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Prayers, please, for Br. Vincent on his birthday, graces and blessings and ad
multos annos, many years!

Continued prayers for the happy death of Bob's Mom, Mara's Mom and Jackie. It is
so important to pray for the dying, we should all make it a daily habit.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is
mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 15, August 15, December 15
Chapter 61: How Pilgrim Monks Are To Be Received

If a pilgrim monastic coming from a distant region
wants to live as a guest of the monastery,
let her be received for as long a time as she desires,
provided she is content
with the customs of the place as she finds them
and does not disturb the monastery by superfluous demands,
but is simply content with what she finds.
If, however, she censures or points out anything reasonably
and with the humility of charity,
let the Abbess consider prudently
whether perhaps it was for that very purpose
that the Lord sent her.

If afterwards she should want to bind herself to stability,
her wish should not be denied her,
especially since there has been opportunity
during her stay as a guest
to discover her character.

REFLECTION

One of the Desert Fathers (forgive me for not recalling which one,)
said that there is nothing so careful as a monk not living in his
native land. That's very true for most of us, though part two of this
chapter makes it clear that it's not true for everyone. When we
visit, we want people to think the best of the home, the family, the
land from which we came. It is this nobility of striving, this
mindful courtesy that the Desert Father wished to praise. In fact, if
I read it correctly, the implication was that it might even be better
to be a monastic AWAY from one's native land for just those reasons.

There is something striking here. Remember how badly the gyrovagues
and Sarabaites were painted in the types of monks? Well, these were
the wandering ones, and St. Benedict knew very well that a pilgrim
monk at the door could be one of these sorts. He doesn't even mention
it.

He wants them to have a chance to do better, to be healed by
community. If they louse it up, fine, he's not going to lose a lot of
sleep over it, but he does insist they be given a chance to improve.
Given what the monastic world thought of gyrovagues and the like,
that says a LOT for St. Benedict's tolerance and clemency.

Not all of us are in cloisters, but all of us have doors. The people
who come to those doors may be gyrovagues and Sarabaites, but they
may not, too. We have to give them a chance to prove or reveal
themselves. This is true of anyone we encounter. Snap judgments are
not wise, they cheat us out of many gifts. Being too much or too
little on the side of caution are both traps. Tread the middle way,
always the middle way.

This doesn't mean we have to dupe ourselves into perpetual
vulnerability, but it does mean we have to be open, mindful and
listening, really listening to all comers. Listen first, sift later.
Do both, always both.

We can get so used to our lives that we are blind to areas that could
be improved. We can get so used to doing things one way that anything
better is beyond us. Our routines which become sacrosanct are often
not at all that holy!

An outsider's objective view can let us see a good deal about
ourselves. Some things we may want to change, some we may realize are
fine as they are. Either way, the visitor can be a reality check of
great worth.


Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following,
for all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Alex, acutely ill and in intensive care with sepsis. He is also awaiting
dialysis.

Jackie, and her husband.  Jackie has been successfully treated for Lymphoma,but
has developed leukemia.  It has resisted all treatment and she is expected to
die within weeks, perhaps days. Should God wish to call her, for her happy death
and eternal rest and for all who will mourn her.

Jenny and her husband, Roger, are also facing some health and family concerns.

Safe travels for S. and good travelling weather.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is
mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 14, August 14, December 14
Chapter 60: On Priests Who May Wish to Live in the Monastery

If any ordained priest should ask to be received into the monastery,
permission shall not be granted too readily. But if he is quite
persistent in his request, let him know that he will have to observe
the whole discipline of the Rule and that nothing will be relaxed in
his favor,
that it may be as it is written: "Friend, for what have you come
(Matt. 26:50)?"

It shall be granted him, however, to stand next after the Abbot and
to give blessings and to celebrate Mass, but only by order of the
Abbot.
Without such order let him not make any exceptions for himself,
knowing that he is subject to the discipline of the Rule; but rather
let him give an example of humility to all.

If there happens to be question of an appointment or of some business
in the monastery, let him expect the rank due him according to the
date of his entrance into the monastery, and not the place granted him
out of reverence for the priesthood.

If any clerics, moved by the same desire, should wish to join the
monastery, let them be placed in a middle rank. But they too are to
be admitted only if they promise observance of the Rule and stability.

REFLECTION

The quintessential question of the Holy Rule is that of
Jesus: "Friend, for what have you come?" The only acceptable answer
to the question is: "To seek God." That might be rephrased in any of
a number of ways, but that's the main event, the only game in town,
the end all be all of Benedictine monastic life.

It is very necessary, in stating that we seek God, to admit that we
haven't altogether found Him yet, nor will we ever do so before
death. Even in the beatific vision of heaven itself, we creatures
will never, ever get to the root of our Creator, to the "ground zero"
of God. Ain't gonna happen.

Another way of saying this is that we need to come to the Holy Rule
and to the Gospel and to Christ admitting how frighteningly little we
DO know, how very much we need to learn. If we think an MDiv or an MD
or a BS may have corrected that problem, even slightly, well, maybe
the degree is just about all we've gotten from the experience.

For heaven's sake, after spending so many years of my life trying to
become clever, what a tremendous relief it is to be admittedly dumb:
pluperfectly, fallibly, humanly, screamingly, shriekingly DUMB! Boy,
I love it! Ignorance truly *IS* bliss, just like they told ya!

In one sense, I heartily recommend it. It is the only position from
which one may learn anything at all. Get too smart (or think you
have!) and you will never listen, thereby failing another Benedictine
hallmark. You won't learn because all your energy will go into
composing your rejoinder or response. Such people do not learn. They
merely joust. Life is more than that, much more. Tons more.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB



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Ardent prayers for the happy death of Bob's Mom, who needs them badly. For those
so inclined, please offer Chaplets of the Divine Mercy for her. It is so
powerful for the dying.

Prayers for Doug, going in for surgery to remove his toe and some bones in his
foot on Monday.
Diabetes complicates all this.

Prayers for Thomas and Jane on their very happy wedding day, long, holy  and
happy life together for them!

Please pray for the following: Amy who is 24 years old and has been fighting
cancer. Her dad John who is very angry at God and is blaming God for Amy's
health problems. John's father-in-law, Signe, who suffered a serious heart
attack and the effects this is all having on John's wife (who is Amy's Mom)
Prayers for all the family and extended family that they find God in their
suffering and turn to Him.

Prayers please for Nina, 78, an MRI on Monday will scan 2 spots on her lungs.

Prayers for Fr. Mark, Br. Patrick and two other brothers injured in a serious
car accident in Rome, Br. Patrick is in ICU with internal injuries and
pneumonia, two others remain hospitalized. Fr. Mark is recovering from surgery
due to the accident.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is
mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 13, August 13, December 13
Chapter 59: On the Sons of Nobles and of the Poor Who Are Offered

If anyone of the nobility offers his son to God in the monastery
and the boy is very young, let his parents draw up the document which
we mentioned above; and at the oblation let them wrap the document
itself and the boy's hand in the altar cloth. That is how they offer
him.

As regards their property, they shall promise in the same petition
under oath that they will never of themselves, or through an
intermediary, or in any way whatever, give him anything or provide
him with the opportunity of owning anything. Or else, if they are
unwilling to do this,
and if they want to offer something as an alms to the monastery for
their advantage, let them make a donation of the property they wish
to give to the monastery, reserving the income to themselves if they
wish.
And in this way let everything be barred, so that the boy may have no
expectations whereby (which God forbid) he might be deceived and
ruined, as we have learned by experience.

Let those who are less well-to-do make a similar offering. But those
who have nothing at all shall simply draw up the document and offer
their son before witnesses at the oblation.

REFLECTION

This is the chapter that allows us to have (and be!) Oblates. How
different would all of our lives be if this chapter had never been
written! While I dwell on the Order as a whole in this reflection,
how drastically different and how impoverished my life would be
without Oblates. How very deeply my life is shaped by so many of you
and how very grateful for that I am!

Reflect a moment on how rich your life WOULDN'T be if you had no
Benedictine family, if the Order had never even been founded. Think
about brothers, sisters and friends whom you would not know, about
what you would have missed. For starters, many of us would not be
members on at least a couple of the forums this appears on- they
wouldn't exist! Our wonderful fraternity in cyberspace would have
never happened at all.

In my own life there would have been no St. Leo, no Brother Patrick,
no Petersham or Pluscarden. My college degree would never have
happened and my dear friend, Jean Ronan, would never have even met
me, let alone taught me theology.

Every single thing I ever received from the Benedictine Order, all the
example, all the awe and joy, and yes, even all the pain that formed
me, would never have existed, nor would I have had any role in the
lives of my Benedictine family of brothers and sisters. Nada. Zilch.

Europe would look a lot different, probably worse, and the Book of
Common Prayer would be devoid of all those wonderful OSB elements
like Morning Prayer and Evensong. Even the architecture of Anglican
Churches would differ: the monastic choir-in-sanctuary style would
probably be unknown.

Often the best way to access a treasure is to imagine its loss. We
can take for granted things which are of inestimable value. Make
today's chapter an opportunity for such an assessment. Carry it even
further, to some other dear and wonderful things in your life. What
if there were no Church? What if you had no family ? (I know, I
know... sometimes that sounds tempting! But even in dysfunctional
families, you would NEVER be exactly who you are without them.) Often
the best appreciation of how things are can be had by such
reflections!

We all owe a great, great deal to St. Benedict and to his sons and
daughters. Let us pray for our Benedictine family and give thanks,
deep thanks for the gift we have all received!



Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB






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I am indebted to TomKay, owner of Monastic Life list, for passing this along to
me. It hits the nail on the head. JL

When the now infamous White House social secretary Desiree Rogers revealed to
The New York Times that the Obamas were planning a "non-religious" Christmas for
the "people's house," she put herself at the center of an entirely different,
but no less fiery, controversy -- the Christmas wars.

Early this year, during a luncheon with other former social secretaries, Rogers
announced that part of the Obamas' new spirit of inclusiveness (ironically)
would exclude references to Christianity during Christmas. Most notably, the
Obamas would not be displaying the 18th century White House nativity scene. An
Obama official confirmed that there were internal discussions regarding the
manger display, but in the end, tradition (along with post-state dinner scandal
fatigue) trumped, and the Holy Family was not banned from the East Room after
all.



Meanwhile, Dr. James Dobson's influential conservative Christian organization,
Focus on the Family, is promoting StandforChristmas.com, a Web site that helps
shoppers rank "Christmas-friendly" retailers (most friendly: Bass Pro Shops;
least friendly: American Eagle Outfitters). The site reminds visitors that
retailers "want your patronage and your gift-shopping dollars" and then asks,
"but do they openly recognize Christmas?"

Sadly, both approaches precisely miss the point of this sacred and beautiful
holiday.

It makes zero sense to recruit retailers in this crusade when consumerism is the
reason why Christmas has morphed into a hollow shopping ritual that, come
January, leaves too many families with debt hangovers and an empty feeling
inside. Demanding that store clerks cheerily proclaim "Merry Christmas" as they
ring up your power tools and iPod does precious little to put the Christ-child
back in Christmas.

To the Obamas and others pushing the ridiculous notion of a "non-religious"
Christmas, it would do them well to consider that respect for other people's
faith is not accomplished by hiding your own. If the goal of the White House is
to remain neutral about part of our nation's heritage, Christianity, or, for
that matter, about the religious beliefs held by many of its current residents,
fine with me. But if that's the case, then please spare us the tab for the
reported 50,000 visitors who will be cocktailed and dined this month in an
endless succession of banal and meaningless "holiday" parties.

If Christians truly desire to bring sacredness and religious significance back
to Christmas, then it's silly to look to retailers or the First Family. Instead,
let it begin, as charity does, at home. Families can start by reintroducing the
season of Advent and the spirit of reflection and spiritual preparation that
once occupied the four weeks leading up to Christmas.

