End of Benedictine Experience 2012

Before I sum up the Benedictine Experience, I must first share with you "George's First 'Rule' of Monastic Living"... which is NEVER skip breakfast on Sunday.  I swear that is the true secret of happiness since breakfast this morning included scrambled eggs, thick-cut bacon, cheese grits and fresh fruit (along with the ever present monastic coffee).  It was simply incredible.

So today we end the Benedictine Experience 2012.  This is a frequently repeated program that differs somewhat from year to year.  A number of my companions on this journey have done this year after year (some for decades) and a few of the brothers date their interest in the monastic life to one of these retreats.

It's really just an immersion into the guest life at the monastery... attending all the services in the chapel, taking part in the "School of Prayer" discussions, learning about themes from the Rule of St. Benedict, Worshiping, Praying, Learning, Working and of course Eating (I guess there's some sleep in there as well).  I will be thankful for Doug's recommendation of "Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living" by John McQuiston II - this book paraphrases the Rule of St. Benedict as a way everyone can live a more balanced life.

As I've seen every Sunday, these last few hours are spent with people trying to drink in all the incredible spaces the monastery offers for reading, reflection & conversation.  Above are the quiet cloister which overlooks a huge tree, Pilgrim Hall which is sort of the monastery's "living room", and the guest library with it's incredible brick fireplace.

So finally after today's services, a last wrap up for BE2012, and of course the Sunday feast, we all leave and the Brothers have some much needed time to themselves.

This time, I dive right back into the real world... no leisurely drive and walk across the Hudson, etc.  I have to make it back in time for the end of an open house (trying to sell my home) and a friend's 60th birthday party.

Thanks for reading...

Beads, Bees, Work and Recreation

For some reason, I didn't sleep very well last night (perhaps a bit too much nodding off during my "quiet reflection time"), and when I awoke to one of the train whistles I went to the window to see the lights of the train pass (which you can't photograph), but I saw a ton of stars in the sky so I tried a night shot.  Unfortunately, as I was doing that I realized that the floor boards were squeaking and thought better of trying to perfect the photo in light of any possible downstairs neighbors.  When the sunlight flooded my room this morning, though, I had to capture that.

We departed from the planned "School of Prayer" lesson on the Holy Eucharist for one on Praying with Beads (due to class interest).  Br. James (the white) took us through the history of prayer beads and shared with us several examples, many of which you can find in the monastery gift shop.  (I realize that sounds more commercial than intended... there were no "Three easy payments of $19.99 if you get them in the next hour" sort of pitches, he just pointed out that the gift shop carried prayer beads that Br. Julian makes.)

We then had a lesson from Br. James from the RB about The Community at Work, where he read from the Rule of St. Benedict and explained the concept of work as a means of prayer... and also to keep monks from being idle.  It lead to an interesting discussion about how our work lives and our faith intersect.  After Dinner and a brief rest time, we went to work.

 A couple of us worked in the monastic library with Br. Adam while the rest of us helped Br. Bernard with the monastery's new beekeeping project.  Bees are due to arrive on Monday and we needed to level the place for the hives, clear some grass and get ready to install an electric fence (to keep the bears away).  It was a Bee-utiful day, Bee-nard is very excited about his bees (which is very Bee-coming to him), and now that I'm suitably tired, I'm heading to the chapel to study the Bee-atitudes. 

 During the rest period, I finally got to check out the organ in the chapel.  It's a nice Rodgers instrument... the couple of times I heard it in services it sounded thin, but I realized when playing it that I was hearing people play it without the pedals.  It seems perfectly sized for the space, though has a bit too much artificial reverb which is not needed at all in this chapel.

After Vespers, I finally got an opportunity to photograph the incense burning.  The monastery makes liturgical incense (the stuff they burn on charcoal and use in processionals, etc. - not the sticks you can burn at home).  They burn incense on Saturday Vespers and also before certain feast days.  The twirling smoke is always fascinating to me, but usually the sacristy workers take it away quickly after the service.  This evening Br. Andrew was willing to stay behind for a few min so I could try and capture it. 

