What is Hill Abbey?

Hill Abbey's summer session is a two-week by-invitation-only summer program devoted to the slow reading of one major work by one of the early church fathers with a small group of like-minded people in pleasant, quiet, rhythmic, structured circumstances, anchored by Scripture reading, singing, prayer, and varied with walks in the woods, evening fires, and star-gazing. The session is more like a temporary monastery than a college or summer camp. It's purpose is not "fun", although delight is one of its chief characteristics. The daily time is devoted to many hours of slow reading aloud together, periods of private contemplation, gathering together over good food and around bonfires and under stars, and conversation and fellowship. Hill Abbey is dedicated to the idea that wisdom and happiness require periodic times of withdrawal this like from the hectic pace and numerous distractions of "normal" life for the sake of reflection, meditation, and focus in the rhythm of a simple, daily routine. Hill Abbey's summer session is like a "college" only in the original sense of that word - a company, or fellowship of colleagues associated for a particular purpose. In that spirit it incorporates, on a small scale, many of the elements that are fundamental to a good literary community.

The main work of each day involves about 5 hours of reading, distributed over the course of the day. We read aloud, taking turns, together in a group, reading slowly and stopping when necessary to discuss what we'd just read, or just to stare off into space and wonder over the words - but the emphasis is always on simply reading and listening to what the great author has to say, and to each other's voices as we read. We try to read with ears quick to hear and mouths slow to speak. We read in the library in the cool of the morning, or out on the lawns, under the trees, and we move with the shade wherever there is grass and a place for our lawn chairs or blankets. We have snacks and meals together. There is plenty of time for evaluation and questions of application later as we walk, eat, look at the fire, and gaze at the stars. We read with pencils in our hands (these are provided, along with journals, and some suggestions for their use are given at the beginning to help the participants achieve benefit -- think "commonplace" book) and ooh-ing and aah-ing and even woohoo-ing and amen-ing are encouraged; laughter is welcome, and I don't think St. Benedict would object.

There are times set aside each morning and afternoon where all have solitude for contemplation and reflection on the reading or anything else, and we hold Morning and Evening Prayers (Matins and Evensong) in communion with the majority of the Christians in history who framed their days this way. We have a rest (read "nap") time in the afternoon, as well as some exercise including working in the yards and gardens in the morning, and walks in the nearby woods and fields in the afternoon, and after dinner. Dinner includes some great outdoor meals, and after dinner there are short stories and poetry around the fire, and stargazing. We get plenty of rest - this isn't summer camp, so late-night shenanigans aren't part of the picture.

There are far too many things to do in life, and though we try to do them all, we can't. So we have to choose. But instead of choosing well we choose the immediate, the urgent, what's directly in front of us, what's in our face, what shouts loudest for our attention.

Hill Abbey's summer session offers at least three things that very few of the other things demanding attention do. The first is peace. Real peace of soul comes of course from an ordered relationship with God. But two weeks of deliberately ignoring the urgent, tyrannical, frenetic daily demands that modern culture seems to impose on us illustrates how unimportant those things often are and how much more we can focus on inner peace when external peace is enjoyed.

And with this peace comes the second thing - perspective. The tree or hill that rises above the surrounding terrain gives a better view, and a fortnight without the tyranny of the urgent is like climbing to that height. Then we begin to see how trivial and foolishly wasteful are many of the things that clutter our daily lives. This is not to say that everything should be momentous - but without perspective we can't even enjoy the merely pleasant, the delightful, the fun. We waste our lives with shallow, trashy busy-ness when we could be doing something truly important - like staring at the sky, listening to a friend's voice while he speaks, and thinking. Really thinking. Long, slow, leisurely thinking.

And this leads to the third thing which Hill Abbey's summer session offers: wisdom. The program is primarily about reading one very great book from the history of the church but in a slow, contemplative manner, at the human pace with which it was written, aloud in the voices of brothers and sisters, and with long periods specifically set aside for reflection - all so that the wisdom of the great book can sink deeply into our thoughts and souls. We all need, and want, wisdom. Wisdom sees the big pictures, judges the priorities of things and orders them rightly, and chooses and acts well. But without peace and perspective there can be no wisdom. Hill Abbey's summer session attempts to create the circumstances where the wisdom can be heard and flourish.

One participant put it this way after the first year:

How does one sum up absolute peace, deep contentment, wild enjoyment, and true inspiration in one sentence? 'Praise the Lord' is all I can come up with. Hill Abbey was one of the most wonderfully renewing experiences I have ever had. The act of sitting in a circle with eleven other people reading Augustine out loud for many hours a day cannot fail to work magic in a tired soul. And yet (stupidly) I never quite expected the miracle of it all... the steady, peaceful rhythm of the Hill... as to telling about these last two weeks... I can't quite seem to figure out a good way to sum up long summer days, myriad voices, songs and stories, sweet moments of total peace... dancing, the smell of ripened wheat, moon risings, star gazings, midnight fires, wine tastings . . . pure joy.

Another said:

For the past two weeks I deliberately abandoned (almost) all electronic communication, in favor of reading carefully one of the greatest works known to Western literature and Christendom - Augustine's 'City of God' - with 11 other like-minded individuals (making 12 of us in all). This statement is not meant to reflect pride in an accomplishment, but joy in what I think was a wonderful opportunity and a gift... I find this medium wholly inadequate for attempting to summarize those two weeks. The closest I think I could come would be to commend Psalm 133 for earnest reflection.

"1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down on the beard,
The beard of Aaron,
Running down on the edge of his garments.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
Descending upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the LORD commanded the blessing—
Life forevermore."