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Continued prayers for Pauline, ML list's Amma, who apparently remains
hospitalized. No recent updates available.

Prayers, please, for Maria and her niece, who has possible terminal cancer. The
niece lives in India and Marie is flying to visit her. Marie has serious back
problems and a lot of pain and having to sit for such a long flight is very
problematic for her, so prayers for them both. Prayers for two young boys,
Purvis and Quadrevion, missing without a trace for more than a week now, no
leads at all, and for their worried parents and families. Prayers for a woman
thinking about having a fourth abortion, may God's will alone be done. Prayers
for the happy death and eternal rest of Toby, for his sister-in-law Miki, who
asked, and for all his family.

Prayers for Bruno Witchalls, brother-in-law of Abigail, the young mother in
England who was stabbed and paralyzed for whom we prayed. Bruno will be ordained
to the diaconate in May, a step closer to the priesthood, and Abigail and her
family plan to be there for the happy day. Abigail, pregnant when attacked,
delivered a healthy baby in spite of her paralysis, nearly a year ago now I
suppose. Deo gratias!

Prayers of thanks and Deo gratias for TomKay's Mom, well on the road- nay, the
Autobahn/Interstate!- to recovery, doing at least 95 mph! Tom is delighted with
her progress and she is doing wonderfully well. Likewise, Lois, for whom we
prayed, has had a wonderful, cancer-free result from her x-ray exam. She
reported feeling supported and surrounded by our prayers. 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

Coming right on the heels of the prescription to say the Office while
away, it is easy to see that these two chapters are not just about
eating and praying. The principle involved here is that one's
monastic commitment does not switch off when one leaves the property.
It is there all the time.

Parents can identify with this readily. Children are not told to
avoid drugs only at home. The moral values that parents try to
instill are a way of life that (hopefully!) will be carried with the
child in every situation. My high school promised that students who
failed our standards AFTER school hours, on the way home, would be
punished. If they were wearing our uniform, they were expected to
reflect a certain standard of behavior.

What St. Benedict is doing is pointing out that monasticism is not
merely a job, a burden one doffs and dons. Monastic life is a
becoming, not a set of standards one only follows when one is closely
watched. The goal of monastic discipline is to make the disciple a
monk more or less by nature. In this respect, it closely resembles
any training: nursing school is designed to make people nurses, law
school to make attorneys, and so forth. The difference is that
monasticism is not a set number of hours per week, it's all the week,
all the life. Just as any nurse in a disaster instantly can shift
into nursing mode, whether on duty or not, the spiritually trained
monastic is operative everywhere, not just in the cloister.

This is a fine and consoling point for Oblates who must live abroad.
Lovely though our monasteries may be, they are not what makes us
monastics. That is something deep within, a cloister of our hearts
that we must learn to carry with us everywhere. Lots of people who
must live in crowded and noisy cities actually do a better job of
this than many monastics who live in rural peace. Take heart! It is
not all about place. It is about heart, always heart. Train and fix
your heart and you will always be fine!

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

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Prayers, please for a widowed Mom of two grown sons, 54, just diagnosed with
colon cancer and spots on her liver. Prayers for her mother-in-law, who is
coming to help her out, also for her grandson, for whose Hodgkin's we prayed
last year, doing great, but too soon to call it remission. Deo gratias for him
and ardent prayers for Mom and Grandmom. Prayers for Bob, brain tumor, very weak
from chemo and radiation, and for his wife, small in stature but tall in bravery
caring for him, for spiritual and physical strength for them both. For another
Bob, needs a liver transplant, suffering wild moods swings from hepatic
encephalopathy and unwilling to treat them, very hard on him and his wife. For a
woman trying to care for her Mom, who has Alzheimer's and macular degeneration.
Understandable anxiety is overwhelming the caretaking daughter, and meds and
therapy have not helped thus far. Prayers for her and her Mom.

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Oblate Dennis, who died this
morning, and for Robbie, his family and all who mourn him. Prayers for Mother
Claudia and for her Mom, who is ill with liver cancer and an uncertain
prognosis. Prayers for C., that the right therapist and therapy emerge for her
severe depression. Lord, hep us 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

Would to God that the oratories of our hearts were as easy to keep
clean as those of our monasteries! Having been sacristan, in my
youth, of the large and lovely Abbey Church at St. Leo, FL, I can
assure you that Benedictines tend to be very good about this part of
the Holy Rule. One usually gets a Church in good condition and it is
not too hard to keep it that way. In fact, doing so was only one of
my several charges at the time!

Ah, but those cardiac oratories! How easily they can get cluttered
and more or less stay that way! God alone knows how many times I have
written books or articles, essays or posts in mid-prayer, how many
times I have "capably and completely" reformed Order or monastery,
Church, liturgy or world! I certainly hope He isn't counting too
closely, and I have a fair certainty that He isn't. One of the Desert
Fathers said that, if God counts distractions in psalmody, no one
could be saved!

The aim is good, beloveds, but about the time I envision my heart
dancing in pure prayer like Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the
moonlit park, Jerome's Jezebel of a heart petulantly clumps out in a
sleazy mini-skirt, fishnet stockings and stiletto heels. My jaded
streetwalker of a heart is the easy and willing prey of a wide field
of distractions and infidelities! Jerome's Jezebel is a harlot
floozy, indeed!

But, m'dears, and hopefully to lesser degree than my own, ALL of our
hearts have that Jezebel lurking within, dying to be asked to dance,
dancing alone, if need be! No smooth sophistication of a fox trot to
Ella Fitzgerald singing Cole Porter for us. Nope! Many times, the
best we can do is stumble about disorientedly to a musically barren
gangsta rap, whose harsh dissonance and strident attacks of
percussion all too closely mirror our chaotic world.

Calm down! The Divine Aim of our poor hearts is their Author and
Maker. Better than anyone and FAR better than ourselves, He knows the
limitations of His creations! How often God must be like a tender and
loving and delighted Mother who tries with all Her might to keep from
laughing at a child's graceless attempts at being exquisite grace.

Truly, in many a stumbling child there is GREAT poetry in motion, but
not at all in the way that the child THINKS there is! So it is with
God and ourselves. Relax, therefore, and rejoice! Again I say,
rejoice! Our great and merciful God flat out delights in our efforts
and knows from the start that we shall be far more like funny home
videos than the best and most tasteful films ever produced. Funny how
we often lack the humility to see that ourselves! If we seek to gain
it, Satan, who loves to see us despondent and discouraged, will be
trounced but good.

It is our efforts which delight God, not our results. He knows that
the results we seek are far beyond many of us. The more clearly we
come to know that, the more adequate our sense of our own abject
poverty of skills, the greater our peace shall be. And in that peace
we shall find God, the loving parent on Whose long-suffering insteps
we tiptoe and dance, in Whose tender arms we swoon like children
dreaming of a grand ballroom with mirrors!

Oh, yeah, ESPECIALLY the mirrors part!!

Love and prayers and a fox trot or two!
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

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Sorry to be so late today, will not be able to acknowledge most prayer requests
individually, so please forgive me.

Prayers for our Brother Isidore, on his feast day, please! Ad multos annos.

Prayers, please, for Joy, still on life support, but not responding. Prayers for
a relationship that resulted in a lot of conflicted pain for all involved, for
healing and spiritual health for all. Prayers for Anthony, child custody court
date tomorrow. Prayers for Leo, ill with complications from chemo and for Jane,
his wife. Prayers for Jimmie, battling multiple myeloma for 7-8 years and now
cancerous spots have showed up on his kidneys, adrenal glands and lungs, CAT
scan today or tomorrow, and for his wife and family. Prayers for Joyce and her
husband, a host of household disasters have assailed them of late, a very tough
year for them.

Lord, helps us 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 nine years as guestmaster, 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-
more have added themselves to that list in my time. It is useful to
note that in every case 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. He was a potential violence
threat and would stop taking his meds on discharge, 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.

Far short of the psychotic, there comes a time in human relationships
when we are obliged to stop enabling harm to oneself or to others.
There comes a time when dysfunction must be named and not embraced.
This is where all of us come in, not just the guesthouse.

People can become toxic to each other. To admit this is not to say that an
irremediable rift must ensue, sometimes it is only a temporary distancing
till things (or persons!) improve. As Christians, permanent rifts must be only
our last resort, and even then we must continue to pray for the person.

The fact that they may be unwell is sometimes no more of a moral issue
than the young man off meds. He was truly sick, but I had two elderly ladies
on retreat to whom I couldn't explain that. Sick, while informative, was not the
deciding factor. So it often is with dysfunction, too. Being unwell
in any degree does not involve an unlimited license to harm.

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.

One of those steps is the hospitality of saying "No more." It is not easy,
it cannot be done hastily, but it is loving. I can tell you from experience
that those hearing the "no more" will quite often rail at it and at you, terming
you un-Christian, un-Benedictine and worse.That's hard to take, but don't
buckle.

A lot of discernment is required before one gets to this point, but when one
sadly does, courage and strength are also necessary. As Dorothy Day so
often said, "Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, of each of us,
but it is the only answer."

Love and prayers,

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

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Continued prayers, please, for Mother Claudia and for her Mom who has liver
cancer, continued prayers, too, for Joy, still on life support and beginning to
respond slightly! Deo gratias! Continued prayers for Pauline of Monastic life
list, no updates as yet.

Prayers for one suffering such stress that it is increasingly  physically
painful, for peace and a measure of calm to ease the pain and stress. Prayers
for Joyce, her husband and their beloved cat, Jesse, he has urology problems and
possible liver disease.

Prayers for Houssam, 7 months, born with double heart malfunctions, one surgery
already and facing another. His parents seem to have gotten the help they need
to cover costs, but both the little boy and they need tremendous strength and
grace to get through all this. 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

It is the last paragraph which strikes me. Most monasteries no longer
enforce it strictly, thankfully. However, it brings to mind a rule of
thumb that may be applied in other situations.
Like any rule of thumb, there may be exceptions, but watch the
reactions of monastics whose silence or enclosure is intruded upon
very carefully. You can learn a lot about the monastic in question
from them.

When the reaction makes the guest (who, after all, probably didn't
know any better,) feel dirty or small or terribly wrong, you can
safely guess that the monastic in question has a lot of growing up to
do. File that info any way you like, but I'd give her a LOT of
room...I'd smile sweetly when I had to and then give her a very wide
berth! I have never seen a truly holy and wise monastic react in such
a way, never. Watch out for the pursed lips and narrowed eyes, the
shaming attitude, the evident disgust. None of these things are
monastic traits. All of them are signs that a lot of further work is
necessary.

Silence and enclosure are very effective tools, but they are means to an
end. They can never be ends in themselves. The holy use of these
tools is quite likely to produce wonderful results, but their unholy
use can be just as likely to stall progress and growth outright.

Both, unfortunately, lend themselves all too well to a perversion of
their good. (Satan loves that kind of trick!) Both silence and enclosure
can play right into the stultifying neuroses of the worst kind. People
can protect themselves with them in order to remain incapable of relationship
or communication. A wise superior or formation director can nip that
mistaken notion in the bud, but, alas, not all members of either
class are wise.

Enclosure can be all too easily used as a weapon. Every abbess is
called upon to respect individual weaknesses to a point, but watch
out for a community wherein some Sisters are VERY enclosed and others
hardly at all. Silence can be a big help to recollection, but I feel
a lot more comfortable with a community that can generate
considerable joyous noise when the occasion arises. People whispering
all the time in every place do not provoke a sense of home in
themselves, much less so in others.

Look at the many Desert Father and Mother accounts of guests arriving
unexpectedly. The elder dropped fast, silence and everything,
entertaining with gratitude and evident cheer. Now and then one sees
a different response, a very cold response, when the elder KNOWS the
intentions of the guest are flawed, but we rarely know such things
about guests.

We are called to bear all things, ALL things sweetly and without a lot
of fuss. That does not mean we have to like them, merely that we have
to be cheerful about them and hide our displeasure. We must accept,
rather than undergo, a wonderful principle from Dom Jean-Marie Dechanet, OSB,
in his book on Christian Yoga.

