ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.  It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.  He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”   Mark 4 The seed is the Word of God, Jesus himself. In his Incarnation he has fallen into the soil of our humanity, our lowliness. Humus is the Latin word for soil and is the origin of the word humility. In the rich loamy earth of our sometimes-bitter self-knowledge, we are on the ground, in the humus of our reality. It is in the lowliness of this truth, that we realize who we are, what we are, who we long for, who it is we need. Jesus always comes to meet us down there. Photograph by Brother Brian.

Beginning with First Vespers this evening, we celebrate the three founders of the Cistercian Order, Saints Robert, Alberic and Stephen. Their ideal was a more authentic monastic simplicity and evangelical poverty. On 21 March in 1098, Robert, abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Molesme, France set out with twenty-one of his monks to the wilderness of Cîteaux to begin a new reformed monastery. By 1100 Robert had been called back to Molesme and Alberic was made abbot. We are told that Alberic had a tender devotion to Our Lady and received the Cistercians’ characteristic white cowl from her. Stephen Harding, an Englishman, succeeded Alberic as abbot and composed the  Carta Caritatis , a kind of constitution which binds all the monasteries of our Order to a common observance of rules and customs.  These early monks of our Order wanted to be “poor with the poor Christ” and are said to have been “lovers of the brethren and the place.” We pray that we may be true to their example a...

Each day as we begin our celebration of the Mass, we know enough to confess our sinfulness. As we recall our sins Saint Francis de Sales would recommend the following,  “… when you have fallen, lift up your heart in quietness, humbling yourself deeply before God because of your frailty, without marveling that you fell; there is no cause to marvel because weakness is weak…”  We need not be surprised by our sins, God is not, he only delights to be merciful. Let continually open to him and the mercy he longs to lavish upon us.

On this Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, we beg the Lord to stretch our hearts, that we may reverence life, life from conception to natural death, life in its mystery and givenness .  "By definition, a gift cannot be demanded; it can only be received graciously as a sort of surprise," Bishop Barron tells us. With open hands and grateful hearts, we accept the gift and promise respect, wonder, awareness of its beauty and gratuitousness. We dare not misuse or take life away, as if it were our possession. Roses and Lilies, Henri Fantin-Latour (French, Grenoble 1836–1904 Buré), 1888, Oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 18 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Used with permission.

" Though harshly treated, he submitted  and did not open his mouth;  Like a lamb led to slaughter  or a sheep silent before shearers,  he did not open his mouth. " These words from the prophecy of Isaiah echo in our hearts today, as we see John the Baptist point to Jesus and proclaim,  “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  He is the one of whom I said,  ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me,  because he existed before me.’   Jesus is Lamb, the Servant of God who will bear the sins and guilt of all God's people out of love. We have been cleansed in the Blood of this Lamb.  Holy Church tells us that Jesus came to this world in the midst of universal silence: “While gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, Thy all-powerful Word leaped from Heaven, from the royal throne.” The first thirty years of the life of Jesus were wrapped in an impressive silence....

We recall the story of a monk who dies and finds himself before the judgment seat in heaven. Angels solemnly carry out the tapestry of his life. He looks in horror at the faded, threadbare tapestry. There for all to see is the tattered reality of his sinfulness- the broken silences, harsh words spoken, petty jealousies, regrettable secret sins all right there. He lowers his head in remorse and embarrassment and calls out for Our Lady’s help, “O Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope.” Mary quickly comes to the monk’s rescue. She steps forward and whispers instructions to the angels. They reverse the worn-out tapestry and turn it upside down. Then with her finger Mary traces the outlines of her Son’s wounded face in the tatters. At the beginning of a new year  The New York Times  and other papers often publish the  Year in Pictures , a collection of telling images from the past twelve months. Probably each of us has our own collection, our own interior y...

John has been so busy dunking people that he hasn’t noticed the next person in line. Quietly Jesus steps forward to be baptized, his head lowered. Jesus smiles shyly, perhaps with a slight wave. John stops, looks around, then leans in close to Jesus and whispers, “Ah, what are you doing here? Please don’t do this. Get out of here. I’m not doing it; I’m not baptizing you. If anything, you should be baptizing me.” Why is Jesus here of all places? He has nothing to repent of. Why would he choose to do this? Perhaps it is that he couldn’t not do it. That’s what he’s telling John. And so, his response is tender and insistent, “Please allow it now, for in this way we will fulfill all righteousness.” Simply put, he who is Love could do no less - God wants it. Jesus has so identified himself with all his people, that he wants to be with them, to do with them this awesome covenantal moment. He must be there, there in the water with them, with us. For he is reconciling the world to himself...

An image of this seeking can be seen in the Magi, who were led to Bethlehem by the star. For them God’s light appeared as a journey to be undertaken, a star which led them on a path of discovery. The star is a sign of God’s patience with our eyes which need to grow accustomed to his brightness. Religious man is a wayfarer; he must be ready to let himself be led, to come out of himself and to find the God of perpetual surprises. This respect on God’s part for our human eyes shows us that when we draw near to God, our human lights are not dissolved in the immensity of his light, as a star is engulfed by the dawn, but shine all the more brightly the closer they approach the primordial fire, like a mirror which reflects light. Christian faith in Jesus, the one Savior of the world, proclaims that all God’s light is concentrated in him, in his "luminous life" which discloses the origin and the end of history. There is no human experience, no journey of man to God, which cannot be...

Matthew’s Gospel opens with the triumphant proclamation of the new Davidic king in his genealogy, then immediately follows with the story of Joseph, who enlightened by the angel agrees to take Mary as his wife and to act as foster father to God’s son. Next the Magi come from the East following a star which comes to rest over the place where the child was. Matthew tells us that they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and when they saw the child with Mary his mother, they fell down and worshiped him. Immediately following, however, the family learns that it must flee to Egypt to escape the furious rage of Herod; there follows the senseless slaughter of innocent children, and the wailing and loud lamentation of inconsolable parents. Jesus is immediately plunged into the sufferings and hopes of Israel, which are not lessened by his coming but even increase. But none of this is in vain, with the birth of Jesus, the sufferings and hopes not only of all of Israel but of all humanity but ar...

The kings of Tarshish and the seacosts "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 Jesus. And 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 bow down and adore him. Let us bring him our gifts, our talents, all that we have, all that we are. Let us march ahead as the kings in our mosaic, leaning forward, always toward him, who is our only Hope, our Desire, our End and our Beginning. Even as we remember that he t...

Today on the first day of the calendar year, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Mother of God.  This solemn feast is the Octave Day of Christmas. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, was sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary and to cause her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own. Therefore, Mary is rightly called the Mother of God since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, Jesus Christ, who is God himself. When we think of Mary as the Mother of God, we might tend to think of her as bearing and raising Jesus when he was an infant and toddler and young boy but having not much else of an influence on him as he matured. Saint Luke's Gospel contradicts such an idea. Jesus went down to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them. Mary kept all these things in her heart, and Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man. We all cherish the wise things and sayings that our own mothers taught ...