Category: Monasticism

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.

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.”