For Jay's mother Alice Tyson had to be taken to hospital again today.  She was
in pain and barely coherent - after being fine yesterday.  She really should be
having hospice care but is in denial.

Ryan, 17, for whom we prayed, will be released to his aunt's custody, pending
finding a bed in in a drug rehab center. Special prayers he remains drug-free,
because otherwise it will be jail.

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+PAX

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Ted, killed in a car wreck while
travelling to see family at Christmas, and for all who mourn him.

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

Elaine's Dad, dementia, severe weight loss, and very sick just now. The Ted we
prayed for above was a dear friend of his, who visited him regularly.

Carolyn and John, trying to find God's will for their lives.Lord, help us all as
You know and will. God's wi;; 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. I have
certainly known monks who have answered the phone with an attitude
that clearly said: "You've got some nerve putting me out like this,
disturbing me, etc." 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 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 tough-to-love
ones are.

The point here is that we ARE Benedictines, whether our answering
style of door or phone makes that evident or not. I might not like to think
so, but the anonymity of just saying "Hello," one the phone, 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 for the first time can be driven
away or attracted by the way they are dealt with on the phone.
A vocation could driven away by a smartingly cold response. To
risk alienating someone because of our own moods might mean that we
cheat someone out of a spiritual respite 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

A lot of prayers today, so I am basically cutting and pasting:

Please pray for the happy death and eternal repose of Keith who was suffering
with cancer of the lungs and liver and has now gone home to be with his Heavenly
Father. Keith's parents have now lost the third of four sons and a daughter.
Please pray for Keith's parents and for Rev. Nikki also.

Please pray for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following, for
all their loved ones and alll who take care of them:
Sabette, recovering from serious knee surgery and fighting drug reactions and
seizures
Maybelle, 98 and slowly winding down from a very active life as her aortic valve
hardens; doctors cannot treat due to age
Leslie, first Christmas since death of husband of 45 years, her first love whom
she married at 16
Shirley, multiple medical issues and being moved to nursing home and for her
husband Glee realizing he cannot provide the help she needs at home any longer

Prayers badly needed for Teresa, trapped in an increasingly dangerously abusive
relationship and feeling there is no way out.

Mark who is wrestling with depression.

Ed who is suffering from MS and his wife Anne who is supporting him. Let them
know that it is okay to ask for help.

Polly who is suffering short term memory loss and is in an adult home.

Bob who was involved in a serious automobile accident and is recovering.

Rob who has left the church.

Mike who has personal problems.

Deb who is suffering from MS and fibromalehia.

Fred who is fighting alcoholism.

Mary who is suffering from several different illness brought on by aging.

Jane who faces some tough life choices.

All those who are alone and lost this Christmas season.

S, who has been HIV+ since 1986, receiving Social Security disability & rent
subsidy due to that, is challenging his landlord & HUD/HPD who want to evict him
in January '08 from his home of nearly 30 years.  And in NYC, where can he go? 
It's beginning to look like my living room floor!

A young girl, whose parents have been convicted of "slavery," and are awaiting
sentencing.  She collapsed in court.  She has juvenile diabetes.  Prayers too
for the accusers, who appear to be mentally ill; they believe in witches &
curses, wanted someone to kill her parents by witchcraft.

And more cheerfully, several men are investing their savings in opening a
non-profit religious goods shop connected to a church, as an evangelical
mission.  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

A blessed Christmas to all! I took a moment to gather you all into my heart
for First Vespers of Christmas this afternoon, and in a while I shall carry
you all with me to Midnight Mass. Know that being in touch with all of you is
one of the greatest gifts of my life. Let us pray for each other, that our
lives may bring Christ's Light to others around us. Each heart is a Bethlehem,
a  Manger. We can be the ones to place Him there, in our own hearts, and those
of others.

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

Rare is the person who can manage to stay employed without at least a
slightly different persona at work. We are one thing there, because
we have to be, but when we clock out, much, if not all of the work
persona is shed. In fact, we usually have a whole repertoire of
different selves, being one thing with our grandmother and quite
another with a childhood friend we have known all our lives, one
thing with the promising new date and quite another with the spouse
of many years!

Secular society has enlarged upon this tendency to its own ends.
Because the tendency is so deeply rooted in us, we may fail to see
its dangers when carried to extremes. Thanks to a society often
glaringly unassisted by revelation, we have the unhappy concept of
different umbrellas, different sets of ethics to cover different
areas of life. "Hey, religion is fine if you want it, but this is
BUSINESS!" or "I may be a Christian, but this is public service. I
was elected by a constituency that expected me to leave some of that
Gospel stuff at the door." Well, folks, such notions do not always
wash well. In fact, they really don't wash at all.

The message of the Holy Rule and of the Gospel is that there is one
umbrella, period. There is one persona, period. Granted, in the
latter, shades and gradations may last throughout most of our
struggling lives, but the goal is clear. All monastic, all Christian,
all the time. One heart, one umbrella, one Lord, one faith, one
baptism.

That work persona that we drop when we clock out, the totally free
and other person we are on days off or on trips away can be an OK
notion in relation to work. Wouldn't we find someone who was a
salesperson or teacher or secretary or manager ALL the time to be a
dreadful drip? The concept fails, however, when it is applied to
vocations, to any vocation at all. One does not take a vacation from
being married or a parent or ordained or a monastic.

Do I hear loud screams in cyber-space as I mention BALANCE again?
Sorry, but it is true. There is a balanced way to be under one
umbrella all the time that we must strive to achieve. Yes, I am
different with different friends, we all are, we have to be, charity
demands that. But there is a commonality between all the threads of
our behavior. We are monastics. We are freer within defined limits.
It is to the balance of those defined limits that this chapter refers.

At Petersham, we still follow this custom of prayer for one who will
be away overnight. The prayers are said in the refectory, after
grace. One is blessed leaving and returning, while kneeling in the
center of the ref. It's just a way of saying, as a community, that we
all know that maintaining that one umbrella can be tough, especially
when one is away alone. We want to support each other with our
prayers, we want our brother to know that our hearts are with him all
the way.

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











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+PAX

Prayers, please, for all who have lost someone dear over the holidays. It
can be so awful for them and then the pain can recur year after year. Prayers,
too, for all those addicts for whom this season of feasting in food and drink
can be a particularly trying time of temptation. May God bless and strengthen
them all. 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 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.

Most interpersonal conflict arises from one being or feeling wronged.
Escalation often follows when one tries to express their displeasure
to the offender. Even people who are truly wrong do not enjoy being
humiliated or treated as if they were nothing. Upset by another's
actions, it is easy to lose one's cool. When both parties blow up, a
relentless cycle of discord is born.

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. Very often prima donnas
of either gender are filled with angry self-hatred.

Watch people fight and it will be easy to see that many consider any
slight or offense against themselves to be THE original sin. 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 actions damage their own standing
in the group as well, 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." But 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
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

+ + + + + + + + Let me recommend a great idea to you.
Take the days after Christmas, whether the octave till New Year's, or all
twelve days of Christmas till Epiphany, as days to pray especially for those
with whom you have exchanged Christmas greetings, cards and gifts. Don't
forget
to include those from Christmases past- and even Christmases future. (How
like
Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"!) This not only expresses your
gratitude,
but it turns many chance encounters, hurried and perhaps otherwise nearly
empty
into moments of great grace. So many times "Merry Christmas" is almost a knee
jerk response. Praying this way means that the gas station clerk in another
state that you will probably never see again is included and, hopefully, will
greet you with considerably greater joy one day in heaven!

As for Christmases future, we shall let God take care of them, but
Christmases
past! Ah, therein lie the memories, sometimes painful, of those we have lost.
They live in God, in God we can greet them each year. Our remembering them
delights them no less than it formerly did, perhaps it delights them even
more.
It can be a real healing for those old wounds of loss in our hearts to pray
for
ALL who shared our Christmases, throughout time.

Quite naturally, all of you who are so very much a part of my life and heart,
even those I have never met, are also very much a part of my grateful prayers
for the 12 days! Merry Christmas! 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 or
family or Christian community, only an "us".

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 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. It
keeps us so busy with another's affairs that we can avoid looking
at our own failings: a distraction we may perilously cherish!

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 great 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

Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of the following, for all those
they leave behind and for all who mourn them:

Mike, 57, sudden death from heart attack, and his wife and three kids,

Jim, 42, died on Christmas Eve of an apparent heart attack and leaves
behind an 11-year old son, Cody, and a nine-year-old daughter, Nikki.
Whole family taking it very hard.

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

A dysfunctional office situation needing many healings, and for Elaine.

Brittany, Conner, and others, for wise choices of God's will.

Terez and Joseph, for their love and her job hunt.

Rhoda, pneumonia in her only remaining lung.

Benazir Bhutto and all the people of Pakistan.

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

"Every occasion of presumption should be avoided in the monastery."
This is about a lot more than saying who can punish whom. This is
pointing out that, whenever there are more than one to be considered,
absolute freedom cannot exist. This is about central authority, yes,
but it is also about the total way one conducts oneself in a home or
group that others share.

Ever think about your first home away from your parents house? It was
probably different in a lot of ways, especially if you lived there
alone. Heady freedom that! I recall my own first place very well and
fondly. However, I can assure you, I could not have lived as I did
there had I been in a family, with younger siblings at home. (OK, it
was 1969, so go figure...)

Even alone, however, I was not free to play my stereo at undue
volumes at 3 AM. We live on a common planet, at some point ALL of our
lives touch others. When they do, control of some sort is necessary
if people are to live in peace.

There is a great and treacherous myth of individualism among
Americans and, to a lesser extent, I think, among all Western
European cultures. Non-western cultures often have a much more highly
developed sense of sharing and commonality. The American nonsense
of "God-bless-the-child-that's-got-his-own" does justice to neither
God nor the child!

Schweitzer pointed out that Europeans found the Africans lazy,
because they would not work to a point of exhaustion without need.
They worked all right, but when the work was done, they quit. They
had a casual and natural attitude to work, proper to their own
economic system, that drove the Europeans nuts, because the latter
had more of a 40-hours-a-week-and-then-you-rest notion. Both
Schweitzer and I tend to side with the natives on this one!

That myth of total freedom, of self-sufficiency being able to buy one
the right to any activity is totally wrong. Even at 20, in my richly
bohemian digs that I called "Shackri-la", I was not totally free. I
didn't know it well enough back then, but I wasn't. I had no right to waste
water or leave lights on all night or drive drunk. My fantasy might have
been chronologically appropriate as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco,
but hey, even there, even then, people were not morally free in any absolute
sense. None of us are.

Every presumed domain of our control exists on a planet shared by
billions. No one of us is an island. Our complete interdependence is
not only objective fact, it is our only hope. You might never have
read this chapter as an ad for ecological consciousness, but look at
the first line again. We are ALWAYS in this with others and that
always means responsibilities to "...not do to another what one would
not have done to oneself."

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

Petersham, MA





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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

OK, now we're getting into radical. Any human group, from the
military to a kindergarten at recess expects one to obey the leader.
But each other? Give me a break! How many jobs would you have quit if
you had to obey all of your co-workers? Yet St. Benedict calls such
obedience a "boon", a wonderfully good thing.

Well, giving a break is exactly what is intended here. The Kingdom of
God, which the Holy Rule seeks to guide us to, is ruled by love, not
hierarchy per se. It includes a hierarchy, yes, but that, too, is
founded on love. The Kingdom of God strives for peace and serenity.

The quickest way to soften an environment and let peace flourish is
to keep people more or less happy, and the quickest way to do that is
to give in to their legitimate wishes whenever possible. So long as the
matter at hand is morally neutral, why not give way?

Now we're getting to the heroic stuff. There are ulterior benefits to
obeying the boss, but another peer? What's the big deal there? The
big deal is love, the big deal is forgetfulness of self, the big deal
is the abdication of control issues.

