Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

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St. Benedict Feast Day

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Summer Feast day for Saint Benedict

How many books written in the sixth century are still in print today? How many of those are in active, everyday use by tens of thousands around the world today — not only monks and nuns, but oblates and other lay people? The answer is one: The Rule of St. Benedict — what the author, whose feast day we celebrate this Thursday, called “this little rule that we have written for beginners.”

At the heart of his Rule lie the four guiding principles which are the foundation of daily life for the Benedictine Sisters of Florida. These four — community, prayer, service, and hospitality — can light the way to a deeper daily spirituality for anyone.

Community

Benedict understood that community, like family and friends, can be messy. Rooted in scripture, the Rule offers a cure: “No one is to pursue what is judged better for self, but instead what is judged better for someone else. To their companions, they show the true love of sisters or brothers…” How would your own world be transformed if this became the way of life for you and those around you?

Prayer

Benedict’s guidance for prayer might surprise you. “God regards our purity of heart and tears…not our many words. Prayer therefore should be short and pure…” Prayer, Sister Joan Chittister writes, “is meant to call us back to a consciousness of God here and now.” How would your day be transformed if it were laced throughout with short, simple prayer that opened your eyes to the Divine in your daily life?

Service

We often view work, especially work that benefits someone else, as a burden, something we have to do but would rather avoid. Instead, Benedict reminds us that work is a privilege and serving others is an honor — something that has been true since the day Jesus picked up carpenter’s tools, then laid them down to heal, to feed, and to save the lost. “…live by the labor of your hands, as our ancestors and the apostles did…” says Benedict. How would your workdays be transformed if you saw each as a gift from God and an opportunity to serve others in Jesus’ name?

Hospitality

Possibly the most challenging 11 words in the Rule are these: “All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ.” How would you welcome Christ if He came to your door today? How would our neighborhoods and towns, states and nations be transformed if each of us welcomed everyone everywhere as Christ?

As you can see, St. Benedict wrote something that is as practical today as ever. Our prayer for you, today and always, is that you find yourself in a loving community, that you infuse your days with prayer, that you cultivate a heart for happy service, and that you welcome even the most unlikely person as Christ. When you do, you will find more contentment than you can imagine.

 

 

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“What’s mine is yours; what’s yours is mine.”

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FEAST of the ASCENSION of our LORD

“What’s mine is yours; what’s yours is mine.”

 

This week our prayer intention is the 2021 Graduates.  The Gospel is about the Commencement story for Jesus’ Apostles.  It’s the same message (not the same exact words) that graduates across our country will be hearing: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the fruits of your education!  Signs will accompany those who are influenced by you and your words.  Be true to the ethics, the values, the attitudes that have been modeled for you.  Drive out demons by refusing to be any less than you are called to be.  Be sensitive to the voices that call out to you from the trenches.  Lay your hands on the sick, the sorrowing, the poor; the victims of racism, inequity of services and opportunity.”  Each year, we return to this story of Jesus’ ascension, we celebrate the event, and try to make meaning for our own lives.  That’s what our graduates are charged with doing.

Jesus impressed upon his Apostles the same message that 2000 years later we know we can depend on.  He tells us: “apart from me you can do nothing” and “I will be with you always.”  He may have disappeared from sight, but he has not abandoned us.  He kept assuring the Apostles that they had not imagined it – it was not a borrowed memory from someone else’s story: Jesus really had been among them and at least on two occasions he had something to eat with them.  Remember, when he appeared in the upper room and asked: “Do you have anything here to eat?”  And, again, on the seashore when he had breakfast already cooking for them when they hauled in that net-breaking catch of fish.  This was a beautiful and very human thing to do; something that the disciples, and we, could completely relate to.

Among Jesus’ last words on this earth, is a powerful lesson in mutual sharing.  It sounds a bit like ‘What’s mine is yours; what’s yours is mine.’  We hear Jesus say: “Everything that the Father has, is mine.  When the Spirit comes, he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”  And, what is declared?  “Peace I give you; my peace I leave with you.”  Jesus wanted his disciples, He wants us, to understand, for all time, that the purpose of his life on earth, why he had to suffer and die the way he did – was all part of God’s plan.  Jesus wants to impress upon us, that there is a lot of work to be done and not to worry if things aren’t always easy.

He has commissioned us, all his followers, to a life of service.  In Jesus we are we empowered to do what He himself did.  He sends us out to preach, to heal, and to drive out unclean spirits.  Jesus continues to help us as we try to live as his followers – to call on our reserves of resiliency, holy dependence, and firm trust.

We recall that when Jesus was buried it was women who solemnly formed a funeral procession to the newly hewn grave.  They anointed Jesus’ body with the customary herbs and spices that filled the walk-in tomb, and the surrounding air, with a pungent perfume that lingers on, even to this day’s atmosphere.  You know that sensation you get in the chapel or our community room or a public elevator.  Someone walks in and almost immediately thinks or remarks that someone must have Vicks cough drops.  Or looks around wondering who’s been in the company of a smoker.  Or asks who has on scented hand lotion.  Or wrinkles her nose in puzzlement trying to figure out just what is that scent?  For now, we turn in all directions to detect and track the aroma of the One who continues to guide us; leading us forward into unknown places, ministries, services.  It’s that familiar fragrance we follow that leads us to Jesus.  One day it will lead us to our eternal home with Him.  Even before we’re fully aware we’re in his presence, we’ll have found Him.  Like Mary Magdalene on Jesus’ resurrection morn, we’ll hear Him speak our name.

