Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

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Trinity Sunday

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On this, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we celebrate the Church’s understanding of who God is: three unique, equal, divine persons in one God.  It is a celebration of our lived faith experience that we attempt to put into words.  We turn to the Scripture writers for a fuller understanding of this experience and for the ability to share the experience of God in our own lives.  I like Bishop Barron’s description, “The love that God the Father and the Son breathe back and forth is the Holy Spirit, the life of the church.”

But, nowhere in Scripture will you find a specific teaching of the Trinity.  However, we do find many places where the biblical experience of God is so rich that it cannot be encapsulated in a single word.  Jesus is the visible icon (as it were) of the invisible God, making the mystery of God tangible to us.  It is important that we believers have a welcoming attitude to the triune presence of God, so we are ready whenever, and through whomever, God chooses to continue to be revealed.  In this way we will be ready to listen to  and become involved in that dialogue.  Without the continued experience of Father, Son, and Spirit (or some may choose to say: Creator, Savior and Spirit) the doctrine ceases to be a lived experience.  But, if we expect today’s readings to give a clear presentation of the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, that simply will not be the case.  Ours is a God so generous… who loves us so much, that this whole world was created for us and continues to gift to us the gift of Self through the appearance of bread and wine.  Here is a God, generosity personified, who loves us beyond our wildest imaginings.

God wants us to discover this Love and celebrate it.  The fact is: God wants to be found and is constantly calling out to us – but not necessarily with words. He gives us so many opportunities – so many times when we travel through even the darkest tunnels of our lives and then come out the other side to encounter, unexpectedly, something surprisingly, great beauty and holiness.  As I came through the connector this past week, I found myself surprised and confounded by a glimpse of an awesome glorious dawn!  The words of Sirach spring to mind: “As the rising sun is clear to all!  How beautiful are all God’s works!  Even to the spark of a fleeting vision.”

As long as we have our feet planted on “this side of the grass” it makes sense that we might not be able to completely understand how something can be “one” and “three” at the same time.  We need symbols to help us delve deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Trinity e.g. St. Patrick’s shamrock or three-leafed clover … three leaves, one stem.  Or consider the egg you might have for breakfast: yolk, white and shell – three parts, one egg.  Or we might’ve heard the Trinity compared to an Apple….  ONE apple, three different parts: skin, flesh, and seed.

This is a feast, a solemnity beyond words.  The Holy Trinity is a privilege and not merely a commemoration of a doctrine.  Through the celebration the Trinity we enter into a communion of Persons who has loved us into being and continues to call us each day to a fuller experience, a deeper lived knowledge, of our Triune God.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34. 30-40             Second Reading: Roman 8:14-17
Gospel:  Matthew 28:16-20
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Pentecost Sunday – A Tale of Journeys

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The Scriptural selections we’ve heard this Easter season are an annual reminder of Jesus’ “journey” stories.  We recall His appearance to Mary in the garden, His “beaming up” into and vanishing from the upper room where his mother Mary and the disciples had gathered, the meeting on the road to Emmaus, Jesus’ “here again, gone again, come again” ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

In this, our 135th community anniversary of our founders’ journey from Pennsylvania to Florida, I invite you to join me in taking a long backward look at the “journey history” of our community.  The reflection is longer than usual but remember, it covers 135 years.    It is evident that we and our Florida Benedictine ancestors have made many and varied journeys.  We’ll 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 lived in hillside caves along the path 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 too – traveled from Italy to Germany, England, France, Switzerland, and Austria – and from there in 1852 to the United States.  You probably know the story of the monk shouting at Abbot Wimmer that his “wagon load of trouble” (the Benedictine Sisters arriving from Eichstätt, Germany) had been spotted on the horizon approaching the abbey in Latrobe.  Like spotty fires that can’t be contained, Benedictine women’s houses sprang up across the continent.

Our own history brings a “wagon load” of five Sisters from Pennsylvania to San Antonio, Florida. It wasn’t long before the Sisters were operating schools in their own home, in the local parish and three miles down the road in St. Joseph.   Over the years, our Sisters would journey each school year to/from places as far away as Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.  They also 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, St. Joseph and right here in St. Leo. For many years every June the Sisters brought all their worldly possessions back to Holy Name Convent.  They never knew for sure where they’d be “missioned” the next school year.  Before it was in vogue, this practice was a built-in system of “spring cleaning” and downsizing.

