Brother Paul saw me off, repeating his assurance that it had been an honour. On the road in the bright sunshine, I found myself envying him. But precisely what was it that I was envying? The warmth of the cocoon that surrounded him? His certainty? The joy that peeped out again as we shook hands? His faith itself? To some extent, of course, all of these, but there was something else: his courage. The truth is that I am unable to believe that when Christ said: 'My Kingdom is not of this world' he meant that it was. Among the fifty monks of Notre Dame d'Aiguebelle, it was possible to see, misty but unmistakeable, the point. The enclosing shell of the monastery becomes a symbol of what must be the ultimate truth not only of Christianity but of all religions: the Kingdom of Heaven is within. For the monks within the walls, for the rest of us, within the human heart, which has room enough for all the walls there are. We all carry within our hearts a Notre Dame d'Aiguebelle, ...
Comments
Good thing they were not playing any Johann-Joseph Fux!
I remember years ago seeing an advertising brochure for the Vancouver Symphony of their upcoming season. Writing about the Beethoven Ninth, they said :
"Beethoven wrote 9 Symphonies, 111 Piano Sonatas and 136 String Quartets"!
WOW! So much repertoire that I missed!
Cheers
David Cavlovic
One of my many eagle-eyed readers has just emailed me to point out I made the classic faux pas of awarding William Howard Schuman a second 'n' in my birthday post.