Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Rule

Fourth Sunday of Lent

by Leave a Comment

Today in our country, there has been a glut of news and information that can wash us away if we are not careful.  Unfortunately, much of it is commentary disguised as factual news which can mislead well-intentioned people.  It is easy to become overly skeptical of anything we hear or simply become deaf to it – tune it out and live in a news-free bubble.  We become over-saturated, de-sensitized, numb to the sounds of guns that we invited into our family rooms.  We may close our ears to the sounds of violence and personally offensive language.  Or we might shut our eyes to distasteful ads while at the same time are not bothered by liturgical graphics of weapons of cruelty.  We may leave the room during the 7-minute commercial phase that brings previews depicting guns, cyber-crimes, fictionalized murders polluting our relaxation space.

It’s past time we created our own litany of care.  Call to mind caretakers, emergency workers, medical personnel… those who keep a death-watch for a loved one.  Pray for enlightenment for those who are frustrated because in their mental state they cannot recognize the seriousness of the world situation. Pray also for those who are burdened with an already existing anxiety disorder which is only compounded by the 24/7 cycle of dire news.  Pray for those who are isolated and lonely, secluded in small spaces.  Remember in gratitude those who check-in by phone with persons who live alone. Pray for those who are called to make decisions, often unpopular, for those under their care and persons who make poor decisions seemingly oblivious to the ripple effect of their choices.  Pray for those whose theme song is “I am special”.  Pray you never portray the attitude: “I don’t have to follow the rules of the RULE.”  Remember those who attitude projects “I don’t have to do what ‘they’ tell me.”  I am the exception.  I have God’s special protection.  Unusual circumstances call for unusual (some would say heroic) responses.

Pray for all of us, pray for yourself – that we may be patient and forbearing with those who bear the cross of cognitive decline.  Slow your pace to match someone using a walker, hold the door open an extra minute, find the seatmate’s page in the prayer book.  In all ways treat each other, as Benedict says: as a vessel of the altar.  Anticipate the other’s need before she recognizes she can use an extra hand.  May we be graciously cooperative team players with an intact sense of humor.

Strive to live up to the ideals Benedict proposes:

  • Pursue what you consider better for the other.
  • Be the first to show respect to the other.
  • Be patient with each other.
  • Earnestly compete in obedience (even when it goes against the grain).

In all circumstances, may we prefer nothing whatever to the love of Christ.  May we together know Benedict’s promise of life in abundance. (RB 72).  But, as Sister Julia Marie Roy OSB, Benedictine Sister from Tulsa, says: “There is no precedent for us to follow.  For Benedictines, so mindful of tradition, that is a lot to try to process!”

The Gospel readings for these middle three weeks of Lent. Last week the Samaritan woman, today the curing of the blind man, and next week the raising of Lazarus, are proclaimed every year at the liturgies that feature Scrutinies for those in OCIA, (the Catholic Church’s process for welcoming new members).  They tell of a Jesus who offers us new life in him.  These are stories of a Savior who offers us living water, dispels the darkness of our blindness, and conquers the power of death.  They are not simply the plot and climax of good stories.  They tell the real truth.  This isn’t simply factual news.  It is the good news.  Jesus was and is real and the fact that he can heal us should not be disputed.  Too often too many people live lives of anxiety, desperation and despair, seemingly unaware that Jesus wants to help all of us bear our burdens.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

 

First Reading:   1  Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a      Second Reading:  Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel:   John 9:1-41
Continue Reading

Saint Scholastica’s Feast Day

by Leave a Comment

The feast day of Saint Scholastica (480-543), twin sister of Saint Benedict, is today February 10th.  Considered the patron saint of Benedictine women and education, her life, like her brother’s, was centered on love and peace.  At a very young age, she devoted herself to God and established a convent about five miles from Benedict’s monastery.  They enjoyed a close relationship, meeting yearly to discuss spiritual matters.

As you may recall, the Benedictine Sisters of Florida refer often to Saint Benedict’s The Rule.  His vision of how to live in community begins with the words “Listen with the ear of the heart.”  The story of what would be Benedict’s last visit with his sister Scholastica illustrates how strong the communication link or dialogue can be between God and His people.  Scholastica, feeling somewhat unsettled, wanted her dear brother to stay the night on this particular visit.  Though she implored him, Benedict insisted on the necessity of returning to his monastery.  Saint Scholastica prayed to God who listened and within minutes, a roar of thunder and heavy rain made it impossible for her brother to leave.  It would be the last time the siblings would share precious time together.  Saint Scholastica died three days later.

