Sunday, March 1, 1998

Monastery provides opportunity to read, rest and listen

By Lauren R. Stanley / Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

WEST PARK, N.Y. -- With the smoke from the morning's incense still swirling in the sunlight, a dozen monks and visitors chanted together, "You spread a table, O Lord, before me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over."

To be in a monastery -- where prayer is taken seriously, extended silence is considered the norm, and the saying of the daily office supersedes all other offices in life -- is to take a step back from the rush of life as we know it, and enter into a lifestyle that has graced this earth for more than 1,500 years.

To be in a monastery, surrounded by and submersed in prayer and quiet, indeed is to have a table spread before you. It is to feel as though you HAVE been anointed with oil, and that your cup IS running over.

I was doubly blessed on a recent retreat I took, because what I had sought -- prayer, silence, peace, community and liturgy, all centered in God -- WAS set before me as a banquet at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park.

The Benedictine Anglican monks there offered me -- as they offer all who come to their door -- a place to stay and good food to eat, a place to pray and be, without any pressures, without any deadlines.

When I arrived, the community of about a dozen men was in the midst of its quarterly three-day retreat, a time spent in complete silence outside of the liturgies. In a monastery, silence is not so much imposed from on high as entered into, so as to stop life from interfering with the ability to hear God. All who visit during these retreats are invited to join the monks in the silence.

Walking around the monastery, along cloisters and through great rooms designed for reading and relaxing, I actually could feel the silence. In the outer world, silence can be disconcerting and alien. At Holy Cross, the silence felt comfortable. It felt powerful.

It felt like an old friend.

That doesn't happen often enough in my life at home. I do keep silence in the mornings when I get up to pray and meditate. But even that can be hard, with pets seeking attention and the noise from the nearby highway intruding.

But at Holy Cross, two days of silence was both comfortable and comforting. I walked by the Hudson River, watching for deer and geese. I sat in the chapel, inhaling the remnants of the previous Sunday's incense (a smell which pleasantly and temptingly permeates the entire monastery). I read. I rested.

I simply was.

And I felt as if indeed the Lord through his servants the monks had spread a table before me and that my cup was running over.

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In the last dozen years or so, monasteries have become very popular places to visit in the United States. Perhaps this rise in popularity is due to the increased interest in matters spiritual throughout this country. And perhaps part of the increase comes from the publication of some very good books on monastic life, especially Kathleen Norris' exquisite "The Cloister Walk."

When people first encounter communities that follow "The Rule of St. Benedict," which Benedict wrote in the early sixth century, they often are surprised. They discover that "The Rule" is a small book -- my translation is only about 30 pages -- overflowing with wisdom about how to live a life centered in God in the midst of community.

Benedict begins simply: "Listen." Listen to God, listen to others who have joined you in this quest, listen for wisdom.

"The Rule" doesn't get a whole lot more complicated than that. Oh, there are rules concerning living together, sharing together, praying together. There are rules concerning the formation of novices -- Don't give newcomers easy entry -- and the reception of guests -- Receive all who arrive with the love of Christ.

But as one monk said, in describing both "The Rule" and Christianity in general, "It's just basic-basic, items that are always the same." Both "The Rule" and the Scriptures on which it is based, he said, hold and proclaim great power,power that we respect and to which we frequently are willing to submit.

"Basic tenets still have that power," my friend the monk said. "They don't lose it."

Following "The Rule" means following a life of prayer and hospitality, of living in silence together, then lifting voices in praise of God together. It means seeking humility and stability.

It means devoting a life to God.

Anyone who comes to visit is invited to join that life, both at the monastery and at home.

And for many of us, once we have joined in, we indeed feel that a table has been spread before us, that our heads have been anointed and that our cups are running over.

Thanks be to God and to his servants who help make all that possible.

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For more information:

Those interested in Holy Cross Monastery can reach the monks by writing P.O. Box 99, West Park, N.Y., 12493-0099. The telephone number is (914) 384-6660. The fax number is (914) 384-6031.

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(The Rev. Lauren R. Stanley, a former assistant news editor for the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, is a deacon at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Va. Readers may write to Stanley care of Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 790 National Press Building, Washington, D.C., 20045.)

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(c) 1998, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.