Instead of allowing ourselves to get swept up in the whirlwind of "holiday"
parties, useless gift exchanges and harried shopping, we can use those weeks to
prepare our hearts and homes in meaningful ways for the Prince of Peace. Make
time for family prayer, singing and the lighting of the Advent wreath. Choose
cards and decorations that have religious significance.

How many homes have a prominently displayed nativity scene at Christmas time? My
guess is not too many. The same goes for Christmas carols. Does your playlist
include more Frosty and Santa Baby than Silent Night and Handel's Messiah? How
about keeping those lights on and the tree in the house for the twelve days of
Christmas - you know the twelve that follow Christmas day. Or consider caroling
or having a Christmas gathering after December 25th? We have only ourselves to
blame when we lose these beautiful traditions.

Should Christians be concerned about the secularization of Christmas? Sure they
should. I resent school "winter" concerts, "holiday" parades, and the ridiculous
fear that prevents people from wishing each other "Merry Christmas!" with total
abandon.

But Christmas starts with us. In our hearts. In our homes. And in a very simple
decision to reclaim the silence, joy, and quiet simplicity of that first
Christmas in Bethlehem when God chose to speak to mankind in the small cry of a
newborn baby.



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Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical welfare and  happy death of Bob's
Mom, apparently nearing the end of her suffering, and for Bob and his wife,
Kathy, and for all their family and all who take care of his Mom, and for all
who will mourn her. Bob and Kathy are both Oblate novices here.

Prayers, please, for safe travel for Elaine as she goes to visit her Dad.

Lord help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is
mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 12, August 12, December 12
Chapter 58: On the Manner of Receiving Sisters

When she is to be received she promises before all in the oratory
stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience. This promise
she shall make before God and His Saints,
so that if she should ever act otherwise, she may know that she
will be condemned by Him whom she mocks. Of this promise of hers
let her draw up a document in the name of the Saints whose relics
are there and of the Abbess who is present. Let her write this
document with her own hand; or if she is illiterate, let another
write it at her request,
and let the novice put her mark to it. Then let her place it with
her own hand upon the altar;
and when she has placed it there, let the novice at once intone
this verse: "Receive me, O Lord, according to Your word, and I
shall live: and let me not be confounded in my hope" (Ps. 118
[119]:116). Let the whole community answer this verse three times
and add the "Glory be to the Father." Then let the novice prostrate
herself at each one's feet,
that they may pray for her. And from that day forward let her be
counted as one of the community.

If she has any property, let her either give it beforehand to the
poor or by solemn donation bestow it on the monastery, reserving
nothing at all for herself, as indeed she knows that from that day
forward she will no longer have power even over her own body. At
once, therefore, in the oratory, let her be divested of her own
clothes which she is wearing
and dressed in the clothes of the monastery. But let the clothes of
which she was divested
be put aside in the wardrobe and kept there. Then if she should
ever listen to the persuasions of the devil and decide to leave the
monastery (which God forbid), she may be divested of the monastic
clothes and cast out. Her document, however, which the Abbess has
taken from the altar, shall not be returned to her, but shall be
kept in the monastery.

REFLECTION

The Church approves religious rules. This is the basis for
asserting that our Holy Rule is inspired by the Holy Spirit,
because the Church gave its seal of approval. The Church, however,
is indubitably older and often wiser than monastic life. It predates every
form of optional religious commitment. It is the blessing of the Church
which makes official monastic life possible for any and all of us.

This is just a prelude to saying that the wisdom of the Church long
ago stopped people from making solemn vows, a life-long commitment
difficult to break, right out of novitiate. Not only does this
longer program protect people, to a certain extent, from making a
mistake, it also spares the monastery from having a lot of
undesirables with chapter votes running the show. There are
some I have known who left in simple vows for whose exit I remain
eternally grateful! Thanks be to God that they were never chapter
members with votes. What a zoo that would have been!

A year may well have been enough in St. Benedict's time. People had
vastly shorter life spans, it was a bigger chunk of their lives.
They also had to grow up more quickly and their options were fewer
by far than those of our own day.

Oblates, therefore, can garner a few kernels of truth in this
chapter about commitment, that bugbear of the baby boomer
generation and beyond. Modern people find it terribly hard to
commit, some never manage it at all. As such, a bit of wisdom older
than our own age may be very useful in our everyday lives.

Whether it's a marriage or engagement or a job or a volunteer
chairperson position, don't jump at things. Read the Rule, so to
speak, three times at least! Look, look, look as mindfully as you
can at the truth and reality of the situation.

Benedictines are not people afraid of commitment, but we live in a
world where many are. Our witness here must be care and balance. We
must resolutely walk BETWEEN the extremes of foolhardy haste and
crippling fear. In the world of today, that is no small witness and
no easy task. Pull this one off, and you have a done a service to
many, not just to yourself!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org/
Petersham, MA


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Prayers for Kristian, on his 22nd birthday, and for Joy and Dick, his parents,
and all their family.

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Linda, a much
respected High School teacher, who had a stroke while she was teaching. She is
in hospital at the moment. Also for her students who are understandably upset.
Prayers, too, for all her loved ones and all those taking care of her.

Lord, help us all as
You know and will. Helps us believe and know that You take care of us. God's
will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so
much. JL



April 11, August 11, December 11
Chapter 58: On the Manner of Receiving Sisters



When anyone is newly come for the reformation of her life,
let her not be granted an easy entrance;
but, as the Apostle says,
"Test the spirits to see whether they are from God."
If the newcomer, therefore, perseveres in her knocking,
and if it is seen after four or five days
that she bears patiently the harsh treatment offered her
and the difficulty of admission,
and that she persists in her petition,
then let entrance be granted her,
and let her stay in the guest house for a few days.

After that let her live in the novitiate,
where the novices study, eat and sleep.
A senior shall be assigned to them who is skilled in winning souls,
to watch over them with the utmost care.
Let her examine whether the novice is truly seeking God,
and whether she is zealous
for the Work of God, for obedience and for trials.
Let the novice be told all the hard and rugged ways
by which the journey to God is made.

If she promises stability and perseverance,
then at the end of two months
let this rule be read through to her,
and let her be addressed thus:
"Here is the law under which you wish to fight.
If you can observe it, enter;
if you cannot, you are free to depart."
If she still stands firm,
let her be taken to the above-mentioned novitiate
and again tested in all patience.
And after the lapse of six months let the Rule be read to her,
that she may know on what she is entering.
And if she still remains firm,
after four months let the same Rule be read to her again.

Then, having deliberated with herself,
if she promises to keep it in its entirety
and to observe everything that is commanded,
let her be received into the community.
But let her understand that,
according to the law of the Rule,
from that day forward she may not leave the monastery
nor withdraw her neck from under the yoke of the Rule
which she was free to refuse or to accept
during that prolonged deliberation.



REFLECTION



The Holy Rule is an awesome document about 1,500 years old. Since it
is always both these things, it is helpful to look at both past and present
in reading it. In St. Benedict's time, and for many centuries after him,
numerous less than lofty social reasons obtained for joining a
monastery. This was, alas, as true for the nobility and it was for
the serfs.

Got an unmarriageable noble daughter? Ship her off to join the "unclaimed
treasures" abbey, if they won't take her, found and fund of your own.
Got a younger son with no inheritance or title, not the sharpest
knife in the drawer, either? Sounds like a vocation to the Church to
me... Dowager queen or ex-wife a governmental problem? Have I got a
convent for YOU!

For the lower socioeconomic groups, it was often flat out social
climbing to join the monastery. You not only
came out well-dressed and well-fed, but you often got educated in the
bargain, too. If one was not born noble, or if one was less than
wonderful at warfare, the Church was the ONLY way to climb to power.

History has removed or severely limited many of these shoddy reasons
for joining. Hence, it is not always wise to play hard to get with
the reasons for same out of the way. I have known communities who
played too hard to get for too long and now get nothing at all.
Whooops! Poetic justice there! Maybe you should have just stuck to
not sleeping with knives at your side when you wanted to get literal
about the Holy Rule!

Before the worst of the vocations crunch came, there was a terrible
myth afloat in the late 60's and early 70's: "the perfect vocation."
Holding out for these ephemeral dreams has seriously harmed more than
one house. Just as women were learning to debunk the Cinderella myth,
many houses fell prey to the foolish notion that Prince or Princess
Charming really WOULD arrive on a charger one day.

It's balance again, always, always balance. This is
true not only of monasteries, but of single Oblates seeking a mate
and of any Oblate seeking to fill a job slot or assign a task to a
child. The apparently "perfect" one may not always be the best bet!

Balance, look at the person, the REAL person,
not the "perfect" one you desire so much that you see an illusion.
Mindfulness, here! Really, really, look at the real, strive to see it
well and then act accordingly. Jesus, after all, IS the Truth.

Ask any employer, many a plodder who was given a chance and knows it
will try harder and actually perform much better than the "dream" who
arrived with all ducks neatly in a row. In any situation in life, it
is crucially important to remember that carved-in-stone standards are
never subjective and people ALWAYS are. Thus, a little flexibility is
going to be required unless you are totally content with never
getting anywhere.

God is in charge of
these things, but God is terribly polite. Get in His way and He will
usually leave you to your own devices, since they can be the most
effective teachers! Be too picky or not picky enough and you will
miss whatever treasure He has for you. Don't take that risk!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Martha,
diagnosed with breast cancer and having a mastectomy on the 16th, and prayers
for all her loved ones and all who take care of her.

Lord, help us all as You know and
will. Help us to believe You take care of us. God's will is best. All is mercy
and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL


April 10, August 10, December 10

Chapter 57: On the Artisans of the Monastery

If there are artisans in the monastery,
let them practice their crafts with all humility,
provided the Abbot has given permission.
But if any one of them becomes conceited
over his skill in his craft,
because he seems to be conferring a benefit on the monastery,
let him be taken from his craft
and no longer exercise it unless,
after he has humbled himself,
the Abbot again gives him permission.

If any of the work of the craftsmen is to be sold,
those responsible for the sale
must not dare to practice any fraud.
Let them always remember Ananias and Saphira,
who incurred bodily death (Acts 5:1-11),
lest they and all who perpetrate fraud
in monastery affairs
suffer spiritual death.
And in the prices let not the sin of avarice creep in,
but let the goods always be sold a little cheaper
than they can be sold by people in the world,
"that in all things God may be glorified" (1 Peter 4:11).

REFLECTION

My all-time favorite quote from G. K. Chesterton is: "The artistic
temperament is a disease which afflicts amateurs." Amen!!! Ideally,
Christian life done right would eliminate the phenomenon of prima
donnas of either gender! Monastic life should, too.

The true artist is marked by humility, not because of low self-
esteem, but because of a healthy dose of reality, a firm conviction
that one's gift has been given by God and given with an eye to the
service of all. Christian art, in any form, has no meaning at all
outside of the glory of God and the betterment of the community.

For an artisan to become proud about this would be as ludicrous as
for a priest to be proud of his ability to consecrate, or a lay person
proud of their ability to baptize. Sorry, folks! Doesn't come from us.
Comes from God and we have to always remember our own littleness in
receiving such wonders.

A wrong attitude towards one's gift can quickly turn what God
intended to be a boon to the Christian community into a very large
and unmanageable human cross. Art
in communities must be treasured and held dear, because
it is a gift from a loving God. It is God and His gift that must be
sacrosanct, not some temperamental artist who is just passing that
gift on to others.

The point here is that art must always and everywhere matter less
than the people performing or enjoying it. The brothers and sisters
come first, and they do so from a theological imperative of charity,
much, much more intense than any concept of human reason alone or
canon of aesthetics. In a very real sense, the artist must matter
least of all, must disappear behind the gift, not insist on being
thrust into a foreground.

