tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58293526355307758952024-03-19T04:48:10.681-04:00ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MAWe are a community of Trappist monks who live a contemplative life of prayer and work. We hope that you enjoy the diary entries below. They are our way of giving you a greater glimpse into the lifestyle we live. We will update them regularly. Please also visit us at the Abbey's website by following the link below. May God's peace and love dwell richly in your hearts.St. Joseph's Abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07818075936441655430noreply@blogger.comBlogger2513125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-16061616010693549842024-03-19T03:00:00.001-04:002024-03-19T03:00:00.341-04:00Saint Joseph – Patron of Our Monastery<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPxzOmRIoF7kCBri0MGyaAVbvT9jNFhkowMdpX5dJRel9QZ6oLOaY8AVGdGaVV3HNKkdsDoYbWHleUNN4msTn71lTmLdEJeFNMIbIW4dX5-81kIBzF_20HMmpgP6-QLwbgZUDVOyHwHQZ-eD7o8j_iRiESjkI1GaVuuuh0P1CGPmAxEiP-OV1CCsC5cdI/s1200/main-image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1011" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPxzOmRIoF7kCBri0MGyaAVbvT9jNFhkowMdpX5dJRel9QZ6oLOaY8AVGdGaVV3HNKkdsDoYbWHleUNN4msTn71lTmLdEJeFNMIbIW4dX5-81kIBzF_20HMmpgP6-QLwbgZUDVOyHwHQZ-eD7o8j_iRiESjkI1GaVuuuh0P1CGPmAxEiP-OV1CCsC5cdI/s320/main-image.jpeg" width="270" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: helvetica; font-size: small; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">Saint Joseph Holding the Infant Christ</span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></span></span></span><p class="artwork__creation-origin" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5555; margin: 0px; max-width: 50em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>Anonymous</b></span></span></div><span class="artwork__artist" itemprop="creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="artwork__artist__name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>After<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Guido Reni</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><span class="artwork__artist__name" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Italian, </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">17th century</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>From the Met Collection, used with permission</b></span></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16.8845px; font-weight: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16.8845px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span><p></p></div><div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;">Joseph is portrayed in works of art with grey hair and a beard, an older figure next to Mary and Jesus, and often in the background. In the pope’s Apostolic Letter entitled<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20201208_patris-corde.html" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Patris Corde</em></a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Roboto, sans-serif;">, he wrote, “In his relationship to Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father. He watched over him and protected him, never leaving him to go his own way. We can think of Moses’ words to Israel: ‘In the wilderness … you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled’ (Deuteronomy 1:31). In a similar way, Joseph acted as a father for his whole life.”</span></div>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-78370574838220236012024-03-17T04:38:00.003-04:002024-03-17T04:39:11.314-04:00Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Just two days ago we heard these words in John’s Gospel, fromchapter 7: <i>They were trying to arrest Jesus, but no one could lay hands on him, because his hour </i><span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>had not yet come</i></span> (7.30). Here John gives us a historical fact with its theological explanation. But today it seems that everything has changed. From the lips of Jesus himself we hear, with somewhat trembling hearts, these solemn words from John’s chapter 12 that with great urgency immerse us into the full Paschal Mystery: <i>The hour </i><span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>has come</i></span><i> for the Son of Man to be glorified.</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>These words, and the crucial shift they proclaim, are very important. They call our attention to a vital aspect of Jesus’ Passion and Death.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The statement, <i>The hour </i><span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>has come</i></span><i> for the Son of Man to be glorified, </i>announces to us three capital realities: 1. God’s <i>freedom</i> as the driving force behind the Passion of the Messiah; 2. God’s <i>sovereignty</i> as Lord of all history; and 3. God’s <i>glorification</i> through the Death of the Messiah.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Jesus does indeed approach step by step a Passion full of suffering; but we should not overlook the fact that he does so with full <span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><b>freedom</b></span>, in a totally free, voluntary, and intentional way. In other words, the only force that drives Jesus into it is his Father’s will to save. Because Jesus is impelled into the Passion by the force of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ own will is in perfect harmony with the Father’s. We cannot speak here of simple “blind” or “accidental” suffering, or of “suffering for suffering’s sake”. Otherwise we could not speak of a passion <i>of love</i>, or of a life poured out <i>voluntarily</i>— not as a result of unfortunate circumstances, but poured out as a voluntary libation,<i> as a gift of self</i>. Love always demands freedom in the giving of the heart. No one could lay hands on Jesus until his hour had come in keeping with the Father’s saving plan.