Some of you asked me about the reference to this book, France, you're the librarian, on fasting and charity. So, not to give practical orientations to the Reverend and Father and you, but on this problem of theology of fasting and charity. I found a review here, in Maison Dieu, 45 pages. 171. So if someone wants to find the reference to get the book, well, the finances will allow it. And again, to add something to what the Reverend and Father were saying about fasting and charity, I could mention an aspect of which you are surely aware. But today you said the Mass for the union of the Church, the Church, you see. And, you know, there is an ecumenical aspect also of this practice and fasting and charity.

[01:09]

You know that a few years ago, Professor Burtman was in Rome, and he gave a talk to Kulman, you know, who organized this charity between non-Tessalites and charity. So I think that's also a very good talk. Then I want also to rectify a mistake I made. I said you had not yet the last issues of the dictionary of spirituality. You have to have them, but Paul buying one volume, which is so big, you know. Just the end of E. The letter E in French is extremely rich. From Eglise, Church, to Ezekiel. Through... very good article of the Western tradition by Fr. Douillet, and very Orthodox, he is a prior of Visque. And then eschatology, examine, exercise, exodus, and then ecstasy.

[02:20]

So plenty of things. Next one, they are preparing the directing proofs of flagellation. Food, which is foolish for Christ. This year for Christ. Well, I have often spoken of monastic tradition. And I know that in English and in American, this word has a certain connotation to a certain time, a certain particular period, as if the ideal was to reconstruct artificially a certain period of monastic history, either ancient or medieval or modern. And so perhaps you may think that I'm just a man of the past and that I am lost in the present. I said, Jesuits are not weak.

[03:23]

So I want to warn you that I am, I love... Oh, Ty. I cannot remind you that the first time I landed in this country, I was driven immediately to Harvard University from Boston Airport, and in the car there was an interview, and the first question was... I was supposed to be a medievalist and so on. Well, what is the best period in history? And I said, ours. And of course, the man was upset because it's no series of questions. He thought I would have sent to a secretary or the secretary of St. Thomas on Paracetries. So he said that. Why is that? And I said, first, because it is our time. When God gives us and in which we have to give us to him and the time we have to give to God. And even, I think, historically, he's far from being worse than the others. So I thought it was good to recall some elementary notion of what is tradition.

[04:38]

It is not the moment to develop what is a Catholic concept of tradition. But I just recall that tradition is not an idea, a concept. It is a reality. It is not the knowledge of history. Often we confuse history and tradition. History consists just in knowing what has been, what was the path. That is not tradition. Tradition is neither the knowledge nor the repetition of the past. It does not consist in imitating any particular moment of history. It is not imitation, it is continuation. It is life, continuity, vital transmission, organic growth, and therefore adaptation. Tradition necessarily implies changing.

[05:44]

The proper of tradition is to be of today, fresh. And we have now a wonderful example in this period of the preparation of the Ecumenic Council in which the Church is facing the possibility of changing various things of its discipline. And to discern what is tradition and what is traditional, we may think of the Catholic criteria of what is tradition. Everybody remembers the formulas of Saint Vincent of Lerines. It seems obvious that what is traditional in monasticity is determined by the

[06:46]

these three criteria, what is constant, universal, and coming from the source. These three criteria must be realized together, for an error could be more or less constant and universal if there was not the control of an objective source. Relation to the sources is essential to tradition. as St. Vincent of Florence also told, tradition consists in saying, in doing, not nova, set nove, not new things, but in a new way. Tradition must, and only real tradition can, renew what is ancient. And you know that for the Universal Church, as Father Conga recently pointed it out in the little book, a tradition and traditions, within the tradition of the Catholic Church, there are the traditions of the churches, which must agree to be valuable, called ubiqui, what is universal.

[08:03]

And that's true in all fields, in theology, scholasticism, there are different scholastic traditions, Thomism, Scotism, and so on. And even in Thomism, there are different Thomisms. which is a sign of its richness and fecundity. But in all fields, we must remember this Greek law, never to confuse the particular traditions with the tradition, but to integrate them in the Greek tradition, to refer them to it, to urge them according to it, to let and make them develop in relation with it. What particularly means never to absolutize, so to speak, one particular fact or aspect, but to keep to the institution a certain suppleness and elasticity, which is the sign and the condition of life.

[09:08]

A dead body has no suppleness anymore. And let's now develop briefly the main criteria of tradition. First, what is constant, universal? And this excludes what is too much marked by a period, by a country, by a man. I say too much because everything has a concrete historical origin and everything has not to be eliminated because it came from one man. More or less. But everything has to be controlled according to what remains constant, universal. For instance, in the Cistercian tradition, it's obvious that people like Rancay and Lestrange gave a certain very particular physiognomy to the Cistercian tradition.

