.Three committee members travelled to New Norcia on 12 September and spent the day in the Archives section endeavouring to compile a list of all oblates affiliated to NN. With the able assistance of Archivist Wendy McKinley, a total of 142 oblates, past and present were recorded. It was apparent that the date of death of very few oblates had been communicated to the Abbey. Thus although we were able to gather details of oblation dates, this was the only information available to us. We would therefore strongly recommend that oblates take steps to avoid this situation occurring with themselves and it has been suggested that perhaps we could all put our oblation certificates in with our Wills, with suitable advice regarding its despatch to New Norcia in the event of demise. We have now set up a data-base to record oblate details and request information of oblation dates (and date of death if known, of oblate friends and acquaintances), to be forwarded to the editor so that they can be recorded.

Whilst at New Norcia, we were able to get a copy from the Archives, of a news item recorded in the Abbey newsletter ‘Pax’ covering the formation of St. Gregory’s Chapter, 30 September, 1958. We have enclosed a photocopy of the extract in this newsletter for the interest of all our oblates.

Our Secretary, Adrienne Byrne, represented the Chapter at the recent Celebration for the International Year of Volunteers 2001, staged by the Archdiocese of Perth at Aquinas College on 9 September. She was presented with a very attractive certificate detailing the oblates contribution with thanks.

Oblates will be pleased to know that Fr. Anscar was able to get down to New Norcia to be present at the reunion celebrations for the Benedictine Sisters, which have been detailed later on in this newsletter.

During our October meeting Don Morris was received as an oblate novice. Congratulations to you Don and happy studying! We now have three novices proceeding towards full oblation.

Also during our October meeting we welcomed Sebastian Ang who had jetted in from Brunei to be with us, and then on to New Norcia to spend a few days there. Sebastian and another enquirer, Ida Pereira from Singapore have both commenced a correspondence course with us by e-mail, covering Benedictine topics drawn from our novice manuals and hope to be received as novices at our annual retreat next May.

There is a double life in us – that coming from our parents and that coming from our adoption. St. Thomas Aquinas shows how these two lives run parallel. All that is necessary for our natural life being also necessary for our supernatural life. Birth or baptism, development or confirmation, food or the Holy Eucharist. But no matter how strong or how perfect the constitution, how good the food, there is still one thing we cannot live without – the atmosphere.

If for the natural life we need to breathe the air, for the supernatural life we need an atmosphere of prayer. Just as we require to breathe pure air every moment, so our whole lives ought to be prayer. Our Lord does not say you must be ever receiving the sacraments, ever partaking of the Holy Eucharist, but He does say you must ever be praying – ‘pray without ceasing’. Once you cease praying, the supernatural life ceases.

It is so important to understand the essence of prayer – it lies in our being creatures. The essence of the creature is dependence on the Creator. Prayer is saying, ‘I can’t live without You, pray without You’. Consequently, prayer is most glorious to God. A man who says ‘I have no need of your prayers’ is expressing the absolute contrary spirit to prayer. St. Paul says ‘have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving let your requests be known to God’ (Phil 4:6). Order requires that the creature recognise his dependence on God by telling Him his wants. What we do not tell Him, God treats as if He didn’t know. He does, but He makes no use of it.

When we pray we give God an opportunity of giving. He loves that. Individual prayer is an obligation, it is humble. It is of extreme importance to realise that individual prayer is making known our wants, joys, sorrows, troubles, all that we have at heart, as ‘darling children in God’s sight’. Every time we tell God our troubles, that is a prayer. When, instead, we tell it to others, it weakens. The Psalms are a perfect model of prayer and yet David is always telling God of his difficulties. Get into the habit of taking God into your confidence. If you do, you will feel such joy and trust that you will never need to open your heart to creatures again.

If you have got into trouble and you tell one of the Sisters, you will probably come away discouraged and in bitterness of heart, with a whole hive of little sins and much weaker than at first. But if, instead of that, you get alone with God and tell Him all about it in a very homely way – ‘O my God, just see what has happened…..etc.’ a great joy is given to you for the confidence you have given to God. In return for it, you get joy, peace and strength. I have known a whole community transformed by taking up that habit. The talking to others is like taking the lid off the heart – all the perfume of prayer evaporates.

