Re-election of Our Abbot

Yesterday morning the conventual chapter (all solemnly professed monks) met and, according to the procedures laid out in the Cistercian Ritual, re-elected our abbot, Francis Michael Stiteler, for another 6-year term. In the evening, all of us gathered in the Chapter Room for his installation. According to the format, he confessed his faith in the Nicene formula and promised to uphold the gospel and Church teaching. Then each monk in turn knelt before him, placed hands in his hands and promised obedience. The solemnly professed promised obedience to him "and to the Rule of Benedict until death." We who are temporarily professed promised obedience to the Rule "according to the norms of the Constitutions of the Order."

Abbatial election

Our father immediate and another monk arrived from Gethsemani for our abbatial election tomorrow. Our abbot's term of 6 years has been completed, so all the solemnly professed monks (I, in temporary vows, am not included) will meet to elect the abbot. The head of the election is the father immediate of the community -- in this case, the abbot of Gethsemani.

CNN has a video about us

Follow this link, read the story and watch the video.

Happy Pentecost

This morning at Vigils, after a series of scriptural readings centered on the Spirit, we heard a Pentecost homily by Dom Christian de Chergé, one of seven Cistercian monks who were killed by Islamicist terrorists in Algeria in 1996. Later in the day I read that a film by Xavier Beauvois about these men had won a grand prix at Cannes. Here is a link to a newspaper account of the win and here is a link to a couple of extracts on YouTube.

Here is the text of the Pentecost homily Christian preached a few years before his death:

People of all languages, races, colors and cultures begin to sing together of the wonderful works of God, so much so that this symphony seems to have rediscovered the harmony of all creation.
Let us, as Christians of today, welcome this symbol of the fiery tongue which is meant to put our tongue at the service of the Word of God and our heart at the service of his Spirit, so that there may be, as St Benedict desired for his disciples, perfect harmony between our heart and what our lips profess, this bond which in God unites the Word and the Spirit.
What is Pentecost? It is the great revelation of the Spirit, after that of the Father in creation and of the Son in the Incarnate Word, and that revelation of the Spirit will unveil for us the Father and the Son, for the Spirit is the one who alone reveals God -- that is exactly why he remains hidden, un-graspable, just like the mystery which he must speak.
If he reveals himself, it can only be by way of symbol, and these symbols are elements in movement: the tongue and the fire, like the dove or the wind or living water.
The tongue of fire which symbolizes the gift and the presence of the Spirit came to rest on each one of the apostles. It is a personal gift, destined for each person, which manifests the vocation of each to be indwelt by the Spirit of God or, still better, to enter into the vocation of the Holy Spirit, which is to be a revealer of God. It is the whole person who becomes a revealer of God (better than a book) and the apostles enter concretely into that call:
- They go forth to transmit Christ, that is to say, the Word of God, to us, to be its interpreters, to be bearers of the Word. The tongue rediscovers its raison d'etre, which is to speak to the Father the words of the Son with the profundity of the Spirit.
- They are identified, by their very being, with him to whom they testify: the Spirit, who enables them to work still greater miracles. In the fire that has been enkindled in their hearts, the imitation of Jesus Christ, made possible by the Spirit, is the revelation of God and of his design for mankind.
When the Spirit had not yet come, the words of Jesus came up against closed hearts.
When the Spirit had not yet come, the brothers and sisters of Jesus, the multitude, came up against hearts that were hardened, or fearful, or trapped in prejudices of race, language, color, nation...
The tongue of fire thus makes a person into a Revelation of the Word and the Love which are in God. But that is only possible if the person is set in motion, like the Spirit, and enters into the very movement of the Spirit. Pentecost is the whole person who must be put in movement: interior movement towards the Word who draws us to the Father, exterior movement towards the multitude, because one's tongue draws one to share with others, and the fire in one's heart must be spread.
Thus the Spirit sets us in movement towards the other, a movement of intellect and a movement of the heart, because we are made to speak the same language, to find ourselves on the same wave length, and the dialogue, the sharing in communion, will never have an end.
The Spirit sets us in movement as he did Mary, setting out in haste for the first Visitation of the Church, welcoming the pledge of the Spirit in Elizabeth, giving rise to the Magnificat!
The Spirit sets us in movement towards each person, a tongue of fire moving ever closer to another tongue of fire, and saying: "In every encounter I must make the effort to join the `little flame' put in each one."
Revelation, the movement of Pentecost, is all that!

First Day of Summer Fudge

Our business manager gave me figures for replenishing our fudge supplies. I figured out that we can meet the goals by working nine days, one day a week, with 4 guys hand-pouring and weighing 4 posts a morning. This morning was our first day. Our target was 84 12-ounce chocolate (2 pots worth), 84 6-ounce chocolate (1 pot worth), and 94 6-ounce chocolate walnut (1 pot worth).

