Contemplative Diversion

Sometimes Rick Astley just doesn't cut it, and the musical soul yearns for something a bit more substantial:



Latin text:

Dominus dixit ad me:
Filius meus es tu,
ego hodie genui te.

Ps. Quare fremuerunt gentes:
et populi meditati sunt inania?

v/ Gloria Patri.



English translation:

The Lord hath said to me:
Thou art My Son,
this day have I begotten Thee.

Ps. Why have the Gentiles raged,
and the people devised vain things?

v/ Glory be to the Father.

A Visit to the Monastery

This is the monastery, with one part of the residence completed. The lean-to sheds are surrounding the cloister, or open square which will eventually be surrounded by buildings on all four sides. The crypt chapel is the concrete structure to the right, and it will be the foundation for the church.
Here is a better view of the crypt chapel.
Below are three views of the guest house where we stayed. It is a really cool log cabin house!


After taking these pictures with my cell phone camera, I put it away, since there was no signal out that neck of the woods. So I did not take any pictures of the work, nor did I take a picture of the stream I forded in the 2006 Ford Explorer.


I took two of the Noisykids to a working retreat at Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery at Clear Creek in Oklahoma. Check out their website for a lot of great pictures of the monastery and their property.

We went there last year, as described here in this blog entry. This year, to the disappointment of the boys (and I suspect most of the dads) we did NOT get to clear brush and set it on fire. Instead, we spent the weekend laying electrical wire around what would become pastures for goats or cattle.

I asked one of the brothers for advice to tell my sons if they were considering the religious life. After a few moments, he said, PRAY, THINK ABOUT IT, and LEARN TO RIDE A BICYCLE. Hmmm.

I try to work as long as there is sunlight, but after sunset I tried to get some spiritual time in before collapsing in bed. I went to confession, perused the book store in the Gate House, and got to eat dinner with the monks on Friday night. If you want to read the long version of how meals are served, take a look at the book called The Rule of St. Benedict.

My version of dinner follows: First, the Prior(Head of the Monastery) meets the guests at the door of the refectory(dining room) and washes the hands of the guests. This is a cursory, ceremonial washing, so it behooves the pilgrim to clean under his nails before presenting himself for dinner.

By the way, only men and boys can eat with the monks, as this is an area restricted to men only.

After saying grace, a section of the Rule of St. Benedict is read aloud by a monk who chants throughout the meal. During the meal, the reader chanted the text of one of Pope Benedict XVI's recent audiences. After sitting, food is served to the guests. A word to the wise: eat fast and eat heartily, for an empty plate is whisked away as fast as it is emptied.

The meal started with a soup, and I followed the example I saw last year, where the pilgrim sitting across from me broke pieces of his slice of homemade bread into the soup in order to expedite the consumption of said soup. All of the food was delicious.

After the soup, we were served an omelet, which was a bit too salty for my taste - but then again, I am trying to avoid a lot of salty foods.

Rice pudding followed, and I thought that I should send my wife's recipe for rice pudding to the good monks. I am not a fan of rice pudding, but I do know that no one makes rice pudding like my wife's rice pudding.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of the monks set a plate of some dark things next to my plate. I expected them to be dates, which we had last year with the rice pudding. Instead the plate was filled with knockoff Oreo cookies. I skipped them.

I did drink the lemonade they had at the table rather than the water.

I went to Low Mass Saturday and Sunday morning, and Compline (night prayers) each night. Sitting in the crypt chapel, listening to the monks chant the psalms, gave me a tremendous sense of wonder and joy, realizing that regardless of what is happening in the world, be it death, sorrow, joy, or pain, these monks are there every day praying for our souls.

Advent Day #2: Penance, Prayer, Meditation

Today's Musical Hairshirt requires you to follow the link to YouTube because embedding has been disabled.

Make the journey.

Before you go there, consider praying this prayer for a Latin Mass Community which has outgrown the small chapel they are permitted to use:

"O God, who did restore to the Jews, returning from exile, their beloved temple, hear our prayer.

Grant that we may have a house dedicated to your worship, a church in which You will be glorified.

May it be the house of God, the gate of heaven.

In it may your Divine Life be given in Baptism, Your grace restored in penance, Your Body be received in the Blessed Eucharist, Your strength shared in confirmation, Your family be perpetuated in holy matrimony, the sick healed by the oil of extreme unction.

In it may the words of Your revealed truth be preached.

On its altar may You, the High Priest, again make present Your saving sacrifice.

May its tabernacle be the throne from which you rule.

This we humbly ask through Christ our Lord.

Amen."

While I am at it, please remember to pray for the repose of the souls of three of my friends and colleagues who died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on this day in 1994. I previously posted commentary on this subject here and here.

Wood Chips, Smoke, Diesel, and Sweat

Add to that a little bit of incense.

Happy and Blessed Easter!

Jesus is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

Now that I have celebrated the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I can tell some of the adventures over the past weeks of dadwithnoisykids, and explain the title of this blog entry.

On March 14-16, I went on a retreat of sorts with three of the boy Noisykids. I call it a 'retreat of sorts' because the weekend was more of a service retreat than a spiritual retreat. Still, God works in mysterious ways, and a memorable weekend doing cool boy stuff at a monastery could be the beginnings of a call to the priesthood or religious life.

I still recall participating in a Eucharistic Procession in Visp, Switzerland back in 1973. I think it was the first procession I ever was in. Of course, I recall that as a wonderful experience which certainly did not lead to a religious vocation - unless you consider being the head of a domestic church a religious vocation.

