At this time of year, my class at the Carthusian Monastery of Parkminster begins at 2.30pm and ends with the bell at 4pm so that the students can go back to cell and recite Vespers from the "Little Office" of Our Lady before being summoned to choir by the great bell. The above photo was taken just after they had all disappeared off to cell.The classroom is ideal; it has a large crucifix to distract attention away from me and towards the Lord, there are heaters to take the chill off if necessary, and a new addition has been provided by some venetian blinds to prevent student from being dazzled by the sunlight. (My rhetoric is unlikely to dazzle them!)
Today, we began a new tract. Having finished the De Deo Uno et Trino, I moved onto the De Verbo Incarnato, beginning with the Jewish and pagan sources referring to Our Lord or the early Christians and then moving onto Pope Benedict's sage advice on how we should approach the New Testament.
I am afraid that I may have spent too much time today speculating on the contribution that Liturgical studies could contribute to a Christian exegesis of the scriptures. After all, the scriptures are essentially related to the Liturgy and we should examine how the Sacred Liturgy presents the scriptures, particularly in the proper texts of the Introit, Gradual etc.
Once the students had gone to recite the Little Office of Our Lady, I took a photo of the cloister lit by the afternoon sun. The scale is deceptive; it would take you a few minutes to walk the length of this section:
23 comments:
I see that, while the monks have rather austere looking chairs, they have been kind enough to provide you with a cushion...
;-)
It would seem at least to me that monks would be better than average students. After all, I suspect they're motivated to learn - not just because of what you're teaching, but also because of the environment they are immersed in.
Great photo of the cloister, too.
Interesting post, Fr. Tim. Thank you for sharing.
Father, this series of posts is one of the best things on the Catholic Web.
What a fantastic monastery; I just looked up more about it. It's wonderful that after losing all their monasteries under Henry VIII, the Carthusians came back and rebuilt magnificently.
Beautiful pics!
That sounds wonderful!
I didn't realize the Carthusians gave retreats? In fact I thought they were forbidden?
I spent several months at La Grande Chartreuse and would love go back to one for a retreat some day :-]
I was fortunate enough to visit the grounds of St. Hugh's Charterhouse around October last year. It's an incredible place and a place I had read a lot about. I didn't get to go in but I did get to peep through the open door at the front as one of the monks was putting some things in the car - I don't think he was making an escape!
A fascinating world within the cloister walls hidden from our eyes.
Mac: The benefits of being a priest, I imagine. ;p
Carthusians do favour long corridors, don't they? This week an exhibition was opened in Roermond, in the south of the Netehrlands, about the Carthusians who used to live in that town. The monastery is still there, including long corridors.
Great INSIDERS' photographs Father Tim.
I hope HMP Education, Belmarsh, Elmley, High Down, Camp Hill etc,etc..read this post,and draw inspiration from it.
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!
The Gentleman - not sure where you got the idea that the monk give retreats. They don't: it is not usual for men to be allowed to stay there unless they are testing a vocation to the Carthusian life.
Echoing Fr. Tim: Carthusians do not allow retreatants to stay at their monasteries unless they are working out whether or not they are discerning a vocation.
A close childhood friend of mine entered the Charterhouse in Arlington, Vermont a little over 10years ago. He is still there - he was ordained a priest last November - and the only person outside of his immediate family that knew he was doing this was myself. Everyone else who was in his life thought he became a missing person, and it was actually funny (at least to me, sick and twisted individual that I am) how all of those people reacted when they found out where he had gone.
I, for one, have been very happy for him, and I know he prays for me regularly. Heaven knows I need them....
Fr. Finigan,
Could you elaborate a bit on the Little Office of Our Lady/BVM? I know that St. Thomas More prayed it and that it fell into decline after Vatican II. How does it relate to the Office/Liturgy of the Hours? Is it a good way for the laity to pray the office? I see that Baronius Press released a handsome new edition a year or so ago.
Rich - the Little Office of Our Lady is an unvarying office (except for some modifications for the liturgical seasons) that mirrors the hours of the traditional breviary. It is certainly a good thing for lay people to use it. (It is somewhat longer than the Liturgia Horarum currently in use.)
The Carthusians say the hours from the Office of Our Lady before each of the canonical hours.
Fr,
Perhaps I misunderstood; it sounded like you wrote of a class [retreat style] that you attended at Parkminster. How was it that you were able to attend a class there?
Oh, I see. "My class" meant the class that I give to the students - I teach dogmatic theology there.
Apart from the magnificent cloister, I'm rather taken with the clever design of the circular table in the classroom which appears to be set into the floor.
You refer to covering in your class ..."Pope Benedict's sage advice on how we should approach the New Testament." I was just wondering whether there is any chance you could do a blog entry expanding on this a little....even if just to send me in the direction of some good references to look up myself. Thank you. Cappadocian Sister.
MrJ - yes, it is an singular and most effective design.
C - I referred mainly to the Foreword of Pope Benedict's book "Jesus of Nazareth" which is an outstanding reply to the historical critical method.
Surely the table's not set into the floor? It seems to rest on the floor in what is actually a regularly tabular way. Don't be fooled by its imaginative shape - the centre of gravity is contained within its footprint and it lookes very stable to me.
About twenty years ago, a friend of mine put on an exhibition at Parkminster on St Hugh of Lincoln. I think she got further in than most women! It consisted of photographs: images of St Hugh in art and of the buildings associated with him. For all I know it may still be there, but I expect it was a temporary show. I’ll ask her.
St Hugh (d 1200) came to England from Burgundy in 1175. I think he was the founder of the first charterhouse in the country, at Witham in Somerset (not much left). In 1186 he became bishop of Lincoln, and a few years later began to rebuild the damaged cathedral. Given the austerity of the Carthusian lifestyle, you’d expect him to approve an equivalent architectural design for his new cathedral. Not a bit of it! St Hugh’s Choir is still standing, minus its apse (demolished in the 1250s to make way for the present Angel Choir, built to house St Hugh’s shrine), and is characterized by the most mannered and idiosyncratic features, including the so-called crazy vaults. Well worth a visit!
I don’t know whether St Hugh was the last Carthusian bishop in England? But anyway maybe time for another – Birmingham?!
Delia - many thanks for that interesting information. I'll ask the novice master about the exhibition next time I am there. Some of it may be still in the Prior's Parlour. If so, i'll get a photo.
Simon - you are right: the table simply stands on the floor but because of its construction it is absolutely stable.
Father - got it a bit wrong; my friend didn't actually go to Parkminster, just supplied photos, captions and introduction, and there were more images of St Hugh than his buildings. Said totally arbitrary! Exhibition had been at Lincoln Cathedral, some centenary of his canonization. Might still be at Parkminster.
Vesper - Parkminster, not Parkhurst!
Dear Father Tim
Delia's comment made me smile,and it also brought back some serious memories too.
In 1991 I was in HMP Belmarsh facing serious charges after getting into a fight at the Old Addeyans Football Club development. My hard opposition to the BNP meetings, attracted a malevolent ultra right wing prosecution from CID Greenwich.
In Prison Chapel one morning I sang Gaudete in my best latin, and I would like to think that this contributed to the well deserved verdict of 2 not guiltys that I later went on to receive at the ILCC.
On the outside the late Guardian of Walsingham Father David Diamond arranged the "LARKHURST PARKHURST" tour of the Isle Of Wight for his Deptford Parishioners.
There are of course links in the architectural designs of prisons and monastrys
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