January 2020
Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These works, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works.
The Turbine, after a winter snowfall
Brother Joseph gives turbine tour to
Lara Trump, producer for Inside Edition
“Praised be you, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather through whom you give sustenance to your creatures.”
(Saint Francis of Assisi).
It is fair to say this is “high season” for the turbine, in several ways. First, the winter months have statistically generated the most consistent winds. Second, the project has already essentially paid for itself, and now continues to consistently generate green energy and cost savings for the monastery and school. Thirdly, in light of Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, the project is in its theological high season, speaking to concerns of our day, representing a step forward in addressing the environmental issues now facing our world. This third point leads us to include an update on this “unequivocal success,” as it stands out, figuratively and quite literally, as a good work on behalf of “our common home.”
Pope Francis writes that, “There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy.” (LS 26) Brother Joseph Byron reported on the tenth anniversary of the turbine’s installation that the project has been an “unequivocal success.” Four additional years of continuous operation have only underlined this success, producing green electricity for the monastery and school, and “selling” energy certificate credits to the power company that mandated by law to have a percentage of green energy in its mix. Having laid the groundwork for its installation through negotiating not only the physical and technical requirements for its construction, but the regulatory and subsidy process as well, Br. Joseph and Paul Jestings have been able to see the benefits derived from the state’s first turbine. Not only that, the project has served a teaching tool for others who have explored the possibilities in wind power. The turbine project has received several awards: the 2007 Environmental Merit Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the 2007 Conservation Award by the Garden Club of America, and the 2006 Senator John H. Chafee Award for Outstanding Conservation Project.
The Weekly Production 2006-2019 chart illustrates kilowatt hours over time,
with peak months occuring January-March.
The turbine's imposing yet elegant presence has captured the imaginations of many. Kathleen Kiely incorporated it into a senior thesis for Roger Williams in 2013 Senior Thesis, posting on youtube a video from atop the nacelle. A student newspaper recently was created to supplement the School’s “Raven” and “Beacon,” naming itself “The Abbey Turbine” – perhaps to encourage students to keep churning out that writing! And, of course, Br. Joseph famously went viral, thanks to an unwitting drone videographer who captured him relaxing atop the turbine on a beautiful summer’s day. Just one of the various youtube videos posted on the event has 3.2 million views as of this writing. The original viral event was subsequently covered by various news outlets, including Inside Edition, who sent producer Lara Trump to interview Br. Joseph, climbing the turbine to see what the ascent was all about. The school website posted a mesmerizing video, still online, on the tenth anniversary portraying images atop the turbine of the dozens of students, faculty, and friends that Brother Joseph has brought up to experience the view.
Br. Joseph notes that the turbine has a predicted lifepsan of 20-25 years. This means that in another six years, it will be ready for a thorough assessment to determine the condition of various parts, from the base of the tower to the tip of the blades. It presently seems to be holding up very well, with this major assessment likely to lead to the replacement of some parts in the turbine's mechanics, but with ongoing production to continue apace.
Links to the School’s postings with information on the turbine and must-see videos:
"March 31, 2016: The Wind Turbine Turns 10!" (includes Inside Edition segment)
State's First Commercial-Grade Turbine "An Unequivocal Success"
In Its First Decade (includes video photo montage of pilgrims at the top of the turbine)
The video monitor in the lobby of the new Science Building incorporates a readout of energy production by the turbine. Br. Joseph has been particularly pleased with the new monitoring and management functions available with the recent introduction of new phone lines at the school, putting the turbine data online.
Rhode Island wind map, indicating strong potential for wind power offshore. While the campus is located in a "marginal" to "fair' wind area, its turbine has been a consistent and profitable producer.
The beige chart above is a snapshot of where the turbine's production is currently relative to the same week in each of the previous years. This data is also interesting in regard to annual weather patterns.
Prophetic, or just a theological resonance? This poster of Saint Francis' "Laudato Si'" is posted near the entrance to the monastery library.
February 2020
Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These works, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works.
