New Camaldoli Hermitage

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1 a quarterly newsletter Camaldolese Monks, OSB New Camaldoli Hermitage Summer 2014 Vol. 20, Issue Highway 1, Big Sur, CA Brother Gabriel and Father Thomas Celebrate 50 Years Father Thomas Matus and Brother Gabriel Kirby outside the chapel at New Camaldoli. Brother Gabriel Kirby was born in 1930 into a distinguished Catholic family of Los Angeles. One of his late sisters was a Good Shepherd sister, and another is a Carmelite nun. He received a BA in Geography, and completed everything for an MA except for writing his thesis. He then traveled extensively, at one point he traveling through Kenya, Africa, hitch-hiking wherever he could with a 40 lb. pack on his back. Gabriel then came to the Hermitage in 1962 when the community was just beginning, and made his first profession in Through the years he has served the community in so many generous ministries, including sacristan and secretary to the Chapter, doing the town trip for many years, washing and ironing altar linens and audio recording. Brother Gabriel is an artist who has delighted many with his gifted paintings in oil and water color, his deeply religious poetry and other spiritual writing, music, and photography. Gabriel was one of the first monks of New Camaldoli to participate in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and still participates annually in the major Charismatic meetings in California. He likes to point out that he sees no conflict between that and his contemplative monastic life. In honor of his 50th anniversary he just returned from a pilgrimage to Italy where he participated in the International Charismatic Convention in Rome with his Carmelite sister, where they both met with Pope Francis. He then visited our Camaldolese communities of San Gregorio in Rome, the Sacro Eremo and Monastero of Camaldoli and the tomb of Saint Romuald in Fabriano. We know Gabriel to be a humble and faithful man devoted to the Lord in prayer and scripture, and it is a joy to worship and minister with him daily here at New Camaldoli. Brother Gabriel said of himself that becoming a monk was the last thing in the world he ever wanted to do, but God changed all that in an instant. Now, he says, it is the last thing he will ever do unless God is still full of surprises. Father Thomas Matus was born in Hollywood, California in 1942, and his parents raised him to be, to use the modern parlance, spiritual-not-religious. But in 1951 he saw the movie Quo Vadis, and afterwards felt a strong need to be baptized, and was so on Easter Sunday in 1952 at a Baptist Sunday School. Thomas discovered monasticism and contemplative life by reading the Autobiography of a Yogi in 1954 and was initiated into Kriya Yoga in 1958 while attending college as a Music major. But in 1960 he realized that the Catholic Church was to be his guru and so he received the Sacraments of Christian initiation in Shortly thereafter Thomas visited the newly-founded Camaldolese Hermitage, which he entered the following year. From then on Fr. Thomas has had a storied career as a Camaldolese monk. He lived for many years at the Monastery of Camaldoli, but has also resided in India and Brazil as well as California. From 1967 to 1972 he studied ecumenical theology at Sant Anselmo in Rome; from 1972 to1976 he was at Fordham University, where he wrote his Ph.D dissertation, the well-known and beloved Yoga and the Jesus Prayer Tradition. He was then back at Camaldoli where he began composing music for the Italian Camaldolese Psalter, and taught Hindu and Buddhist monasticism in Rome. During this era he also made his first of many trips to India. He was back at New Camaldoli in the early 1980s where he began work on the English version of the Camaldolese Psalter. He served on the General Council of the congregation from 1999 to 2005, and also served two terms as a consultant for the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. After that he made several trips to our community in Brazil, shoring up that small presence, and since 2006 he has been full time back in the US, residing at Incarnation Monastery, Berkeley, teaching courses on history, spirituality and interreligious dialogue at the Jesuit School of Theology. Fr. Thomas is also often back with us in Big Sur, of which he himself says, Every grace and gift that came to me since I entered then have been thanks to my vows at New Camaldoli Hermitage. dd

