December 2007                                                   
Vol. XXVIII, No. 12

Dear Oblates and Friends of Portsmouth,

       The season of  Advent leading up to the  mystery of the Incarnation celebrated at Christmas has a twofold character: it is a time of joy  and  hope, but it is also a period during which we are meant to reflect on mankind's fallen  condition, necessitating his redemption and the means by which this was to be accomplished: that is,  through the Word of God assuming human flesh. The original sin of the first parents was indeed a felix culpa despite the fearful consequence of Calvary in the redemptive process. One of the key figures in the liturgy of Advent is John the Baptist, who reminds us of the need for repentance if we are to be worthy of experiencing  the coming of the Messiah. Hence, it is a time for us to take stock of our lives as Christians and  throw off what Saint Paul refers to as the old man (our sinful selves) and put on the new, which is Christ.  John points out Jesus as the long awaited Messiah at the first coming and  warns us of the second, when he will come as Judge at the Last Day.  But joy and hope are the overriding themes of  the Advent season, even as we prepare  the way of the Lord, making straight in us what is crooked and smoothing the ways that are rough.

       The Root of Jesse shall rise to rule the Gentiles, and in Him shall the Gentiles hope. And the God of hope will fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound  in hope and  in the power of the Holy Spirit.  These words of Paul in his Epistle to the Romans epitomize the Advent message. The Root of Jesse is realized in Jesus who becomes our hope and proclaims to us joy and peace in the Spirit of God.  Most of us have a fuzzy notion of hope when it is placed in a Christian context.  Spiritual writers are wont to call hope the "neglected virtue," and yet it is one of the three theological virtues along with faith and love.  If we think of hope in the religious sense, we can err in excess and presume in an overconfident way that an all-merciful God will see to it that our salvation is secured; that He who suffered the death of his Son will scarcely allow such suffering to be in vain.  On the other hand, and this is probably rarer nowadays than once it was, we might find ourselves with insufficient faith and trust in God, and consider ourselves outside the pale of  his compassion .We need to remind ourselves that there is an account we shall have to make of our lives at the Last Judgment so that we will be deserving of the Master's commendation of his servant in the parable of the talents:

Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of the Lord.

       Finally,  to  respond to the question posed by Saint Anselm in his treatise on the Incarnation, Cur Deus homo?, it is worth recalling two of  the four phrases engraved on every American coin:  e pluribus unum  (one country out of  many states)  and  In God we trust.  As Christians we are made one through our incorporation in the mystical Body of  Christ while through the other, we confirm our belief in the Almighty.  Belonging to God in this way is not restrictive or encroaching on our natural freedom, since we are in possession of the truth, and in the words of Saint Paul, the truth will make us free. Paradoxically, true freedom is found in submission to Christ: "Who wears thy yoke alone is free," since in Him we are freed from the bondage of sin which takes away from our integrity as human beings.  The Incarnation breaks down all barriers, restoring the harmony lost at the fall of the first parents through original sin, and elevating humanity to kinship with God. God became man that man might become God.  And Saint Paul does not hesitate to state that all barriers separating man from man are removed in Christ Jesus: no more Gentile or Jew, slave or freeman, male or female,  and we might add, no racial or national diversity. All differences are melted away in the one Jesus who in turn unites us with the Father. This is the meaning of Advent and Christmas: we are restored to favor with God; we become not merely His friends as the Chosen People were, but now through  the Advent of the Messiah, we become His sons and daughters,  and consequently, heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

               To an open house in the evening

                Home shall all men come;

               To an older place than Eden

               And a taller town than Rome.

               To the end of the way of the wandering star,

               To the things that cannot and that are,

               To the place where God was homeless

               And all men are at home.

                          G.K. Chesterton (1784 - 1936)                                              

Monastery Notes

An exhibit of Masterworks from the collection of Robert Ossorio,  the brother of  alumnus artist, Alfonso '34,  was held in New York at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in September and October. A retrospective display of his art is also being currently shown in the Thomas More Library at the school.

Dom Caedmon, the Abbot, spent a week in Chile in October, attending a conference on Benedictine education.

Final adjustments are being made to A Guide to the Abbey Church, which will include remarks on the architecture by Belluschi, the Lippold sculpture of The Trinity and other  works  which reflect the medieval and the modern tradition in ecclesiastical art. 

The BELFRY of the monastery has been repaired together with the bell mechanism, which allows it to be rung electronically.  The bell, named for

Saint David, was given in October 1940 by Dom Aelred Wall, founder of Christ of the Desert Monastery in New Mexico, to mark his entry into Portsmouth Priory. Mounted temporarily on the roof of the old chapel, it was placed in 1960 on a fieldstone tower erected at the end of the monastery. The 800 pound bell is rung daily to announce the Angelus and mark the times of the Conventual Mass and the hours of the Divine Office. Important feasts are marked by a lengthy  peal of the bell, and the bell is tolled. for funerals in the church When the end of the war with Japan was announced on August 14, 1945, the bell informed the neighborhood of the welcome news of the long-awaited victory. Likewise, the tolling of the bell on November 22, 1963, mourned the assassination of President John Kennedy.                          

 Liturgical Calendar for December

Cycle for Prayer for Advent:  Openness to the Word of God;  Migrants and Refugees; Expectant Mothers

 2    SUNDAY I OF ADVENT

 3    St. Francis Xavier, S.J., Missionary

 6    St. Nicholas of Myra, Bishop

 7    St. Ambrose, Bishop& Doctor

 8     IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF OUR LADY

         Patronal Feast of the United States

 9     SUNDAY  II  OF  ADVENT

12     St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Religious

         Our Lady of Guadeloupe, Patroness of Mexico

13      St. Lucy, Martyr

14      St. John of the Cross, Carmelite,  Doctor

15      SUNDAY III OF ADVENT

21       St. Peter Canisius, S.J.,  Doctor

23      SUNDAY  IV  OF  ADVENT

25      NATIVITY  OF  OUR LORD   (Midnight Mass: 12 p.m.)

          (Masses  in Day: 7, 8, Sung Conventual:  9:30 a.m.)

26      St. Stephen, Protomartyr

27      St. John, Evangelist, Apostle

28      Holy Innocents, Martyrs

29      St. Thomas a Becket, Martyr, Archbishop

30      FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

31      St. Sylvester,  Pope

Next Oblate Days of Recollection:  February 1, 2008:

                          There was a star in the sky, a star on earth,

                          And the sun in the manger. 

                          The star in the sky was that bright heavenly body;

                          The star on earth, the Virgin Mary;

                          The sun in the manger,  CHRIST OUR LORD.

                                                  From a Sermon for Epiphany
                                                  Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072)