Above: working in the MBK warehouse;
Below: In the MBK Prayer Room
It is difficult for many to discern how to integrate the gospel’s call to serve the poor into their lives. This is no less true for those living in a demanding secondary school environment, seeking to fulfill the increasing demands placed upon all. An appealing option to open such a space, to bring to life the social teaching of the church, is to connect service to the classroom. Part of the Sixth Form theology requirement, now called “Topics in Theology,” has been developing this model. The course title reflects a long practice of offering varied subjects in this year, which has been accomplished either through electives (alumni may remember such offerings as Sacred Music, Philosophy, Christian Heroes, or Faith and Science), or through the present three-term structure. This format consists of three mini-courses offered over the year, seeking to make available a diversity of study to the entire class. Dr. Marc Lavallee now offers a term in “Catholic Social Teaching,” arranging his course to integrate a direct service experience into the academic work. Dr. Lavallee, who returned to the School teach four years ago, has long been interested in relating theological study to life and service. After receiving his B.A. in Theology from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, he served with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Montana. Later attaining his MA in Religion from Yale Divinity School, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in Practical Theology from Boston University. His dissertation: “Discernment, Practical Wisdom, and Christian Spirituality: A Study in Practical Theological Method.” Dr. Lavallee’s book, Practical Pneumatology, is soon to be published by Wipf and Stock. As these achievements suggest, his rigorous academic work, refined in his five years at Barry University in Florida, has consistently been connected to active service.
My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) is particularly well-suited to maximize this opportunity. Featured in “The Current” several months ago, it has a long partnership with the School. The agency provides much needed furniture as well as other home supplies to those in need throughout the region. MBK opened their facility in Dartmouth ten years ago, seeking to expand the services provided from their home facility in Easton, Massachusetts. Portsmouth Abbey students were among the very first local high schoolers to volunteer at the agency, through the School’s afternoon Service Internship programs.
MBK quickly found that needs in the Fall River and New Bedford areas were great, and were thankful for the growing numbers of student volunteers that help meet that demand. The agency’s service model is fundamentally premised on the availability of volunteers to help make deliveries: the more hands available means the more furniture out, and the shorter the waiting periods for families in need, waits which can be weeks to months. MBK has years of experience working with students, and as director Eric Miller, President of the agency says, there is a fundamentally educational element in its work. Without fail, new volunteers receive a comprehensive orientation to the agency, covering its origins, mission, and present work. Mr. Miller speaks even of the value of the oversized cabs of the delivery trucks, not only to transport the crew, but to provide a space to discuss and debrief on significant aspects of each delivery.
Dr. Lavallee intends for the course to “integrate community service with course work and reflection to enrich the learning experience, foster civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.” It is a model of pedagogy that has taken root in many schools, and has a particular appeal to the connection of academics to the lived gospel. The mission of My Brother’s Keeper, “To bring the Love and Hope of Jesus Christ to those we serve,” articulates this link. The course requires an analytic essay of each student, describing their experience and situating it in the context of Catholic Social Teaching. Dr. Lavallee asks students to discuss how that teaching can “confirm, challenge, support what you saw and did,” and to “develop new insights… you have about social issues,” based on the experience. While many service learning courses consist predominantly of the direct service work or have a continuous, ongoing strand of service accompanying the academic study, Dr. Lavallee’s course currently provides this encounter as a single half-day experience. Students routinely find this catalytic to their study. They may encounter a family recently relocated, that has had to sleep on the floor for months. They may enter an apartment virtually empty of furniture, and leave with the space looking much more like a home. They may hear the stories of struggles with which various clients have had to deal, such as job loss, abusive relationships, or even the pernicious problem of bedbugs, which can wreak devastating financial damage to a family living day-to-day. The students return energized to reflect on what they have experienced, and to connect this real world encounter with the teachings they encounter in the gospel, and in a history of church documents seeking to articulate the challenging social teaching of Christ.
Above: Negotiating narrow stairs with large furniture: a frequent MBK task;
Below: Dr. Marc Lavallee
March 2020
Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These works, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works.
In this Lenten week when we remember Joseph, it seems appropriate to offer in reflecting on “Works,” the following excerpt from Blessed Columba Marmion on the role of work in the monastic life, taken from a reflection on “The Cenobitical Society,” in Christ: The Ideal of the Monk. Marmion is so direct in enabling us to reutrn to what is most basic in our faith, particularly as expressed in Benedictine life.