2 2 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Norbert: If You Love Me You Will Feed My Sheep I have a special affection for Saint Norbert, partially because I was ordained on his feast day (June 6 th ), but also because he is a fascinating figure born in a fascinating era in Church and monastic history. In my favorite book on monastic history (Medieval Monasticism by C. H. Lawrence), Norbert is written about in the same chapter as our Saint Romuald, entitled The Quest for the Primitive. This was an era in the Church, the first centuries of the 2 nd millennium, when a great many reforms and experiments were happening in monasticism. The Church s liturgy only recognizes Norbert as a bishop, but he was a hermit, a preacher, a wanderer as well as a canon, to prove yet again that there are all kinds of monks! For many years now I ve been particularly fascinated with the dynamic between the active and the contemplative life, the opposition and even the false dilemma that we often place between the two in Christianity. I ve been reading a series of articles from the 1950s by our Fr. Benedetto Calati entitled simply Vita attiva e vita contemplativa The Active Life and the Contemplative Life, in which he is trying to show that from the beginning of our own Camaldolese tradition it was assumed that there was really no opposition between the two, as long as we always return to the source, to the contemplative. And he traces the lineage of Blessed Rudolf, the first prior of Camaldoli who wrote the early Constitutions, and Saint Peter Damian of Fonte Avellana back to their sources in Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory the Great. This is not to say that there is no place for the purely contemplative life, but to say that even we contemplative hermit monks still need to be reminded from time to time, as do all Christians, that no follower of Jesus is exempt from following both of the two great commandments, to love God and to love neighbor. And we hear it again in the Gospel reading that we had on the feast of Norbert (Jn 21:15-19), which this year fell on Friday of the 7 th Week of Easter: If you love me, feed my sheep. If we love God, then we must manifest that in charity. We had been hearing for days and days from the final discourse of Jesus in the Gospel of John; then suddenly we switched and were listening in on Jesus conversation with Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after his resurrection. It s as if two days before the end of the Easter season we get our marching orders. No follower of Jesus is exempt from this: If you love me, feed my sheep! Tend my flock! For someone like Thomas Aquinas the highest form of life isn t the contemplative life or the active life, but action that flows from contemplation; contemplation should always resolve itself in some kind of apostolic zeal. In some way Saint Norbert is emblematic of the dynamic tension between the active and the contemplative lives. He started out as a secular canon in the cathedral in Xanten in Germany, but fled from the comfort and benefices of that life into solitude, Prior Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam. When we make ourselves available to the Spirit, there is a chance that we will be taken where we do not want to go and asked to do something that we did not have on our five-year plan. and spent several years alternating between hermit and preacher (a form of life that might look very tempting to a Camaldolese monk!). It s like two out of our three-fold good solitude and evangelization but he was missing one thing community. It s one thing to be a charismatic wandering preacher or a visiting celebrity; it s a whole other thing to live a life of charity next door to someone for 20, 30, 50 years, and sit next to them in choir each day when the act has worn thin. Norbert was given the chapel at a place called Prémontré in France and soon enough disciples gathered around him, both lay men and women as well as clergy. Norbert formed them into a group of hermits and preachers, very much in his own mold. And so the order of Prémonstratensians grew up, named, like us, after the place. The life he designed for them was a combination of community life organized around the ideal of ascetical poverty with a ministry of evangelical missionary preaching. This is before the days of the mendicant orders, and in a way Norbert was prescient of the Franciscans and the Dominicans in his longing for both evangelical poverty and evangelization. Eventually Norbert was called on to be the bishop of Magdeburg back in Germany, and became more and more absorbed in missionary activity. It is his successor Hugh de Fosses who is credited with being the real architect of the order. But whereas Norbert based his original concept for himself and his disciples on the Rule of Augustine, Hugh leaned a little more heavily on the Cistercians, especially the customs of the great abbey of Cluny, meaning less on the pastoral aspect and more on the monastic. It s sometimes said about Mother Teresa that she had a vocation within a vocation. Well, Norbert himself seemed to have a vocation within a vocation within a vocation: from canon to hermitpreacher to monk to bishop. We, corporately and individually, are always looking for convenient categories for our vocations: contemplative/ active, Rule of Benedict/Rule of Augustine but it doesn t always work out that neatly. As Walt Whitman said, we contain multitudes. In some way our own charism of the three-fold good commu- The quarterly newsletter is published by the Camaldolese Hermits of America for our friends, oblates, and sponsors. Editors: Father Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam., Brother Bede Healey, OSB Cam., Deborah Smith Douglas, Oblate OSB Cam. Public Relations & Design: Susan Garrison If you have questions or comments about this publication, please address them to: New Camaldoli Hermitage Highway 1, Big Sur, CA (831) Fax: (831) monks@contemplation.com or visit us on the web at:

