Lutheran Monastery Virtual Tour - The Final Stop(s)

The end of summer is rapidly approaching, and with it, the end of the summer travel season.  So, with that in mind, it is time for me to wrap up our little virtual tour of Lutheran monasteries. Instead of focusing on one monastery as I have done before, I'm going to take us to some of the ones we have missed thus far in our travels.

Amelungsborn Abbey - Germany

The Amelungsborn Abbey began as a Cistercian Monastery in the year 1135.  Following the Reformation, Duke Julius of Brunswick implemented the Reformation in his realm in the year 1568, and the abbot and community of Amelungsborn converted to Lutheranism. Andreas Steinhauer was the first Lutheran abbot, and he was the founder of the school for which the abbey is primarily known.

The abbey currently has an abbot and eight brothers, as well as approximately 30 members of a associated lay brotherhood. The following video contains beautiful music and imagery from the abbey - the narration is in German, but it is still enjoyable to watch:

For more information, there is a Wikipedia article in English:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelungsborn_Abbey

Their website (in German) is here:  http://www.kloster-amelungsborn.de/

Loccum Abbey - Germany

Loccum Abbey began as a Cisterician monastery in 1163 in the Lower Saxony region of Germany.  After the Reformation, the community became Lutheran, and today, the abbot is also the head of a seminary on the grounds of the monastery. 

For more information, a Wikipedia article in English can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loccum_Abbey

Their website (in German) can be found here:
http://www.kloster-loccum.de/pages/index.html

Enonkoski Monastery - Finland

In Finland, there is one Lutheran monastery located in an old schoolhouse, currently inhabited by one permanent resident, Sister Virva Tyrväinen. The monastery is a place of quiet, rest, and prayer, offering people the opportunity to go on retreat, or for a short period of silence.  

Enonkoski monastery operates as an independent entity, but works with the Mikkeli diocesan bishop, and under the authority of and in cooperation with the Enonkoski chapel of the church.

 For more information, there is a short Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monastic_Protestant_Community_in_Enonkoski

They have a Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/enonkoskenluostariyhteiso

Also, they have a website (in Finnish):
http://www.luostariyhteiso.fi/

The Brothers of Saint John the Evangelist - United States

Technically, this monastery is a religious community of the Episcopal Church, but I am including it because: (a) some of the five men who founded the community in 1972 were Lutheran, and (b) since 2001, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church are in full communion with each other anyway.  The monastery is located in the State of Washington, where two of the founding members still live, and the monastery has an active group of oblates (lay members).

(An image of a Celtic cross on the grounds of the monastery)

The monastery follows the Rule of St. Benedict, and their stated goal is to:
“Advancing the Worship, Music and Arts of the Church.”

For more information, their website can be found here: http://brothersofsaintjohn.org

 

Conclusion

 

I hope you have enjoyed the virtual tour - I know I have learned a lot while researching these Lutheran monasteries.  Hopefully, their existence won't be such a secret in the Lutheran Church anymore!

Modern Martyrdom

"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" ~ Tertullian.

The images and stories coming from Egypt this week have reminded us that martyrs are not merely people from the distant past - people are being killed because of their faith in today's world.  At the same time the worldwide Church was honoring Mary on her feast day, St. Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Church (one of many churches in Egypt destroyed this week) was burning.  Here is an image of the remains of the Church's altar:

Martyrdom is not just something that happens "somewhere else" though.  One particular instance of modern martyrdom has captivated me since I first read the story a few years ago.  48 years ago today, on August 20, 1965, Jonathan Myrick Daniels was killed due to actions he took because of his Christian faith, right here in the United States.   

Daniels was a seminarian at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the spring of 1965, when Martin Luther King Jr. put out a call for students and clergy to come to Alabama and participate in a march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery.  Daniels answered the call, and when he missed his bus to go back home, he stayed behind in Selma the rest of that semester to help the civil rights movement.  He returned to Cambridge for his final exams, and then went back to Alabama in July.

(An image of Daniels with two children in the house where he stayed in Alabama).

On August 14th, Daniels was arrested for protesting against a "whites only" store, and he was sent to a county jail in Haynesville, Alabama, along with several others.  After their release on August 20th, Daniels, along with a Catholic priest and two young African-Americans, went to a local store to get a soft drink.  They were met at the door by the store's owner, Tom Coleman, who was carrying a shotgun.  When Coleman aimed the gun at 17 year old Ruby Sales, Daniels pushed her away, and he caught the full impact of the blast in his chest, killing him instantly.

The story of his murder was reported nationally in the immediate aftermath of his death, and once again after his killer was acquitted by an all-white Alabama jury.

At his funeral, one of his professors read from a paper that Daniels wrote and submitted on June 22, 1965, entitled "Theological Reflections on My Experience in Selma."  Quoting the Magnificat (the song of Mary), Daniels wrote:

"All of this is the raw material for living theology.  And yet in as deep a sense, from my point of view, it is the product of living theology.  The doctrines of the creeds, the enacted faith of the sacraments, were the essential preconditions of the experience itself.  The faith with which I went to Selma has not changed: it has grown.  Darkening coals have kindled. Faith has taken wing and flown with a song in its wings. 'My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my Spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior...'

