The founder of the Nemours sisters was at least as I understand it, a monk who left France at the time of the revolution and there was this group of women around him and then he went back to France when things quieted down and the women stayed together.

[01:17]

and that became eventually the congregation of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur. So Sister Marie-Juliane has, the roots are monastic in a way. So she always knows what she's talking about, but in this case, more especially so. And we will ask you again, we have this famous problem, how well do people hear in the chapel? So don't be embarrassed to put your hand up. We'll know what it's for. So then without much more ado, let me introduce Sister Marie-Juliane. Good afternoon. You're courageous to come and to come in out of that beautiful day outside. Just to go inside is something courageous today, I think. Well, I'm happy to be here and grateful and moved, or as they say in French, since I've just come recently from Belgium, impressioné.

[02:30]

And I might say, I hope it's not presumptuous to say that coming here always feels like coming home, even though obviously this is the home of our brothers. This talk, Father Martin asked me to give it over a year ago, and I've been thinking on and off about it for several months. And then, in the meantime, the events of September 11th occurred. And it seems that it puts us before a terrible dilemma. On the one hand, you might say, well, what else could you talk about but that? You know, after all, this is the defining event of the moment. Or you might say, also, I think many of us are inclined to say, The whole thing is beyond words, and you can't talk about it. There's just too much to it.

[03:32]

There are too many consequences. There are too many implications. What could we possibly say about it? I've thought to talk about simplicity. And I saw or I heard about an article I misplaced that, of course, the very first one. I've heard about an interview which Peter Jennings did with some of the students of, I think it was Stuyvesant High School, which is in Manhattan. And he was asking them, you know, what were their impressions and how had these events affected them? And these youngsters were saying, my life will never be the same. What I thought was important was to get ahead, to make good grades, to get into the best college, be a success at a great business, and make lots of money.

[04:42]

Now, that doesn't really matter. It can all be lost in one minute, one second. What matters is life. What you do in life every day has to have meaning. Helping others, making life better, however you can do that. I thought that was also echoing quite a bit of other commentary that we heard and I sincerely hope that that will be one of our enduring results of these terrible, terrible events. We have also been told, well, you can't just stay with these things. You have to get on with it. And you get several types of advice about getting on with it. You have Rudy Giuliani saying, well, come to New York and spend money. I suppose that, you know, that's important too. Certainly important for the economy. But thinking about what these young people said, I think also another very important part of getting on with it would be to try to cut to the essential.

[05:53]

Back to what we might call simplicity. And we find very often that limit situations make faith either grow or diminish. They test us and they can make us simpler. Hopefully what we are going through in the country now will lead us in that direction. But why would I have wanted to talk about or to suggest to you to think about and we could dialogue about simplicity? Because I think it is at the heart of the matter It leads us to what's essential in our lives. We're here partly because we're celebrating the 50 years of Mount Savior monastic community. And to quote Raymond Panikkar, he says, simplicity is the root of monastic spirituality.

[06:59]

Simplicity is the root of monastic spirituality. And in this particular book in which he's writing, he says also that the monk is the archetype of the human. In other words, what would be good for the monk, or what would be typical of the monastic life, would also be good for all of us. And what the monastic life does is to try to highlight and to bring out what the rest of us are looking for and what we are hoping for. It seems appropriate also to talk about simplicity because thinking of Father Damasus, We can say, I think, that it certainly was one of the principles of the foundation of Mount Savior, if it was not the one.

[08:02]

The brothers would speak better to that question. It certainly was one of the principles of the foundation. Perhaps it was even a principle of a kind of reform that Father Damasus saw of the Benedictine life. The brothers will correct or add to this, I'm sure. He insisted, for example, on one class of brother in the monastery. Seems now that's not so extraordinary, but at the time in which he insisted upon it, it was quite revolutionary. I believe he said that priests would be ordained simply for the service of the community. He was very desirous and worked all his life that worship should be accessible. And so the introduction of English into the liturgy, with all of the consequences that that had, some very difficult consequences, I believe.

