ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

J esus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,  with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."   Mark 12 Again, this morning  Jesus speaks to us as wisdom teacher, faithful to his Jewishness. For our Jewish forebears, Torah was the Way. Jesus our Lord affirms and completes Torah in all that he teaches, in all his deeds, in all that he is. Jesus is Torah perfectly fulfilled and enfleshed - he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. For the Jewish people following the Law, seeking God’s will in every detail, meant everything. All the details of the Law were ways to keep the Lord ever in mind, remind them that they belong to  God, and so need not withhold anything from him.  Jesus agrees, and he assures us that he has come to fulfill ...

  Again this morning we celebrate the Mass and Office of Our Blessed Lady on Saturday. She is everywhere in the Abbey, her images and icons in sacred spaces and in the workplaces. Mary protects us and accompanies us; we trust in her powerful intercession. We want to hide in her shade. We place ourselves in your keeping, Holy Mother of God. Refuse not the prayer of your children in their distress, but deliver us from all danger, ever Virgin glorious and blessed. An etching by Margaret Walters, (1924 - 1971).

...creation waits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God…We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope, we were saved.   Romans 8   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. We groan inwardly. Peter Chrysologus says:  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 love...

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;  for we do not know how to pray as we ought,  but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groaning.  And the one who searches hearts  knows what is the intention of the Spirit  because he intercedes for the holy ones  according to God’s will. Romans 8 As if we didn't know already, Saint Paul reminds us this morning that we do not even know how to pray. And truly it is not the how of our praying that matters, but the what and the who . What do I want; Whom do I desire? Let us fall backwards into the warm embrace of the Spirit's groaning, as with confidence we allow God's mercy to envelop us. Landscape , Edgar Degas (French, Paris 1834–1917 Paris), 1892 , Monotype in oil colors, heightened with pastel , sheet: 10 x 13 3/8 in. (25.4 x 34 cm). Used with permission.

A large, probably admiring crowd is traveling with Jesus this morning, happy and proud to be in the entourage of the wonderworker who has captivated their imaginations and their hearts. But soon the euphoria is interrupted by an annoying blind beggar, crying out. Many in the crowd tell him to quiet down; he’s disrupting things, really ruining the mood. But the guy refuses to be silenced, and he shouts out all the more insistently, begging for Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Praised be to God, for Bartimaeus knows what he wants. He may be blind, but he has clear insight - in his plea he calls Jesus Son of David, recognizing Jesus’ royal lineage as well as his reputation as a healer.* Actually, this passage often strikes me as one of the more humorous ones in all the Gospels, for at this point Jesus calls for him and asks the blind man, who probably has stumbled toward him with hands feeling the air, “What do you want me to do for you?” At this point in his ministry, Jesus has th...

We read the following in  Vita Consecrata , Saint John Paul II’s document on religious life: The Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the  Lord is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the  profession of the evangelical counsels, the characteristic features of Jesus— the  chaste, poor, and obedient one— are made constantly visible in the midst of  the world, and the eyes of the faithful are directed toward the mystery of the  Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realization  in heaven. In every age, there have been men and women who, obedient to the Father's call  and to the prompting of the Spirit, have chosen this special way of following  Christ in order to devote themselves to him with an undivided heart. Like the Apostles, they too have left everything behind in order to be with Christ and to put themselves, as he did, at the service of God and...

For us monks,  the liturgical calendar becomes one with the seasonal calendar. And typically the height of autumn color coincides with the  memorials of Saints Teresa of Avila, Hedwig, Luke, and the North American Martyrs, who we have feasted in recent days.  Photographs by Brother Anthony Khan.

  For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." Here we have one of the central verses in all of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus’s death is a “ransom”, a payment of the price the “many” are unable to pay themselves. Jesus sells himself into slavery in order to liberate his brothers and sisters from bondage. For “Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice, that he should continue to live on forever and never see the grave.” On our behalf he fulfills the image of the Suffering Servant prophesied by Isaiah: “…it was our pain that he bore, our sufferings he endured…the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.” As we heard in the first reading, “it was the Lord’s will to crush him with pain…” and “My servant, the just one, shall justify the many, their iniquity he shall bear.” But the context in which this verse occurs does not directly concern the atoning...

