Abbey News

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Now We See Him. . .
The General Chapter closed on schedule this past Tuesday and Fr. John arrived home on schedule late on the 25th. Well, almost on schedule. Only an hour late which is quite good for air travel these days.

. . .Now We Don't
Fr. John joined us for Mass Friday morning but then took to his bed with a nasty cold and sinus infection and we haven't seen him since. Apparently bad colds made the rounds of the capitulants and he was spared until the last minute. Hopefully a good rest and plenty of TLC will restore him completely in short order.

Final Celebration
Mass on the last day of the Chapter was celebrated at the famous Franciscan Basilica of the Porziuncola. The principal celebrant was Dom Eamon assisted by two retired Abbot Generals, Dom Ambrose Southey and Dom Bernardo Olivera. It must have been a rather lively celebration as reported on the Order's web page:

"The concelebrants in chasubles filled the enormous carved wooden choir that encircles the apse of the big basilica. The Mass was a great multi-cultural celebration with prayers in some languages we had never heard before, like Czech.

The music, with Mother Marie-Pascale at the enormous organ, was fairly classical but exuberant and representative of the different traditions, most markedly the African with the dance and drums at the procession of the gifts. Dom Eamon preached in English, reviewing the graces of the Chapter."

Warm Welcome

Upon the closing of the Chapter Dom Eamon, our new Abbot General, set out for his new residence at the Generalate in Rome. Here we see Dom Bernardo, with his usual whimiscal smile, giving him a warm, if rainy reception.

We now await the publication of the Acts of the Chapter.

Faith is not a magic formula. But it does give us the key to learning for ourselves. So that we can get answers and find out for ourselves who we are. It is always the case that a person first recognizes himself in others and through others. No one can arrive at knowledge of himself just by looking within himself and trying to build up his personality from what he finds there.

Man as a being is so constructed for relationships that he grows in relation to others. So that his own meaning, his tasks in life, his advancement in life, and his poetntial are unlocked in his meetings with others.

From the starting point of this basic structure of human existence we can understand faith and our meeting with Jesus. Faith is not just a system of knowledge, things we are told; at the heart of it is a meeting with Jesus

This meeting with Jesus, among all those other meetings we have need of, is the truly decisive one. All our other meetings leave the ultimate goal unclear, where we are coming from, where we are going. At our meeting with him the fundamental light dawns, by which I can understand God, man, the world, mission, and meaning - and by which all other meetings fall into place.

Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI