Editor's Note

December 2, 2024

The phrase “opening doors” carries familiar literal and figurative meanings. The play between those two meanings takes on a Christian sense in the Jubilee Year practice of the Holy Door, and as Br. Sixtus suggested to the oblates, we remember that Christ Himself is “the Gate” and “the Way.” The physical Holy Door connects us to a spiritual opening. So too can the phrase “opening words” suggest a double sense – the words with which we begin, and the words that render accessible a new reality. Words are front and center in our articles this week – in discussion of “jubilees”, in poetry, and in the question of the vernacular in the liturgy. I was grateful to Brother Sixtus for prompting some of my own reading about John Fandel, as well as of his poetry. I remember well Fr. Ambrose passing on to me his poem about Portsmouth as suited to a School Song, though I knew little of the man, his connection to Portsmouth, nor his prayerfulness. I did find that his poem lent itself readily to a melody. I noticed in one of the testimonies given on Legacy that John’s spoken voice had a musical quality to it. We also hear in this issue the voice of his superior while at Portsmouth, Aelred Graham, who addresses the words of liturgy. Graham was himself extraordinarily gifted, and we hear in the brief reflection reproduced here of his own interest in prayer and meditation. Perhaps we should rediscover his interest in teaching the youth how to meditate – which perhaps moves at counterpoint to Fandel’s poetry, seeking to remove ourselves from the word rather than to craft it. Though both of their endeavors, we must note after all, are in service only to the Word. Advent opens a new year for us in that service. May its words, heard with “the ear of the heart,” open doors of holiness through which may all may pass.

Pax,
Blake Billings

November 18, 2024

Our final issue of November is also our final issue of the liturgical year, as we anticipate the season of Advent. Our first article gathers some of the reflections offered during the month and reminds us of some of those we have been remembering. The homily of Abbot Michael that we include calls us to consider the meaning of the apocalyptic and eschatological readings we consider as the year ends. And the “voice” of Fr. Paschal Scotti that we hear reminds us, through his study of Galileo, of some of the history that has shaped us and of our need to understand it more fully, in all of its complexities. We encounter the spectrum of grief and of hope, of end times and beginnings, of our past and our present. It is that time of year. And our secular calendar obliges this week, providing Americans with the reminder of thanksgiving, which in Catholic parlance we sometimes call “eucharist.” May the harvest that holiday celebrates remind us of the Greater Harvest, in its eschatological dimensions as in its manifestation to us in the present moment.

Thanks for reading,
Blake Billings

November 12, 2024

While we speak of Knights in the issue’s first article, we also can note those “knights” we remembered on Monday, November 11. The day included for us involved in the School a tribute to our veterans, as well as a commemoration of fallen heroes, particularly those who were alumni of the School. Dr. Bryndol Sones, a member of the School’s faculty and a graduate of West Point, led the ceremonies. We also include in this issue a homily from Fr. Edward Mazuski that references a game with its own knightly figures, a game that invites us to “Journey to the kingdom of Hyrule and discover the timeless battles between good and evil and the secrets of the all-powerful Triforce” (according to its website). And our third article leads us to remember one of the heroes of our faculty, Donald McGuire, whose contributions have been enduringly commemorated in the Fine Arts Center bearing his name. These events and articles all connect well to our month of commemorations, of souls and of saints. May they lead us to the Sacred Chivalry – one that we will more perfectly learn if we follow that basic advice from Navi of “Legend of Zelda,” as well from Benedict of the Rule, and “Listen” more attentively to discern our own role in that “timeless battle.”

Pax,
Blake Billings

November 6, 2024

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, as Abbot Michael reminds us, proposed a “Little Way” to saintliness. Still, unfortunately, she did not propose an “Easy Way.” Her illness, her struggles of faith, her relationships with those within her own community – these offered blessings that often were in the form of hardships. As this country, and indeed the entire globe, move through a difficult period of political divisiveness and disparagement, we often find such basics as forgiveness, mutual respect, and community spirit elusive. It is perplexing to remember that within the span of our country’s history, these very grounds were literally a battlefield in which considerable blood was shed. We hear in this issue from the voice of one who experienced it within his very home, a building that still stands. We also remember – as our liturgical calendar provokes us to, and as Abbot Michael’s homilies here address – those who have gone before us, saintly and not so saintly. With our election “campaign” now over, the “church militant” still must remember what “the fight” is about. Amidst all of this, our life still goes on, our prayer continues, and we keep updating the updates from whatever time remains for us. May Our Lady, Queen of Peace, intercede for us and illuminate our path.

Pax,
Blake Billings

October 29, 2024

Taking our cue from Bishop Henning, who first greeted the extended Portsmouth Abbey community with a homily highlighting his love of surfing, let us hang ten with this week’s issue. This may be particularly appropriate given Br. Sixtus’ relationship with the diocese of the Ocean State, as he reports in our first article. Himself riding the waves of a growing engagement with diocesan events, he notes that Bishop Henning seems to have caught a big one, making his way north out of Providence to the Archdiocese of Boston. Fr. Gregory, meanwhile, interprets Christ’s reference to “casting fire upon the earth” as referring, in a way, to the “breadth and length and height and depth” of that wave of God’s love, the grace imparted through his Son. Thirdly, we can see the significance of November 21, the “Dies Memorabilis”, in the ripple effect it has scattered across centuries of Benedictine life. The wavelets of our community's first inhabitation, its independence, and the construction of its church get caught up in the ongoing swells. We are happy to report all of this “breaking” news, and cannot but note how well it fits a journal known as The Current.

Pax,
Blake Billings