Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Homily

Body of Christ; Blood of Christ

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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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What’s that you say?

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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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Fourth Sunday of Easter

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Have any of your ever raised sheep?  Or played with a lamb?  Maybe you’ve seen or touched a lamb at a demo farm for children?  Ok, so what we know about sheep we’ve learned from the media or in a science class.  I’ll take it for granted that you are a little familiar with the metaphors of sheep and shepherds but no so much as those who listened to Jesus talking about shepherds tending their sheep.   But, the image of Jesus as Good Shepherd has endured over the centuries as a primary image in our faith tradition.  One of the few Christian symbols dating from the first century is that of the Good Shepherd carrying on His shoulders a lamb or a sheep, with two other sheep at his side.

The power to describe the relationship between Jesus and his followers doesn’t necessarily require first-hand experience with raising or tending sheep.  In the earliest Christian art, the only depictions of Jesus are as the Good Shepherd.  And that image of Jesus persisted until about 500 AD.   By that time eighty-eight frescoes of the Good Shepherd depicted on the ceilings of the Roman catacombs because artists had run out of space of the walls of the churches of Rome.  The image speaks to us about the protection, intimacy, security, and care of shepherds for their sheep.

If we don’t know anything about the customs of shepherds and the unique relationship between the good shepherd and the sheep, then much of what the Psalms, namely Psalm 23, have to say will simply passes us by.

It’s an image of Jesus that’s popular with many people.  In some we see Jesus holding a lamb around his neck, over his shoulders, holding the two front legs of the sheep in one hand and the two rear legs in the other. These images appeal to us because of the tenderness of Jesus, his care and compassion for the lamb. Our minds naturally begin to wander and we realize it holds personal meaning for us. We are that lamb who is being carried by Jesus. It’s reassuring for us, in the dark days of our lives, that although we may feel empty and alone, we are never abandoned.  This is portrayed very beautifully in the poem Footprints which you may recall.

In each scene (of my life) I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, others times there was one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life,

When I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord, “You promised me, Lord, that if I followed you, You would walk with me always.

But I Have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life

There has only been one set of footprints in the sand.

“Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints,

My child, is when I carried you.”

The image of the Good Shepherd is symbolized in a beautiful way by the Pallium which the pope and archbishops wear over their shoulders while celebrating Mass. The Pallium is made from lamb’s wool from sheep raised by the Trappist monks on the outskirts of Rome.  When mature, the sheep are taken to the Pope for a blessing and then cared for by Benedictine Nuns at St. Cecelia’s (where Benedict lives while he was going to school in Rome) until they are sheared on Holy Thursday.   The lamb’s wool is meant to represent the lost, sick or weak sheep in the desert which the shepherd finds and places on his shoulders and carries to the waters of life.

One of the amazing things about shepherds and their sheep is how the shepherd moves them from place to place – and how the sheep know and trust the voice of their shepherd.  A similar phenomenon is observed when expectant parents speak to their babe in utero, reciting nursery rhymes, reading stories aloud – even adult literature or the newspaper – when after birth the infant perks up at the sound of that voice, the cadence of the words being read, indicating, “I heard that before.”

Some people think sheep are rather dumb – but really they are not.  Perhaps, it is cattle ranchers who are responsible for spreading that ugly rumor, because sheep do not behave like cows.   Cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowhands with cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep.  If you come up behind a flock of sheep making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led.  You push cows, but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first namely their shepherd who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.

At night the shepherd can walk right through a sleeping flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger cannot step foot in the fold without causing pandemonium.  And when several shepherds and their sheep are at a watering hole and it is time to leave all the shepherds have to do is call and their flock separate themselves out – and follow their shepherd away.

This is what we need to do when confronted with a cacophony chorus of conflicting opinions … but we can only do this if, as Pope Francis reminds us, “it is essential in order to cope with complexity and change, that we have developed the ability to withdraw for quiet reflection.  Only then will we truly know the voice of our shepherd, heed His voice and follow wherever God calls.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Third Sunday of Easter

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FishingwithJesusAt the end of a long day, swapping stories about Jesus and his miracles, Peter’s friends may have asked him, “When do you think we will see Jesus again?”  Peter could have replied, “I have no idea.  In fact, I’m getting a bit frustrated with his absence.  It had been easy to follow Jesus around during his earthly ministry, but now they never know where he’s going to appear.”

