Oak Grove Abbey News

The Abbey is undefeated when watching sporting events together down in the sound room. That is to say that the team we have rooted for has won in each of the handful of times we've viewed a game down there. Although this only includes the Longhorns (which were undefeated themselves) and the come-from-behind-thriller we saw last Saturday when my favorite sports franchise (the Dallas Stars) took out the Red Wings in sudden death overtime on national television.

I only say all this because I hope the Abbey will have the same good fortune as we watch President Bush's State of the Union Address downstairs tonight. Is there any chance at all that the president will advance our deepest hopes and refute our greatest concerns? Not likely. Still, we want to try to be the most faithful alien residents we can possibly be; and listening to our appointed leader and responding with thoughtful reflection seems like a good place to begin.

We'll have an open grill tonight, so bring whatever you want to char. Jolie and I will be having good ol' Texas sirloin.

Posted by gdwill at 11:15 AM | Permalink |

I like old sounding words with the letter "x" in them, so I'm particularly elated with the above title. Hope you like it, too.

Last night Jason was too affected by "cedar fever" to cook or blog, but he was kind enough to order pizza and read a lot of interesting information about "The Synaxis of the Three Hierarchs." We learned the story of how the feast came about in the 11th century as the result of internal competition about whether Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian or John Crysostom was the most important figure. It was revealed to a devout monk that the three were equally honored in heaven, and that a feast should be created to honor them in harmony.

Among other notable things, each of these figures played prominently in refuting the Arian heresy, framing theological concepts that remain foundational to orthodoxy, and caring for the poor. [Haven't yet discovered many honored saints to which care of the poor wasn't a huge part.]

Posted by gdwill at 10:53 AM | Permalink |

Acts 9:1-19

The Conversion of Saint Paul

Posted by sean and mel at 11:15 AM | Permalink |

Phillips Brooks is best known today as the author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Former generations, however, accounted him the greatest American preacher of the nineteenth century (and not for lack of other candidates). His sermons are still read.
He was born in Boston in 1835 and educated at Harvard and at Virginia Theological Seminary. After ten years of ministry at two churches in Philadelphia, he returned to Boston in 1869 and was rector of Trinity Church there until 1891. He was then elected Bishop of Massachusetts, and died two years later.

Posted by Jolie at 10:19 AM | Permalink |

Tonight we will recognize Maris, his wife Martha, and their two sons, Abachum and Audifax. A family of Persian nobility, these four were "converted to the faith and distributed their possessions to the poor." They moved to Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II, during a time of Christian persecution. As the story goes.... Claudius ordered his legions to gather Christians in the amphitheater, where they were killed and their bodies burned. The Persian family gathered together their ashes and buried them. The family is known for sympathizing with the persecuted faithful and burying the bodies of the slain. This led judge/governor Muscianus to arrest them. Muscianus was unable to persuade them to abjure their faith and condemned them to torture. No suffering could subdue their courage. Maris and his two sons were beheaded, and Martha was cast into a well.

A Roman lady named Felicitas gathered together what remained of the four bodies and had the sacred relics secretly interred in a catacomb. This happened before the Kalends of February, which is the 20th of January (?). The commemoration of these martyrs, however, has been appointed for January 19th, because the 20th is the feat of St. Sebastian.

Thirteen centuries later their bones were discovered and now lie honored in churches across Italy and Germany.

For dinner: Persian food.

Posted by sean and mel at 1:59 PM | Permalink |

I had been looking forward to preparing a nice feast in honor of Saint Antony on my day off for quite some time. He's a pretty important figure for any monastic-anything to give tribute to.

Well, things didn't turn out exactly like I'd planned, but I think everything was fine in the end.

I decided this would be the perfect time to christen the primo new grill (that's really it's name) that the Bakers gave to us on the day of the wedding. After all, what could be more honoring to an Egytian saint then grilled kabobs, right? Well, it took me way too long to figure out how to get the fire hot enough, but when I did we were blessed with some delicious "egyptian-marinated" chicken kabobs. The Phoenicia Bakery supplied the hummus, pita, tabouli and baklava to go with it.