(If you go to Oct 2011, you can see the incense making operation with Br. Robert and the tour.)

Finally, our evening time tonight was "Recreation" an important part of community building in a Benedictine monastery.  We had craft sodas, incredible chocolate chip cookies (Thanks Laurie!) and some wide-ranging conversations between us and Brs. Bernard and James (the black).

Meditation as Prayer & Joining the Associates

Today was our "Retreat Day" where we were to stay silent before God and listen.  We had a brief "School of Prayer" lesson on "Meditation as Prayer" where Br. James taught us the concept and practice behind Centering Prayer.  Basically you find a quiet place to be with God, acknowledge and welcome the distractions, invite God to be with you, and then use a simple word as needed to help keep you "centered" on God's presence.  We are to do two 20 minute sessions of this during our silence today.

Also Today, during Eucharist, I "joined" the monastery as an associate, becoming a part of the extended monastery family.  As part of this I wrote my own "rule of life", agree to live according to the associates rule, and declared my intent in a small portion of the Eucharist service.  I received a simple wood cross to wear while I'm at the monastery.

So for the day in silence part, I spent some extra time in the Chapel before Diurnum and Vespers trying the centering prayer, and then spent the bulk of the day sitting on my favorite Adirondack chair - reading and thinking while watching the trains move up and down along the Hudson river. 

Sitting for too long is hard on, um, well its hard, so I got up mid afternoon and did a quick walk along the driveway to check out more of the wildflowers.

At the end of the day we had another debriefing session with Brs. James and Scott.  We all experienced similar difficulty in the second session of our centering prayers, which they said was actually normal.  We also shared a lot on the problems we have quieting our minds during the silent meditation.  Without going into all the details, it was a helpful discussion and I was particularly thankful for Br. Scott's thoughts on Myers-Briggs types and meditation and prayer.  He noted that most prayer books are written by NF types so those who are ST types may have to adapt.  The discussion was much more involved in that, but was very helpful in thinking through the fact that we might be a different type than the person who created the particular way of praying we were studying.  That doesn't make it good or bad, but is something to keep in mind when pondering and choosing how we want to approach God. 

(It might also begin to explain why I seem to pray best when I'm holding a camera...)

Lectio Divina & The Community at Prayer

Today was Ascension Day which is not really celebrated in the churches but is a big day for the monastery.  It's a first-class feast which means that we get dessert at dinner (Noon meal)... I, um, think "First-Class Feast" might have other theological meaning, than the fact that we have dessert, but the bread pudding was to die for.  

 I spent the time between Breakfast and Eucharist sitting on my favorite outdoor chair and reading "Always We Begin Again" by John McQuiston II (when I wasn't staring across the river).  This is a paraphrase of the RB - sort of Benedict's rule for lazy people.  It's a nice short book about how to apply Benedictine thinking to our lives without having to read specific instructions for people who lived 1500 years ago.

Our "School of Prayer" lesson today was on Lectio Divina, led by Br. James.  I learn about this each time I come up here, and, well, honestly, I guess I need a lot more practice at it.  He mentioned that the method of prayer while using Biblical verses, is not Bible study... which it usually becomes for me.  (Basically you pray by reading a scripture passage repeatedly, each time moving from seeking meaning, to meditation, to asking God for leading through prayer and then into a deeper contemplation.)  I gotta work at it some more.

We followed that with a lesson from the RB about the community at prayer, this being Ascension Day, the community's prayers are quite a bit more complex, ("First-Class Feast also means "find the five hidden antiphons somewhere in the Breviary") so a fair bit of discussion centered around the office, how we find our way, etc.  This continued in the evening session with Br. Scott.

Today in our work period, we weeded the garden just outside the kitchen door - or at least started to.  If I understand the overall project, we're removing the remnants of an old herb garden to make room for more flowers to support Br. Bernard's beekeeping project.  Unfortunately none of us knew much about plants so we hope we only pulled weeds.  Part of the evening discussion was how do you "pray" during mundane work, which is definitely something I can take home.  It's a key concept from St. Benedict.

