August 24, 2006
benedict-ing in the woods
My time with the Benedictines at St Gregory's Abbey was tremendous. I am not sure what I can really say about it without going through some long retelling of the whole weekend. But that would bore you all to tears. Well, let me try it this way. The following is the daily schedule I was given:
4:00 a.m. MatinsI arrived just at lunch on Monday. I slept through Matins on Tuesday morning. That was a choice. I was sleeping so well and that has been a rare thing for me lately. I heard the bells for prayer and ignored them hoping that the Guest Master would be kind and let me sleep. I did make it the next morning. It is a lovely service, quiet and gracefully asks for the sun to rise on our day and for the Son to rise in our lives.6:00 Lauds - Breakfast (at any time fater Matins until 7:30)
8:15 Terce, Mass, Chapter, Work Period
11:30 Sext
12:00 p.m. Lunch, Rest Period
2:00 None, Work Period
4:30 Tea
5:00 Vespers and Meditation
6:00 Supper
7:45 Compline
The campus is huge...well, larger than I expected. There are only eight brothers right now. They have some programs to help[ them grow, but monasticism has suffered some serious lows in Anglicanism...like the crown sacking and pillaging monasteries in England. But that is another stoy.
I spent the work periods working on my thesis. I wrote ten new pages and rearranged some of the other stuff. It was a good use of my time. The brothers have a great library with enought Calvin and more than enough Chrysostom to keep me busy. You know, Calvin really loved that guy.
I pretty much had the place to myself the first day and evening. The next day a retreat group came in...two really, so six new people. It is a small world, that Episcopal Church. The priest that brought her group of retreatants is someone I went to school with and one of her group sold me and Trish an antique on our Honeymoon two years ago. Remarkable! Small world! Serendipity. Wow. It was nice to find these familiar faces. As much as I was enjoying myself, it was feeling quite alien...well, everything but the liturgy.
Chanting the Psalms is something I would like to do every day. I really would. My time in seminary instilled the love for it. The time at St Gregory's only served to remind me how much I love it and need it in my life.
The most moving moment for me was Compline my first night. At the end of the service the abbot reminded us of our Baptismal vows...and God's promise by sprinking water on us. I had forgotten about that part of the service until he pulled out the aspergilium. Lovely. I don't know why exactly, but it literally brought tears to my eyes. Amazing.
Well, that should be enough for now. I need to do more work. I have a week's worth of stuff to do in a day and a half.
Pax!
Posted by tripp at August 24, 2006 02:29 PMI did a retreat there my senior year in seminary, and ended up staying in the cabin out in the woods a ways. It was wonderful. I didn't do all the services, but that was okay... Like you, I think I needed the sleep more than that much worship, even if it was wonderful listing to them chant the songs.
On the humorous note, I did get to Matins my last day there, and I still remember the little light going on over each of the brother's heads as it became their turn to recite. I had a hard time keeping a straight face.
Posted by: Mark J. at August 24, 2006 04:07 PMMass-and-office Catholicism - wonderful!
Theological college was where I developed my love of the office as well (we also kept the Magnum Silentium), building on the introduction through Sunday Matins (!) I got as a kid. I read Coverdale's psalter to this day.
Did you have meals in silence with readings during them? The Cowley Fathers (no longer in Cowley when I lived there!) at what's now their motherhouse, St Edward's in Westminster, at least do the former.
Calvin read a lot of Chrysostom? You learn something new every day. So how could he have gone so wrong? Free will (LOL) and fallen human nature (not totally depraved though).
I'd not heard of a blessing with holy water at the end of Compline.
The effect with the lights sounds naff and yes, funny.
Posted by: The young fogey at August 24, 2006 04:47 PMCalvin cited Chrysostom more often than he did Augustine! Who knew? The interesting thing is that he saw Chrysostom as a dialogue partner...saw him as mistaken on that whole free-will thing but loved his scriptural interpretation. He said that you simply could not go wrong with Chrysostom in interpretaion.
Heh.
Meals we in silence. The brothers were reading a biography of Charles Darwin. Again, who knew?!
Missing Matins the first morning was a stroke of genius. Like telling your Inner Liturgical Perfectionist right off the bat to go stand in the corner, already. Well thought of.
Posted by: Baruch Grazer at August 24, 2006 08:52 PM