+PAX

Redoubled prayers, please, for John and Anne, his wife. He is having a very
tough at home recovery from colon surgery and needs all our prayers very much.
Courage, John!  You are not alone! Prayers, too, for Tom of Rapid City's son and
three of his high school friends. The three friends were seriously injured in a
car accident. Prayers, too, for all my millions (literally!) of forebears who
said yes to each other [ and maybe a few who didn't, who knows that far back?]
and to my parents. Were it not for them, I wouldn't be here celebrating my 55th
birthday, nor would I have any chance at being exactly who I am without all of
you and a lot of other fine people whose lives have molded my own. Prayers for
all of them and all of you! Deep thanksgiving to God and all concerned! God's
will is BEST!  ALL is mercy and grace!  God is NEVER absent! Thanks so much!  JL


February 2, June 3, October 3
Chapter 7: On Humility

The fifth degree of humility
is that he hide from his Abbot none of the evil thoughts
that enter his heart
or the sins committed in secret,
but that he humbly confess them.
The Scripture urges us to this when it says,
"Reveal your way to the Lord and hope in Him" (Ps. 36:5)
and again,
"Confess to the Lord, for He is good,
for His mercy endures forever" (Ps. 105:1).
And the Prophet likewise says,
"My offense I have made known to You,
and my iniquities I have not covered up.
I said: 'I will declare against myself my iniquities to the Lord;'
and 'You forgave the wickedness of my heart'" (Ps. 31:5).

REFLECTION

A caution here: the Holy Rule uses the Septuagint version's numbering
of the Psalms, not the Hebrew. Since most Bibles today use the latter
system, even many Catholic editions, you might find that the Psalm
referred to in this passage, which I strongly recommend you read
through, is 32, not 31.

Psalm 31 (32) is a wonderful exposition of sin and forgiveness. It
begins by recounting the joy of one whose sin has been forgiven, then
proceeds to unfold how concealing sin affects one and confessing sin
heals one. In vv. 3-4, immediately prior to the 5th verse St.
Benedict quotes, we find the following: "I kept it secret and my
frame was wasted. I groaned all the day long for night and day Your
hand was heavy upon me. Indeed, my strength was dried up as by the
summer's heat."

How do we know- or think we know- when a person is hiding something?
There are all kinds of human, natural signs, verbal and nonverbal
messages, body language, the whole lot! This is far afield of
theology. We're talking crime novels here! There is something rooted
in our human nature that makes guilty concealment affect both our
behavior and others' perceptions.

Guilty secrets control us, they rob us of our freedom, they destroy
our peace. Long before one's frame is wasted (though that, too will
eventually happen,) one's mind and spirit are trashed, laid low by
the relentless fear of discovery. It's very true that one can run,
but not hide.

What the guilty one is fleeing is within herself, and
travels right along with her. Ever see a news clip about a fugitive
who successfully hid for decades and then was caught? I wonder what
kind of life they had in the meantime, a life never free, a life that
always had to fear. This garbage is not what Jesus called us to.

We cannot be Benedictines without serenity and peace. It will not
happen. The tracks of our lives have a reasonable number of railway
switches that must be set correctly, or we will wind up stalled on a
siding. This confession is one of those switches.

One may not belong to a tradition which practices sacramental
confession, but all of us need the abscesses of our secret guilt
lanced and drained somehow. AA, a spiritual program which can fit
itself to any religion or no religion, insists that without confession to at
least one other trustworthy person, our faults are likely to rule us forever.
Don't spill your beans to just anyone, but don't hold them festering
within, either! [A heavy PS, too: if you DO belong to a Church that
has sacramental Confession, GO!! Too many put that off at great
risk and harm to themselves.]

What keeps us chained to our dirty secrets is lack of faith, lack of
trust: no one will love me if they know this, not God, not anyone.
Well, the ending verses of Psalm 31(32) deal quite neatly with this
falsehood:

"Many sorrows have the wicked, but those who trust in the Lord,
loving mercy surrounds them. Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord, exult, you
just! O come, ring out your joy, all you upright of heart!" (Ps.
31:10-11)

Not only does God forgive, but the guilty one now freed is accounted
as among the just and the upright of heart, without any further ado.
Now THAT is divine mercy!



Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@... St. Mary's Monastery
Petersham, MA

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+PAX

Forgot to add Steve for prayers, and his mom, Helen. He is having a kidney
removed on June 8.  Also, another Steve, who has been having some medical
problems that trouble him. Sorry, but I didn't scan far enough down my inbox to
remember the first time out today. Thanks so much, y'all! Love, Jerome

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Larry, prostate biopsy on Monday, also for Rita and her
family. She has suffered a relapse in food addicition and is very depressed;
some family problems are also causing her pain. Prayers for Don, transmission
troubles in his car, and for Tom, Kasey and Gianna. Tom is being guardian angel
of our sick guesthouse lawnmower. He's even bringing a back up mower if his
tools don't work today! Deo gratias! God's will is best. All is mercy and grace.
Thanks so much! JL

February 3, June 4, October 4
Chapter 7: On Humility

The sixth degree of humility
is that a monk be content
with the poorest and worst of everything,
and that in every occupation assigned him
he consider himself a bad and worthless workman,
saying with the Prophet,
"I am brought to nothing and I am without understanding;
I have become as a beast of burden before You,
and I am always with You" (Ps:22-23).

REFLECTION

OK, first warning. Some people who truly do have low self-esteem have
to be very, very careful to remember that humility is truth, that ANY false
and distorted self-image spells trouble. Increasing closeness to God, Who
is Truth, must bring us to increasing truthfulness about ourselves. That can
mean adjustments up OR down in our attitude.

While it may be true that some people have  self-esteems
which are far too low, I think that most people, from my generation onward,
have "worked through all that" with more than enough success. Relax,
I think that often we have compensated for any imbalance and then some! With
ears attuned to such 21st century self-affirmation, it is hard for us to hear
lines like "worthless workman", "brought to nothing" and "a beast of
burden before You."

Understandably, we may listen through our filtered ears and wonder
how on earth the Psalmist could say such things. Mechanisms to
explain them away and denial defenses spring right up: " Must have
been his primitive society, must have been some neurotic notion of
religion in those days! Boy, that David REALLY needed to work on his
self-image, so sad in a King, too!"

I don't think any of those things are true in more than the most
minimal sense, if that. David COULD say those things with honesty,
because he was a mystic. Let me hasten to console all concerned with
that news that he was a very human mystic. Face it, he had the hots
for Uriah's wife and conveniently arranged Uriah's death in battle
to "legitimate" things. Nathan the prophet confronted David with the facts
and the child born of his dalliance with Bathsheba died. Hardly the type
of thing one would read about St. Therese, the Little Flower!

Because this terribly human David, in a mystical sense, had "seen"
God, at least with the eyes of his soul, he could easily make
truthful remarks like these about himself! Once we see even a bit of
God, scales fall from our eyes and we can easily see how the Prophet
could say such things: they are true!

I am no mystic, but I sure know I am nothing, nothing at ALL compared
to God. If I have done a good job here and there, make no mistake
that I can tell you from an inside perspective that successes were
just that: here and there. Not one of them would (or could!) have ever
happened without God's grace. Nada. Zilch! The total workman profile
has a LOT of gaps and stuff undone, deliberately and otherwise. The merit review
will probably NOT recommend a raise at this time!

We need the truth of humility because we take ourselves- and the
falsehoods about ourselves for good or ill- far, far too seriously. Yes, we
sometimes
need to know we really did "OK", but we also need to often remind ourselves
that we are not so hot as we thought!

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name give the glory!" Yet another of
David's pithy assessments of self-worth. We are, of ourselves, less than carbon.
It is only because of Christ that we carbon kids can truly become the "immortal
diamond" of which Hopkins wrote!

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

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+PAX

A blessed feast of  St. Boniface, OSB, apostle of Germany, to all!

Prayers, please, for Billy, 45, and his wife and 6 children. He has cancer which
has spread widely. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent. Thanks so much. JL

February 4, June 5, October 5
Chapter 7: On Humility

The seventh degree of humility
is that he consider himself lower and of less account
than anyone else,
and this not only in verbal protestation
but also with the most heartfelt inner conviction,
humbling himself and saying with the Prophet,
"But I am a worm and no man,
the scorn of men and the outcast of the people" (Ps. 21:7).
"After being exalted, I have been humbled
and covered with confusion" (Pa. 87:16).
And again,
"It is good for me that You have humbled me,
that I may learn Your commandments" (Ps. 118:71).