The Benedictine Sisters of Chicago remind us that January 24th is the memorial of Francis de Sales who is known as the great saintly communicator.  In that vein, Pope Francis wrote on the 56th Annual World Day of Communications about “Listening with the ear of the heart.”  The Pope’s message reads “From the pages of Scripture we learn that listening means not only the perception of sound, but is essentially linked to the dialogical relationship between God and humanity.”

We pray fervently that our patron Saint Scholastica, cradles our hearts so that we truly listen with heartfelt compassion always.

Continue Reading

Feast of the Holy Family

by Leave a Comment

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family.  So, what does that mean to (and for) us as monastics?  We came from a family, we still have families and here we live in an intentional family we call community.  We are guided by the simple, yet profound, guidelines designed by St. Benedict, a man of great wisdom, compassion and common sense.  We know that after some time of living with his original Rule, he added advice based on his lived experience with a great variety of characters.  Imagine having to warn his men not to sleep with knives, to wear clean underwear on a trip, for the learned to help those who could not read.  His prudence shines through when, in so many words, he says: this is what works for us now – if the schedule of psalmody, the daily schedule and other daily living details don’t fit your need, change it.

It is the spirit of the Rule that has survived because Benedict, even in his youth, had a deep understanding of human psychology.  A study of his early life tells us that he spent much time with his grandparents who lived a few miles from his home.  Along the trek to their summer home he passed the huts and caves of hermits, wise “seasoned” men and women.  Before Benedict was sent to Rome to pursue academics, he and his twin sister spent hours chit-chatting with these solitary men and women to absorb the wisdom and practical advice from the older generation.  This is evident in the Rule.  Notice how he tempered discipline with compassion and saw the spiritual quest as a joyful pursuit of God within the structures of ordinary life. It is this joyous delight in everyday spirituality that to this day makes the Rule come alive for so many. For over 1500 years his simple principles of living together under God’s love have been applied beyond monasteries, especially by Oblates, to family life.

If we only know the first word of the Rule “LISTEN” what an impact it could make on our own happiness and concord between peoples.  To truly listen requires perception, knowledge of human nature, biting the tongue before speaking and an ‘open-hands’ approach in conversation.  To listen requires an attentive spirit … not a scramble to respond with advice, a witty remark or a one-upmanship story.   When we truly listen we can see that anger is a cover for fear.  When we listen to another we can identify their feelings, let them resonant within and know that very often all the person wants is a signal that we care.

Benedict’s down-to-earth advice works in community, in our intentional family or for any living group, be it for family or dorm or apartment mates because of its inner dynamic. St. Benedict was not writing for an IB or Honors class of students. The Rule is not intended to be a great and lofty treatise on prayer or spirituality. Rather, the Rule is filled with practical guidance for ordinary people to live together. Benedict expected his followers to work hard, study hard and pray hard.  Benedictine life, in or out of a monastery, is a grace-full blend of prayer, work and living together – a simple, effective prayer life, open communication, mutual respect – not for mature saints but for those who choose to walk a path of life-long falling down and getting up in a community where each member is valued and loved unconditionally.

The Rule offers us a very high ideal, but it is a beautiful one, and one that we should never feel compelled to apologize for.   And when we breach the ideal we need to be humble enough to ask forgiveness both from God and from each other.

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 … to not loitering outside chapel if you are late … it is evident that Benedict saw God at work within the ordinary events of everyday life – in the joys and sorrows of our everyday lives.

So, LISTEN to your heart to your comrades’ hungers and longings, to God deep in your heart … just LISTEN – with your ears, but also with eyes and heart and feelings – and all other aspects of your life, our life in community, will fall into place.

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

 

Happy New Year!  Peace to all!

Continue Reading

It isn’t over, til it’s over!

by Leave a Comment

The dynamic in this Gospel is an ages-old story.  It happens in families, between friends, in the work force and in monastic community.  The situation Jesus poses is rather straight-forward.  Two sons are given the same task by their father: one asserts his objection, right up-front but in the end obeys his father’s wish.  The second son signifies obedience in his words but his actions betray his words.

The question that Jesus poses is direct: Which son did what the father wanted?  Jesus could ask us the same question.  Do our words reflect our obedience to God?  God desires a full conversion of heart –  that our actions (and our words as well) will give evidence of our love for God.  The older brother had no intention of working and had the honesty to say so.  He was in the wrong, but he was honest.  The younger brother was the opposite.  He said the expedient thing knowing what his father wanted to hear but he had no integrity.