When a person does liturgy correctly, they vanish behind the veil of
vesture and rubric. They become icon bearers and what is seen is no
longer Traci or Jason, but acolyte and priest. It ought to be so with
artists, but it ought to be so with any gift or skill God has
graciously given us. We truly are NOT the source of the profound
gifts we receive and share. God is. God alone is.

"He must increase, I must decrease..." As soon as we forget that, our
gift becomes a weight dragging us downwards, rather than helping
us to ascend the heights. Good superiors can see this and stop it, but
not all superiors can see it! Let us pray that our gifts will always be focused
by the wise and loving hand of some realist, to whom God has given the gift of
loving truthfulness!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of James Delorey, 7, an autistic child who
died of hypothermia after being lost in the Canadian woods for two nights.
Prayers for his family and all who mourn him and prayers for the many searchers
and others who tried to help. The child was found, barely alive, but his life
could not be saved.

Prayers for the eternal rest of Fr. Daniel, 51, and Sr. Denise, OCSO, murdered
in anti-Christian violence in the Congo and for the eternal rest of Fr. Louis,
70, killed in a robbery of his rectory in South AFrica.

Prayers for Abbot Isaac, recovering from surgery

Fr. Gerry, broken arm and torn shoulder after a fall, and for Fr. Bill, his
brother, for whom Fr. Gerry is principal caregiver.

Prayers for Br. Felix, studying for the priesthood in Rome.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 9, August 9, December 9
Chapter 56: On the Abbess's Table

Let the Abbess's table always be with the guests
and the pilgrims. But when there are no guests,
let it be in her power to invite whom she will of the sisters.
Yet one or two seniors must always be left with the others
for the sake of discipline.

REFLECTION

Let me give you a bit of pragmatic application here. I don't know if
this is true everywhere, but in both houses I have actually lived in,
the monks tended to eat rather fast. Secularly speaking, I have a
reputation for being a fast eater when dining alone, even though I have
sometimes wondered about how good that is for digestion! Here,
however, with no conversation to slow me down at all, the monks eat
like the wind and I am always the last one, even when gulping down as
fast as I can.

Anyway, the upshot here is that guests OFTEN dine more slowly than
the monastics and we all get up together for grace. If the guests are
where the Abbot can see them, it is easier to check on who's done and
who isn't. We wait for them to finish. (At least 99% of the time. I
have known especially slow guests to win at this face-off once or
twice! We just said grace and left them to finish...)

Monastics (like children or spouses!) can be dreadful creatures of
habit, you should pardon the pun... I can tell you that sometimes
that waiting seems interminable. I can also tell you that it is good
for us, for all of us, and this applies equally to families. We
ALLOW, even enable and encourage the guest to inconvenience us to a
certain extent. That's part of our hospitality, part of receiving
Christ, sometimes in an annoying disguise.

Oblates in families or the world, trust me on this one, I know
company can sometimes be a pain. I had company most of the time
for most of eleven years. While I relished the occasional day
when the house was empty, they were fewer and farther between each
year. The message here is not only for guests in our homes, but for
others in general, at work, when shopping or (horrors!) driving. LET
others put you out a bit. Adopt a courtesy that is greater than the
world's. Many works of genuine mercy can be done in such situations.

A courteous, hospitable, Christian attitude of charity can stand out, really
touch
people. You don't have to be obnoxiously preachy, in fact, that has
the opposite effect! The subtle grace and love of courtesy will lead
a lot of people to wonder about you and what motivates you. Some of
the braver ones will one day even ask. And there is your chance! Go
slowly and gently, but tell them why.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Sr. Juan de la Cruz, for whom we have
prayed, who passed away Friday. Prayers, too, for all who mourn her, especially
Kathy.

Prayers, please, for the United States, on this Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception, our patroness. We could sure use the prayers! May we do God's will
and reflect His Kingdom.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him. Thanks so much. JL


April 8, August 8, December 8
Chapter 55: On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren

For bedding let this suffice:
a mattress, a blanket, a coverlet and a pillow.

The beds, moreover, are to be examined frequently by the Abbot,
to see if any private property be found in them.
If anyone should be found to have something
that he did not receive from the Abbot,
let him undergo the most severe discipline.

And in order that this vice of private ownership
may be cut out by the roots,
the Abbot should provide all the necessary articles:
cowl, tunic, stockings, shoes, belt,
knife, stylus, needle, handkerchief, writing tablets;
that all pretext of need may be taken away.
Yet the Abbot should always keep in mind
the sentence from the Acts of the Apostles
that "distribution was made to each according as anyone had need"
(Acts 4:35).
In this manner, therefore,
let the Abbot consider weaknesses of the needy
and not the ill-will of the envious.
But in all his decisions
let him think about the retribution of God.

REFLECTION

This chapter may appear to have little to say to Oblates until one
gives a more evangelical twist to it: "where your treasure is, there
your heart shall be also." The monastic who has separate sources of
income has a safety net, a way to ask for things (or get them without
asking!) that would otherwise unlikely be available. Not only is this
bad for the common unity, it is bad for the monastic, too. It
scatters one's focus and diminishes one's dependency on God. It
leaves dangling threads of control all over one's life.

Oblates in the world, have to have some source of income, whatever
that may be, but they can readily and profitably examine where their
treasure lies. They can also make sure that those who depend on them
have all they truly need, yet keep them from getting spoiled or
carried away with consumerist fluff. Especially at this holiday
season, when the television is filled with a horrendous glut of
materialist orgy, our Benedictine hearts should say: "Enough really
IS enough!"

But do we say that, or are we to some degree sucked into the lunacy
of a secular winter fest? (One can no longer even say "pagan" of the
secular winter fest. At least the pagans, whatever their lacks may
be, believe in SOMETHING and worship. That can no longer be said of
much of the world's hoopla at this time of year.)

As Christians and as Benedictines, we have an awesome
responsibility to be witnesses against that secular falsehood,
against the extremes of consumerism which rob so many of life and
maim our planet which we must share with all. Not only is the planet
harmed, but goods are distributed with such glaring inequity and even
the hapless consumers are often left with debts (and credit rates!)
that enslave them years into the future. All in the name of what?
Surely not the kind of "honor" Jesus would have sought for His birth
and Incarnation.

Benedictine attitudes toward poverty are not deprivation, but they
are not excess, either. Always, always moderation. For us, virtue
truly does stand in the middle way!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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+PAX

Prayers for Fr. Ambrose of Pluscarden on his feastday.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Ed and his wife Nancy,
who has eye problems even after her surgery a few months back. Friends are
making a novena to St. Lucy, patroness of eye problems. If anyone wants to pray
the 9 day novena it  would be appreciated.

Prayers for the eternal rest of all who died at Pearl Harbor on this date and
for all World War II veterans, living and dead.

Lord, help us all as You now and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 7, August 7, December 7
Chapter 55: On the Clothes and Shoes of the Brethren

Let clothing be given to the brethren
according to the nature of the place in which they dwell
and its climate;
for in cold regions more will be needed,
and in warm regions less.
This is to be taken into consideration, therefore, by the Abbot.

We believe, however, that in ordinary places
the following dress is sufficient for each monk:
a tunic,
a cowl (thick and woolly for winter, thin or worn for summer),
a scapular for work,
stockings and shoes to cover the feet.

The monks should not complain
about the color or the coarseness of any of these things,
but be content with what can be found
in the district where they live and
can be purchased cheaply.

The Abbot shall see to the size of the garments,
that they be not too short for those who wear them,
but of the proper fit.

Let those who receive new clothes
always give back the old ones at once,
to be put away in the wardrobe for the poor.
For it is sufficient if a monk has two tunics and two cowls,
to allow for night wear and for the washing of these garments;
more than that is superfluity and should be taken away.
Let them return their stockings also and anything else that is old
when they receive new ones.

Those who are sent on a journey
shall receive drawers from the wardrobe,
which they shall wash and restore on their return.
And let their cowls and tunics be somewhat better
than what they usually wear.
These they shall receive from the wardrobe
when they set out on a journey,
and restore when they return.

REFLECTION

Well, I could write another love song to the habit, and I surely do
love it, but there is an issue here for all who are outside the
cloister, yet still with the monastic struggle. Clothes do not make
the monastic, but they do set up some very potent markers, for good
or ill. The Benedictine job is to find the golden mean, avoiding
extremes.

One's clothing sends a message, fair or not. The message it sends may
very well advance or inhibit any subsequent messages one may try to
send. Sometimes lay people who are intensely religious will go
overboard in what can only be called eccentricity in dress. Bad move!
Right or wrong, our society writes them off at first glance. The odds
of being a witness who is heard are diminished. We should want our
appearance to suggest that Jesus Christ is WORTH turning to, not that
we are simply eccentrics with no fashion sense.

Simple, decent, clean, middle-of-the-road clothing is a goal
virtually any Oblate can attain. Not too flashy and costly, but
neither so tacky or beyond the fringe that it invokes scorn. The
cheaper the better, but not just for stinge!

The clothing industry in the West rides roughshod on the backs of a
LOT of oppressed people in the less developed countries. Buying your
good clothes used may not stop those awful practices, but it will at
least stop your direct complicity in them. Buy a used $45 shirt at a
Salvation Army Thrift Store and your $5 or so will actually go
towards helping someone in need, not just perpetuating that need.
Think how you look, but think very carefully of where your money
goes.

A further little fussy word here. Think twice about wearing labels
that show OUTSIDE. I speak as one who once loved buying used shirts
with some pricey brand's logo emblazoned on the breast. Sigh...
Conspicuous consumption depends on visible labels like that, and you
could be adding to a fire you'd rather extinguish. As a monk, I
became embarrassed to wear such things. It sent the wrong message
entirely.

Lastly, almost everyone I know could make do with less clothes. We
pack a lot of consumerist variety into those closets of ours and that
sends a message, too. Always remember that the extra coat in our
chest "belongs to the poor," as St. Basil said.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA






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+PAX

Mea culpa!

Please pray for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Frank, who needs
surgery for cancer, but is too ill and in too much pain for the surgery, and for
his wife, Evie. Prayers, too, for all who take care of him.

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Fr. Jude on the anniversary of his
death.

Lord, help us all as You know and
will. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 6, August 6, December 6
Chapter 54: Whether a Monastic Should Receive Letters or Anything
Else

On no account shall a monastic be allowed
to receive letters, blessed tokens or any little gift whatsoever
from parents or anyone else,
or from her sisters,
or to give the same,
without the Abbess's permission.
But if anything is sent her even by her parents,
let her not presume to take it
before it has been shown to the Abbess.
And it shall be in the Abbess's power to decide
to whom it shall be given,
if she allows it to be received;
and the sister to whom it was sent should not be grieved,
lest occasion be given to the devil.

Should anyone presume to act otherwise,
let her undergo the discipline of the Rule.

REFLECTION

Part of this is about equality, part of it is about depending on
one's community for everything. But there is another part that is
more readily available to monastics and Oblates in the world, a
certain cloister of the heart, a partial flight from the secular.

Outside news, to which we all can become so easily addicted, is not
always useful, let alone nourishing. When I was a pastoral associate
in Boston, I was the slave of the weather channel: knew the five day
forecast ALL the time. Then I moved here- no cable anywhere- and
pretty much let God surprise me each morning with whatever was
available. Granted, traveling on foot and by subway to do a lot of
ministry in Boston, I did have a greater need to know, but not THAT
great!

We get a Sunday paper (the NY Times,) once a week and that is it. If
something really big happens between Sundays, the regulars who come
to Mass will tell us. That's how we found out about Princess Diana.
Our contractor told us about 9/11. We were in Mass, praying for the
world anyway, with no clue that the towers were literally falling as
we prayed, that the Pentagon was on fire and thousands were dead.

It really didn't matter, in one sense, whether we knew or not: we
were already praying. Our prayers did not need details to be
effective. The heart of God was already breaking, already knew, HAD
already known from all time and beyond. We were just begging Him to
look at His people while not knowing which ones needed it most. That
made no difference. We ALWAYS know less than Him. It is the usual
human condition!

