Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Gospel

First Sunday of Lent

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This weekend’s Gospel tells us that Jesus fasted 40 days and then the intense temptations began.  The first temptations were about food – then self; then, stones, the temple, Jesus’ immediate surrounding, and His community.  The final temptation was related to political power, the kingdom, and the whole world.

In the first temptation, the devil is trying to entice Jesus away from his mission so he can avoid suffering and death.  Aren’t we, too, sometimes tempted to turn aside from our Lenten mission?  When we are tired, hungry, and feeling drained of energy on many levels, it is then that the devil is grinning with glee at the prospect of getting us to throw in the towel on all our good resolutions. Beware the wiles of the devil – they are cunning. Jesus enjoyed good food, a good meal with friends.  Walking through fields of grain, he savored the wheat kernels. In Cana He supplied first rate wine. And He sent his disciples ahead to arrange for supper the night before He died.

In the second temptation, the devil insists that Jesus is entitled to divine safety and protection.  Whenever you are tempted to amaze people with grand ideas, remember Jesus’ reply: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

In the third temptation, the devil wants Jesus to compromise good by using the wrong means.  We, too, can be tempted to meet legitimate human needs using the wrong means.

In this Gospel story Jesus’ temptations occur at the outset of his ministry.  Some may say it was his first day on the job. He is confronted with three major enticements, but he outfoxed the devil and went on to win His crown.  You know the saying “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”  Did you see the story about the deputy who landed his first job?  A local sheriff was looking for a deputy, and one of the applicants, who was not known to be the brightest academically, was called in for an interview. “Okay,” began the sheriff, “What is 1 and 1?” “Eleven,” came the reply. The sheriff thought to himself, “That’s not what I meant, but he’s right.” Then the sheriff asked, “What two days of the week start with the letter ‘T’?” “Today & tomorrow,” replied the applicant. The sheriff was again surprised by the answer, one that he had never thought of himself. “Now, listen carefully. Who killed Abraham Lincoln?” asked the sheriff. The jobseeker seemed a little surprised, then thought really hard for a minute and finally admitted, “I don’t know, Sir.” The sheriff replied, “Well, why don’t you go home and work on that one for a while?” The applicant left and wandered over to his pals who were waiting to hear the results of the interview. He greeted them with a cheery smile, “The job is mine! The interview went great!  First day on the job and I’m already working on a murder case!”

On Saturday, February 28, 2026 the Benedictine Sisters of Florida will celebrate the 137th anniversary of the day in 1889 that the “interview went great!”    The five founding Sisters from Pittsburgh, PA hit the floor running for their “first day on the job.”  And we’ve been running ever since.  The heritage of our Founders has been our inspiration for prayer, good works and life in community.  God bless them and all who have gone before us on their faith journeys: those as academy and prep school students; those who came and stayed awhile; those who discovered their life path elsewhere.  Blessed are those who spent their lives and went to their eternal reward as lifelong members in our community.

From the 2011 archives of Sister Roberta Bailey (revised 2026)

Attached Founders Day Prayer 2026

 

Prayer for Founders’ Day

137th Anniversary

February 28, 2026

Bavaria

To Elk County PA 1852

To Pittsburgh, PA 1870

To San Antonio, FL 1889

 

“Your work is written on the wings of time, it will be wafted to Heaven, where it is read with heavenly delight, and it will be transcribed on the chronicles of eternity.  May you be loved for your goodness; may you be assisted for your purpose, and may you be cheered on in your blessed mission.

With fond love, M. Alegunda

Saint Mary, Elk County, PA  @1870

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

110th Anniversary Morning Praise and Eucharist

Homily March 1, 1999…by Sister Roberta Bailey, O.S.B.

Revised for 137th Anniversary 2026

 

If we are selective, we can choose strands in today’s readings which fit our occasion of anniversary. In the first reading and the psalm we heard: “Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you…Help us, O God our savior, because of the glory of your name…we, your people and the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever…” In the Gospel reading Jesus gives us an admonition that will never go out of style, and one we profess to enflesh our mission: “Be compassionate, as God is compassionate.” In the Prayer Over the Gifts you will hear Father say: “May the grace of this mystery prevent us from becoming absorbed in material things,”

Thus, the “great work” continues…the work begun by our founding sisters 110 years ago today. At the outset of Lent we prayed that we may “begin with God’s inspiration, continue with the help of divine grace, and reach perfection under God’s guidance…” This seems to have been the attitude and prayers of our founding sisters. A powerful mindset! What is begun in God’s name with God’s blessing will be nurtured and cultivated by God and finally reach perfection under the benevolence of divine providence.

