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Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Fr. James Mukalel. 39, a Syro-Malabar
rite Catholic priest who was murdered in India and for all who mourn him and for
the conversion of his murderer(s).

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

Sally, entangled in a strange relationship and needing to return to the Church
and Sacraments.

Ronnie, return to the Church and Sacraments.

Keith, his wife, care givers and family as he deals with serious post-surgery
complications.

Roman and Eastern rite Catholics, please remember that Aug. 2 is the Portiuncula
indulgence.
Plenary indulgence under the usual conditions of Confession, Communion within 8
days and prayers for the Holy Father's intentions, plus making a visit to the
Blessed Sacrament in any parish Church on Aug. 2. The indulgence is applicable,
of course, to the Holy Souls, too.

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

April 2, August 2, December 2
Chapter 51: On Brethren Who Go Not Very Far Away


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

REFLECTION

Remember that cloistered paradise of the heart I have written about
before? All Benedictines, monks, nuns and oblates, must cultivate
that monastic heart. Today's chapter is an excellent example.

Like our Christianity itself, our Benedictinism must become part of
us, rooted in our hearts, carried with us everywhere because it is
inseparable from us. While the issue in this chapter is keeping the
monastic who goes outside vigilant, mindful and observant, there is a
particular application to oblates here. This concept of carrying the
monastery with us becomes a principal means of evangelization, of
being leaven in the dough of the world, of being a catalyst for peace.

Remember that the Holy Rule teaches us that the observance of some
things becomes easier with time. Happy the day when one wakes to find
that even the smallest part of one's Benedictine struggle has become
one's very self, an integral part of who one is. This realization
will likely sneak up on one and catch us quite unawares, surprised by
joy, as it were, to steal C. S. Lewis' phrase.

With God's mercy and grace, those areas will increase over time. More
and more we actually become the monastic we have been striving to be.
That, beloveds, is an awesome feeling of joy, to say nothing of
considerable relief!! Truly, m'dears, we shall one day, with God's help,
"run in the way of His commandments with hearts enlarged."

What St. Benedict is doing is pointing out that monasticism is not
merely a job, a burden one doffs and dons. Monastic life is a
becoming, not a set of standards one only follows when one is closely
watched. The goal of monastic discipline is to make the disciple a
monastic more or less by nature.

In this respect, it closely resembles any training: nursing school is
designed to make people nurses, law school to make attorneys,
and so forth. The difference is that monasticism is not a set number of
hours per week, it's all the week, all the life. Just as any nurse in a
disaster instantly can shift into nursing mode, whether on duty or not,
the spiritually trained monastic is operative everywhere, not just in
the cloister.

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

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



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Please keep in your prayers our brothers and sisters of Gojra. Today mourning
for Christians when Muslim mob attacked at Christian Town and gunned down 9
Christian women, children and men and burnt down 50 homes in Gojra. Four women
and one child were burnt alive by Muslims. Please pray for the repose of souls
of all the dead, their families, and survivors. Please also pray for the souls
of those who murdered them and that God may grant them repentance and conversion
of heart.

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

April 3, August 3, December 3
Chapter 52: On the Oratory of the Monastery

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

Truly, in many a stumbling child there is GREAT poetry in motion, but
not at all in the way that the child THINKS there is! So it is with
God and ourselves. Relax, therefore, and rejoice! Again I say,
rejoice!

The great and merciful God flat out delights in our clumsy efforts
and knows from the start that we shall be far more like funny home
videos than the best and most tasteful films ever produced. Funny how
we often lack the humility to see that ourselves! If we seek to gain
it, Satan, who loves to see us despondent and discouraged, will be
trounced but good.

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

Oh, yeah, ESPECIALLY the mirrors part!!

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


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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Mother Nikola of Minster Abbey, Kent, who is celebrating
her silver jubilee and for our Abbot Hugh, travelling south for the celebration,
as well as for a special intention for Abbot Hugh.

Prayers for TJ's Dad, who is likely going to have a significant by-pass surgery
including a valve replacement.

Prayers for Barb who is having surgery Monday for a dislocated thumb.

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 4, August 4, December 4
Chapter 53: On the Reception of Guests

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

It is embarrassing for me, as a former guestmaster, to write about this
chapter. My own failures jump out at me all over the place. As some
might say, it "convicts" me again and again. But that is the way with
much of the Holy Rule, for all of us. If we can read a chapter with
smugness, it probably means something is wrong with us!

St. Benedict goes out of his way to make sure that the poor and
pilgrims get a specially focused reception. The point of that special
care is to guarantee that the reverence he insists upon for all might
come their way. That's the key, in his recurrent use of the
inclusive "all" in speaking of hospitality. He wants all to be shown
honor, without respect to class.

In the Middle Ages, benefactions could come from relatively minor
noblemen that far exceed anything we might know today: lands,
endowments, all kinds of things. Whole monasteries were often founded
and initially supported by one feudal lord. In that age, as in our
own, there was little danger of a wealthy benefactor being snubbed.
In fact, sometimes the honor shown a benefactor can even provoke an
opposite response in a monastic who favors underdogs: scorn or terse
civility.

The idea here is that even such inverse classism is wrong. The whole
thrust is that due honor be shown to everyone, not only that the poor
be treated as well as the rich, but that the rich be no less warmly
received because of their wealth. The poor and pilgrims come to the
door with zero clout. St. Benedict wants to make certain that will
not matter.

Having been guestmaster in an age of postal service, telephone and email, I
look back on earlier times and marvel at the holiness it must have
taken to do hospitality in those times. Yes, the very great could
send a courier to warn of their approach, but they often had HUGE
entourages, all of whom expected to be kept more or less in style.

The poor and pilgrims, on the other hand, had no way whatever to call
ahead and reserve. They arrived at the door vulnerable and in great
need, with no way of knowing whether or not the Duke of Burgundy had
just occupied 70 beds or so, to say nothing of stables and fodder for
his horses!

Looking at the trials of being gracious in such a
perennially unpredictable situation, I have come to the conclusion
that there must be a LOT of guestmaster saints I should be praying to
for improvement. The occasional annoyances of my own job paled in
comparison to theirs!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB




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Prayers for Ray, mental illness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

I am living proof that, when a monastery has to, it can get by with
less than a guest master "possessed by the fear of God." Some
days, "impressed by the fear of God" was about the best I could pull
off. There were other days when I took comfort in the fact that all
the Holy Rule really says about the guest house itself is that there be
a sufficient number of made-up beds and a kitchen of its own, because
frills beyond that were not likely to be forthcoming! But I digress...

Asking that the house of God be prudently governed by the prudent
surely applies to more than the guest house. That principle goes for the
whole monastery, as well as for the families and homes of those
monastics in the world outside the cloister. This is not just another call to
frugality or economy or order for their own sakes.

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

It's the same with us and dysfunctional, imprudent messes. We CAN
operate there if we have to, but infections are likely to follow. We
need a certain amount of reduction of inconsequential hassles to focus on the
one thing necessary. St. Benedict strives to provide us with that.

No, the monastery is not a sterile surgical suite (and I always worry
when one looks that way!) but neither is it an ill-housed flock of free range
chickens. Show me a monastery or home that has become a zoo and I can
guarantee you there will be a LOT of spiritual ramifications, as well.

We are not necessarily Thomists (though at Monte Cassino
our Order conducted some of St. Thomas Aquinas' early schooling,) but we can
surely affirm that "peace is the tranquility of order." St.Thomas' view of the
virtues is important to us, too, imbued with the principles of
Aristotle: "Virtus in media stat." Virtue stands in the middle way. What could
be more Benedictinely moderate and balanced?

It must be clearly remembered that when we speak of "prudence", we
speak of a virtue, a thing of holiness and a golden mean.
All manner of foolish timidity,
cowardice, stinge and hearts-by-Frigidaire prudishness have been
falsely named prudence.