[10:15]

And this physiognomy was very marked by a certain period, 17th century, post-revolution, France, a certain type of man, the conversion of Francais, and so on. But that does not mean that all they brought into the Stratian tradition was wrong. On the contrary, they surely rediscovered authentic monastic values which have to be kept. And so I think there is a real Trappist tradition, you see, of thinking. It could be a pity that the Trappists just cease to be Trappists to become Cistercians or Benedictines. But there are, apart from the essential values which the spiritual men rediscovered, on austerity, on silence, and so on, you see, there are some aspects which were more determined by

[11:15]

the psychology of this country, of this period, of this man. And these elements are secondaries as regards the main elements that rediscover. And so the tradition consists in keeping the real spiritual values which they either maintained or rediscovered, reintroduced, and eliminating the secondary aspects and elements. And we must say that now in the Trappist order of which General chapter, now just finishing in Rome, they are having a very sound evolution, which will of course be difficult and long because it's now a big order of more than 4,000 people in the whole world, from Ireland to Holland and so on, in very different mentalities and situations. But you see, that is a good sign when an order is able to have such an evolution to try to discern What has to be kept and what may or must may be eliminated.

[12:18]

And that's, of course, true for all the monastic institutions. It is not the moment here to show how organically a document like the rule of Saint Benedict inserts itself in a large, homogeneous evolution of monasticism. of this monasticism which was already universally diffused in the world, in the whole Latin Church, two centuries before St. Benedict, as it appears now in the paper, in the volume published last year in the study Anselmiana, on monasticism in the time of St. Martin, in the fourth century, on occasion of the 16th century of St. Martin. Monasticism has no founder. It has never been, never been founded. As, for instance, has been founded the Society of Jesus.

[13:21]

There has never been a man who founded, who created, who invented monasticism. Neither Saint Anthony, nor Saint Benedict, nobody. Or better, and that means the same, monasticism has been founded. Everywhere there was a church. founded by the Spirit of God himself, according to some evangelical conceals and the interpretation given to them universally and since the beginning by some people, some Christians, searching a more perfect way of life and approved by the church. But it may be good to remind us that the rule of Saint Benedict has been considered during the Middle Ages and up to nowadays as a sort of spiritual orientation of monasticism in the West.

[14:28]

The rule of Saint Benedict is, so to speak, the last edition of the monastic rule of the West. after two centuries and more of monastic experience of provisional rules, of which a dozen still exist, and the most known and important is the regular magistrate, and then after all this project, so to speak, the definitive edition was the rule of Saint Benedict. And monasticism went on. And in this continuous history, It was a sort of permanent point of preference, according to which all the realizations of monasticism had to be maintained. And then, in order to complete this document, written, we don't know where, probably in Italy, but surely in the first half of the 6th century,

[15:40]

In order to complete it, to adapt it, has been created the monastic customary law, which was mainly contained in the books called customaries, of which now a series is published, for instance, in the Brachial Society. I think you have some volume of this series. The consuetudinous monastics, which are... at the origins of our constitutions. And you know that there were some practical comments, adaptations, additions to the rule, for all the things which had to be determined. And you know that till now, in most of all the benedictine congregations, the constitutions still have the form of declarations, explanations, to the text itself of the whole, giving the consuetudinary interpretation for a certain group of monks and monasteries.

[16:54]

The same, a customary interpretation of the same basic document. And the proper of custom is to develop at the difference of the great essential requirement of the basic legislation of each institution. The basic exigences are to be kept the same, to remain the same, has to remain unchanged. And if they have been changed, to be re-decovered, re-established. That's why there are continuous reforms. I just mentioned the Lancet one, but there are continuous reforms. That's normal for each one of us. Our reform is never finished, always to begin again. That's true for the church, and that's true for monasticity. So the proper of the customary law is to develop. And that's why we have not to dream abstractly what could be, what should be the perfect monastery according to, let's say, the rule of Saint Benedict or from some other ways of life, like the regular canon, according to the rule of Saint Augustine, which is...

[18:08]

still older and still a longer evolution. So we have not to dream abstractly what it could be, but to take the rule as a general orientation and then for the practical adaptation the consuetudinary law, consuetudines, which are normally the constitutions approved by the Olysses, but when there are not or not yet constitutions are the customs of the place. And the mere fact that I think you have not yet constitutions, neither in Western, the mere fact that does not urge you to have in a minimum time constitutions. Constitutions show that it is not considered as absolutely necessary. It's usual, it's normal, but anywhere there must be customs. And that, you see, introduced a part of contingency The customs are not necessarily, and I think they are nowhere, the best solution to all the problems.

[19:13]

So we must accept that once forever. I just wanted to remind this few elementary notions to avoid any equivocation when I speak of tradition. I hope I'm not too much of an archaeologist. And now I want also to mention another question. point, a little bit in disorder, but I think you are a young community. It's still time perhaps to kill at the root some myth and commonplace. Just wanted to mention a motto often proposed as a monastic bandit in life. There are places, some monasteries on which door you see aura et labora. which is often considered, in current monastic literature, as the perfect and traditional resume of Benedictine life.

[20:19]

It's made, as you see, on a play of work. Ora et lab ora. In fact, it's very recent. I think it has been created in the 19th century. I made a long research and published the research in the book on the monastic vocabulary. But the two words of which it consists were sometimes used near each other in ancient documents, as in charters in which are enumerated the beauties which will be fulfilled by the monks for which a monastery is founded. For instance, in the Charter of Foundation of the Abbey of Cuxa in the 9th century, we read, Quibus Monarchis, Estusus Orandi et Yeunandi, And it is typical enough that we have suppressed a member of the formula.

[21:22]

The second important. And actually, the motto in two words only can, in two words only, can by no means express the complete program of monastic life. if we suppressed fasting. Nevertheless, these two words are legitimate in the monastic problem. But then, what is their meaning? Here again, we may be misled by modern views. These two words, orari et laborari, evoke two sorts of occupations, which in the medieval society were shared between two different categories of people. And this has been brought to light by recent studies on social and economic structures of the Middle Ages. In the medieval society, there were three categories of men. The oratoris, namely the clerics who pray.

[22:35]

The bellatoris, the warriors, the militants, And the laboratoris, those whose specialty was manual level. That means either free peasants or slaves. And all three were necessary in the societies. Remember the famous motto, see? Also, quid faceran oratoris sinoness and aratoris. Now, the characteristic of the monks was to unite two sorts of occupations. There's of the clergy, orari, and there's of the small people, laborari. They had not to fight normally. Sometimes they were protected. They are in some great monasteries, like Saint-Riquier, there are hundred militaires and so on to protect them, you see, against invasions, Vikings, and so on.

[23:41]

But the monks themselves to unite these two jobs. Oratory, orari, as the clergy do. But what the clergy doesn't do, laborari. And the clergy has not to do it. The clergy has a right to leave from the altar. And thus this last word, laborari, did not mean only that the monks had to do something to be busy. but also indicated the sort of work they had to do. Not an aristocratic one, not a clerical one, but a humble one, a hard one, a penitential one. And that was the full meaning of the formula. Orandi. Ye unandi et laborandi. And this labor was exactly, as we already saw in another talk, what St. Benedict calls sometimes opus manum, or labor.

[24:41]

Other occupations are not excluded from monastic life, provide the limit compatible with the essential monastic observance. Now, I would like also to mention rapidly another monastic problem, historical and contemporary, namely apostolic work. And here again, as I already mentioned, the field has been encumbered by too many commonplaces on the so-called monk's missionary. It is not my purpose here to examine in detail the history and the value of this commonplace. But similarly, we may say that there has never been in ancient times

[25:43]

I think up to the middle of the 19th century. And a missionary monasticism. Missions multitudes. Namely, a monasticism organized in view of the evangelization of the pagans. But there have been some monks missionaries, some monks who received a mission, who were sent, missing, by bishops or by the early see, to do some work. evangelization. And this is not a private idea which I just convey you, but I published it recently, the last issue of the Rev. Disto-Ecclesiastic, this I think you received of just enough print here. First, I only mentioned that article of demitization of monastic history. And I just begin with the first rational translation, and on this monastic And I quote a series of people, including the abbot Ein Siedeln and so on, who I guess is an excellent abbot, but as an historian, his competence falls under the judgment and criticism of other historians.

[26:57]

And so I struggled, and the conclusion is that indeed there have been monks of whose vocation, personal vocation was to evangelize, as the vocation of other, and sometimes the same, was to live as hermit. And there have been more than 15, because there have been actually been called 15 names for five centuries, which is not much. There have been more than 15 who became bishops. which was not in their program, they didn't enter the monastery to be Catholic. So we can't take argument of that to say, no, we have to be in new bonifaces. There have been adults who preach without obliging the monks to do it, as well as St. Benedict in the dialogues, there is it, occasionally, without saying to the monks to do it.

[28:07]

But monasticism, as such, as an institution, has never been at any time missionary. And here I quote an objective, a neutral historian who was a Jesuit, Father de Moreau, who studied, published different books on this period, and said clearly, the monk, as such, has not the vocation of a missionary. And if we are sometimes surprised and even scandalized, seeing how slow has been the conversion of Europe, of Germany, it took several centuries for a small land of country. And that's because there was no missionary zeal at all in the monasteries. We have not to be scandalized, and the Jesuit father said that was normal. The monks as such were not bifurcation, missionary. So we must maintain that very clear. And two, just to illustrate there, that we may consider as a symbolic sense.

[29:17]

Those who are presented not as models, but as exceptions, proving the rule. Exceptions which are different from the ordinary monks. And we must say that most of them, of this sense, were peregrini, that means solitary, solitary in the sense, meaning I've said in the first verse, helmets, and that was in some way according to the monastic vocation. Secondly, a few of them became bishops, which was not according to the monastic vocation. It was truly extra, the monastic vocation, but there may be a church vocation from some individuals in the monastic life. But all of them were contemplatives, which was by all means in conformity with monastic evocation.

[30:30]

And so, they mainly were apostles by their examples. By their work, laborare, they cultivated, by agriculture, by hard work, they transformed the land, without having that as an end in itself, you know, as I said when speaking of economy. It was just, by the way, as an ascetic, as a result of their asceticism. And they loved people, they maintained, introduced, maintained charity, and by this example of their peace, they... as we say sometimes, they send the ferocious pagans and they give the example of charity. And that we still have, I must say, examples today. I remember a few months ago in England, I met in a trappist abbey, there were, you know, there are now seven trappist abbes in dark Africa.

