ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Jesus Heals

2012-02-13T15:15:00.009-05:00

Each Sunday one of the priests in the monastic community is assigned to preside and preach at the Sunday Mass. Yesterday we heard from our Father Kizito. We share a reflection from his fine homily.

The leper showed a tremendous amount of courage, choosing to break the Law by approaching Jesus. This was no small matter, for this kind of behavior was completely forbidden. It takes courage to honestly face the truth of our lives, the neat and clean, as well as the messy. It takes courage! The leper showed a tremendous amount of faith, believing that his healing could come from one place and one place only. "If you wish, you can make me clean." This healing was pure gift on the part of Jesus. "Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, 'I do will it. Be made clean.'"

Our Lady of Lourdes

2012-02-11T04:51:00.009-05:00

Mary is gateway to all the compassion that Jesus longs to be for us. Through her intercession we pray for all the sick, for all who are in need. We are assured of her attentiveness.

Gate of Heaven,
pray for us.
Morning star,
pray for us.
Health of the sick,
pray for us.
Refuge of sinners,
pray for us.
Comforter of the afflicted,
pray for us.

Bakhita

2012-02-08T16:41:00.004-05:00

We marvel at the story of Saint Josephine Bakhita, whose feast we celebrate today. Stolen from her family and sold into slavery when she was only about nine years old, Bakhita’s childhood was filled with cruelty and suffering. Her young body cruelly tattooed, whip marks on her thighs, a leg forever damaged by brutal kicking, so much so that she limped for years thereafter.

Children are great survivors. But surely this was a little girl who suffered far too much. Hounded by pain and death from her girlhood, Bakhita learned early on how to live and to be as if death did not have the last word. So finally years later when she hears about Jesus, she is magnetized and seeks baptism with a tenacity and conviction that astound us. And when she gazes at the cross she is transfixed. The cross is key to her self-understanding, her true self-identity, her freedom, her hope. Jesus, an innocent victim like her, gives her life, her survival meaning at last. She is drawn into his reality, his death-defying death. And so she calls Jesus her Padrone –literally her “Big Daddy,” her Master; at last a Master she can serve with joy and freedom, one who will never, ever hurt or do any violence to her. Light as a feather on the breath of God, Bakhita is lifted up into him and becomes most truly herself.

Surely we dare not compare ourselves with Bakhita. But we all have scars of our own, so many stories brief or lengthy of infirmities of mind or heart or body or soul; illnesses and tendencies inherited; so many things we cannot change, past hurts and abuses endured. In his wounded body Jesus has drawn all of our stories into his story; and it is no longer a dead-ended tale, but a story of life and hope. We do not need to avoid our death, our dyings, for now we can find him there.

Transformation

2012-02-07T11:38:00.001-05:00

To the visitor or newcomer a day in the monastery may appear to have a seamless, uncluttered beauty and perfect orderliness. The monastery is beautiful and our day has a rhythm and formality. As monks we know that as we seek to be faithful in work, in prayer and in fraternal relationship, we very often arrive at a place of vulnerability born of a somewhat bitter self-knowledge. We learn that the monastic life is not about our achievement but about our readiness to make our weakness available to the mercy of God. Perhaps this is our most important work- to realize that we are in desperate need of this mercy. At best we become accustomed to letting things fall apart, noticing the fragmentation that is inevitable, unavoidable and ready to welcome it as opportunity. In the end the harmony and integrity that we seek as monks can be ours because God desires to transform all that is fractured and broken in us into something whole and beautiful.

Good Counsel

2012-02-04T07:36:00.003-05:00

Ordinary Saturdays in our liturgical calendar are always dedicated to Our Lady. And so today Vigils, Lauds and Mass were sung in her honor. She is always with us. And there are numerous images of her all around our Abbey. Here is a charming bas relief from the seventeenth century carved on the back of a giant armchair in our sacristy. Mary is shown as Mother of Good Counsel with the Christ Child's arms twining about her shoulders. Somewhat crudely carved, the image is suffused with great tenderness despite its rather naive execution.

Holy Infant

2012-02-02T06:31:00.001-05:00

Today we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, the last scene in the Church's cycle of Christmas feasts. And so once more we have the opportunity to reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation, God the Word becoming infant, from the Latin infans meaning "not able to speak." Indeed the Word became speechless out of love for us. Once more we rejoice and wonder at God in Christ as newborn. Friends recently sent us this lovely photograph of their new baby which helped stir our imagination.

With the Word

2012-01-30T14:54:00.007-05:00

Cultivating mindfulness of God throughout the day is the goal of each monk. Here we see Brother Jonah pondering the Word in the Abbey cloisters and scriptorium.

Our Constutions tell us: Careful lectio divina greatly strengthens the brothers' faith in God. This excellent monastic practice, by which God's Word is heard and pondered, is a source of prayer and a school of contemplation, where the monk speaks heart to heart with God. For this reason, the brothers are to devote a fitting amount of time each day to such reading.

In a spirit of compunction and intense desire, monks devote themselves frequently to prayer. While dwelling on earth, their minds are occupied with heavenly things, desiring eternal life with all spiritual longing

Feast of the Founders

2012-01-27T15:30:00.006-05:00

The rhythm of our life follows the liturgical calendar. Yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Founders of our Order, Saints Robert, Alberic and Stephen of Molesme. Our liturgies were a bit longer with special hymns and antiphons. Even our diet changes when a solemnity is celebrated. And so there were special foods in the refectory- a fish dinner and a somewhat elaborate dessert.

Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have set my watchmen to guard you. By day or night they will not cease to proclaim the name of the Lord.

Ring out your joy, fruitful Citeaux! Those who planted you and made you strong are rejoicing now in heaven. Alleluia.

Holy patrons, friends of God, fathers of our Order, unfailing their protection for those who rely on them.

Details of Abbey glass with the Window of Our Lady Queen of Citeaux in the Abbey's barn chapel at top. Antiphons from Vespers of the Solemnity.

Gazing

2012-01-24T14:41:00.005-05:00

O God, you are my God, for you I long. For you my soul is thirsting; my body pines for you like a dry weary land without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. For your love is better than life; my lips will speak your praise.

In these words from Psalm 63 we hear the monk's longing for the Lord, who first longs to give himself. As the monk gazes on the Lord, the Lord gazes back. An essential part of the monk's work is realizing that God always makes the first move, that God loved us first, that our prayer, all that we do, is simply response.

True prayer is somehow about mutuality, we are not throwing out words into the unknown. For Christ Jesus always makes the first move; he wants to reveal himself, engage us. Grace precedes us, opens the way. We realize above all that if we desire union with Christ, he wants it more than we do.

Brothers

2012-01-19T10:22:00.014-05:00

The novices clear doorways and pathways in the early morning when a snow storm hits. Here Brothers John and Joseph pause during their chores.

A brother helped is like a strong city. Proverbs 18

Quiet snows

2012-01-16T11:46:00.004-05:00

We marvel at how winter snow quiets

and simplifies our landscape.

With Saint Hilary

2012-01-13T07:58:00.004-05:00

On this snowy winter morning gathered for the Eucharist in the Abbey church, we prayed:

May he make of us an eternal offering to you, so that we may obtain an inheritance with your elect, especially with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with your blessed Apostles and glorious Martyrs, with Saint Hilary of Poitiers and with all the Saints, on whose constant intercession in your presence we rely for unfailing help.

The Saints, our forebears in faithfulness and love, are our companions on the way to the Kingdom.

Text from Eucharistic Prayer III. Photograph br Brother Casimir.

Beloved

2012-01-09T07:29:00.001-05:00

We can almost sense John’s resistance as suddenly he looks up and notices that his cousin Jesus is next in line for his baptism of repentance. In fact Scripture scholars tell us that this episode in the life of Jesus is among the most certain of all historical facts in the Gospel tradition. For in the light of their Resurrection faith, early Christians were most certainly very embarrassed by this memory of the One whom they believed was Messiah and Lord.

Why would he have offered himself for a cleansing baptism of repentance and conversion of heart? What on earth did Jesus have to be converted from or toward? Why would he choose to do this? The question nags even now. Was it a pious example of humility done for our sake? This does not sound right. Or was it simply that he who is Love could do no less? Perhaps only the logic of love can explain this action of Jesus or any other one of his for that matter. Love defers, love lowers itself.

Jesus wants to be there in the water with us. Love demands it. For he himself is the messenger of the covenant, the binding up between God and all humanity. For God "made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." God is with us, in all that embarrasses and burdens us, in our regrets and our failures. Only the passion of his love can explain his desire for baptism, his desire to take our flesh. He has come to “share unreservedly” in our distress now in the water, and very soon on the cross. Love in the person of Christ has irreversibly plunged into the dark water that symbolizes our humanity- all that is wobbly, fluid and unpredictable. Jesus has immersed himself in all of it, descended into the soggy reality of it all, so that he can bring us home to the Father.

The heavens are opened, the new reality of communion between heaven and earth is proclaimed. The Father’s voice and the Spirit’s hovering declare who Jesus is, the Beloved Son who always does what the Father wants. The belovedness of Jesus is our baptismal inheritance; we too are beloved in him.

Plaque with the Baptism of Jesus, ca. 1150–75, South Netherlandish, Champlevé enamel, copper alloy, gilt, 4 x 4 x 1/8”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Used with permission.

Epiphany

2012-01-07T18:08:00.008-05:00

"We have seen his star and have come with gifts to adore him." Magi, wise visitors from the East, come to pay their homage to the Infant Christ. In this ancient mosaic they are of three different ages, and they advance with great intention, holding with arms extended their fantastically-shaped gifts. These Magi represent all that is opulent, foreign, extraordinary, even esoteric and exotic. They wear Phrygian caps, colorful leggings, gold and jewel-encrusted tunics and capes. They are all the nations and ages of humanity with their wisdom and accomplishments acknowledging the preeminence of Christ Jesus, he who is all beauty, all wisdom, all truth. Come let us adore him!

The Three Kings mosaic, Byzantine School, 6th century, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy.

Perseverance

2012-01-04T09:34:00.007-05:00

We are told that Mother Seton suffered periods of great depression and emptiness but always held fast to Christ in quiet faith. When we begin our monastic journey, the older brothers will often encourage us to persevere, to continue steadfastly, even when the way seems dark and confused. Like Jesus our Lord, like Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, we want to move forward in faith, trusting that Jesus understands us and accompanies us and even sometimes carries us.

A Brother's Passing

2011-12-30T14:01:00.010-05:00

Last week in the midst of our preparations for the great Solemnity of the Lord's Nativity, we paused to celebrate the funeral of our Brother Leo.

The procession through the Abbey cemetery.

Brother Amadeus assisted by Brother Francis prepares the body of our deceased Brother for internment.

Christmas

2011-12-24T17:22:00.005-05:00

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. In the fullness of time, in our time God spoke to us a Word most tender, Jesus our Lord. Jesus reveals all that God could say. Christ Jesus enfleshes the love God has for us, the love that pours itself out constantly. In Christ God loses himself in self-forgetful love. God Most High becomes God most low, emptying Himself in quiet into the womb of the Virgin Mary, becoming who we are, hidden now in our midst. This is God’s dream of intimacy with us. In stillness the Lord comes to take Mary's flesh, our flesh. As in the Eucharist he comes small and defenseless. Awe-filled adoration is our fitting response.

Come to save us!

2011-12-22T16:08:00.007-05:00

In these last Advent days we chant the "O Antiphons" at Vespers, begging the presence of Christ using seven different titles. We often use nicknames for those who are dear to us. So it is fitting that we chant Jesus' "nicknames," titles that recall who he is for us: Wisdom, Lord, Flower, Key, Radiant Dawn, King and finally Emmanuel, the name that means God is with us. Always surrounding us, within us, closer to us than we know, Jesus our Lord longs for our presence even as long for him.

photograph of stone Madonna by Brother Jonah

Watch

2011-12-18T15:40:00.002-05:00

The Lord’s approach is so often unremarkable, so quiet that we need to keep watch, that is the essence of our life as monks. For we are always learning God's way of doing things, how he moves in silence and obscurity. Hidden first of all in the warm womb of a very young, virgin mother; he then lives a hidden small town life as a carpenter and wandering preacher. Then in the excruciating hour of his death on the cross, all his beauty and divinity will be obscured by the blood and spittle of his passion. And even after his resurrection he will sneak in quietly through locked doors and whisper to his disciples, “Peace.”

The Lord is disguising himself in our ordinariness over and over, hidden in mystery. But rest assured it is our love and desire that give us clear vision. Love is knowledge and assurance, because if we want to be with him, see him; he wants it more than we do.

Truly God in Christ is hidden and yet revealing himself over and over, doing anything at all to get our attention; “playing in ten thousand places,” in nature and grace all day long. We must keep watch, willing to be surprised at every corner of the cloister, as St. Bernard would say, because angels will be there reminding us, as one did our Blessed Lady, that Someone is here. Someone is coming. Someone wants to take our flesh. Someone we love has seen our sad predicament and is coming down to be with us now.

Am I Not Here?

2011-12-12T08:23:00.006-05:00

Today we remember Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of our Land. Each year on this day we set up a special shrine in the transept of our church with her image adorned by flowers and two candles that are illumined throughout the day. She is our Mother and our Refuge in all tribulation. We are greatly consoled by her words to Saint Juan Diego in 1531:

Do listen, do be assured of it, my littlest one, that nothing at all should alarm you, should trouble you, nor in any way disturb your countenance, your heart. For am I not here, I, your mother? Are you not in the cool of my shadow? In the breeziness of my shade? Is it not I that am your source of contentment? Are you not cradled in my mantle, cuddled in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?

Like A Garden

2011-12-08T08:49:00.003-05:00

Here is the Abbey's cloister garth in early summer- a secret garden surrounded by the four cloisters. This garden enclosed is a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her beauty and fragrance set apart for Christ alone, a place where He could nestle and grow. On this Solemnity of her Immaculate Conception we celebrate her chosenness. We rejoice in the Virgin Mary's privilege, for she reveals the breadth of our human capacity for God, the breathtaking beauty of our availability to all that God wants to accomplish in us.

A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride; a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up. Song of Songs 4

Nicholas

2011-12-06T09:34:00.011-05:00

Today the Church celebrates Saint Nicholas remembered through the ages for his generosity to the poor. We just came upon the following words of the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero which we imagine the Bishop Saint Nicholas might have appreciated.

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God — for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.

