In Glendalough, a little village in the Wicklow Mountains less than an hour south of Dublin, there are two small lakes at the head of a valley beneath a waterfall.  A swift and clear stream runs from the lower lake down the valley.  It was here, more than a thousand years ago, that St. Kevin (his name means Gentle One) came — to live and work and pray.  Soon others came to join him, men, women, whole families.  A monastery was founded, a church was built and a community grew around.  It was said that the place flourished because of Abbot Kevin’s holiness.  Even the cows gave more milk and their butter was the richest around.

Well, that monastery is a ruin today though the walls stand.  The crumbled church and tower keep watch over gravestones of the deceased who now “people” the grounds where crops once grew and crowds met exchanging goods, where monks taught and prayed, where life was abundant and that abundance was richly blessed.  Still, birds sing.  Fish swim in the lakes and sheep graze on hills around.  Though the place may seem empty, to some, it is not.  We’ve been there thrice, and would love to go again.

Last week we were down on Cape Cod.  One of the reasons for our trip was to visit a modern-day place such as St. Kevin’s might once have been –  The Community of Jesus in Orleans, MA, a decades old monastic community of men, women, and whole families — fertile, fruitful, peaceful and full of life.

After a terribly stormy night that drove water right in through the wall of our hotel room facing the bay, the very nicest day of our week on the Cape dawned as we set forth for our destination.  The sun was brilliant, the air spring-like, and sparkling white clouds sailed a lively blue sky.  Mariellen read to me from Anthony Trollope’s Palliser Chronicles during the highway portion of the ride, then helped out with the directions as we got close.

Once on the last leg, the place really wasn’t hard to find, as the only thing beyond The Community of Jesus on Rock Harbor Road is the harbor itself – and when we got that far we found that we knew the place, having travelled the road before on a previous excursion while touring Brewster.  It was the harbor we knew, though – a famous spot for watching sunsets.  Before we reached the harbor, this time, something altogether new had arrested our view – an angel-capped bell tower built, as we later learned, only two or three years ago.  Circling in upon its lure we soon found a beautiful stone basilica-style church, the white wooden buildings of the Priory and convents where celibate members of the vowed community live, and in the environs surrounding homes of lay community members with and without children.

Once parked and upon the grounds, our first stop was at the Priory Books and Gifts store, where we browsed happily during a short wait before being connected with one of the Community’s long-time members named Treva Whichard.  A former Oblate director for the Community and also formerly employed at Paraclete Press,  Treva is currently serving the Community as docent, among other duties, and proceeded to give us, along with another small group of four or five people,  a little tour of the Church of The Transfiguration while telling us something of the history of the community.

The Community of Jesus began to emerge about 50 years ago, Treva recounted, around two women – both married — who felt a call to teach about prayer and healing.  From that informal start it has developed over decades until it now numbers almost 275 people consisting of 40 vowed celibate men, 75 vowed celibate women, and affiliated lay persons, some with children (there are about 50 children resident, at present, in families).  To borrow phrasing from the brochure we were offered:  “Members of the Community of Jesus,” an ecumenical community in the Benedictine tradition whose purpose broadly speaking is to show Christ’s light to the world, “come from a wide variety of denominational backgrounds and occupations and make professions of commitment … including vows of obedience, stability, and conversion of life“ according to the Rule of St Benedict.

Our tour began in the courtyard before the main doors to the basilica – where the stones underfoot were damp, Treva told us, because the center holds a recessed fountain that is “on” before the major Church services.  The water doesn’t freeze in winter before drying after each use because the stones are heated!  She then took us inside on a tour of the church itself, a beautiful building filled with some of the most vibrant and lively frescos and mosaics I have ever seen.

It is a work of art from the ground up; a work dedicated to showing and teaching about the story of Man’s salvation and the salvation of each one of us from the Fall to the Resurrection and the Second Coming of Christ; from Genesis to Revelation.  We were thrilled to be there.

After the church tour we were graciously handed off to Sr. Estelle Cole who was just getting out of rehearsal with the Community’s famous choir, Gloriae Dei  Cantores.   Sr. Estelle’s current assignment is as sheet music publicist at Paraclete Press, the first among a number of companies we work with in our online business The Christian Book Corner, and the publishing arm of The Community of Jesus.