So, right after Vigils, I set off with my flashlight to walk to the bakery. The scent of magnolia was very strong this morning. In the light we can see enormous white blossoms among the large waxy dark-green leaves. I started the pots warming, put in butter, water and preservative; arranged utensils, trays, carts and stools so that we would be ready to start right on time. Then, in new daylight, I walked back up to church for Mass. I left Mass early so that I could return to the bakery to get the fudge mixed and ready to pour when the 3 novices would appear at 8:45.

All went according to plan. Our summer fudge season is off to an auspicious start.

Local Paper Has Feature on Us

Here is a link to an article with pictures about the monastery.


And here is a link to our monastery page with links to other recent articles.


And here is the link to the AJC travel page pictures.

Bonsai of the Kingdom of God

You can read a local newspaper's account of our ground-breaking here

Ground-breaking

Yesterday's ground-breaking ceremony was really an invigorating event. About 300 people gathered under a tent near the construction site -- which is actually the series of barns where our founders first lived 66 years ago.

We heard from a commissioner of Rockdale County, the mayor of Conyers, the archbishop of Atlanta, the bishop of Savannah (when we were founded, we were part of the Savannah-Atlanta diocese that was later split in two), the chair of the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area (of which we are a part -- the "spiritual gateway"), and various friends and donors, including a well-known football coach from a large state university not too far away. Listening to all the speakers, who were all brief, amusing, and interesting, I got a good picture of how this place fits within a lot of larger places and institutions and how it has touched a number of lives.

Here is a picture of me with the bishop of Savannah:

My friends George and Irene came and left me with 2 books for my beach reading. (My beach is my bed.) I am already well into Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It is amusing so far -- although I continue to refuse to even consider reading Android Karenina. There are some boundaries that are not to be crossed!

Br. Tom

Br. Tom died this morning during Vigils. The toll bell began ringing about 5 a.m. just as I was heating my instant grits. We gathered around his bed to pray some simple prayers and the Salve.

Aged 79, he had spent more than a decade bed-ridden in our infirmary. He had a motorized chair-bed that allowed him to travel to the Retreat House to help out in the kitchen every Friday or Saturday and to come to Mass on Sunday. His nurse and a monk would hold doors open for him. During the day he made rosaries from colored string; these were sold in our store.

Tom was a stubborn, cantankerous old man who loved to tell stories about difficulties with other people that ended in his telling them off. He had a heart of gold that brought many friends. He was such a wonderful mixture of a man. Every night monks would gather around his bed to pray the rosary; it was always preceded by Tom's long list of people and needs to pray for.

He entered the community when he was 15 and worked hard all his life on the farm and in the garage.

His last illness was sudden and did not last long -- about a week of pneumonia which did not respond to antibiotics. He had asked to remain here at home where he received IV fluids and medication.

Many of our friends will miss him greatly. I anticipate a large crowd for his funeral -- which will probably take place this Friday.

My little window for the store

This image is not one we saw on our church tour. It is a photo of one of my creations -- a copy of a Russian icon, done as a stained glass piece. This is one of several I have done. I am experimenting with different painting on the face and on the halo.

Atlanta churches

Yesterday the four members of the stained glass studio traveled through Atlanta and its suburbs to visit eight churches with windows designed and constructed by the monastery. I was impressed at a number of the designs and at the various painting techniques used on some of the windows. We took photos so that we have some record of this work from the past. I will post some of the pictures later.

Le Thoronet

I am reading The Stones of the Abbey by Fernand Pouillon. It is a novel that describes the building of a Cistercian monastery in Provence at the end of the 12th century.

I have seen pictures of the abbey, still largely intact, although uninhabited. It appears golden.

Pouillon describes the quarrying of the stone, the rough hewing of the blocks, and the effect of the changing Provençal sunlight on the rough surface.

If anyone would like to take a Cistercian cicerone on a brief trip to view this monastery in southern France, please get in contact with me.

Rainy return

We have had rain all day long -- thunder and lightning in the early morning; steady strong rain ever since. I got soaked walking down to the bakery this morning to help make fruitcakes. I weigh each cake to make sure it has sufficient batter; when the first batch was baked, I put on heavy mitts and arranged the hot pans on the table; I used a paint brush to cover the tops with apricot glaze. This was work that will be usual for a Monday morning from now until September.

The two weeks away are a memory. All the juniors (monks and nuns in temporary vows) from the American region met at Gethsemani for a conference. The first week we had sessions with Mother Agnes, the former abbess of our monastery in Wrentham, MA. She read a series of meditative reflections she had written several decades ago. They stimulated a lot of conversation and shared experiences. The second week, Dom Thomas, the former abbot of our monastery in Vina, CA, presented classes that covered issues from The Life of Benedict by Gregory the Great.

In the afternoons we were able to do a lot of different things: tour the monastic work areas, study in the library, hike the local knobs, visit Merton's hermitage, pull weeds, and so on. One evening, we listened to a piano recital (Mozart and Liszt) by one of our juniors; we also watched Wise Blood, the movie based on the novel by Flannery O'Connor. (The monks at Gethsemani are listening to Brad Gooch's recently published biography of Flannery.) It was a pleasant break in routine; I was glad to be home, even if it means I will no longer have a private bathroom with long, wide, fluffy bath towels.