3 3 Norbert Continued from page 2 ity, solitude and evangelization is a kind of universal archetype, and that is what makes it so attractive. You see it at work in the Norbertines too in their first hour. Practically speaking, though, it is always very hard to hold it all together, as Prémonstratensians had a hard time, as we Camaldolese have historically had a hard time holding even just the tension of the solitary and the communal life together. Perhaps that s because it s so easy to see any of these three elements as ends in and of themselves solitude, community, or evangelization. But the end isn t any of those: the end is absolute availability to God; the end is to be filled with the Holy Spirit; the end is not my will but yours be done. And that too is pointed out in the same Gospel passage at the Sea of Galilee: When you were younger, Jesus says to Peter, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. John tells us that this signified the kind of death that Peter would die; yes, but not necessarily physical death. When we make ourselves available to the Spirit, there is a chance that we will be taken where we do not want to go and asked to do something that we did not have on our five-year plan. That s a very real kind of death too. I remember Richard Rohr s teaching about Jonah in this regard. We can try to go where we think we should go or where we want to go, but be careful! We might just get tossed in the sea and swallowed by a whale, and that whale will spit us up where God really wants us. And that sign of Jonah, too is of course a sign of dying and rising. Sometimes we have to die to our plans in order to do God s will. Look at our Saint Peter Damian, who exuberates about the glories of the eremitical and monastic life in honor of Saint Romuald, and then ends up as a cardinal and a reformer. When he is challenged as to why a monk, who is supposed to be dead to the world, should be telling secular clergy what to do, he says that s exactly why: because we re dead to the world! And there is this wonderful quote of Abbot John Chapman that I ran into, of all places, in Aldous Huxley s Perennial Philosophy, that I find very humorous: I wish I could join the solitaries of Caldey instead of being the superior and having to write books. But I don t wish to have what I wish, of course. That s a death too, a martyrdom of sorts, the community belonging that sometimes calls for sacrificing one s own plans and will if it s what the Spirit wills for Prayer Schedule Weekdays: 5:30 am Vigils 7:00 am Lauds 11:30 am Eucharist 6:00 pm Vespers Sundays and Solemnities: 5:30 am Vigils 7:00 am Lauds 11:00 am Eucharist 5:00 pm Vespers the greater good. Not my will but yours be done. With Saint Norbert, we pray for the grace to love Jesus so much as to be willing to be carried off even to where we do not want to go, to what we do not want to do, that our life with Christ would bear fruit in charity and evangelical zeal. from the pages of Vita Monastica This is excerpted from an article that appeared in 1947 in our Italian journal on the monastic life. In it don Anselmo Giabbani is quoting and commenting on chapter 44 of The Book of the Eremitical Rule attributed to Blessed Rudolf, Prior General of the Camaldolese Congregation from 1152 to Silence is the purification of the soul, the shining of the mind, purity Art by Michela Petoletti of heart. Then the evil forces are quiet in us, then sin stops prevailing, then lack of moderation no longer rages in the spirit, when grace is affirmed in us in the continual exercise of virtue and in the daily fidelity to the strong and constant action of the Spirit in our soul. At first, no: it is the raging of human activity dominated by sin that agitates us and prevails, and then there is no silence of the flesh and the mind even if there is some exterior silence. But what good is it to keep quiet with the tongue, if one s life or conscience is in tempest? What good is there in keeping silence with the mouth and having a tumult of vices in actions or in the mind? The contemplative life is fullness of life: fullness of divine life in which the soul participates, fullness of virtue, fullness of holy works, an exercise of supernatural works with the thought, with the will, with the heart. The hermit who does not possess this fullness of spiritual life might be able to live in the hermitage and call oneself a hermit but will not really be a hermit. Silence that does not have this positive content is insignificant silence, dead and deadly! Deadly, that is, because capable of leading to death, of killing a soul by isolating it from those actions which could occupy it in a holy manner, isolating it from society that could instruct it, from the contact that could enrich it spiritually Monastic and eremitic silence is not a privation of words or a negation of works; it is rather the prevailing in the soul of supernatural action by the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. Contemplation supposes and requires silence of work, silence of the tongue, silence of the heart or, rather, a training in the virtues. Otherwise solitude turns into an occasion of sin and flattens itself into a shapeless and insignificant life.