In the supernatural society founded by St. Benedict, of which the aim is to pursue the perfection of evangelical holiness, a preponderant place will naturally be given to the practice of the virtue of religion. This is one of the reasons why the holy Legislator dedicates so many chapters of his Rule to organizing the Divine Office. This constitutes the work of works, that to which “nothing is to be preferred,” and that is to become for the monk, with the lectio divina, labor, and what is furthermore ordained by the vows, especially that of obedience, the most authentic means of attaining the end that he proposes to himself : union with God. Therefore, this work is indispensable in every monastery, and other works depend on the circumstances of place, time, and persons, and can only be undertaken in the measure that they do not interfere with the primal character of the Divine Office. That is and must remain the chief work excelling all others, because it is, according to St. Benedict’s beautiful expression, “The Work of God ”: Opus Dei, the one that directly glorifies God, at the same time that it becomes for the monk the most natural, important and fruitful source of his inmost prayer and assiduous intercourse with our Lord.
Important as is the Divine Office, it is not, as we have seen, and it cannot be the end and aim of the monastic life: that aim must necessarily be sought for higher; neither is it the exclusive work nor the chief characteristic of our vocation; we are not Canons and we have not been gathered together directly for office in choir. In fact, neither the Rule, which wishes the monk to give himself in a very notable measure to reading and work, nor tradition authorizes us to admit that the work of God constitutes a special prerogative of our Order. To liturgical and mental prayer, work must necessarily be joined: Ora et labora. The whole of monastic tradition shows us that when these two means, prayer and work, have been most held in honor, the most abundant fruits of monastic holiness have been brought forth. It is clear a priori that work is necessary to the monk in order to attain the holiness of his vocation. We must not forget indeed that work is an essential part of the homage that the reasonable creature owes to God. Fashioned in the divine image, man ought to imitate his Creator. Now, God is the great Worker: “My Father,” said Jesus, “worketh until now; and I work…” Although God finds all happiness in Himself, He has willed to rejoice in the works of His hands; He saw that creation was “very good,” that it perfectly responded to His eternal thoughts: “The Lord shall rejoice in His works.” God also delights in the harmonious play of the activity of His creatures which glorify Him by acting in conformity to the laws of their nature. Work is one of the laws of human nature, as we see in the book of Genesis… After the narration of the creation of the world, it is added that God placed man in a garden of delight. What was he to do there? Pass his life in repose and contemplation? No, to cultivate this garden and to keep it…
Thus even before the fall, God wished Adam to work, because work allows of the exercise of human powers and energies. Only, by innocent man work was done with ease and delight; it was moreover a hymn of praise, a song arising from the whole human being towards God. After sin entered the world, the Lord renewed to man the promulgation of the law of labour; but this law was henceforth to cost Adam the sweat of his brow. Toil became painful, arduous, thankless; it is, with death, the great penance, the supreme mortification inflicted on sinful man. Our Blessed Father does not speak explicitly in his Rule of the hair shirt and discipline, but he devotes several chapters to work; work is a true penance, and it is impossible for one who shirks it to advance in union with God. Why indeed did we come to the monastery? “To seek God.” And our law is to find God not only in prayer, but also in labor. We find Him in the measure in which we glorify Him, and we glorify Him by freely putting forth our energies in the service of His sovereign will. To seek our ease and a base well-being in idleness, is to go against the Divine Plan, and such behavior cannot incline God to give us His favors.
Let us contemplate, too, how God acts with His Divine Son when this Son is made man. The Father wills that in imitation of Himself and for our example, Christ Jesus shall be a “workman”; an artisan ; and Christ accepts and carries out this will. Is He not called in the Gospel “the carpenter’s son.” Although He is conscious of His Godhead, of the greatness of the work that He comes to do upon earth, He passes thirty years of His life in the obscure labor of a poor workshop. His apostolic journeys during His public life, what are they but continual and indefatigable toil, offered for His Father’s glory and the salvation of souls?
If it is true that the monk ought to carry out to perfection the program of Christian life which finds in Christ its first and authentic Exemplar, he must necessarily give to work an important part of his life.
April 2020
Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These works, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works.
While the call to the service of others centers our Christian vocation, with restrictions on travel and the need for social distancing, finding ways to serve has become more challenging. These first few weeks of the spring term of the School would typically see students going out to deliver furniture to those in need, teaming up with St. Philomena kids on the playground or in tutoring, sharing a bingo game with the residents of Royal Middletown nursing home. These opportunities to serve have all been suspended, and with it the ability to address those important social needs in that manner. In this moment of crisis, much of the attention of our services is triaged, to take care of the most critical needs. How can we serve at his time, and moving forward?
