The Word of God

When the oblates and friends of Portsmouth Abbey gather on Sunday, March 20, for the long-awaited Day of Recollection, I hope that it will have the feeling of a joyful family reunion, albeit tempered a little by it being the 3^rd Sunday of Lent. It will also afford us a special way to greet the also long-awaited first day of spring.  Two years ago this month, we had planned to assemble for a similar Lenten gathering, also on the 3^rd Sunday of Lent 2020, and my conference for you was to have been “A World View of Imitating Christ in the Context of the Way of the Cross.” That day would have been a decidedly outward-looking time of sharing, but the world came crashing down around us and the latest pandemic forced the cancellation of our day together, along with so many other things. The admonition to “Beware the Ides of March!” had never before held such visceral meaning for most of us. 

Two years later we find the world again crashing down, this time literally, on the other side of the globe in Ukraine. Given the dire and destructive view of the world which we are seeing at the present time playing out across our pages, screens and devices, we feel that it is an opportune moment for us to look inward. We shall do this by learning more about the ancient practice of lectio divina, which simply means holy reading. Oblate Gerrie Beebe has come up with a fine method of introducing it to us which will allow us to experience it in small groups. As you will learn, it is not strictly a monastic way of praying, but is favored by our frequent visitors from the Manquehue (man-KAY-way) Apostolic Movement in Chile, by our own students and their parents, and by lay persons of many faiths all over the world. In fact, lectio has even been brought up to date in the Zoom universe which is more successful than you might imagine. 

Some of you may recall the last time Gerrie led us in a presentation. On December 8, 2019, her Advent topic was “Christ is Alive” and was based on a very special visualizing prayer time inspired by the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. She wanted to play some soft music in the background as she spoke but at first thought it might be too radical an idea. However, I had discovered that during a talk which he gave at Portsmouth Abbey in the fall of 1993, a few years before his untimely death in 1996, the well-known author and theologian, Fr. Henri J.M. Nouwen, was accompanied by meditative music unique to Buddhist monks. His friend who played the Japanese flute happened to be a psychotherapist with a theology degree, so a precedent of sorts for any musical accompaniment had already been set. (As a side note, Fr. Nouwen’s talk at PAS was titled, “Movement from Resentment to Gratitude.”) 

 

 

Tabernacle in Lent

Coincidentally, or perhaps Providentially, as Gerrie was explaining to me over coffee her thoughts for March 20, I was again revisiting some of Fr. Nouwen’s works and came across a few lines that brought to mind, for me at least, the essence of lectio divina. This is not Fr. Nouwen speaking himself, but rather quoting his young Jewish friend, Fred, in Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World: 

And again, a few pages later, Fred implores him: 

On the practical side of things, our day will begin with the monks’ Conventual Mass at 9:30 a.m., after which oblates will renew their promise of oblation to the newly-elected Abbot Michael Brunner. Breakfast will follow in the Stillman Dining Hall, and lunch will be served at 1:00 p.m. after Midday Prayer at 12:45 p.m. For those of you who have inquired, the students will still be away on their March Break. Confessions will be available in the church as is customary. Trust me when I say that all of the monks will be very happy to see the oblates return to campus.