This blog is written by a monk and is about monasteries and the spiritual life, both Catholic and Orthodox.
Pages
- Home
- IMAGO DEI; (icons and articles)
- BELMONT ABBEY, OUR MOTHER HOUSE
- PACHACAMAC MONASTERY - OUR MONASTERY
- HOLY RESURRECTION MONASTERY
- SITE MAP OSB: BENEDICTINE ORDER
- LEARN OR PREPARE PLAINCHANT: THE WHOLE GRADUAL ONLINE
- A WONDERFUL ORTHODOX CONVENT: ST ELIZABETH'S CONVENT, MINSK
- ECCLESIAL PEACE: This website and "Monks and Mermaids" belong to one another.
EXPAND YOUR READING!!
"Today the concept of truth is viewed with suspicion, because truth is identified with violence. Over history there have, unfortunately, been episodes when people sought to defend the truth with violence. But they are two contrasting realities. Truth cannot be imposed with means other than itself! Truth can only come with its own light. Yet, we need truth. ... Without truth we are blind in the world, we have no path to follow. The great gift of Christ was that He enabled us to see the face of God".Pope Benedict xvi, February 24th, 2012
The Church is ecumenical, catholic, God-human, ageless, and it is therefore a blasphemy—an unpardonable blasphemy against Christ and against the Holy Ghost—to turn the Church into a national institution, to narrow her down to petty, transient, time-bound aspirations and ways of doing things. Her purpose is beyond nationality, ecumenical, all-embracing: to unite all men in Christ, all without exception to nation or race or social strata. - St Justin Popovitch
Friday 31 October 2008
INTRODUCTION TO THIS EDITION
We are not the only English foundation of Benedictines in Peru. The community of Tyburn Convent in London has been here longer than we have. In fact, it was at their suggestion that the Archbishop of Piura should ask the Abbot of Belmont to send monks to make a foundation. That was back in 1980, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. We have moved after many years in Tambogrande to Lima, while the Tyburn nuns moved from Piura to Sechura. I gave them their retreat a year or so ago. They have also made two more foundations, one in Columbia and one in Ecuador. D. Alex. who is in solemn vows and is trying to balance his monastic life, his job as bursar and his life as a student of philosophy at "The Faculty", originally made contact with us in Sechura. We owe the good sisters of Tyburn a lot. Anyway, in homage to them I publish a short video on their foundation in Columbia. They are neighbours of the Benedictine abbey of Guatapé, which has also helped us in many ways.
As I write, Fr Paul Stonham, Abbot of Belmont, is here. He is going this afternoon to visit Fr Joseph whom we left behind in the tropical north to care for his parish near Tambogrande. When we made our move to Lima we did not have the heart to abandon the people of Cruceta; sao Fr Joseph lives with his cat and looks after the parish. The abbot comes quite frequently to Latin America because he represents the interests of monasteries in this region in a fund, called AIM, by which rich monasteries in the first world help poor ones in the third.
We have also had two three month visits from Fr Francis McKenna who is helping us out in many ways, especially in the choir and in the kitchen: his cooking is as good as his singing!!
My next edition of this blog will be written at Belmont. My book "Heaven Revealed. The Holy Spirit and the Mass" is being launched at Belmont
and published by Gracewing on November 27th. I am writing a third on the Sacraments of Initiation, but it doesn´t yet have a title. At Belmont I shall have of time to talk with Br Juan of this monastery who is doing his noviciate under the expert guidance of Fr Brendan. In January I hope to spend some time hearing confessions of people who visit the Basilica of St Paul-Outside-the Walls in Rome. In that case, this blog will have a definitely Roman look in January.
Ever since we arrived at Pachacamac in August, 2006, we have had a problem. A man with the same family name as St Martin of Lima had invaded the high ground adjacent to the land we had bought and claimed it for himself. This land officially belongs to the state but was normally given to the owner of the habitable lower land next to it, and we plans to build our monastery on it. In fact, we had possession, but he went with people, threatened the watchman who fled, burned down his house and said that it had always been his. Both sides appealed to the Law, and the fiscal ruled that neither side should enter until the dispute had ended. Both sides signed a paper to that effect, but he remained where he was. People like him thrive because of three factors. Firstly, most people do not have papers to prove that the land they live on or use for agriculture is really theirs. Secondly, the law is slow and extremely complicated: the laws governing land have changed radically three times in three years, so that the lawyers often do not know what the latest law is and are not sure how it is to be interpreted, even if they know it; and the authorities that administer the law have totally changed twice in the same period. Thirdly, most people do not have the money, the patience or the self-confidence to defend themselves. The man who invaded the land that would have normally been ours has a long record of disputes with other people over the same kind of thing. That is how he earns his living; but he has managed to stay out of prison. Mostly, people are willing to pay him to leave or he keeps the land unopposed. He is even in dispute with h9is own family!! When we took him on, many people who have been his victims hoped that he would lose this one. After three years in which his lies had to be investigated, he did lose, and he has received a suspended sentence of two years. About four months later - Peruvian legal processes are extremely SLOW - the judge´s secretary went with our lawyers to the area and we were formally given the administration of the land; but we now have to buy it from the state, even though formally, under the old laws, we would have been given it if all this hadn´t happened. I hope we can find the money.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Search This Blog
La Virgen de Guadalupe
Important Christian Literature
- "Cyberdesert" the Fathers on Prayer & the Christian Life
- "On Inmages" (Hilary of Poities John Damascene
- Abandonment to Divine Providence (Jean-Pierre de Caussade
- Ascent of Mount Carmel (John of the Cross)
- Augustine Baker (home page)
- Augustine Baker OSB "Sancta Sophia"
- Conferences of St John Cassian
- Confessions & Enchiridion (S> Augustine)
- Life of St Benedict (S. Gregory the Great)
- On St Symeon the New Theologian (i-pod)
- On the Gospel of St John and the "Epistle to the Hebrews (S. John Chrysostom)
- Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers vol. 1 (S. Athanasius)
- Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers vol.2. (S. Athanasius)
- Revelations of Divine Love (Julian of Norwich)
- Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of he Gospels, Sermons on the Gospels (S> Augustine)
- Spiritual Canticle of the Soul
- St Dionysius "Mystical Theology"
- St John of the Cross "The Dark Night of the Soul."