Monastic struggle will not free one who is attached to control. It
will thwart the good of the struggle. Don't beat yourself up too
badly on this one if you live in the world, because many, many
monastics in cloisters fail it as well. It is one of Satan's
sneakiest tricks and he enjoys its effectiveness immensely. What
could be better than something the poor victims hardly notice at all,
that eats up their hard work like a ravenous cancer? Very, very handy.

I am tempted to say that anyone who is addicted to control- at any
stage of monastic life- ought to be set to cleaning bathrooms until
the feeling passes. Hey, that would be a great idea, but most
monasteries do not have that many toilets. Sad, but true.

Rather than worry about the pathetic individuals so addicted, who can
make life so unpleasant for those they live with, why not just focus on
changing ourselves? We can be part of the solution. We can go out of
our way to make life easier for each other. We can pray for those who
don't.

A horrible truth of monastic life is that if one waits for everyone
to get perfect (according, of course, to one's own standards!) the
result will be futile and frustrated stagnation. Community we may be,
but all on the same page we shall never be till heaven, and maybe not
even there!

It's a snap to be a pain. Any fool can pull that off with no effort at
all. Lots of them do, all the time! The harvest, however, is
isolation and loneliness, which result in bitterness that only fuels
the vicious cycle.

In contrast, it is a bit difficult at first to be easy, but it is
ALSO addictive when done right! One will soon be hunting for ways to
be easy, because every drop of water makes the ocean a tiny bit less
salty. The harvest, too, is far more precious: a growing warmth that
makes one ever more gentle, more open, more loving and glad to be so.
The harvest is joy and love, not the lie of possession and bitterness.
You may not change the world alone, but the change in yourself will be
awesome and dramatic. That alone will go farther still to improve the
world, to build up the Mystical Body of Christ.

It is very unlikely that you will ever be able to cure a control
freak. Give them a lot of room, because (harsh saying here!) they can be
truly a danger to your serenity. Cultivate among your peers an attitude
of complete non-control, of nearly total indifference to detail,
rather like the old peace poster that said: "What if they gave a war
and no one came?".

Maybe, just maybe, the wizard might one day wake up to actually see
that Oz is not with her! That's about your only hope. People like
this can profit us by being crosses and we can grow from praying for
them, but getting sucked into their hopelessly false view of reality
is a fatal mistake.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

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

Lewis, 16, in denial about his drug and alcohol problems.

Brittany, stuck in a very trying weekend away from home.

Dan and his wife Nichola, continuing to make slow progress, Dan somewhat more
quickly than Nichola, though docs are optimistic about recovery for both.

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 30, August 30, December 30
Chapter 72: On the Good Zeal Which They Ought to Have

Just as there is an evil zeal of bitterness
which separates from God and leads to hell,
so there is a good zeal
which separates from vices and leads to God
and to life everlasting.
This zeal, therefore, the sisters should practice
with the most fervent love.
Thus they should anticipate one another in honor (Rom. 12:10);
most patiently endure one another's infirmities,
whether of body or of character;
vie in paying obedience one to another --
no one following what she considers useful for herself,
but rather what benefits another;
tender the charity of sisterhood chastely;
fear God in love;
love their Abbess with a sincere and humble charity;
prefer nothing whatever to Christ.
And may He bring us all together to life everlasting!

REFLECTION

This chapter, full of self-evident and beautiful prose should serve
as a short rule of life, a summary of all that has gone before it.
Live this one, and you're all right: the details from the other
chapters will take care of themselves. Little wonder then that its
principal points are love, obedience and humility, practiced in the
chastity of wholeness. (Chastity, it must be recalled, is proper to
every state in life. It is the well-ordered, balanced and wholesome use
of sexuality.) Even less wonder that, to call Scripture in to witness
here, "the greatest of these is love." Merton's one-line Holy Rule
summary also applies: "Love is the Rule."

The beauty here is so great that we often do not spend enough time
looking at its opposite: "the evil zeal of bitterness." What a great
turn of phrase! Like many of us, St. Benedict seems to have known
some whose bitterness turned into an energetic zeal, a way of life, a
broken power line in a windy world that could strike others or
themselves without warning.

And "zeal" is precisely the word! People can put such frighteningly
zealous levels of effort into self-loathing bitterness. It becomes a
full-time job, one which requires so much energy that it's a marvel
that they continue.

Bitter anger, self-hatred, unforgiving ill-will towards all or most,
these are viciously involuted cycles, cancers of the soul. They turn
on the self, malignantly. They injure and alienate others to make
one's twisted world view remain correct. They never rest, the fist
is always clenched, the hand never open.

Someone years ago wrote a book about suicide titled "The Savage God."
The premise was that the illness which caused suicide was like some
pagan deity that destroyed its adherents, an apt enough assessment.
But evil zeal is a savage god, too. Unlike suicide which leads to
death, this one insists on a long and horrible end in prison.

I have known two monks with this dreadful problem, both now long
dead. Thank heavens, they both persevered to the end and one hopes
that was enough, because, frankly, little else could be said for
them. They both guaranteed that their own lives were hell and pretty
much ensured smaller doses of hell for the rest of us living with
them.

When I was much younger and living with those embittered monks, it
was hard to look at them with much pity or calm. It isn't now, thank
God, and I have spent considerable time praying for both of them, as
well as for a few of their "runners-up"! While all things are
possible with God, the terrible thing is that this self-hatred never
gets fixed in some people. It can be a life sentence. Then, prayer is the
only answer.

In any situation, but perhaps worse when the sufferer is one's spouse
or parent or child, this bitterness is a terrible cross, for both the
sufferer and those around her. It might seem cold comfort to say that
it can make all involved saints, but it truly is not cold comfort at
all. Being saints is the only thing, ultimately, that matters. I hope
by now some of my crosses of the past are praying for me, protecting
me, by their prayers, from what once ailed them and forgiving me for
the times I provoked them!

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






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

Brigid, and for Brendan, Brigid's husband, and also for her sister, Elizabeth,
who at age 86, has seen all but one of her sisters and brothers come and go,
whilst she, the eldest, remains.  Although the family has always had its deep
Faith, life's struggles do seem hard at times.

Peter, who died suddenly, and for his wife, Fenton, most particularly, now alone
after a strong and exemplary marriage of 48 years. He was 71, she is 69.



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

Jane's Dad, waiting to die and puzzled why God hasn't taken him yet. For his
happy death at exactly the hour God wants. God chooses such hours to make
embracing Him and His Divine Mercy fully the most possible for each soul.

all those people who are suffering from stress due to work: that economy and
work organisation may adapt to man and not vice versa.

all youngsters and for their parents: that youngsters, parents and we may find
ways to help youngsters to find a healthy and meaningful lifestyle and parents
to deal with their kids in the right way.

Elaine, 65, who sprained her ankle badly

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

May 1, August 31, December 31
Chapter 73: On the Fact That the Full Observance of Justice Is Not
Established in This Rule

Now we have written this Rule
in order that by its observance in monasteries
we may show that we have attained some degree of virtue
and the rudiments of the religious life.

But for those who would hasten to the perfection of that life
there are the teaching of the holy Fathers,
the observance of which leads to the height of perfection.
For what page or what utterance
of the divinely inspired books of the Old and New Testaments
is not a most unerring rule for human life?
Or what book of the holy Catholic Fathers
does not loudly proclaim
how we may come by a straight course to our Creator?
Then the Conferences and the Institutes
and the Lives of the Fathers,
as also the Rule of our holy Father Basil --
what else are they but tools of virtue
for right-living and obedient monks?
But for us who are lazy and ill-living and negligent
they are a source of shame and confusion.

Whoever you are, therefore,
who are hastening to the heavenly homeland,
fulfil with the help of Christ
this minimum Rule which we have written for beginners;
and then at length under God's protection
you will attain to the loftier heights of doctrine and virtue
which we have mentioned above.

REFLECTION

"Whoever you are, therefore, who are hastening to the heavenly
homeland..." That "whoever" is the true object all this heartfelt
tenderness of Saint Benedict , the one for whom he wrote! He only
made one qualifier, that of "hastening to the heavenly homeland." It
seems that some of our decisions about who matters and who does not
have employed a somewhat more restrictive standard than that of our
holy Father Benedict.

"Whoever you are..." I don't care who you are or how much I disagree
with you, whether I nearly hate your positions or love them blindly,
it is you I am called to love, to honor to respect, to cherish as a
fellow monastic traveler. You.

"Whoever you are..." I surely don't care whether you're Catholic or
not, in fact I am relieved and delighted that many of you on board
are not! I surely don't care if you are not exactly the same sort of
Catholic as I am, it doesn't matter to me. You do. You have to,
because this is the Holy Rule I have embraced, that we all have.

In the United States, through much of our history, Catholics and Jews
shared a roughly equal amount of contempt. Great camaraderie could
flourish between the two and still quite often does. Having said
that, it has always amused me that many Jews I know get along MUCH
better with Catholics than they do with Jews who disagree with them!
How like ourselves!

When disagreement happens within our family, we hurt more, it is more
important to us. The differing opinion of a stranger on the subway
would hardly matter at all! Maybe the fact that we CAN get hurt and
angry is a good sign, maybe it means we are at least beginning to
love, but it is HOW we get hurt or angry that we have to examine
very, very closely.

The important thing is not opinion or observance or concepts. The
important thing is you. Whoever you are. Every time I fail that, I
have to get up, apologize and start over. Maybe not right from square
one each time, but again each time.

If I ever stop doing those things, I have stopped being a
Benedictine. Whoever you are, but it's not just me that has to
embrace that. You do, too. We all do. I am the only one I can insist
upon, however, the only one I can make change, and that might be good
to keep in mind, whoever you are.

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


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In years past, the custom prevailed in many places of welcoming the New Year
with a Te Deum of thanksgiving for the year completed and for the new years
dawning. Of course, for those who have a Roman Liturgy of the Hours book that
includes the Office of Readings, it would still be the custom: the Te Deum
is said with the Office of Readings for New Year's Day, the Solemnity of the
Mother of God.

However, since many do not have access to the four volume Liturgy of the
Hours, or the one volume that has just the Office of Readings, I thought I'd dig
up a text in English of the Te Deum. This one is from 1662! It originally
appeared in
the Book of Common Prayer that year. Hence, its language is a bit archaic, yet
it
has the lovely ring of Prayer Book English. Enjoy! And please remember us all
when you say it!

A blessed 2008 to all and thanks be to God for all the gifts of 2007!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB


We praise Thee, O God:
we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee:
the Father everlasting.

To Thee all Angels cry aloud:
the heavens and all the powers therein.
To Thee Cherubin and Seraphin:
continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy:
Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full
of the Majesty: of Thy glory.

The glorious company of the Apostles: praise Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets: praise Thee.
The noble army of Martyrs: praise Thee.

The holy Church throughout all the
world: doth acknowledge Thee;
The Father: of an infinite majesty;
Thine honourable, true: and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost: the Comforter.

Thou art the King of glory: O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son: of the Father.

When thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man
Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.

When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death:
Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Thou sittest at the right hand of God:
in the glory of the Father.

We believe that Thou shalt come: to be our Judge.

We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants:
whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood.

Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints:
in glory everlasting.

O Lord, save Thy people:
and bless Thine heritage.
Govern them:
and lift them up for ever.

Day by day: we magnify Thee;
And we worship Thy Name:
ever world without end.

Vouchsafe, O Lord:
to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us:
have mercy upon us.

O Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us:
as our trust is in Thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I trusted:
let me never be confounded.

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A blessed and grace-filled New year to all!

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

Rosa, having a hysterectomy and possible partial removal of her colon this
morning.

all refugees and displaced persons, so many exiled by force, so many of them
terribly poor, they need our prayers at all times.

Helene and her family, especially her son, Jimmy.

Kim as she starts a new ministry, leaving her long-time parish.


Janet and her father, Gail, and mother, Betty, as Betty battles cancer.