During the summers, the Sisters continued on their journeys to complete, or extend, their educations.  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, South Dakota, Barry College in Miami, the Mount Saint Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, Wisconsin and St. Louis.  Sometimes 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 schools, 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 checked out the veracity of this story but I’ve heard that there was one Sister who used to travel to weekly college classes with her typewriter on her lap finishing up an 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 immersed travel in our Florida Benedictine genes.  The move from Pennsylvania to the mission territory started with five valiant women.  There followed in the years to come the move of the monastery building from the San Antonio plaza to the top of the hill overlooking Lake Jovita.  In 1959, we saw the demolition of the wood-frame convent and the rise of a structure made of concrete and steel.  And, then there were the years of discernment that concluded with our decision to move body and soul in 2014 across the highway to the structure we now call home.

And, you’ll recall we’ve moved not only our persons – we’ve moved buildings to our property. This included the barracks buildings delivered for a boys’ school, a canteen for the academy girls, cabin for Camp Jovita, and building for the day care.  We can point to where these buildings used to be: the kindergarten and coif room, the laundry at the lake, Scholastica Hall, barns, the home economics house, 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 phenomena for Florida Benedictines. For some of us a journey is an adventure; for some it is a dreadful thought.  For all of us it can be a great risk, a scary thought, or 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!  Recall Gregory Norbert’s hymn, “Journey Ended, Journeys Begun” that we sang during our good-bye procession through Marmion-Snyder halls down to the cafeteria for our final meal there.  We pray: O 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

 

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“I must be personally present in my gift.”

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When is the last time you sought a big rock to dash your unruly thoughts against?  Uttered something in a language you never studied?  Or, like what happened to St. Benedict, had a goblet crack down rim to stem and spill out its poisoned contents?  After all we live at HOLY NAME monastery and the evangelist Mark quotes Jesus telling us these will be our signs if we are baptized and believe in the Holy Name!  And, on top of that we have the command to: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

A little overwhelming, isn’t it?  But we had best take the message to heart all the while assured by the words in the Gospel: Jesus took his seat at the right hand of God but they (meaning we) went forth and preached EVERY-WHERE, while the Lord worked with them.”

Praise God the full brunt of the message does not fall on us alone.  But we must take seriously our commitment to shoulder our share of the burden to spread the Good News to all with whom we come into contact. We write a new page of the gospel each day through all that we do and by whatever we say.  Others read what we express with our lives.  We express what we believe in a variety of ways in multiple community documents:  in our PHILOSOPY statement, our MISSION statement, our VISION statement, our CORPORATE COMMITMENT and our CORE VALUES.  We recognize and acknowledge our responsibility to harken to Jesus’ call personally and to contribute to its fulfillment in the context of our Benedictine vocation.

There is an ancient beautiful story about the ascension of Jesus into heaven. When the grand welcome ceremony was over, the angel Gabriel quietly approached Jesus and shared some doubts.  “I know that only very few in Palestine are aware of the great work of human salvation you have accomplished through your suffering, death and resurrection. But the whole world should know and appreciate it and become your disciples, acknowledging you as their Lord and Savior. What is your plan of action?”  Jesus answered, “I have told all my apostles to tell other people about me and preach my message through their lives. That’s all.” “Suppose they don’t do that,” Gabriel responded. “What’s your Plan B?” Jesus replied, “I have no other plan; I am counting on them.” That fanciful story reminds us that Jesus is counting on each one of us to make Him known, loved and accepted by others around us.

Our mission is both easy and hard: easy to understand but hard to carry out.  Words of Pope Benedict XV express well the attitude and the necessity of self-giving: “My deep personal sharing in the needs and sufferings of others becomes a sharing of my very self with them….  I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self. I must be personally present in my gift.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Congratulations Graduates, one and all. 

Happy Mother’s Day, ALL who “mother” us in a variety of roles – thank YOU!

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11         Second Reading:  Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Gospel:   Mark 16:15-20
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Sixth Sunday of Easter

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The theme of this gospel is clearly love but not the kind of love we see on film or on TV or hear on the radio or a CD.  In church hymns, too, we frequently sing about love.  But, as Oliver sings in the musical based on Charles Dickens’ story, “Where is love?” We ask: What is love?  Love is a gift freely given. Sometimes we hear this word “love” used in such a way that we degrade, lessen or weaken its significance.  The way Jesus and John use the word for love just doesn’t apply to chocolate, a long drink or an afternoon nap.  We may like and enjoy those things a lot, but we don’t “love” them in the way we love our neighbor.