For Benedict obedience is central.  As postulants when we officially knocked on the door and asked to be received as a candidate we were greeted with the question: “What do you seek?”  We declared that we’d come to the monastery to hear and seek God.  To do that you have to be willing to listen and then obey God’s voice as heard in personal prayer, in the voice of the superior and in interactions with each other.  Benedict asks that our obedience be open, honest, prompt and positive, (even if it is painful) and given without murmuring.

We would do well to recall both this gospel story, and Benedict’s words about obeying with alacrity, when we are asked to do a favor for one of our sisters or a co-worker.  We know that for Benedict, murmuring was an abomination, anathema, a curse in community and any sign of grumbling was to be censured.

In one of her first commentaries on the Rule, Joan Chittister suggests: Say to the member who signs up for a task but then complains, “Please don’t sign up.  Kindly give the community the gift of not murmuring about it.  The rest of the community will get the work done.  Please just stay home and keep a smile on your face.  Don’t do the work and then poison the environment of the house with murmuring.”

Oh, you may think: it’s easy for you to talk about obedience.  You’re the prioress, who do you have to obey?  Bear in mind that the leader, any leader, may have some authority with her position, but the power lies in the hands and will of the membership.  Obedience in monastic life is mutual.  It springs from the bloom of mutual respect.  Without both, there is no community.  There is just a group of women living under the same roof.  Thankfully for all of us, in life, growth is always possible.  It’s not how we start that matters, it’s how we finish!  “It isn’t over, til it’s over!”

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Have a pleasant week!  Happy feast of your Guardian Angel and the Feast of the Holy Rosary!

 

 

 

Readings: Ezekiel 18:25-28    Philippians 2:1-Be like
Gospel:   Matthew 21:28-32
Continue Reading

Leadership

by Leave a Comment

This parable, like many of Jesus’ folksy stories, is challenging to explain.  “Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth… “  (Luke 16:9)  But since it came from the mouth of God’s own Son it must be important for us to grapple with.  Our application is shaped and colored by the Scripture readings we had this past week and the section of the Holy Rule read each day at Evening Prayer.  (Chapter 2 Qualities of the Superior)

The Gospel tells us if we can’t be trusted in little matters we certainly cannot be trusted with great ones. Now don’t go figuring that you are not a leader in a Benedictine community because each is a leader in her own realm. It could be tempting to breeze through Benedict’s Chapter 2 with an attitude of “ho hum” – that’s for her, glad it’s not me and I hope she is listening.

To say that Benedict holds high standards for the superior may be an understatement.  Notice he places the chapter on leadership qualities early in the Rule, only after he defines the type of monastic for whom he is writing.  We know he is writing about the qualities of the leaders of the “strongest kind of monastics”; the ones who have chosen to live under a Rule and a monastic leader.

Benedict may have left it unsaid in Chapter 2, but he sprinkles exhortations about qualities of leadership for all the members elsewhere in the Rule.  Benedict echoes Jesus when he presses home that the “person who is dishonest in very small matters will also be dishonest in great ones.”  It does not require a great leap to apply this saying to all of us – the youngest or newest in community to the eldest and more seasoned member.

Benedict is waving a banner before our eyes of what each of us always need to be so that a call to leadership does not cause an abrupt change of lifestyle.  Benedict knew from his own experience that the leader’s role in community is time-limited.  He himself had experienced both a call to leadership and a call to a hermit’s life.  He must have foreseen, perhaps with a nudge from Scholastica, that the monastic must be prepared in all aspects of her life to move in and out of leadership roles.

If the individual member does not faithfully engage in a life-long endeavor to develop the attitudes, skills, and qualities that Benedict lays out for the superior, guess what?  An election or appointment to a leadership position will not ipso facto endow a generous, caring disposition.  If a person has not learned to be accountable for her own actions (or at least tried to be), and to be solicitous of others, an imposition of hands, a community affirmation, or a bishop’s blessing will not infuse the gift of saintliness.

Do you recall the lesson of the geese who fly in “V” formation?  As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird following it.  [Drivers on I-75 try to take advantage of this dynamic by traveling in the tail wind of a semi.]  Combined, the whole flock of geese adds 71% greater flying range than if one flew alone.  Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels drag and resistance and quickly gets back into formation.  When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.   The geese in the formation honk from behind to encourage those in front to keep up their speed.

