Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Lord

Reflection on a Good Friday Afternoon

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The hour of Jesus’ death draws near.

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

 

The sky grows dark, thunder rumbles and the air turns chill.

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

 

The bickering among the soldiers stops, the murmuring crowd grows quiet.

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

 

All attention focuses on Jesus.

In the silence His voice in utter anguish cries:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?”

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

 

Refusing the sponge of wine which might numb his senses and dull his awareness,

He cries aloud as His spirit at last departs from His earthly body.

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

 

Yes, were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?  WERE YOU?

 

WHERE WERE YOU?

Were you part of the jeering crowd; caught up in the mob emotion?

Were you a silent on-looker, trembling lest you be recognized (like Peter had been) for one of Jesus’ followers?   Or were you one of the soldiers doing a task – not so tasteful but all in day’s work, required to collect that almighty silver coin?

 

WHERE WERE YOU?

Were you among the women quietly lending mutual support to each other; heart-broken and helpless to do naught but weep and hope for a miracle of deliverance for your Lord?

 

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?  Look into your heart . . .

The hour of His death has come.  And, gone.  Will you gather up your picnic cloth and go home to wait for another day’s excitement?  Or, will you silently mourn His passing, confused but confident that He will rise again?  He told you “this temple shall be rebuilt.”

 

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY LAID HIM IN THE TOMB?

When the sky was dark and the earth quaked; when spirits walked the earth and on-lookers beat their breasts in fear and withdrew from the scene.

 

WERE YOU THERE?

Were you there to help linen-wrap His broken body, to place it in the newly hewn tomb and set the stone at the entrance?

 

WHERE WERE YOU?

Were you among the women who went home to prepare spices and perfumes to anoint the body of Your Lord?  Valiant women, strong in respectful silence for each other’s grief.  Strong in the promise of Passover.  Strong in the love of the Man of Nazareth, their Lord, and now their Redeemer.

 

WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?  WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY NAILED HIM TO THE TREE?  WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY LAID HIM IN THE TOMB?      Where were you?

~by Sister Roberta Bailey

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Fifth Sunday of Lent

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This story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is so familiar I’m curious what I may need to hear this Lenten season.  I feel the anguish of the sisters and friends of the deceased as they watched their loved one struggle with a terminal illness, and then watch life drain out of him.  I can feel their frustration when Jesus did not come at their call.  They were hoping against all hope that he would get there in time to keep Lazarus from dying.

We wander into a scene of much confusion.  The two sisters of the dead man had sent word to Jesus that his friend, their brother, was ill.  Jesus is said to have loved the three siblings: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, but he delays responding with the haste we and they might have expected.  To the puzzlement of all who were aware of the situation, it is two days later that Jesus finally declares that he will make the journey to Bethany.  Thomas says to his companions: “Let us go with him.”  And he warns that they must be prepared to die with Jesus.

This is the 7th and final sign in John’s gospel.  It appears that the crowd had overheard the exchange between Jesus and Lazarus’ siblings.  It seems obvious Jesus was a frequent “drop in” at their house.  They seem very comfortable with chiding Jesus, weeping in his presence and engaging in a verbal back and forth with him.

Jesus’ delay heightens the drama.  We know the end of the story, so we can recognize that the delay was deliberate.  Jesus had to wait until Lazarus had succumbed to his illness for Jesus to glorify His father through Lazarus’ resurrection.

Can’t you see Jesus?  He elicits from Martha a profession of faith, probably amid many nodding heads of the bystanders, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”  (Do you hear the “but” coming?)  Then she runs for Mary – why?  Perhaps thinking that Mary’s special friendship with Jesus will win his favorable response to their request to “do something!”  Touched by Mary’s tears, Jesus wept!  Then a fore sign of what will happen in a short while: Jesus asked that they roll aside the stone – sign of resurrection.

Don’t you love what happens next?  Raising his eyes Jesus said “Thanks, Father, for hearing me.  I’ve tried with this crowd.  I need a little help here – that they may believe that you sent me.”  Then he said in a loud voice: “Lazarus! Come out!”  When Lazarus appeared at the mouth of the cave, his burial place, Jesus orders: “Untie him and let him go.”

