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

Earl, in a new job, thanksgiving for past prayers answered, continued prayers
for a matter not yet resolved.

Robin, breast cancer.

Kathy, taken to hospital with chest pains, no insurance, which adfds to her
stress.

Amanda's Dad, possible pneumonia and strep throat, uncontrolled diabetes. The
antiobiotics are not working and his white blood cell count is up.

Fr. Ambrose, belated prayers for his feast day yesterday.

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

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


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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

This chapter may appear to have little to say to Oblates until one
gives a more evangelical twist to it: "where your treasure is, there
your heart shall be also." People in the world require some goods
and income to support their vocations. But treasure must be guided
by moderation in all things.

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

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

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

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

Love and prayers,

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



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

Update on Katie, Lane and their unborn twins: everything went well from a 
surgical standpoint, no bad scenarios, a huge answer to prayer. Long-term
results are pending, so continued prayers for them.

Baby Tristan, in pedi ICU for croup, and for his parents, Kari and Daniel and
grandparents, Linda and Richard.

Andrea, her application for her doctoral program is under review this week.

S., a mother who doesn't want her 7 year old son, N., to have radiation therapy
after brain tumor surgery, worried about its side effects. The matter is in
Court; prayers  for God's will to be done.

Deo gratias, Tim had great serenity in a very traumatic meeting, and thanks all
for their 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 9, August 9, December 9
Chapter 56: On the Abbess's Table

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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





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Deo gratias, Kathy, whose chest pains we prayed for, has only got acute
bronchitis, her heart tests are all OK.

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


April 10, August 10, December 10

Chapter 57: On the Artisans of the Monastery

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love and prayers,

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




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Prayers, please, for Diane, having triple bypass surgery, and for all her loved
ones and all who take care of her.

Prayers for Kristian, on his 24th birthday, and for Joy and Dick, his parents,
and all their family, for graces and happiness for all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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Prayers for the eternal rest of Ken, who passed away after several years of
suffering, and for his spouse and family as they move forward with faith.

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, phyiscal and temporal welfare of the
following, for all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Owen, has an interview that is important.

Bob, had surgery.

Elaine, extensive surgery to try to control her cancer. She has other serious
health problems so will need lots of prayers.

Siobhan and her parents, they have home health aides 24/7, but not sure how long
they can keep up with the expense, and they have some adjustments to make.

Em and Don, failing in health, living alone and insisting on remaining such;
that they realize they are alienating those who love them, and that they both
could use help.

Fred, dealing with serious repercussions of surgery for oral cancer. The biggest
problem is an enormously long blood clot in his leg, which doctors aren't sure
how to treat. Please also include in your prayers his wife, Leslie.

Tom, on his birthday, many more ad multos annos.

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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





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Deo gratias:

Tristan, the baby with croup, is home from the hospital and doing well.
Continued prayers for his recovery.

Sean's Dad completed his radiation for melanoma and docs consider it a  success,
though too early to be sure yet. Continued prayers that he recovers.

Owen's interview went well, he should hear something in a week or so.

Please pray for healing for Darren (early 40's) who recently lost his father,
which sudden event has put him back into a very bad downward spiral of
depression. Darren was hospitalized with depression following service in the
Gulf with the British Army and has never fully got over whatever it was that
happened there. Prayers for his wife and family, too.

Prayers for Dave and Marian on their 31st wedding anniversary.

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB







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Prayers, please, for Christine, surgery for a brain tumor.

Prayers for Earl, who had a stroke.

Prayers for newborn Kenneth Alexander, prayers of thanks, he and his mother are
doing fine, prayers, too, for his parents and great uncle Richard, who asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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Ardent prayers for all the dead in the Connecticut school shooting. 26 dead
included the shooter, apparently by his own hand, and 20 of the dead were
children.
Prayers for all the dead, their families and all who mourn them, and for the
traumatized children and staff who survived. Prayers for our nation, that this
sort of horror doesn't happen again. Prayers for the shooter, too. Prayers that
no one even considers doing such a thing again.

Prayers for Fr. Peter Connelly, OSB, of St. Benedict's Abbey, Still River, MA,
on his 25th jubilee of Ordination. Ad multos annos, many more.

