AN INVITATION TO CONTRIBUTE TRIBUTES TO FRIENDS OF SHANTIVANAM


- WE REMEMBER THE MANY FRIENDS OF SHANTIVANAM WHO HAVE MOVED TO THE FURTHER SHORE -

please scroll down for earlier tributes


Natividade Filomena Rodrigues 5.07.31 - 12.04.2023 (oblate of Shantivanam since 1990)
Remembering my mother with love from Tina

Her favourite prayer:-

Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
All things are passing away
God never changes
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing
God alone suffices

 St. Teresa of Avila



TRIBUTE TO SISTER PASCALINE BY JUDY WALTER


IN HONOR OF SISTER PASCALINE COFF OSB

MAHASAMADHI DECEMBER 16, 2021 (age 94)


Go, our beloved mother and sister, our spiritual mentor and friend,

Go, in the freedom of the Spirit across the infinite space of that ONE HEART

You knew so well, and loved so profoundly in this life.

Treading lightly into death  just as you did in life,

On a pathway strewn with roses and thorns,

You walked with unswerving steps like an arrow flying to its mark.

We see you now radiant as the dawn,

Your life deeply dyed in the colors of the Lord,

Ekahridoyananda- you of the bliss of the ONE HEART.

We meet you between the dark and the light

Where the Eternal Flame of Love burns,

And where you now permanently abide.

The tears flowing from our eyes are not tears of sadness.

Each tear a kiss from the Divine affirming that you are alive.

The door of our hearts have been flung wide open

In an unhindered flow of communion.

We hear your gentle invitation:  come, come to the Source,

Come to the UNBORN, yourself unborn,

Come and taste the sweetness

Of this ONE SACRED HEART which I have found,

And from which there is no returning.

OM SHANTI, SHANTI, SHANTI


 

Tribute to Mother Yogeshwari from Ananda Kutir Ashrama Cape Town South Africa
 - Mahasamadhi 12th November 2021 (age 95)
by Steve Day

 My most abiding recollection is of her classes on Patanjali in the Puja Room some 30 years ago.
 
I remember her describing a birthday party which she found meaningless, so became a sincere seeker.
 
Then, she met Swamiji, in circumstances which fulfilled all the conditions of the first sutra, and so yoga took place.

 To explain, she used one of Swamiji's comparisons - a lighted match coming into contact with combustible material, resulting in flame.



IN MEMORY OF DANIEL PITTMAN (DEVANANDA)
PASSED AWAY 16TH DECEMBER 2018

Dear Friends in Shantivanam,

I am sorry to hear of Br Daniel’s passing. In the years in which I knew him, he gave so much to his family—his sister, father and mother, all of whom needed his care very much over the years. He was generous with his time, his actions, and his heart.
Brother Daniel was a very loving person, who was also a gifted artist. He was devoted to Father Bede and to Christ, and expressed his devotion in creative writing and images. Below is one of his drawings and also some writing which he shared with me in 2009.

The Underground River—the Silent Origin


Meister Eckhart speaks of God and the Divine Presence within and throughout our lives and all creation, as a great Underground River.  My own beloved teacher, Father Bede Griffiths, defined contemplation as Love in the dark.  In my own reflections of Contemplation, and what it means in my life to live or to be in a contemplative manner, I rely on both of these images. They sum up my perspective and attempts at practice as well as my usual daily experience.  Very, very often I find virtually no time for any sort of conventional, formal, contemplative practice.  Many days, if I am able to steal a few moments before bed to be still, center myself and connect to the Divine Presence,I am blessed. What I do very much always try to do, is love.
Even more importantly, I remember that I live in Love; whether it registers mentally or emotionally, I exist in a vast Sea of Love. There is a deep, dark, wide, silent current or "river" of Love and Presence, of Divine Life that moves through me always.  
It moves beneath all the moments of my day; through all my activities, my thoughts and moods, whatever they may be.  It is always silently flowing, always carrying me and everything away to the Sea of Divine Reality, to the Silent Origin.  I try to return to this simple awareness throughout the day.  Like all contemplatives, I have different tools that I use to do so; and often without any discernible tool, the rhythm of the day itself reminds me. For me, Contemplation is finding myself in that great Underground River, affirming its flow, allowing it to take me just where I am, and as I am. I try to remember that regardless of what is passing by in and as my life at any given moment, or in my thoughts or feelings, this River remains deep and true and wide in me; and all things lead unerringly back to the Sea of Divine Life.  I allow this River of Love to enfold my consciousness—yielding my awareness and attention, as far as I am able, to its silent movement in me.

