Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

God

Third Sunday of Lent

by Leave a Comment

The Choice is Ours

 

One day, a week or so after the “big storm,” I saw the Master Gardener in our gardens.  Have you met Him?  This day He seemed to be assessing the damage Milton had reeked on our plant life.  Like the fig tree in Luke’s story, our plants, our Laudato Si Aquaponic Gardens and the “hobby gardens” were about to get a reprieve.  Insurance money gifted us with the wherewithal to rebuild the Hydro/aquaponic operation. And if you look closely, you can see plants that appeared to have been cut off at the root, are beginning to sprout ever so tiny green leaves peeking through the churned up soil.

Did you know Jesus was quite a gardener Himself?  Artists often depict Him with His foster father Joseph in a carpenter’s workshop.  But He also spent time with Mary, His mother, learning the art of cultivation of plants.  What cultivation skills did we learn under our mother’s watchful eye?  It may not have been working in a garden, but someone in our life showed us how to coax maturity to signs of new life.

The Gospel is asking us to take a good look at ourselves.  The tree in the parable is showing signs of life but it bears no fruit.  We ask ourselves: Is that me?  Am I barely managing to “hang in there?”   Am I being called to more than that? Yes, God has higher hopes for each of us, if we will but give grace a chance.

For instance, we can ask ourselves:

  • How do I relate with those I reside with? With outsiders?  Is my presence a positive element or do I fall into the negativity trap?  Do I pass judgment without giving God credit for knowing the whole story?
  • Am I a good or sour influence within my community (or my family circle)?
  • What is my attitude towards people I do not know or who aren’t “useful” to me?
  • What kind of contribution (including being physically present) do I make to the life of this community?
  • In general, what kind of contribution do I make to our community and beyond?  What COULD I be doing?

Pope Francis has reminded us more than once of something we know deep down – but sometimes, especially in the midst of trouble, we tend to forget.  He says: “There are no situations we cannot get out of.  We are not condemned to sink into quicksand where the more we move the deeper we sink.  Jesus is always there, his hand extended, ready to reach out to us and pull us up out of the mud, out of sin, out of the abyss into which we have stumbled.

The barren fig tree in Jesus’ story is given a reprieve.  It is allowed another chance to respond favorably and to produce fruit.  Every Lenten season offers us a chance to fertilize our tree, the tree which is our life, and to see how it can be more fruitful.

We need to realize love is only fully completed in us when we become a genuinely loving and caring person; one who loves both God and others in word and action.  We have the choice to open ourselves and come closer to God, to experience the gift of LOVE personified in Jesus. The choice is up to us. God’s love is there for the taking.  What are you, what are we waiting for?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15       Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Gospel:   Luke 13:1-8
Continue Reading

Second Sunday of Lent

by Leave a Comment

“Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John off by themselves and led hem up a high mountain.”  This transfiguration account appears just after Jesus has reminded the disciples, “Whoever loses your life for My sake, and the gospel – will save your life. Jesus lets these remarks soak in and take root for six days before he sets off up the mountain with Peter, James and John in tow.

The story (I believe) calls each one of us to examine what mountains we have yet to climb to see God’s glory.  We could apply the story to death or a near-death experience, but if we do that, we miss the everyday mountains that we must scale.  Call those mountains what you will, we must climb them to witness God’s glory: hurdles, challenges, enticing temptations, near occasions of sin, quirks of personality, Lenten resolutions, pet peeves…   They can be like a grain of sand inside your shoe.  Other times, they may feel like huge boulders that we need a backhoe to lever inch by inch.  Everyone’s mountain is different. To witness God’s glory, we must each climb our own “mountains”.

As we become aware that we are nearing a mountaintop, we must relax take a breather, yes, but with our spirit-eyes open to see God’s glory.  Stay alert, careful not to misread the signs; have the insight to know that we are at the top.  Gaze on the God of the Revelation.  In awe we may wonder: Why did God choose me?  Why does God love me so much?

What causes us to miss the “small miracles”, the “everyday transfigurations”?  The “Emmaus” moments along the path to Life? Gently remind yourself, that Jesus and the disciples also went back down the mountain.  Thank God when you get to top and do not be distracted with worry over “what’s going to happen next?”

