Solesmes Benedictines

[puellapaschalis]

Thus it begins

[url="http://www.solesmes.com/GB/entree.php?js=1"]St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes[/url]

Servant of God, Dom Guéranger, pray for us!!
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Prosper.jpg[/img]

Edited February 25, 2009 by puellapaschalis

[kavalamyself]

I have visited the Solesmes in Vermont. Very, very cool community.

[puellapaschalis]

[quote name='kavalamyself' post='1791647' date='Feb 26 2009, 04:50 AM']I have visited the Solesmes in Vermont. Very, very cool community.[/quote]

Walburga (Brilliant name!) is entering Westfield soon, I believe

[TradMom]

+Praised be Jesus Christ!

Puella,

Can you give us some pictures of famous Solesmes nuns? I have a feeling that our dear Osap will not be stepping up to the plate!


Pax!

TradMom

[puellapaschalis]

Tee hee!

Actually I was thinking yesterday that it would be a fine idea to quote some passages from Abbess Cécile's writings - I have a book with many of them in. But finding a photo of her [i]on the internet[/i] is proving to be a challenge. Drat that Benedictine camera shyness Will do my best.

[puellapaschalis]

From the introduction to a chapter of quotations on the theme "In the Communion of Saints" from the works of Abbot Guéranger, Abbess Bruyère and Abbot Delatte, written by Sr. Mary David Totah of St. Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde:

[quote]'When speaking of holiness and perfection, Solesmes instinctively turns to words like abandonment, simplicity, docility, trust, availability. Theirs is not the language of high spirituality, of rigid division of spiritual progress, but that of everyday life. Theirs is a spirit alien both to a merely material austerity and to extraordinary mystical phenomena; it is a spirit, like that of the Benedictine Rule itself, of the forming of nature to receive grace by a slow, steady, imperceptible growth....

For these writers, perfection is nothing but the natural unfolding of the Christian life we have received at baptism.... There is not another mystical perfection beyond; this is mystical perfection. "What is extraordinary, what is desirable," noted Dom Delatte, "is not some personal state of ours, a thrill, a transport, or any delight, however pure it may be. No: the extraordinary that is given universally and that may be possessed by all is God, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, the life of the Lord within us, the Church, eternity.... People turn their backs on true mysticism by allowing themselves to be preoccupied with mystical phenomena." These writers are preoccupied with mysticism in its widest sense: the contact with those eternal realities that are the very subject matter of our faith. "We must be realists," insists Dom Delatte, which for him is almost synonymous with being saints.'[/quote]

You can find some photos of the abbey and community at St. Cecilia's (Ryde) at [url="http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/2006/09/st-cecelias-abbey-ryde-isle-of-wight.html"]this post of Fr. Blake's[/url]. They're a few years old, but things don't change much except the colour of people's veils

At [url="http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2006/07/mass-at-st-cecilias.html"]Fr. Tim's blog[/url] you can see photos of the abbey church at Ryde (from outside) and of the large parlour.

Down the road* is Quarr Abbey. Both Quarr and Ryde were founded (well, more or less ) when the original St. Peter's and St. Cecilia's in Solesmes were forced to leave France. Both communities eventually moved back home, but left small communities behind to carry on.

[url="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9284028"][img]http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/9284028.jpg[/img][/url]

*by "down the road" I mean up hill, down dale, repeat a few times, get of the bus and then walk up the driveway for a bit.

[osapientia]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' post='1792319' date='Feb 27 2009, 06:10 AM']Tee hee!

Actually I was thinking yesterday that it would be a fine idea to quote some passages from Abbess Cécile's writings - I have a book with many of them in. But finding a photo of her [i]on the internet[/i] is proving to be a challenge. Drat that Benedictine camera shyness Will do my best.[/quote]

OK YOU TWO....boy take a break for a few days and suddenly one is "not stepping up to the plate".

I'm here....