Artwork by Elisabeth Jvanovsky

Friends

2011-12-03T08:10:00.004-05:00

Today we remember Saint Francis Xavier, one of the first companions of Saint Ignatius Loyola. They always remained close friends and exchanged letters while Francis Xavier was on mission in the Far East and Ignatius stayed in Rome. One letter from Ignatius to Francis Xavier concludes poignantly, "I shall never forget you. Entirely your own, Ignatius.” Imagine the deep friendship between these two saints. We hear an echo of the words of our own Cistercian Father, Saint Ælred of Rievaulx, “God is friendship.” Indeed it is through the love of those we love, that we may learn what God is like.

Early Advent Days

2011-11-30T07:49:00.002-05:00

In the unseasonable warmth and brightness of these early Advent days, we are reminded of Him for whom we wait- the Dawn from on High, Jesus, the Sun of Justice.

This photograph of the Abbey lavabo tower by Brother Casimir.

Come, Lord Jesus

2011-11-26T15:39:00.003-05:00

Tonight at First Vespers in the fading light of eventide, we will begin our Advent watch. In these darkest days of the year, the shortest days, we will light the first Advent candle and recall the Lord's endless desire to come to us. We will recall our desperate need for Him, our only Hope and Deepest Desire. And so we will try to make more room for Christ in these Advent days, a place in our hearts, in our community where Hope can grow and flourish, as He did in the secret darkness of Mary's womb.

Overshadow us, come down O Love divine, and invade our space, fill our lonely hearts with your more than imaginable benignness and tenderness and compassion. Fill us with yourself; for left to ourselves, we may believe our hearts too small, too lonely, too afraid and forgotten to be able to hold you.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-23T11:42:00.006-05:00

Focusing on gratitude we lifts our hearts this day. Amazed like Mary at the marvels the Lord has done for us- in little ways, in great ways, through joys and difficulties- we are filled with wonder. As Fr. Abbot reminded us in his homily this morning, there is no entitlement. All is gift- God's gracious desire to care for us with "love beyond all telling." The Lord is always, always with us, accompanying us as we accompany one another on the pathways of the Kingdom. Our wonder at God's gifts fills us with gratitude. Wonder and gratitude move us into deeper contemplative love.

Christ as King

2011-11-19T16:37:00.002-05:00

Jesus always speaks of and embodies a different kind of power- that of service, self-forgetfulness and honesty, a strength that comes from deep trust in His Father. Jesus invites us into this same place of deep trust and freedom. His dominion has nothing to do with pushing others out of the way so that he can be number one and have control. He enters Jerusalem meek, riding on an ass. And He will receive the only crown we could manage to offer him- one woven out of cruel thorns. And so we may call Him king, if we understand that He has turned the whole idea of power and majesty absolutely upside-down, inside-out, for His power is made perfect in littleness and weakness.

Someone very gentle and loving is trying to lead us forward in hope; Someone who leads by falling down, being spat upon, shoved and tortured. Not to teach us how to be doormats; that is not what His kingdom is about. It is about refusing to fight evil with evil, about absorbing hurt because of hope and trust in One who is at our side, even within us; and witnessing to the reality that pain and fear and suffering are powerless to define who we truly are. They are simply not our destiny. We belong to Christ Jesus our Master, our King.

Jesus holds us in love, empowering us to go forward in courage and faith because nothing can really harm us; we belong to Him. The worse may happen, truth be told, it already has, and in Christ we are the victors, because He has made us a kingdom of priests, and kings. Baptized into the resurrected, victorious Christ we are of His royal, kingly line.

Includes some insights from James Alison. Photograph by Brother Daniel of Renaissance glass fragment in an Abbey window.

Folly

2011-11-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

In a photograph taken by Brother Jonah, Brothers Terence and Philippe share a joyful moment in the sacristy just before the entrance procession on a solemn feastday.

Those who humbly choose what is folly in the eyes of the world clearly contemplate the wisdom of God himself. What could be more foolish in the eyes of the world than to abandon one's possessions... to return no wrong for the wrongs one has suffered? By virtue of this wise folly, one catches a glimpse of God's wisdom in the light of contemplation. Saint Gregory the Great

To do the Father's will was aways Jesus' desire and his delight, and so "for the sake of the joy which lay before him he endured the cross, heedless of its shame." We seek to follow Him in faith and joy and self-forgetfulness as we live an ordinary and hidden life in the solitude of the cloister.

Passing beauty

2011-11-11T09:44:00.007-05:00

A few stray blossoms remain on tattered plants in our gardens. We notice their fragility and passing beauty. This morning the words of the author of the Book of Wisdom in the First Reading at Mass reminded us to leap ahead from beauty to Beauty:

...how far more excellent is the Lord than these;
for the original source of beauty fashioned them.
For from the greatness and the beauty of created things
their original author, by analogy, is seen.

As one poet remarked when regarding the beauty of a wildflower, "I knew the beauty of Our Lord by it."

Holy Souls

2011-11-03T11:54:00.011-04:00

The month of November is dedicated to special prayer for the faithful departed. On All Souls Day we processed through the cloisters in the predawn darkness. We paused in the south cloister chanting psalms as the Abbot and his assistants went into the cemetery to sprinkle the graves of our deceased brethren with holy water. The Abbot reminded us as we began the Liturgy that we pray for the dead because we "need to." For the departed "life is changed, not ended;" they have have entered the great mystery of Christ's resurrection. As we beg the Lord in prayer to draw all the faithful departed to himself, we remember our love for them and our connectedness with all those who have gone before us in faith.

Blessed

2011-10-29T15:46:00.035-04:00

Since He loves us first, out of His great tenderness; we are bound to repay Him with love; and we may cherish exultant hope in Him. 'He richly blesses all who call upon Him.' Yet He has no gift for them better than Himself. He gives Himself as prize and reward: He is the refreshment of the holy soul... 'The Lord is good to those who seek Him.' What will He be then to those who gain His presence? But here is a paradox, that no one can seek the Lord who has not already found Him. It is Your will, O God, to be found that You may be sought, to be sought that You may all the more truly be found.

from On Loving God by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Blessed indeed are those who know their need for God. Our desperate need for Mercy is always grace, a very real opportunity to fall backwards into Christ’s compassionate embrace. It is always disconcerting but an exquisite refuge and relief. On this Solemnity of All the Saints, we celebrate the desperation that led them to put everything else aside for the love of Christ.

In Simplicity & Ordinariness

2011-10-28T11:28:00.011-04:00

Like members of any family the monks share the household chores that keep the monastery running smoothly. Here Brother Simeon and Father Timothy clean the monastic refectory.

The quietness of mind cultivated by silence is also the fruit of purity and simplicity of heart. For this reason the monk, in a spirit of joyful penitence, is to embrace willingly those means practised in the Order: work, the hidden life and voluntary poverty, together with vigils and fasting.

from The Constitutions of the Monks

Late October

2011-10-22T15:46:00.008-04:00

Subtle color. Transitions perhaps too easy to overlook.
God's finger in nuances.

This portfolio of autumn images by Brother Casimir.

Autumn After Irene

2011-10-13T15:54:00.000-04:00

This Fall is different. We are told that the torrential rains and gale-force winds of Hurricane Irene played havoc with the way that the leaves normally change color. Many of the sugar maples that are usually so vibrant simply lost brown leaves. Hurricane Irene was brutal. Many tree limbs were broken; the Abbey's library basement flooded, and we watched volumes of Plato and Merton floating by side by side. And now we are experiencing the last of Irene's meddling. Nonetheless a fine range of subdued but lovely golds and a few patches of deep red are noteworthy. It just takes a bit more effort to notice.

