Talk given by Dom Mark-Ephrem Nolan OSB

at the CORI, Northern Ireland gathering on 23rd. October 2011

(Unedited).

The invitation to speak on hope

Some time ago Sr Rosaleen approached me and asked if I might address today’s gathering. 

I hesitated for a moment about accepting this invitation wondering what, if anything, I might have to share with you and I said as much to Sr Rosaleen in our conversation.

But as I listened to what she went on to say stating that the theme she thought I could and should look at with you is hope and once I heard that the date proposed for our gathering was today the 23^rd of October, I realised that I simply couldn’t decline her invitation.

Let me explain …

Mesnil  -  Our Lady of Holy Hope  -  Prayer imploring Conversion and Renewal

The 23^rd of October is a very significant date in the French branch of our monastic family and it is all the more important in the small Irish offshoot of our monastic family at the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Kilbroney Valley, Rostrevor.

For us, this date marks the Feast of Our Lady of Holy Hope: a feast that has its origins at Mesnil Saint Loup in the Province of Aube, in the Champagne region of France.

There in the middle of the 19^th century Dom Emmanuel André, founder of what was to become le Monastère Notre Dame de la Sainte Espérance (The Monastery of Our Lady of Holy Hope) inaugurated a movement of perpetual prayer which implored the grace of conversion to bring about a renewal in the life of the Church in what was a very de-Christianised area of France, during a real desert period in the life of God’s People.

The ravages of the French Revolution were still keenly felt in that region of France at this period. The situation must have appeared hopeless in many ways.

It was in this difficult context that Dom Emmanuel André and his little group of companions sought to found a small monastery and live their monastic life in a spirit of real solidarity with those around them.

Before long, their humble little monastery shone out like a beacon of hope in what was by and large a fairly grim environment.

The monks of Mesnil sought with the Lord’s help to create a God-enlightened space in a darkened age and place, and they succeeded in doing so. The Monastery of Our Lady of Holy Hope became what Père Emmanuel liked to call a little corner of Jerusalem: God’s Holy City, the place of His dwelling on earth.

Soon a whole network of lay people gathered around the monastery and began to be nourished by the Sacred Scriptures and by the monks’ celebration of the liturgy. The monastery at Mesnil really pioneered things in both these domains and moreover in the domain of Judeo-Christian relationships and also in the domain of ecumenism through contact with the Oriental Churches. Remember we are in the middle of the 19^th century when none of this was at all typical.

Let me fast forward a little …

Dom Paul Grammont ~ Holy Hope and Ireland

Abbot Paul Grammont, who in 1948 restored monastic life to the famous medieval Abbey of Bec, from whence our little group came to establish our monastic foundation here in Ireland, had first entered the Monastery of Our Lady of Holy Hope at Mesnil Saint Loup. He made his Monastic Profession there in 1929. If circumstances led Dom Grammont to concentrate his energy into the restoration of Bec, nevertheless he continually remembered the monastery of his Profession. Mesnil Saint Loup remained for him a reference point and by whatever path he was led in life he remained faithful to its particular charism of Holy Hope.

In his latter years Dom Paul Grammont’s attention was focused on Ireland. He carried in his heart and prayer a particular concern for what he saw and referred to as the suffering Church in this land. This led him to establish a little cella (dependent Priory) in Northern Ireland in the Diocese of Down & Connor from 1983-1987.

In fact on his retirement as Abbot of Bec - after having exercised a ministry of spiritual paternity in his community for some 48 years as Superior - Dom Paul Grammont chose to come to live a hidden life of prayer here in Ireland. He wanted in this way to pose a concrete gesture of communion with the Irish Church and all the people of this land.

In 1987 Dom Grammont’s successor called the members of the Bec cella back to the Mother-House to serve what he discerned to be the Bec community’s needs at that time. But Abbot Paul held on to the firm conviction that one day monks would return to Ireland to establish a permanent foundation here.