4 4 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Editors note: we will be publishing extracts from this and other essays by Pico Iyer and other friends of the Hermitage in coming issues of the newsletter. In this first extract, Pico describes a universal longing we all share, perhaps, regardless of our tradition and location, for places that remind us of what is true beyond our limited vision and experience. Chapels When I look back on my life, the parts that matter and sustain me, all I see is a series of chapels. They may be old or young, cracked brown or open space; they may be lectures or afterthoughts, hidden corners of a city or deserted spaces in the forest. They are as variable as people. But like people they have a stillness at the core of them which makes all discussion of high and low, East and West, you and me dissolve. Bells toll and toll and I lose all sense of whether they are chiming within me or without. The first time I was asked to enter a New York office building for a job interview twenty-eight years ago I gathered myself, in all senses, in St. Patrick s, and knew that it would put everything I was about to face (a company, a new life, my youthful ambitions) into place. It was the frame that gave everything else definition. Ever since, I ve made it my practice to step into the great thronged space whenever I return to the city, to remind myself of what is real, what is lasting, before giving myself to everything that isn t. A chapel is the biggest immensity we face in our daily lives, Universal Longing Reminds Us of Truth Photo by Debi Lorenc unless we live in a desert or in the vicinity of the Grand Canyon. A chapel is the deepest silence we can absorb, unless we stay in a cloister. A chapel is where we allow ourselves to be broken open as if we were children again, trembling at home before our parents. Whenever I fly, I step into an airport chapel. The people there may be sleeping, reading, praying, but all of them are there because they want to be collected. When I go to San Francisco, I stay across from Grace Cathedral, and visit it several times a day, to put solid ground underneath my feet. So much of our time my time at least is spent running from ourselves (or hiding from the world); a chapel brings us back to the source, in ourselves and in the larger sense of self (as if there were a difference). Look around you. Occasional figures are exploring their separate silences; the rich and the poor are hard to tell apart, with heads bowed. Light is diffused and general; when you hear voices, they are joined in a chorus or reading from a holy book. The space at the heart of the Rothko Chapel is empty, and that emptiness is prayer and surrender. In 1929 the BBC decided to start broadcasting live silence in memory of the dead instead of just halting their transmission for two minutes every day; it was important, it was felt, to hear the rustle of papers, the singing of birds outside, an occasional cough. As a BBC spokesman put it, with rare wisdom, silence is a solvent which destroys personality and gives us leave to be great and universal. Permits us, in short, to be who we are and could be if only we had the openness and trust. A chapel is where we hear something and nothing, ourselves and everyone else, a silence that is not the absence of noise but the presence of something much deeper: the depth beneath our thoughts. A chapel is where you can hear something beating below your heart. Adapted, with permission, from an essay by Pico Iyer originally published in Portland Magazine, in its Winter 2010 issue.

5 contemplation.com ~ 5 Lectio Divina: A Sapiential Approach to Scripture We are not looking for academic knowledge in our practice of Lectio Divina, but a whole new way of knowing, of encounter. Our Fr. Bruno is famous for naming it a sapiential approach to scripture. Note how in this section from his book The Future of Wisdom Bruno nurses out a new meaning from this well-known Pauline text. (CC) Sapiential theology has not avoided the flight from Incarnation into super-structures, ascending ladders, conceptual containers, and mediatory dualism. The antidote for this hereditary malady has been ever near at hand in the New Testament: in the life and teaching of Jesus and of Paul. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God s weakness is stronger than human strength. (1 Cor 1:17-25) Christian wisdom reduces itself to Jesus Christ this bodily human being who is divine and his cross: the physical death of this human being at the center of humanity, history, and cosmos. The mystery of Christ in its actuality is known as one finds oneself at the central point of the cross and Paul vividly describes his life in this place of the cross. Wisdom is loving faith, and Christian faith is the dark knowing of embodied light, of incarnation. Wisdom, as faith, is union, identity with Christ. (from The Future of Wisdom, 51-52) Al-Mujib* There was a time I asked For specific things, lithe As we all are in the long Prime of inexperience Then I asked for what You thought might be good As if good and thinking even Enter your vast, unknowable knowing Now I ask for silence Stillness, space, submission To hear the unsayable simmer To sense, since that is all we can do Its quiet sinewing into being Aaron Maniam *In Islam, al-mujib is one of the 99 attributes of beautiful names of God found in the Qur an, meaning Fulfiller of Promises. Photo by Debi Lorenc

