Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Holy Name Monastery

Trinity Sunday

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We know from other Gospel readings that Nicodemus went to speak with Jesus first under cover of darkness. It was his role to “break the ice” because he was the leading Pharisee in the group. He wouldn’t risk open association with Jesus, this strange but compelling teacher, until he had verified and tested his credentials. (You know: He verified Jesus had safe environment training and a clean driving record.)  We can be forever grateful to Nicodemus that he approached Jesus. For his courage, we thank, God, for taking this risk. His encounter with Jesus has left us with words that have been quoted lovingly among Christians ever since. The passage from John 3:16 is a thumbnail sketch of God’s initiative on our behalf.  “God so loved the world that He gave his only son.” Our entire life in return is a grateful response to God.

The response to “I love you” is ordinarily not “What do you want me to do about that?” It is “I love you, too,” followed spontaneously by evidence that we mean what we say.  Believing this way takes a lifetime for some, an instant for others. Time is irrelevant. From the moment we begin to want to believe in this way, we become truly Christian. It really is that simple.

Today we celebrate the reality of the Holy Trinity.  Our triune God is, of course, a mystery – an incomprehensible concept.  How is it that three Persons exist together in one trinity of being?  Thankfully, mysteries can be talked about. They can be described. They have clues that our minds can grasp. But a mystery remains a mystery unless and until we grasp it in its totality.  When it comes to God, we simply cannot grasp the total reality of God.

Mysteries, after all, are made up of clues that can be talked about.  In a mystery story the author gives hints, clues to piece together in order to see the whole picture. In God’s mystery story, the Holy Trinity, we have lots of clues. When we pursue them and piece them together, we get a good glimpse into what kind of a being our God is.  Our God is all about love. When we live in love we live in God, and God lives in us. Living in love, however, does not mean we all must be the same.  That’s not written anywhere.  The Father is a distinct Person, the Son is a distinct Person, and the Holy Spirit is a distinct Person. Distinct though they are, they exist in one being of infinite love; they exist in one unbreakable bond, in one infinite union of being together.

While that all remains a mystery to us, it is not so mysterious that we cannot live with each other in a reality of life that reflects and shares in the reality of God’s life. To live a God-like life we must build-up and affirm one another and see the best in each other.  We must be self-sacrificing and not self-centered. We must be giving rather than grasping, offering hope rather than mutual misery. We must seek to heal rather than rub salt on the wound.  It is in shared living that we not only belong but also where we discover, nurture, and affirm our own unique and individual personalities. It is in living the reality of being truly a family in Christ that we have a glimpse into the life of the Trinity: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

There is story about one of the great theologians of the 20th Century, Karl Barth. When he was in New York for a conference, at the end of his talk he asked if anyone had any questions. He got a few questions about what he had been talking about, some theological questions that, quite frankly, were rather boring. Then someone asked Barth what in all his years of Biblical study was, for him, the greatest theological discovery he had made.  He was quiet for a moment, pondering and he then responded that there was one truth that really had become real to him as he spent more and more time studying scripture and trying to know God better. And that truth was, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

This one simple truth can be argued for children and yet has so much meaning and power. It is also the truth that one of the great theologians of this last century claimed as central to his whole understanding of theology.   This simple truth comes to us as a children’s song, “Jesus Loves Me This I Know”.

We all have different views about who God is and what God is like. Early on I fell in love with God the Spirit … always with me … touching me lightly on my head, holding my hand as I drift asleep.

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9             Second Reading: 2 Corintians 13:11-13
Gospel:  John 3:16-18
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Pentecost

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Have we really come 50 days since Easter?  In the Gospel narratives, Jesus has told his disciples that he’s going to prepare a mansion for them in his Father’s house. He’s promised them that where he is going, they will be able to follow.  You’ll remember that Thomas told Jesus they did not know where Jesus is going – so, how can they get there?  Jesus explains that he himself is the way, the truth, and the life.

It was Philip who made a request that challenged Jesus’ words. Philip wanted Jesus to show the Father to the disciples.  Remember what Jesus has just told his disciples? “If you know me, then you also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”   Like the good teacher that he was, Jesus responded to Philip by elaborating on what he has just told the disciples: they have seen and known Jesus, so they have seen and known the Father. Then Jesus offers another reassurance about his departure: because of faith in God and in Jesus, the disciples will do the work that Jesus has done and more.

