BENEDICTINE REVISION

 

I recently received notice from the monks of Silverstream in Ireland that they are reissuing some books by an author I grew up on in college and my own novitiate.

DOM HUBERT van ZELLER was/is one of my favorite authors on prayer and spirituality.. He is a master of simple wisdom that is very challenging and deep. I highly recommend him.

Hubert van Zeller  was a Benedictine writer, sculptor, and (under the name Brother Choleric) cartoonist, noted for writing about human suffering from a Catholic perspective.

Born in British-controlled Egypt in 1905, he attended boarding school at Downside Abbey (Bath, Somerset,England) and entered the Benedictine novitiate  at the age of nineteen. 

At one point, he left the Benedictines to join a Carthusian monastery, hoping to experience a deeper and more intense understanding of his faith. He later returned to the Benedictines. 

Dom Hubert lived at St.Walburga's Abbey (as chaplain to nuns) in Colorado, USA and then the Little Sisters of the Poor house in Denver, Colorado in the 1970s-1983.

 A skilled writer and sculptor, Dom van Zeller's artwork can be seen in churches throughout Britain and the United States. Many of his written works focused on responses to suffering, including Suffering: The Catholic Answer and The Mystery of Suffering.  Afflicted with illness for much of his life, he maintained an optimistic worldview, which should be a comfort to anyone suffering.

 From The Mystery of Suffering: "The saints flinch as instinctively as others when the cross comes along, but they do not allow their flinching to upset their perspectives."

His 1966 autobiography, entitled One Foot in the Cradle, discusses his experiences serving in the monastery as well as his close friendship with Monsignor Ronald Knox, who would later dedicate one of his books to Dom Hubert. A deeply devout man, his sole possessions during his monastic life were a toothbrush and a typewriter. 

"All I can say is that had I been healthy all my life I would not have prayed [so well] or put myself in God's hands; and had I been better looking I would not have escaped situations which the more handsome of my friends got themselves involved in."

Under the name Brother Choleric, he created a series of cartoon books about the cloistered life of nuns and monks, beginning with Cracks in the Cloister (1954, Sheed & Ward, New York). Certainly one has to be living the monastic life to get all the nuances!

He was a friend of Ronald Knox and of Evelyn Waugh, who described Dom Hubert’s writings as “characterized by vitality and elegance.” (Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was an English writer. His most famous works include the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945). He is recognized as one of the great prose writers of the English language in the 20th century).

"Now, hope starts off by knowing that life is going to be difficult. It admits that, without grace, perfection is miles out of reach. It faces the idea of failure. It sees how there are bound to be disappointments and temptations all along the line. But it just goes right on trusting. A person who is strong in this kind of hope looks upon everything that comes along—even mistakes and serious failures—as being a chance not to be missed. From   Holiness: A Guide for Beginners

When discussing people's fear of death with Ronald Knox: "One clings, and I can't think why. You would have thought anyone would prefer heaven to fruit juice." (English Catholic priest, theologian and author, who, like Waugh converted to Catholicism from the Anglican Church).

Dom Hubert died in 1984. He was one of the most celebrated monks of his generation and his writings well deserve revival for the present generation in need of spiritual guidance. He wrote over 40 books.