Benedict smiles upon the leaders in community, consoling them with the fact that they do not lack resources.  He quotes Psalm 33: “Those who fear God lack nothing.”  In helping others, the leader achieves the amendment of her own faults.  Benedict does not mention, but I bet he knew, the gratifying support the superior receives daily in unpretentious, quiet affirmations from individual members.  Like the story of the geese, when the leader is “shot down” by illness, or by words or attitudes in monastic life, individual members drop out of formation to help, protect, and reaffirm the leader until she is either able to again take the lead or fly in formation with the other members.

Jesus reminds us in the parable in the Gospel that, in the end, it doesn’t matter when you came into community, parenthood or ministry of any sort.  The reward for putting your hand to the plow will be the same: a day’s work in the kingdom for God’s daily wage.  The last will receive the same as the first.   It’s been that way for all eternity.  We’ll find when we get there (I’m guessing) that our view from the mansion God is saving for each of us is just as magnificent as that of Moses and Adam and Eve and our favorite saints: Everyone’s mansion has a “throne-side view” of heavenly glory.

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 

First Reading  Amos 8:5-7     
Second Reading  1 Timothy 2:1-8
Gospel Reading  Luke 16:1-13
Continue Reading

Humble Yourself the More, the Greater You Are

by Leave a Comment

Yesterday’s reading from Sirach addresses us thus: “My child, conduct your affairs with humility.  Humble yourself the more, the greater you are. And you will find favor with God.”  So, how can one develop humility without becoming proud of how humble you are?

In practical everyday terms how can we recognize this amazing quality of humility?  How can you develop this wonderful trait?  We know we can quickly spot what it is NOT.  It is not judgmental, does not have room for vanity.  The one who is humble is not self-consumed, is not a door mat, is not rough with others but treasures and respects the value of all persons.

Benedict, in the Prologue and opening chapters of the Rule, prescribes humility as an essential quality of monastics in community.  He speaks of the necessity for humility for the superior and sub-prioress, the artisans, the cellarer, the readers, visiting clerics and relationships with each other in community.  He helps us recognize the role of humility in perfect love when we make satisfaction for mistakes, for broken dishes and tools, in our acceptance of what the cook offers and what the superior supplies for the members, when we consciously blend voices with others in communal prayer and graciously receive guests who share our monastic space.

Let’s look at three proven hindrances to growth in humility.

PRIDE – which focuses on self rather than others.  Listen to yourself.  How often do you start a conversation with “I”?

INSECURITY and/or OVER-CONFIDENCE – Both are forms of unhealthy self-centeredness and oppose humility because these people spend too much time “navel gazing” – examining themselves. Can you graciously digest criticism and suggestions without scrambling to justify your action or point a finger at what someone else did?  Do you smile and accept a compliment without downplaying its value with a comment like: “This old dress?  I got it long ago at Daystar.” or “Oh, it was nothing. There’s an app that does all the work.”   “The project turned out OK but it wasn’t my best.”

SELFISHNESS – As long as you focus exclusively on your own perceived personal needs and desires – forget the idea of humility – it will only be a distant dream.  Remember Benedict’s advice: “Pursue what you judge better for someone else, love humbly and prefer nothing whatever to Christ.”

The practice of humility begins in little everyday ways:

+  The words we speak: no boasting, bragging or pushing your opinion down others’ throats.

+ The way you treat others: not looking for choice places at table or seeking to rub shoulders with only the rich and famous but treating each person as one of value.

+ How you treat yourself. The humble person values herself and her abilities.  She does not spoil herself, is not self-centered; refrains from superficial behavior, is not obsessed with her appearance, her likes and dislikes, her opinions or material possessions.

What begins as a single humble act multiplies, and becomes a life-long, positive habit that impacts not only your own life, but the lives of those around you.

So, in real life what does humility look like?

  • Humble people handle challenging situations with a sense of peace because they RESPOND rather than REACT to life’s challenges.
  • The humble person focuses on service to others and not her own problems, weaknesses, health or likes and dislikes.
  • Humble people are good at networking because they attract others by making them feel comfortable, wanted and valued.
  • Humble people are wise because they listen well, do not speak impulsively and value what words they do share.
  • Humble persons are perceived as trustworthy because their goals are not self-motivated.
  • Humble persons create loyalty because they take pleasure in the successes of others.

It goes without saying that practice of humility requires sacrificing pride and moving out of your “comfort zone.”  It takes a complete a turn-around from self-centeredness.  Humility is not popular in today’s world so dare to be different.  The benefits are worth any cost: healthier relationships, mutual respect, wisdom and a quiet peace.

 

~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

First Reading  Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29      
Second Reading  Hebrews 12:18-19;22-24
Gospel Reading  Luke 14: 1, 7-14
Continue Reading