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April 2022
A book that changed my life and set me on the road toward monasticism was Richard Fletcher's The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. While today we often consider Europe to be the post-Christian continent, this book tells the story of how Europe became Christian in the first place. This conversion took far longer than most people imagine—about a millennium—but what struck me most was how the process was effected among the common people, not at sword point, but through the courageous and faithful witness of monastic communities. I was living overseas at the time, and this was not a model of missions that I had encountered in my evangelical Methodist tradition.
Following soon thereafter, two more books advanced my reflections: St Patrick's Letter and Confession and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together. In Patrick, I met a man who understood himself to be an "exile for the love of God." This phrase prompted an entire line of investigation into scripture and history about the themes of exile and home—especially about one who goes to make one's home with others for love's sake. When we look for this theme in scripture, we see it everywhere, even in the very activity of Divine Love who becomes flesh to dwell among us. But we also see it in history, including in the extraordinary missional activity that burst out of Ireland within a few generations of Patrick's self-exile there. From Bonhoeffer's meditation on Christian community, I encountered the new idea (to me, at the time) that the heart of every Christian community is praying the psalms together. These and other books put me on a track of desiring that my own life and work in the world to be grounded in Christian community that prays the psalms together. And monasticism had a word for that: oblation.
My oblation at St Brigid's is the fruit of this desire to be an exile for the love of God whose worldly vocation is grounded in Christian worship and prayer. Has my oblation helped? On one level, my life and thoughts are as distracted as they ever have been. I was (and still am) expecting that my monastic oblation would lead to some great internal serenity in the face of life's common and uncommon hardships, temptations, anxieties, and griefs. This has not happened.
Yet, every day we begin again. There is hardly a corner of my life that has not been transformed by my monastic oblation, especially by praying the psalms. My anger, fear, grief, and hope can be found therein. The war in Ukraine? The fears for my future? The sense of loss in exile? The joy of delighting in God's love? It's all there in the psalms. When I cannot come up with the words anymore—and even when I lack faith, here are the words I can say. And so, we begin again: every day is an invitation that here is God's faithful love waiting to hold me as a babe on his mother's breast.
About the author
Glenn Harden took his initial oblation vows on All Saints Day in 2006. He was born and raised in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he belonged to the local United Methodist Church. He met his wife, Elizabeth, at The George Washington University, and they married in 1993. Glenn worked as a procurement official in Washington DC until 1999, before returning to school to get his teaching license. He taught high school in the Shenandoah valley, and then in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, where he and his wife moved in 2003. It was in Jarabacoa that Glenn began his journey toward St. Brigid's while undertaking a reading project on what it meant to be "an exile for the love of God" (St. Patrick). In Jarabacoa, Glenn and his wife were deeply involved in dog rescue, and Glenn also started a ministry to help victims and survivors of the sex trade and their families. Glenn and Elizabeth returned to Wilmore in 2015 with five of their rescue dogs. Glenn has Master's degrees in History and Theological Studies and a PhD in Political Science. He currently teaches political science and history classes at Asbury University in Wilmore. Glenn is also an artist and author of The Sex Trade, Evil and Christian Theology.
Following soon thereafter, two more books advanced my reflections: St Patrick's Letter and Confession and Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together. In Patrick, I met a man who understood himself to be an "exile for the love of God." This phrase prompted an entire line of investigation into scripture and history about the themes of exile and home—especially about one who goes to make one's home with others for love's sake. When we look for this theme in scripture, we see it everywhere, even in the very activity of Divine Love who becomes flesh to dwell among us. But we also see it in history, including in the extraordinary missional activity that burst out of Ireland within a few generations of Patrick's self-exile there. From Bonhoeffer's meditation on Christian community, I encountered the new idea (to me, at the time) that the heart of every Christian community is praying the psalms together. These and other books put me on a track of desiring that my own life and work in the world to be grounded in Christian community that prays the psalms together. And monasticism had a word for that: oblation.
My oblation at St Brigid's is the fruit of this desire to be an exile for the love of God whose worldly vocation is grounded in Christian worship and prayer. Has my oblation helped? On one level, my life and thoughts are as distracted as they ever have been. I was (and still am) expecting that my monastic oblation would lead to some great internal serenity in the face of life's common and uncommon hardships, temptations, anxieties, and griefs. This has not happened.
Yet, every day we begin again. There is hardly a corner of my life that has not been transformed by my monastic oblation, especially by praying the psalms. My anger, fear, grief, and hope can be found therein. The war in Ukraine? The fears for my future? The sense of loss in exile? The joy of delighting in God's love? It's all there in the psalms. When I cannot come up with the words anymore—and even when I lack faith, here are the words I can say. And so, we begin again: every day is an invitation that here is God's faithful love waiting to hold me as a babe on his mother's breast.
About the author
Glenn Harden took his initial oblation vows on All Saints Day in 2006. He was born and raised in Wilmore, Kentucky, where he belonged to the local United Methodist Church. He met his wife, Elizabeth, at The George Washington University, and they married in 1993. Glenn worked as a procurement official in Washington DC until 1999, before returning to school to get his teaching license. He taught high school in the Shenandoah valley, and then in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, where he and his wife moved in 2003. It was in Jarabacoa that Glenn began his journey toward St. Brigid's while undertaking a reading project on what it meant to be "an exile for the love of God" (St. Patrick). In Jarabacoa, Glenn and his wife were deeply involved in dog rescue, and Glenn also started a ministry to help victims and survivors of the sex trade and their families. Glenn and Elizabeth returned to Wilmore in 2015 with five of their rescue dogs. Glenn has Master's degrees in History and Theological Studies and a PhD in Political Science. He currently teaches political science and history classes at Asbury University in Wilmore. Glenn is also an artist and author of The Sex Trade, Evil and Christian Theology.