I did promise to post pictures of my week long silent retreat at the Cistercian (Trappists) Monastery, New Clairvaux, in Northern California. I discovered this remote monastery last year when the New York Times featured an article about their Sacred Stones. These stones are originally from a Cistercian Monastery in Oliva, Spain. The chapter house of the monastery was dismantled by William Randolph Hearst in 1931 and brought to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park where they remained a pile of rubble for more than 60 years.  The monks were finally able to convince the City to relinquish the stones in order for them to become part of a Cistercian Monastery once more.

The Abbey of New Clairvaux was built in the 1950’s and is a modest place, save for the resurrected stones.  I stayed in one of less than a dozen rooms; each room is given a name – mine was kindness. Each morning the mass is celebrated in the modest church and throughout day and into the night guests are welcome to join the monks for liturgical prayer in the main church.

The monastery in Vina, California is located within an orchard of walnuts and prunes. A long straight farm road cuts through the walnut grove, bending along the Sacramento River and back around to the chapter house. The Guestmaster encouraged me to walk freely amongst the trees.

Some grapes are grown on the property and used for a wine bottled under the same name, New Clairveax. A winery is on site and tours are available.

There is a Chapel named for St. Celcelia and a meditation room, both open to visitors daily for private prayer. A library is available and filled with the spiritual writings of the saints, past and present. The kitchen is open all day, set meal times are posted and the monks provide a simple vegetarian meal at lunch and dinner.

This peaceful place provides all that is needed. “Communing with the Lord requires a measure of solitude, a stillness and emptiness, a waiting on and attending to the spirit.” wrote the Guestmaster. My week was mostly uneventful, but I did end up sitting on the concrete floor of the unfinished chapter house admiring the Spanish craftsmanship for a good long time. The stillness settles through the ancient ruins, the fruit of its restoration and the hope of its complete resurrection filled my heart.

In this quietness I recalled a famous French photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and his philosophy of the Decisive Moment. He said, “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.” This idea he attributed to Cardinal de Retz (1613-1679) who once wrote, “There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment and the masterpiece of good ruling is to know and seize this moment.” This too, I believe is the art of hearing the Lord and following it. Bresson argued that you cannot stage the photograph, it requires the intuition of knowing and waiting on the exact moment that form, light and motion come together in a second and one must be ready to capture it.

Just then I turned as the sun slipped from behind the clouds and for the briefest moment, lit up the wall of the monastery.

 

But as quickly as the shadows of light appeared, the sun dipped behind the mountains; stealing away that breathtaking moment witnessed only by me. And I captured it for you.

Hope you have a grace filled week.