5/012 A time of quietness

Our life, inside a monastery, might become really hectic. We are not many friars and people ask for the same kind of service we ought to provide; yet I believe we shall learn to say "no".

They keep saying that St.Francis lived always among people, who always was with the poor ones and those who were marginalized by the majority of the society. The reality was a bit different.

Francis was used to spend 200 days per year in retreat which makes only 165 days "for" the others. It means that he wanted to offer, not too much time, but a time that was of quality.

What can we offer to others if we spend less and less time with the One Who is the "quality" of our life? We need to receive in order to give.

The monastery where I live now is very big and we are only six friars; we host all different kind of people who want to spend some time in silence and living our life; we have lands to look after; I personally teach in some public schools and I am also in charge of the Franciscan Youth in our region. They are all necessaries commitments, yet our life should, well... must, not run like the world runs; we have different priorities and we do not calculate the benefits as the world does.

Consequently we have decided that, whatever work we are doing, we stop at five p.m. and everyone dedicates to personal prayer, reading or anything which create silence within ourselves.

I have my own hobby; I make candles. I make them in silence, alone in a workshop of the monastery, far from the telephone, from the door and I usually switch off the cell phone too.




I love this silent place; I love to hear my breathing, I love the smell of the melting wax; I like the slowness of my movements, I like to see things taking shapes. I like adding colours and always try different tonalities. I love to know that each candle is different from the others, unique. I like to know that candles need to be lighted and that they will melt again, I love to know my work is destinated to disappear again.

The candles I do there, in silence, in order to fullfill their meaning, pass by, they are against a world where everything is made to last as much as possible, a world where, ourselves too, want to live forever. Yet in order to fullfill our meaning, to give a sense to our lives, in order to really live forever, we do need to be like candles. There is Someone else who gives us our shape, we do not decide in which mold we are going to be forged, we do not decide our colour, we do not decide how long our wick will last. And everything we leave behind, when our wick is turned off, is something we leave for new candles to live their own life.

Shalom
br. Freddie