Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas

The man was so kind, so tendered-hearted that many would have regarded him as perilously indulgent … There was no one wild enough, wicked enough, violent enough, ungrateful enough to be beyond the range of Aelred’s forgiveness and forbearance and tender mercy. ₁

Thus does TM paint the portrait of the 12^th century Cistercian abbot, whose ministry of leadership and shepherding took the form of a kenotic, self-sacrificing love: “Ailred’s conception of an Abbot’s vocation was to spend himself entirely, pour himself out and give himself utterly to his community.” ₂ TM explains that Aelred understood “the terrifying truth that is at the heart of the priesthood, in so far as the priest is a shepherd,” namely, the priest is “’a man who is devoured.’’’₃ To emphasize this point, TM quotes Aelred’s own Pastoral Prayer [Oratio Pastoralis], which the Kentucky monk praises as “one of the most beautiful and profound meditations ever written”:

May my thoughts and my speech, leisure and labor, my acts and reflections, my prosperity and my adversity, my life and my death, my health and sickness and whatever else is mine: that I exist, that I live, that I feel, that I understand: let all be devoted to them and all be spent for them, for whom Thou Thyself didst not disdain to spend Thyself. ₄  

Regarding the extent of Aelred’s love, TM reflects: “It is hard for us to conceive how much St. Ailred loves his monks. True, there is something of this instinct in human nature itself and no inhumanity can wipe it out entirely.” The 20^th century Trappist continues, “But Ailred loved his monks with an affection that was altogether unique.” This affection was “something born of grace,” through which nature was “intensified, ennobled and perfected …” Therefore, this love was “at the same time supernatural and most perfectly human,” and it manifested in “an intensely human tenderness and warmth.” ₅

TM acknowledges, however, that some Rievaulx monks “did not hesitate to complain of Ailred’s kindness.” To such as these the Abbot would respond: “Brother … do not kill the soul for whom Christ died. Do not drive our glory out of this house! Remember that we too are pilgrims on this earth …” He would seal this fervent admonition with an affirmation of the unique character and mission of the Rievaulx abbey – “that she has learned more than all other monasteries to bear with the weak and to compassionate with other men’s needs.” ₆

TM identifies the source of the contemplative Abbot’s kindness in a depth and quality of seeing, of penetrative vision:  

Ailred saw the souls of those who came to Rievaulx, seeking salvation, in the tremendous light of God’s own mercy. His mystical union with the Holy Spirit had endowed him, as it were, with a higher interior sense which, enlightened by a supreme supernatural charity, apprehended all that these souls really meant to God, saw something of their value in His eyes, while other men could get no further than the outward accidents and peculiarities of human misery and imperfection. ₇

It was because of this quality of vision, TM explains, that Aelred saw that the “poor wayfarers” who sought refuge at Rievaulx “might well be lost in the world,” and therefore, he “could not refuse them the great gift” that the monastery, “the Mother of Mercy,” could give them. ₈

