{"id":27788,"date":"2013-06-10T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T18:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2013\/06\/11th-anniversary-of-a-tragedy\/"},"modified":"2013-06-10T14:02:14","modified_gmt":"2013-06-10T18:02:14","slug":"11th-anniversary-of-a-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2013\/06\/11th-anniversary-of-a-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"11th Anniversary of a tragedy at Conception Abbey"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/Abbot%20Gregory%20and%20law%20enforcement.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Abbot Gregory and law enforcement.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/assets_c\/2013\/06\/Abbot Gregory and law enforcement-thumb-300x183-14594.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><font face=\"lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif\"><span style=\"line-height: 18px;\">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 <a class=\"zem_slink\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Conception_Abbey\" title=\"Conception Abbey\" rel=\"wikipedia\" target=\"_blank\">Conception Abbey<\/a> forever.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><font face=\"lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif\"><span style=\"line-height: 18px;\"><br \/><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\"><font face=\"lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif\"><span style=\"line-height: 18px;\">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.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \"><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;When brutal deeds are enacted, it calls for <u>heroic<\/u> and <u>radical forgiveness<\/u>. 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&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">keep us crippled and bound by the evils that surround us. <b>If we endure evil and do not allow it to conquer us, we will share in the victory of Jesus Christ<\/b>, in the hidden life of the resurrection of Jesus.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">(Taken from Abbot Gregory homily at the funeral Mass for Father Philip and Brother Damian)<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">May God me be merciful to Father Philip and Brother Damian, but also to their monastic community and to Mr Jeffress.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top:10px;height:15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=628ed793-410f-4725-a380-59dc99250101\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" style=\"border:none;float:right\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">Paul Johnson writes about the event in<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">&nbsp;<\/span><i style=\"font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Murder-Redemption-at-Benedictine-Abbey\/dp\/1463573278\/ref=tmm_pap_title_0\">Murder and Redemption at a Benedictine Abbey<\/a><\/i><span style=\"font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">. But more than a narrative of what happened in the abbey, this book speaks to a radical metonoia (a change of heart) of a man who despaired of God&#8217;s mercy of which the Benedictines provided a canvas.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \"><br \/><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"text_exposed_show\" style=\"display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; \">Jay Kanzler also produced a 2009 documentary on the Benedictines with these tragic events providing grist for the mill. &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B005245DJW\/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20\">St Benedict&#8217;s Rule<\/a>&#8221; more than sensationalizing the monastic life or trivializing the deaths of monks, Kanzler&#8217;s work earned him an award for the narrative.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2013\/06\/11th-anniversary-of-a-tragedy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">11th Anniversary of a tragedy at Conception Abbey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[32089,2391,3222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}