The death of Fr. Basil Pennington, OCSO, on June 3, 2005, at age 73 is a loss felt not only in monastic circles but also by an extensive following of lay people for whom he was an inspiring spiritual guide. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner once described him as "a great, loving bear of a man." Fr. Basil’s outgoing personality and unrelenting religious search led him to befriend rabbis of his native New York, Eastern Orthodox monks of Mount Athos, Hindu holy men of India, and many other non-Christians, as well as Christians of all denominations.

Of special interest to readers of the MID Bulletin is Fr. Basil’s role in the origins of MID. It was he who coordinated the June 1977 meeting of 44 people at Petersham, Massachusetts, sponsored by AIM (then known as Aide à l’Implantation Monastique). The many creative suggestions generated at Petersham prompted AIM to sponsor a smaller meeting early the following year at Clyde, Missouri. There, the North American Board for East-West Dialogue came into existence with Abbot Armand Veuilleux, OCSO, as chair and Sr. Pascaline Coff, OSB, as executive secretary. In 1993 NABEWD was renamed Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID). Its mandate, originating from the Petersham meeting, was to help North American monasticism recognize the authenticity of the values of non-Christian monasticism, and to make Christian monasticism better known in the East.

Although Fr. Basil was never a MID board member, he participated in the historic, MID-sponsored interreligious monastic gathering at Gethsemani (1996), attended by H. H. the Dalai Lama and commemorated in the book The Gethsemani Encounter (1998). He was also a member of the Ecumenical Institute of Spirituality and was the current chairman of the board of the Mastery Foundation, an interfaith organization for the empowerment of those in ministry.

Finding his Stride
Fr. Basil (Robert John Pennington) entered St. Joseph Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1951 when he was 20 years old. After ordination to the priesthood in 1957, he twice studied in Rome, earning degrees in theology and canon law. Back at Spencer, he became a professor and later the vocation director. In the 1980s he traveled extensively; during most of the 1990s he assisted at the Trappist monastery on Lantao, Hong Kong.

With the encouragement of Thomas Merton and with the backing of the U.S. Region of Cistercian superiors, Fr. Basil launched an ambitious publishing project in 1968. His intention was to provide fresh translations of the medieval Cistercian spiritual masters as well as contemporary Cistercian studies. Merton contributed the first manuscript, The Climate of Monastic Prayer (1969). In a few years the task of recruiting capable translators, editing all the manuscripts, and raising funds proved too much for one person. Fr. Basil reached an agreement to locate Cistercian Publications at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, already the scene of an annual Medieval Congress, and he turned over the editorship to Dr. E. Rozanne Elder.

After the death of Thomas Merton in 1968, it was Fr. Basil, more than others, who took up the torch of teaching the ways of prayer to a world growing ever more worldly but still hungry for God. Fr. Basil was a natural communicator and used every available medium to spread the good news of Christ’s love. He spoke in person to audiences around the world, wrote books (Amazon.com lists over 60 titles in various formats), wrote hundreds of articles, made videos and cassettes, preached retreats, gave interviews, translated texts from modern and ancient languages, founded Cistercian Publications, and edited some writings of the Cistercian Fathers, especially Aelred and Bernard.

Fr. Basil is best known as a teacher of Centering Prayer. He, together with Spencer monks Fr. William Meninger and Dom Thomas Keating, rediscovered this traditional method of prayer in the mid-1970s and packaged it in a simple format that has made contemplative prayer accessible to thousands of Christians. Drawing especially on the fourteenth-century Christian classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, and relying on divine grace, not on the meditator’s own effort, Centering Prayer is not without external similarities to some Eastern forms of meditation.

To an outside observer, Fr. Basil’s faith and devotion were profoundly Christocentric and Marian in character. At the top of each page that he typed or wrote were printed the letters JMJ (Jesus, Mary, Joseph). The "M" that he persisted in writing before his name was an abbreviation of Mary; using this M was a custom once widely followed by Cistercian monks but dropped by nearly all during the years of post-Vatican renewal.

Stretching Still Further
I myself never lived with Fr. Basil as my superior or my confrere, except for a very brief period, and I do not have the perspective that comes from rubbing shoulders with someone in a cloistered environment year after year. However, for 11 days at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000, I worked closely and cordially with Fr. Basil at St. Joseph Abbey, handing over to him the editorship of Cistercian Studies Quarterly. At that time he happened to be on crutches with a broken ankle; a couple of days after my arrival, he also pulled his back out of shape. We interrupted our work to make two or three trips to town for medical treatment. In spite of these physical handicaps, and in spite of his other commitments such as book contracts and speaking engagements, Fr. Basil was able quickly to grasp the essentials of editing CSQ. He practically bubbled with creative ideas for improving the journal, as we worked together on the forthcoming issue. That issue (CSQ 35.3) was destined to be the only one to benefit from his editorial labors.

Before the month of January, 2000, was over, Fr. Basil was obliged to resign the editorship in order to accept an appointment as temporary superior of Assumption Abbey, Ava, Missouri. That first year of the new millennium was a time of change for Fr. Basil, who was 69 that year. He served at Ava only six months before being elected as abbot of Holy Spirit Abbey, Conyers, Georgia. He resigned that position on April 20, 2002 and retired to St. Joseph Abbey. There, as an engaged contemplative, he continued his effective ministry of writing.

At the first Gethsemani Encounter, Fr. Basil told the story of a Chinese Trappist, Fr. Sebastian, a survivor of the death march and the prison camps who had been released to the care of his family on account of injuries. For 16 years he lay in bed with a broken back, suffering with and in Christ, and offering spiritual consolation to hundreds who approached his bedside. Fr. Basil reflected, "I realized that was the way I myself faced suffering in my life, though never to that degree." The time was coming when his resolution would be tested.

On March 29, 2005, Fr. Basil suffered a serious car accident near his monastery, resulting in numerous fractures and internal injuries. He survived the initial trauma and was making gradual improvement under expert medical care and with the assistance of prayers offered throughout the world for his recovery. Then on the morning of June 3, 2005, he began to bleed severely. His abbot and another monk rushed to his bedside at the hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Fr. Basil himself asked to be taken off all extraordinary means of life support and died peacefully as his confreres were chanting first Vespers of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This feast, which celebrates God’s love and mercy, was a favorite of Fr. Basil and an especially auspicious day for this great-hearted and affectionate monk to enter into a life of eternal and totally satisfying love.