November 2007
Vol. XXVIII No. 11
Dear Oblates and Friends of Portsmouth,
Throughout the month of November Catholics pray for the deceased who are in need of intercession before they can be introduced into heaven. They are not in a fit condition for immediate entry into the divine presence; they first must be made worthy. In this life there is a parallel to the need for purification in the rite still observed of taking holy water from the font placed at the entrance of a Catholic church or removing one's shoes before praying in a mosque or the ritual ablution by a Jew in the Temple of old.. This is a symbolic way of admitting the need to be cleansed before appearing before God, who dwells in the holy place in a special way. This ritual of purification is echoed in the belief Catholics hold that there is a condition or state in which we exist, between death and glory, before we are deemed capable of participating in the Beatific Vision, since few, if any of us, are totally devoid of sin or faults, even if only venial. The state or condition we refer to as purgatory, comes from a word which means a place to cleanse through fire, with the implication of some sort of suffering involved.
In the Middle Ages painters and preachers would exercise their imaginations, almost competing with one another, in depicting purgatory and hell as regions of horrifying tortures, the only difference being in the temporary or permanent status of those assigned to one or the other. Dante has given us the most famous account of both these places or conditions in his Divina Comedia, a work of surpassing imagination and at the same time one which contains deep theological insights into the nature of sin and atonement. Today, we no longer accept the medieval view of fire as a means of purification nor do we believe in a place of unspeakable pain and cruel torture as a way of punishing sins committed on earth. The suffering endured by souls in purgatory consists of a longing for the vision of God temporarily denied but sustained by hope and, we believe, supported by the prayers of those whom they have left behind in the world of the living. The temporary nature is the essential difference between purgatory and the permanent state of damnation in what we call hell, where there is only despairing hatred and the absence of love. The former is for an interval, the latter for eternity. In using the designations of time and space to treat of non material realities we share Kant's description of them as necessary conditions of thought, and we are, therefore, obliged to consider hell and purgatory in material, physical terms.
On the main altar of the Abbey church during November a silver casket is placed as a repository of the names to be remembered at this time sent to us for this purpose. The afterlife is necessarily a mystery, one which we accept on faith and which will only be clarified at the end of time, when we are taken up into glory in the Kingdom of God. What can we do for those who have predeceased us? We can and are expected to pray for their souls' release from purgatory and, if we are in a position to do so, give alms for the poor as well. Increasingly, friends of the deceased are requested to give to a cause or a charity favored by the departed or associated with them in place of floral tributes. Caring for the dead in these ways, by prayer and good deeds, are acts of altruism, but they also help to satisfy one of our deepest human urges: to do for the loved one all that we can or perhaps atone for not having done enough while we had the opportunity. So it is appropriate, especially during this month of November, that we should often advert to those whom we refer to as the faithful departed who are in need of our prayer which can be as simple and concise as the familiar abbreviation on a tombstone, R.I.P., Requiescant in pace, May they rest in peace.
Extract from Dante's Purgatorio
(translated by Dorothy Sayers)
"The Mount of Purgatory"
"But let me ask thee now, how far our feet
Have yet to walk; the hill soars up and goes
Higher than my sight can soar to follow it."
"This mount is such," he answered, "that to those
Starting at the foot it's hard in the extreme;
The more they climb, the easier it grows;
Therefore, when the ascent of it shall seem
Right pleasant to thee, and the going smooth
As when a boat floats downward with the stream,
That will be journey's end, and then in sooth
After long toil look thou for ease at last;
More I can't say, but this I know for truth."
Liturgical Calendar for November
1 ALL SAINTS
2 COMMEMORATION OF ALL SOULS
4 SUNDAY XXXI OF THE YEAR
5 Commemoration of Deceased Monks and
Benefactors of Portsmouth and the E.B.C.
9 Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
10 St. Leo the Great, Pope & Doctor
11 SUNDAY XXXII OF THE YEAR
12 St. Frances Cabrini, Religious
13 All Saints of the Order of St. Benedict
15 St. Albert the Great, Doctor
16 St. Gertrude the Great, Religious
17 St. Margaret of Scotland, Queen
18 SUNDAY XXXIII OF THE YEAR
Oblate Day of Recollection
20 St. Edmund, King & Martyr
21 Presentation of Our Lady
Dies Memorabilis of the EBC
22 St. Cecilia, Martyr
23 St. Clement, Pope & Martyr
25 SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING
30 St. Andrew, Apostle
Saint Leo the Great (by Ade Bethune)
Monastery Notes
On Thursday, the eleventh of October in the presence of the student body and almost 200 guests, the Most Reverend Thomas Tobin came to the Abbey Church to confer the blessing of Dom Caedmon Holmes as the Third Abbot of Portsmouth. Six abbots and several abbesses attended as well as the Abbot President, Dom Richard Yeo, currently acting as superior of Buckfast Abbey in England.
Saint Brigid's House, the newly completed dormitory for girls, was blessed by Abbot Caedmon as part of the Parents' Weekend program. It features solar panels to produce hot water and other energy saving devices.
In its September issue, America Magazine, the national Jesuit periodical, lauded Portsmouth for its contribution to energy conservation initiatives. Dom Joseph has also been interviewed by the English Speaking Broadcasting Office of the Vatican for a report on the wind turbine.
Zen Catholicism, the most popular of the books by Dom Aelred Graham, Superior of Portsmouth from 1951 to 1967, has just been reissued by The Crossroads Publishing Company, which originally published it in 1963. It can be obtained from the publisher at 370 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. Copies are also available in the School Bookstore. It has been printed in paperback format and costs $19.95. Thomas Merton referred to this book as "intelligent, informative and personal.". The book's dedication reads to those who with the insight of the East set in the great tradition of the West may even in this painful world be happy. Dom Aelred also wrote The Love of God, which was used for many years as a text in English-speaking seminaries.