Prayers for Br. Vincent, on his birthday, ad multos annos, many more.

Prayers for Linda C.'s Mom, she does have a recurrence of breast cancer, and for
all her family, they have been through a lot in the past few years.

Prayers for Owen, he didn't get the job from his interviews. Continued prayers
for the job God wants him to have, as this has been a long road for him and his
family.

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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








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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Barbara and her nephew, Will. He is in the hospital with a
serious gall bladder infection that must be cleared up before he can have needed
surgery.

Deo gratias: Emily received a scholarship in a very Providential way. Thanks and
prayers for her and her benefactor and her family.

Prayers for Jimmy, on his birthday, for his eternal rest.

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

PLEASE NOTE:

++A note on the gender in this excerpt of the Holy Rule. I don't switch the
genders, that's the way it comes from St. John's daily reading which I cut
and paste. It is rarely problematic, but today it often gets me posts from Roman
Catholics asking me what gives...

The daily changing genders of pronouns, etc, in the Holy Rule come
from the site at St. John's, not from me. This reading raises some hackles
nearly every year, because it seems to advocate women's ordination. That,
however, is not the case. I follow RC teaching in that regard.
__________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

*[Applicable only to women of some contemporary monastic communities
in the Anglican Communion.]


REFLECTION

The flip side of a visitor having a few good things to point out is
one who has very little good to say at all, carping about everything.
Just as the monastic family is to listen carefully at first to see
which brand of critic they have, here they are warned that the one
who is happy with nothing should be politely asked to leave. It is,
as always, balance. We should fall into neither extreme.

Monasteries and families are very much alike in their innate sense of
being more or less OK. Like families, they can sometimes be mistaken
about this and St. Benedict knows that. However, he also points out
that there are times when that instinctive feeling of being all right
IS right, and a visiting malcontent ought not to disrupt it.

Virtually all of us could use some improvements in our lives,
especially if we have fallen into some of the peculiar habits that
seem to thrive among those who live alone. An outside observer, one
who sees the side of our life previously hidden, can offer some real
help.

However, someone who wants to overhaul us or our lives wholesale, is
not a "suitable suitor" or friend! We must learn to live with and
adapt to others, but I'll bet that many of us who have dated have
known at least one of those who wanted to remake us from the ground
up. Not a good idea!

Religious people can actually be too passive in this respect, quite
easily. All kinds of things might enter into that judgement, but self-
emptying and self-destruction are two different things! A human
relationship is the union of two people, not the total absorption of
one.

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



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+PAX

Prayers for Pat Ciaverella, on her birthday, and continued prayers for her happy
death.

Pryaers for Alicia, on her birthday, ad multos annos.

Prayers for the eternal rest of Fr. Luke Harris, OCSO, 91,  of Mt. St. Bernard
Abbey, UK, and for his community, family and all who mourn him.

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

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


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! All authority, all power
entails responsibility.

Authority, when we hold it, is not about us, it's about them, the
people over whom it is exercised. It's exercise is not about us either, it
is about the folks that authority is meant to serve. Just as a really good
priest or minister "disappears" behind vesture and rubric when serving at the
altar, so should those in authority be. We ought always to be able to
see the common good in them, not a cheap and tacky caricature of a
bad monarch.

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!

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



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the eternal rest of Roger, who died suddenly, and for his
brother, Brian, and all his family and all who mourn him.

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 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

St. Benedict, who has stressed fairness in so many ways, even
equality, also insists on order, hence the title of this chapter. But
it is an order which is largely established by God: the time of
entrance. God calls when He chooses, whomever He chooses. When that
person responds, that, for the most part, is going to determine their
place in community.

Families, too, need order.
We are used to hearing sibling rivalry horror stories that traipse
far into adult life as psychological baggage. How many of them might
have been avoided if, as St. Benedict prescribed for his family,
order was never decided by capriciousness and affection was equal.

Children cannot understand favoritism and rightly so. But a child
could be a bit more comfortable with rewards for good behavior, or for
the merit of their siblings' lives. That might annoy them, true, but at
least it is something they, too, can work towards. Arbitrary
affectional preference is not.

