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Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

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Holy Name Monastery

These Were Benedictine Women With A Dream!

July 11, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

St. Leo Township 125th Anniversary

July 9, 2016

 

20160709_140120We preserve our stories because we want never to forget that the opportunities we have today were not simply lavished upon.  They were purchased at the great price of travel from home; cold, cracked work-worn knuckles; study by the light of midnight oil; stomachs that ached with hunger; raking, hoeing and watering groves and gardens – saving, scrimping and salvaging.

What firm faith and incredible courage our founding sisters must have had!  The records in the Pittsburg archives remind us of how adventurous and of the bravery of these young sisters who in 1889 set out for a long journey into the unknown.  There were clearly told if the venture did not work, they were not to return to Pennsylvania.  An examination of the papers shows us that of the five women who signed their severance papers on the evening of February 22, 1889, one never made it to Florida.  However, one of the Sisters who had served as a witness, must have decided overnight to join the mission band – she is named in the group of our five founders.

Imagine what daring it took to venture south into a faraway place.  These were Benedictine women with a dream!  In 1889 Rome considered the church in America “missionary territory.”  In relative terms, the slaves had only recently been freed.  Had our Sisters ever seen a person of color in their northern neighborhood?  Surely not an Indian and most assuredly not an alligator!

There is some evidence that the pioneer band traveled from Allegheny County (PA) to the Benedictine house in Covington, KY – then southward by train which would have deposited them in south GA or north FL.  It seems safe to me to guess that someone from San Antonio would have met the Sisters at the train to bring them in wagons or on horseback down along what is now Hwy 19 and 41 – parts of the Seminole trail.  Perhaps they met cattle drovers bringing their herds to Tampa or Punta Gorda.  By the time they reached San Antonio, traveling through the Florida wilderness – in February, probably not too many mosquitoes but surely they’d have heard or seen black bears and panthers, “Strange” birds, and had run across a snake or two…

On Thursday, February 28, I bet they breathed a sigh of relief to at last be among people they may not have personally known but whose northern cultural practices and manners, whose speech patterns were similar to their own.

Next day, March 1, being a Friday, and most probably a Lenten Friday, would have been a day was meat was NOT on the menu.  The sister would have partaken of very little, if any, breakfast.  They’d have prayer the Little Office of the blessed Virgin, an abbreviated for of the Divine Office they’d back home.  And as we know from our annals: “the great work was begun.”  Perhaps they had a main meal of fish fresh caught from Lake Jovita?  Evening came, and morning came, their second day in the mission land called “Land of the Flowers.”

The Sisters first home was a three-story wood-frame hotel which was located on the city park in San Antonio.   In 1911, the building was moved on logs to a location parallel to the shore of Lake Jovita in St. Leo.  In 1960, the “new” monastery building, which is now called Benedictine Hall and owned by Saint Leo University, replaced the original wood-frame building which the Sisters and academy boarders had called home for 71 years.

By March 11, less than two-week after their arrival, the Sisters had opened Holy Name Academy for girls and were teaching in St. Anthony School and St. Joseph School.  From 1929-59 they operated St. Benedict Preparatory for young boys.

In their history since 1889, the Sisters have served as town mayors and commissioners. At Saint Leo University, they have served as administrators, instructional staff, board members, campus ministers, directors of residential life and director of library services, archivist, clerical staff and food service managers.  From 1962 until 1997 they provided housing for university students.  Florida Benedictine women have staffed schools in Texas and Louisiana.  In Florida, they have been teachers and school principals, and worked in parish ministries, in San Antonio, St. Joseph, Lecanto, Jacksonville Beach, Miami, Quincy, Sarasota, Ocala, Lakeland, Venice, Beverly Hills, Apopka and Tampa.

The Benedictine Sisters have conducted summer religion programs at three diocesan camps.  They taught in summer Bible camps in DeLand, Plant City, Leesburg, Bartow and Naples, Florida.  Weekly religion (CCD) classes were taught by the Sisters in cities where they staffed schools and in Floral City, Brooksville, New Port Richey, Eustis, Arlington, Ponte Vedra, Masaryktown, Belleview, Reddick, West Ocala, Fruitland Park, Gainesville, Clermont, Dade City, Zephyrhills and at the Girls’ Detention Center in Ocala.

