Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Advent

Look for Joy!

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Traditionally the third Sunday of Advent is known as Gaudete Sunday – the Latin word for “Rejoice” – the first word of the Entrance antiphon.  We mark this Sunday on the Advent wreath by lighting a pink candle instead of a purple one.

There is an African proverb that reads: “If the beat of the drum changes, so changes the dance of the feet.”  This is what we are called to do during Advent: listen to the beat of “Jesus’ drum” and set our pace to the rhythm of the Master drummer.  “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! … The Lord is near.”

Yes, the Lord IS near and we should make haste to prepare for Him, leveling the hills in our lives that create barriers, making straight the roads in our lives rather than maneuvering others around for our advantage,  Filling in the valleys, so that it will be easier for others to cross over to us and thereby to a spirit of joy in the Child who brightens all of our days.  Instead of asking what others can do for me, we should make haste to prepare for Our Lord and ask Him, “Jesus, Master, tell me what I should do?”   How do we become the joyful people called for in our Scriptural readings?  Re-joice: have joy again – be joyful … full of joy!  Not simply “happy” but “joyful.”

Is there a difference between happiness and joy?  What’s the difference?  By definition they are both emotions but the one (joy) is an interior contentment, an inner peace; the other is initiated from external events (happenings, happenstance).  The former is long-lasting, the latter can be momentary.   If circumstances are favorable, you are happy; if not, you’re unhappy.  Christian joy, however, is directly related to God and is the firm confidence that all is well, regardless of your circumstances.  Joy may show less in outward expression while happiness can unexpectedly bubble up from within and bring a smile to your lips.  Joy is related to happiness but joy, because it does not depend on external stimuli, gets us out of ourselves and in contact with others.  Some find when they give up the self-centered search for happiness, they actually find joy.  It may even be intermingled with suffering and pain but there is an overwhelming sense of peace and joy.

So, how can we bring joy into our lives if we’re not in the mood for it?  Can you have joy on demand?”  Too often we may take for granted the issue of joy.  We find people who are just naturally joyous, who have a kind of laid-back attitude – it’s just good to be in their presence.  Then there are others who always bring us down.  Could they develop joy?

I ask you: is joy genetic or acquired?  If joy can be acquired, then a very strong argument can be made that once you’ve lost a reason to be happy, or you’ve suffered grief, there’s no way of reconnecting.  However, if joy is a natural state of feeling, a certain sense of belonging, a feeling within that you are important and you have a value, then it’s just a question of reclaiming that right, not creating something new.  You can re-joice – being joyful AGAIN is possible.

Joy is God’s gift to every believer. It is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Meditation, lectio with the Word of God increases joy.  It is a gift – it must be handled with care or it becomes torn around the edges.  Like any treasured gift it cannot be put in cold storage, stashed on a back shelf, put under the hankies in a drawer or stuffed beneath old mail in your mailbox.  Like a snow globe that is never turned over, joy that has lain inert can be shaken to life with the tiniest twist of a wrist … or crinkled smile.

Rejoice, again I say: rejoice!

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 Rejoice! The Lord is coming, bounding over the hills to come to Earth this Christmas. Again, I say, Rejoice!

 

First Reading:  Zephaniah 3:14-18a                 Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-6  
Gospel Reading:  Luke 3:10-18

                     

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Wait and Watch!

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You’ve probably guessed it: You’re going to hear that theme again.  It’s all about waiting!  But first: welcome to Year C, the year of Luke.   We’ve been waiting for so long (actually for most of our lives) that the darkness may feel like home.  Maybe we’ve become comfortable in our incompleteness.  Now to leave home is downright scary! Change my ways of interacting with God and God’s people?  Whew!  Allow my rough edges to be smoothed – mmmm, sounds irritating.  We are gifted with this Advent-time to do personal “Isaiah work” of filling in every valley; leveling every mountain so the hills will become a plain, and the rough ways made smooth.  As the familiar banner asks:  If not now, when?

And if there is an answer, are we really waiting?  No!  You see, Advent is not a sit-on-your-hands-to-see-what-will-happen kind of waiting.  Nor is it waiting for someone else who is talking to God to hang up.  Saying that brings to my mind a memory of a home visit of my 3-year-old niece who was patiently waiting through what her mom had told her was my private time with God.  She had lasted through her first lectio experience with her books for 40 minutes.  She moved from the mat on her bedroom floor to sit just outside my doorway.  Laurie heaved a heavy sigh and said: “OK, what do I do now God; she’s still talking to You!”