Above a photo of Lac Marie on the Abbey property.

The Abbey Chapter House

2011-10-11T10:30:00.005-04:00

At Spencer, as all through the ages, great care was taken that the monastic buildings would be beautiful, to reflect the glory of God and draw the monk heavenward. The harmonious disposition of spaces was meant to express Saint Benedict’s vision of a harmonious community as presented in his Rule. And indeed for us Cistercians this would mean in addition a certain austerity and visual sobriety expressed in unadorned interior spaces and non-figurative grisaille glass. Great attention was given to proportion and the effects of light on bare walls. Our Cistercian forebears believed the monastery should be a cloistered paradise- where the monk could regain the innocence of Adam and Eve in Eden before the Fall.

All great architecture has its antecedents. The barn at Great Coxwell in Oxfordshire, England located on one of the Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu’s most significant granges, is dated to the late 13th or early 14th century. It seems to have been the inspiration for Spencer’s church and chapter house. The exterior with pitched roof extending down to low side walls is certainly reminiscent. And our chapter house’s open timbering on the interior seems to echo the interior of the Great Coxwell barn.

The Great Coxwell Barn

Our Lady of the Rosary

2011-10-07T09:41:00.004-04:00

This morning as we concluded Lauds the window of Our Lady was blazing in the glow of the sunrise; Mary illumined by the Radiant Dawn, the Sun of Justice, who is Jesus her Son. Baptized into Christ Jesus our lives are meant to glow with His presence. The mysteries of the Holy Rosary- joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous- are the mysteries of our own lives. As we pray the Rosary we beg Our Lady to draw us closer to Him who is Our Light.

Gentle Francis

2011-10-04T10:14:00.002-04:00

We are told that Saint Francis decreed that his friars must not have pockets in their habits. How he wanted them to be poor with the poor Christ! How to depend on Jesus alone for all we need? How to cling to Him, a Treasure always ready to hand and heart?

Detail of Saint Francis Of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata by Giambattista Tiepolo.

Thérèse

2011-10-01T11:11:00.005-04:00

We are always consoled by these words of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux:

If you are willing to bear in peace the trial of not being pleased with yourself, you will be offering the Lord Jesus a home in your heart. It is true you will suffer, for you will feel like a stranger in your own house. But do not fear, for the poorer you are, the more Christ will love you.

With the Angels

2011-09-28T16:18:00.007-04:00

Each day during the Divine Office and especially during Holy Mass we join our praise with that of the angels- Michael

Gabriel

Raphael
and all angels in their unending chorus of adoration.

Saint Michael, Piero della Francesca, 1469; The Annunciation, Duccio, 1311; Archangel Raphael with Tobias, Pietro Vanucci, c. 496-1500.

At the General Chapter

2011-09-23T09:52:00.007-04:00

Dom Damian our Father Abbot is away in Italy for the General Chapter of the entire Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance. The abbesses and abbots of our Order from around the world gather every three years to discuss the state of the Order and to hear about each other's monastery. As our Constitutions state:

They discuss there the salvation of their own souls and of those committed to them. They take measures regarding the observance of the Holy Rule and of the Order where there is something that needs to be corrected or added. They foster anew among themselves the benefit of peace and charity. They devote themselves to maintaining the patrimony of the Order and safeguarding and increasing its unity.

When Father Abbot returns the one-page reports that each community of Order prepared for the Chapter decribing their monastery will be read to us during the noon meal.

Resuming Cowls

2011-09-21T10:23:00.003-04:00

The characteristic Cistercian habit is the white cowl which is given to the monk at his solemn profession. It is a sign of his consecration and of the unity of the whole Order. As he blesses the cowl during the rite of solemn profession the abbot prays to the Lord Jesus, "May its ample folds be for our brother a daily reminder of the freedom which he received in baptism. May its form of a cross remind him of the life he is to lead in following you, and may he be clothed entirely in your unutterable mercy."

The cowl is worn by the solemnly professed monks; the cloak is worn by novices and simply professed brothers. In the warmer months we do not wear cowls or cloaks in church. But as mornings get chillier, we await the prior's announcement which appeared on the community bulletin board last evening: "Resume Cowls and Cloaks for Vigils, Lauds and Mass."

Meditating on the Passion

2011-09-16T15:34:00.008-04:00

In the liturgical celebrations of this past week, we honored the triumphant Cross of Christ and Our Lady's Sorrows. Somehow it is the Church's intuition that these aspects of Good Friday deserve our special attention and remembrance. The Cross is key to our freedom in Christ, our release from the clutches of sin and death forever. We need no longer be afraid. Standing with Our Lady by her suffering Son, we are in solidarity with all the suffering members of his wounded Body. We remain there meditating in sorrow but also in hope. Jesus now risen from the dead has turned our mourning into gladness. We promise to be hope for one another in him.

Christ Crowned with Thorns and the Mourning Virgin (Ecce Homo), detail
Adriaen Isenbrant, Netherlandish, active by 1510, died 1551
Oil on canvas, transferred from wood
41 1/2 x 36 1/2 in., ca. 1530-40
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Used with permission

Our Tribute

2011-09-12T14:45:00.004-04:00

In addition to prayers of intercession and a special tolling of the Abbey bells after communion during yesterday's Mass, our tribute for 9/11 included an arrangement of small candles in the sanctuary. Their flickering was like soft prayers.

9/11

2011-09-11T10:37:00.011-04:00

As we remember the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the readings at today's Eucharist remind us that Jesus calls us to keep on forgiving as we have been forgiven. But we may feel that our hearts are too small, the hurt too big, the horror, the sadness all too much, almost incomprehensible. Forgiving may seem impossible one time let alone the zillions of times Jesus asks of us.

Perhaps our helplessness is the key. We are right; we simply cannot do it on our own. Forgiving seventy times seven times is impossible for us on our own. The invitation is to realize over and over again how powerless we are without Christ Jesus our Lord. We must depend on him. Our hearts are too small, we need his heart, the heart of God. Then the little we bring will become a banquet of forgiveness. Poverty joined to deep faith brings abundance. Mary experienced it, Jesus knew it on the cross. That’s how things work in the Kingdom. Jesus uses what we bring, meager as it is, to make the Kingdom happen; nothing is too little for him to use. He has forgiven and freed me. Finding the treasure means I do as Jesus does, or I try to. I go to him; I hide in him, in his heart.

Forgiving does not mean that nothing has happened, too much has happened to each and everyone one of us. Hidden in Christ, baptized into him, we dare to believe in the possibility of forgiveness. And indeed forgiveness takes time; perhaps it does not happen all at once or once and for all. It may begin with a desire to forgive, or even a desire to desire to forgive. I let myself be forgiven, and I learn to forgive. Forgiving is a work of love that must be rehearsed, repeated, seventy times seven times.

Christ Jesus calls us into the unfathomableness of God’s love for us. Loved so much, forgiven by God so much and so often, we must go and do likewise, consoling with the same consolation we have received, forgiving as best we can or at least beginning to. Forgiveness, even the longing to forgive makes a future of freedom and hope and love possible.