In 1989 lying on his deathbed, in what was to be his last contact with the outside world, Abbot Paul Grammont assured the late Cardinal Daly in a telephone conversation they shared that it was no longer just a hope but a certitude that monks would one day return to Ireland to live in solidarity with the Irish Church and her people.

Vividly I recall him saying to me not long before he died that the monks who would come here would have for mission to carry to the Church in Ireland the message of Holy Hope.

Holy Hope in Ireland

As a community we believe that spiritual intuition was confirmed and found the beginning of its fulfilment when on the 23^rd of October (Feast of Our Lady of Holy Hope) in the year 2000, a local farmer (the owner of a small holding of some 18 acres) gave us half of his land on which to build our monastery in the Valley of Kilbroney.

I won’t go into the details of our story, suffice to say is that we have witnessed the clear manifestation of Divine Providence in our regard in undertaking what was and remains a real adventure of faith. We came here with no material wealth. We began our building project quite literally with nothing in the bank. Our only guarantee was the certitude that it befell us to build a House of Prayer for all God’s People.

Holy Cross Monastery, Rostrevor, has become a real centre of Church life right across the wider Christian family, a place of ecumenical encounter and many would say a beacon of hope for them - and all this despite the poverty of the persons and the poverty of the means put at God’s disposal to accomplish the mission confided to us.

As a community we have well and truly come to experience the truth of Paul’s words written to the Romans: hope is not deceptive … hope does not disappoint.

It is this message of holy hope that I feel called to share with you today, for I believe that if ever there was a time when we stood in need of this message it is precisely at this period in the history of the Church in Ireland.

The Present Crisis:  Foresight and Insight.

I often think of Abbot Paul Grammont as a man with far-seeing vision in many respects; and I would have to include here the insights he had around the Church in Ireland.

While many would say that they were unprepared for and quite taken by surprise by the crash that has occurred in the Irish Church in recent times, the truth is that already in those four years in the 1980’s when we were here in the little Bec ‘cella’ it was already evident that the collapse of so much upon which the Church was relying then was being prepared.

You see, even in the 1980’s, the Church was still a power to be reckoned with.

Now, history shows us that the Church is never in a healthy state when it is wielding much power in this world.

While things still looked good on the surface, a crumbling was beginning to take place within the Church, including within Religious life.

What caused the crumbling? What was it that that brought about the crash?

These are questions we might ask. What answer could we suggest?

Well, I don’t think you need to be that smart to work out that the problem lay below the surface.

I won’t try to analyse and explain all that brought us to where we are today.

Others have undertaken a much needed work of analysis. I am sure that more could and should be done at this level, if for no other reason than to help us be on our guard from allowing history to repeat itself when we come to know a certain recovery.

When I speak of recovery, please understand me. I am not naïve enough to believe that we will ever get back to where we were at the institutional level in days past - not even the recent past of the 1980’s. Nor do I think it would be desirable for us to get back there.

What is to be hoped for is that we might just find our feet again. Moreover, having found our feet again, it is to be hoped that we learn to be more careful about where we pose them. Fundamentally we have to be on our guard to make sure that in re-founding, re-posing ourselves we do so on solid ground. Otherwise the next storms to hit us will have an equally devastating effect, albeit in a different context, for different reasons and in different ways.

I think what the real devastation we have experienced shows us is that our foundations were not nearly as deep as they should have been and as we may have liked to think they were.

This explains how when the cracks appeared they opened so wide and things started to really fall asunder.

As Abbot Paul Grammont saw it and as I see it, one of the primary weaknesses of the Church in Ireland was that it was so evidently a Church of works. These many works were pointed to and foolishly thought to be the Irish Church’s great strength.

But to anyone who dared to look beyond what appeared on the surface it was evident that there was a deficiency when it came to the Church’s spiritual foundations.

Spiritual formation was sadly lacking in so many Religious families.

I am not saying this just looking at things from the outside and telling you that this is the conclusion French monks came to.

No, here I am thinking of what many Irish Consecrated men and women have shared with me about their experience in Religious Congregations in Ireland. Many have told me that in their experience while much emphasis was placed on training them to provide services for the people their spiritual formation was largely left unattended to.