[09:03]

He wanted to put the emphasis on the contemplative. He felt that that was perhaps the the more correct, the more authentic interpretation of the Benedictine rule. He felt it would be best for, at least for his community, not to have an institutional apostolate and to be occupied with the things of the spirit, the ora e labora of the Benedictine life. I think that there are probably other expressions also of Father Damasus' insistence upon simplicity, and which are, I think, at the root of this monastic life. He was seeking for an uncluttered life, a simple, essential life, which would be concentrated on God and on Jesus.

[10:06]

And wouldn't it be true for those of us who are not brothers to say, well, that's what we come here for. We come for this. We breathe it in, this simplicity and this centeredness. We breathe it in with relief and with joy, with gratitude, and that we feel that after turning and turning, As the Quaker hymn goes, when we've arrived here, we've come down right. As far as the Sisters of St. Mary are concerned, as Father Martin said, our founder was a Cistercian who had to leave his monastery because it was suppressed on account of the French Revolution and its repercussions in Belgium. and the Cistercian ideal, of course, of simplicity, and also that carried over then into the foundation of our community and our biblical word, which summarizes our spirit, is from Chronicles.

[11:22]

In the simplicity of my heart, full of joy, I have offered all to God. And certainly that deep sense, I think if you ask any Sister of St. Mary anywhere in the world, well, what do you think is really characteristic of the Sisters of St. Mary? Almost anyone is going to say simplicity, or at least we're trying, or we would like to, or we hope that simplicity is characteristic of us. And so there is obviously and immediately a resonance with the spirit of this community and why we have always felt so much at home and nourished by what's lived here. But what about simplicity? You stop to think about it. Well, what is it? Almost immediately, and paradoxically, you come to the awareness that simplicity is pretty complex.

[12:30]

I hope it's not complicated, although we are capable of making it complicated, I suppose. But certainly it is complex. Simplicity is certainly a a many-layered richness of reality, or a many-splendored truth. And the more one begins to think about it and concentrate on it, the further and further you are led, and the more seems to be taken in and comprehended by simplicity. So probably the few remarks that I'm going to make are just intended really to perhaps invite you to think more about it, read some more about it, do some dialoguing. And I'm glad that we will have some opportunity here, even this afternoon, to talk a little bit more about it and get your ideas on it.

[13:38]

It's said of Thomas Merton, who had not long been at Gethsemane, that in 1948, the Cistercian General Chapter commissioned and approved a document on simplicity. And for example, you can see it in this little book. It's called The Spirit of Simplicity, the Characteristic of the Cistercian Order. And providentially, I suppose, the document arrived at Gethsemane in French. They didn't have too many people who could translate, and they gave it to the young Thomas Merton to translate. When he had translated it, he never seemed to be shy about what he thought anyway, but in any case, he seemed to be a little bit dismayed, and he felt that the fathers of the chapter, mind you, had perhaps emphasized a little too much what was external in simplicity.

[14:52]

So he wrote an almost equally long commentary, which is also in the book. However, it's anonymous, but it is from Thomas Merton, in which he emphasizes the interior, internal aspects of simplicity. Well, I suppose that right away there we have at least one very important pointer. that simplicity has to be both external and interior. It has to do, for example, with our music, with our clothing, with our food, all the aspects of our lifestyle. It has to do with architecture. There's a whole recent wonderful book of Cistercian architecture and simplicity, but this is a constant theme, really.

[15:54]

It has to do, as the Quakers say, for all of us with eliminating cumber from our lives, those things which encumber us. Now, I don't know if that means much to you, but I've just been moving. After 12 years in Europe, I came back here and I admit to being thoroughly ashamed of my cumber. How do you get rid of all this stuff, you know? And so many things that you know you cherish, but you don't know what to do with. Well, I mean, I don't need to tell you. We all know what cumber is, and I suppose many of us have a whole lot of it in our lives. So the external expression of simplicity is important, and it should not be minimized. It's a part of a whole life. We have to look at it. But to that, of course, we must immediately join what we would speak about as interior simplicity.