There is probably a good deal more grace in the smiling acceptance
of an annoyance than there would be in lofty, untrammeled, silent prayer.
If there were not, God, Who is always merciful and generous, would never have
allowed the opportunity to come to us. What we make of its potential
boon is our own affair and, sometimes, our own maturity, as well.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

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Continued prayers, please, for Pauline, in ICU after a procedure to relieve
fluid pressure on her brain, but responding well to family visitors, also for
Joy, opening her eyes on her own, recognizing visitors and seems to be
improving. Deo gratias for both and pray on!

Prayers (especially the rosary or Divine Mercy chaplet)for Jean's Mom, 95,
apparently now being kept comfortable while waiting for God to take her home,
and for all her family. Prayers, too, for a life just beginning; Annalise was
born to Christie and Mike, and joyous young family now. We had prayed for her
Mom during pregnancy, so Deo gratias for all! Prayers for Tim, 11, unexplained
migraine headaches, waiting for MRI results, for his uncle, Jim, who asked, and
for all his family. Prayers for Francisco, caught in a double bind regarding
getting ordained and getting immigration papers, that all be resolved according
to God's will. Prayers for Tom and Danielle and one of their children who is
having a tough time right now.

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Gene Pitney, 65, a singer who
entertained many of us, especially those 50 somethings in our midst. He was
found dead in his hotel room. Prayers for his wife and 3 sons and all who mourn
him.

Prayers of joy for the Cistercian nuns of Tautra, in Norway, their house has
just achieved independence, and for the founding Motherhouse, Our Lady of the
Mississippi Abbey, about to elect a new Abbess. 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

At first glance, it might seem that there is little or nothing for
Oblates in the world in this chapter. Not so! However, we shall have
to look a bit deeper and pick about a bit...

OK, remember the Abbot holds the place of Christ in the community.
Now look again. The monastic is to rely on and look to no one but
Christ, and to receive nothing more or less than what is needed,
unless the Abbot, in Christ's place grants it. Remember the chapter
about no monastic defending another, taking another into their
special protection? One can easily see that this is covered here,
too. No one should ever be able to say: "I am well-off and secure
because Sister X. is my ally." Sister X. takes care of zero. God
takes care of all!

We can have such a distorted of view of our own income and property.
We can think we have "earned" what we have and can therefore use it
with impunity. Not so, and not Christian teaching, either. All goods
are held with stewardship for the common good of all. No ownership is
outright and exclusive, except for the sad ownership of our sins.

No matter what our skills or gifts or how we have developed them, no
matter if we were born with inherited comfort, no matter at all! ALL
of that came from God, every bit. We are literally nothing at all but
beneficiaries. All that we have or hope to have is nothing more or
less than a windfall from God and His mercy.

Now that is what this chapter is really all about, and it applies to
everyone within the cloister and without. St. Benedict wanted to use
these principles to focus his disciples on the truth that everything,
utterly everything comes from Christ, not from Sister X. or the lucky
stroke of having wealthy family or friends elsewhere, or even from
our own work. The job or business itself came from God, so did the
strength to be productive in any way.

Every Benedictine heart, beloveds, must examine itself by what we
learn from this passage in the Holy Rule. Absolutely nothing
whatsoever is ours, everything comes from God. Never take more than
we need, never share less than we ought to share. Freely, fully have
we all received all that we have from God. No less freely should our
hearts let it go, spread it around to others.

Make no mistake that there are at least two ways to react to the
array of God's giftings. One is grateful largesse, a truly holy
detachment from things as we honestly desire others to share in our
blessings. (This is as true of the spiritual goods as it is of the
material!)

The other, a most pathetic one, is stinge and miserliness,
a panicky, insecure fear that another might get more or have it
easier than oneself. Nothing I can think of is more unbecoming to any
who have received magnificently, yet we can all think of tragic
examples of just such reactions. Guard very, very carefully against
this last pitfall. I have seen it ensnare many a cloistered monastic,
no one is exempt, and it will throw a dreadful cancer into one's very
heart.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@...
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org

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Both Mariann, whose bone cancer we prayed for and Jean's 95 year old Mom, Mary,
have gone to God. Deo gratias, a mercy in many ways. Prayers for their happy
deaths, eternal rest and for all their family and those who mourn them.

Prayers for Shirley, multiple stresses assailing her and sleeping little, she
prays to bear all with dignity, but for a bit of respite, too.
Prayers for Diane and her whole family, multiple special intentions. Prayers for
Virginia, severe arthritis and shoulder pain. Prayers for John, seeking a new
job and for Bob, inoperable esophageal cancer, and for all his family. Prayers
for the doctors who treat all of our folks, God guide their hands!

Prayers for Anastasia, 15, severely mentally troubled teen we have prayed for,
and for her parents, acting out big-time, she has been placed in a group home
for assessment, but probably needs much more treatment than that. Lord, help us
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 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

I have heard US religious women speak of formerly
being "incarcerated" in the habit. Knowing the rules of more than a
few communities, I have no doubt that is true. I find that terribly,
immoderately non-Benedictine, way out of balance.

However, and this is certain to displease some, I find the usual
response of US Benedictine women to this  problem to be equally
extreme and unwise. The best answer to too much habit is not no habit
at all, nor do I think that would be the moderate response to which
Benedictine hearts would most naturally incline.

Having said that, and underscoring that I am not incarcerated in the
habit, nor do I wish anyone else to be, let me embark on something
more than just a hymn of praise for the habit. It will, trust me, be
very much more of a love song.

My habit is not ALL of me, would that it were! I could greatly profit
from being ALL monk, but it is a large part of me. I have kissed
every piece while donning or doffing it, every single time for over
thirteen years now. I can assure you that those kisses are sincere, not
mindless. I love it deeply and the sense of privilege in wearing it
has never left me.

The habit doesn't advertise ME to the world, I would be
the first to tell you that that would hardly be worthwhile or honest.
It DOES advertise my Benedictine heritage to the world and of that, I
am very, very proud, for that I am very, very grateful. I am no icon
of holiness, but our habit is. I am an icon-bearer and that is a
lofty thing, a humbling thing and yet a thing greatly desirable.

Ironically, I spend more time in secular work clothes than any of my
brothers here, though I am in habit, even in public, in Athol and
Boston, a lot more than would be usual in other US houses. Our custom
is to wear the habit everywhere. My brothers, for the most part, just
plain live in the habit, never taking it off, except to paint or do
heavy gardening. Being particularly susceptible to heat, I often
admire them in summer, when heat knocks me out and leaves me in
civvies most of the time I am not in choir or refectory! There IS a
penitential side to the habit, never miss that, though I often fail
on that count.

People have come to me in Boston that really need help who never,
ever would have dared approach me in an Oxford cloth button down
shirt, in the preppy style of lay clothes I admittedly love. Wouldn't
have happened. Couldn't have happened.

One of those people is dead now, gone to heaven a new Oblate, a
homebound and nearly blind woman in a wheelchair. She was sunning
herself in her wheelchair, outside her apartment in East Boston and
still had enough eyesight to recognize the habit and call out as I
walked by. Thank God I had my habit on that day! She became one of
our Communities greatest treasures. I got delegated to invest her as
an Oblate in her own apartment and she went to God BEFORE she could
make her Final Oblation. She made that in heaven. What a gift Teresa
was- and is- to us!

I could go on and on. There was a terribly sincere man on the Boston
Common whose question had just gotten dumped on by an insensitive
priest. He would never have known me otherwise. There was the
European woman who spoke very little English and felt safer asking a
monk for directions.

And yeah, the habit attracts drunks like a magnet, and no, that is
not often easy, but yes, it has sometimes edified other people on the
subway to watch me endure them with as much grace as I can muster. I
have OFTEN noticed empathetic eyes around me when someone chooses to
loudly and publicly dump all their bad experiences (or questions!)
of a Catholic past on me.

I would be the first to say that, wearing the habit, I do invite
that, even, to a certain extent, deserve it. I represent a flawed,
human Church, warts and all. I have many of my own, but I have often
had to answer for the Church's as well. That is as it should be!

I love the look of the habit on my brothers and my sisters. Each one
seems to wear it just a little differently. (I am always put off by
groups that look so identical they could pass the most stringent
Marine inspection! Even in the old days when my Dominican teachers
were fully habited, I could always tell which was which from behind
by the different ways their veils fell.

There is, to me at least, great beauty in the habit, on others and
even on myself. Every now and then I am caught off guard by my own
reflection in a window or by my shadow and have to remind
myself: "That monk you see is YOU." Well, a little bit of him is and
I'm working on the rest, but it still never fails to alarm me, every
time.

In choir, as no place else, does the habit sing to me. Our cowls
(cucullas to some of you,) are voluminous garments of prayer, mini-
enclosures, formal attire of serious business and great holiness. How
deeply proud I am to wear one. Whatever other choices others may have
taken about the habit, I honestly pity any of them without a choir
garment. It is a treasure of unity and joy.

I am, believe me, all too different from my brothers and sisters in
too many respects. (I'm working on that, too.) Our cowls, however,
cover all those things, no matter how briefly, and we are one in
heart and prayer and garb. It lends a dignity that the Office truly
deserves, and yes, I have said Office elsewhere in lay clothes,
plenty of times. Here, I would not be allowed to go to choir that way
and I am glad of it.

I am not judging others' options, but I wish real options were what
had everywhere happened. If you want to wear the habit, go for it, if
not, don't. Unfortunately, we have often split, house by house, into
two differing camps of "you must." That's too bad. And, to be always
and everywhere without the habit? I could never stand that, and I
know many who are still lay people for the same reason.

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

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Prayers, please, for the happy death and eternal rest of Dr. Michael Ty,
promising young physician, husband of only two years, who was killed in Boston
when scaffolding from a building fell on his car, for his stunned young widow,
Robin and for all their families and those who mourn him. Among other things,
this young man studied ethics at the Vatican after Harvard med school. He met
his wife in Rome. Prayers, too, for the happy death and eternal rest of Mac, who
died of brain cancer, for his widow, Alicia, son, Daniel and all who mourn him.
Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Marie, who died of cancer and
for Sr. Rita, her blood sister, and all her family and those who mourn her.

Prayers for Jack and his Mom, her mental capacity seems to be diminishing
rapidly. Prayers for Marialyce and folks in Alabama threatened with severe
weather, thunderstorms and tornadoes and the lot. Prayers for the success of
Peter, struggling to make his business work, also for John and his business
partner, who similarly need some help from the Lord.

Deo gratias: little Danny, the child in a coma after a car accident, is
struggling to sit up, only making 7 minutes or so at a time, but working so hard
to get better, for him, his doctors and his parents who have been through so
much over these several months. Further Deo gratias for Fr. Jim, still
convalescing, but well enough to return to his rectory. Lord, help us 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

There is a tendency, both within the cloister and without, to hunt
for dramatic ascetic practices, while ignoring the truly more
difficult matters that lack the fanfare. Lights! Camera! Action! We
must always be wary of the Nora Desmonds of our hearts, who are
always willing to say, a la Sunset Boulevard: "I'm ready for my close-
up now, Mr. DeMille." How we do love to star, even at self-
abnegation... Sigh...

Well, there's two bad pieces of new for Ms. Desmond et al. First the
penances we choose are usually not the most effective ones. The
best ones are imposed by God or our situation of daily duty and they
become tremendous means of grace when we patiently embrace them.
Second, the ones we do choose can be terrible risks for pride, which
undoes our efforts so insidiously.

What on earth does this have to do with the current chapter? Easy-
and very, very hard, too! The great ascesis here is to aim at
limiting ourselves to "all the necessary articles." There is a
challenge here for everyone from Abbot Primate to newest Oblate
novice. It is a challenge we shall likely never meet fully in life,
so it is something we can always be profitably picking at!