At the turn of the 20th century they attempted the founding of another motherhouse in Quincy, FL (which did not thrive) and within 10 years they had been invited to start a house in the Diocese of Birmingham, AL.  A year later 5 of “us” from FL joined with 5 Benedictine sisters from Kentucky to found the Benedictine convent in Cullman, Al.

At the present time, the Florida Benedictine Sisters continue to work on public, private and parochial school boards, and at Saint Leo University.  Individual Sisters are volunteers and serve on the boards of Catholic Charities, the Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity, Sunrise Spouse Abuse Shelter, Hospice, St. Vincent de Paul Society, soup kitchens and thrift stores.  Some of the Sisters minister within their community in administration, recruitment and formation of new members, business affairs, hospitality and retreat ministries, direct services to the poor, food service, horticulture.

And, now here we are at day 46,516 in the 127th year of our history – yes we were here before St. Leo was St. Leo Township!  And the Sisters have continued to happily be residents of St. Leo for all 125 years of the town’s incorporation.  And the GREAT WORK goes on.

As long as there are gaps between our ideals and our reality, there will always be great work to be done.  Our founding sisters, and the women who followed them into community, knew that they probably would not live to see all the changes they promoted.  Little did they know the hotel-turned-convent they so carefully hauled to the shores of Lake Jovita would be demolished in 1961, a new priory (as it was called then) erected and eventually sold to Saint Leo University.

We face challenges our foremothers could not have imagined.  And, our “daughters” will face challenges unimaginable to us.  This is part of our Florida Benedictine women’s experience – we still remember in the beginning our founders were told: if it doesn’t work, don’t come back.  We work to compassionate and caring, to preserve the earth and steward our resources, to keep faith with our founding ideals and to enflesh them into a reality worthy of those who will inherit what we build today.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: 1889, Benedictine, Faith, journey, motherhouse, Saint Leo, San Antonio, St. Leo

When We Enter a House, Our Message Will Simply Be “Peace.”

July 5, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery 1 Comment

peace-to-this-householdJesus is warning us it is going to be difficult – that he is sending us out like lambs among wolves. Yet we are to bring nothing with us, not even a wallet or flip flops. We are to make no side trips along the way or greet bystanders on the way so as not to be distracted from our mission. When we enter a house, our message will be simply “peace.” The response we receive may be positive or negative. Either way, we are to know that the Kingdom of God is at hand. We are not to demand special treatment but eat and drink whatever is given to us. We are to stay in one house and are not look around for someone who can provide better accommodations. We are to ask a blessing for the sick as a sign that the Kingdom of God is at hand for them. If the locale will not receive us, we are to shake the dust from our feet and move on. Even in the case of such rejection we will know that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

In 2015, the world’s population was 7.2 billion.  Of that number there were reportedly 1.2 billion Catholics in the world with over 40% of those in Latin America and the fastest conversion rate in Africa.  Sounds like those early disciples clearly did not work in vain. Their “mustard seeds” grew from 12 into large branches, sprawling trees providing shelter for hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of souls living today – not counting all those who have gone before us.   That invisible yeast worked its influence dramatically on the seemingly inert dough.

Among those who call themselves Christians, how many could be deemed active labors in God’s vineyard?  The harvest is still great.  There is still a large population which profess to be agnostic or atheist – who have not met or who deny the existence of God.

But a common perception of “laborers” is priests, or religious brothers and sisters, those who have a “vocation”. One hears people expressing regret that today there are so few “vocations”. What will the Church do?    However, it is doubtful that Jesus was thinking of priests and religious when he spoke those words. In fact, in the world of the New Testament there were no priests or religious as we understand those terms today. In the mind of Jesus – and in the mind of the early evangelists – everyone who was known as a follower of Christ was expected to be a laborer in the harvest field.

How can one be a laborer?  Jesus told us our task is to be bringers of peace.  “Say first: Peace to this household.”  In early June of this year, Pope Francis, in his introduction to priests’ on a 2-day retreat, spoke about the first steps in understanding and practicing mercy.  He said: “If we start by feeling compassion for the poor and the outcast, surely we will come to realize that we ourselves stand in need of mercy.”  I would suggest that the same principle applies to peace-making.  If we start by providing a peaceful environment for our visitors and guests, surely they (and we) will come to realize how peace feels, how much we need it and how quickly it can spread among us.  And, what better way spread peace than by modeling peaceful living by our demeanor and interactions with others – a quiet, contemplative atmosphere in the hallways, conscientiously using an agreeable, non-threatening tone of voice, and performing simple random acts of kindness for each other.