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

January 1, May 2, September 1

Prologue

L I S T E N carefully, my child,
to your master's precepts,
and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20).
Receive willingly and carry out effectively
your loving father's advice,
that by the labor of obedience
you may return to Him
from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.

To you, therefore, my words are now addressed,
whoever you may be,
who are renouncing your own will
to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King,
and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.

And first of all,
whatever good work you begin to do,
beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it,
that He who has now deigned to count us among His children
may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds.
For we must always so serve Him
with the good things He has given us,
that He will never as an angry Father disinherit His children,
nor ever as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions,
deliver us to everlasting punishment
as wicked servants who would not follow Him to glory.

REFLECTION

The Prologue is the most tender and loving of beginnings. Always,
always, always keep this loving Father that writes here in mind as you
read the rest of the Holy Rule. This and the epilogue are the key to
it all, and the key to the saintly personality of our holy Father
Benedict.

The Holy Rule can seem so lofty that it sometimes turns people away.
They think: "This is for those really holy people, not for me. I'll
bet it's easy for saints like them, but I couldn't even dream of
trying." Wrong on both counts and St. Benedict makes that clear. We
return "by the labor of obedience" and if we are not one of those who
has "to do battle" against our own will, he makes it abundantly
certain that he is not talking to us.

If, in fact, there is anyone for whom the Rule is a cinch, and I
doubt that very much, then it was not written for them. It was
written for us who struggle, for us for whom it is NOT easy, to help
us in a battle that sometimes wears us out.

St. Benedict also makes his point that our distance from God is due
to our "sloth of disobedience." Yet he doesn't tell the slothful to
quit because they are worthless, he tells them they are the very ones
for whom he is writing this Rule! This is the Rule for the fallen and
beginners, this is an entry level position which can advance to great
sanctity, but it *IS* an entry level position!

This is the door and gate for all. This is most decidedly NOT a Rule
just for monks and nuns in monasteries. Were that so, no provision
for Oblates would ever have been made. No, this is a Rule for all who
wish to try to become better and because they have made that
intention, God "has deigned to count us among His children." There is
no more us-and-them here. Just by beginning, we become part of the
whole.

How many of us who were not in the advanced reading group as children
secretly got the suspicion that the whole class was really for the
wonder kids, not for us, that we were somehow extraneous and just
tagging along to whatever was REALLY going on? Well, the Holy Rule is
quite direct about stating that this time, it is not about wonder
kids: the center of its focus is the rest of us! Now there's a
refreshingly upside down and all too rare world view!

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

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Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Sr. Gemma's
Mom and Br. Isidore's Dad, both of whom are ill, and for both monastics and all
their families. 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

January 2, May 3, September 2
Prologue (continued)

Let us arise, then, at last,
for the Scripture stirs us up, saying,
"Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep" (Rom. 18:11).
Let us open our eyes to the deifying light,
let us hear with attentive ears
the warning which the divine voice cries daily to us,
"Today if you hear His voice,
harden not your hearts" (Ps. 94:8).
And again,
"Whoever has ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Matt. 11-15; Apoc. 2:7).
And what does He say?
"Come, My children, listen to Me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 33:12).
"Run while you have the light of life,
lest the darkness of death overtake you" (John 12:35).

REFLECTION

Check out the similarities of this section, at the beginning of the
Holy Rule, and the readings of early Lent, which stress that "now is
the acceptable time." It brings to mind St. Benedict's later chapter
which says that the monastic life ought always to have some semblance
of Lent.

That perpetual Lent chapter is the source of a lot of grumbling about
austerity from one camp and cheering about it from another. Both may
have missed a salient point. Perhaps the greatest element of
perpetual Lent has less to do with austerity- even the monastic fast
did not last all year. What IS perpetually in style is wakefulness
and self-examination.

Monastic life withers in either smugness or a rut. What St. Benedict
wants us to do is always to try and stay at that serious moment of
taking inventory that many of us feel at Lent's beginning. We need to
always be checking what needs to be cleaned up and we need to be
prepared, even a bit eager, to start working on it.

This is why a daily examination of conscience is so necessary.
Compline, the traditional liturgical place for such examens, is a
very apt place for same. As we prepare for sleep, which prefigures
death, we prepare also for death, by examining our faults and asking
forgiveness.

The Holy Rule, like Lent, is by no means the gateway to an easier
life, but to a holier one. As we actually grow in holiness much of it
will become easier, more natural to us. But until that time, it is a
struggle and, in unconquered areas, it remains something of a
struggle for all of our lives. What's hard about that struggle isn't
fasting or penance, but changing ourselves. Austere practices are
just a means to that end, not ends in themselves.

The whole idea of Lent and the Holy Rule is lasting change for the
better. Lent is a seasonal construct to get us to begin anew, the
Holy Rule says that beginning anew must be a daily thing. Lent is an
attempt to get us to do for forty days what we ought to have been
doing all year. The Holy Rule is a way to do what we ought to do all
year, every day.

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

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

Alvia, 94, and especially for her son, Fr. Julian.

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

Terri, evaluation tests for kidney stones

Dave, student, struggling with depression.

Sue, chemo for breast cancer and David, her husband, having a melanoma removed
this week.

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

January 3, May 4, September 3
Prologue

And the Lord, seeking his laborer
in the multitude to whom He thus cries out,
says again,
"Who is the one who will have life,
and desires to see good days" (Ps. 33:13)?
And if, hearing Him, you answer,
"I am the one,"
God says to you,
"If you will have true and everlasting life,
keep your tongue from evil
and your lips that they speak no guile.
Turn away from evil and do good;
seek after peace and pursue it" (Ps. 33:14-15).
And when you have done these things,
My eyes shall be upon you
and My ears open to your prayers;
and before you call upon Me,
I will say to you,
'Behold, here I am'" (Ps. 33:16; Is. 65:24; 58:9).

What can be sweeter to us, dear ones,
than this voice of the Lord inviting us?
Behold, in His loving kindness
the Lord shows us the way of life.

REFLECTION

This is perhaps my all-time favorite reading from the Holy Rule. Then
gentle, loving tenderness of both the Divine Merciful Christ and our
holy Father Benedict are here in abundance. One is tempted to merely
bask in the warmth, rather than write, but I will try to write!

Lest any of us (which, as the Holy Rule would say, God forbid,) tend
to pride at undertaking the monastic way, this one deflates that
balloon in a hurry. Christ seeks US. What mercy! Our very being is
nothing but an act of His love and mercy, all that we have is His
love and His mercy, yet, on top of all that, He seeks US! We're
talking God here, not some other created being. We're talking the
Alpha and Omega, end all and be all, the First Cause, you name it.
The very force of life and light and truth and love and mercy in the
cosmos, before all time, names us, knows us and calls us.

He ALREADY calls us His laborers, even before we answer. He knows
intimately and well, from personal experience, the fouled up chaotic
mess in which we lived. He has lived in it, too. he tenderly calls us
to "true and everlasting life" and assures us that He knows the way.
In fact, He *IS* the Way!

I can gush a bit writing about the Prologue, so indulge me here as I
do so. Beloveds, for so you are to me, our fractured hearts and sin-
veiled eyes just cannot see the way, nor can we name the hurts or
their cures well. God and God alone can pierce that darkness and He
offers to do so before we even ask. This is awesome grace, this is
enough for a lifetime's meditation on humility. Hard things to come
in the struggle are real, but their harshness is in some way
illusory: "Behold, in His loving-kindness, the Lord shows us the way
of life."

It is solely because of heaven and Christ for all eternity that every
suffering, every cross can be diminished into absolute nothingness by
the greatness of the reward. Yes, He shows us the way to life, but,
as a wonderfully Dominican Doctor of the Church, St. Catherine of
Siena, taught us: "All the way to Heaven *IS* Heaven, because He
said: 'I am the Way.' "

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






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Prayers for Sister Mary Elizabeth, on her feastday, and for a happy death the
repose of the soul of Br. Aelred Seton, on one of his patronal feasts, too.

Prayers please, for the happy death and eternal repose of the soul of David, who
died on Christmas Day. His wife, Stella, died in May, so this will be
particularly hard for their three sons - Bernard, Roderick and Hugh.  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

January 4, May 5, September 4
Prologue

Having our loins girded, therefore,
with faith and the performance of good works (Eph. 6:14),
let us walk in His paths
by the guidance of the Gospel,
that we may deserve to see Him
who has called us to His kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12).

For if we wish to dwell in the tent of that kingdom,
we must run to it by good deeds
or we shall never reach it.

But let us ask the Lord, with the Prophet,
"Lord, who shall dwell in Your tent,
or who shall rest upon Your holy mountain" (Ps. 14:1)?

After this question,
let us listen to the Lord
as He answers and shows us the way to that tent, saying,
"The one Who walks without stain and practices justice;
who speaks truth from his heart;
who has not used his tongue for deceit;
who has done no evil to his neighbor;
who has given no place to slander against his neighbor."

This is the one who,
under any temptation from the malicious devil,
has brought him to naught (Ps. 14:4)
by casting him and his temptation from the sight of his heart;
and who has laid hold of his thoughts
while they were still young
and dashed them against Christ (Ps. 136:9).

It is they who,
fearing the Lord (Ps. 14:4),
do not pride themselves on their good observance;
but,
convinced that the good which is in them
cannot come from themselves and must be from the Lord,
glorify the Lord's work in them (Ps. 14:4),
using the words of the Prophet,
"Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to Your name give the glory" (Ps. 113, 2nd part:1).
Thus also the Apostle Paul
attributed nothing of the success of his preaching to himself,
but said,
"By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10).
And again he says,
"He who glories, let him glory in the Lord" (2 Cor. 10:17).

REFLECTION

Ever have that funny feeling of surprise that the world and time and
life and events go resolutely on, even when you are stalled in
heartbreak? It is a strange egocentricity that allows us to feel
that. I remember clearly such a feeling when my father died. I was
not quite eleven. My world was shattered, everything had stopped or
changed or been put on hold.

Child that I was, it stunned me slightly to notice from the car
window on the way to the cemetery that it was just another sunny day
for everyone else. People were working, shopping, going to school.
The world WAS going on, nothing had changed for them. It made me feel
strangely even more alone in my pain: he wasn't as important to the
rest of the world as he was to me.

We can still have these feelings as adults, but hopefully we are at
least more used to them and less inclined to think the world really
DOES stop when we think it should. Tough though they can still be,
they are reality and reality is truth and truth, after all, is not
only humility but also what Jesus called Himself.

What does all this have to do with the Prologue? The same sort of
really unfortunate egocentricity can let us think that we are the
center of the known universe in other ways, can allow us to foolishly
think that our gifts or the tiny packets of virtues we have stashed
here and there are our own. No way, folks! It is grace, it is gift,
ALL is gift, beginning with our very existence!

Everything good, in every way is all from God, not us. We dare glory
in nothing but Him, for we would be less than nothing without His
grace acting in us. Picture a battery operated toy, that someone else
skillfully made, without a battery. Beginning to get the picture?

If a city has clean, wondrous, spring water, no one in their right
mind praises the pipes. No, one praises the purity of the Source. So
it is with us, m'dears, pipes one and all, nothing more or less. God
is the Source, God's mercy and love and grace and gift are the purest
of waters. We are His conduits and we dare not glory, except in the
Lord!

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory!"

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

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Please pray for the happy death and eternal repose of Father Tom, who passed
away suddenly.

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

Peter, diagnosed with lung cancer. Please pray for Peter's wife Pat and their
family.

Fr Andrew, he has been in hospital after 2 or 3 fainting fits, they now seem to
think he has 2 lesions on the brain and possibly liver cancer as well, although
this is unconfirmed at the moment. Please also pray for Elizabeth his wife, and
his mother Bettine, and his children Thomas,James, Edward, William, and Rebecca

And for the Parish of St Andrew, Eastbourne, England. 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


January 5, May 6, September 5
Prologue (continued)

Hence the Lord says in the Gospel,
"Whoever listens to these words of Mine and acts upon them,
I will liken to a wise person
who built a house on rock.
The floods came,
the winds blew and beat against that house,
and it did not fall,
because it had been founded on rock" (Matt. 7:24-25).

