Chapter meetings are held at St. Joseph's Convent, 16 York Street, South Perth. Meetings are held each 3rd. Sunday, commencing at 2.00pm sharp.
December - There will be no Chapter meeting this month. As usual this will be the occasion of our Christmas social gathering. Venue to be decided.
January - There will be no Chapter meeting this month.
February - Chapter meeting to be held on Sunday, 20 February. Discussion on Rule 48 & Gospel of the day.- Mk. 2:1-12. This will also be the occasion of our Annual General Meeting, during which the election of officers for the next twelve months will occur. Oblates are asked to give consideration to serving as Committee members and therefore help in the oversight of the Chapter.

PRAYER LIST
Please remember all our sick oblates - in particular Tom Gollop, Pat Cockett & Michael Kent.
It is with sadness that we report the death of oblate Lou Pokucinski who died on Saturday 30 September, also Fran Ennis who died on Tuesday 25 October 2005.
We have also received information from NSW on the deaths of two oblates - Peter John Young (who was the first Prior of the NSW Chapter), who died in 2003, also Brian Michael Phillips, an oblate of 40 years, who died in September 2005.
Prayers also requested for Rhod's mother.
Please pray for the repose of the souls of Grenville Murray and Doris's nephew Michael Lea who passed away on 13 September 2005..
Also and always, continue to pray for our parent community in New Norcia.
Would you please remember all our deceased oblates.

ITEMS OF INTEREST
A number of oblates were in attendance at Queen of Apostles Church, Riverton on 7 October at the Requiem Mass for Lou Pokucinski. Fr. Anthony travelled down from New Norcia to concelebrate. Lou, together with his wife Johanna, who died in October last year, were enthusiastic supporters of the Chapter and we will all miss their presence amongst us.
In addition, we farewelled oblate Frances Ennis (94) whose funeral and burial took place at New Norcia on All Souls Day, 2 November, 2005. Fran took the Oblate name of Sr. Rosendo. She never married and lived in her home, named St. Benedicts, in East Fremantle. At an early age, she lost her leg and was one of the original group of oblates established in St. Benedict's Parish, Applecross in 1958.
Our annual Christmas function will this year be hosted at the home of Tony and Joan Smurthwaite. As usual it will take the form of a BBQ, commencing at 11.30am. Oblates and friends are asked to bring their own meat and salads. The Chapter will provide the drinks.
Would all oblates pencil in to their diaries the dates of our next annual retreat to New Norcia, which will be held as usual on the Trinity Sunday weekend, Friday to Monday 9,10,11,12 of June 2006. Oblates wishing to attend should contact our Secretary, Adrienne Byrne on 9388 3026, who is in charge of bookings and advise the number of nights required to stay.
Those with Internet access may wish to read up on the proceedings of the recent Oblate World Congress held in Rome last September. The seven presentations listed on the web site are now available to Chapter members in hard copy form, for those interested. Web site address - www.oblatesworldcongress.com/index-en We are advised that there will be another World Congress scheduled for 2009 in Rome (for those who missed out on this one)!

FAITH FORMATION
LECTIO DIVINA Reading between the lines
Lectio divina is no longer exclusive to the monastery but also a way for the laity to come closer to God by Christopher Jamison OSB, Abbot of Worth Abbey, West Sussex. Taken from The Tablet 2/4/05

As your eye travels across this piece of paper, the printed lines, curves and dots communicate instant meaning to your mind. Reading is like breathing, you don't normally notice what you are doing until something goes wrong. So just pause for a moment and notice that you are reading. Weird, isn't it? Now notice that you can make some choices about your reading,,you can read quickly or slowly, to extract information from a timetable or to savour the emotion of a love letter. Yet we rarely make conscious choices about our reading: we just go for it, tackling the daily newspaper with vigour or a piece of poetry more thoughtfully.