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

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

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the Camaldolese OSB nuns of Transfiguration Monastery,
Windsor, NY, on their patronal feast. Many graces and blessings!

Prayers of thanks and Deo gratias for Fr. Gregory of Valyermo, whose surgery
went well and who seems to be recovering well.

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

Maureen, suffering from a very severe eating disorder, and for her grandmother,
Maxine, who fears she will not survive.  (She is 5' 2" and weighs 59lbs.)

TJ's Dad, having heart surgery on August 14th.

Keith still weak, on a ventilator, but doing better and the Doctors are hopeful.
He still needs prayer, yet a Deo Gratias for the turn around he has had, though!


Allison, in her early twenties.  The doctors have found brain lesions.  More
tests are needed to find what they mean and then determine treatment.  Prayers
for her, her husband, family, friends and caregivers.

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

Community, even in its Latin roots ( "com" meaning with and "unitas"
meaning unity,) is fully dependent upon unity. Do anything to
threaten or destroy that unity and you have threatened or destroyed
the community itself. For this reason, St. Benedict goes out of his
way to explain why some exceptions must be made on account of
infirmity or weakness and also expressly forbids other forms of
favoritism. This chapter is a prime example of the Holy Rule
giving firm and adamant instructions about inequality.

St. Benedict has already made it clear that monastics are to be
given everything they need, truly need. He has even made some
provision for those whose weakness makes further consideration
necessary. Remember, our Benedictine poverty is based on lack of
excess, not extreme want. If, through violating the principles in
this chapter, excess is allowed to creep in for a few, it will
result in hard feelings, jealousies and other unlovely traits that
will strike at the heart of common unity.

Such excess also damages the individual monastic receiving it. The
monastic struggle is stymied if one enters rich and, thanks to his
family, remains so, or if one enters poor and latches onto a
benefactor whose gifts make one rich by comparison. Just as oxygen is
necessary for fire, so is a certain equality necessary for
community. We need that community, because, as Benedictines, it is
our way to God. We dare not threaten it with "Animal Farm"
adaptations that find us saying that "some monastics are more equal
than others."

What can Oblates glean here? Well, what about our attitudes towards
classism and the world at large? How smugly indifferent dare we be
about anyone in abject poverty, about any system or government that
keeps people in such dire straits? How do we assess our own economic
position in regards to sharing? How much above others do we allow
ourselves to be economically, socially? There are a wealth of deep questions
here, and a wealth of troubling answers in the unjust inequalities
that abound in human society when it is unaided by grace.

One aside to close. We ask permission before giving things to one
another and then tell the recipient we have permission, so that they
needn't ask again to keep the item. Shortly after I arrived here,
the cellaress of the Sisters' community gave me a postcard of Canada
geese, because she knew I liked them. This woman, who could by
assigned charge move large sums of money back and forth, approached
me with the card and said: "I have permission
togive you this." I was impressed. It may seem silly to some, but I
was truly edified.

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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



REFLECTION

I have heard US religious women speak of formerly
being "incarcerated" in the habit. Knowing the rules of more than a
few communities, I have no doubt that is true. I find that
terribly,immoderately non-Benedictine, way out of balance. However,
and this is certain to displease some, I find the usual response of
US Benedictine women to this problem to be equally extreme and
unwise. The best answer to too much habit is not no habit at all,
nor do I think that would be the moderate response to which
Benedictine hearts would most naturally incline.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I love the look of the habit on my brothers and my sisters. Each one
seems to wear it just a little differently. Even in the old days when my
Dominican teachers were
fully habited, I could always tell which was which from behind by
the different ways their veils fell.

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

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

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

I have known people who were taunted, even treated with scarcely
believable meanness for wearing the habit, for choosing the "wrong"
option ( when, in fact, one option only was what was meant!) In
years past, "optional" was often nothing more than a euphemism
for "abolished." And, to be always and everywhere without the habit?
I could never stand that.

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








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

Lee, mental illness

Pamela, just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
Jackie, recovering from hip surgery
Beth, dealing with complications of Lyme disease

Thomas and his fellow novices, JT and Carlos.  They will be making vows as
Jesuits on Saturday morning.

Darrell, is having a second cardiac stent put in on Friday.  The first one went
well.  We pray this one goes well, too.

Star, 83, who has stage 4 bowel cancer. She is again in hospital and seems to
now have a  blocked ureter, which is causing one of her kidneys to be backed up 
and enlarged. She is in a lot pain. Prayers, too for her son and daughter, Greg
and Beth.

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

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

For bedding let this suffice: a mattress, a blanket, a coverlet and
a pillow. The beds, moreover, are to be examined frequently by the
Abbot, to see if any private property be found in them. If anyone
should be found to have something that he did not receive from the
Abbot, let him undergo the most severe discipline.

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



REFLECTION

WOW! Sneaky personal stashes, even in St. Benedict's time! Some
things in human nature never change... What is really going on here?
Property is not evil in itself. Why would St. Benedict be so upset
on this count?

The following common flaws in ownership apply largely to us all,
even if they have greater ramifications for monastics in community.
Things can be a useful tool- St. Thomas taught that a certain amount
of goods was necessary to help us more effectively work out our
salvation. However, they can all too easily exceed that necessary
mark and become idols and falsehoods. That's what the Holy Rule
seeks to prevent.

Look at the rich man building granaries in the Gospel. Three HUGE
mistakes there! He wasn't sharing as much as he could, he thought he
could protect his wealth from loss and he thought his wealth would
protect him from disaster. Wrong on all counts.... We, too, when we
hoard, are usually guilty of at least one or two of those three
lies, sometimes all of them at once. Speaking as a hoarder in only
episodic recovery, I know what I'm talking about. I have allowed
things to lie to me all too often.

Things don't make us safe. God does. Things will never protect us.
God does. In the ultimate sense, things cannot make us happy, though
they might for a while. God does. Things wear out, run out, corrupt,
get stolen or lost. God does not.

Things tell us we're in control. We're not. Things can tell us we
are special, different from those "other" people who do not have
them. We're not. Things can convince we we'll be at peace, once we
get them. We won't.

Things can and do serve a lot of perfectly wonderful purposes. They
do so, however, only when used and valued in correct balance. I have
seen people so delighted by a simple gift that I've wished I had
more to give. But neither I nor the recipient thought that gift
bought love, or thought it was an adequate substitute for my own
love for them. Had we done so, the whole experience would have been
colored quite differently for both of us, and
not too enjoyable.

Most of us will spend most- if not ALL- of our lives trying to fine
tune the reality of things. Not just material things, but all that
monasticism asks us to balance: sexuality, our will, our hearts, our
actions, our words. That will be a tremendous, lifelong struggle.

We won't win any of those battles in one or two forays, not unless
God gives us a VERY rare and nearly unheard of grace. We have to
keep chipping away at this mountain range all of our lives. We'll
probably never reduce those mountains to a flat, fertile valley
entirely.

The most that we can usually hope for would be gently rolling
foothills. Still, God knows that far better than we do, and all God
asks is that we keep chipping, always chipping and grow not
disheartened. Does that sound much like perseverance in stability?

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB




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

Sr. Lany Jo, on her birthday. Many graces and blessings and many, many more
birthdays!!!

Irene that she may be comfortable & have a peaceful and happy death.  She had a
massive heart attack a week ago & has been hanging on.  The doctor was amazed
she survived the first night & our goal since has been to keep her pain under
control. It is beginning to wear on her older sister & brother (both in their
80's).

Elijah, the little boy for whom we have prayed, has a  Stage III lymphoma,
prognosis uncertain, so continued prayers.

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

April 10, August 10, December 10
Chapter 57: On the Artisans of the Monastery

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

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

REFLECTION

Monasteries, even up until the late 20th century, were marvelous
examples of self-sufficiency, provided they were in areas where
farms could be had, and most of them were. St. Leo is the only place
in the world I where I have ever tasted raw milk.

