ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Br Adam and Fr Isaac last wrote you about the renovation of the hermitage here at the abbey. Here is a timeline report to bring you up to date on this project. The re-building of the hermitage was substantially completed mid-December 2024.   Our abbot Dom Vincent and a substantial cohort of the community came out on Gaudete Sunday to bless the hermitage and the hermit, placing both under the care of Santa Maria del Silenzio.   Fr. Vincent noted that the hermitage shares in the monastery’s mission as a “monastic institute wholly dedicated to contemplation”.   Likewise, the hermitage in particular makes present the life of Nazareth in its silence, hiddenness and ordinariness.   The Vigil Mass of Christmas 2024 resumed the Liturgy at the hermitage and was offered in thanksgiving for the generosity of all of you who supported this endeavor in every and any way.   The everyday life of the hermitage was resumed on the feast of the Holy Family and continues uninterrupt...

Be mindful of God, so that in every moment he may be mindful of you. If he is mindful of you, he will give you salvation. Do not forget him, letting yourselves be seduced by vain distractions. Do you want him to forget you in your times of temptation? Stay near him and obey him in the days of your prosperity. You will be able to rely on his word in difficult days. Because prayer will keep you safe in his continuous presence you may constantly be before his face.Think of him, remember him in your heart. Otherwise, if you only meet him from time to time, you risk losing your close friendship with him. ISAAC OF NINEVEH Philocalia

In general, the reason why many souls have no love or inclination towards virtue is that they harbor affections and desires which are neither innocent nor directed wholly towards God. He therefore who loves anything beside God renders his soul incapable of the divine union and transformation into God. ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS The Ascent of Mount Carmel

Believe more and more intensely in God's love. Or, better, that God is Love: that, for Him, to be and to love are one and the same thing. Remember what Saint Augustine wrote on the text: "I am, Who am". Change the word being for loving and you will still be far from reaching the limits of that truth which is Love. Despite all the penetration of his genius Saint Augustine never reached those limits. No one ever will— there are no limits! The Love of God is boundless Light. A CARTHUSIAN They Speak by Silences

Back in the late 1950s, in my early teenage years, just before Castro’s Revolution and his accession to mock-messianic power, I attended an all-boys’ school in provincial Cuba run by the Marist Brothers. First Fridays of the month were rigorously consecrated to devotion to the Sacred Heart, a focus of Catholic piety that at that time was inseparable from the veneration of Christ the King. On First Fridays the whole student body of about 200 would gather in the garth first thing in the morning, and we would rededicate ourselves to the enthralling mystery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During the almost 70 years of living I’ve done since then, one phrase from the consecration prayer that we all recited in schoolboy unison—like the multiplication tables—has stuck firmly in my memory and gently haunted me: Tuyos somos y tuyos queremos ser: “Yours we are and yours do we want to be.” My mind stored away this formulation as a memorable puzzle, and its singsong rhythm and mystery have never lo...

We should find God in what we know, not in what we don't; not in outstanding problems but in those we have already solved…. We must not wait until we are at the end of our tether: he must be found at the center of life and not only in death; in health and vigor, and not only in suffering; in activity, and not only in sin. DIETRICH BONHEOFFER  Prison Letters

The “bodily” union of humanity with God made present to it has been, in a manner beyond all comprehension, presented to us in terms of eros , as the fulfillment of what the Song of Songs had celebrated long before: existence as a bridal state. HANS URS VON BALTHASAR A Theology of History  

The principal labor of the Christian is to believe that divine love is the breadth and length and height and depth, and that there is simply nothing above, below or beyond it. It is our home; it enfolds us and is our utmost security both in this life and in death and beyond. RUTH BURROWS, OCD Essence of Prayer

He prays unceasingly who combines prayer with necessary duties and duties with prayer. Only in this way can we find it practicable to fulfill the commandment to pray always. It consists in regarding the whole of Christian existence as a single great prayer. What we are accustomed to call prayer is only a part of it. ORIGEN On Prayer, 12

As is a grain of sand weighed against a large amount of gold, so, in God, is the demand for equitable judgment weighed against his compassion. As a handful of sand in the boundless ocean, so are the sins of the flesh in comparison with God's providence and mercy. As a copious spring could not be stopped up with a handful of dust, so the Creator’s compassion cannot be conquered by the wickedness of creatures. ISAAC OF NINEVEH Ascetic Treatises

To progress in thinking about creatures is painful and worrisome. The contemplation of the Holy Trinity is ineffable peace and silence. EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS Centuries, I,65

In the Gospel of John we always stand contemplatively before the figure of Jesus. We have seen him enter the Jerusalem the holy city riding on a donkey’s foal to begin his reign as humble king. And this morning we watch as he comes into the Temple. And when he discovers the confusion of buying and selling in this sacred place, he is outraged. “Take these out of here,” he says. “Stop making my Father’s house into a market.” These words and actions recall the prophecy of Zechariah who foretold what would happen when the Lord entered the holy city of Jerusalem: “ On that day…there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord. ” And amidst the chaos of upturned tables, coins scattered and lambs and oxen scrambling, his disciples recall the words of Scripture, “Zeal for your house is eating me up.”   “What right has he to do such a thing?” As king Jesus has “ultimate authority over the Temple,” and as such he is its “reformer and rebuilder.” His right is the “right of Truth...

If we are capable of loving, it is because we are responding to God's love: God first loves us. Love becomes incarnate and comes to us in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is this love that is poured out in our hearts. Thus we are loving God by means of God; the Spirit enables us to share in the love with which the Father loves the Son and the Son the Father. Love casts us into the Trinitarian realms; the Trinitarian realms are those of love. OLIVIER CLÉMENT The Roots of Christian Mysticism

The love for a person which results from a valid act of choice is concentrated on the value of the person as such and makes us feel emotional love for the person as he or she really is, not for the person of our imagination… The strength of such a love emerges most clearly when the beloved person stumbles, when his or her weaknesses or even sins come into the open. One who truly loves does not then withdraw his love, but loves all the more, loves in full consciousness of the others shortcomings and faults…. For the person as such never loses it's essential value. ST. POPE JOHN PAUL II Love and Responsibility

For God does not give us just something: he gives us himself, his heart, his word, his mind. And what he requires from us, in response, is not just something but the entire investment of our selves, our binding word, our heart. HANS URS VON BALTHASAR You Crown the Year With Your Goodness, 229

We just concluded our procession to the cemetery to pray for our deceased monks, family, friends, and benefactors. Now we offer on their behalf the expiatory sacrifice of the Most Holy Eucharist. This is a very excellent and noble thing to do. It is similar to what we heard in today’s first reading: “Judas made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.” The Scriptures justify his actions by adding, “…inasmuch as (Judas) had the resurrection in mind; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.”   In our world today there are many who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Some would call us fools for thinking we can do anything to help the dead. They are incredulous at the simplicity of our faith that believes what the Church has handed down: that God raises the dead and hears our prayers on their behalf, which is precisely what we are doing today. They are like the Atheni...