Memorial of Blessed Cyprian Tansi

When Blessed Cyprian Tansi was a young boy, about 10 years old, he was already living a life of prayer, attending daily Mass and spending long hours in Church, much to the derision of other less pious young boys in the village.  That all changed to admiration ninety years later when he was beatified in Nigeria by Pope John Paul II.  Over two million people were present along with 60 bishops.  

During his thirteen years as a diocesan priest and fourteen years as a monk at Mt. St. Bernard’s Abbey in England, Fr. Cyprian Tansi continued to spend long hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  One of his brother monks said to him, “Fr. Cyprian, you must be receiving great consolations.”  He replied, “What?  I don’t receive any consolations at all.  That’s not why I pray. I’m there to adore and give thanks, to intercede and to love the Lord. I’m not there for myself.” 

At the beatification of Blessed Cyprian, Pope John Paul II said, “In prayer Blessed Tansi found something to be thankful for each day. …  He knew how to quiet the inner self.  By silencing the sound of his own ego he could see the world clearly and engage in regular meditation and contemplation.”  How grateful I am for the vocation to be a Trappist monk, like Blessed Cyprian Tansi, and how grateful we should all be for the call to be Christians interceding for the salvation of all people.