What did you go out to the desert to see?
Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
In the novitiate, we became friends with the novices of another Trappist monastery in France. For the Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist, our Father Master asked me to do a drawing and write a letter to our brothers. So I did an icon drawing of the Baptist, with a mounted paper icon for them to hang in the novitiate, and my letter was simply, “What did you go out to the desert to see?” [Luke 7:24] I expected the novices would just sign their names and we would send it off.
Fr. Richard looked at it, then looked at me quizzically, blurting out, “Aren’t you going to write more?”
And I replied, “Isn’t that enough for monks?”
Father answered, shaking his head; “Oh br. Christian! We are not Carmelites! Each of the novices shall write their own messages then! Sheesh!”
I guess you had to be there. Merry St. John’s-mass!
June 24th, 2008 at 6:22 am
“Inter natos mulierum * non surrexit major Joanne Baptista.”
(Antiphonarum Canticum Tres Pueri, Laudes, Antiphonale Monasticum, Tomus III, Solesmes 2007.)
June 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Interesting.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Really, you think so Jeron? I posted it just because I thought it was dumb and funny.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
My Dad’s nameday; he was baptized Jean for “Jean-Baptiste”. He anglicized the spelling to “Gene”.