ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24/2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15/Mk 5:21-43 Today’s Gospel narrative of the radical healing of the daughter of the synagogue official Jairus is divided into two parts which are separated by the healing of the woman who had lived with a hemorrhage for twelve years.   The most significant theme that ties these two narratives together is, I believe, the theme of death. As the narrative opens, the young girl is on the point of death. The woman is suffering from a constant discharge of blood. As the Book of Leviticus says, “The life of every creature is its blood” (17:14). Plagued by this hemorrhage, life is perpetually draining away from her, she is enfeebled and always moving toward death. According to mosaic law, she is in a perpetual state of ritual impurity. Everything she touches, lies or sits on becomes unclean. Others avoid contact with her since touching her would make them unclean. If she’s married, sexual relations for her and her husband are forbidden. Worst of all, ...

Simon was born in Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee. He and his brother Andrew were fishermen, accepting Jesus’ invitation to become His first disciples and “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). John’s Gospel has Andrew following Jesus first and bringing Simon to Him. Jesus tells Simon, “‘You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas (which is translated Peter)” (John 1:42). In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter when He said to him, “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18–19). Peter emerged as the Church’s central leader after Pentecost. For a decade in Jerusalem, he preached, performed miracles, and converted many. He then traveled to Rome, established the Church there, and became its first...

If, then, you are God's workmanship, await the hand of your Maker which creates everything in due time; in due time as far as you are concerned, whose creation is being carried out. Offer to Him your heart in a soft and tractable state, and preserve the form in which the Creator has fashioned you, having moisture in yourself, lest, by becoming hardened, you lose the impressions of His fingers. But by preserving the framework you shall ascend to that which is perfect, for the moist clay which is in you is hidden [there] by the workmanship of God. His hand fashioned your substance; He will cover you over [too] within and without with pure gold and silver, and He will adorn you to such a degree, that even "the King Himself shall have pleasure in your beauty."  SAINT IRENAEUS

“Blessed," he says, "are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Mt 5:9). Consider carefully that it is not the people who call for peace but those who make peace who are commended. For there are those who talk but do nothing (Mt 23:3). For just as it is not the hearers of the law but the doers who are righteous (Rom 2:13), so it is not those who preach peace but the authors of peace who are blessed.” SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

When the fish takes the hook, the fisherman has it no matter how it twists and turns. So it is with love: when we take hold of it, it holds us like a hook and nothing can take it from us or from You. MEISTER ECKHART

Prayer is the search for God, encounter with God, and going beyond the encounter in communion. Thus it is an activity, a state, and also a situation; a situation both with respect to God and to the created world. It arises from the awareness that the world in which we live is not simply two-dimensional, imprisoned in the categories of time and space, a flat world in which we meet only the surface of things, an opaque surface covering emptiness. Prayer is born of the discovery that the world has depths; that we are not only surrounded by visible things but that we are also immersed in and penetrated by invisible things. And this invisible world is both the presence of God, the supreme, sublime reality, and our own deepest truth. METROPOLITAN ANTHONY Creative Prayer (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1987)

All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.  ( Luke 1:65–66) John the Baptist was formed by the hand of the Lord. Saint Thomas Aquinas goes so far as to say that John was sanctified in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth, as is written: “He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). From the moment that the Blessed Virgin Mary greeted Elizabeth and John leaped for joy, the hand of the Lord was upon John, making him holy and leading him to the fulfillment of God’s holy will. John’s early life is not recorded for us, other than in the passage quoted above. We are told that he “grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel.” We should see in this passage the truth that John was not only sancti...

How could Jesus sleep so soundly in the midst of this morning’s raging storm? Isn’t it amazing? I think it’s really quite humorous. Raging winds, waves crashing over the boat, so that literally it “was being-filled-to-the-brim.” Jesus has got to be soaking wet, yet he sleeps on peacefully. Of course. After days of going on foot from village to village, preaching and healing crowds of people, the Man must have been completely exhausted. Fortunately, some thoughtful apostle had tossed a pillow into the boat along with the nets, like my mom used to do- throw an old pillow in the back seat of the car for a nap on a long trip. In any event, Jesus is sopping wet; his cushion is soaked. And he just keeps sleeping. More amazingly, as the apostles wake him in their panic, Jesus is completely unruffled. I imagine him sitting up, wiping his wet face with his broad hand, then pulling both hands over his head and the dripping ringlets of his dark hair. Calmly blinking his eyes, he rises, tells the ...