Peace to all men of evil will! Let there be an end to all revenge, to all demands for punishment and retribution. There are already too many martyrs...Lay not their sufferings to the torturers’ charge to exact a terrible reckoning from them, Lord. Instead put down in favor of all men of evil will the courage, humility, dignity, love and spiritual strength of the others. Let it be laid before Thee for the forgiveness of sins. And may we remain in your enemies’ memories not as their victims; not as haunting specters but as helpers...there is nothing more we want for them.

From a note scrawled on a piece of worn paper and tucked between the cracks in two old boards, found in a shed in the concentration camp at Buchenwald.

Our Lady's Birthday

2011-09-06T15:11:00.006-04:00

Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, proclaims joy to the world, for from you arose the glorious

Sun of Justice, Christ the Lord.

New Settings

2011-09-03T15:39:00.012-04:00

The American Bishops have agreed to permit the gradual implementation of musical settings of the Order of Mass from the new Roman Missal beginning in September 2011 to “give time for communities to learn the various parts of the new translation in a timely fashion and an even pace.” And so we gathered this morning in the Abbey church under the direction of our Fr. Gabriel to learn eight new settings of the Holy, Holy, Holy and the acclamations at the Mystery of Faith (Memorial Acclamations). In October we will learn new settings of the Glory to God. We are blest to have Fr. Gabriel in our midst. He is an expert in Gregorian chant performance, and he himself composed many of these new settings in chant mode. This is an opportunity for us monks to deepen our "understanding of the Sacred Liturgy, and to appreciate its meaning and importance in our lives."

Photographs of Abbey grisaille glass by Brother Daniel. Quotations from the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

His Body

2011-08-31T09:47:00.013-04:00

Your hand holds up the world
and the universe rests in your love.
Your life-giving body is the heart of your Church;
your sacred blood protects the Bride.

Supplication to God by Cyrillonas, Syrian, 4th century.

Corpus from a Crucifix
Italian, Doccia, ca. 1745-50
Hard paste porcelain, h. 25 3/8" (67 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Used with permission.

The Liturgy

2011-08-27T10:41:00.013-04:00

Liturgy is our life and our joy. Seven times a day we gather to pray the Hours. And for the celebration of the Eucharist on solemnities there is much preparation. All we do is worth our effort. It is our business to spend our time and energy in the work of praise.

The spiritual character of the community is especially evident in the celebration of the liturgy. The liturgy strengthens and increases both the inner sense of the monastic vocation and communion among the brothers. Each day in the liturgy God's Word is heard. A sacrifice of praise is offered to God the Father, there is a sharing in the mystery of Christ and the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification is accomplished. The changing seasons of the liturgical year have great power to nourish and enrich the contemplative life of the brothers.

from the Constitutions

Servant & Master

2011-08-19T15:10:00.010-04:00

Jesus tells us in the Gospel that he has come to serve not to be served. Part of our work as disciples is always to allow Christ Jesus near enough to care for us, heal us, forgive us and console us. With this in mind, it seems, our Cistercian Father Blessed Guerric of Igny puts the following words on Jesus' lips:

I will serve you," his Creator says to man. "You sit down, I will minister, I will wash your feet. You rest; I will bear your weariness, your infirmities. Use me you as you like in all your needs, not only as your servant but also as your beast of burden and as your property. If you are tired or burdened I will carry both you and your burden..."

Detail of The Descent from the Cross by Rogier Van der Weyden, c. 1435. Text from The First Sermon for Palm Sunday, Blessed Guerric of Igny.

Brother Stephen

2011-08-17T11:35:00.016-04:00

On this past Sunday, August 14 in the Abbey chapterhouse our Brother Stephen made his Simple Profession, pronouncing simple vows for a period of three years.

Brother Stephen reads his handwritten copy of the vows.

Dom Damian removes the novice's cloth belt and scapular.

Dom Damian clothes Stephen in the black scapular and leather belt of the Professed.

Brother Stephen kneels before the Abbot as he blesses him.

The brethren come forward to embrace the newly professed.

A photo of those who are in formation with their directors. From left to right: Brother Joseph; Fr. James, Dean of the Simply Professed; Peter Lynch, an observer; Brother Simeon, Submaster of Novices; Doug Enzor, an observer; Brother Stephen; Brothers John and Timothy, Father Paulinus and Father Luke, Novicemaster.

Our Lady's Assumption

2011-08-15T10:07:00.006-04:00

Today we rejoice as we celebrate the titular feast of our Order. This morning we processed through the cloisters chanting to Mary and venerating her icon pictured above. We love Mary and seek her love and protection always.

Blessed is she: within the bounds of her body was contained the Boundless One who fills the heavens, which cannot contain him.
Blessed is she: she has born the mighty giant who sustains the world, she has embraced him and covered him with kisses.
Blessed is she: for to her Son the saints owe all their happiness.

Icon of our Lady written by Brother Terence. Lines by James of Sarug.

Late summer

2011-08-05T10:31:00.004-04:00

At this point in August, we always notice a distinct change in the weather. Nights are cooler and the intense heat of summer seems to have passed. Flocks of crows invade the orchard behind the Abbey church to peck at fallen apples. And already some plants are drying and yellowing. The lore passed down by generations of the monks is that after Our Lady's feastday on August 15th the summer is really over.

The Cottage

2011-08-03T15:36:00.008-04:00

The stone Cottage at the Abbey provides accomodations for our candidates as well as special guests of the Abbot. Built in about 1929 with stones from the walls bordering the Alta Crest Farms property, it was a honeymoon cottage for the son of the dairy farmer and his new wife. As the monks adapted the farm buildings for monastic purposes in 1950, the cottage became the first abbatial dwelling. By the 1970's it was used to house vocational candidates.

Anniversary

2011-07-31T15:10:00.007-04:00

Today we celebrate the Anniversary of the Dedication and Consecration of the Abbey Church. This is a special solemnity that is ours alone to remember. The rose window (detailed above in this photo by Brother Jonah) composed as it is from fragments of glass from the large lancet window in the church of the monastery of Our Lady of the Valley is an apt symbol of the many transitions that have marked our community's history.

Our community first took root at the monastery of Petit Clairvaux in Tracadie, Nova Scotia in the mid-nineteenth century. But in 1892 and again in 1896 disastrous fires devasted the monastic buildings.

Soon the monastery moved from Nova Scotia to Lonsdale, Rhode Island. The small community, accompanied by their livestock arrived in the summer of 1900, and regular monastic life was resumed on August 2. Their new home was called Our Lady of the Valley. When in 1950 this abbey was ravaged by fire, the monks were reminded once again that the ways of God are not our ways. The community of one hundred and forty persons was homeless.

Fortunately they had already purchased a large dairy farm in Spencer, Massachusetts in 1949. And the fire only accelerated the community's projected move. The monks soon adapted the farm buildings for monastic purposes. And on December 23, 1950, eighty monks took possession of Saint Joseph's Abbey. We continue to discern God’s loving plan and look with hope to our future.

Longing

2011-07-30T14:53:00.004-04:00

In a spirit of compunction and intense desire, they devote themselves frequently to prayer. While dwelling on earth, their minds are occupied with heavenly things, desiring eternal life with spiritual longing. So the Constitutions speak of our life in the enclosure of the monastery. Somehow we are meant to bilocate, praying always, noticing the Lord's presence even now but longing for the fullness and the more that is the Kingdom.

