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Benedictines address the clergy conference |
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 The theme of the clergy conference held in Bundoran in November 2005 was Living and Celebrating Euchariast. The focus of the second day was Spirituality of the Eucharist. It was led by Dom Mark-Ephrem and Brother Thierry, both Benedictine Monks in Rostrevor. It was a tremendously enriching yet challenging day which left the participants asking one another: "Did not our hearts burn within us as they jouneyed with us all day?"
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A Scripture-based Eucharistic spirituality |
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Dom Mark-Ephrem addressed the conference on the theme of a scripture-based Eucharistic spirituality after reading the Emmaus Gospel, Luke 24:13-35.
In that gospel passage we heard Jesus challenging the disciples who walked the Emmaus road. We are told that he went as far as to rebuke them severely. A forewarning! Taking the Emmaus gospel as our guide for today's meeting with you, that is part of what we propose to do: to challenge you.
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Dom Mark-Ephrem's introduction to Bro Thierry's testimony |
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In the Emmaus gospel Jesus came upon the disciples as they walked the road and he journeyed part of the way with them – daring to question and challenge them as they shared together. To Cleopas and his companion, Jesus appeared as a stranger, an outsider, a foreigner.
We are now going to listen to a stranger, an outsider, a foreigner.
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Brother Thierry's Testimory |
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I was born in 1965 in Paris into a very dechristianised family and was only baptised because my Italian grandmother wanted me to be baptised. My parents, both baptised Catholic, did not go to church for their wedding and my younger brother is not baptised. We were however brought up in a very religious atmosphere:
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Dom Mark-Ephrem's epilogue to Bro Thierry's Testimony |
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You have listened to Br. Thierry's story. In the context of our Priests' Gathering I would like to add just one other element. I'd like to refer to the priest he met in the story. For, when that priest came across to Ireland for Br. Thierry's ordination, he explained to me how, when Br. Thierry came knocking on his door, wanting to enter into the communion of the Church, he found himself at a particularly low ebb. He felt completely hopeless. He had been caught in a web of alcohol addiction for a number of years and lived in a quasi-permanent alcoholic mist.
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Bro Thierry's challenge to the conference gathering |
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In the context of our reflection on the Eucharist, the duty now falls on me to challenge you.
In the Rule of St Benedict there is a chapter that deals with the case of a foreign monk who asks to enter into the community. St Benedict envisages two situations:
- Firstly, "if (the foreign monk) disturbs the monastery by superfluous demand (…), if he is found exacting or prone to vice, not only should he be denied membership in the community, but he should even be politely requested to leave."
- But there is a second situation: "if he censures or points out anything reasonably and with the humility of charity, let the Abbot consider whether perhaps it was for that very purpose that the Lord sent him."
I hope, after discernment, that I will fall into the second category. Anyway, be assured that I will try to speak with "the humility of charity".
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Dom Mark-Ephrem: The call to live Eucharistic lives |
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This morning when I spoke to you I quoted in my Talk some lines from the Vatican II Decree on Priestly Ministry, drawing particular attention to the fact that, very significantly, this Teaching Document speaks of the Priest as being first and foremost a Minister of the Word and only after this a Minister of the Eucharist.
I voiced my suspicion that for some this would come as a surprise, for they would probably have seen things the other way round. I began with concentration on the Word – which I claimed to be proper Eucharistic logic. What I propose now is to look at our lives as Servants of the People of God, as Ministers of the Eucharist. This seems to me to be a natural progression.
If I were to give a title to this conference it would be this:
The Call to Live Eucharistic Lives.
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Luke's Gospel depicts Christ joining the two Emmaus travellers with a very clear intention in mind: in the face of all that has troubled them so deeply, His desire is to lead them to understand God's ways in the light of the Sacred Scriptures.
As He guides them through the Bible, explaining everything about Himself in the light of God's inspired Word, they are led to make sense out of the seemingly incomprehensible.
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Dom Mark-Ephrem's guidelines for lectio divina |
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CALL ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
Before you begin to read Scripture, pray to the Holy Spirit to come upon you.
Our God, Father of light, you have sent your Son into the world, the
Word made flesh, to reveal yourself to your human children.
Send your Holy Spirit upon me now, so that I may encounter Jesus Christ
in the Word which comes from you.
May I come to recognise His presence in my life.
Amen.
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