- The City of God (S. Augustine)
- The Cloud of Unknowing
- The Divine Names & Mystical Theology (S. Dionysius the Areopagite)
- The Inarnation (St Athanasius)
- The Life of St Teresa of Avila OCD
- The Practice of the Presence of God (Br Lawrence)
- The Rule of S. Benedict
- Works of Suplicius Severus, S. Vincent of Lerins, and S. John Cassia
Monastic Links
Followers
Orthodox Monasteries Throughout The World
Benedictine Order -website
Orthodox Monasticism in Patristic and Monastic Studies
My Blog List
-
-
Replies to Questions about the targeting of Hazara community members by ISIS; whether the FCDO meet – Hazara representatives to discuss the continuing violence and persecution facing their community in Afghanistan; how they act on their admission that “minority groups such as the Hazara people face discrimination and attacks”; and why they wont publish their latest Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability assessment on Afghanistan - Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, has provided the following answer to your written parliamentary question (HL42...1 day ago
-
More Face-Saving - Next week a high-profile conference will be held marking the centenary of the Catholic Church’s first ever council in China, drawing a slew of experts an...1 day ago
-
Teaching Iconography in the Twenty-First Century - [image: Study Group final image, - result of 6.5 months of work and studies.]Sharing our teaching method, I invite fellow iconographers to share their view...2 weeks ago
-
What About Me, Says Patriarch of Alexandria - Source: spc.rs What about me? Patriarch of Alexandria Theodore responded with a letter to the appeal of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porphyry, in which H...8 months ago
-
It’s Time to Say Goodbye - Christ is Risen! After almost 20 years of keeping a blog, I’ve decided I will close down this site at the end of summer, 2022. You can find my posts on th...1 year ago
-
When America Met Thich Nhat Hanh - . by Jim Forest I first met Thich Nhat Hanh in May 1966. At the time Lyndon Johnson was America’s president. The steadily rising level of US troops in Viet...2 years ago
-
The Byzantine Gender Reveal - When I see the way my wife comforts our children, I see God as the Mother loving them through her. I may not see this image of God perfectly, but I kn...3 years ago
-
Certain brethren of good repute and holy life (XXI) - CHAPTER XXI. Of the Deans of the Monastery 26 Feb. 28 June. 28 Oct. Should the community be large, let there be chosen from it certain brethren of good rep...3 years ago
-
Gov. Cuomo’s Theological Confusion - Abridged from “Governor Cuomo and God’s Noncompetitive Transcendence” By Bishop Robert Barron Last week, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, made a ra...4 years ago
-
Being Like Our Lady in the Time of Pandemic - Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice ~ Being Like Our Lady in the Time of Pandemic - Friar David L. Jones We find ourselves in the eye of a tornad...4 years ago
-
Get It - I haven’t updated this blog in over six years, so probably no one is going to read this post, since all my former readers gave up on me a long time ago. Bu...4 years ago
-
‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ - Please consider giving a few dollars to a family in desperate need. GoFundMe Advertisements6 years ago
-
Greatness in Repentance - When God described Nineveh as being the great city, He was not considering its ignorance and sin, but looked with great joy at its profound repentance ...8 years ago
-
Over 9,000 people killed, 20,000 wounded during conflict in Donbas — UN - GENEVA, /TASS/. More than 9,000 people — both civilians and military, have been killed and over 20,000 have been wounded as a result of the conflict ...8 years ago
-
Temporarily – No Comment - God willing, the content of this blog will be migrated to its new site, starting sometime after midnight (here in East Coast America). I have been asked to...11 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Monasterio de la Encarnacion, Pachacamac - Lurin, LIMA
Belmont Abbey
Fr David Bird
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(35)
-
▼
October
(12)
- INTRODUCTION TO THIS EDITION
- Pope Benedict XVI Speaking to the Monks of Heilige...
- Circular Letter by Abbot General Bernardo Olivera ...
- Lessons I Learned During 18 Years As Abbot General
- Monasticism
- On The Monastic Life by Pope Shenouda III, Coptic ...
- The Ecumenical Patriarch Speaks to the Bishops´Syn...
- Going On Pilgrimage: Sr de los Milagros, Sr Cautivo
- Hermaneutic of Continuity (quoted from a blog with...
- Pope BenedictXVI´s Address to Representatives 0f C...
- Dom Placid Spearritt, Abbot of New Norcia Dies, 7t...
- Crises, Dostoevsky and the Gospel (by Fr Stephen)
-
▼
October
(12)
No comments:
Post a Comment