Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

God

” Your actions speak so loud I cannot hear what you are saying.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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In this Gospel story we find clues that promote our understanding of the sacramental “laying on of hands” and the sacredness of human touch.   We are struck by the physical means Jesus used to heal the man’s lack of hearing and speech:  the use of spittle and touch – both discouraged in today’s post-COVID “stay safe” world.  Jesus cannot explain to the deaf man verbally what He is about to do, so He uses a rough form of sign language to communicate His intentions. First, He sticks His fingers in the man’s ears to let him know that He is going to do something about his deafness. He spits on His finger and touches the man’s tongue to let him know that He is about to restore his speech. This might sound gross, but it’s what Jesus does!  And, it awakens faith in this man’s heart.

After touching the man, Jesus looks toward Heaven. This act serves two purposes. First, it communicates to the deaf man the origin of the healing.  Secondly, the act of looking toward Heaven demonstrates Jesus’ dependence on his Father. As Jesus raises his eyes heavenward, he “sighs”.   Of course, the deaf man cannot hear the sigh, but he can see Jesus’ expression. And, it speaks volumes, more than words could say: “I care about you and what you are going through!”  Jesus says one word, “Ephphatha”- “be opened”. When Jesus says this, the man’s hearing is restored and his tongue is loosed. He can hear and speak! What a miracle! One command from Jesus and his life has changed forever! The witnesses declared: “He has done all things well!”

This week we are invited to make an honest inventory of our true needs.    Have I found contentment? Am I close enough to God to receive guidance and strength? Have I secured peace of heart and mind? Deciding what we lack is the first step in securing it. Only then can we express our needs to Christ who has said: “Ask and you shall receive.”  But, remember God-time may not match our unspoken expectation.  When God takes time answering our prayers, it’s not because we’re not heard or that God doesn’t already know our needs.  God is giving us the gift of time to recognize what our true needs are.

One of the greatest weaknesses of the human heart is the inability to tune into people’s underlying needs.  One may indeed lack food for the table, but her real need may be for a fair wage for her 8-hr job.  We can hear the cries of broken, suffering people in lands across the sea, but be oblivious to the cues of the persons that every day are sitting right beside us. Remember the expression: “Your actions speak so loud I cannot hear what you are saying.”  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

This man in the Gospel, though he was lacking hearing and speech, he had people around him that cared about him. They heard that Jesus was passing by, and they brought their friend to Jesus.  Benedict calls to us to “carry each other”. We can help one another understand the word of God spoken in community decision-making and help one another accept decisions that are contrary to personal wishes.  We are to uphold the weak, challenge the faint-hearted, rouse the sleepers, and open our eyes to the light that comes from God and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out to us.  This is how St. Benedict teaches that we shall “progress in the way of life and faith, running on the path of God’s commands, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.”  With the help of community, he says: “We will run, and not grow weary”.

The closing words of our Gospel remind us that Jesus does all things well.  “All” may only be a three-lettered word but it is a mighty big word!  It covers a lot of territory. If one letter is missing – one person missing out in decision-making – all that God designs to be accomplished may not come to fruition. How can a two-legged stool keep balanced?  Jesus does all things well. Come to Him and let Him teach you the truth!  You’ll shake your head saying, “Well done! Well done! Very well done!”

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

Pray for peace in our times… and guidance during the upcoming voting season.

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 35:4-7a         Second Reading:  James 2:1-5
Gospel:   Mark 7:31-37
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“The Sufficiency of My Merit is to Know That My Merit is not Sufficient” ~ St. Augustine

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In this Gospel, Mark provides a significant amount of information about the Jewish observance of the laws ritual purity, perhaps to educate the Gentile Christians in his audience who would have had little or no experience with these laws. Well, we’re not among those uneducated, are we?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for making ritual purity equal to and as binding as the Law of Moses.  He teaches that we are not defiled by the food that enters our bodies but the words that spew out our mouths.  Such defilement could also be the shrug of the shoulders and leaving the room with another’s question hanging in dead air.  Jesus unmasks a deeper question behind the one posed by the Pharisees: Where is holiness found?  What makes a “holy person”?  By itself it’s not eyes cast heavenward or cast to the ground or beating your chest like the Publican.  It’s not found in how we hold our hands to pray or kneeling for Communion or fasting until we faint.  Nor it is wearing a veil or a habit or a chapel veil.   Outward appearances don’t qualify one for sainthood.  Jesus makes it clear holiness comes from within.  It is evidenced in our deportment, our words, our attitudes, our interactions with each other and our care for God’s creation.  Examples are watering a plant, carefully relocating a lizard to the outdoors, moving chairs quietly, gently placing objects against what could be a noisy surface, or ensuring that doors don’t slam closed.  It’s kindness to our neighbor in the next room or down the hall; the sick, the newcomer, the guest, an annoying child.  The evangelist John was not the first, or the last, to say: “Actions speak louder than words.”  The words at the conclusion of today’s Gospel challenge us to guard against trying to merely look holy.