Peter, the leader, decides to make a move. “I’m tired of sitting around waiting for him.  I’m out of here. I’m going fishing.” It is what he knows best. The others go along with him.   I think he’s simply saying: I gotta get out of here – I need some space to unwind – figure this out!  Like a lot of people, Peter is grateful that the others joined him.  It’s comforting to have friends who are on the same page. And, this is where Jesus finds them.  Strange isn’t it since Jesus had told them to go into Galilee and wait there for Him?

These disciples had been fishermen most of their lives before Jesus called them.  Some say they suffered a moment of doubt – a scary moment of spiritual darkness. I prefer to think of it merely as a night stress reliever, not unlike the desire that many people have to go fishing today.  Like us sometimes, they just wanted to get away for a while – an excuse to leave the stress of the everyday by returning to nature.

They know their trade well, they know these waters like the back of their hands – just where to get the best fish.  But this is a frustrating night – nothing, nil, zip, nada!  After each toss of the net, they come up empty.

Well, it’s dawn by now.  They were ready to draw up the nets and call it a night, when they spied someone at the shore line – there by a charcoal fire.  They don’t recognize the fellow.  This time, unlike the night of the storm on the lake, Jesus does not tell them “It is I.”  What he says is, “Try the other side – lower the nets on the other side of the boat.”   Baffled but trusting that the stranger might know what he’s talking about, or maybe just to humor him, they switch the nets.  And AMAZINGLY they pull in a huge haul!  If you know anyone who goes fishing, you know they have to tell you about their catch.  It appears it is such an ingrained trait even the evangelist reports it – 153 fish!  The number may be symbolic or it may just be to emphasize it was a BIG catch.

Suddenly the light bulb goes off: this is a familiar voice – John cries out, “It is the Lord!”  Always the impetuous one, Peter grabs his garments and drives in the swim to shore.  He throws clothes ON to jump in the water – isn’t that a bit backwards?  But Jews regarded a greeting as a religious act that could be done only when one was clothed.”

The disciples reach the shore; they find that Jesus had a fire prepared with fish already cooking.  Jesus had all the things they needed after being out all night on the water.  They found food, warmth and companionship.  They found a Savior who loved them and who had all the provisions in place that they needed.  Everything they lacked on that boat, they found when they came to Jesus!

The last thing we hear Jesus did is to give Peter this command, “Follow Me!”  It wasn’t the first time Peter’d heard this.  The last call is the same as the first.  It’s a re-commissioning.  We see that Jesus hasn’t changed His mind about Peter, even though Peter had denied him or any knowledge of him.  Peter’s call had not changed.

What can we learn from this folksy story which is found only in John’s Gospel?  What lesson is Jesus teaching us?

First, I believe we have to acknowledge that our first call is our forever all.  And, I don’t mean a vocational call.  Long before our call to a state in life or a ministry in the church or a career, God called to each of us: You are Mine!  We may back step, misstep, wander off the path. But God still calls Follow me.  Remember the hymn: What a Friend we have in Jesus. – He is our forever friend.

Another thing we see in this story … we have to be willing to wait through the dark night, the darkness, the emptiness in our boat when nothing seems to be happening.  When fishing and everything else seems in vain….  Seekers go elsewhere, we have poor attendance at programs, plans fizzle, volunteers don’t show up.  Be patient!  As it says in the Benedictus we pray each morning: “In your tender compassion, O God, the morning sun will rise, giving list to those who wait.”

This is when we have to flexible – cast the nets of the “other side of the boat.”  Look at the trends, where the fish are biting – listen to others’ suggestions and try new ideas – that’s where the 153 fish are ready to take a nibble.

Remember the part in the story about Peter being lightly clad.  (Some translations say “naked”.)  We have to be willing to be unclad before God – to stand naked before the Lord: put down our defenses, let up the shades and face the shadow-self so that when Jesus appears we can be clothed with the garments of innocence and integrity to greet the Lord.

When the night is over, and the dawn approaches, our ministries will be expanded, our nets will be ready and in good shape to catch the “fish” God sends to us for hospitality and membership.  We’ll bring our gifts of bread and wine, made from gifts that God gave first us: grain and grapes, the fruit of the earth. God has no need of anything further. Yet God accepts the offering we bring  – “the work of human hands”—and transforms them into the gift of his very presence.

As the dawn comes, Jesus meets us on the shore with everything we need.  And it’s customized, personalized just for me, just for our faith community.   Jesus is not only standing on the shore, he is waiting.  The question for us is: how long must he wait?