Extraordinary examples of answers to prayers for even material benefits proves how pleasing this confidence is to God. God wants us to live in dependence on Him and the great evil of the present day is that we don’t want God. He wants us to say – ‘I can’t think, pray, do anything without You’. That is what God likes. Why? Because it is true, and in order. The essential relation between God and ourselves is that we are dependent and He, independent.

What does our Lord mean by ‘praying in His Name’? It is to place ourselves in spirit in His place before the Eternal Father and ask Him to do for us, as though He were doing it for His Son. It is like saying to Him – ‘Eternal Father, Your Son has done everything You commanded, even to shedding the last drop of His Blood. He has accomplished Your Will in every iota.

He said: Whatever you do unto the least of My little ones, you do it unto Me. Well now, what you do to me, You are doing to Your Divine Son’. God can refuse nothing to such a prayer. If He did, He would be refusing His Son. We must ask as having the right. We give the Eternal Father an opportunity to repay His Son for having refused Him nothing. The Church always prays through Jesus Christ.

Two recommendations are the fruit of what I have been saying:

· Talk of your troubles to God rather than to creatures.

· Have immense confidence in prayer through Jesus Christ.

God treats us as we treat Him. If we deal with Him in an arrogant/superior manner, He will deal with us similarly. If we approach Him as little children, He will deal with us correspondingly. All paternity, in heaven and on earth comes from God. All affection of mothers and fathers is a drop from the heart of God. God places our father and mother beside us in our exile to be a shadow of Him.

He loves to give, but He wishes us to ask. He makes us wait in order that we may pray. Individual prayer is the very breath of our life and the simpler, the more unsophisticated, the better. There must be no verbosity. The prayer of philosophers ought to dazzle the Eternal Father! But the Our Father, composed in such simple words is the model of all prayer. Be like little children, like ‘darling children’. Treat Him as a loving father and He’ll be a loving Father. He bends down to the smallest things and is as interested in the prayer of a little child for a trifling favour, as in that of the sovereign who commands to Him his kingdom with all its needs.

Past pupils of the Aboriginal schools at New Norcia, together with the Benedictine Community, hosted a very important reunion on Saturday 20 October. Special guests at the reunion were six of the Benedictine Sisters who staffed St. Joseph’s School for Aboriginal girls, which operated at New Norcia from 1910 – 1973. Three of the sisters travelled from Spain, one from America, one from NSW and the other from Kalumbaru in the Kimberleys.

The sisters visit was made possible with most of the expenses being funded by a past pupil, May Taylor, who lives in New Norcia and works at the monastery. ‘I was left a house at Mogumber which I sold and with the proceeds from the sale of the house, I was able to fund the sisters visit’, she said.

The visiting sisters are all members of the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of New Norcia, a diocesan congregation now merged with the Benedictine Missionary Sisters of Tutzing in Madrid.

Sr. Francis Pardo (then 16) and Sr. Pilo Catalan (then 17) and who was the niece of the third Abbot of NN arrived in October 1933. Sr. Teresa Gonzales (then 22) arrived November 1948, Sr. Carmen Ruiz (then 26) with Sr. Visitacion Cidad arrived in March 1950 and Sr. Veronica Willaway, who grew up in New Norcia and a former student, joined the sisters in 1958. Sr. Teresa Gonzales said, ‘It was very hard at the beginning, I thought I would only stay one week to help the children but I stayed until 1967.’

On Friday evening, 19 October, about fifty people assembled in the NN cemetery to pray Vespers, gathered around the graves of the eight Benedictine Sisters buried there. It was a simple, yet moving time of prayer filled with powerful symbols – the offering of incense, the sprinkling of the graves with holy water and the chanting of the psalms enhanced by the sounds of the Australian bush. During the reading of the necrology, the sisters placed bunches of fresh local wildflowers that they had picked themselves on the graves of their deceased sisters. We were at one and the same time praying the Office of the Dead, yet celebrating life!

