Surrexit Dominus Vere, Alleluia!

Cover of the Easter CD of the monks.

Monasteries are weird.  Monastic life has a beautiful simplicity.  By their very nature these places founded by St. Benedict and so many others are so counter cultural.  Those who go there see and celebrate things in such a different way than we do "on the outside."

Last night at the Easter Vigil and today, Easter Morn are so similar to other days in the life of these monks.  While the retreatants had a little gathering after the Easter Vigil last night, the monks quietly went to bed.  There were no "High Fives" or applause in the sacristy after Mass, just a simple bow to the crucifix as has been done after every Mass I have concelebrated so far.  Father Abbott did not thank everyone.  There was no need to.  Their thanks was their ability to offer their talents and their very selves to the Risen Lord.

Certainly, Easter is different!  But you would never know it was the pinnacle of the entire Church year by the decorations in the abbey church.  Besides the Paschal Candle which towers like the Morning Star overhead and the large carpet in the sanctuary, I only counted 8 vases of cut flowers:  two by the Main Altar of Sacrifice, one by the statue of Our Blessed Mother, one by the statue of St. Benedict, one each on the two side Altars, and one each before the chapel of the Entombment of Christ and the Dormition (Sleep) of the Mother of God.  I know back home the Liturgy Committee under the direction of Deacon Franklin and assisted by our sacristans placed out a lot more foliage than that.

So where is the difference?  It's in the words!  The antiphons, chants, songs are all filled with joy and are taken from the various accounts of what happened "early in the morning on that first day of the week."  In a society where words count for so little and are so malleable, these words are everything to us and to the ages for they speak of the greatest event of human history!

Here are just some of the words I was privileged to hear at Lauds this morning as the sun climbed over the eastern landscape of the Loire Valley:

   The Lord is risen, alleluia.

   The splendor of Christ risen from the dead has shown on the people redeemed by his blood, alleluia.

    Our Redeemer has risen from the tomb; let us sing a hymn of praise to the Lord our God, alleluia.

    Alleluia, the Lord is risen as he promised, alleluia.

    This is the day the Lord has made, Alleluia.  Let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia.

    Very early on the morning after the Sabbath, when the sun had just risen, they came to the tomb,
               alleluia.

In these words and the gorgeous melodies that accompanied them, I found the monks excitement.  I found our excitement.  If these words have the meaning which we profess them to than this is the key to life.  This Jesus, Risen from the dead, has the key to eternal life.

"Alleluia.  Christ Our Passover has been sacrificed."

The only difference to the Mass on Easter Sunday is the Easter Sequence (which you will hear as well) that tells the wonderful reality of the feelings and experience of the women at the Tomb!  As the pope warned us last night in his homily at the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's:  "Don't be afraid of surprises."  The women got the surprise that changed their lives and all history.  After we ourselves were sprinkled with with Easter Water, a reminder of our new life in Christ, there was a procession through the monastery as the abbott blessed the cloister with Easter Water.  I love the song that we sing as we do so:  Salve Festa Dies (Hail, Festival Day - it's the last hymn).  I'll have it in my head for all fifty days of Eastertide now.


Every Mass is the Celebration of the Lord's death and Resurrection!  Every Sunday is Easter Sunday!  This weekend we get to reflect through words on the actions of Christ Risen.  These words mean something extraordinary.  And as limited as we are we use these words to pass on to future generations that "this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in in, Alleluia!"

Happy Easter!  The Lord is Risen!  It is true!  He has appeared to Simon!

What Are We Waiting for? Simply Jesus!

View of the Abbey from the bridge.

Normally everything is pretty much done in silence here at the monastery.  Everything unless you have an excuse.

