JUBILEE STUDY DAY 12 October 2024
This year we wanted our annual study day with oblates and friends to reflect the 400th Jubilee. So we were delighted when Dr Jacob Riyeff, who teaches at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, accepted our invitation to speak to us on the writings of Dame Gertrude More (1606-33), our principal foundress.
Jacob, who is himself a Benedictine oblate of Osage Deanery in Oklahoma, has already published an edition of Dame Gertrude’s poetry and other spiritual writings* and is currently working on her ‘Confessions’. His chosen title for today’s presentations:
‘A Serious Tending to Thee: Dame Gertrude More on Mortification and Contemplation’ gave us the programme for the day as well as encapsulating the maxim of Dame Gertrude’s mentor, Dom Augustine Baker (1575-1641) that the whole spiritual life may be summarized under two headings: ‘Prayer and Mortification’.
Mother Abbess welcomed the participants and said how appropriate it was that we should be holding this day on the feast of the monastic saint, Wilfrid of York.
The morning session focussed on ‘Mortification’ which was less depressing than it sounds! Just as there can be no resurrection without the Cross, so there can be no drawing closer to the Trinity in prayer without dying to ourselves, for ‘he who is always dying to himself is always beginning a new life in God; as Abbot Blosius wrote in his Spiritual Institute 2.V.1. The paschal dimension of mortification and its integral part with prayer were emphasised in the discussion after the talk. This session was ably chaired by oblate, Fr Chris Jackson.
Providentially, the list of those who have died on this day and whom we remember after Midday Office, included Dame Bridget More, blood sister of Dame Gertrude and first prioress of the monastery of our Lady of Good Hope, Paris which eventually became Colwich Abbey.
A simple buffet lunch in the monastic refectory was enjoyed by all and marked by animated conversation.
The afternoon session turned to Dame Gertrude’s approach to contemplative prayer. As in the morning talk, Jacob made skilful use of extracts from Dame Gertrude’s writings, so allowing her voice to be heard. Although very much of the seventeenth century, that voice can sound uncannily contemporary, as for example:
‘I will not trouble myself with them who are puffing and blowing, and thereby raising up the dust of multiplicity into their own and other’s eyes.’
(Confession 44)
While recognizing the benefits of the digital era in which we live, we talked about how such distracting ‘dust’ can result from unbridled use of the internet.
Jacob fielded the question session in the afternoon which again was wide-ranging and deep. The willingness of the speaker to share some personal experiences gave others confidence to do the same, while his enthusiasm for the subject was infectious.
The Study Day was bracketed by prayers composed by Dame Gertrude More herself and read by Stanbrook nuns. Both talks were punctuated by short times of silence for recollection enabling the participants to practice what was being preached – in a most ‘unpreachy’ manner.
Bev Hallam, oblate, offered a warm vote of thanks on behalf of all present.
Fittingly, Fr Chris Jackson concluded the day by reading a prayer attributed to St Benedict from a collection of prayers translated and compiled by Jacob.
Tea, home-made gingerbread and more conversation followed.
This Study Day was thoroughly enjoyable and enriching. It will surely encourage many of those who took part to read or re-read Dame Gertrude’s works while striving for simplicity of soul and loving attention to God.
From the House Chronicle
* Poems and Counsels on Prayer and Contemplation: Dame Gertrude More, edited with an introduction and notes by Jacob Riyeff, pub. Gracewing 2020.