Eleven years ago today, a man with no identifiable motive killed two monks, wounded two others and then committed suicide. Robert Lloyd Jeffress, 71, changed Benedictine life at Conception Abbey forever.
A few years ago a monk from Conception told me the unforeseen effect of this event has brought the community together in a deeper way.
“When brutal deeds are enacted, it calls for heroic and radical forgiveness. Such acts of violence as happened here on Monday, could only have come from someone in desperate need of help. Hatred, anger, and an unwillingness to forgive only keep us crippled and bound by the evils that surround us. If we endure evil and do not allow it to conquer us, we will share in the victory of Jesus Christ, in the hidden life of the resurrection of Jesus.”
(Taken from Abbot Gregory homily at the funeral Mass for Father Philip and Brother Damian)
May God me be merciful to Father Philip and Brother Damian, but also to their monastic community and to Mr Jeffress.
Continue reading 11th Anniversary of a tragedy at Conception Abbey