Just as I was about to give my speil about Antony, Connor came dancing down the stairs, humming "The Ants Go Marching" (no, not Dave Matthews) at concert-level volume. In spite of his impatience, I again managed to read this to the group.

After so many minor distractions today, I think I can appreciate Antony's desire to live out his faith as a hermit even more...

Related:
Arlen is now Antony
Wikipedia
The Life of Anthony by Athanasius
The existing monastery
a coptic monastery in cali

Posted by gdwill at 8:18 PM | Permalink |

Tonight we celebrate a saint in his own right. In just 13 years, MLK instigated reforms & legislation on behalf of Americans who had been marginalized for hundreds of years. We'll learn about his life and his legacy this evening.

Until that time, consider these words written by his widow, Coretta Scott King, concerning the purpose of today: "We call you to commemorate this Holiday by making your personal commitment to serve humanity with the vibrant spirit of unconditional love . . . ."

and these words written by King himself:

"I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their tired bodies, education and culture for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and non-violent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land 'and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.' I still believe that we shall overcome."

Posted by Jolie at 7:20 AM | Permalink |

The dust is finally settling after many back-to-back phenomena -- Christmas, the wedding details, the wedding itself, the Rose Bowl, return to work, etc.

Melissa and the Abbey seemed to have adjusted to one another quite beautifully so far. We are thrilled to have her stay with us as a fully-resident family member now! In such a small community, it's amazing how much one person can contribute to the overall dynamics and chemistry.

We are currently trying to tweak our daily prayer "offices" to better accomodate our particular situation. We are currently using the Revised Common Lectionary, with daily readings as suggested by none other than pcusa. In the mornings we read the designated morning psalm, the gospel selection and either the OT or NT passage. Which ever passage we don't read then will be read in solitude at some other part of the day.

The big change is an effort to add a brief evening prayer in lieu of compline. The idea is to read the evening psalm from pcusa, combined with a brief meditation (Merton, Bonhoeffer, Brueggeman, Berry, etc.) and book-ended with liturgical prayer. We are still developing the liturgical portion.

We've got a few other potential areas we'd like to tweak in the near future as well. Will keep you posted...

BTW, if you have any ideas about how to arrange the Psalms into an 8-week cycle, we would love to know about it.

Posted by gdwill at 1:01 PM | Permalink |

I am fortunate enough to be staying at The Abbey this week, while my wife is spending an extra week in North Carolina with her family. I miss her greatly of course, but it's good to be back in the house on Enfield for a spell.

Which brings me to today's celebrated saint. Saint John Neumann (1811-1860), formerly of Bohemia, settled in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania.

Apparently, Saint John Neumann's "ability to learn languages...led him to learn Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch so he could hear confessions in at least six languages. When Irish immigration started, he learned Gaelic so well that one Irish woman remarked, 'Isn't it grand that we have an Irish bishop!'." To read more about him, go here. As most consecrated saints, he was humble and a friend to the poor.

I will be trying to throw together some authentic Philly cheesesteaks for dinner tonight, in honor of Saint John.

--cgrave

Posted by Jolie at 7:55 AM | Permalink |

The sound / movie room will be set to go for the big Rose Bowl this evening. Hook 'em Horns (I can't believe I just typed that!).

We will also be honoring Brother Juniper, one of St. Francis' more colorful followers. He is listed in the Celtic Daily Prayer book for today, the day of his death; but for some reason I could only find a Catholic day set for January 28th (not sure why). I'll pick a selection from his portion of Little Flowers to read tonight over the pre-game dinner.

BTW, we'll be having wedding leftovers -- spicy chicken pasta for dinner and Valrhona Double Chocolate Stout for the game. We'll throw in some strawberry bride's cake for good measure.

Posted by gdwill at 7:36 AM | Permalink |

Sean and Melissa will be wed in a few hours!

It'a an all-Abbey wedding:
Sean - groom
Melissa - bride, moving into what was once Sean's bachelor pad
Heather - reader of Scripture
Jason - percussionist for the reception
Connor - co-flower tosser
Jolie - vocalist
Greg - minister and co-homebrewer

Posted by gdwill at 11:43 AM | Permalink |