We begin a new liturgical year , and a busy December, with the First Sunday of Advent. We also note the blessing of new lectio leaders, as our lectio divina program continues to develop and grow. 

Some of the schedule to note:

• Sunday, December 8, the Oblates will come together at 930am for a Day of Recollection (detailed schedule posted on website).
• Monday, December 9: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, with School Mass at 930am.
• Tuesday, December 17, parents and alumni are invited to join in the Advent Service and dinner-dessert festivities, beginning at 530pm (rsvp requested to mfonts@portsmouthabbey.org).

Banner by Ade Bethune (above)

Fr. Michael Brunner offered the followinh homily for Thanksgiving Day Mass. This homily and thers may be found on the Reflections page.

Ten lepers. Only one gives thanks: the unlikely one, the Samaritan. Just like the Good Samaritan was the unlikely source of charity to the robbers victim on the road to Jericho. God is full of surprises.
 
I have been teaching for twenty-two years. Back when began, now and then a student would say thank you. One student said “Thank you” to every teacher as he left the class room every day. That was pointed out by the school in its official letter of recommendation to the colleges he applied to. His gratitude was unusual and made him stand out. That was then; this is now. Today, everyday, almost every student says thank you as they leave class. Although it takes time, perhaps gratitude is contagious. God gives us time.
 
I’ve heard some preachers imagine what happened with the other nine lepers. They imagined that as they got closer to the priests to whom they were to show themselves, the sores and rot of leprosy began to reappear on their bodies. They were un-healed because of their lack of gratitude. But I think that is all wrong. If God went around slapping people down immediately for their bad manners, misdeeds and heedlessness, we would all be in bad shape. Gratitude is an attitude, not an event. It is lived, not done. We are very blessed. It is possible to see in our lives, at least in hindsight, that even tragedies are opportunities for which we can be grateful. They certainly move us out of our comfort zones, those artificial areas we create to protect ourselves from the fundamental brokenness of life in this world. They are vivid reminders that our true security, our true home is not in this world. And we do need to be reminded of that from time to time. God slims us down so that we can fit through the eye of the needle. I cannot now think of any misfortune in my own life which was not a door opening to growth and which did not make me a better and stronger person. In every insult has been a grain of truth of which I needed to be aware. The few acute illnesses I have had really made me realize the temporality and fragility of life and made me focus on what was most important. And mysteriously enough even my sins make me truly face up to the facts that I am not so great,  nowhere is near perfect, not so holy, and definitely not deserving of all the blessings I have. In a strange way they make me more compassionate to other sinners, and profoundly grateful that God is essentially merciful, and that God so freely bestows such blessings as I have on the undeserving like me. Most of all, I am thankful for the saving work and presence of Jesus Christ, who spiritually feeds me and you, in this sacrament, the Eucharist – which means “thanksgiving” in Greek.
 
Thanks be to God for all his blessings, not least for the perspective of faith that we have been blessed with, and for the victory over all the brokennesses in life and for the victory over death itself that He has given us through our Lord Jesus Christ, the bread of life. Thanks be to God for leading us to Him and fulfilling our highest need, so that we need never hunger, and never thirst from lack of faith or lack of his ever present grace. On our Thanksgiving Day celebrating with all the good things which the LORD, our God, has given us, may we each recognize many miracles. And may God grant us joy of heart and true peace.

The Oblates gather for a day of recollection and a renewal of promises on December 8 - details below. and on the Oblates page. Environmentalist and evangelical Christian Dorothy Boorse of Gordon College presented her thoughts on Christian Stewardship on Friday, December 6. And the raising again of the Advent banner in the choir of the church leads us to remember Ade Bethune, artist and oblate.

Brother Sixtus Roslevich, fresh off his Latin American adventure, is gathering the oblate community for a special Advent Day of Recollection this Sunday. He notes the significance of the season in his personal history: “The Advent Season was always a special time growing up in my family… The culmination of our brimming excitement came on Christmas Eve, the holiest night of the year for Eastern Europeans, when my mother had somehow orchestrated the preparation (on a pre-microwave coal-burning stove) and the presentation of 12 special dishes, all meatless, which comprise the Wigilia Supper, also called the Star Supper.  Like the 12 dishes which represented the 12 Apostles, everything had a meaning.  On its simplest level this meal constituted a basic education in theology for me and my brothers…”  Oblate Gerrie Beebe will offer the conference entitled, “Christ is Alive,” employing Ignatian visualizing techniques with accompanying music. This day will also allow the opportunity for the renewal of Oblate promises, a significant moment for spiritual reflection and prayer. Visit the Oblates page online for more.

