ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

With self-forgetful love t he Virgin Mary   travels far to visit her cousin, now in her sixth month. A pregnant Virgin embraces one thought to be forever barren, for once again God has reversed the way things are supposed to be. God interrupts, and two lives are blest and transformed. Mary bears God’s son, Elizabeth his forerunner. As Mary sings her thanksgiving, Elizabeth feels the child within her bouncing with joy. Perhaps too often we have forgotten how to wonder, how to be amazed at the great things God is doing for us even now.  Perhaps too often we have forgotten  that nothing is impossible with God. 

I n the paschal mystery of Jesus and of our redemption there are three ascensions to which Jesus himself refers in the crucial chapter twelve of the Gospel of John when he says, “Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”  The first ascent is that in which Jesus ascends, is lifted above the earth on a cross, yes, in crucifixion and death on Calvary.  The second ascension is when the Father raises Jesus from the dead in the resurrection on Easter morning.  The third ascension we celebrate this morning: the Father who raised Jesus from the dead is now lifting  him up and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality and power, and every name that is named; and the Father puts all things beneath his feet and gives him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all ...

On this past Saturday friends and family of our Brother Michael gathered with his brother monks for the celebration of his Solemn Profession. We rejoice in the Lord, Brother Michael's warmth and goodness are a great gift for our community.   

Jesus tells us in this morning's Gospel from Saint John:  Whoever loves me will keep my word,  and my Father will love him,  and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. It is Jesus' delight and deep desire to be with us, among us, within us always.  The incomprehensible beauty of this reality is made real for us in the Sacred Liturgy. As the document from The Pontifical Council for Culture reminds us, The beauty of the love of Christ comes to meet us each day not only through the example of the saints but more so through the holy liturgy, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist where the Mystery becomes present and illuminates with meaning and beauty all our existence. This is the extraordinary means by which our Savior, once dead and resurrected, shares His life with us, making us part of His Body as living members and making us participate in His beauty.  

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything  I have heard from my Father.  John 15 Imagine what it might be like to know yourself liked by God, truly appreciated, loved with great tenderness, understanding, compassion. Could God be at least as good as your best friend?  A friend knows your brokenness and your goodness and just loves being with you.    As friends of God, we can marvelously exchange our everything with God’s everything - our need with the fullness of his loving mercy. Our friendship with God in Christ through the Spirit is ultimately fulfilled in our promise to love one another as we have been loved and to create households and communities of friends, where we try to love as God loves. Photograph by Father Emmanuel.

Jesus wants to be a friend…This discernment is the basis of all else. In the risen Lord’s dialogue with Simon Peter, his great question was: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” In other words, do you love me as a friend? The mission that Peter received to shepherd Jesus’ flock will always be linked to this gratuitous love, this love of friendship. The life that Jesus gives us is a love story, a life history that wants to blend with ours and sink roots in the soil of our own lives. That life is not salvation up ‘in the cloud’ and waiting to be downloaded…The salvation that God offers us is an invitation to be part of a love story interwoven with our personal stories; it is alive and wants to be born in our midst so that we can bear fruit just as we are, wherever we are and with everyone all around us. Excerpts from the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Christus Vivit.

We all recognize the voice of someone we love; and we can recall what that voice that stirs up in our hearts - joy, peace, expectation, longing. This morning we hear the voice of the Lord Jesus our Shepherd. He assures us that we belong to him, we belong to God, no matter what. We have been given to Jesus by his Father. As we belong to the Father, so we are the Father’s gift to the Son; we are and will always be God’s children in the Spirit. “No one can take you out of my hand, no one,” says Jesus. This is our truth, our reality. Jesus whispers this truth, calling us by name. But too often, so often there are other voices that beckon us, competing with Jesus’ voice for our attention - desires, temptations, the things we think we need. But the Shepherd keeps calling; he won’t stop.   He is always drawing us, calling us away from all the other stuff that cannot possibly satisfy us. He wants us to come to him for everything we need. And in the Holy Eucharist, he will give u...

Consuming Jesus’ Body and Blood is indeed an unmanageable truth. And as we hear in today’s Gospel, those disciples who take him literally are scandalized. Still, it is true. We do in fact and in faith consume the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist It was not that long ago, that Jesus fed that crowd with an abundance of bread. And as Jesus fed all those people on the hillside, we like to imagine that he understood for the first time that it would never be enough for him, merely to feed those he loved even with such abundance. Perhaps it was after that very busy afternoon of blessing and doling out all that bread that Jesus dreamt of himself becoming Bread for us, realized that he himself was meant to be our Food, for he knows he is indispensable for us. Jesus becomes bread so that he can be dissolved in us, surrender himself to us completely. It's what he did on the cross; it's what he does in the Eucharist each day. That’s what love does; ...

So fully does Damien of Molokai take on the mind and heart of Christ, so devoted is he to the lepers, that soon, because of his fearless ministry, he will become a leper himself. In Saint Damien’s total self-gift, we have a true icon of Jesus, Jesus who constantly gives himself away to us in love and self-forgetfulness. It's what he did on the cross, it’s what he does each day in the Eucharist. He draws us into the life of God; we are "spliced" into the very life of the Trinity, into the self-forgetfulness that God is. Jesus wants to be our food, for he knows he is indispensable for us. “My Flesh is true food,” he tells us. “And my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.” Jesus becomes bread and wine so that he can be dissolved in us, surrender himself to us completely. Life in the monastery is meant to accomplish the very same self-forgetfulness in the monks. Like Jesus in his passion, like Damien in the leper co...

Not long ago, in March of 1996, Dom Christian de Chergé and six monks from the Abbey of Tibhirine in Algeria were kidnapped and found dead two months later. This morning we celebrate our newly Blessed Cistercian brothers. We are at once humbled and inspired by the passion of their perseverance, the passion of their self-offering. But we must be clear. For even as he anticipated the possibility of his own death, Dom Christian feared that his dear Muslim friends would be blamed for his murder. He absolutely did not want this. The only grace he eagerly awaited was at last  in heaven   to see as God sees – to see the children of Islam all shining with the glory of Christ, all differences at last brought into communion and divine likeness by the joyful Gift of the Spirit.  As each morning we receive Holy Communion, we pray for this same compassionate communion among all people, that the differences we so often cherish may be erased by a love beyond understand...

John begins today’s gospel (John 21:1-19) by telling us that Jesus “showed himself in this way.” Throughout this post-Resurrection story, the Evangelist gives a lot of small, seemingly unnecessary and even strange details, when he could have said just as easily: “While the disciples were fishing, they saw Jesus on the shore. This was his third appearance.” But John didn’t. Instead, he focuses on the details in which Jesus showed himself; so maybe we should too.   First, the context: The disciples have returned home. Discipleship, the upper room, the cross, the empty tomb, the house with its locked doors are all now things of the past for them, and (more importantly) these seven disciples seem to have lost sight of “resurrection” in their lives. They’ve moved back to the familiar waters of the Sea of Tiberias, to the place where it all began. They’ve traveled some 70 or 80 miles from the place of Jesus’ resurrection and given themselves to their old routine of fishing. They’v...

Come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness; God hath brought forth Israel into joy from sadness, loosed from Pharaoh's bitter yoke Jacob's sons and daughters, led them with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea waters. 'Tis the spring of souls today; Christ hath burst his prison, and from three days' sleep in death as a sun hath risen; all the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying from his light, to whom we give laud and praise undying. Photos by Brother Brian. Verses from our Lauds hymn Gaudeamus pariter.