You may be sure we all watched Diana's funeral, and you may be sure
we all watched the 9/11 news. We're not dinosaurs and we cared
deeply. However, having lived on both sides now (what a song cue for
Judy Collins!) of the media divide, I can assure you that a whole lot
of extraneous stuff got mixed in with a very little bit of worthwhile
data.

There is much that is false, truly false and illusory in the
world. We all know that quite well. What we can miss is that media's
job is to make a lot of things much, much more real and pressing than
they are or will ever be. That sort of illusion we can easily do
without.

This is in no way obscurantist or anti-intellectual, but a part of
the monastic heart actually LIKES to be out of touch in some areas
and profits from same. No one has to live in a cave, but I, as I
imagine most of us without any dream of large stock holdings, would
have managed quite well without knowing about every corporate scandal
in excruciating detail.There's a lot of stuff we DON'T need to
know, and in not knowing some of it there lies a great peace!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of the following, for all their loved ones
and all who mourn them:

Edrward, for whom we prayed, has died.

Marsha has also died.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical well-being of Mara's mother, 66,
who is in hospice after a losing battle with cancer.  This whole scenario has
unfolded shockingly quickly. Prayers, too, for Mara, may she be showered with
grace and Paul, her husband, who wants to do all he can to support and help.
Prayers for all taking care of Mara's Mom.

Lord,
help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace.
God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 5, August 5, December 5
Chapter 53: On the Reception of Guests

Let there be a separate kitchen for the Abbot and guests,
that the brethren may not be disturbed when guests,
who are never lacking in a monastery,
arrive at irregular hours.
Let two brethren capable of filling the office well
be appointed for a year to have charge of this kitchen.
Let them be given such help as they need,
that they may serve without murmuring.
And on the other hand,
when they have less to occupy them,
let them go out to whatever work is assigned them.

And not only in their case
but in all the offices of the monastery
let this arrangement be observed,
that when help is needed it be supplied,
and again when the workers are unoccupied
they do whatever they are bidden.

The guest house also shall be assigned to a brother
whose soul is possessed by the fear of God.
Let there be a sufficient number of beds made up in it;
and let the house of God be managed by prudent men
and in a prudent manner.

On no account shall anyone who is not so ordered
associate or converse with guests.
But if he should meet them or see them,
let him greet them humbly, as we have said,
ask their blessing and pass on,
saying that he is not allowed to converse with a guest.

REFLECTION

Asking that the house of God be prudently governed by the prudent
surely applies to more than the guest house. That principle goes for
the whole monastery, as well as for the families and homes of those
monastics in the world outside the cloister. This is not just another
call to frugality or economy or order for their own sakes. We are
Benedictines, we don't do ANYTHING for its own sake, except God!

The important reason behind this prudence and care is that we ARE
managing the House of God. All our Benedictine homes, our monasteries
and our guesthouses are the Houses of God. The humblest one-room
studio apartment of an Oblate is the House of God. How easily we
forget that, how commonly we think of those places as solely our own!

The whole idea of balance and peace and moderation and serenity is
nothing more or less than a singular setting for a pearl of very
great price. We need those things for our monastic struggle to be
most effective. Sometimes a surgeon might have to operate on a bloody
battlefield, but don't be surprised if infection follows. It's the
same with us and dysfunctional, imprudent messes.

We CAN operate there if we have to, but infections are likely. We
need a certain amount of reduction of inconsequential hassles to
focus on the one thing necessary. St. Benedict strives to provide us
with that. No, the monastery is not a sterile surgical suite (and I
always worry when one looks that way!) but neither is it an ill-
housed flock of free range chickens. Show me a monastery or home that
has become a chaotic mess and I can guarantee you there will be a
LOT of spiritual ramifications, as well.

Drawing on the wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, (our Order conducted
some of his early schooling at Monte Cassino,) we can surely
affirm that "peace is the tranquility of order." St. Thomas' view of
the virtues is important to us, too, imbued with the
principles of Aristotle: "Virtus in media stat." Virtue stands in the
middle way. What could be more Benedictinely moderate and balanced?

It must be clearly remembered that when we speak of "prudence", we
speak of a virtue, a thing of holiness and a golden mean. Not for
nothing did our contemporary language get the unlovely title
of "prude" from the same root. All manner of foolish timidity,
cowardice, stinge and hearts-by-Frigidaire have been
falsely named prudence.

Prudence is not and never can be a wicked thing. Prudence, real
wisdom, is a thing always to be desired. False prudence, on the other
hand, of which there is sadly no shortage, is a thing always and
everywhere to be rejected. Give such people a lot of room.

False prudence and meanness of spirit, whatever else they
may be, are windows into one's heart. The view is not always lovely
and may require a lot of prayer, but one is better off to never
follow the example of such a troubled person. Just be kind and
very, very careful!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the happy death and eternal rest of Fr Hubert and for all
who will mourn him.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following, for all
their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Bert who has suffered from bowel cancer which has now spread to his liver, but
which they think is operable. Bert has chest problems not helped by smoking.
Prayers too for Bert's wife, Vera and their family.

Prayers for all Hospital and Military Chaplains.

Prayers too for all who miss their loved ones in the period of Advent and
Christmas, especially for the ones facing their first Christmas without them.

Lord, help them as You know and will. God's
will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise
Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 4, August 4, December 4

Chapter 53: On the Reception of Guests

Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ,
for He is going to say,
"I came as a guest, and you received Me" (Matt. 25:35).
And to all let due honor be shown,
especially to the domestics of the faith and to pilgrims.

As soon as a guest is announced, therefore,
let the Superior or the brethren meet him
with all charitable service.
And first of all let them pray together,
and then exchange the kiss of peace.
For the kiss of peace should not be offered
until after the prayers have been said,
on account of the devil's deceptions.

In the salutation of all guests, whether arriving or departing,
let all humility be shown.
Let the head be bowed
or the whole body prostrated on the ground
in adoration of Christ, who indeed is received in their persons.

After the guests have been received and taken to prayer,
let the Superior or someone appointed by him sit with them.
Let the divine law be read before the guest for his edification,
and then let all kindness be shown him.
The Superior shall break his fast for the sake of a guest,
unless it happens to be a principal fast day
which may not be violated.
The brethren, however, shall observe the customary fasts.
Let the Abbot give the guests water for their hands;
and let both Abbot and community wash the feet of all guests.
After the washing of the feet let them say this verse:
"We have received Your mercy, O God,
in the midst of Your temple" (Ps.47:10).

In the reception of the poor and of pilgrims
the greatest care and solicitude should be shown,
because it is especially in them that Christ is received;
for as far as the rich are concerned,
the very fear which they inspire
wins respect for them.

REFLECTION

So much is written about Benedictine hospitality that I thought,
after over eleven years of caring for the guesthouse, I'd write about
some of the
things it is NOT, since people sometimes seem confused by this. Yes,
we are told to receive all as Christ, but at the onset a salient
difference or two between Christ Himself and the guests becomes
evident. Christ was sinless, Christ was not a threat to others,
Christ was perfect in mind and body and soul.

One of the first things that happened when the care of the guesthouse
was entrusted to me was the receipt of a list of people who in no way
were ever to be accepted again. For one reason or another, the
community absolutely did not want them here again. A few- very few-
added themselves to that list in my time. It is useful to
note that often these people put either themselves or others
or both at risk for one reason or another. There were some the
monastics were downright afraid of, others whom other guests would
have feared had they only known.

One absolutely stunned into silence an entire group of retreatants of
which she was not a member by an outburst of verbally violent abuse
and belligerence that none had seen coming at all. She really ruined
the retreat for them, destroyed everyone's peace and the peace of the
house. Everyone walked on eggs for the rest of the weekend. Sorry,
doesn't happen here twice.

Another guest used to come here on the bus immediately after
discharge from psychiatric facilities, thinking he could
come to the monastery and "get it all together." Obviously,
disastrously, what happened was quite the reverse and we finally had
to say that we would never accept him again without the opportunity
and freedom to speak with his psychiatrist. He has not been back. We
were not at all doing him any good, we were actually helping him harm
himself. Couldn't do that.

One can demonstrate this principle clearly by going even a notch
above the guesthouse: come to join the monastery addicted to
disrupting the peace and you will be escorted out, probably well
before vows.

People do not enjoy Benedictine hospitality as an always
and everywhere right. As in any human area, the rights of others must
be considered and sometimes decisively so. A monastery is a haven of
peace, but it has to take steps to ensure that it remains that for as
many as possible.

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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Prayers for Bill, our Oblate novice who is being installed into the order of
Acolyte this evening, the last minor order before permanent diaconate. May God
bless his ministry.

Prayers for the spiritual. mental and physical health of the following, for all
their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Doug, another of our Oblate novices, homebound with serious diabetic problems
with his foot for three months, surgery will be neessary at some point, in a
special diabetic cast because of skin damage caused by the first cast, also has
a bone infection and will lose one toe and some bone in surgery.

Someone seeking discernment for what is next in God's will, tough decisions to
be made and not much familial support for making them. Special prayers, too,  to
the individual's patron saint: God knows who that is.

Marcella, who's suffered a stroke and has some left-side paralysis.

Edward, who's about to enter hospice with advanced abdominal cancer.  Edward has
two adult children and this is a very hard decision for them.

Scott, 45, just had a heart attack.  He and his wife have three little kids.

Rose who has a rapidly-growing brain tumor.  No specific diagnosis yet, but it
doesn't look very hopeful.

Pat who fell and injured her ribs in a particularly painful sort of way.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy
and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 3, August 3, December 3

Chapter 52: On the Oratory of the Monastery

Let the oratory be what it is called, a place of prayer;
and let nothing else be done there or kept there.
When the Work of God is ended,
let all go out in perfect silence,
and let reverence for God be observed,
so that any sister who may wish to pray privately
will not be hindered by another's misconduct.
And at other times also,
if anyone should want to pray by herself,
let her go in simply and pray,
not in a loud voice but with tears and fervor of heart.
She who does not say her prayers in this way, therefore,
shall not be permitted to remain in the oratory
when the Work of God is ended,
lest another be hindered, as we have said.

REFLECTION

"...let nothing else be done there or kept there." Don't think for a
moment this refers to only furniture, storage or other activities. It
refers to our hearts, too. We must be terribly careful of what we
take into the oratory, what we carry in our hearts, because it not
only colors our prayer, but often the prayer of those around us as
well.

Even half-aware people who live together for years can spot
trouble immediately. They may not know what is wrong, but they are
themselves disquieted by it. Often one never finds out what is
troubling another, so one just prays for them. But the empathy, the
sympathy that moves one to do so by observation has colored the
oratory experience ever so slightly from one of untrammeled peace.

Sometimes we honestly cannot help what we carry in our hearts. I know
that all too well. There have been times when I could scarcely calm
the cacophonic roar of anxiety and hurt. For me, as I am sure for
some others, too, it is all but impossible to pray at such times, through
no fault of our own. So long as we do not will such distraction, our
prayer remains intact. Involuntary distractions are crosses to be borne with
patience, not sins we should become despondent about. Despondency
is a far greater enemy of the spiritual life than distracted prayer!

Do your best to stay focused, if you cannot, offer that to God, too,
and rejoice that you have been humbled by it. Depressives and others
with certain mental illnesses should recall that inability to
concentrate is often part of the disease, not our fault at all. If a cut bleeds,
do we feel guilty? Of course not. Many of us who suffer from such things
are already far too prone to beat ourselves up. Don't let distractions
at prayer that you didn't want and couldn't help be a reason for that.

I resolve to be a bit more careful to try to empty my heart whenever
I can, but I sometimes cannot. Nothing seems clear or right. So I
just say: "Look, maybe what I am offering You really is nothing at
all, maybe I shouldn't even dare. If it is nothing, please forgive
me. If it's not, please take it for whatever it is worth." Sometimes
that's the best we can do.