Do you know anyone at all, in any vocation, who has absolutely
nothing beyond what they need? Few that I know, myself sadly included.
I think this is an area where we can all look at a challenging and
grace-filled ascetic struggle that is placed on us by the Holy Rule.

Down-sizing actually feels great, once one gets over the consumerist
terror of doing so! One will quickly find that, in this area, less
really *IS* more, (unlike poetry and art, architecture and liturgy,
alas...! Minimalism there gets old fast...) We become freer when we
let go of things which hold us more than we realize.

We can get buried in things we are saving to complete unfinalized
plans that will never come to fruition, and while we save them, we
are disheartened by our own failure to use them. Jettison, m'dears,
jettison. As the one Desert Father used to say to the brethren,"Flee,
brothers, flee!" so do I say: "Jettison!"

This has the further charm of fitting well into a depressive's sofa
paralysis, too. Recall how I told you about that resolution to make
three things, no matter how tiny, better each day? Works here, too!
And you will often find to your delight that the trip to dumpster or thrift
shop donation includes 7, 8, or more things!

Keep chipping away and the mountain of our false hearts' desires,
beloveds. And one day may we stand together on level, smooth quartz
sand, confronted by nothing but the dazzling ocean of God's
unfathomable mercy and love!

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Mother Dominic, a retired Abbess, dying of metastatic
pancreatic cancer, for her happy death and eternal rest, for all her community
and family and those who are treating her. Prayers for the happy death and
eternal rest of Jean, very near death, and for her daughter, Barbara, and for
all their family. This family earlier lost Henry, for whom we prayed and, a few
months before that, another relative, so hopefully some respite for them is
forthcoming. Prayers, please for Bill, still seriously grieving for his wife of
many years who died two years ago this month, for her happy death and eternal
rest and for peace and strength for Bill. Continued prayers for Joyce and her
beloved pet, Jesse, he is doing well, but diagnosis is still uncertain. Lord,
help us 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, 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 usually 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 finally 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 the guest to inconvenience us to a certain extent.
That's part of our hospitality, part of receiving Christ, often in a
considerably distressing disguise.

Oblates in families, trust me on this one, I know company can
sometimes be a pain. I have had company most of the time for the last
nine years. While I relish the occasional days when the house is
empty, they are few and far between. 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.

I used to work the desk in a public library. From that and from my
hospital and teaching years, I can tell you that 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
jeromeleo@...
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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Prayers, please, for Jean, who went to God yesterday, for her happy death and
eternal rest. may she be celebrating her first Holy Week in heaven! Prayers,
too, for her daughter, Barbara, and all their family and those who mourn Jean.
Prayers of thanks and Deo gratias for Marialyce and her region, spared serious
damage from weather, but other regions were hit very hard, so prayers for them
all, especially in Tennessee, where apparently some of the worst destruction
hit.

Prayers, please, for the on-going (and recently intensified,) efforts being made
to restore the Society of St. Pius X to full Communion with the Roman Catholic
Church, a particular goal of Pope Benedict XVI. Lastly, prayers for me, as I
make a very early trip to Connecticut's Bradley Airport- during rush hour! May
God's perfect will be done! 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 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 itself has no place whatever for prima donnas or mad
queens (of either gender!) but monastic life most assuredly does not.

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. Unfortunately, this turn of events is
neither rare nor well done, you should pardon the play on words.

Art matters in communities, it must be treasured and held dear, because
it is a gift from a loving God. The trap 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 human reason concept of art
or canon of aesthetics.

Furthermore, in one sense, the artist must matter least of all, must disappear
behind the gift, must not insist on being thrust into a foreground of power
trips
and control. 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. "He must increase, I must decrease..."

As soon as we forget that, our gift becomes a weight dragging us
downwards to potentially ultimate loss, rather than helping us to
ascend the heights. Good superiors can see this and stop it, but not all
superiors have that knack! 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
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

+PAX

Continued prayers, please, for Sr. Eileen, experiencing repeated kidney
shutdowns. Oblates are praying for her particularly at 3pm, the Hour of Mercy,
the hour Christ died on the Cross, also for Joy, off life support and out of
ICU, but investigating hospice care.

Prayers for Shirley, one of our faithful prayer warriors and an Oblate who does
much for St. Leo Abbey. She feel just before Palm Sunday Mass at the Abbey and
broke her elbow and ulna. She sees an orthopedic surgeon today about repair.
Since she must type at her work, ardent prayers for a speedy recovery and also
for a special intention of hers! Prayers for John, cerebral hemorrhage, severe
heart disease, doctors are not too optimistic. He has been away from God since
losing his eldest son in 1998, but seems to perhaps be slowly drifting back.
Prayers that he returns to the arms of God! Prayers for his son who died, for
his other son, Wim, his nephew, Harry, and all their family.

Prayers for Mary Kenny and Comet, her dog, who live with us in the guesthouse.
Comet is 14 and has been sick several days, she goes to the vet today and Mary
is very concerned. Prayers for the health of both! Lord, help us 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 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 most important thing that St. Benedict asks of all of us on
entrance into the monastic way is whether we truly seek God. Whether
Abbot Primate or newest Oblate novice, that is what we are asked by
the Holy Rule. It is a question we shall be asked for the rest of our
lives, and one to which we must strive (and often struggle!) to say yes,
again and again, day after day.

"Quaeremus inventum," said St. Augustine: "Let us seek Him Whom we
have found." In truth a certain "finding" of God is necessary to whet
our appetite, to lead us to seek Him more deeply. Once that happens,
however, we can go on seeking God for the rest of time and eternity
and never get to the end of His infinite love and mercy. Even in
heaven the journey will go on, with us always being creature and Him
always loving Creator. We will never end our quest, but we will love
it, we will never reach the essence of God, but that will never
frustrate us in heaven. It's an adventure we shall love.

If we do not seek God, there is no point whatever in becoming a monastic.
St. Bernard once said something to the effect that, if one is going to go to
hell, one should choose the broad way of the world, where at least there
is comfort of a sort on the way, not the narrow way of the monastery, where
one would go from hard life to hell. I haven't paraphrased him too well, but
I hope it is clear enough. No one should waste time with monastic life if they
are not seeking God, seeking to go deeper into Him. To do so would be
folly.

After novitiate, our commitment to conversion of manners obliges us to
ever seek, to ever try to improve, to never give up the quest
entirely. A Benedictine who has stopped trying to be better and
stopped seeking God is in deep, maybe even fatal trouble. We always
seek and strive. It is the very stuff of our lives as monastics.

This chapter, by the way, led to the traditional division we now have
of the Holy Rule into dates that will result in it all being read
three times a year. The novices had to hear it three times anyway and
elsewhere St. Benedict had asked that all in community hear
it "frequently." Hence, this system was devised to cover both fronts!

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

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

+PAX
Prayers, please, for Nancy and Dave, who were expecting twins. One twin has now
died and Nancy is in premature labor at five months. Thanksgiving an Deo gratias
prayers for Mary Lou, her brain surgery went well, she is now in occupational
and physical therapy and radium treatments will follow. Prayers for all
suffering from obsessive/compulsive disorder. Prayers that a rift between three
friends is healed.

Prayers for the reunion of the Society of St. Pius X with the Roman Church,
prayers, too, for vocations to St. Mary's Monastery and to all our monasteries.
Lord, help us 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

It is thrilling to me to know that, more than 1500 years later, we
are still doing professions in the way St. Benedict did. A few things
added, but the elements are there: writing and signing the document,
placing it on the altar, the Suscipe ("Receive me, O Lord...") are all
tremendously ancient and holy rites. What a privilege we have to
belong to such a family.

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 (in SOME respects, but by no means ALL!) 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 misfits with chapter
votes running the show. There are many, many I have known who left in
simple vows that I remain eternally grateful for the fact that they
were never chapter members!! 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 post-Word War II 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 job or 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. I have a friend who has suffered
terribly in relationships which he ALWAYS insists are just wonderful
and worth the effort, any effort, no matter who can see otherwise. He
clings to this denial until they dump him and I DO mean clings. Out of
fear, he does not really LOOK at 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
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

Belated birthday prayers for Br. Bernard, who codgered over the big 50 hill
earlier this week. Ad multos annos!! Many years!!

Prayers for a very special intention for Pat and family. Prayers, too, for Fr.
Brendan, depression and fibromyalgia. Prayers for Mr. Lentz, late stage
lymphoma, hospice care called in after a fall and cerebral hemorrhage and
significant brain injury, and for all his family, especially his daughter, Linda
and youngest son Rick. He has been anointed, Deo gratias. Continued prayers for
Bill, for whom we prayed. He should be going home soon, but they have not been
able to control the cancer in his liver and kidneys and prognosis is not good.
Prayers for Rita, who suffered a mild stroke, for her nephew, Adrian, and all
her family. Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Donna, 49, who died
suddenly Monday. A widow, she leaves a son and daughter in their 20's, so
prayers for them and all who mourn 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

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 body'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

It's always nice to read Chapter. 59, because it is the source of our
having Oblates today. Thanks be to God for the myriad blessings and
graces that have come to the Benedictine family through Oblates and
for the graces they have received from their bonds to the Order! It
is hard for me to imagine where we would be without Oblates.

Those who are seen help us with labors and goods, and those who are
unseen, help us with a treasure of prayers whose vastness we dare not
even guess until we finally see clearly in heaven. In most cases, by
numbers, Oblates outnumber the professed of the community, so God
must have known how badly we needed them. It is most likely their
prayers that kept us going all these years.

The living and the dead, the strugglers and those already in heaven,
help us move the great throng of our Order forward through history.
What heaven must be like! The Oblates there are united to God,
already freely conversant with St. Benedict, with heroes and heroines
we can only read about. How delighted they must have been to be
welcomed by a family far more numerous than they ever imagined.

They were not strangers to those Benedictines of centuries past. Why?
Because the saints of the past hold us dear throughout our time of
trial. They already know us, they have been praying for us all along,
even if we have not met them yet in person. When I read Anglo-Saxon
Benedictine history, a favorite hobby of mine, I am just learning their
names. They already know my name: they have prayed for me for years
before I even cracked a book.

When an Oblate joins our ranks, becoming a member of this great
family, there are graces beyond counting in store. Ours is a family
of saints, of great holiness. It is also a family of strugglers, the
mediocre, the halt and lame and  the beginning. The communion of
saints is replicated in miniature in our own Order. All that great sanctity,
past and present, comes, in the eternal now of heaven, to our aid.
The weak are carried by the strong. It is easy to forget the miracle
that signing one little Oblation chart on the altar effects.

If I could (and did!) write a love song for the habit, I could write one as
great for Oblates. How much they have changed and enriched my life,
how deeply I find my days entwined around Oblates from all over the
world. Prayers and insights shared back and forth, friendships that
have sprung up in cyberspace, the wonderful gift of having others spread
far and wide who share the journey with me, these are all gifts of grace to
me, inestimable gifts! My life would be so much diminished without the
gifts of light and joy, love and edification that you bring to me. Thanks so
very, very much!!

Thank God for our Oblates. Thank God for the chance He led St.
Benedict to give to them and to ourselves!

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

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+PAX and Mea Culpa!!

From John, for who we prayed:

Prayers please for Anne, [his wife,] who is having a lot of pain walking due to
Bursitis, but a big Deo Gratias for me. I’m recovering well from my operation.
Although they removed a lot of polyps there was no sign of any cancer. They will
be monitoring me for the next five years.

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+PAX

May all of us have a Good Friday filled with prayer, reflection and deep
gratitude to our Lord, who "became obedient unto death for us, even to death on
a Cross." If at all possible, please try to get to the Passion Service today, it
is one of the most awesome, solemn and moving liturgies of the year.

