Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

listen

Listen

by Leave a Comment

I offer you two wee stories.  The first, a familiar story, one of many versions that can be found on the Internet.

Once upon a time was a man that prayed quietly, “God, speak to me.”  And a meadowlark sang.  But the man did not hear its song.  So, the man spoke aloud: “God, speak to me!”  And thunder rolled across the sky.  But the man wasn’t listening.

The man looked around and said, “God, let me see you.”  And the stars shone brightly in the night sky.  But the man noticed it not.  He shouted, “God, show me a miracle.”  And a babe was born.  But the man was unaware.

So, the man cried out in despair, “Touch me, God, and let me know that you are here!”  Whereupon God reached down and touched the man.  But the man brushed the butterfly off his shoulder and walked away.

The situation in the second story may have a familiar ring.  It could take place in any setting where two people live together.  But for sake of this story, we’ll say it’s a wife and husband team.  Each had been having difficulty communicating with the other.  And, each had concluded that it was the other who was hard of hearing.

So, one evening the wife sat in a chair on the far side of the room.  Her husband’s back was turned to her so he could not see her.  The room was very quiet; no TV was playing.  She whispered, “Can you hear me?”  There was no response.

Scooting a just a little closer, she asked again, “Can you hear me now?”  Still no reply.  Quietly she edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer.

Finally, she moved right in behind his chair and said, “Can you hear me now?”  To her surprise and chagrin, he responded with irritation in his voice, “For the fourth time, yes!”

And Jesus said: Whoever has ears to hear, ought to hear.

So, pondering both of these stories, we might ask:

+   When God speaks, do we make sure we don’t miss some part of the message because it is not packaged the way we expected?

+  Is the problem that God is not speaking?  Or, that we are not listening?

+  Or, is the third step where we fail?  Are we listening and hearing but, then, we fail to act on what we hear?

We are all familiar with Benedict’s opening word to us in his Rule.  It’s the same word that Jesus speaks in this Gospel: Listen.  According to a footnote in my Bible, the phrase “Let they who have ears, let them hear” (or a similar expression) appears approximately 14 times in Scripture.  I find this interesting because the number 14 is considered to be a symbol of salvation and deliverance.  For instance, the 14th day of the 1st Hebrew month is Passover, the celebration of the deliverance from death of the firstborn of the Children of Israel.  The angel passed by all the homes where the doorposts had been painted with blood.

That first word in Benedict’s Rule: LISTEN is the key to what he says in the last two chapters of the Rule.  If only that instruction, LISTEN, were heeded, what an impact it could make on our own happiness and it would foster peace between peoples.  Isn’t attentive listening the master key that opens our hearts for good zeal?  Deep, sensitive listening is the undergirding to mutual obedience.  The attentive listener can anticipate another’s needs; pick up on feelings, be aware that she’s pushed another’s “buttons” and recognize the need to change the course of the interaction.  To truly listen requires attentive spirit.  Celeste Headlee in her TED talk says [Celeste Headlee 10 ways to have a better conversation] “If your mouth is open, you’re not listening.  If you want to pontificate, write a blog.  Listen to people and be prepared to be amazed; everyone is an expert at something!”

Jesus and Benedict each offer us a challenging but attainable ideal.  When the monastic falls short of the ideal, we are expected to humbly ask forgiveness both from God and from our Sisters-in-Christ to whom we freely pledge to “form bonds of mutual love and respect and to call forth the best in one another.” (Community Philosophy statement 2018)

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

First Reading:   Isaiah 55: 10-11         Second Reading:  Romans 8:18-23 13: 1-9
Gospel:   Matthew 13:1-23
Continue Reading

Summer Feast Day for Saint Benedict

by Leave a Comment

Today we Benedictine will celebrate the summer feast of St. Benedict.   I’ll pass on the Gospel from Luke on Jesus’ lesson of the Good Samaritan and his lesson on being a good neighbor.  I’d like to share some thoughts on Benedict’s opening word LISTEN which seems like a first step to being a good neighbor.  Now, those who follow the calendar of the saints may question did we not celebrated St. Benedict back in March.  Yes, the very same one, the twin of St. Scholastica.  You see that date usually falls during Lent when the church does not smile on a grandiose celebration with Alleluias and full festivity.  In 1981, reaffirmed in 1989, the Council of Benedictine Abbots decreed that July 11th henceforth be celebrated as the Feast of Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism.

Saint Benedict, in his Prologue to the Rule, addresses those who “long for life.”  His advice is “Keep your tongue free from vicious talk and your lips from all deceit; let peace be your quest and aim.” The gift of speech is one of the most powerful gifts God has given us, but it probably evokes less gratitude than any other.  We need to be aware that the habitual use of speech tends to make us unconscious of the many times our speech verges on being critical, or, to use the adjective in the psalm, “vicious” talk.  Even a benign phrase of speech can turn vicious sound like anger brewing when spoke in a harsh tone of voice.