From the Gardens

2011-07-27T15:12:00.005-04:00

A giant bunch of summer flowers from the Abbey gardens adorns the altar for a solemn feast. Their beauty reminds us of these words from the Spiritual Canticle of Saint John of the Cross:

O woods and thickets
planted by the hand of my Beloved!
O green meadow,
coated, bright, with flowers,
tell me, has he passed by you?

Pouring out a thousand graces,
he passed these groves in haste;
and having looked at them,
with his image alone,
clothed them in beauty.

Ongoing Conversion

2011-07-23T10:12:00.003-04:00

As monks we promise to work at building up fraternal relations within the community. We try to bear with one another patiently, humbly, lovingly. Nevertheless as in any family conflicts sometimes arise. But committed as we are to ongoing conversion of life, we make efforts to seek reconciliation. Our Constitutions put it well: "The preservation of unity among the brothers depends on a sincere and mutual effort towards reconciliation. To eliminate thorns of scandal from the community, the brothers are not to prolong the time of anger but, when there is a dispute, to make peace as soon as possible."

Letting Be

2011-07-19T15:14:00.003-04:00

We think the title of this picture could be, What Should Not Be But Is. Wild bindweed, an invasive plant, twines about a drain pipe outside the Abbey kitchen. Perhaps unnoticed by the brothers who tend the gardens when it was just sprouting, it is now luxuriantly, elegantly out of place in the warmth and sunlight of midsummer. Perhaps a reminder of the beauty of accepting what should not be but is nonetheless and noticing the finger of God even there.

New Brothers

2011-07-16T18:45:00.007-04:00

Two new Vietnamese monks arrived at our monastery this week. These brothers will be the Abbey's special guests for the next two years. They will join us in our daily rhythm of prayer and work and hopefully become better acquainted with Trappist life in America. With joy and gratitude to God we welcome Brothers Bruno and Paul Loc pictured above.

photographed by Brother Jonah

Community Retreat

2011-07-09T15:26:00.003-04:00

During this coming week the community will be on its annual retreat, a special time for greater silence and solitude. Daily conferences will be given to us by Dom Brendan of New Melleray.

"The love of God has been poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Love itself moans, love itself prays; against it he who gave it cannot close his ears. Be free of anxiety; let love ask and God's ears are there.

Photograph of Abbey glass by Brother Daniel. Lines from Tractate 6: On the First Epistle of John, by Saint Augustine.

The Monastery, a School

2011-07-07T15:17:00.006-04:00

Saint Benedict calls the monastery "a school for the Lord's service." For Cistercians the monastery would be a "school of love." And traditionally Cistercian monks became known as "lovers of the brethren and the place." Here in the enclosure of the monastery in a hidden life of work and prayer, the monk is Christ's student continually learning from Him the way to love God and his brothers.

photograph of the Abbey by Brother Casimir

Founders' Faith

2011-07-05T09:13:00.002-04:00

We celebrated the Fourth as is our custom with a festive outdoor lunch on the Abbey breezeway pictured above. At the morning Eucharist Fr. Isaac spoke powerfully of the faith of the founders of our republic, who were "completely unabashed about their relationship to the Great Mystery we call God." This relationship was simply a fact of life for them, absolutely essential and of primordial significance. We pray that our nation will return to the truth of this essential relationship with the good God and realize that "a just society can only be achieved if it is also a good society, good for all its members, especially the most vulnerable."

Sacred Heart

2011-07-01T08:32:00.006-04:00

Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of our life in the monastery is experiencing over and over again the painful, boring truth of our sinfulness and allowing Christ in these very moments to gaze on us with love and exquisite tenderness. It may feel like utter madness to allow ourselves to be the objects of Christ’s love and attention precisely in these moments. But it is the great reversal, the sublime trick of the monastic vocation- we thought we were coming to the monastery to gaze on Christ, but it is Christ Jesus himself who wants to gaze lovingly, compassionately upon us in our lowliness and poverty. It is almost unbearable and demands great courage and humility. For God in Christ loses himself in love over and over again. This is the essence of who God is, for God is Love. And Love longs to give himself away to us. God is Love and so he is always, always reaching out, using anything at all to get our attention.

You are Peter

2011-06-29T10:47:00.008-04:00

Today we celebrate the great Apostles Peter and Paul. During Communion at this morning's Eucharist, we sang the ancient Latin hymn for this feast, Aurea Luce. One stanza of this lovely chant follows in translation:

O happy Rome!
Ruddied by the noble blood of these princes;
It is not your praise,
But their merits which excel
All the beauty of the earth.

photograph of Abbey stained glass by Brother Daniel

Summer Morning

2011-06-23T16:11:00.009-04:00

The Birthday of John the Baptist,

the beginning of summer.

The Great Forerunner comes

to prepare the way for the Light

who will lead us in ways of peace.

photograph of sunrise over the Abbey's hillside by Brother Jonah

Preferring Christ

2011-06-22T10:27:00.004-04:00

The organisation of the monastery is directed to bringing the monks into close union with Christ, since it is only through the experience of personal love for the Lord Jesus that the specific gifts of the Cistercian vocation can flower. Only if the brothers prefer nothing whatever to Christ will they be happy to persevere in a life that is ordinary, obscure and laborious.
And may he lead them all together into eternal life.

from the Constitutions of the Monks

Pentecost

2011-06-09T16:12:00.004-04:00

The Gospel chosen by the Church for this Pentecost Sunday takes us back fifty days to the evening of the Resurrection. Jesus wounded and risen has snuck in on the frightened apostles, as if on tip-toe, on cat’s feet, very quietly to introduce God’s consoling presence in the Spirit.

The disciples are in hiding, confused and probably feeling tremendously guilty, especially Peter. What should they have done to save Jesus? What could they have done? In all ordinariness Jesus seeks those whom he loves. He shows them his wounds, and he says, “Peace.” And then he breathes the Spirit on them, gently, most intimately, the warm breath of God.

Bestowing his Spirit Jesus empowers them to forgive, for through his passion and death he has absorbed all recrimination, all reproach. God’s forgiveness is now abundant and free. God in Christ breathes the Spirit as in the beginning of creation, for this is "the beginning of new life for all believers in the risen Lord."*

*Gerard Sloyan

In Heaven

2011-06-08T10:20:00.020-04:00

Christ Jesus, truly human, truly divine, is seated at God's right hand. He has taken our flesh to heaven. Earth and heaven are one. This is marvelously expressed in a hymn we sing these days.

Yes, angels tremble when they see
How changed is our humanity;
That flesh has purged what flesh has stained
And God, the flesh of God, has reigned!

Photograph of Abbey meadows by Brother Jonah

Ascensiontide

2011-06-03T10:30:00.003-04:00

Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father but promises to be with us always. He promises us an absence that is brimming over with divine presence. “It is better for you that I go,” he has said, not to abandon us but to be with us always in the Spirit, not time bound or Palestine-bound but always, “always, until the end of the age.” We are left to learn how to appreciate an emptiness that makes us available to a greater but truly mysterious divine fullness.

We begin the novena of prayer to the Holy Spirit in these days of Ascensiontide preceding Pentecost.

Hidden with Him

2011-05-26T09:34:00.011-04:00

Be glad, find joy there, gathered together and present to Him who dwells within, since He is so close to you; desire Him there, adore Him there, and do not go off looking for Him elsewhere... There is just one thing: even though He is within you,
He is hidden.