A reminder that the Divine Mercy novena of Chaplets begins today. One says the
Chaplet each day till Saturday of Easter Week. If you are making the novena,
please place vocations to our Petersham communities among your intentions. We
would all appreciate that so much. For any first-timers, directions for saying
the Chaplet may be found at :

http://www.marian.org/divinemercy/chaplet.html

Prayers, please for Margaret, no energy, dizziness, slow pulse and really
nervous and irritable. Tests forthcoming, she may need a pacemaker, for her
daughter, Mary and all her family, also for the doctors treating her, and those
who treat all of our prayer intention folks. God guide their hands and minds!
Continued prayers for Mr. Lentz and his family. He is now at home with hospice
nursing, but could go at any time. For his happy death and for all his family at
this painful and trying time.

Prayers for Andrew, being received into the Church at the Easter Vigil, for his
proud Mom, Cathy, and all his family. Prayers, too, for his 17 month old son,
who may be showing signs of autism. Prayers for Johanna, going through a
difficult time, and for her Mom, bearing the burden with her. Prayers for
Christine, having a mastectomy on Tuesday, and for Rebecca, rare genetic
disorder causing constant pain, and few treatment options left for her. She also
has a very young baby, so prayers for all her family. Prayers for Bronwyn, and
for her Mom, on the anniversary of her Mom's death, and for Trisha and her Mom,
Anna, who also died around this time. Eternal rest and happy deaths for the
Moms, grace and healing and love for those they left behind.

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

One of the quintessential questions of the Holy Rule is that of
Jesus: "Friend, for what have you come?" This question is not just
for priests, but for each of us, for all Christians and all monastics.
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 and 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. We will just keep going deeper and
loving more for eternity. The more we know, the more we will love,
but we shall never know all!

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. If we think holy orders or an MDiv or an MD or a BS have
corrected that problem, even slightly, well, maybe the sacrament or
that 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, or thinking I was, what a tremendous relief it is to
be dumb: pluperfectly, fallibly, humanly, screamingly, shriekingly
DUMB! Boy, I love it! Ignorance truly *IS* bliss, just like they told
ya! Truly, with Socrates, we ought to know enough to know that we
know nothing! Realizing that the very best of us has nothing but the
barest tip of the iceberg is a great and tender mercy, indeed!

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, failing yet 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
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for all who will be received into the Church at tonight's
Easter Vigil, especially for the 2,500 or so being received in Hong Kong, a
brave step to take in Communist China. Prayers, too, for all who happily
celebrate the anniversary of their reception on this holy night, especially for
Mary F., who celebrates ten years this Easter! Deo gratias!! Ad multos annos,
many years!

God has infinite treasures of grace for each of us in these holy days, and not
only now, but at every turn in our lives. Please pray that we gather all of
those graces and mercies we can carry and that we spread them to others around
us!

Prayers for a woman in her fifties, fighting cancer for three years, she has
declined further treatment and is very angry at God. For her reconciliation with
Him, her happy death and eternal rest. Our prayers today can win her a very
grace-filled end, a chance for her to embrace the infinite Love and Divine Mercy
of God. 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

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.

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 blow it, 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.

Another thing to watch is the fact that we often may take any suggestions
as criticism and bristle at the very mention of them. Often, criticism may
have been the last thing the speaker intended, genuine charity may have
been the only concern. There may be times when God intends the use
of a person as His instrument in a critique He deems worthy. All of
these things must be considered. The person we regard as a meddling
annoyance could sometimes be God's tender and loving gift to us!

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.

Love and prayers and the occasional laugh,
Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

As rarely happens, there were no prayer requests today. That gives us an
excellent opportunity to pray for each other. By now many of us have realized
what a community of pray-ers these intentions have brought about. We have helped
each other and felt the warmth of prayerful support. Let us deepen those bonds
today by ardent prayers for all of us reading these reflections, for all who
have helped us with their prayers.

Even as I wish our Western Christians a blessed Easter, the Pasch of the Lord, I
must also wish our Eastern Christians a blessed Palm Sunday. Let us also pray
that we may see, in our own lifetimes, a common date for Easter, let us pray
that the West takes the first steps in that matter, too. It would be such a
profound gesture of unity for all of Western Christianity to lovingly adopt the
Eastern Christian date without further ado. And Jesus did pray that we may all
be one! Every honest step closer to His prayer is a graced and holy thing! 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 16, August 16, December 16
Chapter 61: How Pilgrim Monks Are To Be Received

But if as a guest she was found exacting or prone to vice,
not only should she be denied membership in the community,
but she should even be politely requested to leave,
lest others be corrupted by her evil life.

If, however, she has not proved to be the kind
who deserves to be put out,
she should not only on her own application be received
as a member of the community,
but she should even be persuaded to stay,
that the others may be instructed by her example,
and because in every place it is the same Lord who is served,
the same King for whom the battle is fought.

Moreover, if the Abbess perceives that she is worthy,
she may put her in a somewhat higher rank.
[And not only with regard to a nun
but also with regard to those in priestly or clerical orders
previously mentioned,]*
the Abbess may establish them in a higher rank
than would be theirs by date of entrance
if she perceives that their life is deserving.

Let the Abbess take care, however,
never to receive a nun from another known monastery
as a member of her community
without the consent of her Abbess or a letter of recommendation;
for it is written,
"Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself" (Tob.
4:16).

*(The gender switch is built in at the OSB site.) [Applicable only to
women of some contemporary monastic communities
in Protestant Communions.]

REFLECTION

Not all criticism is good. Every person at the door of your
workplace, home or monastery is a challenge for virtue from God. They
may even be doing His will unwittingly by their pickiness or
crankiness, but they are not therefore necessarily right.

That means that every single criticism should be carefully weighed.
Sometimes the message God sends is positive, sometimes
negative, sometimes merely an exercise in endurance! Trust me, I have
worked in the guest house for nearly ten years... The person who
annoys you could be right, but not always!

Some of us are so complacent that we badly need to be taken down a
bit. Others, however, have such wounded self-esteem that they will
need protection, need to be careful and yes, MINDFUL enough to
balance what is said to them by critical types. Hear what people say,
but sift it very carefully. They might be wrong.

Some people, I have no doubt, are sent to us for no
reason other than to teach us to recognize such fools as those of
whom St. Paul speaks and suffer them [hopefully!] gladly, or at least
start working at suffering them civilly. I usually find myself STILL
working at "civilly." Gladly is a pretty tall order!

Some of us, too, need to listen to this while putting ourselves in
the role of the guest or the listeners. I remember a priest in the mid 1970's,
who thought every single homily should "shake 'em up a bit." Well,
yes and no and neither, at times. Not every "pearl" of wisdom is
cultured!

For one thing, he missed the fact that, by that time, most of the
flock had been "shaken up" quite regularly for 7 years or so, and
not always for the better nor always by the brightest. People quite
rightly get weary of that. They tune out.

He got his chance at first, but it wasn't long before our only response
was annoyance, followed soon thereafter by relative deafness. ("Oh no,
look who's celebrant today...") He missed the balance and when we
miss balances, we largely fail.

Even "Father Disturbus" had the occasional good idea, but they got
buried in the avalanche of not so hot stuff. Learn, if you don't
already know, how to filter people like that. Even a stopped clock is
right twice a day and there might be something worthwhile buried in all
the rest.

Strive to never be a person like that. Don't make a life calling out of
shaking people up, they'll get over you fast. You don't want that to happen,
you want to keep their attention until they can hear Christ in your speech and
see Him in your life. Jostling nerves is not the best way to attract others to
the Gospel.

But neither should a timidly, uncharitable politeness make you afraid to
speak when it is really necessary and might actually help. The monastic
tendency to avoid conflict, often at virtually any cost, is not always kind. It
is often nothing more than cowardice. As usual m'dears, balance, ALWAYS
balance! And ALWAYS kindness. When you have to say something difficult,
the loving tone will most likely be heard, the strident one will usually serve
only to make matters worse and hurts deeper.

It is a sad fact that many of the "Disturbi" of the world
have no clue, none at all, how annoying they are. Try very hard to
ascertain whether or not you're one of them, and if you are, please
stop! For everyone's sake.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB (who can be a bit of a Disturbus at times himself!)
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Mr. Lentz, for whom we have been praying, as many parts of
our world were already celebrating the Easter Vigil, he went to God and his own
experience of the Easter reality on Holy Saturday night. Special prayers for his
wife, his daughter, Linda, his son Rick, and all his family. May his death have
been happy and his rest be eternal!

Prayers, too, for Michelle, job interview which could mean badly need health
care and benefits for 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

April 17, August 17, December 17
Chapter 62: On the Priests of the Monastery

If an Abbot desire
to have a priest or a deacon ordained for his monastery,
let him choose one
who is worthy to exercise the priestly office.

But let the one who is ordained
beware of self-exaltation or pride;
and let him not presume to do anything
except what is commanded him by the Abbot,
knowing that he is so much the more subject
to the discipline of the Rule.
Nor should he by reason of his priesthood forget
the obedience and the discipline required by the Rule,
but make ever more and more progress towards God.

Let him always keep the place which he received
on entering the monastery,
except in his duties at the altar
or in case the choice of the community and the will of the Abbess
should promote him for the worthiness of his life.
Yet he must understand
that he is to observe the rules laid down by deans and Priors.

Should he presume to act otherwise,
let him be judged not as a priest but as a rebel.
And if he does not reform after repeated admonitions,
let even the Bishop be brought in as a witness.
If then he still fails to amend,
and his offenses are notorious,
let him be put out of the monastery,
but only if his contumacy is such
that he refuses to submit or to obey the Rule.

REFLECTION

The other day I passed the assistant manager of our local supermarket
cleaning up a bad mess on the floor with sweeping compound. I stopped
and told him that was the best possible thing his employees could
see. I congratulated him, saying that his employees would more likely
do anything for him gladly. They had seen him do it first.

This chapter applies to anyone who rises at work or at school or even
in the home. Much is required of those to whom much is given! When a
Benedictine gets a promotion, the basic willingness to do anything
necessary ought to remain firmly in place!

Authority, when it is placed over us, is to be reverenced and obeyed,
when it is placed in our own hands, it is to serve, not to reign! All
of us get the opportunity to live under authority or to administer
same. Our Benedictine hearts should make it readily evident to any
who observes us that our style in either area is decidedly different!

There's another thing both the world and religious life could profit
from learning. Authority in the Holy Rule is not permanent, not even
in the case of an Abbot, whom St. Benedict says may, even ought to be
removed in extreme cases. So often, in cloister or world, once we
have kicked someone upstairs, we are hesitant to ever put them
downstairs again. That shouldn't be. It gives the person and the
community an excellent potential for learning and teaching humility.
Whenever anyone handles authority badly, really badly, they should
not be rewarded with continued administration. Alas, that is often
not the case.

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Steve, six months unemployed and badly needing to find the
job God wants for him. Prayers, too, for Ellie, depression and the anniversary
of her son's death is this week, also for her father and aunt, both very ill.
Prayers for Kay, a young teacher in her 30's with severe asthma. Lord, help us
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 18, August 18, December 18
Chapter 63: On the Order of the Community

Let all keep their places in the monastery
established by the time of their entrance,
the merit of their lives and the decision of the Abbot.
Yet the Abbot must not disturb the flock committed to him,
nor by an arbitrary use of his power ordain anything unjustly;
but let him always think
of the account he will have to render to God
for all his decisions and his deeds.

Therefore in that order which he has established
or which they already had,
let the brethren approach to receive the kiss of peace and Communion,
intone the Psalms and stand in choir.
And in no place whatever should age decide the order
or be prejudicial to it;
for Samuel and Daniel as mere boys judged priests.

Except for those already mentioned, therefore,
whom the Abbot has promoted by a special decision
or demoted for definite reasons,
all the rest shall take their order
according to the time of their entrance.
Thus, for example,
he who came to the monastery at the second hour of the day,
whatever be his age or his dignity,
must know that he is junior
to one who came at the first hour of the day.
Boys, however, are to be kept under discipline
in all matters and by everyone.

REFLECTION

I have known one monk of St. Leo who perhaps may have been delighted
to be the most senior monk by age and entrance, but he is long gone
now. The others I have known, who either held the first place or
hovered near it, could not have cared less, might even chuckle about
it if reminded. I like their way better.