I lost fear in the black belt (referring to a region in Alabama known for its dark soil) when I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had truly been baptized into the Lord's Death and Resurrection, that in the only sense that really matters I am already dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God."

(Quoted in the book "Outside Agitator" by Charles W. Eagles, p. 183).

Mary and the Modern Church

In my denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), today is the day on the Church's calendar when we celebrate the life and witness of Mary, Mother of Our Lord.  In the Episcopal Church, today is known as the feast day of St. Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord.  Catholic and Orthodox Christians celebrate Mary on several days each year, and today is known as the day they celebrate her assumption into heaven (Catholic) or dormition ("falling asleep" - Orthodox).

(Icon of the Dormition by Theophan the Greek, from the year 1392).

Late yesterday afternoon, on the eve of the day when the Church remembers Mary, our Churchwide Assembly elected a new Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, who is the current Bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod.  I wasn't able to watch all of the election process online, but from what I did see, I suspect she gained a lot of support during the voting because of her candor in answering the questions posed to the nominees.  It was refreshing to hear someone acknowledge where we are as a denomination - wounded from battles that have raged about various matters since the merger that formed the ELCA 25 years ago, and the loss of almost 25% of its membership in those 25 years.

Also, judging from the various social media conversations about the election, once her candidacy gained some traction, a lot of the talk centered around the fact that her election would be historic - she would be the ELCA's first female Presiding Bishop.  Just a few years ago, the Episcopal Church elected its first female Presiding Bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori.

I find it somewhat ironic that despite all of the talk about the leadership of women in the modern American denominations that descend from the Protestant Reformation, the leadership of Mary is still ignored by many. 

The typical Protestant reasoning for avoiding any discussion about Mary is the allegation that it takes the focus away from Jesus.  To the contrary, the life of Mary points to her Son.  For example, this reflection by a Benedictine monk (incorporating Eastern Orthodox theology) on the dormition shows how the role of Mary, properly understood, glorifies Christ:

"At Mary's death her Son appears like a heavenly midwife who has helped his mother give birth to herself into eternity.  Her newborn soul is represented as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes, a thought-provoking reversal of his own physical birth when she wrapped him in swaddling bands and laid him in the manger (Lk 2:7).  She gave birth to him into time: now he regenerates her into eternity.  It is Mary's personal pascha/transitus, her journey through death to life: but like that of all other believers it is accomplished not through her own strength but because of the paschal mystery of her Son."

(From p. 264 of "Meeting Christ in His Mysteries: A Benedictine Vision of the Spiritual Life" by Gregory Collins, OSB).

When she spoke to the assembly yesterday, Bishop Eaton talked about the importance of the theology of the cross. Who was at the foot of the cross, watching the crucifixion of her Son?  Mary.  John 19:26-27 tells us: "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, 'Woman, here is your son.' Then he said to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home."

A theology of the cross that does not place us at the foot of the cross alongside Mary is no theology of the cross at all. 

Want to Have an Encounter with an Angel?

Angels have been in the news again this week because of the mystery surrounding the appearance of an unknown priest at the scene of a serious car accident in Missouri.  If you haven't read about it yet, here's an example of one of the many news stories about the event:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/07/angel-crash-missouri/2630227/

I'm not going to speculate regarding the nature of this event, although it is intriguing.  The point of this article is that we don't have to get into a traumatic situation, like a car crash, to have an encounter with the angels. 

Chapter 19 of the Rule of St. Benedict notes that when we join in the daily prayer of the Church, our voices are in harmony with the voices of the angels:

"We believe that God is everywhere, and the Lord sees both good and evil in all places. Without doubt, we believe this is so especially when assisting in the Divine Office. Remember the prophet: 'Serve the Lord in fear' (Ps. 2:10), and 'Sing His praises with understanding' (Ps. 47:7) and also 'In the sight of angels I will sing praise to You' (Ps. 138:1).  Let us consider our place in sight of God and of his angels.  Let us rise in chanting that our hearts and voices harmonize."

The same is true with the Eucharist.  At the conclusion of the preface, the celebrant chants: "With all the choirs of angels, with the church on earth and the hosts of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn..." This leads into the singing of the Sanctus ("Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might..."), which is the song sung by the seraphim in the presence of the Lord (Isaiah 6:1-3).

Skepticism about angels abounds in modern society, no doubt caused in part by the image that many people have of angels, which has been shaped by art and movies.  ("Its a Wonderful Life" and "Angels in the Outfield" are two examples of cute, but misleading, depictions of angels).  Angels play a crucial role in the Biblical story, though, as they serve as messengers of warning (Genesis 19 - the story of Sodom and Gomorrah) and hope (Luke 1:26-38 - the appearance of the angel to Mary).

In the daily life of a Christian, the presence of angels around us should give us comfort, for as noted by Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov, they are "standing before the throne of God, live a common life with us, and are united by the bonds of love." (from "Jacob's Ladder: On Angels" p. 164).