We went to Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery of Clear Creek by Hulbert, Oklahoma. We went to see how the monks live, and to contribute some of our time as service to the monastery. We were part of a group of fathers and sons from our local home school group who traveled from the Dallas area, and the monk in charge of the property told us to bring tools for clearing brush. We spent Saturday clearing brush, piling it in big piles, and setting it on fire. Hog heaven for boys and men alike! I went to bed smelling of wood chips, smoke, diesel, and sweat.

We worked on a wooded slope, turning it into a smooth area to be seeded to make it pasture. We left some of the larger and healthier trees to give it some cover. It reminded me of a book I read about forests, fires and slopes - especially slopes where the fire outran the firefighters.

Young Men and Fire is a book by Norman MacLean about the Mann Gulch Fire in Helena National Forest, Montana. But I don't want to talk about THAT book right now; someday I shall review it.

No, on this retreat weekend, I took the Rule of St. Benedict with me. The Rule of St. Benedict is a list of rules drawn up by the saint on how to run a monastery. It included sections on the characteristics of an abbot(the head of the abbey), material needs of the monks(including a knife), discipline, and rules for when to say the various prayers that fill the day. Along the way, St. Benedict includes good advice for getting along with our peers or superiors - even for those who live in the world.

On Saturday night, we joined the monks for dinner. The dinner began with a tradition which is extended to all guests of the monastery: the abbot, or in this case, the prior, washes the hands of the guests before the meal. I had just read that in the Rule of St. Benedict!

I was also warned that the meal would be very,very brief.

After washing our hands, dinner began with a prayer(Latin) and a reading from the Rule of St. Benedict. Once again, I had just read the chapter on the care for sick monks. After the reading, we sat, and as the monk who was doing the reading began a sermon from Pope Benedict XVI(from L'Osservatore Romano), dinner began.

The first course was a soup which I thought had lentils in it, but my sons told me later there were pieces of potato in it. I guess I did not stir it enough before trying it. Along with the soup we got whole wheat bread - rather plain, but still very good. I love wheat bread.

The second course was a large omelet rolled up and smothered with BARBECUE SAUCE! Now, for a transplanted Texan, everything goes better with either barbecue sauce or salsa. But I couldn't imagine what the predominantly French monks must have thought of the combination. It was delicious.

Dessert consisted of rice pudding and prunes. Yes, I ate prunes.

All of the food was good, and if I were inclined I could have eaten more. As I drank some of the water poured for me by the guest sitting across from me, I suddenly realized what all the banging and clattering was that started with the beginning of the meal. The monks had metal plates, and were eating faster than we were - only they were not enjoying the same three courses that we had. As I finished my prunes, I realized that the monks seemed to be wiping their plates clean. After dinner grace was chanted in Latin, and we were escorted out of the refectory. As we left, my sons saw some monks sitting back down to eat. I explained to them that those were the monks who served while the rest were at table, and I told them how St. Benedict's rule stipulated that the reader during meals was to drink some dilute wine before dinner to sustain him.

One of the priests showed us around parts of the monastery, and showed us the model for completed monastery. It was sitting on the floor, and I almost backed up and stepped on it. Perhaps my boot heel mark would have been incorporated into the final design of the church.

The Masses - Low and High

Saving the best for last, I must describe the Mass. On Saturday morning, we attended the Low Mass - all 8 of them. With six side altars, and two altars in the Crypt Chapel(the rest of the church is still under construction), the monks split up and celebrated Mass at all of these locations. Beautiful. Mass was in Latin, and I followed along in the Mass books which were provided. There were some times when I was not sure what to do, such as when the priest to my immediate left elevated the Precious Body while the priest at the main altar was still saying the prayers of consecration. I ended up acknowledging Our Lord each time He was elevated.

Palm Sunday High Mass was 2.5 hours long - something to consider when bringing the whole Noisykid gang to the monastery. Even I, stoic dadwithnoisykids, was whining around the end of Mass. But it was a beautiful Mass, complete with the Passion of Our Lord chanted in Latin. Once again, the books provided by the monks helped those of us who 'no habla Latin' to follow.

I could go on describing the good time we had on this weekend - the prayers of the Liturgy of the Hours were wonderful - but your time would be better served looking at the website they have. I hope to take the whole family up to Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery of Clear Creek soon, and I recommend it to you, also.

I wrote a note to the Prior, and I mentioned that I hope that this weekend started the seed of a religious vocation. I figure that God used a burning bush to call Moses, so perhaps a pile of brush burning in the hills of Oklahoma may have the same effect on some of my children.

Now, lets see what I got in my Easter basket:

The Latin Mass

Father is gearing up for celebrating the Tridentine Mass. Right now he is preparing by studying and praying as well as taking some time off to learn the way the Mass is said. He has some knowledge of the Latin Mass, since he celebrates the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, but he a way to go.

We have to prepare as well. Specifically, we need to learn the Mass as it was said way back when I was just a little Noisykid myself.

There are a few references I will be looking at and putting on the sidebar soon:

St. John Cantius in Chicago. In addition to celebrating the Tridentine Mass, they rescue religious articles which have been discarded.

SanctaMissa.org is an online tutorial for priests for the Mass according to the 1962 Missale Romanum. This put together by St. John Cantius in Chicago.

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. This order runs tutorial retreats for priests who wish to learn the Tridentine Mass. Father spent a week with them last month.

This is an exciting time in the Church, especially when one compares the translation of the prayers from the Tridentine Mass to those of the Novus Ordo. It is comparing night to day. The Roman Sacristan is a good blog to compare the new prayers with the literal translations.