What Jesus recommends is not to weigh ourselves down with all kinds of baggage. Our security is not to be in material possessions, in what we have. It is not in our status and standing in the eyes of others. It is not in the power and influence that we can wield. Our security comes from deep within, a peaceful security that no one or no circumstance can take away from us.

I read a funny story the other day about competing. It seems there was a barber in a small town who had been the only barber in town for years. Everyone went to this barber to get their hair cut. Then, one day a big, modern name-brand hair salon came to town and opened up shop. They advertised, “All Haircuts $3.00”   The old barber just couldn’t compete. In a last ditch effort to save his business, he hired a business consultant. The consultant spent a day pouring over the barber’s books and asking many questions. At the end of the day the barber asked the consultant, “So what do you think?  Should I close up shop?” The consultant said, “Not yet. I’ll be back tomorrow.” The next day the consultant showed up with a huge banner that he hung in front of the barber shop that said, “We Fix $3.00 Haircuts!” The competition doesn’t always win, do they?  We don’t need to compete – we just need to BE – be models of peace to each other, practice wise stewardship, believe in God’s goodness and mercy – and live it!

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Jesus, Kingdom of God, laborers, mercy, mustard seeds, Peace, vocations

“Pursue What We Judge is Better for the Other Rather than Self”

June 27, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery 1 Comment

who-do-you-say-i-amWhile there are a number of crucial spiritual questions, none is more important than this question asked:  “But you, who do you say that I am?  Peter might have answered “Son of Mary and Joseph” or “Son of the carpenter” or “A great teacher.”  Or he might have uttered one of descriptions he’d learned since childhood from the Torah – titles we heard in last night’s reading from Judith: “Creator of the rivers, king of all creation, protector of the people.”  But, in a graced moment Peter cut to the heart of Jesus’ identity:  “You are Messiah, the Christ, son of the Living God.”

It’s crucial for each individual person to answer correctly.   Peter got it right but he did not realize the full impact of his answer.   It is the first time a disciple refers to Jesus as Messiah.  But, he and the other disciples had the wrong notion of Messiah.  To them it connoted a reigning King. They did not understand it involves suffering and death.   Their idea of a Messiah was all glory; no guts.

Only one answer is objectively correct to Jesus query:  “Who do you say I am?”  Jesus didn’t say, “Great answer, Peter! Do any of the rest of you have anything to add?  You others, how do you feel?”  How you feel about Jesus doesn’t change who He is. There is a single correct answer to the question that is not based on feelings or personal opinions, but on objective revealed truth.

To stretch their understanding,  Jesus immediately mentions His impending death and resurrection and the cost of discipleship.  He’s hinted at it before but this is the first explicit mention of it. From here on, it will become a frequent theme as Jesus makes this intention known to go to Jerusalem.   The disciples still did not really comprehend this until after Jesus’ resurrection. Once they had a fuller understanding of what Jesus meant – they were enabled to go out as bold witnesses.

Think about how difficult it must have been for the disciples to commit themselves to Jesus as the Christ? For centuries, faithful Jews had been waiting and looking for the promised Messiah. Many lived and died without seeing that hope fulfilled. Sometimes prophets came on the scene, raising hopes that they might be the Messiah. But they died and the people kept waiting. Then, suddenly there came upon the scene this young upstart, a mere carpenter from Nazareth who began preaching and performing miracles. Could He be the one? He certainly didn’t fit popular image of what the Messiah would be like. But the disciples committed themselves to Jesus as that long-awaited Messiah.

Remember, they didn’t have the 2000 years of church history that we have to confirm their faith.   They were the first ones to say, “This is the One!” And they had to say it in the face of public opinion that didn’t agree with them. This fact is underscored by the contrast between Jesus’ first question, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?” and His second question, “But you, who do YOU say that I am?”

The disciples had to stand against strong currents to affirm their conviction that Jesus is the Christ. The Roman government didn’t care if Christians followed Jesus as long as they affirmed Caesar as Lord.

