Archives for August 2017

Our most senior postulant is nearing her entrance date into the novitiate! On that day, she will receive a new name and new clothing to mark the official start of her monastic life here in Petersham. It will be an occasion of so much joy for this new member, to be sure—and no less for her sisters and brothers!

From the very origins of Benedictine life fifteen hundred years ago, a religious habit was given to the new novice. For a monk or nun, it is a joy to don this distinguishing garb as an outward sign of total consecration to Christ. A tunic is worn to represent simplicity of life, a scapular to indicate the sweet yoke of obedience, a belt for chastity and vigilance, and for the nuns, a white novice veil as a mark of modesty and virginity for Christ.

Please join us in thanking God for the gift of growth in our community, and for new opportunities to glorify him!

 

I love this Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus is asking his disciples what people are saying about him and who he is. Then he brilliantly turns the question back to the Apostles, “and who do you say that I am?” Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” I could just picture Jesus smiling back at this response. In Luke’s account of the this passage (Lk. 9:18-21) Jesus helps all the apostles grow even more in faith in him because right after this he continues to answer the question with more detail. It’s almost like he is instructing them on what the statement that Peter said actually means. He says, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

“Who do you say that I am?” Our lives ought to be a continuous answer to this question. Monastics, Benedictines, are called to live a life in total self denial, abandonment and obedience to the will of the Father. Our lives must in themselves proclaim Jesus as the Christ of God, the God who is living. And the very fact that one makes the decision to enter a monastery already begins to respond to this question, because it is a public act. We are publicly saying “Yes, I believe in Christ the Son of God, who suffered, died, and rose from the dead out of love for me, for us.” It is as if we, in the silence of our monastery, without leaving our cloister, cry out to the world that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the Living God. And the rest of our lives needs to be lived in constant self denial, obedience and charity so that through these things we too may died to our selves, and rise again with Christ. This is what all Christians, not just religious, are called to do. To live their live in such a way that it is the response to this question and thereby get to know God. How great would it be if we all live our lives to answer in the way Peter did. Then, we would see our Beloved Jesus smiling back at us!

 

In our refectory during mealtime, spiritual books are read aloud to the community. This week we’ve begun a new one: the popular new text by Robert Cardinal Sarah. The Power of Silence is its title, and even those first few words alone carry with them great grace and insight.

Cardinal Sarah was deeply influenced by his time recently spent at the Carthusian Charterhouse near Grenoble, France, and the writing of this book flowed from his experience. It was a time of discernment and prayer, a time of listening to “what the Spirit has to say to the churches” (Rev. 2:29). Now, his readers can also enter into his experience and deepen their love for silence, which is the very atmosphere of divine things.

While this book is meant to touch the lives of laypersons and religious alike, it may also be of particular value to those discerning a religious vocation. For God speaks in the stillness, and uses this medium to move the human heart according to his will. Let us pray, then, that all may harness this Power of Silence to better learn the ways of God!

 

A great Marian solemnity arrives this week: The Assumption of Our Lady. While this is a relatively new dogma of the Church—only 67 years old—the feast has been celebrated since the 9th century. Every opportunity to honor Mary is an occasion to rejoice, for she is the best the human race has to offer to God, and the best that God has to offer to us.

The Assumption in particular highlights Mary as the sinless, spotless Virgin who was preserved from earthly decay. In her, nothing was incompatible with heaven, so much so that she entered its fullness with all of her fullness. Having become the most pure Mother of God, she became the abode of heaven itself.

We pray the words of the Magnificat with Our Lady in a special way today: “The Almighty has done great things for me; holy is his name.” As we praise God for all the all of the great things the Lord has done in Mary, we ask also that the Lord will complete his great and glorious will in us!

This past Sunday we celebrated the glorious feast of the Transfiguration. Such great spiritual lessons can be garnered from this commemoration, not least of which can be taken from St. Peter’s famous phrase: “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” Oftentimes, we understand this as a message that helps us not to cling to the consolations God gives, but to follow Christ wherever he may lead, even to the cross. While this is indeed true, perhaps there is another way to apply this Scripture as well.

On a trip into New York City some years ago, I stumbled upon a Catholic church on Park Avenue that had strikingly beautiful artwork, unlike any I had seen in a contemporary, Roman rite church. Amidst all of the images, one element stood out in particular. Above the powerful center icon of Christ were the words “LORD IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE”. In an instant, I was filled with joy and exclaimed to myself, “YES! IT IS VERY, VERY GOOD!”

How often could these words be prayed throughout one’s day. It is a simple phrase that embodies the spirit of rejoicing in the presence of the Lord—in Church in the presence of the Eucharist, as well as at every moment, wherever we may be. This fundamental joy is at the heart of the Christian vocation, a vocation to delight in the presence of Christ who came to earth to be with us. Lord it is good for us to be here, with You!

On today’s Feast of the Transfiguration we are reminded of the Divinity of Jesus and work of the Trinity in Salvation History. The experience of the Transfiguration is one that is used to talk about the consecrated life. St. Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata writes:

“This is my beloved Son”: listen to him! The three disciples caught up in ecstasy hear the Father’s call to listen to Christ, to place all their trust in him, to make him the centre of their lives. The words from on high give new depth to the invitation by which Jesus himself, at the beginning of his public life, called them to follow him, to leave their ordinary lives behind and to enter into a close relationship to him. It is precisely this special grace of intimacy which, in the consecrated life, makes possible and even demands the total gift of self in the profession of the evangelical counsels. The counsels, more than a simple renunciation, are a specific acceptance of the mystery of Christ, lived within the Church.” (16).  You may find the full text here.

The consecrated life is centered on the person of Jesus. It can be described in so many ways and can take many forms. Yet the core and center is precisely this intimacy with Christ. Union with Christ is the end! May the blessed Trinity give us all the graces to give ourselves completely to God.