Easter Poem
by Sister Mary David Hydro, OSB
weave your pleading and
longing with gratitude and
wonder at God’s great
love and mercy that you find
deep in your heart—God is WIT * you!
*With you, In you, working Through you
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Easter
Lent 2021
Abbot Gregory J. Polan, O.S.B. is the Abbot Primate since 2016 of the 1500-year old Benedictine Order residing at Sant’ Anselmo in Rome. He serves the Benedictine community as its liaison to the Vatican and civil authorities to promote unity among the various autonomous Benedictine monasteries and congregations. Abbot Polan is the tenth Abbot Primate and the fourth American elected. We were pleased to have him with us directing our 2019 summer retreat week.
The following is from Abbot Polan’s recent Circular:
Greetings of Lenten peace, faith, hope and support in these uncertain times. Strong confidence in God’s inscrutable ways calls us to walk the path to Easter. In the midst of these times when we see a light beginning to shine with the roll-out of the vaccine to all parts of the world, we give thanks for what has been happening and we pray for a just and right distribution of these healing remedies. Let us remain strong in following the instructions given by the governments, the health professionals, and the Church leadership which calls for continued care, protection and proper protocols. It is clear, we will not be moving back to life as it was; there will be a new normal which will only develop with time, patience, practical wisdom, spiritual insight, sacrifice, generous service toward the needy and a deeper sense of care for one another. One of the graces that has come from this pandemic, has been the awareness of how this situation has touched the lives of all of us. The effects of the pandemic have marked our lives in uniquely different ways. Yet what has united us is that as brothers and sisters in the human family, children of God and as members of the Body of Christ, we are all striving to move forward. Our experiences are so vastly different, but we are unified in our endeavoring to find the way forward and to see how this will open for us in time, in grace and in hope. In the recent visit of Pope Francis to Iran, his words to continue working toward peace, mutual care for one another and a world that shows tolerance and mutual acceptance speak loudly to our hope of moving forward with confidence.
Continue ReadingDaily Noon Prayer for Peace
Daily Noon Prayer for Peace
Pax Christi Florida invites all members and friends to join in a prayer at noon, from inauguration week through Easter.
We pray for the healing of our nation.
Peace Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
~Article from Pax Christi, Florida which is a regional section of Pax Christi USA
Continue ReadingA Reflection from Easter Season 2018
On this third Sunday of Easter, we continue to hear Gospel accounts of Jesus’ appearances following his Resurrection. In each account Jesus greets his disciples with the words, “Peace be with you.” Peace is their most obvious and pressing need. They have witnessed the death of someone they dearly loved.
Here is this account, two of the disciples recount a touching story of PEACE invading their lives. They were taking a Sunday stroll – well, a seven-mile walk – chatting about the events of the last several days. Suddenly a stranger slips into their midst. Now, the Jewish custom of the day required that they invite the stranger to join them for a meal. In this case, the invitation included an overnight’s rest. Later they realized Who had broken bread in their company. Can’t you see Jesus’ smiling to himself in delight in picturing his friends’ sudden realization who they had been talking with!? Now this friends realized that their hearts had been afire as they listened to him break open the Scriptures with him. What a Lectio experience!
We believe God is all around us: God is in nature, God is here with you and me now. But do we really believe that God – in the person of Jesus – will drop into our company and chat with us? That every person manifests a virtue of Jesus that I need in my life. One may be the patience of Christ, another the spirit of helpfulness, or a positive attitude, the ability to turn strangers into friends, a secret friend that does your daily chore, a soothing voice, a listening ear. Look around the room: where do you see Jesus looking back at you. How interesting that we all see the faces but each one sees the very virtue she needs to make her life whole. And, how puzzling it can be when two people share an experience, know the same person, were there when “it” happened but have two distinct, often opposite, memories.
You know what it’s like, many years after childhood, at family gatherings,… your siblings’ memory of particular event can be worlds apart. And, what about community memories! I once heard Sister Helen talk about something that happened to her … I feel certain that was MY experience.