6 6 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage Our Camaldolese presence in California now stretches from Berkeley through Big Sur all the way down to San Luis Obispo with the beginning of this new phase with the Monastery of the Risen Christ. Please remember our brothers of these two communities which are affiliated with New Camaldoli. At Incarnation Monastery, Fr. Andrew Colnaghi is the prior administrator with Fr. Thomas, Fr. Arthur, and Bro. Ivan Nicoletto who is on an extended stay with us from Italy. In San Luis Obispo, Fr. Daniel Manger is the prior s representative, along with Fr. Ray, Fr. Stephen, and Bro. Michael. Ordinary Time at Incarnation Fr. Andrew Colnaghi, OSB Cam. Our days at Incarnation Monastery have been characterized by an abundance of hospitality. The liturgical celebrations for Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost were all extremely well attended by guests and oblates. With the cycle of Pentecost, we now enter into the time of the Spirit and the slower pace of Ordinary Time with its beautiful, eternally green color. Berkeley itself is very quiet with the absence of students. We are using this period to renew ourselves and to create a more low-keyed rhythm of life. Our oblates recently organized a picnic after Sunday Eucharist to honor Leonard and Rosanna Capozzi, who were married on June 26th. On June 14, we also enjoyed a Silent Day of prayer led by oblates Marty Badgett and Billy McLennan. This was our largest group to date with 21 people in attendance. We now look forward to our pilgrimage to Camaldolese Italy in September. These are the two houses that make up Incarnation Monastery: on the left is the spirituality and retreat center, on the right the monks residence. Please consider remembering us when making or revising your will. Our official name is: Camaldolese Hermits of America Our federal ID # is: Photo by Debi Lorenc News from Monastery of the Risen Christ Fr. Ray Roh, OSB It has been six months since Fr. Daniel joined us to assist in the transition of our monastery to the Camaldolese Congregation. Under his leadership, we are making good progress. All of us have spent some time at the Hermitage, starting with my two weeks in January. Br. Michael spent a month and a half there after that to do ongoing formation. Fr. Steve spent the month of May doing two days a week of teaching for those in formation. Over the Easter Triduum, all of us were blessed to spend those days with the Monks at the Hermitage. Here at the Monastery of the Risen Christ we have started to have several events for the public, including a workshop by Fr. Jim Nisbet on the Song of Songs and a packed house for a workshop on non-violent communication. Plans are in the offing for a July 5th All Oblate Day for the oblates from our monastery as well as the Camaldolese oblates. Fr. Steve is working to bring our oblates back together, hoping for an eventual merger with the Camaldolese Oblates. More events are coming up and will be announced on our website. Thanks to the generosity of several donors, and the work of volunteers, our three hospitality suites are ready to go. Some needed plumbing work has to be completed before we are finally up and running. Information on booking hospitality rooms for personal retreats and other information on the Monastery of the Risen Christ can be found on our new website monasteryrisenchrist.com. Our Bookstore and Gift Shop is now open with a new look with lots of books and other items, though the times are still restricted. One can gain access, however, by stopping at the main house. We now have a nice hiking trail up the mountain and some seating there to enjoy the view. We appreciate people stopping by and letting us know they will be hiking. The monks here, along with the oblates and volunteers, have been working very hard to beautify the grounds. We all are striving to make our monastery viable again. We are grateful to Fr. Daniel for his leadership and hard work, and to Fr. Cyprian and all the monks at New Camaldoli for their love and support. We welcome you to our daily Mass at 11 AM and, if you as so inclined, to our other prayers services. Our Chapel is open from 6 AM until 6:30 PM each day. Come and join us!

