The True, Wild, Inspiring, and Tragic Story of Monastic Britain

Britain is full of monastic ghosts. Street names carry them: Monks Lane, Priory Road, Abbey Close. The landscape, too, still bears the imprint of communities that shaped it for a thousand years. The ruins of Fountains, Rievaulx, Tintern, and dozens of lesser houses stand in fields and valleys across England, Wales, and Scotland, drawing visitors who admire their picturesque qualities while knowing almost nothing of the civilization that produced them.

Fontgombault Sermon for Ash Wednesday: Lent is not a time for ascetic exploits, but for a merely and truly Christian life.

ASH WEDNESDAY

Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau

Abbot of Our Lady of Fontgombault

Fontgombault, February 26, 2020

Convertimini ad me.

Be converted to Me with all your heart.

Joel 2:12

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My dearly beloved Sons,

The Holy Forty Days of Penance are back, days both dreaded and desired.

Dreaded, for they remind us that it is our duty to convert, to turn around. What is at stake in this turnaround is perhaps not the ultimate orientation of our lives, yet, it does demand a true effort on such or such point, which we have to discern and acknowledge. It’s never something easy to give up habits that have grown old at the same pace as we have. What a token of love if we do that! What a merit!

These days are also desired, for they will end up in the light of the Risen One. The Easter night encounter is like the magnet reorienting the compass of our lives during Lent.

Encountering and receiving the Lord cannot be improvised. Remember the Gospel part about Martha and Mary. The Lord has entered His friends’ home. Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. Martha is busy with the preparation of the meal, and she grows impatient with her sister’s inactivity. Jesus, while He acknowledges that Martha is busy with many things (for that matter, He doesn’t ask her to give up cooking), tactfully reminds her that one choice only is good, truly good. This good part consists in receiving Jesus in one’s heart.

Jesus’ answer points out what a true Lenten path should be. It doesn’t mean we should take up Carthusian observances. It means that, while we remain faithful to our duty of state, to our humdrum everyday routine, we should receive again, or receive better, Jesus into our own lives.