Feast of the Holy Family

December 30, 2024 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

I’ll start today with a little story that may be familiar but please indulge me. The is the story of the “Conversion of the Men of Roaring Camp” first published in 1868 by Bret Harte. Roaring Camp was a group of gruff, hard drinking, fierce, gold diggers who sure did not practice Benedictine radical hospitality! However it happened that one day a pregnant Native American lady stumbled into the camp. She was obviously in late-stage labor. Thankfully, two of the men were decent enough to try to help her. Miraculously the child survived but the mother unfortunately died. Now, deaths were quite common in Roaring Camp, but a birth was something completely new. The men of the camp took responsibility for the baby and decided to build him a clean cabin. They even put in windows with lace curtains. He was their baby and they were determined to give him a proper home and bringing up. The men took turns taking care of the baby. Holding him and singing to him was considered a privilege. They demanded from each other previously unheard-of things such as decent language, quiet, cleanliness and moral order. The men began to shed their own roughness, their anger and their selfishness. The little child transformed this outpost of rough, crude miners into a community of generosity, tenderness and compassion. The baby called forth from these reckless characters dignity, their worth and sense of beauty, wonder and joy.

Children will do that to you and for you. Many young couples refine their lifestyles when a baby comes. They want the baby to be brought up with the best they have, by being the best people they can be. These men wanted their baby to grow up with a real loving relationship with God and as a part of a worshiping community. Children often bring out the best in their parents and lead them to search for an open, hospitable faith community. Afterall this is what God has done for us through the birth of His son. With Jesus’ birth, our humanity is made sacred. He has called us from living self-centered lives to a style of living that speaks by their actions of compassion, peace and joy. Jesus Christ has transformed humanity, making humanity sacred, just as He is sacred.

So what’s a story about these rough characters got to do with us? Well, the presence of the baby transformed the rough men from being self-centered to being self-less. In a sense, the baby called forth those men to holiness and formed them into a family. That’s what we pray for on the Feast of the Holy Family. We pray that we, each and all, may hear the cries of the Infant Jesus, calling us to reverence His presence in each other. We are being called to holiness that is the heart of the Catholic family.

What are celebrating that the God who created the institution of “family”, despite any shortcomings, chose to transform it through the Incarnation and make it one of the ways by which he saved us. We can learn from the example of the Holy Family that, despite all our failures and difficulties, that we too are called to become ‘holy’ through living out God’s word in the midst of our families.

Let us then today, celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family asking God’s blessings on our own families and our community. Let us go into the New Year, the Jubilee Year of Hope, strengthened by Pope Francis’ message of hope for a better world: Let our lives say to the world “Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

Happy New Year! Peace to all!

First Reading: Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 Second Reading: Colossians 3:12-21
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-15

Holy Family Sunday 2020

December 28, 2020 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

This coming year Pope Francis has designated the “Year of St. Joseph” marking the 150^th anniversary of Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. Francis describes Joseph as “a beloved father, tender and loving, obedient and accepting; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.”

This weekend the Church turns our focus to Jesus’ earthly family with the feast of the Holy Family. It’s natural when we celebrate the birth of the child Jesus that we would reflect on His family. Do you realize that for every one year of his public life, Jesus spent ten years in family life? That helps us understand the importance and priority He gave to family life.

What might that mean to (and for) us as monastics who we live in an intentional family we call community. As Benedictines our lives are guided by the simple, yet profound, guidelines designed over 1500 years ago by the man Benedict. His Rule gives us a picture of a man of great wisdom, compassion and much common sense. (I believe, we can agree, his guidelines were influenced to a great degree by his twin sister Scholastica.)

It is the spirit of the Rule that has survived. Benedict had a knack for tempering discipline with compassion that makes the Rule come alive for so many. His prudence shines through when, in so many words, he says: this is what works for us now – if the arrangement of the psalmody, the daily schedule and other daily living details don’t fit your need, change it.

If we only know the first word of the Rule “LISTEN” what an impact it could make on our own happiness and harmony between peoples. To truly listen requires an attentive spirit … not a scramble to respond with advice, a witty remark or a “I’ve got a better one” or “I know exactly how you feel.” When we truly listen to another we can identify their feeling, let it resonant within and know that very often all the person wants is a signal that we care.

Benedict’s Rule is not intended to be a great and lofty treatise on prayer or spirituality. It’s just plain “down to earth” advice. He says let this rule be read 3 times, cover to cover, to the potential member so she understands exactly what she is getting herself into. The Rule is filled with practical guidance for ordinary people to live together peacefully. Benedict expected his followers to work hard, study hard and pray hard. He recognized much of the study and work is an interior process – a true “self-study” steeped in a quiet atmosphere that is broken only by the sounds of nature, farm machinery, a printing press or sewing machine or the scratch of a calligraphy pen. This kind of soul work begins in private prayer enriched in communal prayer.

I think Benedict must have valued the idea of cross-training. Given the rotation of duties and positions in community, all members do well to take to heart the advice and warnings given to the various community officials: the prioress, the guest mistress and the porter; the cellarer, the artisans and the sub-prioress. We all need to be aware of the final judgment – be strong, and at the same time, never be ashamed to have a tender heart.