7 contemplation.com ~ 7 We ve started a new initiative at New Camaldoli called Ora et Labora: Contemplative Immersion Program. It is geared toward the several young men who come our way and want to stay with us and make some sense out of God s call for them. Our idea is that immersing oneself in the rhythm of the monastic life is itself a formative experience. The men who have been through the program so far have found it extremely enriching, and have also been an exceptional gift to us. If you are or know of a young man who might be interested please contact Brother Ignatius, ignatiustully@gmail.com. The following article was written by one of the recent participants. Ora et Labora Reflections Hunter Link Benedictine spirituality has a beautiful way of synthesizing the outer and the inner life, summed up in the motto: ora et labora, Latin for pray and work. My desire to understand this synthesis drew me to apply for the newly created Ora et Labora program at New Camaldoli. Over the last few months, I have had the incredible privilege of participating in the lives of the monks, and experiencing firsthand the day-to-day realities of the Camaldolese Benedictine monastic vocation. One monk aptly termed the program an opportunity for temporary monasticism. I came to learn about the monastic vocation and was humbled by what I found. True to the Benedictine motto, I prayed with the monks, chanting the psalms with them every day. And of course, I worked, doing everything from housekeeping to cleaning the chapel to preparing meals. A highlight was Holy Week, when I was asked to assist in the rich liturgical celebration of the Triduum. This was the culmination of my time here, a concrete realization of work and prayer flowing together in one stream. The monastic ideal of constant prayer is achieved if you approach polishing the chapel floor, rehearsing for Easter Sunday Mass, or reciting the psalms at 5:30 in the morning with the same inner attitude of love. Easier said than done! The program also included a light course of study, with readings ranging from The Rule of St. Benedict to modern psychological texts on the spiritual life. Importantly, the Ora et Labora program is not a vocation discernment program: I entered with the understanding that I wasn t formally discerning monastic life. I found this extremely helpful. Since I wasn t constantly evaluating the community for long-term compatibility, I was free to simply be and let the depth of the monastic rhythms wash over me. Of course, the opportunity for more intentional discernment is always available, as the novice master was sure to remind me as we washed dishes together. I could fill several spiral-bound notebooks about the lessons I ve learned (right now, I m at three-and-a-half): a deeper appreciation for liturgy, a new understanding of healthy monastic solitude, the necessity of a daily prayer practice... The most important take away for me, however, was simply the joy of seeing fraternal love in action. The unmistakable bond of brotherhood among the monks and the human realness of their efforts to build a common life are a sign post for the Kingdom. New Camaldoli offers a concrete and sincere example of a way to respond to Christ s love. I am deeply, deeply indebted to the hospitality and openness of the monks, as well as to the generosity of the benefactors who made the program possible. Now, my challenge is to pay it forward, to bring Camaldolese Benedictine spirituality to my life in the world, to apply the lessons I ve learned. My time on this mountain has been sheer gift: pray that I can pass it along! A Celebration of Camaldolese Spirituality In Light of Evangelii Gaudiam The breeze was cool and the sun shone brightly, high in the Los Gatos redwoods, as 50 oblates and friends rekindled old friendships and made new ones during the annual New Camaldoli Oblate retreat from May 9-11, 2014, at Presentation Retreat and Conference Center. The retreat included a keynote address by our prior, Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, on the New Evangelization as seen through the lens of Camaldolese Benedictine spirituality. Fr. Cyprian engaged the Oblates with reflections on the need for a spirituality based upon the Resurrection. He recounted the necessity of beginning to live as if we inhabited a new heaven and a new earth and to live as Resurrection people in between Easter and that final day when God will be all in all. Fr. Cyprian called us to be a people of hope in action while we wait for Lord s Second Coming as we are now Jesus hands and his feet and are called to be his light for the world! In specifically monastic terms, he spoke of the inner face and outer face of our distinctive spirituality and how we are called to live out both ideals in the primacy of love as either professed monks or as Oblates. The main focus of the retreat was continuing the work that was begun in 2013 at the Asilomar Retreat and Conference Grounds. Working groups met on Saturday afternoon to identify 3-4 new initiatives that coincided with the needs that had been identified last year: Youth and Vocations, Outreach, Management, and Oblates. Continued on page 8 Members of the Steering Committee with some of the monks include Bro. Bede, Phil McManus, Wendy Walsh, Valerie Sinkus, Fr. Michael, Ziggy Rendler-Bregman, Fr. Cyprian, Fr. Raniero, and Mike Mullard.

