arewell F Bren - Cistercian Monks of Tarrawarra Abbey

TARRAWARRA
T
Newsletter of the Cistercian Monks
Tarrawarra Abbey, YARRA GLEN, Victoria, 3775
Vol. 43 No. 1 July, 2011.
InsideThis
Issue:
Page 3
• Visitation
• Golden Jubilee
Page 4
• Diaconate &
Graduation
• “Of Gods &
Men”
Page 5
• Farm News
• MFP
Page 6
• Sr Kevin
• Br Bernard
Page 8
• Homily
Contact Us:
Telephone: (03) 9730 1306
Fax: (03) 9730 1749
e-mail: Tarrawarra.Abbey@bigpond.com
Web: www.cistercian.org.au
Farewell Bren
Br Brendan with his sisters Bernadette and Mary
Our Brother Brendan Gaynor died peace- was a beautiful death. I would like a death
fully in our infirmary on 16 April, eigh- like that”. He had undergone surgery and
teen months after being diagnosed with a received the whole range of treatments
terminal brain tumour. The community, his but to no avail. Brendan was present at the
sisters Mary Harper and Bernadette Kear- deathbed of his ninety-five year old mothney,
and brother-in-law Chris, surrounded er, Irene, a fortnight earlier. Her funeral in
him with prayer during the last hour of his Bacchus Marsh was also an opportunity
life. One of the community said later: “That for him to say goodbye to the many rela-
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2
FarewellBren (continued from page 1)
tives and friends who attended. After
that, he seemed to have permission
to relinquish the long struggle
and follow. He was sixty. A friend
who was at Irene’s Requiem wrote
after Brendan’s death: “I hold a
wonderful memory of my last embrace
at his mother’s funeral when
he seemed so full of joy”. His funeral
Mass and burial in our community
cemetery on 20 April was
attended by over 300, drawn from a
large extended family, his personal
friends, the cattle confraternity, and
the many faithful friends of Tarrawarra.
We thank them all for their
prayerful and loving support of
Bren and us, his monastic brethren.
Brendan was born at Bacchus Marsh
on 18 November 1950, the son of
Tom and Irene (nee Egan) Gaynor.
He had only two siblings, Mary and
Bernadette. But there was a large
extended family, his mother Irene,
for instance, at her death was the last
of seventy-four first cousins. Was
there any Victorian Catholic family,
priest or religious he wasn’t related
to? The Gaynor family were dairy
farmers, a background to Brendan’s
widely appreciated farming expertise.
He joined the Carmelite Friars
at the age of seventeen, spending
three years with them. The Spirit,
however, seemed to be leading him
along a different way. When he was
discerning a Cistercian vocation
he wrote: “My Carmelite vocation
still means a lot to me and it seems
wrong to consider changing. I suppose
I have taken my vocation reasonably
seriously and all my ideals
and approach to life have become
Carmelite. Perhaps one of the strongest
things linking me to the Order
are the Carmelites that make
up the Order. I have grown
very close to them and have formed
some very wonderful friends among
them. So, you can probably imagine
the doubt that comes to me when I
am tempted to leave the Order for
another. And yet, I don’t think this is
my vocation. Basically, I think that
God wants me to serve him and his
People as a contemplative. It seems
to me that the hidden, simple life of
prayer, penance and poverty is more
my way of living out the Gospel. I
think it is this idea of simplicity in
serving God which attracts me most
towards your Order. Naturally, I
realise that even at Tarrawarra it is
not ‘simple’ to serve God but you
probably know what I mean”. Some
of his Carmelite friends from those
days joined us at his Mass and burial.
Brendan entered the Tarrawarra
community on 28 July 1970. He
received the Cistercian habit on 5
September that year. His first profession
as a monk on 16 September
1972 was followed by solemn monastic
profession on 8 December
1975. During those years he studied
in the community and developed a
love for early monastic literature.
He found his year of studies at St.
John’s University, Collegeville, in
the United States, an enriching experience.
The visit to the Holy Land
which was part of that course, together
with travel to Cistercian and
Benedictine monasteries in various
parts of the world, including Africa,
further rooted him in these traditions
he cherished. He would later
teach some segments of the monastic
spirituality course to more
junior members of the Tarrawarra
community. Feedback from his students
revealed their appreciation of
his knack of leading them to enjoy
those studies and to continue to
want to explore for themselves.
