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Gifts / Contact Us 3/6/07__________________________________
My
name is John...otherwise known as Br. Gaelyn to my
fellow monastics. I am a Benedictine
of Irish descent, my spiritual
community is on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
I
ran across your site while visiting the web site of another Benedictine
community. I Love your robes! It does the heart of
this Irish lad good to see you "wearing the
green"...what an appropriate expression of Celtic
Spirituality.
Blessings,
Br. Gaelyn, OSB (Cape
Cod, Massachusetts)
3/6/07__________________________________ I am pleased to hear of the way
God is moving in your ministry. My suspicion is that he will
continue to do so for the foreseeable future. 3/5/07__________________________________ Dear Monks,
I
have visited your site with great delight, especially the page about lectio
continua. I am a Protestant
Chaplain who specialised in patristic
studies. In my
first dissertation I researched Scripture authority with the
post
Apostolic fathers,
and I am presently doing research on oracles of God, a comparative study
of Apostolic Christianity and its Greco Roman world. 3/4/07__________________________________
l have visited your web page
and it has really ministered to my soul...
In
Christ,
Pastor Sagana
(Kenya)
3/2/07__________________________________ Dear
Sirs, 3/1/07__________________________________ Good morning, and the blessing
of the Holy Trinity upon you! 2/28/07_________________________________ Dear Monk Preston,
Thank you so much and glory to God. I
know these chapters and have read them so many times and found no
solace. It is wonderful how sometimes you can read chapters and
not see anything but the words. I have sat down in the quiet of my
lounge this morning and read your email again with the scriptures and I
can clearly see what God is trying to tell me.
Thank you so much and I will visit your Growing
in Christ webpages. 2/27/07_________________________________
Survey:
Liked Best: Your existence and
commitment. 2/26/07_________________________________
Survey:
Liked Best: The
plan for developing a spiritual life. 2/22/07_________________________________ Dear
Brother/Sister, I began
my search for monastic life at Iona
in Scotland
in 1975 when I visited the Iona
Abbey. The Celtic
spirituality is for me also an inspiration. Yours
sincerely,
Brother Ole osb 2/15/07_________________________________ I write to express appreciation for your website. Please "subscribe" me. I have used the videos on Aidan, Cuthbert, etc., described on your site. I am grateful for your new information on Arminianism and Anabaptism. Letha and I, in retirement, co-pastor an Anabaptist house church, south of Richmond, Virginia, at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers. We are associated with the Church of the Brethren, produced by the confluence of Anabaptism and German Pietism in the early 1700's. However, our spiritual ancestors were soon exiled to William Penn’s colony and became part of the Anabaptist culture whose center is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In regard to Arminianism, I wish that you would include some information on John Cassian. He was a contemporary of Augustine of Hippo and Pelagius, who took the middle ground between the extreme’s of Augustine’s view of humanity as a helpless lump of depravity, and Pelagius’ view of humans as sinless and able to save themselves through strict obedience to the law of Christ. Cassian saw humanity as sick unto death in sin, but with just enough freedom of will to decide whether to accept saving grace or not. I really see Cassian as a theological pioneer who cut a path that has been followed by Arminius, Wesley, and modern day evangelists like Billy Graham. One other aspect of Cassian’s career was his development of monastic communities near Marseille, France. Cassian had participated in Eastern and Egyptian monasticism, and authored a monastic rule for his communities that formed the basis for Benedict’s rule, including an outline for the practice of hours of prayer. Thanks so much for your information on Ninian. We spent a couple of days around Whithorn, visiting the priory and museum, the village out by the coast, and hiking through wooded pastureland out to Ninian’s Cave on the stony beach on the Irish Sea. I found a palm size gray pebble with a thin white cross in it, that, to me, demonstrates God’s eternal purpose, announced in creation, to save us through the cross of Jesus. It is on our household prayer altar. My (Scottish) ancestors came from Kirkinner, a small rural village just a few miles north of Whithorn. If you ever get to that town, visit the Church of Scotland there. They have an Anglo-Saxon cross to the left of the pulpit, dated in the 800s, that some surmise marked the grave of one of the monks who carried Cuthbert's body back and forth across the Borders, trying to avoid the terrorist Vikings who had ransacked Lindisfarne. We also went on Pilgrimage to Ireland, and invested some precious time at Glendalough, Monasterboice, Clonmacnoise. And just last October, we wandered around Assisi, Italy for a week, visiting sites outside the town (St. Damian's Church, Rivotorto, where Francis started his community in a livestock shed), and the portiuncula at St. Mary's, as well as the large St. Francis Basilica, and St. Clare's. It seems to me that Francis was not really accepted in the heavily commercialized and militarized Assisi of his time until, shortly after his death, the pope declared him to be a saint! Recovery of spiritual communion with the Lord, through Scripture, sacrament, and contemplative prayer are major investments for me now, after years of pastoring that involved too much administration, and pampering of cranky Christians. I still have to do that stuff, but they are down on my list of priorities. And I thank God for the core group in the congregation we now serve, who are really supportive prayer pilgrims. Again, with appreciation for your work, I am Yours in Christ, Jim M. (Midlothian, Virginia) ____________________________________________________________ Next Previous Page of Letters (Page 68) E-mail Your Comments to: monks@prayerfoundation.org Copyright © 2007 S.G.P. All rights reserved. Next Next Topic Comments Index
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Page 69
2/15/07
- 3/6/07