Jesus promises that the Spirit of truth will reveal all that He, and the Father, know and all that is to come.  This connection between Jesus and his Father, between Jesus’ work and the work of the Father, is made clear in today’s Gospel. Jesus is in the Father, and God the Father is in Jesus. As God spoke his name to Moses, “I am,” so too Jesus speaks his name to his disciples: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

Do you recall the theme music and opening words from “Mission Impossible!”  “Good morning, Mr. Phelps!  Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”  Just before Jesus returned to heaven, He charged us to do something which seems impossible…one of the most amazing verses in the Bible.  In one translation: “Verily, verily, I say to you: You that believe the works I do, you also shall do – and even greater works than these shall you do.” Sounds like mission impossible! And yet, our God, who cannot lie, has said it… …so, how can we make it a reality?

We can’t share the Good News if we have not heard the Good News.  We must have a mission that is a vision of what Jesus meant by “greater things.”  Our coming retreat time might be a good time to re-read and spend some time in private self-evaluation with our Vision and Core Values statement.

Jesus fed 5,000 people with a lad’s lunch.  He walked on water.  He raised the dead?  How can we do “greater?” Jesus raised the dead?  How can we top that?  Well, let me ask you: “Did Jesus say we would be able to top his works?”  No, He did not say we’d work greater miracles than He, but that we’d do greater works!  What are the greater works?

Jesus raised Lazarus and the widow’s son – a physical miracle.  Greater than raising someone physically is to raise them spiritually.  And, our corporate commitment empowers us to do just that …  to respond to the hungers of the people of God …. With the same compassion that Jesus showed the hungry crowd and a grieving family.   The greater work is salvation…seeing people pass from spiritual death to spiritual life.

Jesus’ primary work was not walking on water, healing people physically, raising them from dead…though He did all of those things.  His primary work was to seek and save that which was lost.  The miracle of Pentecost convinces us of the greater work the Spirit accomplished through the disciples.

Jesus says His miracles were nothing compared to what is coming.  The greater things we can accomplish will not happen by merely focusing on our community. It’s “mission impossible” to reach the world unless we have a plan of how to reach outside of our geographic limits!  The price will be in going the extra mile: attentiveness, physical expenditure, emotional drain, consideration for the details of hospitality and self- and interpersonal care.  This is what we’re all about…bringing glory to God by seeing people saved!  That’s a purpose worth committing ourselves to. It’s bigger, greater than just ourselves and our problems. In so doing we bring great glory to God!  Jesus BEGAN a work that we are to bring to completion. He BEGAN it in His earthly body, and He will CONTINUE it through us.  The ultimate purpose is to bring glory to God.  That goal is impressed on us every time we enter the chapel: that in all things God may be glorified!  I’ll close with a little story that reminds us we can do greater things.  Three friends were spending the day fishing in Lake Jovita.  After they were out in the boat, one realized she had left the bait on the dock.   So, she stepped out of the boat and walked on water to the shore and back to boat!

The others marveled at such faith!   With that another girl, discovered she had forgotten her lunch box back in the car.   She nimbly trotted across the water and back.  The third fisher exclaimed: “That’s incredible!  I am in the presence of greatness!  But I believe – I have faith, too!  She needed to use the restroom, so she stepped out of boat and promptly sank to bottom of the lake!  Her two fishing companions looked at each other: “Should we tell her where the rocks are?”!   We can depend on Jesus to be there when we need a stepping stone – He IS our rock.

~S. Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading: Acts 2:1-11              Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 17:3b-7, 12-13
Gospel Reading:  John 20:19-23
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Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord

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Do you remember hearing years ago the question: how far is heaven from earth?  It must be 5 days’ journey – because when on the ascension Jesus rose to heaven it took it was 10 days later when the Holy Spirit descended on Pentecost.  Five days up; five down.   That’s how far, some say, heaven is from earth.  (not seriously, of course.)    But that silly story prompts my reflection’s journey motif …

In this our 137th community anniversary of the journey from Pennsylvania to Florida, I invite you to join me in taking a long overview look at the history of our community “journey history”.  It is evident that we and our Florida-Benedictine ancestors have made many journeys.  We start with Benedict and Scholastica who skipped happily along the hilltop path from their home in Norcia, Italy.  Perhaps they stopped in to visit with the hermits who live in caves hillside on their trip to their grandparents’ summer house on the outskirts of town.