The wonderful part of waiting and talking with God is that it’s more like a glorious party line.  You can pick up (or click ON the chat box) at any time, whenever you’re ready. It is wonderful!  We do not have to take turns – we don’t have to wait to be in touch!  At the heart of Advent is ACTIVE waiting.  Even when we don’t know that we are waiting, or what we are waiting for, we’re waiting. Even when we can’t find words for what we are waiting for, we’re waiting.

If the liturgical readings these last couple of weeks did not shake you up enough, the Advent gospels will make you perk up your ears and pay attention: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep.”  Take heed! Be on guard! Watch! Be alert, stay awake, and don’t grow careless.  Don’t give up!  And St. Benedict admonishes us: “Never swerve from God’s instruction but faithfully observe God’s teaching in the monastery until death.”

Advent offers us a new opportunity to awaken to the signs of the times.   In the words of John the Baptist, we hear the voice of Isaiah warning us to be alert for “the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.”  The last Gospel we heard as the liturgical year ended (this morning) and the first Gospel for the new liturgical year impress upon us the same warning: Be vigilant! Pray always! Beware that your heart does not become drowsy!

Remember Jesus berated the crowd for knowing how to interpret the signs in nature, but not the present time, the already.  This is where we too may fall short.  This kind of waiting requires a common-sense alertness to natural signs.  But the kind of waiting Jesus is talking about requires a deeper discernment and alertness to the signs of His appearance – the signs of the times, our times.  It’s that kind of waiting that Paul is talking about in the second reading: May the Lord make you increase and abound in  love for one another … to strengthen your heart.  I earnestly exhort you in the Name of Jesus to conduct yourselves to please God and be blameless in holiness before our God.  Amen!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Happy St. Nicholas Day on December 6th.

 

First Reading:   Jeremiah 33:14-16         Second Reading:  1 Thesssalonians 3:12-4:2
Gospel:   Luke 21:2528,34-36
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Third Sunday of Advent

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LOOK for JOY!

 

This Third Sunday of Advent is familiarly known as Gaudete Sunday – a Latin word that means “rejoice” – the first word of the Entrance Antiphon (at Mass): “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.  Indeed, the Lord is near.”  As you know, we mark Gaudete Sunday by lighting a pink candle (in the Advent wreath).  Also, the celebrant at Mass wears rose colored vestments.  The church – we –  rejoice because the Promised One is little more than a week away.

We are called to live as people of joy. But in everyday life, I get the impression that “joy” is on the decline.  What is often the response when someone asks: “How was your day?”  My sense is that the theme of joy is something of a rare commodity.  I hear responses such as “It was OK” or “Could have been better.” or “I’m just so tired of so and so doing such and such.”  Or, “I’m exhausted.  Or “Don’t ask.”  To have joy or – or as they would say in slang – to do joy – is to have a deep sense of delight. The Greek origin of the word literally means “for the heart, in its deepest place of passion and feelings, to be well.”  That’s what it’s like to have joy.

So why is joy so rare? Well, it occurs to me (and not me alone), that to experience joy in one’s life four qualities must be found.  First, joy takes time. Joy comes of living a “savored” life.  It comes of having time and taking time to smell the roses, to observe the pace of a sandhill crane as it crosses the street, to glory in a sunset.  Joy needs time. There is this old monastic saying about living a joy-filled life.  If you are sipping tea or watering a plant, or gazing at an icon, do just that.   We call this “being there” or being “in the moment”.  We know – and more than that, we believe, that each moment is pregnant with God’s real presence and promise and providential care.   Look for it; wait for it; savor it. Don’t just visit life; life needs time to be lived abundantly.

Joy requires acceptance – a “yes” to life, the life we’ve been given. We may have discovered at some point that the script we’ve been handed in the play of life is not the part we thought we were trying out for. We have to be content that “where God has placed us, that is our pulpit.”  Joy requires a deep willingness to accept we are God’s creature and that God is at work according to God’s good pleasure.  Joyful persons accept the good gifts of life that actually are there.  They do not live in a state of resentment for what might have been or what “used to be.”  In God’s plan, there is a reason why today is not tomorrow. We need all of today to prepare us to receive the promise of tomorrow.

So, being joyful takes time and acceptance.  Joy, a gift of the Spirit, has to be desired. If you want the gift of joy, ask God for the gift with open heart and hands to accept the gift as God shapes it.

To be joyful we need stability, patience and endurance.   Maybe that’s why Jesus says: “Truly I tell you: you will have sorrow, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

Life for most people is not picture perfect, but there is so much joy to be found If we simply look for joy.  Be on the lookout – See and reflect the joy right before your eyes.  The more we dwell on our everyday blessings, the more they seem to multiply. And by experiencing more joy in my own life, I have more joy to give away.  Joy is a beautiful gift to embrace, celebrate and give away at Christmastime.  And, in doing so, we increase our own joy.

