St Luke's Day in College

I spent the afternoon in College again today, checked messages on the College computer network, had tea with staff members in the Principal's study, and then attended the St Luke's day Eucharist in chapel, celebrated in Welsh by Fr Stephen Adams, member of staff. Only half a dozen of us were there. I was conscious that it was the first occasion for me to attend the 2004 modern language liturgy in Welsh. It meant that I had to read very carefully an unfamiliar service text, and this reminded me in a good way of early days following the Mass in French or Italian - it seems now like many years ago. Except this is a language I started learning to read back in Ystrad Mynach Junior School back in the fifties. Such a pity it got neglected, as so few people in our family or locality were Welsh speakers in those days. I feel I should be much more confident in liturgical Welsh than I am. It's lack of necessity and opportunity, sad to say.

After the Eucharist came this week's tutor group meeting. We said Evening Prayer together and than had a revealing discussion about prayer and the departed, leaving me with the impression that most people in the group were on unfamiliar ground, no matter what year of studies they were in. It may reflect the prevailing evangelical religious background of many students offering for ordination these days, and the widespread contemporary difficulty of developing any fresh language of discourse for approaching the mystery of death and eternity. It's too easy to stay stuck in the contentions of old fashioned Protestant/Catholic positions, and have no awareness of how Eastern and Southern Christians (not to mention those of other faith) may have ideas and insights about life and death that challenge the Western European mindset.

After supper, I returned to College for a session with Dom Cyprian Consiglio OSB, an American monk of a community of Camaldolese hermits. Until now I hadn't realised that this strand of contemplative monasticism, originating with St Romuald in Italy just pre-dates the foundation of the Carthusians in France by St Bernard. in the early eleventh century. Dom Cyprian is a poet and musician, teacher of yoga and student of meditation in world religious tradition, an advocate of what he calls "the Universal Call to Contemplation." On top of that, he discovered this call early in his monastic training through a brief meeting with Dom Bede Griffiths, one of the great British pioneers of inter-faith dialogue through meditation and monastic life, most of whose life was spent establishing a Christian ashram in southern India.

With an audience of thirty, he told stories and sang spiritual songs in Latin, Sanskrit and Arabic for two hours. It was a delightful experience, which rang many bells with my own spiritual journey into the world of faiths. After his session we spoke briefly and I told him how I had been awakened to wider spiritual horizons by the discovery of a book by Abbe Dechanet called 'Christian Yoga' when I was nineteen. I was a little disappointed that so few of his audience were College students. In my experience the earlier one is exposed to and challenged by this kind of spiritual encounter, the less likely one is to get stuck in or even worse undermined by the intellectual demands of doing theology.

For me, this was an evening of inspiration, putting me back in touch with the well springs that have long nourished my own spiritual journey, although they have been somewhat neglected over the past decade, most of which I passed trying to root myself at St John's as an oasis in the 'desert' of the city. Now I can re-visit the sources freely once more, I have thus far avoided making the effort. However, this Saturday I'll be going to a day meeting of Associates of the Society of the Sacred Cross at Ty Mawr - the first time in seven years. What have I learned over the intervening years, I wonder?