How does this leave Religious feeling today?

In my experience there are many Religious who are left feeling more than a little depressed and downhearted; many are downcast, sad and disappointed.

There are some who come across as somewhat defensive and others who clearly feel very angry.

And there are so many more who would say in all honesty that they just don’t know how they feel. Their thoughts and feelings are all over the place.

No matter what way we are feeling - and perhaps even more if we are left in an un-feeling state - what we need right now is an injection of holy hope and a particular grace of conversion to bring about a much needed renewal.

I can understand those who say that they just can’t take any more criticism. There may even be some here who won’t particularly like what I have already said so far and will go on to say.

They don’t want to hear anything that sounds at all critical of how things were or are or are likely to go.

Given the depleted, saddened, already downhearted state of many Religious I have encountered along the way, I might have given into the temptation today to simply opt to caress this gathering with words of comfort, but I fear that this would be less than honest on my part and certainly in the long run would not prove at all helpful.

Denial is never the right response to suffering and pain.

It is certainly not an adequate response to our present ills.

If we were to meet here today and content ourselves to tell each other that the life of the Church - including Religious life - is in a good state of health I am not convinced that this would be really honest nor do I believe that it would be truly loving or fully respectful of each other.

We are in a state of crisis!

This fact simply cannot and most certainly should not be ignored or glossed over.

We are deeply wounded and we stand in need of healing.

Conversion and Hope

Furthermore - and let’s not deny this - we stand in need of conversion!

Yes, we need to undergo real change … we need to live an about turn if we are to come to experience the renewal in life for which we would say we long.

What I have just said, pointing to the grim reality of the situation in which we find ourselves, in no way contradicts my firm conviction that we are all called to place our trust in the Scriptural message of hope and furthermore called to dare to proclaim this message to those around us.

What we must never forget - even in the midst of the mess and especially at the most difficult moments of our existence - is, to quote Paul writing to the Colossians, that Christ our hope of glory is in our midst!

But once again - and here I dare to insist - our proclamation of the message of hope founded upon Christ’s presence in our midst should in no way seek to deny or minimise the depth of suffering and gravity of the ills that many are enduring at present.

Moreover, I firmly believe that we must all dare to acknowledge that to some extent we are -responsible for the present state of things.

The Church’s present ills are not just everybody else’s fault.

To say that they are would be a convenient cop-out on our behalf!

I would want to stress that even if we are not directly responsible for having brought things to the present low ebb we have the responsibility to engage ourselves to bring things up again.

So, we are responsible for the way things are!

I said a moment or two ago that I am convinced that we all long for renewal in life and a word of hope.

I went on to say that I am convinced you would all agree with me on this point … But is that completely true?

Sometimes I wonder.

I wonder if we are as agreed on this as we should be.

I wonder if we really want to be renewed and if we still have hope within us: true hope - holy hope!

Yes, I wonder if we carry God’s own hope in our hearts.

Above all I wonder if we are ready to engage ourselves to bring about change for the better.

We must remember that God’s hope is so much more than our own wishful thinking.

If we have lost hope - at least if we are not exercising it to the extent that we should be - we must ask: what is it which restrains us from hoping as we should?

Let me suggest an answer.

Could it be all that we are trying to hold on to … rather than accepting to let go off what we need to let drop?

Dom Emmanuel André used to emphasise in his teaching that hope is a severe virtue.

In one conference he explained to his brethren: Holy hope is a severe virtue; it takes everything away from us and it gives us nothing in return.

He went on to explain:  Holy hope detaches us; it cuts us away from the moorings and launches us out into the depths. It doesn’t permit us to stop along the way nor does it allow us to amuse ourselves by being concerned about sweet nothings.

What he is saying there is that holy hope demands of us a radical conversion and it obliges us to deal with the real issues.

It is not a cop-out and it leaves no room for us to give ourselves facile (indeed false) consolations!