Most people today are familiar with meditative techniques that can control your breathing in order to increase your well-being. From transcendental meditation to blood pressure reduction, gurus and doctors alike recommend breathing control as a good thing. Even popular forms of speech encapsulate it - 'just take a deep breath and relax'. There is a rich Catholic tradition that applies similar processes to our reading. In doing so it is very different from the three most pervasive approaches to reading found in contemporary society. First, there is reading for distraction, for example, magazines and pulp novels. Then there is reading for information - newspapers and D1Y books, for instance. Finally, there is reading for education - textbooks or Shakespeare for exams. By contrast, the Catholic tradition promotes reading for salvation (in Latin, lectio divina).
The last exponent of reading for salvation within the mainstream of culture was Hugh of St. Victor, head of the famous School of St. Victor in twelfth-century Paris. He opens his discourse on learning (Didascalicon) with the simple phrase, 'Of all things to be sought, the first is wisdom'. The wisdom Hugh seeks is Christ himself. In this learning of wisdom, reading is a remedial technique wherein sacred reading and secular reading are one. To read a text of arts or sciences is to be engaged in the work of your salvation.
Those who founded the universities, who read in order to understand and manipulate the world, succeed Hugh. Information and education replaced salvation as the main purposes of reading. And in modern times, the faster the better: speed reading is virtuous, slow readers require remedial help.
Yet all is not lost. Just as the monasteries preserved ancient texts from the barbarian hordes during the Dark Ages, so they have preserved the Catholic tradition of sacred reading in modern times. The Second Vatican Council's most neglected Constitution is Dei Verbum, on Scripture. Without a deep personal re-engagement with Scripture among the People of God, the rest of the council's agenda limps. Increasing numbers of lay groups and individuals are turning to lectio in response to this need.
Lectio has three key features that taken together make it a distinctive approach to reading Scripture.
First of all, the text is seen as a gift to be received, not a problem to be dissected. So we read for delight and for wisdom. This is summed up in a memorable phrase by Archbishop Rowan Williams. At the start of his wonderful analysis of Christian spirituality, The Wound of Knowledge, he speaks about how the events of the Gospel challenge each generation and lead to renewed questioning, but he warns - 'The questioning involved here is not our interrogation of the data but its interrogation of us.' The first task to which the tradition invites the modern reader is 'let something come to you, avoid imposing yourself '. Humility is the key to this wisdom. In his excellent book Sacred Reading, the Australian Trappist Fr Michael Casey sums this up well. 'Lectio divina is not only a means of discovering something about God, it also helps us to understand our hidden selves.'
Second, the lectio tradition teaches us that in order to receive what a text has to offer, we must read slowly. This brings to mind the recent 'slow food' movement in Italy, where villages guarantee to visitors that there are no 'fast food' outlets and that all can enjoy their meals in peace. As an antidote to speed reading, we need to foster slow reading. Michael Casey again: 'Repetition is the soul of genuine lectio. It is a right-brain activity. We do not grasp the entire content immediately but in a circular manner. We read and advance, then we go back and read again. With each repetition, something new may strike us ... it takes time for us to become attuned to the subtle rhythms of a particular writing. The more we can slow down our reading, the more likely it is that we will catch sight of something unexpected.'
Third, this way of slowly letting the text speak to you is a way of prayer. Before reading, the Christian prays that God will speak to him through this text. When he is reading, he allows this to evolve into meditation and then into prayer.
Finally, when the reading is concluded, he keeps some phrase in his heart and repeats it throughout the day. Prayerful reading becomes prayerful living. To summarise, let the text interrogate you, read slowly and let God speak to you. Let the reading become prayer and let the prayer suffuse your life. Then reading becomes communion with Christ as much as the Eucharist and begins to transform your life. Reading moves beyond information to become transformation.
How could this work in a parish? Below is a very simple method of group lectio divina as used by the Manquehue Movement, a Benedictine lay movement in Chile.
First: a reminder of the basics. This is an encounter with God, not a discussion.
Next: choose the text. This could be the Gospel of the Day.
Then: choose readers. One reads the whole text, first to last, while the leader reads one verse at a time.
Followed by: A prayer of preparation. After a prayerful silence, while each one considers what he or she has brought into the meeting in terms of feelings, worries, plans, suffering, joys. All then pray 'Come Holy Spirit'.
