ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?” Matthew 8 Today's Gospel narrative strikes us as one of the most humorous in all of Scripture. If the boat was being swamped by waves, wasn't Jesus getting soaked? Clearly exhausted after a full day of preaching and healing, Our Lord naps peacefully while a storm rages. T he Man was definitely a very heavy sleeper. We imagine him, suddenly roused by the disciples. He wipes his face with one hand, then runs both hands over his dripping hair. He rises and with a finger to his lips, he says, "Shhhh. Quiet down....

There was once a very devote man, he was independent, made a good living. He was self-sufficient, well educated in his religion and strong in his belief. He had been taught who and what was right, and who and what was wrong. Everyone knew where they stood with him, an upstanding member of his community and someone others looked up to, even perhaps envied. He was, as some people would say, “living the dream”.  He was a man of action, a leader, someone in command, when you had a difficult job that needed doing, this was the man you wanted. One day while on a road trip with some associates. As they were moving along and bragging about how successful they had been and what their next move should be. Amid all this babel, one by one something caught their attention,...

Perhaps Peter and Paul whom we celebrate today would not mind if we noted that neither of them has much to be proud of. Peter who even as his best friend is being slapped and sentenced insisted to a serving girl in the glow of a charcoal fire that he did not even know who that man was; and self-righteous Paul who became notorious for dragging the first followers of Jesus from their homes to prison and persecution.  Both Peter and Paul find themselves discovered by the Mercy of God in Christ Jesus, who identifies himself as the betrayed one, the persecuted one. Peter is forgiven by Christ at a breakfast on the shore after the resurrection; Paul thrown from his horse finds himself discovered by the mercy of Jesus who begs him, "Why are you persecuting me?" They will be empowered by mercy and compassion and forgiveness they receive from Jesus. We celebrate two men desperately in need of transformation, a transformation that happens in their encounters with their most mercifu...

What we hear this morning is not “Coach” Jesus, shouting from the sidelines, “C’mon. Take up your cross. Let’s hustle!” On the contrary, Jesus is our brave and compassionate companion along the way. In following him, we are made one with him. And he invites us to imitate him – in patience and hope in our Father’s most loving regard for us always.  Love always gives itself away; it cannot be unaffected by the beloved’s troubles. And so, the cross is inevitable for Jesus and also for us as his disciples, for it is the way he and we can love without limit. That is why he on one occasion he is so adamant with Peter – to deny Jesus the cross would be to keep him from the fulfillment of his total self-gift, to be held back from it is unthinkable. The cross is the “marriage bed” granting him total, unremitting self-surrender to us, down to the very last drop of his most precious blood. This was always the goal of his Incarnation - to share unreservedly in our sorrow, to rescue us...

Once after receiving a unique grace in prayer, Saint Mechtilde exclaimed to Our Lord, "O generous King! Such a magnificent gift is not suitable for me. I am not even worthy to serve in your kitchen and wash the dishes there." Christ Jesus answered her, "The kitchen is my divine Heart. As the kitchen is open to everyone...so my heart is always open to all, and ready to give everyone what they desire." Let us go to this Kitchen always.

Candidates often ask our vocation director if the monks ever get bored in the monastery. We suppose they want to be assured that the rhythm of the monastic day is all a great river of unremitting grace. This is true enough in general, but as one of our seniors admits, "The most difficult part of the life is seeing clearly over and over again the sad, boring truth of who I am. The truth is: I bore myself with my sinfulness and stubbornness."  Surely the truest grace is having seen and known this painful, neuralgic reality all too well over and over again, and then and there to allow God in Christ to gaze on us with love and exquisite tenderness. It may seem utter madness to allow ourselves to be the object of Christ’s love and attention precisely in our sinfulness. But where else can we go? Jesus desires to meet us in our reality.  Our senior monk continues, "Maybe it is the great reversal, the sublime trick of a monastic vocation - I thought I was comi...

Perhaps our most important work as monks is to allow things to fall apart and to notice that as things fall apart we more available for Christ's mercy. Perhaps part of our work is to normalize this fragmentation for one another - normalize the falling apart as the means to a most glorious end - life in Christ Jesus. This is not a careless, presumptive laziness, (“I’m broken, you’re broken, we're OK; Christ will rescue us. No problem!”) Neither is it the blind leading the blind into a catastrophic fall. It is rather the weak leading the weak into a willing acknowledgement and celebration of the inevitability of our fragmentation and weakness as the great good news that will lead to our transformation in Christ Jesus. As he reminds us this morning he alone is our Rock amidst the storm. Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them  will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

Pastorally, The Church celebrates the Birth of Saint John the Baptist because there is something indispensable and timeless about his role. Cardinal Daniélou speaks of “a certain permanence in John’s ministry, the ministry of preparation .” He goes so far as to say: “We may be sure that the final coming will also be prepared by John.” So what might this “ministry of preparation” mean for us today? Perhaps above all, John models for us and predisposes us to experience the happiness found only in Jesus Christ . With good reason, this began in the darkness of his mother’s womb. We all begin in darkness, and often live moments plunged in darkness of one kind or another. The Good News is that at Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, Jesus draws close to John , who then leaps for joy in his mother’s womb. The Baptist pierces earth’s darkness with his silent proclamation to us: Someone is coming for you! Keep your attention fixed on what your heart was made for: Jesus Christ! For you will recogniz...

