Benedictines and the Lost City
Wednesday April 8, 2009
Categories: Catholicism
The Clear Creek Monastery list just sent text of a wonderful Russ Hittinger profile of the congregation of Benedectine monks in Fontgombault, who at the time it was written (1999) was starting to plant a daughter house in eastern Oklahoma....
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Thank you for posting about this wonderful community, Rod. Clear Creek has a very crunchy charism. Last month the prior sent out a letter titled "Learning from the Land: In the School of Saint Benedict," a meditation on "man's proper place in the universe as caretaker of creation." He discusses a close, healthy relationship to the land as an important spiritual good. I'll be happy to send you a copy if you haven't seen it.
My former parish priest moved out there and is now parish priest for the lay community that has grown up around the monastery. When he was with us, he was on a trial period with the FSSP but has returned to being a diocesan priest. I am sure he brought celebration of the Gregorian Rite with him, though.
Constitutional democracies destroying the monasteries? Let's see, they mentioned the date 1803, and 150 years ago-That would be 1959. During that time, France was briefly a republic, an empire twice, and I believe a monarchy twice. Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, was of course a monarchy, as of course was Portugal. All Catholic monarchies by the way. There was no nation of Germany at the time. However, except for a few port cities, Germany was composed of various princely states, some Catholic and some not.
So now your fallback position is that constitutional democracies are the cause of all that is wrong in the world?
BTW Rod, now that you kept your job, what are you going to do with the "will hate gays for food" sign?
"The American religious genius has been given to other, more active ends. But once this soil is cultivated for the seeds of contemplation, it will be so fresh that it will produce dramatic results."
Indeed. Wow, Rod, that really is a wonderful article. Another sign of hope.
Your Name:
Regardless of from of government those countries had or did not have, the driving force behind them was secular enlightment and rationalism, which turned to existentialism in the 19th and early 20th century, which gave us the philosophies that led to secular dictatorships. All of these were inherently anti-Catholic, which always argued that there were objective moral truths than man's behavior should be measured against, despite man's falling short of those moral standards.
pax et bonum
Contemporary France is a jaded, secular culture in which anticlericalism is a democratic sport, but even so, there are 79 Benedictine monasteries in France. The American soul, on the other hand, has not been tilled to this end.
Hmmm. They want to till America into jaded, secular culture in which anticlericalism is a democratic sport?
Thanks for this post, Rod. Whatever the naysayers say, this post is was like the first day of Fall after a long hot summer of gay marriage turmoil.
Rod I spent a year as a monastic intern at The Abbey of Regina Laudis run by Benedictine religious sisters. Imagine daily life, revolving around the fact of the Resurrection. The full implications of this historical event shot through every moment of the day. Rich is the word to describe it.
The clock is subject to it, labor is subject to it, and of course the liturgical season revolves around it. And the Eucharist, from whence everything flows in our faith, is a beautiful event by its very fact but when it is sung in Gregorian chant we do justice to it.
Gregorian chant itself was invented by men who left the world wanting to find a language adequate to an address to the God of their longing.
Secular life feels like a desert in comparison. This was sappy.
The sisters are almost self sufficient. They grow meat, milk, vegetables etc.
In my application I linked to your site, and I have you to thank for being integral to my decision to commit to the internship. Some of the Sisters might be reading right now.
Rod,
You know that you are 4-5 hours from an "Athonite" Greek Orthodox monastery, right? Holy Archangels near San Antonio.
Greetings,
You might be interested to see:
http://abbotprospergueranger.blogspot.com/
http://abbotcuthbertjohnson.blogspot.com/
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