They also had to go against the opinions of the Jewish religious crowd, which had varying notions of who Jesus might be. The disciples had to stand apart from the Jewish religious crowd to affirm Jesus as Messiah.

Perhaps the most formidable ones that the disciples had to oppose were the Jewish religious leaders. The disciples were not formally educated as their leaders were in the Hebrew Scriptures.  They had no public influence; they were not the recognized interpreters of the Law of Moses nor were they guardians of the Jewish law. Who did this bunch of uneducated fishermen think they were to go against the opinion of that august body of scholars?

This question: “Who do you say I am?” still divides people. It takes a strong faith, firm conviction and undying loyalty to take your stand with Peter and the disciples.  And, it takes an unwavering friendship with Jesus to steadfastly affirm your conviction.

And, how do we do that AND follow Jesus directive: do not tell anyone?  He said the same thing on the mount of the Transfiguration: “Tell the vision to no one.”  I wonder, was it His way of saying: actions speak louder than words?

In the next few lines of the Gospel, Jesus cautions: If you are sincere in saying you want to follow Me, you must deny yourself to the point of losing your life.  That’s a tall order!  But, not much less that Benedict telling us to keep death daily before our eyes.  That doesn’t mean being preoccupied with death because Jesus adds “you will have life.” So, be preoccupied with life – the opportunities of the moment.

Think about all the little deaths Jesus endured along the way: spending hours with the crowds when he might have preferred a quiet get-away for prayer – taking time to feed the crowd when it might have been simpler to take the disciples to mom’s for a home cooked meal; taking the energy to clear the temple of the sellers of unnecessary and costly sacraficial offerings when He might have slipped in through the side door to avoid the commotion at the main entrance.

We have abundant, daily opportunities to “die” these kinds of deaths. All that is required according to Benedict (in RB 72) is that we “pursue what we judge is better for the other rather than self.”  Or as we challenge and promise each other (in one of our Benedictine Sisters’ Community statements):  “We seek to form bonds of mutual love and respect and to call forth the best in one another.”    When it is exhausting or especially trying, remember what Jesus promised: whoever takes up her daily crosses, gives up herself for my sake, will save herself – you will have life!

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Benedict, Christ, Jesus, Messiah, Peter, Scripture

Availability

June 6, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

availabilityThroughout his Gospel, Luke demonstrates that God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled in the person of Jesus.  In this part of Luke’s story, Jesus and his disciples are approaching the city of Naim when they come upon a large funeral procession. Luke does not tell us how Jesus knows that the deceased is an only son of a widow.  Did He know the family or was the scene and the ritual all too familiar to him and his disciples?   Whatever the reason, had Jesus not been present to the moment and available to its significance it may have gone without noticed or ignored by the evangelist as well as the passersby.

Before I continue: a disclaimer is called for: Much of what follows is borrowed or adapted from Robert Wicks’ little volume entitled AVAILABLILTY.

The virtue, the gift of availability is indeed a simple but a great gift.  The freedom to be present when needed is something special.  It is an opportunity to be spiritual – to be open to relationship in the deepest, most elegant sense of the term.  However, this wonderful state of living often seems hidden or distorted.  Today, availability is a premium because it is not only a gift but also sometimes a great challenge for many of us – one that we need to more fully understand and address if we are to be able to continue to be present in the full sense of the word.  Availability is not only a gift; it is also a problem.

Some of us are “too available.”  Thus, true availability becomes watered down. We become too busy to pray, too tired to reflect, and, ironically, too stimulated interpersonally present to others.

Others among us pull back in anxiety.  Being available to God seems to raise too many questions or doubts.  Spending time alone is no longer relaxing; instead we feel lonely or preoccupied with our faults and failures.  And being with others doesn’t seem to help either; in some cases, we feel used, left out, or misunderstood.  The end result is that our expectations for intimacy are not realized and we feel the need to pull back more than ever.

The situation is not merely a sad one; it is a dangerous.  Without a sense of availability to self, others, and God, life loses it spirituality.  Relationships suffer, break down, and we are left with a void or sense of confusion.

We must address availability with the imperative that openness to the personal and interpersonal is essential if the Spirit is to be heard and felt. Any blocks to relationship must be removed if we are to prepare ourselves always for the continual coming of what is Good.  The very vitality of living out the Gospel depends on our being involved –  in an ongoing way – in the process.