Brendan contributed to the life of
the community in other ways also.
At various stages he was on the Abbot’s
Council, the Finance Com-
mittee, the Liturgy Group. On the
finance side of things, he met regularly
with the members of our invaluable
lay Tarrawarra Advisory
Group. The farm, both dairy and
beef, claimed an enormous amount
of his working life. He has left a
spoken and lived testimony that
monastic work is not a necessary
evil but an integral part of our spirituality.
He was what is referred to in
twelfth century Cistercian literature
as “a lover of the place”.
The Yarra Valley and the Tarrawarra
property had a special claim on his
heart. His love for the place was not
merely romantic. He was committed
to practical care for the property
and the stock. He built on the great
work of those who laid the foundations
in the early decades. The pastures,
the tree plantations, and the
much sought after cattle that had
been so carefully bred, all speak
of his dedication. He had an amazing
knowledge of each beast and
its bloodlines. The cattle industry
recognised his expertise and demonstrated
this when he was taken to
Tasmania to judge in an Agricultural
Show, and was involved in many
Charolais events.
Over the years he struggled with
prolonged periods of both floods
and droughts. The most devastating
and traumatic challenge he had
to face was the bushfire of Black
Saturday 2009. It was the farm that
was impacted that day. The loss of
pastures, plantations, and fencing
was bad enough. But Bren’s greatest
trauma was to witness the suffering
of the sixty-three beautiful
heifers that had been burnt and had
to be put down. In the months that
followed his courage and endless
work to restore what had been destroyed
was incredible. This was a
very unromantic revelation of what
it meant to be “a lover of the place”.
May he enjoy the fullness of God’s
life and love.

Visitation
Fr Carthage and Dom Richard
Golden
Jubilee of
Profession
Br. John Pocock sits very
lightly to life in this
world, issuing frequent predictions
of his possible demise
at any moment. He is
a perfect embodiment of St.
Benedict’s injunction: “Day
by day remind yourself that
you are going to die”. Despite
cautions against presumption
up to the very day, we had the joy of
celebrating on 3 May, at altar and table, his Golden
Jubilee of Profession as a Cistercian monk. Three
of his brothers, Jack, Bob and Gerry, and sister-inlaw,
Carmel, participated in this joyful occasion.
Fr. Bob jetted over from the Geraldton diocese of
West Australia and concelebrated at the Mass. Bob
himself, notching up another birthday, became the
excuse for another family celebration a few days
later. Then our Sunday Mass crowd turned on a
Dom Richard Purcell, Abbot of our motherhouse,
Roscrea, conducted the Regular Visitation of
Tarrawarra during March. It was his first time at Tarrawarra
as he was elected Abbot as recently as 2009.
He has a lot on his plate and we appreciated the time
and attention he gave us. It was an excellent Visitation.
We had the feeling that he was very much at
home here too and enjoyed being on the other side of
the planet for a while. We introduced him to some of
the local birds and animals at the Healesville Wildlife
Sanctuary. We look forward to having him back in
late 2012 to preside at the election of the next Abbot
of Tarrawarra. Thank you, Richard.
Br John and his family members
cake and “For he’s a jolly good fellow” at the cuppa
for their favourite bushy-bearded Guestmaster (read
“John”). Finally, the Brothers Pocock had a day excursion
to the Bendigo area to immerse themselves
in the nostalgia of their long ago in Eaglehawk and
Maiden Gully. There are those who predict that John
will live to get “a telegram from the Queen” for his
hundredth birthday! (Yes, poor Prince Charles will
still be waiting in the wings!). Anyhow, we are
quietly confident. Many blessings for the years
ahead, John.
3

Brothers Samuel and Joseph
Chua have had an eventful
May. On 14 of the month they were
ordained to the diaconate by Bishop
Leslie Tomlinson as a step on the
way to priesthood towards the end
of this year. Fr. Binh Le acted as the
competent Master of Ceremonies
who ensured that everything and
everyone necessary was on hand
at the proper moment. The seminary
loaned us the servers: Benneth
Osuagwu, Patrick Bradford,
Marcus Goulding, Michael Kong,
and Christopher Handley (the latter
from the cathedral). Baltazar
Kurowski was the organist, as he
was for some of our ceremonies at
Holy Week and Easter. The bishop’s
homily given on that occasion is to
be found elsewhere in this issue of
the Newsletter.