Note that St. Benedict leaves the Abbot free to advance anyone for
his own reasons, but immediately tacks on a warning that the Abbot
must not disturb his flock and that he must give an account of his
stewardship. Abbots are human, not infallible. Human affection can
enter into their choices and St. Benedict warns them against that.

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





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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, physical and temporal wlefare of the
following, for all their loved ones and all who take vcare of them:

Brian, the loss of Roger, his brother, has hit him very hard, continued prayerts
for him and all the family and for Roger's eternal rest.

Mary Jane, who has been living with cancer for a while now, and is getting weak.
She finds this very hard, since she has always been active in our parish.

Rhoda, cardiac complications and anxiety.

a young boy, Matthew, for whom we have prayed before. His emotional problems
have worsened to the point where he is suicidal. His parents, Lisa and Robb, are
taking him to an inpatient setting. Prayers, please, too for his frightened
parents, his twin Nathan, and younger brother Seth.

Brittany who is starting a process called, "Rush Immunotherapy" for her
allergies. Prayers that she does not have an allergic reaction and that the side
effects are not bad.  Also for Brittany and Orest, traveling in the mountains
with a heavy snowstorm and rain, for safe travels.

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

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

It would still annoy me today if, one meant by that phrase nothing
more than all those rather hollow social niceties. Not that there's
anything wrong as such with social niceties, just that I have grown
up in a country where courtesy, "civil" religion and the like often had
precious little to do with faith motives.

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

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

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 not
without very good reason!

So, yes, my dear Abbot Fidelis, hopefully we ARE gentlemen monks (and
gentle monastics period!) No, we are not like some terribly proper and
equally shallow social gathering of "the right sort" of people. Our motives to
courtesy have a theological basis, not merely a social one. But we ARE gentle
and we
are so because of Him Whom we seek and have come to love.

Love and prayers,

Jerome, OSB



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, physical and temporal welfare of the
following, for all their loved ones and all who takke care of them:

Ben, Sarah, & Jacob traveling across country from Arizona for Christmas. Safe
travel as they are driving.

little Myla, in ICU again with serious heart problems, and for her parents,

Simon, who is critically Ill in hospital with pneumonia and broken ribs and leg
and is being fed by tubes after a very serious car accident and another friend
who broke his arm & is feeling guilty after the accident.

Mrs. Service, 50, possibly dying of cancer, and for her seminarian son who has
been called to fly home to be with her. Two other seminarians have lost theiir
mothers this month and another seminarian's father had a serious heart attack.
Prayers for them all.

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

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

Monasteries can forget sometimes that they are not their own, one of
the unavoidable risks of Benedictine autonomy. While it was usual, in
St. Benedict's day, for monasteries to be under their local bishop
(and still is usual in the East today,) St. Benedict says something
even more telling. The local laity should intervene if the monastery
conspires to elect a loser! Now THAT is going a long way!

Monasteries become dear to those around them, and a sense of
ownership for their local monastery arises in many hearts. St.
Benedict actually endorses that. The monk is not his own, but neither
is the whole community. We belong to the Church, we belong to our own
locale, we belong to the people in a very special way. It entitles
them to warn us that we may have gone amiss and it obliges us to
always recall that our monasteries have ripple effects!

Many of us in the workplace or school, some of us even in marriage,
are forced to deal with people who were NOT chosen for their "merit
of life and wisdom of doctrine." That can be very tough, but grace
and the Holy Rule are there to strengthen us.

The single most important thing the one governed can do to thwart bad
government is NOT to mirror the behavior which is at fault. Two
wrongs can never make a right. All too often, for whatever reason,
people push our buttons and get exactly the sick response from us
that they sickly need. Try not to let that happen. Put a control on
your buttons. Never stoop to the level that annoys you, and believe
me, that stooping is easy to do.

Hard and perennial truth, but many of the things which annoy us most
in others are our own sins, in one form or another.We might reflect those
faults in different areas, in different ways, but this can only help
us in denial. Look, look very carefully at the person who makes you
the most angry. Most of us will not have to look honestly for very
long to see why we are affected strongly.