In 1989 we took as our Centennial slogan “Recall the Past; Embrace the Future.” We can continue that theme in the celebration of our 110th anniversary. In recalling the past, we honor the memory of all the people who lived it those who endured the hardships and lived through the challenges brought about by the poverty of many sharing little, fewness of members to do much work, homesickness and distance from loved ones, longing for things as they used to be, world wars, the Great Depression, deaths at a young age, changes in society, changes in the church and changes in the interpretation of Benedictinism.

To honor “mothers” we strive to learn and relearn, tell and retell their stories we are uplifted by the inspiration (and hilarity) of everyday pleasures, of the ways people learned to survive the nonsense of the “letter of the law,” the simple things that occasioned a celebration.

We preserve the stories because we want never to forget that the opportunities we have today were not simply lavished upon us. They were purchased at the great price of travel from home; cold, cracked work-worn knuckles; study by the light of midnight oil; stomachs that ached with hunger; raking, hoeing and manuring groves and gardens – saving, scrimping and salvaging.

What firm faith and incredible courage our founding sisters must have had! The records in the Pittsburgh archives remind us that these young sisters were clearly told if the venture did not work they were not to return to Pennsylvania. An examination of the papers shows us that of the five women who signed their severance papers on the evening of February 22, one never made it to Florida. However, one of the sisters who served as a witness, must have decided overnight to join the mission band – she is named in the group of five founders.

Imagine what daring it took to venture south into Indian territory! These were ordinary women just like us. They were Benedictine women with a dream and a mission. Above all they were motivated by the love of God and a strong desire to spread the Good News. In 1889 Rome considered the church in America “missionary territory.” In relative terms, the slaves had only recently been freed. Had our sisters ever seen a black person in their northern neighborhood? Surely not an Indian. And most assuredly not an alligator!

There is some evidence that the pioneer band traveled from Allegheny Country to the Benedictine house in Covington, Kentucky – then southward by train which would have deposited them in south Georgia or north Florida. It seems safe to me to guess that someone from San Antonio would have met the sisters at the train to bring them in wagons or on horseback down along what is now Hwy 19 and 41 – parts of the Seminole trail. Perhaps they met cattle droves bringing their herds to Tampa or Punta Gorda. By the time they reached San Antonio, traveling through the Florida wilderness – in February probably not too many mosquitoes but surely they’d have heard or seen black bears and panthers, “strange birds, and had run across a snake or two. On Thursday, February 28, I bet they breathed a sigh of relief to at last be among people they may not have personally known but whose northern cultural practices and manners, whose speech patterns were similar to their own.

The next day, March 1, being Friday and most probably a Lenten Friday, would have been a black fast day. They would have partaken of very little, if any, breakfast. They’d have prayed the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. And as we known from the annals: “the great work was begun.” Perhaps they had a main meal of fish, fresh caught from Lake Jovita. Evening came, and morning came, the second day.

Now here we are at day 40,178 in the 110th year of our history! And the GREAT WORK goes on. As long as there are gaps between our ideals and our reality, there will always be great work to be done. Our founding sisters, and the women who followed them into community, knew that they probably would not live to see all the changes they promoted. We face challenges our foremothers could not have imagined. Our “daughters” will face challenges unimaginable to us. This is part of Florida Benedictine women’s experience – we strive to be better, to be compassionate and caring; to keep faith with our founding ideals and to enflesh them into a reality worthy of those who will inherit what we build today.

And, since this new day is already upon us…and we must be about the great work that awaits us…

Let us simply pray these words from the psalms: “Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you…we, your people will give thanks to you forever.”

 

 

 

First Reading:   Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7        Second Reading:  Romans 5:12-19
Gospel:  Matthew 4:1-11
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You don’t need a building to represent God’s presence – God is ever near

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Have you ever had the experience of talking to someone who is behind you?   You think you are having a really good conversation only to discover the other person has long since left the room or fallen asleep in the back seat.  Not long ago I experienced this when trying to converse with a friend as we walked down a long busy hallway.  What my friend did not realize was that someone had stepped between us while she continued speaking over her shoulder. “Let’s go into town tonight, find a good dancing place; maybe have a drink or two.”  Imagine her surprise when a male voice responded: “I’d like that – Is it OK if I bring my wife?”

