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Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, foundress of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth, an apostolic community in the archdiocese of Boston, visited the School last Friday, October 25. We report on her message. We also look at a recurring theme in the month of November, death and the passage to life beyond this world. The month brings us the celebration of All Saints, prayers for All Souls, and commemorations of the faithful departed. Fr. Michael considers this in his reflection on the "Four Last Things."
 

Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart visited the School on Friday, October 25, speaking to the community about her life and faith. A recurring theme in her message was to remain open to the unexpected. Her own journey embodied this, for from a childhood filled with the struggles of poverty, illness, and family turmoil, she has found her life transformed. With God, remarkable, impossible transformations become possible. Through her journey to the United States, through schooling in health sciences and theology, through the creation of a new order of religious sisters, she has often returned to the same prayer: that Christ be her rock, her anchor, her compass, and her shield. This prayer helped her negotiate the difficulties of an addicted father, a broken home, and a homeland (Iraq) torn apart by war. Through these hardships, Mother Olga also returned to the prayer that the rosary be the chain around her neck, and the Eucharist be the locket – that these guard her from the reaction of hatred, that she never return hate for hate, that she keep love for all in her heart. It is a prayer she says that has been consistently answered in her life. Through all of her diverse ministry, which has included work in prisons, with addicts, among the homeless, as well as within college ministries,

Mother Olga has sought always to express the heart of Jesus. As she spoke, she gently walked throughout the auditorium, expressing in her own person the proximity of God. She encouraged her listeners to have courage, to never give up – since God has never given up on us, even with our own failings and sins. She appealed to a search for a broader vision, using the image of an empty picture frame. Presenting first a small frame, she asked the audience how much of her they could see. A little more, then, with a larger frame. Imagine, then, God’s picture frame – the perspective that God brings to who we are, His knowledge of us, His knowledge of our potential, our possibilities. This resonated, she said, with an Austrian cardinal she once met who similarly keeps a picture frame with the names of those who have truly challenged him to grow. He is grateful for the struggles that may have come through such challenges, seeing them as blessings from God. How is it that God is challenging us to grow, to expand our own picture frame, and to see more fully His hand in our lives? She marveled at her encounter with Benjamin Watson of the New England Patriots: with all of the accomplishments he has achieved in his life, it is the distinct gift of fatherhood that remains at the top of his list. And with the ups and downs of his career, such as recently being released and resigned by the Patriots, he identifies both sides of that equation as pointing to God in his life, as opportunities to grow in grace. Mother Olga finished by appealing to all of us to see ourselves as we truly are – children of a loving God – and to hold to our hopes, even those that seem least possible to achieve, for in God’s perspective, the impossible indeed becomes possible.

November finds a series of celebrations and commemorations of those who have passed beyond this world. Beginning with All Saints and All Souls, the month also reminds us of deceased relatives and benefactors, and offers us all the opportunity to make special petition for those who have died. We also present Fr. Michael Brunner’s reflection on this time of year, and on the traditional commemoration of Día de los Muertos. In our monthly series on the Church, we provide excerpts from several popes on the saints and All Saints Day, in hopes that their collective feast inaugurating the month will cast its gentle light throughout these thirty days. Our silver casket adorns the altar, open for the addition of the names of any of the deceased the monastery community is asked to pray for.

The following is an excerpt of the more extended piece presented in full here. Welcome to November, the month of the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, hell. They show up a lot in the liturgy this month. Appropriately, it begins with death. The cum laude graduates of death are the saints, celebrated on November 1, those who have arrived at heaven. They are followed on November 2, All Souls’ Day, by those who need a little more polishing in that condition we call Purgatory (a place of cleansing). Unsurprisingly, we don’t celebrate hell or anyone there. This procession of the four last things was immediately preceded by Halloween. This day was once supposed to be a cathartic release of the fear of death and the terrible things we tend to associate with death. Since our society does not really wish to think about death anymore (it’s the ultimate downer), Halloween has just been turned into one big party and is now a bigger deal for adults than for children. If one doesn’t believe in the last three of those last four things, then death is the most unwelcome end to the party of life, and those who have left the party are gone forever. …Well [unlike Día de los Muertos], we don’t have the custom of inviting our dead to parties. But just like the Aztec and Maya people, we believe that the dead are still part of our community, the Church, the Communion of Saints. They are alive, in the condition of heaven, we hope; in purgatory, perhaps. We trust in the mercy of God that they are not in that other last condition. If in heaven or purgatory, they can pray for and intercede for us. And if they are in purgatory, we can pray for them and help them conclude their process of cleansing. We don’t have to invite them because they are now in the world of spirits, which is in some ways all around us; it is not a physical place.  Our beloved dead are souls and are present with us and to us. We don’t call them up with Ouija boards or tarot cards. We communicate through prayer and the movement of spirit... (See the full Reflection) 

COMMEMORATIONS

November marks commemorations at Portsmouth Abbey: All Saints and All Souls, saints of the English Benedictine Congregation, friends and benefactors, departed souls of this monastery. On November 11, we remember at the School’s Veterans’ Day Assembly those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. This marks the 101st anniversary of “11/11,” when Europeans and others around the world thought hopefully of the “end of all wars.” While that hope remains, we know that the century that ensued became the bloodiest in human history, marked by genocide, chemical warfare, and atomic destruction. Portsmouth Abbey has not been spared of its effects. It may give hope to consider that its most recent casualty of war was an alumnus who perished over a half-century ago. Fifty-five years ago, on October 11, 1964, Captain Robert J. Reilly of Dobbs Ferry, New York, a Green Beret and Ranger qualified soldier, a father of one young son, was killed at the age of 25, together with U.S. Army Sergeant First Class George Willis Martin of Chattanooga, Tennessee, when their vehicle hit a landmine in Hau Nghia Province. Captain Reilly ‘57 was also a 1961 graduate of Georgetown University, receiving his commission upon graduation and being promoted to Special Forces in 1964, volunteering to go to Vietnam as an adviser, where he had arrived just in August of 1964. He was the first Georgetown graduate to perish in Vietnam; the only Portsmouth graduate. May this singular and abbreviated story remind us that behind each name there is a story, a life and a loss, and a gathering point for our prayers.

The Portsmouth Institute’s Junior Fellows will meet in Boston on November 16th for dinner and a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The group will also gather for dinner and discussion. The Junior Fellows is a community of students at Portsmouth Abbey School and Saint Louis Priory School inspired by the richness of the Western intellectual tradition and Benedictine monasticism, who participate in the Oxford Summer Programme, and follow up the experience for a year with book readings, spiritual programming, and cultural events. You can learn more about this program and others offered through the Portsmouth Institute on its website.

THREE PIECES OF HISTORY

As part of our monthly "Archives" exploration, The Current did not search lost records to uncover hidden mysteries. We instead call your attention to three features always adorning the Abbey church, each of which links us to our Benedictine history. The Lancet (pictured) is from the Norman monastery of Bec, founded in 1034 by Herluin, who saw 136 monks join in his life. Its brethren include Lanfranc and Anselm, later both Archbishops of Canterbury. In fact, Bec had enduring relationships across the channel. Anselm is perhaps best known for his “ontological argument” for God’s existence, that from the very idea of a being of which no greater can be thought, we can conclude that such a being must exist. We also include in our note the image of the "Fabulous Beast" from the great abbey of Cluny, and the effigy of "Saint Nicholas," which also dates from medieval times. (See the Archives)