Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Gospel

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Our ancestors went out with joy to serve the people of God.

And, when the time was right…our time…… we are on the move again.

The opening lines of this Gospel selection seem to me to be a good description of what we did.  Many years ago our predecessors recognized a treasure across the street – a piece of land with a stunning view and a perpetual breeze; awesome sunrises and sunsets.  They buried it with a citrus grove – went out with joy to serve the people of God in many places.  And, when the time was right, our time (2014), we sold what we had and set out with joy to reclaim our treasured “pearl.”

Twelve years later we are on the move again, this time to an assisted living facility: American House on Pretty Pond Road in Zephyrhills, Florida.  This will be a gradual move as spaces become available.  For the time being four of us have made the move.  The transition has been a smooth welcome.  The residents have received “the Sisters” with helpful hints and are thrilled that Fr. John McEvoy will be offering Mass there on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursdays.

Let’s move on to our Gospel reflection. Jesus asks us: “Do you understand all these things?”  Like the disciples we without hesitation answer, “Yes.”  But, maybe our voices quiver and there’s a question mark in our expression. T is however a conviction in our hearts that we will extend God’s kingdom wherever we live, whatever the restrictions we encounter, and with whatever the resources we have at hand.

 The Gospel reading concludes with a curious statement about the scribe who understands the kingdom of heaven.   How do we identify and describe God’s Kingdom here on earth? One way that immediately comes to mind is the outpouring of love and concern evident in the “Christmas in July” celebration provided by the Columbiettes from St. Mark’s Parish in Tampa.  God bless them!

The words of a Quaker hymn come to mind: “We bend and we bow and shan’t be ashamed”.  Our mission remains the same – it just takes on a new shape.  Why did our Sisters come from Pennsylvania to settle in this area?  Was it not to feed the educational hunger of the local children?  Long before we wrote formalized philosophy statements and directional goals, our Sisters “fed hungers” in a variety of roles at all levels in the education field.  They worked in internal ministries and as nurses and home healthcare workers, seamstresses, coif makers, packing house workers, and gardeners.  You name it, as long as it was legal and moral, someone probably tried it.  Our aim is, and has always been, to foster life in community –  to BE community for each other: to pray and work; to interact with the care and respect St. Benedict describes in his Rule, particularly in RB chapter 72. It reads “be the first to show respect to the other”. In our community’s Core Commitment we express Benedict’s mandate by writing we are to be the first “to respond with the compassion of Christ to the hungers of our world.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 Sorry this is a little late coming…

The four of us who have moved have had a smooth transition into life at American House.  The staff and residence alike have welcomed us and are happy that Fr John McEvoy will be offering 10 a.m. Mass (all welcome) on Tuesday, Thursday and Sundays.

 

 

First Reading:   1 Kings 3:5, 7-12         Second Reading:  Romans 8:28-30, 13:44-52
Gospel:   Matthew 13:44-46
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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Jesus’ parables are moments of grace to ply open our heart’s willingness to surrender to, and be enveloped in, the always surprising generosity of God.

Here on our property, when we look out the windows we can see the greenhouse protecting the tilapia.  After months of growth they will eventually surrender themselves and be on our dinner table.  We can behold the life cycle of the hay field or blueberry patch and see first-hand in nature what Jesus’ is talking about. He extends the lesson to apply it to the human heart.  He reminds us that there are folks whose hearts are like cement.  It does not matter how much or how often seed is poured on these souls. Fertilize it, water it – nothing will cause those seeds to take root and sprout.  They (or we) can listen to church and TV sermons 24/7 and still remain unfazed.

Do you remember times you were like this …  not always … but a time or two when you just didn’t want to hear what God might have to say?

In contrast to the hardened-soil type person, the shallow-soil person is hyper-responsive to God’s word—but only for a wee tiny time. Like during a revival or a community retreat.   Be careful so you’re not temporary one of these ‘all in’ folks gobbling up every book or internet idea. At times you may be lucky enough to have the seed sink in and burst through the pavement of your heart.  But right away, birds or insects snatch the new growth so that it never comes to fruition.  It can’t survive the heat of the give and take of daily community life.

When were you like this?  Maybe in the novitiate … or the time in High School when the class made the senior retreat?  God was SO real to you … but God’s voice grew more faint as the days went by?  Remember those days?  You were so fervent.  But your fervor faded as time went by.

Then, there is a third type of soil – a thorny type – tightly entangled with the “thorns” “of the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.” Matthew says these people are caught up in anxiety and get choked on the lure of the riches of the world that tug and yank at their minds and hearts until the seed suffocates, rendering them spiritually barren.

Was this ever the case in your life?  Times when you were just too distracted to cultivate God’s word? Times when several days went by without a pause for Lectio or healthy self-care?  Times when “thorny” remarks and obstinate behavior were your default mode?  That’s when God planted a general sense of dissatisfaction in the garden of your soul.