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




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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual, physical and temporal welfare of the
following, fopr all their loved ones and all who take care iof them:

Susan, 51, for the gift of Faith and the right clergy to nurture it.

Brittany and Orest, they had an accident when a deer ran into their car and the
car is not driveable. Deo gratias and prayers of thanks that they were not hurt.
They are a long way from home and from their destination, with many logisitics
to be worked out to get everyone safely home. Prayers that all works out for
them, they are in a real bind.

Sarah, going to job interview in hopes of landing a position much more
satisfying and less stressful - a place where her wonderful God-given talents
may shine.

JS, difficult exams ahead and a number of tough career related decisions.Hope he
is open to the Holy Spirit.

special intention for Beverly,

improved health for Carrie,

special intention for Ben,


Deo gratias for past prayers answered

ardent prayers for Sister E who is under going severe pain and other trials.

Monica, extensive smalll intestine surgery and in ICU.

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

Anyone reading this would perhaps quite rightly think: "Wow!
That's a tall order to fill!" They would, of course, be right.

Now for the clincher: this is not just a model for Abbots, but for
all of us with any authority, in fact, for all of us period. This is
the way Benedictines should treat others, seniors, juniors, all
people. This Christ-like attitude ought to pervade every parent,
teacher, boss, nurse and grocery clerk, all of us. For every one of
us the model here is exquisite. Read it over and over and etch it
into your very heart. This is St. Benedict at his best!

Pay particular attention to the deceptively short paragraph about
not being "excitable and worried," along with its other cautions. Its
warning that such things mean we shall never be at rest is a very
important one. Without such, rest, without a certain level of serenity
and peace, the spiritual journey is very, very tough going, indeed.
We badly need that restful serenity to focus on Christ and the tasks
of our souls at hand.

"Now THAT," he said in an unusually short reflection, "is a REALLY
tall order!" Sure is! You can only do it with grace, with prayer and
God's all-merciful help.

Love and prayers,

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








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+PAX

Prayers for Fr. David, on the 60th anniversary of his ordination, ad multos
annos, many more!

Pryares for the spirirtual, physical and tempoiral welfare of the following, for
all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Nathan Charles, a young boy with terminal cancer.

Linda, spinal cancer.

Louise, lung cancer.

Kathy, liver cancer.

Alicea, for whom we have been praying for a new job, starts New Year's Eve in
the same career field, with better benefits. Deo Gratias indeed!
Thanks to all who prayed. Alicea  requests prayer for her son, Josh, that he
begins to act with self-discipline, wisdom and circumspection, especially as he
is nearing the end of high school.

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

Why does it lead to ruin? Because manipulation to some degree puts us
in charge of ourselves, something no child and very, very few
monastics are strong enough to be. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux
said: "The one who has himself for a master has a fool for a
disciple." One reason we took obedience upon ourselves was our
knowledge of our own weakness. This knowledge can fade and dim with
time, we can be convinced we know better. Our obedience is a real protection
from harm.
Benedictines not only are not in charge of themselves, but, as the
Holy Rule defines cenobitic community life, they "desire" this lack
of control. They "desire to live under a Rule and an Abbot."

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

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








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Deo gratias and prayers of thanks for:

Peter and Ann on their 40th wedding anniversary. Graces galore and ad multos
annos!

Andrea received an invitation to interview for her doctoral program. Continued
prayers for her through this process.

Brittany and Orest are safe at her mom's house, prayers for their long drive
back, may it be safe.

Ben, Sarah, and Jacob arrived safely last night from Arizona. They return after
New Years', prayers for the journey back.

prayers for the spiritual, physcal and temporal welfare of the following, for
all their loved ones and al who take care of them:

Elaine and Craig, showing their house for sale and hoping to get an offer.

Katie who has been diagnosed with very high blood pressure and is under much
stress due to moving to Kentucky.
Ralph, he has a second interview with GetWellNetwork tomorrow. He has been out
of work since this summer.

Kathy going in for second eye surgery, had first week of Thanksgiving, for
speedy recovery.

Sandra recovering from a foot injury.

