Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

God

Do You Think You’re Really What They Say You Are?

by 1 Comment

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

 

Continue Reading

Be Patient! It’s a Waiting Game.

by Leave a Comment

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
Continue Reading

Trinity Sunday

by Leave a Comment

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
Continue Reading

“I must be personally present in my gift.”

by Leave a Comment

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
Continue Reading

Sixth Sunday of Easter

by Leave a Comment

The theme of this gospel is clearly love but not the kind of love we see on film or on TV or hear on the radio or a CD.  In church hymns, too, we frequently sing about love.  But, as Oliver sings in the musical based on Charles Dickens’ story, “Where is love?” We ask: What is love?  Love is a gift freely given. Sometimes we hear this word “love” used in such a way that we degrade, lessen or weaken its significance.  The way Jesus and John use the word for love just doesn’t apply to chocolate, a long drink or an afternoon nap.  We may like and enjoy those things a lot, but we don’t “love” them in the way we love our neighbor.

It is notable, I think, that Jesus gives us just ONE love commandment. He does not say, “Love me, love my father or love God as I have loved you”. No, he says, “If you want to be my disciple, then you must love one another.” If we really love our brothers and sisters we do not have to worry if we love God. But, if we do not love everyone unconditionally, then there is no other way we can claim to love Jesus. We need to love like God loves, without exception.

Deep down, we all want to be loved.  We like people to be our friends.  Yet, because of our past experiences, the influence of parents and other people around us, the pressures of our society and our traditions, and plain bad habits, we often do not know how to love, do not know how to forgive, do not know how to be reconciled.  We do not practice the skills we know that promote healthy relationships.

Sometimes people will love us back; sometimes they will not. People learn to love by being loved.  We learn to share love and communicate our feelings by imitating the models we live with.  Remember your mom coaxing you when you received a gift or a compliment: “What do you say?”

When I genuinely love others, there will always be some who cannot love me back but there will be others who will really respond in love. And it may be that my love has empowered them to be loving too.  Benedict reminds us in the Prologue to the Rule – we heard it read just yesterday: “See how the Lord in His love shows us the way of life…. What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Holy One to supply by the help of grace … while there is still time, while we are in this body and have time to accomplish all these things … we must run and do now what will profit us forever.”  We know, but too often forget, that Jesus never told his disciples to LIKE each other.  He said: “LOVE one another.”  And, how does Jesus express love?   We know it is given freely and without reserve.  He gives us a “how to” when He says: “I am gentle and humble of heart.”  This is how we are to love one another: in humility with gentleness.   Just as we cradle and carry a precious glass object, we value and treasure our free gift of love with special caring.

It’s a life-long journey, isn’t it?  We may have fleeting moments when “perfect love” rises to the surface of our motivation to action.  I think it was St. Irenaeus who said a very long time ago that “The glory of God is a person fully alive.”  (John Powell)

You see, love is God’s very nature; God cannot not love. How does God love?  Full hearted and unconditionally.   Jesus gives us just one commandment that encompasses all the others. He does not say, “Love Me as I have loved you”. No, he says, “If you want to be my disciple, then you must love one another, as I have loved you.”   If we really love our brothers and sisters, including strangers and even enemies, we do not have to worry if we love God.  In one of our “love” hymns, we sing “Where love abides, our God is ever there.”

St. John does not say to us, “Wherever there are Christians, there is God” or “Wherever there is a Christian church, there is God”.  No, he says, “Wherever there is love, there is God”.  Wherever there is a person filled with love for others, God is there.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 10:25-26,34-35,44-48         Second Reading:  1 John 4:7-10
Gospel:   John 15:9-17

 

Continue Reading

Fourth Sunday of Lent

by Leave a Comment

What’s weighing heavy on your heart? I’m here. Let’s talk.

 

In John’s Gospel, the evangelist has (already before Lent) walked us through the story of the Wedding at Cana.  Jesus, at a nudge from his mother Mary, interacted with the servers who followed his directions to fill the empty stone jars with water, only to be mystified when the water turns into the best wine in the house.   Now, John is the only evangelist who relates this story.  And, he is exact in some details: there were six jars, each 2-3 feet tall, each holding 9-10 gallons. That’s approximately 55 gallons of wine – which makes for quite a wedding!

Last Sunday, we witnessed an interaction of a different sort.  Jesus calls a halt to the desecration of His father’s house, the temple in Jerusalem.  Today’s Gospel takes a leap that skips over an interaction that sets up today’s teaching.  In that gap, we hear about the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus who came to Jesus under the cover of darkness.  Nicodemus was struggling with some big questions.  As he said to Jesus: “I know you came from God.  Maybe you can shed some light on my quandary.”

Puzzled by what Jesus says, Nicodemus questions how an old man can be born again???  Jesus cautions him: “Don’t be amazed that I told you, ‘you must be born from above.’”  Here comes a sentence that I love: “The wind blows where it wills, you hear the sound it makes but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”  [Like Benedict said, Listen with the ear of your heart.”] Reminds me of a 70s folk song: “Blowin’ in the Wind” – “How many times must we look up before we can see the sky?  How many ears must we have before we can hear people cry?  The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”

John reports that Jesus assures Nicodemus: “In all truth I tell you, we speak only about what we know and witness, what we have seen and heard.  And yet people reject our evidence.  If you do not believe me when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?”

Jesus calls Nicodemus’ attention to the story in the Book of Numbers, when the people were in the desert and they complained against God and Moses. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent … so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  John reminds us: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.  God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”

Today, I believe, God is telling us: “What’s happening today: natural disasters, people against people violence, starvation and selfishness, dread illness …   It’s a wake-up call.  Like I said to the prophet Isaiah, yea these many years ago:  “I am the designer and maker of the earth.” Remember in Genesis, at the creation of life on this earth, I looked on all that had been created, and I said: “It is good. …  For, I am God, there is no other.  I will not speak in secret nor from some dark place.  I did not say: Look for me in chaos.  I promise justice, ‘the public face of love’.  I speak the truth.  Turn to me and be safe.  Say: From God alone comes my strength and safety.”

God continues speaking to us.  “All time is temporary in My eyes until you rest in ME eternally.  Today I tell you, just as I welcomed a midnight conversation with Nicodemus, I am here – day or night – for you.  What’s on your mind or weighing heavy on your heart?  Let’s talk.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   2 Chronicles 36:14-16      Second Reading:  Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel:   John 3:14-21
Continue Reading