Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

The Rule

Because you were faithful in small matters…

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Because you were faithful in small matters…

come, share your Master’s joy.

Like the Master in this Gospel, St. Benedict teaches us “journey lessons.”  We sense a journey motif from the opening words of Benedict’s Rule when he bids us: “Listen! The labor of obedience will bring you back (“coming back” requires a journey, doesn’t it?)  “Let us get up then (he says) at long last, for the Scriptures rouse us when they say: “It is high time for us to arise from sleep… (come from the land of your dreams) …run while you have the light… go out to seek workers in the multitude of the people …”.  Listen to Benedict: “moving on in your journey of faith, (and life in the monastery) “You will say, ‘Here I am Lord’.”   Then he tells us how to prepare for our journey: “Clothed with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide…. Be just in all your dealings, speak the truth from the heart and do not practice deceit or listen to slander.”

By the time Benedict wrote Chapter 67 one can tell he’s had some experience with monks who journeyed far from the home monastery.  We know that Benedict, in his youth, had escaped “big city life.”  So, he wanted to protect his monks from the evils and temptations of the prevailing society.  Those at home are to remember the absent ones in prayer for their confrere’s safety and protection from temptation.

I have to smile when I read what Benedict cautions next.  He certainly knew human nature: “No one should presume to relate what was seen or heard outside the monastery.”  Benedict didn’t want stories of the world to creep in and cause dissension or dissatisfaction to rankle or upset his community.  We need to be on guard that we balance charitable interest in each other versus the drive to know every intimate detail about what was seen or heard on the other’s journey.

Benedict is solicitous of his monks sent on a journey that they appear neither embarrassingly shabby nor be clad in “rich folks” clothing.  He charges the superior with checking that hemlines are a decent length and the members’ clothing be suited to the weather.   And, it’s obvious that times were different when Benedict walked the earth.  He makes provision that the members be LOANED underwear from the wardrobe that is to be laundered and returned after the trip.

In line with his admonition to pray always, Benedict reminds his monks when they are on a journey to keep an eye on the sun and listen for the bells from neighboring abbeys announcing prayer times. Benedict reminds them though at a distance too far to join the community, they should “observe the prescribed hours” as best they can.  Thus, probably began the custom of the Angelus.

The Rule closes with this journey-question: “Are you hastening toward your heavenly home?  Then keep this little rule … as you set out for loftier summits of the teaching and virtues we’ve mentioned.”  Benedict, in his own unique way, shares Paul’s message to the Philippians: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”   Benedict adds this promise: “Under God’s protection” (together) we will reach our heavenly home.”  That’s the same promise Jesus makes to his trustworthy followers: Because “You were faithful in small matters … come, share your Master’s joy.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Have a pleasant Thanksgiving… give thanks for all that has been and open your heart to all that will be…give another a reason to rejoice on this day.

 

First Reading:   Proverbs 31         Second Reading:  1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel:   Matthew 25:14-30
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Leadership

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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
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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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Saint Scholastic Day

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Saint Scholastica’s Feast Day

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 writes 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.

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Lent – God’s Call

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In the liturgical cycle of readings, this Gospel from Mark was originally only two verses – later the church added two more – but it is still one of the shortest Sunday readings.  It tells us only that, immediately after His baptism, Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil, for 40 days.  You’ll notice that Mark, unlike Luke and Matthew, does not outline for us the three temptations of Jesus.  He simply lets us know that the conflict between Jesus and Satan only begins in the desert.  The ultimate test will be in Jesus’ final hours on the cross.

We are now four days into our Lenten journey of 40 days.  We are reminded of Elijah who journeyed in a desert 40 days and nights, making his way to Mount Horeb as well as the Israelites who wandered in a desert for 40 years.  Benedict knew that deserts are an unavoidable part of life.  We have to pass through them – not get stuck in them. In the desert, we soon find out we are too weak to go it alone.  According to St. John Chrysostom: “The Spirit drags Jesus into the desert, since he wanted to draw the devil there – and Jesus gave occasion to him not only on account of his hunger but also on account of the place: for then most especially does the devil attack when he sees people isolated and by themselves.”  No wonder Benedict urges us not to be isolated in our Lenten journey: “the entire community during these days of Lent (together strives) to keep the manner of life most pure.”

We’ve heard the expression “practice makes perfect” so often that the meaning may have lost its impact on us.  Each year at the beginning of Lent we may feel like that skater or a musician who’s been laid up for a year without practice.  As Benedict says in Chapter 49 of the Rule, during Lent we are called to be the kind of person we should be every day.  Lent gives us a jump-start of courage to pick up the practices that will support the values we profess and hold dear.  The biggest temptation most of us have to face it to “give up” because we stumble.  What would you think if you dialed a wrong number and got this recording: I’m not available right now, but I do thank you for caring enough to call me.”  (How sweet!)  But, it continues: “I am making some changes in my life.  Please leave a message after the beep.  If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.”

Thomas à Kempis, in the IMITATION OF CHRIST, says, “Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.  Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when it knocks…. A person, indeed, is not worthy of the sublime contemplation of God who has not been tried by some tribulation for the sake of God.  For temptation is usually the sign preceding the consolation that is to follow.”