From that first word in his Rule: LISTEN… to his advice to begin every good work with prayer … to keeping a lamp burning at night … and don’t loiter outside chapel if you are late … it is evident that Benedict saw God at work within the ordinary events of everyday life with all its joys and sorrows, struggles and high points, funerals and jubilees, comings and goings. In Psalm 27, and often as an antiphon, we pray: “One thing I seek: to dwell in your presence, O God, all the days of my life.” And, that presence does not refer only to our final day on earth or future eternal life in heaven. It is not found only in the Eucharistic presence in the chapel – it is EVERYWHERE – in the Voice of the Spirit working in our personal lives and in the voices of each other and the sounds of daily living.

So, LISTEN – to the Voice of your God within – and listen with your heart to your comrades’ hungers and longings. Just LISTEN – with your ears certainly but also with your eyes and heart and feelings. The quality of our life in community, is shaped by each of us.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

First Reading Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3 Second Reading Colossians 3:12-21)
Gospel Luke 2:22-40

Holy Family

January 3, 2018 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

This weekend the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family and, on Sunday evening, the Vigil of Feast of the Mother of God. So, what does that mean for us as monastics? We came from a family, we still have families and together we live in an intentional family. Our life together as family is guided by the simple, yet profound, guidelines designed by St. Benedict. He was a man of great wisdom, compassion and common sense. We know that after some time of living in various settings with his original Rule, he added advice based on his observation of the interactions between those who chose monastic life. Imagine having to warn his men not to sleep with knives, to wear clean underwear on a trip, for the learned to help those who could not read. His prudence shines through when, in so many words, he says: this is what works for us now – if the schedule of psalmody, the horarium and other daily living details don’t fit your need, change it.

It is the spirit of the Rule that has survived because Benedict, even in his youth, had a deep understanding of human psychology. A study of his early life lets us know he spent much time with his grandparents who lived a few miles from his home. Walking along the ridge to their summer home he passed the huts and caves of hermits. Before he was sent to Rome to pursue academics, he spent hours conversing with these solitary men … maybe women, too. He absorbed the wisdom and practical advice from the older generations. This is evident in the Rule – he tempered discipline with compassion and he saw the spiritual quest as a joyful pursuit of God within the structures of ordinary life. It is this joyous delight in everyday spirituality that kept his Rule for Monastics alive for over 1500 years. His simple principles of living together under God’s love have been applied beyond monasteries to family life and especially Benedictine Oblates.

If we know only the first word of the Rule “LISTEN” what an impact it could make on our own happiness and create peace between peoples. It’s interesting that Benedict uses the word LISTEN and not hear. I don’t know about you, but it is only when I hear a noise in the night that I strain to listen for the next sound. To truly listen to another requires perception, knowledge of human nature, biting the tongue before speaking and an open-hands approach in conversation. To listen requires an attentive spirit … not a scramble to respond with advice, a witty or chiding remark or a one-upmanship story. When we truly listen to another we can identify their feelings, let it resonant within and know that very often all the person wants is a listening heart that signals authentic caring.

Benedict’s Rule offers us a high ideal and when we breach the ideal we need to be humble enough to ask forgiveness both from God and from each other. His down-to-earth advice survives because of its inner dynamic. He wasn’t writing for honors students but for, as one author calls us “a motley crew”. Benedict expected his followers to work hard, study hard and pray hard as they travel along a life-long path of falling down and getting up in a community where each member is valued and loved unconditionally.

From that first word in his Rule – “LISTEN” … to his advice to begin every good work with prayer … to keeping a lamp burning at night … to don’t loiter outside chapel if you are late … it is evident that Benedict saw God at work within the ordinary events of communal living – in the joys and sorrows of our everyday lives.

Tomorrow will be the eve of one year, and the dawning of a new one. We recall with fond memory those who were with us last year and this year celebrated Christmas in the intimacy of heaven – we pray for those who in the coming year will, as the saying goes, enter into glory.

At the close of 2017, I invite you to take count of all the ways you have seen God’s glory – when did THE WORD appear in your life, pierce your heart? As the days go by, keep LISTENING to God speaking to your own heart, and to your comrades’ hungers and longings. It may sound trite to say this, but we do have two ears and one tongue … Maybe God intended us to listen twice as often as we use our words. If we do this we are less likely toot our own horns or miss the other’s silent cue for a little attention. When we cultivate silence and sincere listening we won’t step on others feelings, speak harshly or stir the pot by murmuring or spreading slander or spewing unpleasantness into the air we breathe. Our current world is filled to overflowing with sound, with words, factual and fake. In many instances we do well to ask ourselves if a word is really called for or might silence serve the better part? Remember the instruction you learned at your mother’s knee: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” In the end, our discernment is “what will most likely spread peace?”

As we step out into 2018, a whole new universe of grace lies open before us. May the gift of faith enable us to see the invisible, believe the incredible and graciously receive the impossible … for with God, all things are possible.