[The following is taken from a longer work entitled: Lights in a benighted land by the same author.

When Heaven Touches Earth: A Dialogue Between Benedict and Wesley

by Jarel Robinson-Brown
||St Benedict and the Venerable John Wesley meet, on the grounds of Buckfast Abbey,
Devon. It is 1882 following the surrendering of the Abbey Community by Thomas Cromwell
to the King in 1539 the current Superior is Dom Thomas Duperou at whose invocation the
two Christian men meet. A year previous saw the opening of a Methodist Chapel on the site
and Dom Duperou is seeking the spiritual guidance of St Benedict in the formation of a new
Benedictine community, and Wesley accompanies Benedict as his heavenly guest of honour
a monk never travelling alone. After the community have finished singing Vespers, Benedict
and Wesley arrive they are greeted by Dom Duperou, and then left in the Chapter House
until Dom Duperous return from contemplative prayer in his cell, at which point Wesley will
depart and leave for Bristol to ride past the New Room one last time.||
The Brethren leave the Abbey Church, and the sound of the organs improvised voluntary
fades. The ancient abbey door creaks and, having just arrived, Benedict and Wesley enter,
gazing at the incensed sanctuary.
Wesley: My dear fellow, its so good to be with you! (the two exchange the kiss of peace, as if
for the first time).
Benedict: And you dear John, you are often in my heart Im so glad we could be together,
and see each other in this way!

Benedict is bare foot, wearing a long black habit, and a beard which is suitably patristic. Wesley
on the other hand, is small of stature reaching towards Benedicts breast height, dressed
simply in cassock, and buckled shoes he looks like a circuit rider. Despite differences in
stature, there is an equality about them.
Wesley: May I ask then? How is it with your heart?

Benedict: Ive had a bit longer than most to cultivate my wilderness within. My heart is well
grounded in God my rock, and my refuge.though it is strange being here, I think I prefer
eternity. It just seems.well, lighter in every sense.

Wesley: A rock and refuge indeedHe has stood the test of time for both you and II think
this was evident for the souls attracted to God by our rather unusual lives! And I agree, heaven
is a place worth waiting for.

Benedict: Yes! However, you couldnt stay in one place very long could you? Unlike me, I was
stable like a lighthouse in the seaand the world, and the church was spinning out of control
back then. How wonderful that our Blessed Lord has used us so fully.

Wesley: Sows ears into silk purses?!

Benedict: Something like that, a long an arduous process mind. Often people mistake my
monks and nuns as those who are seeking a quiet, sheltered life, locked away in a grand place
like this yet we are actually plunged into the world in a deeper more profound way. Its all
paradox.

Wesley: I pray, do tell me more

Benedict: Well, to spend a lifetime in silent contemplation and prayer, is to have the eye of the
soul opened up so wide and clear that it perceives all things as they are, not as they appear to
be. So to be a nun or a monk, and particularly a hermit, is to see as God sees and in seeing as

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 [The following is taken from a longer work entitled: Lights in a benighted land by the same author.]

God sees, we pray with Gods heart, and love with Gods love, and move as God moves.it is a
sort of mystic union with the almighty.

Wesley: I admit, this is something I have always found complex to fully get to grips with,
though I was both in the world, and out of it in my lifetime, if that makes sense.

Benedict: Complete sense, I tried that in Subiaco where Fr Romanus was my guide then I
tried living in community but my monks tried to poison me twice until I moved to Monte
Cassino and wrote my Rule. My sister came to all this much later than I, I left and became a
hermit at 19. Life is funny sometimes, but I sense you know what I mean. Simplicity was what I
wanted and longed for simplicity and order.

Wesley: Funnily enough, so did I and my family home gave the outward appearance of
simplicity, order and peacebut it was far from that in actual fact.

Benedict: If only youd seen the simplicity of the habits I had in mind for my little monastery in
Subiaco, and at Monte Cassino..all change over the years.

Wesley: Hmmm, I had simple lives in view for my own Bible-Moths.but they have grown so
large and affluent in far too many ways. I must confess, I rather like your advice for the Abbot
in your Rule for my own Presbyters.! What we both seem to want is simple apostolic identity
in our leaders, sound teaching and humility of characterand it all starts somewhere.

Benedict: We seem to have found one immediate benefit of the Divine Office there.

Wesley: Distraction?

Benedict: Well, John, you joke.but in a way. You of all people know what it means to be
lost.lost in wonder, love and praise! We cannot be anything other than sound, humble and
simplistic if our prayer life is rightit is all about right orientation.

Wesley: My heart is warmed to hear you speak those immortal words!

Benedict: Every line the Wesleys sang is firmly fixed in my heart they are sound, and solid.
Both of us have been changed from glory, into glory now.

Wesley: You are kind, Benedict. Perhaps its telling that your communities continue to pray
the psalms you encouraged them to use, but the Methodists seem a little inoculated against our
hymns, and with that, some of our theology.

Benedict: The Methodists, Id wondered what they were called now! The Spirit moves where it
wills, both you and I know that well. We have to leave as good a blueprint as we can for the
future, and then step away from itand just so you dont feel alone in this slippage of the
Methodists, there are some in the Benedictine family who would label Buckfast as
Benedictine-light!!

The two pause in momentary ponder.then the topic changes.

Wesley: Brother, what do you feel about the Holy Ghost?

Benedict: Well, fundamentally, I trust her completely. She, and she alone is the true Abbot or
Abbess of every monastery. She inspires, she guides, she protects.funny though it seems, I
dont think we would ever have new oblates or novices without her giving them the nudge they
need.

(Wesley is intrigued by Benedicts referral to the second person of the Trinity in the feminine,
but it doesnt alarm him enough to query it.)

