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Thursday, July 16th, 2009
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9:38 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Take someone out
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I suppose this may sound a frivolous thing to want, something not befitting of a monk who has taken vows of chastity, poverty and obedience – but I occasionally wonder what it would be like to take Manuel Aringarosa, the man who saved me and who has been my beloved mentor for so many wonderful years – out shopping.
Yes, shopping. A simple day spent in his company, just wandering around the city together and purchasing things. It matters not what we’d buy – perhaps some items for donating to one of the many Catholic church charities. Or food for some special occasion – but it’s the experience of being with my mentor like that and just doing these things that I truly crave. Walking slowly with him, taking in the sights and talking… it would be a relaxing and almost blissful few hours.
I hope that I’m not being too much of a sinner for wanting this.
Words: 154
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  contemplative
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| Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
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9:49 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Cheer someone up
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It’s very rare that I am called upon to cheer people up, although I willingly do it when I am able to.
The best comfort I can offer anyone, of course, is hope for their immortal souls. And there is hope out there for everyone – anybody can be saved by belief in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and turning one’s life over to goodness, prayer, self-mortification and service to one’s fellow human beings.
Whenever I am called to do so, I spread this message of peace, love and hope. Although I am not a priest, merely a monk and a numerary of Opus Dei, I gladly will tell anyone who asks me about God and His eternal mercy and forgiveness.
Sometimes, by simple human trust, tenderness and compassion I have been able to offer comfort to those who need it. Even to my beloved mentor, Bishop Manuel Aringarosa.
Words: 152
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  content
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| Friday, June 19th, 2009
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9:08 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Prison
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I have been to prison, and it was one of the saddest times in my life. It was the time when I almost gave up all hope. I did not yet believe in God, so I was desolate and without any solace.
Murder was the crime that sent me there. I was desperately hungry, so I stole food from a ship. Two sailors caught me, and began to beat me. They smelled of beer, frightening me and reminding me of my alcoholic father who made my childhood a misery, so I fought back and killed one of them.
Twelve years I spent behind bars. I learned of violence and anger, rape and abuse. Prison was a living hell.
But thanks to the miracle of an earthquake, I escaped and was able to make my way to freedom. To Spain, where I met a young priest called Manuel Aringarosa. I saved him from a violent attack, and he saved my soul and helped me dedicate myself to the Lord and the Church.
Strangely enough, it was prison that led to my ultimate freedom.
Words: 182
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  sad
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| Friday, June 12th, 2009
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11:03 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Breaking the Law
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I mostly believe in keeping to the law, since before my redemption I was a lawless, sinful individual. Before Manuel Aringarosa helped bring me to God, I was weak and easily swayed by wrath. All I could do was feel sorry for myself and be angry, taking on the role of ghost and outcast that I was assigned by the small of mind.
But now I have found the true path, the Way of Opus Dei. Jesus Christ is my Lord, and I believe in keeping to the true Way of the Law, the Ten Commandments given to us by God in the Bible.
However, there are rare circumstances in which I will break the law.
I would steal to feed the starving, and I would kill to protect the innocent. I don’t care what happens to my own worthless body, but I would do anything to save my beloved Manuel. He is a good man, a true Christian, and for him I would make any sacrifice, however great.
Words: 169
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  busy
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| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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10:39 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Forced Out
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Yes, there is somewhere I was once forced out of. It was my home town, in fact, the city of Marseilles in France. The city where I was born. The only home I had ever known, though it too proved itself hostile to me because everyone there, like so many in other places thereafter, considered me a ghost because of my albinism. They called me a ghost with the eyes of a devil…
I was only twelve years of age, and I attacked a girl who was older than me, because she mocked me and attempted to steal my food. It was wrong of me to do what I did, I know that now, but I was desperate. I was angry, and I was starving.
For this crime I was exiled from my birthplace, told never to return. I moved down the coast to Toulon after that, and became a drifter between seaports. But not until many years later did I ever find peace… from the time I was driven from my first home till I was saved by Manuel Aringarosa, my life was like hell in its misery.