With prayers for our brother and also his family in their loss,
Sister Judith Thackray

Blue Jay Ridge Hermitage,
South County, St Louis,
Missouri 63052


THE TOMB OF SISTER MARIE LOUISE 

AT THE ENTRANCE OF ANANDA ASHRAM WITH THE ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE OF SHANTIVANAM IN THE BACKGROUND

MAY SHE CONTINUE TO GUIDE ANANDA ASHRAM IN SPIRIT TOGETHER WITH FR JULES MONCHANIN, SWAMI ABHISHIKTANANDA AND FR. BEDE GRIFFITHS

SR MARIE LOUISE PASSED AWAY ON SUNDAY 12TH MARCH 2017 AT 08:45PM AT ANANDA ASHRAM  (PHOTO SHARED BY SR. SANJEEVANI)






SR PASCALINE SHARES SOME MEMORIES OF SR. PRISCILLA
DURING THEIR TIME AT OSAGE FOREST OF PEACE
SR. PRISCILLA PASSED AWAY ON SEPTEMBER 22ND 2016


Sr Priscilla loved Fr. Bede and attended him hand and foot whenever he arrived in the Forest. Early on in the Forest we had a small building to accommodate Father's lectures and had the building christened: "St. Bede's'.  Whenever he spoke Sr. Priscilla would stand in the doorway lest anyone needed anything, if they let her know.  Once when Fr. Amaldos had accompanied Fr. Bede to our Forest of Peace and Sr.Priscilla was waiting in the doorway to observe needs while listening, Fr.Bede realized he had left his glasses in his cabin.  But before Sr.Priscilla could start out toward Father's cabin, Fr. Amaldos sped past her and was back with Fr.Bede's glasses in no time! Now she is eternally with him, not just at the door but heart to heart.    

As a young Sister she was assigned serving the Fathers' in their special dining room. Some were our own Mass Celebrants, others were student seminarians on occasion. Fr. Joe so appreciated Sr.Priscilla's graciousness that at the time of his Ordination for Priesthood he made a gift of his Ordination bands to her and after joining the Navy as a chaplain he wrote to her about his tasks from "ship to ship" when he was pullied and swung from one ship to a 2nd one in order to distribute Holy Communion.  He treasured Sr. Priscilla's letters and she - his. 
Her l00th Birthday was Aug. 12, 2016 .  Fr. Joe, Fr.Bede and Sr's family were eagerly awaiting Sister's arrival when Jesus HImself brought her into his heavenly home on Sept. 22, 2016.

One heart sr. pascaline 





“You will never find rest until you discover your inner Montserrat!”

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)



Raimon Panikkar

Our Original Source

my personal tribute to

Raimon Panikkar

(Barcelona 3rd November 1918 – Tavertet 26th August 2010)

by ROLAND R. ROPERS  -  please click on pdf file below.

ORIGINAL SOURCE in memory of Raimon Panikkar.pdf ORIGINAL SOURCE in memory of Raimon Panikkar.pdf
Size : 9483.363 Kb
Type : pdf


Fr. Bruno Barnhart  osb Cam. (l931-20l5)       A wisdom whizzard with a Boiling Heart!


Arthur Paul Barnhart was born April l0th, l931 in Long Island, N.Y. and as his beloved community of Camaldolese monks described his passing - as "Fr. Bruno Barnhart" "he passed peacefully into the arms of Holy Wisdom on November 28, 20l5."  Indeed, Fr.Bruno was a wisdom whizzard with a boiling heart! , leaving behind for the rest of us among written books: The Future of Wisdom.  Fr. Bruno described the "attraction that we experience in the Eastern spiritual traditions today as the magnetism of wisdom: a knowing  which is life, inner experience and union".  And he saw this as that which drew his great friend and spiritual teacher at Shantivanam, Fr. Bede Griffiths - to India, and what Fr. Bede communicated to us in his talks and writings.


After Fr. Bede passed to the Other Shore on May 13, 1993, Fr. Bruno came annually to celebrate Fr.Bede's Mahasamadhi (anniversary of death day), at Osage Monastery Forest of Peace in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.  Fr. Bede had visited O+M some five times and was present for our first Eucharist celebrated on a canvas on the Forest floor with our small community of Benedictine Sisters and several temporary members.  He called O+M "the Shantivanam of the West" and said it was the most peaceful place he had ever been, always sharing some of his wisdom gifts with us.


Fr. Bruno would come each year to help us celebrate Fr. Bede's "Maha" which always included a wonderful sharing from Fr. Bruno on some aspect of Fr. Bede's wisdom writings.  We would invite neighbors and friends and a few of the pastors from surrounding Churches including our own Catholic pastor.  And from this "audience" there came forth interesting questions, the answers to which were much appreciated coming from Fr. Bruno.  This was the climax of the celebration which followed a meal for all present after an earlier afternoon trip to the new Hindu temple with a short input from our friend, Raj Ragavan on some aspect of Hindu wisdom.  


We usually prepared a large basket of food for the Hindu priest and his wife and after receiving a blessing we departed for O+M for supper and Fr. Bruno's input on holy Wisdom' wherein he would tell us in one way or another:


      "The event of Christ, through Baptismal initiation, has endowed us with a unitive divine light in which everything--the world, history, and our own being--can become newly transparent, that is, intelligible."                                                                                              (from: The Future of Wisdom)


Sr. Pascaline Coff, osb


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Father John Oliver passed away suddenly on the 4th July 2013. He was an Anglican priest, who founded the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative (CTII) in South Africa following the Parliament of World Religions which was held in Cape Town in 1999. Fr. John was a tireless supporter of interreligious harmony and was always ready to support initiatives promoting peace and dialogue among religions.

“One of my heroes, Fr Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk who lived for over half a century in India running a Hindu Christian Ashram, says that ‘the time has come to share one another’s spiritual riches’. And ‘the meeting has to take place, not with doctrines and arguments, but at the level of interior experience.’

It is my experience working in the CTII that real dialogue happens when we speak from the heart and share our common humanity.” 

Fr. John Oliver

 

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