The reading: One reader reads the whole text through. The leader reads one verse at a time, leaving a gap of minutes rather than seconds. In the gaps between verses, anyone may share an 'echo'.
The second reading: This consists of a second read-through of the whole text, followed by the prayer 'Glory Be'. There are several do's and don'ts to lectio divina.
Do listen to God, do offer what God is prompting you to share, do use the first person singular ('I find' ... 'I feel,..') But don't start or continue a discussion, don't fear stillness and don't use 'you' or 'we' or 'one'.
Let me leave the last word to St John Chrysostom (344-407 AD) - "'I am not,' you will say, 'one of the monks, but I have both a wife and children and the care of a household.' This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world and who receive wounds every day, have the most need of medicine" (Second Homily on Matthew).

A PILGRIMAGE
In the footsteps of Mary MacKillop (1842-1909) by oblate Eleanor Sgherza.

Australia's first Saint was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Sydney, during January 1995. Yes, I was there!
Together with Father Julian Woods, Mary founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, in Penola, Adelaide 1866.
A journey made to a sacred place - from Western Australia through South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.
We went on this pilgrimage, to visit the significant places where Mary had worked. To experience the journey that Mary had travelled and to understand this ordinary woman who was so deeply committed to living the Christian way of life and to pray at her tomb.
I thought I knew a lot about Mary's life. The Sisters of St Joseph in South Perth had brought me up. I had a lot to learn, which really was quite amazing. Mary had a great sense of humour and one particular little piece stood out for me; she had called her horse 'donkey'. I really liked that!
Twenty-two people came on this pilgrimage - we had a meeting a week before at South Perth to get to know one another. It turned out to be a great group. We all got on really well, lots of laughs. We had two priests with us, which meant we could attend mass everyday.We left Perth on Saturday 30 July, flying Virgin Blue Airlines, arriving in Adelaide early in the afternoon. We settled into our motel and later set off to see some of the sights. Next day we began the first of our tours, which would take us to many places, schools, etc. that Mary had set up and worked at. Port Adelaide, Morphet Vale, St Francis Xavier Cathedral that has a special shrine to Mary, Kensington - the first Mother House of the Congregation and Norwood Catholic Refuge - a place Mary visited often while she was under the sentence of excommunication.
The following day we went through the Adelaide Hills to the village of Hahndorf, an interesting little place, but not many people around at 9.30 a.m. Then on to Coorong and the seaport of Robe. Father Leon celebrated mass at the Star of the Sea Church. This church was built by Father Julian Tennyson Woods and is the only one of three churches built by Father Woods that is still in use today.
We tried to picture the conditions of travelling such long distances in Mary's day on rough roads or tracks, in a horse drawn coach or on horseback. Sometimes a boat may have been a better option. With all our mod cons today, it is pretty hard to imagine.
Our journey continued through Mt. Gambier, then to one of our main pilgrimage sites, Penola - the place which was the beginning of all Mary's work.
Her first school was in a little stable. The schoolroom was all set up with timetables and slates on the desks, so very similar to what I experienced when 1 went to school with the Sisters of St Joseph in South Perth.
We visited Father Woods' special place, an old gum tree, where he would come to pray in silence and contemplate. This tree was pretty special. The ladies in the group took many photos.
On to Portland, Hamilton - where Mary's father, Alexander is buried.
From there to Ballarat, through the scenic Grampians - lots to see and recall there. We did some 'touristy things' - had a picnic lunch in the Botanical Gardens, visited the new War Memorial for the prisoners of war, both living and dead - very moving. Had lunch at the RSL.
Something I forgot! At each new place we visited, we had a Sister of St Joseph to point out the places of interest. All of this was very informative. The hospitality we received in all these places was really outstanding. We were the first group of pilgrims to come from Western Australia since the beatification of Mary in 1995, so we received VIP treatment everywhere we went.