[17:05]

And when I started to prepare for this book, for this talk, I mean, I had read a book. I read it in French, but I've now found it in English. the papers from a symposium given by Raymond Panikkar as far back as 1982 on Blessed Simplicity. It's a fascinating book and takes a little bit of work, but it rewards any work that one puts into it. And I just say for you, and in the end I'm not going to spend an awful lot of time on that, but say for you what he calls, some of what he calls his sutras. I suppose they're kind of like teachings to become a disciple who cherishes simplicity. Some of them are more evident in their sense than others. First of all, the breakthrough of the primordial aspiration.

[18:12]

I suppose, what does he mean? I don't know. I suppose he means that someplace inside of us we long to be simple. The breakthrough of the primordial aspiration. More evident is primacy of being over doing and having. It's more important to be and more important who we are than what we have and even what we do. Silence over the word. And there's all the reflection, I remember so well, the, I guess it was a symposium or semin, yes, that you had here at Mount Savior many years ago, and which was entitled, Word Out of Silence. And I believe Panikkar spoke at that symposium, if I'm not mistaken. That would, of course, be the only worthwhile word we speak, the word that comes out of silence.

[19:23]

That will be a word that won't hurt and that won't destroy but will build the word any way he calls it, silence over the word. And then he has mother earth prior to the fellowship of men and women. I think this would take a little bit more exploring. But perhaps is the root of all of the best of our understanding of what ecology might be, that how we all belong together in a created world. You can't start separating off, because as you start separating off things, people, aspects of creation, you're wounding, cutting, dividing, destroying. perhaps eventually killing. And he speaks about overcoming spatial and temporal parameters.

[20:26]

That capacity to go beyond these little limits of ours. And of a trans-historical consciousness above historical concern. and the fullness of the person over the individual, the primacy of the holy, and the memory of the ultimate and the presence of its gate in our lives. Obviously, each one of these subjects or headings and titles would be subject to extensive reflection, thought, prayer, and practice in particular, I suppose. I thought I would like to talk just about perhaps a few of these same meanings Not all of them, certainly.

[21:29]

A few of these same meanings under some perhaps slightly different headings. And possibly to advance a little with the question, well, you know, how can we help ourselves? How do we move forward on something that leads us toward a greater simplicity? And I think the monastic practices, which are also then, according to Panikkar, the beneficial human practices, are very important indicators for us. One certainly being to stand daily under the Word of God, to bring all that we are and that we have

[22:30]

and the whole world and its history under the Word of God and to allow ourselves to be sifted and winnowed, refined and defined by the power of the Word. The monastic practice, of course, of the Lectio Divina And in the church, the daily mass readings and how we bring everything to that and find there a unity, a coming together, a possibility of escaping from a complete dissipation. Another one certainly of the important ways to simplicity is silence.

[23:34]

Most of us who don't live in the monastery know so little of it now. Silence is hard to come by, and perhaps if we haven't come by it over long periods of time, then it's hard for us even to support at times. And we look for ways possibly to fill it. But, well, for example, in the light of what happened in New York and in Washington, what is it now? Is it two weeks, three weeks ago? We'd have to say that so much of the talk or of the sound that we hear is gibberish. And the most serious kind, of course, is the kind that we have inside ourselves. The exterior kind you can kind of maybe set aside or maybe do something with.

[24:38]

The worst kind is what we find inside ourselves and most of us would have to admit to having it within our, inside ourselves. That place where I talk to me And so this kind of futile discussion between me and myself goes round and round and fills the space of creativity and of growth. We need so badly to find silence, exterior and interior. Silence has, we say, well, what does silence do? I don't know if you can even, I don't know. I guess you could describe it and certainly people have, but it has its own mysterious way. It works its own mysterious wonders to be in silence.

[25:39]

And perhaps another way to simplicity, which is worth thinking about today, is that practice of being present where you are. One of Father Damas's friends and collaborators was Douglas Steer, the Quaker. And he has a little booklet that he wrote on being present where you are. It sounds simple enough, doesn't it? But it isn't very simple, always to be present where you are. He talks about being all there. And we have expressions like that, don't we? We say, well, she's not all there, you know. But there are lots of ways of being not all there. And certainly one of the ways to simplicity is to seek to practice to be all there, to avoid being divided, distracted, not to be in a drowse of preoccupation about other things.