When I was a boy, they had their own dairy farm, citrus packing
plant, beef cattle ranch, hay operation, carpentry shop, garage,
upholstery shop, printing press, and probably even more that I've
forgotten. They milled their own cedar to roof the Abbey Church.
There was a paint shop and artists' studios for painting, ceramics
and stained glass, with a stab at sculpture, too. Well before my
time, the old German brothers made the monks' shoes, too.

Granted, the people who know how to do these things are largely
dying off, and they were usually lay brothers, a now defunct
category, but how I would love to see some of that return in my
lifetime. One felt different in such a place, safer somehow. There
was no need to go
out or buy, we had own our and it was even better. We were enslaved
to less things outside of our lives.

Now, even monasteries, with fewer members than in those days, cannot
do many of these things anymore, much less many Oblates in the
world. I would, however, stress that there is a very, very deep
connectedness to homegrown and handmade things. It verges on the
liturgical, and surely enhances same. It is, in a very lower case
sense, truly sacramental.
These things are NOT good because they are cheaper, though they
often are, but because they connect and involve us in our own
survival and life. They enrich us, this is "soul food" in the most
literal sense!!

Do whatever you can to break even the tiniest area of dependency and
see how good it feels. One herb in one pot on a sunny window or fire
escape might be enough to start a healthy addiction. Can't grow
things? (Start with chives or oregano. Both are perennial, both will
die of nothing but thirst. Fresh chives are so good and so different
in taste that you
will never used freeze-dried again. Never.)

Try any useful craft. The first time I made my own habit I felt like
a million dollars, even if I didn't look QUITE that good... Check
out the first used bread machine you can find (they are pricey,
alas...) set the timer and you can have bread ready when you get
home from work in
minutes of prep time. (If you don't have even a few minutes, freeze
batches of measured dry ingredients when you DO have a minute. Then
just add liquids and yeast in the morning. Less time than making
coffee.) You will never walk down the bread aisle (read "airy sponge
aisle",) in a store the same way again!

Crock pots are always available very cheap at used stores and tag
sales. Get one. While you work, as any single person who's used one
can tell you, dinner will be ready. It will smell and taste a LOT
better than microwaved frozen food, too. If the pot has a removable
crock, you can even prepare the raw ingredients the night before and
refrigerate them.

Anything, anything you can do or learn to do to set yourself the
least bit free, to connect yourself more, will be on the side of the
angels! Why on earth do you think that modern English uses the
word "crafty" to refer to someone very, very cleverly smart?
Language is
no accident.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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NOTE: I accidentally sent the 10th of August yesterday, so this is the 9th,
catching up!


Prayers for the eternal rest of the following and for all their families and all
who mourn them:

Laurence, 83, special prayers for his widow, Louanna and all the family.

Gilda, who died of lung cancer and for her family.

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

Gary, a prisoner serving a life sentence who underwent a profound conversion
while in prison, now in the hospital with a very serious staph infection.

Cindy, who has breast cancer in both breasts.  She is going to have a double
mastectomy.

Terry that has dementia very bad.  She is now in a nursing home and doesn't
remember her family anymore.

Karen who has to make a big decision about the care of her elderly sister, Kay,
who is not only sick, but disabled and needs constant care in the last stages of
her life. And for Kay, too, for her happy death when God calls her.

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

Oblates in families or the world, trust me on this one, I know
company can sometimes be a pain. I had company most of
the time for 12 years. While I relished the occasional day
when the house was empty, they were fewer and farther between each
year. The message here is not only for guests in our homes, but for
others in general, at work, when shopping or (horrors!) driving. LET others
put you out a bit. Adopt a courtesy that is greater than the world's.

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

(Here is a completely trivial library desk story as an addendum. Feel
entirely free to quit now and delete if you want! A man came up to me with a
polite and rather involved tale of why his books were late. There I sat, civil
servant plenipotentiary, armed with the Town Manager's Power of the Keys, fines
I could remit and bonds absolve and loose, so to speak. LOL! His plea touched,
and sensing someone I could play a bit with, I looked at him dryly and said:
"Go and learn the true meaning of the words 'it is mercy I desire and not
sacrifice.' " Without so much as a beat he said: "OK, what monastery were YOU
in? I used to be a Trappist!")

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



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

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

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

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

For the lower socioeconomic groups, it was often flat out social
climbing to join the monastery. Hey, if you couldn't be a yuppie in
the Middle Ages, this is what you did, or tried to do! You not only
came out well-dressed and well-fed, but you often got educated in the
bargain, too. If one was not born noble, or if one was less than
wonderful at warfare, the Church was the ONLY way to climb to power.

History has removed or severely limited many of these shoddy reasons
for joining. Hence, it is not always wise to play hard to get with
the reasons for same out of the way. I have known communities who
played too hard to get for too long and now get nothing at all.

Whooops! Poetic justice there! Maybe you should have just stuck to
not sleeping with knives at your side when you wanted to get literal
about the Holy Rule!

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

Sometimes the only thing worse than a "perfect vocation" who leaves
is one who stays. One such widely acclaimed "dream team vocation" I
knew arrived with education all completed, and a master's degree, as
well. Hoo-hah!! Couldn't have fit the 1970 dream more
perfectly. My, was this arrival ever heralded and sadly used as the
standard to
judge the vocations of others who applied later. (In the interests
of anonymity, I won't
even use the gender here.)

This one grew up to be- and remained for years- one of the most
serious and treacherous problems the community in question has ever
faced in its history. The damage will take years to correct and has
already taken quite a few. Not all dreams are nightmares, but all
nightmares are dreams!

See what I mean? It's balance again, always, always balance. This is
true not only of monasteries, but of single Oblates seeking a mate
and of any Oblate seeking to fill a job slot or assign a task to a
child. The apparently "perfect" one may not always be the best bet!
I can speak from long and none-too-bright personal experience as a
layman of begging the wrong ones to love me that being too easy
isn't a great idea, either.

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

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

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

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Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Margaret and for her son, Gregory, and
for all who mourn her.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Randy, 50, told by Mayo
Clinic that he has the second most aggressive case of ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease
they have ever seen, and for his wife, Linda, and his buddy, Mike, who is
drained trying to help his friends through this crisis.

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

Apr. 12 - Aug. 12 - Dec. 12
When she is to be received she promises before all in the oratory
stability, fidelity to monastic life and obedience. This promise
she shall make before God and His Saints, so that if she should ever
act otherwise, she may know that she will be condemned by Him whom
she mocks. Of this promise of hers let her draw up a document in the
name of the Saints whose relics are there and of the Abbess who is
present. Let her write this document with her own hand; or if she
is illiterate, let another write it at her request, and let the
novice put her mark to it. Then let her place it with her own hand
upon the altar; and when she has placed it there, let the novice
at once intone this verse: "Receive me, O Lord, according to Your
word, and I shall live: and let me not be confounded in my hope"
(Ps. 118[119]:116). Let the whole community answer this verse three
times and add the "Glory be to the Father." Then let the novice
prostrate herself at each one's feet, that they may pray for her.
And from that day forward let her be counted as one of the
community. If she has any property, let her either give it
beforehand to the poor or by solemn donation bestow it on the
monastery, reserving nothing at all for herself, as indeed she
knows that from that day forward she will no longer have power even
over her own body. At once, therefore, in the oratory, let her be
divested of her own clothes which she is wearing and dressed in the
clothes of the monastery. But let the clothes of which she was
divested be put aside in the wardrobe and kept there. Then if she
should ever listen to the persuasions of the devil and decide to
leave the monastery (which God forbid), she may be divested of the
monastic clothes and cast out. Her document, however, which the
Abbess has taken from the altar, shall not be returned to her, but
shall be kept in the monastery.


REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB






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Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Shona, and for all her family and all
who mourn her.