The ultimate sin is to despair of God's mercy. That is to limit it, to make our ego its limit, whereas it is boundless. OLIVIER CLÉMENT The Roots of Christian Mysticism The Mercy of God has no limits, nothing is too great for it. That is the reason why anyone who despairs of it is the author of his own death. JOHN CLIMACUS The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 5th Step

One day a soldier asked an elder whether God grants pardon to sinners. The elder answered, ‘Tell me, my good friend, if your cloak is torn, do you throw it away?’ The soldier replied, ‘No. I mend it and continue to use it.’ The elder concluded, ‘If you take good care of your cloak, will not God be merciful to his own image?’ Sayings of the Desert Fathers God in his love punishes, not to take revenge, far from it. He seeks the restoration of his own image and does not prolong his anger. ISAAC OF NINEVEH Ascetic Treatises , 73 

We too are already in heaven with Christ, even though what he promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies. Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope, and love that unite us to him? . . . In him, we can be there by love. SAINT AUGUSTINE

There are two sides to every sin: the turning of the will toward fleeting satisfaction and the turning away from everlasting value. As regards to the first, the principle of all sins can be called lust—lust in its most general sense, namely, the unbridled desire for one's own pleasure. As regards to the second, the principle is pride—pride in its general sense, the lack of submission to God. SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

When a sailor voyages in the midst of the sea, he watches the stars and in relation to them he guides his ship until he reaches harbor. But a monk watches prayer, because it sets him right and directs his course to that harbor toward which his discipline should lead. A monk gazes at prayer at all times, so that it might show him an island where he can anchor his ship and take on provisions; then once more he sets his course for another island. Such is the voyage of a monk in this life: he sales from one island to another, that is, from knowledge to knowledge, and by his successive change of islands, that is, of states of knowledge, he progresses until he emerges from the sea and his journey attains to that true city, whose inhabitants no longer engage in commerce but each rests upon his own riches. Blessed is the man who has not lost his course in this vain world, on this great sea! Blessed is the man whose ship has not broken up and who has reached harbor with joy! SAINT ISAAC THE SYR...

Prayer and theology are inseparable. True theology is the adoration offered by the intellect. The intellect clarifies the movement of prayer, but only prayer can give it the fervour of the Spirit. Theology is light, prayer is fire. Their union expresses the union of the intellect and the heart. But it is the intellect that must 'repose' in the heart, and theology must transcend it in love. OLIVIER CLÉMENT The Roots of Christian Mysticism If you are a theologian you will pray truly; and if you pray truly you are a theologian. EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS On Prayer, 61 (Philokalia I, 182)

Jesus has followers among those who do not know him explicitly: "I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice" (John 10:16). Jesus died, he says, "to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad" (John 11:52) in every age, in every race. In my endeavour to express what believing in Jesus means, I hope it will become clear that there are many "not of this fold" who are listening to his voice though they know it not, who despite this, believe in him. They cannot name him, they may even deny that the Lord of their hearts is Jesus, and this because they have only met his image and his teaching in the garbled version we have given them. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world and his redeemed are in every age, even before his coming in historical time. They are scattered now, unknown to themselves and to any but God. RUTH BURROWS To Believe In Jesus (Burns & Oates, 2010)

Do not approach the words of the mysteries contained in the Divine Scriptures without prayer and beseeching God for help, but say: Lord, Grant me to perceive the power in them! Reckon prayer to be the key to the true understanding of the divine Scriptures. SAINT ISAAC THE SYRIAN The Ascetical Homilies, #48

Do not fear. Jesus is more powerful than all Hell. At the invocation of His Name every knee in heaven, on earth and in hell must bend before Jesus. This is the consolation of the good and terror of the evil ones. Stop entertaining those vain fears. Remember it is not feeling which constitutes guilt but the consent to such feelings. Only the free will is capable of good or evil. But when the will sighs under the trial of the tempter and does not will what is presented to it, there is not only no fault but there is virtue. Despise your temptations and do not dwell on them. Imagine you have Jesus Christ crucified in your arms and on your breast and, kissing his side, say: “Behold my hope, behold the living source of my happiness. I will hold you close, oh my Jesus, and I will not leave you until you have put me in a place of safety”. Walk amid wind and waves, but with Jesus. If fear strongly grips you, exclaim with Saint Peter: “Oh Lord, save me!” He will extend his hand to you. Seize it ...

Silence is what surrounds everything… It is the space between letters, words, and paragraphs that makes them decipherable and meaningful. When you can train yourself to reverence the silence around things, you first begin to see things in themselves… This “divine” silence is before, after, and between all events for those who see respectfully (to re-spect is “to see again”). RICHARD ROHR, O.F.M.

Go not outside, return into yourself; the Truth dwells in the inner man. SAINT AUGUSTINE In the inner man dwells God, the Truth, who cannot be reached by those who seek him in externals—God, whose nature it is to be always and only within and in the most inward place. MEISTER ECKHART It is important for us to realize that this fons vivus , this living fountain, pours out the divine life into our being from within our being. The Holy Spirit does not dispense his gifts as a detached station operator might refuel a machine. He is in our profound person center pouring out power, faith, hope, love—infusing his own gifts which render us responsive to the very motions by which he moves us. He is energizing our intellects with light and our wills with love. It is difficult for us to appreciate a cause working from within, since our sense experience speaks to us only of causes that influence and produce effects on things external to them. We see a bat hit a ball and a pen write on paper. But th...

