Preface - 2008

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Lenten Poems - 2008

Preface

This year's retreat theme was "Benedictine Spirituality and the Modern World," led by Dr. Jonathan Linman. Jonathan is a former parish pastor and currently professor at General Theological Seminary in New York. Rev. Linman led an adult education forum at St. Francis a couple of years ago and was wonderful; one of our Retreat veterans took a course in Benedictine Spirituality taught by Professor Linman at General Theological Seminary last year and also reported that he was terrific. So the weekend began full of great promise.

Dr. Linman is Director of the Center for Christian Spirituality and Associate Professor at General Theological Seminary in New York City. An ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), he served for twelve years as pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the inner-city of Pittsburgh, and is currently a Pastoral Associate at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Central Park West in Manhattan. In the wider church, Prof. Linman is currently a member of the ELCA Church Council (that church’s national board of directors). His wife, Jennifer is an Episcopal priest serving at the Church of the Epiphany in Manhattan. Dr. Linman has an avid interest in the biblical, historical and theological foundations for Christian spirituality, the theory and practice of ministry, ecumenism, and extending the offerings and philosophy of the Center for Christian Spirituality to those thirsting for theological knowledge and spiritual connections beyond the seminary walls. A photo and academic bio may be found at General Theological Seminary web site.

Dr. Linman writes, the Rule of St. Benedict embodies a rich theology and practice of personal attentiveness in our every day living and hospitality to others that had a profound influence on the development of early Christian communities and has the potential to have equal influence on how we live in our world today. Applying the wisdom of the Benedictine tradition to contemporary issues in our personal lives and in the world around us, Rev. Linman led us in an exploration of the following themes:

Balancing silence and solitude with needs for and obligations to community
Obedience (listening to God’s word as manifest in our lives)
Humility as a life discipline and daily practice
Hospitality: Welcoming the stranger, embracing otherness and difference
Conversion: Applying a Benedictine perspective to find balance, health, wellness and reconciliation

Professor Linman explored how these themes appear in biblical material, are applied in the Rule of St. Benedict, and how we may reclaim them in our own lives.

For a collection of quotes from the meditations, click here. If you have quotes to add from your notes, please email them to me and I will include them.

For an overview of Trinity Conference Center, click here.

I hope you enjoy the poems. If you have thoughts or questions, please send me a note at mailto:ehapp@hpmd.com . If one or more speaks to you, I am honored. While on our web site, please take a look at the current issue of The Fairfield Review at http://www.fairfieldreview.org .

To read the poems with a commentary, click here. If you prefer to read the poems alone, please click here.

Ed Granger-Happ
March, 2008

Other Lenten poems are here:

Lent, 2007
Lent, 2006
Lent, 2005
Lent, 2004
Lent, 2003
Lent, 2002
Lent, 2001
Lent, 2000
Lent, 1999
Lent, 1998