Strangers to the City

by Michael Casey

  Thomas Merton, The Climate of Monastic Prayer (CSS 1; Spencer: Cistercian Publications, 1970), p. 121.

  See Jean Leclercq, Otia Monastica: Études sur le vocabulaire de la contemplation au moyen âge (Rome: Herder, 1963).

  Josef Pieper, Leisure the Basis of Culture (New York: Pantheon Books, 1952), p. 52.

  Max Picard, The World of Silence (Wichita, KS: Eighth Day Press, 2002), pp. 18-19.

  Conferences 9:6; SChr 54, pp. 45-46.

  Don De Lillo, quoted in David Remnick, “Exile on Main Street: Don De Lillo’s undisclosed underworld,” The New Yorker, September 15, 1997, pp. 43 and 47.

  S. Giora Shoham, Society and the Absurd (Oxford: Blackwell, 1974). See also M. Casey, art. “Acedia,” in Michael Downey [ed.], The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality (Collegeville: Michael Glazier, 1993), pp. 4-5.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Sent 3:31; SBOp 6b, 85, 3-4.

  Michael Crichton, Timeline (London: Arrow Books, 2000), pp. 442-443.

  Michael Hanby, “The Culture of Death, the Ontology of Boredom, and the Resistance of Joy,” Communio (Summer 2004), pp. 184-85.

  This is one of the serious criticisms leveled at contemporary culture by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Veritatis splendor.

  Robert Hughes, “Why Watch It, Anyway?” The New York Review of Books, February 16, 1995, p. 38.

  Thomas Merton, “Inner Experience: Problems of the Contemplative Life (VII),” CSQ 19.4 (1984), pp. 269-70.

  This is highlighted by the title of Jean Leclercq’s study of medieval monastic culture, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (London: SPCK, 2nd ed., 1978).

  Seneca, De tranquillitate animae, 9.

  Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus, 12.

  Allan Bloom, “The Study of Texts,” in Giants and Dwarfs: Essays 1960–1990 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), pp. 306-7.

  Steven D. Driver, John Cassian and the Reading of Egyptian Monastic Culture (New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 109.

  M. Casey, Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina (Liguori: Triumph Books, 1996).

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones de Oneribus, 2; PL 195, 364b.

  Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 84.

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones de Oneribus 27; PL 195, 473d-474a.

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones 19:10; CChrM 2a, p. 149.

  Note the word “unnecessary.” Some disasters have very positive effects, often because they make it impossible for us to continue to hide from the truth. Even though a crisis may destroy the precarious harmony we seemed to have achieved, we may find, as we pick up the pieces and put them back together, that something positive has been gained in the process.

  Gregory the Great, Moralia 21:31 (CChr 143a, pp. 1065-66. Speaking of the need for restraint of the senses he writes, “Whoever unguardedly looks out through these windows of the body will often fall unwillingly into sinful delight.”

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones 19:20; CChrM 2a, p. 151.

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones 3:18: CChrM 2a, p. 31.

  A. W. Richard Sipe, Celibacy: A Way of Loving, Living, and Serving (Alexandria, NSW: E. J. Dwyer, 1996), p. 53.

  Isaac of Stella, Sermons 31:14; SChr 207, p. 190.

  See M. Casey, “Suspensa Expectatio: Guerric of Igny on Waiting for God,” in Studies in Spirituality 9 (1999), pp. 78–92.

  Augustine of Hippo, On Psalm 29 2.1; CChr 38, p. 174.

  Richard Sipe, A Secret World: Sexuality and the Search for Celibacy (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 1990), p. 239.

  Sipe, Celibacy, p. 54.

  Mirror for Novices, 11; in Stephen of Sawley, Treatises (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1984), p. 103.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Adv 4:5; SBOp 4:185, 9-7.

  Exordium Cistercii, 1.

  Such a situation was parodied by Bernard of Clairvaux in his Apologia 23. Needless to say, he is using irony, exaggerating the situation to make a point. “To distinguish between invalids and those who are well, the sick are bidden to carry a walking-stick in their hands. This is an obvious necessity, for the sick has to support the pretense of illness where there is no sign of pallor or emaciation. Should we laugh or cry at such foolishness? Is this the way Macarius lived? Is it Basil’s teaching or Antony’s command? Did the Fathers in Egypt adopt such a manner of life?” Trans. M. Casey in Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises I (Spencer: Cistercian Publications, 1970), pp. 58-59.