All through Lent this is what Jesus has been doing for us and calling to us:  He says in a loud voice “Come out!  Be your true self!  Let me untie you, and let you go.  I know you, I love you!  And, I know what you are capable of doing and who you can be.  I have a special niche carved out for you.  You are in the palm of my hand.  You have a unique role I have carve out for you to play in the work of creation.  If you stay in the cave of your selfishness and self-interests, hidden behind your mistaken concept of humility, reluctant to respond to the call of my poor ones,  the job will not get done.  I need YOU to be my hands on this one.  You say you believe my words.  Now it is time for you to COME OUT.  Let me untie the binding cloths (this is something you can’t do yourself), uncover your face – and let the world see the person that has existed in the mind of God for all eternity.  Don’t worry about the stench from the “four days” you’ve lain in the tomb of resistance to my call.  I invite you again, COME OUT!”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

First Reading:   Ezekiel 37: 37: 12-14      Second Reading:  Romans 8: 8-11
Gospel:   John 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

 

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Righteousness

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It is important to note at the outset of this particular reading just who it is that Jesus is addressing.  Luke says: “Jesus told this parable to some who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.”

But, then there’s this.  Elsewhere in Scripture, Proverbs tells us: “To do righteousness is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice” and “Blessings are on the head of the righteous.”  Turning to Isaiah we read: “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.

So, why does Jesus seem to be criticizing the righteous one?  One little word makes the difference.  Jesus is talking to the self-righteous; those who trust in themselves. They’re a little too sure they are right and anyone who thinks differently must be wrong.  They (or is it we?) are so full of self that there’s little room for God’s grace to filter in.

It’s interesting when you think about it. Everything the Pharisee says is true. He has set himself apart from others by his faithful adherence to the law. He is, by the standards of his day, a righteous man.   It isn’t that the Pharisee is speaking falsely, but rather that the Pharisee misses the true nature of his blessing. As Luke says, he has trust in himself. His prayer of gratitude may be addressed to God, but it is really about himself. He credits his righteousness entirely to his own actions.

The tax collector, on the other hand, does not even raise his eyes to heaven.  He knows that he possesses no means by which to claim righteousness. He declares he has done nothing of merit. So, he stands back, hardly daring to approach the Temple, and throws himself on the mercy of the Lord.  He seems not so much humble as desperate.  He stakes his hope entirely on the mercy of God.

At the end of the day, the Pharisee will leave the Temple and return to his home the same virtuous, honorable man he was when he came to the temple.  That hasn’t changed.  The Pharisee’s mistake, as Scott Peck says, is that he thinks that whenever he wants, he can pull “God out of his hip pocket.”   On the other hand, the tax collector will go back to his home exalted in God’s eyes because he humbled himself.

If you’re spiritually alive, and give credit where credit is due, you’re going to love this take on the parable.  If you’re spiritually dead, you won’t even want to hear it.  If you’re spiritually curious, there is still hope!

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of his hometown newspaper and complained that it made no sense to him at all to go to church every Sunday.  He wrote: “I’ve gone for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them.  So, it’s been a waste of my time on my part and on the part of homilists who are wasting their time by giving sermons at all”.

This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column.  Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote a real clincher:  “I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.  But I do know this: they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work.   If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today.”

We might say: I’ve been in community x number of years.  In that time, I’ve been nourished and supported by my Sisters thousands of times in hundreds of different ways. But sadly, I can only recall a few, if any, instances in full detail. This much I DO know: without their support my spirit would have withered long ago.  Likewise, if I had not gone to Mass and been faithful to my time of private and communal prayer, I would be spiritually dead today!

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading  Sirach 35:12-14,16            
Second Reading  2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18    
Gospel Reading  Luke 18:9-14
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Pope’s Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to Our Lady

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Act of Consecration

to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Basilica of Saint Peter

25 March 2022

O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, in this time of trial we turn to you.  As our Mother, you love us and know us: no concern of our hearts is hidden from you.  Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence!  You never cease to guide us to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Yet we have strayed from that path of peace.  We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars.  We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations.  We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young.  We grew sick with greed, we thought only of our own nations and their interests, we grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns.  We chose to ignore God, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive, to suppress innocent lives and to stockpile weapons.  We stopped being our neighbor’s keepers and stewards of our common home.  We have ravaged the garden of the earth with war and by our sins we have broken the heart of our heavenly Father, who desires us to be brothers and sisters.  We grew indifferent to everyone and everything except ourselves.  Now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord!