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This means that God’s vulnerability in Christ Jesus is the greatest sign of the omnipotence of a God who is love and who wants to save humankind by giving his divine life for mortals. God’s vulnerability in Jesus is a weakness freely chosen and accepted by God as the most effective means of communicating his love and life to the world. It is precisely by means of Jesus’ voluntary Passion that God has placed his law of love within us, inscribing it deep within the flesh of our hearts.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So now <i>the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified:</i> this declaration of Jesus reveals the absolute <span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><b>sovereignty</b></span> of God. It is the Father who decides when and how his Son will give his life. Without this decision, humans are powerless to take any initiative. Their hands are tied and their own wickedness can do nothing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The Lover of the human race will hand himself over into the hands of those who hate God only when his loving heart has decided that the perfect time has come. He exclaims: <i>For this very reason I have come to this hour! Father, glorify your Name.</i> Here again we see that what is involved is <i>sovereignty</i>, but not the arbitrary autonomy of a tyrant god but the majestic supremacy of a Creator and Redeemer God, who uses all his wisdom and all his Trinitarian power only to foster and increase life, never to destroy it. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And such is also the <span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><b>glory of love</b></span>: God is truly glorified not by triumphing over mortals and crushing them, but by overcoming the Prince of this world who is the beginning of all evil and the enemy of both God and man. This divine victory happens without the noise of weapons, and it takes place precisely when Jesus dies obediently on the Cross: <i>Because of his full surrender to God, Jesus was heard, and ... being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.</i> In this way, Jesus shows that his faithful love to the Father—not only as divine Son but also as human Servant—is stronger than the Adversary’s hatred, stronger than human infidelity. The Father is fully glorified by the Son when, by dying freely and sovereignly, the Son reveals who the Father is: none other than the one who sent him to give his life and bring eternal salvation to all. In Christ, on Calvary, divine Glory and human Passion become one. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But love does not want to be alone; love always wants to share in its redemptive adventure. Therefore, Jesus further tells us: <i>And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself.</i> Jesus is lifted up to heaven, paradoxically, at the very moment when he descends into death. For him, to descend into death is the same as to ascend to glory. Such is the logic of divine love, so different from ours!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And Jesus ascends upward, toward Life, not to remain alone but to draw all to himself in his trajectory back to the Father. The glory of love is to die to self in order to multiply love as much as possible, for <i>if the grain of wheat dies, it produces much fruit. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This spreading of love, moreover, is not automatic. Just as the Messiah’s <i>giving</i> of his life had to happen in complete freedom, so too must we <i>accept</i> Jesus’ giving of his life in complete freedom. Indeed, we must allow ourselves to be drawn by Jesus to his throne of glory on the cross! <i>Where I am, there will my servant also be</i>, he says. Where love truly exists, there also is the burning desire for union, for intensely shared life. Love never asks itself in what kind of situation—whether of joy or suffering—the beloved might be, before reaching out to her. Love only asks <i>where</i> the beloved is in order to reach him as soon as possible, exactly as Mary Magdalen magnificently asked the supposed gardener concerning her beloved Jesus, whom she thought dead: <i>If you have carried him away, tell me </i><span class="s2" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><i>where</i></span><i> you have laid him, and I will take him away</i> (Jn 20:15). <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We who have gathered in this chapel this morning, eager to receive the Body and Blood of Christ: Will we be among the blessed who joyfully allow themselves to be drawn toward Jesus crucified no matter what? Shall we say to him, <i>Here we come, Lord!,</i> even knowing that his soul is now beginning to be troubled unto death—even knowing that, in order to produce much fruit together with Jesus, we must die to ourselves? And yet, what could be clearer and more piercing than the following words of his intimate invitation to us, his professed disciples, words so brimming with yearning and full of promise: <i>If anyone wishes to serve me, let that person follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-69380090381069155082024-03-16T03:00:00.001-04:002024-03-16T03:00:00.143-04:00Why the End Time is Unknown<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Not to know when the end is, or the day of the end, is good for people, lest knowing, they might become negligent of the time between, awaiting the days near the end. For then they would argue that they must only attend to themselves. Therefore, too, [Christ] has been silent about the time when each shall die, lest men, being elated because of this knowledge, should immediately neglect themselves for the greater part of their time. Both the end of all things and the end of each of us, then, has been concealed from us by the Word (for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended), so that since it is uncertain and always in the future, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things in front of us and forgetting the things behind.