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That All May Be One... |
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Photos (top to bottom): Beams for the new chapel are lowered into place. Bertha displays the small shark caught near the abbey's shoreline. Photos by Sheryl Frances Chen, OCSO and Bertha Fox, BVM.
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Cistercian monks founded an abbey on the island of Tautra in the Trondheim Fjord in 1207, but left during the 16th-century Reformation. In 1999 the Dubuque Trappistines at Mississippi Abbey sent eight sisters to make a new foundation in Norway near the original monastery ruins: Tautra Mariakloster (TMK). Five farm buildings provide “temporary” quarters while the new monastery is being built. Last year Tautra MK asked Mississippi Abbey for an extra hand during the fall months. Since the Dubuque abbey couldn't spare anyone because of their “candy season,” they asked me if I could go because I know the sisters. I have taught chant at the abbey off and on since 1968, and visited Tautra in 2001. With a frequent flyer ticket in hand, I said “yes,” for according to our BVM Constitutions (16), “We are called to live in any part of the world where there is promise of furthering the mission of Jesus…” So I went to Norway , wondering whether I would actually be able to contribute and share in their life. I need not have worried. They just took me in, no questions asked. Nearly every ability I have was put to use. I was busy, blissfully tired at night, sang the Office in Norwegian, played for Mass, and treasured the times for private prayer and reflective reading. I made friends with the cats, went fishing, explored the island. I lived ecumenism in this nation where only five percent of the population is Catholic, yet both Lutherans and Catholics enthusiastically welcome and support the Trappistine foundation, for they all value contemplation, and want “their Cistercians” back on the island. Nearly every day people come to the sung Offices, and they sing (!), no matter what their religious background is. There was much to do besides praising God three hours a day in song and earning a living making soaps, creams, and candles. There were ordinary things common to all of us; extraordinary ones, such as purchasing furnishings for the new monastery, overseeing the building project and seeking donations; and unexpected things that happen when one begins to put down roots in a new culture. Preparation of the church music is especially challenging, for the sisters have gradually moved from singing everything in English to singing everything in Norwegian. There is no old music to adapt. They must compose new music or find some by non-Cistercians, notate it, devise an accompaniment, make and distribute copies, learn it and use it. Every week calls for some new music! I learned to appreciate this behind-the-scenes work as I became more involved. The seven weeks sped by. Thanks to technology, I sent a weekly report to my “list.” Excerpts from each report follow. Changes and omissions are noted by ellipses. Tuesday, October 11 The new monastery under construction leaves me speechless. Today I had a tour—walked on the concrete floors under the crosshatch of beautiful wooden…beams are all wood, no steel. Today I began singing quietly in the choir. …I've got another day to recuperate from jetlag, and then…will begin to earn my room and board. Monday, October 17 The fjord has flaunted a variety of moods from a wild wind and…rough waters with whitecaps and huge waves slamming into the shore, to today's sun…no breeze, and a glass-like surface on the water with sea-birds skimming the top, probably scooping up fish. The storm brought the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen—a complete arc with both ends resting on the surface of the fjord, visible from the hill in front of the chapel…We all stopped dead in our tracks on our way to dinner at noon. Saturday we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Fr. Anthony O'Brien's ordination…He's the chaplain here, a Trappist monk from Ireland …. I played the little Casio keyboard for the Mass…No one got uptight even when I accidentally hit the rhythm accompaniment button and suddenly drums, etc. blared out. Wednesday, October 26 What a change in the weather…. Toward the end of last week snow appeared on the mountains of Sweden (which I can see from my bedroom window)…Sunday we had such a heavy frost that it was still on the grass in mid-afternoon in the sunlight… The potato grower across the road…finished digging the last potato Saturday afternoon. Hurrah for him! That morning I watched him work. The tractor moves VERY slowly and quietly. The potatoes move up a belt and across an inspecting station where someone stands and looks at every potato, tosses out the bad ones along with stones and debris from the plants, and [then] allows the potatoes to move to a holding bin. … We've had lots of mushrooms that Hanne-Maria finds…She knows which ones are poisonous….there are so many mushroom hunters that on weekends there are official mushroom-identifiers on duty in centers where people can go to check on what they've found. Too many sick people eating poisonous mushrooms is not good for socialized medicine! The workmen (building the new monastery) arrive about 7 a.m. and work for twelve hours four days a week. Huge