  PP 2:2; SBOp 5:192,19. See M. Casey, “The Meaning of Poverty for Bernard of Clairvaux,” Cistercian Studies Quarterly 33.4 (1998), pp. 427–438.

  Exordium Parvum, 16.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia, 28; p. 65.

  See M. Casey, A Guide to Living in the Truth: Saint Benedict’s Teaching on Humility (Liguori: Triumph Books, 2001).

  Aelred of Rievaulx, De Oneribus 12; PL 195, 407d.

  See Guerric of Igny, Advent Sermons 3:1; SChr 166, p. 118. “It is most certain that our last day will come to us, but it is most uncertain when or where or how it will come except, as has been said, ‘For the old death waits at the door, for the young it lies in ambush.’” The same theme, perhaps derived from Cicero’s De Senectute 20:74, is found in Bernard’s Sermon on Conversion, 16.

  In some rituals the one being professed lies prostrate on the floor during the prayers of monastic consecration, covered with a funeral pall. Of course there is a resurrection afterwards.

  An ancient alternative of this is found in Juvenal’s Satires (10:22): Cantabit vacuus coram latrones viator. “The empty-handed traveler will sing before robbers.” One who has nothing has nothing to lose.

  For the “obedience which is faith” see Romans 1:5 and its inclusive parallel at Romans 16:26. On obedience as an abiding disposition see also Romans 15:18, 16:19; 2 Corinthians 7:15, 10:5; 1 Peter 1:2.

  Dorotheos of Gaza, Instruction 5 #68, SChr 92, p. 264.

  See T. G. Kardong, “Self-will in Benedict’s Rule,” Studia Monastica 42.2 (2000), pp. 319–46.

  RB 5:7–10, like the chapter on humility, is description rather than prescription. This point is well made by Charles Dumont, “The Mystery of Obedience According to Saint Benedict and Saint Gregory,” Tjurunga 23 (1982), pp. 5–19; 24 (1983), pp. 4–10; 25 (1983), pp. 36–41.

  This is the scenario that Bernard of Clairvaux dramatizes in his third parable: The Story of the King’s Son Sitting on His Horse. Translated by M. Casey in Bernard of Clairvaux: The Parables & The Sentences (CFS 55) (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2000), pp. 45–49.

  Guerric of Igny, Sermons 14:7, SChr 166, p. 302.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons of Psalm 90 2:1-2, SBOp 4, pp. 389-390.

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones, 38:17-18; CChrM 2a; p. 310.

  Aelred of Rievaulx, De Oneribus 13; PL 1995, 411b.

  Augustine of Hippo, On Psalm 99 12; CChr 39, p. 1401.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Sententiae 1:26; SBOp 6b, 16, 13–17: “There should be two walls in a community; one inner and one outer. The inner wall is composed of those who are enclosed (claustrales), the outer wall of officials (oboedientiales)…. There is rarely peace between these.”

  Sr. Helen Lombard SGS, “Mutual Obedience: An Aborted Effort?—Chapter 71,” Tjurunga 53 (1997), p. 74. Many of Helen’s ideas will be found in this chapter.

  See M. Casey, “Merton’s Teaching on the ‘Common Will’ and What the Journals Tell Us,” The Merton Annual 12 (1999), pp. 62–84.

  See M. Casey, Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology (Liguori: Triumph Books, 2004), pp. 35–42.

  Here, apart from my own impressions, I am relying on Simon Baron-Cohen, The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain (New York, Basic Books, 2003). The thesis of the book is stated succinctly on the first page: “The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.” The author is professor of psychology and psychiatry at Cambridge University.

  B
aldwin of Forde, Spiritual Tractates 15; trans. David N. Bell (CFS 41; Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1986), pp. 183–185.

  Adalbert de Vogüé, Community and Abbot in the Rule of Saint Benedict: Volume Two (CSS 5/2) (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1988), p. 430.

  “Most often an intense mentor relationship ends with strong conflict and bad feelings on both sides.” Daniel J. Levinson e.a., The Seasons of a Man’s Life (New York: Ballantyne Books, 1978), p. 100.

  Bernardo Olivera, “Our Young—and not so Young—Monks and Nuns: Aspects of our Monastic Formation from an Anthropological Point of View,” conference given at the OCSO General Chapters, September 2002.

  Ep 73, 2; SBOP 7, 180, 1–5, 14-15.

  See M. Casey, “Adding Depth to our Response to Local Culture,” in Peter Malone [ed.], Discovering an Australian Theology (Homebush: St. Paul Publications, 1988), pp. 121–30.

