ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

Love boils over, does not contain itself, overflows itself, rivals immensity, while it knows not how to set a limit to its affections. It is oil which cannot stop it's flow until no other container is available, except that not even then can it be checked. Love shows a characteristic of new wine which, by fermenting as it is born and by wantonness as it ages, bubbles up and overflows unable to contain itself, always seething and fermenting with fresh affection. In its infirmity, love does not excuse but accuses itself. Nothing is enough for love, nothing less than itself. Love cannot be satisfied with itself and yet love can feed only on itself; it is food delicious enough for itself. Love wants nothing more than to love. What will a person give in exchange for love? What will one give or will one receive? Nothing is impacted more graciously than love, nothing is experienced more gently. Love is delicious in desire and in enjoyment; love is delicious in joy and sorrow. Truly love i...

‘Be careful’, says the apostle, 'to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace’. This unity is exceedingly delicate. This is why, very often, when we have some encounter that is less devout or some thought that is less cheerful than we had yesterday or the day before, or when through carelessness, we break out into any indication of having less patience, we are thrown off balance. We are angry and quick tempered, with the result that we learn in our wretchedness how fragile charity is. JOHN OF FORDE Sermon 91

To seek God is a great good; in my opinion the soul knows no greater blessing. It is the first of her gifts and the final stage in her progress. It is inferior to none, and yields place to none. What could be superior to it, when nothing has a higher place? What could claim a higher place, when it is the consummation of all things? What virtue can be attributed to anyone who does not seek God? What boundary can be set for anyone who does seek him? The Psalmist says: ‘seek his face always’. ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX  

We prescribe for one another remedies that will bring us peace of mind, and we are still devoured by anxiety. We evolve plans for disarmament and for the peace of nations, and our plans only change the manner and method of aggression. The rich have everything they want except happiness, and the poor are sacrificed to the unhappiness of the rich. Dictatorships use their secret police to crush millions under an intolerable burden of lies, injustice and tyranny, and those who still live in democracy have forgotten how to make a good use of their liberty. For liberty is a thing of the spirit, and we are no longer able to live for anything but our bodies. How can we find peace, true peace, if we forget that we are not machines for making and spending money, but spiritual beings, sons and daughters of the most high God? THOMAS MERTON   The Monastic Journey

I’m remembering the English language cinema in Rome, where we American students would go, when wearied by our struggles with Italian; it was called Cinema Pasquino. Now, the amazing thing about this Cinema Pasquino was that at intermission the ceiling would open with some odd contraption. You’d hear a cranking noise, and then suddenly you could see the night sky, stars, a bit of breeze and then those viewers who wished were now allowed to smoke. You’ll excuse the analogy, but I think that when we enter this church for Eucharist, or to chant the Office, or even whenever we do lectio divina , wherever we are, something very similar happens. There’s no ceiling, only an easy interchange between heaven and earth. The Lord is near, very near.   This open traffic between heaven and earth began at Bethlehem of course when the heavens were opened, and angels filled the skies, announcing Jesus’ birth to shepherds. “Fear not,” they said. “We have tidings of great joy.” Heaven has been wedded ...

We only love if we have first been loved. Hear what the apostle John has to say. He it was who leaned on the Master’s heart and resting there drank in heavenly secrets… Among the other secrets which the great seer drew from that source he showed us this: ‘We love him because he first loved us.’ Ask how anyone can love God and you will find no other answer than this: God first loved us. He whom we love has given himself first. He has given himself so that we may love him. What was his gift? The apostle Paul states it more clearly:  ‘ God’s love has been poured into our hearts.’ By what means? Through us perhaps? No. Through whom then? ‘Through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.’ ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO Sermon 34 on Psalm 149

This is the nature of love: to the extent that we distance ourselves from the center and do not love God, we distance ourselves from our neighbor; but if we love God, then the nearer we draw to him in love, the more we are united with our neighbor in love. DOROTHEUS OF GAZA Instructions

Spiritual progress has no other test in the end, nor any better expression, than our ability to love. It has to be unselfish love founded on respect, a service, a disinterested affection that does not ask to be paid in return, a ‘sympathy’, indeed an ‘empathy’ that takes us out of ourselves enabling us to ‘feel with’ the other person and indeed to ‘feel in’ him or her. It gives us the ability to discover in the other person an inward nature as mysterious and deep as our own, but different and willed to be so by God. OLIVIER CLÉMENT The Roots of Christian Mysticism

Br. Kenneth, your solemn profession has brought together a microcosm of the Church with the presence of your dear mother and father, your sister and her family, friends from your youth and even from your days in India, former band members, our sisters from Wrentham, and your own brothers of Spencer. Our heavenly Father must be pleased to see so many of his children gathered to celebrate this solemn moment of your monastic consecration. You have found your treasure, and with it you are opening a window into your heart. For Jesus’ saying applies to you, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Let us look at this treasure which you are embracing today, namely, the Cistercian life in all its fulness.   But I would be remiss on this feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, if I did not mention how much Our Lady is pleased to see you clothed in the cowl of Citeaux. For certainly, our Order is a treasure to Our Lady. Other vocations are, no doubt, of equal value or even mor...

The Christian says: creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. C.S. LEWIS Mere Christianity

The mind of Saint Paul is clear. He wants all the Corinthians now in this life to be transformed from “one glory to another into the image” of God himself (2 Cor 3:18). What the apostle has in mind is so unspeakable a transformation in love that no eye has seen, no ear has heard anything comparable, nor can it dawn on our imagination what God has prepared even in this life for those who love as they ought. THOMAS DUBAY, S.M. …And you are Christ’s

Life shines brightly not because we are rich, beautiful or powerful. Instead, it shines when we discovered within ourselves the truth that we are called by God, have a vocation, having a mission, that our lives serve something greater than ourselves. POPE LEO XIV  

In a short while we will process with the Blessed Sacrament around our cloisters, a path we travel many times each day. It reminds me of the rock that St. Paul said followed the Israelites in the desert, the one struck by Moses to bring forth water for the people, and Paul says, “the rock was the Christ.” This is a foreshadowing of what happens to us in our monastic journey. For just as God had directed all the journeying of the Israelites in the desert, testing them to know their intentions, so, Jesus has accompanied us and directed our journey, feeding us with his very body and blood. He is our rock whose body was struck by the soldier’s lance and blood and water flowed out to nourish us in all the stages of our journey. Our procession through the cloister is a remembrance of the intimate presence of Jesus in our midst. The Book of Deuteronomy exhorted the Israelites to remember all the blessings they had received starting with their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, then to the pro...

The Father of all things is a well-beloved kingdom.  Anyone who is in him, a nyone who establishes his dwelling in him, f iinds his joy in living as a stranger, b ecause he has for delicious food t he beauty of God's face. EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS Centuries, Suppl. 57

When the Holy Spirit acts in the soul he sings Psalms and praises with complete relaxation and sweetness in the secret places of the heart. This disposition is accompanied by interior tears, then by a sort of fullness, eager for silence. DIADOCHUS OF PHOTIKE Gnostic Chapters, 73

Let us learn the wonder of this sacrament, the purpose of its institution, the effects it produces. We become a single body, according to Scripture, members of his flesh and bone of his bones. This is what is brought about by the food that he gives us. He blends himself with us so that we may all become one single entity in the way the body is joined to the head. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM Homily on John, 46