When we spend time, especially unplanned time, with others it is not so much that we TAKE TIME OUT OUR DAY to be with them as that we had make the other part of our life.  For instance, today’s funeral for Kurt … because we generously welcomed them into our home God, through us, was enabled to share compassion, comfort and hospitality to a large group of mourners.

Jesus absorbed the widow’s sorry, made it his own and offered deep compassion and consolation to her even before he raised her boy from the funeral bier.  Did Mary witness this incident or did others relate to her?  Later when her son died do you think  she recalled he’d brought this Only son back, and Lazarus, too, back to life?  Did she live in hope that such a miracle would be granted her son?  Someday we may know.

Picking up cues, recognizing a silent need – reaching into self and out to others: this kind of attitude is at the heart of a life that reflects an appreciation of the gift of availability.  This attitude merits being kept in mind as we look at some of the basic problems we encounter in trying to be available to ourselves, others, and God.  Though the concept is simple, living a life of true availability isn’t easy for most of us.  It takes a conscious desire and effort to be present to all the nuances of the present moment.  Some people see only the dark clouds gathering; others see the rainbow emerging.  Let us be present to the moments when rainbows quietly and slowly are revealed in our lives.  Jesus would have missed the funeral scene if he had been too intent on getting to the farmer’s market in town.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Availability, funeral, gift, God, Gospel, Jesus, Luke, Widow

Body of Christ; Blood of Christ

May 31, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

euch1With the singing of Vespers this evening we begin our celebration of the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ – once called Corpus Christi (but that only refers to the Body of Christ).

This one of my favorite feasts … it celebrates the ultimate in self-giving… not only to lay down one’s life for another but, further, to freely give its essence to another.

This particular version of the story of the feeding of the 5,000 is the only one of Jesus’ miracles to appear in all four Gospels. Luke places it between Herod’s question, “Who is this about whom I hear such things?” and Peter’s response to Jesus’ question about who he thought Jesus was.  In Luke’s version of the feeding of the crowd it is not the result of Jesus’ compassion for the crowd but is an incentive to the disciples to do something about the problem they perceive.  When they want Jesus to send the crowd away to so they (the crowd and themselves) can get something to eat, Jesus tells them to give the people some food on their own.

When we come to the Eucharistic table, hungry for the Word of God and the Body of Christ, what does the Jesus, in the person of the priest say?  “Take, you all, and eat of this.  Take, you all, and drink.”  How contradictory, then it is, a few minutes later to hear the same person say to the worshiping community:  “If you are not Catholic, fold your arms across your heart for a blessing.”

I recall in 1959-60 when our wood-frame convent was condemned by the fire department.  The local community responded with open hearts to us when they were asked: “May we live with you until we can build a new house?”  We certainly felt “welcomed as Christ” – the people viewed it a privilege to house the sisters and some of our boarding school students. They did not ask “are you Catholic” nor did we pick and choose a dwelling place based on a host’s church membership.

Today, everyday Jesus asks each of us … have you reserved a guest room in your heart for Me where I may rest, where I may eat a meal with you?   We think about Benedict’s words “guests are always present, wash their feet, acknowledge them with a greeting or a nod, set a special place at the table for them, reverence Christ in the person of the guest.  Our corporate commitment statement continues to challenge us to “respond with the compassion of Christ” to the variety of hungers of the human heart.

I agree with the author who says: “… Admittedly, hospitality won’t cure all of our ills.  It won’t erase underlying problems that promote a climate of division or create a magical panacea for human suffering.  But hospitality can help.  It can assist and guide us in the way we deal with, and the ultimately solve our problems.  It can allow us to function with grace and dignity.  Hospitality is a seed planted deep within us that awaits our attention and care.  Nurtured by willingness, watered by prayer, hospitality reflects the face of a loving, accepting, compassionate God.  Wherever we go, whatever we do, we can pray that a spirit of hospitality will permeate our thoughts and animate our actions.  (Everyday Hospitality by Thea Jarvis)