  As Pope Francis has said, "Jesus invites us to return to the source of joy, which is the encounter with him, the courageous choice to risk everything to follow him, the satisfaction of leaving something behind in order to embrace his way. The saints have traveled this path." And certainly, this was true of Saint Teresa of Avila, whom we remember today. She tells us, "On this road of prayer it is more important to love much than to think much." We pray that we may be consumed with love for Christ Jesus our Lord.  Detail of the  Ecstasy of Saint Teresa  by Gianlorenzo Bernini.

At Spencer, as all through the ages, great care was taken that the monastic buildings be beautiful, to reflect the glory of God and draw the monk heavenward. The harmonious disposition of spaces was meant to express Saint Benedict’s vision of a harmonious community as presented in his  Rule . And indeed for us Cistercians, this would mean in addition a certain austerity and visual sobriety expressed in unadorned interior spaces and non-figurative grisaille glass. Great attention was given to proportion and the effects of light on bare walls. Our Cistercian forebears believed the monastery should be a cloistered paradise - where the monk could regain the innocence of Adam and Eve in Eden before the Fall. All great architecture has its antecedents. The barn at Great Coxwell in Oxfordshire, England located at a grange of the Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu, is dated to the late 13th or early 14th century. It seems to have been the inspiration for Spencer’s church and chapter house. The e...

There was once a man living in an earthly paradise. Then one day, as the gentle breezes were blowing, the colorful birds flying, and the bees were busy buzzing, this man did something that changed everything.  This man's name was James Leviticus Whittaker-Tate the 5th, Jamie for short. The earthly paradise was Hawaii. What Jamie did was he woke up; I can't say he got out of bed because he fell asleep on the sofa.  What was staggering about Jamie waking up as he was stone-cold sober; Jamie was a rich party boy, living off his parent's dime in paradise. Jamie knew this sober situation had to be remedied. Jamie had lots of friends that would help him fix the unpleasant condition he found himself in. As he was about to call someone from his inner circle, he remembered, "Oh no, can't call him, he was in custody"'. Jamie figured he would try someone else and came up with another name, and he remembered, "Oh no, can't call her she's in rehab." T...

"the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."   George Eliot

Praying the Rosary we remember the mysteries of the lives of Jesus and his Mother and recall the joys and sorrows of our own lives, as we repeat  Hail Mary  after  Hail Mary. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and listens to him, rejoices with great joy hearing the bridegroom’s voice.  Surely I should repeat these words, my God, my Lord Jesus, every time I hear an inspired text like the Psalms, the Gospel especially, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, or any other words from the Scriptures. It is then the voice of the Holy Spirit that speaks every time that I hear or read such words. So, when I read these words of St. John, I should add with him, “And so, at this moment, my happiness is perfect.” This is the joy that should take hold of me every time I hear or read or recite any passage, however short, that contains the words of God, the words of the Beloved, of the Spouse I so passionately cherish.  The voice of my Beloved ought to fling me precisely into suc...

We are told that Saint Francis decreed that his friars must not have pockets in their habits. How he wanted them to be poor with the poor Christ! How to depend on Jesus alone for all we need? How to cling to Him, a Treasure always ready to hand and heart?  Detail of  Saint Francis Of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata  by Giambattista Tiepolo.

  We see it happening all over - a nostalgia “for a return to clear borders, settled truths,” a worldwide fear about what is not pure, what is other, different, or mixed.  One commentator has named this phenomenon Anti-pluralism. It takes many shapes – “nationalism, authoritarian populism, and religious separatism;” “reactions against diversity, fluidity, and the interdependent nature of modern life.” There is a deepening division between people - left/right, red/blue, white vs black and every other color in between and now even vaccinated vs anti-vaxxers ; divisions over race, gender, belief. This constant need to keep what is “other” and different far, far away . The network of relationships, connectedness, and trust that everything else relies on is unraveling. 1 So it is that in today’s first reading from the Book of Genesis we are reminded, "It is not good for the man to be alone.” It is not good for us to be separate, not healthy, not holy. God envisions us connected; t...

  If you are willing to bear in peace the trial of not being pleased with yourself, you will be offering the Lord Jesus a home in your heart. It is true you will suffer, for you will feel like a stranger in your own house. But do not fear, for the poorer you are, the more Christ will love you. We are always consoled by these words of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; she reminds us that Jesus' power is made perfect in our weakness. How she trusted that God knows us in our smallness and frailty. Too often we try to be big, pretend to be big when we ought to know better. God only wants our littleness and dependence on him. What a relief not to have to pretend any longer.