This complete relaxation in, you know, just giving in completely to the law of the palate, you know, so. Then, of course, the other thing is, yes, we welcome the opportunity to kind of speak with one another in a kind of free way, you know. But immediately, of course, there are also, and I can sometimes get, I get the echo, you know, now isn't there too much just chit-chat, you know, and too much just, let us say, waste of time, and so on. Again, you know, that is impossible, you know. One cannot sit there and then, let us say, put the hammer and indicate, you know, now from this moment on, chit-chat tree ceases, you know. And then sometimes The subprior gives a sign, you know, invited by the prior. Now all these moments of silence.

[01:03]

And then a letter is being read, you know. But then again some people think, oh my, whenever your creation we have a letter read, you know, then again, you know. So you see all these difficulties that we face, you know. What they indicate, you know, is of course, I would say, is this, you know, that the recreation and the common room is a place which certainly indicates, you know, I think it's good, you know, for that matter, to set it apart as a place where a certain relaxation, a certain dispensation, you know, also from the usual silence is deliberately granted, you know, and is therefore also deliberately as such received. And we're born, of course, without, let us say, losing the general, let us say, framework, you know, and the general level of the monastic life.

[02:07]

We're still, you know, this human friendliness, kindness, charity, on a human level. you know, can be given where also certain enjoyment takes place. You know, I know that we used in the past more than now used to show slides, you know, see, and of course the prior is the one who takes the most part in travels, you know, and then he was the one who presents slides, and then right away, you know, so I still remember that. Some people said, no, it's not good for monks, you know, to look too much at slides, you know, and so on. Because they get all ideas about Spain and how beautiful it is in the Pyrenees, you know, and so on. And maybe the hills of Elmira, that isn't too conducive to stability. Now, again, you know, there's these things. I think, personally, the better.

[03:08]

And the, let us say, the greater, the word here I think is simplicity. The greater simplicity one takes, you know, this opportunity, you know, to kind of really enjoy, let us say, the being together, the talking together, and the less, you know, one is kind of, let us say, finicky about it, you know, now is there word wasted or not, you know, or do I eat one piece of candy too much or not, you know. The better I think it is as long as one is ready interiorly by the fact that this common room is set aside as a special room, you know, as a special area, which by itself indicates the character in that way of a dispensation and of a thing that is in this way. freely granted, you know, by the abbot to the community as such.

[04:12]

And may one realize it as such and is then willing, for example, when the end has come, you see, and when the bell rings, you see, then that's why I think our custom, you see, then to kind of go into silence, maybe it's a custom which at the moment is a little wobbly, That's another question, and I don't want to, you know, make at this moment any kind of disciplinary references to that, but there it is, you know, and then you see one kind of stops and has that inner readiness to go back into the monastic, in that specifically monastic discipline, the better it is. If the recreation is, you know, kind of you know, and kind of, I would say, would be a kind of a chalice, you know, that would abound, you know, in every direction, then it might begin to be dangerous.

[05:13]

But if one keeps it, you know, in the, let us say, the chalice and the four wards, you know, of the common rule, of course, then, it seems to me, then it keeps its place, you know. And then it also, in this place and around this place, It should then be also really and truly on the human level, not of course, I mean, of anything sinful, you know, but on the human level of what is created goodness. that God presents, you know, to his children to enjoy. But you see right away that that's of course in itself not the purpose of the chapter. But in the chapter room it's much more. That's why we have in the chapter room a certain mixture. We have terse here, and I think that's an appropriate thing, you know. of the descent of the Holy Spirit, and that is when, let us say, the full facing of the day is there.

[06:17]

And then there are, for example, monastic family ceremonies, the reception into the monastic family of a new member, of a novice, the triennial profession. and things like that, you know, which concern the community as a whole, but strictly as a whole, but strictly also as a monastic community, see, under the and in this whole framework that Saint Benedict has set up. Then the concilium fratum, which also is for that matter, is an official, as the character of an official community action, so on. Those things, you know, in the chapter rule, and therefore also in the chapter rule with a certain solemnity, and this solemnity is simply indicating our closeness, this inner closeness to the last things, to Christ's second coming. Now those thoughts may just

[07:19]

help, you know, our mutual thinking in this field which certainly needs our attention, also in view of, for example, making any constitutions and so on.

[07:32]

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