Lent is God’s call to us to make God and Godly values the center of our life.  It is a time for honesty and stability.  A time for us to be close to God.  The desert of life, of Lent – like any desert – can be a vast expanse of sand and rock, punctuated by ragged hills, blistered by a relentless sun, a barren land in which little grows.  But, depending on our outlook, the space can be filled with mysterious unexpected experiences.  It can be a place not only of testing but of beauty where faith can grow.  Mirages give us false hope.  A welcome pool of water or a dripping cactus can reveal to us, in the blink of an eye, a reflection of what we really look like.  During Lent we are simply being asked to dare to be convinced that this is a wonderful opportunity to rediscover our true self-worth and the wonder of being the child of a loving God.  We are challenged not to focus on the storm clouds of COVID restrictions, chronic health conditions, what we DON’T have.  We do well to focus on all that we DO have: our faithful supporters, the friends who DO make contact, the companions who DO treat us gently, our God who, even with all the concerns and pleas that are raised for attention, remembers ME and loves ME with unfailing love.

Personal deserts are unavoidable, they’re part of life.  We need Christ and we need the ministry of others.  If for nothing else than to teach lessons of dependence.  We’ll never be as strong or wise as we’d like.  We need the grace of God in Christ.  We need the ministry of each other and all of God’s people to strengthen us by their prayerful support and good example that we, too, might take up our crosses and follow Jesus.  We pray that like that voice message said (I mentioned earlier), we do take the opportunity of Lent to make changes on our lives.  But unlike that voice message, may we never hear God’s voice and choose not to return the call.

Next Sunday we will be commemorating the 132nd anniversary of the founding of Holy Name Convent from Pittsburgh, PA.  You can look for a snippet of our history as the reflection.  God bless our founding Sisters!  Their first home was “on loan”  space in a family home in San Antonio which is the township adjacent to Saint Leo, home of the current monastery.  The weather bureau archives reveal that it was 80 degrees in San Antonio, FL on the day of their arrive, February 28, 1889.  Stay tuned for the “rest of the story” next week.  

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

Genesis 9:8-15   1 Peter 3:18-22   Mark 1:12-15

 

 

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Holy Family Sunday 2020

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This coming year Pope Francis has designated the “Year of St. Joseph” marking the 150th anniversary of Pius IX’s declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church.  Francis describes Joseph as “a beloved father, tender and loving, obedient and accepting; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.”

This weekend the Church turns our focus to Jesus’ earthly family with the feast of the Holy Family.  It’s natural when we celebrate the birth of the child Jesus that we would reflect on His family.  Do you realize that for every one year of his public life, Jesus spent ten years in family life?  That helps us understand the importance and priority He gave to family life.

What might that mean to (and for) us as monastics who we live in an intentional family we call community.  As Benedictines our lives are guided by the simple, yet profound, guidelines designed over 1500 years ago by the man Benedict.  His Rule gives us a picture of a man of great wisdom, compassion and much common sense. (I believe, we can agree, his guidelines were influenced to a great degree by his twin sister Scholastica.)

It is the spirit of the Rule that has survived.  Benedict had a knack for tempering discipline with compassion that makes the Rule come alive for so many.  His prudence shines through when, in so many words, he says: this is what works for us now – if the arrangement of the psalmody, the daily schedule and other daily living details don’t fit your need, change it.

If we only know the first word of the Rule “LISTEN” what an impact it could make on our own happiness and harmony between peoples.  To truly listen requires an attentive spirit … not a scramble to respond with advice, a witty remark or a “I’ve got a better one” or “I know exactly how you feel.”  When we truly listen to another we can identify their feeling, let it resonant within and know that very often all the person wants is a signal that we care.

Benedict’s Rule is not intended to be a great and lofty treatise on prayer or spirituality.  It’s just plain “down to earth” advice.  He says let this rule be read 3 times, cover to cover, to the potential member so she understands exactly what she is getting herself into.  The Rule is filled with practical guidance for ordinary people to live together peacefully. Benedict expected his followers to work hard, study hard and pray hard.  He recognized much of the study and work is an interior process – a true “self-study” steeped in a quiet atmosphere that is broken only by the sounds of nature, farm machinery, a printing press or sewing machine or the scratch of a calligraphy pen.  This kind of soul work begins in private prayer enriched in communal prayer.

I think Benedict must have valued the idea of cross-training.  Given the rotation of duties and positions in community, all members do well to take to heart the advice and warnings given to the various community officials: the prioress, the guest mistress and the porter; the cellarer, the artisans and the sub-prioress.  We all need to be aware of the final judgment – be strong, and at the same time, never be ashamed to have a tender heart.

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 … and don’t loiter outside chapel if you are late … it is evident that Benedict saw God at work within the ordinary events of everyday life with all its joys and sorrows, struggles and high points, funerals and jubilees, comings and goings.  In Psalm 27, and often as an antiphon, we pray: “One thing I seek: to dwell in your presence, O God, all the days of my life.”  And, that presence does not refer only to our final day on earth or future eternal life in heaven.  It is not found only in the Eucharistic presence in the chapel – it is EVERYWHERE – in the Voice of the Spirit working in our personal lives and in the voices of each other and the sounds of daily living.

So, LISTEN – to the Voice of your God within – and listen with your heart to your comrades’ hungers and longings.  Just LISTEN – with your ears certainly but also with your eyes and heart and feelings.  The quality of our life in community, is shaped by each of us.

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
First Reading  Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3    Second Reading  Colossians 3:12-21)
Gospel  Luke 2:22-40
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