ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

I believe in the sun, even when it isn't shining I believe in love, even when I feel it not I believe in God, even when He is silent AN ANONYMOUS PRISONER Written on a Nazi concentration camp wall

It is enough to be, in an ordinary human mode, with one's hunger and sleep, one's cold and warmth, rising and going to bed. Putting on blankets and taking them off, making coffee and then drinking it. Defrosting the refrigerator, reading, meditating, working, praying, I live as my fathers have lived on this earth, until eventually I die. Amen. There is no need to make an assertion of my life, especially so about it as mine, though doubtless it is not somebody else's. I must learn gradually to forget program and artifice. THOMAS MERTON  

The Intimate Shepherd Christ is risen! On this Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Church invites us to contemplate the Risen Lord through the image of the Good Shepherd. But today we hear only the first third of Jesus’ long discourse on this theme in the Gospel of John. Our text ends just before Jesus’ declaration: I am the good shepherd. Instead, what we hear is: I am the gate for the sheep. Before speaking of the close relationship he wishes to create between himself and his sheep, Jesus presents himself as the gate through which every sheep must enter; that is, he wishes to establish the conditions that must be accepted by us so that he, Jesus, may become the very source of life for us, who aspire to be his faithful disciples.   This gospel evokes, with vivid realism, the presence of impostors all around us, who claim to be shepherds but are not. These impostors have only their own interests at heart, and Jesus calls them “thieves and robbers”. No doubt he is literally thinking o...

As the heart wounded by a poisoned arrow cannot be easy and at rest but seeks relief from all sides, so the soul pierced by the arrow of love never ceases seeking to relieve its pains. He who is in love is said to have lost his heart or to have had it stolen by the object of his love. His heart is not his own, but the property of the person he loves. This consideration will enable the soul to discover whether it loves God simply or not. If it loves him it will have no heart for itself, nor for its own pleasure or profit, but for the honor, glory and pleasure of God; because the more the heart is occupied with itself, the less it is occupied with God. The soul can test itself by these signs: is it anxiously seeking God? Has it no pleasure in anything but him? It is clear that the soul which loves God seeks no other reward for its services other than to love God perfectly. ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS The Spiritual Canticle  

It is not speaking that breaks our silence, but the anxiety to be heard. The words of the proud man impose silence on all others, so that he alone may be heard. The humble man speaks only in order to be spoken to. The humble man asks nothing but an alms, then weights and listens. THOMAS MERTON Thoughts in Solitude

God has loved man. This is the sublime truth which alone provides an explanation for the mystery of the Christian life, and which gives to the faithful the courage necessary to carry on here on earth in all the obscurity, monotony, and difficulty of life. We must have faith in this love, and, believing in it, we must put our trust in God, whatever may be the difficulties of the road we have to travel. It is always easier to travel on through the night when we know that there is someone waiting for us, that there is someone who loves us. DO IDESBALD RYELANDT, O.S.B. Union With Christ

This morning’s Gospel begins dark and melancholy, as two brokenhearted disciples walk along despondently. “We thought he was the One who would redeem Israel, our only Hope, but we saw him mocked, scourged and crucified.” Soon Jesus walks along with them, just another Stranger on his way out of Jerusalem. They’re so dejected they cannot even recognize him. Jesus listens, interested in what’s weighing on their hearts. “Why are you so sad? What are you two discussing?” “What are we discussing?” Cleopas asks in exasperation. “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what happened in Jerusalem?” “Gee, no. What?” says Jesus. This is probably one of the most tragicomic moments in all of Scripture, as the risen Lord Jesus, his body riddled with the deep wounds and scars of his passion, plays dumb. My brothers and sisters, he knows the story alright; it’s written all over his body, even into the depths of his newly pierced heart.   Then they explain - the empty tomb, the message of angels; but...