...week and the tree to connect it with it. We have to see how it works out. It's the silence point. We had this meeting about it on Saturday and we didn't come down as you realize to the little rules and norms that were proposed in this paper. Now, that is simply because it was good, I think, an opportunity was there to react to the various points which preceded these practical norms. I think one could see there that there was on the part of the community, and I hope I interpret it in the right way, and one way a feeling that made this whole thing could be placed in a more concrete context, maybe a little preamble, so on, with the general principles of the renewal of religious

[01:19]

the various suggestions of the council. And on the other hand it might be more take on a certain character of greater practical urgency. That is of course would be a matter of later discussions that we can It's also clear that it has great advantages for us to be all together when these things are being discussed, but we see what works best. But I would regret our not being able to set these concrete take these concrete norms, proposals for this week, I would regret if the general spirit of silence and also the practice of silence would suffer from that.

[02:25]

So I think the only thing we can do at the moment just to stick, or as Father Martin says, try the rules that we have set that are existing concerning silence. That will be the best, you know, for this week, you all realize that the Holy Week is a time of intensified activity and influx of guests and all these things, things that might disturb, you know, the spirit of silence. I think we should really make a special effort, especially in the house, for example, to keep the silence in the West Building that you always had. agreed upon at least in the open places. The other question is, of course, the cells. They also would say that the talking in the cells, especially during the retreat, should be limited to a minimum.

[03:30]

Conversations should be kind of also limited to what is necessary in the spiritual sense. And also the other thing, for example, any contact, and of course it's necessary, we all agree on that during the day, the necessary contacts have to be made, conversations concerning the work to be done. And again, that we follow there the old rule that one marks, you know, a little of this. We have forgotten that now. I must say I've myself too been very lax in these things to do that a little in corners and areas apart which are not so immediately accessible to the public. You realize that we have guests and the guests are being told that the other side of the door when they pass through the

[04:39]

parlor and there is that holy line of the enclosure that radically on the other side silence should be kept. Of course it's devastating when a kind of group of guests is shepherded into the refectory and the first thing they see is people talking in the mail room. You see it looks a little rather strange. So it's necessary, therefore, for us as a community and also for our relation to the guests, their edification, it's necessary that we stick to these rules and are very careful. I think the main thing is a kind of a general attitude. It isn't so much, you know, this regulation and that regulation, but just that everybody That's also the whole meaning of these various points that we read on Saturday.

[05:45]

To shift the accent to the inner attitude and have that in mind and remember it in the practice of the exterior silence. The main thing is the interior silence. It's that inner, you know, that inner fear of the Lord, you know, which is there, and the right sense, you know, which makes us, as the points there, express, listen to what is the wind of God for me now. And, of course, it's terribly important then for everybody when he makes that kind of shift from the interior silence to the exterior. silence that he really asks himself, you know, makes a little stop, just for a moment, you know. Is this now the will of God for me as well?

[06:48]

The fact that I speak is also what I say. That is sometimes even more important. So I just wanted to ask you for your cooperation in this sense. It would be so wonderful if we could make this Holy Week a real community experience. And I will say that I have asked Father Bernard to come and urged him to come here during this time just for that reason, because I think that he is a man who will able, you know, also to give, to radiate, to give to us a certain help, you know, just in this direction of entering as a group, as a community, in this Solemnita, Solemnitatum, as St. Leo the Great so beautifully expressed it, the solenity of the Passion of Christ, you know, that

[07:56]

That is the real spirit. And, of course, you realize silence is a tremendous, tremendous help in that way to keep us concentrated on the one thing necessary during these times. And we know, and we do it during this week, we know absolutely well that everybody of our brothers who keeps the silence does it. out of charity for the whole community. And always with this idea, for heaven's sake, in these days of the retreat, give the Holy Spirit a chance. Give room to the Holy Spirit. And therefore, don't clutter it up with all kinds of unnecessary talking. That's, of course, all the... great, you know what, so let us help one another, and everybody who keeps the silence, every brother who sees it, is edified by it, thanks him interiorly for it, and is carried in that way by the love of that brother, expressed in silence.