Tomorrow is a "silent retreat" for us, basically no conversations from now (after Compline) until Vespers (5:00 tomorrow).  Just a small "School of Prayer" meeting where "Meditation as Prayer" will be explained.  Should be an interesting day...

Good Morning

I woke up this morning to and incredible sunrise over the Hudson thinking about what Br. Scott had to say about community life and do we seek "happiness" or "fulfilment" in it.

Community and The Work of God

Today, another fine spring day (sorry, I can't resist the wildflowers).  We worked on two Benedictine themes - Community and The Work of God.  Everything was set in the framework of a typical day at the monastery.  We started with Matins at 7:00 AM, followed by breakfast at 7:45.  As usual the great silence started last night after Compline and continued until mid-morning.  After Eucharist at 9:00, we had a two back-to-back sessions in the Middle House Common Room.

"School of Prayer: The Work of God" was at 10:00 in the Middle House Common Room (above).  Br. James read some passages from the RB (as the Rule of St. Benedict is known), and we discussed how our primary work of God in a monastery is worship.  We heard about the daily offices (the four main worship services - a fifth is the Eucharist, and received a bit of background on how they were laid out.  We discussed how to learn the order of the services and how things flowed (the monks were using that time for choir practice in the chapel nextdoor which served as a nice backdrop.)  We explored how to translate the concept of daily offices into "at home time"... we don't have the benefit of bells ringing to tell us to drop everything and head to the chapel to pray.  Many of us struggle to try and find some time for one period of quiet time at home... several times a day seems out of the question.

"The Community in the RB" was at 11:00 and Br. James shared passages from the rule about community and spoke on how a formed community works... how a large part of the Rule of St. Benedict gives instructions on how to run the community... how the monks have a chapter meeting right after Eucharist every day where they read the rule of St. Benedict but also share concerns and work towards building community.   Without going into detail, we discussed how to apply this.  I thought about all the different types of communities we have and how we have to work at all of them - family, parish, work, etc.

We had a rest period and a work period this afternoon (after Diurnum and Dinner).  The work period was moving things around in the monastic enclosure.  I didn't take my camera (look at the posts from Oct 2011 - the spaces are all the same) for this but I did find a little time to go around and make a couple of photographs (and of course I visited the Gift Shop).

I've always loved the roof-line on the main guest house, though I would never want to pay to actually re-roof that thing.  I also noticed that they installed some new rocking chairs and Adirondack chairs which have my name on them tomorrow.  I couldn't take advantage of them today because they're in the quiet zone and, being a part of a community (this time my work community) I had to help out a colleague which meant hanging out in the parking lot while on the phone so as not to disturb the other retreaters.

We finished the Benedictine program today with a discussion in the common room with Br. Scott.  It was an amazing time where we brough everything together and wound it around our home lives, facebook, netflix, and a host of other current topics.  I was interested in learning that community lives for the monks requires sorting through some of the same issues we face in our homes.

Finally, I had a discussion with Br. Ron and learned my "rule of life" was approved and it turns out I'm signing up this week and will become an Oblate of the monastery (Holy Cross uses the term Associate).  That might happen Friday at Eucharist.

Stay tuned...

Arrival and Welcome!

It was a rainy trip up from NJ to the monastery.  I opted to skip my traditional drive along the Palisades and just drove the Thruway.  The monastery looked quite different arriving in the spring (rather than Autumn or Winter like my previous visits).  First, there were the incredible wildflowers all along the driveway and things appeared much more green than in mid-October.

It's also much more quiet... no loud group of youth workers.  ;)  I guess there will be 6 of us on the Benedictine Experience (a number of people are repeating it), and a couple of individual retreaters - some up for just one night... may have to think about that in the future.  So Pilgrim Hall was sparse when Br. Ron gave the orientation. 