REFLECTION

So many people get blown away arguing against the line: "I am a worm
and no man..." that they completely miss a crucially important fact.
Very ancient interpretation of this Psalm has the Suffering Servant,
Jesus, as its focus. Jesus Himself quoted its opening line from the
Cross: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" There are numerous
allusions to the crucifixion in this Psalm, casting lots for
garments, piercing hands and feet and the derision of the crowd, to
name a few.

OK, so if we dare to put these wormy terms in the mouth of Christ,
how come we get antsy about saying the same of ourselves? Good
question! If HE can say it, even metaphorically, we surely should
have no problem!

But many seem to have a big problem there, so let's look at the
matter from a different angle. We absolutely CANNOT know that others
are worse than us. It's not possible, because we cannot see into
their hearts, we cannot know every factor in their guilt or lack
thereof. We cannot know that they are NOT better than us. God, and
God alone can know all those things. Even the individual involved
knows less about her complicity and culpability in a given action
than God does. That knowledge is always and everywhere partially
withheld from human consciousness. No one will ever know it all until
they die, when everything that was hidden will be made evident.

OK, one argues, so if we can't know anyone is worse, we sure can't
know if they're better, either. Quite right! Our God-given natural
assessment abilities allow us to be sure of no one's wickedness or
goodness, not even our own state of grace. BUT we have more facility
in self-judgement than we have in regard to others. We have more
parts of the puzzle there, even though we still don't have them all,
we have windows into our own hearts and minds that we have in no
other case.

So, with all this ironclad uncertainty, why would Scripture and the
Holy Rule ask us to think ourselves less than anyone else? For two
very important reasons. First, it is the safest position to take.
Even without full knowledge of ourselves, we have more information
there than we have anywhere else. Secondly, it is the most profitable
position for learning and spiritual growth.

If we think someone is less than ourselves, there is little chance we
will learn anything from her: we're so busy with patronizing
condescension that only now and then will the woman's REAL words come
through to us. On the other hand, if we think everyone has something
to teach us, knowledge and growth start popping up all over the
place, in some very unlikely locations! This attitude is part of
listening, really listening.

And after all, "Listen" is where our Rule begins!

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the repose of the soul of Ronald Reagan, and for his wife,
Nancy. No matter what one may have thought of either of them, their love for and
devotion to each other was particularly touching, especially in Mrs. Reagan's
case. This must be a terrible time for her. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much.  JL


February 5, June 6, October 6
Chapter 7: On Humility

The eighth degree of humility
is that a monk do nothing except what is commended
by the common Rule of the monastery
and the example of the elders.

REFLECTION

Well, this one looks deceptively simple enough. Just try it! I speak
as one who has frequently failed it and who sometimes* fails it
still. [* I only fail it on special occasions: Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday.... you get the picture.] This step of humility,
by the way, will translate very easily into family life, the
neighborhood, or the workplace.

The goal here is not just external uniformity so much as internal
detachment. We are deeply attached to the things we do. Demanding to
do things our own way is not humble. When observers come to the
monastery, for the monks or the nuns, I often see little quirks of
external piety in church and think: "Well, that'll have to go..."

One cannot profitably go through monastic formation cherishing the
notion that one has got it right and one's elders have it wrong. You
may even be right, or the matter may be completely neutral. (The
term "optional" comes to mind, but that was NOT used to express
neutrality!) That's not the issue here. Detachment and humility are.

When we singularize ourselves without real moral imperative, the
message given to the whole community is "I know better." That this is
not warmly received in a junior or newcomer should come as no
surprise. A monastic family is like any spouse: you had better not
marry what you hope to change them into, but only what they ARE. If
we fail this, we change "Thy will be done" into "MY will be done!"
and we do so with sorry results.

No spouse is perfect, neither is any family, monastery or job, but if
you expect to change them right off the bat, you're doomed to woe. In
monastery and marriage and workplace, the only person you can REALLY
change is yourself and the sooner you get around to doing that, the
better for all concerned.