Having given us these assurances,
the Lord is waiting every day
for us to respond by our deeds to His holy admonitions.
And the days of this life are lengthened
and a respite granted us for this very reason,
that we may amend our evil ways.
As the Apostle says,
"Do you not know that God's patience is inviting you to repent" (Rom.
2:4)?
For the merciful Lord tells us,
"I desire not the death of the sinner,
but that the sinner should be converted and live" (Ezech. 33:11).

REFLECTION

People like me are very prone to regard repentance with the same
eagerness that we ordinarily reserve for cleaning the
refrigerator: "I'll get around to that..." Truth is, I rarely do.
What happens instead is that one of our wonderful Oblates, Richard of
Chicopee (who gets this daily reflection,) comes for a weekend and
cleans the icebox. Hallelujah! Saint Richard!! Thank you, Richard!
Richard cleans like a dream and my world looks a lot better whenever
he's been here!

If you are not like me, and your icebox has ALWAYS been clean, is
buffed up every week to shining glory and you carry a damp washcloth
every time you open the fridge just in case, then fine, this portion
was not written for you. However, it should be noted that even
immaculate icebox types may have to check behind the icebox or take a
look at the oven.... I mean, if you want to be REALLY perfect, you
could move the fridge and wax the floor underneath- with paste wax
and a buffer, of course!

Get my point? This is surely written for most of us. Most of us have
some sort of a grungy corner that we'll "get to tomorrow," if ever.
St. Benedict is reminding us again that "Now is the acceptable
time..." St. Isaac of Syria said: "This life has been given to you
for repentance, do not waste it in vain pursuits."

Sadly, people like me hear in St. Isaac's words: "This life has been
given to you for icebox cleaning..." Yeah, right! Oh boy, what a thrill!
Such a gift! Just can't wait to get up each morning! And we shrug and walk
away. Why? Because the typically monastic idea of repentance is very
different from that of our modern Christianity.

We tend to look at repentance as necessary in proportion to guilt.
The early monastics saw it as necessary for everyone, period. We
would almost chuckle at the idea of a virgin martyr of twelve in the
Roman world repenting. "Of what?" we'd incredulously ask. The early
monastic would see no problem there at all. Repentance, from a
monastic and Benedictine view, is needful to for all because all are
fallen, all are incapable of living the Christian life without God
and grace. All of us, left to their own whims, would fall short of the
monastic struggle.

The repentance we speak of here is similar to that of Baptism, but
not identical. Certainly one can be saved without entering the
monastic way (or cleaning refrigerators, for that matter!) What St.
Benedict is speaking of here is the special road of the monastic
struggle. Plenty of saints, in fact most saints, were neither monks
nor Benedictines. Big news there!

What St. Benedict is saying is "OK, this is our approach. There are,
of course, others, but if you want to use ours, you this is what you have
to do." "Repent!" St. John the Baptist cried again and again in the desert,
and somewhere along the way of that preaching, Jesus, the Lamb of God,
stepped into the Jordan. Face it, folks, if He can answer the call to repent,
anyone can! He had no need at all!

What our repentance affirms is that we cannot become monastics with no
trouble: our natures make that impossible. On our monastic way to
God, many, many human things stand in our hearts and in our way.
That's what we repent and shall always have to repent. Whenever our
focus, our purity of heart is fragmented in any way, that's what we
have to repent.

Now, after writing this, you might safely assume that I am off to
clean the refrigerator, but you would be wrong. I mean, after all,
Richard IS visiting again soon and maybe he wouldn't mind starting
the painting a little bit late... LOL! (Richard really does paint,
though. Like a pro! Most of the new paint in the house is his work.)

All joking aside, great thanks are due to many of our Oblates and
guests, all of whom make this a shared ministry of hospitality. This
great team effort results in people being a lot more comfortable here
than they would be with nothing but ole non-icebox-cleaning me! Say
a prayer of thanks with me for all of them! All of them help us receive
Christ at our door.

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

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A blessed Epiphany to all, for once the Sunday celebration falls on the
traditional date. Deo gratias!

Prayers, please, for a special intention of my own. JL

January 6, May 7, September 6
Prologue

So we have asked the Lord
who is to dwell in His tent,
and we have heard His commands
to anyone who would dwell there;
it remains for us to fulfill those duties.

Therefore we must prepare our hearts and our bodies
to do battle under the holy obedience of His commands;
and let us ask God
that He be pleased to give us the help of His grace
for anything which our nature finds hardly possible.
And if we want to escape the pains of hell
and attain life everlasting,
then, while there is still time,
while we are still in the body
and are able to fulfill all these things
by the light of this life,
we must hasten to do now
what will profit us for eternity.

REFLECTION

This is a shameless re-run on the Morning Offering, one of my all-
time favorite things to write about! Everyone reading this is in
every morning offering of mine and has been for a long, long time!

The first section of the Prologue asked us to seek God's blessing
before doing any work. Today we are asked to prepare our hearts and
bodies for the struggles ahead and ask God for His help. Both of
these precepts are quite nicely filled by making the Morning
Offering. Now I know that is a Roman Catholic prayer, and I also know
we have (thanks be to God!) many Oblates of other faiths among us.
Bear with me, please. I think this has applications for everyone.

The morning offering is considered rather passe in some Roman
Catholic circles. One actually wonders why, in an age that loves
computers with tons of memory, hard drives that do all the work for
us, even more work than our own minds could dream of doing. I have
9100 names in a data base I built on royal genealogy, a favorite
hobby. One click and a few seconds will tell me how any two of them
are related, even up to mind-boggling relationships like eighteenth
cousin three times removed. It will start at a point like that and
then list all lesser relationships, until common ancestors are all
depleted. No way I could EVER do that. The morning offering, however,
makes computer ability look like shooting fish in a barrel.

The morning offering is the perfect capstone, cornerstone and
beginning for a great life of intercessory prayer. It unites the
poverty of our own lives, prayers, works, joys and sufferings with
those of Christ, with those of His Mystical Body. It plunges the
finite smallness of our own actions into sea after sea of infinite
grace and perfection and, wrapped in that awesome completeness,
offers them to the Father in the perhaps most perfect personal gift
we could ever hope for that day, short of martyrdom itself.

Ever forget to pray during the day? The morning offering makes our
very heartbeats and breathing prayers, means of grace for ourselves
and for all. We have offered ALL our works, even the unconscious ones
of our bodies to God, and we have offered them in union with the most
perfect sacrifice of Jesus. With a gift tag like that, the Father is
quite likely to be pleased, indeed. Each time we blink, or eat,
suffer or rejoice, we link that to Christ on His Cross. None of us
have enough bytes of memory to really do that (I have forgotten about
it at least three times while writing this sentence!) The morning
offering is our "hard drive" it is the program that saves to disk and
runs automatically.

Our baptism into the Mystical Body gives us the right to plug into
that infinite worth. It would be a shame if we missed the
opportunity. Let me tell you, with complete sincerity, that all the
works of my entire life couldn't save a flea from drowning in a
raindrop. No way. Buried within the depths of Christ, however, their
value becomes literally infinite.

Ever feel bad that you forgot to pray for some one who asked, or only
whispered a quick: "Lord, help her."? The morning offering makes our
life and our prayer an infinite pie, one which can never be sliced
too thin. Counting huge groups and individuals, I pray every single
day for literally billions of people and not one of them is short-
changed at all. That's the marvel of uniting our lives and heart
daily to Christ. Every slice of the pie gets served on the plate of
His infinity, every single one. Cloaked in the perfect mercy and
offering of Jesus, every single act, even the keys I just struck and
the mouse I just moved are wonderful prayers for all, for everyone
throughout time. That's not shabby, folks!

Ever wish that your heart prone to largesse had all the money in the
world? How generous you would be! But, with the morning offering, you
have daily more than that. Claim your infinite share and spread it
around! Name people and groups, sure, but know that God has a memory
that never quits. You can say: for all people in all time" and it
WILL count! Heavens, I pray for all Oblates (among lots of other
groups every day. Not only could I not name them, I don't even know
them, nor is it possible for ANYONE to know them all throughout time.
But God does, and it counts!) There is no one reading this for whom I
have not prayed every single day, many by name, but it doesn't
matter. God is my hard drive! I have prayed for the next new guest
who arrives for a first visit for literally years, every single day.
The morning offering is a very neat method!

Look, folks, it's a Roman Catholic prayer. I'll give you a version of
it at the end of this post, but there are many others. I KNOW that
some of our Oblates from other Churches may have to amend it a bit
and that's OK, go for what God and your heart allows. I think,
however, that all Christians could agree on at least these
essentials. (Someone please correct me here, if I am wrong.) Offer
all your prayers, works, joys and sufferings in union with those of
Christ, for the intentions of Christ, for all the Church and its
leaders, for all people throughout time. Say it any way your heart
allows, but do at least this much and congratulations: you have just
thrust your own prayers and works and joys and sufferings into the
very heart of the Cosmos, into the whole of history itself. You now
stand beside Christ in HIS perfect work in every age. WOOOOF!

And, if today is your first morning offering, or your first in some
time, remember to pray for all Benedictines on Tuesdays,
St. Benedict's special day! Hey, remember to pray for us all EVERY day!
We need it.

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

MORNING OFFERING

O my Jesus, I offer You this day my prayers, works, joys and
suffering, for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart and Divine
Mercy, in union with every sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world
and with all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of Your Mystical
Body throughout time, in reparation for our sins and in thanksgiving
for all Your benefits. I offer them for the Pope and his intentions,
all Church leaders, and for the unity of all.

(Now you can add your own intentions- don't be stingy here, you have
infinity! I always end my own list with: for everyone and everything
throughout time, created by Your hands, I offer You my life, in
holocaust for these and for Your will for them.)

End with: Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto
Yours. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in You.

Many older Catholics may recall getting monthly leaflets for the Morning
Offering at Church, maybe some Churches still have them, but they are
nowhere near as available as they once were. This website puts the leaflets
on line, along with a simple morning offering, lives of certain
saints from the month and what the Pope's intentions for that month
really are. (I have spent most of my life not knowing... Now I try to
actually use them!)

here's the URL. Enjoy!

http://www.apostleship-prayer.org/






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A blessed Russian Christmas to all celebrating under the Julian Calendar today,
prayers, please, for all the martyrs and confessors who suffered under the
Communist yoke and for those in Communist lands who suffer still.

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

Please pray that Divine Mercy will shine upon George who has taken his own life.

Also, please pray that Divine Mercy shine upon another man (name withheld) a
suicide found by his boss.

Please pray for the happy Death and etrnal repose of Jessica. She was found dead
on October 4th. She was only 19 years.

Bill's sister "Aunt Suzy".

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

Sr. Josephina, OSB, cancer.

Larry, discerning a monastic call and has applied to divinity school, now
scholarhsip funds are needed, if God wills. 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

January 7, May 8, September 7
Prologue (concluded)

And so we are going to establish
a school for the service of the Lord.
In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome.
But if a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity
for the amendment of vices or the preservation of charity,
do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation,
whose entrance cannot but be narrow (Matt. 7:14).
For as we advance in the religious life and in faith,
our hearts expand
and we run the way of God's commandments
with unspeakable sweetness of love (Ps. 118:32).
Thus, never departing from His school,
but persevering in the monastery according to His teaching
until death,
we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13)
and deserve to have a share also in His kingdom.

REFLECTION

Sadly, a certain cynicism has been woven into my life like a
repeating plaid. Happily, it has not grown worse with age, but has
been moderated (how Benedictine!) into a faintly acceptable level of
occasional curmudgeonhood. If my cynicism is now a rather muted
tartan background, it was not always so. I can clearly recall reading
the line about expanding hearts and running with unspeakable
sweetness of love twenty some years ago and thinking: "Yeah, right!
Real likely..."