I am so fortunate to have found God and be free of that sorrow now!
Words: 204
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: sad
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| Friday, May 15th, 2009
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9:09 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Funeral Arrangements
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The arrangements for my funeral will be, I hope, humble and simple, in accordance with my wishes and with my station as a monk, a numerary of Opus Dei. A plain Catholic ceremony with all the necessary rites to ensure the passage of my soul to its eternal home with our Heavenly Father, the Lord God. For I am His faithful, humble child, deeply repenting of every evil thing I have done whilst on Earth, and only wishing to end my days as His servant, living and dying according to His divine will.
I will be buried, I presume, in an unadorned plot marked only with a small cross, in the Opus Dei graveyard, as other numeraries tend to be. I am not so much concerned with the fate of my body as that of my soul, so that is why I strive toward goodness while here on Earth.
Manuel Aringarosa calls me his angel, but I am but a man, oh Lord! Help me to serve Thee always, Heavenly Father!
Words: 171
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: calm
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| Thursday, April 30th, 2009
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7:51 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: What do you think?
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I think, no, not just think, I know, that I am a very grateful and happy man to be where I am now. Safe in the knowledge that my soul has been rescued from an eternity in Hell. Thanks to Manuel Aringarosa, I am now a monk, a numerary of Opus Dei, living a life of prayer, corporal mortification and service. I am no longer the wretched sinner with a heart full of bitterness who caused so much harm to others. Now I live to serve God and my fellow human beings. Christ has entered my life, and I am filled with love and repentance for my sins.
I think that anybody can know the bliss that I now have in my life. All they have to do is ask God’s forgiveness for their sins and no longer live in the wicked ways of the past. God can forgive any sin, no matter how big, as long as we are truly repentant. We are all His children, and He loves us.
Words: 171
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  hopeful
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| Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
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2:49 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: What are you wearing?
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What am I wearing? Why, what I always wear, of course.
A woolen robe, a simple monk’s robe. Provided by Opus Dei. I no longer am permitted to wear ordinary street clothing since taking monastic vows. The garment symbolizes my commitment to the Church. It displays simplicity and a lack of ostentation, a turning of my back upon worldly vanities.
I wear sandals on the rare occasions I go outside of the Opus Dei buildings. These too are simple and plain. Nothing we wear as Opus Dei numeraries could be called aesthetically beautiful – all beauty is in the sacrifices we make by accepting chastity, poverty and humility as our lot in life, in order to serve God and our brothers and sisters.
And for at least two hours a day – sometimes more, if I feel especially sinful – I wear my cilice. The spiked implement that I bind upon my thigh, to remind me of the suffering and pain our Lord Jesus Christ went through for us miserable, sin-enslaved human beings.
Words: 170
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  cold
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| Friday, April 3rd, 2009
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8:36 pm - Theatrical Muse: Only child?
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As far as I know, yes, I am an only child. I’m my mother’s only son, at any rate. I don’t know if my father slept around before he met my mother to get other progeny, and I don’t care. I still feel rage and anger at my father for killing my beloved Maman, and although I have prayed over and over again for the grace of God to be granted, for me to be able to forgive my father, I have failed and been unable to do so completely. I have mortified my flesh again and again, and spent hour upon hour on my knees in prayer, but it still hasn’t happened yet. I do want it to, especially since it would make my spiritual father and mentor, Bishop Aringarosa, very happy indeed.
My father didn’t want me. I’m albino, after all, and he saw me as cursed and abnormal. He blamed my mother for my birth, and hated her for loving me. But I love her, always, and hate him for killing her. I wish I could forgive, oh Lord, how I wish I could!
Words: 187
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: thoughtful
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8:29 pm
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God has really, truly blessed me.
current mood: grateful
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| Friday, March 20th, 2009
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9:42 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Most Dreaded Question
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I suppose if there is a question I most dread, it would have to do with my origins. My childhood. Where do you come from, Silas? Who did you use to be? What made you the man you are today?