[osapientia]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' post='1792618' date='Feb 27 2009, 04:46 PM']From the introduction to a chapter of quotations on the theme "In the Communion of Saints" from the works of Abbot Guéranger, Abbess Bruyère and Abbot Delatte, written by Sr. Mary David Totah of St. Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde:[/quote]

All right, all right....Solesmes rocks. What Benedictine (wannabe, lover or actual) could argue that quote (the one in puella's post) is anything but ROCK-A-LICIOUS.

However please do allow me to interject - that a very fine book on Solesmes was publised by a SUBIACO community of nuns. Anyone happen to know who that was???? I do.


[url="http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Solesmes-Mary-Totah/dp/1879007223/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235916032&sr=1-10"]http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Solesmes-Mary...032&sr=1-10[/url]

Edited March 1, 2009 by osapientia

[puellapaschalis]

Ok ok. I'll grant you that much

Here's a quote from Dom Delatte, from his commentary on John 15. Page 123 in The Spirit of Solesmes:

"They say that faith is humiliating for our reason, that it is a trial for our intelligence. What! When our intelligence thinks like God, when it enters into the light of God, when it proceeds in its thinking in the same way that he does, when the things known by God are known by our intelligence, when faith is given to it as a complement to its reason, can it be that, thus enriched and iluminated, it should be undergoing trial and humiliated?"

(Actually I wanted to turn the last word into "humilated?!?!?!" I can see Dom Delatte going )

And here's a link for you: [url="http://www.sm2m.ca/"]http://www.sm2m.ca/[/url] - Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes in Québec. Mother house of the monastery in Westfield

[osapientia]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' post='1794477' date='Mar 1 2009, 06:35 PM']Ok ok. I'll grant you that much

Here's a quote from Dom Delatte, from his commentary on John 15. Page 123 in The Spirit of Solesmes:

"They say that faith is humiliating for our reason, that it is a trial for our intelligence. What! When our intelligence thinks like God, when it enters into the light of God, when it proceeds in its thinking in the same way that he does, when the things known by God are known by our intelligence, when faith is given to it as a complement to its reason, can it be that, thus enriched and iluminated, it should be undergoing trial and humiliated?"

(Actually I wanted to turn the last word into "humilated?!?!?!" I can see Dom Delatte going )

And here's a link for you: [url="http://www.sm2m.ca/"]http://www.sm2m.ca/[/url] - Sainte-Marie des Deux-Montagnes in Québec. Mother house of the monastery in Westfield [/quote]

Another marvelous quote. I love the "WHAT!"......

Thanks for the website, wish I could read French. Keep the quotes comin if you can....

Pax

[puellapaschalis]

[quote name='osapientia' post='1795002' date='Mar 2 2009, 03:49 PM']Another marvelous quote. I love the "WHAT!"......[/quote]

I'm having a brilliant time imagining a French Abbot throwing his arms up in the air and exclaiming, "QUOI?!"*

*insert correct French word in here.

[puellapaschalis]

To help, here's a pic of Dom Delatte:
[img]http://www.solesmes.com/images/histoire/delatte.jpg[/img]

[osapientia]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' post='1795089' date='Mar 2 2009, 12:42 PM']To help, here's a pic of Dom Delatte:
[img]http://www.solesmes.com/images/histoire/delatte.jpg[/img][/quote]


I think I've seen that picture somewhere, can't remember where though. You know, I think I might be able to picture him with his arms up in the air. He's a handsome man...and his face - so gentle and serene.

Edited March 2, 2009 by osapientia

[puellapaschalis]

[quote name='osapientia' post='1795149' date='Mar 2 2009, 07:50 PM']I think I've seen that picture somewhere, can't remember where though. You know, I think I might be able to picture him with his arms up in the air. He's a handsome man...and his face - so gentle and serene.[/quote]

I have a theory about priest/bishops/abbots and handsomeness, but it's completely off-topic so I won't mention it

[osapientia]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' post='1795152' date='Mar 2 2009, 01:55 PM']I have a theory about priest/bishops/abbots and handsomeness, but it's completely off-topic so I won't mention it [/quote]


UGH. You mean you're just going to drop that comment there and leave?? Do PM me. Now I'm intrigued.