Jubilee

11 July 2021, I finally was able to celebrate my golden jubilee of profession of Benedictine monastic vows. The celebration in July 2020 had been postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jubilarian and honored guests.

I was delighted that my brother, Bro. Benedict FSC on my right above, and Bro. Charles Gresh FSC, former HS teacher, came from La Salle University, Philadelphia, 9-13 July. Charles, 88, had been on campus more often than Ben, 82.

The booklet for the ceremony is online, and YouTube has the video at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUEnb9o0iFo>.

+Bro. Benedict Oliver FSC MA (1938-2021)
Sadly, exactly one month later, my brother died, 11 August 2021. He had devoted his life as a De La Salle Christian Brother to Catholic education, spending 30 years, at different times, at his beloved Central Catholic High School, Pittsburgh, PA. May he rest in peace.

Milestone

Now this is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end.

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Winston Churchill, 1942, after Alamein.

Saturday morning, 13 March 2021, eighth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, six residents of St. Raphael Hall, attended Morning Prayer with the monks in the abbey church after one year of being sequestered in the retirement center. 99.44% of the monks have been inoculated twice with the Moderna vaccine. Other restrictions are being adjusted gradually.

Nevertheless, Prior Brad suggests, “Wearing masks, physical distance, meeting outdoors when possible, good hand-washing, and limiting the number of people with whom you have close contact continue to be prudent practices to prevent the spread of COVID and keep the prevalence of the virus in the wider community heading downward.”

Update 15 March 2021: Monks who have been vaccinated for Covid-19 may visit residents in Saint Raphael Hall by signing up at the nurse’s station. The usual weekly nasal swab test for Covid-19 has been cancelled for this Wednesday.

Moderna Vaccine

This morning a medical technician from Walgreens Pharmacy, Sauk Rapids, injected the staff and monastic residents of St. Raphael Hall with 1.5 ml each of the Moderna vaccine against the Covid-19 virus. The injection was imperceptible, and I experienced no after effects. The second immunization shot is scheduled for 13 February 2021. All residents have tested negative ever since the weekly Wednesday nasal swabs began.

II Cor. 5:7

Sen. Kamala Harris included an echo of Paul’s epistle in her acceptance speech tonight as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the vice presidency.

Kamala Harris, VP Nominee.
Sen. Kamala Harris, VP Nominee

“I do so [accept], committed to the values she [her mother] taught me. To the Word that teaches me to walk by faith, and not by sight. And to a vision passed on through generations of Americans — one that Joe Biden shares. A vision of our nation as a Beloved Community — where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love.”

I recognized the phrase from the hymn by Henry Alford (1810–1871) often sung at the abbey:

We walk by faith, and not by sight;
No gracious words we hear
From Him who spake as never man,
But we believe Him near.

We may not touch His hands and side,
Nor follow where He trod;
But in His promise we rejoice,
And cry, My Lord and God!

Help Thou, O Lord, our unbelief:
And may our faith abound,
To call on Thee when Thou art near,
And seek where Thou art found.

That, when our life of faith is done,
In realms of clearer light
We may behold Thee as Thou art,
With full and endless sight.

Bill Combs expounds the theology of the phrase for Bible Study Tools. “Paul is contrasting actually seeing the Lord (‘at home with the Lord’) with our present experience of believing in the Lord without seeing him (‘away from the Lord’). For now believers ‘live in the realm of faith,’ trusting in the Lord whom they have not seen, but one day they will ‘live in the realm of sight.’ This is same sort of contrast we see in John 20:29 and 1 Pet 1:8.”

Pandemic Summer ’20

17 March 2020, the coronavirus closed the Abbey Guesthouse, and I was out of a job.

At the end of May, St. Cloud Hospital provided intubation and ventilation for me from Sunday night until Tuesday. I had bilateral pneumonia with sepsis and A and V-Fib, unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic.

Early June, I survived a week in the hospital for recovery and two weeks rehab in Sartell, MN. Two weeks of restful quarantine followed in the same Abbey Guesthouse that had “laid me off” three months previously.

When I first felt ill Sunday evening, I remember, before losing conscious memory, seeing before me an image of two black squares on a white field. I wondered how such sharp edges of the squares were possible. I looked closer to see if the black ink bled into the paper. Maybe the medium was enamel? ceramic?

Then I realized that this was no material image. I, myself, was creating this temporary image for me before I lost consciousness.

Several days later, during recovery, I asked my main nurse how I could explain my condition, what would be the diagnosis? She replied, “Bilateral pneumonia.” This, I realized, was what I had been trying to tell myself, albeit in a highly abstract image.

When I next had use of a digital graphics program, I produced the following image with Fireworks.

Two black squares
Vision: Bilateral

Later, Bro. Alan, an artist/confrere, suggested I had been channeling Kazimir Malevich, a Russian Suprematist. Below is his oil painting, “Black Square,” 1915, 79.5 x 79.5 cm, State Tretrakov Gallery, Moscow.

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915.

“His Black Square (1915), a black square on white, represented the most radically abstract painting known to have been created so far and drew ‘an uncrossable line (…) between old art and new art'” (Wikipedia).