A week later they were in Sydney
for their graduation ceremonies.
They had studied by correspondence
through Sydney’s Broken
Bay Institute. Joseph gained a Master
of Divinity; Samuel a Bachelor
of Theology. Both excelled. Samuel
was presented with the Dianne Fee-
“Of
Gods
and
Men”
Have you seen the film “Of Gods
and Men”? We highly recommend
it, as have many reviews. You
may be lucky to trace it to a theatre
that shows more serious films or
eventually get it on DVD. It is about
the seven Cistercian monks who
were abducted and then assassinated
in Algeria in 1996.
It is extremely well done and
4
Diaconate Ordination & Graduation
Br Samuel and Br Joseph with their supporters during the graduation
ney Memorial Prize as the candidate
who gained the highest grades
in the Bachelor of Theology category
at the 2011 Sydney College
of Divinity graduation. This award
honours the life and work of the
noted anthropologist and missiologist,
Dianne Feeney, who contributed
much to the life of the Sydney
College of Divinity until her death
in New Guinea in 1985. Joseph won
the Walker, Neville, Brown Award
for Outstanding Academic Achieve-
has won awards. Anne Thurston, in
a splendid article entitled “The Eucharist:
Passion for Life - a reflection
on ‘Of Gods and Men’” in this
year’s May edition of the magazine
The Furrow writes that as cinematic
art it is “beautiful and austere in its
setting and the acting is superb such
that one completely hands over
one’s trust: these are the monks; this
ment. This honours the vision of
Fathers David Walker (now Bishop
of Broken Bay), Neil Brown, and
Peter Neville for providing Catholic
distance adult theological education
for the People of God in responding
to the call of the Second Vatican
Council. He also took out the Award
for Outstanding Achievement in
Spirituality. It was the first time that
these two awards had been won by
the same student.
is their life”. The actors studied the
lives of the monks they portrayed
but, she observes, “The power also
comes from the fact that the intention
of the film is to show the humanity
of the monks; there is no religious
agenda. Yet despite, or more
likely because of this, the Gospel is
more effectively preached through
this emphasis on the lives of these
men explored to their depths”. She
is also spot on when she says: “The
focus on the lives of the monks rather
than on the manner of their death
seemed so right: their monastic life
interprets their decision to remain…
revealed as graced folly”. Do jump
at any opportunity that comes your
way to see it. You won’t regret it.

Farm News
With many other parts of “the driest continent on
earth” we have to say that this has been a return to
the Wet. Even before cyclone Yasi brought a widespread
deluge, Tarrawarra had experienced good rains. Peter has
kept track of the story as it accumulated in the rain gauge.
Bernard and Hausia rejoiced in the great growth and the
abundant hay season. This was probably the only summer
since we acquired the property in 1954 that the green of the
countryside was never scorched to brown. There has been
a price, however, for the filling of the dams and sheds. Is it
five, six or seven times that parts of the river flats have been
flooded? But we are endeavouring to hold our tongues and
not confuse God as to what is best for the farm. One amusing
summer incident was a day on which Br. Celsus shoved
his foot into his gumboot, realised that there was something
in it, gave it a shake, and out fell a blue-tongue lizard!
Fr. Steele Hartmann, our current
Novice Master, participated
in the Monastic Formators’
Programme in Rome and Assisi
for the three months mid-March to
mid-June. The group of fourteen
women and sixteen men hailed
from all continents and a range of
countries. Familiarity with English
was the necessary common thread.
Fifteen were Benedictines, fourteen
Cistercians, and one an Anglican
Monastic Formators’ Programme
Benedictine of the Holy Cross. The
lecturers succeeded each other in
providing input of roughly a week’s
duration. They included experts in
their fields such as the Benedictines
Sr. Aquinata Bockmann and Fr. Columba
Stewart, and Cistercians Dom
Bernardo Bonowitz and our own Fr.
Michael Casey. The subjects ranged
over monastic history and values,
the Rule of St. Benedict, scripture
and liturgy, human development in
formation, and spiritual accompaniment
in the monastic context. The
daily timetable was full, with five
fifty minute lectures each weekday
and three on Saturday. A monastic
rhythm of prayer was also maintained.
