ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

The incarnate Word is a sword of tender flesh, but a sword nonetheless. This is what Advent and Christmas reveal to us. This new liturgical year is ushered in by a gospel passage that contemplates the return of Christ at the end of history. The intense narrative comes to us from the very lips of the Lord of history and of the cosmos. Today Jesus wants to teach us to see Christmas—his first coming among us—as a reality closely intertwined with the Judgment of the world at his second coming. Scripture tells us that with the Incarnation of the Word the end of time already has begun. In Christ, God has uttered his last Word; there now only remains to see whether or not we want to hear it. God’s final Word comes at Christmas to walk the earth. But it is a radical Word, “sharper than any two-edged sword. [And] everything is naked and uncovered in the eyes of him to whom we must give an account”.  The interval of time between the historical Birth of Jesus of Nazareth and the Last Judgm...

  As monks we are meant to live in incessant desire for God, to become all longing and hunger for him. The season of Advent, its prayers, and readings speak to us of mutuality of desire. For indeed if we long to see the face of God, so God's desire to come to us outstrips our own desire and takes flesh in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Jesus God's face has been revealed. This revelation stokes our desire for a more intense experience of his presence and divine embrace. During Advent, we celebrate the emptiness that makes us totally available for all that God wants to give us in Christ. We are joyful in our neediness and longing, for God longs to fill us with God's own Self in Christ more than we dare imagine.  Amen. Come Lord Jesus and do not delay!

We remember our parents tugging at our sleeves when we were given a gift or a small treat and reminding us, “What do you say?” Recognizing all we have been given by God in his love and mercy, on this Thanksgiving Day we gather to pray and feast and remind one another what to say. Thank you, thank you Lord from the bottom of our hearts for all you have given so freely, so lavishly. Our hearts are full, filled to overflowing. What do we have that we have not received? Wonder, praise, gratitude become one as we realize that all is gift. And so fittingly, justly, jubilantly we celebrate Eucharist on this day. Eucharist means thanksgiving. God never stops giving God’s very Self to us. God is love. Love never ends. And even as we come to thank and praise God for all he has given us, it is he who is gathering us at this Eucharist to feed us once again with himself. Our thanksgiving overflows.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me. These words of Saint Ignatius' prayer  The Suscipe , sum up most poignantly the self-offering of the Mexican martyr, Blessed Miguel Augustin Pro. as a young man ,  Miguel renounced everything and entered the Society of Jesus. After his ordination, he carried on  his priestly ministry  in spite of the grave religious persecution of the Church in Mexico in the early 20th century. O ften in disguise and continually foiling the best efforts of the Mexican secret police to arrest him, Miguel was eventually captured. On 23  November 1927, after forgiving his executioners, he extended his arms like his crucified Lord and was  shot by a firing squad as he proclaimed, "Hail, Christ the King!"...

  Today’s Feast of Christ the King wraps up the liturgical year by taking the long view forward to the final coming of Christ “amid the clouds at the end of time to receive everlasting dominion, glory and kingship from his Father.”  (So we just heard from the prophet Daniel and the Book of Revelation.) But we have to remember that in Christ “every end is a new beginning,” which means that his kingship isn’t something way off in the future but breaks in upon us now , at this very moment. The problem is that this “in-breaking” of his kingship is no more recognizable to us than it was to Pilate in this morning’s Gospel, who asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” The ancient world knew more about kings than we moderns do. Where kings still exist today, they rarely are “absolute” monarchs, autocratic dictators, but mostly live and work within a carefully constructed framework as “constitutional” monarchs. They can bring only subtle pressure to bear on politicians and serve ma...

  Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Mechtilde, a thirteenth-century Benedictine nun from the monastery of Helfta in Germany. Mechtilde had a tender devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who opened His wounded side to her in love and gave her His Heart as a place of refuge and consolation. In one of her visions, Jesus told Mechtilde that His Heart was like a kitchen where we could go to get whatever we needed at any time. In another, He told her, "In the morning let your first act be to greet My Heart and to offer Me your own." Jesus continued, "Whoever breathes a sigh toward Me, draws Me to himself."  It only takes a sigh. Let us sigh quietly, insistently, confidently, and go quickly into the royal Kitchen that is His Sacred Heart for all that we need. Photograph by Brother Brian of a bas-relief crucifix by Suzanne Nicolas  in the Abbey church .

With her husband not far behind infuriated at her constant almsgiving, the young Saint Elizabeth of Hungary is saved when the bread she is cradling turns into roses. "Keep your deeds of mercy secret," recommends Our Lord. And in His providence, He accomplishes for Elizabeth, what His love has requested. Illustration by  Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale.  

