| Your Mood is a 4 |
 You're feeling a little down, but not totally bummed out. Your mood is on the low side of average. |
On Christmas Day I completed watching the award winning documentary Into Great Silence. German film maker Philip Gröning spent six months in the Grande Chartreuse Monastery located deep inside the French Alps, and chronicled the daily routine of Carthusian Monks. Almost a thousand years old, and one of the most austere monasteries in the world, the monastic idiosyncrasies of Grande Chartreuse left me speechless. The prayer life of these monks is fascinating. 
Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world’s most austere monasteries. In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. They said they would get back to him. Sixteen years later, they were ready. Gröning, sans crew or artificial lighting, lived in the monks’ quarters for six months—filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. This transcendent, closely observed film seeks to embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one—it has no score, no voice over and no archival footage. What remains is stunningly elemental: time, space and light. One of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created, INTO GREAT SILENCE dissolves the border between screen and audience with a total immersion into the hush of monastic life. More meditation than documentary, it’s a rare, transformative theatrical experience for all.
I couldn't resist the cliched practice of posting an image of the Nativity this Christmas. After all, we are celebrating Emmanuel, and His presence and brief time on earth changed the coarse of history unlike any other human being that ever lived.
Well, after completing my trip to the confessional I feel blessed, and I feel forgiven. As if that wasn't enough, Auntie Adreienne - trying to keep this boy busy and out of trouble - sent me a blessing of her own. I have included the image symbolizing this blessing in this post, and I have also added it to the sidebar of my blog with thanks to Auntie Adrienne. In return, I am to choose three individuals and send them my blessings.
Here is a picture of Father Phil and Jerri. Father Phil and I were in the same Discernment Group that was created by the Diocese of Las Vegas for serious candidates to the priesthood. I don't have to tell you which one of us had a change of heart.
Bob and Marilyn told me it took them two hours to put up this Christmas tree. It was quite beautiful, and if you can see how much stuff is on this tree they must have assembled it at breakneck speeds. It would have taken me probably a whole day (maybe more cuz I'm lazy) to complete it!
This was the dessert table. Oh, wonderful calories, who could resist thee? Not I...not I...
I did have a wine spritzer that one of my friends at the party made. I had a buzz that lasted almost three hours and could barely stand up straight. I'm such a wimp!
1) This is my favorite time of year. I absolutely love Christmas and all its meaning, even though it's highly commercialized and secularist and irreligionist forces try desperately to commandeer it.
2) Like most of you I despise "Happy Holiday" greetings. It's a cowardly way of wishing someone a Merry Christmas.
3) Unlike most of you - probably because you've never heard it before - I prefer the expression "May Christ be born in you." This prayer/ blessing is spoken by monks during Advent at an Abbey whose name, regrettably, I have forgotten.
4) I struggle with science and faith as often as I think of God, which leads me to number 5
5) I think about God and His existence constantly, around the clock, while driving, while walking, while reading, while working, while listening to music. I contemplate different ways of finding Him; perhaps looking at something or at some thought from a different angle might yield a greater understanding into who He is and how I can live comfortably with that understanding. Perhaps during the times I toiled I was looking too deeply or not deep enough or I thought I understood my own struggles to believe when in actuality I didn't. Even doubts are sometimes difficult to understand.
6) During Christmas, I reflect on the words of Teilhard de Chardin and his assertion that Jesus Christ was the most perfectly evolved human being that ever lived. In Jesus Christ, Chardin saw "both matter and the spirit of God definitely combined", as well as our ultimate destiny. Be careful how you interpret this. Chardin was a Catholic priest and NOT a pantheist.
7) In Church tradition the Holy Spirit is often described as the Love shared between the Father and the Son. This is one of the most beautiful thoughts that can enter my feeble mind. That God would Love so incomprehensibly and place the fullness of Himself behind that Love is an idea that can move any unbeliever with an open mind.
8) Even during the times I struggle with believing in God, I think faith in Him is a magnificent and beautiful gift to mankind. I'm seized by the impression that faith in the Creator will someday yield a good conclusion.
