We Work

Here, we work. Whether in the kitchen, the jelly factory, the laundry, the greenhouse, the brewery or at the guild; whether sweeping, scrubbing, packing or cooking - we work. Our work never eclipses our prayer but provides balance and a level of creativity and expression to our day - all for Christ - in this life that is quite ordinary. We live by the work of our hands - to support our life together in the monastery, to support the poor and needy who seek our assistance. 

Pictures by Brother Brian.

With Paul

And as we grieve the current suffering in our Church and in our country and our world, we recall Saint Paul's admonition to the Philippians: "...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

We pray with confidence; we live in hope.

Photograph by Brother Brian.

Memorial of Saint Monica

When Monica was told of Augustine’s conversion, he tells us in his Confessions that she leapt for joy, rejoiced and praised God, who can do more than we ask or think; for she understood that God had given her more than she had ever dared to beg for. He continues, “you changed her mourning into joy, much more plentiful than she had desired, and in a much more precious and purer way than she ever required.”

God hears our prayers, God always answers our prayers – in ways we may recognize and in ways that we may never understand. We pray with confidence and even wonder. 

Photograph by Brother Brian.

Nathanael

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him."

An amazing compliment given by Jesus to this apostle-to-be. May our hearts be like Nathanael's - ever be pure and free, brimming with truth and love and transparent to the Lord Jesus.

Photograph of the south cloister by Brother Brian.

Beauty

But nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding,
than this deepest affinity between your eyes and the world.
...maybe such devotion, in which one holds the world
in the clasp of attention, isn't the perfect prayer,
but it must be close, for the sorrow, whose name is doubt,
is thus subdued, and not through the weaponry of reason,
but of pure submission. Tell me, what else could beauty be for?

Photograph by Brother Brian. Excerpt from the poem Terns by Mary Oliver.

With Mary

Saint Bernard says that above all what has drawn God to Mary is her humility. God finds it absolutely irresistible. Certainly we will come to our humility by a route very different than Our Lady’s, but it can give us the same irresistible quality. We can do it through our sinfulness, acknowledging that we have nothing to boast of before God but our weakness. It is after all the only thing about myself that I am absolutely confident about. Problem is it’s also the one thing I most want to deny. But this reality, this humility lets God be God. Said another way, when things fall apart then God can be God, for he desperately wants to mercy us. Our humility - our humble self-knowledge - allows God a place in our hearts.

An etching by Margaret Walters, (1924 - 1971).

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

…whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him... Phil. 3

So it is that one theologian will write of the "madness of the vowed life." Indeed daring to give ourselves to Christ Jesus in our monastic way of life that is "ordinary, obscure and laborious" is utterly mad and wonderful and worth all our effort. 

As we celebrate the Solemnity of our Father, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, we are reminded of his words as he ponders the great loving mercy of Christ. He writes of the human soul trying to respond to such love: “She loves ardently, yet even when she finds herself completely in love, she thinks she loves too little because she is loved so much.”