Now that passage is my all-time favorite in the Holy Rule. I thought
twice before saying that, because there are so many things in the
Rule that I deeply love, but yeah, this one is the best loved for me.
Why? Because it is linked to love and, secondarily, because it alerts
us to the necessary hope that the monastic struggle DOES get easier
in time, in certain ways, even though it is never over until death.

"Our hearts expand..." they truly do. Mine has already been
wonderfully stretched and pulled and enlarged beyond my wildest
dreams, often with me kicking and screaming every inch of the way. I
have no doubt that it will grow bigger still, capable of holding
more, but I know I could not stand that now, it would be too much.
God works slowly, according to our individual needs. Better than
anyone, He knows that doing it all at once would reduce us to
shivering panic.

The biggest factor that I can see in God's work of heart renovation
for me has been intercessory prayer. When you renovate a building,
you have to tear down some walls, a dusty, ugly, painful mess. Ah,
but the light and air and space that one finds in those new areas
where walls had stood! In praying for God's people, I learned to love
them, more prayer equaled more love and so it spiraled upward and
spirals on!

Gerard Manley Hopkins complained of his celibacy toward the end of
his life, of being "time's eunuch,": "Mine, O Thou Lord of life,
send my roots rain." I can certainly relate! Though I tried three
times earlier, I did not become a monk till I was 43. Many of the
years in between attempts were spent looking for love in all the
wrong places, often with plenty of fleeting success. You may be sure
that the gift of celibacy left me vastly less thrilled than a child
with a pony..."Wow! New leg irons and manacles for my birthday! You
shouldn't have!" Left to my own devices, I would quit tomorrow, or
maybe this afternoon at the very latest. Single is most definitely
NOT what I spent my life pining to become one day.

The rain for my roots was that work in progress, the expansion of my
heart. It's not the same as other loves I have known and in no way as
graphic or immediate or intimate, but oh, it is deep. I am sure it is
not incompatible with married love, but God seemed to want it so for
me. True to form, I argued with Him for years about that and still do
at times.

Like many people, I do not have a spousal love for God, more power to
those who do, but it has not been possible for me. I am often
embarrassed to find that the only Christ I can really swell to
rapture about is the One I encounter in praying for His members, for
His Mystical Body. I have, however, attained a relative serenity
about this: it is, after all, a very powerful reminder that Christ IS
His members, that we are all cells in His awesome Body.

When a novice in my twenties, I used to look at two real saints of
St. Leo Abbey, Brothers David Gormican and Raphael Daly, both now
gone to God. I am not even sure I thought it had become easier for
them at the end of their lives, I thought, with the mindlessness so
easy for me then, that they were just so old they didn't care
anymore. Wrong!

My dear friend Ann Chatlos was a FABULOUS cook and she had been at it
for years. One day I went to see her and we sat talking in her
kitchen, she was fiddling around, nothing special. Frankly, I didn't
even notice any activity that would have produced a meal. She finally
turned around and said to me: "Stay for dinner." I asked when it
would be ready and she said, "Now." I was floored. While we spoke, a
pie, chicken and roast potatoes and something else I forget had been
going on. A full meal with nothing out of cans and a homemade
dessert, yet it appeared that she had just been chatting.

That's the nonchalance of Brother David and Brother Raphael. It
wasn't that they didn't care, it was that things of sanctity had
become so much second nature to them that many of those around them
never noticed that dinner was ready. May that nonchalance of sanctity
come to us all, and may Brothers David and Raphael and Ann, now also
with God, pray us there.

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

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Prayers for the happy death and eternal rest of Terence, on his first death
anniversary, and for Jeanne and all who mourn him. Also for the happy death and
eternal rest of Jane's Dad, slipping nearer comatose state, very little time
left, and for Jane and all his family. And for the happy death and eternal rest
of Betty, special prayers for her husband John, who cared for her through a long
illness.

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

Kathie's daughter who is 9 days from her delivery due date (it's a girl) and
feels it's time to pack! Also, for the family and Kathie who will be taking care
of her grandson.

Tom. He has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He started
chemotherapy last week. He also has another cancer drug, pill form he takes
every day at home. The meds make him nauseous and very tired.

Rosa, temporary colostomy after extensive abdominal surgery for cancer and very
embiitered just now. Her family ask prayers that she open her heart and have
better spiritual health.

Dave, Masters thesis final preparations.

Peter, stage 4 lung cancer, and his devastated family, especially wife Pat and
also for Liz.

Shirley, hip diagnostic procedure

Ali's Dad, moving into a care home, and for ALi and her hsuband, trying to buy a
home of their own, also that relationships in the family may mend, as her Dad
has alientated many.

Continued prayers for Dan and Nichola, for who we have prayed, he is doing
better, but she is now extremely critical and docs feel there is little they can
do to help her, prayers for their three sons, too.

Sister Maryanne Carroll, who is suffering from debilitating arthritis and a disc
problem in her neck. Sr Maryanne will also be celebrating her 60th Jubilee as a
Sister. 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

January 8, May 9, September 8
Chapter 1: On the Kinds of Monks

It is well known that there are four kinds of monks.
The first kind are the Cenobites:
those who live in monasteries
and serve under a rule and an Abbot.

The second kind are the Anchorites or Hermits:
those who,
no longer in the first fervor of their reformation,
but after long probation in a monastery,
having learned by the help of many brethren
how to fight against the devil,
go out well armed from the ranks of the community
to the solitary combat of the desert.
They are able now,
with no help save from God,
to fight single-handed against the vices of the flesh
and their own evil thoughts.

The third kind of monks, a detestable kind, are the Sarabaites.
These, not having been tested,
as gold in the furnace (Wis. 3:6),
by any rule or by the lessons of experience,
are as soft as lead.
In their works they still keep faith with the world,
so that their tonsure marks them as liars before God.
They live in twos or threes, or even singly,
without a shepherd,
in their own sheepfolds and not in the Lord's.
Their law is the desire for self-gratification:
whatever enters their mind or appeals to them,
that they call holy;
what they dislike, they regard as unlawful.

The fourth kind of monks are those called Gyrovagues.
These spend their whole lives tramping from province to province,
staying as guests in different monasteries
for three or four days at a time.
Always on the move, with no stability,
they indulge their own wills
and succumb to the allurements of gluttony,
and are in every way worse than the Sarabaites.
Of the miserable conduct of all such
it is better to be silent than to speak.

Passing these over, therefore,
let us proceed, with God's help,
to lay down a rule for the strongest kind of monks,the Cenobites.

REFLECTION

What are the two major things that St. Benedict dislikes about the
bad types of monk? They have no stability and they follow their own
wills. Obedience is the essence of monastic struggle, and we will be
touching on it throughout the Holy Rule. Stability, while getting
lots of mention, deservedly takes a lesser role in the Rule, even
though it has become a vow for Benedictines, so it might pay to take
a closer look at stability right at the beginning of our reading of
the Rule.

The Desert Fathers said: "Stay in your cell and your cell will teach
you everything." Real cinch, right? Wrong! Don't picture staying in
one's cell like a personal day from work, when you sleep as late as
you like, get dressed at noon (if then!) and decide you can eat for
the day without leaving the house to go to the store or, for that
matter, without leaving the couch. That's not what this is about.

Monastics, whether in the world or in the cloister, could tell you
that the cell, the home can be paradise, but it can also be hell, a
furnace of nearly impossible heat. In fact, for many of us, it has
been both at one time or another, and maybe, just maybe, it isn't
done switching roles yet! Times of paradise are nice, they can swell
the heart with gratitude and love, but every spouse, parent, child
and religious knows that we cannot stay on the mountaintop forever,
like Peter, we may not pitch tents there.

The furnace, now there's a fetching little image! But it is
essential, too. Benedictine life seeks to lead us to God. For every
single one of us, that means cleaning out a lot of imperfection. We
may start out eagerly wanting to be like "gold tried in the furnace,
seven times refined," but it's a safe bet that early on, after a time
or two in that inferno, we'll be trying to bargain for less, maybe
four or five times refined at most! It's no debutante's ball in
there!

Hate the furnace/gold imagery? Can't blame you there, especially if
you live in the North and furnaces are tricky and expensive worries!
Try a sauna. Still hard, still challenging, still sweats a LOT of
gunk out. However, make sure you jump in the cold water right after
the sauna, just so you don't think all this stuff is REALLY a spa!

The fact is, for Benedictines, stability, whether of cloister or
geography or of heart, is a major piece of the puzzle. It's the
ability to stick with it, stay in there, keep trying. It is the
fixedness, not just of place, but of heart and will. It is more than
just not moving around.

A consumerist society is fueled by desire, change and variety. Small
wonder that it encourages us to be always moving, always seeking the
novel, always distracted: it's profit base depends on that and,
whatever else may be said, consumerism is a greedy little devil.
Stability flies in the face of all these falsehoods. It tells us
that "rut" and routine are two very different things for us. The
routine, the mundane, the everyday and predictable are precisely the
arenas in which we must strive and win in the spiritual life.

Stability teaches us that. Our fleeting hells have heaven within them
and our Edens can turn into Dead Seas in a flash. Stability forces us
to stick with it, to weather those changes, to know EVERY side of
life and love and heart and place. No wonder St. Benedict loved it
so! It is the courage of which monastics are made!

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

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Prayers for the Catholic Churches and convents car-bombed in Iraq, apparently an
orchestrated move to encourage emigration. Mercifully, none were killed.

Prayerrs for the happy death and eternal rest of a troubled patient who checked
himself out, apparently against medical advice, from a hospital, and was later
found dead in the snow, prayers for all who mourn him and the staff who feel
terrible about this.

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

Natalie, beginning her job as Abbot Isaac's secretary today.

Louise, 91, stroke on New years Eve, now i hopsital and probably will have to
enter a nursing home after, losing her independence is quite a blow.

Brittany, deep depression over a breakup.

Basil having the fistula put in his arm for dialysis; it's scheduled for a week
from Thursday,  17 January (feast of St. Anthony the Great).

Please pray for a happy death and eternal repose for those lost when a plane
load of cod fishermen returning for Christmas from Kodiak to the Russian
community in Alaska crashed. They celebrate Christmas later than we do because
they use the old calender. 13 children lost their daddies for Christmas.

S., high cholesterol and bravely sticking to a diet to correct it.

Cindi and her husband and family, facing some tough decisions with his sudden
loss of employment and a recent move. 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

January 9, May 10, September 9
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

An Abbess who is worthy to be over a monastery
should always remember what she is called,
and live up to the name of Superior.
For she is believed to hold the place of Christ in the monastery,
being called by a name of His,
which is taken from the words of the Apostle:
"You have received a Spirit of adoption ...,
by virtue of which we cry, 'Abba -- Father'" (Rom. 8:15)!

Therefore the Abbess ought not to teach or ordain or command
anything which is against the Lord's precepts;
on the contrary,
her commands and her teaching
should be a leaven of divine justice
kneaded into the minds of her disciples.

REFLECTION

Folks, the abbot is a parent, so, while I am writing about abbots in
my experience, this is also true of parents, or any authority
position. Stick with me, you'll see what I mean in the end.

It will no doubt come as a great relief to other cranky types like
me to note that the leaven gently kneaded into the minds of certain
disciples often seems to have a downright under whelming effect. A
hallmark of us curmudgeonly types is impatience: we do not suffer
fools gladly, the miracle is that we endure them at all. Most of all,
we want those fools FIXED, right now, or yesterday at the latest! The
tragedy of this is that, in assuming we can recognize fools so
terribly well, we completely miss the fool at work in ourselves.

That's not the only issue, though. This leaven-in-the-dough stuff
works two ways. Throw a measure of leaven into a heap of cornmeal and
you'll wind up with a different critter than several cups of
buckwheat or flour would produce. For all I know, you could probably
throw yeast into concrete and wind up with a meringue-like patio.
Both components are essential to the change, both elements affect the
outcome.

