Wednesday Feb 1, 2012
Monastery of Christ in the Desert
P.O. Box 270
Abiquiu, NM 87510
Blessings to you! Here I am, back at home once more. It is always better to sleep in my own bed and to be able to work from my own office. The life in the Monastery is a great blessing to me.
Brother Caedmon, who has been helping out in Mount Saviour Monastery in New York, was here for just a couple of days on his way to the Philippines to visit his mother, who had a stroke a couple of months ago and is slowly recovering.
Brother Om Prakash Paul Arya has arrived from India to begin his postulancy in the community. He is a convert from Hinduism and was with the Jesuits for a while.
During the winter months, and especially in January and February, there are colds and flu that always go through the community. Right now everyone seems well once more, but winter is not yet over.
Brother John Baptist Tran Van Chinh is making his retreat with us and preparing for his solemn vows in the Monastery of Thien Tam at Kerens, Texas.
One of the biggest challenges in a Monastery is the challenge not to judge one\'s brothers. There are times when we do not understand one another and times when what another brother does can look bad in our eyes. Always, just as in any spirituality, we must not judge the motives of the other person. We must always presume good motivation, even when a person may look to us as if he is acting out of bad motivation.
Sometimes this kind of objective distancing is easier as we mature and after we have lived in community for many years. Some monks find it difficult ever to embrace it. It can be related to Saint Benedict's Chapter 7 On Humility. The goal of not judging and the goal of humility are the same: a deep inner freedom to seek God's will without being sidetracked by considerations that are not really important.
For instance, if a brother asks me to do something, I try to do it. This has to do with the obedience of any brother to his brothers in community. Clearly I am obliged to serve my brothers just as much as anyone else. I can think to myself that I am the abbot and don't need to do this, and at some levels there is truth to that. But if I want to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Gospel of our Lord, then I try to obey whatever is asked of me unless it is immoral.
Sometimes a brother will come to me and tell me things about another brother. That is difficult to deal with at times. From a spiritual point of view, one brother should talk directly to another brother, not be bringing things to the abbot and hoping that the abbot will straighten it out. Whether a brother comes to the abbot or to another brother and speaks about yet a different brother, always the desired thing is that brothers learn how to speak directly to one another.
One of the challenges of spiritual life is to keep all of our relationships clear and healthy. We must learn how to avoid being caught in or even trapped into unhealthy relationships. Here I am not talking about any kind of sexual relationships but just relationships in general. We come back to the idea, then, of a certain distance from others that allows us to see the relationship clearly and in God.
Sometimes a person will come to us and leave us speechless with their personal thoughts. We are never free just to let our feelings flow forth but must instead display total equanimity in every situation. That also requires a great deal of discipline on our part. We may fail in this, but we must keep working towards it. It is another instance of the old adage: emotion must be guided by reason and reason must be guided by faith.
True spirituality helps us live well in this life. It is a reflection of what our Jewish ancestors would have called wisdom. Wisdom is a gift of God. In order for us to receive that gift, we must strive to be open to wisdom and strive to live in such a way that wisdom can be given to us.
That is enough for this week. It is getting late and I need to put this online and get some rest. I send my love and prayers for all who read this. I will celebrate a Holy Mass this week for the intentions of all who read this letter. Please pray for me and for all of the women and men associated with our communities.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
P.O. Box 270
Abiquiu, NM 87510
Blessings to you! Here I am, back at home once more. It is always better to sleep in my own bed and to be able to work from my own office. The life in the Monastery is a great blessing to me.
Brother Caedmon, who has been helping out in Mount Saviour Monastery in New York, was here for just a couple of days on his way to the Philippines to visit his mother, who had a stroke a couple of months ago and is slowly recovering.
Brother Om Prakash Paul Arya has arrived from India to begin his postulancy in the community. He is a convert from Hinduism and was with the Jesuits for a while.
During the winter months, and especially in January and February, there are colds and flu that always go through the community. Right now everyone seems well once more, but winter is not yet over.
Brother John Baptist Tran Van Chinh is making his retreat with us and preparing for his solemn vows in the Monastery of Thien Tam at Kerens, Texas.
One of the biggest challenges in a Monastery is the challenge not to judge one\'s brothers. There are times when we do not understand one another and times when what another brother does can look bad in our eyes. Always, just as in any spirituality, we must not judge the motives of the other person. We must always presume good motivation, even when a person may look to us as if he is acting out of bad motivation.
Sometimes this kind of objective distancing is easier as we mature and after we have lived in community for many years. Some monks find it difficult ever to embrace it. It can be related to Saint Benedict's Chapter 7 On Humility. The goal of not judging and the goal of humility are the same: a deep inner freedom to seek God's will without being sidetracked by considerations that are not really important.
For instance, if a brother asks me to do something, I try to do it. This has to do with the obedience of any brother to his brothers in community. Clearly I am obliged to serve my brothers just as much as anyone else. I can think to myself that I am the abbot and don't need to do this, and at some levels there is truth to that. But if I want to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Gospel of our Lord, then I try to obey whatever is asked of me unless it is immoral.
Sometimes a brother will come to me and tell me things about another brother. That is difficult to deal with at times. From a spiritual point of view, one brother should talk directly to another brother, not be bringing things to the abbot and hoping that the abbot will straighten it out. Whether a brother comes to the abbot or to another brother and speaks about yet a different brother, always the desired thing is that brothers learn how to speak directly to one another.
One of the challenges of spiritual life is to keep all of our relationships clear and healthy. We must learn how to avoid being caught in or even trapped into unhealthy relationships. Here I am not talking about any kind of sexual relationships but just relationships in general. We come back to the idea, then, of a certain distance from others that allows us to see the relationship clearly and in God.
Sometimes a person will come to us and leave us speechless with their personal thoughts. We are never free just to let our feelings flow forth but must instead display total equanimity in every situation. That also requires a great deal of discipline on our part. We may fail in this, but we must keep working towards it. It is another instance of the old adage: emotion must be guided by reason and reason must be guided by faith.
True spirituality helps us live well in this life. It is a reflection of what our Jewish ancestors would have called wisdom. Wisdom is a gift of God. In order for us to receive that gift, we must strive to be open to wisdom and strive to live in such a way that wisdom can be given to us.
That is enough for this week. It is getting late and I need to put this online and get some rest. I send my love and prayers for all who read this. I will celebrate a Holy Mass this week for the intentions of all who read this letter. Please pray for me and for all of the women and men associated with our communities.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
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