Archives for September 2017

The season of autumn is, for many, a special time to contemplate the spiritual world. As the wonders of nature begin to fade from sight, we tend to ponder the invisible things that God has created. Just think: angels of all varieties intermingle with us here on earth! How exhilarating a thought!

This week, we celebrate the Feast of the Archangels: Michael, Raphael and Gabriel; and in the first week of October we commemorate our guardian angels. These pure spirits “guard and guide” us (as we recall from the well-known prayer), and so we can be sure they have a particular interest in our well-being. And what’s more, they are perfectly conformed to God’s will. Who could be better to lead us along the path to heaven? Perhaps then we could ask these celestial creatures to be patrons of those discerning a vocation, as well as those striving to be faithful to the call of God. Lead us and keep us safe, good spirits!

What is a nun? Who is a nun? There can be many elaborate answers to this question. Yet it is quite simple. The opening line of today’s first reading can help: Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near (Is. 55:6). A nun is one who seeks the Lord. She enters the monastery, obeys her superiors, and maintains a life of community and prayer in the enclosure in order to seek the Lord. All that we do as nuns in a contemplative monastery boils down to seeking. We are seeking God in all things and through all things, believing that he is indeed near. For our God is a personal God who has sought and found us before we have even sought him.

What follows this seeking? A life filled with awe, joy, and excitement because we do find the Lord, in the unexpected.  For as the reading continues, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts (Is. 55:8-9).  They are far above our imagination.  He finds every way to make himself known to us, to be near.

A monastic church, dedicated to God: this is what we celebrate on September 17th at St. Scholastica Priory and St. Mary’s Monastery. The liturgy glitters with imagery of the New Jerusalem, the church made pure. We too, are parts of that church, and our souls take up this spirit of dedication–with glad rejoicing! At Vespers, we chant this beautiful hymn:

Jerusalem, the blessed city, called the vision of peace, which is built up in heaven of living stones, and surrounded by Angels as a bride by her retinue.

     Coming down new from heaven, prepared for the nuptial chamber, so that as a bride she may be united to her Lord: her streets and her walls are of purest gold.

     Her gates glitter with pearls, her inmost sanctuaries are wide open: and everyone who is persecuted here in this world for the name of Christ finds entrance there in virtue of His merits.

     Her stones, polished by blows of affliction, are fitted to their places by the hands of the Builder; they are arranged to remain forever in the sacred edifice.

     Everywhere be there glory and honor to God most high; equal glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the glorious Paraclete, to whom belong praise and power through everlasting ages. Amen.

How many times have you made the sign of the cross in your life? If you’re a Catholic, then you’ve probably done it thousands of times every year. Maybe it’s just a rote gesture that permits entry into the pew or kicks off the blessing at dinner. But with the upcoming feast of the Exultation of the Cross, we might do well to take a closer look at what it really means.

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” As we invoke the names of the Persons of the Trinity, we do it not only with our voices, but with a gesture of the body. We literally draw the cross over ourselves, over the head and heart.  When it is done mindfully, a sort of imprint is made upon us of this central icon of our faith, which allows the spirit of Christ to permeate every part of our being. It is a confirmation that we are redeemed, spirit, soul and body!

Through the physical suffering and resurrection of Jesus, what was once the instrument of Adam’s sin has now become the dwelling place of God. The triumph of the cross is revealed every time we make that familiar sign. Our bodies are sanctified, along with our souls within them, and what a joy it is to remember that someday, both will be in heaven. We rely on the cross for our eternal welfare, so let us make this sign with gratitude and gusto—as if our lives depended on it. Because, well, they do!

 

Fire up your ovens, sisters! Out come the pies, the freshly-baked bread, and every other savory delight fit for a feast day dinner. For every year on September 3rd—the Feast of St. Gregory the Great—we have our brothers from St. Mary’s Monastery over for a celebration of their superior’s feast day.

What makes these occasions so joyful? Well, there’s the coming together to share a meal—a very fundamental way of rejoicing in the gift of life. It is a sacred thing to eat together in a monastic refectory, and it reflects the sacrament of the Eucharistic meal. To partake from a common table is to remember our shared dependence on God and one another.

And on top of all that is the added blessing of having a twin community of monks with which to share our Benedictine tradition. It is a foretaste of heaven, where all souls dine together at the eternal banquet. Pray for us, then, that—as St. Benedict puts it—we may come all together to everlasting life!