The Oblate

A Newsletter for Oblates
Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-2015

Some Reflections on the Oblate Directors' Meeting
29 July - 3 August 2005

by James Tembrock, OblSB

I was very pleased to be able to go with Father Michael Kwatera, OSB, Oblate director at Saint John's Abbey, to attend the biennial meeting of the North American Association of Benedictine Oblate Directors and Oblates, held at Mount Marty College, located in Yankton, South Dakota. The site was splendid and full of history, on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River, and named after a missionary who predated the Dakota states, and who became a bishop of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. The towering chapel is of impressive sandstone, and a tour of the monastery revealed a vibrant community.

We found the liturgy of the hours to be respectful and beautiful praise, allowing the guests to participate fully with the host community. On our several tours, we were provided with informational materials, and the hospitality made us feel we were truly part of the community.

For me, the meeting of Oblates from around the continent was especially precious. I met the new Oblate director from Mt. Saint Benedict, who knew my aunt well, and who will get to know my mother better at their coming annual retreat. I found out that a friend whom I had been wondering about is still a sister in a community in Alabama. I was able to put faces on members from Benedictine families I had only heard about. The level of participation in various events was high; the discussions were both intelligent and enthusiastic; the meals and the banquet were delicious; the sharing of life stories and the outlining of faith journeys were inspirational.

I will give a few reflections on some of the sessions. Tapes of the sessions may be obtained from and returned to Father Michael. The tapes available are:

Benedictine Oblation: A Way of Life
(Sr Rita Fox, OSB)

Rule of Benedict & Liturgy of the Hours
(Sr Margaret Michaud, OSB)

Coping with Crisis: The Benedictine Way
(Marcia Straatmeier & Larry Rider)

Mentoring & The Rule of Benedict
(Sr Jacquelyn Ernster, OSB)

Forgiveness & The Rule ofBenedict
(Fr Valerian Odermann, OSB)

The Benedictine Online Oblate Chapter
(Sr Bonita Gacnik, OSB)

The Rule of Benedict & Balance
(Fr John Hagemann, OSB)

 Integrating Benedictine Spirituality in the College Classroom & the Benedictine Journey
(Gerry Allen)

Sister Rita emphasized the basic theme of the conference: that being an Oblate is a way of life, and not just a program. This way of life is not, of course, just exclusively for those who live in monasteries, as is shown by the many who flock to the doors of the monastic houses, including those who profess themselves to be Oblates. It is an individualized life-changing commitment, with becoming an Oblate not a goal, but a continuous beginning. There can be a sense of stability, that is, a sense of commitment to the Benedictine family to which one is called. There can be a sense of one becoming less attached to material things, and thus being better able to more easily travel on one's faith journey. Humility is seen as enabling one to become more open to the mystery of creation and the mystery of other people. Humility is related to listening. To be fully human, one must admit weaknesses and failures, one's own as well as those of others. This allows others to do God's work in us. Obedience is owed not just to the abbot, but to all whom we encounter.

Prayer is the means by which we remain faithful to God and to our neighbor.

Sister Margaret talked about the Work/Worship of God to which nothing is to be preferred. Through prayer God is acknowledged as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier. Benedictine prayer centers essentially around Scripture, the Word of God, and together with the Eucharist, forms the primary way that Oblates are nourished. Prayer is a gift of God that is absolutely necessary to us as Oblates, and indeed to any Christian or believer. Sister Margaret's talk was very similar to the excellent last year's Oblate Retreat at Saint John's on the psalms, and was very simple, basic, and understandable.

Marcia Straatmeier and Larry Rider spoke on coping with crises "the Benedictine way." Both had experienced serious periods of stress, and both had been greatly helped by being Oblates. They both emphasized the importance of seeing Christ in those who are ill. Marcia was greatly supported by both the Oblates and her church during the time her husband was dying with cancer. During this crisis, she came to appreciate the importance of a prayer line and the necessity of being sensitive to doing small, practical things well and thus one is not overwhelmed.

Sister Jacquelyn addressed the issue of mentoring in the Rule of Benedict. She spoke of relationships based on listening and friendship, and the mutual benefit of spiritual direction. For her, "faith lived out" is the essence of mentoring. She noted that Benedict places strong emphasis on the treatment of guests in the monastery. The guests can be "mentored" by observing how a community lives out its faith. Mentoring is seen by Fortune 500 executives as very important in their development because they learn by observation, by discussion, and by reflection.

Father Valerian, in addressing forgiveness in the Rule, remarked how the lack of forgiveness leads to the demoralizing effect of murmuring, a practice so disliked by Benedict. If grievance is the common currency, there is no possibility of community. One must forgive for one's own sake. Perhaps praying one of the lamentation psalms might help to relieve the pain. The psalms show clearly that vengeance and justice are referred to the Lord, and it is not our business. We all "have stuff in our eyes." It is ill quarreling when we are in a small boat and the journey is long. Pope John Paul II apologized fifty times publicly for the sins of the Catholic Church.

