Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

John

Wait and Watch!

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You’ve probably guessed it: You’re going to hear that theme again.  It’s all about waiting!  But first: welcome to Year C, the year of Luke.   We’ve been waiting for so long (actually for most of our lives) that the darkness may feel like home.  Maybe we’ve become comfortable in our incompleteness.  Now to leave home is downright scary! Change my ways of interacting with God and God’s people?  Whew!  Allow my rough edges to be smoothed – mmmm, sounds irritating.  We are gifted with this Advent-time to do personal “Isaiah work” of filling in every valley; leveling every mountain so the hills will become a plain, and the rough ways made smooth.  As the familiar banner asks:  If not now, when?

And if there is an answer, are we really waiting?  No!  You see, Advent is not a sit-on-your-hands-to-see-what-will-happen kind of waiting.  Nor is it waiting for someone else who is talking to God to hang up.  Saying that brings to my mind a memory of a home visit of my 3-year-old niece who was patiently waiting through what her mom had told her was my private time with God.  She had lasted through her first lectio experience with her books for 40 minutes.  She moved from the mat on her bedroom floor to sit just outside my doorway.  Laurie heaved a heavy sigh and said: “OK, what do I do now God; she’s still talking to You!”

The wonderful part of waiting and talking with God is that it’s more like a glorious party line.  You can pick up (or click ON the chat box) at any time, whenever you’re ready. It is wonderful!  We do not have to take turns – we don’t have to wait to be in touch!  At the heart of Advent is ACTIVE waiting.  Even when we don’t know that we are waiting, or what we are waiting for, we’re waiting. Even when we can’t find words for what we are waiting for, we’re waiting.

If the liturgical readings these last couple of weeks did not shake you up enough, the Advent gospels will make you perk up your ears and pay attention: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep.”  Take heed! Be on guard! Watch! Be alert, stay awake, and don’t grow careless.  Don’t give up!  And St. Benedict admonishes us: “Never swerve from God’s instruction but faithfully observe God’s teaching in the monastery until death.”

Advent offers us a new opportunity to awaken to the signs of the times.   In the words of John the Baptist, we hear the voice of Isaiah warning us to be alert for “the voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of the Lord.”  The last Gospel we heard as the liturgical year ended (this morning) and the first Gospel for the new liturgical year impress upon us the same warning: Be vigilant! Pray always! Beware that your heart does not become drowsy!

Remember Jesus berated the crowd for knowing how to interpret the signs in nature, but not the present time, the already.  This is where we too may fall short.  This kind of waiting requires a common-sense alertness to natural signs.  But the kind of waiting Jesus is talking about requires a deeper discernment and alertness to the signs of His appearance – the signs of the times, our times.  It’s that kind of waiting that Paul is talking about in the second reading: May the Lord make you increase and abound in  love for one another … to strengthen your heart.  I earnestly exhort you in the Name of Jesus to conduct yourselves to please God and be blameless in holiness before our God.  Amen!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Happy St. Nicholas Day on December 6th.

 

First Reading:   Jeremiah 33:14-16         Second Reading:  1 Thesssalonians 3:12-4:2
Gospel:   Luke 21:2528,34-36
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Who Do You Say I Am?

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This is an interesting reading, and even a bit odd, giving us another insight into Jesus’ teaching methods.  First with those who are closest to him – who have been traipsing around the country for almost three years.  This is the group who believe in him so he is quick to correct their human thinking that gets in the way of their perception of just who he is.

I can see him (can you?) walking casually along with the twelve … the mix of who is nearest him changing every few minutes – as the group shifts, they compare notes about what he said to their group with what the others heard.   He stops and turns to the group and queries: Who do people say that I am?  Was He really in the dark?  Was he simply opening an opportunity for the disciples to express their loyalty to him?

At first, the disciples do not offer their personal feelings.  They repeat what they’ve been hearing: some say John, the Baptist; others say Elijah, or one of the prophets.   When Jesus continues: “But, you, who do you say that I am?”   A pregnant pause follows.  They’re waiting for a brave one to speak up.  Heads turn to Peter who seems to be never afraid to offer an opinion.    He doesn’t fail them.  “You are the Christ, son of the living God.”

Jesus seems quick to caution the disciples: “Don’t tell anyone.”  (Doesn’t he know by now that this is a sure-fire way to get the rumors flying?)   Does Jesus want us to hold miracles we experience or witness close to our hearts?  To be like Mary after the shepherds’ visit – pondering all these happenings in her heart?”  Or are we to be like the disciples?  Responsive, but as Jesus said, “Don’t tell until after the Son of Man has risen?