The Theme of Holy Week: Service. Inaugurating the Masses of Holy Week with Palm Sunday, Pope Francis called our attention to a “leitmotif” of these holy days: service to others. The readings from the Mass of that day include Philippians 2.7: Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” “Let us allow these words of the Apostle Paul to lead us into these holy days, when the word of God, like a refrain, presents Jesus as servant…” Taking up this theme, the Holy Father’s Monday homily starkly confronted us with our service to the poor as the basis of our judgment. The first question Jesus will ask at the final judgment: “How did you treat the poor?” He teaches clearly that when we feed them, when we visit those in prison or in the hospital, when we address the needs of the widow and the orphan, we serve him – he himself is there. In fact, that we will have the poor always contains also the guarantee that we may find Christ present always. On Tuesday, he spoke of “Each one of us has a destiny, a free destiny, the destiny of being chosen by God. I am born with the destiny…chosen to be a child of God, to be a servant of God with the task of serving… To serve is not demanding some benefit for ourselves other than serving.” Jesus, is himself the Servant of God who gives us an example of service. This is fully reflected in the Mandatum of Holy Thursday, in the washing of feet, and it is in this humbling gesture that the glory of Jesus is expressed, even in His was serving unto death: “It seemed a defeat but it was a way of serving,” the Holy Father said. Our hearts may not be entirely devoted to such service, and we may “slip and fall,” as Peter did in his threefold denial. But then, we must repent, as Peter did. When we lose touch with this fundamental Christian attitude of serving, we then “have apostatized,” and allow our lives to be ruled by other loves, turning to idolatry, or losing our sense of vocation. Wednesday’s gospel reading of the betrayal by Judas led the Holy Father to speak of the danger of action at the extreme opposite of service: exploitation of others and, instead of giving without counting the cost, worshipping mammon and even selling others for profit.
Buses remain unused in school parking lot, typically active with day student cars.
Fewer opportunities, Greater needs. One individual “on the frontlines” of the COVID-19 battle, is Dr. Timothy Flanigan, alumnus of the School, parent and board member, and deacon of the Church. He is entirely caught up amidst his busy and draining schedule, with an influx of patients, treating the many cases of pneumonia associated with the virus. The intensity of this medical work leaves Dr. Flanigan and so many others dealing essentially and almost exclusively with the realities of the moment. For Dr. Flanigan, this includes a good deal of prayer, trying to “keep batteries charged” to be able to continue through this extraordinary period. He points out that the coronavirus induces illness that is difficult to witness and to try to treat, with its associated breathing difficulties: “there is real suffering there.” Dr. Flanigan was deeply involved in the Ebola Crisis in 2014, travelling to Liberia to assist in controlling the virus and treating patients. With his expertise in infectious disease, he notes that it is still hard to know just how long these conditions will continue, when the “peak” will pass. The virus, he says, is “much, much more highly contagious” than previously imagined. But hopefully a “flattened curve” of fewer infections will soon enable the health care system to better keep up with care. We then could see the gradual loosening of restrictions, reversing the course by which we seen them introduced: number of groups allowed increasing, additional venues opened, while maintaining of social distancing and other preventative measures. He offers kudos to nurses who are carrying much of this burden, to social workers addressing people’s wider needs to help them negotiate this difficult period. “In the absence of family visits, the staff has to take up some of that slack, as well, to be health care workers as well as family for many patients.” But he has been forced to cut back on availability within the parish he serves: “Can’t get to the bible studies.” Dr. Flanigan has also had to reduce his work in prison ministries at the “ACI” (Rhode Island’s state Adult Correctional Institute), needing to reduce the number of visitors to reduce possibilities of contagion, but comforted that the ministry team on staff there, “has been doing a good job with this situation,” though he “would not be surprised” to see an outbreak occur in that population. He looks to May with hope for an abatement of the crisis, and also to address critical economic needs to help people get back to work, to sustain themselves financially.
Dr. Tim Flanigan in Liberia
during the Ebola Crisis in 2014
Images of the homeless awating placement in Las Vegas led Pope Francis to speak of the "throwaway culture, with the homeless not provided adequate shelter.
