A visit to the Monastery, l'Abbayé Port du Salut

Ever since I first contemplated a time of sabbatical back in late 2009, I had thought of staying in a Trappist monastery somewhere. Well, during my vacation in France, from May 18-22, 2012, I had the privilege of staying at l’Abbayé Port du Salut, founded in the 13^th century.

Abbayé Port du Salut (Salvation Port - It's on the Mayenne river)

I was taken first to the refectoire, a small dining area where between 4 and 8 of us took our meals. I felt very much the anthropology student, trying to make sense of a new world as an outsider. For example, it was only after eating did I realize that the 2 women that appeared to be nuns, were indeed nuns, but also guests at the abbey, too, staying on a different floor of the hotellerie than where I was. 

The guest quarters (built sometime in the 1900s)

After a meal of several courses, I was taken by brother Alexandre, tall and lean with a grey goatee, to the guest area and my room which overlooks the courtyard and the main chapel. It’s fairly simple as rooms go, but not a far cry from many I’ve stayed in at SIL guesthouses. I have my own sink, but the toilet and showers are down the hall. 

I expected there to be more community with the monks, but they live and work in their cloister which is off-limits to guests, who also eat separately from the monks. But you do see the monks – one brings us the food. And there are others in the bookstore, reception. And you see them in action during the “offices” (worship time).

Across the river from the Abbey

There is, however, good fellowship with the other guests. Monasteries have the traditional function of welcoming guests and so there is a constant rotation of them. This also provides income. During my stay, there have been 3 nuns, at two or three couples, a group of priests here for day retreat, and at least 2 SDF (Sans-domicile-Fixe – homeless) for whom place is provided along with food. One said he had been on a pilgrimage all over Spain and Italy and knew all the monasteries. 

Sister Yvette was around the entire time I was. She is a nun in another town, working with 2 other nuns (at 70 she is the YOUNGEST of the three). They are living in an inner-city area among a whole host of internationals: Eastern Europe, Turkey, Former Soviet Union, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China, North Africa and Subsaharan Africa. Their ministry is to just be there among these people, helping where they can and showing love. She also served for 5 years in Cote d’Ivoire back in the early 70s. 

Soeur Yvette

We weren’t really supposed to talk much during mealtimes, so often we would sit in silence – and sometimes there was a recording playing with a monk somewhere reading the lives of the saints, or the rule of Saint Benedict, or something else,  but Yvette seemed to be the one to break the silence, especially after meals. She was interested in what was happening in Mali and others seemed to be as well. She also had a lot of genuine questions that seemed to come to mind about how we protestants did things: “You don’t have saints, do you? Well, I guess you probably have saintly people you just don’t call them that.” “Do you pray the psalms?” “Do you say the “Our Father”?” “What about Jehovah’s Witnesses? How do you consider them?”  

Chapel (l) and dining room, (door on far right)

Thankfully, Yvette took the effort to show me what to do in the services or else I would have been lost. She showed me where to find the sheets at the back of the chapel that I would need for the service and how to use the Psalter to find the Psalms, Old Testament and New Testament songs that we would be chanting.  

Worship times: If you’re going to come to a monastery for a personal retreat, this is what it is all about.  I originally set reminders on my phone so as not to miss all of them but realized they have a bell tower to remind you and are pretty vigorous about it. The daily services (offices) are:

• 4:30 a.m. Vigiles – have to say I never made it to one of these. It’s all well and good if you go to bed at 8 or 9 like the monks do.
• 7:15 a.m.  Laudes followed by Eucharist (Communion), though on Saturday and Sunday, this happens around 11 a.m
• 12:10 pm  - Sexte (followed by lunch)
•  6 pm Vespers
• 6:45 supper 
•  7:45 Compiles

I have to say that I really enjoyed the services once I figured out how they worked at least so that I was on target about 2/3 of the time with sitting, standing, finding the right song, and figuring out the unwritten bits to repeat in between songs, after prayers, etc. 

The monks – there are only 9 remaining – sit in the middle section of the church, half on the left and half facing them on the right. One of them on each side has a microphone. The far end of the chapel has a big altar and a crucifix, and a candle that must be 4 feet tall. It is the week after ascension, so the crucifix is draped in white linen, representing the resurrection and ascension. 

Altar and Crucifix, draped for Ascension 

The other participants sit in the rows at the near end of the church. There are half-a dozen guests staying in the monastery, except on Sunday when the place was full and on Monday when about 100 school-kids showed up for a tour. 

The Monk Alexandre who is also the guesthouse guy, usually leads out on the first of several psalms that are chanted. Their psalter has all of 150 psalms, retranslated to fit in a meter that can be  chanted. They are arranged in couplets so that one side of the chapel chants one couplet and the other side chants the other back and forth. It took me a while to realize that the lines are written with one syllable underlined. This indicates that everything before that is chanted high, and then at the underlining, you drop down, either going back up or further down before the end of the line.

There are usually 3 psalms, and the one old testament song and a new testament song – all chanted. At the end of each song, if you are not already standing, you stand and bow and sing “to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, from age to age, . .. AMEN.” (with a few variations). 

There seems to be a song that has to do with the liturgical year that is sung at every service, but just for a week or so.

And there is usually at least one scripture reading, followed by a long period of silence, which in an old stone chapel is REALLY quiet. And they don’t dilly around with a minute of silence like we do and then crank the music up before people can get around to any contemplation. This might go on 5-8 minutes. At times, you think they might have gone to sleep. Then things start up again winding down with the Lord’s prayer (sung) and more silence.