8 8 ~ New Camaldoli Hermitage April had a visit from one of our Indian confreres, Fr. George Abraham who was recently appointed novice master of Shantivanam, the Ashram of the Holy Trinity, our Camaldolese community in South India. April 30 New Camaldoli hosted the Four Winds Council, a quarterly gathering of our community with our friends from the Esalen Institute, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and Pachepas Native American Center, to share spiritual practice and advocate for the wilderness. May 9-11 was the 2nd Annual Camaldolese Gathering and Retreat at Presentation Center in Los Altos, CA. (See article for more details.) May 30 to June 14, in honor of his 50th anniversary Bro. Gabriel flew to Italy where he attended the International Charismatic Convention at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, and then visited our Mother house at Camaldoli with a side visit to the grave of Saint Romuald in Fabbriano. June 3-8 Fr. Raniero gave the opening talk for the Chapter for the monks of the Episcopal Order of the Holy Cross in West Park, NY, and stayed on as a listener, giving feedback throughout the Chapter as well. From June 14 until July 26, Bro. Ignatius will be away at summer school! He will attend the Benedictine Juniors Workshop at St. Vincent s Archabbey in La Trobe, PA, and follow that with two classes as part of the Monastic Institute at St. John s University, Collegeville, MN. June 19, the Feast of St. Romuald, we had a grand celebration for the 50th anniversary of vows for Bro. Gabriel and Fr. Thomas! Our brothers from Berkeley and San Luis Obispo came as well as several guests. June 23 we took our Recreation Day up at Mount Madonna Center for a tour, a good vegetarian lunch and a presentation on their solar power installation. June Fr. Michael Fish led a preached retreat, Camino III: The Inner Journey. July 4-6 Fr. Cyprian with Gitanjali Lori Rivera is leading A Retreat for Musicians. July 5 there will be an Oblate meeting at the Monastery of the Risen Christ. Fr. Stephen and Fr. Robert will be co-leading the day, and oblates from both Risen Christ and New Camaldoli are encouraged to attend. Please call for more information and so they have an idea of the number of attendees. July Fr. Columba Stewart, OSB, the well-known monastic scholar from St. John s, Collegeville, will be with us as he is most every summer and give a series of conferences to the brothers. July 21-25, Fr. Robert will be offering a retreat for the Episcopal Community of Solitude at St. John s in Collegeville, MN. July 21-26, the Collegeville Composers Group, responsible for the Psallite series of liturgical music published by Liturgical Press, will be meeting for a working week here at New Camaldoli. August 1-3, Fr. Thomas Matus is leading a retreat here called Realizing God. Activities, Events and Visitors August 15-17, Fr. Cyprian, Bro. Bede, Fr. Raniero and Bro. Cassian will be leading a discernment retreat for young people between the ages of 18 and 30. (Scholarships are available!) September 3-11 we will be have our community retreat led this year by Fr. Luke Dysinger, OSB, of St. Andrew s Abbey, Vallyermo. September 29-October 5 Frs. Cyprian and Raniero will be at Camaldoli for the Intercommunity Assembly, attended by our priors and formators from all over the world. Please visit our website for information on our weekend retreats at Photo by Debi Lorenc A Celebration of Camaldolese Spirituality - Continued from page 7 The Outreach Working Group developed new opportunities to share the charism of New Camaldoli in the wider world and at the same time strengthen the Hermitage support network. The group explored ways of making the Hermitage more accessible to those not able to make the journey through the use of technology such as social media, online classes, talks, blog posts. The Oblate Working Group creating ideas to strengthen the oblate formation program and increase the number of retreats, while the Youth and Vocations Working Group investigated ideas to increase the outreach to youth and young adults. In a sign of underlying unity, the working groups found that there was much overlap with the ideas brought forth from each group. Overall, the weekend was filled with typical Benedictine hospitality, from the Friday evening Happiness Hour and meals shared with laughter and conviviality, to the liturgies presided over by Fr. Michael Fish and Fr. Raniero Hoffman. Fr. Fish also delighted us with a warm and welcoming talk on Friday night to set the mood for the entire weekend. Fr. Robert Hale demonstrated his gifts of hospitality by acting as monk-liaison for the Oblate Working Group. Brother Bede Healey acted as monk-liaison for the Management Working Group and preached the homily at the Sunday liturgy. Special thanks go to Bede for having the vision and drive to act as overall coordinator of the Steering Committee for our Oblate retreats and Working Groups. Next year, our Annual Oblate Retreat will be hosted at La Casa de Maria, a retreat center in the Santa Barbara/Montecito area. The dates are tentatively set for May 29-31, We look forward to meeting you there!