Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

st. benedict

If God came to you in a dream…

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If tonight God came in your dream and told you to ask for one thing and one thing only, what would it be? 

 

Once upon a time there was a farmer who owned a small parcel of land. The land was stony, but the farmer worked hard, and for a while he was blessed with a certain happiness and contentment. But then he began to feel that there was something missing in his life, and he felt empty as a result. One evening a stranger passed that way and asked for a night’s lodgings. The farmer was grateful for the distraction.

Around the fire that night the stranger began to talk about diamonds. He told the farmer that if he could find a diamond, even one no bigger than the nail of his little finger, he would never have to do another type of work. The farmer was very impressed. He didn’t get a wink of sleep all that night thinking about diamonds.

Next day the stranger departed leaving the farmer more than a little unhappy. As the days went by he got more and more restless. He began to neglect his farm. Finally, he sold it cheaply, and went off roaming the world in search of diamonds. He travelled far and wide but never found any.  Meanwhile, the man who bought his farm was out ploughing. One day the plough turned up a stone which shone in the sunlight. It turned out to be a very valuable diamond. When he went back to the spot, he found lots more. It turned out to be one of the richest diamond mines ever found.

Come to think about it, our story is much like that. Many years ago, perhaps over a hundred or so, our predecessors recognized a treasure across the street from their home.  There was this piece of land with a stunning view and a perpetual breeze, awesome sunrises and sunsets.  They buried it with a citrus grove and went out with joy to serve the people of God in many places.  And, when the time was right, our time, we sold what we had and came back with joy to reclaim our treasured “pearl.”

When Jesus told his story He asked the disciples: “Do you understand all these things?”  Like the disciples we answer without hesitation, “Yes.”  But, maybe our voices quiver and there’s a question mark in our expression.  But, there is also the conviction in our hearts that we will extend God’s kingdom wherever we live, whatever the restrictions we struggle with, whatever the types of resources we have at hand or are missing.

 The Kingdom of God was always clear to Jesus but to us it will always be somewhat mysterious.  As we are formed in the mind of Jesus – and identify with His mindset, His vision becomes ever more clear to us.  In everyday terms, we who live here in east Pasco County Florida, have not changed our mission or our vision and likely will not change.  The words of a Quaker hymn come to mind: “We bend and we bow and shan’t be ashamed”.  Our mission remains the same; it just takes on a new shape.  Why did our Sisters come from Pennsylvania to settle in this area?  Was it not to feed the education hungers of the local children?  Long before we wrote formalized philosophy statements and directional goals, our Sisters “fed hungers” in a variety of roles in Texas and Louisiana and from the top to the bottom of Florida. They worked in internal ministries and as nurses and home caretakers, seamstresses, coif makers, packing house workers, gardeners, … you name it, someone probably tried it.  Our aim is, and has always been, to foster life in community – to BE community for each other: to pray and work; to interact with the care and respect St. Benedict describes in his Rule, particularly in RB Chapter 72. “Be the first to show respect to the other”.  Or in our own words: to be the first “to respond with the compassion of Christ to the hungers of the other.”

Jesus presents to us a variety of examples to help us conceptualize His Kingdom: a hidden treasure, a box filled with gold coins buried somewhere in a field; the Kingdom as a precious pearl, a jewel found by a businessman who astutely sold everything he owned in order to buy it; a fishing net filled with fish both good and bad, wheat and weeds growing together.  The illustrations abound: leaven in dough, light, salt, a seed, a ripe harvest, a pearl, a royal feast and a wedding banquet. These parables all have to do with a person finding something of such tremendous value that they are willing to give up everything they have to possess it.  The Gospel reading concludes with a curious statement about the scribe who understands the kingdom of heaven.   How do we identify God’s Kingdom here on earth?

 

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

First Reading:  1 Kings 3:5,7-12         Second Reading:  Romans 8:28-30
Gospel:   Matthew 13:44-52

 

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St. Benedict Feast Day

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Today we Benedictine will celebrate the summer feast of St. Benedict.  Our nearby neighbor, Saint Leo University will be hosting a BBQ lunch for the monks of Saint Leo Abbey, the university staff and us, the Sisters of Holy Name Monastery.  What a grand way to celebrate our legacy and Benedictine values.