Sister Estelle invited us to stay for Mid Day Prayer which would commence in just a few moments.  “It is all in Latin,” she said, as we thanked her and said we would very much like that.  As the Community members arrived and took their places in the choir, Sister Estelle joined us in the visitor section, armed with a couple of choir books.  Out of silence then the lovely chant blossomed forth, led by the men and answered by the women, and for the next dozen or so minutes we listened, as might have done the local lay community in Glendalough, or in any number of places past and present where nothing is preferred to the work of God.

We bowed the last “Gloria tibi Domini” and then left the still, quiet church.  Outside Sr. Estelle spoke a little bit more about the community of which she is a vowed member and after we had all gotten into our car directed us to the offices of The Paraclete Press, a few miles down the road.  We learned that The Community of Jesus is engaged in a number of apostolic works;  the Press through which we ourselves had come to know of them is merely one.  Our destination proved to be a neat building surrounded by woods and a vineyard.

Upon entering the thing that struck me first was art work on the walls, all of it, she said, done by members of the community. As we passed by the receptionist, who came from her little office with a big smile to greet us, I noticed this, and the shadow from the window above:

I wondered aloud if it had been placed there intentionally to catch the shadow cast by the window, but no one seemed to know.  Certainly if not deliberately planned, I thought to myself, it was a most happy “accident” that we appeared just as the sun was making the sign of the cross for us!   And it was just the beginning.    There was art of all kinds to follow, and folks of all kinds as well.  Just ordinary folks.  But I guess, so, too, were those monks of long ago, just ordinary folks who copied things like the Book of Kells and built the Cathedral at Chartres and developed champagne and other delectable brews.

Sister Estelle introduced us to Sister Antonia Cleverly, who was our first and is still our primary contact at Paraclete,  and for the next forty-five minutes we in company with these two young religious women wandered in and out of offices all over the building chatting with busy but very friendly people whose constant refrain seemed to be, ” You can ask me anything that is on your mind.”  We did, finding that this invitingly open attitude was apparently also something that had simply emerged, organically, within the body of the maturing community.

What you see here is the department at Paraclete that designs all of their book covers and art work.  Eight people work here if my memory serves.  They even manage the blogs of some of their authors for them!  The sales/customer relations office, just a door or two down, was busier and more bustling, but never so much so that almost everyone didn’t stop to smile and tell us what they were doing and why.  Our guides conducted us through every part of the building until at last we met the friendly old dog, an ancient Lab, who welcomed us to the basement where they used to do their own printing.  Now the basement is used for shipping, with some of the space reserved for the sisters who make the candles the community sells — and they are mighty fine ones, too, made with beeswax from their own hives.   Paraclete does a thriving business in music, too.  In yet another part of the basement they are in the process of constructing a sound studio for their own audio and video recordings of chant and other sacred music by the Community’s several renowned musical groups.

One of the first people we met at Paraclete works in the sales room with Sisters Antonia and Estelle and was introduced to us simply as “Sharon, who works with music”.  When we mentioned our church tour and the fascinating organ we saw and were told about, Sharon immediately offered to play the organ for us later that afternoon.  “A private concert,” we wondered aloud, surprised and delighted at the opportunity.  Smilingly, she said that she would be happy to do so, and proceeded to expand a little on what we had already heard about the instrument.

The organ at The Church of the Transfiguration is unique in the world — reclaimed from the works of twelve  E.M.  Skinner organs and rebuilt so that the pipes and all the “choirs” of the organ do not stand in one place behind the console;  rather, they advance on both side of the church from the back to the front.  The effect, then, is to be able to “process” the music with the celebrants and congregation as they enter.  So far, it is the only organ built this way in the world, and when finished, Sharon told us, will contain 12,500 pipes ranging in size from that of a drinking straw to a that of a telephone booth.  We made a date for 2:30 p.m.

Over lunch at a nearby eatery we asked all sorts of questions of the two sisters who are our sales contacts at Paraclete Press, questions about the Community of Jesus, and their personal history with it.  Both of them have family in the community, we learned — another echo, I thought to myself, of the way things used to be.   And both of them reminded me of Catholic nuns I have met over the years.

One word can best describe both our impression of these women and the feeling our conversation with them inspired in us:  happy.  Filled with light – lightness of heart, clarity of mind.  As our meal ended I found myself wishing we had more time to spend in their company.  We took them back to the Press offices and said goodbye… That’s Sister Antonia on the left, Mariellen in the middle and Sister Estelle on the right.

Back at the priory grounds for an hour or so, we walked about taking some photos, too many to share here, and I then went into the church to wait for Sharon and our little demonstration and concert while Mariellen browsed the Priory Books and Gifts some more – where she overheard the woman behind the counter setting up an impromptu tour of the church for a Catholic priest, a longtime friend of the Community, who had shown up with some friends of his, upon an impulse.