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">SAINT ATHANASIUS <i>Discourses Against the Arians</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-17650422501264110482024-03-14T04:30:00.000-04:002024-03-14T04:30:00.277-04:00 Saint Ephraim’s Prayer<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Lord and Master of my life,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">take far from me the spirit of laziness, discouragement, domination, and idle talk;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">grant to me, thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, love;</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">yea, my Lord and King, grant me to see my sins, and not to judge my neighbor,</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">for thou are blessed forever and ever. Amen.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">EPHRAIM OF SYRIA <i>Prayer for the Season of Lent in the Byzantine Rite</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-8303433048700999252024-03-13T03:30:00.001-04:002024-03-13T03:30:00.129-04:00Devote Yourselves to Prayer<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">You must not break away from holy prayer for any reason except obedience or charity. For often during the time scheduled for prayer the devil comes with all sorts of struggles and annoyances—even more than when you are not at prayer. He does this to make you weary of holy prayer. Often he will say: “This sort of prayer is worthless to you. You should not think about or pay attention to anything except vocal prayer.” He makes it seem this way so that you will become weary and confused and abandon the exercise of prayer. But prayer is a weapon with which you can defend yourself against every enemy. If you hold it with love’s hand and the arm of free choice, this weapon, with the light of most holy faith, will be your defense.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA <i>The Dialogue</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-71527183576320261822024-03-11T03:00:00.002-04:002024-03-11T10:27:48.477-04:00Persevering in Prayer<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We must be firmly convinced from the start that, if we fight courageously and do not allow ourselves to be beaten, we shall get what we want, and there is no doubt that, however small our gains may be, they will make us very rich. Do not be afraid that the Lord Who has called us to drink of this spring will allow you to die of thirst. This I have already said and I should like to repeat it; for people are often timid when they have not learned by experience of the Lord’s goodness, even though they know of it by faith. It is a great thing to have experienced what friendship and joy He gives to those who walk on this road and how He takes almost the whole cost of it upon Himself. I am not surprised that those who have never made this test should want to be sure that they will receive some interest on their outlay. But you already know that even in this life we shall receive a hundredfold, and that the Lord says: “Ask and it shall be given you.” If you do not believe His Majesty in those passages of His Gospel where He gives us this assurance, it will be of little help to you, sisters, for me to weary my brains by telling you of it. Still, I will say to anyone who is in doubt that she will lose little by putting the matter to the test; for this journey has the advantage of giving us very much more than we ask or shall even get so far as to desire. This is a never-failing truth: I know it; though, if you do not find it so, do not believe any of the things I tell you. I can call as witnesses those of you who, by God’s goodness, know it from experience.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">SAINT TERESA OF AVILA <i>The Way of Perfection</i>, CH. 23</p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-24388601480163370212024-03-09T03:00:00.001-05:002024-03-09T03:00:00.238-05:00Seeking God Aright<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We only deceive ourselves by seeking or loving God for any favors which He has or may grant us. Such favors, no matter how great, can never bring us as near to God as can one simple act of faith. Let us seek Him often by faith. He is within us. Seek Him not elsewhere.