We arrived in Melbourne, visited Fitzroy where Mary was born, St Francis' church where Mary was baptised, heard about her life in Fitzroy as a child and then as a Sister of St Joseph, Surrey Hills where the Sisters did a lot of social work and Port Ormund where the McDonald family first arrived in Australia.
We then continued our journey by plane to Sydney. A coach brought us to Mount Street, North Sydney - the Mother House of the Sisters, which was established in 1893. This is where we stayed, in Adderley Lodge, named after a Jesuit priest who was very supportive of Mary during her time of excommunication.
At Mount Street, we visited the Mary MacKillop Museum, which tells the story of Mary's journey through the use of electronic, animatronics and powerful theatrics - a moving tribute to Blessed Mary MacKillop. The tour finished at Alma Cottage where Mary spent the last years of her life after having had a stroke. She kept up her writing, teaching herself to write with her left hand.
In Sydney we visited the 'Rocks Area' where Mary and her Sisters did a lot of work. It was a very tough place in those days, especially for the women and children who lived in terrible conditions.
August 7 - We had lunch at Hyde Park and were entertained on the steps of St Mary's Cathedral. Mass was celebrated in St Mary's at 2.30, lasting 21/2 hours. The Cathedral was packed. They had TV cameras inside so that everyone could see. At the beginning of mass, the procession started with an Aborigine playing a didgeridoo, recognizing the land on which we were standing, followed by a bagpipe player, remembering Mary's heritage. Sister Judith gave us a great homily on Mary's work, pointing out that things haven't changed very much. Yes, the Sisters are fewer but there is still a lot of work to be done and the Sisters never retire.
Then the big day arrived - what this whole tour had been leading up to - 8 August, Mary's feast day. It started with mass in the Memorial Chapel at Mount Street. The celebrant was Bishop Anton Fisher, a very young bishop and also a past pupil of the 'brown joeys' - the nickname of the Sisters in Australia. There were three masses in the Chapel, three masses out on the lawn and then lunch and entertainment in the grounds for about 2,500 people.
We had a wonderful day, a fitting climax to the end of our journey, the last of 10 great days. We made many good friends and have lots of memories to carry with us.
Mary MacKillop Prayer
Most loving God, we thank you for the example of Blessed Mary MacKillop, who in her living of the Gospel, witnessed to the human dignity of each person. She faced life's challenges with faith and courage. We pray through her intercession for our needs.
May her holiness soon be acknowledged by the universal Church - We make this prayer through Jesus the Lord. Amen
PS Now we are saving up to go to Rome in 2009 - hopefully Mary will be canonized then. It will be 100 years since her death - (this is not official we made it up so don't quote us or me).
Oblates will remember the close association of the Sisters of St. Joseph with the Benedictine Community over the years. The administration and education of the girls at St. Gertrudes College, New Norcia and lately their hospitality to the oblates by providing a meeting place for the Chapter at their South Perth premises including the use of the chapel.

THE MONASTERY OF SAINT MACARIUS in the desert of Scetis
By a monk of the monastery - taken from the monastery web site.
The completion of the article commenced in the last newsletter.
Common meal and community gatherings
Towards midday, we gather together in the refectory to sing the Office of None, with its twelve psalms, followed by the only meal of the day that is taken in common. During this meal, the sayings (apophthegms) of the Fathers are read to us. The morning and evening meals are taken in the cell.
On Sunday evening we meet for a time of shared prayer, when each expresses freely what is in the depth of his heart. It is also the time when we offer to the Lord all the needs, spiritual and material, of the Community. We consider this gathering for prayer together to be very important for preserving the 'unity of the Spirit' (Eph. 4:3) in our Community.
Eucharistic Liturgy
According to the tradition of the Desert Fathers, we have only one Eucharistic liturgy a week, on Sunday morning. It begins with the Office of Praise at two o'clock, ends towards eight o'clock and is followed by an agape meal. It is through this celebration of the Eucharist that our Community is transformed from an ordinary human gathering into the Body of Christ. Therefore for us, the Mass cannot be the prayer of an individual, nor even of a part of the Community, but is essentially the reunion of the whole Community, gathered together in church around the immolated Lamb, to celebrate His wedding supper (Rev. 19:9.)