That’s similar to what is happening in this Gospel story.  Folks are going through all kinds of activities directed to a God who has long stopped paying attention to all of their religious rituals, performances and pretenses.  What was taking place in the Temple was all the outward activity with none of the genuine reality. The motives had become mixed: it was much more about what they could get from the Temple rather than responding in gratitude for what God has done for them and their ancestors.

The picture here is not a gentle, soft-spoken Jesus – not the smiling Jesus calmly confronting the religious establishment with authoritative teaching and divine wisdom.  He does not ask the vendors to kindly remove their display tables outside the temple.  Nor does he ask the buyers to hold on to their money and put it in the donation basket.  Rather, he appears with His sleeves rolled up ready for a fight. He makes his own whip and chares through the heart of the religious establishment striking forcefully and aggressively at a religious system that has become skewed. Imagine it! Jesus is opening the cages of sheep, and doves with one hand, while, wielding a whip of cords in the other. He is driving animals and people alike into confusion and retreat.

The Jewish leaders ask Jesus for his credentials: what sign does he offer for taking this radical action?  Their demand is amazing but it seems a fair question.  They are checking what right He has to clear the Temple. Even among those who trusted Jesus, there is something that is not trustworthy. Jesus knew that even among those who believe, there is something fundamentally wonky. We are prone to get it wrong. Even among those who have true faith in Jesus, there is the possibility that we will let ritual replace reality.

Recall Jesus’ response to his critics in the temple?  “You want proof that I have the right to condemn religious pretension.   Let me give you the sign that I have the authority to condemn the Temple. You are going to kill me, and when you destroy me, I will raise it up again.” He is saying that resurrection is the ultimate authentication that he is who he says he is.  The religious leaders were incredulous.

He’s telling them and us: You don’t need a building to represent My presence because I am the connecting point between you and God.  In just a little more a month we will be celebrating Christmas and singing about Emmanuel, God with us. Authentic worship is not attached to Jerusalem or any other place. It is attached to Jesus. You / we won’t be making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But, we will be moving through Advent – a movement of the heart.  Turn away, Jesus says, from all that detracts from Me and our relationship.

So, if the Gospel message is that we don’t need a building to find and worship God, why are we celebrating the dedication a basilica today?  Parishes commemorate their founding dates but that’s usually a local celebration.  Why does the dedication of a building in a faraway city supersede the 32nd Sunday liturgy?  This church, the Lateran Basilica, not St. Peter’s, is a diocesan cathedral, the pope’s church, in his role as bishop of Rome.  It was built in the 4th century on donated land.  The structure has suffered fire, earthquake and ravages of war.  The present structure was commissioned 1200 years later, in 1646.  Beneath its high altar rests the remains of a small wooden table, on which according to tradition, St. Peter celebrated Mass.  The building may have been repaired and its role changed since the fourth century, but Jesus Christ remains its cornerstone.  This is our mother church, the spiritual home of the people who are the church.

Shortly before his death, Pope Francis give us insight into his concept of Church:

“I would like a more missionary church, not so much a tranquil church, but a beautiful church that goes forward in joy.”    At the opening of the Synod on the Family Pope Francis made it clear no question would be out of place, Discussion was not to be censored; no topics or questions were to be off the table. He wanted full, robust debate.   Then, in his closing remarks at the Synod he challenged the bishops with homework: “We still have one year to mature, to find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable challenges to confront; to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and suffocate.”

Our gospel is not a bedtime pretend story about some long-ago hypocritical religious leaders. It’s really our story too.  Our covenant relationship with Jesus, with God is not just about becoming a better version of ourselves through self-improvement.  It’s not about following a set of rules, reading the words of someone else’s prayers, being on our knees or sitting down, genuflecting or bowing.  It’s about becoming the best we can be – living to our full potential – not putting ourselves down in false humility or denying God’s free gifts to us.