The Days Ahead. Moving forward, we are seeing growing evidence of the severe economic hardship that lie ahead: the exponential increase in unemployment claims, the surge in request for food assistance, the reduction of savings to cover this period, leaving families exposed to further financial difficulties. There are additional stresses within households, evidenced by the disturbing rise in domestic abuse. With the number of deaths, particularly in some nursing home and elder communities, will come the experience of grief for those who have lost loved ones, neighbors, and colleagues. We shall surely see severe needs to try to address in the upcoming months, and ag reat need for charitable work. For now, there are clear opportunities to serve, though perhaps humbling in scope: persevering and sustaining the day-to-day realities; doing the job in front of us. Dr. Flanigan notes that social distancing stretches our emotional resources: one of the most difficult aspects is the loss of the interpersonal connection with other people, and the sense of aloneness that goes with it. It is worth the effort to “try to reach out to people you are not able to see as you normally would” – reaching out and checking in with them, staying connected.
The work of Dr. Flanigan and those others confronting this crisis head-on, offer a model of commitment and hope for the future. Pope Francis has spoken of the need for creativity: “the creativity of the Christian needs to show forth in opening up new horizons, opening windows, opening transcendence toward God and toward people, and in creating new ways of being at home. It’s not easy to be confined to your house.” One recalls Pascal’s lamenting our “inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” But at this time when many remain at home, others are on the front lines, the Pope recalls “the saints who live next door… They are heroes: doctors, volunteers, religious sisters, priests, shop workers – all performing their duty so that society can continue functioning… If we become aware of this miracle of the next-door saints, if we can follow their tracks, the miracle will end well, for the good of all” (from interview with Austen Ivereigh). Whether this duty involves work amongst the sick or destitute, or within our own homes and amongst our own families, we see a call to serve that is inevitable, and in which we hear the voice of Christ. We think of Saint Benedict’s emphasis on care of the sick, on hospitality to those in need, on the mutual humility required in looking after each other’s needs. All of this, Pope Francis suggests, provides “opportunity for conversion.” As we move into the Easter season, we pray the power of the Resurrection supply the grace to address the many needs demanding our service, now and in the days ahead.
May 2020
Portsmouth Abbey, in its monks, oblates, and extended school community, is engaged in service to the community in a variety of ways. These works, commanded by Christ in his central commandment to love God and neighbor, are outlined in Benedict's Rule, Chapter Four, which provides an extensive catalogue of good works.
In The Rule of St. Benedict, excerpts of which are still read aloud in monasteries and convents throughout the world every single day, we are exhorted to “Listen readily to holy reading, and devote yourself often to prayer.” It is wholly appropriate that this reference to prayer falls within Chapter 4 titled, The Tools for Good Works. One would be excused for thinking that Chapter 4 might be about rakes, shovels, knives or cooking utensils. However, the care for those tangible “goods of the monastery, that is, its tools, clothing or anything else,” is covered later in Chapter 32.
This duality of working and praying underlies the Benedictine motto of Ora et Labora/Labora et Ora. Simply put, it means Pray and Work/Work and Pray, like two balanced sides of a mathematical equation. During my novitiate years in St. Louis, I was astounded by the number of prayer requests that flooded the monastery’s lines of communication, whether by phone, e-mail, snail-mail, personal interaction with parishioners, and so on. Layered on top of those were requests made to individual monks from friends, family, faculty, Walmart clerks and travelers in airports.
I asked my novice master how he kept up with it all, since I myself was having a difficult time remembering individual names and needs. He patiently explained that the collective prayers of the community counted for a lot. He reminded me that there are many demands imposed on even the lowest and newest monk in choir order which might include studies, work in the school, monastery or parish, and eventually outside the walls in the local community. Thus comes into play the meaning of the motto whereby one’s work can become one’s prayer. Conversely, prayer can be looked upon as our work, too, since we say that we are “going to the office,” as in the Divine Office of the Hours, also known as Opus Dei, or the work of God.
The Collect of the Mass, said by the principal celebrant, is addressed to God, and brings together, or collects, in a short concise prayer the thoughts of the day of those gathered together or, in these times of pandemic, of those gathered in spiritual communion at a distance. The Collect for Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter, in this case May 6, beseeches, “O God...listen kindly to the prayers of those who call on you.” Later in the Mass, just before the 2nd part called the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we all take part in the Prayers of the Faithful, also known as the Universal Prayers or the Intercessions. These may change on a daily basis and they are an opportunity to address specific needs, perhaps recovery from a natural disaster or at this time, the needs of everyone affected by the effects of the virus pandemic. Also, Masses are often offered for the repose of the souls of loved ones and these come to us through specific intentions.