Sister Bonito reported on her Oblate Online Community and Communication which has more than 125 members from 35 states and 13 countries. This Benedictine Online Oblate Chapter (BOOC) was launched in November, 2004. This is called good for introverts. To find the website just enter BOOC or Benedictine Online Oblate Chapter in a search engine.

Father John's enthusiastic speech emphasized the concept of moderation in the Rule. There is a need to belong to something holy, to be needed. The cross has both horizontal and vertical elements; the search for God is a balance of both. The Benedictine circular cross best illustrates this. There is a need, even in this world of individualism, to submit the self to others for the sake of balance. A world of waste and consumerism needs the witness of restraint, as eating food needs the gratitude of prayer for its proper reception.

This very short description and few highlights I am very happy to share. I welcome sharing the tapes of these presentations with anyone wishing to hear them. Also, I would highly recommend anyone to attend a conference of Oblate Directors in the future if the opportunity presents itself. It is a unique experience meeting Oblates and directors from across the country, and from Canada and Mexico.


Contents

Desideratum

to live not as one
who knows but as one
who wonders

to exist not as one
who is but as one
who yearns to be

to journey not as one
who leads but as one
who seeks

to speak not as one
who answers but as one
who questions

to touch not as one
who possesses but as one
who cherishes

to hope not as one
who awaits but as one
who creates

to relate not as one
who controls but as one
who empowers

 to pray not as one
who recites but as one
who overflows

 
Sister Kathleen Waters, ocso
Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Abbey
Rogersville, New Brunswick

Contents

 

Announcements

Deaths

New Oblate Candidates

Final Oblation

Photo from Final Oblation, 9 July 2005, Saint John's Abbey Church
Left to right: Patricia Teresa Klucas, Marcus Joseph Woell, and Angela Angelus Del Greco
with her constant companion.

Contents


Homily on Matthew 21: 28-32

by Father Cyril Gorman, OSB

[This homily was delivered in the Abbey Church by Father Cyril Gorman OSB, a monk of Saint John's Abbey, on Sunday, 25 September 2005.]

This past week another monk in the community put the meaning of today's Gospel very succinctly. This Sunday's Gospel teaches that it isn't enough to just say yes and then do nothing. The story corresponds well with the words of Jesus elsewhere in the Gospel. When his mother is praised for her blood-tie and nurturing relationship to her son, Jesus replies reprovingly, "Blessed . . . are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11:28, English Standard Version).

In its origin, this particular parable of Jesus seems aimed at the professional clergy and religious of the time, but in its active life, this Gospel is meant for the professional clergy and religious of today also, and indeed, for all who profess to follow the ways of God. It is a difficult Gospel to speak about, when one is somewhat conscious of one's own faults, one's own hypocrisies.

What to do? I would like to suggest that we not just concentrate on the obvious meaning of the Gospel -- its challenge against hypocrisy, its challenge to us that our actions correspond to our words. But we might also turn to the deeper foundation of the Gospel: John the Baptist, Jesus in history, and now Christ as the Risen and Living Word of God have invited all persons to turn from evil and to be faithful to the good.

We also might turn away from the two brothers in the Gospel, and think creatively about a couple of other dimensions in the story, one of them being the father, who bids the two sons to go into the vineyard. Did the two sons have different experiences of the same father -- and hence the two different responses? Since the father is a metaphorical term in our worship, isn't it fair to say that we have different experiences of the same God and of the persons who are supposed to represent God to us?

In a book by Judith Viorst, Necessary Losses [New York : Simon and Schuster, 1986], the author quotes and comments on another story of two brothers:

"In Max Frisch's intriguing novel I'm Not Stiller [London : Methuen, 1982] . . . there is a striking exchange between two men, Wilfried and Anatol, who go to a cemetery to visit their dead mothers and then repair to a tavern and compare notes: "Apparently his mother was extremely strict," writes Anatol, "mine not in the least.

. . . I can remember listening at the keyhole as my mother told a group of friends all the witty and clever remarks I had made . . . Nothing like that ever happened to Wilfried; his mother was worried that Wilfried would never achieve anything worthwhile . . ."

Furthermore, notes Anatol, Wilfried mother was a "practical woman who accustomed Wilfried at an early age to the idea he would never be able to marry a proper woman if he didn't earn plenty of money." Anatol's mother, in contrast, was playful and indulgent and "attached more importance to my inner qualities, convinced that I could marry anyone I liked . . ."

"It is clear that Wilfried and Anatol had two very different mothers. Except . . . there was only one mother.

"The men were brothers."