While they were waiting for their guide, Mariellen walked over to join me and, right on schedule, our new friend Sharon arrived — with another visitor, a relative of hers as it turned out – to give us the promised demonstration concert.   Happily, we had time to ask Sharon how she ended up in the Community and she said that she was organist in a church far away and was sent to a music symposium hosted by the Community –quite some years ago, long before the Church of the Transfiguration was built.  “As soon as I arrived,” she recounted, “I felt a drawing I did not like at all.  I was an organist!  And there was nothing here then, nothing but a bare looking patch of ground.  But the feeling didn’t pass.  So I went home and talked to my husband and he came back with me to visit and a short time later we moved here with our children.”  (This is my paraphrase of what I recall her saying and not a direct quote.)

Turns out, by the way  — and this we found this out by reading the brochure after getting home – that “Sharon” is Dr. SharonRose Pffeifer, one of the three resident organists at The Community of Jesus today.   Mariellen googled her and found this video clip which will give you your own taste of the joy we experienced while listening to her.

I am no critic, nor a student of sacred music.  I can only say that what we heard that day was a marvelous piece of music that exercised me physically and mentally and spiritually.  I walked about the church listening, as Dr. Sharon had advised, to the different sounds coming from different places.  I felt the power of the piece, physically and mentally, and believed for a few moments that I was in the presence of God who was allowing me to understand, just a tiny bit, what awaited me above.  It was one of those “eye has not seen, ear has not heard” moments that always leave me with a longing for the yet to come.

Our little concert finished a bit more quickly than we might have wished since – as Mariellen suspected might happen – the impromptu tour group came in while Sharon was playing and enjoyed her music right along with us.   When she finished the piece she was playing Sharon was quite delighted to see the priest, and also happened to know some of the people he was with, so we said goodbye and left the church, spent a few more minutes walking around the grounds and then made our way back tour hotel. We will return I have no doubt.

In the photo above  you can easily notice what look like cabinets running the length of The Church of the Transfiguration walls on either side.  These cabinets house the organ’s pipes, and allow the sound to “move” along with the movement of the celebrants, to move from place to place as different choirs of pipes are called upon.  The view is within the great bronze doors that lead into the church, standing near the ambo and gazing down the side of the church.

I know that it is popular to think of full community monastic times past as the Dark Ages.  But, I might wish we would begin to think of them as in many ways a much more enlightened time than this!  Thus I offer for your consideration the example of these people we have recently met and the way of life they are building and have built.

Did you know that 
beginning Dec 17 every year,
the Church "counts down" to Christmas
according to an ancient tradition ...

... today, O Rex Gentium (King of the Nations)

In the O Antiphons tradition, t-CBC is offering the 9 items pictured below
at 22% off our everyday low prices, today only, Dec 22.  
Simply apply the promotional code
 OREXGENTIUM-22 
at checkout, to claim your savings!
(click on image to view product details)

O  Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

.

Did you know that 
beginning Dec 17 every year,
the Church "counts down" to Christmas
according to an ancient tradition ...

... today, O Adonai (Lord)

In the O Antiphons tradition, t-CBC is offering the items listed below
at 18% off our everyday low prices, today only, Dec 18.  
Simply apply the promotional code
 OADONAI-18 
at checkout, to claim your savings!
(click on image to view product details)

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,

qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,

et ei in Sina legem dedisti:

veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O LORD and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

"With righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins."
Isaiah 11:4-5

"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our king; he will save us."
Isaiah 33:22

Oh, we have “Paradise Lost”, that towering history, and its twin, “Paradise Regained”, shorter, but no less noble in structure and intent. Both lay out the characters and the events which matter, truly matter, in our lives.  We have “The Divine Comedy”, the first which opened the way into mystery for us, telling not the History of Salvation, but guiding us successfully through hell’s horror and purgatory’s painful coming to the truth to the Singularity of Light, the Beatific Vision, bright beyond belief and beyond telling.  Shall we have another?