Our scene in today’s reading, turns from Jesus’ conversation with the disciples and his followers to what is to come.   Peter quakes in his boots conjuring up what Jesus is describing.  This is his friend!  So, he takes Jesus aside and in shock rebukes him, criticizes the one he has just acknowledged is the Son of God.  “You’ve got it all wrong!  What you say cannot happen to you.”

Have you ever done that?  Told Jesus he’s got it all wrong? Jesus cautions Peter, and us: “Wait a minute.  You are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.”  With that, Jesus summons the crowd.  Did you ever notice the settings that Scripture describes when Jesus speaks to the crowds on a hillside or from a boat?  Scripture usually says there were thousands of them!   No mic, no PA system, no big screen TV.   How did he do it?  I wonder, did the people really hear his voice or did they hear him in their hearts?  Or was it like the game of Gossip and his words spread rapidly from person to person???

Now Jesus next lets us know what it will take to continue to be a disciple of His.  Three qualities: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.   Easy as one, two three?  Not quite!

First: deny your worldly ways, drop your egotistical thinking and self-seeking and cease the ifs, ands and buts that are on the tip of your tongue in opposition to Jesus’ message.

Second: take up your cross.  It was personalized for just for you.  No two crosses are exactly the same.  You know the story of the person who rejected her God-given cross.  She asks God to exchange it for another.  So, God showed her his treasury of crosses.   You know which one she chose.  She spotted it immediately, the very one God knew all along would best fit her shoulders.

Third: (This is the good part.)  Follow Jesus.  You don’t have to invent the way.   Jesus has already cut the path for you.  Knock and the door will be opened.  Seek and you will find.  Listen and you will hear.

So, when at Mass, just after the homily, be ready to answer God in the words of the Creed: Who do YOU say that I am?  Ponder the titles of Jesus that have been your favorites through the years.  Who is Jesus for you at this stage in your life: Baby Jesus, Friend, Brother, Savior, Rock, Shepherd or on some days a shoulder to cry on, a friend to give you solace, or a pal to offer a gentle prod to do better, take the risk that looms before you.  Jesus asks each of us: “Who do YOU say that I am?”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 50:5-9a         Second Reading:  James 2:14-18
Gospel:   Mark 8:27-35

 

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“The Sufficiency of My Merit is to Know That My Merit is not Sufficient” ~ St. Augustine

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

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

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

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

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

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

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

Enjoy your holiday weekend …

  God keep you safe

 

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

– from Our Sunday Visitor

 

 

First Reading:   Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-8         Second Reading:  James 1:17-18,21b-22,27
Gospel:   Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23
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History tells the rest of the story: We’re Still Here.

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This incident found in John’s Gospel reminds us that not everyone took to Jesus positively, even those who seemed to be quite close to him.  Some of the people – not unlike today, were murmurers and grumblers – folks not too keen on what they were hearing. Following Jesus was going to be no picnic (despite the way he’d fed the five thousand people).   The idea of total commitment was a disturbing concept.

We hear it in that sad and haunting verse: “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.”  Obviously hurt by this defection, Jesus turns to Peter and the others who are closest to him and asks them if they’ll be taking off too: “Will you too go away?”   Peter, with his usual style, spoke on behalf of all Jesus’ loyal followers: “Master, to whom would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” For Peter, at this time, it’s unquestionable: If Jesus said it, it must be true.  If you’ve looked ahead to the First Reading, you’re aware the church reminds us that Jesus’ experience of rejection was not unique.  1500 years earlier, Joshua, disciple of Moses, gives voice to a similar tribulation.  He addresses all the people: “If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve.”  The people answer in the same vein as Peter: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord.”

One of my brother’s favorite books was: “This Tremendous Lover” by the Irish Trappist monk-priest Eugene Boylan. In 2002, I sent him a replacement copy for the one he’d given away.  At his death four years later, it was returned to me.  I had inscribed on the fly page: Bill, I hope this is as inspirational as you remember.  Boylan writes in his book: “Our Lord  was not looking for an enthusiastic public reception.  His miracles were not a ploy to grasp temporal power. The wonder of his public life is not the marvelous works He actually did, but the many and more wonderful works which He could have done and did not.  All He did and said and allowed to happen to him was part of God’s Grand Plan.”

What Jesus has to say is so important that he does not consider changing his message to please the people.  In fact, we can accurately say that a “Jesus” who doesn’t offend isn’t the real Jesus.