If we are stuck - as many appear to be - in a state of paralysis, we must ask: what is it that is holding us paralysed?

Is it not our fears?

If so, what are we afraid of?

Well, if we are honest, I think we would all have to say that we are afraid of suffering … and yet without it there will be no new birth. We have to accept to go through the pain of birth pangs if we are to accede to and bring forth new life.

Writing to the Romans Saint Paul tells us where hope comes from. He tells us it comes from suffering endured. He makes it clear that hope is not a matter of wishful thinking. He writes in Romans 5: We can rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

In this text the apostle Paul does not deny the harsh realities in which he found himself. It was precisely in the midst of these harsh realities that he felt called to hope.

Writing elsewhere Paul speaks of the birth pangs felt in the process of bringing forth new life. He speaks of the unavoidable pain to be worked through and the groaning that is part of the process.

In our problems and trials, in our suffering and pain as Religious in the Church in Ireland today we need the encouragement and reassurances that are given to us here in these texts: we need to have hope in the possibility of new life or else we might as well just disband and go off into a corner and die.

A New Beginning … A Fresh Start with Christ

Hope helps us to believe that a new beginning is possible for us!

Hope leads us to trust in and engage ourselves to live a fresh start with and from Christ!

In saying that I find myself led to think this afternoon of two gospel scenes in which we see Jesus inaugurate his public ministry: the story of Jesus’ visit to the Synagogue of Nazareth found in Luke’s gospel (Luke chapter 4) and the story of Jesus’ changing the water into wine found in John’s gospel (John chapter 2).

We read in Luke 4 how Jesus stood up in the Synagogue of Nazareth and said: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me to bring Good News to the poor … He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted … He has sent me to bring fresh hope to those who are discouraged and downcast.

Sharing in Jesus’ mission we are called to bring fresh hope to those who are discouraged and downcast. We can only bring to others and share with them what we have already received ourselves.

This means that we must open our own hearts to receive God’s gift of hope afresh today.

Gathered here on this Sunday evening I see us as being a bit like the Emmaus pilgrims we encounter at the end of Luke’s gospel.

Maybe some of us here have been tempted to walk the road they were taking - maybe some of us here have been tempted to walk away from the community as the gospel shows us them to have been doing. When Jesus came and walked with them Cleopas and his companion were journeying away from Jerusalem. They were turning their back on the community.

Like the Emmaus road travellers some of us may well feel completely thrown by everything our group has undergone. We may find ourselves walking along the road asking questions, wondering about all that has happened and disappointed by the public humiliation we have endured as a result.

If this is how and where we are at, what we need is to allow ourselves to be encountered by Jesus along the way.

We need to listen to Him as He opens up for us the full message of the Scriptures; we need to allow Him to explain to us the meaning of everything we have undergone in their light.

I am not sure we have really done this in many cases.

Need for the Healing Remedy of God’s Word

I know I cannot honestly say that I have heard many pronouncements coming from Church circles, from leaders and others (and I include here our Congregational leaders and Congregational members) which have really brought the Word of God to bear on the terrible realities we have been living through.

(There are exceptions to this, of course. Here I would like to pay tribute to one particular group who seem to me to be really getting it right and offering much comfort and hope to the People of God in Ireland today. When it comes to looking at things in the light of God’s word I think of the Redemptorist Congregation and their ministry in this respect impresses me.)

But, by and large, as far as I can see, frequently the language spoken and the words proffered have not been clearly fashioned by God’s Word which is the only word that can really offer healing and hope.

The apologies that have been offered, the explanations given and the promises made have not made much of an impact really. Have they? They haven’t proved themselves to be life-giving words holding the power to heal because they have just been human words.

All around us - and within us - there is a real hunger for a word from God. People are crying out for Christ’s life-giving, healing word. Words - our words alone - won’t ever fully satisfy people … however savant they may sound to us, no matter how well we may play with them and use them to good effect.

I find it significant that people are still clamouring for a word from the Church.

