Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

love

Thoughts on Lent

by Leave a Comment

This year on February 14th our liturgical “stars” will be in a strange alignment!  Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday coincide!  No one set out to plan it that way but now it’s ours to figure out how to combine the spirit of “heart” day and the penitential spirit of the beginning of Lent.  On second thought, maybe it’s not so strange.  But it is curious.  Lent calls us to a change of heart and Valentine’s Day brings gifts of flowers, chocolate and little candy hearts with expressions of love printed on them.  I suspect that Mardi Gras festivities, too, will have generous servings of Valentine’s sentiments and Ash Wednesday will still have the aroma of Valentine’s chocolates.  Then, six weeks down the road, guess what?  Easter Sunday coincides with April’s Fools Day – and that’s no joke!  The coincidence of dates reminds of to be “fools for Christ.”

In the spirit of Ash Wednesday’s repeated refrain: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” let us ponder how we might turn from simply being creatures of “dust” to being creature of love.  If we pick up the Scriptures each day of Lent we will quickly realize that the Good Book is filled with expressions of love: God’s call to us is to be open and ready to change so that our love, and our loving ways, may increase.

We can’t prescribe for another HOW to go about being more loving … Oh, we may think we could if they’d let us.  But, loving comes from inside out.  It comes from God who IS love.  We can SHOW each other what love looks like.

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for a smile is the beginning of love. (Mother Teresa)

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
Continue Reading

Today’s Reflection

by 1 Comment

First Reading: ZECHARIAH 9: 9-10
Second Reading: ROMANS 8: 9
Gospel: MATTHEW 11: 25-30

This Gospel is the same as that proclaimed on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  Jesus offers rest to those “who labor and are burdened.”  Here’s the deal: if you will accept His “easy yoke” your burden will be light.  You did notice that Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you.”  It is a voluntary acceptance.  By declaring that his “yoke is easy” Jesus means that whatever God offers us is custom-made to fit exactly our individual needs and our abilities.  You know the story of the individual who asked God for a different cross.  So, Jesus took her to the storehouse of crosses where Sister examined every cross more than once.  When she finally chose one Jesus said, “My dear, that is the very cross I already gave you.”  Our cross will not fit on anyone else’s shoulders or heart.  It is mine alone and if I refuse it, the burden will stay abandoned with Jesus.

The second part of Jesus’ claim is: “My burden is light.”  Jesus does not mean that the burden is effortless to carry.  It does not mean we are foot-loose and fancy-free.  To be a disciple means to come under the discipline of a master.  It means voluntarily putting a yoke on one’s shoulders, and walking in a direction set by the master.  It just happens to be the direction that the master knows will lead to green pasture, refreshment, peace and true joy.  Jerome Kodell describes happiness as a gift from people and events outside ourselves.  Joy is a gift of the Spirit and is generated from within when we walk heart to heart with our God.  When oxen trudge ahead, they don’t necessarily see the pasture at the end of the trail.  All they see is a long, dusty road but that does not stop them.  Remember the beasts that toted our 3-story convent up the incline from San Antonio.  They plodded onward; the overseer knew the destination, but the animals did not.  The yoke, the burden that we take up in love is received from the hands of our loving God, placed on us in love and is meant to be carried in love for love makes even the heaviest burden light.  We only need to quiet down for a few moments in the green pasture of prayer and adoration to attune our heart once again to the voice of the Master.

Light burden – easy yoke!  You may reply that it sure doesn’t feel that way most of the time.  This could be for one of two reasons.  One: the yoke seems heavy because we are not allowing the Lord to help us carry the weight – remember Jesus let Simon help him with his cross.  Or it may seem heavy because we are not keeping God’s pace.  We could be dragging our heels or racing ahead.  Either way, we are chafing and straining.  A yoke is fashioned for a pair — for a team working together.  So we are not yoked alone to pull the plow solo but we are yoked together with Christ to work with Him using His strength.  Benedict challenges us in chapter 72 to lovingly carry each other’s burdens: “anticipate one another; patiently endure one another’s burdens, practice the most fervent love, tender charity chastely.”

The yoke chaffs when either member of the team tries to get ahead or lags on the job. – like when community members tug and pull against the group, when common practices are carelessly disregarded.  When conflicts are resolved, the yoke once again rests easy – the team, community members, walk side by side with the same aim in view – each lovingly regulating her step to keep pace with her sister.

A second reason the yoke may feel burdensome and cause weariness is that the yoke we are carrying is simply not the Lord’s yoke but one of our own choosing or one we have usurped from another.  There are many sources of tiredness, weariness, and fatigue.  Physical fatigue may be the most benign.  There is the fatigue that comes from stress, fatigue that comes from worry, fatigue that comes not only from worrying about the future, but also worrying about the past and fatigue that comes from trying to be perfect, to be something we are not.  Life’s greatest burden is not having too much to do, nor having too much to care about because some of the happiest folk are the busiest and those who care the most.  Rather, the greatest burden we have is our constant engagement with the trivial and the unimportant, with the temporary and the passing and with what is ultimately uncontrollable and unpredictable.

