Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Saint Joseph – Patron of Our Monastery

Saint Joseph Holding the Infant Christ

Anonymous
After Guido Reni
Italian, 17th century
From the Met Collection, used with permission

Joseph is portrayed in works of art with grey hair and a beard, an older figure next to Mary and Jesus, and often in the background. In the pope’s Apostolic Letter entitled Patris Corde, he wrote, “In his relationship to Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father. He watched over him and protected him, never leaving him to go his own way. We can think of Moses’ words to Israel: ‘In the wilderness … you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled’ (Deuteronomy 1:31). In a similar way, Joseph acted as a father for his whole life.”

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent

Just two days ago we heard these words in John’s Gospel, fromchapter 7: They were trying to arrest Jesus, but no one could lay hands on him, because his hour had not yet come (7.30). Here John gives us a historical fact with its theological explanation. But today it seems that everything has changed. From the lips of Jesus himself we hear, with somewhat trembling hearts, these solemn words from John’s chapter 12 that with great urgency immerse us into the full Paschal Mystery: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  These words, and the crucial shift they proclaim, are very important. They call our attention to a vital aspect of Jesus’ Passion and Death. 

The statement, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, announces to us three capital realities: 1. God’s freedom as the driving force behind the Passion of the Messiah; 2. God’s sovereignty as Lord of all history; and 3. God’s glorification through the Death of the Messiah. 

Jesus does indeed approach step by step a Passion full of suffering; but we should not overlook the fact that he does so with full freedom, in a totally free, voluntary, and intentional way. In other words, the only force that drives Jesus into it is his Father’s will to save. Because Jesus is impelled into the Passion by the force of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ own will is in perfect harmony with the Father’s. We cannot speak here of simple “blind” or “accidental” suffering, or of “suffering for suffering’s sake”. Otherwise we could not speak of a passion of love, or of a life poured out voluntarily— not as a result of unfortunate circumstances, but poured out as a voluntary libation, as a gift of self. Love always demands freedom in the giving of the heart. No one could lay hands on Jesus until his hour had come in keeping with the Father’s saving plan. 

This means that God’s vulnerability in Christ Jesus is the greatest sign of the omnipotence of a God who is love and who wants to save humankind by giving his divine life for mortals. God’s vulnerability in Jesus is a weakness freely chosen and accepted by God as the most effective means of communicating his love and life to the world. It is precisely by means of Jesus’ voluntary Passion that God has placed his law of love within us, inscribing it deep within the flesh of our hearts.

So now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified: this declaration of Jesus reveals the absolute sovereignty of God. It is the Father who decides when and how his Son will give his life. Without this decision, humans are powerless to take any initiative. Their hands are tied and their own wickedness can do nothing.  The Lover of the human race will hand himself over into the hands of those who hate God only when his loving heart has decided that the perfect time has come. He exclaims: For this very reason I have come to this hour! Father, glorify your Name. Here again we see that what is involved is sovereignty, but not the arbitrary autonomy of a tyrant god but the majestic supremacy of a Creator and Redeemer God, who uses all his wisdom and all his Trinitarian power only to foster and increase life, never to destroy it.  

And such is also the glory of love: God is truly glorified not by triumphing over mortals and crushing them, but by overcoming the Prince of this world who is the beginning of all evil and the enemy of both God and man. This divine victory happens without the noise of weapons, and it takes place precisely when Jesus dies obediently on the Cross: Because of his full surrender to God, Jesus was heard, and ... being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. In this way, Jesus shows that his faithful love to the Father—not only as divine Son but also as human Servant—is stronger than the Adversary’s hatred, stronger than human infidelity. The Father is fully glorified by the Son when, by dying freely and sovereignly, the Son reveals who the Father is: none other than the one who sent him to give his life and bring eternal salvation to all. In Christ, on Calvary, divine Glory and human Passion become one.  

But love does not want to be alone; love always wants to share in its redemptive adventure. Therefore, Jesus further tells us: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself. Jesus is lifted up to heaven, paradoxically, at the very moment when he descends into death. For him, to descend into death is the same as to ascend to glory. Such is the logic of divine love, so different from ours!  And Jesus ascends upward, toward Life, not to remain alone but to draw all to himself in his trajectory back to the Father. The glory of love is to die to self in order to multiply love as much as possible, for if the grain of wheat dies, it produces much fruit.  