I find it consoling that they are still waiting to hear us say something meaningful.

This is a sign that the people realise that we as Church still hold a treasure in our earthenware jars - a sign that they see us as bearers of a word of life that can bring them the healing they long for.

It seems to me that the very first challenge is for us to get in-touch with that life-giving word ourselves. It is to renew our contact with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I spoke of the need for us to rebuild the Church and our Religious lives on firm spiritual foundations.

The word of God is the first source of all Christian spirituality. This explains why it is absolutely vital that the word of God be brought to bear on our life as Religious at this time.

Just as the founders and foundresses of our Institutes looked to the Sacred Scriptures and drew forth from them the inspiration they needed to establish the particular charisms our Congregations have exercised in the life of the Church beginning in their foundation days, so at this point in time we need to be looking afresh to that same source: God’s life-giving word … We need to be drawing our inspiration from this source if we are to re-found ourselves, as we have been asked to do.

Blessed John-Paul II clearly grasped the importance of this for the renewal of Religious life in the Church.

You will hardly be surprised if a monk resonates with and feels called to echo the late pope’s insistence upon the importance of prayer and lectio divina to bring things forward in the Church and to renew the life of our Religious Congregations at the present time.

Writing to Consecrated men and women in Vita Consecrata the Blessed Pope John-Paul II stated: It is only from familiarity with God’s word that we draw the light we need for our individual and communal discernment which will help us to seek the ways of the Lord in the signs of the present time.

He went on to promise that ultimately it is this which will renew us.

It has always been men and women of prayer who have brought about authentic renewal and life-giving reform in the life of the Church.

Lectio divina has for goal to lead those who practice it into an experience of conversion.

If all the Church is called to conversion and holiness this call will be felt and should be responded to a fortiori by those called to the Consecrated life.

The call addressed to us to seek first and foremost the kingdom of God is primarily a call to complete conversion to the person of Jesus Christ.

It is only a greater conformity to Christ Jesus that will guarantee our renewal.

For, ultimately, it is Christ who makes all things new, not us!

If I have insistently made the point that we are deeply wounded and severely weakened at this time it is because I well and truly believe that we must honestly recognise this to be the case if we are ever to find our strength renewed.

Once again, I realise there will be some who will find my insistence here a little depressing - they might even say discouraging.

They will question whether it makes for our much needed up-building.

I think it does!

You see if we are to know healing we have to recognise that we are ill and we have to look at what has sickened us. To use a biblical image we have to look at what has bitten us. We have to dare to face squarely what has poisoned our system.

This is what Jesus says when he talks of the serpent of bronze raised up by Moses in the desert when speaking of Himself in St John’s gospel.

You will remember the story about the Israelites found in the Book of Numbers which recounts how when the people were perishing in the desert at a particularly frightening and difficult time during their exodus journey, Moses was ordered to fashion a serpent of bronze and tell the people to look at it.

In other words Moses was told to point out to the people and show them what had bitten and poisoned them.

We are told how those who looked at the bronze serpent were healed and given a new lease of life.

I agree with Timothy Radcliffe, OP, when he says: The vision of the wounded but living Christ can free us … It can free us from all the hurts we have endured through our own experience of Religious life and it can free us from the hurts which we have sometimes caused others to endure by the impoverished response we have given our calling.

Now that we have already made our way into the Fourth Gospel with my allusion to John’s teaching on the lifting up of the Son of Man, let me just look for a brief moment at the gospel scene which inaugurates Jesus’ earthly ministry in this same gospel account: the wedding feast at Cana.

Do whatever He tells you

I felt I should include an allusion to this text in my reflection with you today since it is the gospel text associated with the commemoration of Mary as Mother of Holy Hope.

This gospel scene reminds us that Christ is with us.

Just as Jesus was at that wedding at Cana in Galilee so he is with us in Ireland today.

What I want to draw to your attention particularly this afternoon is what I see to be a very basic lesson to be learned from the Cana gospel story: one that can be so easily overlooked and is all too frequently missed out on. Namely, the part we have to play to bring about the miracle we need to see happen.

