Oak Grove Abbey News

Lucy's name means "light", with the same root as "lucid" which means "clear, radiant, understandable." Unfortunately for us, Lucy's history does not match her name.

Because people wanted to shed light on Lucy's bravery, legends grew up. The one that is passed down to us tells the story of a young Christian woman who had vowed her life to the service of Christ. Her mother tried to arrange a marriage for her with a pagan. Lucy apparently knew that her mother would not be convinced by a young girl's vow so she devised a plan to convince her mother that Christ was a much more powerful partner for life. Through prayers at the tomb of Saint Agatha, her mother's long illness was cured miraculously. The grateful mother was now ready to listen to Lucy's desire to give her money to the poor and commit her life to God.

Unfortunately, legend has it, the rejected bridegroom did not see the same light and he betrayed Lucy to the governor as a Christian. This governor tried to send her into prostitution but the guards who came to take her way found her stiff and heavy as a mountain. Finally she was killed. As much as the facts of Lucy's specific case are unknown, we know that many Christians suffered incredible torture and a painful death for their faith during Diocletian's reign. Lucy may not have been burned or had a sword thrust through her throat but many Christians did and we can be sure her faith withstood tests we can barely imagine.

Lucy's name is probably also connected to statues of Lucy holding a dish with two eyes on it. This refers to another legend in which Lucy's eyes were put out by Diocletian as part of his torture. The legend concludes with God restoring Lucy's eyes.

Lucy's name also played a large part in naming Lucy as a patron saint of the blind and those with eye-trouble.

Whatever the fact to the legends surrounding Lucy, the truth is that her courage to stand up and be counted a Christian in spite of torture and death is the light that should lead us on our own journeys through life.

We'll enjoy a traditional St. Lucy's Feast tonight and afterwards we'll all watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Posted by Jolie at 7:57 AM | Permalink |

St. Nicholas was born in Asia Minor. He was named bishop of Myra, a poor and run-down diocese. (Presently it's a city on the southern Mediterranean seacoast of what is now Turkey.) When his wealthy parents died, he gave his wealth to the poor and devoted himself to the conversion of sinners.

Once he heard that a man who had become very poor intended to abandon his three daughters to prostitution because he could not afford a dowry for them to be married. Nicholas, the story goes, on three occasions threw a bag of gold through the window into the room of the sleeping father. His daughters soon were married. Later the father came to Nicholas, fell at his feet and said, "Nicholas, you are my helper. You have delivered my soul and my daughters' souls from hell."

This story and his many other works of charity led to the tradition of giving presents on Nicholas' feast day and at Christmas in his name. The name Santa Claus, in fact, evolved from his name.

Nicholas died at Myra in 350. His popularity, already great, increased when his relics were brought to Bari, Italy, in 1087. Both the Eastern and Western churches honor him. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of Russia, Greece, Apulia, Sicily, and Lorraine. He is regarded as the special patron of children. His feast is December 6.

Posted by Jolie at 2:55 PM | Permalink |

Twas the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even our mouse;
Jolie had prepared all kinds of good food, In hopes that our stomachs soon would be wooed;
Connor and Camden were nestled all snug in their beds,While visions of lions danced in their heads;
Michael and Greg had gone to a show,
And Evan was letting his creative juices flow.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But only Andy and Dave drinking a beer.

Posted by Angelic at 9:44 PM | Permalink |

Just so's you know, we're the process of doing some pretty extensive overhauls to the oak grove abbey website (oakgroveabbey.com). In congruence, this abbey news blog will have a new address and feel that will meld together with the website proper. In all likelihood, some of our personal blogs will be redone as well. Hopefully all of these pages will be worth your amusement and perusing in the very near future...

Posted by gdwill at 9:28 AM | Permalink |

Ever since my first big plunge into monastic thinking several years ago surrounding the Order of the Cowgirl at the first Emergent Gathering, I have taken keen interest in the Rule of Saint Benedict. Rather than taking my cue from the "12 Marks of the New Monasticism" and things of this nature, I have been more inclined to take on the hermenuetical task of re-applying the wisdom of the ancients to our present situation as the budding of the Oak Grove Abbey has transpired.

The most direct application we have engendered from Benedict's Rule is his beautiful picture of hospitality as a receiving of every guest as Christ Himself. We aspire to do this in our frequent hospitality -- no so much with lodging as with meals, parties, deck dialogue, and common prayer. Our kindred spirit in cyberspace, A, recently blogged about hospitality. Through one of his commenters, I was exposed to this brief series of reflections on the contemporary application of the Rule to true Benedectine monasteries. There are a number of paragraphs throughout that I resonate strongly with, and I hope the rest of the Abbey-dwellers might link on over and peruse as well.

In addition to Ward's useful fleshing out of the concept of hospitality, I also liked very much his distiction between community and common life. His understanding of common life is far more descriptive of what the Oak Grove dares to be / become than the more abstract notion of community.

Finally, this quote seems terribly apropros for us today on a great number of levels and layers:

Monastic obedience is not a carrying out of an order, but a total giving of self to God through a monastic community. Such giving sometimes does involve pain and hurt because the individual cannot "march merely to his/her own beat." But then neither can a spouse in a marriage or a child in a family. Obedience within the monastery today rests upon the idea that the cenobium, the community, is a society of persons who, through mutual love, sanctify each other. Obedience is the Yes of community living.

Posted by gdwill at 9:07 AM | Permalink |

Vatican II can't find any hard evidence that the Crisp-twins really existed, but I dig their story nonetheless.

Kenneth Brannaugh, impromtu French cooking and homebrewed bier de garde added to the fun. Happy Crispin and Crispian Day!

Posted by gdwill at 6:14 PM | Permalink |

Born Dec 23, 1807 in Salient, Catalonia, Spain, Anthony Mary Claret was trained as a weaver. Hearing the call to serve God, he attended seminary in 1829 and performed mission work in his hometown as well as in the Canary Islands. Eventually, he established his own order and was named archbishop of Cuba. There he established a seminary, schools, hospitals, and anything else that would aid the poor.

His dedication to those less fortunate almost cost him his life. Throughout his ministry, he endured 15 assassination attempts.

During Queen Isabella's reign, he returned to Spain at her request to be the Queen's personal Confessor. He lived in an Italian hospice, caring for the poor while he served the Queen.

He died of poor health on Oct. 24, 1870. He was canonized in 1950 and is known as the patron saint of savings. (as in "a penny saved is a penny earned!")

Posted by Jolie at 3:03 PM | Permalink |