ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

The word "Lent" means spring. Let us pray that in these days of fasting and prayer the hard soil of our hearts may be tilled and softened to receive more fully the Seed, the Word of God, whom we so long for and desire. Let us acknowledge our sins, even our tendencies toward sin, and beg God's mercy.

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them…But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your father in secret.” I imagine that most of us would rather curl up and die than to pray at a street corner so as to be seen by others. Let alone, have a trumpet fanfare accompaniment. Even so, the possibility of prayer being a performance, contaminated by self-consciousness, is an ever-present danger in subtle and pervasive ways. It can involve wanting to look good before others. Or it can involve, more insidiously to my mind, wanting to look good to ourselves - staving off neurotic guilt, being pleased with ourselves and our prayer ‘performance’. Jesus is clear and unambiguous about this. No matter how subtly, even subconsciously, it happens, when our prayer is in service of our appearance to others or to ourselves, then that’s the reward we get - we look good….and...

Mardi Gras in the monastery brings our “farewell” to the Alleluia at this evening’s Vespers, as we chant an elaborate Alleluia at the conclusion of the office. Then   we rush (albeit with quiet monk-like decorum) to the monastic refectory for a festive supper of Brother Patrick's homemade pizza,  followed by ice cream and sweets. Then there’s clean-up and finally Compline, and the last time Our Lady’s window is illumined during our chanting of the Salve Regina until Easter Sunday. The sanctuary is then prepared for the Mass on Ash Wednesday, and the cross over the altar veiled in purple for the holy Forty Days ahead.

God is love. We remember some years ago chatting with a wizened old missionary, who had worked for years in Belize. On the road constantly in his dilapidated jeep; numerous Masses at different mission stations all day on a Sunday and often having to transport sick Mayan children to the hospital in the middle of the night. He smiled gently and said, “You know there's one thing Paul didn’t say about love - it’s also often quite inconvenient!” What could we add from our own experience? Love is self-forgetful; it is always toward the other. Love by its nature longs to express itself; it’s not neat and tidy; it cannot be contained. What is more love longs to be loved in return. Love is not self-sufficient but in need of the other, always toward . When I love I am vulnerable, easily hurt, easily elated. Love includes, it gathers, it blurs away differences. It shows no partiality but is convinced of our absolute connectedness as human persons made in God's own image. True lovi...

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Mark 8 The invitation of Jesus to deny oneself always seems rather daunting. And the root meaning of the Greek expression implies a radical turning away from something.  Truly there can only be one good reason, one perfect reason to turn away from myself - Jesus. Once I become fascinated by the beauty, goodness and truth of who He is and what He wants for us, how could I not turn away from my too familiar mediocrity and attraction to anything less?  Small wonder that one of the favorite prayers of Saint  Thérèse  was - "Draw me," words taken from the Song of Songs - " Your name is a flowing perfume... Draw me after you! Let us run!" With  Thérèse  let us run after the Lord, forgetful of self, our eyes fixed on Him, drawn willingly into the mystery of joyfully carrying our own cross behind Him, our Lord ...

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida, people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, “Do you see anything?” Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly. Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.” Mark 8 Jesus takes the blind man away by himself and anoints his eyes with his own spittle. Jesus is not wonder-worker or magician but God with us - God's compassion enfleshed and accessible. He engages and wants to listen. The man's full healing takes place in his ongoing relationship with Jesus. Let us also go to him; he is attentive.  Ancient Cistercian manuscript illumination of Christ in majesty.

“What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him…” I am emboldened by St. Paul, who, when referring to what God has prepared, says, “…this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” We have the Spirit of God, so let us follow the Spirit’s lead and allow our hope to reach in behind the veil and touch this mystery and be touched by it. Hope is a spiritual power given to us by God as a gift that enables us to desire the kingdom of heaven. Hope enables us to trust in Jesus’ promises, not on our own strength but on the grace of the Holy Spirit. The virtue of hope is aimed at the good things that God has prepared for us. We get a hint of what God has prepared for us when Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.” God has prepared for us a life of fulfillment – everything brought to completion, no loose ends, no unfinished business, in...