Oh, but how gratifying it must be to Jesus when He finds “good soil people” – when we share the time God’s has given us to meditate on the Word, let it penetrate and bear fruit – then we hold fast to the word making it our own.    Thus, we grow more Christ-like over time by absorbing and practicing the precepts of Benedict.  Over the years, as the seeds continue to take root and blossom, the fruits and gifts of the Spirit flourish.

One author describes Benedictine life: we fall down, and we get up as we ascend the ladder of humility.  We come not only to know, but to believe deep in our hearts that God can change hard, shallow, compromised patches of dirt into fertile garden soil.   We read in Ezekiel; “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Some of us have, or have had, gardens. And all of us–whether we’re gardeners with a green thumb, or thumbs with only a tinge of green, or only a “wishful” thumb – or a thumb that only knows how to operate a TV remote or a computer mouse — all of us know the principle of planting: when we put a seed in the ground, we expect a plant to appear …  some may even think it will sprout with a flower already on it. We also know that not all seeds will produce full-grown plants. They just don’t, for a variety of reasons.

We don’t have to ever coddled a plant in order to know the different landscapes of which Jesus speaks. We know the beaten path of own lives. We’ve stumbled through the rocky patches of life. We have been scratched and cut by the thorns of life. But we have planted our roots deep in the sacred soil of community life that feeds and matures us to become a harvest – whether it’s a thirty, sixty or a hundredfold – who’s counting?!!  Given the right conditions apple seeds do become apples. Mango seeds become mangoes. God’s seeds become what we allow them to become.

Taking words from Matthew’s Gospel, why did Jesus speak in parables?  Remember what He said: I speak to them in parables because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.

Paraphrasing the words from Deuteronomy, we ask: “let the soil of my heart hear the words of Your mouth.  May Your instruction soak in like the rain and Your word permeate like the dew; like a gentle rain upon the grass and like a shower upon the crops.”  Or borrowing the words of Jeremiah: we pray to be like a tree that stretches its roots to the waters of a nearby stream.  May we stay green in the summer heat and in drought show no distress but still produce fruit.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 55:10-11         Second Reading:  Romans 8:18-23
Gospel:   Matthew 13:1-23
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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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In this Gospel passage, Jesus uses a simple, mind-opening analogy to illustrate his point.  His listeners knew that the cheapest life in the market was a small bird of the field, perhaps a sparrow.  Yet, God’s providential care knows even when this smallest of birds dies.  Jesus is using here a rabbinic argument technique which compares a light matter to a heavy one. His idea here is to overcome fear and encourage the disciples, and us, to trust God.

Jesus recognizes that fear may cause failure on our part.  We see in the Gospel how on the one hand, the disciples are granted remarkable powers to heal the sick, exorcise demons, cleanse lepers, even to raise the dead. But at the same time, Jesus denies the disciples money, extra clothes, or a walking stick to aid in climbing the ups and downs of life or to protect themselves from wolves.  He even denies them a pair of sandals to shield their feet from rocks and stones, or, if they travel the fields in Florida, sandspurs.

They are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God with an awareness that they go as “sheep in the midst of wolves.”  We know their stories. They faced arrests and beatings, hatred and persecution and opposition, even from family members.

With great care and compassion Jesus names aloud the suffering to be endured and its causes.  This is the first step in freeing them from the tenacious grip of fear.  Benedict knew this, didn’t he?  Remember what he says about receiving newcomers (Chapter 58).  “Do not grant newcomers an easy entry … test the spirits, let them keep persistently knocking at the door four or five days … they should be clearly told the things of everyday living in community; all the hardships and difficulties that will lead to God.  She, the newcomer, must be aware of what the Rule requires so that she may know what she is entering.”

Just as Jesus modeled the way for his disciples, we make a commitment to the each other to model Benedictine living.   An example: A young boy, out for a walk with his father on a cold winter day, was scared to cross a frozen pond … afraid of falling through the ice. But then his Father offered to lead the way.  Now the boy didn’t hesitate to go across the ice. The ice hadn’t become less frightening, but he was able to follow his father, trusting his father wouldn’t lead him to harm. He followed his father without fear across the ice.   Jesus leads us; we lead each other.

As we sing in the Suscipe: “Uphold me, O Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live, and do not disappoint me in my hope.”

