Sister Luce Marie Dionne – Bells Above the Trees

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Sister Luce Marie Dionne – Bells Above the Trees

Bells of St. John's
I attended the Monastic Institute at St. John’s Monastery this past week.  There I experienced prayer and conferences on prayer.  Driving to the Monastery was inspirational as well because as one drives up the winding road, one sees the Monastery bells above the trees.   These bells call the monks to prayer on a daily and hourly basis.  They are essential to monastic life.  I remembered specifically this bell tower, as an architectural student. This time, years later, I experienced them, not in a textbook, but in real life.  As I drove, I thought about another metaphor.  The trees represent the wilderness;  the trees of our souls.   Marcel Breuer, the architect, placed the bells above the trees, not only to remind us of the Monastery behind, but also as a visual source of the mystery of what is behind the trees, the God of prayer.  We oftentimes see above trees structural towers, essential for life-giving-necessities for our earthly life, such as water, electricity, heat, air conditioning, cellphone communication, web connections, etc.  As we drive up the road, the Bells above the Trees are the heavenly towers leading us to prayer; a life-giving-necessity for the wilderness of our souls, as we journey toward our God.

Posted in Reflections, Uncategorized

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“Listen carefully, my child, to your master's precepts, and incline the ear of your heart. Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father's advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.”
–St. Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of Saint Benedict