By Robert Rhodes
Mennonite Weekly Review

	From left, Pastor Robert “Biff” Weidman of Fellowship of Hope Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind., with Eoin de Bhaldraithe, the abbot of Bolton Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Moone, Ireland. — Photo by Robert Rhodes / MWR

“Read the Sermon on the Mount,” he was told. “But spend a month reading it. . . . Spend a year reading it.”

It was a classic example of lectio divina, or “divine reading,” in which Scripture or other spiritual writing is read slowly and reflectively, holding every phrase in prayerful consideration.

“This will stay with you all of your life,” he was told, no matter the rigors of living a cloistered, monastic life, apart from the storms and explosions of his native Ireland. “If you are faithful to your reading, it will call you back to the Lord.”

De Bhaldraithe embraced this traditional Benedictine practice, and today — as abbot of Bolton Abbey, the contemplative Trappist community he shepherds near the village of Moone, Ireland — he is still devoted to it.

“Forty-eight years later, this is the most important part of my life,” he told members of Bridgefolk, a Mennonite-Catholic ecumenical group, which gathered July 29-Aug. 1 at St. John’s Abbey.

Though affiliated with one of Catholicism’s stricter monastic orders — the Trappists were a reform movement of the Cistercians, who were 12th-century French Benedictine reformers — de Bhaldraithe has had a long association with Anabaptism.

Through his encounters with books like John Howard Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus and Arnold Snyder’s Life and Thought of Michael Sattler, as well as through his “divine reading” of the Sermon on the Mount, de Bhaldraithe realized the vital role nonviolence played in Christ’s ministry.

This conviction would be deepened when, amid the Irish “troubles” that began in the late 1960s, he encountered Mennonites Joseph and Linda Liechty and Paul and Dawn Ruth Nelson living in Dublin.

De Bhaldraithe met Joseph Liechty — who directed the Moving Beyond Sectarianism project for the Irish School of Ecumenics — when he made a monastic retreat.

He was impressed by Liechty’s call for Christian reconciliation in Ireland. And when he met other members of the small Irish Mennonite community, he was struck by their emphasis on finding a nonviolent solution to the bloody Catholic-Protestant standoff then destroying the country.

Over time, de Bhaldraithe was able to visit the Mennonite group for occasional worship, and even received permission from his bishop to preach there.

There were other trends at work that would impact de Bhaldraithe’s outlook as well.

During the Vietnam War, the writings of American Trappist Thomas Merton had helped legitimize the peace movement among many Catholics, some of whom still viewed pacifism as heretical. Much later, Pope John Paul II’s strong peace stances would make an even deeper impression.

“It involved an intellectual conversion for me,” de Bhaldraithe said. “One of the landmarks was my discovery of Michael Sattler.”

Sattler, a former Benedictine prior who became one of Anabaptism’s best-known 16th century martyrs, emphasized the same values of peace and nonviolence that de Bhaldraithe felt called to embrace.

In an essay in Engaging Anabaptism (Herald Press, 2001), de Bhaldraithe wrote that the peace tenets of Sattler’s Schleitheim Confession were especially influential.

“[Sattler] decided the reformation of the church had to involve and should involve pacifism, which Luther didn’t,” he said.

Though Trappist life traditionally had emphasized a balance of prayer and manual labor, de Bhaldraithe said he realized that even as a cloistered monk, he had to reflect all the authentic ideals of the gospel.

Today, in addition to leading his community, his voice often joins others offering counsel as the peace process in Ireland continues.

“The Lord expects peace and forbearance,” de Bhaldraithe said. “In monastic life, we must be faithful to this witness, to return to this gospel of peace and reconciliation.”