Pondering the significance of this feast, it strikes me that with Christmas we are touched with joy and awe at the birth of Christ.  At Easter we explode with ALLELUIA at the resurrection of our Savior.  The Ascension leaves us quietly looking upward, outward waiting in expectation for “what’s next?”  Then comes the Solemnity of the Trinity – the mystery that baffles us … that God is so great, so awesome that only in three persons can all the divine manifestations be expressed.  And, today; the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ – this touches, awakens in us feelings we can hardly express – that our God, our Jesus, our Savior would choose to gift us in such a personal, so intimate a way … the Creator chooses to be assimilated within the body of the creature.  His body and blood become, over and over, absorbed into my body – His blood courses in my veins.  Did you ever wonder how an aspirin knows where you ache is?  Or an antibiotic knows what to attack?  Is it heresy to say: Jesus attaches himself to every fiber of my being?  When the minister looks us in the eye and greets us: “Body of Christ; Blood of Christ”, we are stunned speechless except to respond as we’ve been taught: “AMEN!”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Blood of Christ, Body of Christ, Corpus Christi, God, Jesus, Savior

What’s that you say?

May 26, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

Trinity SundayTrinity Sunday

The Gospel just proclaimed comes near the end of Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper and is an example of the implicit teaching on the Trinity.   Jesus tells his disciples, and us, there is much more He could tell us, but we cannot bear it now.  When the Spirit comes we will be guided to all truth – for the Spirit will take what is Jesus’ and declare it to us.  Elsewhere Jesus has told us, “The Father and I are one.”  If Jesus and the Father are one and the Spirit speaks what Jesus says, it follows that the three must be one.

In first reading God is revealed as wisdom.  The words of the Responsorial Psalm remind us that human beings are the work of God’s fingers, little less than the angels and crowned with glory.   In the 2nd reading, from the letter to the Romans,  We are reminded that the love of God has been poured into our hearts.  And, as you just heard in the gospel, the Spirit will make the revelation.

But, if one expects today’s readings to give a clear presentation of the doctrine of the Trinity – they will be sorely disappointed. In fact the word “Trinity” is not found in the Scripture.  One writer has said if Jesus were to ask the question today, “Who do you say that I am?”  A modern theologian might answer: “Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple.”  Jesus might have replied: “What’s that you say?”

You have most likely heard this incident attributed to St Augustine of Hippo, who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into her hole in the sand.  Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine asked her, “Child, what are doing?” and she replied, “I am trying to empty the sea into this hole.” “How do you think,” Augustine asked her, “that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?” To which she replied, “And you, how do you suppose that your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?”  With that the child disappeared.

Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the how of the Trinity but it seems very important to understand why God revealed this mystery to us.  An overriding reason, it seems to me, is because we are made in the image of God. Therefore, the more we understand God the more we can understand ourselves. An important question for us today is: What does this doctrine of the Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what kind of people we should be?

Remember the old saying “Two is company, three’s a crowd?” The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd.  Love when it becomes complete is a trinity.  We become fully human only when we are in relationship with God and in relationship with each other.  When we receive forgiveness and a new determination to live a life more purposefully in the service of others, then we have an experience of God’s redemption.  We have a more personal, more dynamic, experience of God – we come to more fully know the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Our understanding grows but it’s still a dynamic that is incomprehensible to the human mind. It is a mystery!

In days gone past, more so than today or so it seems to me, Trinitarian symbolism held a significant place in family life and here at the monastery.  For example: parents signed the cross on their spouse’s and children’s foreheads as part of a goodnight or leaving the house ritual; at mealtime people would break a slice of bread into 3 pieces in honor of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  A tiny piece was left on the plate in remembrance of the poor who had no bread to eat.  Even today, three candles, three flowers or a bunch of three colors of flowers remind us of the Trinity.  Of course, there is also the lesson of the Trinity seen in St. Patrick’s clover.  In some cultures when a person blesses herself the ritual includes three smaller crosses.  In preparation for the reading of the Gospel we sign ourselves on the forehead, lips and heart praying: “May the Word of God be in my mind, on my lips and in my heart.”  Here at home, I recall one feast day when, in perfect silence, a large box of chocolates was being passed along the dining room table for each one of us to make her choice.  Suddenly Mother de Chantal’s stern voice was heard: “Sisters, You don’t need to honor the 7 sorrows of Mary or Jesus’ last words on the Cross;  three in honor of the Trinity will do just fine.”

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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: Father, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Trinity, Trinity Sunday

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