The following day, about 150 people processed into the church for a Mass of Thanksgiving. Readings in Spanish and English were given by the sisters. The congregation listened to a narration by Dr. Katherine Massam, describing the story of the sisters and the children they served. Katherine, who is writing a book on the subject, emphasised five themes – ethnicity, religious community, manual work, school and handwork

Abbot Placid, wearing a chasuble made by the sisters and students so many years ago, delivered a homily in which he thanked God for bringing everyone, nuns, monks and Aboriginal people together under Christ to New Norcia. He expressed regret for the hurts experienced and gratitude for the many good things that have happened in New Norcia.

During the afternoon there was an official opening of the St. Joseph’s Exhibition, in the former Benedictine Sisters Chapel. This historical display was funded by the generosity of the Friends of New Norcia. Speeches were made by Sheila Humphries and Sr. Teresa. Sheila spoke of the love and commitment of the sisters to the girls and the deep feelings the girls had in return for these women, who had left their homeland and the cultural richness of Spain to come to the West Australian bush. Sr. Teresa, on behalf of the sisters said, ‘We came to be with you, we came to live with you and we came to learn from you’.

On behalf of the members of the reunion, the Community wishes to thank every one who contributed in so many ways, both in preparation and participation, to a very moving and memorable event.

On arriving in England, two young English monks of the Cassinese Congregation, Robert Sadler and Edward Mayhew, made their way to Buckley and on the 21^st. November 1607, exactly 51 years after the re-founding of Westminster Abbey by Queen Mary, Buckley aggregated them to his own abbey and to the English Congregation, ensuring, it is believed, both a canonical continuity with the old congregation and a link with the monks brought to England by St. Augustine in 597. Buckley confirmed this act two years later in the presence of a Papal Notary and witnesses; he was now living in Hampshire for the confirmation is recorded as being ‘Given at Punisholt, Anno Domini 1609, the 8^th day of November’.

Little is known of Dom Buckley’s final years, but Fr. Anselm Beech wrote in 1633 that he had entered England in 1603 and ‘met with the Rev D Sigebert Buckley, whom a few months previously King James had ordered to be released from the prison at Framlington. Dom Thomas Preston and I took care of the old man from that time until his happy death, which took place on the 22^nd. February in the year 1610 and in the ninety-third year of his age’. The remains of Dom Sigebert lie under an uneven stone floor in what is now the dining room of Punsholt Farm. It is recorded that Buckley was given a secret Catholic burial by his friends in an old chapel or country hermitage near Punsholt and the flagstones make it seem very likely that this had once been a church or chapel floor. Our hosts rolled back a rug to reveal the two large black flagstones which mark Dom Sigebert’s grave.

In our day it is easy to forget the turbulent decades of the sixteenth century when England was robbed of the Faith which had first made her Christian and the extent to which so many suffered. Buckley’s life spanned these tragic years and in his old age would have found himself, on being released from prison, living in a very different, Protestant England. The old Faith had been outlawed and driven underground. Holy Mass was now offered in secret, in attics and hiding-holes and the people of England were obliged to attend the services of Elizabeth’s new church. Empty niches, defaced wall paintings, mutilated statues, whitewashed walls, broken holy-water stoups and altar stones set into paths, remind us to this day of those sad years for Catholic England. Buckley’s constancy to the Old Religion throughout the years when the majority conformed and compromised is a testimony of his fidelity to Christ and His Church. Just a few months after Buckley’s death, St. John Roberts, one of the first Benedictines to return to England as a missionary, was arrested whilst saying Mass and hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 10 December 1610. During his trial he told the bench, ‘I do not deceive, but try to lead back to the right path those poor wandering souls whom you and your foolish and ignorant ministers have led astray and infected with a thousand deceits and heresies. If I deceive, then were our ancestors deceived by blessed St. Augustine – sent here by the Pope of Rome, St. Gregory the Great and who converted this country from error to the Christian and Roman Catholic Faith. This same Faith which he professed, I now teach…’. It was for this same faith that Buckley also suffered. The old priests of Queen Mary’s reign such as Buckley were on the whole treated more leniently by the government, suffering imprisonment rather than the scaffold. But although never chosen by Almighty God to win the martyr’s crown, Buckley’s life was nonetheless one of loyalty and self-sacrifice for the Catholic Faith that comes to us from the apostles. As a young man in his forties, Buckley could have had a respectable career in Elizabeth’s Church and an honourable standing in society. Instead, he chose the life of a social outcast, suffered imprisonment for twenty years and was eventually buried in secret at night in a remote spot in the Hampshire countryside.