Jesus did not become “more God” that day on the mountain.  It seems to me the change was not so much in Jesus, as it was in the disciples.  They were ready.  They had climbed the mountain.   And their eyes were open to witness the miracle of the moment.   What are those moments in your life?  Maybe it happens at the Consecration of the Mass or when you look across the dining table or at confreres across the aisle in chapel.

God is already there; is right here NOW.   Jesus invites us to go up the mountain with Him.  He leads the way.  We must open our awareness to witness the transfiguration. God reveals the Son little by little to those who take the time and interest to stay with him.  When we follow His lead, stay with the experience, do what it takes to build our relationship, foster life with the Other; in essence we live out our vow of stability; our promise of “stick-to-tive-ness.

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18        Second Reading:  Philippians 3:17-4:1
Gospel:   Luke 9:28b-36

 

Continue Reading

Ash Wednesday

by Leave a Comment

Ashes of death on our foreheads,
seeds of hope in our hearts. 
As we begin the journey, beyond the cross,
let us remember,
God prepares us for life, not for death,
for resurrection and not for crucifixion,
for love and not for hate.
In a world where death holds us bound, and violence seems to reign
in thought and deed,
may this journey of Lent get us ready
to be God’s good news
of hope and wholeness,
peace and reconciliation,
and resurrection life.
Christine Sine

Continue Reading

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Leave a Comment

This Sunday can fall either before Lent or after the Easter season, so it is not often celebrated.

THE GOSPEL IS A STRONG CHALLENGE to the lifestyle that prevails in most of our cities in the so-called developed world.  Jesus puts it bluntly: “You cannot at the same time be the slave of God and “mammon.” What Matthew is pointing out is that since human beings are not self-sufficient, we are dependent on something outside ourselves. It should be God, not the material goods we own.  Matthew concludes by reminding us to use our “one day at a time” confidence and remember that we are in God’s loving care. The graces we need will be there when we need them.  We can’t stock-pile graces for a rainy day.

What is in question is our attitude towards “things.”  Lent is a good time to review  the contents of our closets and other possessions.  Jesus is teaching us that our only real security is total trust in God.  We have to make a choice between God’s vision of life and a preoccupation with possessions. That involves different goals and visions of what is most important in life.  We can wear a veneer of Christian practice, but it won’t penetrate below the surface of our skin.

Jesus preaches something akin to “holy indifference” toward material goods. It should be obvious that some material things — like food and clothing and shelter — are necessary for daily living and everyone has a right to have these things.  The attitude of ‘holy indifference’ is not to be confused with an attitude of not caring about anyone or anything.   On the contrary, a person who practices holy indifference cares much and deeply and says ‘yes’ only to what is needed.

In the ordinary run of things, worry is a waste of time and psychic energy because it’s all about being uneasy about what might happen and will probably never happen. (Father) Tony de Mello quotes the Buddhist axiom: “Why worry?  If you don’t worry, you die; if you do worry, you die.  So, why worry?”    Fr. Tony continues: “Be yourself.  Be here.  Be now.”  God has provided you with everything you need right now to be happy.”  Our lives would be transformed if only we could really take Jesus’ advice: “Do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself.”

If you tend to be a worrywart, Jesus has a remedy for you.  He says, look at the birds of the air and the flowers in the field.  They do nothing except be themselves and God takes care of them.  People are often so busy regretting the past or fretting about what MIGHT BE in the future that they can’t enjoy life.

Sounds so logical but you and I both know that everyone here worries about something. Some of us probably only worry every now and then. Some of us could win the prize for the world’s “expert worrier”. If we find ourselves with nothing to worry about, we worry that there’s nothing to worry about… so we worry until we figure out what that “nothing” is.  Right?

You know, worry is almost always about assuming control over things.  That’s a control that God never meant for us to have. Assuming control for the future is just not part of what we’re designed to do. Jesus says, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?”   We don’t have that kind of power.   But we can come into the peace of “the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields” when we are content with just being a human being and stop trying to be God.  “Let go, let God!”  This Gospel lesson reminds us that we are called to trust in God who knows what we need and when we need it.  We are called to believe that God will give it to us, when we need it.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Prepare ye that way for the good Lenten experience.

God bless!

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 49:14-15         Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Gospel:   Matthew 6:24-34
Continue Reading

Feast of the Holy Family

by 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
Continue Reading

Look for Joy!

by Leave a Comment

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

                     

Continue Reading