ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Some things are intrinsically good, some are intrinsically bad, and some are in between. Things good in themselves are wisdom, justice, temperance, courage. Things intrinsically evil are the lack of these virtues. In the middle are wealth and poverty, fame and obscurity, health and illness, knowledge and ignorance and so on. They are said to be in the middle because in themselves they are neither good nor bad: it depends on their use whether they are called good or bad. For instance, wealth is good when given to charity, but bad when spent on pleasure. Similarly poverty is good in teaching us patience and unshakable gratitude to God, but bad if it produces blasphemy and servility with lack of endurance. Fame and notoriety are good if they teach us to be humble and to strive for future glory, but bad when they induce a spirit of dependence, adopting ‘what people may think’ as the criterion of our actions. In conclusion, we must not condemn things. Nothing that God has made is bad. It be...

God is the cause of the universe, a cause which does not depend on any other cause. This is the teaching of our eyes when we look at the ordering of nature. Our eyes observe visible objects and note how they are perfectly stationary and at the same time on the move, if it were possible to call immobility mobile. Through visible objects is made apparent the ordering of nature whereby reason is able to deduce the Author of the universe. How indeed could the universe have begun to exist, and how could it be still in existence, if God had not given it existence and were not sustaining it day by day now? When we see a musical instrument that is well-made and well-tuned, or when we hear the sounds it gives out, we think at once of the person who made it or of the person who is playing it. We do not perhaps know him personally, but we think of him. That is how it is with the Being who has made the world, who gives it motion and sustains it. His existence is indisputably clear to us. We do not...

    With the United States marking 250 years since its founding in the issuing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, enduring questions about how to best foster the freedom we so value remain vital. In the popular imagination, freedom and fighting are often linked, with many books, films, and video games built around a violent struggle to establish or protect liberty. Even significant portions of the Old Testament read this way, with the destruction of encroaching enemies closely associated with avoiding idolatry, oppression,or enslavement, while ensuring entrance into the richer life of the Promised Land. Yet as the narrative moves steadily in the direction of the Incarnation, there is a subtle and slowly growing awareness of the incompatibility between the goodness of the Creator-God, the source and securer of all human freedom, and the ruin wrought by our warfare. In contrast to various other cultures and religions of the region, which tended to personify and deify wa...

What is prayer? It is the mind detached from earthly things and the whole heart pointed to that in which it hopes. We need to have both of these qualities evenly matched. Otherwise, we are imitating a farmer who yokes together to pull the plow not two oxen or two asses, but an ox an ass. In order that prayer should not be disturbed by distractions it is essential for the mind to be constantly directed towards God. Through this continual recollection God dwells in us, provided that there is in us a loving search for his will. Then our soul under the action of the Holy Spirit is truly purified. Through this, prayer becomes the symbol of our future state. Prayer raises human nature above all the excitements that are stirred up in the heart by the thought of earthly things. The gift of the Holy Spirit makes us capable of practicing prayer continually. When the Holy Spirit has established his temple in a person, that person cannot but pray without ceasing. Whether waking or sleeping, prayer...

The sacrifice you are looking at was instituted by Christ our Lord as the sacrifice of his own body and blood. His body was pierced by the spear and there flowed out water and blood, through the medium of which we have obtained the forgiveness of our sins. Mindful of this gracious gift, approach with fear and trembling to take part in this feast, knowing that God himself is at work in you. Recognize in this bread the body that was hanged on the cross. Recognize in this cup of wine the blood that gushed out from his pierced side. Take and eat the body of Christ, since in the body of Christ you have become Christ’s members. Take and drink the blood of Christ. To counter your tendency to disunity, eat that body which is the bond of your unity. So as not to appear to be without value in your own eyes, drink that blood which is the price that was paid for you. When you eat this food and drink this wine, they will be transformed into your substance. Equally you will be transformed into the b...

Grace engraves on the heart of the children of light the laws of the Spirit. They must not therefore draw their confidence only from the Scriptures written in ink, for God's grace also inscribes the laws of the Spirit, the celestial mysteries, on the tables of the heart. The heart, in fact, directs and rules the whole body. Once grace possesses the pastures of the heart, it reigns over all its members and all its thoughts. For therein is the mind and all the thoughts of the soul and its hope. Through the heart, grace passes into all the members of the body. PSEUDO-MACARIUS Fifth Homily