This spreading of love, moreover, is not automatic. Just as the Messiah’s giving of his life had to happen in complete freedom, so too must we accept Jesus’ giving of his life in complete freedom. Indeed, we must allow ourselves to be drawn by Jesus to his throne of glory on the cross! Where I am, there will my servant also be, he says. Where love truly exists, there also is the burning desire for union, for intensely shared life. Love never asks itself in what kind of situation—whether of joy or suffering—the beloved might be, before reaching out to her. Love only asks where the beloved is in order to reach him as soon as possible, exactly as Mary Magdalen magnificently asked the supposed gardener concerning her beloved Jesus, whom she thought dead: If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away (Jn 20:15).  

We who have gathered in this chapel this morning, eager to receive the Body and Blood of Christ: Will we be among the blessed who joyfully allow themselves to be drawn toward Jesus crucified no matter what? Shall we say to him, Here we come, Lord!, even knowing that his soul is now beginning to be troubled unto death—even knowing that, in order to produce much fruit together with Jesus, we must die to ourselves? And yet, what could be clearer and more piercing than the following words of his intimate invitation to us, his professed disciples, words so brimming with yearning and full of promise: If anyone wishes to serve me, let that person follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be. 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Why the End Time is Unknown

Not to know when the end is, or the day of the end, is good for people, lest knowing, they might become negligent of the time between, awaiting the days near the end. For then they would argue that they must only attend to themselves. Therefore, too, [Christ] has been silent about the time when each shall die, lest men, being elated because of this knowledge, should immediately neglect themselves for the greater part of their time. Both the end of all things and the end of each of us, then, has been concealed from us by the Word (for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended), so that since it is uncertain and always in the future, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things in front of us and forgetting the things behind.


SAINT ATHANASIUS Discourses Against the Arians

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Saint Ephraim’s Prayer

Lord and Master of my life,

take far from me the spirit of laziness, discouragement, domination, and idle talk; 

grant to me, thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, love;

yea, my Lord and King, grant me to see my sins, and not to judge my neighbor,

for thou are blessed forever and ever. Amen.


EPHRAIM OF SYRIA Prayer for the Season of Lent in the Byzantine Rite

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Devote Yourselves to Prayer

You must not break away from holy prayer for any reason except obedience or charity. For often during the time scheduled for prayer the devil comes with all sorts of struggles and annoyances—even more than when you are not at prayer. He does this to make you weary of holy prayer. Often he will say: “This sort of prayer is worthless to you. You should not think about or pay attention to anything except vocal prayer.” He makes it seem this way so that you will become weary and confused and abandon the exercise of prayer. But prayer is a weapon with which you can defend yourself against every enemy. If you hold it with love’s hand and the arm of free choice, this weapon, with the light of most holy faith, will be your defense.


SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA The Dialogue

Monday, March 11, 2024

Persevering in Prayer

We must be firmly convinced from the start that, if we fight courageously and do not allow ourselves to be beaten, we shall get what we want, and there is no doubt that, however small our gains may be, they will make us very rich. Do not be afraid that the Lord Who has called us to drink of this spring will allow you to die of thirst. This I have already said and I should like to repeat it; for people are often timid when they have not learned by experience of the Lord’s goodness, even though they know of it by faith. It is a great thing to have experienced what friendship and joy He gives to those who walk on this road and how He takes almost the whole cost of it upon Himself. I am not surprised that those who have never made this test should want to be sure that they will receive some interest on their outlay. But you already know that even in this life we shall receive a hundredfold, and that the Lord says: “Ask and it shall be given you.” If you do not believe His Majesty in those passages of His Gospel where He gives us this assurance, it will be of little help to you, sisters, for me to weary my brains by telling you of it. Still, I will say to anyone who is in doubt that she will lose little by putting the matter to the test; for this journey has the advantage of giving us very much more than we ask or shall even get so far as to desire. This is a never-failing truth: I know it; though, if you do not find it so, do not believe any of the things I tell you. I can call as witnesses those of you who, by God’s goodness, know it from experience.


SAINT TERESA OF AVILA The Way of Perfection, CH. 23

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Seeking God Aright

We only deceive ourselves by seeking or loving God for any favors which He has or may grant us. Such favors, no matter how great, can never bring us as near to God as can one simple act of faith. Let us seek Him often by faith. He is within us. Seek Him not elsewhere.


BROTHER LAWRENCE OF THE RESURRECTION The Practice of the Presence of God, Letter 15