Transcript of Abbot Clement’s Talk on Thursday, June 2, 2005

When Fr. Conway gives his witness he starts off saying that by the age of 10 he had three fathers. As a young 10 year old he began to rebel about his life. He got into all kinds of trouble. Then the third set of parents decided to take him to Japan. While he was in Japan by the time he was 16 he was part of the Mafia of Japan. He was so bad that they had to chain him up and extradite him back to the United States with his family.

Things pretty much stayed the same for a while but his mother became a Catholic. One night he was restless and he picked up a book from Medjugorje and read it over night, and all of a sudden he began to have a thirst for the faith. He went to a Catholic church and wasn’t very well mannered just shouted out, "Catholic priest!" The priest was getting ready for Mass so he came and calmed him down and invited him to stay for Mass.

While he was at Mass he saw these women praying the rosary, which he now knew what it meant, because he didn’t know those words when he read the book. At the time of the Consecration of the Mass he suddenly had an insight about the mystery of God become man and come to redeem us. From then on he continued to pursue the grace and he became a priest. This is recent, he’s now going all over the United States giving talks.

What we see in this first of all, is that God is the only one that excels in charity. God is not dormant and inactive in the pursuit of the salvation of people. Secondly, we see that God anticipates and moves to move people to conversion. Third, we see that God’s love is what really conquers them.

So I’m thinking in terms of the retreat that this is an opportunity given to us by God to renew our lives. Not just us individually but as a community. God gives us this opportunity - anticipates the hope that we would be indeed, renewed. And renewal must be about the foundation of our charism. How much are we living the charism of the Benedictine, personally and communally?

So first and foremost, how do we really seek God? How much of that seeking a real pursuit so that we discover his love and are sustained and moved by his love? How are we growing in the capacity to really work and pray so that we please God?