When still a young boy, Benedict journeyed to Rome for classical studies.  Before long, he journeyed into the hills for a little sanity.   A few years later, Benedict’s followers – and Scholastica’s nuns – traveled from Italy to Germany, England, France, Switzerland, and Austria – and in 1852 from Bavaria to the United States.  We probably know the story of the monk running to tell Abbot Wimmer that his “wagon load of trouble” had been spotted on the horizon when the first Benedictine nuns came to the U.S.  Like spotty fires that can’t be contained, Benedictine women’s houses sprang up across the continent. Our own immediate history brings a “wagon load” of 5 Sisters from PA to San Antonio, FL.  Before long they’d started schools in their own home and 3 miles down the road in St. Joe.

Over the years, our Sisters would journey each school year to places as far away as TX and LA and they made a mark for our community in Miami, Miami Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ocala, Sarasota, Venice, Lakeland, Apopka, Dade City, Zephyrhills and San Antonio, New Port Richey and St. Joe and right here in St. Leo. For many years the Sisters packed up each June and brought all their worldly possessions back to Holy Name Convent because we never knew for sure where you’d be “missioned” the next school year.  This was a built-in system of “spring cleaning” and downsizing.

During the summers the Sisters continued on their journeys to complete, or extend, their education.  To name a few places I know about, they traveled to Cullman, AL, Notre Dame, St. John’s in Minnesota, Belmont College, New York, Louisville, Yankton, SD; Barry in Miami, the Mount in Atchison, KS; Wisconsin and St. Louis.  Or they packed up a few necessities along with two habits and headed up the road to Good Counsel Camp where they squeezed in 2-week sessions of religious education for children that did not have the advantage of parochial schools.

In addition to staffing parish school, Sisters packed into cars – sometimes with volunteer drivers – to teach weekend catechism classes in Floral City, Brooksville, New Port Richey, Eustis, Arlington, Ponte Vedra, Masaryktown, Belleview, Reddick, West Ocala, Fruitland Park, Gainesville, Clermont, Dade City, Zephyrhills and the Girls’ Reformatory in Ocala.   I’ve never check out the veracity of this story but I’ve heard that there is one Sister who used to travel to “the outback” to teach catechism with her typewriter on her lap finishing up her college class assignments.

All this journeying from home to classrooms to college to camp to parish halls were mini-versions of the grand moves, the memorable journeys, that travel in our Florida Benedictine genes: the move from PA, the move from the park to the top of this hill; from the wood-frame convent to this structure of concrete and steel.  And, then there were the years of discernment that concluded in our decision to move body and soul across the highway to this 2014 structure we now call home.

And, you’ll recall we’ve moved not only our persons – we’ve moved buildings to our property – the barracks buildings that were delivered for a boys’ school and a canteen for the academy girls.  Camp Jovita cabins and the day care buildings rested south of the Villa.  We can point to where buildings used to be: the kindergarten and coif room, the laundry at the lake, Scholastica hall, barns, the home ec houses, the bus shelter, a hitching post on Hwy 52 and basketball courts where we hosted chicken dinners and danced around the May Pole.

Journeys are not a new phenomenon for Florida Benedictines. For some of us a journey is an adventure; for some a dreadful thought.  For all of us it can be a great risk, a scary thought, a step into a future that unfolds as we walk the path God holds out to us.  When we took our first journey from womb to the light of day, we were completely naked, vulnerable, squalling and fighting the loss of the comfort of 24-hour warmth, unending nourishment, periods of activity and times of quiet floating.  Journeys are nothing new for any of us!