It is notable, I think, that Jesus gives us just ONE love commandment. He does not say, “Love me, love my father or love God as I have loved you”. No, he says, “If you want to be my disciple, then you must love one another.” If we really love our brothers and sisters we do not have to worry if we love God. But, if we do not love everyone unconditionally, then there is no other way we can claim to love Jesus. We need to love like God loves, without exception.

Deep down, we all want to be loved.  We like people to be our friends.  Yet, because of our past experiences, the influence of parents and other people around us, the pressures of our society and our traditions, and plain bad habits, we often do not know how to love, do not know how to forgive, do not know how to be reconciled.  We do not practice the skills we know that promote healthy relationships.

Sometimes people will love us back; sometimes they will not. People learn to love by being loved.  We learn to share love and communicate our feelings by imitating the models we live with.  Remember your mom coaxing you when you received a gift or a compliment: “What do you say?”

When I genuinely love others, there will always be some who cannot love me back but there will be others who will really respond in love. And it may be that my love has empowered them to be loving too.  Benedict reminds us in the Prologue to the Rule – we heard it read just yesterday: “See how the Lord in His love shows us the way of life…. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Holy One to supply by the help of grace … while there is still time, while we are in this body and have time to accomplish all these things … we must run and do now what will profit us forever.”  We know, but too often forget, that Jesus never told his disciples to LIKE each other.  He said: “LOVE one another.”  And, how does Jesus express love?   We know it is given freely and without reserve.  He gives us a “how to” when He says: “I am gentle and humble of heart.”  This is how we are to love one another: in humility with gentleness.   Just as we cradle and carry a precious glass object, we value and treasure our free gift of love with special caring.

It’s a life-long journey, isn’t it?  We may have fleeting moments when “perfect love” rises to the surface of our motivation to action.  I think it was St. Irenaeus who said a very long time ago that “The glory of God is a person fully alive.”  (John Powell)

You see, love is God’s very nature; God cannot not love. How does God love?  Full hearted and unconditionally.   Jesus gives us just one commandment that encompasses all the others. He does not say, “Love Me as I have loved you”. No, he says, “If you want to be my disciple, then you must love one another, as I have loved you.”   If we really love our brothers and sisters, including strangers and even enemies, we do not have to worry if we love God.  In one of our “love” hymns, we sing “Where love abides, our God is ever there.”

St. John does not say to us, “Wherever there are Christians, there is God” or “Wherever there is a Christian church, there is God”.  No, he says, “Wherever there is love, there is God”.  Wherever there is a person filled with love for others, God is there.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 10:25-26,34-35,44-48         Second Reading:  1 John 4:7-10
Gospel:   John 15:9-17

 

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Fifth Sunday of Easter

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Our Gospel reading is taken from the middle of the Last Supper discourse when Jesus speaks about his relationship with his disciples – with each of us.  He teaches about the importance of the words He has taught and how he will remain with his disciples, with us.  Jesus promises to remain in a vision rich in intimacy that is profound and personal.

He uses an example to which His followers can easily relate to – fruit of the vine ripening for harvest.  He knew the details of pruning and removal of non-fruit bearing branches, throwing out and burning withered branches.  The people had asked him before to speak literally and not be so subtle.  When He spoke about vineyards the people of Judea knew what he was talking about.  It was their cash crop, not like grain which were raised purely for consumption.

He could have chosen any number of crops. However, I am glad He was attracted to the vineyards.  I like the ring “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  Imagine if he had used figs or olives, melons or cucumbers – I am a tree, you are the fig, the olive, the melons. The metaphor of the vine and the vine dresser made me curious about hidden symbolism beyond the obvious fact that the twigs are connected to the blossoms; the blossoms to the branches and the branches; to the vine, the vine to the root.

Grapes are one of the most ancient crops known to humans.  The form to which the grape vines are trained is limited only by the grower’s imagination and the vines-in-training themselves.  They must be pliant enough to yield to the contour God is shaping.

Grapes are sold as rooted cuttings.  Care must be taken to ensure that the cuttings are planted right-side up. Growers are advised to plant the vines in clearly marked rows in a north-south orientation to capture the most sunlight.  When the weather is cooler up to 90% of new growth is removed and young vines are typically not permitted to bear fruit for the first three years.

The pruning process reminds me of what we do every Lent.  We monitor our spiritual life to remove unwanted growth, pull and discard weeds, and through our resolutions we water fledging efforts to be strong Christians – good community members – worthy disciples.  Preventive action offers the greatest benefit in controlling the spread of disease from vine to vine.  Visit the vines often, screen cuttings for good potential, prune as needed, dispose of dead and diseased parts, rake the soil, scout for insects.

