Gethsemani Retreat

The Abbey of Gethsemani is a Trappist monastery about 50 miles from my home in Louisville. It was the home of Fr. Thomas Merton (known as Father Louis by the Trappists), a famous spiritual writer and mystic, and is the mother house of all the Trappist monasteries in the United States.

This is the cemetery where all the monks who have died in the past 150+ years have been buried.
Fr. Thomas Merton’s grave is on my right, simple and unremarkable like the graves of the other monks and priests buried there.
Thomas Merton’s history and legacy brings many people to the abbey, and many of the visitors leave objects on his grave. His most famous work is his spiritual biography, The Seven Storey Mountain.

Standing up for the Gospel

• Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich celebrated an outdoor Ash Wednesday mass in solidarity with immigrants being terrorized and detained.

• Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin made it a priority to celebrate an Ash Wednesday litugy inside an immigrant detention center.

“What we are seeing is a genuinely prophetic answer to a call from the heart of the Gospel. It is an urgent response to an extreme moment. The answer is delivered with language and action that attempt to counter an out-of-control government and its multiple assaults on human dignity and the rule of law.”
[Photo and quote from a National Catholic Reporter editorial]

Gethsemani Retreat

Last night I attended Compline with the monks, their last act of the day before they go to bed at 8:00 PM–to get up at 3:00 AM for their first prayers together in the new day.
Those of us on retreat started our day with breakfast at 7:00 AM and then morning prayer and our first conference at 9:00 AM. Many interesting questions and observations come up with each talk.
At 11:15 AM we had our final liturgy together, with Bishop Price presiding. Then it was time for lunch and departure.
The building on the left is the retreat center where we had our retreat. Visitors do not go into the monastery on the right, behind the wall. The graves are of some persons and families connected with the abbey over the last 150+ years.

Gethsemani Retreat

The section of Kentucky is noted for what we call “knobs,” small hills 300 to 900 feet tall that dot the undulating countryside. The farms and fields and knobs are a beautiful part of the state.
Bardstown, Kentucky is the nearest small city to Gethsemani and is the bourbon capital of the world. Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark–all the big whisky names come from here. And throughout the county are these large whisky-ageing warehouses where barrels of whisky are kept for three to fifteen years before being bottled. Kentucky has more barrels of ageing whisky than it does people.
We had two conferences today and we often stay together to talk afterwards.
Fr. George Otuma is the pastor of St. Boniface Church where I help out with Sunday masses so he’s my new boss.

Gethsemani Retreat

Today was our second full day of retreat and Bishop Price spoke about knowing yourself, being aware of your good points and your weaknesses, and how they influence how people will perceive you.
Gethsemani Abbey has hundreds of acres of farmland and forests. Today in the afternoon break I rode my bike along miles of often really rough dirt roads in a forested area. It felt good. The forests told me I am home.
A view of the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani.
A view of Gethsemani from the west.

Gethsemani Retreat

Retreats have different styles from year to year. Some retreat leaders like to preside and preach at all the liturgies. Bishop Ed Price, our leader, wants us to take those roles and today Fr. Roy Stiles presided at our first liturgy together.
The food at the Abbey of Gethsemani is simple, prepared by the monks, but wonderful. The temptation is to take some of each offering–and eat too much.
Most of the day, and especially the meals, are in silence. We sit individually in a large dining room that has a wall of windows looking out on to a garden full of birds picking seeds from bird feeders.

Friends, for many years

I am back in the United States now but it would have been much simpler and easier to retire in Asia. The main reasons I returned to Louisville are my brothers and sisters and cousins and my friends. Today Donna and Nancy took me to dinner for my birthday. They were students in my class in high school and both have become significant actors in the deaf world. And remained my friends. They are the types of friends it is very difficult to find in another country, another language, another culture where we have almost nothing in common.