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 [The following is taken from a longer work entitled: Lights in a benighted land by the same author.]

Wesley: A mini Aldersgate experience perhaps?

Benedict: Yes, Absolutely, John! Here, tell me something. What exactly was that for you?
People call it your conversion experience, but I suspect that have misinterpreted that entirely.

Wesley: Certainly not simply conversion. I believed in God, had hope in Christ Jesus and
understood my vocation prior to the 24th May that year. It was as though someone had poured
the most abundant and pure fuel on the flame that flickered quietly but powerfully within me.
We can all gaze at those precious wounds of Our Lord upon the cross, but at first we observe
what we understand as a general, universal sacrificean outpouring of that precious blood
upon the whole of humanity, a giving of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.to all. Its an entirely
different experience to gaze upon those glorious scars and wail in awe as you see your name
etched within them. That all that Christ had done on earth was for me, as I am with all my
frailty and sinmindblowing.

Benedict clears his throat, and takes Johns hand neither are awkward about this momentary
embrace.
Benedict: That is so moving, so raw. That feeling is precisely what made me give up riches to
seek God in silence and prayer and work. I do not believe there is anything quite like that
conviction.

Wesley: We are not worth near half of what God has wrought in us. It is a thing too wonderful
at times, and when I look back I cant quite believe just how much the Lord has done.

Benedict: That is the beauty of a life offered up to God in the service of Jesus Christ through
the power of the Spirit.

Wesley: The grip of that present moment.that moment of true oblation, is really other-
worldly. It is felt as one kneels as a layman before the Bishops weighty hands fall upon your
trembling head as he calls the Holy ghost down upon you out of heaven!

Benedict: I was an emotional wreck when I was ordained, both as a deacon and as a priest
like you, I was very young and the enormity of the task dawned upon me in that moment.

Wesley: It was as though heaven was actually there, in Christchurch Cathedral that day and it
was, I suppose. I can still smell the oil from my hands, and head oil of gladness!

Benedict: Quite. Never have the words suscipe me Domine been more heart-felt.

Wesley: Suscipe Me Domine?

Benedict: Uphold Me Lord.

Wesley: Who else can enable us to stand?

Benedict: Precisely. I think that suscipe me is the truth at the heart of all Christian discipleship
that total vulnerable security and dependence on Christ.

Wesley: The kind of upholding power that compelled me to commit to be more vile.to
preach outdoors, and even (if I might say this in your presence) led me to ordain presbyters for
America!

(The Methodist Chapel Bell Rings for Evening Prayer)

Benedict: Well, the first degree of humility is the fear of God, and obedience to his command.
If in the depths of your being, you felt your actions to be commanded by Our Lord and the

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 [The following is taken from a longer work entitled: Lights in a benighted land by the same author.]

Holy Ghost, well, I have nothing to add nor to take away. But in my ancient wisdom, (and I am
an old old man!) I wouldnt want us to end our conversation on this point of difference.

Wesley: Deep calls to deep, my friend. I can see in your eyes that our hearts and souls are in
some sweet communion. Of course, the whole purpose of our movements the monastic and
the Methodist is to root people into community that through life together they might have a
glimpse of glory and in some way, to bring renewal to the Church both liturgical and spiritual.

Benedict: Like your class meetings, Ive always thought a monastery a good place to prepare for
heaven you cant choose your monastic brethren, in the same way that you cant select who
dwells in eternity, thus in the same way that both you and I would never have been in the same
place on earth we are united in one Church, one fellowship, one joy in glory. This is why I
advise all to keep death constantly before their eyes, that they might live as people focussed on
the life of the world to come

Wesley: I sometimes wish my chapels had Heavens Gate written above the entrance. Sadly,
so many followers of Our Lord do not truly accept the supremacy of Christ.

Benedict: (Benedict grins beknowingly with the wisdom of the ages, and gazes at the floor in
deep thought) The same is said for the supremacy of Rome.! But to pick up on your point
that is a shame, because as we know so well, only accepting the supremacy of Our Lord into
their lives will save them.

Wesley: Exactly, Christ is not one option among many he is, as we know, the very essence of
God made flesh.

Benedict: The world seems so much more in need of that transforming Gospel. For only the
name, blood and cross of Christ can save.

Wesley: Too often it all seems to be falling apart. The world, and even the Church its as
though it has lost its way.

Benedict: Well, it has been through much worse, and its biggest mistake would be to believe
and behave as though God had abandoned it, then the Church is no longer the Church. Alas,
nearly time for Compline, John. We shall sing and pray together, that would be good. What
shall we sing? Maybe something of your dear brothers? I have always been enriched by his
sacred verse!

Wesley: Let me think Captain of Israels Host and Guide? I shall intone, if you lead with the
psalms and then we can continue antiphonally.

Benedict: Perfect, John, very perfect!

The abbey bell tolls. The two sit as to face eachother and take a moment in silent prayer,
before making the sign of the cross.
Wesley: + O God Come to our assistance.

Benedict: .O Lord make haste to help us.

W&B: (bowing) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever.
World without end.
Amen.

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[The following is taken from a longer work entitled: Lights in a benighted land by the same author.]

1. Captain of Israel's host and guide

of all who seek the land above,
beneath thy shadow we abide,
the cloud of thy protecting love;
our strength, thy grace; our rule, thy word;
our end, the glory of the Lord.
2. By thine unerring Spirit led,
we shall not in the desert stray;
we shall not full direction need,
nor miss our providential way;
as far from danger as from fear
while love, almighty love, is near.
3. We've no abiding city here,
but seek a city out of sight;
thither our steady course we steer,
aspiring to the plains of light:
Jerusalem the saints' abode,
whose founder is the living God. C.W.