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“The root of joy is gratefulness…
It is not joy that makes us grateful;
it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” 
David Steindl-Rast

Twenty-five years ago I was a part of a Christchurch-based group known as the Adult Education Trust.

A few of us had noticed that many inspiring educators were being brought to Australia or Auckland from around the globe to encourage people who were seeking greater maturity of Christian faith, but they were not making it across the ditch to Aotearoa or south to Christchurch. We realised that that once these people were just a a few hours away it would not cost a lot more to bring them the extra miles to our own part of the world.

And so AET was formed.

With the experience of a few speakers under our belt we (I appreciated working with the other group members – Trish & Andrew, Hilary, Kathy, Kevin & Lyn) decided not only to host Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, but to place him for an evening in conversation with a Buddhist monk. No agenda, simply these two monks (Catholic-Christian and Buddhist) in conversation so that we and anyone else who responded to our simple Christchurch Press invitation could gather to watch and listen to whatever might happen.

It was 2001 and we booked the Chapel of the Mission Sisters on Barbadoes Street as a suitable venue. We weren’t expecting big numbers especially when the weather turned foul but people crowed in, especially the young, filling the seating and then taking every standing and sitting place on the floor and in the entrance corridor.

What followed was a truly extraordinary couple of hours.

David and the Buddhist monk sat facing each other on the raised sanctuary each holding a microphone and chatting simply chatting about everything, life, the world, humanity, God – all in a session we titled “The Ground We Share.”

At a certain point after about forty-five minutes the conversation rested into a pause and David turned to his companion now friend and asked: what shall we talk about now?

We all laughed a little – a breath of lightness in the intensity and intimacy of being held in gentle embrace by these two gentle and godly men.

Then our Buddhist friend responded: how about we all just sit in silence for five minutes?

David’s response: “That would be delicious.”

And that was what we did.

People were deeply moved, groans of relaxation and homecoming expressing gratitude for such awareness of this silence being the gift we all needed in that moment.

And what a silence it was.

People of all faiths and none unified in the heart of our being with the One who was embracing us all in love in that moment.

It was delicious.

There is a strong energy in the Church these days for debating doctrine and defending truths with argument and apologetics as people try to rationalise and reign in the breadth and beauty of faith seeking to know who is right and who is wrong, who is good and who is bad, who is in and who is out. I suppose we could have done that back then on that stormy Christchurch evening but instead these two wise souls simply dwelt together in love of God and therefore of each other. And their witness was contagious.

A quarter of a century later I was reminded of this moment because this week David Stendl-Rast has turned one hundred years of age.

I remain deeply grateful to David for his teaching, and the work of his Grateful Living Centre and for reminding us of the beauty of living gratitude.