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

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

It is so like St. Benedict to have a sliding scale, and he lets us
know in the very title of this chapter that both nobles and the poor
may offer their children or in our own days, themselves to the
monastery as Oblates. Yes, the gift of a feudal lord was bound to be
more complicated, so he spends most of his time clearing up matters
there, but he returns to his sliding scale theme at the end, with
special provisions for the not-so rich and the totally not rich at
all!

Oblation is a two way street. I spend a lot of time stressing what
the Oblates receive or ought to receive from their monastery
because, in years past, that seems to have been the most neglected
area. Some places had a somewhat condescending view of the Oblates
as pious people who would come once or twice a
year, be contented, nay, thrilled, with very little in the way of
depth formation and would leave money as they went home. That view
is dying a very well-deserved death these days. Deo gratias!!

Money given properly with the right intention can be a very
connecting thing. When I had a salary, I tithed to some nuns in
Peru. I'll likely never go to Peru, but I still feel connected to
them and pray for them every single day. Money is OK when no other
means of physically present participation is possible. Not shabby!
But everyone, as St. Benedict knew so well, does not have money.
What then?

Notice what I did above? I connected, as I did in real life, the
monetary gifts to prayer. Can't be absolutely certain that the
Sechura Tyburn nuns went into my morning offering the very first day
I sent the first gift, but it was close. The checks stopped coming
years ago, but the prayers go on and on and will continue as long as
I live.

If you are one who can give money, always, always be very careful to
make sure it is not the only thing you give. Money, for all its
pragmatic usefulness, is not the monastery's greatest
treasure. Prayers, penance and good works are. It is to the latter
bank that everyone must make hefty deposits!

Every Christian in the world, not just Oblates, has a vast treasury
of prayer, of fasting, of works of charity and mercy that they not
only can, but must share with others. That's the principal gift that
anyone can give, because, unlike money, it truly is eternal. Love,
merit and grace are all, literally all, that we get to take with us into
heaven. as true of a monastery or a family as it is of any
individual. When all of us are facing God and eternity, the
pragmatic side of financial benefactions will be worth nothing, only
the heart which gave and the heart which received will last and be
counted.

Monasteries and families have to be emphatically equal in their
gratitude. If one grandson made it through medical school with
honors and can now buy Grandma a new color TV, fine, wonderful! But
his cousin who is still in drug rehab for the third try in as many
years has to feel just as loved. In fact, the troubled one probably
needs to feel more loved, since his cousin's success may well add to
his defeatist self-loathing.

Hey, a new TV for Granny or a new library for the college. It's not
that different at all. Families and monasteries need to show others
and the world what we value most. Sure, it's a wonderful thing to
give or receive huge benefactions, but the greatest treasures for
any of us, monastic, spouse, parent or child, are spiritual, non-
rotting, non-rusting, but NOT non-stick. No Teflon there! Those
gifts are going with us to God, whether we gave or received them!

Granny might love her new TV, and since it has those handy built in
captions, she can even understand what's really going on in her
favorite soap operas again. However, if Granny has her wits about
her at all, she will likely know and see that the best gifts she
ever received are the suffering prayers of her struggling drug
addict, as well as the tearful prayers she has shed for him!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB


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Prayers, please for baby Jacob, newly baptized into the Church on August 2, and
for Gerry and Eva, his proud grandparents and for his parents and all his
family. May he have a long and holy life!

Prayers for N., worried by her weaknesses, may God be her strength.

Prayers for Lee, mental illness.

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

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

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

The quintessential question of the Holy Rule is that of
Jesus: "Friend, for what have you come?" This question is not just
for priests, but for each of us, for all Christians and all
monastics. The only acceptable answer to the question is: "To seek
God." That might be rephrased in any of a number of ways, but that's
the main event, the only game in town, the end all and be all of
Benedictine monastic life.

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

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

For heaven's sake, after spending so many years of my life trying to
become clever, or thinking I was, what a tremendous relief it is to
be dumb: pluperfectly, fallibly, humanly, screamingly, shriekingly
DUMB! Boy, I love it! Ignorance truly *IS* bliss, just like they told
ya! Truly, with Socrates, we ought to know enough to know that we
know nothing! Realizing that the very best of us has nothing but the
barest tip of the iceberg is a great and tender mercy, indeed!

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB








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Prayers for the eternal rest of the following:

Eunice Shriver, 88, sister of President Kennedy.

Cynthia, and for her husband, Tom, and daughter, Elizabeth, and for all who
mourn her.

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

Someone very elderly in ER currently with heart problems, possible heart attack.

B. and E., continued marital problems.

Gerard.  Taking  his Mom's death pretty hard, ended up in jail;  he is believed
to be off his meds.

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

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

There is something striking here. Remember how badly the gyrovagues
and Sarabaites were painted in the types of monks? Well, these were
the wandering ones, and St. Benedict knew very well that a pilgrim
monk at the door could be one of these sorts. He doesn't even
mention it. He wants them to have a chance to do better, to be
healed by community. If they blow it, fine, he's not going to lose a
lot of sleep over it, but he does insist they be given a chance to
improve. Given what the monastic world thought of gyrovagues and the
like, that says a LOT for St. Benedict's tolerance and clemency.

Not all of us are in cloisters, but all of us have doors. The people
who come to those doors may be gyrovagues and Sarabaites, but they
may not, too. We have to give them a chance to prove or reveal
themselves. This is true of anyone we encounter. Snap judgments are
not just unwise, they are forbidden. They can cheat us out of many
gifts.

Being too much or too little on the side of caution are both traps.
Tread the middle way, always the middle way. Moderation in all
things!

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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

Fr. Eleutherius, OSB, 100, of St. Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, CA, who died on the
Solemnity of the Assumption.

Jim, and especially for his wife, Cathy.

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

Br. Raphael, mewly invested novice of St. Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo: on the eve
of Fr. Eleutherius' death, a new monastic life began.

Sr. Mary Joseph's brother, sleep apnea and problems finding its cause.

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

April 16, August 16, December 16
Chapter 61: How Pilgrim Monks Are To Be Received

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

Not all criticism is good. Every person at the door of your
workplace, home or monastery has been sent or allowed there by God.
They may even be doing His will unwittingly by their pickiness or
crankiness. That doesn't mean that every single criticism should be
taken to heart. Sometimes the message God sends is positive,
sometimes negative, sometimes merely an exercise in endurance! Trust
me, I worked in the guest house for over 12 years...

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

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

Some of us, too, need to listen to this while putting ourselves in
the role of the one criticizing. At St. Leo, when I was a novice in
the mid 1970's, we had one priest who thought every single homily
should "shake 'em up a bit." Well, yes and no and never at all
times. Most of us had moved through and beyond what he was stuck in
and this resulted in a good deal of frustration for all concerned.

For one thing, he missed the fact that, by now, most of the
community had been "shaken up" quite regularly for 7 years or so,
and not always for the better nor always by the brightest. People
quite rightly got weary of that. He got his chance at first, but it
wasn't long before our only response was annoyance, followed soon
thereafter by relative deafness. ("Oh no, look who's celebrant
today...") He missed the balance and when we miss balances, we
largely fail.

Watch out for terribly angry or unhappy people who work hard-
whether consciously or not- at making everyone else as miserable as
themselves, finding fault with absolutely everything. Such people
will be terribly unhappy and bored in heaven if it really turns out
to be so perfect that they cannot suggest any improvements. These
types set themselves up. After a while, others do not listen to
them, even on the occasions when they are right.

Learn, if you don't already know, how to discount the anger of people like that.
Don't let them destroy your inner peace, you need that too badly!
Strive to never be a person like that. Don't make a life calling out
of shaking people up, they'll get over you fast. But neither should a
timid, uncharitable politeness make you afraid to speak when it is
really necessary and might actually help. Balance, ALWAYS balance!