The issue in life is not whether we shall be burdened, but with what we shall be burdened.  The question is not “Shall we be yoked?” but “To what and with whom shall we be yoked?”  What we need, according to this wonderful gospel paradox, is a different yoke: the yoke of Christ.  Jesus is interested in lifting off our backs the burdens that drain us and suck the life out of us, so that we are freed to accept the burden he has prepared just for us – the yoke that is guaranteed to give us new life, new energy, new joy.  We are called, not only to find inner peace, refreshment and rest for ourselves, but also to live the kind of life through which others, too, may find God’s peace.  The solution is easy – as a popular saying goes: “Let go, let God.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

Continue Reading

The Prodigal Son

by Leave a Comment

prodigalIf you were around before Vatican II for long Latin choir rehearsals, you may recall the melody of the antiphon that announced the Fourth Sunday of Lent.  It’s one of those that stays with you … (sing) Laetare translates from Latin to English “Rejoice”.   This is also known as “Refreshment Sunday” – a day when the austerity of Lent is relaxed a little, and the violet vestments of Lent can be replaced with rose-colored ones.   A special kind of fruit cake was often served on this Sunday modestly breaking the Lenten Fast.

According to another old tradition, although it probably is not on anyone’s list of approved feast days, is “Laugher Sunday” or “Holy Humor Sunday” – a day celebrating the big joke that God pulled on Satan.  Thus the name: God’s Joke or the Easter Laugh – a day to lighten up, relax, and recall the joy and the goodness of the Lord.  (We anticipated it a bit with our Hoedown!)  In honor of Laughter Sunday, here’s one to tickle your funny bone.    During a lesson on Easter, a religious education teacher asked the class, “What did Jesus do on this day?  Getting no response, she prompted: It begins with R. “I know!” blurted out a child: “Recycle.”

But on a more serious bent … The context of today’s Gospel is not to be made light of.  Sinners and social outcasts were “all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say”. The Pharisees and Scribes, who were the “good and religious” people, were shocked and disturbed. “This man welcomes sinners and [even worse] eats with them.” By their standards, a “good” person avoids “bad company”. To be quite honest, don’t we think the same? If so, then we are not thinking like Jesus.

We typically title this Gospel story the “Prodigal Son” but, in fact, the emphasis is less on the son than on the father, who clearly represents God and Jesus.

No one can deny the appalling behavior of the younger son in this Gospel. He took all that his father generously gave to him as his inheritance and used it in leading a life of total debauchery and self-centered indulgence. Eventually, he had nothing and was reduced to living with pigs, something utterly abhorrent to the Jewish mind, and even sharing their slops, something even we would find appalling. “Served him right,” might be the reaction of many, especially the good and morally respectable.

This, however, is not the reaction of the father, who has only one thought in his mind – how to get his son to come back to where he belongs. The father does not say: “This son has seriously offended me and brought disgrace on our family. He better not come crawling back here.  I disown him!”  Instead he says: “My son went away, is lost and I want so much to have him back.” He stands in the doorway of his house many long hours, watching, waiting, longing … His love for his wayward son has not changed one iota.

There is no force involved. The police are not sent out. There is not an “Amber” alert. Servants are not instructed to haul him back. No, the father waits. It is up to the son himself to make the crucial decision: does he want to be with his father or not?

Eventually he “came to his senses”, that is, he realized the wrongness of what he had done. He became aware of just how good his father had been. The process of repentance had begun. He felt deeply ashamed of his behavior and then, most significant of all, he turned around to make his way back to his father.

The father, for his part, filled with compassion for his son’s experiences, runs out to meet him, embraces him and brushes aside the carefully prepared speech the son had prepared. If the son had known his father better, he would have realized that such a speech was unnecessary. Immediately, orders are given to bring the very best things in the house and a banquet is laid out.   This is forgiveness on the part of both the father and the son – a return to where each ought to be in relationship to the other.

This is where the elder son comes in. He simply cannot understand what is happening. “It’s just not fair!” How many times have we heard this spoken or, be truthful, felt in our hearts?  “It’s not fair, just because she’s the baby; you didn’t let me stay out that late when I was her age!”  And the litany grows.  We challenge our parents and one another’s generosity, operating from the perspective of limited resources. If she gets it, perhaps there won’t be enough for me.

Jesus wants his hearers (us) to understand that this is not how it is with God’s mercy, love and forgiveness. God offers love to all of us in abundance. The forgiveness of the father in the parable is an image of God’s love for us: generosity beyond measure!

By our standards, even God is unjust.  In fact, he is corrupted by love! That’s fortunate for us!  Supposing we went to confession one day and the priest said, “Sorry, that’s it. No more forgiveness, no more reconciliation. You’ve used up your quota. Too bad! ” Of course, it’s not like that.  Thankfully there is no limit to God’s forgiveness, mercy and love.  God has a deep desire to forgive – to be totally reconciled with us when we’ve severed the bond of relationship.  There is always a place in God’s company for us.  The question is: Do you truly believe that God acts this way towards us?  Can we humbly accept divine mercy without jealousy, knowing that God’s love for another does not diminish the love shown and showered upon us?

4th sunday web

Continue Reading