“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.” (William Allen White).  Also see Sirach 30:21-15: “Gladness of is the very life of a person, and cheerfulness prolongs our days.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Jeremiah 20:10-13         Second Reading:  Romans 5:12-15
Gospel:   Matthew 10:26-33
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Good Shepherd Sunday

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These two brief parables in the Gospel reveal Jesus as our unique means to salvation, our Good Shepherd.  He is the “sheep gate,” the gateway to eternal life, and the selfless, caring “shepherd” who provides protection and life itself.  Jesus presents a comparison between a concerned shepherd and a hireling who is there only for the paycheck.  The good shepherd is willing to pay any price to protect the sheep, even if it means that he has to give His very life for them.  Christ, the Chief Shepherd, knows our individual weaknesses and failings and watches over us with discerning love and sympathetic understanding.  With infinite concern He notes the doubts, fears, trials, conflicts, and defeats that disturb our peace, and He swiftly comes to our aid Jesus is warning his hearers and reminding us, “don’t be scammed” – only thieves and robbers seek to enter the sheepfold by any means other than the door.

Tony Campolo loved to tell the story of a particular census taker who went to the home of a rather poor family in the mountains of West Virginia to gather information.  He asked the mother how many dependents she had.  She began, “Well, there is Rosie, Billy and Lewella, Susie, Harry and Jeffrey.  There’s Johnny, Harvey, and our dog, Wille.”  The census taker interrupted her: “No, ma’am, that’s not necessary.  I only need the humans.” “Ah,” she said.  “Well, there is Rosie, Billy, and Lewella, Susie, Harry, and Jeffrey, Johnny, Harvey, and…”  At this the exasperated man he said, “No, ma’am, you don’t seem to understand.  I don’t need their names.  I just need the numbers.”  The woman replied, “But I don’t know their numbers. I only know them by name.”

In today’s gospel Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says that he knows his sheep by name.  Although there may be several flocks sharing the same sheepfold, when the shepherds walk up to the gate and call their sheep, each one instantly recognizes the voice of its own shepherd.  When he calls, they instinctively follow (they are led and they follow, they are not driven, that’s for goats).  They will ignore the voice of any shepherd other than their own.  We will hear many voices competing for our attention, but there is a special note to the voice of Jesus that demands our immediate and full attention.

A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep.  But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days.  When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled. Not knowing how to decide the matter, he at last asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom.  Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal.  The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened.  The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep.  When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door.  It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master.  “His sheep knows him,” said the judge.  “Case dismissed!”

There is no question that Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  The only question that remains at this point is this: Do you know the Shepherd?  Do you recognize His voice?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts 2:14, 36-41         Second Reading:  1 Peter 2:20-25
Gospel:   John 10:1-10
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Second Sunday of Easter

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The Frailty of Easter  Based in part on a reflection by John Slattery  (adapted)

Easter is all about smallness.  That’s why we are drawn to reading and re-reading the Easter accounts in the Gospels each year.  Despite the ocean of books, songs, sermons, and lectures written about Easter or on Easter-themes, our Scripture includes just four small stories about this Jesus who rose from the dead.  The combined resurrection stories encompass about 3500 words–the equivalent of about 15 pages, the length of an average term paper.

Jesus’ resurrection was such a humble thing.  There were no angel trumpeteers or singers in the skies. It was more like the story in Psalm 119. “Without a word, without a sound, without a voice being heard, the message fills all the earth, resounding to the ends of the universe.”  First, Jesus surprised Mary in the garden.  She told a few other women, then they told a few men and soon Jesus appeared to them.  He spoke about peace, about the Spirit of God, about hope.  He showed his wounds.  He ate some food and then he drifted up into the clouds.  He didn’t march on Rome or lead a rebellion against those who brought him to Pilate.  After his resurrection He didn’t heal anyone else or preach to vast crowds as He had done previously.  He didn’t cast out any more demons, trade barbs with rabbis, or visit the Temple.  The resurrection, in many ways, was a quiet event.

It challenges us to read that Jesus showed his followers his wounds.  “See,” he seems to say, “a broken body is not made whole by erasing the imperfections.  Feel this hole in my side,” he says to Thomas and to each of us.  “See, I have sanctified what the world calls spoiled.  A broken body is made whole not by removing the scars but by embracing the permanence of the wounds.”

We like this small and quiet resurrection where Jesus is not the definition of a contemporary superhero.  He doesn’t return triumphant and knock Pilate off his throne, bringing God’s wrath on the vicious Roman Empire.  He appears to his friends, simply showing his wounds and talking about love and peace.

Today’s story of Thomas illustrates our Christian experience. We are called to believe without seeing.  In fact, all Christians (after the first witnesses) have been called to believe without seeing. Thus, we sing “Without seeing you, we love you; without seeing you, we believe.”  Thomas’ doubt is hardly surprising; the news of Jesus’ appearance was incredible to the disciples who had seen him crucified and buried. Thomas’ human nature compelled him to want hard evidence that the Jesus, who appeared to the disciples after his death was indeed the same Jesus who had been crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to act on that desire. He is our witness that Jesus is truly raised from the dead.  With him we proclaim: “We have been told, we’ve seen his face, and heard his voice alive in our hearts.”