Endnotes

1. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, pages 310-311.  
2. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 320.  
3. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 320.  Professor O’Connell helpfully identifies the source of these quoted words as a life of the 19^th French priest, Antoine Chevrier (1825-1879). Father Chevrier, a “fervent admirer” of Francis of Assisi, was beautified by Pope John Paul II on the Feast of Saint Francis in Lyon, France in 1986. In his homily on that occasion, the Holy Father states: “Father Chevrier, a secular priest in an urban setting, was, with his confreres, the apostle of the poorest working-class neighborhoods in the suburbs of Lyon at the time when large-scale industry was being born. And it was this missionary concern that stimulated him to adopt a radically evangelical lifestyle and to seek holiness.” See Pope John Paul II, “Homélie du Pape Jean-Paul II,” Lyon, France, October 4, 1986 (Section 2): https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/homilies/1986/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19861004_beatificazione-lione-francia.html The following is a translation – via DeepL Translator – from Vie du Père Chevrier written by Jacques-Melchior Villefranche, from the chapter entitled, “Charité du Père Chevrier”: “The exercise of charity was the goal and the crowning achievement of all his other virtues. He frequently recalled that charity is the great commandment of the Lord (John XIII) and the mark of the true disciples of Jesus Christ: In hoc cognoscent omnes quia discipuli mei estis, si dilectionem habueritis ad invicem. ‘We must love one another,’ he said, ‘as the Lord has loved us, even to the point of making ourselves the servant of others’ (Luke XXII); even to the point of washing the feet of our brothers (John, XIII). Those who witnessed it will never forget how humbly and happily he repeated this touching ceremony of foot washing on Holy Thursday evening. It was easy to see that his soul was entirely given over to the advice of the Master. I have given you an example so that you may do as I have done: Exemplum dedi vobis, ut quemadmodum ego feci, ita et vos facialis (John, XIII). ‘Yes,’ he added, ‘we must love one another to the point of bearing the infirmities of others (Math., VI), their own sins (John, I); to the point of giving ourselves as food (John, VI); to the point of giving our lives for others (John, XV). And he ended with these admirable maxims: ‘We must become good bread; the priest is an eaten man! Christian for himself, priest for others.’” (Italics of the last sentences is mine. (Jacques-Melchior Villefranche, Vie du Père Chevrier: Fondateur de la Providence du Prado a Lyon. Lyon: Librairie Emmanuel Vitte, 1895, pages 393-394.) See also Professor’s O’Connell’s Note CVII in Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers, on page 364.
4. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 320. Latin: “Sensus meus [et] sermo meus, otium meum et occupatio mea, actus meus et cognitatio mea, prosperitas mea et aduersitas mea, mors mea et uita mea, sanitas [mea] et infirmitas mea, quidquid omnino sum, quod uiuo, quod sentio, quod discerno, totum impendatur illis et totum expendatur pro illis, pro quibus tu ipse non dedignabaris expendi.” (Aelred of Rievaulx, “Oratio Pastoralis,” Aelredi Rievallensis: Opera Omnia. Volume One: Opera Ascetica. Edited by A. Hoste and C. H. Talbot. Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 1. Turnhout: Brepols, 1971page 760, Section 7, lines 140-146.), Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/operaascetica0001aelr/page/760/mode/2up?view=theater Of Aelred’s prayer, scholar Katherine M. TePas writes: “Written during the final year of his life, it beautifully reveals Aelred’s own spirituality of mercy: a spirituality which blends his knowledge of Christ’s mercy with a desire to show merciful love toward his monks. The prayer illustrates a hope-filled humility, a self-forgetful desire to be with and for others, and a mercy which can create mutual love between those who initially had nothing in common.” (Katherine M. Tepas, “A Spirituality of Mercy: Aelred of Rievaulx,” The Merton Annual, Volume 6. Edited by George A. Kilcourse. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1994, page 129.)
5. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 321. A fuller quotation of TM’s words: “But Ailred loved his monks with an affection that was altogether unique. It was something born of grace. It transcended the natural order. And yet at the same time, it raised up all that was best in Ailred’s nature along with it, and so managed to be at the same time supernatural and most perfectly human. It was a love in which nature was not destroyed but intensified, ennobled and perfected by grace. And that is precisely what grace is meant to do. There is, therefore, an intensely human tenderness and warmth in Ailred’s affection for his community. (Ibid.)
6. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 331. Again, a fuller quotation of TM’s own words: “Brother … do not kill the soul for whom Christ died. Do not drive our glory out of this house! Remember that we too are pilgrims on this earth, as all our fathers were, and that this is the supreme and singular glory of Rievaulx, that she has learned more than all other monasteries to bear with the weak and compassionate with other men’s needs.” (Ibid.) Professor O’Connell very helpfully demonstrates that TM is here following Walter Daniel’s Life of Aelred: “’noli,’Alredus inquit, ‘noli, frater, occidere animam pro qua Christus mortuus est, noli effugare gloriam nostrum a domo ista, memento quia et nos peregrini sumus, sicut omnes patres nostri [1 Chronicles 24.15], et hec est suprema et singularis gloria domus Rieuall’ quod pre ceteris didicit tollerare infirmos et necessitatibus compati aliorum.” [“’Do not, brother, do not kill the soul for which Christ died, do not drive away our glory from this house. Remember that ‘we are sojourners as were all our fathers,’ and that it is the singular and supreme glory of the house of Rievaulx that above all else it teaches tolerance of the infirm and compassion with other in their necessities.” (Ibid. Note CXIX, page 365. See also Walter Daniel, The Life of Ailred of Rievaulx. Translated from the Latin with Introduction and Notes by the late Sir Maurice Powicke, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950/1978, page 37.) In Sir Maurice Powicke’s translation of this passage, the verbs “tollerare” and “compati” become nouns, “tolerance” and “compassion” respectively. In his rendering of the same passage, TM leaves them as verbs, “to bear with” and “to compassionate with.” And with regard to the latter, “compati,” TM might have been tempted to render it as “to be compassionate with,” in which case “compassionate” would be used as an adjective. But he chose to present “compassionate” as a verb.
7. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 331. The language that TM uses here, its focus on a unique quality of seeing – “apprehended all that these souls really meant to God, saw something of their value in His eyes” – seems to resonate with the language he uses in the description of his experience in Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in 1958, while watching all the people going about their daily lives: “Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts … the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes.” The experience that day elicited from TM a response of love: “I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people.” (Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, New York: Image, 1965, pages 155 and 153 respectively.)
8. Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 332. A fuller quotation of TW’s words: “Seeing, then, that these poor wayfarers might well be lost in the world, Ailred could not refuse them the great gift that Rievaulx could give them: that peace and protection and holiness without which they would never come to the vision of God. And Rievaulx became to all men the Mother of Mercy, the living symbol of the undying tenderness of God.” (Ibid.). TM here follows Walter Daniel in referring to the Rievaulx abbey as “the Mother of Mercy.” In this regard, it is interesting to note that, in his essay on Aelred, TM writes: “All Cistercian monasteries were dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.” (Thomas Merton, “St. Ailred of Rievaulx.” Cistercian Fathers and Forefathers: Essays and Conferences. Edited with an Introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Hyde Park, New York: New City Press, 2018, page 306.) In the same piece of writing, TM explains: “The Virgin Mother of God was very close to the first Cistercians. The Order was the first to have been dedicated entirely to her and from its very beginnings she seems to have presided over its spirit and its formation with an especially tender interest which bore fruit in a rich love and understanding of her in the theology of the Order, not to mention its mysticism and its legends.” (Ibid., 273). Aelred concludes a sermon for the Assumption of Saint Mary with these words: “Let us lift up our hearts therefore, brothers, to Our Lady, our Advocate. Let us reflect on how much hope we have in her. Just as she surpasses every creature in excellence, so also she is more merciful and kinder than any creature. Let us then confidently entreat her who can by her excellence assist us and by her mercy chooses to do so …” (“Sermon Twenty: For the Assumption of Saint Mary.” Aelred of Rievaulx, The Liturgical Sermons: The First Clairvaux Collection. Translated by Theodore Berkeley and M. Basil Pennington. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2001, page 288.) Latin: “Erigamus ergo, fratres, corda nostra ad hanc dominam nostram, advocatam nostram. Consideremus quantam spem possumus in illam habere. Sicut enim illa est excellentior omni creatura; sic misericordior et benignior. Secure ergo illam oremus, quae nobis succurrere potest per excellentiam, et vult per misericordiam …” (Beati Aelredi Rievallis Abbatis. Patrologia Latina. Volume 195. Edited by J. P. Migne. (Paris, 1855), column 316A. Online: https://books.google.com/books?id=2fMQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false )