Other types of intercessory prayers are those which are directed to God through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary acting in any of her many titles, of saints in general or specifically on the days of their feasts. Recently at Portsmouth Abbey, thanks to the I.T. gifts of Br. Benedict, we are able to receive daily requests through our website and our Facebook page, and these come literally from around the world. The requests sometimes include specific names of people for whom we will pray, other times no names are mentioned, perhaps only the familial or communal relationship (an aunt, say, or a neighbor or co-worker). Most requests are for one or two people, others have included names of as many as 20 people who need our prayers and help.
On most evenings after the community supper, the monks gather for a short “recreation” period of conversation, coffee and relaxation in the Calefactory (the one room in the house with a fireplace, as in heat, or calorie). Before adjourning to the church for Compline, the final ‘office’ before bedtime, the prayer requests of that day are read by the superior who begs, “Let us pray to the Lord,” to which the community replies, “Lord, hear our prayer.” These are the requests which are most immediate and pressing, which have been collected from the website, from the notes on the monks’ bulletin board, from e-mails and phone messages, and from personal encounters during the day. The early morning office at Portsmouth combines both Matins and Lauds, at the end of which the names of the deceased members of the English Benedictine Congregation dating to the 17th century are read aloud by the acolyte of the week, along with names of “Confraters, Oblates, Friends and Benefactors of the EBC.”
The ancient practice of lectio divina, or divine reading, usually takes place among a small group of people, or it can take place individually, on one’s own. It involves the unpacking of a few verses of Scripture, perhaps the Gospel of the day. By hearing the Word read aloud and then meditating upon it, astounding insights can be had which relate to one’s life or circumstance at that particular moment, on that particular day. It might not resonate the next day in the same fashion, nor on the day prior. Group lectio, as many people truncate it, is now taking place via Zoom, which is not as difficult or impersonal as might be first imagined. Groups of Portsmouth Abbey School students are engaged in it right now, as are some of their parents scattered across the states of New England and far afield, as well. Similarly, the students at Saint Louis Priory School have continued to connect with their respective forms during the quarantine, as have the Priory faculty and staff who have connected with their Portsmouth counterparts. While not necessarily fitting a Bible study template, nor an avenue for intercessory prayer, there are opportunities in this context, if the situation demands, for prayer requests to be made known.
Rest assured that the prayer life of the monks of Portsmouth Abbey continues to be strong and vital, especially in these extraordinary times. We are all being tested and made stronger, and our faith, more valuable than gold, is being proved. What has been made crystal clear over the past months is just how vital the monks’ prayer and the work, ora et labora, is for so many members of the greater Portsmouth Abbey Family.
During the 10 years before I entered the monastery, I was blessed to have living near me, just across the Mississippi River in Illinois, my niece, her husband and their 2 teenage boys, one of whom was my Godson. The boys were at the right age, just before going off to college, to question me incessantly about the wisdom of giving everything away, selling my Jeep and condo, and becoming a monk. I’d like to think that I taught them a lesson about prayer one day. They both said that, yes, they did pray a lot, but they never got what they asked for. (You can imagine what teenage boys were asking for.) I told them that their prayers were indeed answered by God, but that they simply weren’t listening or understanding. I told them that God’s answer is not always a resounding, “Yes! Of course!” Sometimes it’s an emphatic and wise, “NO! What are you thinking?!” It’s a tough fact to face.
- Brother Sixtus Roselvich
Brother Sixtus Roslevich
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In gratitude for these prayers, we ask in closing for more prayers, especially for those agencies our students have not been able to serve directly this term, many of which have had to curtail their own critical services to the vulnerable which they assist. We pray for Royal Middletown and other nursing homes in our areas – St. Claire’s and the Grand Islander, which house Fr. Julian and Fr. Chris. We pray for My Brother’s Keeper, which has had to virtually stop furniture delivery, continuing with limited some critical food deliveries. We pray for the St. Philomena School children, and other elementary school kids and families contending with the stresses of in-home distance learning. We pray for Green Animals, Norman Bird Sanctuary, and other non-profits, who have seen their numbers of visitors drop and need to adapt to an uncertain summer and fall. These agencies all remain, in greater need now than ever, for the financial support of any who can assist. And we anticipate an expanded need for charity, even as our own purses may need to tighten. May the Spirit reveal to us the path of the “Good Samaritan,” who so fully manifested for Christ the call of the gospel.