The monks of La Trappe Abbey in Normandy, France may leave their monastery in 2028, the abbey announced — a move that could bring to an end 900 years of Cistercian monastic presence at “La Grande Trappe.” The Trappist community admitted that “following a long discernment” and “given the scarcity of vocations and the heavier burden of land heritage,” the brothers “are considering a departure in 2028.” Irish Cistercian monks also projected the closure of Co. Waterford’s Mount Melleray Abbey after almost 200 years. On the other hand, cloistered Carmelite monks near Cheyenne, Wyoming are constructing a massive Neo-Gothic stone monastery using modern Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing technology, which will include hermitages for individual prayer.
The Catholic Church, indeed Western Civilization, owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the various monastic orders of men and women who preserved, deepened, and propagated the Christian faith as well as much secular learning throughout the centuries. Their schools and libraries, their farms and vineyards, along with their liturgies and prayers, certainly rival Greece and Rome for their contribution to the finer aspects of today’s civilization.
While their liturgy, their scholarship and their agriculture have indeed been commendable, at the root of monastic success was their dedication to the contemplative life, a life of daily appreciation of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believing soul. The word “contemplation” at its root means to occupy the same space as something else. The contemplative soul daily senses the Divine Presence within that person’s very being. The contemplative develops an insight, an instinct, an intuition that God is always and everywhere present to the believer. While meditation largely involves the mind, contemplation absorbs the whole being, going to the heart of the matter, deeply enjoying the Divine Presence made available through God’s sanctifying grace.
This coming Sunday’s Gospel from Jesus’ Last Supper discourse in St. John’s Gospel account speaks repeatedly of the core gift of contemplation offered to every believing soul. Jesus speaks of an “advocate,” a “spirit of truth,” who will “be with you always” – yes, an indwelling Divine Presence waiting to be sensed by the sincere believer. Again Jesus insists that the believer will “know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.” Again an interior Divine Presence is promised to the devout. And Jesus himself, along with the Spirit, will be present within the believer: “...I will come to you...you will see me, because I live and you will live.” Jesus further insists on his nearness, “...you are in me and I in you.” And most happily Jesus asserts that appreciating the Divine Presence will not fall entirely on the believing soul. Jesus himself will gladly guide the believer’s deepening spiritual life, “I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
These words from Jesus’ last meal with his disciples are literally the Gospel Truth and are meant to be taken seriously and effectively. Each believer in the state of grace has this Divine pulsation within his or her being. God is Divinely present and Divinely active within every redeemed soul. Quite handily, prayer, both privately uttered and publically voiced, is the first as well as the enduring response toward a greater and deeper appreciation of the Divine life within. Masses well attended, the Bible well studied, rosaries well repeated, the Divine Office well considered, private devotions well pondered, the Divine Presence well appreciated: a Catholic prayer life in all its forms is certainly the groundwork for the same contemplative life that prospered the great monasteries of Europe and that today supports contemplative orders nearer to home, like the monks at Spencer and the nuns at Wrentham.
Pope Leo XIV recently recommended as his favorite spiritual book, The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a 17th century Carmelite who wrote of his own humble development of an awareness of the presence of God within his own soul and within the world around him. Brother Lawrence appreciated contemplation quite simply as a conversation with God. “We would be quite surprised if we knew what the soul sometimes says to God,” Brother Lawrence wrote interestingly. So all can take courage. God is indeed present to the believer; now the believer must acknowledge that presence in thought, prayer and service.
