While we monks may not know the names of all the flora in our cloister garden, we hopefully know beauty when we see it. And isn’t that really the most important thing?
In our American culture we tend to prize the accumulation of knowledge over beholding innate beauty. However, Sacred Scripture, God’s Word, constantly calls us to pursue something which goes well beyond what might be called “book knowledge.” Wisdom is what we should be seeking.
The eminent French theologian, the late Olivier Clement (1921-2009) wrote these words, hopefully applicable here:
“Why is there all this beauty when the almond trees flower? A few flowers would be enough, a few small machines well designed for plant reproduction. But there is this gratuitous profusion, this immense light in the blue. And this earth, where we die, seems to open onto light” (from the book, “Taize: A Meaning to Life”, Page 5).
With a promise of our prayers and counting on yours,
Abbot Christian and the monks
