11/14/07:
"Feast of All Norbertine Saints" - Bill Hyland
A religious order, particularly one as old as the Premonstratensians, is like a microcosm of the whole church. Just as the church has a small number of canonized saints recalled by name in the liturgical calendar, and has the great Festival of All Saints known and unknown on November 1st, so do religious orders like the Norbertines. Yesterday the Norbertines, and today here at SNC, we recall and celebrate the lives of all the holy women and men who have lived in the order, all in their varied ways and times and places. The posters around campus recall this by the photo of what remains of the mother house at Premontre, a tangible reminder of the Order’s past and origins. Most of the abbey was destroyed in the violence of war and revolution. That surviving gateway reminds us how, I think, how the heritage of the order can be a gateway for a very deep and beautiful spirituality. We are reminded of the presence of the saints among us in many ways. For instance, I am one of those strange people, perhaps some of you are like me, who take comfort in cemeteries, and find them to be at the same time places of calm and great spiritual power. I find it very meaningful and symbolic to see the resting places of past Norbertines each Sunday as I leave the abbey church, a tangible reminder of the reality of the communion of saints. On campus we are reminded of them in the names of buildings, in photographs and statues. Most of all, we are reminded of them through the wonderful anecdotes, ranging from the solemn to the very humorous, told about them by those who knew them, loved them, and learned from them. Such stories are the arteries which help keep alive the mystical body of Christ in this place, and are one of the primary ways that wisdom is passed down in religious communities, or in any community for that matter. In my life, such stories have played a crucial role in my own spirituality, and continue to do so even more as I get older.
Today as we sing and pray together, we will hear, in brief, stories of three followers of Norbert from the first decades of the Order, who are also publicly venerated in the Norbertine order as saints and blessed. The cover of your worship aid has a picture of one of them Herman Joseph, a great poet, mystical writer, and, something which always I find very endearing, a clock maker. And blessed Gertrude, a great friend of the poor, and a person who grew up never knowing her father, a soldier who died fighting in a far off crusade in the middle east while she was just a new born baby. Or St. Siard, a medieval abbot who loved the psalms and worked with his brothers in the fields. All three were nourished by sacred scripture, liturgical prayer, the spirituality of Augustine’s Rule, and the inspiration of the living embodiment of all these sources in the life and deeds of Norbert. All demonstrated a loving care for those they knew, both in their religious communities and the outside world. All evinced a deep compassion and solidarity with the poor and marginalized.
As we enter this time of prayer together, I invite you to look at the bookmark you were given as you entered the church today. You will see on one side six points or actions derived from the life and example of St. Norbert: 1) Listen to others and their points of view; 2) Be open to change; 3) Seek advice from wise and experienced people; 4) Be a peacemaker; 5) Teach and build up those around you by word and example & 6) Make quiet time for prayer, reading and reflection.
Over the next few minutes, I would ask you to reflect on one or more of these points. Think of a person, alive or passed on, Norbertine or someone else you have known well, who has tried to embody and put into practice these maxims, and be thankful to God for what a gift they have been in your life. Or, perhaps, think how you have tried to practice these points in your relationships with others, and how you can better do so in the future. As you reflect and pray silently for a few minutes, we will have playing the sublime liturgical chant Kyrie eleison, “Lord have mercy”, as an aid and reflection of the liturgical spirit which has nourished nine centuries of Norbertine saints, and a reminder of God’s mercy in our own lives.