Eremitism
We live a community life, but consider that the full flowering of our vocation is found in the solitary life, lived in the open desert, more often than not in a cave cut out of the mountainside. When a monk shows sufficient aptitude to live in this way, the spiritual father advises him to go out into the desert. But even before this definitive going out, the spiritual father can allow some monks to taste the sweetness of this solitary life, for a limited period, either in a cave or in their own cell.
Vocation in relation to the world
The monastery welcomes a great number of visitors, both Egyptians and foreigners, sometimes as many as a thousand a day. Most of them are seeking primarily to receive the blessing given by a place consecrated by the tears and prayers of generations of saints, whose names have become celebrated throughout the world. For who has not heard of Macarius the Great, Macarius of Alexandria, John the Short, Paphnutius and Isidore, Arsenius and Moses the Black Man, Poemen and Sisoes, Isaiah of Scetis, Silvanus, Serapion, and many others?
The monastery puts at the disposal of the visitors, monks ready to listen, answer their questions and direct them in the spiritual life. Most visitors are able to forget their cares and problems from the moment they enter the monastery.
In the summer holidays, the monastery gives young people the opportunity of spending days in retreat. We try to direct both the spiritual and social orientation of their lives, without in any way attaching them to the monastery or trying to give a monastic spirit to the living-out of their daily lives.
Among our visitors, priority is given to priests, to dedicated lay people and to those responsible for Sunday Schools, who come to prepare themselves, the better to offer their lives to the Lord in various sectors of the apostolate.
Through numerous writings of the spiritual father (more than forty books and two hundred articles) the monastery plays a dominant role in the spiritual awakening of the Coptic Church. We are also responsible for the editing of 'Marcos', a monthly periodical of spirituality, particularly addressed to young people. Numerous sermons of the spiritual father, recorded on disc or tape, circulate among the Copts both in Egypt and abroad. From now on the monastery will have for its use, a very modern printing press which will facilitate the publishing of the spiritual father's manuscripts and the printing of his various publications, both in Arabic and in foreign languages. The few articles already translated into European languages have been received with much interest in many places.
The monastery has good relations with the various organisations of the Egyptian government. It is generally known that all our monks have done their military service and that there are among us therefore a large number of officers and soldiers. Above all, the political opinions of the spiritual father, Fr. Matta el Meskin, are respected for their integrity, their humanity and their responsibility. In his book 'The Church and the State', he claims that politics should be entirely separated from religion. 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God that which is God's.' In other writings, such as 'Sectarianism and Fanaticism', he warns against the tendency of minorities to turn in on themselves and to despise others.
Monastic life and the unity of the Church
Our monastery shows forth in its life the unity of the Church in spirit and in truth while awaiting the outward realisation of this unity. Because of our sincere openness of heart towards all men, irrespective of their religious confession, it has become possible for us to recognize ourselves in others, or rather, to recognize Christ in everyone. Christian unity, is for us to live together in Christ by love. Then the barriers fall down by themselves and differences cease. There only remains the One Christ who gathers us all into His holy person.
Theological dialogue must be held, but we leave it to those who are competent. For ourselves, we feel that the unity of the Church exists in Christ and that consequently, it is in the degree with which we are ourselves united with Christ that we shall discover in Him, the fullness of unity. 'If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation' (II Cor. 5:17). In this new creation, there is not multiplicity but 'one new man' (Eph. 2:15). Although we live our orthodox faith to the full with awareness of all the truth and richness which is found in it, we know nevertheless that in Christ 'there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor un-circumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all' (Col. 3:11). In this interior agony, we are willing to die daily in sacrifice for the reconciliation of the Churches.