Jesus reminds us that we become holy when we allow God’s Spirit to transform us. Our actions and our words are a reflection of our “spiritual diet and digestive track”.  Our bodies reject tainted food in often dramatic and hurtful ways, through IBS and spastic colon.  In the same way, our consumption of bias, violence, snide remarks and crude language from the company we keep, our reading material or TV viewing is an abuse our spiritual digestive track cannot tolerate.  It is ejected onto others, into our environment by way of our own mouths.  But our spiritual diet can overcome those symptoms.  We can absorb positive, helpful attitudes in prayer, with daily, deliberate practice, lectio, and interactions with Christ-like persons.  We mature and radiate an expression of the conversion of our hearts.

It is worthy of our time and effort to perk up and listen to the Gospel message: “Hear me, all of you, and understand.  You disregard God’s commandments but cling to human tradition.”  It seems to me, Jesus’ underlying message to us, individually and communally, in this day and place, concerns teaching “human precepts” as “divine doctrine”.  It can be a great temptation for many to elevate personal wishes to the “right way” of doing things.  “I’m telling you: my way is the right way!” There is rarely only one right way in everyday matters.

The list of things that were once acceptable that today we shutter to see or hear about grows almost daily.  Airplane passengers used to able to view the plane’s cockpit from their seats, a cloth  towel hung near the kitchen sink to dry, or someone having one-sided conversations with a plug in their ear are a few examples.  Open dinner buffets were more popular and you didn’t get “pinged” to view 100 photos of my day in the park or of a tired toddler  up past his bedtime.  Even the “Queen of Manners” Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt have changed their minds about the “right way” to eat fried chicken.

Ponder in the week ahead Jesus’ reminder to the crowd.  Pray that it may not be said of us: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

Enjoy your holiday weekend …

  God keep you safe

 

Lord on this Labor Day,
we thank You for the blessing of work.
We ask for strength to complete each day.
We ask for rest when we are weary.
We ask Your guidance
for everyone seeking employment,
and we ask that
You be with those whose faces
we might never see
but who work tirelessly each day
for the good of us all.   Amen.

– from Our Sunday Visitor

 

 

First Reading:   Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8         Second Reading:  James 1:17-18,21b-22,27
Gospel:   Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23
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Do You Think You’re Really What They Say You Are?

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At the outset let it be understood that what follows may appear to be fiction, it is not.  More than one of the evangelists spent an afternoon sharing between themselves as I listened in.

This is some of what I gleaned.  One day, when the man of God Benedict was doing Lectio and pondering how to incorporate his set of values into his manuscript directed to his followers, the evangelists Luke and Matthew entered the reverie.  What an inspiration!  The exchange continued for quite a for a spell.  Look Ben, (one of the speakers said) “you’ve consulted the writings of the one you call the Master.  May I suggest you look at what’s recorded in our sayings of THE Master.   Sure enough!  Very many of our special Benedictine values are put forth by THE Master, Jesus.

+ A SPIRIT of POVERTY: take nothing with you (is how Jesus puts it) No money bags, no suitcase, no canvas bag or pretty tote and no sandals.  Or as you say it in your Rule: “No one may presume to give, receive or retrain anything as her own, nothing at all, in short not a single item … no one shall presume ownership of anything.“

+ A SENSE of STABILITY: Jesus advises his followers: Into whatever house you enter, stay in the same house; don’t be moving from one house to another.   Benedict, you describe the first kind of monastics called cenobites.  From what you say, I sense this may be your preferred type of members.  “Those who belong to a particular monastery, where they serve under the rule of a superior.”

+ Further, Benedict, you expect these cenobites to follow Jesus’ way of life, personally and communally, practicing a SPIRIT of SIMPLICITY and ACCEPTANCE of WHATEVER IS AVAILABLES:  In your words:  Eating and drinking whatever is offered to you; whatever is set before you.

You have an obvious understanding of human nature, Benedict. Could we attribute that to your twin sister’s influence?  She took her turn as cook for her group of women whom she loved as ardently as you looked after the rough and tough gang of men that lived with you. It’s evident in your words: Taking turns serving one another, using an unvoiced system of gestures when anything is required.  And (yes, PLEASE God) it will save you a heap of trouble if you, designate a weekly reader to proclaim the Holy Word throughout the meal.

In studying your Rule, Benedict, it seems to go without saying that there will likely be no harmony in the group unless the members each and all strive to AVOID EVIL and CLING to PEACE.   The evangelists remind readers: Remember what Jesus said: “If peace is not present in the house where you find yourself, go out into the streets and shake the dust from your feet and leave that town.”  When you feel evil arising in you, get in touch with the cause – shame the devil – leave the occasion of sin.