I am no judge of the good, let alone of the great.  What I cannot judge of or explain, though, I can feel and speak about.  I suppose that is how the world first heard from simple people about what had happened to change all of history, how God became one of us.  Who could have framed that fact in a “review”?  The greatest possible work of art demanding of some necessarily lesser form of art to tell of it …  So it has been ever since “Emmanuel” happened, first in the Gospels, then in story after story we never seem to tire of hearing told.  Simple story repeated along the way, and then as days passed into years and centuries the music of poetry and song …

In “A Poem of the New Creation” by Peter Milward, S.J.,  we find a new iteration of the tale from a poet and scholar who has taken his long life’s journey with literature, theology and scripture and made of it a beautiful thing for us all to read and dwell within.  Beginning with prayer — Mary’s to the Archangel Gabriel — and ending in the praise of all creation to God Almighty, Milward’s work doesn’t scruple to weave scripture in with the writings of the saints, teachers, poets, prophets and holy men and women.  Truly a tale of the world made new, “A Poem of the New Creation” works on many levels: as a poem, as a simple story of the great and humble living at the fulcrum of ages and traveling the path to glory, and as a drama encompassing many voices.  One might even say, encompassing every voice.

Those who read it, of any faith and of no faith at all, will be enlightened and enthralled by what they read, the story itself and the sheer beauty of the telling of it.  “A Poem of the New Creation” from Kaufmann Publishing is a perfect gift for any occasion to someone whose love for truth and beauty you cherish and wish to nourish.  It is a most lovely thing to own for yourself, too, whatever your taste in poetry or story.  It will sing to you the song of the most lovely thing that ever happened.  That is worth hearing, don’t you think?

Here at The Christian Book Corner we have delighted to read Father Milward’s work and are pleased to offer its delights to you at our always generous discount.  As with all of our products this one  was “Chosen with care; chosen with Prayer”.

     The dictionary will tell you that the word “adore” is a combination of two Latin words.  I won’t require you to guess what those words are.  You probably know them already.  But as a service for the five or six of you who never had to take Latin in school, the words are “ad”, meaning “to”, and “orare”, meaning “pray”.  Simply stated, adore comes down to this: the act of praying to Someone.  I’ll not get involved here in the rest of the various meanings and shades of meaning, the many uses of the word, that have grown up since we borrowed it from the French who borrowed it from the Latin original.  You know them, I suppose.  All you need to know then is that to adore means to pray; intensely.
     You have to like a fellow who goes by the first name Vinny.  I do.  I make an immediate connection and understand intuitively that someone named Vinny is a fellow who speaks plainly, who eschews words like -- well words like “eschew” and “intuitively”.  Right from the title of his book, 21 Ways to Worship,  Vinny Smith doesn’t deal in anything but the plain and necessary truths about that rather simple yet mysterious and puzzling thing called Eucharistic Adoration.
     I’ve had my own problems with Eucharistic Adoration over the years, more than enough to fill a page or two with complaints about and reasons against continuing to do it.  And so, I welcome a plain speaking fellow like Vinny Smith writing a book about adoration for ordinary people to use; a practical and useful, and therefore a valuable guide to prayer.
     I remember a time long ago in my life when I found myself staying after Mass as Father set the monstrance on the altar and we sang O Salutaris Hostia, a song I had been singing for many, many years, whose words I only vaguely knew in English.  For some reason that day I took the time to read the words of the hymn in translation while I sat there.  And, there I learned what I should have known: that the song was a simple prayer, a cry for help, a petition.
     And, as I sat thinking about what had just been made plain to me, I remembered the time I stood at the back of a church in my home town New York City with a fellow I worked with.  I remembered what he told me, “Every once in a while, I need to go into the church and say, HELP!”
     What return can I make to the Lord for all He has done for me?  That’s what the Psalmist asks.  And, on another occasion, that’s more or less what I said in Church after Mass one day.  As I sat and thought about it I realized that all I had to give was the messes I had created every time I did what I wanted to do.  And so, I gave Him that.
     You may not find those two approaches to prayer among Vinny’s 21 Ways to Worship, but you will find something similar to be sure.  You will learn how gently you will be treated as you bare your soul to the Lord who already knows what is there, who waits with infinite patience, mercy and love for you to come and simply ask Him to accept you as you are.
     And, as Vinny might tell you were he by your side, “You will hear His answer.”
     21 Ways to Worship has been called easy to read, a practical guide, jam-packed with inspiring ideas, techniques, and prayers to help you make the most of your time in Adoration.  Well, that is true, and being true it is good.  The Christian Book Corner would like to make your relationship with Love in Person better than you imagined it could be, and believes use of Vinny Smith’s book is one way to do that.  We offer the book at discount for your edification as we offer all of our products that are always “Chosen with care; chosen with Prayer.”