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA





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Deo gratias and continued prayers for one very happy Thomas, who starts his new
job today.

Prayers for the community of St. Ephrem Church in Mosul, Iraq, which was
destroyed by a bomber, and also for the Dominican Sisters, whose motherhouse was
badly damaged by a bomb. None were injured or killed at either site, but
intimidation of Christians seems deliberately planned.

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Sr. Juan de la Cruz, now in her
final days with cancer. We had prayed for her last summer. May she have a
peaceful and holy end, but right now she is in a lot of pain. Prayers, too, for
all who will mourn her.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Ruth has had a fall and
broken her leg badly and needs an operation. Prayers for the family, too, and
for all taking care of her, please.

George asks prayers of thanks to the Blessed Mother to whom he fervently prayed
in the case of a serious personal problem he was confronted with over the past
week. Thankfully, he was able to clear the problem and he wants to thank her for
those graces.

Lord, help
us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is
never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 2, August 2, December 2

Chapter 51: On Brethren Who Go Not Very Far Away

A Brother who is sent out on some business
and is expected to return to the monastery that same day
shall not presume to eat while he is out,
even if he is urgently requested to do so
by any person whomsoever,
unless he has permission from his Abbot.
And if he acts otherwise, let him be excommunicated.



REFLECTION

Some of us may recall childhood playmates who were not allowed to eat
at our homes or anywhere else, just at their own home. I know I do.
She came from  a VERY close-knit Seventh Day Adventist family.

That girl's family had a high level of what sociologists term
liminality. The term is used often to describe Hasidic Jews and the
Old Order Amish. It is the degree of difference from the rest of the
world that is undertaken voluntarily and its effect is to heighten
the connectedness of the group in question, to strengthen bonds.

Even though he could not have named it that, maybe liminality is
something of what St. Benedict is aiming at in this chapter. Surely
we ARE meant to be communal, to be cenobitic families that are very
closely bonded to one another. Surely a meal is one way of both
stressing that bond and limiting outside competitive ones. There is
also the problem- greater in St. Benedict's day than in our own- of
the monastic dining on heaven knows what that was forbidden.

These days, far less is forbidden to us dietarily as monastics, but
there are still dangers of monastics being wined and dined and
getting far too accustomed to "only-the-best-for-me-thanks!" We are
certainly allowed to eat out, but I think that it is significant
that, in my monastery, we are ordinarily forbidden to eat in expensive places or
in people's homes without permission.

That's just our custom here. In many ways, it is very good, too.
Remember that we usually go out in our habits. I sure don't mind
being seen in Taco Bell or some family restaurant in my habit, but I
would be woefully embarrassed and ashamed to be seen so attired in
the most expensive restaurant in Boston. What kind of a statement
would that make?

Our homes are domestic churches, they are temples. However humble,
they are the banquet halls of a great King.That's what we are called
to remember in this chapter. Our homes are sacred, whether Oblate or Abbot
Primate, we live in the houses of God. To His dwelling place, others must
never be preferred. Ask me where I'd like to eat my last meal and the answer
would be right here at home.

Having said that we all dwell in domestic temples, banquet halls of
the Greatest King, let us also take care to invite others to share that
tremendous grace. The simplest meal in such a setting, provided the host sees it
for the splendor of God's presence that it truly is, is a rich blessing for the
guests,
indeed. And we are, after all Benedictines: hospitality is one of our
trademarks!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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HUGE Deo gratias, Fr. Nigel, for whom we prayed, had swine flu and was in a coma
for 41 days and docs had done all they could do. Then he recovered! God is good!
Thanks to all for their prayers.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Fr. Jude, who needs a
kidney transplant, and for his parishoner and all his love one and all who take
care of him.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

April 1, August 1, December 1

Chapter 50: On Sisters Who are Working Far From the Oratory or Are on
a Journey

Those sisters who are working at a great distance
and cannot get to the oratory at the proper time --
the Abbess judging that such is the case --
shall perform the Work of God
in the place where they are working,
bending their knees in reverence before God.

Likewise those who have been sent on a journey
shall not let the appointed Hours pass by,
but shall say the Office by themselves as well as they can
and not neglect to render the task of their service.

REFLECTION

Look, if you think your marriage vows take a powder while you're
traveling on business, chances are a lot of people pity your spouse.
There are jobs that we do not carry with us. We are not surgeons,
welders or toll booth ticket-takers at home- at least hopefully! But
marriage is not a job, it's a vocation and so is monastic life.
Vocations stay with one everywhere, at all times and places. One is
ALWAYS a spouse, always a parent, always a monastic.

Hey, it is World AIDS Day, and there are a lot of similarities
between monasticism done right and HIV. I should know- I've been HIV+
for nearly 21 years and a monk for nearly 18. For rather crass starters,
both get in your blood and if they do, there is no cure! Done right,
both are always with you. Since my diagnosis, even in my dreams,
I am always HIV+, never once have I dreamed of my current self
otherwise. I wish I could say exactly the same of monasticism, but
even there, my dreams that are not flashbacks are most usually about
Jerome, not my secular name, Phil!

Writ large across my heart are the letters "HIV" and I am still
working on making "OSB" stand out in equally high relief there! At
some point, if we are lucky, we realize that our vocation really is
who we've become.

Virus and vows! Believe me, there were times I wished I had neither, but I
always have both! Most of the time, I am glad of that, in very mysterious
ways, mysteriously grateful for both. In my case, at least, neither
would have been my totally free first choice, but they are undeniably
where God has placed me and both have done me a world of good, most
often through their hassles, but also through their ordinary days!
I would not give up what either has taught me for anything in the world.

We live in a secular society that urges us to follow our dreams.
Well, m'dears, I have swooned at the poetry in that one for more
decades than I care to admit, but it ain't always true. Why on earth
should we ascribe an infallibility to our own dreams that we are
unwilling under any but the most exceptionally extreme circumstances
to apply to anyone else? Whoops! There's a real passing chance our
dreams may be wrong, may have to be given up. I am living proof to
myself that fighting that surrender is terribly hard and just as
useless. Yes, choice often enters into whom we become, but not
always, and sometimes the things that become us are the ones we quite
pointedly have NOT chosen.

Many of us do not choose what life hands us. Some do not choose to be
parents, some choose one spouse only to find that person changes
horrifically later on and nobody in their right mind chooses to
become HIV+. Many, many things are in some ways forced upon us, but
those things can become fully graced things of wonder, if only we let
God work. If only we would trust Him... His Divine Mercy will triumph
over all, but we must trust Him. He knows, after all, what He is doing!
We often can only see His work in hindsight, looking back.

Love and prayers,

Jerome Leo, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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******Somehow I skipped Nov. 28 and ran the 30th yesterday, so here's the
reading for the 28th to catch up.

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following,
for all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

B.'s older son who continues to face challenges because of a property and has
other adjustments issues.

Jane, who lost one kidney to cancer and now has lost all function in the
remaining one. She needs a kidney.

March 29, July 29, November 28
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor

From the Calends of October until the beginning of Lent,
let them apply themselves to reading
up to the end of the second hour.

At the second hour let Terce be said,
and then let all labor at the work assigned them until None.
At the first signal for the Hour of None
let everyone break off from her work,
and hold herself ready for the sounding of the second signal.
After the meal
let them apply themselves to their reading or to the Psalms.

On the days of Lent,
from morning until the end of the third hour
let them apply themselves to their reading,
and from then until the end of the tenth hour
let them do the work assigned them.
And in these days of Lent
they shall each receive a book from the library,
which they shall read straight through from the beginning.
These books are to be given out at the beginning of Lent.

But certainly one or two of the seniors should be deputed
to go about the monastery
at the hours when the sisters are occupied in reading
and see that there be no lazy sister
who spends her time in idleness or gossip
and does not apply herself to the reading,
so that she is not only unprofitable to herself
but also distracts others.
If such a one be found (which God forbid),
let her be corrected once and a second time;
if she does not amend,
let her undergo the punishment of the Rule
in such a way that the rest may take warning.

Moreover, one sister shall not associate with another
at inappropriate times.

REFLECTION

Lectio divina, sacred reading, is the Benedictine form of
contemplation, more ancient than many later forms, both Carmelite and
Athonite. Being so ancient, it comes with very few directions. Much
of its "method" has been developed and handed down by monastics over
the centuries since St. Benedict.

Even in that embellished form, it remains a very, very simple and
efficient means to contemplative prayer. One simply reads Scripture
or the Fathers (or Mothers!) slowly, reflectively, ruminating (like a
cow chewing its cud!) on each word and verse. As St. Romuald later
observed, one waits like a chick for whatever its mother gives it.

One does not read to get through the book. One reads to see if and
when the Holy Spirit calls us to higher prayer with a word or phrase
that strikes the heart. At that point, one should follow one's heart
and not worry about finishing the page! Cleared for takeoff!

It is interesting that St. Benedict weaves all these schedules of
contemplative reading and prayer together with his manual labor
concerns, without any ado. There's another example of the dignity and
holiness of work in a Benedictine theology. Our work, too, is prayer.
It must be.

We must, somehow, learn to be all prayer. That same
ruminative mindfulness that colors our lectio must color our labor as
well. It is a different form of attention, a different form of
prayer, but it is prayer nonetheless! Just ask any gardener or cook
with a mystical heart or, for that matter, any toilet cleaner or
diaper changer of the same ilk!

The Carmelites prescribe mental prayer, which should, with
recollection, spread throughout one's day. The hesychasts of Mount
Athos, Romania and Russia stress the Jesus Prayer, said vocally until
it becomes automatic in the heart at all times. Both of these are
more explicit methodologies, but the Benedictine aim is the same:
prayer without ceasing, prayer in choir and garden and cell, prayer
at reading and prayer at work. Mindfulness of God at all times is the
contemplative goal of all these systems.

This is just my own opinion, but I am inclined to think that the
Dominican concept of contemplation comes closest to our own, largely
because of their love of study. Study, for the Dominican, is often
very similar to lectio in the Benedictine scheme of things. Why?
Because the Dominican seeks Truth, and Jesus said: "I am the Truth."
A Dominican could be reading virtually anything and still know that
every bit
of real, objective truth garnered from that reading would be yet
another shard, no matter how small, in the infinite mosaic of the
face of Christ. That is a mosaic none of us shall ever complete in
this life, but oh, how much more familiar He shall seem to us when we
meet Him because of it!

Maybe I'm just prejudiced, but I think that a Dominican education,
such as I had, is a wonderful preparation for Benedictine life.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA




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A blessed and holy Advent to all: it is the Church's New Year today.

HUGE Deo gratias and thankgiving: John, for whom we have prayed and who was
unemployed for 51 weeks has been offered a job. God is good!! Thanks to all for
their prayers.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Julie's Mom, Bernice,
89, who is perhaps dying and is in kidney failure. Julie and her siblings ask
prayers for God's perfect will and the strength to accept it. Prayers for all
her 11 children and loved ones, and for all who take care of her. If God wants
to call her, prayers for her happy death.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is
best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much.
JL

March 31, July 31, November 30

Chapter 49: On the Observance of Lent

Although the life of a monk
ought to have about it at all times
the character of a Lenten observance,
yet since few have the virtue for that,
we therefore urge that during the actual days of Lent
the brethren keep their lives most pure
and at the same time wash away during these holy days
all the negligences of other times.
And this will be worthily done
if we restrain ourselves from all vices
and give ourselves up to prayer with tears,
to reading, to compunction of heart and to abstinence.

During these days, therefore,
let us increase somewhat the usual burden of our service,
as by private prayers and by abstinence in food and drink.
Thus everyone of his own will may offer God
"with joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6)
something above the measure required of him.
From his body, that is
he may withhold some food, drink, sleep, talking and jesting;
and with the joy of spiritual desire
he may look forward to holy Easter.

