Transcript of Abbot Clements’s Talk on Monday, January 27, 2003  

        There’s a kind of parallel between the parish project to go to Haiti and the people’s response and the Lord’s decision to come to mankind. The parish finally got the team to go to Haiti. Basically the first time we just went to look and see, what was there and we viewed the whole parish, which is about 25,000 square miles, so we had to go to the mountaintops, so we spent most of the time looking and seeing. But the second time it became evident that our presence was not only observed, but it was effective. All of a sudden the whole town of Thomazeau and the parish rose up in hope. They formulated a water commission that constituted about thirty people, men and women, elderly and younger. Other organizations began to take serious their obligations in trying to maintain their schools and so on. And they had no right to this. I mean we chose them independently of them. So the Lord has looked upon the human race and seen the mess it’s in and decided to save it. And He freely came.

        What’s the Lord offering us? We as a team what could we offer? We could offer money, talents and time and indeed these things are necessary to people to have good water and health and so on. But Jesus came to give us, as He says, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life." He came to give us this life. We don’t always reflect on this Life. God is fully alive. Not only is He fully alive, but He is filled with perfect joy and He didn’t need a martini to get there. And this is the life that Jesus is offering us. Besides, Jesus is the way. God has thought out our need thoroughly. And He is the answer. So the real issue for us is the question of conversion. We vow as monks to be always on conversion. The word "conversion" means to turn. So you turn towards Jesus. But, you know, it’s interesting that in the Rule there’s another phrase that’s used for this and it’s "conversatio morum." Which means to have a conversation about our relationship, our behaviors together. And so the second aspect is extremely important to this question. You know when two people get married they turn toward each other and they start a dialogue. And the quality of that dialogue determines the kind of bond that grows and becomes enriched and becomes fruitful and blossoms. You know I’ve been in the parish for four years and one of the things I was always amazed at is here’s these elderly couple having their 50^th , 60^th, 70^th Anniversary and all the children and grand children and how that love has really blossomed and become fruitful.