Our hearts go out to Jesus and to those who stuck with him.  If you have ever had anyone walk out on you, you can empathize with Jesus.  I recall the mixed feelings I had, when in the late 60s and early 70s we had five  deaths in one year.  It was not customary for those of us who were away for studies to come home for funerals, so there was a void for farewell until we got to visit the cemetery.  Then what some writers refer to as the “exodus”” began to happen and several of our peers felt the call to leave community. Some gave us a chance to say good-bye; others quite literally disappeared in the night.  These were good people. Some were rising leaders in community.  What did they know that I did not?  My feelings were not like the betrayal that Jesus suffered – but confusion and loneliness.    Were the shrinking numbers the handwriting on the wall and was I too blind to read it?

What does Jesus do when his ranks shrink?  Does he cajole the people, “Oh, I’m sorry that what I said was so hard to take.  Maybe we can compromise?”  Not at all!  Jesus does not let human opinion sway his proclamation of divine truth.  “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life”.  History tells the rest of our story: We’re still here!   God spoke long ago, through the mouth of Ezekiel: (36:23-28) “You shall live in the land I gave you long ago; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

If our ears are open to the voice of the Spirit, we hear daily Jesus’ quizzing us: “Who do people say I am?”  He asks us, as he does all his friends, about our personal conviction: “Who do you say I am?”  The question also comes to us as a community.  Are we swayed by “public conviction,” forming the community we think the public wants us to be?  Or are we formed by personal and communally discerned convictions that raise peoples’ hope and help to lead the world where it needs to go now?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Have a good week …  pray for enjoyment and safety for all who (next weekend) will be celebrating Labor Day holiday!

 

 

 

First Reading:   Joshua 24:1-2a. 15-17, 18b         Second Reading:  Ephesians 5:21-32
Gospel:   John 6:60-69
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“Have the People Recline”

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All four of the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell the story of this day when Jesus fed five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish.  Each embellishes his version with his own details and emphases. Mark and Matthew tell us Jesus commanded the people out there in the wilderness to sit down on the green grass. I‘ll not probe the question, but why, I wonder, is there this reference to the color of the grass?  John’s version of the event reminds me of words in Psalm 23: “He beckons me to lie down in green pastures.”

We can relate to the generosity of the young boy who shared his five barley loaves and two fish.  We’re not told how it happened that the boy had the fish and the loaves.  Perhaps most people at that time would not dream of going out into the wilderness without at least a little something to eat and drink.

So, the story, it seems to me, (in today’s lingo) was a “pay forward” moment; you know, similar to the Dairy Queen drive-thru customer who paid the tab for the car coming up behind her. That started a chain reaction that lasted for 3 days and 200 thankful Dairy Queen customers!  The generosity of the young boy on the green grass at Jesus’ feet started a “pay-forward” reaction that enabled Jesus to feed the hungry crowd.  Some evangelists say it was 5000 people.  Others recalled “5000 not counting the women and children”.  I find it interesting that in John’s version Jesus tells the apostles to have the people recline and John says the men reclined.  What were the women doing?  I would venture a guess they were doing “women’s work” i.e. rounding up the kids, wondering if there’d be enough bread and what they were going to give the men to drink.

What trust!  What faith in Jesus the apostles showed in telling the people to relax! Be patient.  Sit down!  Surely, they could not fathom how all these people could be fed. Even when pooling all their supplies, they certainly did not have the resources to feed this crowd.  What were they to do now that they had people seated and waiting to see what would happen next?   That’s what you call FAITH! That’s obedience – trusting the wisdom of God to do the impossible!  We just need to take the first step: Listen and obey the prompting of the Spirit: “Tell the people to be seated”.

No doubt Jesus could have multiplied the available supplies if he wanted to.  But, as John asks, to what end?   The very next day the people would be hungry.  They’d likely not be clamoring “Speech! Speech! Share a good word! Let’s hear it!”  They’d be waiting for the apostles to open Jesus’ food distribution center.

On this day, out in the wilderness, John tells us that the people ate and were satisfied. Which would be more satisfying to you, a full belly for a single afternoon, or a glimpse, a vision of what life looks like when lived in the company of generous people under the reign of God?  What would our world be like if people acknowledged that they are called to be transformed?   What would happen if we were truly as open-handed with our possessions as the young boy on the hillside was with his? What would have been the status of the pandemic if everyone followed CDC advice: got vaccinated, wore a mask, washed their hands?  What would the stats be today if people continued to practice those sanitation protocols?  Hospital visits are on the rise while at the same time admissions remain relatively low.

