We fall down and we get up again

Saint Paul's, Ventura, is sharing a moving slide show of Mount Calvary before and after the fire. You may watch it here.


Thanks to Diobytes of the Diocese of California for the link. And for this information:

The Diocese of Los Angeles has established two fire recovery funds, a General Fire Recovery Fund that will serve local clergy in assisting those displaced or severely affected by the fires, and a Mount Calvary Recovery Fund that will address the loss of the Mount Calvary Retreat House, the only Episcopal structure damaged in the fires. Contributions with checks earmarked for either of the funds may be sent to the Bishop's Office, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026.

According to The Episcopal News of the Diocese of Los Angeles, the Mount Calvary staff, let by its prior, the Rev. Nicholas Radelmiller OHC, is working with members of St. Mary's Retreat House and other facilities to reschedule individual and group retreats that must be relocated following the fire. The brothers welcome letters, cards, and financial contributions (which can be mailed directly to the Mount Calvary Fire Fund, P.O. Box 1296, Santa Barbara, CA 93102, or online through Facebook), but do not need books, clothes, artwork, other religious memorabilia, or assistance with recovery at this time.

Because I am a wicked, fallen man, I cannot refrain from noticing that the paintings of Our Lady and John the Evangelist flanking the entrance have been greatly tarted up from the sober, New Mexican retablo style originals I recall from the early 70s onward.
--the BB

Quien a Dios tiene nada le falta

On a whim - read: nudging of the Spirit - I clicked the video of Nada te turbe at Margaret's Leave It Lay and listened once again to this moving prayer from the bookmark of Teresa de Jesús.



Todo se pasa - all things pass
Dios no se muda - God does not change
Quien a Dios tiene nada le falta - who holds to God lacks nothing

As I listened the image of Mount Calvary in ashes arose and, you could predict this, the tears arose with it. I thought of the brothers cast out and thrown back on God alone.

Now is the time they must hold to the Holy Cross, the Tree of Life.

On my lap right now is my copy of the Order's breviary. It is a bit battered, having been used daily for many years (not lately, I do confess). I got it at Mount Calvary and used it there and at Incarnation Priory in Berkeley when praying with the brethren and mostly on my own. I used to pray the Office riding the RTD in Los Angeles to and from work and Diurnum at lunch on the campus of Occidental College (a few blocks from where I worked in Eagle Rock for Sparkletts Drinking Water). It shaped me forever.

Actually, it is the second copy as the first one was falling apart from daily use.

I think on the great wrought iron cross in the courtyard with its elegant filigree and symbols of the passion and the golden heart in the middle.

These are the antiphons of the feast of Father Founder:

On the Psalter

1. The Cross is our all-sufficient treasure, and his love our never-ending reward.
2. We are to look for the riches of God as we depend less on the riches of the world.
3. Holiness is the brightness of divine love; love must act as light mus shine and fire must burn.
4. Humility, obedience, love: this is the holiness without which we cannot see the Lord.
5. We are to be continually prasing God; we are practicing for the endless alleluias of the heavenly courts.

On the Magnificat at 1st Vespers

The ladder of the Cross is planted firmly within our house and angels pass up and down that stairway.

On the Benedictus

We cannot help others by giving them what is our own; we must impart to them the strength of Christ's Body, the fruits of the Spirit.

On the Psalter at Diurnum

We must rejoice in the holy Cross as the glory of the Christian name.

On the Magnificat at 2nd Vespers

Ask them to forgive me; tell them I forgive them. I want them to have joy; I will always intercede.

Another nudge? I just thought I should share these.

Prayer for the Order of the Holy Cross:
Lord Jesus Christ, in different ways you call your elect ones to follow you, yet you draw them all by the love of your saving Cross: Favorably accept your servants who have devoted themselves to you in the Order of the Holy Cross. Of your mercy grant that, as through fellowship in your sufferings they are made conformable to your death, so they may ever show forth you, their true life; who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Familiar words that I have prayed hundreds of times and now pray with love and an aching heart.

The Cross is our all-sufficient treasure, and his love our never-ending reward.

--the BB

Los alisos se fueron

One of the chief reasons I bought the condo pictured here (upstairs) was the magnificent mature alders the grew in front of it. This was back in spring of 2002. I felt as though I were living in a treehouse. I talked to the trees (it's something I do as I have bonded with trees since I was young) and I prayed with them. I offered prayer tobacco to them. I named my home Los Alisos (Spanish for The Alders).

In January 2003 management had them all cut to the ground and the roots pulled up.



I was crushed and my home was never the same again.

Learning something from Buddhism about impermanence, I realized that while the alders no longer manifested they had always been and would always be. And I had to nurture my inner alder tree, that which they had given me me.

So I mourned, burnt incense at each new cavity in the earth, offered more prayer tobacco, and let my inner tree grow stronger.

This is a post about Mount Calvary.

I acknowledge impermanence, I bow to necessity, I make space for the retreat within.


Updated with link to Mt Calvary
--the BB

One of my former homes destroyed - updated

A spiritual home, to be precise.

Mount Calvary Retreat House in Santa Barbara was my first real "home" in the world of Episcopalian and Anglican communities. The brothers of the Order of the Holy Cross accepted me as a fellow Catholic Christian and did not treat me, as so many did, as some hybrid "Baptipalian." I always felt at home at Mount Calvary, serene in the ridgetop beauty and prayerful atmosphere.

(Episcopal News, Los Angeles) -- The raging Montecito wildfire has destroyed historic Mount Calvary Retreat House, staff and Santa Barbara County officials have confirmed.

The resident brothers, members of the Order of the Holy Cross, and staff are safe following evacuation, said Nancy Bullock, program director for Mount Calvary, speaking by phone from All Saints by-the-Sea Church in Montecito.

Bullock said that All Saints is currently working to determine if any parishioners have lost homes in the blaze, which has claimed more than 100 residences across 2,500 acres. Bullock's husband, Jeff, is rector of the parish.

Bishop J. Jon Bruno, who is in close telephone contact with clergy leaders in the Santa Barbara area, asks the prayers of the diocesan community for all those affected by the fire. The bishop and staff of the Diocese of Los Angeles have pledged their support in assisting the coordination of fire recovery efforts. Checks, payable to the Treasurer of the Diocese and earmarked "Montecito Fire Recovery" may be sent to the Bishop's Office, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026.

Mount Calvary's prior, the Rev. Nicholas Radelmiller OHC, is leading the brothers and staff in assessing next steps of response to the fire damage.

Bullock said the brothers and staff at Mt. Calvary, were able to leave with some of the hilltop retreat house's valuable art treasures, as well as computer records, "but so much is lost."

I just read this and it will take a while to absorb it. People I love and have prayed for over decades are involved.

Nothing is permanent but sometimes it is hard to face that reality.

For all threatened and endangered by wildfires, for the Order of the Holy Cross, for those who will be in mourning, let us pray.

h/t to DioBytes, the online communications organ of the Episcopal Diocese of California (my canonical residence).

Update:
This is an aerial photo from the website of Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York (the mother house):


Collect for the feast of Father Founder, James Otis Sargent Huntington (November 25):

O loving God, by your grace your servant James Huntington gathered a community dedicated to love and discipline and devotion to the holy Cross of our Savior Jesus Christ: Send your blessing on all who proclaim Christ crucified, and move the hearts of many to look upon him and be saved; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

--the BB