Let each one, however, suggest to his Abbot
what it is that he wants to offer,
and let it be done with his blessing and approval.
For anything done without the permission of the spiritual father
will be imputed to presumption and vainglory
and will merit no reward.
Therefore let everything be done with the Abbot's approval.

REFLECTION

Because we read St. Benedict's 1500 year old Holy Rule with modern
eyes, it often seems harsh. To balance our perspective, we need to
see the radical nature of the Rule when written. Face it, folks, this
was most definitely a gentler Rule for European wannabes who could
never hack it in the Egyptian desert in their wildest dreams. His
introductory paragraph points out his plan of adaptation: "...since
few have the virtue for that..." Our founder was most certainly
writing for the struggling plodders of monasticism and he knew it. Keeping
that uppermost in our minds can be informatively humbling.

The Desert Fathers were not terribly interested in mitigation in
most cases. The early message of the desert was: "Get Lent to the max
or get lost!" They went FAR beyond Lenten and they did it all year,
without a break.

If we look carefully at this, perhaps we can
better see that, from the outset, St. Benedict's fatherly heart was
with the underdogs, the also rans, the strays and losers that others
could not be bothered with. He must have felt at some point that
there HAD to be a way for the spiritually challenged to become
monastics. A millennium and a half later, we are still benefiting
from his attempts.

Hence, for us Benedictines, when the Evil One tempts us with his lies
like: "You could never do that! You could never be THAT holy!" we
should remind ourselves that we CAN be, but only with God's grace.
We have no clue of how holy we can be. God alone knows that and
God alone will lead us and show us in ways we are quite unlikely to ever
understand.
Whenever the demon of discouragement tells us we are far beneath this
Rule for beginners, we must shrug indifferently and move on, briefly
impressed for once with the Father of Lies' firm grasp on the
obvious.

Of *COURSE* we are beneath this Rule, beneath any of the earlier
ones. Duh?!? We're Benedictines. Our Order was founded for people
like us. That should never, ever be a cause to stop trying, to give
up or quit. On the contrary, that fact should be a heartening
confirmation that we are EXACTLY where we belong, in the best
possible remedial education program for slow learners like us, right
where God wants us.

Like a mother to a crying child, devoid of hope, who moans "But I
CAN'T, I just can't!" St. Benedict is softly saying, "Well, just do what
you can and that will be OK." Get the picture?

Now, go out and do what you can today... Don't be
surprised if you find that God is increasing, sometimes imperceptibly, that
"what you can" little by little to heights of great holiness, which we will
achieve all but unawares and only with His help. Someday, we really
SHALL "run in the way...with hearts enlarged."

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following, for all
their loved ones and all who take care of them:

John, who between two visits to the hospital went from fairly healthy to very
ill, in four days, and will be going to Mayo Clinic shortly.  He is very down
and confused by this rapid onset and asks for strength, peace, wisdom and
healing.

Betty, on her 93rd birthday.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 30, July 30, November 29

Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor

On Sundays, let all occupy themselves in reading,
except those who have been appointed to various duties.
But if anyone should be so negligent and shiftless
that she will not or cannot study or read,
let her be given some work to do
so that she will not be idle.

Weak or sickly sisters should be assigned a task or craft
of such a nature as to keep them from idleness
and at the same time not to overburden them or drive them away
with excessive toil.
Their weakness must be taken into consideration by the Abbess.

REFLECTION

The greatest mentor in my monastic life was Brother Patrick Creamer,
OSB, of St. Leo Abbey in Florida, who died in September, 2004,
nearly 90. I learned more from Patrick than I have from any other monk. He had
more influence on my life than any man other than my father. Say a prayer
for him. My debt to him is great and much of what I pass on to you I received
from Patrick first. I have long hoped that even in the slightest and most
occasional of ways, I could be a Patrick now and then to someone else.

Years ago, Brother Patrick told me: "Never judge yourself by others-
there will always be people who will do more than you and people who
do less." There's a very obvious corollary to that maxim: never judge
others by yourself, either! I have struggled for years to learn both.
I still have not succeeded, but I keep trying. Every time I remember
those words I am shamed at how many more times I forget them. I hope
and pray all of you are much better students of life than I am!

The Abbot is not the only one who has to see, really see weakness and
allow for it. All of us do. That's what it means to bear one
another's burdens as well as we can. If and when so-and-so finally
gets their act together, it is highly unlikely that they will be an
exact clone of someone so utterly perfect as ourselves! We can be so
self-centered that we unwittingly actually expect that to happen. If
we stop to look at how ludicrous such a thing is, we'll have to
laugh, because if we didn't, we'd cry.

God made individuals, tons of them. Their optimal state is going to
be just as individual, just as different , one from another. Hey,
that's the beauty of the mosaic, which would, after all, have all the
charm of a tiled floor if all the pieces were the same color and
boring shape...

It is not just the weakness of others we have to see. We have to see
our own, as well. How many people there are who may be
thinking: "When Jerome gets his ducks in a row, he'll be just like me."
Sorry, y'all. Ain't gonna happen, no more than you all are going to wind up (God
forbid!) looking frighteningly like me. Strengths and weakness are
the only tools we have to work with. If we don't even see them, they
won't be much good.

I confess that I do not know 10% of what my computer can do. I'll
probably never know most of its ability. That's often the case with
computers, but how tragic it is if we allow that to happen with
ourselves. That's why the monastic struggle points us to even deeper
self-examination, self-knowledge and humility.

Hey, a hard drive is neither here nor there in many senses, but a
human soul needs a LOT of disk scanning and defragmentation. There'd
better be a good anti-virus program, too, as well as lots of extra
memory! Fortunately, these things cost nowhere near what software
does. They were all bought for us at a tremendous price. Just ask the
One Who did that and He'll give you all the free downloads you could
ever need!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA






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Prayers for safe travel for all during this holiday weekend in the US. And a
belated Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating same.Let us all give thanks to God
for His many gifts and blessings.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 28, July 28, November 27
Chapter 48: On the Daily Manual Labor

Idleness is the enemy of the soul.
Therefore the sisters should be occupied
at certain times in manual labor,
and again at fixed hours in sacred reading.
To that end
we think that the times for each may be prescribed as follows.

From Easter until the Calends of October,
when they come out from Prime in the morning
let them labor at whatever is necessary
until about the fourth hour,
and from the fourth hour until about the sixth
let them apply themselves to reading.
After the sixth hour,
having left the table,
let them rest on their beds in perfect silence;
or if anyone may perhaps want to read,
let her read to herself
in such a way as not to disturb anyone else.
Let None be said rather early,
at the middle of the eighth hour,
and let them again do what work has to be done until Vespers.

And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty
should require that they themselves
do the work of gathering the harvest,
let them not be discontented;
for then are they truly monastics
when they live by the labor of their hands,
as did our Fathers and the Apostles.
Let all things be done with moderation, however,
for the sake of the faint-hearted.

REFLECTION

I offer this as further proof of St. Benedict's tenderness and
gentleness: take a nap. OK, say the siesta is Italian and cultural.
Fine, but there were plenty of cultural elements he didn't let
through the monastery gate. It was a LOT hotter in Egypt and one
doesn't hear the Fathers telling people to lie down and rest, much
less saying that those who cannot sleep dare not wake those who can
with their noisiness! This is a gentle Father we have!

Surely moderation is one of the key elements woven throughout the
Holy Rule, but isn't it at least worthy of note that it is stressed
here, in the chapter on work? St. Benedict may not have had all the
handy psycho babble terms that we use today to name things, but he
had a piercingly clear perception of human nature.

He knew that some people were workaholics and that their contemplative
focus would be shattered by that. He knew some people were obsessive
about trivia that didn't matter. He knew that some people were very loving
caregivers who would turn into flaming doormats, abused by their own
kindness and inability to say "No," politely.

So, he counters all that by saying: "Take a nap!" Hey, what a great
reality check! Wake up, y'all, the world has an axis to spin on already
and there is no need for you to duplicate services! St. Benedict
certainly knows that many things are important, even essential and he
is not at all shy about pointing them out. In the midst of all that,
he says: "Take a nap!" If you can't nap, he doesn't even say "pray,"
he tells the insomniac to read quietly!!

Look, we are known for our motto of pray and work, ora et labora. One
might well assume that if you couldn't be working, you ought to at
least be praying. Not so. Take a nap. Balance it out. Try pulling
your arm out of a bucket of water and see what happens. Water closes
right in, no problem. Much depends on us, but usually much less than
we are prone to pridefully think! Take a nap!

Our world around us will gladly and readily tell us that we are worth
nothing other than our productivity, our work, our profitability. St.
Benedict wants to be sure that when we come to his monastery, we see
those distorted values of human dignity for the falsehoods they
really are.

He wants us to work, yes, but to see work in the deep
humility of truth. A consumerist society has taught us the exact
opposite of that and we all need to patiently spend lots of time
peeling those scales from our eyes with the help of God and St.
Benedict.

Take a nap!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA

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Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following, for all
their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Jenny, pancreatic cancer, prognosis poor, for her family and all who will mourn
her, and for her happy death when God calls her.

Jeanine, recurrent cancer in several different sites, prognosis poor, for her
family and all who will mourn her and for her happy death when God calls her.

Lord, help us all as You know and will, God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL


March 27, July 27, November 26
Chapter 47: On Giving the Signal for the Time of the Work of God

The indicating of the hour for the Work of God
by day and by night
shall devolve upon the Abbot
either to give the signal himself
or to assign this duty to such a careful brother
that everything will take place at the proper hours.

Let the Psalms and the antiphons be intoned
by those who are appointed for it,
in their order after the Abbot.
And no one shall presume to sing or read
unless he can fulfill that office
in such a way as to edify the hearers.
Let this function be performed
with humility, gravity and reverence,
and by him whom the Abbot has appointed.

REFLECTION

Like it or not, for good or ill, the buck stops with the Abbot. This
is true of many, if not all authority figures, so if you fall into
such a group, know that when the Holy Rule speaks of the Abbot, it
speaks of any Benedictine in authority, with a charge or
responsibility, whether in the monastery, the family or a job in
the world.

There is a down side to the authority given here. Abbots are human.
They can make bad choices, they can listen to bad advice, they can
empower the wrong people. None of these things will, in and of
itself, absolve us from obedience, but they often have some pragmatic
use in helping us realize with whom (and what!) we are dealing.

I have known at least two abbots who were blind to the faults of
people they empowered to dangerous lengths. Virtually everybody else
in the community knew, and, though risky, I would say that's a fairly
safe rule of thumb: all of the monks are rarely wrong about someone.
Oh, there may be the terribly occasional genuine saint who is
misunderstood, but usually, when the common opinion was that bad,
there was a reason for all that smoke somewhere!

Which reminds those of us who do have authority to listen to those
who disagree. Sometimes they are very, very right and we are wrong.
Sometimes the person we think is so wonderful is not so hot to
others, has a dark side that we never see, because the individual
wishes to impress the source of empowerment. Sigh...

Except for the rare above-mentioned saint, it is uncommon for someone
in a monastery to be that disliked because they are doing wonderfully
well. I'm not saying that NEVER happens, but at least in my monastic
experience, doing a job terribly well is not usually what earns
disfavor. Being a terror, on the other hand, readily does.

If the Abbot misses the fact and enables one who IS a terror, his
flock will be overdriven in nothing flat. As Scripture suggests, they
may all die in one day and rest assured, those of them who don't will
wish they'd been able to!

What I NEED to be is a monk. For some, sadly, the need-to-be thing is
to be in power. Tragic and very, very sad... I have never known such
an individual in monastic life of whom I was the least bit envious.
They are pathetically sad creatures.