Jesus wants us to be perfect, but not the kind of perfect that ninjas or Superman display.  Jesus wants us to be perfect “as our heavenly Father is perfect.”  God’s perfection and the message of Jesus’ Resurrection call us to an unconditional embrace of frailty, pain, and brokenness.

It is an embrace that calls us to resist all forms of violence, power, and hatred.  There is growing acknowledgement of that fact that TV and video game violence, like second-hand smoke affects one’s lungs, permanently affects our brains.  Many persons, families, and faith communities refuse to allow TV violence, fictionalized or news reports, to invade their living spaces.  Jesus did not arm his apostles with weapons for revenge — he armed them with prayer and baptized them in a spirit of hope and forgiveness.

We are surrounded today with so much sadness and fear and anger.  We who live in a peaceful community rejoice in the security and sanctity that empowers us to extend open arms in hospitality to those in the world who yearn for that same privilege.

At the end of our Gospel selection we read, “Jesus did many other signs that are not written in this book.  But these ARE written that you may come to believe …and through this belief you may have life in Jesus’ name.

We join the psalmist in singing: “By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.  This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Acts of the Apostles 2:42-47         Second Reading:  1 Peter 1:3-9
Gospel:   John 20:19-31
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Fourth Sunday of Lent

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Today in our country, there has been a glut of news and information that can wash us away if we are not careful.  Unfortunately, much of it is commentary disguised as factual news which can mislead well-intentioned people.  It is easy to become overly skeptical of anything we hear or simply become deaf to it – tune it out and live in a news-free bubble.  We become over-saturated, de-sensitized, numb to the sounds of guns that we invited into our family rooms.  We may close our ears to the sounds of violence and personally offensive language.  Or we might shut our eyes to distasteful ads while at the same time are not bothered by liturgical graphics of weapons of cruelty.  We may leave the room during the 7-minute commercial phase that brings previews depicting guns, cyber-crimes, fictionalized murders polluting our relaxation space.

It’s past time we created our own litany of care.  Call to mind caretakers, emergency workers, medical personnel… those who keep a death-watch for a loved one.  Pray for enlightenment for those who are frustrated because in their mental state they cannot recognize the seriousness of the world situation. Pray also for those who are burdened with an already existing anxiety disorder which is only compounded by the 24/7 cycle of dire news.  Pray for those who are isolated and lonely, secluded in small spaces.  Remember in gratitude those who check-in by phone with persons who live alone. Pray for those who are called to make decisions, often unpopular, for those under their care and persons who make poor decisions seemingly oblivious to the ripple effect of their choices.  Pray for those whose theme song is “I am special”.  Pray you never portray the attitude: “I don’t have to follow the rules of the RULE.”  Remember those who attitude projects “I don’t have to do what ‘they’ tell me.”  I am the exception.  I have God’s special protection.  Unusual circumstances call for unusual (some would say heroic) responses.

Pray for all of us, pray for yourself – that we may be patient and forbearing with those who bear the cross of cognitive decline.  Slow your pace to match someone using a walker, hold the door open an extra minute, find the seatmate’s page in the prayer book.  In all ways treat each other, as Benedict says: as a vessel of the altar.  Anticipate the other’s need before she recognizes she can use an extra hand.  May we be graciously cooperative team players with an intact sense of humor.

Strive to live up to the ideals Benedict proposes:

  • Pursue what you consider better for the other.
  • Be the first to show respect to the other.
  • Be patient with each other.
  • Earnestly compete in obedience (even when it goes against the grain).

In all circumstances, may we prefer nothing whatever to the love of Christ.  May we together know Benedict’s promise of life in abundance. (RB 72).  But, as Sister Julia Marie Roy OSB, Benedictine Sister from Tulsa, says: “There is no precedent for us to follow.  For Benedictines, so mindful of tradition, that is a lot to try to process!”

The Gospel readings for these middle three weeks of Lent. Last week the Samaritan woman, today the curing of the blind man, and next week the raising of Lazarus, are proclaimed every year at the liturgies that feature Scrutinies for those in OCIA, (the Catholic Church’s process for welcoming new members).  They tell of a Jesus who offers us new life in him.  These are stories of a Savior who offers us living water, dispels the darkness of our blindness, and conquers the power of death.  They are not simply the plot and climax of good stories.  They tell the real truth.  This isn’t simply factual news.  It is the good news.  Jesus was and is real and the fact that he can heal us should not be disputed.  Too often too many people live lives of anxiety, desperation and despair, seemingly unaware that Jesus wants to help all of us bear our burdens.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   1  Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a      Second Reading:  Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel:   John 9:1-41
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