Rank is a handy way to organize people in line, but after that, its
usefulness quickly diminishes. Rank that one desires or seeks can be
downright pernicious and fatal to a monastic life. If you look at
this chapter closely, it is not hard to see that St. Benedict wanted
his monastics to pretty much take their place and forget about it-
going any higher or lower had nothing to do with their own decision
anyhow and they should be at peace.

There's the rub: to be at peace! We need peace, we need inner
serenity. It is no accident that it became our motto, PAX. That peace
of soul is a fertile earth in which God tills His bountiful fields of
graces. It is the foundation we need to build houses firm.

Ever notice the readily apparent peace in a famous politician who has
decided not to run anymore? Whether you like the man or not, a great
freedom and relief is soon noticeable. It was so in Jimmy Carter,
who, when free to be just Jimmy Carter, went on to do wonderful
things. This renunciation is different, far different from quitting.
Mere quitting shows up in a very bad light. What I think we are
seeing is the light of a heart that has learned what NOT to
desire,even if only partially.

By the way, there's no need for any of us reading this to think we
need to dream up a standard of WHAT we desire and perhaps should not.
The Holy Rule has already done that for us, 1,500 years ago: "Let them
prefer nothing whatever to the love of Christ."



Love and prayers,

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Matt, trying to discern where and how God wants Him to
serve Him, for Chris, newly diagnosed with HIV and for Philip, also HIV+, [not
praying for myself here, even though it is my baptismal name, this is another
Philip.] Prayers for newborn twins, Autumn and Charlize, for their parents and
their life as a family, for God's grace and will for them all! Prayers for J.,
newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Prayers for the happy death and eternal memory of Paul, who went to God
yesterday morning, for his wife, his daughter, Norma Jean, his godson, Fr.
Robert and all who mourn him.

Prayers for Pat, emphysema, and for Tony, on waiting list for a school he really
wants to attend. Prayers for the happy death of Purvis and Quadrevion, the
missing young boys we prayed for, they were found dead, apparently accidental
drowning. Prayer for their families and all who mourn them. Prayers for the
happy death and eternal rest of Harold, and for his sister, Ruth, who cannot
make it to his funeral, and all his family and those who mourn him. Prayers for
Anastasia, court date soon, and for her Mom and Dad, who have been through so
much with her.

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Sal, 60, who died after a 12
year illness and a lot of suffering, for his wife, Sheila, who predeceased him
and for their son and daughter Shawn and Lisa, and all who mourn them. Prayers
for Rev. Judith's Mom, who suffered a mild stroke. Prayers for Lisa, a
practicing Wiccan, who just had a conversion experience to Catholicism. May it
last and strengthen!! She is likely to be heavily assailed by the Evil One, so
ardent prayers, especially to Sts. Michael  Benedict, who are strong defenders
against Satan. Lord, help us 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 19, August 19, December 19
Chapter 63: On the Order of the Community
The juniors, therefore, should honor their seniors,
and the seniors love their juniors.

In the very manner of address,
let no one call another by the mere name;
but let the seniors call their juniors Brothers,
and the juniors call their seniors Fathers,
by which is conveyed the reverence due to a father.
But the Abbot,
since he is believed to represent Christ,
shall be called Lord and Abbot,
not for any pretensions of his own
but out of honor and love for Christ.
Let the Abbot himself reflect on this,
and show himself worthy of such an honor.

And wherever the brethren meet one another
the junior shall ask the senior for his blessing.
When a senior passes by,
a junior shall rise and give him a place to sit,
nor shall the junior presume to sit with him
unless his senior bid him,
that it may be as was written,
"In honor anticipating one another."

Boys, both small and adolescent,
shall keep strictly to their rank in oratory and at table.
But outside of that, wherever they may be,
let them be under supervision and discipline,
until they come to the age of discretion.

REFLECTION

Abbot Fidelis, my late novicemaster, used to always say that
Benedictines were "gentlemen monks." At that time, the phrase annoyed
me a good bit, though I never said so. It seemed to have a ring of
faint middle-class respectability about it, not a little bourgeois,
as if we were monks who were "the right sort of people."

It would still annoy me today if, one meant by that phrase nothing
more than all those rather hollow social niceties. Not that there's
anything wrong as such with social niceties, just that I have grown
up in a country where courtesy, "civil" religion and the like often had
precious little to do with faith itself. Such things, though
indubitably polite, always seemed to me to be the basically
disconnected veneer of an often mediocre faith. They can be the
exercise of a genuine charity and animated faith, but sometimes
they are not.

Living among monastics will teach one (hopefully!) by osmosis that
many of the common courtesies which have become decidedly UNcommon in
the world are the order of the day here. We get so immersed in that
that often it is hard to even think of what they are, we just do
them. The best example I can come up with right now is that there is
FAR more restraint here against interrupting another's conversation
here than in the world at large. We do it sometimes, I do it too
much, but basically we do NOT "butt in."

There are many other little things, rising when a superior enters,
not sitting until the superior does in chapter, etc. These in
themselves may seem empty at first, but when linked to the charity of
Christ and His Divine Mercy, they become very real gestures of love.
The fact that we don't think of them much after a while in no way
diminishes the Treasure that motivates them, Christ Himself.

So, yes, my dear Abbot Fidelis, we ARE gentlemen monks (and gentle
monastics period!) No, we are not like some terribly well-off and
properly stuffy social elite. But we ARE gentle and we are so because of
Him Whom we seek and have come to love more and more as we better
see His ineffable mercy.

Love and prayers,

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

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Prayers of Deo gratias and thanksgiving for Bev and Cas, celebrating their 26th
wedding anniversary this week, many more happy, blessed years!  Prayers of Deo
gratias for the woman we prayed for a few weeks ago who was refusing hospice
care, causing terrible strain among her sons and family. All was resolved
smoothly and she has died and gone to God. For her happy death and eternal rest,
for her sons and all who mourn her. Deo gratias for George, who got the job he
wanted helping addicted folks re-enter society, may God strengthen him and make
all George's efforts truly His own work!

Prayers for Watson, compound ankle fracture, and for a teammate he collided with
at a baseball game, who has a concussion. Both are high school age. Prayers for
Heather, faced with the difficult task of having her mother-in-law, Virginia,
committed. The latter is still at large somewhere, may she be able to see that
her family is only trying to lovingly get her the help she desperately needs.
Prayers for J. and J., both having troubles with their faith, may the Holy
Spirit fill them with His Truth! 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 20, August 20, December 20
Chapter 64: On Constituting an Abbess

In the constituting of an Abbess
let this plan always be followed,
that the office be conferred on the one who is chosen
either by the whole community unanimously in the fear of God
or else by a part of the community, however small,
if its counsel is more wholesome.

Merit of life and wisdom of doctrine
should determine the choice of the one to be constituted,
even if she be the last of the order of the community.

But if (which God forbid)
the whole community should agree to choose a person
who will acquiesce in their vices,
and if those vices somehow become known to the Bishop
to whose diocese the place belongs,
or to the Abbots, Abbesses or the faithful of the vicinity,
let them prevent the success of this conspiracy of the wicked,
and set a worthy steward over the house of God.
They may be sure
that they will receive a good reward for this action
if they do it with a pure intention and out of zeal for God;
as, on the contrary, they will sin if they fail to do it.

REFLECTION

There is an old monastic saying that holds that "The community gets
the Abbot it deserves and the vocations it deserves." Like most
generalizations, this one has kernels of both falsity and truth.
Heresy is obviously taking a small truth and making it the only truth
and this is no different. It is rash (even if sometimes seemingly
handy!) to simplify the inscrutable workings of the Holy Spirit, of
our all-merciful God and His love into such a small compartment of
phrase! There is infinitely more to God's loving plan than that.

God has a plan from all eternity which none may ultimately thwart. Even
those who seek to impede that plan serve only to further its cause, whether
they want to or not, whether they know it or not. God can use anything.

And *A* plan is exactly the right phrase: God has ONLY one plan, with
only one goal: the salvation of all. God lacks a plan B because none is
necessary. God uses ALL human agency, of any kind, to further the
perfect good of His plan. God can turn absolutely every human
event, good or evil, to useful means to further that perfect plan of love,
mercy, salvation and good- yes, even joy!- for all.

However, there IS that kernel of truth! I have certainly lived
through times myself and seen them elsewhere which gave
frightening credence to one or both halves of the axiom! There is a
human side to these things, God DOES use human means to accomplish
His perfect Will and we, let us face it, are far from perfect
ourselves!

On that human side of things, like does tend to attract like. A house
where holiness is at least frequent, if not common, is likely to
elect an Abbot good and holy enough to nurture that. Unfortunately,
houses often elect one Abbot to counterbalance the effects, (not
always delightful,) of his predecessor, so a lot of things come into
play here. A house where holiness abounds is likely to attract holy
vocations. This is also sadly true of some mediocre situations. I
have long felt that God has chosen a WIDE diversity of monastic
observance so that all those He calls could find a slot somewhere.

The grim truth that the saying does NOT address is that even good and
holy houses are thirsting badly for vocations these days. Something
else, something other, something strange has been added to imbalance
the equation and no one can be sure just what. Pray, pray with all
your hearts for vocations, good and holy vocations to the monastic
life on every level, as monks, as nuns, as Oblates. With our dimmed
vision looking through glasses darkly, we can neither see nor know
perfectly what wonders of His Will God is working now, much less why!
Just pray for His Will for all of us!

Love and prayers,

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

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Prayers for our wonderful superior here (and Abbot Visitor of our Province,) Fr.
Anselm, on his feastday. May the many blessings and gentle kindnesses he gives
to all of us and all our Province be multiplied a hundredfold and returned to
him! Prayers, too, for all our Anselms reading this. Happy feastday!

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Tim, 46, father of 5,
grandfather of 2, killed in a head-on collision by a 22 year old driver,
apparently drunk and speeding. Prayers for Tim's wife and all his family,
especially his Mom, Ellen, who lost her daughter to hepatitis around
Thanksgiving last year. [Prayers too, that Tim's sister had a happy death.]
Prayers for the driver, condition unknown and for his family, too. This terrible
accident is painful for many, many folks.

Prayers for Jack, for whom we have prayed in the past, now days or weeks from
death from cancer. For his happy death, his full embrace of the Divine Mercy,
and for his family, friends and all who love him. Prayers for Sue, motor bike
accidents required shoulder replacement surgery and that can be risky, also for
Chris, mastectomy last week. Prayers for K. needing confidence in God-given
talents and to find work to use them, also for E., for successful auditions and
work prospects. 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 21, August 21, December 21
Chapter 64: On Constituting an Abbess

Once she has been constituted,
let the Abbess always bear in mind
what a burden she has undertaken
and to whom she will have to give an account of her stewardship,
and let her know that her duty is rather to profit her sisters
than to preside over them.
She must therefore be learned in the divine law,
that she may have a treasure of knowledge
from which to bring forth new things and old.
She must be chaste, sober and merciful.
Let her exalt mercy above judgment,
that she herself may obtain mercy.
She should hate vices;
she should love the sisterhood.


In administering correction
she should act prudently and not go to excess,
lest in seeking too eagerly to scrape off the rust
she break the vessel.
Let her keep her own frailty ever before her eyes
and remember that the bruised reed must not be broken.
By this we do not mean that she should allow vices to grow;
on the contrary, as we have already said,
she should eradicate them prudently and with charity,
in the way which may seem best in each case.
Let her study rather to be loved than to be feared.


Let her not be excitable and worried,
nor exacting and headstrong,
nor jealous and over-suspicious;
for then she is never at rest.


In her commands let her be prudent and considerate;
and whether the work which she enjoins
concerns God or the world,
let her be discreet and moderate,
bearing in mind the discretion of holy Jacob, who said,
"If I cause my flocks to be overdriven,
they will all die in one day."
Taking this, then, and other examples of discretion,
the mother of virtues,
let her so temper all things
that the strong may have something to strive after,
and the weak may not fall back in dismay.