I invite you to listen to what Mary turned and said to the servants at the wedding feast, hearing it as something said to each one of us and all of us together today: Do whatever He tells you.

What did Jesus tell them to do?

He pointed to twelve jars and told the servants to fill them with water. They did so immediately. And the water changed into wine.

What’s the lesson?

Well, Jesus could have simply created the wine and had it fill the empty jars, but He didn’t. He chose to have the servants fill the jars with water. Just as elsewhere He tells the disciples to bring to Him the little bread they have, which He then blesses and asks them in to distribute to the hungry crowd, so He asks us to fill the jars with water.

There is a lesson taught to us in Jesus’ chosen way of going about things.

He associates us with the miracles He works.

Jesus wanted the servants to do everything they could up to the point they could do no more … Remember, they filled the jars to the brim … until they could do no more!

Then Christ changed the water into wine … and His glory was seen.

God wants us to do all we can … up to the point where we can do no more … Then He will come with His help and He will transform things for us.

In saying that a line attributed to St Ignatius of Loyola comes to mind: Act as if everything depended on you. Trust as if everything depended on God.

Hope in God does not relieve us of our responsibility to do something to bring about the transformation and changes longed for.

We must engage ourselves to bring about the miracle we need right now.

It is the Lord’s way to do nothing without us.

I am always struck by the fact that in his Rule for Monks Saint Benedict has this notion of our doing our part up the limits of where we can go of ourselves before he would have us ask for God to intervene and do for us what we cannot achieve of ourselves.

We find this idea in what we call the Penal Code of the Rule of Saint Benedict: a section of the Rule which talks about bringing about reform where it is needed because things have gone wrong in the life of the community through the waywardness of its members.

Benedict sees the abbot doing all he can to bring about the needed change; the abbot is to use all his skill to ameliorate the situation.

It is only when he has done all he can do to make things better and can do no more that he is to turn to the Lord to ask the Lord to do for him what he sees he cannot do of himself. And for this he is to solicit the aid of all his brethren. The community are to unite their prayers to that of the abbot to bring about the required change in the wayward brother.

This illustrates what we have said about hope not being about relieving ourselves of our responsibility. Hope is not to be seen in terms of passing the buck on to God. It is not about trusting God to do everything for us, without some help from us along the way … To place our hope in God does not dispense us from engaging ourselves to do our bit!

We can’t just content ourselves to say in prayer: Dear Lord, the world is in a mess, the Church is in a mess and our Religious Congregation is in a mess … the whole thing is getting worse almost daily. We beg you make it better.

That would be a cop-out!

We have to do our bit!

The attitude I have just pointed out could be compared to that of a man who prays daily that he might win the lotto. Day after day he storms heaven: Lord, help me to win the lotto. I promise you I will do much good for others with the money I win if you help me come up with the right numbers. Lord, do your bit! And so the man prays week after week until finally there is a clap of thunder and the Lord is heard to reply: Of course, I will do my bit. You can count upon me for the right numbers. But you must first do your bit. Go out and buy a lottery ticket!

What might be the bit required of us right now?

The call is to do whatever the Lord tells us to.

What might that be?

Be humble

I am sure there is much we could say here, for I am sure there is much we could do. But it is perhaps less about doing what we might think we should be doing than it is about being what we are most certainly called to be: and that is humble servants … Yes, as Consecrated men and women we are called to be humble servants of the Church, humble servants in the Church, humble servants of all our brothers and sisters in humanity.

The prophet Micah tells us what is required of us when he states: He has told you what He wants, and this is all it is: to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.

In his Rule for Monks Benedict sees humility to be at the very heart of our calling as consecrated men and women.

I see humility and hope going together. For, humility and hope are two virtues which compliment and complete each other.

Those who are humble will dare to be men and women who hope.

Those who hope will dare to be men and women who are humble.

At the end of the day I believe that it is only humility which will give us the energy we need to work our way through and beyond the present crisis.

