Oblate Director's Note

Last Monday night, as the snowstorm was beginning, I returned to campus from Boston Logan as my 2-week mission trip to Chile came to an end.  It was my fourth visit there, and my second to the incredible Patagonia region.  I was the guest of the Manquehue Apostolic Movement, a lay Benedictine group which counts a large number of Oblates among their members.  I could talk to you for hours about their work, about the 3 Catholic schools which they operate, and about their international outreach.  In fact, three Chileans from the movement (and one beautiful little baby girl) are winding up their residency here at Portsmouth this month.  Sadly, they depart campus on Dec. 27.  Thanks be to God, at least three more groups will be visiting us over the course of this next year.
 
Suffice it to say that I give credit to the movement for helping to nurture and solidify my vocation as a Benedictine monk, going as far back as Easter 2002.
I mentioned their large number of Oblates.  There are celibate men Oblates who live together in a designated house, same thing for the celibate women Oblates.  There are also married Oblates with families, one or both of the parents being deeply involved in the movement and its various works.  I met with, prayed with and dined with many of them, and I promised to bring back to Portsmouth their special greetings and prayers for you, the Oblates of Portsmouth Abbey.
 
For over the past month, Chile has undergone violent riots and demonstrations which have literally scarred the face of the capital city, Santiago, but also reaching to the most far-flung towns and regions.  It was heartbreaking to first read about, and then to witness first-hand, the damage wrought by the country’s own people.  Like Hong Kong, Bolivia and other hotspots, this unrest is due to long-simmering issues of economic, political and social inequality.  I brought back with me a short prayer which is being recited right now throughout Chile, in churches, chapels and houses.  I promised the Oblates there that I would print up copies for you, in the form of simple bookmarks, with the Spanish prayer on one side and the English translation on the reverse.
 
Last month I wrote a short piece about Advent in my own family back in Pennsylvania and about how special the Christmas Eve supper was, and is, for most immigrant families of Eastern-European descent.  The meal is called the wigilia, and means literally the vigil before the celebration of Christ’s birth.  The solemn meal begins with the breaking of bread in the form of little rectangular wafers made in the same way as our Communion wafers.  Each wafer, about the size of a small business envelope, is impressed with an image usually of a manger scene.  The wafers are bland but, with the addition of honey for the sweetness, and some slivers of garlic representing the bitter, they serve as an appetizer for the 12 meatless dishes to follow.  Each person around the table receives a wafer and then shares it with the rest of the family.
 
Now, why am I telling you all of this?  Well, the wafer is called oplatky or oplatek with a ‘p’ which means offering, or oblation.  It has the same root as the word or title that you call yourselves: Oblate.
 
And that brings us to our gathering today.  Our Oblates have so many gifts to share.  You may have been reminded about today’s Day of Recollection in our monastery newsletter, The Current.  It is assembled and crafted every single week by Dr. Blake Billings, an Oblate, and for that work we thank him.  Hanging in the monastic choir in church is a beautiful piecework tapestry by our late Oblate Adelaide Bethune, whose artwork I first encountered and admired in copies of The Catholic Worker.