All of us, guests and hosts, critics and sufferers, need to be
guided by charity and gentleness. I know people with whom talking is
as dangerous as skipping through a field of land-mines. One never
knows what will set them off. The most innocent and sincere
exchange can trigger an explosion.

Monastics must never, never be like that. We must work at
eradicating every possible trace of that in ourselves. Such
pettiness is all too full of self, beyond which, it actually hurts
and harms people. What on earth shall we say to God if He ever asks
us about that?

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

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Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and phsyical health of Aaron, out of
work for another two months from a neck injury and having trouble getting his
workmen's compensation, leaving his with financial problems that could make him
lose his home, plus he has a daughter to support. Extra prayers here!

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

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

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

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

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

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


REFLECTION

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

The Model here is Jesus Himself, washing the feet of His disciples.
That is the ONLY Model for Christian authority, yet how often we can
forget it, sadly this happens in both cloister and world. It happens
in the Church itself, too. What a treasure we deny ourselves and
waste when we do not recall the way Jesus served. No wonder so many
ambitious folks are so unhappy!

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

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

There's another thing both the world and religious life could profit
from learning. Authority in the Holy Rule is not permanent, not even
in the case of an Abbot, whom St. Benedict says may, even ought to
be removed in extremes cases.

So often, in cloister or world, once we have kicked someone
upstairs, we are hesitant to ever put them downstairs again. That
shouldn't be. It gives the person and the community an excellent
potential for learning and teaching humility. Whenever anyone
handles authority
badly, really badly, they should not be rewarded with continued
administration. Alas, that is often not the case.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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

Arseny, off his meds and wandeing, and for Elena, his Mom.

Terry and Gertie, serious marital problems, on the brink of divorce.

Prayers for C. struggling with depression and stress from work, that the
treatments she is receiving will help her to gain perspective and the ability to
cope.

Deo Gratias for the incredibly rapid recovery of Keith, for whom we have prayed.
His return to health has been so quick that he will be sent home before the end
of the week- weeks earlier than his doctors had expected!


Prayers for Tami, Vince's wife, as she flies home from England, for her safe
travel and that the Lord work through her and those who assist in her travels.

Fr. Paul and his family, serious damage as buildings burned to the ground on
their lake property.

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 18, August 18, December 18
Chapter 63: On the Order of the Community

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

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

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


REFLECTION

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

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

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

That inner peace becomes impossible when our primary focus is a
scramble to the top. Archbishop Sheen called ambition "the
ecclesiastical lust" and he was very right. What obsesses us often
comes to enslave and own us outright, a tragic turn of events. Our
thirst ought to be holiness, not power or position.

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

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

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB







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

Marialyce, mourning the passing of her beloved cat, Lucy.

Deo gratias, Tami's travel brought her safe and sound to home.

Sally, nearing recovery from several torn muscles in the shoulder.  Although she
knows she is healing, the pain is still quite bad.  Sally especially asks for
strength, comfort and patience.

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 19, August 19, December 19
Chapter 63: On the Order of the Community

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

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

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

REFLECTION

Relationships between seniors and juniors are a two-way street. The
behavior of one feeds (or stokes the fires!) of the other. Hey, this
is true of all relationships, in every area of life. Want to be
loved? Give respect. Want to be respected? Give love. It may not
work in every instance, but it must be the first means we try and
the only means we never abandon totally.

Though the Holy Rule clearly exempts (in this passage,) the Abbess,
because she represents Christ, the express command that the Abbess
remember why she is treated as Christ is underscored. The Rule is
the Rule and monastics are human. The treatment we give to others tends to
reflect back upon as from a mirror, often with very good reason!

That mirror image can be the key to a LOT of our pain and discomfort
with others. It is not at all uncommon to see people mimic perfectly
the behaviors they complain about most bitterly in others. How many
times do we see one who almost exactly replicates the parent or
sibling at whose hands they have most suffered? And usually all
unawares! If one said to such an individual: "You are being JUST
like so-and-so!" the response would probably be
angry and not slight.

We must all be very, very, very mindful and vigilant that the
behaviors we are hurt by or angered by or loathe do NOT show up in
our own tool kits. If they do, there is a double result. Not only do
we fail morally at charity, but we isolate ourselves socially from
the very people who might be able to help us. It becomes a vicious
circle, creating the loneliness we complain of and fear.

When your buttons are pushed and you are very annoyed, examine the
behavior that set you off VERY, very carefully. Many times it is our
own faults in others that most offend us! This is easily seen in
those around us reacting to what they themselves loathe (and image!)
but it is much harder to see in ourselves. Don't give up this effort
and self-inventory! It is an important part of the monastic struggle.

Try with all your might never, ever to pass pain on. It is very hard
at times, but all of us know the unlovely examples of the many who
are all too determined, even glad to make sure that their pain gets
spread around. There is no shortage of such nonsense in the world.
Don't duplicate services!


Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

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Prayers for Br. Dunstan of Pluscarden, being ordained a priest today. (I got the
date wrong earlier.)

Prayers for our Br. Bernard and all our Bernards on their patronal feast. Many
graces and blessings for all.

Prayers for John Marek, scheduled to be executed in Florida. If no stay is
granted, for his eternal rest.  Prayers, too, for  his victim and her loved
ones.

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

Br. Jordan, CoS. He is unexpectedly having open heart/bypass surgery Wednesday .

successful surgery for Barbara, and that she will be cancer-free, and for her
cousin, Jean, who asks for the prayers.

Also pray for the repose of the soul of Leon, who has now died, and for his
brother Kent and Sister-in-law Claire.

Alex, travelling overnight to the UK with a 9 month and a 28 month old by
herself.  May God calm her anxieties and may she find helpful people around her
and may the babies sleep!

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

April 20, August 20, December 20
Chapter 64: On Constituting an Abbess

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

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

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

REFLECTION

Let me hasten to assure you that, in Abbot Hugh of Pluscarden, we
have such a wonderful father that I proudly forwarded this
reflection to him
the first time it ran. Ad multos annos!!

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

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

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

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

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB






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Please remember that I send out the Holy Rule a day early. John Marek, the
condemned convict for whom I asked prayers is scheduled to be executed at 6pm,
Aug. 19, today. So, please, prayers for his happy death and final repentance,
and also, of course, for his victim and her loved ones. Thanks. JL

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Prayers for the eternal rest of John Marek, who was executed last night, and for
his accomplice Raymond Wigley, who was murdered in prison some years ago, and
especially for their victim: Adella Simmons, 47, mother of two and for all who
mourn her. Marek's last statement was "Jesus, remember us sinners," followed by
the Lord's Prayer. He had met with an Episcopalian minister before his death.

Prayers, please, for two speakers at the ACT conference in Sept. who work with
death row inmates and victim's families, and for more attendees at the
conference.

Prayers, please, for Brianna and her 10-week-premature son, Elijah, who was
delivered last night by emergency C-Section and is in Neonatal ICU, and for
Brianna's mother Taffy, and her grandmother Pat, who requests the prayers.

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

April 21, August 21, December 21
Chapter 64: On Constituting an Abbess

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


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


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


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


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


REFLECTION

<Very tongue in cheek tone here!>
"Man, these chapters are a joy to read! Not a better way to call to
mind every slightest flaw in one's superior. They just do not
measure up to St. Benedict's ideal. No doubt, if we had people in
authority who did all this, we should all be better.... " Ya-da, ya-
da, ya-da...
Maybe yes, maybe no.

OK, now here's the real news, and I am afraid it is neither pretty
nor consoling: re-read the chapter and substitute "monastic" for
every time the word "abbess" occurs. Less than thrilling, right?

Make it worse, substitute any noun that refers to yourself or your
vocation. Try parent or teacher or nurse or supervisor. Whoops! The
whole process becomes stunningly less pleasant, doesn't it?