Now, those of you 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.

 

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

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Summer Feast Day for Saint Benedict

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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

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Give It a Second Chance

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This weekend’s Gospel is asking us to take a good look at ourselves.  The tree in the parable is showing signs of life but it bears no fruit.  We ask ourselves: Is that me?  Am I barely managing to “hang in there?”   Am I being called to more than that?  Yes, God has higher hopes for each of us,  if we will but give grace a chance.

We can ask ourselves, for instance,

  • Am I a good or sour influence within my community (or my family circle)?
  • How do I relate with outsiders? Is my presence a positive element or do I fall into the gossip and negativity trap?  Do I pass judgment without giving God credit for knowing the whole story?
  • What is my attitude towards people I do not know or who aren’t “useful” to me?
  • What kind of contribution (including being physically present) do I make to the life of this community?
  • In general, what kind of contribution do I make to our greater society? What COULD I be doing?

We need to realize that God always and everywhere loves us.  But that love is only fully completed in us when we become a genuinely loving and caring person, one who loves both God and others in word and action.  We have the choice to open ourselves and come closer to God, to experience the gift of LOVE personified in Jesus.  The choice is up to us.  God’s love is there for the taking.  What are you waiting for?

Today we will celebrate St. Benedict’s day – in muted tones since it’s Lent.  Benedict is recognized as a man of great wisdom, compassion and common sense.  It is the spirit of Benedict’s Rule that has survived because Benedict, even in his youth, had a deep understanding of human psychology.  A glimpse into his early years lets us know he spent much time with his grandparents who lived a few miles from his home.  Along the hilly trek to their summer home, he and his twin sister Scholastica passed the huts and caves where hermits lived.  You can bet that their curiosity would have brought them back over the years to visit with both male and female hermits.  It is evident from the Rule that Benedict absorbed the wisdom and practical advice from this older generation.  He tempers discipline with compassion and he recognizes the spiritual quest as a joyful pursuit of God within the structures of ordinary life.  It is this joyous delight in everyday spirituality that makes the Rule come alive for so many.

Portions of his Rule shows us he had the cultivation traits of the gardener in our Gospel having mercy on his fruitless fig tree.  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.  His prudence shines through when, in so many words, he says: this is what works for us now – if our daily schedule and the details of communal living -don’t fit your situation, adapt it.

Pope Francis has reminded us more than once of something we know deep down – sometimes, especially in the midst of trouble – we tend to forget.  He says: “There are no situations we cannot get out of.  We are not condemned to sink into quicksand, in which the more we move the deeper we sink.  Jesus is (always) there, his hand extended, ready to reach out to us and pull us out of the mud, out of sin, out of the abyss of evil into which we have fallen.  We need only to ask for the grace to recognize ourselves as sinners.”

The barren fig tree in today’s reading is given a reprieve.  It is allowed another chance to respond favorably and to produce fruit.  Every Lenten season offers us a chance to fertilize our tree, the tree which is our life, and to see how it can be more fruitful.  For some of us, we just don’t know, this may indeed be the last-chance year, the last Lent to take care of our tree and coax it to produce new life.  Our God is tickling our finger tips.  What are we waiting for?

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading:  Exodus 3:1-8a,13-15     Second Reading:  1 Corinthians 10:1-6,10-12
Gospel:  Luke 13:1-9
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Saint Benedict’s Day – March 21st

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Saint Benedict’s Day

 

Young Benedict was a seeker of Truth.  A well-kept, well-fed young man from a prosperous family, he attended university in his quest for the Truth.  But what he found there neither answered the questions he had nor satisfied his longings.  The life of hedonism that surrounded him there only disgusted him and left him bruised and empty.  He had searched for the meaning of life in an academic environment without success.

We thank God that Benedict did not give up on his search for life’s meaning on the day he abandoned his studies.  Instead he walked away from everything he had known to look elsewhere.  He constructed a solitary existence, far from the distractions of human society, to search for life’s purpose.  Alone, he besought God’s merciful presence, and God answered him.  When others came to him in the hope of joining him, he did not turn them away.  He recorded his experience as a spiritual mentor and his guidelines for the monastic life in his Rule.  We, the Benedictine Sisters of Florida, are the happy heirs of St. Benedict’s legacy.