M.A., a wonderful teenager who is experiencing some emotional issues. Prayers
for her and her family, that they may find the right counselor to help her
through this troubling time.


Update on the unborn twins we asked prayers for a little over two weeks ago -
the babies had successful surgery, Baby B is almost as big now as Baby A, mother
who has been on strict bed rest was given the OK by her doctors for 'light duty
around the house. She will go back for another ultrasound right after the first
of the year.


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

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

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


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


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


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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

Second, every commitment to Christ, Baptism, Oblation or Profession,
obliges us to a higher standard of self-control. The Holy Rule,
because speaking of a superior official, uses the phrase "raised above the
rest." This is given as a reason to more carefully observe the Holy Rule.

We should read therein that ANY commitment which separates us
and sets us further apart for the service of God means that we must
more carefully observe the precepts of the Rule. Even though it can
be quite annoying to hear, how often someone will say, immediately
after a litany of transgressions the person has committed, "And she
is an OBLATE!" (Or Franciscan Third Order, or whatever.) People
expect more of us because of our religious inclinations and we should
not disappoint them.

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

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB




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Prayers for Sarah B., very sick, and for her parents.

Pryares for Pam, in her 40s and the mother in a beautiful faith-filled family
with 3 children (10,12, 15). She has a diagnosis of end-stage pancreatic cancer.
She began chemotherapy to have time to say farewells, but is only expected to
live a few months. "We aren't counting on a miracle," says her husband John,
"but we will gladly accept one."  Prayers for all her family, too.

Some people want to make an offer on Elaine and Craig's home, but have to sell
their condo first, prayers that all goes well and they get an offer.

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 24, August 24, December 24
Chapter 66: On the Porter of the Monastery

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

When a phone or doorbell rings, whether in a great Benedictine abbey
or an urban Benedictine apartment, we have the opportunity to
practice the hospitable grace that the Holy Rule requires of all.
Dorothy Day's friend and mentor, Father Hugo, used to say that we
love God as much as the one we love the least.

That would readily translate for me. I LOVE to see certain guests arrive,
look forward to it as soon as I hear they are coming. Those are not the
receptions on which I should judge my hospitality. The tough-to-love
ones are.

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

Someone who calls a monastery for the first time can be driven
away or attracted by the way they are dealt with on the phone.
A vocation could driven away by a smartingly cold response. To
risk alienating someone because of our own moods might mean that we
cheat someone out of a spiritual respite they sorely need.

I can't tell you how many people who just called us out of nowhere in the
last 12 years have become real members of our family, greatly
beneficial to themselves and to us. Anyone of those first experiences
could have been irreparably soured by a cranky phone manner. Look at
what all of us would have lost had that happened.

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



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A Blessed Christmas to all! Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Continued prayers for Mrs. Service and her son and family, she has been
improving.

Prayers for Martin, that a serious problem with chronic vandalism to his car be
resolved. Neighbors are suspects, but nothing can be proven so far. Prayers for
their conversion, 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 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
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
Petersham, MA






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Prayers for William, intestinal mass and treatment not yet decided on.

Prayers for Rev. Victoria and her Church. Her Church was burglarized badly just
before Christmas.

Prayers for the eternal rest of Oh Jang Kyun, who died after being in a coma for
a month folwing a car accident. None of the family has any religious faith,
apparently neither did Oh Jang.

Why not this year make a new tradition: pray for your "Christmas list", that is
all people with whom you exchanged Christmas greetings, all through
Christmastide. It is a warm and loving custom.

Prayers, please, for all who have lost someone dear over the holidays. It
can be so awful for them and then the pain can recur year after year. Prayers,
too, for all those addicts for whom this season of feasting in food and drink
can be a particularly trying time of temptation. May God bless and strengthen
them all. Lord, help us all as You know and will. God's will is best. All
is mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watch people fight and it will be easy to see that many consider any
slight or offense against themselves to be THE original sin. Sigh...
Give people like that a lot of room. Being wrong is not a capital
offense, everybody does it at one time or another. People who
demonstrate anything else by their actions damage their own standing
in the group as well, and rightly so.

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

Now THAT'S creative peacemaking!

