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Rest In Peace
Over to the left on my sidebar, you’ll see a link to the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, TX. This morning, Mrs. Orr received word that one of the nuns, Sister Mary Regina, has died. If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for the repose of Sister Mary Regina’s immortal soul. Also pray for the remaining nuns at the monastery, who will certainly miss the aged nun’s presence and influence. Requiescat in pace, Sister. ~ S.K. Orr
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Requiescat In Pace
My dear friend and spiritual advisor, Father James, who is a monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, informed me that one of his friends and fellow monks died recently. Brother Frank Gorzynski died on March 19th, after a rapid decline. He had battled multiple health issues over the years and had spent considerable time living in the monastery’s infirmary, which is a skilled nursing facility. I didn’t know Brother Frank, though I did get to speak to him briefly in the hallway of the monastery’s visitor’s center during a visit. I remember his prominent eyebrows and his achingly sweet smile. Brother Frank was 92 years old and…
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The Beginning Of March
The coffee tasted especially good this morning; my wife found a new variety at a local store and it is now a favorite. I stepped outside to clip my fingernails, careful to keep the sun behind me as it slashed across the needle points and glass shards of frost on the grass. While I was about my business, I listened to the birds calling to each other across the hollers. Are the back-and-forth songs merely a “Hello! How are you this morning?” or are they a communication of important information, the inflection and tone and volume carrying nuances that only an avian heart can catch and decipher? The feeders were…
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Prayer Request — With Update
My dear friend and spiritual adviser Father James Conner, who lives at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, advised me this morning that he has sustained an injury. He apparently blacked out for no discernible reason and struck his head, causing a gash that required 12 stitches to close. He’s now on a heart monitor for a couple of days so that the cardiologist can try to ascertain the cause of the syncope and the best course of treatment. If you pray, please intercede for Father James. He is one of the kindest, deepest men I have ever met. He is very much at peace over these events, but…
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Forgotten Men
I’ve finished reading Thomas Merton’s history of the Trappist order, The Waters of Siloe (1949 by Harcourt, Brace, and Company, Inc., New York, NY) and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Merton — or Father Louis, as he was known at Gethsemani Abbey — certainly deserved his reputation as a formidable writer. I wanted to share a couple of sections from this book. One for a rather whimsical reason, and the other a more serious point I wanted to highlight. First, the whimsical section. I offer these paragraphs from pages 132-133 in hopes that my friend Francis Berger might see them: We can see what was the mentality of the monks of Gethsemani…
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H.M.S Cistercian
My recent pilgrimage to the monastery of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky has deepened my appreciation for the writings of the abbey’s most famous monk, Thomas Merton. I have been reading with much enjoyment Merton’s lively history of the Order of the Cisterians of the Strict Observance, also known as the Trappists. The book, The Waters of Siloe, describes the origin of the order and how persecuted French monks came to the shores of the United States to establish the monastery where Merton spent his hidden contemplative life. Having been inspired by Bruce Charlton and the writers at the Junior Ganymede blog to read a bit of Mormon history, I have…
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In The Press
As I mentioned at the end of my last brief post, I made a pilgrimage that I’ve been pondering for a while. I returned last week and took some time before attempting to set down a few thoughts here. In recent months I’ve undergone considerable emotional and spiritual stress, some of it from factors beyond my control. The cracks in my foundations have begun to show, and my wife suggested with loving firmness that it was time I made the trip I had been talking about for some time. Back during my very brief time in a college classroom, I had the good fortune to sit under the teaching of…