A wasted life in the eyes of the world, but precious in the eyes of God. He must surely have spent his final years as an elderly monk and priest reminiscing about his earlier years and perhaps cherishing the hope that one day England would return to her ancient Faith and that monasteries would rise up once again and offer to God their daily round of prayer and praise. Our very presence at his grave showed that his suffering had not been in vain and his hopes not just dreams.

There is a story told of two young monks, climbing the hill toward their monastery on a cold winter's night. The wind was chilling and snow almost blinding. As they climbed, it became bitterly cold, and both grew alarmed about making it to the monastery alive. About halfway up the hill, the younger of the two stopped, as if he had heard a voice.

"Do you hear that voice, crying for help?" he asked the other. "No," said the second, "it is just the howling of wind! We must keep moving, or we will freeze to death." But the younger monk motioned the other to go on, while he remained behind listening to the voice. Sure enough, the younger monk had heard correctly, for not far away was an old man caught in the snow, pleading for his life.

The young monk assisted him up, placed him on his shoulders, and covered the both of them with his own cloak. He then proceeded up the hill. As the young monk was about to enter the monastery, he saw the other monk dead on the wayside, covered with snow. He had almost made it to the top. The younger monk, because of the warmth of two bodies, was able to reach the top safely, and alive, carrying the load of the stranger.

Many years later, this younger monk was made the abbot of his community, and he became known for his wisdom and insights. When he was on his deathbed, the community gathered around for prayer. One of the monks asked him, "Father, what is the most tragic thing that could happen in this life of ours?" The abbot, remembering that night in the snow, smiled and said: "The most tragic thing that could happen in life is to live without having another person's burden to carry. One must be empty enough to be filled with the other."

OBLATE FORMATION

An article taken from ‘The Oblate’ newsletter of St. John’s Abbey MN. Keith is the editor of the newsletter.

Toward a Theology of Oblate Formation

Keith E.O. Homstad, OblSB

Which view of formation do you wish to subscribe to and follow? We'll start with the proposition that after a suitable period of discernment, the future Oblate had made up their mind that they really want to enter into a period of formation in the ancient tradition of Benedict's sons and daughters. They are convinced that the insights of The Rule of Benedict lead them again and again to the Good News of Jesus Christ contained in the whole Bible, but especially in the Psalms and in the New Testament.

How is that formation to take place, at what pace, at what level of intellectual inquiry, at what depth of prayerful study?

One view is that Oblates should be largely self directed. They can locate books, journals, publications and internet sites and work out their own plan of study and prayer. Since it is not usually possible for Oblates or Candidates to be able to live for a period in a monastery -- where they could be exposed to the daily life of the community at work and at prayer -- they must be content with living where they find themselves and proceed from there.

Fortunately for all of us the internet has put splendid monastic resources at everyone's fingertips. A few keystrokes can give us access to materials that only a few years ago were available only if you were in residence at a major abbey or university. Yes, it is nice to be able to "heft" a fine ancient book in our hands. But, let's face it, very few of us can actually do that. We have to be content with printing out the resources we find and be thankful that they are available to us for such an extremely low price. Besides, who can afford to take the time away from families and work to be able to hole up in a monastic library for a year to do such reading?

Another view is that because there is such a huge variety of materials available that cover some 1,500 years of Benedictine history and tradition, which is woven all through the Western Latin Christian tradition, you need an experienced guide who will point you in the right direction and be there for you when you have questions. This guide may provide you with a specific reading list as well as a series of face to face counselling sessions as you proceed -- thereby serving both as a spiritual director and as a director of formation. They may require that you keep a journal or write to them on a regular basis to monitor your progress.

This is the traditional role of the Director of Oblates. Benedictine monasteries for men or women who have Oblate programs select one of their monastics to fill this role. This person becomes in effect the pastor to Oblates and helps them in their formation. The Director of Oblates also is the main link between their monastic community and "seekers" who are making initial inquiries about becoming an Oblate.

In actuality, I suspect that most Oblates have encountered some combination of the above views in their own formation.