Not many of us are humble enough to make amends for wounding words spoken.  We’d rather depend on time and the good will of the other to wipe out what has been said.  However, the truth is that the wounds of hurtful words or a harsh tone can never be totally erased.  Despite our best efforts to heal relationships, the scars remain.  In the latest issue of LCWR Occasional Papers one of the authors refers to Armand Gamache, the detective featured in a Louise Penny’s series of novels.  Gamache insists to his new detectives that there are four statements that are hard to admit, harder to say aloud.  But they are the key to opening ourselves to the truth and the beginning of effective communication.  What are they?  “I was wrong.”  “I’m sorry.”  I don’t know.” “I need help.”  But if our words do not come from a humble heart they will fall on deaf ears.  Says Benedict: “be serious, be brief, be gentle, be reasonable.”  A 20th century Russian Orthodox monk wrote: “When we listen to someone, we think we are silent because we are not speaking; but our minds continue to work, our emotions react, our will responds for or against what we are hearing.”   Oblate Rev. Donald Richmond, in his paper “The Fool with Words” offers this thought: “Living without speaking is better than speaking without Listening.”

The real silence that we must aim for as a starting point is a complete repose of mind and heart and will.  But then one wonders what happens to spontaneity if we engage in a chat without thinking? Jesus assures us that out of the contents of our heart our mouth will speak.  If we guard our hearts from evil and our minds from negative thoughts, our words will arise spontaneously without guilt, reflecting the goodness we have stored away.  God alone utters the perfect word, the speech without fault.  By pondering the perfections of Jesus, we come to own the good word of which the Psalmist speaks: “My heart overflows with a good theme; my tongue is ready like the pen of a scribe.” (Ps 45:1)

Oprah Winfrey in What I Know For Sure offers a very “Benedictine flavored” thought to ponder. When you make loving others the story of your life, there’s never a final chapter, because the legacy continues.  You lend your light to one person, she shines it on another and another and another. And …  in the final analysis of our lives – when the to-do lists are no more, when the frenzy is finished, when our e-mail boxes are empty – the only thing that will have lasting value is whether we’ve loved.

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

Continue Reading

Holy Family Sunday 2020

by Leave a Comment

This coming year Pope Francis has designated the “Year of St. Joseph” marking the 150th anniversary of Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.  Francis describes Joseph as “a beloved father, tender and loving, obedient and accepting; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.”

This weekend the Church turns our focus to Jesus’ earthly family with the feast of the Holy Family.  It’s natural when we celebrate the birth of the child Jesus that we would reflect on His family.  Do you realize that for every one year of his public life, Jesus spent ten years in family life?  That helps us understand the importance and priority He gave to family life.

What might that mean to (and for) us as monastics who we live in an intentional family we call community.  As Benedictines our lives are guided by the simple, yet profound, guidelines designed over 1500 years ago by the man Benedict.  His Rule gives us a picture of a man of great wisdom, compassion and much common sense. (I believe, we can agree, his guidelines were influenced to a great degree by his twin sister Scholastica.)

It is the spirit of the Rule that has survived.  Benedict had a knack for tempering discipline with compassion that makes the Rule come alive for so many.  His prudence shines through when, in so many words, he says: this is what works for us now – if the arrangement of the psalmody, the daily schedule and other daily living details don’t fit your need, change it.

If we only know the first word of the Rule “LISTEN” what an impact it could make on our own happiness and harmony between peoples.  To truly listen requires an attentive spirit … not a scramble to respond with advice, a witty remark or a “I’ve got a better one” or “I know exactly how you feel.”  When we truly listen to another we can identify their feeling, let it resonant within and know that very often all the person wants is a signal that we care.

Benedict’s Rule is not intended to be a great and lofty treatise on prayer or spirituality.  It’s just plain “down to earth” advice.  He says let this rule be read 3 times, cover to cover, to the potential member so she understands exactly what she is getting herself into.  The Rule is filled with practical guidance for ordinary people to live together peacefully. Benedict expected his followers to work hard, study hard and pray hard.  He recognized much of the study and work is an interior process – a true “self-study” steeped in a quiet atmosphere that is broken only by the sounds of nature, farm machinery, a printing press or sewing machine or the scratch of a calligraphy pen.  This kind of soul work begins in private prayer enriched in communal prayer.

I think Benedict must have valued the idea of cross-training.  Given the rotation of duties and positions in community, all members do well to take to heart the advice and warnings given to the various community officials: the prioress, the guest mistress and the porter; the cellarer, the artisans and the sub-prioress.  We all need to be aware of the final judgment – be strong, and at the same time, never be ashamed to have a tender heart.

From that first word in his Rule: LISTEN… to his advice to begin every good work with prayer … to keeping a lamp burning at night … and don’t loiter outside chapel if you are late … it is evident that Benedict saw God at work within the ordinary events of everyday life with all its joys and sorrows, struggles and high points, funerals and jubilees, comings and goings.  In Psalm 27, and often as an antiphon, we pray: “One thing I seek: to dwell in your presence, O God, all the days of my life.”  And, that presence does not refer only to our final day on earth or future eternal life in heaven.  It is not found only in the Eucharistic presence in the chapel – it is EVERYWHERE – in the Voice of the Spirit working in our personal lives and in the voices of each other and the sounds of daily living.