I do not like to talk about my past. I lived a life of sin and misery, shunned for my difference, mocked and hated. There was a childhood mostly spent on the streets. I was violent and angry. That violence, that rage, led me eventually to becoming a murderer. And then I was imprisoned for long, desolate years.
Were it not for the earthquake, I would be imprisoned still. And I never would have been able to escape and find Manuel Aringarosa. The man who taught me about God and persuaded me to join Opus Dei. The man who saved my life and my soul.
This man, the man I call Father, is the only one I feel comfortable talking about the past with.
Words: 164
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  scared
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| Friday, March 6th, 2009
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8:01 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Pets
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I have no pets, and have never owned any, as a child or as an adult. But I have always felt well disposed towards animals, for they are the Lord’s creatures, made by Him just as human beings are. When I lived on the street and had a scrap of food to spare, I would happily offer it to a stray dog or cat. I had the strength and patience to seek out other means of sustenance, but did they? Not very likely.
Today, as a monk in Opus Dei, I sometimes save the crumbs from my morning meal of bread for the pigeons of the city. And if I am doing severe corporal mortification with more than the Discipline and cilice, I give them my entire breakfast. As I implied earlier, speaking of my childhood, their needs are probably far greater than my own.
Charity should be offered to all, including the birds and beasts.
Words: 156
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  awake
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6:39 pm - For Sixwordstories
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Sinners, repent now! Save your souls!
current mood:  angry
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| Saturday, February 21st, 2009
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10:19 am - Theatrical Muse Topic: Thirteen
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When I was thirteen years old, I actually had a chance at redemption for a short time. Just a tiny glimpse of the hope that would be mine in the future. But I was full of wrath, sinful and foolish, and I threw that chance away.
I was living on the streets of Toulon in France, having been driven out of my home town of Marseilles for attacking an older girl who mocked me and tried to steal my food. I had no family and no friends, and was shunned because I was different from everybody else. It was a miserable time in my life, this being an outcast without a home.
There was a young priest in that place who occasionally gave food to the homeless and hungry, and tried to talk to some of the rootless children and teens, tried to find them families who would adopt them, or work and a place to live. He gave me bread sometimes, and attempted to befriend me. But I was angry and mistrustful, and never took up his offers of a bed or a job. I eventually moved on to another town and never saw him again.
But perhaps his existence foretold of the man who would be my earthly savior, the man who pointed me towards our Heavenly Savior in the end.
Words: 223
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: thoughtful
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| Friday, February 6th, 2009
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10:37 am - Theatrical Muse Topic: The end
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When the end comes, I shall face it with serenity and acceptance.
I do not fear death, for I have faith in the Lord God, our Heavenly Father. As His devoted servant and loving child, I look forward to being with Him after a life well lived – a life spent in humility, corporal mortification and prayer. A life given over to serving my fellow human beings in God’s name.
Once I may have been afraid of dying, when I was a sad, lonely outcast on the streets or a wretched prisoner. The afterlife was unknown to me, and my earthly life had been mostly wasted in sin up to that point. I was angry and directionless – but with the guidance of Manuel Aringarosa I was able to turn the purpose of my existence around and devote myself to Opus Dei. The sacred work of the Lord is now my everything. Manuel Aringarosa has shown me the path of righteousness and of love.
So death, when it comes, will be a reward and not a punishment – it will be a well-earned rest for work well done. My body may die, but my soul will dwell with our Father in Heaven forever.
Words: 200
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: happy
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| Saturday, January 24th, 2009
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11:58 am - Theatrical Muse Topic: Start Something
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For a while, I’ve wanted to give something special back to the Catholic church and the Catholic community that has nurtured me and given me new life. If it wasn’t for the Lord our God, operating through the man named Manuel Aringarosa and the organization of Opus Dei, I could have been a criminal, a sinner and a wretched prisoner forever. But I was given another chance, to live a righteous and disciplined life as a monk.
Spending my days in prayer and meditation is good, but there is more I can do. Opus Dei is about work, God’s work, and serving my fellow human beings.