Mark interjected a stray thought.  Consider, he suggested, what ultimately did not happen in Nazareth: no healings, no mighty deeds.  Is it much of a surprise?  After all a miracle is not just an event, but it is an interpreted event. If Jesus is not reputed to be capable of healing, any healing that does take place won’t be attributed to him. So, the crowd’s attitude is “there’s nothing here to see. Let’s just move along, move along… and find some other excitement.”

Such is true with us, with our community.  Our guests won’t experience peace and harmony, generosity of spirit and light-heartedness, beauty in nature and in liturgy if they can’t witness those qualities in each of us.  They come expecting a miracle.  The miracles happen in our interactions, first with each other, then between us and our guests.

Remember Jesus’ question to this disciples, “Who do people say I am?  And, you: “Who do you say I am?”  Who do you say these Benedictine Sisters of FL are?

Do you recall the rock opera popular in the 1970’s: “Jesus Christ, Superstar”?   This line challenges us: “Do you think / you’re what / they say you are?”  Benedictine Sisters of Florida, do you think  / you’re what they say you are?  Are you really who you say you are?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Thursday, July 11, is the summer feast of St. Benedict.  The feast most folks know of is celebrated on March 21.  But that day usually falls during Lent when Alleluia is suppressed and music low key …  we, Benedictines “pull out all the stops” for the summer feast.  Whisper a pray for us at Holy Name as we continue to walk into an ever-evolving future.  God bless each of you!

 

 

 

Gospel:   Mark 6:1-6

 

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Be Patient! It’s a Waiting Game.

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Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four Gospels.  It is full of parables, stories told by Jesus, the best of Storytellers. With some of His stories, Jesus uses elaborate details, making it easy to understand His point. Today’s “riddle” sounds like heaven is a “field of dreams.”  This is a field where a man one day casts seeds with abandon, unmindful of whether they fall on soil that is good or not-so-good.  That night he sleeps unaware that something mysterious is happening in the soil.  Violá!  Overnight the earth has sprung forth blade, and ear and then the fruit!  Jesus queries exactly what our curious minds may be wondering: “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?”   Jesus floats another riddle for our consideration.  The kingdom can be compared to the smallest of seeds that when nurtured grows into the largest of trees.  Literally, the word parable means “a riddle.”  Jesus told more than 40 riddles or parables during his ministry.  Usually when a person tells you a riddle, they eventually tell you the answer.  But Jesus only explained one parable to the crowds – the parable of the Sower and the Seed.  Mark says Jesus explained everything to his disciples in private and they did not share for future generations the meaning of all the parables. Then, Jesus ascended into heaven and took the answers with him!   So that left the later disciples, and us, with a lot of figuring out to do.

Let’s start with one of the most amazing seeds in the world:  Chinese bamboo.  The seedling lies buried in the soil for five long years before any sprout appears above ground.  It seems dormant, or at least stunted.  But don’t be deceived into thinking it’s a lost cause.  The seedling requires constant cultivation during gestation, needing watering and fertilization on a regular basis. Then it requires much patience!  Wait, wait, wait.  It will make up for lost time.  When the bamboo seedling finally emerges from the ground, it grows at an astonishing rate, ninety feet into the air in just six weeks.  That’s fifteen feet a week, more than two feet a day, two inches every hour.  Once it finally gets going, you can almost watch it grow before your very eyes!  Why does it take so long to emerge, and grow so fast once it does?  Plant experts say that during its first five years, the seed is busy building an elaborate root system underground.  This is what enables it to grow ninety feet in six weeks.

Think of yourself as a “Chinese bamboo”.  Growth in us within God’s Kingdom is in a similar pattern.  We take a long time to emerge.  Sometimes it takes so long we wonder, “Did the seed of God’s kingdom planted in me at Baptism ever take root?  Maybe it fell on a rock in my heart and died.  Maybe it got choked by the thorns of my sins.”  More often than not the seed of God’s Kingdom is building an elaborate root system.

This means that we need to trust God who in the first place planted the seed of the Kingdom in us. God understands what’s happening inside us because he sees into the heart, even if we can’t.  We also need to be patient with ourselves and overly generous with mercy and compassionate with others.  Even though the Kingdom may not seem to have taken root in you, and you don’t seem to be getting any holier, there’s no need to be discouraged.  Growth may not be visible for a long time, but eventually something wonderful, beautiful and multi-faceted will emerge.

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Ezekiel 17:22-24         Second Reading:  2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Gospel:   Mark 4:26-34
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Trinity Sunday

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On this, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we celebrate the Church’s understanding of who God is: three unique, equal, divine persons in one God.  It is a celebration of our lived faith experience that we attempt to put into words.  We turn to the Scripture writers for a fuller understanding of this experience and for the ability to share the experience of God in our own lives.  I like Bishop Barron’s description, “The love that God the Father and the Son breathe back and forth is the Holy Spirit, the life of the church.”