The monastic choir, however, is almost packed.  There are only a few seats up where they sit in chapel and they've added a couple of novices I mean postulates in black cassocks.  It was nice to sit in the chapel for a bit and take in the feeling of the place again. 

Finally, we had our "Welcome" session from the Benedictine Experience... and that's what we talked about, the concept of welcoming the travelers and pilgrims we meet - both how the monks do it and how that concept can apply to our home life and (this was a surprise) our work life as well.  Lots of food for thought on that one.

Our schedule for this experience seems to be a slight modification of life at the monastery.  Built around the daily office (schedule of worship services) are lessons on prayer, and studying the Rule of St. Benedict, then some time to rest, some time to work and of course the meals.

Looks like fun...

What do you pack when you visit a monastery?

I'm at M (for monastery) -11 hours... waiting for the last load of laundry to finish and facing the first spiritual challenge of the trip.  What do you pack?  The www.holycrossmonastery.com website suggests "Simplicity can be very helpful for spiritual growth, so don’t bring much." which is... um... unhelpful. 

What is "much"?

I think I do a reasonable job of unplugging when I'm up there (there goes that Benedictine humility on overdrive again - I'm quite proud of it).  I do "connect" a couple of times a day to blog, and my cell phone usually buzzes gently during one of the first few services before I remember to shut it off as I'm walking into the church, but I'm not one of the ones that's always out in the parking lot with the phone at my ear - usually. 

My real packing vice is reading material.  I've been known to take my Bible & prayer book, a kindle, another book for leisure, maybe a photoshop book or two (just in case I want to learn).  Of course, it all stays in the room... but still, you never know.

So, simplify!  OK.  The Kindle can stay home (I'm reading about the hunt for Bin Laden and a guide to online dating - I can wait a week before continuing those), I can leave all the other reading material at home as well (I assume I can find a Bible somewhere at a monastery - actually that's one of the features of the rooms) and I've been carrying the photoshop books around for ages without touching them.  That eliminates the bag of books and adapters, which also happens to be the heaviest.

I will throw Casey's "Living in the Truth: Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility" in my suitcase along with my journal (yes, I keep a written journal with lots more than is in the blog).  I've tried Casey a couple of times, but I think reading that would benefit from longer periods of uninterrupted reading that I hope to have.

So suitcase, laptop and camera bag to carry into the guesthouse... boots and tripod left in the car for muddy walks and maybe a day looking around the Hudson valley.  Simple enough for now...

Oh yea, bugspray & sunscreen... bugspray for walking down to get close to the river through the tall grass, and sunscreen for sitting on my favorite Adirondack chair & reading.

A Retreat in the Spring

After what can only be described as a truly harrowing week, I finally completed everything and can sign up for next week's retreat.  So I'm heading back!

All my visits to Holy Cross thus far have been in the September/October time frame with the exception of my recent stay at Christmas.  So it will be great to see the place in a different season, and I'm sure springtime will be wonderful.

I'm attending a 6 day/5 night "Benedictine Experience 2012" being led by Bros. Scott, James and Bernard that promises to "allow you to experience a taste of what Benedictine life is about and to explore the ways Benedictine practice may be relevant in your personal, parish, and work life."  Circumstances beyond my control prevent me from a fuller exploration of the Benedictine way, so this seemed like a nice approach... besides it's an affordable vacation on a post-alimony budget.

One thing I will do this time is limit the blogging just a tad.  I think I've covered the various worship services and photographs of the main places around the monastery.  So at least going in, my thought is to focus on the retreat experience mostly.  I will, however, bring the good camera and depending on the schedule may go AWOL for an afternoon to try and capture a bit of springtime in the Hudson valley.  We'll see...

Finally a note of thanks for the readership this blog is getting.  I've only had a couple of thousand page loads, but they're coming literally from all over the world.  Originally I figured this blog would only get readers from my youth group and a few church and work friends.  I suspect I have to thank Br. Bernard for that due to a link on the monastery web site back around Christmas.

Now I have to wait until Tuesday...