Placid Spearritt
6th Abbot of New Norcia
17 Sep 1933 – 4 Oct 2008
Abbot Placid was an exceptionally good and prayerful man. He knew what God had done with him in his becoming so. While he could accept our gratitude for God’s gifts to us through his ministry, he would not accept personal praise as being of much value in life or death. Mind you, Placid could also be quite perverse, particularly when attempting to assess the likely staying power of applicants to monastic life. He once advised me not to burn any bridges before I enter; he really didn’t think I had what it takes to make it to final profession. Well, he was wrong but happy to be so. You might remember, when discussing contentious issues he used to say, “I might be wrong”. He rarely was, but I’m sure many of you can hear him saying this.
In the past few days, as part of my farewell to Placid as our abbot, I have been rereading the texts of his abbot’s conferences for the period I have been away studying. I was quite struck to find again that on the 24 April this year he spoke of his thoughts about his own death, in the context of his recommendations to the monks.
These Abbot’s Conferences are a traditional mode of teaching in monastic communities and Abbot Placid was very faithful to this, leaving us at least 958 pages of text from throughout his period as prior administrator and abbot. I would like to tell you of his thoughts on that recent occasion and remind my brothers of the constant theme of his teaching and desire for us.
On 24 April he titled the written text A Word in time and place, capitalizing Word, to remind us that here he was speaking of Christ, the Word of God in time and place. He used as his scriptural text the opening verses of Is. 66, the final chapter of Isaiah, that book of scripture which had occupied him for lectio for at least the past few years and probably most of his monastic life.
Thus says the Lord; heaven is my throne
and the earth is my footstool;
What is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look,
to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:1-2
He quoted 2 Samuel 7:5 on King David’s proposal to build the Temple in Jerusalem for the Lord, and Solomon’s conclusion: the Lord said to my father David… you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name. 2 Chronicles 6:7-9
Ultimately, that son of David was Christ in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt: and God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love (Ephesians 1:4). We, in Christ, are the place where God has chosen to dwell.
Now I want to give you Placid’s own words:
“The history of New Norcia did not begin in 1846 (foundation year) or 1835 (dissolution of the Spanish monasteries). It began at the same non-time as your vocation and mine, your selection and mine, our being chosen began, before time began, before the foundation of the world with its time.
“We are very time-bound in this world, not least in a monastery, where the time is carved up by bells. I suppose as I become more conscious of the end of my time on this earth, I look forward to being released in death from the tyranny of deadlines, achieved or missed.
“And I look forward to resuming the life I enjoyed in God before I made the mistake of thinking I was really only born in time, in 1933.”
I don’t really see what the resurrection of Christ is all about if it is not at least about saying the best is yet to come. When he and the New Testament writers talked about it they very often made the point that his resurrected life is not temporary: it is forever. Placid’s legacy to us is the firm foundation he has given to monastic life at New Norcia and the call to the life of prayer and community that he not only taught us but for which he gave us clear example to follow. In prayer, contemplative prayer, we will be found in Christ and, with Placid, transformed in Christ so that we may go all together, all of us, to everlasting life.
May he rest in peace.
Dom Michael Tunney, New Norcia