Let me tell you about an event that happened on a Sunday afternoon many Springs ago. Kevin was walking home through the park after having attended Sunday Mass and CCD class. He stopped to pluck a flower for his mom and watched a butterfly flit from plant to plant…. He stood quietly watching a woodpecker drill a hole in a tree. All the while, he couldn’t stop thinking about the Bible lesson for that day. What impressed him the most was when the teacher said, “You will find the risen Jesus in every one you meet.”
As he continued through the park, he noticed an old woman sitting on a bench. She looked lonely and hungry. So he sat down next to her, took out the coveted chocolate bar he had been saving. He offered some to the lady who accepted it with a beautiful smile. They sat together in silence, for a long time, just smiling at each other. As Kevin was leaving, he had gone but a short distance when he ran back to the bench, and gave the woman a big hug.
When he arrived home, his mother asked, “What’s making you smile so happily today?” (He said,) “I shared my chocolate bar with Jesus. You know, he has the most beautiful smile in the world.”
Meanwhile, the old woman returned to the little apartment where she lived with her sister. Her sister remarked, “You seem really happy today. “I am, I’ve been in the park. Jesus shared his chocolate bar with me. And, you know, he looks a lot younger than I expected.”
That’s the lesson in today’s gospel – we will meet and experience the risen Jesus in unexpected places and persons. Our only expectation can be “He will show up!”
Pooh and Piglet were taking their evening walk. For a long time they walked in the kind of silence good friends share. Finally, Piglet asks, “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” “What’s for breakfast? And what do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen to me today?”
When or where will we meet the Risen Christ today. What we know is that He will show up. Take delight in his revelation! In the words of our Responsorial Psalm: “Know that the Lord does wonders for his faithful ones. God puts gladness into my heart.”
What virtue of Jesus do you see reflected back to you in person of the persons you meet?
Have a good week. We long for the day we can share a hug … here’s a virtual hug for you …. Stay safe …
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15,17-19 Second Reading 1 John 2:1-5a
Gospel Luke 24:35-48
Continue ReadingJust Like Kneading Dough
Have you read the reflection for tomorrow in THIS DAY? Or, if not, do you remember watching someone, maybe your mom or grandmother making bread and kneading the dough – making biscuits or rolls or maybe you’ve seen someone tossing pizza dough? Just thinking about it, don’t you get that feeling??? You can’t just “watch” – you have to get your hands on it, in it. That reflection in THIS DAY continues with a quote from C.S. Lewis, “If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. Thomas couldn’t just nod his head and blindly accept the news his friends excitedly shared that Jesus had visited them. He had to put his hands on Jesus … feel the warmth of His body, trace the scars. The NASA engineer, a woman of color, I heard recently at PHSC, speaking of aspirations said it this way: You can’t aspire to something you’ve never seen.” Thomas had to feel Jesus to know He was really, REAL. You know what it is like when we haven’t seen a friend for a long time, we have to clasp hands, hug each other to assure ourselves us the moment is REAL.
This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. How can we learn mercy if we never see mercy in action? That thought alone should be an impetus to model a spirit of mercy in all our interactions. Mercy isn’t weakness – it takes patience, insight, control of your tongue, a peaceful spirit to be merciful.
The celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday is a relatively new addition to our church calendar. It was first promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 2000, the day that he canonized Saint Faustina. Christ appeared to a Polish nun, Sr. Maria Faustina Kowalska, in a series of visions that took place over almost eight years. In one of the visions Christ asked Sister Faustina to pray for nine days, beginning on Good Friday and ending on the Saturday after Easter
—the eve of the Octave of Easter. Thus, since the 9 days of a novena are commonly prayed in advance of a feast, the Feast of Divine Mercy—Divine Mercy Sunday—was born.
Sister Faustina is quoted from her diary:
“Oh, if only all souls knew Who is living in our churches?” This belief is a taste of what Thomas experienced when, in his presence, Jesus appeared the second time to his disciples. He was invited to “touch and believe”. He recognized Jesus, his doubt was vanquished, and he professed His belief in Christ.
Do we recognize the Christ among us? When the Eucharistic minister looks you in the eye to greet you: “Body of Christ. Blood of Christ” is our AMEN simply a rote, expected response? Or does your AMEN signify a true conviction that “yes, you and I are Christ for each other?” If we cannot greet Christ in each other, how will we recognize Jesus at the pearly gates?