A very real question is whether we believe that the resurrection fact or fiction?  Do we truly believe the sign that Jesus gives us, that He rose after three days buried in the earth?   If you believe He did, then we need to pay attention, because this is no ordinary man.  Let us, pray, then THAT our community, that every community of faith gathering to worship, may go forth from church buildings into their everyday lives to share their faith and resources with those in need.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9,12        Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 3:9-13,16-17
Gospel:   John 2:13-22
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Perseverance in Prayer

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In the Gospel we have a lesson about perseverance in prayer.  The point of the story is not that prayer is nagging God for what we want.  Nor is it meant to teach us that God is like the judge in the parable – worn down by requests and coerced to respond.

The key to understanding the meaning is found in the description of the judge as corrupt and unjust. Since God can be neither, we must understand Jesus to be saying that if even an unjust judge responds to the persistence of the widow, how much more will God listen to our prayers. God truly wants to hear our needs and respond generously.  Didn’t Jesus say: “Ask and you shall receive?”   Jesus is telling us that God wants us to be like the persistent widow, staying in relationship with God, confident that God hears and answers prayers.   And He understands how easy it is to lose heart.  He asks: “Will such faith, the faith of the widow, be found when the Son of Man returns?”

A beginning of the answer to the question appears to be that the Son of Man will find faith, but it may be in unexpected places, as it has been in the Gospel — not among the religious professionals or the ones certain of their own righteousness, but among the outsiders, the unlovely, the unclean, the ones certain of their sinfulness.

The parable suggests that a sign of faith will be a willingness to persist in prayer, as we see in this widow who persists against all odds in her fight for justice against the powerful judge. Another sign may be in what we pray for: daily bread, the Holy Spirit, the coming of the kingdom, justice.

In his gospel, the evangelist Luke portrays widows as vulnerable but at the same time prophetic, active, and faithful.  The widow of this parable is forceful enough to get the justice she demands even from an utterly unjust judge.

If we could read the Greek version of this parable, we’d get a glimpse of Jesus sense of humor.   Now by “Greek” I don’t mean the language we refer to when we say “It’s all Greek to me.”  In the Greek Scriptures the judge gives in to the widow because if he doesn’t, he fears she may give him a black eye.  Jesus uses a metaphor from boxing to make his point about the need to continue in prayer. Be as persistent as a boxer in the ring when it comes to prayer. Jesus gives a second teaching in the parable. If an unjust judge answers the pleas of a widow how much more will God answer our prayers.  We just don’t know WHEN.  Remember the words of the prophet Habakkuk?  “The vision still has its time and will not disappoint.”   God takes the long view,  knows what is best and we may sometimes have to wait until we’re, as they say: “on the other side of the grass,” where we’ll understand that all along God knew best.

Luke seems to be very much aware of the real danger of giving up, of losing heart when we suffer injustice.  Luke is saying that if we pray hard enough and if we don’t lose heart, God will give us justice, right? Well, does God? Is there justice in the world?  In our country?   In our local communities, and (sadly) In our churches?  We have only to watch the evening news or read the day’s headlines to learn of multiple cases of brutality and injustice.

Could it be possible that God’s justice looks different than our justice?  Good question. Yet, somehow I trust that God gives us a righteous sense of justice–especially if it is a selfless sense of justice–one that is concerned with others.  Look at our widow. What does she do to obtain justice? She is persistent. She is stubborn. Perhaps we should call her attitude a kind of “holy stubbornness.” She doesn’t give up – she doesn’t lose heart. She keeps knocking at the judge’s door.

Now, I believe I don’t have to explain “stubbornness.”  Some of us had it sprinkled on us in our cradles!  We can prettify it, call it by another name, whatever we want: high principles, perseverance, tenacity, determined or just plain pig-headedness.  Yes, we seem to be naturally endowed with the “great gift of stubbornness” and the only thing God has to help us with is to learn how to be stubborn for the right causes — God’s justice. In that case we may talk about a “holy stubbornness.”  That happens when we start not only to pray our prayers, but when we start to live our prayers.  In other words, we put our actions where our words are.  Victims of poverty, injustice or violence don’t want to hear about God’s commandments, about moral values, about self-denial, or even about justice.

Luke is right: it is easy to lose heart and go with the flow rather than go against the current.   It takes more than a petition at Mass to make our prayers effective. Think of all the corporate commitment action opportunities we are offered.  When we support our petitions with a donation to Christmas for the residents at Heritage, attend the Sunrise Prayer Vigil, write letters asking for legislative action on behalf of the poor, make a donation to the Soup Supper or volunteer at Daystar.

