Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Holy Spirit

Pentecost Sunday

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A few minutes ago, we concluded this year’s Novena to the Holy Spirit, the Church’s first novena.  For Mary and the eleven Apostles it was nine days of waiting (they did not know how long).  For us, it is nine days of anticipation leading to the feast of Pentecost.  At various times Jesus has greeted his disciples with the gift of peace and commissioned them to continue the work that he has begun: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Heads up! Listen intently because the “you” Jesus speaks of includes each one of us.  Where does Jesus send us?  And to do what?  Where is anywhere we can be an agent of peace and harmony.  And what is to be a reconciling presence in the world amidst situations of conflict in our own homes or our workplaces.

If we believe Jesus’ words when He said “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I” then we know that people have only to come to us, to our community, to find the power and peace of the Spirit.   What a truly breathtaking gift that is!  We can make God present!   Wherever, whenever we pray, whenever “two or three gather” Jesus is there.   What an awesome responsibility rests with us!  And consider this: what form of the gift of the Spirit has God imparted to you?  Look back through the years.  What have family, coworkers, community members, friends reflected back to you?  Has it been your gift of discernment, your kindness, your optimistic, joyful outlook?  Or was it maybe your serenity, calmness and peace, your simplicity, or your awareness of God’s presence everywhere?

If we are to be true to our commission, we need to nourish our ability to call upon this Spirit and to stay close to Jesus because others are depending on us.  We need to proclaim the Good News to them with our words and our lives. We may be the only image of God they’ve come to know. Peace must be for us more than just a wish; more than a handshake or a hug. It is a GIFT – a deep confidence that can withstand even the most tragic experiences.

When we live in a positive and loving way, we are fulfilling the mission of Jesus in our world. We may seem to be warming and redeeming only the small, chilly space that we happen to occupy in life. Our kindness radiates, in fact, in wonderful ways like the ripples in a pond ruffling the surface of the water far beyond where we stand. What may begin with a simple, unpretentious act in our dining room, chapel or community room vibrates the air full-circle and comes back to us in a new, life-giving form. Like the game of GOSSIP you whisper a message that gets repeated and distorted many times over.  By the time it comes back to you, there is little left of the sentence that you spoke.

There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit from which spring twelve fruits of the Spirit.  The fullness of the Spirit can comfort and challenge us doing lectio with the titles of the Spirit found in our Novena: Comforter, Peacemaker, Root of Virtues, Bestower of Gifts, Bond of Unity, Fountain of Faith, Cause of Holiness, Soul of Ministry, Source of Love.  We can BE these gifts to each other only through the Power of the One who commissions us to affirm the mysteries of the universe, to see the lasting value of justice and mercy, to fill our lives with wonder and awe in God’s creative omnipotent presence.

Light years ago, in the first catechism class I taught as a postulant in Dade City, there was a child who, in those days, was labeled “retarded.”  The pastor, Father Benedict, Sister Rosaria and I deliberated and prayed for insight to determine whether the child was able to understand the mystery to be received.  At the First Communion Mass all doubts were erased.  At the elevation of the sacred host, his childish, high-pitched pronouncement could be heard throughout the church: “Here He comes!”

Jesus prayed: “I wish that where I am they also may be with me.”  And, so we pray: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with your presence.  May our lives be rooted in your love and wisdom.”  The words of that excited child are worth inwardly proclaiming whenever any person or situation approaches us: “Here He comes!”

~S. Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading: Acts 2:1-1              Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
Gospel Reading:  John 20:19-23
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Trinity Sunday

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This past week we returned to Ordinary Time.  However, the mood reverted quickly this weekend with the solemnity of the Holy Trinity and reappears next Sunday with the celebration of Corpus Christi – the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

The Gospel just proclaimed comes near the end of Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper and is an example of the implicit teaching on the Trinity.  Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will declare what the Spirit hears from Jesus.  Elsewhere Jesus says, “The Father and I are one.”  If Jesus and the Father are one and the Spirit speaks what Jesus says, it follows that the three must be one.  Further evidence found in Scripture regarding the doctrine of the Trinity is found in the other readings for the feast.  But, if one expects today’s readings to give a clear presentation of the doctrine of the Trinity – they will be disappointed.