~Reflection by Prioress, S. Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

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Second Sunday of Easter

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christ is risen w tombWelcome to the Second Sunday of Easter.  Notice it’s “of”, not “after” .. because, you know this, Easter’s not a single day, or even an octave but a season of 50 days.

There’s no question that we know how to do Easter as an even: the question is … How are we at Easter as a way of life?

The great Easter truth we celebrate is not that we are going to live anew after death, but, by the power of Jesus’ resurrection we are new here and now!

“Here and now” – that’s easier said than done. If it’s any consolation, the first Christians: those who had the direct experience of our risen Lord don’t seem to have been much better at it than we are.  During the Easter season we’ll be reading a series of “post – resurrection” stories: the women at the tomb who seemed to have forgotten the “punchline”: that Jesus told them he would rise after three days. It took the angels to remind them of that rather important detail. And then they ran back to tell the disciples, but, the men didn’t believe them!  And, Mary in the garden?  She thought Jesus was the gardener

Imagine today’s Gospel scene.  It’s a week later.  Without warning, Jesus is in their midst – no time to run and hide under the table.  He’s THERE.  Someone’s first reaction was probably, who left that door open?  Immediately, Jesus “breathed on them”.

Some things we just can’t see. But we know they’re there anyway. Like the air when a gentle breeze caresses our cheek.  God’s love is sort of like the air, isn’t it? It fills us up –  even though we can’t see it – we can feel it in our hearts.  When Jesus breathed on them, Thomas who had missed Jesus’ first visit and wants to see Jesus with his very own eyes, expresses his belief. But Jesus reminds him of something very important.   Sometimes we just have to believe in things that we can’t see. We have a special name for that. We call it “faith.”

You may recall the words of several hymns that refer to the spirit breath of God: “Be our breath,” “fall afresh on me,” “whose breath is seed outpoured –  calling all things to birth,” “with your breath melt the frozen, warm the chill,”        One of my favorite Marian hymns often heard at Christmas, is sung by Amy Grant, entitled “Breath of Heaven.  It’s the story of Mary’s pondering the workings of the Incarnational Spirit within her.  Mary’s prayer becomes mine: “Breath of heaven, Hold me together, Be forever near me, Breath of heaven – Be with me now, lighten my darkness, Pour over me your holiness, for you are holy, breath of heaven.”

It has become for me a prayer: to be filled with the breath of God … And, that’s what Easter as a way of life is all about. And it’s a way of life we live one day at a time: one step at a time — trusting that even if we take a mis-step, we never journey so far from God that the life-giving breath of that Spirit is beyond our reach: even when that seems impossible to believe.

That’s the lesson we learn from Thomas who has gone down in history as “doubting Thomas” because he refused to accept the testimony of others, but demanded his own experience.  He has borne the brunt of almost two millennia of bad press because of His skepticism about the resurrection and Jesus’ appearance to the other disciples.  Yet, what did Thomas ask for that the others had not received?  They had seen Jesus. They had maybe had a chance to touch His wounds.  Why is Thomas ridiculed for his insistence that he see for himself?

I’m a little intrigued, actually, about how quick we are to make Thomas the poster child for faithless doubt. As a matter of fact, the rest of the bunch didn’t do any better.  Remember:  the women at the tomb, the men who didn’t believe the women’s story, Peter who runs back to see for himself …. and here are the “faithful” disciples, after the appearance of Jesus: still locked in the upper room.

Think about it:  why did Thomas come back at all. Whatever had taken him away from the community, he came back. And it was in the midst of the community that Jesus came to him, and without so much as a confession or absolution, offered him what he needed to believe: “Touch, me Thomas. Do not be faithless, but believing.”

One of Thomas’ great virtues was that he absolutely refused to say that he understood what he did not understand, or that he believed what he did not believe. There was an uncompromising honesty about him: he would never still his doubts by pretending they did not exist.

But, he refused to surrender to the fear, too, which kept the other disciples shut up in that locked room. He ventured out and then had the courage to come back – to face a community which had had an experience that he had not shared.  At first he insisted on his own experience of God.   Jesus knew what he needed – He extended his hand to him – not a hand out; but a hand up, the nudge Thomas’ needed to bolster his faith “my Lord and my God.”  This is our challenge, and our privilege, to figure out what people need –  to offer the comfort, security and peace that will bolster their faith in a loving God.  This, too, is the challenge the Good Shepherd extends to us on Divine Mercy Sunday: to lead people to green pastures, where, surely goodness and kindness and mercy may follow them all the days of their lives.”