There were pilgrimages,
especially to monastic sites such as
St. Benedict’s Subiaco and Monte
Cassino, to Cistercian Casamari
and to the hermits of Camaldoli, to
the basilicas of Rome, to the catacombs,
and of course, the opportunities
offered by Franciscan Assisi.
Holy Week and Easter in Rome
opened opportunities for attendance
at papal ceremonies. The MFP
group also celebrated a Mass at the
tomb of St. Peter. Obviously this
was an enriching experience which
included the international monastic
friendships it included. The Abbot
is deeply grateful to the
course organizers for Steele’s
eleventh hour inclusion.
5

6
Sr Kevin O’Farrell
Sr Kevin O’Farrell,
a Cistercian Nun for 69 years
at Glencairn Abbey in Ireland and
a sister of Tarrawarra’s first abbot,
Dom Kevin, died on 28 November
last. Many of us knew her and
we fully endorse what was written
of her when she died: “Her
gentleness, accessibility, kindness
and compassion endeared her to
all in the community and during
the last few years of her life,
when she was confined largely to
her room, she warmly welcomed
all who came to her to confide
their difficulties, request prayers or have a chat”.
Monks or friends of Tarrawarra who made the pilgrimage
to Glencairn received the “hundred thousand
welcomes” pressed down and overflowing.
She was a dead-ringer for Dom Kevin down to their
Br Bernard’s visit in 2005
Sr Kevin with Dom Colmcille and Br Joseph
many shared mannerisms, including the tears of laughter
which would course down her cheeks. There’s no
doubt the two Kevins would have met merrily in heaven.
Br Bernard Purcell
Br. Bernard Purcell, an Aussie expatriate
Cistercian, died in Ireland on
30 March. Bernard was born in Melbourne
in 1929 and entered Mellifont
Abbey, north of Dublin, in 1950, four
years before Tarrawarra was founded.
One of the vows a Cistercian makes is
that of stability which commits the monk
to live his whole life in one community.
Bernard had already taken his first vows
before there was a Cistercian community
in Australia and he remained faithful to
the Mellifont community for the rest of
his days. We had the pleasure of a number
of visits over the years when he came
to spend short periods with his family in
Melbourne.

(continued from back page)
mitting themselves today? Of what
are they now called to be a living
sign?
We will hear the answer to all of this
in the questions I will ask Samuel
and Joseph in a moment and in the
Prayer of Consecration I will pray
over them. We will hear about willing
and generous service of the bishops
and priests. We will hear about
the faithful proclamation of the
faith. We will hear about a ministry
of prayer on behalf of the Church
and the whole world. We will hear
about respect and obedience. We
will hear about sincere love, concern
for the poor, unassuming authority,
self-discipline and holiness. And at
the end of the Prayer of
Consecration, we will
hear it all summed up
in these words: “God
our Father, may Samuel
and Joseph imitate your
Son who came, not to
be served, but to serve”.
There it is. It is of this
that the deacon is called to be a living
sign. It is this which his whole
life must now be about. This is what
Samuel and Joseph take on today,
this is what God is calling them and
empowering them to be and to do -
that in every encounter with them,
people now encounter, in a new and
deeper way than was already the
case, a living image, a living icon of
Jesus the servant.
Jesus is many things: he is our
saviour, our good shepherd, the
bread of life, the light of the world,
and so much more. None of us can
be on our own a full expression of
the richness of Christ. It is only together,
as members of his body, as
the Church, that we can be what the
Lord is calling us to be and needs
us to be - his ongoing presence in
the world. But precisely because
the mystery of Christ is so rich,
and precisely because the world’s
need for Christ is so great, we need
people who, both in what they do
and in what they are, symbolize for
us those aspects of the mystery of
Christ which, if they are not present
in our Church and in our world,
will leave the Church and the world
a greatly impoverished place.
Today Samuel and Joseph are
saying “yes” to the Lord’s invitation
to be a living icon of service:
humble, unselfish, faithful service.
In fact, in all the different ways in
which Samuel and Joseph will work
with and for God’s people, they will
be saying with their lives, “Jesus
came not to be served but to serve,
and I want to be a living sign of his
loving service among you”.
The grace of God will be poured into your
lives through this ordination to enable
you to be all that God is calling you to be.
This morning, from within the mystery
of their vocation to the contemplative
life, they are ordained for a
ministry of service. Their formation
as Cistercians, and their experience
of the community life of the Cistercian,
has I am sure prepared them
well for this.