  Of course sometimes self-expression cuts loose from its service of the common good, for example, if an organist were to assail the ears of worshipers with atonal bombast, or a cook were to replace familiar stodge with exotic portions of cuisine nouvelle. Both the music and the food may be high-class and bring great satisfaction to their creators, but such labors will not strengthen communal bonds unless the end- users can connect with what is being offered them. For their part, other members of community will probably resist any effort to reduce their habitual level of Philistinism if they do not clearly perceive that the initiators are acting from the heart of the community and not importing something foreign from “outside.”

  John Paul II, Letter to Cardinal Casaroli, L’Osservatore Romano (Weekly Edition in English), June 28, 1982, p. 7.

  John Paul II, Address to UNESCO on June 2, 1980, #7; L’Osservatore Romano, June 23, 1980, p. 9. In this and the quotations that follow I have made some slight changes with a view to rendering the language more inclusive.

  Address to UNESCO, #12; p. 10.

  John Paul II, Address to Eminent Personalities of the Brazilian Cultural World, Rio de Janeiro, July 1, 1980, #1; L’Osservatore Romano July 14, 1980, pp. 3-4.

  William of Saint-Thierry, First Life of Saint Bernard I, VII, 35; PL 185, 247-48.

  Descriptio positionis seu situationis monasterii Clarae-Vallensis, PL 185; 571-72. A translation of the full text can be found in Pauline Matarasso, The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993), pp. 287–92.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Miscellaneous Sermons 42,4; SBOp 6a, p. 258, lines 16–23.

  Utopia (a good place) is in fact Atopia (no place), as is indicated by Samuel Butler’s title Erewhon, an anagram for “nowhere.” Some Utopias, such as B. F. Skinner’s Walden Two, seem to me decidedly unpleasant places. It has been noted that, in the latter half of the twentieth century, many authors were more comfortable writing about Dystopia (a bad place). Think of George Orwell’s 1984 or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and films such as Mad Max and the like. The switch in emphasis possibly indicates a movement away from anthropological optimism in the direction of existential despair.

  Quoted in The Bulletin, July 28, 1987, p. 27. The founder felt that, without an external point of reference, Moora Moora had become “more a reflection of a society than an alternative to it.”

  This section draws on the relevant parts of a previous article. M. Casey, “Desire and Desires in Western Tradition,” in Desire: To Have or Not to Have (Canberra: The Humanita Foundation, Occasional papers 2, 2000), pp. 3–31.

  Thomas J. Csordas, The Sacred Self: A Cultural Phenomenology of Charismatic Healing (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 157-58.

  On this, see M. Casey, Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology (Liguori: Triumph Books, 2004).

  In Numeros homilia 10, 2; PG 12, col 639a. Quoted in M. Casey, “The Virtue of Patience in Western Monastic Tradition,” in The Undivided Heart: The Western Monastic Approach to Contemplation (Petersham: St. Bede’s Publications, 1994), pp. 96–120.

  See E. E. Malone, The Monk and the Martyr: The Monk as the Successor of the Martyr (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1950).

  In Timothy Fry and others. [ed.], RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in Latin and English with Notes (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1981), p. 361.

  This distinction is important for the understanding of Thomas Merton’s teaching on contemplative practice. See M. Casey, “Merton’s Notes on ‘Inner Experience’: Twenty Years Afterwards,” in The Undivided Heart, pp. 189–217, especially pp. 195–201.

  See M. Casey, “Desire as Dialectic” in Athirst for God, especially pp. 251–80 (The Theme of Alternation).

  John of Forde: Sermons on the Song of Songs 24 5: CChrM 17, p. 205: “Whoever you are, O soul, that aspire to the delights of love, do not recoil from its bitternesses if you wish to taste its sweetnesses…. You have submitted to an excessively delicate yoke of love if you are content only with its joys and will not have anything to do with the tiresome and disagreeable things that are part of the business of love and necessarily present themselves to those who walk in its ways.”

  Aelred of Rievaulx, De Oneribus 25; PL 195, 463d.

  “Penitence at the state of the former person brings to birth a new person with pain and groaning. When this new person has a relapse and returns to the former life, which happens often….” Augustine, In Ps. 8, 10 (CChr 38, p. 54).

  QH 2.1-2; SBOp 4.390.8–23. See SC 17.2; SBOp 1.99.14–21. See also M. Casey, Fully Human, Fully Divine, pp. 106–112.