The Liturgy invites us to notice a wonderful newborn.  Elizabeth ’s had a baby, at her age. And Zechariah who had been speechless for months now names his son John and his tongue is loosed. He then breaks out in praise of God and prophecy of his little son’s future mission. All are amazed and rejoice with them. The tone and content of today’s Gospel all speak to us of God's amazing breakthrough on his people’s behalf in a new and unprecedented way. There is hope and promise. And if the Scripture in the Liturgy presents us with the great question: “What will this child be?” The Liturgy has the rather tragic answer for us as well. With the hindsight of Liturgy, we know all too well what will become of baby John. (This too will be occasion for a liturgical celebration at the end of August. We’ll be in red then though, for John is going to lose his head.) John’s weakness for speaking the truth will be his undoing. A mad divorcee’s rage, her daughter’s dancing and a d...

One of our monks recounts the following tale: I had an older cousin named Florida. And the family lore was that her father, recently arrived from Sicily, had seen a big poster in a fruit store with giant oranges and the word “Florida” and had decided then and there that it would be the perfect name for his next daughter. Now because of a series of unfortunate events, my Aunty Florida, as I called her, ended up spending part of her childhood at a Catholic orphanage in our city. Aunty Florida told me stories of what it was like there. Some of it was rather grisly. In particular I remember her telling me about pious little talks the Sisters would sometimes give before the children went to bed. And a phrase Aunty Florida recounted from one of these talks is forever stuck in my memory: “Boys and girls, even our innermost thoughts are sins.” I can hear Florida repeating it dramatically and laughing, “Imagine her saying that to little kids.” You wish someone had given that nun a book of b...

“Fear no one.  Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,  nor secret that will not be known.  What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;  what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.  Even all the hairs of your head are counted.  So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10 Having sensed the Lord’s loving presence in the “tiny, whispering” of the ordinariness of our lives, we long to hide in the “shadow of his wings.” He comes near to us, stretches out the hand of his mercy and assures us, “Come to me and do not be afraid.” Why do we doubt? Why is our faith so tiny? The Son of God Most High has made his dwelling place within us. And not...

Today's Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary follows yesterday's Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Jesus' heart was formed under the pure heart of Mary; she gave him a heart that could love and rejoice and suffer for us.  Exercising a motherly care for us her poor children in all things and through all things, the Virgin Mother calms our trembling fear, enlivens our faith, supports our hope, drives away our distrust, strengthens our timidity. Surely you are not afraid to approach Jesus? He is your Brother and your flesh, tempted in all things as you are, yet without sin, so that he might have compassion. And this Brother has been given to us by Mary. And so whatsoever you have a mind to offer to the Lord, be sure to entrust it to Mary, so that your gift shall return to the Giver of all grace through the same channel by which you obtained it. Bridal wreathe bushes are blooming at the Abbey entrance. Lines from Saint Bernard's  Sermon 7 for th...

Come to me all you who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. W e may say that the souls of the two Cistercian saints we have celebrated this week—the 13 th -century St Lutgarde of Aywières and the 20 th -century Blessed Marie-Joseph Cassant—were clearly yoked to Jesus. Our celebration of their lives and holiness earlier this week has prepared us for this great feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, their Master. Yoked to Jesus and carrying with him the sweet burden of the redeeming Cross, the disciple comes to learn the truth of God by constant association with the Heart of God. In such close proximity, the disciple can hear its secret throbbing, and gradually comes to share a common task with the Redeemer, who has come to serve and not to be served. Those initiated by the Son into the secrets of the Father must share the burdens of the Son's task, the toil and the ch...

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion…There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you ... if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open...You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a...divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive...  We came upon these words by the renowned dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, and oddly enough they spoke to us of prayer. If, as Merton once recommended, to be contemplatives we must forget ...

…beyond the specific theme of murder, and the ugliness and evils of racism, the universal pandemic of Covid 19 has been a virus that attacks our breathing. We are all…to a greater or lesser extent…walking around fearing that “I can’t breathe” could become our own experience. And for black and Asian communities these themes of racism and the virus of course intersect…we know that “I can’t breathe” resonates in increasingly larger concentric circles in societies worldwide…“I can’t breathe” is the deep underlying unspoken cry of the heart wherever oppression and victimization and inequality are present. Unspoken until it is spoken. Unspoken until people watch one man, in Minneapolis, having the breath of life choked out of him…in his dying breath (he) speaks the words that ignite recognition in so many others that in his last words he is, unbeknownst to himself, speaking for so many, in so many other situations. He speaks to humanity, he speaks for humanity….breathing is a...