Oblates Day of Recollection
Sunday, December 8, 2019

Dr. Dorothy Boorse in the field
(Image: Gordon College)

The event was sponsored by the Center for Science and the Liberal Arts of the Portsmouth Institute. Dr. Stephen Zins, head of the science department at the School, announced the event, noting that the “broad goal of the Center is to promote dialogue and scholarship,” particularly between science and the humanities, “so that our students are uniquely positioned and informed to speak intelligently and courageously on the issues of our day as they leave campus.” The Center invited Dr. Ken Miller to speak on evolution last year, and continues to develop its programming. Dr. Boorse was trained in entomology at Cornell University and received a doctorate in oceanography at the University of Wisconsin. Supported by this scientific training, she sees stewardship of the environment as most fundamentally a faith issue. Boorse joined Gordon College in 1999, and has worked to bring a greater understanding of the complex interactions among wildlife and the environment to the Gordon Community and the wider world. Her primary research interests are in aquatic community ecology and invasive species. Zins noted that “She spends a great deal of time studying the integration of faith and science, particularly in the realm of environmental ethics. In the past several years, her time has been devoted to authoring a major environmental science textbook.” Even with these higher academic credentials, Dr. Boorse was personable and engaging with the students, eliciting participation and responses during her presentation, tuning in to the audience before her to add a rich dialogical dimension to her presentation. 

Cata Quiroga and Alvaro Gazmuri
with their daughter Clara

The joy of this season of imminent arrivals is tempered by the imminent departure of our long-term and beloved Manquehue friends, Alvaro Gazmuri and Cata Quiroga, who will return to Chile shortly after Christmas. Their sojourn with us has been a fruitful one, inaugurating their married life, which soon added the beautiful Clara, their young daughter - who has indeed been a clear and warm light for our community. We will also bid farewell soon to Antonia Lopez Valdes, who has been with us this fall term helping develop our lectio groups and spiritual ilfe involvement. But take heart, It is not only farewells, but greetings that we extend, as we will welcome on December 21 two new members of our winter Manquehue group, a group of young men who will lead this intiatives through March of next year. An extended article on Alvaro and Cata can be found here. You can also read there Antonia's testimony of her epxerience with us.

Cover of Gerrie's book entiled Come

On the Second Sunday of Advent (December 8), Oblate Gerrie Beebe led the oblates through an Ignatian reflection, focused on an imaginative meditation on the Christmas mystery. The imagination is a devalued capacity of the mind, she noted, one of which we are unjustly suspicious, particularly of its more creative aspects. But Ignatius saw these imaginative abilities as also making possible something for the spirit. The recollection took place in the Regan Lecture Hall, visually focused by an image of the Ade Bethune “Seat of Wisdom” tapestry that now hangs in the church choir, with two candles lit for Advent’s second Sunday. Her reflections were punctuated by several musical selections, the experience designed to invite the oblates into a personal meditation and prayer. The imaginative progression moved through visualizations of the stable, the infant Jesus, and his parents, placing ourselves with them in these diverse scenes.
 
Gerrie is in the process of becoming a Spiritual Director, and already brought some of that training into her presentation.  She introduced herself with a brief account of her own introduction to the Oblate group in 1990, which seemed to the oblates then an answered prayer, as she and ten others happened to arrive at the same time and helped instantly to bolster the group’s numbers. Her husband Bob helped recruit others, assisted in part, she joked, by mentioning the great opportunities to avail of the dining hall! Gerrie circulated a copy of her book, Come (The Kyra Series), a deeply personal and prayerful reflection on suffering and the search for God and meaning in life. The rear jacket cover provides brief biographical information, describing Gerrie as, “a retired Social Worker and Nursing Home Administrator. Her more creative side enjoys nature and the arts, and sharing them with others. Having a husband, four children, three grandchildren and many relatives and friends, she fills her days with joy by having them be a big part of her life. When she isn’t doing ordinary things like cooking, gardening, and cleaning closets, she loves painting, especially scenes of exotic places and places where she has traveled. Most importantly, she finds time for prayer. Writing this book was an extension of two desires:  her love of people, and wanting to reach out to them. She believes that we have so much to learn from each other.”
 
After guiding the oblates through their imaginative meditations, Gerrie left them with an Ignatian “Examen,” a five-step process designed to draw one more closely into relationship with God. The Examen, as adapted from Nick Schiro, SJ, moves through the steps of Thanksgiving, Intention, Examination, Contrition, and Hope. She recommended offering even a little time each day to this type of prayer (see www.jesuit-collaborative.org). The presentation was positively received by a grateful oblate group, who appreciated the refreshing approach to our Advent prayer.
 

Clothe-a-Child Raffle
St. Hugh's Dormitory

Each December, for three decades now, the School community has raised funds to help provide for local families in need. The Clothe-A-Child program was initiated in 1990 by nurses Nancy Weida and Pam Gorman of the Infirmary staff. Working for years with the Students Against Destructive Decisions, and eventually with all of the School’s dormitories, the two were able to incorporate an ever-growing segment of the student body, with faculty, staff, and families, as well as the monastery, in these efforts. The Clothe-A-Child fund has raised thousands each year, providing by now thousands of children with winter coats, as well as offering other needed supplies for Christmas time. See the full report in the Works section.