This one, like so many chapters on officials, is for all of us, not
just the Abbot. Nobody will ever measure up to this loftiness
without grace. While we are waiting for that grace to work, it may
be useful to remember how different people are. There will always be
areas in
which you excel that another doesn't, there will always be those who
do better, those who do worse. What's the common thread? No one is
perfect, no one can even come close without God's love and
unfathomable Mercy.

Love and prayers,
Jerome Leo, OSB


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Pray please for the repose of the soul of Dean a 26 year old who passed away on
Tuesday night in hospital of leukaemia, he was going to be married on Saturday
but they were married last week-end. For his mother Christen his wife and all
who mourn him.

Prayers for the eternal rest of Police Corporal Mike Roberts, killed in the line
of duty, for all his family and all who mourn him, also for Humberto, the man
accused of killing him.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of someone with  worrisome
pressure on back of the eye; may be early glaucoma, more tests needed and being
done.

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

April 22, August 22, December 22
Chapter 65: On the Prior of the Monastery

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


REFLECTION

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

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

One reason we took obedience upon ourselves was our knowledge of our
own weakness. This knowledge can fade and dim with time, we can be
convinced we know better. Religious obedience is a real protection from harm.
Benedictines not only are not in charge of themselves, but, as the Holy Rule
defines cenobitic community life, they "desire" this lack of control.
They "desire to live under a Rule and an Abbot."

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB



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Deo gratias, Alex and her two infants had a good flight, babies slept and many
offered their help.

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Kory, 36, who
had a stroke last night and is bleeding from his brain. The doctors are unable
to find where the bleeding is coming from. Also pray for his wife, who found him
on the floor in the middle of the night, their three young children and friends
and family members.

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

April 23, August 23, December 23
Chapter 65: On the Prior of the Monastery

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


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


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


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


REFLECTION

St. Benedict gives a loftiness of respect to the Abbess that is
almost scary at times. Because of that loftiness, it is refreshing
to see how firmly he has his feet planted in reality checks, too.
The Abbot is human, so are those he appoints. They are called to
things higher, but they can fail them woefully and St. Benedict provides
for those occasions.

But the big reality check here is his caution that the Abbess must
be careful to avoid jealousy. Wow! Right on the mark, but not the
first idea that would have popped into someone's head unless they
had lived in community.

Jealousy, like any vice, isn't good for much, but let's mine the few
treasures of information it or any vice offers. Our jealousies (and other
vices,)
tell us a lot about ourselves, a lot about how far we have to go, a lot
about how terribly short we fall of having made it! Skip the Abbess
and Prioress for a minute here and do some self-inventory. Of whom
or of what are you jealous?

Check out the valuable leads of your own envy. What's going on here?
Is she better looking, thinner, richer? Does he have a better
education? Is the car in the next drive or the house on the next
block or the apartment on the floor above so much nicer that you
pine for it? All of these, wherever you find them, are clues. Follow
them carefully to their source. You may be surprised at what you
learn about yourself by doing so.

Be a bit relentless here. WHY are you jealous of a given thing or
person? Really! Do the better looks mean they have more of a chance
than you have (or had,) in the marriage market? OK, valid, perhaps,
but why is the marriage market an issue? The things we desire or
envy are not always as valid as we think they are. Your own average
looks or lower economic status may have spared you from a LOT of
superficiality in dating or friendship. Ever think of that? Keep
digging on every count and you will find some startling self-truths.

Try (and I know this is hard from personal experience,) examining
the things you think are woeful deprivations as tender mercies. They
often are, perhaps even usually so! Our wishes are not necessarily
infallible heralds of the good or the best.

God often has to protect us from ourselves. When we force ourselves
to finally see that, we can get down to the more important business
of thanking Him for His infinite and unfathomable Divine Mercy! All
truly is mercy and grace. It must be, somehow. The clincher is to
learn to see that!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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Deo gratias, for Mar, who renewed her teaching job with no hours cut.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Eileen, rotator cuff
surgery on Monday, and for all her loved ones and all who take care of her.

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

April 24, August 24, December 24
Chapter 66: On the Porters 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

PARADISUS CLAUSTRALIS! The Cloistered Paradise!*

* Until the cloisters are inhabited by real angels, as opposed to
VERY human saints in process, certain restrictions may apply!!!

My life had gotten me resigned to shopping many times a week,
sometimes even daily. If the guest house was busy, I lacked
refrigerator space to store a full week's milk and we were always
running out of other things, too. I only offer this as a preface to
what I'm about to say to many busy Oblates. It has often been hard,
well-nigh impossible for me to do what I am suggesting, but the times
I have made it are rich and rare!

This idea of self-sufficiency, of everything one needs within the
enclosure, is a great boon. Even if you are as haphazard in habits
as I am, try to carve a day or two or three when you DON'T have to
go out for anything once you get home, or a day off when there is no
reason at all to leave your home. If you don't already know it, you
will soon find that these days are treasures. Doesn't matter if the
kids are home and noisy as ever, there is a certain solitude and
security that being self-contained, even for a day, engenders and it
is wonderful.

Remember all that talk about stability? Benedictines are, at the
root, homebodies of sorts. We thrive and blossom in the solitude and
security of homes, wherever they may be. That's why these days of
not going out become so precious. They are times of freedom and
growth
for us and that's exactly what monastic struggle is about: offering
us the freedom to grow and bloom!

You cannot gag the kids and tie them up for the day, tempting as
that may sometimes seem! But you can leave the phone unplugged or
the answering machine turned down and the radio or TV off now and
then. One or all three will heighten the sense of secure enclosure
in the warmth of your own space.

After all, the Desert Fathers used to say: "Stay in your cell and
your cell will teach you everything." That won't usually happen at
first, we have to learn to listen to our homes. Once we do, we will
find that they will, indeed, teach us subtly and almost non-stop!

Our various enclosures, even those urban apartments, offer us a
reprieve from the rush and bustle of the world around us and we
gradually learn to love that respite dearly. Please, for your own
sake, for your family's sake, for your spouse's sake, find a way to
spend a day entirely at home. Then, as you grow into it, find ways
to increase the number of those days! I am certain you will want to
do so!

By the way, if your home ever gets to teaching you so much that it's
making you crazy, remember that is probably because a nerve has been
touched. It might be wise to check which one! And one more thing:
learn to treasure those whose needs interrupt or trash your day of
cloister. They are gifts, too.

Christ often comes in very distressing disguises. Rejoice! (I know,
I know....) Monastics reveal a LOT about themselves by the way they
handle those who disturb their prayer, silence, or solitude. Much of
it is often not pretty. Don't go there! Kindness, always kindness
and mercy. A smile will draw more people to Christ than a scornful
glare.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB

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Deo gratias, Keith, for whom we prayed is looking and feeling great.

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

Dale, painful oral surgery this week and extra patience for his wife, Rae.

K., prostate cancer, surgery pending.

Ann's granddaughter, 13, seizure of unknown causes recently, EEG scheduled.

Evalyn, who has been having more than her share of painful accidents .. nothing
too serious but handicapping  ... tomorrow, Tuesday is her birthday.

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

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
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
jeromeleo@...

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Deo gratias and thanks prayers, Eileen's rotator cuff surgery went well,
continued prayers for her recovery.

Prayers for the eternal rest of Br. Sebastian Kuhn, OSB, 87, of St. Procopius
Abbey, Lisle, IL, and for his Community and all who mourn him.

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

Jim, 53, prostate cancer, hopefully found early enough, and for his wife and
three children.

Jenny, Don, Beth . Very serious problems and a lot of spiritual warfare going
on.

Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best/ All is mercy and
grace. God is neve 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

This chapter, I think, holds even more for Oblates in the world
than it does for monastics. There aren't many superiors around
today who insist on the impossible as a personal hobby, nor are
the "impossible" tasks asked of one in the monastery likely to
compare very favorably with some of the things people in the world
are asked to do. Those things often come from God directly or
indirectly, by His will or His permission, so argument isn't going
to be extremely helpful. All that one can do is apply the last
three phrases of this chapter to the situation, often with trembling and with
gritted
teeth!