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">BROTHER LAWRENCE OF THE RESURRECTION<i> The Practice of the Presence of God, Letter 15</i></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-80657884346865049942024-03-08T03:00:00.001-05:002024-03-08T03:00:00.350-05:00St. Teresa on Praying the Our Father<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I want you to understand that, if you are to recite the Paternoster well, one thing is needful: you must not leave the side of the Master Who has taught it to you. You will say at once that this is meditation, and that you are not capable of it, and do not even wish to practice it, but are content with vocal prayer. For there are impatient people who dislike giving themselves trouble, and it is troublesome at first to practice recollection of the mind when one has not made it a habit. So, in order not to make themselves the least bit tired, they say they are incapable of anything but vocal prayer and do not know how to do anything further. You are right to say that what we have described is mental prayer; but I assure you that I cannot distinguish it from vocal prayer faithfully recited with a realization of Who it is that we are addressing. Further, we are under the obligation of trying to pray attentively: may God grant that, by using these means, we may learn to say the Paternoster well and not find ourselves thinking of something irrelevant. I have sometimes experienced this myself, and the best remedy I have found for it is to try to fix my mind on the Person by Whom the words were first spoken. Have patience, then, and try to make this necessary practice into a habit, for necessary it is, in my opinion, for those who would be nuns, and indeed for all who would pray like good Christians.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;">ST. TERESA OF AVILA<i> The Way of Perfection</i> <span style="font-size: 11px;"><i></i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-63759788733781211802024-03-07T03:00:00.001-05:002024-03-07T03:00:00.139-05:00The Blessed Sacrament<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">During the days of His mortal life Jesus was present in one place only; He dwelt in one house only. Few persons were privileged enough to enjoy His presence and listen to His words. But today in the Most Blessed Sacrament, He is, so to speak, present everywhere at one and the same time. In a way His humanity shares the prerogative of His Divine immensity which fills all things. Jesus is present in His entirety in an infinite number of temples and in each one of them; Since all the Catholics scattered throughout the world are members of His Mystical Body, it does seem necessary that He, as the soul of it, should be everywhere, present throughout the whole body, giving it life, and sustaining it in each one of His members.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><i></i></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">ST. PETER JULIAN EYMARD<i> The Real Presence</i></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-607541181324591962024-03-05T18:39:00.001-05:002024-03-05T18:39:00.132-05:00Apprehending God in Creation<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In regard to the making of the universe and the creation of all things there have been various opinions, and each person has propounded the theory that suited his own taste. For instance, some say that all things are self-originated and, so to speak, haphazard. The Epicureans are among these; they deny that there is any Mind behind the universe at all. This view is contrary to all the facts of experience, their own existence included. For if all things had come into being in this automatic fashion, instead of being the outcome of Mind, though they existed, they would all be uniform and without distinction. In the universe everything would be sun or moon or whatever it was, and in the human body the whole would be hand or eye or foot. But in point of fact the sun and the moon and the earth are all different things, and even within the human body there are different members, such as foot and hand and head. This distinctness of things argues not a spontaneous generation but a prevenient Cause; and from that Cause we can apprehend God, the Designer and Maker of all.</p><p class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><i></i><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">SAINT ATHANASIUS<i> On the Incarnation, Ch. 1</i></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-60518878710050752202024-03-04T03:00:00.001-05:002024-03-04T03:00:00.135-05:00One Simple Act of Faith<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We only deceive ourselves by seeking or loving God for any favors which He has or may grant us. Such favors, no matter how great, can never bring us as near to God as can one simple act of faith. Let us seek Him often by faith. He is within us. Seek Him not elsewhere.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i></i><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">BROTHER LAWRENCE OF THE RESURRECTION<i> The Practice of the Presence of God, Letter 15</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-66897398387850238222024-03-02T04:23:00.002-05:002024-03-02T04:23:28.194-05:00Who Are You to Judge Your Neighbor?<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">None of us has the right to condemn anyone. Even when we see people doing bad and we don't know why they do it. Jesus invites us not to pass judgment. Maybe we are the ones who have helped make them what they are. We need to realize that they are our brothers and sisters. That leper, that drunkard, and that sick person are our brothers because they too have been created for a greater love. This is something that we should never forget. Jesus Christ identifies himself with them and says, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matt.25:40). Perhaps it is because we haven't given them our understanding and love that they find themselves on the streets without love and care.