You may ask, or be asked: “can prayer move God’s arm?” Jesus turns this question back on us today and concludes his parable with the question: “Will the Son of man find faith when he returns?” In other words, he is asking: “Can prayer move your own arm?  Are you willing to put your actions where your words are?” God always has relied on his children–people like you and me–to usher in His Kingdom. God will give us strength, God will empower us, but we still need to stubbornly live out our prayers for justice. The first reading reminds us we don’t have to be alone in our entreaties.  One of the beauties of living in community or being part of a faith community is that, like Moses’ (in tomorrow’s first reading) – we have friends who “hold our hands until sunset” – we have  the prayer support of many others.  Are our prayers effective? The answer lies squarely with us: “it depends on how effective we help make them.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Exodus 17:8-13         Second Reading:  2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:2
Gospel:   Luke18:1-8
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Faith the size of a Mustard Seed

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In this Gospel Jesus offers his disciples two related teachings his disciples when they cry out for an increase in faith. The first is the familiar reminder that faith, even just a little, will enable the followers of Jesus to do wondrous things. But this uplifting and inspiring teaching is quickly followed by the second teaching, a caution about knowing one’s place in God’s plans. Even when God works wonders through us, with our mustard seed-sized faith, we must not seek praise. Our participation in God’s plans is God’s grace to us—nothing more, nothing less. Pope Francis reminds us: “Our life is not all written down; it means going, walking, doing, searching, seeing … We must enter into the adventure of the quest for meeting God; we must let God search and encounter us.” When we are graced enough to cooperate with God, the work we do is nothing more than our obligation to God as faithful stewards. And yet, our faith enables us to believe that what we have offered in service to God, as his servants, can be made to produce a hundredfold.

Last week we celebrated St. Francis Day so I want to tell you a St. Francis story – maybe only part truth. This is not the story of how his father disowned him, and he stripped naked in court and walked away. It’s not the story of how he received the stigmata. Nor is it the story of the Wolf of Gubbio. This is a story you may not have heard; this is the story of St. Francis and the Sultan Al-Kamil. It takes place during the Fifth Crusade – when Francis’ pilgrimage took him across the battle lines in ancient Egypt. He was immediately captured and brought before Sultan. According to some versions of the story, he challenged the Muslim clerics to a trial by fire: both he and they would preach from the heart of a bonfire and whoever was not burned alive would be the one preaching the true God. The Muslim clerics declined the challenge. Francis then offered to go into the fire by himself, with the proviso that if he was not burned up the Sultan and all his followers would have to convert to Christianity. The Sultan did not take Francis up on this offer.

Whether or not that’s true, it is known that Francis preached to the Sultan and his household, who were so impressed by Francis that the Sultan offered him numerous gifts — which Francis refused — and gave him safe conduct back to the Crusader camp. When in time the Crusader Kingdoms fell, the Muslim rulers granted permission for Christians to tend the Christian holy sites in the Holy Land, but that permission was not given to the Church as a whole, it was given specifically to the Franciscans. In fact this arrangement persists to this day — there is a Catholic office called “Custodian of the Holy Land,” and it is always held by a Franciscan; and in places where custody is shared by different Christian denominations — like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — it is Franciscans who represent the Roman Catholic church. All because of that one visit between St. Francis and the Sultan.

It may seem a stretch from the Gospel story to tell a tale about Francis of Assisi. So, why you may ask, tell it? A convergence of awareness led me to share this with you.

Jesus says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” St. Francis acted out of this spirit of courage and faith when he crossed the battle lines in Egypt. He had no idea what would happen to him; he had every reason to expect to be taken prisoner at the very least. Afterward, he doubtless thought his mission had failed. But — he had made a connection — a moment of authentic human connection, two people meeting each other face to face — that has had consequences to this very day – over 800 years!

The world is full of people who are divided from us, even opposed to us — because of religion, nationality, ethnicity, or political views, or any of a thousand things. God calls us to reach out to these people in a spirit of courage and love, unashamed of our testimony about our Lord and our mission, our way of life. We may not convince them — we may not bring them around to our point of view. We may not even make peace. The world being what it is, the odds are against it.