Saint John of the Cross

Incense

2011-05-21T08:55:00.015-04:00

Here our Brother Robert prepares the incense for the entrance procession on a solemn feast. We always use incense during the Mass on Sundays, Feasts, Solemnities, and other important celebrations such as Ordinations. As we celebrate Christ’s fragrant self-offering to the Father on our behalf during the Divine Liturgy, the use of incense heightens our awareness of the beauty and grandeur of His wondrous oblation. How fittingly does the Psalmist ask that his prayer arise before the Lord as incense (Ps. 141:2.)

Brothers

2011-05-17T09:37:00.025-04:00

Brother James assists Father Laurence the Abbey archivist. Father Laurence in his nineties still goes to his work in the archives each morning.

A monk follows the common life in his monastery. The law of the common life is this: unity of spirit in the charity of God, the bond of peace in the mutual and unbroken love of all the brothers, communion in sharing all goods.
from the Constitutions of the Monks

The Abbey in Spring

2011-05-10T09:23:00.016-04:00

The beauty of the Abbey in springtime calls us to prayer.

The beauty of spring reminds us of the Beauty of God.

Mary's Month

2011-05-04T16:14:00.010-04:00

May is Mary's month.

She is never far from from our hearts and our prayer.

In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal.

Virgin and Child with Two Angels; Verocchio, c. 1475
Text: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Bread

2011-05-03T11:00:00.006-04:00

Here is our Brother Patrick making bread as he does many mornings each week in the quiet of the Abbey kitchen- whole wheat, plain white, sweet Portuguese-style or studded with plump raisins. After Mass the wonderful smell of baking bread fills the cloisters.

We still use some of the ancient Trappist sign language. The sign for God is the thumbs of both hands touching each other with the index fingers touching and pointing upward- a triangle for the Blessed Trinity. The sign for bread is the same joining of the hands making this triangular shape but pointing outward and parallel to a table top- the shape of a wedge of fresh bread. It is delightful to notice the similarity. God is our Life, our true Bread, our Nourishment on the way.

Eastering

2011-04-29T16:14:00.003-04:00

We rejoice in the always unexpected beauty of a New England spring. All of creation speaks to us of the wonder of the Resurrection. We join the great English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins in his prayer, “Let Him easter in us, be a Dayspring to the dimness of us.”

The Wonder of the Resurrection

2011-04-25T16:28:00.019-04:00

The Lord is risen from the dead, "trampling down death by death." We monks rejoice for the next fifty days of Eastertide, singing Alleluia over and over in a seemingly endless variety of ways. Alleluia expresses our wonder at the beauty as well as the incomprehensibilty of the Resurrection of the Lord. Jesus wounded, full of the holes and marks of His Passion, is risen and among us.

Wonder happens when we allow ourselves to be disarmed by God’s in-breaking and respond with reverent awe. Wonder requires us to acknowledge what we do not know or understand. It is a different kind of knowing that leads to a hidden humble faith. We wonder and we believe. Like being in love, wonder is a way of being that colors all we know. It lets us acknowledge miracles.* Like love, wonder allows all things, believes all things. It lets God be God, magnificent, extravagant and sometimes incomprehensible. Wonder says, "Yes." It does not demand certitude. Instead, wonder says, “Why not?”

Wonder allows God to be God- absolutely Other, beyond and also nearer to us than we know- allows us to be amazed at God's marvels in us, all around us. Wonder says, "You are God, you can do all things." Only a loving, faith-filled wonder can comprehend God’s incomprehensible power and beauty enfleshed in the wounded risen Christ. Let us give "thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds" for for He has broken the bonds of pain and death for us, forever. The Lord is truly risen; let us rejoice.

Icon written by Brother Terence.

*Some ideas from Peter de Bolla

With Jesus

2011-04-18T10:41:00.013-04:00

As we accompany Jesus our Lord in his Passion and Death, we are aware as well of our own sufferings, the burden of our sinfulness and the pain of so many of our sisters and brothers throughout the world. Jesus gathers all of this into His Passion and will not allow it to have the last word. Jesus goes to His death, knowing that by enduring the horror of it all He can expose it for what it is- utterly powerless when Love endures it, when He endures it trusting in the Father's inexpressible love.

In freedom Jesus goes to the place of mockery and scorn and pain to show us that it does not have ultimate power over us, for we belong to God. And so the event of Jesus’ lifting up on the cross obliterates impossibility. Now nothing is impossible. Jesus, God crucified, draws us into the beauty of God’s desire for our good, our peace, our freedom. Jesus smashes the barrier, so that we can hear the Father say over and over to us, “I know well the plans I have in mind for you, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, and I will change your lot.” (Jeremiah 29.11-14)

Jesus reveals a God who is always drawing us into life and the reality of our own belovedness; all this through His disfigured humanity, the disfigured divinity of God. Death no longer has the last word in His life nor in ours. The compassion of Jesus envelops us and so we need not be afraid ever again. The wounded, risen Jesus makes the tenderness of the Father available to us at every moment.

Image of Christ by Fra Angelico.

With thanks to James Alison for some of the insights included above.

Passiontide

2011-04-11T14:55:00.013-04:00

This morning our journey toward Jerusalem with Christ Jesus the Lord intensified. And at Vigils we began by singing these moving verses from an ancient hymn to the holy cross.

Faithful Cross, O Tree all beauteous!

Tree all peerless and divine!

Not a grove on earth can show us,

Such a flower and leaf as thine.

Sweet the nails and sweet the wood,

Laden with so sweet a load.

In the Monastery Kitchen

2011-04-06T16:04:00.036-04:00

Here is Brother Jude in the community kitchen preparing our noon meal. He always manages to come up with dishes that are simple but innovative and quotes Saint Elizabeth of Hungry who once said, "We must make people happy."

Adoration

2011-04-04T08:48:00.009-04:00

Yesterday as every first Sunday of the month was Retreat Sunday with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all afternoon. This day is set aside as a day of special prayer for vocations.

So I gaze on you in the sanctuary

to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life,

my lips will speak your praise.

So I will bless you all my life.

Psalm 62

Spring Snow

2011-04-01T08:44:00.009-04:00

An unexpected snow.

Saint Benedict calling us to silence.

Listen my sons.

Brother Joseph

2011-03-28T07:49:00.023-04:00

Brother Joseph was clothed in the novice habit during Sunday Chapter. Born and raised in Argentina, Joseph is a biochemist who researched cancer treatment protocols before joining us last year. We rejoice to have him in our midst.

Brother Joseph with Father Luke, our Novicemaster.

O God, in that unutterable kindness by which you dispose all things sweetly and wisely, you gave us clothing, so that a triple benefit might be ours: we are covered with dignity, kept warm and protected in body and soul. Father, pour forth the blessing of your Holy Spirit upon us this morning and upon these clothes which your son here before us has asked to receive, so that he may serve you faithfully in the Cistercian way of life.

Father Luke poses in the garth with our novices- Brothers Joseph, Stephen, John, Timothy and Father Paulinus-
and Brother Simeon, the Submaster of Novices.

Annunciation

2011-03-23T16:19:00.019-04:00

Imagine all through the ages God Most High searching, searching for a place to rest. Finally in the fullness of time God comes upon the perfect place for encounter, a place of quiet, beauty, peace and complete openness to Him. This place is Mary.