[09:16]

Father John, I will implement... kind of crystallizes in that vis-à-vis from eye to eye or from eye to thou but eye in eye is that which is so clear and wonderful in this Easter octave I had a great longing and plans you know to maybe speak a little about contemplation and contemplative life during these days. Now, already several days have been lost for that purpose, but still we might still try to do it. You realize that the difficulty with the word

[10:22]

contemplative life today is that in the original kind of setup the contemplative life was a stage, a last stage of perfection, of being fixed in the contemplation of of the face of God and the being fixed in the table light. See, that was as in Mount Ethos, where this whole movement, the monastic movement there, not only there, but also in other places, just lives in the glory of the table light. And so we have come then in the course of time, we have come to consider contemplation, the act of an ultimate contemplation as something that first of all can be achieved and can be reached only by a very severe

[11:48]

abrenunciation renouncement of the world and of the body of all the things that for some people even I mean the good things of the world all that in the end becomes a distraction and then this idea of contemplation is so I can say rarified I mean it's become so unique and rare, that it really is not reached, especially in our modern world and I think in our more Nordic atmosphere and climate, this kind of life also may be because of the temperament of the people who live in a which is ex-climate, which is exposed, where it changes from the heat to the cold, from the summer to the winter, from all going through all the phases, you know, of the year and have to struggle along and are therefore much more active in their whole relation to the world.

[13:16]

And maybe it is. And I think we all feel that. We speak today, for example, we would speak about Mount Saviour this month here as a contemplative community. We don't understand. We are not contemplatives. I think everybody of us realizes that. We are not contemplatives as Abbot Moses, you know, You know, I mean, just could stand, you know, from the evening and seeing the sun setting, you see, until it rises in the morning, you see, in this, I cannot say, in an immobile ecstasy in something that in which he, you say, leaves behind the body and everything. That is, we are not of that caliber, and I think the general climate of the community is not of that caliber.

[14:27]

We, therefore, the word contemplative has to be, means really something different in our days than it used to mean. We speak about contemplative, we a difference from the active life. But this difference is a difference which in some way is subtle, you see. It is not something which means a difference between Somebody who is lukewarm or makes compromises on one side and somebody who absolutely goes to the last perfection on the other side. I don't think one can speak about it. Therefore, the word contemplative for us has a new meaning. I don't say it has no meaning.

[15:28]

It certainly has one. But we kind of have to find it. And just in the living the Easter octave and thinking of the Easter octave, now here this Easter octave is evidently dominated by all the essential concepts of what we would call contemplative life. It is dominated by, for example, the concept of seeing the Lord. They saw him, they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. Then they received the water of wisdom. aqua subcientia potare delus, he gave them to drink the waters of wisdom.

[16:32]

Wisdom is one of these concepts that certainly belong to this whole realm that we consider, that we would consider as belonging to the contemplative life. Then there is the other word which is so outstanding, I mean also, and significant, significant for the contemplative lives, the word peace. Peace be to you. It's then the other. If you go through the concepts that are constantly put before us during this Easter octave, you will see it. You will see it in every direction. For example, the concept of liberty. libertas, as we have today in that beautiful oration. Perfect liberty. This concept of perfect liberty is one of these typical, I would say, concepts belonging to the contemplative into that category, or however I call it, the contemplative life.

[17:43]

It's an essential part of it. Then you have others. You have, for example, the... The whole, the Eucharist is so much in the four during this week, therefore the meal, again, you know, the meal is in itself something which belongs into the realm of the contemplative life. Why? Because the meal is communion. Yet this contemplative life, necessarily, if it is peace, it must be carried us. We died with Christ. Christ died for us so that we may not live for ourselves but that we may live for him who died for us. Therefore that is, that's the liberty and that's the unity and the communion which is so evident, therefore, universality, for example.

[18:45]

It's another concept which belongs into this general realm of the contemplative life. And then, of course, the whole element of song. Confessio, confitevini domino, coniam bonus, for he is good, and his mercy lasts forever. That is typical response, to say, to the contemplative life as it is lived as it is before us in the inner life of God, the Holy Trinity. Then we have others, for example, the concept of Reino, Pasillae, a kingdom. It's another one that belongs, you know, to this whole. Well, again, of the contemplative life. Come, you, blessed of my father, because, and receive the kingdom.

[19:48]

Receive the kingdom. It's typical, again, to belong to the throne. And if we then come down to it, you know, we find, of course, this kind of, maybe today, kind of surprising discovery of whom and to whom are all these things said. They are said to every Christian. And they are said in this week, in this octave, they are said to the neophytes. That means to the ones who just, through baptism, dying with Christ, have entered into the eight days as the the picture and symbol of that one day of their salvation. This is the day the Lord has made, and we seek that during the offering every day.

[20:47]

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