Editor's Note

January 22, 2024

My own relationship with the Manquehue Movement reaches back to 2010, when I was appointed Director of Spiritual Life for the School. This role placed me in the center of the growing relationship with the movement of our monastery and school and led to several visits to Chile, including a trip to the San José retreat center in Patagonia. It was impossible to not be inspired by the Movement’s spiritual vitality. A closer look also revealed its deep rootedness in a devotion to Scripture, and in the spirit and documents of the magisterium of the church. A still deeper encounter continued to make manifest its embrace of the Rule of Saint Benedict. I was blessed to find myself in the middle of our community’s friendship with Manquehue, both spiritually and personally. If I can point to the Ampleforth Lourdes pilgrimage to discern the beginning of a daily devotion to the rosary, I can point to the Manquehue Movement to discern the beginning of a daily practice of lectio divina. Our articles this week include personal testimony from Matías Grand and from our own Brother Sixtus Roslevich, concerning the impact of the Movement on their own lives. I can surely affirm this from my own experience, with much gratitude.

Peace,
Blake Billings

January 15, 2024

The “Love of Learning” has emerged as emblematic of monastic life, reflected in St. Benedict’s emphasis on reading and supported by centuries of monastic culture. The theme of learning resonates with Delphi’s motto, “Know Thyself.” The theme of love calls to mind the commandment of Christ: “Love the Lord your God; Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our articles this week trace journeys of love and learning. Abbot Michael’s reflection on the Wallendas offers the high-wire as a metaphor for growing in the spiritual journey, both individually and collectively. Our brief exploration of some of the journey of Br. Benedict highlights for us the interconnectedness he has found in education and discernment. Br. Sixtus retraces some of his own journey, not only of the past months, but of their connectedness to experiences some fifty years earlier. They speak of a learning that is not just about content. It is also about conscience, it is also about vocation, and it is also about love. Our own journeys may be circuitous, or long in distance, or even may resemble a high-wire act. But, with faith, we trust that the “love of learning” may also mean the “learning of love.”

Peace,
Blake Billings

January 10, 2024
 

November “gifts”

We may find the epiphany of every day which Abbot Michael’s homily highlights to contain a high degree of consternation and confusion as, he notes, did the original revelations to the Magi. He reminds us of the presence today of war and killing in the land traversed by the Magi on their way to the Christ. Br. Sixtus reminds us of a young saint brutally martyred, and we include in this issue commemorations following the loss of two loved ones of this community, Aelred Graham and Aelred Wall. How does the birth of Christ lead us now to consider death? I am led again (and again) to that query of Eliot’s words: “…I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were  different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.” My own Christmas season this year was shaped by the loss of a beloved family member. My father-in-law passed on Christmas Day, and it so happened we made his Final Commendation at his  funeral Mass on the twelfth day of Christmas, the traditional Epiphany. Every day an epiphany. Every death the loss of a loved one. I was led to consider our November offerings in the “casket” placed on our altar with the names of our deceased dearly loved ones. It evoked for me the precious gifts offered to the Infant by the wanderers from the East – the precious ones we offer in our prayer, in our loss. And the Infant, the one who comes into the world, is to die that we might live. Hidden there, yet manifest, wrapped within our “hard and bitter agony” of death – the birth of hope.

Peace,
Blake Billings

January 1, 2024

Christmas is associated for us with a range of vivid images. These are easy to visualize – the tree, the star, the manger, the wrapped presents, the candles in windows. The list continues, each element evocative of a season, a time, a hope. While this array of imagery easily conjures our sense of Christmas, it is also a season in which many realize how much they have taken for granted. Our inner Ebenezer Scrooge may again awaken, wondering if it is yet not too late to make amends. Our articles this week speak to me of such thoughts, offering a new look at some things I have been taking for granted. Abbot Michael prompts a reflective pause reminding us of the omnipresent yet little-appreciated “Merry” we attach to this season. Brother Sixtus calls to our attention the artistry of Fr. Chris, one of our own community, whose photography has become part of the woodwork in various locations here. And a brief listing of programs from the Portsmouth Institute makes one newly aware of its remarkable growth and its many rich and creative offerings. These make me imagine how I might recalibrate the lens, reexamine the viewfinder, reframe the perspective – what else have I overlooked? May 2024 be for you such an opportunity to rediscover the gifts that have already and for so long been surrounding you.

Peace,
Blake Billings