Fair enough, the Church has taken a real battering. As Religious within the Church, we have been subjected to harsh and sometimes unfair treatment from many quarters. Mind you, we have to recognise and admit that some of what we have experienced is explicable.

It is the result of people’s revolt at the injustices to which they were subjected at the hands of some members of our own Religious Institutes.

Nobody would disagree that as Church in Ireland, as Religious in the Church, we have been humiliated. But if I am honest with you, I would have to say that I am not entirely sure that we have learned real humility as yet

You see, if we were truly humble then nothing outside of ourselves could ever demean us or undo or diminish us ... and yet we feel painfully demeaned, undone and diminished.

I dare to say today that what is required of us right now is more than a little humility!

I firmly believe that what is required of us as Church in this land at this time is humility and what is required of us as Religious in the Church is precisely to pave the way here.

The renewal of the Church in Ireland and the renewal of Religious life in this land depend upon our growth in humility.

St Benedict’s vision for his spiritual sons and daughters is that they learn to walk through this world without arrogance.

When things were at their height, when Religious life apparently knew its heyday, we were preparing the present catastrophe because we really were quite an arrogant lot.

It had to fall apart.

The challenge for us today is to build from the shipwreck that is left many little life rafts … yes life rafts. Religious life will undoubtedly be smaller; what we need is that it be well and truly life-bearing!

We are no longer sailing merrily along in the comforts of a grand Luxury Liner like the Titanic. What many imagined was unsinkable has sunk!

This is no bad thing!

We need to get back to where all our founders began: we need to get back to the humility of our origins.

We all come from small beginnings, fragile little renewal movements. The foundation of new forms of consecrated life was always born in poverty. Our Orders and Congregations came about simply because one man or one woman or some small group of companions was endowed with a charism and had a vision in which they trusted. Their vision and inner conviction led them to dare to exercise great faith and to engage themselves in what often amounted to the absolute folly of love. Frequently they set out on their task which they knew to be God’s mission confided to them - hoping against all hope … striving to bring about a new start for the whole Church. Our founders’ lives were all rooted in fidelity to the gospel call to follow Jesus. These men and women saw themselves as humble servants who could only do one thing: whatever he told them.

In the optic of chapter 11 of the epistle to the Hebrews - a chapter that has been called the Hall of Faith - we could all think of our founders as great heroes of faith-filled hope.

Hebrews 11 opens with the question: What is faith? It goes on to reply: It is the confident assurance that something we want (and need) is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.

In opening this Talk I spoke of two French men, both Benedictine monks, who saw their mission as being to bear witness to hope: holy hope, God’s hope.

I would like to conclude by quoting another Frenchman - this time a layman, the poet Charles Péguy who wrote these beautiful lines On Hope which I find particularly touching and greatly encouraging … and so apt for us today.

Péguy is not afraid to put words into God’s mouth to say that hope - which could be regarded as the neglected little sister of faith and love - is well and truly one of the most needed things for life in this world:

The faith I love best, says God, is hope.

Faith itself doe not astonish me. It is not astonishing.

I am so resplendent in my creation,

In the sun and in the moon and in the stars,

In all my creatures on the face of the earth and on the face of the waters,

On the face of the mountain and of the plain

In the bread and wine

In the one who ploughs and in the one who sows

In the harvest and in the vintage

In the light and in the darkness

and in the human heart.

Love, says God, that does not astonish me. It is not astonishing.

One would need to have a heart of stone not to respond to another’s misfortunes,

not to love one another …

How could one withhold bread, daily bread, from the children whom my son loved so much

my son their brother who loved them with such great love?

But Hope, says God, that is what astonishes me. 

I, myself, find it astonishing

That my children see what happens and believe things will improve.

That is the most astonishing, the most marvellous gift.

And it astonishes me, myself, that my gift has such incredible strength

Since it first flowed in creation as it always will.

Faith sees what is.

Hope sees what will be.

Love loves what is.

Hope loves what has not yet been

And what will be in the future and in eternity.