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35 Second Reading 1 John 5:1-6
Gospel John 20:19-31
Continue Reading“Not the Kind of Perfect the Ninjas or Superman Display”
First Reading Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47 Second Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Gospel John 20:19-31 Weekly Intention
The Frailty of Easter Based in part on a reflection by John Slattery (adapted)
We humans are a comparatively slow maturing and short-lived species. The average life-span in the United States hovers between 75 and 80. The age of the earth, on the other hand, is around 4,500,000,000 years. The age of the universe is around 13,800,000,000 years. You and I inhabit just a small bit of that time, the tiniest morsel of space time lived out on a relatively small planet that orbits an average size star. Our star, the Sun, is one of trillions upon trillions of stars, and our planet is one of trillions in the known universe. But it’s ok.
Easter is all about smallness. That’s why we are drawn to reading and re-reading the Easter accounts in the Gospels each year. Despite the ocean of books, songs, sermons, and lectures written about Easter or on Easter-themes, our Scripture includes just four small stories about this Jesus who rose from the dead. The combined resurrection stories encompass about 3500 words–the equivalent of about 15 pages, the length of an average term paper.
Jesus’ resurrection was such a humble thing. There were no angel trumpeters or singers in the skies. It was more like the story in Psalm 119 that we prayed yesterday morning: “Without a word, without a sound, without a voice being heard, the message fills all the earth, resounding to the ends of the universe.” First, Jesus surprised Mary in the garden. She told a few other women, then they told a few men and soon Jesus appeared to them. He spoke about peace, about the Spirit of God, about hope. He showed his wounds. He ate some food and then he drifted up into the clouds. He didn’t march on Rome or lead a rebellion against the priests who brought him to Pilate. After his resurrection He didn’t heal anyone else or preach to vast crowds as He had done previously. He didn’t cast out any more demons, trade barbs with rabbis, or visit the Temple. The resurrection, in many ways, was quiet.
It challenges us to read that Jesus showed his followers his wounds. “See,” he seems to say, “a broken body is not made whole by erasing the imperfections. Feel this hole in my side,” he says to Thomas and to each of us. “See, I have sanctified what the world calls spoiled. A broken body is made whole not by removing the scars but by embracing the permanence of the wounds.”
We like this small and quiet resurrection where Jesus is not the definition of a contemporary superhero. He doesn’t return triumphant and knock Pilate off his throne, bringing God’s wrath on the vicious Roman Empire. He appears to his friends, simply showing his wounds and talking about love and peace.
This story today of Thomas illustrates our Christian experience. We are called to believe without seeing. In fact, all Christians after the first witnesses have been called to believe without seeing. Thus, we sing “without seeing you, we love you; without seeing you, we believe.” Thomas’ doubt is hardly surprising; the news of Jesus’ appearance was incredible to the disciples who had seen him crucified and buried. Thomas’ human nature compelled him to want hard evidence that the Jesus, who appeared to the disciples after his death, was indeed the same Jesus who had been crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to act on that desire. He is our witness that Jesus is truly raised from the dead. With him we proclaim: “We’ve been told, we’ve seen his face, and heard his voice alive in our hearts.”
Jesus wants us to be perfect, but not the kind of perfect that Ninjas or Superman display. Jesus wants us to be perfect “as our heavenly Father is perfect.” God’s perfection and the message of Jesus’ Resurrection calls us an unconditional embrace of frailty, pain, and brokenness.
It is an embrace that calls us to resist all forms of violence, power, and hatred. There is growing acknowledgement of that fact that TV and video game violence, like second-hand smoke affects one’s lungs, permanently affects our brains. Many families refuse to allow TV violence, fictionalized or news reports, to invade their living spaces. Jesus did not arm his apostles with weapons for revenge — he armed them with prayer and baptized them in a spirit of hope and forgiveness.
We are surrounded today with so much sadness and fear and anger. We who live in a peaceful community rejoice in the security and sanctity that empowers us to extend open arms in hospitality to those in the world who yearn for that same privilege.
At the end of our Gospel selection we read, “Jesus did many other signs that are not written in this book. But these ARE written that you may come to believe …and through this belief you may have life in Jesus’ name.
We join the psalmist in singing: By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.”
