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By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer
CONYERS—The Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit welcomed
her sixth abbot as Dom M. Basil Pennington, OCSO, received the abbatial
blessing on Sept. 8, the feast of the Nativity of Mary.
The new abbot, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., has spent 45 years as a
monk teaching and writing about prayer, particularly what is popularly known as
“centering prayer” or “the prayer of the heart.” A member
of the Cistercian monastery of Our Lady of St. Joseph in Spencer, Mass., he has
spent considerable time in Rome and traveled in Asia on behalf of the order,
teaching centering prayer. After returning to Spencer with the expectation of
staying there for the rest of his life, he was instead elected an abbot for the
first time.
“I thought I had retired a couple of years ago after seeing
the first Chinese abbot blessed and installed. I never thought I’d be an
abbot,” he said in remarks at the conclusion of the Mass. “I thank
God with all my being ... I hope to serve all my brothers here with all my
heart, all my soul, all my strength.”
Archbishop John F. Donoghue presided at the Mass, at which the
abbot-elect was presented in the name of the community by the prior, Brother
Mark Dohle. After responding to the examination of the archbishop, the
abbot-elect lay prostrate on the floor while the community, joined by nearly 70
priests of the archdiocese and hundreds of guests, prayed for him.
Rising, he knelt before the archbishop and received the prayer of
blessing. “May his manner of life show clearly that he is what he is
called, a father, so that his teaching will, as a leaven of goodness, grow in
the hearts of his spiritual family,” Archbishop Donoghue prayed.
He was then presented with the Rule of St. Benedict, the abbatial
ring and mitre, and the pastoral staff.
The new abbot then put aside the staff, embraced the archbishop
and other abbots present, and individually embraced each monk of the Conyers
monastery.
A man involved in ecumenism and interfaith relations, Dom
Pennington asked his friend Rabbi David Blumenthal, who teaches at Emory
University, to give the Old Testament reading at the Mass. After the reading in
Hebrew and English, Rabbi Blumenthal also gave a rabbinical blesssing, asking
God to grant the abbot “the strength to stand up and shepherd his people
by Your strength ... Give him the humility to know his faults ... Give him
still the courage to go on in serving You ... Help him to be afraid and still
to go on to pray.”
In his homily, reflecting on the faith and suffering of Mary and
Joseph, Abbot-emeritus Thomas Keating from the Spencer monastery said that
God’s “relentless movement” shattered the vision Mary and Joseph
had for their lives, but “this is God’s way of bringing us into the
vision we had ... This is the path of transformation ... This is the goal of
the Christian life.”
“You (in this monastery) are entering into a new adventure of
faith,” Dom Keating said. “Our vision of monastic life has already
gone through several evolutions ... It has totally changed since I entered
monastic life. Out of those ashes, a new vision has been built and is being
built and, I suggest, is just beginning to be built.”
“I wish you all an incredible gift of letting go of your own
ideas and letting God give you the experience of monastic life which is the
kingdom and transformation and transcendence in a new relationship with
God.”
Archbishop Donoghue, speaking at the conclusion of the Mass,
welcomed the new abbot and expressed the gratitude of the archdiocese for the
presence of the contemplative community in its midst.
“The monastery and every monk who lives here are precious to
the people who live in the archdiocese,” Archbishop Donoghue said, calling
the monastery “a place of beauty, a wellspring of spiritual refreshment
and a sign of contradiction in the spirit of Christ himself.”
“It is such a treasure,” he said. “We thank God for
it and we thank him for sending good men to make it their home and for sending
Basil” as the new abbot.
Following the abbatial blessing, the monastery provided a buffet
lunch for all the guests in the sunny cloister area, where visitors mingled
with one another and met the new abbot.
In an interview preceeding the day of the blessing, Dom Pennington
said that he looked forward to serving the community as a spiritual father.
“I see my primary role as being a very loving father and
concerned brother to the community,” he said, and “exploring how we
can best be a center for spiritual life for the diocese and for the
church.”
Although his work prior to this time has taken him outside the
cloister extensively, Dom Pennington said this is not what he expects to occur
now.
“I feel my attraction would be to stay home with the monks
and make this a real center for contemplative prayer,” he said.
The community is also welcoming men who would like to observe the
Cistercian monastic life and men who are interested in temporary monasticism.
“I would also like the priests of the archdiocese to know
they are welcome to come,” the new abbot said.
The election of the new abbot, who succeeds Dom Bernard Johnson,
OCSO, occurred on Aug. 4 following a facilitated discernment process in which
the monks considered what the community needed at this time in its history and
what qualities would be needed in the new abbot. They then considered
candidates. Then a period of prayer followed, Dom Pennington said. Dom Johnson
retired upon reaching his 75th birthday.
“The Holy Spirit was very present in their discernment, I
think,” the new abbot said. “On the first vote, they elected the
abbot.”
“The community has been totally welcoming,” Dom
Pennington added. “It is like a new beginning. It is a special time for
Holy Spirit Abbey.” |