Where in all of this is the Holy Spirit? Since we Oblates usually don't get the chance to sing in choir three times a day (or more), and since we usually don't enjoy our evening meal in a Refectory with a Lector reading to us and our brothers or sisters, and since we don't often get a chance to enjoy recreation with our chosen monastic community, how are we supposed to encounter the work of the Holy Spirit "in community"?

What occurs to me is that our family and our work are our community. The Holy Spirit is just as present with us in our daily work, and at our supper table, as in the monastery. Of course it is sometimes difficult to discern that with the TV blaring the evening news and children demanding our attention. That's why it sure can help to turn OFF the TV and focus all of our attention on whom ever is at table with us. So then, when making time for Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer we can select times when we are least likely to be disturbed by the rest of the world and we can focus on our "community".

If Evening Prayer time is time to be with the family, and the formal Liturgy of the Hours just won't work, then that is perfectly o.k. If you are like me you rise early in the morning and pray the L.O.H. before the rest of the day begins. The deliberate pace of meditation on the psalms, interspersed with readings from Holy Scripture, and my prayers of intercession, start my day off.

It is comforting to me to know that around the world, as the sun rises, thousands of Benedictine Monastics and Oblates are also starting their day in a similar fashion. For me, that's where the Holy Spirit is at work.

(Cont. from Pg 6. )

in the New Testament will show us attitudes and reactions which we should adopt in our lives. Indeed in studying what He did and what He said, we shall never exhaust the possibilities of discovering more and more. But that is by no means the fundamental aspect of my relationship with Him. It has to be one of intimacy and depth. We need also to discover that He is our way to the Father, that He is the Father’s way to us. There has to be a growing conviction that salvation comes from Him and through Him: that He is the very life of our souls.

How does this intimacy develop? There are as many ways as there are people; each person discovers what is right for him or her. But there are things of particular importance. The initiative, for example, is from our Lord: He wants to know us, and by ‘know’ I mean He wants to possess the secret of what we are. It is true that His gaze penetrates into us and nothing is hidden from Him, but I understand this more as our willingness to abandon ourselves to Him, to give ourselves entirely to Him. We should share any inner experience with Him. When you think of it , there is no experience which is entirely personal and exclusively ours, because it will always be shared and known by Him.

He must find in us two things. He must find in us a need for Him and this need is learned through the experience of living and as a product of a sustained life of private prayer. He should also find in us that attitude of humility which we can glean, I think, from making our own certain passages from the Gospels concerning two categories of persons: crooks and crocks. The crooks: Matthew, Mary Magdalene, Zacchaeus, the Good Thief, and others. The crocks: the blind man, the deaf, the paralytic, the mute. If you recall the passages about these people you will remember the impact our Lord has on them seems to prompt two reactions. The first is to follow Him; the second, to give glory to God for what has been accomplished. Following Christ, praising God – this after all, lies at the heart of our vocation. That it should be so is not surprising, for our praise and worship of God is always:

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘A Life-Giving Way’ by Esther de Waal.

This book is particularly recommended for our novices, and is from an author who has written several books on The Rule of Benedict and Benedictine Spirituality.

Is it surprising that a sixth century monastic text, The Rule of St. Benedict, should be a guide for lay Christians living in today’s world?

In fact the questions which St. Benedict had to face are still questions which face us today; How do I live with others? with the world? with myself? with God? How do I bring balance into my life?

St. Benedict speaks to the heart and this commentary approaches the Rule in a prayerful and reflective way. It will help many people who today are seeking a contemplative centre in a busy life.

St. Benedict’s writing is steeped in scripture. In the Middle Ages his rule was seen as a digest of the Bible. It therefore crosses the divides of the Church and speaks to Christians of all denominations.

Esther de Waal is a well-known author whose interests lie particularly in monastic and Celtic spirituality. Her first book, Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict, continues to be a best-seller and has been widely translated world wide. It was followed by Living with Contradiction: Further Reflections on the Rule and most recently, A World made Whole: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition and A Seven Day Journey with Thomas Merton. She is married with four grown-up sons and lives in the Welsh Borders.