[31:34]

And some of them are sent in European monastery to spend some years to see the life and so on. And they were then A color-monged, absolutely black. And that was sometimes some confusion because we came both in the same guest house and then we were two black monks. Sometimes one wanted to come to me and went to me because they have just one side in the trapezo cavalry, you know, to say black monk. So I don't know if it was illegal of me. And so I discovered this black man, and he was extremely beneficial. For instance, he told me that he, I think he's from Uganda, but I don't know where is his foundation, perhaps in South Africa, in North Africa, and he said that he himself belonged to a teaching congregation before, during seven years, yes, and then he wanted to enter this monastery, and he did, and now

[32:45]

He said to me, I discovered in monastic life charity, the mystery of charity. And even I discovered that God is charity. He said, I was brought up as a Catholic, as I was a boy, and the first thing they explained to me in the catechism, and always that God looks upon me, God sees me. So I always to be a little bit afraid from God. And he said, I was brought up. I hope they didn't do that on purpose to maintain these people in a certain complex of inferiority. But even when he was religious, he always had this idea. And he said, then the first day I entered the novice, the novice master, took the rule and began to comment the first degree of humility and the presence of God and began to say about the same thing. So he said, no, I'm not better. But then he said, I discovered that in the monastic life that God is child. And that was for me, he said, you know, there's people, very generous, but not sophisticated at all.

[33:46]

They still experiment the things for us are just ideas in a very vivid way. And for instance, he said, now, before coming to Europe, I went and visited my father. And he just said to me, took away your spectacle, that I look at you. And he looked at me. I looked at him. He was my father. I was his son. And now he said, now I realize that so I am with God. He is my father, I am his son. So for him, it was still an experience, a fresh discovery. But anyway, he said that by this charity, they are transforming the country. And now they came just during a solitude to cultivate, to work, and so on. And several hundred people came, families and so on, just to live near them. Because when they hear that in this community, European, African white and black are living in the same way in the same at the same table the same dormitories and so on they are so surprised you see that this mere testimony of charity attracts them and they say we just want to live near you you see and to work for you we know you are on a trip you just come you have probably no many things to give us but you don't want to just want to be loved you know that's exactly what the ancient monk did in the Middle Ages you see

[35:07]

Sometimes we think they were missionaries going and preaching everywhere. No, they gave the testimony and example of charity. And he said, and there's new people who come to hear about that, just come to verify, to see if it is true that this charity exists. They ask to the people and say, where are the monks? And the natives say, you mean the men of God? They have spontaneously found again, you see, this designation, men of God, to designate the monks. because they are the witness of charity in this country. That was, you see, monastic apostolate. And this view of the history of monastic apostolate, of monastic works, makes us remember the absolute value illustrates for us the absolute value of monastic life in itself.

[36:08]

As another example I could quote, for example, in the ecumenical field, I was in Scotland and there is a new foundation there by an Irish monastery. Scotland is, as you know, a quite presbyterian country and the abbot is an Irish man, typical Irish, traditional, very nice, extremely good. He does not received a great theological training. And so, he was elected as the president of the committee of the Niger Superiors of Scotland. So, they gather sometimes, they have meetings, and everything is going pretty good. They have no big problems. So, one day, he said, we have nothing to say. Perhaps you could call, invite some of our separated prisoners, and so we could speak with them, tell them what is religious life, hear what they think about, and so on. And so they did, they tried, they sent a few invitations, and the response was extremely favorable.

[37:14]

Many, many Presbyterian ministers came, and that was the beginning, you see, of a great ecumenical movement, you see. And of course now this abbot is a little bit... because he has to learn. He's not a theologian at all. And I belong by an hour of the Holy Office to a Catholic conference for ecumenical problems. So I wanted to invite him to the next session. It was supposed to be in England. In fact, he had been surprised because it comes to me at the same time as the Council. So I wanted to invite him to go there. He first said yes, but before I left, he left. He said, no, Father, that does not belong to our life. We are monks, we have to stay at home, and so on. So I said, all right, I admire that, you see. But in fact, he is now the head of a Greek ecumenical movement just by the example of their life.

[38:16]

And all this... People from Edinburgh and elsewhere come just to see as tourists this monastery. They don't see much, you know, in a travesty. But the mere fact that they know that that exists, you see, has changed the atmosphere. And one of the results of this changing of mentality has been the visit this last spring of the moderator of the Scottish Church to the Holy Father. That's all the importance, you know, the influence which just a monastic life may have in a country. without doing anything actively. And this example from history, or from contemporary history, shows us that a monastic apostolate will remain an apostolate in the measure itself in which it will be monastic. What makes the true apostle? It's good for us to remember precisely

[39:16]

Now, where we have celebrated the 16th centenary of St. Martin, who, you know, founded in 361, the monastery of Liggy, and then become Archbishop of Two. And on occasion of this centenary, the Holy Father sent to the Archbishop of Two a very beautiful letter. Perhaps we saw it. I tried to give you a translation of a passage of the Pope's letters, in which he stressed the necessity of monastic life among the present urgences of the apostolic work of the Church. He said, if St. Martin was the zealous bishop and shepherd whom it is fitting to imitate by the practice of charity, he was also, and first of all, One may even say that he was only such a prodigious man of affection because he was before all a man of prayer.