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">SAINT TERESA OF KOLKATA <i>No Greater Love</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-263071999404904582024-03-01T07:42:00.006-05:002024-03-01T07:42:42.426-05:00Draw Near to God<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Draw near to the Lord by following his footsteps through humility, and he will draw near to you by freeing you from your difficulties through his mercy. For not everyone is far from God by distances but by dispositions. For both he who is inclined to virtues and he who falls away in the filth of vices dwell in one place on the earth, the one is far from God, the other has God near.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">SAINT BEDE <i>Commentary on James</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-41237185317535334882024-02-29T03:00:00.001-05:002024-02-29T03:00:00.139-05:00Pure Religion<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Do you want to show honor to Christ’s Body? Do not neglect him when naked; do not neglect him perishing outside of cold and nakedness, while here you honor him with silken garments. For he that said, “This is my body,” and by his word confirmed the fact, also said, "I was hungry and you gave me no food"; and, "as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matt. 25:42, 45). For this indeed needs not coverings but a pure soul; but that requires much attention.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Let us learn therefore to be strict in life, and to honor Christ as he himself desires. For to him who is honored, the honor that he desires is most pleasing, not the honor we consider best. Peter thought he was honoring Christ by forbidding him to wash his feet, but doing so was not an honor—just the contrary.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Even so do you honor him with this honor, which he ordained: spending your wealth on poor people because God has no need at all of golden vessels but of golden souls.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM <i>Homilies on Matthew</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-5541591780536721122024-02-27T01:33:00.000-05:002024-02-27T01:33:30.808-05:00Double-Minded Prayer<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Without courage we can never attain to true simplicity. Cowardice keeps us “double-minded”—hesitating between the world and God. In this hesitation, there is no true faith—faith remains an opinion. We are never certain, because we never quite give in to the authority of an invisible God. Hesitation is the death of Hope. We never let go of those visible supports which, we well know, must one day surely fail us. And this hesitation makes true prayer impossible—it never quite dares to ask for anything, or if it asks, it is so uncertain of being heard that in the very act of asking it surreptitiously seeks by human prudence, to construct a makeshift answer.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our prayer?</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">THOMAS MERTON <i>Thoughts in Solitude</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-57622371591371810102024-02-25T08:38:00.000-05:002024-02-25T08:38:15.795-05:00Homily For Second Sunday of Lent<p class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><b>IMMOLATION AND TRANSFIGURATION</b></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span class="s1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">A</span>fter triumphing over the temptations of the Adversary last week, today the Lord Jesus takes us with him from the depths of a dark desert to the shining heights of Mount Tabor. Unlike the dreadful solitude of the desert, here on Tabor we experience a true fullness of communion. The text structures the narrative at three levels, and in three groups of three persons each. First, there's the triad of disciples—Peter, James and John—whom Jesus takes with him up the mountain. A second triad sums up the history of salvation: Moses (the Law), Elijah (the Prophets), and Jesus (the Fullness) converse peacefully with one another, in a profound accord that symbolizes the unity and harmony of all Revelation. But, in this ascending hierarchy, the summit will be the manifestation of the divine Triad: the <i>Father</i>, whose voice can be heard speaking only of the Son; the <i>Son</i>, the Mediator, who is integrated into both the divine and human orders; and the <i>Holy Spirit</i>, whose active presence is signified by the Cloud that covers the disciples with its shadow, just as the Spirit had covered Our Lady at the Annunciation (Lk 1.35).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The dazzling person of Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Incarnate Word, is at the center of the whole epiphany. Jesus, the uni-versal center where all created and uncreated realities converge, opens for all a passageway to the invisible Heart of God. In his human body, deified by the divine Light that inhabits it, Jesus offers God our humanity, elevated by grace and immersed in divine life. In this sense, the Transfiguration is already a foretaste of the new cosmic order of the Kingdom that will be inaugurated by Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">By plunging his disciples into the spiritual <i>and</i> sensual experience of this transformation of his person, Jesus puts them to the test, just as God had tested Abraham, in order to purify their faith and enable them to have access to the torrent of life that is the Holy Trinity. However, Peter didn’t know what to say, so great was their fear: to experience Christ’s glory and intimate secrets in this way, to contemplate with mortal eyes the uncreated Light shining from within Jesus and his very garments, to listen to the eternal words of the heavenly Father with human ears—all this constitutes a difficult and truly <i>frightening</i> experience, even if it is at the same time <i>exhilarating</i> and <i>life-giving</i>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The trust that God places in us by revealing his innermost being demands our own total “transfiguration”. From now on, even if we are only half-awake, we cannot remain the same; from now on, we too must shine with the light with which God has flooded us. Among other things, the Transfiguration is a mystery that demands our conversion, and that’s why we climb Tabor with Jesus in the middle of Lent, to be converted to his Light, to accept his Light within us, so that finally we might become, with him, the Light of the world (Jn 8.12; Mt 5.14).