When I mentioned who was here at Solesmes in a earlier blog this week I omitted someone.  Firstly, he is not staying at the retreat house.  He is staying in the abbey proper.  Secondly, I just wanted to respect his space.  But we just had coffee together.  Making his episcopal retreat is Msgr. Eamon Martin, the coadjutor Archbishop-elect of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.  Before any ordination the Church requires a retreat by the candidate.  One of the American deacons is making his priesthood retreat here before he is ordained a priest in Oakland on May 18.  My diaconate retreat was in Naim, Italy.  My priesthood retreat was done at Rocca Sant'Angelo, a house of prayer that was originally founded by St. Francis himself just an hour's walk outside of Assisi.

Today, the archbishop-elect joined us for coffee after the main meal in the guest refectory.  You know those Irish can be chatty.  When the brother came in to quiet us down.  He saw Msgr. Martin and turned right around.  I guess we all got a "Talking Pass" for the rest of the coffee hour.

Besides talking to the archbishop-elect about our new Holy Father, his time at the monastery, and his moving once he gets home, I had a chance to talk with the deacon from Oakland.  We chatted about Rome and his excitement both at at being at S. Pierre and his upcoming ordination as a priest.  We knew some common friends and of course there was Easter that begins with the vigil tonight.  It was truly enjoyable and there was no need to worry about our conversation.  We had our "Talking Pass."

As we were chatting a college student approached us.  Thibaut is from St. Etienne, not to far from Lyon on the south of France.  He is finishing up a degree in physics from a university in Paris and decided to spend his break at a monastery.  He was very interested in questions about the seminary and the priesthood.  We talked about a half hour.  I would not be surprised if Thibaut entered the seminary one day.

An archbishop-elect, a priest, a deacon, an university student.  We all came to Solesmes for different reasons but all for the same end.  We are waiting for Jesus.  With the Church Universal and Christians everywhere it's Jesus we seek as we approach the Empty Tomb.  We look to Him to help prepare us for all we endeavor.  We follow Him on all our life's journeys.  We ask of Him the answers to all of the questions that well up in our hearts.

Abbey church:  Chapel of the Entombment of Jesus. 

In the States we have mastered making things complicated and that can effect our religious expressions of faith.  If you can this Holy Saturday in the midst of all you have going on, remember . . .

What are we waiting for?  Simply Jesus!

Here Come the Yanks!

Last night and this morning three deacons arrived from the American College in Rome (my alma mater) to spend the Holy Triduum with the Benedictines here.  There were supposed to be more of them but with Pope Benedict's resignation a few cancelled so that they could celebrate in Rome with the new Holy Father.  (I only hope they aren't attending the Mass of the Lord's Supper with the pope on Holy Thursday:  it's taking place in prison!)

So who is in this full guesthouse?  Well there are forty of us.  But it's a little difficult to say precisely since we experience these days in silence for the most part.  Besides myself there are six other priests.  They are mainly professors who have off during these days from school so that they have the luxury to be away at Holy Week.  I mentioned the three American deacons (one from Minnesota, two from California).  The rest are just laymen.  Some are wearing wedding bans, most are not.  A few appear to be in their sixties while the majority are much younger.  I would say that there are a few college aged men here as well.  The guest house also has a man or two who will be around for extended period.  Whether they are exploring a vocation or what not, they tend to stay longer, do more chores and pay less.

That's just the men.  Then there are women who come and pray with the monks while staying with the sisters across town at Sainte Cecile.  They might split their time praying with either the men or the woman of this great Benedictine family.

Lastly, there are the well-healed who stay at the beautiful hotel across the street.  For whatever reason (perhaps they are a couple that would like to stay together) they make the pricey but wonderful choice of three stars plus.  I will be honest one summer I came to the abbaye thinking I had a room in the guesthouse for the feast of St. Benedict on July 11 and there was no room so I had to go across the street for two nights.  I'll admit I wasn't exactly crying.

In addition to those who come for an extended period, the abbey church will be filled and the monks will put up chairs and speakers outside for others who live nearby or just come for one of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Triduum.  I hope they dress warmly because it is still kinda of chilly here.

So, like Incarnation, everybody is here for Holy Week - even the Yanks.  As it should be!