Abbot and monastic, parent and child, boss and employer, all these
are very, very intricate duets of God's mercy and grace. Neither may
be very evident to one while in the midst of things! Time and wisdom
and hindsight bring a different view. Beyond that, all of us change:
the characters in the catalyst are always changing, no matter how
subtly. God has done some awesomely loving fine-tuning here!

God uses human means to accomplish His will, as my favorite
professor, Dr. Jean Ronan, so often said. Ah, but the abbacy scores
doubly on this maxim. A very human abbot is elected by a very human
community. Most often, abbots are elected to counteract each other.

The human community gets tired of the very human tendency of an abbot
to stress one thing above others. Hence, tight reins are often
replaced with loose ones and vice versa. It is also worthy of note
that, within about three years, roughly the same number of people
will be sorely complaining about either extreme or the lack thereof!

Those human means which God uses are often quite firmly addicted to
extremes. The extremes then vex a majority to the opposite extreme.
(I know this is the Marxist dialectic and I know it is not always
true, but it does have a kernel of application.) Usually, sometime
after we are all so fatigued with polarization that we have briefly
stopped watching, a median virtue ensues!

And what about that leaven that I couldn't notice having much effect?
Well, neither I nor anyone else knows, save the person and God. Some
die, some leave before the effect is seen. Leaven works. It may work
slowly, it may work in a variety of ways, but all leaven does
something sooner or later! Faith and trust in God's Divine Mercy
require that we have a LOT of patience with bread cast on waters in
tremendous hope!

A final note, much, maybe even MOST of the leavening work of grace
and
sanctification in our own hearts and souls takes place unnoticed, the
silent, unsung, yet constant workings of the Divine Mercy. Usually we
don't even realize it until a long while after its completion. One
day we
wake up and finally notice something is different, something is
better in us.
That has nothing to do with us at all: such secret works are all the
gratuitous
gift of the Leaven of all leavens Himself! Deo gratias!!!!

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

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+PAX

For the perfect will of God for Philip, vocational discernemnt and needing to
find additional income to support himself in his search.

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+PAX

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

Rod, suffered a slight stroke, now hospitalized, and for his wife, Lucia.

Tim, heart attack at work and stent put in, and for his fiancee, Audrey.

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


January 10, May 11, September 10
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

Let the Abbess always bear in mind
that at the dread Judgment of God
there will be an examination of these two matters:
her teaching and the obedience of her disciples.
And let the Abbess be sure
that any lack of profit
the master of the house may find in the sheep
will be laid to the blame of the shepherd.

On the other hand,
if the shepherd has bestowed all her pastoral diligence
on a restless, unruly flock
and tried every remedy for their unhealthy behavior,
then she will be acquitted at the Lord's Judgment
and may say to the Lord with the Prophet:
"I have not concealed Your justice within my heart;
Your truth and Your salvation I have declared" (Ps. 39:11).
"But they have despised and rejected me" (Is. 1:2; Ezech. 20:27).
And then finally let death itself, irresistible,
punish those disobedient sheep under her charge.

REFLECTION

Be of good cheer, all abbots and parents! St. Benedict wrote this
over a thousand years before the dawn of psychiatry. He was very holy
and very wise, but he was a creation of his own times. I think it is
safe to say that, in St. Benedict's time and for many centuries
afterward, there was a tendency to look at most behavior as choice,
not compulsion. Things were somewhat more black and white. Under a
system such as that given in the first half of this reading, many, if
not most parents of today would fry without a doubt.

I needed exactly the parents I got, so did my Dad, so did my Mom, so
did their parents. That's just another way of saying that we are all
victims of victims,a concept of which St. Benedict probably would
never have dreamed. But in some way each of us is a victim of
something, as are our parents and so on.

Consider the marvel of God's tailoring one abbess to 50 nuns; quite a
deal, isn't it? Now consider this. For each of us to get our perfect
victims of victims, here's a PARTIAL picture of God's fine tuning.
Obviously, the whole chain has to fit or it comes out wrong. We each
have 8,388,608 21st great-grandparents, with a total of parents and
grandparents in those 24 generations of 16,777,214.

That total is comfortably more than the combined populations of the
cities of New York, Boston, Chicago, Tampa, Washington, DC, and the
entire State of Missouri. And, for a person alive today, that would
probably only get you back to about the year 1000 AD. Begin to get
the picture of how God has thought of us (and them!) from all
eternity? There's a lot more than 50 nuns going on here, in fact,
there was a different and equal set of forbears for each of those 50
nuns AND their abbess.

By the way, St. Benedict had a lot of help from the Holy Spirit.
Hence, although he wrote the second part of today's reading, about
the acquittal of the abbess who's done her best, without the benefit
of modern psychology, it nevertheless fits right in to our current
awareness. No one can give what they don't have (or, if they do, it's
only the working of grace that makes that possible.) I can't teach
you Hebrew, I don't know it. But, if I was suddenly presented with
the fact that I'd HAVE to teach Hebrew, I'd buy a beginning text and
we'd stumble through somehow together. How very like parenting,
except that, for most of our partial crowd of sixteen million, there
were no textbooks!

Parents and abbatial types, take heart. God not only CAN use
anything, He HAS to use anything. The human standards throughout
history after Eden have made that more than certain. God knows and
loves each of us. He is more parent than we are and He is, unlike
ourselves, perfect.

If a six year old child had been forced to plan the Coronation of the
Queen, it probably would have been MUCH different. For one thing,
there'd probably have been a lot more elephants and clowns in the
parade! Most of us with any kind of hearts would have smiled at the
child's efforts, been surprised that they actually did so well. That,
m'dears, is exactly the attitude of God toward us, except that He
isn't surprised: He knew all along that we could do well!

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

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+PAX

Prayers for the eternal rest and happy death of Nichola, for whom we have been
praying, who has gone to God, special prayers for her husband, still
hospitalized from the car wreck which killed her and their three sons and
Nichola's Mother.

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

MaryLou, foot surgery this week, and for her husband, Richard.

Ali and her husband, home purchase did not work out, exploring other options
now. 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

January 11, May 12, September 11
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

Therefore, when anyone receives the name of Abbess,
she ought to govern her disciples with a twofold teaching.
That is to say,
she should show them all that is good and holy
by her deeds even more than by her words,
expounding the Lord's commandments in words
to the intelligent among her disciples,
but demonstrating the divine precepts by her actions
for those of harder hearts and ruder minds.
And whatever she has taught her disciples
to be contrary to God's law,
let her indicate by her example that it is not to be done,
lest, while preaching to others, she herself be found reprobate (1
Cor. 9:27),
and lest God one day say to her in her sin,
"Why do you declare My statutes
and profess My covenant with your lips,
whereas you hate discipline
and have cast My words behind you" (Ps. 49:16-17)?
And again,
"You were looking at the speck in your brother's eye,
and did not see the beam in your own" (Matt. 7:3).

REFLECTION

This isn't just for abbots and parents, this is for all of us.
Example is put forward as the primary means of teaching, even before
words. All of us must "walk the talk" and practice what we preach.
Everyone of us is obliged to somehow uncover the splendor of the City
of God in our lives, to show it to others. Mere verbal description
will be of little help in comparison to actually living out the
vision.

I remember many of my parents' words, we all do. When I am really
trying to gauge my behavior according to their standards, however, it
is not usually words that I hear in my mind. I see how they would
have acted in a given situation. A little video clip plays in my mind
of Dad or Mom in my shoes. If their behavior shames me at my own
planned response, I usually try to follow their plan of action, not
mine. Like everyone, however, I am not perfect and do not always
choose the higher road that imaginary video shows me. Sad...

All of us put forward an image of who we are in words, one way or
another. As years go by, we usually get a more or less complete
picture of who we are and of the self we wish to present to the
world. This is where family, community and marriage can be so
important. The people who live with us see right through the flaws
in our verbal picture.

It is less easy for us to believe in our grand and false images of
ourselves when we are rubbing shoulders with one or more reality
checks all the time! These reality checks can point out genuine
greatness in areas we might not have expected, but they can also
underscore the pathetic comedy of our pretensions. Both are useful
for humility, both lead to truth. Those pointing out our flaws are no
more infallible than we are, but they can often be a lot more
objective.

Ever watch a foreign film with the audio badly dubbed into another
language? It is jarring and annoying. What St. Benedict is saying to
all of us here is to get the picture and the sound into synchronized
form. For all Christians, all Benedictines, there should be no
disparity between video and audio! Lofty ideal that!

St. Benedict knew that loftiness would be hard for us to reach, too.
He knew there would be beams in our eyes, specks in others'. Hence, a
lot of this boils down to approach and attitude. Come on to others
from a position of "I'm OK and you are not," and see where it gets
you.

You might make a temporary dent. You might even change a few of
the really less than bright. Most wise people, however, will give you
a lot of room. They see the mask, the falsity there, and it inhibits
much else from getting through to them. It's like really competent
actors being cast in a role that does not fit them at all. One sits
through the whole movie thinking: "No way can I believe that she is
so-and-so!" "Great play, nice plot, but I didn't find the male lead
credible..."

Hopefully, at that final Awards night, there will be Tony's, Emmies
and Oscars for all of us, with maybe a Golden Globe or two thrown
into our totals!

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



Anthony and Aaron, each facing custody hearings for their children.



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the happy death and eternal rest of Fr. Philip Kaufman,
OSB, of St. John's, Collegeville.

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

Al, surgery for prostate cancer and kidney removal and Deo gratias for his
daughter, Donna, whom we prayed for a while back, she is doing fine pot-op.

Tim, whom we prayed for, has been discharged with his stent in place. Prayer for
him and his fiancee, Audrey, as they try together to quit smoking. 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


January 12, May 13, September 12
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

Let her make no distinction of persons in the monastery.
Let her not love one more than another,
unless it be one whom she finds better
in good works or in obedience.
Let her not advance one of noble birth
ahead of one who was formerly a slave,
unless there be some other reasonable ground for it.
But if the Abbess for just reason think fit to do so,
let her advance one of any rank whatever.
Otherwise let them keep their due places;
because, whether slaves or free, we are all one in Christ (Gal. 3:28)
and bear in equal burden of service
in the army of the same Lord.
For with God there is no respect of persons (Rom. 2:11).
Only for one reason are we preferred in His sight:
if we be found better than others in good works and humility.
Therefore let the Abbess show equal love to all
and impose the same discipline on all
according to their deserts.

REFLECTION

Choosing favorites is a terribly risky business for any of us,
parent, abbot or supervisor. Our own self-image (or lack thereof,)
can get very tangled in this process. If we choose wrongly, it
empowers one and strangles the rest, to one degree or another.

Christopher Marlowe (+1593) wrote a great short poem about love at
first sight. Ah, the tragic romantic in me LOVED that poem- at first
sight! I dog-eared the page many years ago, to more easily find it on
occasions such as this!

"It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is overruled by fate.
When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should lose, the other win;
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
The reason no man knows, let it suffice
What we behold is censured by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Whoever loved, that loved not at first sight?"
(from "Hero and Leander")

Big fan of love at first sight here. Happened to me several times.
All of 'em were wrong. Had I looked more closely "at first sight" to
what Marlowe was saying, even he knew that what we see "is censured
by our eyes," another way of saying that love is blind! Of course,
Marlowe lived in Elizabethan England. Such loves ruled by fate and
impervious to reason were all the rage.

That was exactly the type of love for those under us that St.
Benedict said to avoid. The poem has an entirely different message
when one considers that ALL our brethren and children and associates
are gold ingots, all are stripped runners, devoid of fashion or rank.
Marlowe may chalk the preference up to Fate, but Fate has been an
awfully handy catch-all through the centuries.

One can hang things on Fate that are so embarrassing one would rather
not own up to one's complicity in them at all! Fate, however, is
about as real as the "unseen hand" that keeps free markets so
equitable. Both are lovely fantasies. Neither are good means of
choice. (I have often been amused by atheist types who could deny the
supernatural, yet believe in the "unseen hand" all the way to the
bank... Sigh....)

