Gentle Reader:

I have decided to try my luck again with posting a blog on another site, this one my own. I have two blogs external to this one. Up From Bankruptcy!, whihc deals with some of the financial silliness I find myself in. And now there is The Protomonk, which will deal with my spiritual life and longings. I will still keep Dunmoose around, but only to keep up with my livejournal contacts. The recent ddos attack was just the last straw. I've been thinking of making another attempt at an independant blog for some time now. I've had the dboyko.com domain for over a year now. time to put it to some use.

Gentle Reader:

Ottawa has a new Archbishop now. He's been apopointed but does not get formally installed for another month. I am looking forward to his leadership. Here is a good article about it:

New Bishop of Ottawa Strengthens Stand on Catholics in Political Life

Gentle Reader:

As it turns out, this apartment does get direct sunlight. Only in the evenings and only in the summer months and primarily in the bedroom, but it does get direct natural light sometimes. The balcony doesn't, though. It has something to do with the six fiit high and 5 foot wide concrete slab between my balcony and the neighbour balcony. I'd still need plants that don't mind never seeing direct sunlight!

Oh, and St. Augustine was right: sin makes you stupid! And here's one for Some Dumb Blurt in Seattle: what may happen to people who abuse the 911 service. You and your coworkers might appreciate the story!

Gentle Reader:

I received the following email from the antique dealer that I won the Ciborium from. I asked her what she knew of the Ciborium's history. Here is what she told me:

Goodday Dustan,
It is become really a beauty and I am glad it is going to be used again. It is a great gift.
I can rather not tell you more about the provinance. I have bought it from a privat collector who bought it about 20 years ago just over the border in France ( the norht of France) by a dealer in antiques.
I think the chalice is around 1850, maybe older I am not sure. Maybe you can ask somebody who knows more about certain styles and decorations.
Good luck with the chalice and greetings from Holland.

I gave her the link to the picture I posted. Considering how badly it was tarnished, i don't think much of that "private collector". So it had been out of service for at least 20 years. In that case, I am very glad that I am restoring it to service after so long. As of very early this morning, it was in Lachine, Quebec, being prepared for export. Anticipated delivery date is the 15th, which is just in time for Ascension Day. Fr. Prior assures me that it will be put to good use at the abbey.

Gentle Reader:

The Ciborium arrived this afternoon. It was heavily tarnished. Here's the picture from the eBay listing. Believe me it was just as bad when I took it out of the box:
http://www.dboyko.info/images/9634_1.jpg

Here it is on my Prayer Corner:
http://www.dboyko.info/images/prayercorner03.jpg

Here it is standing by itself on my coffeetable:
http://www.dboyko.info/images/ciborium.jpg

It took an hour and a quarter of polishing, courtesy of some Silver Foam from a jewelry store chain here in Ottawa. It is quite beautiful now, as you can see. It will be there for a few months. I might make a donation in kind of it to Our Lady of the Desert next time I am donw in New Mexico. It would be great to see it restored to active service again. According to the antique dealer it came from, it is from France and dates from the 1850's. So it is a good 150 years old. Anyway, time to lie down.

Gentle Reader:

I have trimmed back some of the people on my friends list. Its been primarily people who hae not posted to their LJ's for weeks or mon ths. Just a bit of spring housecleaning.

Gentle Reader:

My sleep schedule is all messed up again. So I decided to make good use of it by continuing my long series of posts on why I am a Benedictine. There are still two more excerpts from the Rule that I would like to comment on and then I wilol be all done.

That Prior, however, shall perform respectfully
the duties enjoined on him by his Abbot
and do nothing against the Abbot's will or direction;
for the more he is raised above the rest,
the more carefully should he observe the precepts of the Rule.
Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 65

The principle here is that to whom much is given, much will be required. I will never be Abbot or Prior, and indeed may never be a monk. Nevertheless, I am both Christian and Benedictine. I am not sure if it "raises me above the rest". I am sure that it implies a certain standard of behaviour that is higher than for non benedictine non christians.

Let me illustrate. Because of my freakish physical appearance, I have had to put up with a lot of punks. The most obnoxious punk I ever had to deal with was not the most obnoxious for the amount of stupidity I had to put up with from him but from where that stupidity took place and what kind of person he purported to be.