But this is also true of ALL walks of life. All we really NEED to be
is Christ's, to be holy. That means to do our VOCATION well, whatever that may
be.
The rest is all fluff. Every single Christian and especially those
of us who choose the Benedictine path, need to examine this and our own
attitude to jobs or power VERY, very closely

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA




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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical well-being of Paul, 63,
brain cancer that has spread to other organs, prognosis of less than a year to
live. As sick as he is himself, he is organizing a blood drive to help others in
need. Prayers for his happy death and eternal rest and for all his family and
all who will mourn him.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 26, July 26, November 25
Chapter 46: On Those Who Fail in Any Other Matters

When anyone is engaged in any sort of work,
whether in the kitchen, in the cellar, in a shop,
in the bakery, in the garden, while working at some craft,
or in any other place,
and she commits some fault,
or breaks something, or loses something,
or transgresses in any other way whatsoever,
if she does not come immediately
before the Abbess and the community
of her own accord
to make satisfaction and confess her fault,
then when it becomes known through another,
let her be subjected to a more severe correction.

But if the sin-sickness of the soul is a hidden one,
let her reveal it only to the Abbess or to a spiritual mother,
who knows how to cure her own and others' wounds
without exposing them and making them public.


REFLECTION

The Chapter of Faults, wherein monastics confessed public, external
faults, had become rather silly the way it was practiced before
Vatican II. I remember, years ago, seeing a glossary list of Latin
phrases used to describe different faults. As practiced, I'm not sure
it was the most useful thing in the world at all.

However, look at the kernel here, important for both monasteries and
families: communication. What St. Benedict wrote about was not the
formalized and sometimes empty ritual that the late 20th century had
come to know, it was an airing session of sorts. These can be very
useful. People in any life are often reluctant to open up about what
bothers them, monastics are often even more so! To provide a
structured way and time to do so might have given some just the extra
distance and protection they needed.

Slights and wrongs and hurts that lie hidden and unexpressed can
fester into a spreading, malignant growth. Note that the Holy Rule
bids us never let the sun set on our anger. We have to get the things
that REALLY bother us out. This hardly means a free for all, that
would be very contrary to the whole spirit of the Rule, but it does
mean that genuine differences must be solved in an open and
respectful and humble way.

The way for today's community or family may not be to do this all
together- but then again that might not be all bad, occasionally. At
any rate and however we do it, St. Benedict asks us to own up to our
failures and those of others because he knows it is terribly damaging
not to do so. A important item here is that the all the members must
feel safe to express themselves. How many kids who were afraid to
open their mouths to a parent about really serious troubles in their
relationship are still in therapy years later?

Whether alone or in a group, when we confess our fault to others, we
lighten our load. When we honestly and gently tell others that they
have hurt us or wronged us, we are often surprised to find that they
were unaware of having done so- no wonder they "keep right on doing
it!" We can also be wonderfully surprised at the depth of feeling
with which apologies may be made. Very often the gentle and loving
exposure of a problem between people gives us remarkable
opportunities to show our nobler side and to see that side of our
brothers and sisters.

The goal of this is peace, so it must never be done for any other
motive, for anything less than loving. There is the danger that we
lose track of the important "difference between the virtue of honesty
and the vice of brutal frankness" as my late friend, Fr. Roger, used
to say. This must never become an accepted arena for getting back at one
another. The whole purpose here is to end strife, not perpetuate it.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following,
for all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Bill, in hospice with cancer and declining very fast.

Angele, suffering 5 days from an inner-ear infection now her eyes are showing
problems.

Lord, help us all as You know and wil. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 25, July 25, November 24
Chapter 45: On Those Who Make Mistakes in the Oratory

When anyone has made a mistake
while reciting a Psalm, a responsory,
an antiphon or a lesson,
if he does not humble himself there before all
by making a satisfaction,
let him undergo a greater punishment
because he would not correct by humility
what he did wrong through carelessness.

But boys for such faults shall be whipped.

REFLECTION

Calm down, we don't whip anybody anymore. It has too often been my
experience that such lines push all the buttons of some readers these
days and blind them to the rest of the good stuff there. We don't
whip now, they did 1,500 years ago, everyone else did, too. Let's not
get so mired in the sensitivities of our own time that we forget how
terribly recent some of them are.

As I have mentioned before, in our house we do kneel in the center
when late for choir, then bow to the superior and go to our
place. We also kneel when we make audible mistakes in Church. And
yes, those things, as I pointed out, can be very useful.

But most Oblates do not have a choir to kneel in, so
what's here for the majority of us? There is the grace of humility,
without which communal life on any level, in monastery, workplace, market or
home would be unlivable. Check out some of the lyrics of Shaker
hymns. They feature LOADS of messages about getting along without
murder. One speaks of not being stubborn like the oak, but of being
like the willow who can bend!

Every single human community or whatever sort is going to have its
share of kinks, strays and crosses. Every one without fail
will mirror in some sense the fallen brokenness of humanity. The
gamut of human flaws exists in microcosm, in at least some mitigated form,
in every human group.

Even more annoyingly, most, if not all, pieces of our OWN broken
humanity will be modeled, much to our distaste, by others around us. It is,
alas, our own sins and faults in others that tend to annoy us most. Never
forget to check for that. He or she may REALLY tick you off because
of the great similarities between you!

Our job is to see to it that we are part of the solution, not part
of the problem. When, through whatever means, we become part of the problem,
we must own up to it at once and smooth it over as best and as
quickly as we can.

If you can't say "I'm sorry," for God's sake- quite literally- start
practicing alone in front of a mirror until the words can somehow
tumble out in public. Until they can, try some useful (though not
perfect,) substitutes, like "Excuse me," or "It was my fault." Work
on words of forgiveness, too, like: "It doesn't matter," or "Oh,
that's OK,".

Strive to make light of things. There will never be any
shortage whatever of people who will explode and magnify things out
of all rational proportion, so don't duplicate services! Join the
minority and try to prevent hurricanes in teacups, rather than
produce them.

Most outrage, most lack of apology, most tempests in teacups stem
from a distorted an unhealthy view of the self. Humility corrects
that imbalance. While you're in front of the mirror practicing
apology, why not try a bit of self-interview?

WHY do these things or persons upset you so? What do you have in
common with those who annoy you most? Most important, just who the
heck ARE you that your perceived slights are such a big deal? Try
reminding yourself that He is God and you are not. Honest reflection on these
points may be a big and promising start.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA


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+PAX

Please pray for Charlie. He in a Care Facility with Alzheimer's. Someone is
stealing Charlie's special treats that Charlie's daughter is buying for him to
make his days a little easier. Please pray that Holy Ghost will convict the
guilty party of the shame of their despicable crime and cause them to stop.

Prayers for guidance from the Holy Spirit for Laura, as she discerns where God
wants her in the lay state.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 24, July 24, November 23
Chapter 44: How the Excommunicated Are to Make Satisfaction

One who for serious faults is excommunicated
from oratory and table
shall make satisfaction as follows.
At the hour when the celebration of the Work of God is concluded
in the oratory,
let her lie prostrate before the door of the oratory,
saying nothing, but only lying prone with her face to the ground
at the feet of all as they come out of the oratory.
And let her continue to do this
until the Abbess judges that satisfaction has been made.
Then, when she has come at the Abbess's bidding,
let her cast herself first at the Abbess's feet
and then at the feet of all,
that they may pray for her.

And next, if the Abbess so orders,
let her be received into the choir,
to the place which the Abbess appoints,
but with the provision that she shall not presume
to intone Psalm or lesson or anything else in the oratory
without a further order from the Abbess.

Moreover, at every Hour,
when the Work of God is ended,
let her cast herself on the ground in the place where she stands.
And let her continue to satisfy in this way
until the Abbess again orders her finally to cease
from this satisfaction.

But those who for slight faults are excommunicated
only from table
shall make satisfaction in the oratory,
and continue in it till an order from the Abbess,
until she blesses them and says, "It is enough."

REFLECTION

No matter how we came by it, one nasty little of baggage that a lot
of us carry is the inability to say: "It is enough." For some of us,
forgiving ourselves or believing we have been forgiven or even
sensing that we have made all the reparation possible or necessary is
virtually or even completely impossible.

There is great blessing for such people to have an Abbot. Even there,
tremendous trust and obedience are required, because the Evil One
would very much prefer that our upset and lack of faith continue! An
Abbot can put and end to many matters, if only we allow that to
happen. Abbots can offer resolution to many situations and the Holy
Rule confirms them in this power again and again. The buck really
stops there!

If we let it stop there.... That can be so hard. However, even though
most of us reading this do NOT live with Abbots, we all live with
God, with Christ. He and He alone is in charge of our forgiveness, of
the extent of our reparation or penance. He knows all too well the
extremes of self-damage we can go to without His intervention and He
does intervene, if only we have the faith to allow Him, to listen and
believe. Learn, please learn, to accept the forgiveness we receive
from Him through His ministers, in Confession.

I am finding lately, much to the relief of my obsessive/compulsive
heart and soul, that I really can achieve vastly greater amounts of
inner serenity and peace by putting an affair in my superior's hands
and accepting his judgement. There is the key to the value of this:
inner peace and serenity. We can get nowhere without those passports.
Anything which increases their strength is a chance we ought never to
miss!

The divine mercy of God is His greatest attribute, linked inseparably
to His love. We could never for an instant imagine the full extent of
that mercy's grandeur. We do Christ a terrible disservice and
discourtesy when we refuse to believe that His riches are for us,
that only others can be forgiven, but we must struggle on and "save
ourselves" with Pelagian bootstraps firmly in hand! What a sneaky
inverse pride there is in such feelings: I am so special (even
specially wicked!) that I cannot be like the rest of them!

Mercy, mercy and always mercy! If you do not have a superior to live
with, please learn to accept that mercy from God. If you do have a
superior, confessor or spiritual director,learn to accept God's mercy
through that channel. If you *ARE* a superior or parent or teacher,
strive to be that channel. Mercy, mercy, always mercy!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@...



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+PAX

HUGE Deo gratias, Thomas, for whom we have been praying got the job he
interviewed for. God is good!

Prayers, please, for the spirirtual, mental and physical health of the
following, for all their loved ones and for all who take care of them:

Ethan, 7, in pediatric ICU with an upper respiratory infection, and for his
worried parents and grandparents.

Lisa and her daughters; Lisa has had a traumatic accident that will have
repercussions on them all for the rest of her life. Please also pray for
Danielle to know how best to offer support and Christ's love to them.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy
and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL


March 23, July 23, November 22
Chapter 43: On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table

Anyone who does not come to table before the verse,
so that all together may say the verse and the oration
and all sit down to table at the same time --
anyone who
through his own carelessness or bad habit
does not come on time
shall be corrected for this up to the second time.
If then he does not amend,
he shall not be allowed to share in the common table,
but shall be separated from the company of all
and made to eat alone,
and his portion of wine shall be taken away from him,
until he has made satisfaction and has amended.
And let him suffer a like penalty who is not present
at the verse said after the meal.

REFLECTION

OK, before we all get hopelessly mired in the belief that St.
Benedict is REALLY mired in punctuality issues, let's try a parable
reality check. What if every bus (or train or plane or subway,)
waited for the latecomer to arrive? For starters, the schedule of
everyone sitting helpless on that mode of transportation would be
disrupted. Everyone would be late, every single one. Some would miss
work, others a wedding, others still a connection with friends to
leave on vacation. If all public transport followed such a program,
our whole world would be a chaotic mess of very unhappy campers in
nothing flat.

Benedictine communities do things together. Usually, that means that
a late arrival at a meal keeps everyone sitting there when already
finished, waiting for the tardy one to eat. (Occasionally a superior
will intervene and end the meal more or less on time, but often that
is not the case. Everybody waits.) This lengthening of the meal then
throws the whole schedule off. The Office cannot suffer, it's times
are inexorable, so what usually gets clipped is free time, recreation
or work. Rob people of these on a regular basis and they can get very
annoyed!