Benedict’s life-long search for God required tremendous courage, faith and perseverance.  His willingness to leave his beloved solitude in order to share his wisdom with others was an act of self-sacrifice and generosity.  On this feast of St. Benedict’s passing to his heavenly home, let us ask God for a measure of those same qualities.  Let us prefer nothing to the love of Christ, and may He bring us all to everlasting life.  (RB 72:11)

~by Sister Eileen Dunbar, OSB
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Summer Feast Day of Saint Benedict

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Summer Feast of St. Benedict 2021

July 11th we Benedictines normally celebrate the summer feast of St. Benedict.  However, since this year the 11th falls on a Sunday, the 14th Sunday of Ordinary time takes precedence.  So at Holy Name we will celebrate on Monday, July 12th.

A few years ago, in an issue of the journal from the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration there was a good article by Sister Bede Luetkemeyer.  What follows is an abbreviation of her words:

“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.”  Saint Benedict, in the Prologue to his Rule, addresses those who “long for life.  His advice is “Keep your tongue free from vicious talk and your lips from all deceit; turn away from evil and do good; let peace be your quest and aim.  Once you have done this, my eyes will be upon you and my ears will be open to your prayer.”

If we were to abbreviate this quote, we might say: “God will hear our prayers when we put away vicious talk.”  This can be a surprising and disturbing thought: having our prayers heard depends on how we use our tongue.

The gift of speech is one of the most powerful gifts God has given us, but it probably evokes less gratitude than any other.  Habitual use of speech bends to make us unconscious of the many times our speech verges on being critical, or, to use the adjective in the psalm, “vicious” talk.

Not many of us are humble enough to make amends for wounding words.  We depend on time and the good will of others to wipe out what has been said, but the wounds of hurtful words can never be totally erased.  Despite our best efforts to heal relationships, the scars remain.

Perhaps the first step is admitting that we are burdened with the habit of speaking without paying attention to what we say.  Jesus goes literally to the heart of the problem.  He speaks of the words that “come from the heart.”  These are the words that are first formulated in the mind and take on the emotions that issue from them.  Hence, controlling our thoughts is our first task.  Discernment of our thoughts in the manner of the early monks cuts off the evil before it reaches the heart. If our words do not come from a humble heart they will fall on deaf ears.

One of the familiar practices from the past is the daily examination of conscience.  Recalling our conversations and labeling them as hurtful or helpful becomes habitual.  We can train ourselves to think before we speak, to take a prior account of the possible consequences of our speech.  It is better to judge ourselves than to hear Jesus’ warning, “I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.” (Mt 12:36)

Another effective way of learning how to use the tongue is learning the virtue of silence.  The recommendations for the practice of silence are frequent in Scripture and in the ancient rules of the Desert Fathers.  Although the Desert Fathers sometimes practiced perpetual silence, we are not called to that extreme.  Rather, Scripture describes moderate speech that flows from wisdom.  Benedict lists four qualities of such speech in his chapter on humility: serious, brief, gentle, reasonable.

The teachings of Benedict are taken from the Scriptures and so are meant for everyone.  One of the reminders Benedict uses in his chapter on silence is taken from the Book of Proverbs: “In the multitude of words, there shall not want sin.”  (Prv 10:19)  One of the Desert Fathers (teaches): “A person may seem to be silent, but if s/he is condemning others, she is babbling ceaselessly.  But there may be another who talks from morning til night and yet she is truly silent, that is, she says nothing that is not profitable.”

External silence is impossible until we learn to control the unending conversation that is going on in our (heads).  A 20th century Russian Orthodox monk wrote about prayer and the Christian life, “When we listen to someone we think we are silent because we do not speak; but our minds continue to work, our emotions react, our will responds for or against what we hear …  The real silence towards which we must aim as a starting point is a complete repose of mind and heart and will.”

We might wonder what happens to spontaneity, to having a chat without having to think about every word we say.  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)

 

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