I would especially like to help underprivileged children, the sort of child I once was. It would be a wonderful thing to stop such innocents from becoming embittered and falling into lives of sin. I’ve already done some work to help these young ones, and I would love to do more.
Manuel and I have talked about it, and he thinks it’s a great idea and wants to do all he can to help as well. He is truly a great man!
Words: 188
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood:  determined
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| Friday, January 9th, 2009
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7:07 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: The Past
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”The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun
I suppose the past is never quite gone. Thinking back, I realize how much it has shaped the man I am today. Without it, I would never have been such a wretched sinner, but then again, neither would I have found God eventually, become a monk and a numerary of Opus Dei, and been redeemed by giving my life over to the service of the Lord and my fellow human beings.
Being shunned for my difference, growing up on the streets as an outcast, does not excuse the terrible acts I committed. But I feel that I am saved now, because I repent of what I did. The teachings of Jesus showed me the error of my ways. Manuel Aringarosa’s compassion revealed to me that there is still good in humanity.
My sad childhood, adolescence and early adulthood are all part of my past. But so now are the early days of learning with Manuel Aringarosa. And it is that sacred time of repentance and rebuilding my life that will help me build a solid future.
Words: 176
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: thoughtful
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| Friday, January 2nd, 2009
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9:41 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: A Present Not Hoped For
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I didn’t see much of either set of grandparents when I was a small child. But I remember that when I was around four years old my maternal grandparents paid us a visit, and Maman told me that they had promised to bring me a present.
Like most little children, I hoped for a toy or sweets… but what they brought me was a small leather-bound Bible. I was very, very disappointed, of course. I was so young and had no religion as yet… I thanked them politely, but in bed that night I am ashamed to say that I might have cried.
Now that I have found God, I know the value of such a gift. The Word of the Lord is precious and sacred beyond all else.
Sadly that particular Bible was lost, but my beloved mentor, Manuel Aringarosa, gave me one almost exactly like it when I decided to become a monk. When I received it, I was happy and grateful.
Words: 164
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: thankful
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| Thursday, December 11th, 2008
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11:20 pm - Theatrical Muse Topic: Five minutes in the life...
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Silas finished his prayers and at last unbuckled the cilice, reluctantly, from his thigh. Bishop Aringarosa had expressed concern about his excessive use of the spiked metal instrument and, although Silas believed he could use further corporal mortification that day, he did not want to disappoint the man who he loved and respected so much. Manuel Aringarosa was always so gentle and caring towards Silas, and the albino monk thanked God for this savior in human form who had helped him turn away from a life of wrath, bitterness and sin. If it were not for Aringarosa, Silas would never have found his way to Opus Dei and a new and better way to live.
He cleansed the wounds on his thigh with a cloth and cold water, donned his robe and went downstairs to eat a simple breakfast with his fellow monks. He took only bread without butter and a glass of water that morning, though eggs and orange juice tempted him. Since he was not to have a session with the Discipline until much later, when the wounds from his last bout of self-flagellation had healed (on Aringarosa’s orders, of course), Silas chose to mortify his palate instead.
Words: 200
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: pensive
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| Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
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10:32 pm - Theatrical Muse Topics: Words in Common Use
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The word, or words, that I believe should absolutely be removed from common use are “unforgiven” and “unforgivable”. For I believe that there is no sin so great, even murder, that it cannot be repented of. And the forgiveness of the Lord our God is infinite and freely available to us all in exchange for our belief, our devotion, our prayers and our repentance. To attain salvation, we must follow His Way.
I once was the worst of sinners. I was full of wrath and self-pity, without direction, and I did many terrible things. But Manuel Aringarosa helped me. He showed me a different path to follow, one of faith and service, and I turned away from sin and became a monk, a numerary of Opus Dei. Through prayer and corporal mortification, and serving my fellow human beings, I found redemption.
The words that I believe should be used far more commonly and widely are “faith” and “discipline”. For the world could use much more of those things.
Words: 168
Muse: Silas
Fandom: The Da Vinci Code
current mood: calm
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