There is a Giant Crucifix at the Table!

The Grand Refectory.  Notice the Abbot's Table under the painting in the center and the Lecturn on the left.

There is a Giant Crucifix at the Table!  In fact there are two!

The first time I came to Solesmes was for Holy Week with Father Fonti when we were seminarians in Rome in 1990.  Before we left a priest who had been there the year before said we should eat as much as possible at the beginning of the week because they give you less and less food as Holy Week moves on.

Upon entering the Grand Refectory for the first time on Monday, we saw an old monk who looked a lot like Uncle Fester from The Munsters TV show eating crumbs off the floor.  Fonti looked at me with a big grin and said:  "O'Connor, you're never gunna last!"  I obviously did.  There was plenty of food to go around. "Uncle Fester" was just a monk way up in years who had kinda lost it and was very scrupulous about wasting food.

A year or so later I returned to S. Pierre during the summer.  Expecting to see "Uncle Fester" in the refectory, instead I saw a Giant Crucifix where his place was.  "Uncle Fester" had died earlier in the month and the Benedictine tradition is to place a Crucifix at the dead monk's place in the refectory for thirty days.  In the old days the food he would have eaten during that time would have been given to the poor for his intentions.  Today the monastery makes a monetary gift to the poor for his intentions.  This Holy Week I found two Giant Crucifixes in the refectory and freshly turned earth in the graveyard.

As opposed to Mass and choir where seating is dependent on office or function, seating in the refectory is by seniority.  The abbot sits alone (or with special guests, ie. visiting bishops and abbots) on a central raised platform, then on either side of the refectory are raised rows of tables where the monks sit at one wall side facing out.  The monks on the abbot's right begins with a small table for the prior alone.  The monks on the abbot's left begin with a small table for the sub-prior alone.  The rest of the monks alternate from side to side by seniority in tables of five, determined by the date that they arrived at the abbey.  The more senior you are the closer you are to Father Abbot.

There is a table right before the abbot's table that is for the guests/retreatants.  We don't get a raised platform.  But we do get to eat first and we have wine!

So everyone asks how is the food?  Well, it's not bad actually.  Not bad at all.  Now, there is no choice, mind you.  You get what they serve and the presentation is very institutional - stainless steel trays and buckets, but it tastes fine so far.  Without a doubt the bread at the monastery and throughout France is phenomenal.  But I will leave that for another posting.

Monks eating main meal in the Grand Refectory while others serve them.

The monks take turns serving the meals and I guess there is a Chef Monk who is in charge of the kitchen.  When you are cooking for close to a hundred hungry men, you can't leave these things to chance.  As I mentioned before meals are take in silence while one of the monks reads.  On very special days recorded classical music is played in place of the reading.

Monk reading from the Lecturn of the Grand Refectory.

Each meal always begins and ends with sung prayers which are always lead by the abbot or, if he is absent, by the prior.  After the main meal the guests/retreatants can go to the small guest refectory to have coffee.

While it's not a three star restaurant, there is one literally across the street.  I haven't been yet but it has only been five days.  More tempting, for me, is the patisserie which is just down the street.  That I might have to visit right after we encounter the Empty Tomb again.  It wouldn't be Easter without some sweets.  But I can wait because I'm definitely not eating crumbs off the floor.

The Monastic Day of Prayer

The Abbey Church as seen from entering the Monastery Main Gates.

As I went to bed last night I quickly figured that I was in the abbey church for almost eight hours of community prayer (which was not including my own personal prayers and readings).  That's a third of the day!  Now I understand not every day is Palm Sunday, but there is still a lot of time spent in church and I must say it's a wonderful blessing.  The words of St. Benedict ring true here: ora et labora (prayer and work).  So here is a peek at my monastic weekday.  Sundays have some changes with more prayer time.

