Ash Wednesday Chapter Conference

​+ We must “hasten now to do what may profit us for eternity,” Saint Benedict insists in the Prologue of the Rule. We often read the Prologue as a call to enter the monastic life, and rightly: it is most certainly that call to hearken to the precepts of the master, to incline the ears of our hearts and to fulfil the instructions of a loving father and return to He from whom we have strayed by the sloth of our disobedience by entering the school of the Lord’s service that is the monastery. And in so doing we most certainly do that which shall profit us for eternity.
 
But entering the monastery is but a beginning. So too is making profession or receiving sacred orders or being given other responsibilities in the monastery. Monks don’t ‘graduate’ from this school of the Lord’s service or earn their retirement package after a certain age. We graduate by persevering faithfully in it until death.
 
That is to say—and most appositely at the beginning of Lent—that no matter who we are in the monastery, regardless of our status or position or date of entry, there is still work to do in that conversion of life to which, by God’s grace and Providence, we are called to live under the Rule of Saint Benedict here in our small, new monastic foundation.
 
There is work to do in and on myself. We know only too well that the ‘old man’ is slow to die and cede his place to the new man “created by God in justice and the holiness of truth” (Rite of the Clothing of a Novice). We know that, with God’s grace, we can make progress in this. We know also, only too well, that we can regress when we turn our wills inward and focus our eyes on things that are not of God. We must be honest about this temptation and its presence in us, and Lent is most certainly the time for radical honesty in respect of it.
 
So too, Lent is a time to make progress in virtue and in respect of this according to the Rule we offer Almighty God something extra and submit a list of Lenten resolutions to the superior for his blessing, so that our offering is not simply an act of personal piety or even of religious vanity, but a true offering blessed by God.
 
And here we touch something quite important about our monastic observance in Lent. Yes, we are individuals trying to grow in grace and virtue—that we must do, certainly. But our observance—daily, as monks, on any day, but particularly in Lent—is not private. We are not bachelors living in our own apartments doing our ‘own thing’. We are, as the habit it is our privilege to wear testifies, cenobitic sons of Saint Benedict praying and working according to His Rule in a monastery.
 
By means of that God-given vocation we have a responsibility beyond our responsibility to ourselves that embraces each of our brethren, those who are associated with the monastery—from the faithful who come here regularly or occasionally, to our benefactors and friends throughout the world and also those who look to the monastery from afar through different forms of media for inspiration and encouragement—and to the Church and the world to bear witness to the primacy of God, to the fact that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that there is hope for even the worst of sinners if they will but convert to Christ.
 
This may seem like an awfully large responsibility for a small group of monks who are far from perfect. But let us not forget the Parable of the Mustard Seed. (cf. Mt 13:31-32) We need to do our part. We need to renew our purity of intention and the quality of our observance this Lent. If we do so, the Providence of Almighty God will make use of us in ways we cannot currently foresee according to His plan.
 
This is a great consolation. For in our present times we worry—quite rightly—about many things in the Church and in the world. It seems that much damage is being done to society and to families through the rampant relativism that devours any vestige of objective Truth, and also to the Church, from the Stalinist imposition of what must be frankly called a liturgical apostasy to the official undermining of the integrity of her teaching in respect of faith and morals. There seems to be so very little that we can do in the face of such social and ecclesial disintegration and destruction.
 
But to believe that is to give in to despair. Certainly, we monks are unlikely to be called to head either the Church or the State (even if great reforming Popes have indeed been sons of Saint Benedict in the past). That is not important.
 
What is important is that today, and tomorrow, with our fervour renewed by our Lenten disciplines, we are faithful to our prayer and to our work so that those who come to us physically or who look to us from afar encounter that clarity and witness to the Truth that uplifts, comforts, challenges and even guides and instructs them in their own particular vocation. The precise details of how this happens in others is God’s business, and not usually ours—in this life we do not often see the fruits of our fidelity, which shall be harvested finally only in eternity. But this cannot happen—indeed we can become an obstacle to its happening—if we ourselves are not faithful.
 
In this sacred season, then, as Saint Benedict urges us, let us lead lives of great purity and expiate the negligences of other times, for only in so doing may we hope to make progress in our monastic life and in faith, for our good and for the good of others, and experience that enlargement of our hearts as we run “with unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of God’s commandments,” and in the end be judged to “deserve to be partakers of His Kingdom.” (Prologue) +