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








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

April 27, August 27, December 27
Chapter 69: That the Monks Presume Not to Defend One Another

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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Craig and Elaine got an offer on their home, but many things have to be worked
oiut and fall in place before the move can be made, so prayers all goes
smoothly.

Prayers for Rev. George McLellan, for his eternal rest and all who mourn him.

Prayers for Maddie, auditioning  for a very good Charter School in music.

Prayers, please, for all we exchanged Chrtistmas gifts or cards or greetings
with this year.

Prayers, too, for N. and N., special intentions

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Jen and Keith. they just lodt their baby to a miscarriage, prayers for all
three.

Prayers  for the eternal rest of Jerry who died suddenly on 12-27-12 of a heart
attack. For his wife Alice and their adult children Andrea and Jeremy.

Special intentions for D,H.

Prayers for Leah, 3 ½ months that she will carry this child to full term, she
lost one earlier this year through miscarriage.

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

Well, giving a break is exactly what is intended here. The Kingdom of
God, which the Holy Rule seeks to guide us to, is ruled by love.

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

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

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

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

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB





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+PAX

Prayers for Sr. Lany Jo, ASCJ, recovering from knee and torn cartilage surgery.

Prayers for the happy death of Mrs. Service, she has cancer in her lungs and
breasts and has been sent home to die. Prayers for all her family, 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 30, August 30, December 30
Chapter 72: On the Good Zeal Which They Ought to Have

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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+PAX

Prayers for Tracy. She lost her electric from the snowstorm; and she and her
children were staying with in-laws. On her way there her car broke down. It is a
major problem. $2000.00 to fix. They took her home last night and her pipes have
broken. The pipes need to be fixed. She needs deliverance.

Prayers for Alan, cardiac arrest this morning, in ICU in induced coma, prognosis
not good, he was without oxygen to his brain and they can't tell yet if there is
brain damage or not. Prayers for his family, too.

Prayers for Jim, involved in a horrific car accident  in which a car jumped the
median and ran full-force into Jim's car, causing multiple serious injuries. At
present they are trying to keep him alive.

Prayers for C., experiencing anger, bitterness and resentment in her life, along
with some joy.

Mrs. Service is doing better again, having ups and downs, prayers for whatevere
God wills for her, and prayers for her family.

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

"Whoever you are..." I don't care who you are or how much I disagree
with you, whether I nearly hate your positions or love them blindly,
it is you I am called to love, to honor to respect, to cherish as a
fellow monastic traveler. You matter to me. You do. You have to,
because this is the Holy Rule I have embraced, that we all have.

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

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

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

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

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







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+PAX

A Happy and Holy New Year to all, may 2013 be filled with graces and blessings!

Prayers for Kaitlyn, 16, a very confused girl who ran away from home before
Christmas, for her safety and safe return.

Prayers for Sadie, 7, just had a heart transplant, for her recovery, her family
and for the eternal rest of her donor and all the donor's family and those who
mourn him or her.

Prayers for Father Travis' Mom. She got dizzy, fell and broke her leg. She is in
the hospital and they are running tests.

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

January 1, May 2, September 1

Prologue

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

The Holy Rule is quite direct about stating that this time, it is not about
the perfect ones: the center of its focus is the rest of us! Now there's a
refreshingly upside down and all too rare world view!

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



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+PAX

The Christmas Octave is over, but the season of Christmastide lasts till the
Baptism of the Lord, later this month, so keep on praying for those you have
exchanged greetings, cards or gifts with. Make your intentions include those of
years past, too, a nice way to include in prayer thosse dear ones no longer with
us.

Prayers, please, for vocations to St. Mary's Monastery. Please ask God to send
us some good men in 2013.

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

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

Let us arise, then, at last,
for the Scripture stirs us up, saying,
"Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep" (Rom. 13:11).
Let us open our eyes to the deifying light,
let us hear with attentive ears
the warning which the divine voice cries daily to us,
"Today if you hear His voice,
harden not your hearts" (Ps. 94:8).
And again,
"Whoever has ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Matt. 11-15; Apoc. 2:7).
And what does He say?
"Come, My children, listen to Me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 33:12).
"Run while you have the light of life,
lest the darkness of death overtake you" (John 12:35).