All of the prayer times are associated with the chanting of the 150 psalms from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).  The prayers that I say at home along with the other priests, deacons and our sisters are similar to praying the psalms here at Solesmes.  They just do it in common.  And they sing more psalms and at fixed points throughout the day.  It's also called the The Liturgy of the Hours and I know some lay folk who do part of it each day.  When the monks chant the psalms its like being rocked in a boat back and forth or even breathing in and out.

4:45AM  I wake up at about 4:45AM.  Yep it's pitch black out but that is not as bad as the chill in my room and the common bathroom on my floor of the Retreat House.  It never gets warm.  That's for sure.
I take time to wash up and head over to the abbey church which is about five minutes from my room.

5:30AM   The first prayers offered by the Benedictines are called Vigils.  Done in the darkness before sunrise they have readings accompanying them.  It is the longest of the offices (prayer times) lasting over an hour.  This office sets the theme for the rest of the day depending on the liturgical season or feast.

6:30-8:45AM  Breakfast is available in the Guest Dinning Room.  (I will do another post about meals later.)  A bowl of cafe au lait, bread, butter and jam can work wonders on a chilly morning.

7:30AM  After breakfast I return to church for Lauds or morning prayers.  The psalms used here have more to do with the day at hand which is God's gift to us so we can praise Him.  Lauds lasts about 45 minutes on a weekday.  Lauds in the morning and Vespers in the evening are the two hinges on which the Monastic Day swings.

8:15AM  After morning prayers I return to my room.  I tidy it up some and then I have been working on my blog at this time.  I also pray over the readings (in English!) that will be proclaimed at Mass.

10AM  The Community Mass is at 10AM.  It begins with more psalms and the praying of the minor office of Terce.  Terce gets its name from the third hour after sunrise.  Benedict and the monks and nuns that followed him withdrew from the world so that they could praise God without ceasing or in this case periodically throughout the day.  Mass lasts about an hour on weekdays and is entirely sung.  The monks don't use popular hymns, but rather, they would chant a line from the psalms in beautiful and elaborate gregorian chant.  This is my favorite part of the day without a doubt.

11:15AM  After Mass would be free time and a great time to get out for some walking, maybe help with some of the monks chores (I've done that before here) but the weather has been a little to harsh to go out for a walk or to work in the gardens.  I also finish up my blog.

Monks processing to prayer.

1PM  The monks gather in the church for the second of the minor offices called Sext or prayers at the sixth hour of daylight.  This short twenty minute office concludes with the monks and retretants chanting as we head into the Grand Refectory for the main meal.    The meal which lasts about a half hour is taken without talking while a brother reads from either "the Roman Calendar" (whose saints' day it is today), the Rule of St. Benedict or from a book the abbot has chosen.  He could be reading the sports scores with the amount of French I know!  After the meal we head back to church chanting psalm 51 asking God's Mercy.

2PM  The minor office of None (ninth hour) concludes the "Lunch Cycle."

2:15PM  Is free time for me; work for the monks.  I have been getting to church around 4PM for my personal Holy Hour and prayers.

The empty Sanctuary and Choir while I make my private prayers.

5PM  The second major hour of Vespers or evening prayer begins at 5PM.  I always love vespers because it culminates with Mary's hymn of praise the Magnificat.  Vespers lasts little less than an hour.  After Vespers I always stop by the little graveyard near the church to say a prayer for those who have entered the fullness of life.  Some I know by name, other I recall that their faces are missing from the choir or refectory.

6PM  Another free hour comes my way after vespers before dinner.

7:20PM  Supper is a lighter meal here than in the States.  Depending on what's going on we either eat with the monks in their refectory or in the guests' refectory.

8:30PM  Compline or night prayer is also a beautiful way to end the day.  These short prayers (twenty-five minutes, if even) done mostly in the dark and with few visitors to the abbey church always end with a hymn to our Mother and the blessing of the abbot who sprinkles each one present with Holy Water.

Father Abbot

8:55PM  While there is not much talking or noise around here.  After Compline begins the Grand Silence which will not be broken till Vigils when the abbot intones,  "Lord, open my lips" and the monks reply "And my mouth will declare Your praises."

Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

Are you fickle?  Are you fickle-minded? Am I?  After the very moving Mass this morning, getting some glimpses of Our Holy Father's first Palm Sunday Procession and Mass at St. Peter's, and now just coming back from Vespers with Benediction I just can't get the word or idea of fickle out of my head.

First of all it's been an ugly day here along the Sarthe River.  It was foggy and damp when I went to the church for vigils at 5AM.  You could feel it in your bones.  Because we are so far west in the time zone, the sun doesn't rise till about 7AM anyway.  Right now it sets after 7PM because we have not sprung forward yet (that takes place next weekend when it will set around 8:30PM).  Any way it doesn't really matter because the sun never made it through the overcast today.

It's a shame the sun didn't shine for our procession at the beginning of Mass while the monks sang Pueri Hebraeorum.  The Mass which was two hours and fifteen minutes began with the blessing of branches and the Luke's Gospel passage about Jesus entering the city and how excited they were to welcome Him.  The packed church (monks, retreatants, faithful then followed the abbot into the formal monastery gardens (that are off limits except for the monks) about the size of 3/4 of a football field.  The monks were chanting the whole time.  But it was cold: about 38-40 degrees.

Palm Sunday Procession through the cloister.

Maybe Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion should always be cold because by the time we got settled back in church 3 monks were already chanting Luke's version of the Passion.  From His Sunday entrance to his Thursday arrest the crowds become awfully cold to Jesus.  Here is where that fickle word entered my head the first time.  How did everything appear to go so wrong, so fast?  We know the answer to that.  We know the end of the story; and no matter if it was in Queens Village, Solesmes or Rome we celebrated Mass which recalls the Passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Now there was no lack of sun today in Rome as Our Holy Father blessed the palm and olive branches by the great obelisk in the Piazza S. Pietro.  With so many young people gathered on this first day of Holy Week there was a tangible excitement.  The excitement was certainly about the Great Week before us but also about this new Shepherd who will lead us.  Everyone loves Francis!  But what happens Thursday?  No, not this Holy Thursday.  But what happens when he begins to challenge us with the Gospel Message of Jesus?  How will he be received when he challenges us not to consume so much?  Or that our rights are dependent upon those of others?  Or that every life is sacred from natural conception to natural death?  Again that fickle word made it's way to my consciousness.

Pope Francis listens to the Gospel Reading with Palm in hand.

After a well deserved meal and a long overdue nap, I returned to the church for Sunday Vespers with as it is called here "un Salut" to Real Presence of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist.  Sunday vespers are always important and the First day of Holy Week made them all the more so.  Even without the sun cascading in the near clear windows of the choir the monks began singing the psalms of evening prayer.  Maybe because I had a few hours to meditate about it but the Lord's Passion did not seem as violent.  Perhaps it was because there was no one shouting "Crucify him!," but I think it was more than likely because placed upon the Altar was Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  With Jesus so close, it's silly but, the church seemed a little warmer, the world, a little calmer, and the violence of this morning's Passion account, a bit more muted.  As I raised my eyes to the Altar and looked upon the monstrance with the Sacred Host, the Saving Victim, that fickle word returned to my head.  All I could think was St. Teresa's observation.  "God never changes."  There is nothing fickle about Jesus, although He probably has as many reasons to be as people made in His image.  Precisely because there is nothing fickle in God, it allows me to handle the fickle nature in myself and others.

The sun should be out tomorrow, though they say it will be cold again.  Imagine that!  Fickle weather for an imperfect world.

Why Solesmes?

In Solesmes is a Benedictine Monastery with a rich and important history in the life of France and the Liturgy of the Church Universal.  The first religious settlement here was around the year one thousand.  For the next seven hundred years it had a rough history with battles being fought all around it often disrupting the prayer life of the monks and the villages around it.  All of this misfortune culminated in the French Revolution and the laws that closed all the monasteries and scattered the monks.  The buildings and grounds fell into disrepair and monastic life in France ceased.