Holy Mother, amid the misery of our sinfulness, amid our struggles and weaknesses, amid the mystery of iniquity that is evil and war, you remind us that God never abandons us, but continues to look upon us with love, ever ready to forgive us and raise us up to new life.  He has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the Church and for all humanity.  By God’s gracious will, you are ever with us; even in the most troubled moments of our history, you are there to guide us with tender love.

We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart.  We are your beloved children.  In every age you make yourself known to us, calling us to conversion.  At this dark hour, help us and grant us your comfort.  Say to us once more: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”  You are able to untie the knots of our hearts and of our times.  In you we place our trust.  We are confident that, especially in moments of trial, you will not be deaf to our supplication and will come to our aid.

That is what you did at Cana in Galilee, when you interceded with Jesus and he worked the first of his signs.  To preserve the joy of the wedding feast, you said to him: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3).  Now, O Mother, repeat those words and that prayer, for in our own day we have run out of the wine of hope, joy has fled, fraternity has faded.  We have forgotten our humanity and squandered the gift of peace.  We opened our hearts to violence and destructiveness.  How greatly we need your maternal help!

Therefore, O Mother, hear our prayer.

Star of the Sea, do not let us be shipwrecked in the tempest of war.

Ark of the New Covenant, inspire projects and paths of reconciliation.

Queen of Heaven, restore God’s peace to the world.

Eliminate hatred and the thirst for revenge, and teach us forgiveness.

Free us from war, protect our world from the menace of nuclear weapons.

Queen of the Rosary, make us realize our need to pray and to love.

Queen of the Human Family, show people the path of fraternity.

Queen of Peace, obtain peace for our world.

O Mother, may your sorrowful plea stir our hardened hearts.  May the tears you shed for us make this valley parched by our hatred blossom anew.  Amid the thunder of weapons, may your prayer turn our thoughts to peace.  May your maternal touch soothe those who suffer and flee from the rain of bombs.  May your motherly embrace comfort those forced to leave their homes and their native land.  May your Sorrowful Heart move us to compassion and inspire us to open our doors and to care for our brothers and sisters who are injured and cast aside.

Holy Mother of God, as you stood beneath the cross, Jesus, seeing the disciple at your side, said: “Behold your son” (Jn 19:26).  In this way he entrusted each of us to you.  To the disciple, and to each of us, he said: “Behold, your Mother” (v. 27).  Mother Mary, we now desire to welcome you into our lives and our history.  At this hour, a weary and distraught humanity stands with you beneath the cross, needing to entrust itself to you and, through you, to consecrate itself to Christ.  The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty.

Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.  Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love.  Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.  The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace.  We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more.  To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.

Through your intercession, may God’s mercy be poured out on the earth and the gentle rhythm of peace return to mark our days.  Our Lady of the “Fiat”, on whom the Holy Spirit descended, restore among us the harmony that comes from God.  May you, our “living fountain of hope”, water the dryness of our hearts.  In your womb Jesus took flesh; help us to foster the growth of communion.  You once trod the streets of our world; lead us now on the paths of peace.  Amen.

~by Pope Francis

 

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Reflection to Share

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Below is a reflection we’re sharing from the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

It was posted January 22, 2022.

No Longer Mr. Forsaken

“…from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.” Isaiah 49:1

We’re all born with a name. And throughout our lives, most people collect nicknames, pet names, terms of endearment, etc… but we all share one common name.

Back in Isaiah, it says that the Lord has called us by a new name. No longer are we Mr. Forsaken or Ms. Desolate… but we are called His Delight. Friend, we are His Beloved.

From the moment that a child is conceived in the mother’s womb, that child is His Delight. That child is one of His Beloved. Today is the nationally recognized Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. So let us pray especially today for all the children of the world and their protection. All of His Delights. All of His Beloved.