[40:23]

And under this aspect, he has likewise a great lesson to give to the Christendom of today. He searched for solitude and for union with God. I searched for solitude and for union with God. This giant of the apostolate dwelt in continual prayer. d'unquam animum aberratione laxabat. According to the expression present in the liturgy, the case of St. Martin, expression of his biographer, Suplicius Severs, who adds that, when raised to the episcope, the servant of God, remained as he had been before and bore the dignity of bishop without, for all that, abandoning the monk's way of life and virtue. was not his principal means of evangelization to found churches and monasteries everywhere?

[41:26]

And it is thus that, thanks to him, monarchism was introduced everywhere in France. Bringing to light this aspect of the great converter's activity will recall to the sons of these privileged privileged land, his poor friend. The immense, but that's true for everyone, the immense benefits that the monks have brought to their country. It will attract their attention, easily distracted today by the agitated reason of modern life, to the grandeur and beauty of the monastic life. It will invite them to place this form of life and the grace of the religious vocation in general higher in their esteem. Besides, we ourselves have wished to give a sort of public testimony of the value which the Church attaches to the monastic institution by our recent visits to the Abbey of Grotta Ferrata, to the Benedictine Monastery of Subiaco, and to the General Mother House of the Trappists at the gates of Rome.

[42:34]

The example of Saint Martin, confirmed by the experience of centuries, shows how much is accomplished by cloistered monasteries for the uplift of Christian society. And what an efficacious contribution they make to the church's apostolate. If Saint Martin was the efficacious apostle we know him to have been, the liturgy goes so far as to call him par apostolist, the equal of the apostle. It is not because he left his solitude and his silence, but because Painfully rested from that silence and that solitude, he presented himself to man as interiorly crucified, profoundly turned between his desire for God alone, his search for solitude, his need for silence, on the one hand, and the demands of that charity, which, on the other hand, inclined him to relieve the physical, moral, and spiritual miseries of his contemporaries.

[43:39]

That was the words of the Holy Father. What makes the genuine apostle is this sort of tension of which speaks here the Holy Father, you see? Rest in a profound tone. This tension of a soul entirely oriented towards God, Alan, and at the same time deeply occupied with all the clamors of human misery. That's why, when I spoke at the first talk of solitude, that does not mean that we have to be without interest for the problems of the church and of the world. And I saw that the Reverend Father mentioned Cuba and so on, you know, Cuba and so on, all those problems, you see. And now, chiefly, the economic problem. We have to be universal, open to that. within our solitude.

[44:42]

And as I already mentioned, that doesn't mean that we have to be aware of all the details of daily politics, but to be really interested and of the great problems of our time. And in fact, it is from this tension that prayer is used, real prayer. not intermittent words of prayer, but living prayer and permanent appeal. The apostle is not he who speaks the word, but he who is the word, who exists in a dialogue with God, who lives this relation between man and God, and this meeting between himself and the creature. It is the very intensity of this life, the tension of this existence, the fullness of this manner of being that make the true witnesses of God, the confessors of the faith, those who manifest to men the presence, the greatness, and the tenderness of God.

[46:00]

It is not what he says that constitutes the apostle's message. Nor is it what he does that exerts an influence, except in the exact measure that his deeds and his words express what he is. He does not really operate, he does not efficaciously bear witness unless he is with God, unless he is a man of God, unless by constant prayer he is in habitual conversation with God. unless he is the permanent witness of spiritual realities, unless interiorly he is completely polarized by God. Then his presence among men is sufficient, and his very silence becomes eloquent. His solitude attracts men. His prayer, far from being troubled by them, drowses them.

[47:04]

towards the knowledge and love of the Lord. In an era when the perfection of propaganda techniques confers a potent materially verifiable verifiable efficacy on the active members of political parties, religious sects, so many diverse human groups, the Christian apostle runs the risk. because he is sometimes improvised with this technical means of considering himself wronged and either of despairing before the easy victory of the propagandist, or else of exalting himself in an endeavor to imitate them in the acquisition of this human means of influence and action. without denying in the least that it is useful and urgent that some people in the church adopt the best of these new techniques in order to propagate the gospel.

[48:18]

We must affirm with faith that the gospel message draws its power of persuasion only from Christ, and that this power has influence over men only inasmuch as the apostle is one with Christ. permeable to his action, transfigured by his holiness, illumined by his splendor, ardent with his love for men, animated by his spirit, radiant with his grace. If he is thus the man of Christ, the apostle, even stripped of every human means, is by that fact alone a voice crying out, Among men, the presence of the invisible God, the message of the eternal. So was Saint Martin.

[49:21]

Witness of the world because eager for silence. Missionary of the gospel because a lover of solitude. Apostle of Christ. because a man of prayer. Tonight, it is not so much a charism like yesterday, the Reverend Father spoke of Simon, because I told him. I was told yesterday, too. Yesterday, what was it about? Study. Study. Nobody knew. Oh, yes, yes, yes. It was already around before. Well... A last story for the last time.

[50:26]

In relation with what we were saying this morning... monastic apostolate and St. Martin of Tours. You know the story of, it was told to me by Father Alban of St. John's, Collegeville, when he was assisting the Bishop of St. Claude at the burial of Abbot Alcuin. And Alcuin, who was Abbot of St. John's, his patron was St. Martin of Tours, when Alcuin was Abbot of St. Martin. And so, the During the Mass, the bishop made a long polygyric of Abbot Alcorine, and he praised the way he was a perfect model of servants of all the monastic vows, of obedience, then he went and he commended words of poverty, of chastity. And then he said, and again, there is also this... particular vow that the Benedictines do, they'll go off, off, off, and then for the whole reason, steal it.