[26:59]

Douglas Steere has written here in his little book, two persons, even two married persons, or two races or two religions or two cultures can live in precisely the same place and at the same moment of time and yet can brush past each other with no more understanding of each other or effect upon each other than what Dr. Jacques Coutat calls a dialogue of deaths. Well, that's true. We can be in the same room. be in the same life, if you like, and still really not be together, not have that unity, not be affected by that simplicity. Or he says again, there should be a readiness to respect and to stand in wonder and openness before the mysterious life and influence of the other.

[28:05]

It means, to be sure, a power to influence, to penetrate, to engage with the other, but it means equally a willingness to be vulnerable enough to be influenced by, to be penetrated by, and even to be changed by the experience. If this is an accurate account of what actually takes place on the deepest levels of love and of friendship, it also means that out of the long loneliness of life, There are possible some luminous moments of profound communion, of truly coming into the presence of the other. That simplicity, that unity, that is possible instead of that separatedness or even that conflictual kind of relationship. Simplicity also has lots to do with the capacity for attention.

[29:08]

George Washington Carver said, to see God, look at anything closely. To see God, look at anything closely. Dag Hammarskjold said, in the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud, a revelation, each man a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple. But it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable. That capacity for attention, also not so easily acquired.

[30:16]

When we are capable of being attentive, then immediately that sense of separation from the others and from ourselves and even from our whole world passes. And then we have that wonderful experience. We may have that wonderful experience that all that is, is one and that we are united with it. And that we are united with the music of the spheres. And perhaps it's all of our newly emphasized ecological sense ought to be rooted someplace in that kind of simplicity. Well, it's not new what our major problem is. I think we could say that it's a problem from time immemorial.

[31:23]

And our major human problem with simplicity is multiplicity. In the confessions, in his confession, St. Augustine says, unceasingly, I hesitated and turned away from you, the one and only. I lost myself in multiplicity. I suppose the response to that was, you have made us for yourself, oh God, and our hearts will never rest until they rest in you. Well, we don't have to look very far to or to think very much to realize how we are surrounded and immersed in multiplicity.

[32:27]

If we consider only the media and the effect that the media has upon us, or even the prevailing philosophies, we find that we are assaulted and I would say largely infected by a plague of multiplicity. Or maybe we could also say by a plague of dualism. And we then begin to ask ourselves, well, how shall we be healed toward a greater simplicity and unity? An earlier asceticism, I suppose that of my early years in religious life, would put the accent on elimination. You know, get rid of it. Don't do that. Avoid such and such.

[33:30]

Stay in. Don't talk to anybody about anything, you know, and so on. Aspects of that asceticism are still certainly very valid and necessary, if you don't just hold on to it in an exclusive sort of way. I suppose now we would say that to arrive at simplicity, our challenge is, in particular, a challenge towards integration. Paniker, for example, talks about the mystic of integration. I suppose that might be a good way of describing a modern mysticism, the mystic of integration. Or another way to look at it, perhaps, is to say that it's maybe the need to cultivate a truly Catholic attitude, the attitude that says, not only, but also.

[34:36]

Not only work, but also leisure. Not only heaven, but also earth. Not only woman, but also man. Not only soul, but also body. And, you know, on and on and on in that effort to overcome the dualism which is probably deeply impregnated in many of us. The Gospel, of course, speaks to this question and this issue with the story of Martha and Mary. And it's probably not surprising to find that St. Bernard returned again and again and again to that scripture passage and commented it again and again and again. No doubt a worthwhile study to take and find all of the commentaries of St.

[35:43]

Bernard on Martha and Mary in that question of integration of action contemplation, doing, listening, and so on, all the meanings that we know arise Well, thus far, I would say we have been, like, saying, well, simplicity, it's important, and how can we, what can we do about it, and what are the difficulties, what are the obstacles? And I think that simplicity, to arrive at simplicity, probably is a lifetime's work. It's one of those things that probably never is finished. You keep kind of maybe hopefully progressing, and then you see, oh, but there's a whole lot more, and then there's a lot more. So I think it is very likely a lifetime's work. But while accepting and realizing that, it is also terribly important that we realize that we already have a potential

[36:54]

a gift, a call, a promise of unity which is there within us. We need to think perhaps often of the Shema Israel. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. And our faith reminds us that we, each of us and all of us, are created in the image and the likeness of God. And this unity, which is of the nature of God, is already within us, desiring to be fully realized. Perhaps that is the explanation of the power and the beauty of a whole man or woman.