When we met a couple of weeks
ago to discuss the ordination, Samuel
and Joseph spoke of how important
contemplative life has been
for them and of how they had each
begun careers in the secular world
before investigating the call to religious
life. Each had inquired into
various Orders, but found the discipline
of contemplative life, the vocation
to which they believed they
were called. First and foremost it is
a call to contemplative life, in the
Benedictine tradition, lived in community.
Diaconate is asked of some
members of the community in order
that the sacramental needs of the
community be met. The Abbot and
his community have invited Samuel
and Joseph to fulfil this ministry
within the community and they
have generously accepted, knowing
that their primary vocation to contemplative
life will be served in the
diaconate.
Through their journey of the last
ten years, Samuel and Joseph have
been introduced to contemplative
life; have found their home within
this community, learned the ways
of prayer and the dedication of
the whole of each day to the Lord.
They have studied theology and the
Scriptures to inform and deepen
their love of God, prayer and ministry.
Underpinning this whole way
of life is the understanding
of the im-
portance of prayer
to the disciple of
Christ. This prayer
is not merely to benefit
the one praying,
but through the contemplativecommunity’s
prayer, the
Church as a whole and humanity in
total, is served by the intercession
made on their behalf.
As deacons, Samuel and Joseph,
you are called to the ministry
of service and proclamation of the
Word in a new and particular way.
Be confident that as you are called
to share in Christ’s Priesthood
through the diaconate, He who calls
you, strengthens you to meet the
challenges you will encounter. The
grace of God will be poured into
your lives through this ordination
to enable you to be all that God is
calling you to be. Open your hearts
to receive that gift now, and commit
yourselves to allowing that gift to
grow and develop in you each day,
so that God might be glorified and
his people might have the joy of encountering
Christ through you and
your ministry.
7

Homily for the Diaconate Ordination
of Br Samuel and Br Joseph
In a few moments Brothers Samuel
and Joseph will be invited to step
forward, stand here in front of us all
and, through their ordination as deacons,
commit themselves as members
of that group of men whom we
call the ordained ministers of our
Church. They will declare before
all of us their willingness to do their
best to rise to the great challenges
which this way of life will put before
them, and through the laying
on of hands and the prayer of consecration,
the Holy Spirit will take
hold of them just as the same Holy
Spirit once took hold of Matthias, as
we read in the passage from the Acts
of the Apostles in the First Reading
from this morning’s Mass, enabling
them to rise to the challenges which
his unique vocation placed before
them.
As Brothers Samuel and Joseph
stand here before us, I would like
to invite all of you to look at
them carefully with the eyes
8 of faith. Through their ordi-
(L-R) Br Joseph, Bishop Les, Br Samuel, Dom David
nation to the diaconate, Samuel and
Joseph, as well as being our friends,
our relatives, our brothers in religious
life, become something more.
In the mystery of God’s love, they
become a living sign of the presence
of Jesus among us in a whole new
way. From now on as we look at
Samuel and Joseph with the eyes of
faith, we will see something more
of the mystery of the Lord’s love for
us unfolding in front of our eyes.
This is true of every Christian, of
course. Each one of us is filled with
the Spirit of God, each one of us
is made in the image and likeness
of God, each one of us is called to
be another Christ to and for others.
Husbands and wives are called to
be living signs to each other of the
love and fidelity which Christ has
for his Church. Parents are called
to be living signs of that unselfish
love which, in imitation of Christ,
puts the needs and the good of others
before their own needs and desires.
Religious men and women are
by Bishop Les Tomlinson
called to be living signs of the poverty,
the chastity and the obedience
of Christ - his total commitment to
his Father’s will. Cistercian monks,
in particular, are called to be living
signs of the love of Christ through
their contemplative life of silence,
prayer and work. And of course, all
of us are called to these different vocations
precisely so that everyone,
and not just married people, can see
and know that fidelity is asked of us
all; that everyone, and not just parents,
are called to put the needs of
others first; that everyone, and not
just religious are called to live lives
of simplicity, openness to God’s
will and profound respect for each
other’s dignity; that all of us, and
not just the Cistercians are called to
a life of reflection, prayer and hospitality.
What then of deacons? To what
are they called as witnesses
in a special way with their lives? To
what are Samuel and Joseph com-
(continued on page 7)