Remember the old saying “Two is company, three’s a crowd?” The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd.  When Love becomes complete is  Trinity.  Each one of us becomes fully human only when we are in relationship with God and in relationship with others.  I am truly Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people.

The important question for us today is: What does this doctrine of the Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be?   With our three-fold vows, we are reminded of our commitment to a balance of prayer, labor and leisure.  We pray many times a day, in various ways, the familiar words of one of the first prayers many of us learned: the “Glory Be” in honor of, and thanksgiving for, the revelation of the Trinity:  Glory be to the Father…..

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

1st Reading: Proverbs 8:22-31          2nd Reading: Romans 5:1-5
Gospel : John 16:12-15
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Pentecost 2021

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“A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer.

 It Sings Because It Has a Song.” (Chinese Proverb)

 Has it really been 50 days since Easter?  It seems to me, maybe especially this past year, when I try to recall when something happened either it seems ages ago or a couple days ago.  A review of the readings reminds me of all that happened in Jesus’ life and his interactions with his disciples during the 50 days following his resurrection.

A few minutes ago we concluded this year’s Novena to the Holy Spirit – the Church’s first novena.  For Mary and the eleven Apostles it was nine days of waiting (they did not know how long).  For us, it is nine days of anticipation for the Solemnity of Pentecost.  Between the extended Vigil Celebration and what is termed “Mass During the Day” there are eleven (11) selections for the readings.

In this reflection I’ll circle through the messages in Paul’s Letters to the Galatians, the Romans and the Corinthians.  I wondered: what would Paul say to us today?  I suspect he would say much the same things he wrote to the audience of his time.  He might personalize it a bit to highlight the gifts (he’d say “peculiar”) to the body of people he was addressing.  He’d speak of the group’s gifts – why? – because they are manifestation of the Spirit for the edification and benefit of the community.

I could hear him saying, of thinking to himself as he put pen to parchment:

You do know that to all of you – each of you – is given the gift of faithfulness to prayer, stability to each other and an endeavor for life-long learning.  To one of you may be given the aptitude of expressing psalmody in musical settings; to another the skills to lift the notes off the page in song and to another the gift of prayer in poetry.  To one is given the gift of sensitivity to the needs of the poor and to others the gift of touching the heart of the weary, the aged, the infirmed.  One may have the gift of never knowing a stranger, and another the flair and daring to entertain the community as emcee for a party.  To one is given the gift of calligraphy and to another the proficiency to write icons.  To one is given the gift of fingers that dance across the keyboard and to another a green thumb that provides food for the table; to a gardener the knack to raise flowers from the dirt and to another the gift of arranging bouquets that inspire prayer.  To some there is given ease in outreach ministries; to others the gift of keeping the home fires burning in internal ministries.  To some there is given a volunteer’s heart.  Some have the gift of quiet presence; to others the gift of keeping a conversation in play.

And never forget nor minimize that you are daily graced to witness each other’s perseverance in a life-long commitment to THIS community and your combined efforts to feed the hungers of the people of God.

Paul speaks again to us: “There is diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.  Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given (why?) – for the common good.”

In your midst there presently are those who respond to the ring of the doorbell; to others, the ring of a phone.  There are those who serve as “personalized shoppers.”  There are those who wield a mop and those who sweep; those who run the dish washer and those who scrub pots and those who restore order wherever they see a need.  There are bell ringers, and weed pullers and mail carriers; those who write, those who read and those who watch.  Some share the news, some inspirational stories and others a “Lady of Guadalupe or “Mountain Men” episode.  Some set up the chapel, others the kitchen or buffet table or a meeting space.  Some seek companionship; others are happy in solitude – some indoors, others outdoors; some walk the halls, others the driveway and some mark their steps going up the road apiece.  Some like the later schedule, others still get up at 5 a.m. to catch the sunrise while others prefer to put the sun to bed at night.