I'm struck by the story of Anatol and Wilfried, not because I have grasped their characters or the character of their mother, and not because I think that everyone can or should be treated the same. I am simply struck because it points to the complexity of life: We can experience the same God, the same person differently, and, likewise, from the other direction, different persons present different personalities to the same person. Saint Benedict seemed to understand these differences, suggesting that the abbot adapt himself to the character of each monk and reminding us that the distribution of goods should be according to need. By analogy, those ideas point to the suppleness and flexibility that each of us might bring to human relations.

I also recall a conversation of many years ago with my mother concerning my siblings and me. Although I don't recall the original topic, I do recall saying, I know, mom, you love us all the same. She replied, No, I don't. I don't love you all the same. I love you each differently because you are each different.

Doesn't God, the Life-Giver of us all, love each of us differently because we are each different? And, to continue that thought further, doesn't God love each of us differently because the kind of mercy each of us needs from God varies from person to person? On the human level, loving differently ipso facto -- as the story of Wilfried and Anatol seems to indicate -- is no more a guarantee of loving rightly than loving the same is. But loving differently does seem to invite us to give greater attention to what a person needs as opposed to what we are sure we must give.

The intention of the giver versus reception of the receiver is ever an issue. While at a theological level Thomas Aquinas has said, What is received is received according to the mode of the receiver, I have been forced to remember the lesson more practically. Once, when visiting and assisting and being "a bit directive" with one of our older monks of diminished capacities, I casually asked, Father, am I too bossy? To which he replied, Well. . . .not too bossy!

In the parable of Jesus, the two sons are each sent into the vineyard. As we listen to the story, we are asked to identify with one son or the other -- but would it be possible to imagine yourself as the father or the life-giver or the one in authority? And, at the other end of the story, would it be possible to keep in mind that even if we can identify with one or the other brother -- or the parent -- that we are also still part of the vineyard?

The vineyard is a common image through the Bible; it is a symbol of God's people. [Here I must credit my confrere Father Don Talafous.] At one point in the Prophets, those who were supposed to care for the vineyard, God's people, are called to account because instead of caring for the vineyard, they trampled it underfoot [see Jeremiah 12]. Does that ever happen today -- the vineyard gets trampled instead of cared for? The question can be applied to our own commitments and those of the larger church and those of society in general.

Last week we heard of laborers who worked different lengths of time in the vineyard---symbolically, God's vineyard [Matthew 20:1-16a]. We hear in the Gospel of John that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches [John 15:5]. And in the liturgy the many grapes from the vine form the wine of the one cup. [Here I must credit my confrere Father Kevin Seasoltz.] We though many, Saint Paul says, form the unity of the one Body of Christ [see 1 Corinthians 12:12, NRSV; popularized in the song "One Bread, One Body" © John Foley, S.J. and New Dawn Music].

Our lives are multifaceted: we are each among brothers and sisters who must choose whether or not they will hear and act upon God's word. Inasmuch as we interact with others, we are also mothers or fathers who must carefully discern how to be life-givers to others. Moreover, even as life-givers, we are still grapes on the vine, needing tending ourselves. We need to allow God's Spirit and other workers that God sends into the vineyard to harvest us, even if we too work in the vineyard. We are each parent, child, sister, brother, and one needing tending all at once.

From where does our strength come? From Christ and from the Spirit of Christ. That is why Saint Paul says, If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing (Philippians 2:1-2; New American Bible, 1991).

And Paul goes on, as we heard, to speak of the pouring out of Christ for our sake. Christ is Divinity and the letting go of his divinity to become human so that humanity can become fully divine. As the Eastern churches say, We are in the process of divinization because of what Christ has done.

While perhaps Paul's goal that we all "think one thing" is probably not attainable -- or even always wise -- Paul is right to encourage us to strive for the same love and to be united in heart. When he says, If there is . . . encouragement in Christ . . ., If there is . . . solace in love, the 'if' is rhetorical; Paul is utterly convinced that encouragement is found in Christ, that solace is found in the love of Christ.

Paul is one who would tell us that he himself, in the name of God, thought that he was tending God's vineyard when he was actually destroying it. He is such a wonderful model of showing that one who could do evil in the name of God could change his ways for the good.

He became one who heard the Word of God and kept it [see Luke 11:28], faithfully working in the vineyard of God, yet always conscious of his own need to be harvested from the vine by the grace of God. As a leader, he loved each of his charges, each of his communities, according to their unique needs. We face the same challenges that he did. What we celebrate here is that the same grace he received is also available to us.

[I would like to give credit to my confreres, Father Don Talafous and Father Kevin Seasoltz, both Liturgical Press authors, for pointing out to me, respectively, the many uses of the vineyard in the Bible and the grape imagery in the Eucharist.]

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