<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But why does the Church today present to our contemplation this parallel between the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah and the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor? What connection can there be between bloody <i>Immolation</i> and light-filled <i>Transfiguration</i>? In my opinion, it’s because both episodes reveal the magnificent beauty of eternal Love, a Love that can only be experienced, by God or man, in the unbreakable unity binding suffering and glory. In the Passion of the Lord Jesus, light and blood merge, becoming one, because both blood and light communicate life. Let’s take a closer look at this challenging mystery of our faith.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the Genesis account we have just heard, God outrageously orders Abraham, knife in hand, to sacrifice “his only son, the one he loves”, Isaac. Note that this formula of Abraham’s predilection for Isaac <i>(his only son, the one he loves)</i> is almost identical to the words the eternal Father utters from the cloud: <i>This is my beloved Son</i>. What Isaac is to Abraham on the human level, Jesus is to God on the divine level. So God must perfectly understand in his Heart the full scope of what he requires of Abraham. Note as well the astounding fact that Abraham’s “Here I am!” at the moment of God’s <i>second</i> summons—the very moment when, obediently, he is about to plunge his knife into the flesh of his beloved son—is in no way less serene or whole-hearted than his first “Here I am!” at the <i>beginning</i> of the story, when Abraham does not yet know what God is going to demand of him. Even if the whole scene on Mount Moriah doubtless has something keenly repugnant about it that assaults our human sensibilities and our conventional ideas of God, the fact remains that the majestic narrative plunges us into the mystery of God’s absoluteness, something that we moderns have largely lost sight of. Do we even believe that <i>any </i>absolute exists?</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In any case, this scene leads us to conclude that God’s absoluteness demands of us total submission, boundless trust, even and especially when we don’t understand God’s deepest motivations and intentions, which in fact we never do! The moment Abraham stretched out his hand and seized the knife to immolate his son, the great Patriarch could not have known that the very instant the angel of the Lord would call down to him from heaven to command him not to lay a hand on the boy. It is in this unhesitating obedience, in the depths of his darkness and anguish, that all the greatness and holiness of Abraham, our father in the faith, lies. He risked the absolute absurd and was rewarded, through Isaac himself, with an endless progeny.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Nevertheless, it is elsewhere, in the Mystery of Christ grasped most fully by St Paul in his Letter to the Romans, that we must seek God’s true intention when he commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. With this command, God wanted to prepare what we might call the “way of the three mountains”, that is, he wanted to set in motion the process of salvation history that begins at Mount Moriah, then passes through the splendor of Mount Tabor, and finally arrives at Mount Calvary, the Mount of the Cross. <i>He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,</i> writes St Paul, <i>how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?</i> (Rom 8.32). In the final analysis, God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac was merely a prefiguration, the anticipation of an unheard-of mystery that makes up the very substance of God’s Heart: I mean God’s eagerness to sacrifice himself in his Son in order to give us life in him.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If we are already overwhelmed by Abraham’s absolute obedience to a commandment that could only have seemed brutal and terrible to him as a human being, what can we then say about the way God was driven, by the love he has for us, to the extreme of plunging the sacrificial knife into his own Heart by delivering his beloved Son to death? We can never repeat it enough: <i>God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life</i> (Jn 3.16). And the precious Blood of this only-begotten and beloved Son of God has truly flowed over our earth, whereas the blood of Isaac, which symbolized it in advance, was never shed: <i>One of the soldiers pierced [Jesus’] side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water</i> (Jn 19.34). Yes, the Almighty spared Isaac, but he did not spare the Son of his own womb! In the mystery of the Cross of Christ, the out-pouring of the Blood of the Lamb becomes one and the same thing with the shining forth of the Light of God’s Love transfiguring all of creation. There can be no lasting transfiguration without the bitterness of immolation. The unfathomable suffering of our beloved Lord Jesus acts as the hydraulic power of an incomparable Love, driving the light of Salvation through his sacred wounds and making it burst forth out of eternity into the darkness of our world and each of our hearts. And this precious fusion of blood and light reaches us at this altar today under the appearances of Bread and Wine, seeking to transfigure our hearts. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-17306496199741462292024-02-24T08:08:00.004-05:002024-02-24T08:08:28.544-05:00Learning to Pray<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Oftentimes it’s enough merely to meet one day a true man or woman of prayer for an irresistible desire to pray to emerge in oneself. There are many today, it seems, who carry this wound in their hearts, this obscure but insistent longing. Let us call it an attraction for prayer. It is an initial call of the Spirit in the heart of a believer that moves him to abandon himself to the mysterious current whose meaning and orientation are barely glimpsed. This attraction brings with it a certain facility for recollection, a spontaneous stripping-off of all that could distract from its activity, which takes place entirely in the interior depths.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">ANDRÉ LOUF<i> In the School of Contemplation</i>, Ch. 10, pg. 146</span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-34034627790453724892024-02-23T03:00:00.001-05:002024-02-23T03:00:00.132-05:00Fasting<p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"Fasting makes sense if it really chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else, if it helps us cultivate the style of the good Samaritan, who bent down to his brother in need and took care of him."</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">POPE FRANCIS</span></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-67646779889175004922024-02-21T03:00:00.001-05:002024-02-21T03:00:00.139-05:00True Freedom<p><span style="background-color: #f9f7f6; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">SAINT JOHN PAUL II </span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-55686507296882821132024-02-20T03:00:00.001-05:002024-02-20T03:00:00.135-05:00Enduring Darkness in Prayer<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Let us not be troubled when it befalls us to be plunged into darkness, especially if we are not responsible for it. You must realize that this darkness enshrouding you has been given you by God's providence for reasons known to him alone. Sometimes indeed our soul is engulfed by the waves and drowned. Whether we give ourselves to the reading of scripture or to prayer, whatever we do we are increasingly imprisoned in darkness… it is an hour filled with despair and fear. The soul is utterly deprived of hope in God and the consolation of faith. It is entirely filled with perplexity and anguish.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But those who have been tested by the distress of such an hour know that in the end it is followed by a change. God never leaves the soul for a whole day in such a state, for then hope would be destroyed…rather he allows it to emerge very soon from the darkness.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Blessed is he who endures such temptations… For, as the Fathers say, great will be the stability and the strength to which he will come after that. However, it is not in one hour or at one stroke that such a combat is concluded. Nor is it at one moment, but gradually, that grace comes to take up its dwelling completely in the soul. After grace, the trial returns. There is a time for trial. And there is a time for consolation.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">ISAAC OF NINEVEH <i>Ascetic Treatises</i>, 57</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-70295631493638734442024-02-19T03:00:00.001-05:002024-02-19T03:00:00.131-05:00 Praying in Our Inner Room<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We have to take particular care to follow the Gospel precept that bids us go into our inner room and shut the door to pray to our Father. This is how to do it.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We are praying in our inner room when we withdraw our heart completely from the clamor of our thoughts and preoccupations, and in a kind of secret dialogue, as between intimate friends, we lay bare our desires before the Lord.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We are praying with our door shut when, without opening our mouth, we call on the One who takes no account of words but considers the heart.</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We are praying in secret when we speak to God with the heart alone and with concentration of the soul, and make known our state of mind to him alone, in such a way that even the enemy powers themselves cannot guess their nature. Such is the reason for the deep silence that it behoves us to keep in prayer…</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thus our prayers should be frequent but short, for fear that if they are prolonged the enemy might have an opportunity to insinuate distraction into them. This is true sacrifice: ‘A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise’ (Psalm 51.17).