On this Third Sunday of Easter, the Gospel reading of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus struck me in different way: the disciples did not understand that they were talking with Jesus himself. This is not unusual in the Gospels, for throughout the accounts of the Resurrection Jesus is not immediately recognized. But today’s passage says that Jesus “was made known to them in the breaking of bread” (Luke 24:35). Bread: he himself was broken as bread to be given to us. This is why St. Paul can later write: “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Cor. 12:27). Jesus wants us to recognize him in his body, that is, in one another. This brought me to consider the reality of the monastery.
As Benedictine nuns, we live in community, the form of monastic life called cenobitic. A monk or nun “lives under a rule and an Abbot” (RB 1:1), and this call to be cenobites is rooted precisely in the belief that it is through and in the other that we meet Jesus.
Every day, I must look to each of my sisters, as well as the guests, in order to recognize Jesus. The goal of all Christians is union with God, and as a Benedictine, this union with God, this recognition of him, is found through our life in community.
May Our Risen Lord help us all to recognize him in his other members!
Signs of spring are emerging, bringing with them a sense of all that we’ve just experienced in the liturgy: Resurrection! All the plants and trees that once experienced diminishment and death are now rising up again by a seemingly invisible power. And what is this power? Well, some would say it is simply the presence of a gene within the plant, telling it to begin growing when the conditions are right—the warming soil, adequate moisture and brighter sunlight. Others would say it is simply the miracle of God, our creator, who by his will makes the plant life bud forth each year.
Today is a wonderful feast of the Church, as we praise and thank God for his eternal mercy upon the whole world. For us at St. Scholastica Priory, this day has extra significance because we also celebrate the feast day of one of our sisters. (Here at the monastery we celebrate the feast of our namesake rather than our birthdays.) It is our custom to decorate the sister’s place at table, prepare her favorite meal, and leave cards at her door with offerings of prayers.
As we rejoice in the first days of Eastertide with all its gladness and joy, we simultaneously find ourselves in the midst of the Divine Mercy Novena: nine days leading up to Divine Mercy Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter. This is a time to reflect on how the Resurrection bears the message of God’s mercy in the fullest possible way, a time to understand more deeply that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 