[38:03]

Probably we all know some people that we could say are whole. Maybe not enough, but anyway, certainly that's one of the ways to speak about Jesus. and one of the ways that the people of his time thought about him and spoke about him. No man has ever spoken as this man. This man speaks with authority. And certainly that authority comes from the unity and simplicity of the being of that person. This week, I was reading about the death of Isaac Stern, the great violinist, And Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Perlman and the head of the Lincoln Center were talking about him and Carnegie Hall, particularly, which he saved. And the paper said, Mr. Wiles said that the impact Mr. Stern had on Carnegie Hall was so immense that I think he will be a part of everything we do forever.

[39:20]

Mr. Axe seconded the thought. He is leaving a huge void for us, he said. It's like there will be nobody to take his place. Not as a violinist. There are other great violinists. But as a whole personality and force. That the power and the force and the presence of the whole person. Father Damascus was like that for me and I think for many other people who knew him. I believe that the unity, the simplicity and the unity of his personality and of his being as a person and as a monk. I think he had bought that very dearly at high price.

[40:28]

But once acquired, it certainly had engendered an incomparable joy and grace and blessing for those people who met him. Perhaps we could go one more step in considering something about simplicity. Is it correct to say that the fatal illness of our time and that we hope finally to overcome is the illness of the divided heart? Perhaps it's another way of saying the divided person, but more explicitly, the illness of the divided heart. Simplicity, said Kierkegaard, is to will one thing and one thing only.

[41:36]

And which one of us does not dream of arriving one day at the possibility of loving fully, wholly, unconditionally. The Agape was the core of Father Damas's teaching and of the monastic ideal, consequently of the human ideal, that eventually throughout a lifetime, we should arrive progressively at being the recipient and the mediator of the very agape of God. For this, our faith teaches us, the Spirit is at work in us and that our hope is not in vain.

[42:43]

to arrive finally at a love without defect and without limit, a total, absolute, unconditional love. And I don't know whether, I hope it's not inappropriate to thinking once again about what happened, what is happening, what things going on in our world. There are all kinds of responses, more and less appropriate, probably lots of appropriate responses. But perhaps we could see ourselves here in this place, this place of fidelity and of truth and the search for simplicity, the search for the absolute of God, that we could find ourselves called to descend into the deepest caverns of our own hearts.

[43:55]

Those caves of our hearts. And there, in place of it seems like the implacable hatred, the seamless hatred of terrorists, that we would be able to pose an act of simple, undiluted, undivided love. And that doing that would have consequences in terms of the unity of our world, of our being, of all that is, far-reaching consequences and blessings. Thank you. Thank you very much, Sister Marie-Juliane.

[45:19]

It makes me want to become a monk. Or at least it gives me hope. Because it is so incomplete. I'm sure some of you would have some questions. Don't hesitate. But they're for Sister Juliane, not for me. Would you again remember that you met sisters in Rwanda, and you had to face a whole world situation in the aftermath of September 11th. I think it's one of the things that many of us are very distant from, that there are some of the same terrorists connected with them. Would you have anything to say about your experiences in the rest of the world at the time?

[46:22]

Beyond the simple things, Well, I suppose, you know, if we go from simplicity to unity, then we're, you know, we're into all those questions of racism and ethnic warfare. And, you know, it's interesting that a couple of our sisters, Rwandese sisters, were in Belgium on September 11th, and they were, our sisters from all over the world were faxing and emailing and phoning and expressing their sympathy and their unity with us. And, you know, a couple of them said, well, I think this is worse than what we went through in Rwanda. Well, I don't know. I'm not so sure. I don't even know if you can compare those things. I was in Rwanda during the genocide, and I've long thought on it, prayed about it.

