ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Our celebration this Christmas invites us to pass through the darkness that has enveloped our troubled and fearful world so intensely in recent weeks and to allow ourselves in a spirit of simple faith to be led and enlivened by the hope of finding the “great light” that alone can usher in joy and happiness on earth. Indeed a “great light has come upon the earth.” And as the Prologue to John’s Gospel proclaims, the Word, who was “in the beginning with God and through whom all things came to be, was coming into the world and is the true light which enlightens everyone . . . What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark. It starts right now in the darkness of our own fear, sadness and pain, for as Saint Ambrose has said, “His desire is always to...

The Holy Family is a very ordinary human family in its intense mutual love, in the specificity of its history, in the peculiarity of its challenges, and in its need to survive from day to day materially and socially.  And yet, at the same time, this very human ordinariness is precisely the sacred “space” and condition used by God to reveal his own nature as supernatural community of Persons and as absolute Source of love, mercy and redemption for all humanity.  The particular and intimate joys and pleasures that the members of this human family took in one another were always at the service of God’s plan to save the world.   The Gospel today shows us both sides of the paradox.  On the one hand, Jesus, Mary and Joseph blend in with all other Jewish families in the way they cling to one another with love and care, conform with Jewish religious and social traditions, and generally live from day to day.  On the other hand, this ordinary human existence as a...

How secret are the sleeping quarters of a king! Can you understand how without this Virgin’s awareness he has produced the outlines of his sacred body in her venerable womb, the whole of our nature; how he has taken on its every quality?  Since everything is possible with God, and it is impossible for you fully to understand even the least of his works, do not inquire excessively into this Virgin’s conceiving, but believe it.  Be reverently aware of the fact that God wishes to be born. Grasp by faith that great mystery of the Lord’s birth, because without faith you cannot comprehend even the least of God’s works. Thus what God commands, an angel relates.  His Spirit fulfills it, and his power brings it to perfection. The Virgin believes it, and nature takes it up. The tale is told from the sky, and then proclaimed from all the heavens. The stars show it forth, and the Magi tell it about.  The shepherds adore, and the beasts are aware. Do ac...

Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit .  Luke 1 Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, the distance is about a four-day journey on foot. Mary is in haste out of joy and wonder. It is a joy and wonder that will issue in praise of the dawn of universal salvation. And when the child in Mary's womb comes near to the infant John in Elizabeth's womb, Elizabeth cries out in praise and prophecy, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Mary has set out and traveled in haste, all because love and joy have put a liveliness in her step.  This phrase that describes how Mary goes to visit Elizabeth is the very phrase used by Saint Benedict in chapter 43 of his Rule to describe how a monk...

It takes work to get back to the peace of knowing yourself loved. And perhaps we never fully get there while we’re here. But the desire is set deep inside us, that incompleteness, the ache for the surprise of love to find us. Perhaps some of us follow certain old scripts handed on to us by our own histories, stories filled with fear and failure. The script often reads- don’t trust, don’t hope. Jesus, God’s tender Word comes to us and offers us a new script, new words to rewrite our story and reimagine the old hopelessness as possibility and opportunity for grace; even allowing ourselves to believe that we are rejoiced over. Jesus invites us back to this place where we can learn to receive life and love as underserved and unexpected blessings. We may sense the near impossibility of opening our hearts to make a space for love and hope, a place inside us where God’s rejoicing can sprout and blossom from the hard, unpromising stump of our tired old fear and loneliness. And so we eac...

How dare we rejoice this morning? So much pain and conflict, too many refugees, wounded and murdered victims of the terrorism that seems to be stalking us; so many still grieving in Paris, San Bernardino, all through the Middle East, over and over. It may seem like a mockery of their memory and suffering or a hairbrained attempt at distracting ourselves from too much pain, constant fear and premonition- as if Advent or Christmas were an anti-depressant. But, there’s something more. The Church does not invite us to rejoice as some kind of liturgical diversion. Just the opposite; this rejoicing is a very real summons to awakeness . For we dare to rejoice only and foremost because, as the prophet Zephaniah tells us this morning, we are being rejoiced over. God is rejoicing over us, promising us that he is with us, always drawing near. We dare to rejoice because hope, mercy and compassion are with us and always coming closer in Christ Jesus our Lord, the God of all consolation. Ho...

