[Magdalen] What are we reading?

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/2/2015 2:42:32 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
gracecan at gmail.com writes:

Merton  was schooled in France or Switzerland, IIRC. While I
admire his later work,  I will never be a fan.>>>>
 
When I cleared out my office at the VA a year ago, the missing
 b&w photo given me by a former Gethsemani monk turned up.
Wouldn't you know, now I can't find it again.
 
It shows Solemn High Mass at the Abbey Church in the glory days
for monastic Orders, just after the end of WW-2.  The Abbey is 
a long, high, and narrow building, and at the time had an elaborate
quadripartite gothic pseudovaulting.
 
The picture shows the dramatic moment of an Elevation, with incense
galore floating up to the high vaults.
 
Among the 100+ monks bowing low in their stalls is Merton.
 
After Vatican-2, the monks tore out all the pseudovaulting, and left  the
building with the spare and stark steel beams actually supporting the  roof
exposed.
 
The interior is extremely white, and overwhelmingly austere.   You'd think 
the
place had been attacked by radical Protestant reformers.
 
The monks sure make good cheese, however.
 
 
 
David Strang.