And especially let her keep this Rule in all its details,
so that after a good ministry
she may hear from the Lord what the good servant heard
who gave the fellow-servants wheat in due season:
"Indeed, I tell you, he will set that one over all his goods" (Matt.
24:27).

REFLECTION

The priest who taught me moral theology was a brilliantly educated,
theologically progressive man. As such, it was rather alarming to
hear him say: "To fail the law in one respect is to fail it in all."
Those are harsh and terrifying terms, but if one examines the Letter
of St. James, from which the principle comes, he was very right. The
Holy Spirit has left no doubt about this one...

One cannot keep all the law faithfully while grievously sinning
against one portion of it. The law, any law is a whole. It does not
admit of fragmentation. Granted, the people following any law are
flawed subjectively and then a whole set of other considerations must
come into play. But the law is a whole.

View even just this chapter through that lens of wholeness, let alone
the entire Holy Rule, and you will quickly come to the conclusion
that its fulfillment is beyond human capability. And you will be
quite right. It is. You cannot do this stuff without grace. Lots of
it. Impossible otherwise.

Hence, ardent prayers for all in authority of any kind, religious or secular,
ought to be a lifelong, daily habit. Their task is not easy. They need our
prayers very much, and it is the least service of thanks we can render them
for their ministry to us, a ministry St. Paul tells us was given them by God.

Check out the Abbess here. This just about requires her to BE Christ,
not just represent Him. No human person can administer that kind of
authority without a great deal of prayer and a great deal of help
from God. No one at all can be this wise or balanced or loving or
moderate on their own lights. That's far too high an order for
natural virtue alone. A lot of that prayer must come from others, too,
so always, always pray for your Abbot, for all abbots, for all in authority.

Hence, it should come as no great shock that people in authority fail
this standard right and left, all the time. I know in murmuring
circles it is always treated as if it were news that an Abbot could
be that limited, but it really isn't at all. To even half-way clever
students, this should be a real no-brainer. It is the usual human
condition of people in power to be imperfect: bosses, abbots,
parents, spouses, the whole lot. In fact, that is the usual condition
of all humanity and especially the murmurers!

Was the person in charge mean to many for the sake of one? There
might be a reckoning for that. One can also cause the flock to be
overdriven simply by doing nothing in a given instance, or not doing
enough. There might be a reckoning for that, in fact, St. Benedict
promises us there will be and not a light one, either.

Are there limits to bruised reeds and smoldering embers being
eternally protected at the expense of the whole flock? You bet. I
have seen abbots and bosses fail those limits more than once, I have
lived under them. I know people who are still scarred from those
failures, years and years later. I know people who have left because
of such negligence. Not an enviable position there! Not a miter I'd
want to wear trotting to Judgement Day.

Dare we HOPE that such retribution will be forthcoming, that exacting
justice will be done, to Abbots, to Cardinals, to Popes, to anyone who
ticks us off? No way, not unless we want it for ourselves, too! Jesus
gave us that standard in the Our Father: we ask God to use our own
standards of forgiveness for others in forgiving us. Mercy, folks, always
mercy and to all!

May God spare us ALL from exact justice. Not a single one of us could stand it.
None of us could endure getting what we truly deserve. That is why mercy
is God's greatest attribute and why it is paramount. I know with all my heart
the Christ's Divine Mercy is my only hope- and it is a very sure hope!! His
loving kindness to us all is absolutely reliable in the infinite extreme.

The awful thing about authority is that sometimes, even when one gets
it right, one can get clobbered. There are also people who have left
because the Abbot was right. Try to remember that. If you're in
authority, be prepared to weather that, if you're not, try to help
those who must endure it for good reasons which they cannot reveal.

The key to this perplexing puzzle is the radically flawed human
weakness of both those in authority and those under it. We all
stumble together, half-blind, halt and lame, in an largely unlighted
tunnel to God. God alone at the end of that tunnel is the Light.
Prayer and grace offer us flashes on the way and we need them badly,
but any level of honest surprise at the limitations of such humanity
is really not the mark of a terribly observant mind.

Now for the clincher: this is not just a model for Abbots, but for
all of us with any authority, in fact, for all of us period. This is
the way Benedictines should treat others, seniors, juniors, all
people. This Christ-like attitude ought to pervade every parent,
teacher, boss, nurse and grocery clerk, all of us.

Now THAT, is a REALLY tall order! Sure is! You can only do it
with grace, with prayer and God's all-merciful help.

Love and prayers,

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

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Prayers of Deo gratias for a woman for whom we have prayed. She is out of her
abusive marriage and well on her way to a new life. The husband, alas, has found
yet another woman, so prayers for them, too: that he be converted and that the
new woman see the light if he isn't. Prayers of Deo gratias for two on different
stages of finding a vocation to solitude, God prosper every step of their way!
Further Deo gratias, the mother of preemie twins we prayed for has safely
delivered Amir and Mira, now home after a few weeks of Neonate ICU care, to the
joy and relief of all. Deo gratias (my, there is a lot to thank Him for today!
But there is every day, we just don't always see it...) for an interim minister
whose job was well done, a tiny Church well on its feet and ready for a
permanent pastor. One sows and another reaps, but God uses us all!

Prayers for special financial needs and intentions of Noel, for him to be able
to better care for family and educate his children. Prayers for an Oblate who is
embarking on a new schedule of prayer she finds helpful. May God guide her all
the way!

Very special prayers for one who is struggling so bravely and painfully with the
sin of adultery. Most of us have known sexual falls of one sort or another, so
let us all keep this person in our hearts for ardent prayer. Many of us know how
difficult and deep=seated these sexual problems can be.  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 22, August 22, December 22
Chapter 65: On the Prior of the Monastery

It happens all too often that the constituting of a Prior
gives rise to grave scandals in monasteries.
For there are some who become inflated with the evil spirit of pride
and consider themselves second Abbots.
By usurping power
they foster scandals and cause dissensions in the community.
Especially does this happen
in those places where the Prior is constituted
by the same Bishop or the same Abbots
who constitute the Abbot himself.
What an absurd procedure this is
can easily be seen;
for it gives the Prior an occasion for becoming proud
from the very time of his constitution,
by putting the thought into his mind
that he is freed from the authority of his Abbot:
"For," he will say to himself, "you were constituted
by the same persons who constitute the Abbot."
From this source are stirred up envy, quarrels, detraction,
rivalry, dissensions and disorders.
For while the Abbot and the Prior are at variance,
their souls cannot but be endangered by this dissension;
and those who are under them,
currying favor with one side or the other,
go to ruin.
The guilt for this dangerous state of affairs
rests on the heads of those
whose action brought about such disorder.

REFLECTION

When I read the line about those governed "currying favor with one
side or the other," I thought immediately of the children of divorce.
Children, however, are quite perceptive, and it is not just divorce,
but any noticeable drift between parents that they will manipulate.
That is why, in family and monastery, unity in authority is very
important.

St. Benedict tries to guarantee this by letting the Abbot choose his
own Prior, parents can do it by a struggle to overcome their own
personal differences for the good of the children. This is not to say
that the parents can necessarily get over their problems, but that
they must at least try to be consistent with the children, for the
children's sakes. As St. Benedict points out, this choosing of sides
in child or monastic, can lead to ruin.

Why does it lead to ruin? Because manipulation to some degree puts us
in charge of ourselves, something no child and very, very few
monastics are strong enough to be. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux
said: "The one who has himself for a master has a fool for a
disciple."

One reason we took obedience upon ourselves was our
knowledge of our own weakness. This knowledge can fade and dim with
time, we can be convinced we know better. That is a risky conclusion
to make. Our obedience is a real protection from harm.

Benedictines not only are not in charge of themselves, but, as the
Holy Rule defines cenobitic community life, they "desire" this lack
of control. They "desire to live under a Rule and an Abbot."

One cannot expect children to be wise enough to see how good and
necessary obedience is at every turn, but it shouldn't be much of a
stretch for us adults!

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

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I know I have readers of many faiths. Please indulge me this very Catholic post
for the Catholics on our lists.

I am a tad rushed for time before Mass to get this out, so maybe God will
protect me from being too wordy!

Tomorrow is Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus promised St. Faustina that all who made a
good Confession and received Communion on Mercy Sunday would receive a complete
remission of all guilt- in essence, a renewal of their baptismal innocence.
Awesome gift! While not Church dogma, it is an approved private revelation that
all CAtholics are free to believe. The fact that the late Pope John Paul II
extended Mercy Sunday to the universal Church calendar is significant, indeed.
Such things usually take much longer.

Please, if you have never made Mercy Sunday before, make your first one this
year. If just one of you does so, that is a treasure so great that I should not
fear to face judgment with such a gem in my hands, even if it was the only good
I had ever done in my life. Go to make a good Confession, go to Communion,
perform some work of mercy, spiritual (prayer for others we can all do!) or
corporal and say the Chaplet. Directions for the Chaplet may be found at:
http://www.marian.org/divinemercy/chaplet.html The Chaplet is not an essential
part of the Mercy Sunday, but say some prayers of thanks for and trust in His
great Mercy!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

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A hearty Deo gratias and prayers for all who are making their first Divine Mercy
Sunday today. May God fill them and all who keep Mercy Sunday with His choicest
graces and blessings and love!  Jesus, I trust in You!

Deo gratias from Alix, the brush fires that threatened her area were contained
without harm to life or property. Blessings on the firefighters and neighbors
who banded together to help God help them all! Prayers for Rosemary, recovering
from brain surgery, for Ernie, who had a tumor behind his eye removed, and for
Doug, successful prostate surgery. Prayers, too, for Christian George, on his
birthday, for his parents and proud grandparents, too! 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 23, August 23, December 23
Chapter 65: On the Prior of the Monastery

To us, therefore, it seems expedient
for the preservation of peace and charity
that the Abbot have in his hands
the full administration of his monastery.
And if possible let all the affairs of the monastery,
as we have already arranged,
be administered by deans according to the Abbot's directions.
Thus, with the duties being shared by several,
no one person will become proud.


But if the circumstances of the place require it,
or if the community asks for it with reason and with humility,
and the Abbot judges it to be expedient,
let the Abbot himself constitute as his Prior
whomsoever he shall choose
with the counsel of God-fearing brethren.


That Prior, however, shall perform respectfully
the duties enjoined on him by his Abbot
and do nothing against the Abbot's will or direction;
for the more he is raised above the rest,
the more carefully should he observe the precepts of the Rule.


If it should be found that the Prior has serious faults,
or that he is deceived by his exaltation and yields to pride,
or if he should be proved to be a despiser of the Holy Rule,
let him be admonished verbally up to four times.
If he fails to amend,
let the correction of regular discipline be applied to him.
But if even then he does not reform,
let him be deposed from the office of Prior
and another be appointed in his place who is worthy of it.
And if afterwards he is not quiet and obedient in the community,
let him even be expelled from the monastery.
But the Abbot, for his part, should bear in mind
that he will have to render an account to God
for all his judgments,
lest the flame of envy or jealousy be kindled in his soul.

REFLECTION

The overwhelming majority of us, myself included, are never going to
be a Prior or Prioress. Firm grasp on the obvious there!! What,
however, may we glean from this chapter? There are at least several
possibilities.

First, even if your position gives you a certain level of honor,
never be so stupid as to believe it, to become proud, to take
yourself far too seriously. Cling to a self-knowledge of your
limitations, your sins and failings, especially when being praised.

Yes, we are human, yes, it is nice to hear those things, yes,
sometimes they even seem close to the truth, but praise, rank and
honor can be awful traps. Like crack cocaine, they can addict us the
first time we really give in to them. Great caution is in order here.

Second, every commitment to Christ, Baptism, Oblation or Profession,
obliges us to a higher standard of self-control. The Holy Rule,
because speaking of a superior, uses the phrase "raised above the
rest." We should read therein that ANY commitment which separates us
and sets us further apart for the service of God means that we must
more carefully observe the precepts of the Rule.