View of the Sarthe River and the town of Le Port de Juigne from  Solesmes.

In 1833, Rev. Prosper Gueranger, a diocesan priest (like the ones at Incarnation) heard that the remains of the old priory at Solesmes was going to be sold.  He asked his bishop if he could get donations to buy the land in the homes of restoring monastic life to France.  With the bishop's permission he bought the land and along with a few other young priests began to reside work and pray at Solesmes along the bank of the Sarthe river.

Dom Gueranger was a very gifted individual and explored many historical books about the Benedictine way of life.  He became the first Abbot when in 1837 the Abbaye Saint Pierre was recognized by the Holy Father.  Under Dom Gueranger's watchful eyes the monastery grew in numbers and the needed buildings on the grounds were restored or erected.  As the monastery grew it founded other monasteries throughout France and indeed all the world.  Dom Gueranger also helped found the nearby Benedictine Convent of Sainte Cecile (about a twenty minute walk on the other end of town). Today there are 24 monasteries rooted in Solesmes on three continents across the globe.

The central focus of all monastic life is the Liturgy (our work in praising God).  The monks at S. Pierre study about the many aspects of the Liturgy; especially Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.  I came to know of this monastery first hand when I was a Liturgy student with the Benedictines at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant'Anselmo in Rome.  My first visit here was in the early 1990's with Father Fonti when we were students in Rome.

Today there are about 60 monks, both priests and brothers here at S. Pierre.  Their sole work - if you can call it that - is the Liturgy.  They do not make or sell jams, chocolates, vestments or booze.  They celebrate and chant the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin eight times a day (A later entry will talk about the Monastic day and the Liturgy of the Hours).  They sell CDs of their chants and textbooks of their works on the Sacred Liturgy to support themselves.  They live very simple lives.

The Abbaye is along the Sarthe River in the Loire Valley.  It is beautiful countryside.  The river is flanked by small villages.  Many like Solesmes don't ever have a traffic light.  As I arrive here I can tell that Spring is just ready to burst forth as birds are chirping out my window and many buds are looking to blossom.

View of the Gardens and the old "Cooling House" from my window in the retreat house.

So who comes to Solesmes besides priests on Sabbatical?  Well, the retreat house will be filled next week for Holy Week.  There will be 30 retreatants of all ages.  Groups come by the bus load at times to pray some of the day with the monks in the abby church.  School children, like the ones I encountered on Thursday pass through, too.  In the summer months they stay for a few days in like dormitory buildings on the grounds as they hike through the countryside.

The others who come to Solesmes are those who never leave:  the brothers and priests.  S. Pierre becomes their home and extended family.  Mostly from France, but some are from all over, they feel God's call to monastic life.  Many were very successful in their former lives.  Ironically, today many of the monks are from Versailles.  Famous for the lavishness of the French Monarchy before the Revolution, today there seems to be many vocations from that enclave just on the outskirts of Paris.

I'm not the only American here either!  One of the priests here is from Hartford, CT.  Fr. Michael has been here well over 25 years.  He was working in the DC area when he decided there was more to this world.  Another monk I met here was from Bayside.  That's right, our Bayside!  Fr. Gregory wasn't even Catholic when he heard about Solesmes!  He was an accomplished organist and came here to further his musical studies.  After returning to the New York he became Catholic and came back to Solesmes; this time inquiring about religious life.  Father Gregory left the Loire Valley in 1994 when S. Pierre founded a monastery in Lithuania, part of the former Soviet Union-extending the Benedictine life to another part of the world.

So I could not think of a better place to begin my Sabbatical.  The Abbaye S.  Pierre is a prayerful place in a beautiful setting.  I am excited to celebrate Holy Week, the Easter Octave and even our Parish Feast of the Annunciation, this year on April 8, with Dom Gueranger's Benedictine Family at Solesmes.

Je suis arrive!