May Christ be born in you.
*Taken from John Donne's poem Nativity.
I believe that one of humanities most benevolent and expressive desires for God comes in the life of a Catholic monk. A life that is essentially based on work and prayer (actually, one might say mostly on prayer since contemplatives consider the work they do a form of prayer) this unique vocation demonstrates the validity of the tested Christian tradition, especially in a Catholic context. To willfully inundate yourself in an environment that focuses internally on the perpetual search for God speaks volumes of those blessed with such a vocation.
Vigils; continue on to mass, after which comes the morning work session. They pause for lunch, continue to a brief prayer moment and begin the afternoon work session. In the evening comes Vespers and another prayer service before retiring. Each monastery has its own specific schedule, but most follow a daily routine similar to the one just explained.
You have seen the imagery a thousand times before. Those black and white tunics accompanied by scowls that make contemplation the focus of the monk, amid fields of grass, sky, and sunlight. I can't put my finger on it, but there is something about a monk and the simplicity of nature that go very well together.
Mystic Monk Coffee. Have you ever heard of these guys? Well, apparently there is a group of Carmelite Monks in Wyoming whose "monastic industry" is the production of roasted coffee. I've never heard of them before, and even though I'm not a big coffee drinker I'll support them by purchasing for a few friends who do enjoy the taste.| Your Christmas is Most Like: The Muppet Christmas Carol |
 You tend to reflect on Christmas past, present, and future... And you also do a little singing. |
I have written about Thomas Merton - the monk, author, poet, and social activist - on previous postings that briefly covered his life and his gravitation to a Catholic contemplative committal. I have always thought of him as someone enamored of God and passionate about His existence; and our obligation to love each other as instructed by Jesus Christ. In other blogs, however, I read a description of Thomas Merton that is vastly different from the perception I have of him. No exact details are mentioned to support their claims, but I've heard him referred to as a "heretic" and a "new age guru." Are we talking about the same Thomas Merton? I know he forged a dialogue between Catholic and Buddhist contemplatives that continues to this very day. I know he was appalled by the Vietnam War and the development, proliferation, and strategizing of nuclear weaponry. I know of his indignation over the racial inequities that plagued America during the tumultuous 1960's. But a heretic? Does his social activism and ecumenical conferencing make him a heathen? To my knowledge, Merton remained a faithful and observant Catholic throughout his stay in Gethsemane. It was not until the last few years of his life that he was given permission by his abbot to travel abroad. His works (the one's I've come across) are filled with beautiful spirituality that sees humanity as a marvellous creation, albeit fallen and oftentimes weak.
Born in Belgium on July 17, 1894, Monsignor Lemaître, before becoming a priest, volunteered to serve in the Belgian army during WWI. Upon completion of his military assignment, Lemaître returned to Belgium as the recipient of the Military Cross and began a program of studies for the priesthood and doctorate in mathematics and physics. After his ordination and successful completion of his doctoral studies, in 1930 Monsignor Lemaître proposed his theory of "the Cosmic Egg exploding at the moment of creation." Fred Hoyle, a British astronomer and critical of Lemaître's theory, pejoratively referred to this exploding egg as the Big Bang.
In a nutshell: the Big Bang Theory proposes that the universe began with the incomprehensible and unimaginable explosion of an atomic nucleus that contained all the matter that comprises the universe today. Before the explosion there was nothing. During and after the explosion there was our universe. As Lemaître once described it, "A day without yesterday." In 1966, shortly after having learned of the discovery of cosmic background radiation- a detection which added validation to his cosmic theory - Monsignor Lemaître died on June 28 of that year.
Since then many discoveries has solidified the proposition made by this scientists and man of
God. To this day, the "exploding primeval atom", the "day without a yesterday", stands as the most likely and scientifically supported theory of universal origins in all of cosmology. The discoveries made by the COBE and WMAP devices add more missing pieces and greater clarity to what Monsignor Lemaître proposed over seventy years ago. In his honor, there is a crater on the moon named after him, and in 2005 he was voted as one of the top 100 Belgians of all time by Flemish and French constituencies.
Tom