And, what would happen if we really believed that Jesus still has the power to take the gifts we offer and to create from our generosity widespread outbreaks of sharing? As I watched the Olympics opening ceremony I was thinking “This is lovely – a testament to the ingenuity of computer whizzes!  Soon I wondered:  With the millions donated by sponsors and spent on the production to awe the crowds, much good could have been done. With the millions rolling in to support political campaigns, I daresay that the world could be transformed.  Over 3.1 million children a year (one child every 10 seconds) would not die of hunger.   Let us strive to reflect the attitude and directive of the apostles that long-ago day on that lush green hillside: “Tell the people to be seated.”

 

 ~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Let us pray together for safety and enjoyment for the crowds in France for the Olympics, and protection for thousands enduring the effects of inclement weather: Floods and too much rain, drought, low water table, loss of profitable crops, and high irrigating costs, and terror as fires approach homes, businesses and forests …  and pray for peace amid unsettling times over political issues and factions …… 

   God bless us all!

 

First Reading:   2 Kings 4:42-44         Second Reading:  Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel:   John 6:1-15

 

 

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Come and You Will See

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This weekend we have two familiar stories in our Scripture selections: the dream-like vision of Samuel and the calling of Andrew and his brother Peter.  One of the risks we have with familiar stories is that we can be overconfident that we recall all the details.  But were all the details that surround the story included in the version we learned?   For instance, consider the line in Scripture that immediately precedes the opening of the story of Samuel: “When the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under the direction of Eli, there were few messages from the Lord, and visions were quite rare.”  This phrase “visions were rare” (some translations say “precious”) does not appear anywhere else in the entire Old Testament.  It’s no wonder it did not dawn on Samuel his summons might be from God.

The story tells us that Samuel is confused, not just your average sleepy-head befuddled, but really confounded.  Three times, Samuel responds to a calling – or is it really four times?  Three times he responds to what he thinks is Eli calling him: “Here I am.”  It’s not until Eli becomes more fully awake and realizes what is going on.  Then, he instructs the boy if he hears the voice again to respond: “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Although Samuel’s obedience and quickness of response are to be admired, he mistakes the aging, ailing Eli for God’s actual voice.  Remember, that although Samuel had been anointed, Scripture says he was still very young in faith.

So were Peter and Andrew in the Gospel.  They were disciples of John the Baptist whom Jesus once called the greatest prophet who ever lived.   John had a few disciples, people who were devoted to him as their spiritual leader.  This day Jesus shows up. John realizes that he is now in the presence of One whose sandals he is not even worthy to untie.  John may be a prophet, but this man is the Lamb of God, the Son of the Most High, the very Savior of the world.

But, how’d we get here from Eli and Samuel, to John, Jesus, Peter and Andrew?  One of life’s challenges is recognizing and accepting your role at each stage of life.  You may have heard the term: “the grace of office”.  A smooth transition into or out of various roles in life is reliant on the kind of grace that Eli and John the Baptist showed in directing their disciples to turn their focus to Someone else, Someone greater. Eli and John were forerunners who knew, and fully accepted, that very role.

In her presentation on “Servant Leadership” S. Lynn McKenzie writes of this dynamic.  We know (She says) “One does not begin monastic life as a prioress but begins as a member of the community.  And one usually does not end monastic life as a prioress but as a member of that same community.”

This applies across the board despite what the person identified in the Rule of Benedict’s Chapter headings might lead one to believe.  The directives are addressed to the “rank and file.”  It’s not just the cellarer (buyer) who needs to give a gentle response even when the answer is NO.   Nor is it just the deans (assistants/councilors) who are reminded to keep confidential information sacred.  It’s not only the members sent on a short journey who should not broadcast every sight they’ve seen.  Nor are hospitality ministers the only ones who should be prompt to answer the door or phone.  Benedict is writing for all members when he cautions artisans not to be become “puffed up by their skillfulness”.  It’s not just the sub-prioress who should carry out her assignments with respect.  Kitchen servers aren’t the only ones that should be gracious in accepting help so they can serve without distress.  And it’s not only the sick who should not make excessive demands.  Nor is the prioress the only one who should practice what she preaches and keep in mind to Whom she will give an account.

Remember what Jesus asked the disciples who were trailing him: “What are you looking for?” His response was the same answer we’ve heard: “Come and you will see!”   Who has helped you along the way?  Who today gives you a hand to grasp, a “pointing finger” to follow, a prayerful nudge when life throws you a curve ball?  Who is there to keep track when Jesus seems to disappear just around the bend in the road ahead? Who reminds you, “Come and you will see?”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

First Reading:   1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19         Second Reading:  Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20
Gospel:   John 1:35-42
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