The Visitation

The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
He will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.

Like Our Blessed Lady, with Our Lady we too are tabernacles of the most High God; the Lord is within us. As the Lord rejoices over us, singing joyfully because of our openness to him, we rejoice greatly with Our Lady for all that the Lord in his mercy has done for us.

The Visitation, c. 1495, attributed to Rueland Frueauf the Elder, German (c. 1445 - 1507)
Oil on panel,  27 5/8 x 14 15/16 in., Fogg Museum.
Lines from the Prophet Zephaniah 3.

The Feast of God's Embrace

We share some excerpts from Father Abbot's Pentecost homily:

Mesopatamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome. These names belong to the Jewish diaspora- all those places where Jews spread after being exiled from Jerusalem. Luke’s point here is that everyone in the Jewish world was capable of hearing the Good News, even if the accent pointed to Galilee. So it is the broader Jewish world that is being referred to. We already know from the later readings in Acts, which we have been hearing throughout the Easter Season, that the Good News was also heard and accepted beyond the limits of Judaism and the Jewish diaspora into the Gentile world. This is what Paul’s missionary journeys are all about.  In other words, the embrace of God’s Spirit knows no limits or boundaries. God’s embrace is infinitely wide and boundless.

            Pentecost is the Feast of God’s embrace. On the Cross, Jesus was incarnating, fleshing-out God’s forgiveness, embracing the universe. And this ‘fleshing out’ did not stop at the Cross. For as we heard in the gospel, “On the evening of the first day of the week” Jesus came and stood in the midst of the shattered and broken disciples and embraced them with his forgiveness and peace, continuing to incarnate God’s forgiving embrace. His death did not break this embrace. And this forgiving, universal embrace does not stop here either. For he breathed on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven.” In other words, continue to incarnate, flesh out this forgiveness that you have received. Continue to embrace all with this forgiveness.

My brothers and sisters, to live such a life of universal embrace and forgiveness is impossible on our own. But it is not impossible in and through the Spirit of God that has been poured out within and among us.

Come Holy Spirit

We long for the fullness of Jesus' Promise, his gracious Spirit- within us, all around us. As Jesus speaks these words to his Father in the 17th chapter of Saint John's Gospel, we are reminded of the beauty and dignity that are ours in him. "I have given them the glory you gave me... I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."     

And we hear echoes of the following words of Saint John Chrysostom, "But what do I care about heaven, when I myself have become heaven?" Indeed through baptism into Christ, we have become temples of the most high God in the Spirit.

Photograph of Abbey meadow by Brother Casimir.

Clothing of Brother Peter

On Sunday during Chapter our Brother Peter Lynch was clothed in the novice's habit. Peter comes to us after teaching for several years at a parochial school on Long Island. We rejoice to have Peter in our community.We include a portfolio of pictures of the ceremony taken by Brother Joseph.

O God, in that unutterable kindness by which you dispose all things sweetly and wisely, you gave us clothing, so that a triple benefit might be ours: we are covered with dignity, kept warm and protected in body and soul. Father, pour forth the blessing of your Holy Spirit upon us this morning and upon these clothes which your son here before us has asked to receive, so that he may serve you faithfully in the Cistercian way of life.

Our three novices: Brothers Joseph, Peter and John.

Saint Dunstan

When the Abbey was constructed  in the early 1950's numerous reasonably priced antique pieces were acquired to furnish the main rooms, other pieces were donated by generous patrons. Among the latter acquisitions were fragments of stained glass, some rare and important. In the Abbey library, shown above, an oculus window high above the mantle was filled with a fragment of stained glass depicting Saint Dunstan.

Professor Virginia Raguin of the College of the Holy Cross came to the Abbey late last year to give us a series of presentations on the history of stained glass. As the monks were giving her a tour of the cloisters, she noticed the oculus and asked if she could inspect it in detail. Sometime later an extension ladder was set up, and Professor Raguin ascended, promising to be careful. She did her research, examining the surface of the glass and the leading, as a few of the monks watched and steadied the ladder. Professor Raguin concluded that the glass was probably of the fourteenth century, English and quite rare since much pre-Reformation glass had been destroyed during the Dissolution. 

A very popular early medieval saint, Dunstan (909 –988) was an Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, later appointed Bishop of Manchester and London and subsequently named Archbishop of Canterbury. He is credited with the restoration of monastic life in England and the reformation of the English Church. Dunstan was a highly skilled artist and scribe and served as an important minister of state to several of the English kings.

As portrayed in our fragment, Saint Dunstan wears the mitre, rings, gloves and white wool pallium of his episcopal office. He carries his archbishop's cross. And the dove of the Holy Spirit perched on the apparel of his amice whispers divine inspiration. Saint Dunstan's feastday is May 19th.

Library photograph by Michel Raguin. Photographs of glass by Virginia Raguin.

Novena

Come, Creator Spirit,
visit the minds of your children,
and fill the hearts you have made,

with heavenly grace.

You are called the Comforter,
the gift of God most high,
living spring, and fire, love,
and spiritual anointing.

You are sevenfold in your gifts,
the finger of God’s right hand;
you are the Father’s  true promise,
endowing our tongues with speech.

Enkindle your light in our senses,
infuse your life in our hearts;
strengthen our bodies’ weakness
by your never failing might.

Drive far away our foe,
and grant peace without end,
that with you to lead us on,
we may escape all harm.

Grant us, through you,
to know the Father, also the Son;
may we ever believe in you,
the Spirit of them both.
Amen.

In preparation for the great Solemnity of Pentecost, we pray our novena to the Holy Spirit. And each evening at Vespers, we chant this ancient Latin hymn. We share a fine translation completed by one of the monks.

Love One Another

Jesus gave this command to his disciples, "Love one another as I love you." Jesus disavows any wish to dominate. And when he gets down on his knees and washes his disciples' feet, we see friendship and love truly enacted.  Power and love are incompatible in genuine human relationships. Mutuality and freedom must be present; people in relationship must be equals. Jesus says, "I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." Somehow Jesus puts himself on a par with his disciples. He is "flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone." One with us in all but sin, he is truly our friend. He asks us to love as he loves, giving up any desire to dominate or manipulate others.

Photograph of the Abbey garth by Brother Brian.
Thoughts taken from Father Aquinas' homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter