Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889
Ashes of death on our foreheads,
seeds of hope in our hearts.
As we begin the journey, beyond the cross,
let us remember,
God prepares us for life, not for death,
for resurrection and not for crucifixion,
for love and not for hate.
In a world where death holds us bound, and violence seems to reign
in thought and deed,
may this journey of Lent get us ready
to be God’s good news
of hope and wholeness,
peace and reconciliation,
and resurrection life.
Christine Sine
That last line is quite a challenge, isn’t it?? “Be perfect.”
In his book: Be A Perfect Person, Stephen Manes writes:
Congratulations! You’re not perfect! It’s ridiculous to want to be perfect anyway. But then, everybody’s ridiculous sometimes, except perfect people. You know what perfect is? Perfect is not eating or drinking or talking or moving a muscle or making even the teensiest mistake. Perfect is never doing anything wrong – which means never doing anything at all. Perfect is boring! So, you’re not perfect! Wonderful! Have fun! … You can drink pickle juice and imitate gorillas and do silly dances and sing stupid songs and wear funny hats and be as imperfect as you please and still be a good person. Good people are hard to find nowadays. And they’re a lot more fun than perfect people any day of the week.
So, if we believe Manes’ assertion that we can never be perfect, and perhaps we should not even try to be, what do we do with this difficult word from Jesus? It’s helpful to learn that the word most often translated as “perfect” actually comes from the Greek word telos, which means goal, end, or purpose. Jesus is not urging us to be what most people think of as “perfect,” but rather to be more like what God intends for us to be. You are a child of God, made in God’s image. Now live like it!
Now, that may not make things any easier, but it does help put the challenge into a more useful context. The only way we can possibly live as Jesus is asking – repaying evil with good, forgiving and praying for those who harm us, walking the extra mile – is by living into our God-given identity as beloved children. You know you can’t give what you don’t know; what you’ve never experienced. Only those who have known God’s love can possibly hope to share it with others. Jesus isn’t asking us, like some demanding parents, to make all “A’s,” get lots of trophies, be named “member of the year.” Jesus is nudging us to live the God-given identity you received at baptism: You are a child of God!
It is Jesus who gave us the greatest example – He was the perfect model – he talked the talk and walked the walk. Is it easy to follow His example? Certainly not. We struggle to overcome past disappointments, to overcome old grudges, deep-seated prejudices, smoldering resentments. It’s our greatest challenge … not to be perfect, but to be mindful of what is getting in our way and preventing us from being the people God wants us to be. So I ask …What is blocking you? What fears or memories or resentments keep you from being the person God wants you to be?
What is it that keeps us from living into our identity as a child of God? Lent is the time to remove the impediments so that you can truly embrace our God-given identity as citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom.
Recall the lines credited to Saint Teresa of Calcutta:
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it was never between you and them anyway; it is between you and God.
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
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Abbot Gregory J. Polan talks about the peace that Jesus gives in his Lenten Circular Letter. You can read the first two parts on our website under “Articles of Interest”: www.benedictinesistersoffl.org. The Abbot’s brief bio is at the beginning of the first post.
The following is from Abbot Polan’s recent Circular:
The gift of Jesus’ peace forces us to seek our God’s mysterious and inscrutable ways, to understand that faith and trust in God’s providential care for us take us to new levels of meaning and significance of peace. Jesus would certainly have a sense of how the leaders of his time were threatened by his teaching and also his strong following from among the people. This is how Jesus encourages his disciples, and also us, as we face the uncertain future that will roll-out in the coming weeks, months, and even years. Economic, social and national rebuilding will all take time, effort and patience. I hope this can be a word of encouragement to the Benedictine men and women, knowing that our willingness to remain faithful will bear rich fruit in times to come. Paschal living calls for great courage and faith, and its fruits are already growing within us.
Jesus emphasizes that the peace which he gives is not “as the world gives it,” that is to say, not an immediate feeling of well-being and fulfillment. Rather we note how Jesus speaks here as he bestows his own peace upon his closest friends. The peace of Jesus is not something that comes without a price, a price of surrender to the unfolding plan of God in his life, and also in our lives. The Dominican preacher, Father Bede Jarrett, uses an expression which describes this Scriptural passage so well and speaks to us today: “Jesus looked at his life intensely.” The peace that comes from following Jesus comes with the price of following him, remaining close to him, trusting him, believing in his unique yet salvific path to glory. We know that “paying the price” for finding this peace enables us to live in hope, a divine gift that comes at a price and whose rewards are eternal, even now.
The last post from Abbot Polan’s Circular Letter will be sent Friday, April 29th.
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In the Catholic tradition, cacti rather than flowers are placed at the alter during Lent. This is the time that signifies Jesus’ journey in the desert to meditate and prayer. We had a rather large ugly cactus in chapel last year. I meditated on it throughout the season. There were dead spots, thorns and some new growth. After Lent I decided to ask anyone who could, to bring a cactus to the Monastery to be in the chapel this Lent.
People are so good to us. Many brought cacti and they are now displayed in front of the altar. And once again in meditating, they have given me several ways to examine myself. For instance, one of the cacti has very large thorns which reminds me that I can be prickly with others. I’m reminded that people need to be handled as gently as I handle that cactus. Three of the cacti bloomed, bringing to mind the beauty that there is all around us. One has dead spots showing where I neglected them. How often do I neglect people? Looking upon the differences of the cacti makes me ponder the variety in God’s creation and wonder if I am doing enough to care for Mother Earth.
Having repotted the cacti right before the season of Lent began, it was a delight to see new shoots spout. Cacti soil with fertilizer was part of the repotting. Some have very tiny new shoots and one shoot is taller than the plant it came from! Each is growing the way God meant for them to grow. The cacti help me to grow in ways I think God wants me to grow.
Thank you for all the variety of cacti that you brought. My promise is to do my very best to keep them alive, nurtured and growing for Lent 2022!
Sister Dianne Wansley, OSB
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It is very easy to forget the wonders God has done for us. God often performs these marvels when we are least hopeful they will happen, least sure they can happen.
Out of death, after pain diminishes and numbness fades, new life so often comes forth. After the loss of one direction, another more vibrant than the first so often emerges. Beyond what the world says are our best years, comes a fullness of life unmatched by any other stage.
These are the miracles of life. These are the wonders we stumble into, so obviously not our own making that they must be of God. These are the things that must be remembered in the midst of the daily, dull, depressing moments of life.
Good has so often come out of even the shabbier parts of our own life. We retreat from religion because it disappoints, only to find no better answers elsewhere and return more spiritual than ever before. We fail ourselves miserably, then find new life when we discover that people loved us for ourselves, not our images. We get stopped in our indulgent, dishonest, ambitious, shiftless tracks and become newer, better selves. These are the wonders of life.
Every life is filled with a series of small miracles designed to carry us through dark days, up steep mountains, down into the valley of death, beyond every boundary.
One of the spiritual disciplines of Lent is to recognize these, to let praise raise in our hearts. We need to see the miracles of our lives as signs along the way that no path is too twisted, no burden so heavy, no social system so impenetrable as to confound us utterly. The God who has sustained us in the past will not desert us in the present.
Praise and memory take us into tomorrow with open minds and certain hearts.
~Sister Joan Chittister, OSB
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In John’s Gospel, the evangelist has (already before Lent) walked us through the story of the Wedding at Cana. Jesus, at a nudge from his mother Mary, interacted with the servers who followed his directions to fill the empty stone jar with water. Only to be mystified when the water turns into the best wine in the house. Now, John is the only evangelist who relates this story. And, he is exact in some details: there were six jars, each 2-3 feet tall, each holding 9-10 gallons. That’s approximately 55 gallons of wine – making for quite a wedding!
Last Sunday, we witnessed an interaction of a different sort. Jesus calls a halt to the desecration of His father’s house, the temple in Jerusalem. Today’s Gospel takes a leap that skips over an interaction that sets up today’s teaching. In that gap, we hear about the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus who came to Jesus under the cover of darkness. Nicodemus was struggling with some big questions. As he said to Jesus: “I know you came from God. Maybe you can share some light on my quandary.” Seems like they must have talked well into the night.
Puzzled by what Jesus had said, Nicodemus questions how an old man can be born again??? Jesus cautions him: “Don’t be amazed that I told you, ‘you must be born from above.’” Here comes a sentence that I love: “The wind blows where it wills, you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” [Like Benedict said, “Listen with the ear of your heart.”] Reminds me of a 70s folk song: “Blowin’ in the Wind” – “How many times must we look up before we can see the sky? How many ears must we have before we can hear people cry? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
I digress from the Gospel. Or do I? John says in today’s reading: “In all truth I tell you, we speak only about what we know and witness, what we have seen and heard. And yet people reject our evidence. If you do not believe me when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?”
Keep reading… Jesus speaks through the mouth of John, reminding us of our history. Remember the story in the Book of Numbers, when the people were in the desert and they complained against God and Moses. God sent poisonous serpents as punishment. But, when the people repented, God did not leave them without a sign. The people slinked back to Moses, like “a dog with its tail between its legs.” They begged: “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; (They pleaded) please intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Sounds like Moses might have bargained with God. The Lord said to Moses, Here’s the deal: “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.”
Jesus calls Nicodemus’ attention to that story. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent … so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. Then He reminds us: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life. God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
Today, I believe, God is telling us: “I did not send COVID-19 to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through my Son.” It’s a wake-up call. “Like I said to the prophet Isaiah yea these many years ago. I am the designer and maker of the earth. Remember in Genesis, at the creation of life on this earth, I looked on all that had been created, and I said: ‘It is good. … For, I am God, there is no other. I will not speak in secret nor from some dark place. I did not say: Look for me in chaos. I promise justice, ‘the public face of love’. I speak the truth. Turn to me and be safe. Say: From God alone comes my strength and safety.’”
God continues speaking to us. “You were correct, when a year ago this week, you posted that sign on the chapel door: we regret that we are TEMPORARILY closed to visitors. All time is temporary in My eyes until you rest in ME eternally. Today I tell you, just as I welcomed a midnight conversation with Nicodemus, I am here – day or night – for you. What’s on your mind or weighing heavy on your heart? Let’s talk.”
Next Sunday, March 21 we would normally celebrate the solemnity of St. Benedict, however, since this year, the date falls on and Sunday, we will celebrate St. Benedict on Monday, March 22. Join with us as we honor our wise founder … and let us not overlook his twin sister, Scholastica. Their wise words, and worthy example have influenced our world for over 1500 years! “LISTEN WITH THE EAR OF YOUR HEART. And may Christ lead us all together to everlasting life.”
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