[51:41]

So he went down, commented, and then, but yes, he was a little deaf, so he just heard the end, he said, I have the vow of apostolic activity. And then during you were going to the signature, and Brother Holborn said, Excellency, it was stability. And he said, oh, no matter, because his patron was Alcuin of Towers. LAUGHTER Well, tonight, let's speak of silence. We get different definitions of the monk. The monk is a sultry, he's a little side, he's a sinner, and he's a silent man. But here again, if I speak of that, it's not to exhort you to practice silence.

[52:46]

I assume you do. But to remind you you the reasons why you do. As I said for confession, the better we know our motive, our reasons of doing something, the more we do it humanly. We act with knowledge, with knowledge and further with conviction. And that's why I think it's good to remember that we must remain of silence in I could go to begin two definitions given of the Benedictine monks. I received one for a friend from an American paper called Time, and there were, perhaps you saw it, there was a definition of the monk. A monk is a cleric who is not a cleric, who takes vows of religion that binds him to live and serve in one monastic community until his death.

[53:49]

It is not false, but it is not the specific difference which makes the mark. The mark has not to be defined according to a certain institution, but according to his end. Then he describes the way of life as a role benedictines do so and so. And then the last word is observe silence after the last service of the day, complain. So I know there is a man who wrote that seriously. And I think Father Bouyer, in his always paradoxical and just a little bit prophetic way, said or wrote somewhere that a Benedictine is a man who keeps silence when he does not lie to speak. I think that must be much more You see, our conviction of the necessity of silence and of the significance also of the part of speaking there is in our human life.

[54:58]

And to begin, we could speak first about what I could call silence and unity. This unity of life of which we spoke just at the beginning of this retreat. interior unity. And there is a very subjective short sermon of St. Bernard, The Diversist Andre Pen, which I read recently, just before coming here, so I just summed it up and I checked your hand, not in your lap, but anyway. In which he speaks of the necessity in which we are of speaking as a sign of our misery, our indigency. We need words, he says, not only to speak to each other, but to speak to ourselves.

[56:00]

Words are a necessary instrument for the passage between what we feel and think the other awareness of this feeling and thought in ourselves. And for the passage between what we feel and think and the communication of them to others and to God. And he says, we have to speak to ourselves of God. As in the Bible, we find examples. And he quotes different. songs in which the psalmist speaks to his soul. He exhorts his soul, anima mea, to praise the Lord. Quare tristes anima mea. Benedict anima mea domino. It's got some difference to say that we have to speak to ourselves in order to express

[57:13]

our different attitudes towards God. We need to speak to ourselves as to another. And what's the reason of this fact? It's on account of our division, our state of division, division between each other and division within ourselves. That's a sign of our eschatological condition, of this interim in which we are. We are not yet united perfectly with the other, and not yet united perfectly within ourselves. And in this provisional condition of

[58:14]

In complete eschatology, we need this mediation of words. But this necessity will finish, come to an end, when charity of Christ, the unique mediator, will have made one of all of us, and of each of us, this charity, this transparency, this perfect communication, participation in the same life of God in Christ, of which we spoke when dealing with spiritual French. Unus Christus erit, unus Christus widens dem. When we shall be perfectly united to those who are perfectly one, then there will be no other necessity but the world himself.

[59:15]

In the world, in the unique image, we shall share the perfect life of the Trinity. Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit. And I'm glad to see that you worship the Trinity of Hubble. I had also one image in my cell. I guess you have in all the cells. What is the chance? I suppose it has already been explained to you. It contains a full treatise of theology, you know? This way of showing the Trinity. You see immediately that it is a treaty that it appeared to Abraham at Mambrick, when it became Pater Fidei Nostrum, because he believed. And so that's a biblical scene. And you see that in this case, God appears as a pilgrim. When it comes on this earth, you see, that's why they all, they were pilgrims, and Abraham gave them hospitality as pilgrims, and they are signified with the baculum, very green, you see, on the road, on the way.

[60:28]

And that was the meal, the hospitality Abraham prepared for them. But of course, it's the symbol of Eucharist and of the eternal banquet of heaven. And, you see, there are three. And you see, you know, the persons of the Trinity are not only three, but there is another between them. There is the first, the second, and the third person. And that perfectly signifies, you see, there is the first. The Father looks at the image, you know, and produces the verb. And for me, Proceeds the spirit. There is an order. They are not exactly indifferent. They look at itself. And the spirit is looking towards us. He looks at the creature. Because he is the son. And it is through him that the gift of the father through the son comes to us.

[61:33]

And through him that we have to go back to the father through the son. And nevertheless he looks at us. But you know, he is oriented. So the internal life of the Trinity, in the same time that it is communicated to us, is incessant. That was what the Greek fathers called the perichoresis, this sort of coreo, this sort of internal dance, coreo, or circumincessio, this reciprocal presence, which is signified by this order from the person. The spirit is also, you see, one of which we see the most clearly, the finger, because he is the finger of God. Extra Dei to Digitus, as we sing in the hymn, you know, of the Pentecost, a long traditional theme on which I wrote the essay in the last issue of worship for the Pentecost and the finger of God.

[62:34]

And that's very well explained, you see. And you see, there is equality between the person No one is superior, they are at the same level, you see. But there is an order, you see. The Father is not superior to the other, but is a principle from which life comes to the Son, to the Spirit, and to us, you see. And as, because they are equal, they are represented exactly in the same way, you see. But as they are, as we saw, also different, you know, the difference is expressed by the difference of color, you see. same habit but different color but to express at the maximum the unity of and the difference and their work is common they are all the end you see in the center all collaborating to all the works at extra and i think it is within this internal life of god that we shall be introduced in the light of the revelation

[63:41]

But already, we share in this internal life, in this internal silence of God, by our silence. In heaven, the words will not be necessary anymore. That will be the eternal silence of God, in God. what we have to anticipate owing to recollection. All the monastic values are not only ascetic means of mortifying ourselves, but have always a positive significance, which is always an eschatological, to orient us. And not only to orient, but already to begin, to anticipate and to participate into the perfectly. And in this case, our silence must be for us a real means of being introduced in this interior silence of God.

[64:53]

And this first approach on silence and unity could be summed up by this wonderful sentence of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, the love of silence leads to the silence of love, which is the silence of God, the silence in God, the silence of this reciprocal, continuous knowledge and love of the person between themselves in which we already share and in which we shall be perfectly introduced. Now, secondly, silence and solitude. As there is an enclosure to protect the solitude of the community, either a wall, or a forest, or in the lack of habitation, or the sea, cold day and so forth.

[66:01]

So there is an enclosure to protect each one within the community. And this enclosure is silence. It is a protection, a protecting wall. Saint Gregory calls it murus silenci, which protects, he says, the city of our soul. That means our interior life. And this is why the more a life is xenobitical, The more silence is necessary. In the desert, in an hermitage alone, there is nobody to speak with or to be spoken by. And therefore, the law of silence is a sort of physical necessity. And so there is no temptation, except to speak too much to oneself, but...

[67:11]

The one who was preaching in his cell, as if there was a congregation. But at all, the observance of Thailand is easier. That's why in the ancient monastic literature, it's rarely insisted on it, because it was a matter of fact of a physical necessity. But in the community, there are many occasions and many temptations, therefore. And the role of silence is intended to protect us. That's why we have to resist the temptations of speaking without reason. We have to respect the silence of others. And this is a very high and refined form of charity. And it is even also an obligation of justice, because our brethren are behind to find in the community this silence they came to find.

[68:24]

And sometimes we think that Charité suggests us to have a little chat, just a little joke and so on, this mother seems to be a little alone, but sometimes he doesn't want, you know. That is in his state of recollection. And we think that charity consists in distracting him. So we have to respect his silence, his recollection. He has a strict right to that. And that may be also a point of examination of conscience. How part did I respect the silence of my brother? And of this consideration of silence as a means and tradition of solitude, spiritual solitude, this solitude of cordis, I was reading at the first talk, I just bring two witnesses. In the life of St. Bernard, Vita Prima, 135, Widow of St. Cherry, says that St. Bernard, solitude in and cordis, cibi efficiens, ubiqui solus erat.

[69:33]

So, owing to this solitude of heart, which he had built up to himself, to be efficient, ubiquit everywhere he was alone. And of the monks, all the monks of Clairvaux, in this first generation, St. Bernardi says, There was a large community, but all were solitary. And he insists, showing that Each one who is alone wins God or wins to silence. Each one enjoys the solitude of courtes. And this mutual silence was a sign of charity. Charity in order or order in charity. What William of St. Terry calls caritas ordinat. In our spontaneous charity,

[70:38]

order must be introduced and safeguarded by the regulations of the rule, of the constitutions, of the customs, of the statements of the superior. That's caritas ordinata, which is a form and the fruit of silence. And in the Vita Erlueni, the life of Erluene, founder of Bay of Beck, Gilbert Crispin writes, solitarius in frequencia hominum. He was. He was a solitary even in multitude of men, owing to what he calls quies in claustro silentium cordis meditatio et oratio. And this enumeration of Gilbert Crispin is quite in accordance with the three essential degrees of of recollection of the quies, the spiritual rest, of the Ezekiah, which were indicated by the apophtagmas quoted by Thomas Merton, namely, fuge, tache, quies, fuge, that's solitude.

[71:57]

Tache, that eternal recollection, quies, that union with God. And in the Middle Ages, they used to... And this silence is essential to monasticity. It is not only a means of asceticism, among others. It belongs to the definition itself of the monk as a solitary. It belongs to the essence of monastic life. Of course, you understand, I don't speak here of an absolute silence. But a certain silence and a controlled silence, a usual silence, is essential to monastics.

[73:03]

Since a monk is made to remain united with God, it is contrary to the professional conscience and duty of the monk to disperse himself in speaking without reason. Other Christians or active religious don't need so much silence to be what they have to be. Silence is more or less for them a means of mortification, of refraining from speaking, and things of the tongue, and so on. A means of doing their work quietly without losing time, and so on. And even in the offices, in the business night, often you see written silence, no useless words. Silence is also required by the means of saving time and so on, keeping order in business and so on.