Lateness which is unavoidable is just that, unavoidable. That's a
time when the meal ought to be prolonged, when the others ought to
witness that we "bear one another's burdens" and so fulfill the law
of Christ. However, chronic unnecessary lateness is often a sign of
lack of consideration, lack of care for others, maybe even of lack of
respect. Brother X is my brother. I am responsible for a large chunk
of his communal life. If I say that doesn't matter and stroll into
dinner whenever I feel like it, something is terribly wrong with me.
I need to have my skewed vision and values corrected. That's what
this is all about: loving one another rightly.

Much of the Holy Rule which deals with communal life (and is VERY
easy to apply to family life or workplace,) has to do with what should
really be common courtesy and decency. Granted, sometimes those values get
wrapped in ancient language and gesture, making it less easy to see
how simple and modern they are, but those exhortations to polite,
considerate, gentle living are things anyone can follow in any milieu, to great
benefit! Many of those courtesies are threatened or altogether lacking today.
Helping keep them alive may start a conversion in another we will never know
until heaven.

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA




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Today, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, is
traditionally a
very special feast day for Oblates, rather like the day that
Mary "made her
Oblation", if you will. Even if your religious tradition does not
approve of prayers to Mary, please use today in a special way for
all of us Oblates to pray for each other and all Oblates throughout
time. It has been a favorite Oblate feast for many, many years!

Prayers for the eternal rest of Helen Grant, who has died. She lived in the
cottage at the gate of Pluscarden Abbey through the refounded monastery's whole
history and was a deeply loved friend of the Community.

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following,
for all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Leonard, on dialysis and dying and for his family.

Santiago. A teenager going through some difficult times.

Ms. Power, who has recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. ALl is mercy and
grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 22, July 22, November 21
Chapter 43: On Those Who Come Late to the Work of God or to Table

At the hour for the Divine Office,
as soon as the signal is heard,
let them abandon whatever they may have in hand
and hasten with the greatest speed,
yet with seriousness, so that there is no excuse for levity.
Let nothing, therefore, be put before the Work of God.


If at the Night Office
anyone arrives after the "Glory be to the Father" of Psalm 94 --
which Psalm for this reason we wish to be said
very slowly and protractedly --
let him not stand in his usual place in the choir;
but let him stand last of all,
or in a place set aside by the Abbot for such negligent ones
in order that they may be seen by him and by all.
He shall remain there until the Work of God has been completed,
and then do penance by a public satisfaction.
the reason why we have judged it fitting
for them so stand in the last place or in a place apart
is that,
being seen by all,
they may amend for very shame.
For if they remain outside of the oratory,
there will perhaps be someone who will go back to bed and sleep
or at least seat himself outside and indulge in idle talk,
and thus an occasion will be provided for the evil one.
But let them go inside,
that they many not lose the whole Office,
and may amend for the future.


At the day Hours
anyone who does not arrive at the Work of God
until after the verse
and the "Glory be to the Father" for the first Psalm following it
shall stand in the last place,
according to our ruling above.
Nor shall he presume to join the choir in their chanting
until he has made satisfaction,
unless the Abbot should pardon him and give him permission;
but even then the offender must make satisfaction for his fault.

REFLECTION

First, an aside. The signal to get moving, whatever it may be, is
usually a bell or something like it. Our modern age looks at any
request or command we don't like as a time to start negotiations, not
to obey. We may euphemize this with terms like "dialogue" but the
bottom line is finding a graceful way to say either "Heck, NO!" or
considerably less than "Yes!" or "OK, fine!"

Bells, however, are inexorable and there is no point in arguing with
them. Their stoic silence will win every time! It is worth
remembering that, in the old days, the bell was known as the "vox
Dei," the voice of God. It is further worth recalling that arguing
with God isn't usually very successful, either!

There is a gem buried here that gets lost in the wash of
being late or being on time or kneeling out or not. That treasure
is: "Let nothing, therefore, be put before the Work of God." (Older
translations had: "let nothing be preferred to the Work of God." This
has usually been cited, quite rightly, a a basis for the centrality
of liturgy in Benedictine life, but that is an incomplete view, one
which leaves riches beyond telling unmined.The full sense of this
goes well beyond liturgy.

For the monastic, EVERYTHING holy obedience asks of us is in some
way the work of God. ALL of God's will for us becomes our priority.
That's what our commitment means. Monastic struggle sacralizes every jot
and tittle. In one sense, there is no small stuff anymore. (That can be
a trap for the scrupulous if over-applied, so watch out, folks! Balance, always
balance!) The distinction between sacred and profane is all but obliterated.
Our life is of a whole, and that holistic life is most often informed of God's
wishes for us by obedience.

That can require tremendous faith and trust in God, but God does
reward such trust richly beyond our dreams. Contemporary attempts by
some to reduce all Benedictine obedience to a process of dialogue or
negotiation, or to make it a communal affair or a consensual one are
terribly far off the mark. The textual evidence of the Holy Rule, as
well as historical and traditional evidence simply do not support
such claims.

The Rule speaks of dialogue only when one is commanded to do the
impossible, not the merely unpalatable! Even then, if the superior
insists, one must trust and obey. Tough saying, but obedience works
best when it isn't a lot of fun...

But back to priorities. Surely the Office comes first before lesser
obediences. Being late because one finished something that could wait
is a poor excuse, because it shows what is valued most- one's own
will. On the other hand, when one is tormented with pain that
perceptive superiors will notice, perhaps being late is the best one
can do, and that matters, too. We often judge without considering the
heroism required of some to make even an incomplete effort.

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for our Abbot Hugh of Pluscarden on his feastday, for Fr. Hugo
and for all our Hughs, graces and blessings abounding!

Deo gratias and continued prayers: Thomas made it into the finalists in one of
his two interviews. Please pray that this might be the job God wants for him.

Prayers that the person God wants will get the supervisory position at Elaine's
workplace.

Lord, help us all as
You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 21, July 21, November 20
Chapter 42: That No One Speak After Compline

Monastics ought to be zealous for silence at all times,
but especially during the hours of the night.
For every season, therefore,
whether there be fasting or two meals,
let the program be as follows:


If it be a season when there are two meals,
then as soon as they have risen from supper
they shall all sit together,
and one of them shall read the Conferences
or the Lives of the Fathers
or something else that may edify the hearers;
not the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings, however,
because it will not be expedient for weak minds
to hear those parts of Scripture at that hour;
but they shall be read at other times.


If it be a day of fast,
then having allowed a short interval after Vespers
they shall proceed at once to the reading of the Conferences,
as prescribed above;
four or five pages being read, or as much as time permits,
so that during the delay provided by this reading
all may come together,
including those who may have been occupied
in some work assigned them.


When all, therefore, are gathered together,
let them say Compline;
and when they come out from Compline,
no one shall be allowed to say anything from that time on.
And if anyone should be found evading this rule of silence,
let her undergo severe punishment.
An exception shall be made
if the need of speaking to guests should arise
or if the Abbess should give someone an order.
But even this should be done with the utmost gravity
and the most becoming restraint.

REFLECTION

Silence is sometimes viewed as a penance or deprivation by those new
to monastic life. Worse still, it can even seem depressed or
introverted, because silence, in our chatty culture, is often equated
with unhealthy withdrawal or even with contempt.

Monastic silence is nothing negative and, actually, not very passive,
either. It is an active opening of the ears and of the heart, a
listening for things which the drone of modern life and the noise of
our own mouths can readily obscure. Monastic silence is the hushed
and breathless quiet of the Lover, not the lonely isolation of the
curmudgeon!

Many Oblates write and ask me how they can find silence in the noisy
world. Just think of soldiers and everyone else in the terrible din of war.
How does one EVER find silence in such a situation? In the heart.
Sometimes our hearts are the only cloister, the only silence, the only
serenity and solitude we can hang onto.

Nurture such a heart for yourself. Build within a Kingdom of God
(it's where Jesus told us the Kingdom is!) and a cloister of great peace and
silence and love. Our hearts can never be taken from us. Whatever holiness,love
and peace we build there, we can truly keep for eternity.

As monastic life blossoms- and this is a subjective process that
happens at different speeds for different people- one finds more and
more that silence is at the heart of the tightly wrapped bud. A word
of caution here for impatient types like me: one cannot PRY the bud
open. Those delicate petals are prone to easy tearing!
(Ah, an English pun of spelling here and it applies all too well!
Yes, those petals are prone to BOTH "teering" of weeping and "taring" of
rips!) It opens gradually. You can thwart that chain of events by
non-cooperation, but there is little you can do to safely speed it up.

Put another way, the monastic heart grows more and more to love
silence, to love solitude for the best reasons. Oblates here must be
very careful. One's first vocation is one's spouse and children. The
demands of everyday life must be respected as one's primary vocation
and that can make chiseling out a niche of silent time or solitude
well-nigh impossible. That is a cross we are asked to bear. God knew
from all eternity where He would place our monastic hearts, in what
environment they would grow. We must assume quite safely that God
does, after all, know what He is doing!

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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+PAX

The second homeless man we pray for is Desmond, not Louie. I know God knows, but
I did want to correct it. BJL

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following,
for all their loved ones and all who take are of them:

Lorene, having screening tests for ovarian cancer.

Louie, a homeles man with many problems, stabbed on the street two days ago,
needs some help and grace really bad.

Louie, also homeless, lost his apartment after an assault left him in a coma for
a month. He lost everything and needs help to get back on track.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All is mercy
and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

March 20, July 20, November 19
Chapter 41: At What Hours the Meals Should Be Taken

From holy Easter until Pentecost
let the brothers take dinner at the sixth hour
and supper in the evening.


From Pentecost throughout the summer,
unless the monks have work in the fields
let them fast on Wednesdays and Fridays until the ninth hour;
on the other days let them dine at the sixth hour.
This dinner at the sixth hour shall be the daily schedule
if they have work in the fields
or the heat of summer is extreme;
the Abbot's foresight shall decide on this.


Thus it is that he should adapt and arrange everything
in such a way that souls may be saved
and that the brethren may do their work
without just cause for murmuring.


From the Ides of September until the beginning of Lent
let them always take their dinner at the ninth hour.


In Lent until Easter let them dine in the evening.
But this evening hour shall be so determined
that they will not need the light of a lamp while eating,
Indeed at all seasons
let the hour, whether for supper or for dinner, be so arranged
that everything will be done by daylight.

REFLECTION

Don't get caught up on times here. That's not the hook and it's not
the point. It can also lead you down a primrose path to
ineffectiveness and that's what the Father of Lies wants to happen. I
once read a story of a woman's very successful Lenten fast leading
to a 28 pound weight loss and a desire she felt was out of line
vanity for new clothes and hairstyle! Just about anything can be turned around
to evil by the Evil One, but EVERYTHING can be turned to good by God.
Be sure to choose the right One in that equation!

Here's the central point of this chapter: "...[the Abbot] should
adapt and arrange everything in such a way that souls may be saved."
That is a tremendous responsibility and it is also tremendously
subjective. Each Abbot, each parent, each boss and teacher, any
Benedictine in charge or anything must order things so "that souls
may be saved."

That means all things (well, after all, the Holy Rule DOES
say "everything",) in our control must be ordered towards the end
that Peter Maurin, co-founder of Catholic Worker, ascribed to society
itself, the task of "making it easier for people to be good." That
means no chop-busting for the sake of chop-busting, no power trips or
ego trips or control issues that have nothing to do with helping
people become holy. Not only must we remove obstacles to holiness for
those around us and in our care, we must actually provide aids to
sanctity in their environment. Now that is a very tall order!

Within that tall order, however, lies one more secret and key to
Benedictine peace. Peace is no accident, nor is it a void or vacuum
from which conflict is merely absent. Peace is the active presence of
justice and holiness and truth and love to an unusual degree.
Promote those values and peace is the unavoidable result.

Like so much in our Rule, peace is a lot of hard work and a very
delicate balance. Ah, but is it ever worth the effort! Our work must
be to let heaven begin at least partially in THIS life for all.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA



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