As we hear Matthew’s Gospel today, it's clear Jesus is raising the bar, calling us to more, fine-tuning the Law to fever pitch. There is to be no name-calling, we’re not allowed to call anyone an airhead, a blockhead (that is what raqa means after all). None of that kind of language, any of those subtle, snide hurtful things. Tiny as they may be, Jesus reminds us, they are deadly, even murderous. And as Jesus calibrates and adjusts, ups the ante on discipleship, we may wonder then who can make the cut? Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,   and there recall that your brother   has anything against you,   leave your gift there at the altar,   go first and be reconciled with your brother… Each time I hear these words I imagine that if we took Jesus literally, we’d have an awful long wait before any gift got brought to the altar. Perhaps we’d all be on the phone or texting or perhaps at the airport or driving somewhere to clear up all the broke...

On this World Day of the Sick Pope Francis tells us that Jesus “looks upon a wounded humanity with eyes that gaze into the heart of each person,” truly a gaze that embraces and invites everyone to experience his tender love.  Mary is gateway to all the compassion that Jesus longs to be for us. Through her intercession we pray for all the sick, for all who are in need. We are assured of her attentiveness. Health of the sick, pray for us. Image by Lauren Ford.

As in most Italian families, food was a huge concern when I was growing up. It involved a good deal of drama, time and energy. And I spent much of my childhood waiting in the car while my mother went from butcher to bakery to cheese shop, all to find the perfect ingredients. Once prepared, the food was placed on the table. There was a pause. My mother waited for the verdict from my father. If he said in Neapolitan dialect, “ E liscio,”  we knew we were doomed. Then she sulked, protested. He shrugged.  Liscio . It means bland, literally – flat; the food had no edge, no bite. It needed something, that certain something,  at least a little more salt.  Perhaps that’s what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel, as he tells us that we are to be the salt of the earth – we are to bring savor, delight, lovingkindness to all around us – that certain something that only each one of us can offer, to makes things better. This "bit," our little "bit" can transform things. D...

Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Jesus became poor through Mary's poverty and littleness. We pray that  with and  through Mary we may  more and more  become poor with the poor Christ, so that he may enrich us with the immense, abundant littleness that God is. Virgin and Child in a niche, ca. 1460, Luca della Robbia (Italian, 1399/1400–1482 Florence), ca. 1460, Italian, Florence, Glazed terracotta with gilt and painted details, 18 5/8 × 15 1/4 × 3 1/2 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Used with permission.

To rejoice without purpose in the darkness To plunge beneath the earth and retrieve shades To await the emergence of the light         from the bosom of night To be astounded at each day’s rebirth To love the piercing light To be gladdened by the least leaf’s tremor         in the first breeze of dawn To hear with kindred thrill the merry racket         of warbling summer songsters To make your whole chest gape as a wide window         for all the sky’s swift traffic to flow through To thank for the invention of all flowers         by scattering your life’s bouquet To feel in your veins melt down the rigid         border between eternity and time To sense future and past embrace in one fond kiss         in ...

This tiny window in a door in our cloister depicts Saint Blaise with wild animals. According to  The Golden   Legend  gentle Blaise dwelt in a hermitage in the desert where birds came to feed him. He befriended and protected all manner of beasts, and hunters were not able to take any of them. Known for his goodness and gifts of healing, the sick often came to Blaise to be healed. We pray on his Memorial for the health and well-being of all in need.

The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is the beginning of his self-offering to the Father. Obeying the Law, Mary and Joseph make the sacrifice of obedience that scripture required. Jesus is caught up in their self-offering, which is the nature of authentic obedience to the loving will of God. Indeed, this is the beginning of his journey to the Cross. Today although liturgically we are in the midst of Ordinary Time, we look back to Christmas and Christ’s manifestation in the world. And at the same time, we look ahead to Lent and anticipate the celebration of the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s total manifestation in his death and resurrection. “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” Saint Ephrem the Syrian will compare Simeon taking the Christ Child in his arms to the priest lifting up the consecrated bread and wine during the Mass.  And he says surprisingly that in this mystery, it is truly Si...

A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up, rebuked the wind...   Mark 4 As this morning's Gospel opens, the evangelist is careful to note that the disciples took Jesus into their boat " just as he was" - fully human, his divinity hidden from their eyes.  And the incident recounted here strikes us as one of the funniest in the Scriptures. If waves were crashing over the boat and it was filling up with water, wasn't Jesus getting soaking wet? Still he sleeps soundly, the sleep of deep, heavenly peace and trust in his Father. Awoken by his frantic disciples, we imagine him, droplets beading on his eyelashes, his hair dripping with sea water. He wipes his face and says simply, "Shh" to the elements. And they obey their Lord and quiet down. Even when he appears to be...