But if we can just make that one moment of connection, that one moment where we see each other face to face as human beings, as St. Francis did with the Sultan— that’s the mustard seed. That’s the opportunity for God to act and do something unexpected and miraculous.

The big problems in the world — hunger, war, religious conflict, and so on — often seem too big for us. Maybe they are. But we have to have faith that if we can move the pebble — then God will move the mountain.

Pope Francis once said in an interview said, “Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads, that are able to step outside itself…” Sounding like his patron Francis, he says: “We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing… focusing on the essentials… We have to find a new balance; otherwise we will lose the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”

A Sufi story tells of disciples who were despairing because their leader was about to die. They asked him, “If you leave us, Master, how will we know what to do?” The master replied, “I am nothing but a finger pointing at the moon. Perhaps when I am gone you will see the moon.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

First Reading: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:6-8,13-14
Gospel: Luke 17: 5-10
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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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This parable is challenging to explain but, it came from the mouth of God’s Son so it must be important for us to grapple with. What might Christ be saying to us? Here is what I heard – colored by the recent readings from chapter 2 of Benedict’s Rule on the Qualities of the Prioress. The Gospel tells us if we can’t be trusted in little matters we certainly cannot be trusted with great ones. If you are not a leader in a Benedictine community it may be easy to breeze through chapter 2 with an attitude of ho, hum – that’s for them – glad it’s not me.

To say that Benedict lays down high standards for the superior may be an understatement. He places the chapter on leadership qualities early in the Rule, only after he defines the type of monk he is writing for. So we know he is writing about the qualities of the leaders of the “strongest kind of monastics” – the ones who have chosen to live under a Rule and a monastic leader.

I am thinking Benedict left it unsaid in Chapter 2, but he sprinkled exhortations regarding leadership for all the members elsewhere in the Rule. Benedict echoes Jesus when he presses home the “the person who is dishonest in very small matters will also be dishonest in great ones.” It does not require a great leap to apply this maxim to all of us – the youngest in community to the eldest. It seems to me Benedict is waving a banner before our eyes of what we each need to be so that a call to leadership does not include an abrupt change of lifestyle. Benedict knew from his own experience that the leader’s role in community is time-limited. He himself had experienced the call to leadership and call to a hermit’s life. He must have foreseen, perhaps with a nudge from his twin sister Scholastica, that the monastic must be prepared in all aspects of her life to move in and out of leadership roles. If the individual member does not engage in a lifelong endeavor to develop the attitudes, skills and qualities that Benedict laid out for the superior, (guess what?) an election or appointment to a leadership position will not ipso facto endow a saintly disposition. If a person has not learned to be accountable for her own actions (or at least tried to be), and to be solicitous for the welfare of those in her charge (as a teacher, principal, supervisor, kitchen manager, sacristan, chief floor scrubber, head nurse….), an imposition of hands or a community blessing, or even the bishop’s blessing will not infuse saintliness: responsibility, accountability, compassion or mercy.

You may remember the lesson of the geese who fly in V formation? As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following it. Combined, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if the individual geese flew alone. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position. The geese in the formation honk from behind to encourage those in front to keep up their speed.

Note that Benedict does not let the “honkers” off the hook. In speaking of the qualities of the abbot, Benedict intersperses words to the “monks in the pews.” If the prioress is to call the community or individuals to account, the member must be docile to listen. If the prioress is to be a shepherd, the sheep have to be willing to be corralled and led. It’s impossible to lead if no one follows.

Benedict reveals his keen insight into human nature when he talks about the cast of characters who can be gathered into one community. He reminds the leader, and by inclusion, all the members, to “accommodate and adapt themselves to the character and intelligence of their Sisters.” In conclusion, Benedict smiles upon the leader consoling her that she does not lack resources. He quotes Psalm 33: “Those who fear God lack nothing.” In helping others, the leader achieves the amendment of her own faults. Benedict does not mention, but I bet he knew, the gratifying support the prioress or the abbot, (or leaders of any sort) daily receives in unpretentious, quiet affirmations.