[74:18]

But for monks it's much more than that. It's an essential means to reach the end itself of the vocation. And this leads us to a third and last point. and prayer. To be able to speak is a great gift of God. Only men speak. Animals can't speak. Speaking belongs to our dignity. Man is an animal who speaks. And as Saint Bernard said, we need to speak to others and even to ourselves. And the normal way to make use of our faculty of speaking would be to speak.

[75:24]

And the normal way to practice charity with others, with this faculty of speaking, would be to speak by charity. Thus, the fact of refraining from speaking cannot be an end in itself, can't be justified in itself. Silence is not an absolute value. But if we refrain from speaking to men, it is just in order to speak to God. As we said about manual labor, This work, humble work, is just silent work, or then to prayer. Otherwise, it would be better for us to go an apostolic work, if that would not to favor a higher activity, which is contemplative prayer. In the same way, if we don't refrain from speaking

[76:35]

men in order to speak to God, it would be better to remain in the word and to speak by charity, to do an apostolic work with our tongue. The only justification of silence as a strict observance for monks is to lead to contemplative prayer, to speak to God. And furthermore, the fact of refraining from words of the silence of words, is intended to favor the silence of thoughts, of these cogitationes, of whom spoke so often, and the other monastic or something, to favor this interior unity in which we shall find God, be united with God, provided we are first unified in ourselves.

[77:38]

That was St. Bernard called silencie quies. Silence is a means and a fruit of simplicity of heart. A means and a fruit of simplification. Our conversation with God becomes always more a simple, a silent, a quiet consent to God. participation in the consent of each of the persons of the Trinity to the others silence is a way for us I have already said to enter in the interior life of Trinity and in fact we see that the most silent persons in the New Testament are the most contemplative Mary, we have a lesson of that in the bravery, I think, on the feast of, we have it in July 9th, but we have it in other, but it's a common place of spiritual literature in the Middle Ages to show that Mary spoke rarely to men because she was always with God, concern about omnia, conference in Cardiff.

[79:07]

And St. Joseph, this, important and sympathetic person than Joseph the worker, the carpenter. What a silent man, what an humble man. Probably he had many occasions of speaking. I think the carpenter is always very attractive for children, at least in Europe. See, probably, I think, in the ancient now, everything is mechanized and so, but the man who... creating something, you see, with a piece of wood, he made a wheel, he made a door, a chair. And children always like to go and see what makes happen. That must have happened in that direction. And how many questions he had to answer, I probably did. But no word of him is related in the gospel. The father of the word, Internet, is a great silent man. because he is a great contemplative.

[80:11]

And so every contemplative has to be a silent man. And that's true in all the religions, all the ways of contemplation. There is an Arabic proverb saying, who has seen God is mute. And of course for us, in our Christian religion, this praying in silence is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And we must pray. in order to receive it. But we must also try to prepare for it. And here is the meaning and justification of silence as an observance, as a means of mortification. That's the aspect on which it's usually very much insisted, and legitimately. And that's why I don't insist on this aspect.

[81:16]

Once more, I just mentioned that St. Bernard compares that to fasting. So I just mentioned what? What will be the result of this? of God and of this effort of ourselves. That will be that we shall hear the voice of God in us. The voice of God in us as a sign of the presence of God in us. St. Bernard, again, in Epistle 107, No. 13, says, We devote thee to this voice of God. You see, we have to keep silence in order to listen.

[82:36]

Fugie cura exteriorum. Make silence outside in order to see. To hear within. I remember the formula of Blake, you know, he was speaking not too much of silence, of noise, but of light, when he says black out, but black inside. Here we have Daphne. To prepare the oris interiorum, and that fuge curam in exteriorem. Ut expedite, expedito, to be free, et vacante interno sensu, dicas et tu com Samuele, loquere domine, quia audit servus tuus. We have to ask the Lord to speak in us. After we are silenced. Ec vox non sonnet in foro, sed That's the secret voice of God in us.

[83:45]

And St. Bernard often also mentions, quotes, a word which I just was thinking of and now escapes me. He says, yes, this is what efficacy of the word of God in us. And often St. Bernard insists on the importance of healing, which is bound to the mystery of faith. The faith consists first in healing the message. And we have to listen to the voice of God speaking to us in the church. by the hierarchy, and speaking to us in the monastery by the superior, and speaking to us in ourselves by the inferior voice.

[84:56]

In each case, regarding the hierarchy, the superior, the interior voice, it is for us a matter of docility, of humility, of obedience. And Bernard says, auditus ad meritum, visus ad premium. To see will be our reward. We shall see in the vision. But now, for our merit, we have to hear auditus, hearing and keeping silence in order to hear. That belongs to this interim. this provisional state of expectation in which we are. But already that prepares us to see. And so to conclude you see that silence is a form of hope, a form of the desire of God.

[86:01]

In silencio expe erit fortitudo vestra, says St. Bernhard quoting the scripture. Good to wait the salvation of God in silence. Not yet wait and see, but wait in order to see. Silence in the vision of God will be our happiness in the glory. But in Theroun, here below, silence in the union with God may and must become our strength, fortitude nostra, and our joy.

[87:00]

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