floodlights enable them to work day and night. Wednesday, November 2 Rosemary, the superior, has been in Italy for meeting of all abbots, abbesses, and superiors of Cistercian monasteries throughout the world. She returned last night. Her biggest news is that TMK has been moved up from being a foundation to being a simple priory, a first step on the way to becoming an abbey. This means that they can be somewhat independent of Mississippi Abbey, but not entirely: the Dubuque sisters still are responsible financially and personnel-wise….lots of jubilation because this means The Big Meeting approved of what they have done here, and urge them to continue. Two nights ago there was a huge display of northern lights that went on for hours and hours…Enormous shooting arcs and boomerang swatches of light in constant motion. This afternoon Hanne-Maria took me fishing on the fjord, and I caught a Big Codfish. Yes, I did. Really. I also lost a small one. But I caught one. She caught three. I was so excited! It was only about 20 meters deep where we were, but further out it is over 200 meters deep. We wore life jackets. Thursday, November 10 Today…the road crews put up the five-foot markers along our little road so that the snow plow can find the edges of the road once the snow begins. About ten days ago a small shark was caught near the shore here. Swimmers beware! (The sisters swim in the fjord.) The man who caught it gave it to us. Unfortunately it is not good for eating. (Or fortunately?) Monday, if the weather is good, four of us are going to Trondheim for business. The big drawing card is Friteks (Free-tex), a combination of all the second-hand stores you can imagine. Rosemary has furnished the current houses with things purchased there… She and the director of the store struck up a friendship… He is a devout Muslim who recognizes that she also is devout, and v.v. The days are definitely getting shorter. Tuesday the sun rose just as we began Lauds at 7:30. When Mass began at 8:10 the sky was plain again. This morning the sun rose just AFTER Lauds—about 8:00. The changes here go in 10 and 15 minute chunks of less light each morning and afternoon. Already the sun is low on the horizon at 2 p.m. Thursday, November 17 One of my tasks is doing the laundry three days a week…I also change the towels in all the buildings…work in the soap department a couple of mornings, sort and file liturgy things…and work in the library. Helping with the church music takes big chunks of time (organ, chant theory, modal harmonization). Monday, November 21 In just a week sunrise has moved from Lauds to Mass and now to after Mass—about 9:00. The sun does not get very far above the horizon. It sort of circles around. Fr. Anthony went to a meeting of the priests of the Trondheim diocese last week. All the priests were there—all five of them.…Just five for the entire diocese, which is one of the two most difficult in the world…because the people are scattered far and wide. Not a single priest is Norwegian. Saturday, November 26 Something maybe everyone will want to try is candlelight at breakfast! From 4 a.m. until Lauds at 7:30 we can pick up breakfast. No overhead lights except in the kitchen. At the table a candle is lit wherever someone is seated, and there's a nice small crackling fire in the little iron stove which heats the room. And silence, of course. I'm in bed before 9:00 p.m., and up between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m.—unbelievable, you think? But regular hours are restful! Time is passing so quickly….These days have been good in every way—enjoyable, deepening, stretching—with happy and sad events. The sisters have taken me into their community without any fuss, and with profound hospitality. They are simply amazing. Each one of them. Beginning a new foundation is an enormous undertaking, filled with challenges of every kind—spiritual personal, interpersonal, cultural, physical, psychological, financial, etc. But the people of Norway want them [sisters] to be here, and support them in every way they can, and the sisters back in Dubuque support them in every way they can. The entire Order is cheering them on. So I consider it a great privilege to have been here for nearly two months to do whatever I can/could to help the Cistercians become alive and well again on the island of Tautra after being absent more than 300 years. P.S., May 2005 On March 25 Tautra Mariakloster officially became a simple priory. Six sisters changed their stability from the USA to Norway , promising to live out their lives at the Tautra monastery, and be buried on this small island in the Trondheim fjord. This summer the sisters will move into their new monastery. The five original buildings will be used for visitors and retreatants. For more information about Tautra and Mississippi Abbey, visit their web sites: www.tautra.no; www.mississippiabbey.org. Nothing, however, can match the experience of living at TMK, nor is it possible to sufficiently thank them and my own BVMs for the opportunity to “further the mission of Jesus” in Norway —”that all may be one.” (John 17:21). About the author: Bertha Fox, BVM (Dolorose) is professor emerita in music from Clarke College, Dubuque; besides teaching music to the Trappistines outside Dubuque, she teaches at Roberta Kuhn Center, and is a BVM computer tutor.
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