Like the story of the geese, in monastic life when the leader gets sick or is shot down (with arrows or words), individual members drop out of formation to help, protect and reaffirm the leader until she is either able to again take the lead or fly in formation with the other members. Jesus reminds us in this parable that, in the end, it doesn’t matter when you came into community, even when you came into the church. The reward for putting your hand to the plow will be the same: a day’s work in the kingdom for God’s daily wage … the last, the same as the first. It’s been that way for all eternity. You’ll find when you get there (I’m guessing) that your view from the mansion God is saving for you is just as magnificent as that of Moses or Adam and Eve or your favorite saints – everyone’s mansion has a “throne-side view” of heavenly glory.

 

P.S.  World Mission Sunday

World Mission Sunday is scheduled for the weekend of October 18-19, 2025, and this year’s theme is “Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples.” During this Jubilee Year of Hope, the theme is most appropriate, and all are called to engage in missionary work in one form or another, thereby bringing hope to those in despair. This annual worldwide collection helps to provide aid to 1,124 dioceses that cannot sustain themselves because they are too poor, young, or actively persecuted.

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Amos 8:4-7         Second Reading:  1 Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel:   Luke 16:1-13
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Don’t Stay In Your Comfort Zone

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The advice in this Gospel is for us whether we are the guest or the hostess.  But it is not simply suggestions about etiquette. Something more is going on here. What Jesus advocates is not only for social occasions, but it’s meant to shape the entirety of our lives.

Jesus is advising us against staying in in our comfort zone. Rather than limiting our guest list to people who are clones of ourselves, people with whom we’re comfortable, who don’t threaten or even challenge us, Jesus encourages us to instead invite those who are different, people who make us uncomfortable, but whose difference from us may bring with it a blessing.

Repeatedly Jesus takes the low seat and invites unlikely types to be his guests.  Those who come to his banquet make it through the narrow door because they claim no merit of their own.  Jesus leaves the comfort zone of his place by his Father to come to earth as a tiny, helpless child. He leaves the comfort zone of earthly life, and allows himself to be placed in a narrow grave.

How can we move out of our comfort zone?

+   Develop a deeper spirituality,

+   Engage in service, – sit next to a stranger or a person you recognize but    want to know better.  It could even be a person you’ve lived with for years but who still feels like a stranger.

+   Help others on their spiritual journey – it’s amazing how you will change,
+   Keep saying “no” to the ways of the world and “yes” to the ways of God.

Jesus asks us that we do him the honor of keeping ourselves, our religion, our community from becoming trapped in some comfort zone.  For us in this Benedictine community, with the move to a new monastery in 2014 and all that involved choosing what to keep and what to divest ourselves of in gifts others was a daily reality.  We place great trust in God to guide us as we refuse to linger very long in any comfort zone, moving always past safety to encounter unexpected challenges to follow the crucified and risen One. This is what it means to live the life of faith – a life on the ladder of humility as described in the Rule of Benedict …  living in reverence and deference to others.

As Perpetual Adoration Benedictine Sister Mary Jane Romero puts it:  As a sister grows in humility, she is transformed interiorly, and it overflows into her exterior behavior.  She possesses a dignity that expresses her reverent attitude toward God, her sisters, and all of life.

Joan Chittister says it this way: Humility and contemplation are the invisible twins of the spiritual life.  (I like the symbol of twins … perhaps inspired by the image of Benedict and his twin sister.)  She continues: One without the other is impossible.  In the first place, there is no such thing as a contemplative life without the humility that takes us beyond the myth of our own grandeur to the cosmic grandeur of God.   Humility enables me to stand before the world in awe, to receive its gifts and to learn from its lessons.  But to be humble is not to be diminished.  Indeed, humility and humiliations are not the same thing.  Humility is the ability to recognize my right place in the universe, both dust and glory; God’s glory, indeed, but dust, nevertheless.  Being realistic about the self, the mind is free to become full of God.

Or consider this from Eugene Boylan in his book THIS TREMENDOUS LOVER: In the practice of humility, it is a very sound principle never to display a humility that is not sincere.  (Recall what Benedict directs: strive not to be called holy; rather, be holy.)  Frequent meditation on the Passion will bring us more quickly to humility than anything else, and while humility is dependent upon true self-knowledge, such knowledge is better obtained by studying what God is, than what we ourselves are.

A final thought …Humility is like underwear, essential, but indecent if it shows.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29         Second Reading:  Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24
Gospel:   Luke 14:1,7-14
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