  See M. Casey, “In Pursuit of Ecstasy: Reflections of Bernard of Clairvaux’s De Diligendo Deo,” Monastic Studies 16 (1985), pp. 139–56.

  See M. Casey, Fully Human, Fully Divine, pp. 3–10.

  “The Spirituality of the Church of the Future,” in Theological Investigations: Volume XX: Concern for the Church, translated by Edward Quinn (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1981), pp. 148-149. On this see M. Casey, Fully Human, Fully Divine, pp. 201–19.

  This was the issue addressed in my article “Mystical Experiences: The Cistercian Tradition,” Tjurunga 52 (1997), pp. 64–87. See also Aquinata Böckmann, “Benedictine Mysticism: Dynamic Spirituality in the Rule of Benedict,’ Tjurunga 57 (1999), pp. 85–101.

  John Cassian, Conferences 9:8; SChr 54, pp. 48-49.

  John Cassian, Conferences 9:26; SChr 54, p. 63.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon for St. John the Baptist, 1; SBOp 5, 176, 17–22. See also Sententiae 1:18; SBOp 6b, 13, 1-2: “The temple of God is holy, and you are the temple of God. The temple of God is the religious house.”

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Ascension 6:13; SBOp 5, 158, 3–6. The subject of the first sentence is “Truth,” but it is clear that it refers to Christ. Bernard also does not like corners, which he regards as the breeding-ground of individualism (singularitas); in a reference that may reflect the state of men’s monasteries rather than women’s he notes, “Where there is a corner there is probably dirt and mildew”: On the Lovableness of God 34; SBOp 3, 149,8.

  Aelred of Rievaulx, Sermones, 1:33-34; CChrM 21, pp. 10-11.

  Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for Septuagesima 2:3; SBOp 4, 352, 2–14. I have deleted two phrases that refer to the text of Genesis 15:9-10 on which Bernard was commenting, but which, in the present context, have the effect of obscuring the flow of thought.

  “The most significant fact about the time in which we are living is that it is a time in which a single movement of secularization is bringing peoples of all continents into its sweep.” Thus Leslie Newbigin, Honest Religion for Secular Man (London: S.C.M. Press, 1966), p. 11. Some of the books from this period seem frightfully outdated today, yet once they caused a great stir. John A. T. Robinson, Honest to God (London: S.C.M. Press, 1963). John A. T. Robinson and David L. Edwards, The Honest to God Debate (London: S.C.M, 1963). Paul van Buren, The Secular Meaning of the Gospel (London: S.C.M, 1963). Harvey Cox, The Secular City (New York: Macmillan, 1965). Daniel Callahan [ed.], The Secular City Debate (New Y
ork: Macmillan, 1966). Harvey Cox, The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay on Festivity and Fantasy (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1969). E. L. Mascall, The Secularisation of Christianity (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1965). Robert L. Richard, Secularisation Theology (London: Burns & Oates, 1967). Thomas J. J. Altizer, The Gospel of Christian Atheism (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966). Thomas J. J. Altizer, Toward a New Christianity: Readings in the Death of God Theology (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967). John Macquarrie, God and Secularity (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967).

  Speaking about the changed expectations and hopes expressed by a new generation of younger church-goers, Andrew Hamilton, S.J., writes: “Individual confession, visits to Churches and rituals that encourage a sense of transcendence will retain a place, particularly for young adults who discover them afresh….” “Forty Years Away,” Eureka Street 12.8 (October 2002), p. 37.

  This can be noticed both in styles of music and in ritual action; in the latter proclamation may be replaced by conversation, and solemnity may be abandoned in favor of casual slouching. Among the many channels of influence affecting the liturgy is the cinema. “[T]he way Catholic liturgy is portrayed on the large or small screen directly shapes people’s expectations of it.” Richard Leonard, “Celluloid Celebrations,” Liturgy News 30.2 (June 2000), p. 3.

  Presbyterorum ordinis, 6.

  See M. Casey, “Sacramentality and Monastic Consecration,” Word and Spirit 18 (1998), pp. 27–48.

  For a discussion of this see Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk (New York: Riverhead Books, 1996), pp. 317–28.

  The phrase is lifted from Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (London: Corgi Books, 1976), p. 110. See M. Casey, “Emotionally Hollow, Esthetically Meaningless and Spiritually Empty: An Inquiry into Theological Discourse,” Colloquium 14.1 (October 1981), pp. 54–61.