CHAPTER 7
“I take it you’re not from that church that sends people out to convert us from time to time.”
“Hardly Sister,” responded the older one with something between a smile and thinly controlled patience.
“May I ask who you are?
They flashed their badges.
“Not good enough gentlemen. Please show me your identification much more slowly.”
This time they opened their wallets and paused so that the nun could examine each badge for as long as she liked.
“Thank you gentlemen. Won’t you come in?”
They entered without response. They were used to getting their own way and rather quickly, and were not impressed by the people associated with this monastery who didn’t seem to operate by their rules.
“We have a little sun room where you can make yourself comfortable,” Sister Jane de Chantal said as she led the CIA agents past the wooden refectory table, the old buffet, the stove, and through a doorway into a cheery yellow room complete with DVD player donated by a very kind friend of monastery.
“Have a seat and I’ll see what I can do for you.” She disappeared.
“Strange place,” spoke older agent. “Welcoming but distant at the same time.”
“I had a great-uncle who was a monk,” responded younger agent. “They try to be, how did it go again, ‘in the world but not of it.’”
Older agent: “What’s that supposed to mean? They are more of an enigma than we are.”
Younger agent: “I think it means that they care about what is going on, try to help people and pray for the world, but don’t want to get drawn into the values of the world.”
Older agent: “I’d have to think about that a while, but my first response is that it makes some sense. My second wave of thought is that they ought to focus more on direct service and less on keeping silence and chanting, or whatever else it is that that do.”
Younger agent: “My great-uncle used to say that their prayer life is what kept them going, kind of gave them the strength to do their ministry to others. If I ever had a problem I’d sure want them on my side.”
Older agent: “Wonder what DVDs they watch. Hmmm. Looks like about a dozen Brother Cadfael mystery shows. I think he’s the monk who lived around the year twelve hundred and entered monastic life in his forties. He’s also a doctor of some type, an herbalist I think.”
Younger agent: “Not bad. You are a well-rounded guy. My great-uncle loved those books, and the DVDs which followed. All that history about England and Wales distracted me a little but I enjoyed the actual mystery plots. What’s that phrase they would say about Brother Cadfael again? Oh yes, ‘a good man in an evil world.’”
Older agent: “Here are some more DVDs. Monastic life, meditation, Chinese healing. They certainly have interesting taste.”
Younger agent: “Hmmm. Rule of the Salesian Monastic Community. Maybe this book will tell us a little more about what makes these people tick. Looks like the first part is about the steps it takes to become a monk or a nun, then it talks about the vows they take. The second part is shorter but sounds older somehow. Maybe it’s from the time of their founders and the first part reflects the more contemporary situation.”
Older agent: “Does it say anything about the Divine Office? I think they call it the ‘Liturgy of the Hours’ too. It seems to me that those ceremonies are a big deal in a monastery. I understand that the entire schedule of a place like this revolves around their gathering together periodically throughout the day and night to pray parts of the Divine Office.”
Younger agent: “Here’s something. It’s in the back of their Rule, the part called the ‘Spiritual Directory.’ My great-uncle talked about this.”
He spoke more slowly as he absorbed the words. “Yes, these prayers provide the tempo for the entire community, drawing it together from time to time both physically and spiritually.”
The younger agent begins to read with a mix of curiosity and reverence in his voice.
Article 3
Liturgy of the Hours
It is especially recommended that the monks/nuns show simplicity and readiness in praying the Liturgy of the Hours. Each time they begin, they should place themselves in the presence of God and, in imitation of Saint Bernard, ask themselves what they are about to do.
They can also use this method in all their other exercises, so that they may bring to each one the spirit proper to do it. They should not have the same deportment and expression at the Liturgy of the Hours as at recreation. In exercises which directly concern the honor and service of God, their spirit should be humble, serious, devout and genuinely loving.
Before beginning the Liturgy of the Hours, the monks/nuns will stir up in themselves similar affections. Then, after the act of adoration, they will offer this action to Our Lord for his glory, for the honor of the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady and Mother, and for the salvation of all creation. When they say:
O God, come to my assistance, they should think that Our Lord answers: Be attentive to my love.
In order to maintain the proper respect and attention, they should consider from time to time what an honor and privilege it is for them to perform here on earth the same role that the angels and saints fulfill in heaven, and that they are praising the same Lord whose majesty makes the highest seraphim tremble.
Older agent: “Whose majesty makes the highest seraphim tremble! What’s that supposed to mean? Do these people really believe that they are in contact or somehow in union with a heavenly realm?”
Younger agent: “Yes, I believe that they do think that. My great-uncle was a very humble monk and never came across as thinking himself above anyone else. Yet somehow there was an aura about him. He could laugh with the best of us but you knew that he had an inner world which all of us did not have access to.”
Older agent: “Inner world? All I know about is what I can see, touch, taste, and hear--that sort of thing. Yeah, I have gut instincts and they have saved my life and the lives of others on occasion, but I don’t attribute them to any sort of unearthly being. It’s just how my brain is wired, I suppose.”
Younger agent: “Who wired that brain?”
Older agent: “Don’t tell me you’re buying into this spiritual stuff too. I know that you have your Christian belief system but you don’t let it really make an impact on your life do you?”
Younger agent: “I’m not sure. Why bother to have a belief system of any sort if you don’t let it help guide you along? My wife and I are presently struggling with what to do about the religious education of our children. Should we just let them figure it out on their own or would it be helpful to send them to Sunday school for a while to give them a sort of baseline from which to make their own choices later on?”
Older agent, grudgingly: “I guess I see your point to some degree. I had no particular religious upbringing and always feel like I’m on the outside looking in around religious people. Sometimes it angers me but I don’t suppose it’s their fault.”
Younger agent: “Look at the beautiful icons on the wall. What’s it say under them? Saint Francis de Sales, and the other one says Saint Jane de Chantal. I think they lived in the fifteen hundreds in France, at least that’s what I remember my great-uncle saying. “
Older agent: “Were they married?”
Younger agent flipping to the front of the book he held: “No, it says here that he was a Bishop and she was first a contented married woman and mother, then a widow, and finally a nun. They are one of several famous spiritual couples in the history of the Christian contemplative tradition.”
Older agent: “You mean there were other couples like those two?”
Younger agent: “I studied some Spanish in college and Saint John of the Cross was a famous poet we had to read. He was the spiritual companion of Saint Theresa of Avila. Theirs was a more emotional expression of spirituality, while Francis and Jane were more low-key, behind the scenes about it.”
Older agent, a bit annoyed: “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Younger agent: “Francis and Jane believed that spirituality was for everyone, not just for monk, nuns, and clergy. We are all called to be holy and we find that holiness by being faithful to our vocation—be it marriage, single life, monastic life, or the clergy.”
Older agent: “You sure know a lot about this stuff. Where did you get all this information?”
Younger agent: “Mostly from my great-uncle. When I was little we would get into the car and visit him in upstate New York. He was a Trappist. We called him ‘Uncle John’ but the monks called him ‘Brother Theophane.’ We stayed in the guesthouse for a few days when we visited and there wasn’t much to do. Uncle John would tell us stories about the saints and he made them sound so real, so down to earth.”
Older agent: “Not like plaster statues? Not like people we could never even begin to imitate?”
Younger agent: “Not at all like that.”
With that Sister Jane opened the folding door to the sun room and slipped in self-confidently. “I can’t find her gentlemen.”
Older agent: “What? We waited here all this time and you can’t locate her?”
“That’s right sir. She isn’t here.”
The older agent glared at the nun. “We’ll be back.”
The younger agent followed his colleague out of the room with a slight nod to the Prioress.