"...let the subject know that this is for her good, and let her
obey out of love, trusting in the help of God." That is a
dauntingly tall order! The people who keep this Rule in their
hearts are, let us be frank, practicing heroic virtue. How touching
it is to sometimes see their humility. Far from complaining, they
apologize that they questioned, struggled, or plodded through
without much feeling!! Hello??!? That's nothing short of fabulous
and would be humanly impossible without very great cooperation with
God's grace.

"...KNOW that this is for her good," not believe or trust, but
know. WOW! That takes a tremendous act of faith. Often hindsight
can help here. One can look back at other presumed tragedies and
see the hand of God's love clearly in retrospect. This, however, is
often not easily possible when the first tragedy hits, nor is it
easy when the latest cross is so utterly overwhelming that one can
be tempted to think that this time is a BIG exception.

God is not an archer, capriciously shooting arrows of meanness into
a world of chaos. Ain't true, couldn't be. Some of what we dread
may be willed by God, a lot of it is merely permitted by Him. Has
to be. Face it, in a world tainted by original sin, letting things
unfold
as they will while protecting free will zealously is not an easy
task! There's a lot of hands off areas here.

However, many of the saints taught that even the wicked further
God's will, whether they know it or want to or not. (St. Faustina
comes to mind, for a recent example.) In other words, even with
wicked agendas of their own, they unwittingly participate in God's
master plan. Now there's a tough one to wrap your finite mind
around, but I think it's true.

God is the ONLY force that can change evil to good, to triumph. He
is the only One Who can not only make evil's consequences tolerable
for those who love Him, but even make them profitable victories!
All things really do work together for the good if one loves God. We
need to own and know with all our hearts and might that this
one "hands on" area is always and everywhere true. Always.

"...let her obey out of love." Whoa!! We will spend most of our
lives working on that one, but, as Benedictines who must always
strive to do better, we cannot put off working on it till later. We
need, however blindly, to seek the way of loving obedience. When we
cannot
find it at first, God, Who knows better than we how hard it is,
receives our trust and intention as great, great things of merit.

God loves us on the way, all the way. Never forget that. The love
of a mother for a 3 year old child's accomplishment is the same as
it is for that same child who may later graduate summa cum laude
from Oxford. Same mother, same kid, different times. God's love
never
fails. His delight is tailored to our limitations, just as a
mother's heart sees a three year old scrawl for what it is truly
worth.

"...trusting in the help of God." Trust can be unspeakably hard,
and is made the more so by the many times humans and history have
betrayed our trust. We become fearful and wary after many human
hurts. Unfortunately, this impedes our ability to trust even God,
Who is incapable of betraying us. Yes, Jesus has His human nature,
but He is sinless, utterly and
completely. He will never, ever abandon us.

St. Faustina said that even if the ground beneath her feet were to
drop away, she would still trust Him. That's a way off for most of
us, but a worthy goal which we should long to achieve. Trust like
that is the herald of great sanctity. And great sanctity is our
call!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB




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+PAX

Prayers for the eternal rest of Fr. Ansgar Schepers OCist, 46, of Kloster
Stiepel, Germany, and for his Community and all who mourn him.

Deo gratias, the anonymous woman whose eye problems we prayed for has received a
clean bill of health, the pressure went down and it is not glaucoma.

Prayers for the spiritual, mental and physical health of Tracey and Rob, who
have been trying for ten years to start a family. Tracey is now 30 weeks
pregnant and has been rushed into hospital with complications; the family is
devistated. Prayers for all their loved ones and all who take care of them.

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

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

In one of his tapes of lectures given to formation classes at
Gethsemani, Merton speaks of a loneliness at the core of each
monastic that cannot be touched and OUGHT not to be touched. In
saying that, he articulated one of those sensed things that one
learns (hopefully!) by osmosis in monastic community. Hearing him I
had both the sense of "Wow! I never heard that before!" and also
knowing that I knew exactly what he meant, just had never talked
about it. It's just one of those things we rather "know" without
putting into words very often. Goes with the territory.

In every monastic struggler, from newest Oblate to Abbot Primate,
this place of aloneness- and sometimes loneliness- exists. It must
exist. It must be protected. It is at the very root of our
name: "monos" alone, solitary. (Yes, I am aware that "monos" is
sometimes rendered more in the sense of single-minded, having one
purpose, in the sense of purity of heart, but I think the more
general opinion holds with "alone.")

This is a breathtakingly sacred place of solitude, where, like
Jacob, we wrestle with God and with ourselves. It is the place
where all those unlovely things we have to confront in ourselves
are first displayed. It is part and parcel of the original monastic
way: alone
with God.

It is what we have retained of the Desert. It may be the only place
left to many of us where we are like St. Antony the Great,dwelling
alone in the tombs. It can often be no less smelly and scary than
the tombs, too! Sigh... the place where we gradually meet our
true selves not always a cloistered paradise!

Preserving this necessarily inviolate solitude is what this chapter
is all about. No matter how much one loves another monastic, one
must know to leave this place alone. This is the place where every
monastic must be a stand-alone grown up before God, with no
defenders, no co-dependency, no illusions on the part of those who
may think they are doing a favor by taking one's part. I think most
of us dwelling in monasteries know this almost by instinct. We
know, somehow, the place beyond which one must not go. To go there
imperils both parties in many, many ways.

This does not impoverish relationships, though it does limit them.
We can have very, very dear friends who are married and know fully
well that there are places in their hearts and lives we must not go.
So it is with monastics. In each of us there is this (pardon the
bridal
imagery,) "married" place where others dare not meddle.

This is the love of realism. I cannot "love" my brother by taking
from him the very arena from which monastic growth springs. If I do
so, I am defeating him and defeating myself. No, we must love in
truth, and that is not always easy. We must desire firmly the best
for those we love, and it is so easy for the self to get in the way
of those desires.

Married people, no doubt, could also attest that in a healthy
couple, there are still places like this, places of adulthood all
alone which are not touched, cannot be touched. It is the
existential one-on-one with God that we all have to one degree or
another. What monasticism hopes to do is to teach us the frightening
boon that we have in such solitary adulthood. It is the time we get real.
It is the moment of Truth. And Jesus did, after all, say: "I am the Truth."
What an encounter both terrifying and sublime!



Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB
Jeromeleo@...



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

+PAX

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

Charlie who is suffering so bad from Alzheimer's.  Prayers for the family who
are helpless and suffering emotionally.

Baby Elijah, for whom we prayed last week (born 10 weeks early and in Neonatal
ICU) is now bleeding in his brain.  They are just watching it at the moment. 
Please pray for him, his mother Brianna who had him by emergency C-section, his
grandmother Taffy, and his great-grandmother Pat who asks for the prayers.

Mary Ann, in surgery now for coronary bypass, is a poor surgical risk due to
numerous other conditions, and is not doing well.

Deo gratias for Tracey and her baby.... the little baby girl was born very tiny
but not in need of incubator and mother is doing well after her C-section.

Marjorie who had melanoma surgery on her face on Monday.  They had to take more
on Tue. and more again today.  She won't hear until today if they are done and
she can begin plastic surgery on Friday.

Dianna, spreading cancer.

Ann, heart trouble especially bad.

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

April 28, August 28, December 28
Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random

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


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



REFLECTION

"Every occasion of presumption shall 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 workplace or planet 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. Consumerism and secularism at levels which are
dangerously opposed to religion promote this fallacy at every turn.
The lie is sold that one can be happy, even happiest, without
Christ, without religion. Even Christians subconsciously buy into
more of this nonsense than they often realize. This baggage sneaks
up on us in very subtle ways. We must be equally mindful and
cautious
to perceive it!