On an icy cold day in December of 1531,  Our Lady  promises Juan Diego that he will find many flowers blossoming on the hilltop where he first met her. He does as she says and gathers roses, lilies, carnations, iris, fragrant jasmine blossoms, yellow gorse and tiny violets. The Virgin arranges them all in the fold of Juan’s coarse cactus fiber   tilma and sends him to visit the bishop.   When the flowers fall to the floor before the dumbfounded bishop in Mexico City, he sees Our Blessed Lady’s lovely handiwork. She has painted her self-portrait with spring blossoms in winter.   Mary is at the center of what Pope Francis has called “the revolution of tenderness."  Today as we remember Our Lady of Guadalupe. 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 ...

We long to see God's face, but as Saint Peter Chrysologus reminds us, how can our "narrow human vision apprehend God, whom the whole world cannot contain?" Still we are filled with yearning, we have come to know and understand that nothing else, nothing less than Christ Jesus himself can satisfy the desire of our hearts.   Peter Chrysologus continues: But the law of love is not concerned with what will be, what ought to be, what can be. Love does not reflect; it is unreasonable and knows no moderation. Love refuses to be consoled when its goal proves impossible, despises all hindrances to the attainment of its object. Love destroys the lover if he cannot obtain what he loves; love follows its own promptings, and does not think of right and wrong. Love inflames desire which impels it toward things that are forbidden. But why continue?  It is intolerable for love not to see the object of its longing. That is why whatever reward they merited was nothing to the saints ...

Today is special for several reasons, not only because we are celebrating the wonderful event in salvation history of the Immaculate Conception, but because today begins the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Regarding today’s Feast of the Immaculate Conception the Holy Father remarked that it is a fitting day to open the Holy Year because it “recalls God’s action from the very beginning of the history of mankind. After the sin of Adam and Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil. So he turned his gaze to Mary, holy and Immaculate in love, choosing her to be the Mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy.” Today’s feast is thus an eloquent witness to the fact that, as the Holy Father says, “Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive.” God is not deterred by sin; in fact, history shows that he uses it to bring about even better thin...

Our yearly celebration of the Advent mystery is a kind of jolt, a reminder that wherever we stand in our commitment to God, there is always room for some adjustment. An important aspect of this growth consist, as it did for John the Baptist's listeners, in the ongoing discovery that our relationship with God is not something static. It was from God's initiative that the story of each of us began. This takes us back into the depths of God's eternal plan for each of us. God ardently desired this. And he set in motion the great work of our creation as unique images of himself and incorporated us into Christ as members of his Body.  God keeps his plan for us going on. But to be sure, our own cooperation is essential. Our principal contribution is to embrace his divine will at each moment. This is the ideal by which Christ himself lived on this earth. Excerpts from Father Gabriel's homily at this morning's Eucharist.

  Our hearts like that of Jesus, must embrace all humanity. Be loving, gentle, humble, with all human-beings. This is what we have learned from Jesus,  not to be aggressive towards anyone. As we begin the season of Advent, we remember today Blessed  Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) a one-time French soldier and playboy who   died as a poor, malnourished hermit  in the desert of Algeria.  We are inspired by his great simplicity and ardor, as we like him long for the presence of the Prince of Peace .   Let us concern ourselves with those who lack everything, those to whom no one gives a thought. Let us be the friends of those who have no friends, their brother...  I want all the people here, Christians, Muslims, Jews, non-believers, to look on me as their brother, the universal brother. They begin to call my house ‘the fraternity’ and this makes me happy.