The Oblates of Mount Saviour Monastery

Dearest sisters and brothers, Oblates of Mount Saviour; Professed Community members; those in discernment; and friends:

My note is to express deep disappointment at not being able to join you for our annual retreat 2024 in praising God, in “preferring nothing to the love of Christ”; in getting renewed by the Gospels, in silence and contemplation, in the Regula of St. Benedict, and the joyous fellowship of friends, not seen, for several years (but present in prayer, multiple times each day). 

I’m reminded of a line from Sr. Joan Chittister OSB in the Preface to Thomas Merton’s book, The Rule of St. Benedict, (Liturgical Press, 2009): never forget that the Regula’s purpose is, “to fly the soul of the seeker on the backs of the scriptures to the heart of God.” May you have a heavenly flight this Retreat!

By approval of our Prior and the Community, I will renew my Oblation at a service in Chester County, PA, on October 15th, witnessed by my pastor as proxy. 

I will also at that time take a vow to live more deeply, the eremitic life as a Secular Hermit (See footnote below). The latter journey has been a long one, with much discernment. It is steeped in the prayer, “I will allure you, I will lead you into the desert and speak to your heart” Hosea 2:16.

I have been living a semi-eremitic life for a number of years, and although Sts. Benedict and Scholastica founded communities, and there is no universal “Rule” for Benedictine hermits, (or any universal rule for hermits, outside of Canon 603 for Diocesan Eremites) we have a history of both Oblates and Professed, living as such. In fact, young St. Benedict began his quest seeking God, who was waiting at the door of his heart, as a hermit for three years at Subiaco in the Sacro Speco (Holy Cave). “Through that period of solitude…Saint Benedict was able to bring to maturity the charism and the spirituality which would lead him…to found the first monastic communities”(https://monasterosanbenedettosubiaco.it/en/monastery/ ).

As I pray for you, I’d also like to request your prayers for a special intention: that I may be Obedient to the Divine Will in the face of a diagnosis of multiple myeloma (terminal plasma/bone cancer) in December 2023. It actually has been a remarkable gift and blessing, allowing me to share in the passion of Christ, joining Him, my Spouse. I can’t fully express the profound ways this has impacted my spiritual life. 

I believe that Christ invites me to unite my pain with His Passion, which takes on redemptive power, offered for myself, and others, especially in prayer for members of our monastic community. The Apostle Paul puts it nicely, “In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His Body, the Church” (Col 1:22). And he comforts us by writing, in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Cor 1, 5). 

St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter, Salvifici Doloris (Feb 11, 1984), reminds us that we each become sharers in the redemptive suffering of Christ—but “the eloquence of the Cross and death is…completed by the eloquence of the Resurrection.” My prognosis is unclear, however there currently is no cure, just treatments in an attempt to slow the progress of the cancer. I’m at peace that everything is in the hands of the Lord regarding when He will reach out, and I pray that I’ll eagerly reach back and touch the face of God.

I’ll end with two thoughts: 

May those who attend the Oblate Retreat 2024 be filled with great joy, many graces, much love, and leave Mount Saviour alive with the fire of the Gospel, and more fully committed to the holy Rule of St. Benedict. (And those who cannot attend, be gifted by the Holy Spirit with the same fervor.)

And, there seems to be so much suffering and pain in the world, well beyond my diagnosis and condition, that you join St Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) in her wisdom, that those facing war, poverty, homelessness, exile, hunger, sickness, hatred, violence, oppression, revenge, loneliness & despair, and the impacts of climate change, realize: “Pain and suffering [come into life]…but [they are] the kiss of Jesus—a sign that [we have] come so close to Him that He can Kiss [us].”

Pax

Brother Nicholas OblOSB

Footnote:

The Church does not provide one standardized rule of life for all hermits, because it is recognized that each hermit has unique circumstances. A secular/lay hermit, therefore, has freedom to order his or her life so as to be available to God in prayer and daily living, always acknowledging the responsibility to remain firm in his or her intention to live the eremitical life. Each secular hermit writes his or her own Plan of Life (‘Rule’) as a method of nurturing values (prayer, penance, solitude, silence, poverty, chastity, evangelization and charity) that open the soul to greater praise of God and communion with all people. This is done in deep discernment; guided by a spiritual director; and with a well-developed, informed conscience. Some form of withdrawal from the world, in part or whole, is essential. This is not an escape from life or the ills of the world, but rather a calling to deepening communion with God and others through intense prayer, simple living, and sacrifice. Despite its hidden dimension, eremitical life is an ecclesial vocation, one ordered to fortifying the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church. And, as Oblates, we are legislated in Canon Law (702) as “Third Orders,” however, it should be noted that while “Third Orders” are attached to their chapter, Benedictine Oblates are attached to a specific monastic house and canonically are literally considered part of that community.