Father, thank you for giving us a new name. Thank you for holding us as your children and as your Delight. Take care of all your children, both the born and unborn, so that they will all experience the goodness of your glory.

Reflection by:

Francesca is part of the Spirit FM team, and can be heard on-air on the weekends. She currently attends law school and loves to lead worship. In her spare time she likes spending time with her nieces, iced coffee runs, Disney world, and youth ministry.

 

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Two Lines

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Two Lines

 

Two lines jump out at me in this reading:

  1. What Jesus said to the young man – “You are lacking one thing.”
  2. The question the disciples ask Jesus – “Who can be saved?”

Jesus has already told them in this reading, four things they should NOT do: don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t defraud.  I smile when I read how He sums up His list, it’s what my dad would say: “Do what your mother tells you.”  The only time I remember him raising his voice to me was one day when my mother asked, “Do you want to do some ironing now?”  I had said, “No, not now.”  Wrong answer!  Jesus offered the same directive to the wine servers at the wedding where he and his mother were guests – “Do whatever she tells you.”  And when dying on the Cross, what did he say to John (and all of us) – “Behold your mother.”

Jesus told the young man, “You are lacking one thing.”  That’s his challenge to us this week, figure out what’s the one thing we are lacking.  Benedict’s Tools of Good Works (RB 4) is a good examination of conscience or you might use Joan Chittister’s listing of Benedict’s counsels:

            • Don’t pamper yourself
            • Be transparent
            • Be gentle with each other
            • Don’t expect too much or consume too much
            • Live in the moment of God’s grace
            • Be willing to be formed
            • Have a holy attitude toward persons and all of creation, and
            • Remember the tools of the spiritual life are the work of a lifetime. …

Jesus said, “Do what your parents tell you.”  Benedict says the same thing in several places in the Rule, do what the superior tells you.  He gives a little wiggle room when he speaks of impossible tasks but in the end, he says obedience will save us.  I’ve saved my mother’s message to me when I wrote to tell her that we now had the option of using our baptismal names and were shortening our skirts.  In her own way she said, “I’ve tried to teach you the value of obedience.  Do what your superiors are telling you.”   RB 7 places tremendous responsibility on each of us to give good example when our founder says, “The eighth degree in humility is that a monk do nothing but what the common rule of the monastery and the example of the seniors suggest.”

Like many people, the young man in the Gospel knew something was missing in his life. There’s some of the young man in all of us … we know something is lacking. We are surrounded with media that tries to convince us what that the one thing is that will bring us joy and well-being.  Although we know full well that wealth is not a guarantee for happiness in this life, that spirit can slip through the walls, even through convent walls.  We can sense it when we doubt that the common goods available are not sufficient for us.  We can act like children who don’t want the crayons put into a pile in the middle of the table.  We each want our own box of crayons because we don’t like the broken ones or the ones that have the paper peeled off or the ones you can tell have touched another color or are just not the brand we prefer.  Like the young man we want our own possessions and we want them NOW, today.  And, we find it hard to part with any of them graciously even when we hear Benedict say (in RB 54) that the members should not presume to accept gifts sent by parents or friends without previously telling the superior who has the power to give the gift to whomever and the one for whom it was originally given will not be distressed.

Maybe instead of asking “What am I lacking?” we need to ask ourselves, “What do I have too much of?”  Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, no one who has given up house, brother, sisters or mother and father or children or lands for the sake of the Gospel will not receive 100 times more in the age to come.”  We may tick off all the items on that list one by one but the challenge keeps coming back to haunt us, “One thing is lacking.”

Jesus counsels us: “How hard it is, it’s easier to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the needle gate.”  It’s hard, he says but not impossible, “For with God, all things are possible.”

Just don’t get caught in Peter’s trap – quickly retorting, “I’ve given up EVERYTHING, Lord!”  You’ll hear the echo, “One thing is lacking.  Go, give what you have to the poor, and THEN come follow Me.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

First Reading:   Wisdom 7:7-11            Second Reading:  Hebrews 4:12-13
Gospel:   Mark 10:17-30 (shorter form Mark 10:17-27)
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