O God, in that unutterable kindness by which you dispose all things sweetly and wisely, you gave us clothing, so that a triple benefit might be ours: we are covered with dignity, kept warm and protected in body and soul. Father, pour forth the blessing of your Holy Spirit upon us this morning and upon these clothes which your sons here before us have asked to receive, so that they may serve you faithfully in the Cistercian way of life. On this past Sunday, November 14 our Brother Justin was clothed in the novice's habit during the weekly Chapter. We rejoice to have him as our brother in community. Br. Justin, during our recent community discussion, I referred to St. Benedict’s saying, “the Lord often reveals what is better to the younger.” So, I shouldn’t have been surprised – though I was a little – when you, the youngest in our community, offered an unexpected comparison – monastic life is like a GPS, used in cars to guide people safely to their destination. I had never thought...

"Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates . Matthew 13 Certainly in this past year, we have all lived through too much distress and tribulation - pandemic, rioting and racial unrest, the climate itself seemingly in revolt. In so many ways, everything seems to be falling apart, still, we pray, we persevere, we beg to be loving and wise and available to spread random acts of kindness freely, we hope. Here we are. And this morning even as the Lord Jesus predicts the heavens in turmoil, he moves quickly to a little story begging us to notice with hope the sprouting of a fig tree in spring. “Notice this hope-filled sign, even amidst seeming destruction - I am near. Always. Do not be afraid.”   So it is that after living the life of a wandering preacher, Jesus will be wrongly accused, and fall under the weight of the...

  Saint Martin shares his military cloak with a shivering beggar, and Jesus notices. That night in a dream He visits Martin wearing the half-cloak he had shared. The beggar is Christ. A bit of u nseasonable balminess this morning reminds us that in Italy a warm spell at this time of the year is called  l'Estate di San Martino - Saint Martin's Summer. Legend has it that after Martin had shared his cloak, God made it a little warmer so that neither Martin nor the beggar would suffer from the cold with only a half a cloak each.   Those who need us are the Lord Jesus in disguise. How will I encounter Him this day?  El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Greek, 1541 – 1614,   Saint Martin and the Beggar,   1597/1599, oil on canvas with wooden strip added at bottom, 76 3/16 x 40 9/16 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington.      Francí Gomar , Spanish, Aragon, active by 1443–died ca. 1492/3 ,   Altar Predella of Archbishop Don Dalmau de Mur...

Today we keep the feast of the Pope’s own cathedral at Saint John Lateran in Rome.  And as the Gospel ends, we will hear this most beautiful phrase, whispered to us by the Evangelist: “He was speaking of the temple of his body.”  The temple that will be destroyed and raised up is not the Temple built of stones but the temple of Jesus’ own Body. Jesus is the new gift of God that replaces the former. The temple is no longer a place, but a person. Jesus declares himself now and forever this meeting place between God and his people, the place where God’s desire for us and our desire for God meet and merge. Washed in the blood and water flowing the open side of the sanctuary of his holy body, we are being formed into this most holy dwelling, to become his Body. Because too often we have forgotten the awesome destiny that is ours, let us beg his mercy.

Clearly, in this morning’s Gospel, the simplicity and generosity of a poor widow are contrasted with the ostentation and greed of Scribes, who  “devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers.”  Jesus is always on the side of the poor. And today it seems he is speaking out against the “temple establishment” who have “manipulated” this widow into parting with the pittance she has to live on. Jesus is truly God with us, who as the Psalmist sings: always, always defends the orphan and the widow. He is the tender mercy of the heart of God, a heart always magnetized by poverty and littleness. So then, we may wonder, is this poor widow to be imitated for her generosity or pitied as the hapless “victim of religious exploitation?” Well, I imagine her focus is simply on doing the right thing. Being generous is natural for her, and she wants to be in the mix, to do the communal act, get in line with the others, and throw in her two cents (literally.) It w...

When Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd, the one who leaves the flock to search for the one lost sheep, we realize that we are the sheep who are worth his search. As his beloved ones, perhaps our most important work is allowing the Lord to rescue us. Art by Bradi Barth.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints, known and unknown. We have special days for a great number of the known saints; so, I will talk about one who is not known by anyone here and almost anywhere else: Saint Jeanette LaFond, who died in the attack on the World Trade Center 20 years ago this past September 11 th . Her sister Anita wrote in the current Smithsonian Magazine about her sister's death and how God revealed Jeanette's sainthood to her.  On that terrible day, Anita began her workday as usual by calling Jeanette who worked on the 94 th floor of the WTC North. Jeanette did not pick up.  One of Anita's co-workers told her to look on her computer at what was happening—she saw that Jeanette's floor had taken the direct hit from the airplane.  Anita writes, “It didn't take long before we saw the building collapse. And that was it... I knew in my heart that I would never see my sister again.  At four o'clock that afternoon, I was sitting in my living...