Imagine God’s joy. Through Mary, in Mary God can finally be what He could not be without her. In Mary God finds one who trusts Him absolutely. Mary is a flawless nesting place for God, who is always captivated by what is little, humble and small.

There are so many annunciations, so many invitations to embrace our littleness, our nothingness, that great open space as a privileged place of encounter with the God of love. How to allow ourselves to be tenderly overshadowed by the God who loves us beyond all telling?

Fire at Our Lady of the Valley

2011-03-21T10:51:00.018-04:00

On 21 March 1950, the Feast of Saint Benedict, the monastery of Our Lady of the Valley in Lonsdale, Rhode Island was ravaged by a devastating fire. The original wing was destroyed; the church was rendered structurally unsound and would have to be demolished. The community of 140 monks was homeless.

Friends and neighbors of the monastery look on

as the flèche goes up in flames.

A laybrother assists the firefighters.

Monks pray in the rubble.

Well before the fire the monks had been searching for a new location that would insure their solitude and economic stability, since the population in the area around the monastery had increased considerably. And by 1949 the community purchased a large agricultural property, Alta Crest Farms in Spencer, Massachusetts. The 1950 fire merely accelerated the community's projected move. In God's providence the end of one story became the seed for a new one.

Go to Joseph

2011-03-18T10:35:00.007-04:00

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Saint Joseph our patron, we go to him as our great exemplar in faith and faithfulness. Perhaps brokenhearted, disappointed, surely confused, Joseph trusted God, and he trusted Mary. He let his life be turned around by God's desire to take our flesh. Saint Bernard will say that God had found in Joseph one to whom He could entrust His dearest secret. Joseph makes a home for God in Christ.

Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife.
For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

Photographs by Brother Joseph.

Patrick's Prayer

2011-03-16T20:23:00.007-04:00

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Excerpts from The Breastplate of Saint Patrick

with photos of Abbey glass by Brother Daniel.

Dust

2011-03-09T10:17:00.008-05:00

Fr. Abbot marks Br. Robert's forehead with ashes

during this morning's Eucharist.

Dom Damian, our Abbot, invited us this morning to embrace the discipline of Lent with real intentionality. He reminded us that fasting means "holding fast" to our deepest desire, to Christ Jesus who is the Heart of our Desire. Lent is the springtime of the Church year, a time for new growth. The discipline of our Lenten observance will help us keep our hearts and minds fixed on Him Whom we desire.

Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

Vision of Peace

2011-03-07T09:18:00.002-05:00

We just came upon this image in a vintage picture book of Abbey photographs entitled, Vision of Peace. The accompanying text reads in part, "Life today at St. Joseph's as at any Cistercian monastery is essentially the continuation and extension of the life led by that unique family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Nazareth- the Hidden Life...a contemplative life."

Martyred monks

2011-03-03T16:38:00.013-05:00

In May of 1996, seven of our Cistercian brothers of Tibhirine in Algeria were found dead; they had been kidnapped two months earlier. Caught in the conflict between the Algerian government and the extremist Armed Islamic Group, these monks chose to remain at their monastery amid threats from extremist elements and face death in solidarity with the Muslim neighbors whom they loved. A recent French film, Of Gods and Men, tells their story. It was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes. We monks look forward to viewing this film about our brothers of Tibhirine when it becomes available on DVD. Their story reminds us of the love and selflessness we too have promised.

The abandoned monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria.

Living Water

2011-02-25T11:21:00.012-05:00

To come to the living water of Christ, you do not need merit,

all you need is thirst.

Blessed Guerric of Igny, Twelfth Century Cistercian Abbot

A pond in the Abbey woodlands photographed by Brother Jonah.

Truly Monks

2011-02-23T09:25:00.017-05:00

Work is an essential part of our day. Saint Benedict says in his Rule, "they are truly monks when they live by the work of their hands." Our Constitutions remind us that at work we follow in the footsteps of Jesus.

This hard and redeeming work is a means of providing a livelihood for the brothers and for other people, especially the poor. It expresses solidarity with all workers. Moreover work is an occasion for a fruitful asceticism that fosters personal development and maturity. It promotes health of mind and body and contributes greatly to the unity of the whole community.

Brother Francis at work in the Trappist Preserves kitchen.

Brother Jonah gets a saw ready before heading out to trim trees and clear pathways in the Abbey woodlands.

What God Wants

2011-02-19T16:55:00.011-05:00

...the more He wants to give, the more He makes us desire, until He leaves us empty so as to fill us with blessings...God's immense blessings can only fill a heart that is empty. They come in that kind of solitude.

Saint John of the Cross

We pray that our solitude will be a space for Christ, a space that He can fill with His presence and His very Self.

These photographs of glass in the Abbey cloister by Brother Daniel.

Our Lady

2011-02-15T09:52:00.007-05:00

This painting of Our Lady at the entrance of the Abbey church reminds us that Mary is Gate of Heaven, our Way to Christ her Son. All the houses of our Order are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the name of our monastery is actually Our Lady of Saint Joseph Abbey.

In a spirit of compunction and intense desire, monks devote themselves frequently to prayer. While dwelling on earth, their minds are occupied with heavenly things, desiring eternal life with all spiritual longing. May the Blessed Virgin Mary who was taken up into heaven, the life and sweetness and hope of all earthly pilgrims, never be far from their hearts.

from the Constitutions of the Order

Father Vincent

2011-02-10T16:52:00.010-05:00

Brother Vincent Rogers was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester in May of 2010. Family and friends gathered with the community in prayer and thanksgiving.

Bishop McManus greets the newly ordained Father Vincent in the sacristy after the Mass of Ordination.

Father Vincent gives his first blessing to his father Robert and his wife Mary.

Father Vincent presided at his First Mass on the following day.

We rejoice in his new ministry, grateful to the Lord for His abundant blessings.

Abbey Snows

2011-02-05T15:29:00.009-05:00

The snow keeps coming. The brothers are shoveling and plowing and longing for spring, even as we enjoy the beauty of the Abbey in winter.

Frost and chill bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

Ice and snow bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

Daniel 3

A collection of photographs taken by Brother Joseph.

Noticing

2011-02-05T11:11:00.002-05:00

One of the many gifts of monastic life is the blessing of noticing the goodness and holiness of our brothers in community. We are edified- literally built up- by their example. And we want follow in their footsteps as we make our way together to the Lord.

Through the Intercession of Saint Blaise

2011-02-02T16:11:00.005-05:00

This tiny window in a door in our cloister depicts Saint Blaise with wild animals. According to The Golden Legend gentle Blaise dwelt in a hermitage in the desert where birds came to feed him. He befriended and protected all manner of beasts, and hunters were not able to take any of them. Known for his goodness and gifts of healing, the sick often came to Blaise to be healed. We pray on his Memorial for the health and well-being of all in need.

Morning Eucharist

2011-01-27T15:18:00.005-05:00

Brother Robert, Father Kizito and Brother Jonah facing East toward the sanctuary of the Abbey church during the celebration of the morning Eucharist.

...a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

from the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

Paradise

2011-01-21T17:19:00.002-05:00

We have in our possession a much better paradise than that of our first parents, and that paradise is Christ our Lord.

A text from Saint Bernard with a photograph by Brother Daniel.