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the following, for
all their loved ones and all who take care of them:

Sarah who goes for a second job interview, seeking a new position to improve the
quality of life for herself and for her family.

Owen, a new job appliaction in a search which has been very long for him.

Carol, stress test on Friday. She has been having cardiac issues and may need a
pacemaker-defibrillator.

Katie, a courageous young woman who has been battling cancer from age 22 to her
present age of 29. The cancer is still there but the last treatments have made
her too weak to address it. She receives results from a PET scan this Friday.

P., life in chaos as his marriage ends, needs to sell his house and get some
balance back in his spiritual life and for his wife and their two grown kids.

Nola who is having a knee replacement on the 4th.

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

January 3, May 4, September 3
Prologue

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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








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+PAX

Prayers, please, for our Prioress, Mother Mary Elizabeth, on her feastday:
graces galore and many more! Prayers, too, for all celebrating St. Elizabeth Ann
Seton as their patron, and for the eternal rest of Br. Aelred Seton.

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

January 4, May 5, September 4
Prologue

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

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

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

Everything good, in every way is all from God, not us. We dare glory
in nothing but Him, for we would be less than nothing without His
grace acting in us. He is the Source that allows us to be good.

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

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





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+PAX

Prayers for Amanda, 27, Aubrey, 5, and Bailey, 15, all of whom died in a house
fire, and all their family and all who mourn them, also for two others in the
hospital after the fire.

Brad and Alicia and their newborn twin girls, Ayla and Bryn, each weighing under
three pounds at birth and multiple health issues. Both losing wieght, too.

Prayers for Craig that he gets house listings and sales for his real estate. The
situation is becoming dire as he cannot pay mortgage, etc. Also prayers for
Craig whose back went into spasms last night, probably from the stress. He can
hardly move.


Prayers for Brittany and Orest flying back to BC this morning, for a safe trip
and for the insurance for the car accident they had coming for Christmas to be
worked out.


Prayers for healing for all of Elaine's family relationships as there has been
some stress and hurt feelings.


Prayers for Father Francis, discerning whether to leave the priesthood that he
is given the strength to stay a priest.

Deo gratias: Carol had a good     stress test and her daughter, Melissa, got a
tuition grant to go to school.

Prayers for Doug, in the hospital with a severe diabetic ulcer on his foot, may
need surgery, MRI pending.

Prayers, please, for Jo; really tough examinations and an even tougher job
situation.


Deo gratias for past prayers answered

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

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

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All joking aside, great thanks are due to many of our Oblates and
guests, all of whom make ours a shared ministry of hospitality. This
great team effort results in people being a lot more comfortable here! Say
a prayer of thanks with me for all of them! All of them help us receive
Christ at our door.

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







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+PAX

At last, with the 6th on Sunday, Epiphany falls on its traditional date! A
blessed Epiphany to all, as well as the rest of Christmastide. Don't forget to
pray for those on your Christmas list, Christmas isn't over till the feast of
the Baptism of the Lord.


Prayers for the following:

Tom,  in hospice in Tampa.

For healing in a special situation.

Healing for Bob & back injury, depression.

Michael, leaving for the Navy.

Healing for Max & strength for his family.

Sister Pat, that she be blessed in her work with Union Hill School Children.

Prayers for the eternal rest of Robert, 76, a great teacher, and for all his
family and all who mourn him.

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

January 6, May 7, September 6
Prologue

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

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

REFLECTION

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

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

The morning offering is considered rather passe in some Roman
Catholic circles. One actually wonders why, in an age that loves
computers with tons of memory, hard drives that do all the work for
us, even more work than our own minds could dream of doing. I have
12,000 names in a data base I built on royal genealogy, a favorite
hobby. One click and a few seconds will tell me how any two of them
are related, even up to mind-boggling relationships like eighteenth
cousin three times removed. It will start at a point like that and
then list all lesser relationships, until common ancestors are all
depleted. No way I could EVER do that. The morning offering, however,
makes computer ability look like shooting fish in a barrel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MORNING OFFERING

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

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

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

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

here's the URL. Enjoy!

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



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