Both the Church and wider society need monastic communities, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has suggested, as he paid tribute to the role of St Benedict and the Benedictine tradition of monasticism in European political, social and religious history.In his homily for the ceremony of blessing of the new abbot of Bolton Abbey, Moone, Co Kildare, the Archbishop noted that the ceremony coincided with the Feast of St Benedict, founder of Western monasticism.
He also recalled that Pope Paul VI nominated St Benedict as Patron of Europe.
The Archbishop suggested that if Europe is facing periods of uncertainty and anxiety about its identity and future, what is needed is not just political and economic leadership, but also ethical and spiritual renewal.
The leader of the Church in Dublin said this ethical and spiritual renewal had to be based, not on power-seeking and prestige or even on a search for individual fulfilment, “but a model of humility and service, of interiority and seeking the deepest significance of our existence.”
The new abbot, Dom Michael Ryan, OCSO, is originally from Newfoundland in Canada and takes over for the next six years. There are eleven Cistercian monks in the Moone community.
The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, whose monks are widely known as Trappists, is a contemplative order.
Bolton Abbey was founded in 1965. It is one of six Cistercian monasteries in Ireland today. The Cistercians trace their origins back to 1098.
During the ceremony, Archbishop Martin also prayed especially for Pope Benedict who chose the name Benedict, “as a programme for his apostolic service.”
In a tribute to the Pontiff’s, “humble service,” Archbishop Martin prayed, “the Spirit will continue to strengthen him and be with him in the solitude of his ministry.”
Looking over the history of western monasticism, Dr Martin recalled that St Benedict had lived in, “turbulent and changing and uncertain times.”
The collapse of the Roman Empire was a particularly traumatic moment in European culture.
The political unity which had been created by the Empire and which had held the continent together for centuries, began to disappear.
The disruption of the political unity which the Empire had produced a crisis of values and institutions.
Political disruption inevitably fosters a breakdown of an agreed and common understanding of where values are to be rooted, Archbishop Martin said, and added that society can easily be thrown into a period of moral confusion and decay as a result.
St Benedict’s response was not a new political agenda but an agenda of faith.
Through Benedict’s spearheading, the Christian faith became the foundation of a new spiritual and cultural unity that was to be the foundation of the Europe that existed for many centuries.
According to the Archbishop, the Italian-born saint, who was born around 480AD and died in 543AD, realised that monastic life is, “a school for the service of the Lord,” not just an interior life distanced from the realities of the world.
It must bring action and contemplation together.