The Whole IS Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

I have just returned from a gathering of Monks, Novices, Friends at the Way of the Wolf Retreat Center for the Order in Fredericksburg, Texas. As in any such experience it is difficult summarize into words what occurs exactly, but the deep sense I and others had as we left the gathering was that we experienced a Whole that was, indeed, greater than the sum of its parts. The Whole is a living entity--a body of beings and souls--that enter into something larger than themselves, out of which comes and energy and creativity and loving awareness that not only holds us all, but carries us forward. I experienced that.

Also I sensed that what is forming is just a small part of some spiritual entity that is even larger, that encompasses many such gatherings and holds us together in some kind of inner communion. We do indeed belong to the spiritual body of humanity, and this body has a consciousness which can effect future outcomes. All is not lost in the darkness which also seems to be gathering. Light and darkness are in some kind of contest or struggle, and one cannot exist without the other. Like a battery with a negative and positive pole, some new energy is born out of that interchange.

So we are working together to extend this body of wisdom seekers and transmitters into the modern world. Into our midst came many new faces, and some joined as novices for a period of discernment, and five joined the order as monastics of the interior tradition. We are grateful and I salut each of them, and those who supported us without being present.