By Mary Katherine Allman
“The waters of life run deep at Bonnevaux” says Episcopal priest and retired school chaplain The Rev’d Dr Mary Katherine Allman. Here she reflects on how life in a community which seeks to live contemplatively, close to nature and under the guidance of the Rule of St Benedict, brings inner healing and the blessings of kindness, patience and slowness to judge. Bonnevaux, the international retreat centre of the World Community for Christian Meditation, near Poitiers in France, has a residential community which Dr Allman joined in January 2019.
The bucket he used for the Blessing was an old battered plastic one, about waist high. It was filled with the Sacred Water made from biodynamic cow manure, composted in a most “scientific” manner. Added to this, was water taken directly from the water table just below the Abbaye de Bonnevaux near Poitiers in France. Of note is that this water is not just any water but, indeed, according to a local dowser, a very pure water which likely helped draw the earliest monks to this place, possibly in the 5th Century. Centuries of prayers said here have blessed this water. For good measure, Thomas, our resident French farmer, included in the mixture water which had been blessed by the spiritual teacher Amma.
We all took our turns stirring this potion respectfully and with good force in order to create the required energetic vortex in one direction, and equally as long the other way. The stirring, Thomas explained, was to create an image of the cosmos expanding and contracting. Thomas went first, followed by each of us in turn: Mia from Denmark, Lachlan from Scotland, Amandine from France, Jonathan from the US, Andres from Columbia, Heidi from Belgium and myself. I am also from the United States, and some 40 years older than most of the group.
Thomas had invited us to participate in a very unique manner of blessing of his land in a way created by Rudolf Steiner, and taught to Thomas by a local biodynamic goat farmer. This method of “blessing” creates a relationship between humans and the earth. The land, according to this method, will then know what is being asked of it by the people who will depend upon it for nourishment. This was a solemn and deeply felt moment for all of us. We each felt the privilege of participating with Thomas in the stirring that created these nourishing waters.
I cannot speak for the land, but I can acknowledge that those of us gathered there that day have been participating in a stirring of our own Sacred Waters through the encounter we are having with life here at Bonnevaux, a contemplative Christian community. We are living here in the spirit of The Rule of St Benedict, and the teachings of John Main and his student Laurence Freeman. The day I am speaking of illuminated my understanding of what it means to live contemplatively.
Thomas suggested we traverse and conduct the blessing of the land in pairs. Each of the dyads took a section of first his garden, then the area which is soon to be planted with the first trees of the Bonnevaux orchard. We walked the land, one carrying a small hand held bucket, the other using broom heads to immerse in the blessing waters and then spread with the throw of the arm to the farthest areas of the parcel of land.
With the garden blessed we then moved to the field beyond the stone wall, down the hill where the fruit trees will grow, covering the soon to be orchard. Our task complete we returned to the shed where Thomas and Amandine came to thank us. The profundity of the moment was not lost on any of us. We gathered quietly, open to the gentle words of gratitude which Thomas gave us, followed by a conversation about what to do with the Black Walnut Trees that lay at the edge of the vegetable garden.
The Black Walnut Tree is considered somewhat of a problem to farmers and gardeners as the tree emits through its roots a substance considered toxic to some species of plants and animals, particularly horses. Because Thomas had told us that indeed his plants do not grow as well in that area, Lachlan, the young Scotsman and I had reflected earlier on what to do about the Black Walnut Tree. With the question still unanswered Lachlan quietly leaned over to me and told a story of Dogen, the 13th Century Zen Master, speaking to his disciples about what to do with thoughts during meditation that one cannot control. Dogen taught, “because you cannot rid yourself of them, you must convert them”.
These wise words, so simple and prescriptive, stood in sharp contrast to my own thoughts, which were more harsh and less generous, about that questionable tree. “Take it out, cut it down,” I had said, thoughts much less contemplative by any measure. Dogen’s wisdom and Lachlan’s thoughtful reminder saved the tree, as we had earlier proceeded with bucket and brush to bless the tree without the others knowing it. Lachlan was hoping for a possible healing. As we now gathered at ritual’s end, we confessed our risky benevolence, (blessing questionable trees had not been part of our instructions). Thomas then wisely said that we would know the results of our decision by what the area around the tree produces in the coming year. I stood humbled by both sources of such unassuming, contemplative wisdom.
In the following days, I realised that the Walnut Tree had much more to teach me. On four days a week at Bonnevaux we gather as a community to read and reflect on the Rule of St Benedict. We seek to live in the spirit of the Rule of St Benedict. In our shared reflections we often find in his Rule another source of wisdom coming to us through the ages.
In the days following the Blessing of the Tree, we read together Chapter 28 of Benedict’s Rule which offers wise counsel to those who will lead a community. The Prioress or Abbot is advised that when dealing with individuals who having been reproved frequently and who still are not willing to amend their ways the procedure to be followed is that of a Wise Physician: “After applying compresses, the ointment of encouragement, the medicine of divine scripture”, then if their efforts continue to no avail, “let them apply an even better remedy. They and all the members should pray for them so that God who can do all things, may bring about the health of the sick one.”
And only then, after all interventions human and divine could the leader of a community even begin to consider the possibility of removing an individual entirely from the group. Benedict finally quotes Corinthians 5 and 7, concluding his remarks with Paul’s words, “let that one depart lest one diseased sheep infect the flock”. (1 Corinthians 7:15). Another humbling moment as I realised, against my brash inclinations to excise the tree, that we had indeed offered the Walnut Tree nothing less than “the ointment of encouragement”, the first step of intervention.
Living well together with others has required of me a deeper vision. Interiorly in meditation, I have discovered that even my very thoughts have been in need of conversion. Like the natural world that surrounds us at Bonnevaux, I have learned that we as humans may carry toxic substances of one kind or another with which we can easily infect one another. Living together contemplatively in community has required that I learn to be patient with my own and others’ imperfections and to be still and slow before my decisions and judgements of others.
Like the Black Walnut Tree, I’ve learned here at Bonnevaux that each of us is always in need of a little kindness and blessing. I find here a chance to open to the Spirit each day in spite of what I know is not yet fully fertile in myself. Living this way is to live with surprise and anticipation, as I do not know when or by whom or by what the Sacred Waters I am living in might one day be stirred in such a way that even the very “poison” rooted in my deepest self might be converted. The waters of life run deep here at Bonnevaux and like the land we are living on, and the people we are living with, this way of life has much to teach us.
‘The Blessing of the Black Walnut Tree’ was written before the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information about Bonnevaux please see: https://bonnevauxwccm.org/