We have found in the monastic life, the best means for us, of union with Christ and therefore the best realisation of this new creation. This gathers men of every nation and race and people and language into unity of heart and spirit. This was very clearly shown from the beginning of the monastic life in the desert of Scetis. The particular charism of Saint Macarius was to unite together, through his paternal love, men of very different characters, from very different social backgrounds and from many different races. Among his spiritual sons one might see a Saint Moses, the former Nubian brigand, by the side of a Saint Arsenius, Roman philosopher and tutor to the Emperor's sons, illiterate Egyptian fellahs by the side of king's sons. All lived in complete spiritual harmony thanks to the spirit of great charity which filled Saint Macarius and was transmitted by him to his contemporaries and to his spiritual descendants, even to our own day. We hope that the desert of Scetis will once again become a place of real understanding, of reconciliation and of unity, for all the peoples of the earth in Christ Jesus.

GREGORY THE GREAT
By Dom Benedict Hardy OSB, taken from the oblate newsletter of Pluscarden Abbey
The completion of an article commenced in the last newsletter.

Deeply reluctant to accept the election to the Papacy, the virtue of obedience prevailed. As Pope he found himself not just leading the Church, but virtually running the civil, military and political life of the country. There was no one else to do it. One of his main tasks was to provide relief for huge numbers of destitute refugees. He could only do that by completely reorganising the administration of the food supply, appointing everywhere officials he could trust and making treaties with the Lombards, even against the policy of the Emperor. We see him at work in all this business through his letters, over 850 of which have survived. But although he frequently bewailed it, so much secular involvement did not corrupt him. Putting into practice his constantly repeated teaching on humility, his favourite self-description was servus servorum Dei - the servant of the servants of God. Not that he was in any way weak. He threw himself into his multiple tasks with enormous energy and an authority that expected to be obeyed.
Partly to explain his hesitation in accepting his election, he published soon after it his Pastoral Rule. This work was to become the essential Rule book for all the clergy and Bishops and even for many of the Kings of the Middle Ages. In it Gregory sets out the principles of what he calls the "ars artium ", the "art of all arts", namely the task of guiding souls. He insists on the absolute necessity of leading by example first and only then by words. A Christian Pastor, says Gregory, has to be in love with Christ and to live with His life. He should desire domination over his vices, never over his brothers. He has to be like a mother to them in loving kindness and like a father in correction. And the more he is weighed down by the cares and duties of his office, the more essential it is for him frequently to be raised up to God in contemplation.
Gregory's other important writings are all homilies, taken down from viva voce delivery by short hand secretaries and later edited by himself prior to publication. A considerable quantity of such material was stored away in the Papal archive, never to see the light in Gregory's own life time, but to be quoted in snippets by later writers, before being lost forever. The 40 Gospel Homilies were delivered to a public audience. The more difficult homilies on Old Testament themes were probably more what we would regard as retreat conferences, given to select groups of friends and collaborators. The "Moral homilies on Job" are by far the largest of these works; there are 35 books of them! Job, the figure of Christ, of the suffering Christian and of the afflicted Church, was a natural object of Gregorys interest. What Job's friends cannot understand and what Gregory wants us particularly to grasp, is that all this affliction is not sent by God to punish Job's sin, but to increase his merit. His very sufferings help Job understand that all transient and temporal goods are to be despised and our yearning focussed on eternity.This scriptural book also served as a spring board for Gregory to discourse on his favourite subjects - prayer, human nature acutely observed and moral action, with its vices and virtues.
There survive also homilies on the First Book of Kings (probably only as edited by a later hand) and on the Song of Songs. The wonderful Homilies on Ezekiel were delivered during the terrifying Lombard siege of Rome in 593. According to legend, it was while preaching these homilies that the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove was seen whispering in Gregory's ear. At their end he movingly breaks off, crushed by his anxiety and grief, never to resume.
Amid so many causes for sorrow, Gregory had two great consolations. One was the conversion of the Arian Visigoths of Spain to the Catholic faith in 589. The other was the success of the mission of St. Augustine to the English in 596.
