ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

We may want to make the story of the Holy Family pretty or picture perfect, but we should know better, Jesus is too real for any of that. He’s not having any of it. God from God, Light from Light, Jesus is at the same time fully human, like us in all things but sin- which is to say quite a lot. He has come to embrace the full reality of our human awkwardness and ambiguity. And as we heard today, his life with Joseph and Mary was not without its incongruities. The key, I suspect, is the closing phrase: “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” My sisters and brothers, we see Jesus this morning advancing , a Work of divine beauty in progress; Jesus at the bewildering, frustrating, age of twelve ; he is growing up.   And like any twelve-year-old, totally absorbed in a new interest, a new friend, a project that seems to eclipse all other obligations, Jesus’ surprised response to his mother seems unnerving. “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know?” “The fi...

As progress is made in the way of life and in faith, the road of God's commandments will be run with heart enlarged and in the indescribable sweetness of love. And so, let us never cease to have [Christ] as master, let us persevere in his doctrine in the monastery until death, and let us participate by patience in the sufferings of Christ. In this way will we deserve to be sharers in his kingdom. Amen. SAINT BENEDICT RB Prol 49-50

I too will proclaim the greatness of this day: the immaterial becomes incarnate, the Word is made flesh, the invisible makes itself seen, the intangible can be touched, the timeless has a beginning, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, always the same, yesterday, today and forever… This is the solemnity we are celebrating today: the arrival of God among us, so that we might go to God, or more precisely, return to him. So that stripping off the old humanity we might put on the new; and as in Adam we were dead, so in Christ we might be made alive, be born with him, rise again with him… A miracle, not of creation, but rather of re-creation… For this feast is my perfecting, my returning to my former state, to the original Adam… Revere the nativity which releases you from the chains of evil. Honor this tiny Bethlehem which restores Paradise to you venerate this crib; because of it you who were deprived of meaning ( logos ) are fed by the divine Meaning, the divine Logos hims...

Abbot Vincent's words to Br. Craig Br. Craig, in this Advent season the word of God has been coming at us from every side through the prophets, especially Isaiah and John the Baptist. But there is another prophet among them whom we often do not recognize, a hidden jewel, that is, Our Lady. She is a prophet and the Queen of prophets. She carries forth the entire prophetic tradition. You are now a part of that tradition. Why? Because a monk is a prophet, a hidden one, but a prophet nonetheless, following in the footsteps of Our Lady.   Have you ever thought of yourself as a prophet? It may sound a bit odd. We don’t breathe out fiery oracles (normally). We don’t foretell the future. But we do have a key characteristic of prophets: we are immersed in the word of God, like a fish in water. We carry in our hearts the word of God as Our Lady carried the Word of God in her womb. The word is for us an ongoing revelation—it reveals who we are, what we are meant to do, and what awaits us. I...

It takes only a moment’s reflection to reveal that letting our light shine forth requires a large measure of humility. It means ignoring the inner voice that tells us we are not good enough. We have to be willing to act upon the Spirit’s gift of parresia , or freedom and boldness in speech, about which the New Testament often speaks. By God's gift we are free to be ourselves. It is to everyone's benefit that we are perceived as what we are not more not less. And that is why it is good to bring forth truth from the heart and from the mouth and, bashful though we be, to let our life speak. FR. MICHAEL CASEY, OCSO Seventy-Four Tools For Good Living

Let acts of kindness be our delight and let us be filled with those foods that will nourish us for eternity. Let us be happy and giving food to the poor whose hunger is satisfied by our gift. Let us be joyful in clothing those whose nakedness we cover with necessary garments. Let our humanity be experienced by those who are sick in bed, the weak who are feeble, exiles in their hardship, orphans who are without resources, and lonely widows in their grief. There is no one who cannot be generous in doing some small thing to help such people. Income is never too small when the heart is large; the measure of kindness and mercy is not dependent on great wealth. SAINT LEO THE GREAT Lenten Sermons 2.4

The great men and women of prayer throughout the centuries were privileged to receive an interior union with the Lord that enabled them to descend into the depths beyond the word. They are therefore able to unlock for us the hidden treasures of prayer. And we may be sure that each of us, along with our totally personal relationship with God, is received into, and sheltered within, this prayer. Again and again, each one of us with his mens , his own spirit, must go out to meet, open himself to, and submit to the guidance of the vox , the word that comes to us from the Son. In this way his own heart will be opened, and each individual will learn the particular way in which the Lord wants to pray with him. POPE BENEDICT XVI Jesus of Nazareth

Is there anything He can refuse us in the future, if already in the present He gives Himself to us as our food? The Eucharist is our one happiness on earth. BLESSED JOSEPH CASSANT, OCSO

If you are happy, look upon your risen Lord. If you are suffering trials, or are sad, look upon Him on His way to the Garden. Love to speak to Him, not using forms of prayer, but words issuing from the compassion of your heart. ST. TERESA OF JESUS Way of Perfection

There is no heavier cross here below than that state of exhaustion and lassitude produced by the climate and by the life you have to lead. But, believe me, there is nothing that brings about the true divine life within us like union with the weakness of Jesus. In espousing our nature in the Incarnation, He took upon Himself all our weaknesses, all our powerlessness, all our suffering; He made them His own: "Surely He has borne our iniquities and carried our sorrows.” At the time of the Incarnation the Word did not assume a glorious body, like that of Thabor, not an impassible body like that of the resurrection, but a body made in the likeness of sinful flesh, like to ours in all things, save personal sin. In taking our sins, He uplifted and rendered our weaknesses divine , and thenceforth they cry out in us to the Father, like those of Jesus Christ Himself. It is by pure faith, by love without any feeling that this is brought about and, in place of our weaknesses we receive the st...

In order to experience our humanity in the full sense, it may be necessary to undergo the temptation of believing that we are sufficient unto ourselves. Once we have undergone this temptation, we will better understand that cleaving closely and inseparably to God represents progress in freedom. YVES DE MONTCHEUIL

Read often and learn as much as possible. Let sleep creep upon you as you hold a book, and let the Scriptures catch your head as you nod. SAINT JEROME

The deformity of Christ forms you. For, if he had not wished to be deformed, you would not have received back the form that you lost. Therefore he hung deformed upon the cross, but his deformity was our beauty. So let us in this life hold onto the deformed Christ. What is this deformed Christ? “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” [Galatians 6:14]. This is the deformity of Christ. SAINT AUGUSTINE Sermons 27.6.6

Indeed, this participation in the body and blood of the Lord, when we eat the bread and drink the cup, teaches us that we should die to the world and have our life hidden with Christ in God [see Colossians 3:3], that we should crucify our flesh with its vices and wicked desires [see Galatians 5:24]. Thus it happens that all the faithful, who love God and their neighbor, drink of the cup of the Lord's love even if they do not drink the cup of his bodily suffering. And when they have become inebriated with it they have put to death their members that are upon the earth [see Colossians 3:5] and, having clothed themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ [see Galatians 3:27], they pay no heed to the desires of the flesh [see Galatians 5:16]. The gift of love confers this upon us—that we should in fact be what we celebrate mystically in the sacrifice. FULGENTIUS OF RUSPE Against Fabian 28.18-19