Remember what Paul really said: “There is diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.”  Listen to the voice in your heart: “My child, you always have the gift of prayer …  that doesn’t change … the words you use, silent or voiced, whether you sit or stand or kneel, the method you practice are all conversations with God.  Remember the old Chinese proverb: “A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer.  It Sings Because It Has a Song.”  As needs and station in life and health permits, your “song” may change over the years.  Then, change your tune and let the world hear it.  Sing your song with your life just because you have a song!  It is one of the polyphonic parts in the grand harmony of the miracle of Pentecost – “They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to sing in different voices, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim the mighty acts of God.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

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The Holy Trinity – There are Clues

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I quote Richard Rohr: “I think it’s foolish to presume we can understand Jesus if we don’t first of all understand the Trinity.  We will continually misinterpret and misuse Jesus if we don’t first participate in the circle dance of mutuality and communion within which he participated.”

The reality of the Holy Trinity a mystery – an incomprehensible concept.   Thankfully, mysteries can be talked about.  They can be described.  They have clues that our minds can grasp.  A mystery remains a mystery unless and until we grasp it in its totality.  But, when it comes to God we simply cannot grasp the total reality of God.

We know, because we’ve been taught, that the inner nature of God, in whose image and likeness we are made, is Three Persons who, however distinct they are, totally belong to each other.  Humans, because they are made in God’s image, are made to belong in a special kind of belonging.  We (Benedictines at Holy Name Monastery) are free persons who chose to live in a community where we are mutually dependent on each other for full existence.  While there is a style of belonging that enslaves – a possessive belonging – there is also a belonging that gives freedom, the freedom to be who we are as persons.

The concept of the Holy Trinity is a mystery, but not a total mystery.   Mysteries, after all, are made up of clues. In a mystery story we pursue and piece together clues in order to see the whole picture.  So it is with the Holy Trinity.  We have lots of clues about the Holy Trinity.  And when we pursue them and piece them together we get a good glimpse into what kind of a god our God is.  God is all about love.  And when we live in love we live in God, and God lives in us.  Living in love, however, does not mean we must all be exactly the same.

There’s a great deal of confusion about this in today’s culture.  But it’s ridiculous to think that all persons must be the same.  We aren’t meant to be ducks in a row, waddling to the same tempo.  We honor our Triune God in whose image we are made.  God the Creator is a distinct Person; the God the Son, our Savior is a distinct Person; and God the Holy Spirit is a distinct person.  Distinct though they are, however, they exist in one being of infinite love.  They exist in one unbreakable bond, in one infinite union of being together.

While all of that remains a mystery to us, it is not so mysterious that we cannot live with each other in a reality of life that reflects and shares in the reality of God’s life.  To live a God-like life we must forgive rather than condemn.  We must build-up and affirm rather than tear down.  We must see the best, not the worst.  We must be self-sacrificial and not self-centered.  We must be giving rather than grasping.  We must offer hope, not despair.  We must heal rather than wound.  All of this is best affirmed and nurtured in what we know as a community.  There is nothing in life that more closely reflects the reality of the Holy Trinity than genuine family life.   This concept is mimicked in intentional community life.  For it is in such a setting that we not only belong but also where we discover, nurture, and affirm our own unique and individual personalities.  It is in living the reality of being truly a community that we have a glimpse into the life of the Trinity.

In our community prayer, a “Trinitarian-like movement” echoes the rhythm of our whole lives.  In Lectio we go up to the mountaintop with Jesus, we have conversation with Him there, and we return to everyday life among his people.  Notice, too, in our communal prayer, a three-fold movement: we sit, we stand, we bow.  In our chants, we don’t always have to harmonize (singing different but complementary melodies) but we do strive to keep our voices in harmony with each other – one heart, one voice, one love.

We all have different views about the mystery we celebrate today.  We have different views in our heads about who God is and what God is like.   But I think we agree:  God is love and we are made in God’s image.  But, love is only a word until someone gives it meaning.  To be true to our calling we must be the ones who give meaning to love in our world.  We, Benedictine Sisters of Florida – and our Oblates and Volunteers – put flesh on that calling through our Corporate Commitment: We commit ourselves and our resources to respond with the compassion of Christ to the hungers of the people of God.

~Reflection By Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading   Exodus 34:4b-6,8-9                  Second Reading 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel  John 3:16-18                    
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