There was only ONE sermon and that was in the Sunday mass, but it is not as if the scripture is missing since all that you sing is straight scripture.  When there is prayer, it is much more structured than I like, with the monk leading out several short prayers like  “We pray for all those staying with us tonight” and the congregants repeating something like “Lord, hear our prayer”.

All in all, the rhythm of the services is nice, with plenty of time for reflection during the psalms and quiet times.  One can appreciate these men who have basically given their lives to praying and meditating on scripture 6 times a day, creating a sacred space in their communities.

I had a bit more connection than I might have had with this group because of the Abbe, Père Joseph who was a catholic missionary (Pere Blanc) in Mali from the 1971-1991 in dogon country. I found this out reading his bio before I emailed about staying here. He reminded me a lot of Rene Valette, for those who know him, a very kind grandfatherly man who took a lot of interest in everyone. He came around the first morning to chat about Mali, catch up on the situation there, and see how I was doing. And when he realized I was freezing, he brought me first his coat and then a sweater. And finally he asked me to speak to their chapter meeting on Monday evening, which was fun because I got to go back into the cloister and see the monks out of their public setting. They were quite interested in the work in Mali and also determined to pray for the situation there.

hydroelectric plant on the river next to the abbey

I hope the Abbey can sustain itself into the next generation and beyond. They have a lot of buildings dating back centuries, and only 9 monks remaining. Most are past the age they can do much real work, there are one or two Novices, who are not really all that young. The Abbey used to have a cheese making industry with their own cows and land. This was sold off 30 years ago (and still operates next door). They have a commanding position on the river and there is a dam and small hydroelectric plant operated  by the monastery. Guests provide some income. And there is a gift shop with books and items produced by other abbeys that they sell.

 The 4^th grade glass that came to tour the abbey and sit in on a service did not seem to really “get it”. When they time of silence came, it was obvious they had NO clue what to do with themselves. They were more respectful than a group of American kids might have been. I didn’t see any cellphone or texting, but there was plenty of whispering. At lunch that day, the other guests and I got into a conversation about the need for silence and contemplation, especially in our busy world of many distractions. Several said that they had had experience taking kids and getting them to have 2 minutes of silence. Then the next day 4. Then 6. Then 8. And that they liked it. Apparently people who are not religious at all, come here to get away from the noise. So maybe there is hope for this sort of place in the future.

En attendant, I will savor the memories of chanted psalms and quiet reflections but also look forward to worship next week somewhere with a guitar, drums, keyboard, maybe some clapping and hands raised.

out of the pressure cooker, steam to tears

 It's one month today since I came out of Mali and this makes the third country I have been in on my exile: Burkina Faso (working base), Thailand  (conference), and now France for two weeks of vacation.

The time in Mali was intense, the pressure always building, being responsible for and making decisions that would affect the lives of 100 people for months to come.

Our spiritual retreat was scheduled during the early days of the coup when we were still under curfew. I hope the catholic center is enjoying the grill we took out to their retreat center. We were never able to pick it up.

We eventually had a three-day mini retreat, without our speaker and childcare team. I decided to start out the sharing times as people were coming into it cold.  I began by sharing about my sabbatical in 2011, beginning with  the quote I had seen at Corrymeela in northern Ireland in 2010:

  "Do not feel totally, personally, irrevocably resonsible for everything...That's my job.        Love, God"

That was good head knowledge, but it was taking a while to sink in.

In telling about my sabbatical, I got to the part where God brought unexpected tears in healing for a bunch of hard things in previous years. As I cited them, the tears began again. I was thinking that this whole coup situation is another really hard thing.

And on another level, I was thinking, "I'm Monsieur le Directeur, I can't cry in front of everybody. What will the Malians think?  If I lose it, what will that do to everyone else?"  In retrospect, they were good tears and not a bad things for people to see even in or cross cultural context.

Just two days later, I was announcing our "strategic withdrawal" to the same group and this time my prayer was to get everything explained clearly (in French and without prep) and without crying . This time I did and felt God sustaining as he would so many times in the next 11 days.

And through all that time, god also brought times of encouragement coupled with sustaining and tears:

•  a song (Jonathan David Helser's "I have risen"
• a verse (Numbers 33:14 The LORD replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.”)
• through an eCard:

"You are the Lord's. You are in God's place at God's perfect time. Your days are in his hands and he holds your future. He has gifted you and placed his hand upon you to bless you and make you a blessing. The burden of your ministry is not yours to carry - as you rest, HE will work; as you abide, He will bring fruit; as you sow, he will give the increase. He is your shield and exceeding great reward." Roy Lessin

I got a lot of emails from folks saying they were praying. And the ones from form former directors who'd been there in the trenches in ivory coast with me always hit the spot but made it hard to see the screen for a while. (thanks, guys).
I think the tie with 9 years of unrest in Ivory Coast made it particularly hard. While I recognized that I have unique giftings in crisis management - apparemment je suis diplôme en gestion de crises ; I did not want to look down the long road ahead if it meant years of unraveling. I kept thinking, "I don't know if I can do it all over again," and at the same time, "for such a time as this."

When we came out a month ago, I  had a personal debrief and then a group debrief. Tears were had by all.

If you think about a pressure cooker, after you turn it off, all that steam eventually has to come out. And that's a good thing.

This morning my devotional took me to

Luke 6.21.MSG
"You're blessed when you've lost it all. God's kingdom is there for the finding. You're blessed when you're ravenously hungry. Then you're ready for the Messianic meal.  You're blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning."

Thanks, God, for tears and the promise of joy and land where one day there will be no more tears.

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