(The icon at the beginning of this article is found at Bethel Lutheran Church, University City, Missouri - you can read about it here: http://www.bethel-ucity.org/asp/art.asp).     

UPDATE 8/13/13: The mystery priest has been identified.  http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/13/us/missouri-mystery-priest/index.html

Lest we forget how difficult monastic life can be....

One of the dangers of learning about a subject through reading, without obtaining a firsthand experience of the subject, is that it is easy to get a false sense of the true nature of the subject.  In religious circles, for example, there are stories floating around the internet from frustrated converts who became Catholic, Orthodox, or a particular brand of Protestantism by reading their way into that church, without getting a real sense of what the church was like through personal experience before entering it.

I confess that I am guilty of having an overly sentimental view of monastic life because I have read about it, but not lived it.  A life of silence and prayer seems appealing when the maelstrom of life reaches a fever pitch.

This article about a story from Sicily should cure me, and anyone who reads it, of that overly sentimental view:  "Criminal serving his sentence with monks pleads to be sent back to prison....because monastery life is too hard."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081757/Criminal-serving-sentence-monks-pleads-sent-prison--monastery-life-hard.html


(Thanks to Matthew Dallman for the link, and for noting the appropriate nature of the article's last line: "Nobody at the Santa Maria community was available for comment").

Meeting the Saints at the Altar

As a pastor, sometimes it is a struggle to come up with the right words to say to someone who has suffered a loss in their lives, particularly the death of a loved one. In seminary and Clinical Pastoral Education ("CPE") we are trained (and rightfully so) to avoid resorting to trite sayings that do more harm than good ("God must have needed another angel in heaven" is just plain wrong for multiple reasons).   So, I know what not to say, but it is still difficult to know what I should say. 

A few months ago, I visited an elderly woman from my congregation whose husband died several years ago.  She shared with me that she was still having great difficulty dealing with losing him and living alone. So, the dilemma of what to say to someone in her situation arose once again. 

The purpose of my visit was to bring her communion, so I remembered something I had read once about how the Eucharist brings us together with the saints who have gone before us, so I mentioned to her that when she received communion that day, she would be joined with him. 

I didn't think much of the conversation afterwards, other than hoping that I didn't say the wrong thing.  Recently, when I visited her again to bring her communion, one of the first things she said was how she had appreciated those words and had thought about them since that first visit. 

So, that prompted me to look up where I had read about meeting the saints at the altar during communion, and I found what I was looking for in a book that is little known outside of "Evangelical Catholic" Lutherans (I still have mixed feelings about that label - http://benedictinelutheran.blogspot.com/2013/05/evangelical-catholic-lutheranism.html) called "The Presence - an Approach to Holy Communion." Recently reprinted by the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, the book is a gorgeous reflection on the Eucharist by a Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod pastor named Berthold Von Schenk, who was at the vanguard of the 20th century liturgical movement, as expressed within American Lutheranism.

This was the specific passage from the book that I was thinking of when I attempted to comfort her that day:

"We cannot divide the body of Christ.  The Church militant and the Church triumphant form one Church.  Nothing can separate the members of the Church, neither life nor death, nor powers, nor principalities.  At the altar we have fellowship with our risen and ascended Lord. But there is also a fellowship with all the members of the Church.  At the altar we join hands not only with the great saints in heaven, but also with all our loved ones who have passed within the veil, our faithful departed.

****

 We must come to a sense of the continuing presence of our loves ones, and we can do this if we realize the presence of our living Lord.  As we seek and find our risen Lord we shall also find our dear departed.  They are with Him, and we find the reality of their continued life through Him. The saints are a part of the Church.  We worship with them. They worship the risen Christ face to face, while we worship the same risen Christ under the veil of bread and wine at the altar.  At the Communion we are linked with heaven, with the Communion of Saints, with our loved ones. Here at the altar, focused to a point, we find our communion with the dead; for the altar is the closest meeting place between us and our Lord.  That place must be the place of closest meeting with our dead who are in His keeping.  The altar is the trysting place where we meet our beloved Lord.  It must, therefore, also be the trysting place where me meet our loved ones, for they are with the Lord."

And then, in a passage that would put a serious dent in the business of flower shops everywhere if his advice was followed, Von Schenk wrote:

"How pathetic it is to see men and women going out to the cemetery, kneeling at the mound, placing little sprays of flowers and wiping their tears from their eyes, and knowing nothing else.  How hopeless they look.  Oh, that we could take them by the hand, away from the grave, out through the cemetery gate, in through the door of the church, and up the nave to the very altar itself, and there put them in touch, not with the dead body of their loved one, but with the living soul who is with Christ at the altar. 

****

The Blessed Sacrament links us not merely to Bethlehem and Calvary, but to the whole world beyond the grave as well, for at the altar the infinite is shrined in the finite; heaven stoops down to earth; and the seen and the unseen are met."

(pp. 118-121 of the 2010 ALPB printing of "The Presence"). For more information about the book, including how to order it, go here: http://www.alpb.org/presence.html