Esther de Waal reminds us that St. Benedict was, in fact, a lay person. So the value of this book is that Esther is a lay person writing for lay people about what is the core of Benedictine Spirituality. I believe that she has done something very important for all of us. Cardinal Basil Hume.

Esther de Waal has done it again – shown how amazingly relevant the Rule of St. Benedict is to spirituality today. Countless people on the pilgrimage of faith will welcome and be changed and be challenged by this beautiful blend of insights old and fascinatingly new. Joyce Huggett

1 Acts 19:21-41 50

2 1Cor 1:1-17 51

3 1Cor 1:18-2:16 52

4 1Cor 3:1-23 53:1-15

5 1Cor 4:1-21 53:16-24

6 1Cor 5:1-13 54

7 1Cor 6:1-20 55:1-14

8 1Cor 7:1-24 55:15-22

9 1Cor 7:25-40 56

10 1Cor 8:1-13 57

11 1Cor 9:1-27 58:1-16

12 1Cor 10:1-11:1 58:17-29

13 1Cor 11:2-34 59

14 1Cor 12:1-31 60

15 1Cor 13:1-13 61:1-7

16 1Cor 14:1-25 61:8-14

17 1Cor 14:26-40 62

18 1Cor 15:1-34 63:1-9

19 1Cor 15:35-58 63:10-19

20 1Cor 16:1-24 64:1-6

21 Acts 20:1-16 64:7-22

22 2Cor 1:1-2:4 65:1-10

23 2Cor 2:5-17 6511:22

24 2Cor 3:1-18 66

25 2Cor 4:1-5:10 67

26 2Cor 5:11-6:13 68

27 2Cor 6:14-7:16 69

28 2Cor 8:1-24 70

29 2Cor 9:1-15 71

30 2Cor 10:1-18 72

31 2Cor 11:1-33 73

1 2Cor 12:1-21 Prol:1-7

2 2Cor 13:1-13 Prol:8-13

3 Rom 1:1-17 Prol:14-21

4 Rom 1:18-32 Prol:22-30

5 Rom 2:1-16 Prol:31-38

6 Rom 2:17-3:8 Prol:39-44

7 Rom 3:9-31 Prol:45-50

8 Rom 4:1-25 1

9 Rom 5:1-21 2:1-5

10 Rom 6:1-23 2:6-10

11 Rom 7:1-25 2:11-15

12 Rom 8:1-17 2:16-22

13 Rom 8:18-39 2:23-29

14 Rom 9:1-29 2:30-32

15 Rom 9:30-10:21 2:33-40

16 Rom 11:1-12 3:1-6

17 Rom 11:13-36 3:7-13

18 Rom 12:1-21 4:1-19

19 Rom 13:1-14 4:20-40

20 Rom 14:1-23 4:41-54

21 Rom 15:1-33 4:55-78

22 Rom 16:1-27 5:1-13

23 Acts 20:17-38 5:14-19

24 Acts 21:1-26 6

25 Acts 22:6-29 7:1-9

26 Acts 22:30-23:22 7:10-13

26 27 Acts 23:23-24:9 7:14-18

27 28 Acts 24:10-27 7:19-25

28 29 Acts 25:1-27 7:26-30

29 30 Acts 26:1-32 7:31-33

30 31 Acts 27:1-44 7:34

1 Acts 28:1-15 7:35-43

2 Acts 28:16-31 7:44-48

3 Phil 1:1-30 7:49-50

4 Phil 2:1-30 7:51-54

5 Phil 3:1-21 7:55

6 Phil 4:1-23 7:56-58

7 Eph 1:1-23 7:59

8 Eph 2:1-22 7:60-61

9 Eph 3:1-21 7:62-70

10 Eph 4:1-31 8

11 Eph 5:1-33 9

12 Eph 6:1-24 10

13 Col 1:1-23 11

14 Col 1:24-2:19 12

15 Col 2:20-3:17 13:1-11

16 Col 3:18-4:18 13:12-14

17 Philemon 1-25 14

18 1Tim 1:1-20 15

Text and comment to the editorial committee

Period

MEETING PLACE

PRAYER LIST

ITEMS OF INTEREST

REFLECTION

OBLATE FORMATION

Toward a Theology of Oblate Formation