O ver a century ago, the French Catholic poet Charles Péguy observed that “in the eyes of God all human order is a disorder”, all human peace a barely concealed chaos. As a convert who had struggled mightily with issues of faith and despair, he knew in his flesh of what he spoke. Today’s gospel passage from Mark is a textbook illustration of Péguy’s aphorism, enacted in shocking proportions in the life of the Lord Jesus. The scene challenges us to reflection about the historical opposition to Jesus in his day, as well as to reflection about ourselves and our attitudes. Only by first pondering this severe state of conflict which Mark holds out to our consideration as part of his “Good News” may we later be strengthened inwardly by the life-giving truths here communicated.   The gospel just proclaimed culminates in the teaching toward which Jesus is leading us as the upshot of all the conflict he himself has had to face. As he sits in the middle of those who are intently listening to...

Mary is called the Queen of contemplatives…. But what does this mean? To live a contemplative life is to live at depth; to live below the surface in the world of faith, the world of reality and not appearances. We do not know how Our Lady spent her days; the details are unimportant. We are told the only things that matter and which must be true of all who belong to Christ. Contemplative living has written into it this Marian attitude or mode of being. We are to be contemplatives living in the depths of reality. Our fantasy can take us into excitements, the lights, satisfactions. Faith keeps us in the here and now: in this moment and no other, in this situation and no other. Here is my Jesus, here in this moment, this duty, this set of circumstances. What a test of faith is this daily round, this pressure of seeming trivialities! What a test of faith in the dull, wearing pain, lacking all glamour and grandeur! All the time, the heart of the contemplative is racing out beyond appearances...

The Heart of Christ! His "Sacred Heart" has given men everything: redemption, salvation, sanctification. St Faustina Kowalska saw coming from this Heart that was overflowing with generous love, two rays of light which illuminated the world. "The two rays", according to what Jesus himself told her, "represent the blood and the water" (Diary, p. 132). The blood recalls the sacrifice of Golgotha and the mystery of the Eucharist; the water, according to the rich symbolism of the Evangelist John, makes us think of Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 3: 5; 4: 14).     Through the mystery of this wounded heart, the restorative tide of God's merciful love continues to spread over the men and women of our time. Here alone can those who long for true and lasting happiness find its secret. POPE SAINT JOHN PAUL II, excerpt from the   Homily for the First Celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday   given on April 22, 2001  

Jesus Christ is the face of the Father's mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him. The Father, “rich and mercy”, after having revealed his name to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exod. 34:6), has never ceased to show, in various ways throughout history, his divine nature. In the “fullness of time” (Gal.4:4), when everything had been arranged according to his plan of salvation, he sent his only Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, to reveal his love for us in a definitive way. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (see John 14:9). Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person reveals the mercy of God. We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very ...

As soon as a man is fully disposed to be alone with God, he is alone with God no matter where he may be—in the country, the monastery, the woods, or the city. The lightning flashes from east to west, illuminating the whole horizon and striking where it pleases, and at the same instant the infinite liberty of God flashes in the depths of the man's soul and he is illumined. At that moment he sees that though he seems to be in the middle of his journey, he has already arrived at the end. For the life of grace on earth is the beginning of the life of glory. Although he is a traveler in time, he has opened his eyes for a moment, in eternity. THOMAS MERTON Thoughts In Solitude

My beloved, may every fall, even if it is serious and habitual sin, always become for us a small step toward a higher degree of perfection. In fact, the only reason why the Immaculate permits us to fall is to cure us from our self-conceit, from our pride, to make us humble and thus make us docile to the divine graces. The devil, instead, tries to inject in us discouragement and internal depression in those circumstances, which is, in fact, nothing else than our pride surfacing again. if we knew the depth of our poverty, we would not be at all surprised by our falls, but rather astonished, and we would thank God, after sinning, for not allowing us to fall even deeper and still more frequently. ST. MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE

Delight in prayer is no measure of our love of God. But if we bear difficulties patiently, resist the urgings of self-love resolutely; and fulfill our duties in life willingly, if we live trusting in Providence and desiring to be known only by God—then we will show that we truly love God! Such deeds are unmistakable signs of love. Let us always be faithful in doing God's will because all else is unworthy of the name of love. ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL

This Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is so rich that it is difficult to know where to start. Today I would like to follow the theme of consecration, which is at the heart of this feast. The Israelites were consecrated to become the holy people of God. Jesus consecrates the bread and wine to be his own body and blood. The act of consecration devotes something or someone to divine worship. It is the privilege of all Christians in whatever state of life, for we are all consecrated to offer divine worship to God. But it is especially true for monks, since our whole life is devoted to divine worship.   When God desired to make a covenant with his people, he consecrated them. They were set apart for a divine purpose. You just heard how Moses sent out young men to offer holocausts and sacrifices and bring the blood to him. The animals were totally given to God, and their blood was a sign of this. When Moses read out the words of God which indicated how the people wer...

The origin of the Feast of Corpus Christi began with a Eucharistic miracle, which is a moment of divine intervention aimed at confirming the faith in the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. Here is a description of the event in 1263:      In 1263 a German priest, Peter of Prague, stopped at Bolsena [Italy] while on a pilgrimage to Rome. He... [was] a pious priest, but one who found it difficult to believe that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina (located in the church named for this martyr), he had barely spoken the words of Consecration when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands onto the altar and the corporal. The priest was immediately confused. At first, he attempted to hide the blood, but then he interrupted the Mass and asked to be taken to the neighboring city of Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV resided. The Pope listened to the p...