ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.” Laetare Sunday, is a Sunday of rejoicing over God’s goodness- in the Gospel parable of the goodness of the father in relation to his two sons, in the joy of a homecoming, and in God’s goodness in reconciling us to himself in Christ. Let us taste and see this goodness, especially in the mystery of reconciliation. Reconciliation is a great mystery. It begins with brokenness, but ends in peace. It passes through suffering, but gives new life.  The younger son had a legal right to his inheritance. But the expectancy was that he would reserve some of it to care for his father. Instead, he once he got what he wanted, he walked out: no obligations, no regrets, and, we might say, no heart. On the other hand, the older son murmured his life away. His stability was like a chain around his leg. He outwardly obeyed his father’s commands, but inwardly resented them. Their broken relationships eventually became evident, as it does for us all. Bu...

Ultimately it is Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection that are the endless second-chance he offers us. And now he sets his face toward Jerusalem and all the horror that will befall him there.  “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! If he is truly the king of Israel, let him come down now from that cross, and then we will believe in him.”  So, the onlookers will jeer as Jesus bleeds and pants and breathes his last; they are certain now that he could not possibly be the Messiah, because God would not allow his chosen One to undergo such agony. This proves it; Jesus was a fraud, a blasphemer. Not true, for God’s power is made perfect in the weakness of love poured out. Love reverses everything. Jesus is our Exemplar, our Hope, our unending Opportunity. No wonder that in the Prologue to the  Rule , Saint Benedict offers us this amazing throwaway line: “The days of this life have been given us as a time of truce for the correction of our faults.” A time...

My song is love unknown, my Savior’s love to me. Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be. Oh, who am I that for my sake, oh, who am I that for my sake my Lord should take frail flesh and die? He came from heaven’s throne salvation to bestow; but they refused, and none the longed-for Christ would know. This is my friend, my friend indeed, this is my friend, my friend indeed, who at my need, his life did spend. Drawing by Brother Mikah. Text from  Lauds hymn,  Love Unknown  by John Ireland.

    It is fitting that, as we move toward the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, we pause to celebrate the moment when God revealed his will that his Word should take on the reality of human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, for without the assent of the Virgin there is no redemption from our sins, no victory of the Cross over sin and death, no resurrection, no eternal life with God.   Through Jesus’ sacrifice our human nature has been transformed from within; we have been given access to God’s own holiness.  Mary’s “Yes” is the fruit of this reconciliation achieved through the Cross of her Son. It is through the redemption he won for us that she possesses the purity and holiness to utter her “Yes.”     Mary placed herself at the service of God’s call in complete surrender: with the whole strength and depth of her ability; in both strength and weakness. In strength, in that she is ready for whatever the Lord asks; in weakness, in tha...

A tree full of figs, branches heavy with pomegranates, an abundance of corn and new wine - all this fruitfulness was surely a sign of God’s favor. And so, the logic was, it’s opposite - barrenness - clearly indicated God’s disfavor. And so, the frustrated orchard owner not finding any ripe figs says, “Dig up the fruitless tree. It’s useless.” Jesus the Gardener, our Advocate with the Father, says, “Wait. Give me some time; let me give it a bit of extra care.” Jesus  sees opportunity for his graced intervention. And if the fig tree was by tradition Israel itself, it is as well all of us and each of us - stuck and sinful and seemingly unfruitful. And when the Gardener asks for just a single year to do his work, Jesus is pointing to the urgency of repentance and a change of heart. “Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.” As if to say, there is still time, but there’s no time to lose.* Jesus never gives up on us. He is the God of second chances, he underst...

We too have seen him, experienced his presence. Have we not? We can deny it, slip back into a cozy darkness. It’s always a possibility. But Jesus has come near, very near and changed everything. We have been anointed with the blood and water flowing from his wounded side; we belong to him. There’s no going back. Once we all  were  darkness, but now we are light in the Lord.  Now at long last the winter is over and past, the light is increasing, soon flowers will appear on the earth; the voice of doves and little birds already fills the air, the day of our redemption draws nearer and nearer. Now with great desire Jesus desires that we become all light, all compassion in him. The powers of darkness are always on our tail. We need his body and blood to help us to keep choosing the light. So we keep coming back to the altar table day after day to receive the Bread and Wine that is light, the light that he is, the light that we are becoming.

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. 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 had 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.