In conclusion, for today, I suggest you think about some of the journeys you’ve taken – moves when you were a child, the move to join our community and the journey that our sisters of happy memory have traveled to their eternal home.   May they rest in peace!  God of the journey, show us the path to life.  Angels of God, lead us along our path.  Amen.  Alleluia!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading:   Acts 1:1-11         Second Reading:  Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel:   Matthew 28:1-16
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Revised Prayer Schedule

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Effective May 18, 2026

All are welcome to join the Sisters in prayer.

Monday – Saturday

Morning Prayer     8:00 am

Mass                         11:15 am

Evening Prayer      5:15 pm

Sunday and Feast Days

Morning Prayer     9:30 am

Mass                       10:30 am

Evening Prayer     5:15 pm

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It’s just not going to be the same.

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Today’s Gospel is an expression of an impending separation cushioned with a promise of an abiding presence. Jesus is speaking to his disciples at their last supper together.  And it must have been a LONG, many-course supper given the length of Jesus’ discourse. He lovingly reassures those gathered with him that even though he must leave them, he is not abandoning them.  In his stead, he promises, he will send the Holy Spirit.  And, on that day they will realize that He and the Father God are one.

When a lifetime friend moves far away we can reassure one another that we’ll stay in touch but we also probably agree [even if we do have FaceTime and Instagram]: “It’s just not going to be the same.” This may have been the feeling of the disciples.  Jesus is saying “goodbye”.   This is not just a farewell before going on a short trip, when they will see one another again in a few weeks or months.  It’s a more permanent farewell. He is preparing them for the shock of his violent death and the collapse of their plans for the future. Everything is about to change for them “It’s just not going to be the same.”

Jesus is sensitive to the feeling of loss they are about to endure. He’s telling them quite clearly, “It’s just not going to be the same.”  He knows they won’t make it on their own.   Their human courage, like ours, just won’t  be enough – they’ll need continued support to spread Jesus’ message after He is gone.

So, Jesus makes a FANTASTIC, and unbelievable promise:  He is going to the Father and he will send the Holy Spirit to guide them as they face new challenges.  There are going to be new issues and suffering for what they believe. But they will become aware of Jesus’ abiding presence.

We may be 2000+ years away from those disciples around the table with Jesus that night; but we too have experienced loss and need. We have said many goodbyes to family and community members.  We’ve experienced big changes in our lives.   There have been times when we’ve needed to be strong ourselves and for others: times of grave illness, worry over a troubled or addicted loved one, sorrow over a broken relationship or an uncertain future.

Those are the times when we’ve known: “It’s just not going to be the same.” And it wasn’t.  God sends us curve balls when we least expect it.  But, like a skilled ball player we can still hit a home run.  God gives us the strength to stay faithful and the wisdom to maneuver life’s many twists and turns.

Who could have foreseen, or even imagined, this day when we would be lesser in number?  These are times when we know well the feeling: It’s just not going to be the same.

Our duty, our challenge, then, is to believe, to trust that we DO have the Spirit with us – in Word, the Eucharist, in each other.  We believe Jesus has kept his promise to give us the gift of the Spirit – an abiding, permanent dwelling with each and every one of us.  We believe Jesus when he says: I will send the “Advocate” – a counselor, a consoler, a mediator – divine energy that will bind you together with one another, and all you in God.

A Thomas Merton prayer speaks to me when all I do know is: “it’s just not going to be the same.”

 “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And, I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

                                    [Thomas Merton, Thoughts on Solitude, 1956}

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17         Second Reading:  1 Peter 3:15-18
Gospel:   John 14:15-21
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National Day of Prayer

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Today is National Day of Prayer.  It is so easy to forget to pray.  Jesus knows about being human, a soul housed in a human body, a body which needs air, needs water, needs food.  But He admonishes us that we must also nourish our spiritual self not only through the sacraments, but also through private prayer.

Today we have the opportunity to join with all people of faith in prayer for ourselves, our communities, and our world.  We can go into our personal desert to pray alone as Jesus did while on earth.  But prayer is an anywhere, anytime, activity.  We can pray in the car, in the shower, while we walk, during the commercial breaks while watching television (the mute button is useful here).  Jesus is always ready to hear us.

Today, let us join all who pray.  Let us raise our souls to God, if only for moment, if only to say “Here I am.  Thank you for life.  Thank you for now”.

~by Sister Eileen Dunbar

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