Seeing the crowds, Jesus’ innards trembled with pity for them. The Jews and the Greeks could not succeed in making pity and compassion into a purely mental act. It sounds archaic, hardly short of embarrassing, to say that "Jesus saw the crowds and felt pity for them in his guts." But, in fact, any translation that omits compassion's element of viscerality has already betrayed the depth of Jesus' divine and human pity. Splanchna, the root of the verb here, means "viscera", "bowels", life-giving "womb", and in Hebrew rachamím means the same thing. We all know how the strongest emotions—whether sorrow, fear, joy, or desire—are all initially registered in the abdominal region, and this physiological reaction is one of the proofs of the authenticity of our emotions. The same teacher, herald, and healer who surpassed all others in these crafts finally reveals himself in utter silence and inactivity in his deepest nature: the Compas...

I heard of a poll asking people which are their three favorite text messages. The first one is: “I love you,” the second: “I forgive you,” and the third one is, surprisingly, “Dinner is ready.” These three text messages are a good distillation of the gospel message. Eating together, whether it was an everyday meal or a banquet, was a significant part of Jesus’ ministry and the imagery he used in preaching. He used it over and over again. Think of the wedding banquet at Cana where he turned water into wine; or the parable of the banquet where the poor and the outcast are welcomed; or his continuing choice to eat and drink with those considered sinners and unworthy of his company; and, of course, his final meal with his gathered disciples where he first spoke the words that continue to resound throughout the ages and even comprise the name of today’s Solemnity: “This is my body. This is my blood.” Today’s gospel from John chapter 6 concludes a passage of Scripture that is filled w...

We could say that God's forgiveness means a divine forgetfulness. He sees our sins with clarity and wipes them away and "forgets" them, he does not remember them. This is what “as far as the East is from the West” means. His justice is his mercy. He spends 24/7 forgiving and mercying . This is all about  the immeasurability of his mercy.  God can’t help himself, he won’t stop forgiving. This  is  not too-easy grace, me doing what I want because God will always forgive me, but bitter self-knowledge and the admission of my sinfulness always. Indeed, we are sinners through and through, and his delight is mercying  us endlessly. Our job is endless gratitude and humility, going low in order to drink in his mercy like grateful sponges. Photograph by Brother Brian.

In the mystical language about prayer there’s a lot of talk about alternation, as if God is hiding from us, going and coming, all of that. But in truth there’s really no way for us to get away from him, God in Christ hasn’t gone anywhere, which isn’t to say he’s intrusive, far from it. But he is the One who is always knocking, always waiting for us to wake up to the reality of his nearness. We are made to live with this kind of relentless loving expectation, for "a person in love is always awake." This is the secret of holiness, the secret of contemplation we’re made for. It’s not too high-falutin; we are meant to be mystics, called to incessant prayer, which Augustine tells us is living in incessant desire for God, incessant awareness of our hunger and need for him.  Our prayer is ultimately about powerlessness, for the mystery of God’s presence is constantly revealed even as it is hidden. So, vigilance is essential because God is always reversing things, doing it his w...

Perhaps you know the story of the boy from Italy who comes to America with his father; they are going to live with relatives in New York City. They are very poor; the father has scraped together just enough to buy two tickets for passage on an ocean liner. The bit of money that is left is just enough to buy a giant wheel of cheese and a few loaves of bread. This will be their food for the entire trip. Then one day the little boy, precocious as he is, wanders around the ship and discovers a grand dining room. Plates full of food, so many people. He spots a family from his village. He runs to them and learns the amazing truth. Then he races back to his teeny cabin. "Papa," he says. "We can eat as much as we want; it's free, e gratuito;   it comes with the ticket." It comes with the ticket. God wants to regale us. "God is to be enjoyed," says St. Augustine. A banquet is prepared; Jesus is the banquet. But maybe too often we lower our heads and come w...

O Eternal God! O Eternal Trinity! You are as deep a mystery as the sea, in whom the more I seek, the more I find; and the more I find, the more I seek. For even immersed in the depths of you, my soul is never satisfied, always famished and hungering for you, eternal Trinity, wishing and desiring to see you, the true light. O eternal Trinity, with the light of understanding I have tasted and seen the depths of your mystery and the beauty of your creation. In seeing myself in you, I have seen that I will become like you. Amen.   Photograph by Brother Brian. Lines from Saint Catherine of Siena

   It is fitting that the Church has placed the celebration of the mystery of the Trinity on the Sunday immediately following the Christmas and Easter cycles and at the beginning of the long stretch of Ordinary Time, insofar as life in the Trinity is on the one hand the end and goal of God’s plan for humanity and on the other, the origin from which all creation flows forth. In the Easter cycle we celebrate both the fullness of the God’s redemption action and the beginning of the time of the Church, culminating in the sending of the Spirit on Pentecost. Now in Ordinary Time, in the power of the Cross and Resurrection and the sending of the Spirit, we are to respond to the call to participate in the Trinitarian life from which we have come forth.  Today’s Gospel contains what is for many the classic expression of this Trinitarian activity, from John 3 -  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but ...