So, LISTEN – to the Voice of your God within – and listen with your heart to your comrades’ hungers and longings.  Just LISTEN – with your ears certainly but also with your eyes and heart and feelings.  The quality of our life in community, is shaped by each of us.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
First Reading  Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3    Second Reading  Colossians 3:12-21)
Gospel  Luke 2:22-40
Continue Reading

Jesus challenged – “Why are you testing me?”

by Leave a Comment

First, let me speak a bit about World Mission Sunday which is celebrated in parishes this weekend.  The Society for the Propagation of the Faith was founded in 1882 by a young French laywoman, Pauline Jaricot, to aid the Church in preaching the Gospel in areas of the world where it had not been before.  In our diocese, in answer to our baptismal call, the Propagation of Faith, Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities continue that mission.  The “people in the pews” contribute their prayers, moral support and financial help, that collectively feeds, cares for and nourishes bodies and spirits of the needy all over the world.  In the Responsorial Psalm we will pray repeatedly: “Give the Lord glory, glory and honor.”  As always, the prayers of the faithful are the most treasured gift to the Missions – to God give the glory and thanks for the generosity of the “people in the pews” and missionaries, lay and religious all over the world.

Mention of the Propagation of the Faith reminds me of a story about another call to mission told to me by our late Sister Pauline. (Some may recognize the story.)  When Pauline was a young Sister in community, she and Sister Rita O’Connell embarked on a “begging tour” up the east coast of the U.S.  When they reached Boston, Sister Rita told Sister Pauline they were going to visit a “very nice” bishop – whose name just happened to be William O’Connell (notice the family name?).  However, it seems when they arrived unannounced it was the auxiliary bishop … the future Cardinal Spellman in the office that day.  (You may recognize his name as the author of THE FOUNDLING.)  Sister Pauline was “parked” with the secretary – they became life-long friends.  Pauline said hours went by – no Rita.  When the secretary went to check, it seemed Sister Rita had exited another door and left for Ireland!  Now there is proof of such a trip in Sister Rita’s passport, stamped June 14, 1934 – a steamship passage that would have taken 7-10 days each way.  Bishop Spellman and his secretary quickly came to Sister Pauline’s rescue.  She related happy memories of the “few months” (as she described it) at the home of the secretary’s family on Commonwealth Avenue.  She kept up with the sons many long years.  And, yes, eventually, Sister Rita did return and they continued their tour across the U.S.

However, not too long after their return to Holy Name, the superior was informed that their “begging tour” had not been approved by the Propagation of the Faith and the funds were to be returned.  The rest of the story is lost to history awaiting a deeper dive in the archives.

But to focus on the Gospel…. Pity Jesus – what a set up.  According to Matthew’s account it sounds quite deliberate.  “The Pharisees plotted that they might entrap Jesus in speech.”  Then comes the set up.  They open the encounter with: “We know you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God … and you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion.”  Ever felt like someone was trying to program your response?  I had a friend who more than once would start out sounding like she was looking for advice.  But soon her tune would change: “Now, I’ve been praying about this, and God told me that this is what I – or you – should do.”  That said, who am I to argue with God?

Or perhaps you’ve been handed a gift by someone who says: “I just know you’re gonna love what I bought you!”  She’s standing right there waiting for you to look in the gift bag or unwrap the present.  So, smile!  And, hope you can fake it if it’s not something you wanted all your life.

It’s obvious, in such instances, only one answer can be right.  Are they talking to hear their own voice rather than looking for information, allowing for some feedback or a sincere response?  By stating a preference up-front, all chance of discussion is cut off.  What’s worse, the listener is unlikely to honestly answer my question unless they feel like taking up the task of a debate.

What did Jesus do?  He turned the tables on the group – the ones quizzing him were the anxious by-standers.  “Why are you testing me.”  He knew full well the answer.  But he did not walk away.  He gave them a chance to examine the coins in question.  He knew the skill of engaging in a win-win dialogue.  It’s true – He is God and would have the know-how.  But being fully human, He had to have learned and practiced that skill somewhere.  First in his family, then among neighborhood playmates, then, out, as they say “in the world.”  Remember what is said about him when he was found in the temple?  “After three days his parents found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”

Interactive, social skills, interpersonal communication skills are learned behaviors.  They take practice.  Learning how to “start – continue – stop” takes repetition and rehearsal.  Jesus is the perfect model.  As you lectio with Scripture notice his style.  As Paul says in tomorrow’s Second Reading: “Our gospel did not come to us in word alone, but also in the power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.”  Jesus modeled what he prescribed. He prayed, he listened, he engaged others in verbal exchange.  He complimented, he corrected, he appealed to the listeners’ best selves.  He promoted self-learning and self-correction.  And, yes, Jesus challenges us: “Why are you testing me?”

~ Reflection by S. Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
1st Reading Isaiah 45:1;4-6      2nd Reading 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5b
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-21
Continue Reading