So, what are the “Big Five” community fungal diseases?  The Benedictine Mark Scott (our retreat director in 2016) suggests the big sins for Benedictines are forgetfulness, murmuring, laziness, resentment and neglect.   These, he says, are the things that damage relationships, complicate things, create chaos, instill mistrust and generally disturb the peace.

How can we prevent or combat the monastic fungus?  Benedict gives us 72 tools for a holy life.  Surprisingly he does not start with prayer but with very basic tools that promote healthy relationships: love of God, self and your neighbor.  In Chapter 4 of the Rule you can see that Benedict was intent on his followers being transparent, peace-loving, self-controlled, humble and willing to grow and change.  And he says you don’t need to look beyond the walls of the monastery.  You will have plenty of opportunities in community to be shaped, pruned and coaxed, like the grape vines, upward into the sunlight, which is Christ, the divine vine-grower.

As we advance in the way of monastic life, we come to recognize more keenly the intimate, loving, shaping influence of God which is the heart and core of our commitment.  Like wild vines, we may stumble around reaching for false sources of sunlight, maybe even seeing only glittering reflections of light on the ground.  Too often we may trudge along with our heads down looking at where we have been rather than where the divine Vine Dresser is gently training our spirits to look upward – gracing us to see beyond our dreams.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 Have a pleasant week!

 

First Reading:   Acts 49:26-31         Second Reading:  1 John 3:24-28
Gospel:   John 15:1-8
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Fourth Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd Sunday

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No wonder this is called Good Shepherd Sunday and the Church’s day of prayer for vocations.  Jesus’ identification as the Good Shepherd is read in all three cycles of the Sunday Gospels.  Jesus says: “I am the Good Shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me!”  One of the earliest paintings of Christ in the Roman catacombs represents him as carrying an injured sheep on his shoulders.  It was, and remains, an endearing and intimate image of a loving relationship – nurturing, life-giving, transforming, empowering.

I wonder aloud: why did Jesus choose SHEEP for his parable?  There are other animals native to the land where he spent his childhood: sand cats, camels, “man’s best friend”, or perhaps a goat or, heaven forbid: a pole cat.  Actually, there are 116 mammal species native to the Middle East.   What we do know is that he probably saw sheep most days of his life.  Jesus was teaching a lesson that would live LONG after He walked the face of this earth.  I can’t pretend or presume to read the mind of God.  But, Jesus, being God, knew that sheep would still be around today so that we 21st century people, living on the other side of the world, could identify with his example.

What is it about sheep that gives us some insight into our relationship with Jesus, the Good Shepherd?  I’ll describe a few.  Shepherds must anticipate the needs of their sheep for food, water, sleep, leadership and protection.  Sheep are commonly described as lacking initiative, dependent, copy cats but simple and playful.  They have insatiable appetites.  They seek sustenance, suckling from the moment they can stand upright. Sheep are skittish especially of loud noises and unpredictable in their reactions.   Maybe it’s their strong flocking instinct that most aptly applies to us who seek relationships in religious life?  Sheep are very social and need to see one another when grazing.  (Is that why we sit across from each other in chapel and at table?)

Sheep are agitated if separated from the flock (like humans who are forced to practice “social distancing”).  Sheep have excellent eyesight with their large, somewhat rectangular eyes, giving them a wide field of vision (like high sensates who take in every visual detail).   This feature, and a good sense of smell, alerts them to predators. Sheep are stubborn and unpredictable.  (Sound like anyone you know?) Head butting is both a natural and a learned behavior in sheep. (And, face it, some people are skilled in this behavior –  butting heads over trivial details.)

You see, we all act like sheep on occasion. We often ramble off from the flock to nibble at little bits of foreign pasture hanging over the fence. However, we have a Shepherd who understands us; one whose patience and love are infinite. He is always ready to go after us when we stray afar.  His voice is constantly reaching out to us in Lectio, retreats, sicknesses, crosses, this pandemic and other various ways. How many times have we already felt his loving grace calling and helping us back to the safety of His company? Once in a while we have even felt His shepherd’s crook around our neck, gently coaxing us back into the flock!

This Good Shepherd sermon preached by our Savior over two thousand years ago is still echoing and re-echoing around the world, calling on us, his faithful flock, to do all in our power to spread his Kingdom.  Do not shut your ears to this call of Christ today. Give him a helping hand by sharing the light of your faith, praying for and nurturing vocations.  And, ponder which sheep-like traits is Jesus coaxing to life in you?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12         Second Reading:  1 John 3:1-2
Gospel:   John 10:11-18
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