The past two weeks have been very hectic preparing for my departure.  So many people were so helpful - my nervous stomach was not.  Both a cold and a stomach virus made my last few days even more hectic.  I think everyone in the rectory was so relieved when I left them.  I was driving them crazy trying to prepare for all the events that will go on while I am on Sabbatical.  All they wanted to do was get me on that plane!  In the midst of handshakes and hugs I realized that Incarnation is in good hands.

The plane that they wanted to get me on was late - two hours late.  So I spent an additional two hours home while not feeling my best.  Now that I didn't have anything to do I was overwhelmed with emotions of thanksgiving over two great events:  the generosity by the People of Incarnation to me and the never ending generosity of God toHis People in the gift of our new pope.

I always thought the people of the parish liked me - or at least what I'm doing at the parish.  I was so shocked and humbled over the cards, gifts and best wishes I received before my departure.  There were cards from groups and societies, best wishes on parchment or in crayon, hugs and kisses or voice and emails.  All wishing me well and offering me their prayers.  How lucky I am.  I hope this blog will allow those who want the opportunity to journey with me over the next few months.

While waiting at the airport I got the chance to read a few newspapers.  I don't get any delivered at the rectory.  Reading about Our Holy Father's Mass of Installation on the Solemnity of St. Joseph - Husband of Mary, Patron of the Universal Church and Guardian of  the Redeemer,  I was so amazed at how so many people have a connection already with their new "papa."  It's more than faith and optimism that has me expecting great things from Francis, our Pope.

Finally on my plane after going from one part of the American Airlines terminal to the other and back again, I had an uneventful flight.  I skipped the meal and just closed my eyes.  While i never really sleep on planes I just enjoyed the rest.

Arriving at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris it could well have been JFK if they weren't shouting directions at us in French.  33 degrees (that's zero celsius!) with a cold mix of snow and rain falling.  Just what I left, no?  I had plenty of time to get my bags and catch my train to the Loire Valley.

Oh, I forgot to tell you what I am bringing.  Everything!  For those of you who would tease me about how little I bring on the parish pilgrimages and trips I wish you were there to see me navigate the airport and rail stations with a giant black suitcase, a tremendous duffle bag with my back pack for the camino and a black shoulder bag for money, documents and my laptop.  What a mess!  Why am I bringing everything?  Because I am here for three seasons.  Because I am praying, studying, hiking.  Because I love being prepared especially when it comes to the comforts of home:  medicines and toiletries!  So far the only thing I realized I forgot? The only thing that was indispensable:  my camino guidebook and map!  Jose Santiago, the PAG-ASA coordinator, offered me a copy before I left.  I told him to keep it I have the same book upstairs.  Well, it's still there on my night table!  Nothing a quick call to Amazon can't fix.

After a cold and tough trip with my bags, I arrived in the rain to the Abbaye S. Pierre des Solesmes.  It was during lunch so I spent some thanksgiving time in the abby church.  I lucked out on my arrival for the Benedictine Monks were celebrating one of the great feasts of their community:  the Transitus (or death) of St. Benedict.  There is a beauty in the silence of any church - particularly an abby church with the rain pounding down.  That was quickly dissolved when a group of about 60 sixth or seventh graders arrived on a school trip to hear the monks sing their prayers in Latin.  While they were cute kids, it was simple a disaster!  After mid-afternoon prayer I found the guest-master and made it to my rooms.

I had some time to get my things in order, cry a bit over my missing guidebook and lay down a bit before Evening Prayer and Benediction.  I'll talk more about the way the Benedictines pray and sanctify the day.  Before dinner, I had the chance to catch up with Fr. Michael.  He is from Hartford, CT and I met him here over twenty years ago.  He has aged much better than me!  Before dinner with the community, I met the Abbot who spent some time speaking with me and then washed my hands:  A sign of welcome that Benedict has in his Rule.  After dinner I went right to bed.  I couldn't go back for night prayers in the church.  I was too tired.