But, nowhere in Scripture will you find a specific teaching of the Trinity.  However, we do find many places where the biblical experience of God is so rich that it cannot be encapsulated in a single word.  Jesus is the visible icon (as it were) of the invisible God, making the mystery of God tangible to us.  It is important that we believers have a welcoming attitude to the triune presence of God, so we are ready whenever, and through whomever, God chooses to continue to be revealed.  In this way we will be ready to listen to  and become involved in that dialogue.  Without the continued experience of Father, Son, and Spirit (or some may choose to say: Creator, Savior and Spirit) the doctrine ceases to be a lived experience.  But, if we expect today’s readings to give a clear presentation of the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, that simply will not be the case.  Ours is a God so generous… who loves us so much, that this whole world was created for us and continues to gift to us the gift of Self through the appearance of bread and wine.  Here is a God, generosity personified, who loves us beyond our wildest imaginings.

God wants us to discover this Love and celebrate it.  The fact is: God wants to be found and is constantly calling out to us – but not necessarily with words. He gives us so many opportunities – so many times when we travel through even the darkest tunnels of our lives and then come out the other side to encounter, unexpectedly, something surprisingly, great beauty and holiness.  As I came through the connector this past week, I found myself surprised and confounded by a glimpse of an awesome glorious dawn!  The words of Sirach spring to mind: “As the rising sun is clear to all!  How beautiful are all God’s works!  Even to the spark of a fleeting vision.”

As long as we have our feet planted on “this side of the grass” it makes sense that we might not be able to completely understand how something can be “one” and “three” at the same time.  We need symbols to help us delve deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Trinity e.g. St. Patrick’s shamrock or three-leafed clover … three leaves, one stem.  Or consider the egg you might have for breakfast: yolk, white and shell – three parts, one egg.  Or we might’ve heard the Trinity compared to an Apple….  ONE apple, three different parts: skin, flesh, and seed.

This is a feast, a solemnity beyond words.  The Holy Trinity is a privilege and not merely a commemoration of a doctrine.  Through the celebration the Trinity we enter into a communion of Persons who has loved us into being and continues to call us each day to a fuller experience, a deeper lived knowledge, of our Triune God.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34. 30-40             Second Reading: Roman 8:14-17
Gospel:  Matthew 28:16-20
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“I must be personally present in my gift.”

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When is the last time you sought a big rock to dash your unruly thoughts against?  Uttered something in a language you never studied?  Or, like what happened to St. Benedict, had a goblet crack down rim to stem and spill out its poisoned contents?  After all we live at HOLY NAME monastery and the evangelist Mark quotes Jesus telling us these will be our signs if we are baptized and believe in the Holy Name!  And, on top of that we have the command to: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

A little overwhelming, isn’t it?  But we had best take the message to heart all the while assured by the words in the Gospel: Jesus took his seat at the right hand of God but they (meaning we) went forth and preached EVERY-WHERE, while the Lord worked with them.”

Praise God the full brunt of the message does not fall on us alone.  But we must take seriously our commitment to shoulder our share of the burden to spread the Good News to all with whom we come into contact. We write a new page of the gospel each day through all that we do and by whatever we say.  Others read what we express with our lives.  We express what we believe in a variety of ways in multiple community documents:  in our PHILOSOPY statement, our MISSION statement, our VISION statement, our CORPORATE COMMITMENT and our CORE VALUES.  We recognize and acknowledge our responsibility to harken to Jesus’ call personally and to contribute to its fulfillment in the context of our Benedictine vocation.

There is an ancient beautiful story about the ascension of Jesus into heaven. When the grand welcome ceremony was over, the angel Gabriel quietly approached Jesus and shared some doubts.  “I know that only very few in Palestine are aware of the great work of human salvation you have accomplished through your suffering, death and resurrection. But the whole world should know and appreciate it and become your disciples, acknowledging you as their Lord and Savior. What is your plan of action?”  Jesus answered, “I have told all my apostles to tell other people about me and preach my message through their lives. That’s all.” “Suppose they don’t do that,” Gabriel responded. “What’s your Plan B?” Jesus replied, “I have no other plan; I am counting on them.” That fanciful story reminds us that Jesus is counting on each one of us to make Him known, loved and accepted by others around us.

Our mission is both easy and hard: easy to understand but hard to carry out.  Words of Pope Benedict XV express well the attitude and the necessity of self-giving: “My deep personal sharing in the needs and sufferings of others becomes a sharing of my very self with them….  I must give to others not only something that is my own, but my very self. I must be personally present in my gift.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Congratulations Graduates, one and all. 

Happy Mother’s Day, ALL who “mother” us in a variety of roles – thank YOU!

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11         Second Reading:  Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13
Gospel:   Mark 16:15-20
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