Even though it can be quite annoying to hear, how often someone will say,
immediately after a litany of transgressions the person has committed, "And she
is an OBLATE!" (Or Franciscan Third Order, or whatever.) People rightly
expect more of us because of our religious inclinations and we should
not disappoint them.

Third, and perhaps most important of all, no one, save God alone, is
indispensable. No one. Want to see the change that your removal from
the scene will effect? Stick your forearm into a bucket of water, and
then pull it out. Same thing, folks, the waters close right in and
things go on quite nicely. The higher water level while our arm was
there was only illusion anyway. This one can work in happy concert
with the above warning about taking ourselves too seriously. Usually,
when we THINK we're hot stuff, we aren't, and even if we truly are at
some point, it is FAR better not to know that, and a LOT easier for
the spiritual struggle.

Yes, we ARE important, we are infinitely important to God and, as a
result, to each other. But what makes us so is holiness and love and
struggling for virtue, not power.

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

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'Tis the feast of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, patron of my late Abbot Fidelis
Dunlap of St. Leo, who was also my novicemaster. Say a prayer for him, please.
Much of what I can give to you came to me through him!

Deo gratias! Aidan, for whom we prayed in February has had a wonderful course of
recovery from his surgery and thanks all for their prayers, prayer for his
continued healing, please! Deo gratias, and prayers for the happy death and
eternal rest of Helen, who has gone to God, for Mother Claudia, her daughter,
and for all her family and those who mourn her. Prayers for the happy death and
eternal rest of Fr. Paul Edwards, for his family and all who mourn him. Prayers
for Bill, badly in need of a kidney transplant, but suspected infection and
adhesions in his abdomen are holding off that surgery, prayers for him and his
very worried family. Prayers for one who is depressed and feeling listless
during convalescence. Prayers for two priests on chemotherapy. Prayers for
someone with cancer that may have spread. Prayers for Virginia, 80's, lump on
her breast, she survived breast cancer some years earlier, but she is frail, and
for all her worried family. Prayers for all the doctors who treat us: may God
guide their hands and hearts.Prayers for Shirl, he has another malignancy and
faces a third surgery with 6 weeks of chemo, for his wife, Marlyn, and all his
family. Lord, help us 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 24, August 24, December 24
Chapter 66: On the Porter of the Monastery

At the gate of the monastery
let there be placed a wise old woman,
who knows how to receive and to give a message,
and whose maturity will prevent her from straying about.
This porter should have a room near the gate,
so that those who come may always find someone at hand
to attend to their business.
And as soon as anyone knocks or a poor person hails her,
let her answer "Thanks be to God" or "A blessing!"
Then let her attend to them promptly,
with all the meekness inspired by the fear of God
and with the warmth of charity.

Should the porter need help,
let her have one of the younger sisters.

If it can be done,
the monastery should be so established
that all the necessary things,
such as water, mill, garden and various workshops,
may be within the enclosure,
so that there is no necessity
for the sisters to go about outside of it,
since that is not at all profitable for their souls.

We desire that this Rule be read often in the community,
so that none of the sisters may excuse herself
on the ground of ignorance.

REFLECTION

Modern monasteries in our Order rarely have gatehouses, let alone
porters waiting at them. In one way, that's too bad, because one
often sees visitors come to a monastery without a clue as to where to
go first, or how to contact someone. On the other hand, it would
wasteful to employ one person full-time at such an endeavor in our
smaller communities of today, since whole days may go by in many
places with few or none needing assistance.

What we have today is the phone, and phone manners are how this best
translates into modern life for both Oblates and professed. It is a terrible
thing whenever monks have answered the phone with an attitude
that clearly said: "You've got some nerve putting me out like this,
disturbing me, etc." with little concern for  the person on the other end
of the line.

One certainly wouldn't want to call such a monastery twice. If one
had never called one before, it is unlikely that one would want to
try another, to go for 2 out of 3, just in case. See the great
responsibility we have?

When a phone or doorbell rings, whether in a great Benedictine abbey
or an urban Benedictine apartment, we have the opportunity to
practice the hospitable grace that the Holy Rule requires of all.
Dorothy Day's friend and mentor, Father Hugo, used to say that we
love God as much as the one we love the least. That would readily
translate here. I LOVE to see certain guests arrive, look forward to
it as soon as I hear they are coming. Those are not the receptions on
which I should judge my hospitality. The difficult ones are.

The point here is that we ARE Benedictines, whether our answering
style makes that evident or not. I might not like to think so, but
the anonymity of just saying "Hello," without my name or title does
not entitle me to be harsh or gruff or rude. All of us are bound by
something Benedictine within us to be kind and gracious to all who
call or visit.

Someone who calls the guesthouse- or an Oblate's home- for the first
time can be driven away or attracted by the way they are dealt with
on the phone. To risk alienating someone because of our own moods
might mean that we cheat someone out of a spiritual friendship they
sorely need. I can't tell you how many people who just called us out
of nowhere in the last nine years have become real members of our
family, greatly beneficial to themselves and to us. Anyone of those
first experiences could have been irreparably soured by a cranky
phone manner. Look at what all of us would have lost had that
happened.

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

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+PAX

Prayers for Pluscarden Abbey's Fr. Mark on his patronal feast, and for all our
Marks!

Prayers for Brie, in her 20's, her blood pressure is high, possibly the sort
that spikes anytime one is in  a doctors' office, but they are testing to be
sure, also for her parents, Bev and Cas (on whose anniversary we recently prayed
in Deo gratias!) and for the doctors who treat Brie and all of us. Prayers for
Noel, blood pressure and diabetes, also financial and real estate problems,
seeking to get one son in school and to help another son find work. Prayers for
them all. Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of John, and for all who
mourn him.

Prayers for Peter, Kahler's disease ( multiple myeloma,) apparently treated
successfully a few years back, now he fears a recurrence. Scan today to better
assess is condition. Prayers for Ted, prostate cancer and having chemotherapy,
also for Kellen, 8, to receive a kidney transplant with his father being the
donor this Wednesday. The little boy and his family have been through so much
and pray this this operations will be successful and safe for both Kellen and
his Dad. How wonderful parental love can be! Yet God's love for us all is even
more wondrous than that!

Special prayers for Katie, Darren, and their 3 month old daughter, Chloe. They
had been told they could not have children and Chloe was conceived after prayers
to Pope John Paul II, right after his death. During labor and delivery, Katie
broke her tail bone and ruptured a few discs in her spine. She is now in a lot
of pain and has post-partum depression, too. Ardent prayers for them all!
Lord, help us 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 25, August 25, December 25
Chapter 67: On Brethren Who Are Sent on a Journey

Let the brethren who are sent on a journey
commend themselves
to the prayers of all the brethren and of the Abbot;
and always at the last prayer of the Work of God
let a commemoration be made of all absent brethren.

When brethren return from a journey,
at the end of each canonical Hour of the Work of God
on the day they return,
let them lie prostrate on the floor of the oratory
and beg the prayers of all
on account of any faults
that may have surprised them on the road,
through the seeing or hearing of something evil,
or through idle talk.
And let no one presume to tell another
whatever he may have seen or heard outside of the monastery,
because this causes very great harm.
But if anyone presumes to do so,
let him undergo the punishment of the Rule.
And let him be punished likewise who would presume
to leave the enclosure of the monastery
and go anywhere or do anything, however small,
without an order from the Abbot.

REFLECTION

Lay people, in St. Benedict's time and for centuries afterward, were
more cloistered in the sense of media isolation than most religious
are today, especially so in rural areas. We have to put ourselves
into their perspective to see what St. Benedict is saying here. There
was no postal service, let alone electronic media of any sort.
Couriers and outriders, official or self-appointed were the only
sources of news. Gossip and hearsay were the only news media
available to most. It was, in comparison to our own day, a rather
cloistered world.

Today's active Benedictine educator or health care provider or parish
minister could ill afford being so out of touch, much less Oblates in
the world with jobs and families. Still, it is important to see that
St. Benedict stressed this value as strongly as he did and try to
find out why he did so.

Fast forward to a Benedictine value we haven't mentioned much lately,
but a central one: purity of heart. Purity of heart is the focused,
singular monastic way of searching for God, of the spiritual
struggle. Purity of heart, as Kierkegaard said, really IS to will one
thing. For the Benedictine, that one thing is God, union with God.

A very old monastic principle, one more alive in the East today than in
the West, held that whatever did not help one in the monastic quest
was actually harmful. Under that theory, there was no middle ground
of neutrality. It helped you become a better monastic or it didn't.
If it didn't, it wasn't considered extraneous, it was considered
harmful, even evil. Since St. Benedict doesn't say that things heard
from outside "can" cause great harm, but rather that they flat out do
cause it, it may be to this earlier concept that he refers.

We live in a world so flooded with media, with input, that it would astound
a person of St. Benedict's time, even one with no taste for monastic life!
Let us frankly face the fact, beloveds, that ALL of that information is not even
good, let alone useful. We are so immersed in the barrage that we have
often become indiscriminate, indifferent to it. We must develop and
hone and reclaim that skill to sift and avoid the useless or harmful.
We must be mindful and examine the amount and genuine worth of media
exposure we allow ourselves. The sky is not the limit here.

Our lives and vocations are so varied and our differences are so
wide, but our quest is the same. Somehow, each of us, in every
milieu, has to find a way to carve out a little bit of that isolation
for ourselves. I love Ann McPhillips' phrase: "gatekeepers of our
hearts." Face it, we live in an age where we can easily be in touch
with virtually everything and that is not always good for us.

It's about focus, it's about the times in one's life that one must
carve out for oneself, times in which "only one thing is needful."
When a cacophony of things become needful, purity of heart is drowned
out. Maybe we have noisy families or lives, maybe we honestly cannot
get the respite we seek. That's when we have to really struggle to
build it in our hearts, to find God, as Teresa of Avila did, among
the pots and pans.

Our hearts may, in truth, be the only monasteries we have, the only
gates we shall ever keep, but that does not matter. God knew from all
eternity exactly the environments and times in which we would have to
seek Him and He tailor-made them for us, even though in the midst of them,
that may be hard to see at the time. He knows what He is about. We
need to build that "one thing needful" as a place within us. For many
of us, that will be the only desert to which we can ever fly.

One last pointer for the news you DO watch or listen to or read: do so
with prayer, make it lead to prayer. We have become more or less
immune to horrible tragedy unfolding before us. Lose that immunity. Saying
"Tsk, tsk..." helps no one. Say a prayer, say lots of prayers for those whose
horror becomes the grist of news mills.

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the happy death and eternal rest of John Baerst, many years
ago a cleric at St. Leo Abbey. He left after Vatican II, married Allison in the
Church and raised two children, Virginia and Benedict. Prayers for them and all
who mourn him.
Prayers for someone single, depressed, with no health insurance, large post-op
medical debt and unable to work at present , whose job position has been
"deleted" and no income for the past 7 weeks. Prayers for Patty, frequent
migraines, diabetes, high blood pressure and back pain, now also depressed and
anxious about being denied a mortgage, for her husband and all their family.
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! JL

April 26, August 26, December 26
Chapter 68: If a Sister Is Commanded to Do Impossible Things

If it happens
that difficult or impossible tasks are laid on a sister,
let her nevertheless receive the order of the one in authority
with all meekness and obedience.
But if she sees that the weight of the burden
altogether exceeds the limit of her strength,
let her submit the reasons for her inability
to the one who is over her
in a quiet way and at an opportune time,
without pride, resistance, or contradiction.
And if after these representations
the Superior still persists in her decision and command,
let the subject know that this is for her good,
and let her obey out of love,
trusting in the help of God.

REFLECTION

Buried in chapters whose names may throw us off there are usually
gems, one just has to dig a bit more carefully. Granted, impossible
tasks are rarely asked of anyone these days, much less Oblates who
live outside the monastery, but there is a beautiful method given
here which has the widest of applications.