St. Bede (673-735) in his 'History of the English Church and People' recounts the famous anecdote of Gregory spotting a group of fair faced slaves. On being told they were Angles, he said 'That is appropriate, for they have angelic faces and it is right that they should become joint-heirs with the Angels in heaven.' It is astonishing that amid all his cares he could have sent Augustine with 40 monks to bring the Gospel to their distant land. When Augustine wavered, Gregory stiffened his resolve. St. Bede sets out for us the stream of letters that flowed from Gregory to Augustine at this time, encouraging, advising, directing, warning. Bede has no doubt that it is supremely to Gregory that the English owe their faith.
Why then, has so little been made of this great Pope in his centenary year? Why are his writings, once so widely read, now scarcely even obtainable? As far as I know, the last complete English translation of his 'Morals on Job' was made in 1844. There are no popular paperback translations, to my knowledge, in print, of any of his works.
One reason could be Gregory's unfashionable other-worldliness and pessimism about the prospects of any lasting happiness in this world. Yet there is a paradox here, for perhaps there never was a Pope more deeply engaged with the world of his time, or one who took more direct practical measures to help the poor and afflicted of his age.
Indeed, one reason I believe Gregory is so relevant for us today, is precisely his grasp of the essential unity between two aspects that are often considered opposed. He constantly taught that both contemplation and action are essential for all Christians. Mary and Martha need each other, or in another favourite image, it was necessary for Jacob to marry Leah, figure of the active life, who bore him many children, in order to deserve Rachel, figure of the contemplative life, whom he loved above all things. For the goal of our life and our chief desire must always be union with God. But that union must follow the image of Christ and Christ spent Himself in service of His neighbour. Not only that, it is precisely meditation on divine things that drives us to active works of charity for our neighbour. Yet the pull of the world, even though full of miseries, can draw us away from God, so we have to return all the more to Him, only source of true freedom and joy.
Another reason for Gregory's lack of popularity today could be found in his whole approach to scripture. His homilies tend to be long-winded, repetitive and full of digressions. Above all, the unprepared modern reader can find his allegories most disconcerting. Gregory delights to find hidden meanings in every tiny detail of the most obscure passages. These can seem to us no more than flights of fancy, scarcely connected at all with the literal meaning of the text. To give one example, the four living creatures of Ezekiel's vision (Ezk 1:5ff) are interpreted as the four Evangelists, themselves figures of all holy preachers who take the Gospel to the four comers of the world. At times, says the prophet, they went forward, or stood still, or were raised up. So, says Gregory, holy preachers go forward when they reach out to help their neighbour, they stand still in so far as they keep custody of their own soul and they are raised up to the contemplation of God.
This approach to scripture, in fact, mirrors Gregory's approach to all reality. He sees in all things an outer and an inner layer, a superficial surface and a hidden depth. Our task, for him, is to pierce through the "husk", whether of the literal word, or of the actual event in our life. Only then can we taste the delicious fruit of the divine mystery hidden within. Even if we find Gregory unconvincing in the details, he manifestly does reach, through them, into the depths of divine wisdom. He really did draw all his doctrine and practice from his lectio divina, or reading of the scriptures, taken as a whole. There he found Jesus Christ, there he found his high moral ideals and his all embracing compassion. What he found in scripture, he loved. He can still inspire us to drink deeply with him from these same refreshing and life giving sources.
"Sacred scripture bids to the heavenly country and changes the heart of the reader from earthly desires to the embracing of things above. By obscure sayings, Scripture exercises the strong and by humble words persuades the little ones. It is not so shut up as to be dreaded, nor so open as to be contemptible." {Moralia XX 1.1) Reading the Bible was also, crucially, Gregory's route into prayer. It was the same for St. Benedict. It is a route that is being more and more re-discovered in our own day. The Holy Rule adds that we should always pray "with all humility and purity of devotion. For God regards not our many words, but our purity of heart and tears of compunction" (HR 20). This was Gregory's programme also. "Compunction" is one of his favourite words. It refers to that piercing of heart we experience when deeply struck by the reality of our sins, or of God's goodness and love. It tends to cast us down, but then, when we are sufficiently detached from all false joys and empty vanities, God is able to raise us up to Himself in contemplation. My last excerpt sums up Gregory's own experience of this. It is a familiar passage from the Dialogues'.