Non-western cultures often have a much more highly developed sense
of sharing and commonality. The stresses of profit and production
are incongruous to many a more pristine culture. The self is less
exalted than the common good and the common good
seems to be more readily available to all. Face it, when the Amazon
hunters come home, the elderly eat as well as anyone else.

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 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 free
in any absolute sense. None of us are.

Every presumed domain of our control which exists on a planet
shared by billions is just that: presumption, of which "every
occasion shall be avoided." 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






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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Senator Ted Kennedy, last brother of
JFK, who died at 77, and for all his family and all who mourn him.

Prayers for Sr. Lany Jo and 14 high school seniors on retreat this weekend.

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

Deo gratias, Mary Ann, whose cardiac bypass surgery we prayed for came through
well. Continued prayers for her rec
overy.

J., whose mental illness we have prayed for, is doing much better, Deo gratias
and continued prayers.

Prayers for a young man in Chicago who just lost his job.

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

April 29, August 29, December 29
Chapter 71: That the Brethren Be Obedient to One Another

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

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



REFLECTION

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?

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.
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 wishes whenever possible, to put self second
and others first.

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.
That ambition 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
pray for them and 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 skunk at a garden party. Anybody can pull that
off with no effort at all. Lots of people 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 on others, but it is
ALSO addictive when done right! One will soon be hunting for ways
to be easy to live with, because every drop of water makes the ocean a tiny bit
less salty, as Bl. Teresa of Calcutta used to say. 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. It attracts, rather
than repels others.

It is very unlikely that you will ever be able to cure a control
freak. Give them a lot of room. Cultivate among your peers an
attitude of complete non-control, of nearly total indifference to
needless detail, rather like the old peace poster that said: "What if they
gave a war and no one came?". Another handy rule of thumb is to let
nothing upset you if it does not offend God.

Maybe, just maybe, the wizard might one day wake up to actually see
that Oz is not with him or 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 dreadful mistake.

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




   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Br. Jerome Leo
   To: holyrule-owner@yahoogroups.com ; holyrule ; mona ; obl ;
benedictinemonasticdiurnal@yahoogroups.com ; rcb
   Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 11:30 AM
   Subject: Holy Rule for Aug. 28


   +PAX

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

   Charlie who is suffering so bad from Alzheimer's.  Prayers for the family who
are helpless and suffering emotionally.

   Baby Elijah, for whom we prayed last week (born 10 weeks early and in Neonatal
ICU) is now bleeding in his brain.  They are just watching it at the moment. 
Please pray for him, his mother Brianna who had him by emergency C-section, his
grandmother Taffy, and his great-grandmother Pat who asks for the prayers.

   Mary Ann, in surgery now for coronary bypass, is a poor surgical risk due to
numerous other conditions, and is not doing well.

   Deo gratias for Tracey and her baby.... the little baby girl was born very
tiny but not in need of incubator and mother is doing well after her C-section.

   Marjorie who had melanoma surgery on her face on Monday.  They had to take
more on Tue. and more again today.  She won't hear until today if they are done
and she can begin plastic surgery on Friday.

   Dianna, spreading cancer.

   Ann, heart trouble especially bad.

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

   April 28, August 28, December 28
   Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random

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


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



   REFLECTION

   "Every occasion of presumption shall 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 workplace or planet 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. Consumerism and secularism at levels which are
   dangerously opposed to religion promote this fallacy at every turn.
   The lie is sold that one can be happy, even happiest, without
   Christ, without religion. Even Christians subconsciously buy into
   more of this nonsense than they often realize. This baggage sneaks
   up on us in very subtle ways. We must be equally mindful and
   cautious
   to perceive it!

   Non-western cultures often have a much more highly developed sense
   of sharing and commonality. The stresses of profit and production
   are incongruous to many a more pristine culture. The self is less
   exalted than the common good and the common good
   seems to be more readily available to all. Face it, when the Amazon
   hunters come home, the elderly eat as well as anyone else.

   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 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 free
   in any absolute sense. None of us are.

   Every presumed domain of our control which exists on a planet
   shared by billions is just that: presumption, of which "every
   occasion shall be avoided." 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






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

+PAX

Prayers for the Companions of St. Luke Abbey of St. Benedict in Donnelson, Iowa
which was flooded. Sugar Creek overflowed and caused a lot of damage to the new
buildings...guest houses, living area for the community and the Abbot's quarters
and the refectory. Two vehicles that were gifts to the Abbey/Abbot were also
lost.

For one with post traumatic stress disorder, that he be able to feel joy at a
significant family event.

Deo gratias, Bob, for whom we prayed, has work guaranteed to him for two years,
he thanks St. Joseph especially for his prayers. Prayers, too, that a large
outstanding debt is paid to Bob, as that will ease his situation considerably.

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

"Evil zeal" ought to catch our attention. We tend to think of zeal
as more or less good, but it is not in every circumstance. There
can be zealous enthusiasm in the service of things other than good,
all too often! There can also be evil zeal, even real cruelty done
in the name of things which are, in themselves, actually good.
Satan loves to dupe people into wickedness in the name of good.
That's important
to remember.

The beginning and end of the Holy Rule are, to me at
least, "sweetheart" chapters. They float and fly with elegance and
grace and prose that stirs the soul. I love literature like that!
I have to take special care when reading either portion that I do
not let my love of beauty carry me away, that I come down to earth
long enough to look at the dreadfully tough (or, in this case,
evil,) things St. Benedict is talking about.

Because we have a tendency to egocentricity, we tend to view evil
zeal as an extreme (which it is!) of the opposing camp, of
those "other" folks, which is not necessarily true. Vices,
extremes, can flourish all too gleefully in just about any
environment, at any point on the spectrum, including our
own hearts! This is a crucial truth.

If we lack this wisdom, it is easy to assume that those who agree
with us are zealously, quite totally wonderful people. Sure
it's nice to have people agree with us and it is very human to enjoy
that, but their agreement is not a trustworthy standard
of "wonderful." Our lack of self-objectivity can blind us there.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that only wicked people have
wicked zeal. Anyone can, just as anyone can be vain or envious or
the victim of their own anger. Vice is no respecter of persons, and
its only antidotes are humility and love.

I know I'm in the presence of evil zeal in ways that are hard for me
to articulate. It's an intuitive feeling for me, a constriction of
the heart, which is understandable, because evil zeal loves to step
on others' hearts. Even feels gloriously justified in doing so! Hey,
let's crush another heart today! Real work of merit
there.... But that is exactly how vice is made possible, by
converting it in the victim's mind into a work of "goodness."

Evil zeal divides, holy zeal unites. Whether is be a Church or
family or monastery or work place (or e mail list!!) you can be absolutely
certain that a needlessly divisive, partisan zeal is not and cannot
be a holy thing. Strong statement? You bet it is. God is One and
God is Love. Whatever leads to unnecessary factional disunity and
needlessly broken hearts, hurt feelings or useless upset is just
flat out wrong, not of God, big trouble.

Evil zeal presumes to look down from above, but only beckons others
downward. Holy zeal looks up from humility and calls all together
upward. The call of evil zeal is selective, while that of holy zeal
is universal. Evil zeal patronizes with condescension, holy zeal
knows better than that. Real sanctity never, ever patronizes.

But the greatest tragedy of evil zeal is its ability to blind its
adherents totally. That may be evidenced by the fact that many of
the people I am writing about here might quite likely drop me a
private post to say how wonderful today's reflection was. Please
don't let that happen to you! Go back, read the whole thing slowly
and then think: "He's writing about me!" Because I am. And I am
writing about me, too. There are evil zeals in everyone of us and
we must fight the darkness of their blindness all of our lives,
rooting them out one by one. But we cannot weed in the dark- we
need at least a little light to see!! I pray that we may all have
Light!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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