In my first encounter with him, he made fun of what I looked like and the clothes I was wearing. I ignored him for a while then said "knock it off!" He flexed his muscles at me and said "make me!" In my second encounter with him, he deliberately tripped me. When I asked him why he did that, he just turned his punkie back on me. In my third encounter with him, he came into my dorm room and started grabbing and pinching me. I ordered him out the room repeatedly but he kept grabbing and pinching me. So I tried to bodily throw him out. He assumed a spreadeagle position. So I punched him repeatedly in the stomache. Again without a word, he turned his back on me and walked out of the room.

Taken at face value, that isn't much. I have put up with much worse over much longer periods of time. There are two things that made him the most obnoxious punk. First, this took place at Trinity Western University, an evangelical Christian university. Second, the culprit lead a Bible Study in his dorm. This isn't the sort of behaviour that one ordinarily expects from born again Christians who lead Bible studies.

That expectation is perfectly valid, perfectly Benedictine and perfectly biblical. It is what motivates me to higher Christian perfection. Thus, it is another reason why Benedictine spirituality fits me so well.

I am a long way from perfection. I am still very sinful. Saying so is politically incorrect, but it is true. But, I have a very great Redeemer and calling. It is that I try to honour as well. This passage from the Rule is one of the things that encourage me to keep struggling onwards.

Gentle Reader:

Once again, I am revising my Prayer List. I like to do that once in a while. I was wondering if anyone had any particular prayer requests you'd like me to pray about. All comments will be screened. I won't reply to the comments, as that will unscreen them. Nevertheless, be assured that they will be read and they will be added. If you are a reader and don't have a Livejournal account and would still like your request added, please leave your name with your request.

Gentle Reader:

It was a brown christmas here in Ottawa and only the third such Christmas I have ever experienced. The other two were when I was in Vancouver. Anyway, here was the view from outside my window this afternoon:
( Read more... )
This will be a busy year. Lots of potential upheaval. A long-anticipated deadline will finally pass. Lots of decisions can be made once the deadline passes. So my long waiting in neutral will soon be at an end.

Once he has been constituted,
let the Abbot always bear in mind
what a burden he has undertaken
and to whom he will have to give an account of his stewardship,
and let him know that his duty is rather to profit his brothers
than to preside over them.
he must therefore be learned in the divine law,
that he may have a treasure of knowledge
from which to bring forth new things and old.
he must be chaste, sober and merciful.
Let him exalt mercy above judgment,
that he himself may obtain mercy.
he should hate vices;
he should love the brotherhood.

In administering correction
he should act prudently and not go to excess,
lest in seeking too eagerly to scrape off the rust
he break the vessel.
Let him keep his own frailty ever before his eyes
and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken.
By this we do not mean that he should allow vices to grow;
on the contrary, as we have already said,
he should eradicate them prudently and with charity,
in the way which may seem best in each case.
Let him study rather to be loved than to be feared.

Let him not be excitable and worried,
nor exacting and headstrong,
nor jealous and over-suspicious;
for then he is never at rest.

In his commands let him be prudent and considerate;
and whether the work which he enjoins
concerns God or the world,
let him be discreet and moderate,
bearing in mind the discretion of holy Jacob, who said,
"If I cause my flocks to be overdriven,
they will all die in one day."
Taking this, then, and other examples of discretion,
the mother of virtues,
let him so temper all things
that the strong may have something to strive after,
and the weak may not fall back in dismay.

And especially let him keep this Rule in all its details,
so that after a good ministry
he may hear from the Lord what the good servant heard
who gave the fellow-servants wheat in due season:
"Indeed, I tell you, he will set that one over all his goods" (Matt.
24:27).
Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 64.

I will never be Abbot. Indeed, I may never be a monk. But I am called to follow the Rule of St. Benedict. That much is certain. But, there is nothing in what St. Benedict says the Abbot's qualities should be that cannot also apply to any christian. we will all have to give an account for our stewardship of our gifts. I cannot think of a single sentence in this chapter that cannot be a suitable set of standards for any christian. So, it fits me like a glove because it can fil all Christians like a glove.