</span></p><p class="p3" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">JOHN CASSIAN <i>Conferences</i>, IX, 35-6</span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-69083110592447324442024-02-18T07:20:00.000-05:002024-02-18T07:20:21.490-05:00The Angels Ministered to Him<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the Holy Land, the Judean desert, which lies to the west of the River Jordan and the Oasis of Jericho, rises over stony valleys to reach an altitude of about one thousand meters at Jerusalem. After receiving baptism from John, Jesus entered that lonely place, led by the Holy Spirit himself who had settled upon him, consecrating him and revealing him as the Son of God. In the desert, a place of trial as the experience of the people of Israel shows, the dramatic reality of the self-emptying of Christ who had stripped himself of the form of God (Phil 2:6-7) appears most vividly. He who never sinned and cannot sin submits to being tested and can therefore sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15). He lets himself be tempted by Satan, the enemy, who has been opposed to God's saving plan for humankind from the outset. ...even in the situation of extreme poverty and humility, when he is tempted by Satan he remains the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">POPE BENEDICT XVI</span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-41726279945456139232024-02-17T03:00:00.001-05:002024-02-17T03:00:00.135-05:00One Life, One Heart<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is not true, as some maintain who are led astray by error, that the human being is irremediably dead and can no longer do anything good. A small child is incapable of anything; it cannot run to its mother on its own legs; it tumbles on the ground, cries out, sobs, calls out to her. And she is gentle with it, she is touched to see her baby seeking her so impatiently with so many sobs. It cannot reach her but cries out to her tirelessly, and she goes to it overcome with love, she kisses it, presses it to her heart and feeds it, with unspeakable tenderness. God loves us and he behaves like her towards the soul that seeks him and cries out to him. In the eagerness of that infinite love that is his…he takes hold of our spirit, unites himself to it, and we become ‘one Spirit with him’, as the apostle says (I Corinthians 6.17). The soul is linked with the Lord, and the Lord, full of compassion and love, unites himself to it and it dwells in his grace. Then the soul and the Lord are one spiritually, they form one life, one heart.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">PSEUDO-MACARIUS <i>Forty-sixth Homily</i></span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-46051901031887287112024-02-16T03:00:00.012-05:002024-02-16T03:00:00.147-05:00The Mystery of Love Throughout Time<p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“Every human being who performs a free act thereby projects his personality into infinity. . . . Wherever and whenever it occurs, an act of love, a movement of genuine compassion sings the praise of God from Adam to the end of time, heals the sick, consoles the despairing, quiets tempests, frees prisoners, converts the unbelieving and protects all mankind.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">LEON BLOY</span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5829352635530775895.post-37842090486078497332024-02-14T12:26:00.005-05:002024-02-14T12:26:53.555-05:00Ash Wednesday Homily<p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“We love because he first loved us.” I decided to take this Scripture text as my guide this Lent. It puts things in the right order. All our efforts at repentance and reconciliation—important as they are—ultimately, are a response to God’s love. It is God’s love that goes before us, accompanies us, and brings our repentance to completion. Lent is a perfect time to reflect on this love.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today I would like to look at one particular form of God’s love, a rather extreme one, at least as St. Paul describes it. In the second reading, Paul as God’s ambassador was imploring us to be reconciled to God. He builds his case by showing us how God has closed the gap between us and to what lengths he will go to break down the dividing wall of enmity between us: "For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But how can it be that “…he made him to be sin who did not know sin…”? Our Lord Jesus never sinned. He was wholly ordered to the will of his Father. What does it mean that he was made sin? A passage from Galatians sheds light on this: “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree.” On the cross Our Lord endured every estrangement, every aspect of shame, every misery that human beings could inflict, because he wanted to offer us his friendship and make reconciliation a possibility from God’s side. Jesus became a curse for us to show us that nothing can separate us from his love. And from that extreme point of the cross, the blessing of Abraham has been extended to us, “…so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith,” as Paul says.</span></p><p class="p2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This is the good news of Lent: we have a co-worker in the work of reconciliation—the Spirit of Jesus. Out of love Jesus took upon himself the curse of all sin, and because of this the Father has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. The Spirit of Jesus makes it possible for us to be faithful and upright in the Father’s sight. By the Spirit we can become holy—we must become holy as Jesus is holy. Let us believe in this gospel and be reconciled to God, for he loved us first.</span></p>a monk of st. joseph's abbeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00266711804660685452noreply@blogger.com