[47:32]

I've been back there several times since then. Those people are putting their lives back together again, and they are striving for a prevailing attitude and even culture of reconciliation. So surely reconciliation is one of the great requirements, exigencies of our time. And we all need to question ourselves and see where we need to go with reconciliation. I don't know, I don't really know any Arabs, I don't think, or very few. And I wish I knew a whole lot more about the Muslim world.

[48:35]

And I don't certainly know enough about Islam. But I think, as many commentators have said, that this is not a question of a true practice of Islam. Islam doesn't believe in this kind of Terrorism. Simplicity, I suppose, would do away with extremism. And simplicity tries to bring together, tries to comprehend. And it seems to me that extremism, the search for the absolute, that's a kind of extremism too, I suppose, but the extremism of being certain you're right, that's a terrible danger. That you can't see that other people have truth also.

[49:36]

That's capacity to be joined to the humanity of the other and simple understanding. I don't know if that's any answer to your question or not, but it's an important question and one of those that we could just keep on and on and on with. In a world, I don't know whether the world is more than ever, torn and disintegrating, but it seems like it. Is it just that we know more? I don't know. But we are in a world where there is so much hostility. Maybe somebody else would like to say something to that question. Yes? Well, I suppose that essentially prayer is like being in the presence of God, being in dialogue with God.

[51:03]

And probably maybe the greatest of the integrating factors, possibilities, or activities in our life would be prayer, I think. That who God is as one begins to enter more and more into our own being. We enter more and more into that reality of who God is through prayer. We have a phase of police, police, never ever before. Now the next generation, next generation, like these are beings that become obsolescent and violent. How come none of the people, none of the people of the city back in the 1970s were violent?

[52:10]

a West and now we're looking at the West. We're looking for the common living style of the person. Paraphernalia, the existence, especially in today's world. People who will find that looking at their religion and origin I think that what you're saying is on the way to the answer, from my point of view, is that I do believe that maybe sometimes, contrary to everything one sees, there is a longing for unity and simplicity. We have that within us, even though we may all be wanting to acquire, but we're not satisfied with it, finally.

[53:11]

It's not satisfying. And that would be true of young people as well as those who are older. And maybe, you know, just might be that we've gone so far with the divisive way of living and the... All of that acquiring and all of the violence that goes on. Perhaps there will be a reaction, but as you said, there should be helpers. And it seems like the churches should be helpers. The families should be, certainly. I think family is probably a central place. But then church people ought to be trying to address that and do something about it. And I think right now, I don't know what you do about this, but it seems to me that right at this moment, we have an opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity to try to help

[54:27]

ourselves and other people to return to central meanings of life. But are we, are we ready to do that? The Dalai Lama, I see, I think I just saw Elizabeth back there, the Dalai Lama sent a message out by all of his his networks. It's a simple message, but it's useful. It's a message you could do something with, you know, about unity and simplicity and moving away from this terrible violence. I think the Holy Father did things going to, I'm not sure I can even say it, Kazakhstan and things that he said there. But I don't know whether we have the same kind of immediacy of communication. It doesn't seem to me that we do. But maybe, maybe we could get ourselves together a little bit better on that.

[55:31]

Yes? Yes. Mm hmm. I think You know, when you talk about an information world, it's an information explosion. And so I think it makes it much more difficult. Well, I think it does, too. I think we are inundated with information. I don't know if you had the same kind of reactions about the television after the

[56:38]

World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But, I mean, I see myself, I go back and watch it a while, and I say, I don't want to see any more of this stuff, and they're repeating it anyway. And I go away, then I'm drawn back to it, you know. And as you say, we get this overpowering amount of information, and some of it completely contradictory. And probably we need groups of people with whom we have confidence, little groups of people at least, whether they come from our parish or our neighborhood or our family or our friends or the monastery, where we can bring some of our questions and talk through some of this. Perhaps that was one simple step that we could take, but I agree with you that that's a terrible problem for us.

[57:40]

Yes, sir? Well, I think probably both are very important, that the individual needs to be convinced, but we really need the support of others, I think, especially in the society in which we are, if we want to hold on to something, or to create something, or enlarge a space of simplicity in our lives. Well, thank you.

[58:51]

Maybe we could agree to all pray for each other that we will move a little bit further toward a real simplicity. Thank you very much, Sister Marie.

[59:14]

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