With Thomas, and all whose faith wavers:  we pray, “Breathe on me breath of God, until my heart is pure. Until with you, my will and Yours are one – not my will but yours be done.”

~ Reflection by Prioress, S. Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

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Palm Sunday 2016

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palm-sunday1There’s a saying you’ve surely heard:  “something just has to be said.”  In our Palm Sunday readings we discover those who are eager to say it, those who would say it if no one else did, and we see those who were determined that it not be said.

Let’s start with those who were eager to say it. The crowds who had seen Jesus’ ministry, his miracles, heard his teaching, even partially comprehended the meaning of what he was saying. Their lives had been touched and they were eager to speak and cry out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Their words were an acknowledgment that they were placing their hope in Jesus – their future, their security, their salvation.  They expressed that hope by throwing their cloaks in front of the donkey Jesus was sitting on. Loud words were on their lips in acknowledgement of Jesus as the Chosen One, the Messiah come to deliver them.   The palm branches that padded the path were, in and of themselves, but a symbol; their worship was in their words and actions.

We know there were also those in the time of Jesus who were determined that some things not be said – those who just had no stomach for acknowledging that Jesus was the Messiah – the one who deserved what they considered a bunch of “hoopla.”

That spirit is in our culture today to. We hear voices that say “Just keep your religion to yourself. And, whatever you do, don’t be loud about it.”   We hear it expressed in choices to ignore history, disbelieve the evidence of global warming, choose to turn their backs, or worse their hearts, against persons of other cultures, upbringing, and color. Modern-day Pharisees have learned not to listen to it; to remain silent – to let the chips fall where they will as long as they don’t land in their back yards.

Thank God for the Thomas Mertons and the Joan Chittisters and Pope Francis in our day; for websites and blogs like “Climate change” and others that keep us alert to issues of injustice and crimes against humanity and the very earth itself: immigration and trafficking and fracking and the list goes on.  If those who are divinely gifted with the ability to speak remain silent, then the voice-less gifts of creation will cry out in “silent speech.”   We recall that Scripture tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, the Pharisees did not want it acknowledged that this Jesus they’d crucified was the Son of God. Even the disciples had turned silent, fled and hid.

But, what did happen? The Sun cried out the only way it could – by becoming dark from the 6th to the 9th hour.  The rocks cried out the only way they could, the earth shook, graves were opened and saints arose to give glory to God.  The temple cried out in the only way it could by tearing in two, top to bottom, the curtain that separated the holy from the unholy rendering it a useless monument to a ministry that was no longer valid.

Even the cross on which Jesus was hanging spoke out, proclaiming to all who saw it:  “This is the king of the Jews.”  Now unbelievers like the Centurion would cry out “surely this was the Son of God

The point is this: If we remain silent, as they say: “to keep the peace” – if we refuse to put our faith into words, creation will have to speak out. Some things just have to be said, and they will be said even if we do not say them.  Will those who are gifted with words use that gift, or will the rest of creation have to do it the only way that it can, by upheaval?

Palm Card PicWhen you participate in the Palm Sunday procession, pray for those who have no sense of who Jesus is and what marvelous things He has done for us.  We’ll wave our palms: We’ll sing Hosanna and look ahead to the Easter miracle.  Keep the palm and use it to remind yourself of who you were on Palm Sunday.

Gaze on your palm frond this week as you take assessment on your personal Lenten resolutions.  Note its color, its tapering shape, its flexibility – think about what it can become: a decorative cross, a floweret or hat to shield us from the sun’s penetrating rays.  Did you see a difference this year in your participation in our community activities?  Was it as whole-hearted as it might have been?  Did you make generous donations to our collections for Daystar and AIM?  Did the Corporal Works of Mercy get a little more attention this Lent?  How do you foresee yourself carrying forward the changes that, with the help of God’s grace, you have practiced for 6 weeks – that’s how long it takes to form new habits.  So the question is: Did it take?  Will it be a lasting change?

When times get tough, gaze at your palm frond to remind yourself of who you could be. Not the person in the crowd who yells out what everyone else is yelling, but that person who believes what she said on Palm Sunday, and who will follow Christ on the journey wherever it leads.

~Reflection by Prioress, Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
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