[“Perfume” imagery borrowed from article on GlobalSisters.org]

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 Jesus promised: I will be with you always!

First Reading   Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11   Second Reading Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel Reading  Mark 16:15-20         Intention: 2021 Graduates
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World Day of Prayer for Vocations

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World Day of Prayer for Vocations

“Dream of Joseph” from Pope Francis

This evening I’d like to share with you excerpts from Pope Francis’ message for the 2021 World Day Prayer for Vocations.  Back in December 2020, His Holiness Pope Francis declared Saint Joseph “Patron of the Universal Church” as he opened the Year of Joseph.  His letter to us for today’s International day of prayer for Church Vocations is entitled “Saint Joseph: The Dream of Vocation.”  Pope Francis writes:

God looks on the heart and in Saint Joseph he recognized the heart of a father, able to give and generate life in the midst of daily routines.  Vocations have this same goal: to beget and renew lives every day.  The Lord desires to shape the hearts of fathers and mothers: hearts that are open, capable of great initiatives, generous in self-giving, compassionate in comforting anxieties and steadfast in strengthening hopes.  The priesthood and the consecrated life greatly need these qualities nowadays, in times marked by fragility but also by the sufferings due to the pandemic, which has spawned uncertainties and fears about the future and the very meaning of life.  Saint Joseph comes to meet us in his gentle way, as one of “the saints next door.”  At the same time, his strong witness can guide us on the journey.

Saint Joseph suggests to us key words for each individual’s vocation.  The first is dream.  If we were to ask people to express in one word their life’s dream, it would not be difficult to imagine the answer: “to be loved.”  It is love that gives meaning to life, because it reveals life’s mystery.  Indeed, we only have life if we give it; we truly possess it only if we generously give it away.  God’s call always urges us to take a first step, to give ourselves, to press forward.  There can be no faith without risk.  Every “yes” bears fruit because it becomes part of a larger design, of which we glimpse only details, but which the divine Artist knows and carries out, making of every life a masterpiece.  Every true vocation is born of the gift of oneself, which is the fruit of mature sacrifice.  Our gift of self will not come to fulfilment if it stops at sacrifice.  Were that the case, instead of becoming a sign of the beauty and joy of love, the gift of self would risk being an expression of unhappiness, sadness and frustration.

Pope Francis continues: “I like to think of Saint Joseph, as the protector of vocations.”  In fact, from his willingness to serve comes his concern to protect.  The Gospel tells us that Joseph wasted no time fretting over things he could not control, in order to give full attention to those entrusted to his care.  Such thoughtful concern is the sign of a true vocation, the testimony of a life touched by the love of God.  What a beautiful example of Christian life we give when we refuse to pursue our ambitions or indulge in our illusions, but instead care for what the Lord has entrusted to us through the Church!  God then pours out his Spirit and creativity upon us – he works wonders in us, as he did in Joseph.

Together with God’s call which makes our greatest dreams come true, and our response which is made up of generous service and attentive care, there is (another) characteristic of Saint Joseph’s daily life and our Christian vocation, namely fidelity.  Joseph is the “righteous man who daily perseveres in quietly serving God and God’s plans.”  At a particularly difficult moment in his life, he thoughtfully considered what to do.  He did not yield to the temptation to act rashly, simply following his instincts or living for the moment.  Instead, he pondered things patiently.  He knew that success in life is built on constant fidelity to important decisions.  This was reflected in his perseverance in plying the trade of a humble carpenter, a quiet perseverance that made no news in his own time, yet has inspired the daily lives of countless Christians ever since.  For a vocation – like life itself – matures only through daily fidelity.

How is such fidelity nurtured?  In the light of God’s own faithfulness.  The first words that Saint Joseph heard in a dream were an invitation not to be afraid, because God remains ever faithful to his promises.  Do not be afraid: these words the Lord also addresses to you whenever you feel that, even amid uncertainty and hesitation, you can no longer delay your desire to give your life to him.  He repeats these words when, perhaps amid trials and misunderstandings, you seek to follow his will every day, wherever you find yourself.  They are words you will hear anew, at every step of your vocation, as you return to your first love.  They are a refrain accompanying all those who – like Saint Joseph – say yes to God with their lives through their fidelity each day.

This fidelity is the secret of joy.  A hymn in the liturgy speaks of the “transparent joy” present in the home of Nazareth.  It is the joy of simplicity, the joy experienced daily by those who care for what truly matters: faithful closeness to God and to our neighbor.  How good it would be if the same atmosphere, simple and radiant, sober and hopeful, were to pervade our seminaries, religious houses and presbyteries!  Pope Francis continues…”I pray that you will experience this same joy, (my) dear brothers and sisters who have generously made God the dream of your lives, serving God through a fidelity that is a powerful testimony in an age of fleeting choices and emotions that bring no lasting joy.  May Saint Joseph, protector of vocations, accompany you with his fatherly heart!”

Please pray for perseverance for our postulants: Marietta and Kathleen.

If it be God’s will, we pray: send vocations to our community.

God bless  you!  Stay safe – keep healthy and happy and never lose hope – believe that God has a plan that is unfolded for us day-by-day … which is all we need one-day-at-a-time.

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

For the full text of Pope Francis letter (cited in the attached reflection) click on the link below.

Pope Francis’ full message

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