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading  Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11                       
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24  
Gospel Reading  John 1:6-8, 19-28
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First Sunday of Advent

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Do you think maybe Jesus knew the childhood game of Hide and Seek?  There are two ways to play the game. In one version, one person is the “hider” and everyone else is a “seeker”. The seekers close their eyes and count loudly from 100 down to 1. When the counting is done, all the seekers scatter and start searching for the hider. When a seeker finds the hider, then he or she joins that person in their hiding position.  In the more familiar version of the game, one person the seeker, is “It”, and covers their eyes and starts counting down from 100. All the hiders scramble to the best place they can find to avoid being discovered. When “It” reaches 1, he or she calls out, “Ready or not — here I come!”  He/she then begins searching and tagging all the hiders.  In today’s gospel lesson Jesus is “IT,” the “seeker” saying to the world, “Ready or not — here I come.”

Ten years after the death of St. Paul, Mark reminded his community in Rome of Jesus’ words – and he shouts the same warning to us today: “Be constantly on the watch! Stay awake! You do not know when the appointed time will come.”  Mark knew well the lesson we gradually learn i.e. when events don’t happen as quickly as we expect, we tend to forget what we know and slough off doing the things we know we ought to do.

There are no magic Advent practices to prepare for Christmas.  There are the classic Christian exercises: works of charity, prayer, self-sacrifice, and penance.  The Advent gospels will perk up your ears and catch your attention: “Take heed!” (Be on guard) and “Watch!” (Be alert, stay awake, and don’t grow careless).  Don’t give up!   St. Benedict admonishes us: “Never swerve from God’s instruction but faithfully observe God’s teaching in the monastery until death.”

In Chapter 67 of his Rule Benedict reminds us of the mutuality of journey prayers for each other. As travelers on our Advent journey, we ask for a blessing.  And in return we promise to always remember in daily prayer our journey companions.

Advent is our annual journey from the warning to “stay awake” and “be alert” to the glorious memorial celebration of Jesus’ birth.  Let’s heed the words of Benedict and be prayerfully conscious of each other on our individual and our communal Advent journey.   We know this: God is in charge and God can be trusted.  We just have to: “stay awake – be alert – watch!”

Here’s a simple Advent project that can help keep us alert and watchful.  Every morning as you get up, pray, “Lord, show me someone today with whom I may share your love, mercy and forgiveness.” As you settle down for the night, ask yourself, “Where did I find Christ today?”  The answer will be God’s Advent gift to you that day. It reminds me of a saying attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas: “Without God, I can’t.  Without me, God won’t.”   

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Giving Tuesday was a huge success!

We couldn’t be more appreciative for the outpouring of generosity.

We exceeded our fundraising goal and raised $44,898 and with the generous match from John Picciano that gives the Sisters $82,398!

First Reading  Isaiah 63:16b-17                          Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:3-9  
Gospel Reading  Mark 13:33-37
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“Christ Jesus Ruler, Christ Jesus Victor”

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As we observe the Feast of Christ, the King, we are celebrating a ruler who was willing to die for us, for all humanity, to give us true freedom.  Jesus radically redefined the traditional concept of kingship.  His example of radical love and kindness is lived out by us, his followers, in our reaching out to those in need – beginning with those with whom we live.

For over four and a half thousand years there has stood a great obelisk in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.  The structure, originally located in the Temple of the Sun in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, was brought to Rome by the dreaded Emperor Caligula.   He had it set right in the middle of a Roman racetrack known as the Circus of Nero. It was in that Circus that St. Peter was martyred.  On the base is inscribed two phrases, The first, in Latin, the words of a familiar hymn: Christ Jesus Victor!  Christ Jesus Ruler!  Christ Jesus Lord and Redeemer!”  The other is an inscription that proclaims: “The Lion of Judah has conquered.”  It may well have been the last earthly thing that St. Peter saw as has he hung upside-down crucified to die.

In 1925, Pope Pius XI universally instituted the Feast of Christ the King to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October.  However, since the reform in the liturgical calendar in 1969, the feast falls on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Sunday before Advent.

At the time of the institution of the feast, secularism was on the rise and respect for Christ and the Church was waning.  Today, we witness the same sense of distrust of authority – accelerated by political situations and the rise of individualism.  Some reject the titles of “lord” and “king” for Christ, believing that such titles are borrowed from oppressive systems of government.  History proves that some kings have been oppressive.  Others have been converted to a more Christian style of ruling, often by the influence of a woman.