I only know of two monastic favorites who were actually loved by all
and really were fabulous people. I have lived with (and under!) many,
many more abbatial favorites who were not, who fooled no one but the
abbot and were mostly resented by all. Of the families I have known I
can rarely recall an instance where the favored child was really the
best. In doing that memory work, however, I warmly recall a family of
11 children where no favorites existed. They truly all were gold
ingots. What wonderful parents they had!

St. Benedict lived and wrote over a thousand years before Marlowe,
but he knew well the human bent to love at first sight, to love
without reason or rhyme. He quite rightly points out that this is one
of the many human tendencies we have to conquer. If we don't, it will
harm us and harm those under our care, including the favored one.

Favoritism harms the one in charge, too. Since others can see all too
well what the parent or boss cannot, it diminishes their trust in the
authority figure. If she can be so glaringly wrong about this, why
not about something else? Every person is fallible, but a careless
superior can emphasize her own lack of brilliance by poor choices.
This doesn't make governing or being governed any easier for anyone.

I forgot to mention, of those many monastic favorites I have known,
only one is still in vows. The jury is still out there anyway,
because the fall from power has not yet come. Another fell from favor
when his Abbot did, and he later died one of the most embittered
alcoholic men I have ever known, but at least he persevered. (No one
missed him, by the way.) The others all left, every single one. Get
the picture? St. Benedict did!

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




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+PAX

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

Jan's friend and colleague, 52

Brian, 50, head-on car collision, and especially for his aunt, Norma and for
Carol, who asked prayers.

Marcelle, 39, and her two children, 4&5, all struck and killed on an interstate.


Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of the following, for all
who love them and all who care for them:

Joyce, bad news on her cancer diagnosis, and for Deirdre, her daughter and
family care-givers.

Mike, Deo gratias, is cancer-free after three months of aggressive treatment.
May he continue in remission!

Skyler, brain damage after a 25 foot fall through an attic floor.

Pete, in prison

Tracy and Monte, going on a 50 day mission in Guatemala. 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

January 13, May 14, September 13
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

In her teaching
the Abbess should always follow the Apostle's formula:
"Reprove, entreat, rebuke" (2 Tim. 4:2);
threatening at one time and coaxing at another
as the occasion may require,
showing now the stern countenance of a mistress,
now the loving affection of a mother.
That is to say,
it is the undisciplined and restless
whom she must reprove rather sharply;
it is the obedient, meek and patient
whom she must entreat to advance in virtue;
while as for the negligent and disdainful,
these we charge her to rebuke and correct.

And let her not shut her eyes to the faults of offenders;
but, since she has the authority,
let her cut out those faults by the roots
as soon as they begin to appear,
remembering the fate of Heli, the priest of Silo (1 Kings 2-4).
The well-disposed and those of good understanding
let her correct with verbal admonition the first and second time.
But bold, hard, proud and disobedient characters
she should curb at the very beginning of their ill-doing
by stripes and other bodily punishments,
knowing that it is written,
"the fool is not corrected with words" (Prov. 18:2; 29:19),
and again,
"Beat your son with the rod,
and you will deliver his soul from death"(Prov. 23:13-14).

REFLECTION

As our world grows more populated and less personalist, "One size
fits all" becomes a favorite chant of marketing. We all know that's
usually not true, and it is surely not true of parenting or
governing, as St. Benedict points out. This chapter firmly
contradicts the lie of such marketing. We are all individuals, all
treasures with different needs. Generic brand parenting will not do.

I was a miserable failure at discipline when teaching high school
sophomore English. I am sure it is an experience neither they nor I
would like to repeat. I tried to treat them like college students or
adults, a point they had not reached.

In my naivete, I expected them to respond. When they didn't, matters
escalated between us, but not into anything that did much good. I was
terribly at fault: I didn't see who they were, I gave them what *I* would
have liked to have had, but I was already in my mid-thirties with a lot of
life experience.

I wasn't serving their needs, because I didn't know who or what they
were, nor, in that first year, did I even know how to find out! So,
like many before me, I substituted what I would want or need and
proclaimed that would fit all. Wrong! NOT!

Any abbess or parent who wants to try my way, not St. Benedict's,
will quickly find that it is as hard on them as it is on their
charges. My year of high school teaching was hell and I hated it. My
students hated it, too. It was terrible for both of us at many, many
points. The light that entered in from time to time, the genuine
enjoyment of each other was only a flash that appeared rarely, faded
soon. I pray for those kids (and for those who taught me!) every day
of my life.

St. Benedict is not only moderate and balanced, he sees the person
clearly. He is a personalist of the first rank. Practice his
principles of government without the checks and balances of this
portion and you will be very displeased with the results. It
sometimes takes St. Benedict a while to make his point. Cut him short
before he has, and you will often wind up very sorry. Always let him
finish: the whole is a thing of beauty, but the parts may fall far
short of that.

My superior, Father Anselm, once wisely commented that most preaching
is preaching to oneself, meaning that we give others what we need to
hear. Sadly, I think he's right. I know I have often done that.
Mercifully, God alone can bring good out of anything, so He can even
use our wrong-headedness to bring others to Him. He can do that with
obedience, too, but if we give Him a bit less chaos by following
Benedict's methods rather than our own, it will be better for all
concerned.

To a certain point, some people thrive on a lot of leeway, others do
not. Some people need rigid order, others will wither under that. A
superior who is into super control will soon be left with none but
those who need that and a few conflicted types who can at least
endure it.

A superior who is too easy-going can also do harm. Sad is the
community where the only thing will ever get all the horses back into
the barn is death, and a few of them exist. They were produced by
mutual efforts of bad government and bad response.

This is not so different from the message throughout the Holy Rule:
eyes on the other, not the self, eyes on God for the good of all!

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






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+PAX

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

Danielle, a young mother rushed to the hospital with possible food poisoning or
appendicitis

Ann, complete bone scan to be sure she is cancer-free.

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

January 14, May 15, September 14
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

The Abbess should always remember what she is
and what she is called,
and should know that to whom more is committed,
from her more is required (Luke 12:48).
Let her understand also
what a difficult and arduous task she has undertaken:
ruling souls and adapting herself to a variety of characters.
One she must coax, another scold, another persuade,
according to each one's character and understanding.
Thus she must adjust and adapt herself to all
in such a way that she may not only suffer no loss
in the flock committed to her care,
but may even rejoice in the increase of a good flock.

REFLECTION

When we read these portions of the Holy Rule which deal with the
Abbot or other officials a very handy suggestion is in order. Read
them to see what the Abbess DOES comply with, not what you feel she
misses, because no one I have ever known in the abbacy is perfect
enough to fulfill them all at all times.

Read them with one eye on who the Abbot or boss or parent really is
as a frail human being, what sort of person he is, and the other eye
focused on what is demanded of him by the Holy Rule. Chapters such as
this one will give you a really valuable insight into what those
officials are wrestling with, a glimpse of how tough it can be to
tread the very fine line.

Parents, fear not! I'll bet Mother Teresa of Calcutta couldn't read
this chapters without cringing a little, maybe even a lot. If your
eyes are even half open, you will see the areas of failure every time
you read them. (If, by some odd oversight, you have missed one or
two, your children are quite likely to point them out to you the next
time they get mad!!)

Use those areas as goals to work on, but don't
beat yourself up on them too badly. Not only does no one ever get
there all at once, but, frankly, I think hardly anyone ever gets there
all the way period. It is death and heaven which finally perfect us.
Meanwhile, we struggle and plod.

Finally, since the majority of us will never be Abbots, read these
portions of the Rule to see how you measure up. How many of these
qualities do you have? When one of the things demanded of the Abbess
is exercised in your regard, how gracefully, even gratefully, do you
receive it? Authority is a two-way street. Any kid who thinks it ALL
devolves on parents hasn't read the Commandments past number three.
There are responsibilities both parties must uphold.

Change "Abbess" to "Christian" and read again. Then add "Benedictine"
to "Christian" and re-check that part about "to whom more is
committed."

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

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+PAX

Deo gratias for Ann, 86, a gift of tears is letting her heal many painful
memories from her childhood at last.

Prayers for Brittany, trying to juggle work, exams and a cold this week. 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

January 15, May 16, September 15
Chapter 2: What Kind of Person the Abbess Ought to Be

Above all let her not neglect or undervalue
the welfare of the souls committed to her,
in a greater concern for fleeting, earthly, perishable things;
but let her always bear in mind
that she has undertaken the government of souls
and that she will have to give an account of them.
And if she be tempted to allege a lack of earthly means,
let her remember what is written:
"First seek the kingdom of God and His justice,
and all these things shall be given you besides" (Ps. 33:10).
And again:
"Nothing is wanting to those who fear Him."
Let her know, then,
that she who has undertaken the government of souls
must prepare herself to render an account of them.
Whatever number of sisters she knows she has under her care,
she may be sure beyond doubt that on Judgment Day
she will have to give the Lord an account of all these souls,
as well as of her own soul.
Thus the constant apprehension
about her coming examination as shepherd (Ezech. 34)
concerning the sheep entrusted to her,
and her anxiety over the account that must be given for others,
make her careful of her own record.
And while by her admonitions she is helping others to amend,
she herself is cleansed of her faults.

REFLECTION

There are two beautiful lessons for us non-abbatial types in this
chapter. The first is a partial Benedictine view of material goods
and the second consoles us that teaching will hopefully also teach
the teacher!

The Benedictine view of property is neither complete nor correct
without the principle invoked here. Yes, later on we hear that all
the goods of the monastery must be regarded as if they were sacred
vessels of the altar. We also hear a lot of attentive prescriptions
about poverty and ownership. Either of these made dogma without the
third principle will spell trouble. That third principle, enunciated
here, is "people first, things later; don't sweat the small stuff and mere
material things are ALWAYS small stuff by comparison to souls."

A good Benedictine will go to careful lengths to avoid breaking a
something, but will treat it lightly if someone else does: "Oh,
that's no big deal. I'll tend to it later." or "Dishes I can replace,
YOU I cannot. Don`t worry about it." See what I mean? We must be
personally very careful of things, but we must never make others feel
small, and least of all in the name of temporal goods.

The other gem buried here is learning from teaching. Anyone who has
ever taught 5th grade science will tell you that it will teach you
more than the average person at a party knows about the topic.
(Unless the party is given at Massachusetts Institute of Technology!)
It will remind you of a great deal of basic information that you have
long forgotten. Teaching, ideally, keeps one up to date on a subject.
If teaching alone doesn't do that, the questions of the students
usually will!

Look at that last line: if you do ANY vocation right, it will profit
both you and those you serve. It may not always profit both in
exactly the same ways, but there will always be supernatural benefits
for both. If there aren't, some fine-tuning might be in order. An
example might well be parents who raise a child to practice the faith
when they themselves do not. I'm sure there must be some roaring
exception out there somewhere, a miracle of grace, but I have never
known a child to practice beyond high school when raised that way.
Sending a kid to Church without you is good for neither of you. The
kid loses a necessary role model and the parent misses out on a lot
of grace.

So, one of the ways to ensure that supernatural benefit accrues for
all in a vocation is outlined here: put the souls first, put the
Kingdom of God and His things first. A closely related corollary
follows on that: people before things, always, always, people before
things! Whatever the faults and flaws of humanity, it shares a
dignity of blessed creation that does not extend to material things
as such. That's the basic truth which makes materialism so woefully
false.

Follow the priority established here and you will be well on the way
to a holy and fruitful living out of any call. It is as easy as
1,2,3! First, God and His kingdom, second, people, persons, the crown
of His mercy's creations, and third things, but only insofar as they
relate significantly to God and persons!

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

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Karen's Mom, she was in a car accident last week and is in ICU on a respirator.
Unkown prognosis.

