If you've read this blog for any time at all you know the Abbey of Gethsemani holds a special place in my heart and has since 2003. Spending time in the quiet and stillness there changed my spiritual life in ways I cannot describe. The acres are God breathed and souls are refreshed in that space. It's breathtakingly quiet and completely fascinating. The peace of God settles there and this soul has benefited from that more than once.
The Abbey said goodbye to Matthew Kelty last week. He was a caring heart bursting at the seams with Godly wisdom. An apprentice of Thomas Merton, his heritage lives on through the books he's written and the lives he's changed.
From the website
Fr. Matthew's books include, My Song is of Mercy, Gethsemani Homilies, Call of the Wild Geese, Sermons in a Monastery, and Singing for the Kingdom, all of which are still in print. He is also the subject of a documentary made by Morgan Atkinson, The Poetry of a Soul.
He was an Irishman with, as he put it, the "gift of the gab." He once said, "I can talk and I can write," which he considered nothing special. They were gifts, but he used them to reach and help other people. He was unfailingly interested in people, his brothers in the monastery, his family, and his wide circle of friends. He had the healing talent of making others feel at ease.
A life well lived for the only One worth living for. A life that mattered to me.
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