The method given here for approaching one's superior is a masterpiece
of crisis intervention and prevention for almost any situation in
life:

"...in a quiet way and at an opportune time, without pride,
resistance, or contradiction."

We ought to carve that on the walls of every mediation center in the
world, on the doors to every marriage counselor and above every
complaint desk (or, as they euphemize them these days, "Customer
Service," but what's in a name?)

Look at what is called for here: composure and calm, timing, respect
for the other person (Gandhi would even say love for the foe,) non-
violence and non-contentiousness. Use this approach with
disagreements and many of them will melt away. One reason Gandhi's
non-violence worked was that he employed all of these things, the
opponent was never denied her worth or dignity. When his followers
pared the list, they failed. This is the recipe for lasting results,
not for a temporary subjugation.

Jesus, of course, gives us a three step process to redress wrongs: go
to the person alone, if that doesn't work go with a witness, if even
that fails, then haul them up before the whole assembly. We can
consider ourselves absolved if we follow all those steps and may feel
justified, but if we undertake ANY of those steps, especially the
first one, without the calm prescribed by St. Benedict, our effort is
all but guaranteed to fail. We can sputter out: "I went to her and I
got NOWHERE!" Ah, yes, but HOW did you go? "He wouldn't even listen
to the whole community!" Neither would you, if made to feel that
small and worthless in public.

Very often our manner of dealing with others says a great deal about
how we esteem ourselves. A balanced dignity and self-love is shown in
the Holy Rule's approach. It will go a longer way toward ending
conflict than a "wronged prima donna" move.

Watch how people fight and it will be easy to see that many consider any
perceived slight or offense against themselves to be THE original sin. Never
mind that the "offender" might have meant nothing of the sort, or acted in
genuine
ignorance or innocence. Forget all about that little item of being morally
obliged
to think the best of others. No quarter, no mercy!

Sigh... Give people like that a lot of room. Being wrong is not a capital
offense,
everybody does it at one time or another. People who demonstrate anything else
by their reactions damage their own standing in the group and rightly so.

Remember that every disagreement hurts the whole group. A family at
dinner with two not speaking is a tense affair. You cannot calm a
child by saying "This is between your Father and me! It has nothing
to do with you." Because it does, it really does. A community in choir
after a huge blow-up between two members is not an exquisite taste of
mystical prayer. Everybody suffers. That's why fixing these fender-
benders is so important and why St. Benedict gave us a way that is so
very likely to achieve results.

Now THAT'S creative peacemaking!

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Tony, who did a very generous and kind thing for someone.
May God reward him with many blessings. Prayers for Katherine, who had to put to
sleep her beloved dog of over 14 years. All our pet lovers will be able to
relate to how terribly saddened she feels. Prayers for Zachary and Abby,
preparing for their First Communions next month and for their proud parents and
families. Prayers for vocations to all our monasteries, please. Lord, help us 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 27, August 27, December 27
Chapter 69: That the Monks Presume Not to Defend One Another

Care must be taken that no monk presume on any ground
to defend another monk in the monastery,
or as it were to take him under his protection,
even though they be united by some tie of blood-relationship.
Let not the monks dare to do this in any way whatsoever,
because it may give rise to most serious scandals.
But if anyone breaks this rule,
let him be severely punished.

REFLECTION

We are all supposed to bear one another's burdens. That should be
more than enough help for anyone, if we actually keep that principle.

A big problem with becoming the protector of another, self-appointed
or otherwise, is that it destroys one's peace needlessly. When I was
a novice, there was one other novice I really did not want to lose.
He was not the brightest bulb on the tree and I went out of my way to
protect him from himself. In time, he came to resent this and I was
so busy worrying about covering or preventing his foibles all the
time that I spent little time focusing on my own novitiate. Of
course, he left. He was supposed to leave. I, however, could not see
that at the time.

This isn't just about monasteries, it's about any human group. Taking
someone under our wing can result in all sorts of false assumptions.
It can fool us into thinking we can really control events more than
we can. It can lead us, a la Mother Hen, to seek to control the one
under wing in very unnecessary and unhealthy ways. Its most common
error is also one of its most dangerous ones: it leads us to think in
terms of "us-and-them." There is no "them" in a healthy monastery,
only an "us".

A further problem is that God wills or permits things for a person's good
that may seem awful to us. Whatever befalls us, God can and does use
to our ultimate salvation, our greatest good. When our own limited and
false view of things decides to protect another from such workings as are
truly of God, we have placed ourselves in a downright horrible position.
What galling nerve on our part to assume we know better than God, that
it is our "providence" and not His that ought to triumph.

As usual, what the Holy Rule insists we avoid is an extreme. This
chapter is NOT saying we should not look out for one another, just
that no one should presume that the job is hers or his alone. Good
families protect all their members, but it is a corporate activity, something
in which all participate. Destroy that balance and the others will
notice quickly. It upsets the inner peace, both of the individual and
the group.

Part of any monastic's struggle, in cloister or in the world, is the
painful facing up to ourselves, that confrontation with our own
flaws. This difficult self-knowledge is essential to the monastic
way. Trying to protect someone from this process is counter to the
very reason they came. It not only harms them, it harms us, by
keeping us so busy with another's affairs that we can avoid looking
within at our own failings.

Merton once told his junior monk students that there is an
existential place of loneliness in every monk that no one can touch,
and that this is the way it's supposed to be, that no one should try
to reach it. That's where the struggle goes on, that's where there is
only God and the self. That's the arena in which the action happens.

Every person, every employee, every spouse and child has a similar
place: it is the place of potential learning and growth. Our deep
respect for one another must stand away from that space. Becoming
self-appointed guardians of another violates that space.

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

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+PAX

A huge Deo gratias for Peter, for whom we prayed. His scan and tests showed no
signs of multiple myeloma (Kahler's disease,) recurrence. God is so good! Deo
gratias for Joyce and her cat, Jesse, no liver problems for him, but he still
needs prayers for some other medical things, and Joyce asks prayers for an
upcoming biopsy for herself. Anita asks prayers of Deo gratias for a very
successful meeting at her school, which she says went 1,000 times better than
expected!

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Maria, who has died from cancer,
and for her family and all who mourn her. Prayers for the parents of Victor, who
died only four months apart, for their happy deaths and eternal rest, and for
Victor, his wife, Anita and their children, Amanda, Krista and Sara. Victor has
no siblings and these losses weigh heavily on him and the whole family. Lord,
help us 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 28, August 28, December 28
Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random

Every occasion of presumption
shall be avoided in the monastery,
and we decree that no one be allowed
to excommunicate or to strike any of her sisters
unless the Abbess has given her the authority.
Those who offend in this matter
shall be rebuked in the presence of all,
that the rest may have fear.

But children up to 15 years of age
shall be carefully controlled and watched by all,
yet this too with all moderation and discretion.
All, therefore, who presume
without the Abbess' instructions
to punish those above that age
or who lose their temper with them,
shall undergo the discipline of the Rule;
for it is written,
"Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself" (Tobias
4:16).

REFLECTION

Ever work in a place where there was such chaos that you always had
to be protecting yourself from just about everybody, where you never
knew from which quarter doom might swoop down without warning. Trust
me, it ain't much fun. Been there, done that! St. Benedict wisely saw
that healthy people cannot live that way- it makes them sick- and
sick people cannot either, it makes them sicker in a big hurry!

Our communities, our families, and our own behavior at work or school
should never buy into such lunacy. One advantage of a central
authority is that it takes the heat, or ought to take it! To leave
those we have under our care at the mercy of each other, be they
siblings or monastics or employees, is a terrible abdication of
responsibility.

The other telling thing here is the proscription against losing one's
temper. Hey, I know it happens, and I often even know how. It surely
has happened to me, alas. But our communities are to be founded on peace.

When disagreement comes or wrong is done, our first resort must
NEVER be the overkill of the heaviest possible artillery. Much less than
that is effective in most cases and giving more than is necessary just
destroys our inner peace. That, my friends, is something we should
never allow things around us to destroy.

Two other important things are to be borne in mind. The other person may
honestly have no clue that they have offended or done anything wrong. It
may be in our own wrong-headed perceptions. Also, the silent treatment,
the cold shoulder freeze out are demeaning and not terribly mature ways to
deal with conflict, especially if the person receiving such nonsense is expected
to either know or guess what she has done wrong. Such petulant behaviors
are beneath humanity itself, much less Christianity and terribly beneath
monastic
life.

Far from the "mutually assured destruction" tactic of the nuclear days,
we should always and everywhere espouse gentleness and polite restraint.
Our disagreements and corrections should be marked with mercy, even to
those who fail mercy themselves. (There is no shortage of such people and
no need to duplicate services there!) So much of charity is genuine courtesy
and respect, qualities which are sadly easy to fail. We must be mindful, ever
mindful!


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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for my Mom, Louise, who would have been 88 today. Even though
she has been dead for many years, prayers today for her happy death and eternal
rest will be graciously counted by our good God!

Prayers of Deo gratias and thanks for John and Anne Green of Sheffield, as they
celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary.

Most unusual and wonderful prayers of Deo gratias for a very private special
intention I received yesterday. It got remedied before I could even get around
to post it. God knew from all eternity we would be praying today, so I am sure
he factored those prayers in! Let us thank Him. Cannot give details, but this
was an awesome and swift turn around of some very discouraging events. Deo
gratias in excelsis!!!

Prayers for the Benedictine Sisters of Florida, Holy Name Monastery, as they
prepare to elect a new Prioress later in May. Prayers for Erin, graduating from
college in a small New England town and moving to Los Angeles' inner city, to
live in a Christian community and do social service work while in vocational
discernment. Prayers for one trying to found a religious community. 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 29, August 29, December 29
Chapter 71: That the Brethren Be Obedient to One Another

Not only is the boon of obedience
to be shown by all to the Abbot,
but the brethren are also to obey one another,
knowing that by this road of obedience they are going to God.
Giving priority, therefore, to the commands of the Abbot
and of the Superior appointed by him
(to which we allow no private orders to be preferred),
for the rest
let all the juniors obey their seniors
with all charity and solicitude.
But if anyone is found contentious,
let him be corrected.

And if any brother,
for however small a cause,
is corrected in any way by the Abbot or by any of his Superiors,
or if he faintly perceives
that the mind of any Superior is angered or moved against him,
however little,
let him at once, without delay,
prostrate himself on the ground at his feet
and lie there making satisfaction
until that emotion is quieted with a blessing.
But if anyone should disdain to do this,
let him undergo corporal punishment
or, if he is stubborn, let him be expelled from the monastery.

REFLECTION

My friend, Fr. Damian of St. Leo Abbey, once said: "If it gives
him so much pleasure and causes me so little pain, why not?" Great
philosophy! It is very easy to let people have their way in
reasonable requests and it goes a very long way to strengthen peace,
security and unity.

Think of how people are described who answer any request with
cheerful action: "She's someone you can count on." Well, we all ought
to be able to count on one another. If you are a Benedictine in a
situation where people are not dependable in this fashion, try being
a counter witness. Let people count on you, then, when their hearts
soften a bit, tell 'em what Father Damian said. If even one person
changes, the world is better.

Not all obedience is equal, even this chapter points that out.
Obeying the abbot is one thing, obeying each other is quite another.
But there is a connection to ALL obedience. Sometimes obeying a co-
worker is a lot easier than obeying the boss, yet these small steps
of compliance also strengthen us. Obeying each other can be a back
door way into some real growth in obedience. The key to obedience is
learning to control, even forsake our own will. Any good effort in that
direction
will yield results.

Want some really deep theological perspective? Obeying each other
simply makes us nicer people. Become that person who always tries
to oblige others, it isn't that hard to learn! As a Southern nurse I used to
work with once said: "Anybody can be a skunk at a garden party if they
want to, but why bother?" She and Father Damian are both right: it is easy
to let others live.

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

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