“We do not yet own
Silverstream Priory nor
any of the surrounding
land.
While our community
is established canonically
here in the
Diocese of
Meath, we cannot yet call
Silverstream our own, nor
can we administer it freely,
and develop it.”
Priory Gates
Monastic
Recreation
The sheep of
Silverstream!
D. Benedict & Fr Prior
with His Lordship, the
Bishop of Meath
to disappear and, paradoxically, it is in disappearing that the monk
becomes most efficacious and fruitful. Was this not the great discovery of Saint Thérèse? “Yes,” she writes, “I have found my place in the
Church and it is You, O my God, who have given me this place; in
the heart of the Church, my Mother, I shall be Love. Thus I shall be
everything, and thus my dream will be realized.”
I am not the first nor will I be the last monk to feel torn between
remaining silent and speaking, between disappearing and appearing. I would not, for minute, want to compare myself in any way to
Saint Gregory the Great, or to Saint Bernard, or to Blessed Columba
Marmion, all of whom suffered the tension of feeling pulled into
silence and out of it, into the enclosure of the monastery and out of
it. Monks are not, by vocation, preachers, and yet some monks have
always preached. Monks are not, by vocation, writers, and yet some
monks have always written, and written well and much. Monks are
not, by vocation, missionaries, and yet some monks have always carried the pure light of the Gospel into places of darkness.
Over the past few weeks, I have listened to my community and
to our friends; we have discussed the extreme precariousness of our
foundation. People whom I trust are urging me to make appeals, to
seek out benefactors, to accept invitations to preach, to speak about
our urgent need and to write about it. It is a question of survival.
What am I going to do? I am going to work at making Silverstream
Priory known; I am going to ask for help wherever and whenever
possible.
We do not yet own Silverstream Priory nor any of the surrounding land. While our community is established canonically
here in the Diocese of Meath, we cannot yet call Silverstream our
own, nor can we administer it freely, and develop it. Until we have
purchased Silverstream’s buildings and property, there remains an
element of risk in what we are doing. The men who have joined our
monastery are conscious of the risk involved and, in the face of the
risk, have laid their lives on the line.
At this stage of our development, we are still too few to undertake
a remunerative cottage industry. Our first a