May the Lord open my heart and my mouth, that I may worthily proclaim his holy word.
I am told that on a similar occasion some years ago when a Benedictine monk from Douai, who used to look after the parish of St Joseph, was invited to preach at Evensong here, he paused at the start, looked round, and said: 'It's nice to be back.'
Well, it IS nice - although I would not like to have to worry about where the vast sum needed for maintenance was going to come from. Thank you for having me.
On another occasion, when I preached at Little Malvern Priory, Canon Eric introduced me by saying: 'With Fr Christopher here this evening we go back to our early origins'. I pointed out that while certainly 'getting on' I am not quite that old.
There is another sense in which this evening one might go back to your origins. I would like to focus on a circumstance that you here at Malvern Priory share with my Monastery, Downside Abbey, and with us English Benedictines. We are both, you and we, dedicated in our different ways to what St Benedict calls The Work of God - Opus Dei. That is, the worship of God in the ordered liturgical prayer of the office in choir, and the witness of his Word celebrated in scripture and song, the school of the Lord's service which St Benedict founded and wrote the Rule for.
But you and we also share another commitment - and that is to the pastoral care of our people in our parishes. Normally Benedictine monks, and their abbeys and priories, do not involve themselves in work outside the enclosure: St Benedict considered the world outside a highly dangerous venturing. Both in our case, and in yours, it was history which made pastoral concern an important objective. At the Reformation you ceased to be manned by a community of professed monks, so that pastoral care of the parish became more of a priority. We on our part were faced with the need to come to the aid of our faithful in England even in spite of 'dungeon fire and sword'. With both of us our tradition of pastoral care and concern has continued in less fraught circumstances.
Sometimes colleagues of mine have wondered whether we do enough to put our particular charisma as Benedictines to work for the benefit of our mission and our people. In this case by charisma I do not mean so much some above-average quality, but a particular character and one in this case which might be helpful to others. Bede Griffiths wrote: The gospel is primarily not a word to be preached, but the Spirit to be communicated. (That is quite an apt consideration at this liturgical season.) He adds: The monastic order is a prophetic order in the church. By your history and tradition you here in the Priory share in this monastic charisma. Some of us parish fathers have asked ourselves 'What can we do to pass on our special Benedictine tradition for the benefit of our parishioners, and which might help to better answer to their needs?'
Probably the most important, because most fundamental, monastic tradition is that of PRAYER, both liturgical and contemplative. Again Griffiths says, in relation to social action: There is no rivalry between contemplation and action. Personally, he says, I have always found that unless meditation is fed by concern with people's problems, and the world's problems, it loses its depth. For one thing, this depth comes from the humbling which contemplative prayer brings us. It is a constant reminder - in season and out of season - of our neediness and God's greatness and bounty: all is gift. This awareness is painful, even crushing, but it is what makes the salt keep its savour. St Benedict lists 12 steps of humility so he must have thought of it as quite an escalator.
That is a good starting point for the service of others and for the living and working at peace with each other and so for building up COMMUNITY - perhaps itself a second charisma of the monastic tradition: in St Benedict's words, striving to do what suits others rather than what suits oneself.
In the same way there are then other charismas or characteristics of the monastic and Benedictine tradition which have this potential for being helpful in the field of mission as well as for our own spirituality. With your recent Luncheon Box speaker Abbot Stuart Burns you will already have some notion of my drift. But just to exemplify what I think particularly relevant from my own monastic and pastoral experience I would suggest that besides those just mentioned of PRAYER and COMMUNITY, areas like the following might be fruitful for this reflection. LITURGICAL PRAYER AND THE OFFICE - SCRIPTURE MEDITATION & STUDY - CARE OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, especially the needy and infirm, the seniors and the juniors; and under the same head, HOSPITALITY.
Colleagues and I have in mind some kind of seminar or forum, to be held in the autumn, to develop this thinking. If I may I would like to keep you informed about such an event which you might find it useful to share with us. To quote our readings today*, this would be in the direction of our common service of, in Isaiah's words: pouring water on thirsty soil, streams on dry ground. Thus may we go on, as our long tradition - and your 925-year tradition - has been, preaching to all nations, but doing so from the power-source of our ancient houses where we are continually in the Temple praising God.
Fr Christopher
*Is.44.1-8; Luke 24.44-53 (NRSV)
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