In 2015, during the Jubilee year of Mercy, Pope Francis added another part to the title: “…the living face of the Father’s mercy.”  The combined readings this year for the solemnity give us a glimpse of how Christ is at the same time both king and the face of the Father’s mercy.  In contrast to the oppression so prevalent in Jesus’ day, he connected his role as king to humble service, and taught his followers to be servants as well.  “You are my disciples if you do what I command you: love one another as I have loved you.”

Deep down do we believe JESUS IS LORD or is it just from force of habit that we say or sing those titles for Jesus?  At the opening of every Eucharistic gathering, the celebrant greets us with the words: “The Lord be with you.”  In tomorrow’s Responsorial Psalm we will proclaim: “The Lord is my shepherd.”  We will profess in the Creed: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.”   We often raise a hand in benediction as we sing: “May the blessing of the Lord be upon you.”  If we believe it’s true that Jesus is Lord, why do we sometimes scramble to find a substitute to replace the word “Lord?”  It strikes me that while we may struggle with the concept of Jesus as king, somehow, especially on feasts of Mary most of us have no problem calling Mary queen: Queen of the Universe, Queen of Heaven, Regina Caeli.

At the end of this coming week, we will be jump-started into the season of Advent: an experience of an “ending that is a beginning” – a time of waiting for the One who will come.  This is the One who is promised to us in the Book of Revelation: “Behold, he is coming and everyone will see him; the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come.”

Let us pray that we can portray to the world the beneficence of a humble king, truly putting flesh on our Corporate Commitment: to be Christ to one another.  For it is not so much what we say or what we do that puts flesh on our commitment.  It is who we are that “responds with compassion to the hungers of God’s people.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading:   Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17         Second Reading:  1 Cor 15:20-26, 28
Gospel:   Matthew 25:31-46
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Fourth Sunday of Advent

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For many people this last week of Advent is fraught with frantic shopping, concern about who they’ve forgotten to get a gift for, cards that are not going to arrive before Christmas, children whose hopes are going to be dashed, worry about what food stamps will buy that will still look like a festive meal, the choice between food on the table or gifts under the tree, gas prices that prohibit travel to be with relatives, who’s going to watch the children while there’s no school, day care that’s not in the budget and parents who still have to go to work.

Our lifestyle should stand out in contrast to all the hustle and bustle, the preoccupations with secular concerns.  We have the luxury and the burden of putting first things first.  The sign Ahaz refuses to ask for in the first reading can be the one we project to the world.  We can heed Isaiah’s alert and not weary people or our God.  We can shorten real-life “posadas” by coming out of our shells when we’d like to hibernate in our self-made cocoons.

For the pregnant Mary these days just before giving birth to Jesus should have been “nesting days” but Mary was traveling.  May we use this next week for “nesting” –  readying our hearts and our living spaces for the Babe to take deeper residence in us and in our community.

These days are a time to listen like Jesus’ foster father Joseph to our dreams.  Let us awake, arise and do what the Spirit commands.  Sometimes it may be puzzling the connections we make.  For instance, Joseph’s dilemma, and the angel’s intervention, had me humming two songs: “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” (from Cinderella) which continues: “…when you’re fast asleep; in dreams you will lose your heartaches, whatever you wish for, you keep.  Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through.”  The other dream song, “I Have A Dream” was written in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr: “I have a dream,  a song to sing, to help me cope, with anything …I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me …I have a dream, to help me through reality and my destiny.”

There is an air of festivity this time of year not solely in our faith tradition, but also, for instance, in the celebrations of Hanukkah and Kwanza as well.  Christmas, sometimes referred to as Yuletide, is on a fixed date during the winter solstice.  Kwanzaa was established in the 1960’s as a way to help African Americans connect with their African history and culture.  It is a week-long spiritual festival celebrated December 26 to January 1.  The seven-candle Kinara (candle holder) honors principles of Unity, Self-Determination, Responsibility, Cooperation, Purpose, Creativity and Faith.

Hanukkah is the eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the oppressive power of the Syrian-Greeks and the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.  The eight-candle menorah with its day-by-day increase in light, symbolizes the days of creation and the dependable guidance of God.  There is a long-held Hanukkah tradition that delights children as well as adults: the practice of “gelt-giving” – money or chocolate coins – which teaches lessons in charitable giving.

Comparing these festivals, it’s easy to see that despite representing a variety of cultural and faith traditions, there are commonalities: honoring our ancestry, candle lighting, charity, gift-giving, family spirit.

Our prayer intention for the next two weeks will express our gratitude for God’s boundless generosity in the persons of our relatives, friends, and benefactors.  May they know our gratitude and be blessed by God for their graciousness to us.

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading  Isaiah 7:10-14                       
Second Reading Romans 1:1-7  
Gospel Reading  Matthew 1:18-24
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