A young man who is working on his PhD is having serious financial problems,
trying to finish it. He's so close to the end, but all his aid resources have
dried up. He is a young father with a family of 4 children.

Mary, 88, hospitalized yesterday and in severe pain from several fractures
(severe osteoporosis, no fall) and has fluid on her lungs.  She and her
94-year-old husband, John, live in their own home and
She has many allergies to painkillers, so they haven't been able to adequately
handle the pain yet.  And for her daughter, Elaine.

Grant,16, is having surgery on Wednesday to remove a malignant tumor (baseball
size) from his lung.  They are concerned it could be attached to his heart.  A
few weeks later he needs to go in again to have another one removed from his
other lung.  There are other tumors but they are removing the largest ones to
keep him comfortable.

Continued prayers for Danielle, found to have a rare virus and hospitalized for
a few more days. She has young children at home and child care could become a
problem.

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

January 16, May 17, September 16
Chapter 3: On Calling the Brethren for Counsel

Whenever any important business has to be done
in the monastery,
let the Abbot call together the whole community
and state the matter to be acted upon.
Then, having heard the brethren's advice,
let him turn the matter over in his own mind
and do what he shall judge to be most expedient.
The reason we have said that all should be called for counsel
is that the Lord often reveals to the younger what is best.

Let the brethren give their advice
with all the deference required by humility,
and not presume stubbornly to defend their opinions;
but let the decision rather depend on the Abbot's judgment,
and all submit to whatever he shall decide for their welfare.

However, just as it is proper
for the disciples to obey their master,
so also it is his function
to dispose all things with prudence and justice.

REFLECTION

Benedictine government is not pure democracy, but it was a lot more
representative than Church government in its time or, for that
matter, our own. It was also vastly more democratic that secular feudalism!
One wishes that both Church and state of today had a
more Benedictine flavor!

The Catholic Church actually had models in its early years that were
MORE democratic than St. Benedict, the synagogue model and the
charismatic, both more congregational in their aspects. Both were
abandoned for the monarchial episcopate model connected with Antioch.
The bishop became monarch and so it has largely remained. That model
fell far below the Benedictine standard of at least consultative
democracy.

Over 15 centuries of Benedictine history, constitutions have divided
the powers of abbot and community more specifically. There are times-
not many, to be sure- when a chapter CAN thwart an abbot. There are
times the abbot cannot act alone. But, by and large, our superiors
have been left with a lot more power than the US President or the
Queen of the United Kingdom, but less power than the average bishop.

The way of St. Benedict is hardly mob rule, but it does ensure a
voice to those governed, a voice that must be listened to, even when
it is not definitive. How different history might be if people only had as
much voice as the Holy Rule allows. How clearly St. Benedict saw what
would happen to a community in such an instance: the members would
feel ripped off, and rightly so. Very important things had come to light, and
the rank and file were left in the dark. Trust was violated and trust is the
very foundation of community.

There is no way at all that the world was ready for pure democracy in
St. Benedict's time, in diocese or monastery or state. Large majorities of
the
populace were illiterate, few indeed were educated, and there were no
means of mass communication. Whole empires, like the Aztec and Incan,
rose without the slightest awareness that there were other people on
the planet, nor was the rest of the world aware of them. I would be
the last person to call for free elections in such a milieu. By
contrast, it almost makes feudalism look like a really good idea for
the times.

And maybe it was, but it has ceased to be for our own time. There are
clearly levels of education, communication and general ability in the
population today that call for more participation, not less. Tough
saying, but St. Benedict was writing for a society whose rank and
file was largely full of really rustic, less than brightest bulb types.
True, they got a lot of their rough edges honed down in the monastic
setting, but they were not as capable of contributing to decision-making
as people are today.

I am not writing this with an axe to grind, saying that the Church
and world should follow the Benedictine model. (Though that would
certainly be my personal wish.) What I am trying to point out is the
perennial wealth and freshness to be found in St. Benedict's Holy
Rule. Its wisdom is as germane today as it was 1,500 years ago. It
bears the proud hallmark of both truth and wisdom: it is ageless.

In Church and State, the people of the developed world are ready,
willing, and quite capable of having a lot more say than antiquated
standards have allowed them. No wonder the powers that be are
terrified of that.

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





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

Heather, applying mid-year for a teaching job and has worked so hard.

Prayers for someone whose canine friend of many years has died.

Carolyn, facing an overload of college work just now when she is very weakened
from a persistent flu and she is supposed to start student teaching next week.

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.

January 17, May 18, September 17
Chapter 3: On Calling the Brethren for Counsel

In all things, therefore, let all follow the Rule as guide,
and let no one be so rash as to deviate from it.
Let no one in the monastery follow his own heart's fancy;
and let no one presume to contend with his Abbot
in an insolent way or even outside of the monastery.
But if anyone should presume to do so,
let him undergo the discipline of the Rule.
At the same time,
the Abbot himself should do all things in the fear of God
and in observance of the Rule,
knowing that beyond a doubt
he will have to render an account of all his decisions
to God, the most just Judge.

But if the business to be done in the interests of the monastery
be of lesser importance,
let him take counsel with the seniors only.
It is written,
"Do everything with counsel,
and you will not repent when you have done it" (Eccles. 32:24).

REFLECTION

The key here is not to contend insolently; there is no proscription
against telling the Abbot one feels something is amiss, so long as it
is done respectfully and humbly. We are Benedictines, not fascists;
we have a Father, not a Fuhrer.

A pithy quote from Jesuit liturgical scholar Father Robert Taft, who
was speaking about Church authority in general, but it certainly
applies to us: "I don't buy ecclesiastical fascism, I think
authoritarianism is the refuge of the stupid. It saves you from the
obligation of thought."

Human nature being what it is, people are usually more prone to cite
the Abbot's responsibility to seek counsel than they are to cite the
equally important proscription against contending with one's Abbot!
There's a cure for that and many other ills buried within this
chapter, a telling phrase whose observance promises peace. That
little gem urges the monastics not to follow their "own heart's
fancy."

Follow that gem and peace abounds! For one thing, whether abbot or
monastic, parent or child, boss or employee, the focus of the
relationship ceases to become self. None of us are anywheres near the
big deal we'd either like to be or think ourselves to be! Much of
what seems earth-shattering to us is really small stuff, indeed.

This is so important to monastic struggle because it is so intricately
interwoven with detachment and holy indifference. We must learn how
to hold onto our inner peace, how to safeguard it from damage at the
hands of trivia. An abject TERRIBLE day for us, one when we are so
hurt or angry that the world seems to have stopped, is just another average
day for the rest of the community. Until, of course we decide we ARE
the center of the universe and ruin it for them... Cling to that
knowledge of trivia and less will suffer!

At that point of recognizing trivia, truth and therefore, humility
and divinity itself, enter into the equation. We need very good "crap
detectors" and their default setting must be aimed at ourselves,
rarely cast elsewhere except in cases of really great need. We can
keep those crap detectors more than amply busy just in our own hearts
and wills! We need to know deception, falsity, trivia, but it is
essential to know them first in ourselves.

If these good tools of detection are aimed only at others, the result
will be pride and a fall, not humility and truth. Jesus said "I am
the Truth," and to Him we must prefer nothing. Hence, our first
desire must always be the truth and the truth is that the earth does
not revolve around us as an axis!

Our age, particularly, has embraced the pap of "Follow your bliss!"
Well, maybe...sometimes.... but maybe not, too. Our "bliss" is no
guarantee of infallibility. Years ago, and for many years of my life,
I thought my "bliss" would be to be married to an attorney and having
drinks by the pool. No doubt there may be some who wish I had
followed that one, but how different my life would have been had I
done so!

As a handy rule of thumb, I would say that the will of God quite
often looks nothing like bliss at first. Hence, confusing bliss with
the divine will can be very risky. The will of God often BECOMES
bliss when we are in the midst of following it, but we frequently
have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into that compliance! And
sometimes our bliss IS the right thing- even a stopped clock is right
twice a day- but those sometimes are impossible to predict. And, let
us be frank, few people carry stopped watches because of their
usefulness twice a day!

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

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THE REFLECTION WILL COME IN A SEPARATE POST TODAY, since I can't break out of
one of the font types I cut and pasted. Sigh... JL

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

Catherine, job difficulties and also trying to sell her house.

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal parish, fire damage just before New Year's.

Barbara, who had a slight stroke and is hospitalized.  She lives alone and has
no family, so
needs extra prayers.

Darla battled against breast cancer for nearly 2 years; she is now under Hospice
care and may have only a few more days.  Please pray for her peaceful death and
for her husband, children and friends.
Mary, for whom we prayed, who was in the hospital with uncontrolled pain,
has suffered a mild stroke while hospitalized.  Facing nursing home
placement, which will be very difficult for her 94-year-old husband who
is still at home.  Also for her daughter, Elaine, feeling guilty that she
is not able to go to help her.
Prayers for Michael and Megan, that as they begin their life together, that they
remember that true love is patient, caring, understanding, and never-ending, and
that God will be with them... always.  May they have a healthy child that will
always know love."

Please pray for successful, uncomplicated treatment, surgery and recovery for
Paul diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Lord, help us all as You know and will.
God's will is best, all is mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him.
Thanks so much JL



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+PAX

January 18, May 19, September 18
Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works

In the first place, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, the
whole soul, the whole strength.
Then, one's neighbor as oneself.
Then not to murder.
Not to commit adultery.
Not to steal.
Not to covet.
Not to bear false witness.
To honor all (1 Peter 2:17).
And not to do to another what one would not have done to oneself.
To deny oneself in order to follow Christ.
To chastise the body.
Not to become attached to pleasures.
To love fasting.
To relieve the poor.
To clothe the naked.
To visit the sick.
To bury the dead.
To help in trouble.
To console the sorrowing.
To become a stranger to the world's ways.
To prefer nothing to the love of Christ.


REFLECTION


St. Benedict follows Christ's teaching of the two greatest
commandments, putting them first in his list. He had, however, also
lived in community, so look what he puts at #3: not to murder!
In the PBS drama The Best of Friends, Dame Laurentia Maclachlan, OSB,
Abbess of Stanford and friend of George Bernard Shaw, said that the
miracle was not that so many nuns could live together, but that they'd never
had a murder.

In a very real sense, living the first two instruments would render
the rest of the Holy Rule more or less superfluous commentary. If we
lived them, no doubt God would reveal the rest to us in time. Ah, but
there's the rub: in time...

We can easily forget that the Holy Rule is a time and labor-saving
device. It was not written for arbitrary control, it was written to
save us the lengthy process of learning all its wisdom unaided. Given
our hearts that God has placed in us, He probably would lead us all
to be Benedictines sooner or later, one by one, even if there were no
Rule. But, again, the clincher here is sooner or later. The Rule not
only saves us a lot of time and trial and error, it also frees us to
do good long before our own stumbling efforts could ever have
produced as much fruit.

A final note about preferring "nothing to the love of Christ." This
line is so popular and frequently duplicated that we can become blind
to it, shrugging and saying: "Oh, yeah...favorite Benedictine
phrase..." Stop today and look at it, REALLY look at it. People often
glance and look away because they fail to prefer nothing, but hey,
that's the human condition! You, me and most of us strugglers are in
the same boat, so relax and look at what it means carefully.

If we truly preferred nothing to the love of Christ, we would be
sinless saints. We would need no other rule! Small wonder that most
of us read and look away in embarrassment. But ALL of us, every one,
can chisel at that mountain day by day, resolutely. A day in which
the seemingly tiniest and most token of obstacles to the love of
Christ is conquered and removed is a day of great rejoicing in
heaven! There is a tremendously humbling difference between all we
ought to do and what we can do. Start with the latter and strive for
the former!

As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta observed, "We can do no great things,
only small things with great love." We HAVE to start small, because,
for most of us, if it weren't for small, we'd never start at all! Ah,
but those tiniest things done with love delight the heart of the
Divine Merciful Christ as none could ever imagine! Go for it!!!

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

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