"All creation is bound to appear small to a soul that sees the Creator. Once it beholds a little of His light, it finds all creatures small indeed. The light of holy contemplation enlarges and expands the mind in God until it stands above the world. In fact, the soul that sees Him, rises even above itself. When it is rapt above itself in the light of God, all its inner powers unfold. Then when it looks down from above, it sees how small everything really is, that was beyond its grasp before." Dialogues, II. 35.
Mention of the Dialogues leads me now into controversial waters. For I am convinced that the main narrative of this strange work was not written until some 60 years after Gregory's death, though passages such as that just quoted are genuinely his. It seems most likely that Gregory, for thirteen centuries regarded as Benedict's biographer, had never heard of him. Therefore we also know almost nothing about the author of our Rule. But this is surely no threat to us Benedictines, spiritual sons and daughters of both Saints. Now certainly together in heaven, they together insistently and urgently invite us to come to Christ and to find all our life, all our joy, in Him.

THE MONASTERY- Reality television made in heaven.
From the 'War Cry' newsletter of the Salvation Army - June 2005.
Television has been called many things, but 'instrument of salvation' is not one of them, Yet that's the role it played recently when five non-Christians, one or two from quite 'dubious' backgrounds, signed up for the BBC Television reality show The Monastery.
The three-part reality series, filmed at Worth Abbey in West Sussex, was designed to test whether the intense meditation and self-reflection begun by St. Benedict more than 1,500 years ago was still relevant today.
For '40 days and 40 nights' the men, ranging from a Buddhist PhD student to a soft porn peddler, were required to live by the monastery's rules. This included getting up at 6.00 a.m. every morning, working in the grounds, sharing their meals with the monks and observing 'silence, obedience and humility'.
Initially wary of having a television crew invade the abbey, the monks were brought around to the idea that 'by allowing the cameras into the cloister we'd allow secular seekers looking for deeper spirituality, to visit us', one of the monks told Catholiclreland.net.
'In some ways, a monastery is like a wildlife sanctuary,' Fr Christopher Jamison, a Melbourne-born priest who has lived at the monastery for 30 years, told Melbourne's The Age. 'You need to protect the wildlife, but allow visitors at the same time,'
To the welcome surprise of everyone (especially the BBC), the programme attracted more than 2.5 million viewers in Britain and following the broadcast, more than 1,000 people visited the Abbey web site.
'I am not a Christian,' wrote a woman on the site, 'but I was moved to tears as I sat and watched last night's programme, it was so beautiful.'
'It was fascinating stuff and I think it is the only decent reality-style production to actually go on air amongst all the other rubbish that has made it out in the last few years,' wrote a man.
Its redemptive powers did not stop there. The Catholic Enquiry Office of England and Wales' web site - www. life4seekers.com.uk, received more than 1,000 enquiries from 'seekers' wishing to know more about the Christian faith. This interest, according to 'UK Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation's' spokesperson Clare Ward, was attributed directly to the programme.
Here's why. All five men recorded some kind of 'conversion'. Gary McCormick, an ex-prisoner, spoke of wanting to find peace and contentment. 'It is starting to happen here,' he said. Anthony Wright, a publishing executive, opened up about his childhood traumas. Peter Gruffydd, a retired teacher, reclaimed the faith he had once rejected and Nick Buxton, a university student, announced he was becoming an Anglican priest. But it was Tony Burke, self-confessed.atheist and pornographer, whose story was most compelling. 'God meant nothing to me' he writes, at the www.bbc.co.uk web site. 'He was an old geezer with a beard in illustrated text-books or comedy sketches. He was a figure of fun and parody, like everything religious in the outside world. Then, midway through my last conversation with my mentor, Brother Francis, I was hit by something I'll never forget. It was like I'd taken a new drug and felt paralysed and unable to speak. It lasted about a minute� And that was it. That was my call. That was my answer... I wasn't looking for it. I wasn't willing it to happen, nor was I expecting it to happen, but it did.
'God exists.' and TV made it happen. June 2005

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