The sad thing (and I am guilty here!) is that sometimes these things
we do on our own have nothing to do with piety at all. They are,
pure and simple, revolt, passive aggression, small, though very
public ways of expressing our scorn for this or that concept or
person. Having lived in the Church of the 60's and 70's, I picked up
the idea of refusal as a kind of non-violent demonstration.

I also must say that, in those less-than-halcyon days, I picked it up
from my monastic seniors, just not always the best seniors! I still
do it at times, and I still wrestle with paring those times down day
by day. The hardest humility and obedience are to things we truly
think are dumb and do not matter. The difficulty alone must mean
there is great potential for growth there.

An interesting aside here. The dissenter often thinks she is a grand
and eloquent witness for justice and truth. The stubborn monk thinks
he has scored a real victory for integrity and correctness. In fact,
those who live with them often think they're just silly fools. Of the
two impressions, this last is closer to truth!

It is also interesting to note (again, from sorry personal experience,)
that the rebel often looks at other rebels (with whom he does not agree,
so they are, of course, WRONG...) as silly fools. Wow! If one can be so right
about
those other rebels, how come the other monastics aren't right about
oneself?? Hmmmm....

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for the return to the Faith, for Ronnie, Fred, Liz and Louis.
God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much!
JL

February 6, June 7, October 7
Chapter 7: On Humility

The ninth degree of humility
is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence,
not speaking until he is questioned.
For the Scripture shows
that "in much speaking there is no escape from sin" (Prov. 10:19)
and that "the talkative man is not stable on the earth" (Ps. 139:12).

REFLECTION

OK, if you are a parent, you cannot speak to your children only when
they question you. The therapy bills in later years would be
astronomical. There are many situations in a Benedictine life lived
in the world, among non-monastics, where this has to be altered, but
its kernel of truth must be discovered and maintained.

WHY do we talk needlessly? Quite often it is nothing more than a
trick to change the reality around us. We are bored, or we feel we
are not getting enough attention or we think the mood too heavy, so
we speak to change whatever annoys us at the moment. I  should know.
I am infamous for creating my own entertainment when things seem
dull to me. That's not always a great idea...

Some tough moments, some difficult stuff are meant to be endured.
They are part of our necessary learning and growth. Ever notice how
we assess a child's maturity by its ability to be quiet and non-
fidgety in surroundings (like Church!) that do not spoon feed its
attention span? Well, the same is true of us at every stage. We do
ourselves harm if we defuse every single tense moment with a word or
two. We cheat ourselves.

All too often we speak only to remind the universe around us, which
has carelessly forgotten for a second that we are its center, of a
whole bevy of falsehoods: I am the cutest, smartest, or wittiest, I
have the solution to all of this. What folly on the part of the
entire cosmos to forget our importance! Better speak to clear the
matter up...

Those who know me are thinking: "HE wrote THIS?!?" Yes, alas, I am
guilty of all I wrote. Three times a year the Holy Rule reminds me of
that and each time I am aware that I need to work on it. Thanks be to
God, the Rule IS read three times a year: usually by the time the
next reading comes up, my interest has flagged and I have to start
over. As for the part about the talkative not being "stable on the
earth," well, there have been plenty of times in the last eight years
when God had to nail my feet to the floor to keep me here and I am
not dead yet... I have not always been His most willing pupil, but
oh, is He ever patient! And infinitely merciful!

But, as one Desert Father said, that's what we do all day in
monasteries: "We fall down and we get up."

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

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for a young graduate from beauty school, that she make good
choices about where and how to live, for her return to the Faith and for her
anxious parents. Prayers to for a young convert who is giving non-Catholic
parents some news likely to be difficult for them, prayers for the parents, too.
Prayers, too, for Doug, Suzanne and their children. A very messy divorce is
pending and custody issues, too. Different religion of the spouses is an issue,
too. Much prayer for all! Deo gratias, Larry, for whom we prayed, has had
initial good results from his tests. Deo gratias! God's will is best. All is
mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much.  JL

February 7, June 8, October 8
Chapter 7: On Humility

The tenth degree of humility
is that he be not ready and quick to laugh,
for it is written,
"The fool lifts up his voice in laughter" (Eccles. 21:23).

REFLECTION

Note that the Holy Rule does NOT say not to laugh at all, but just
not to laugh too fast! In another place, the Rule condemns "idle words"
which can "provoke buffoonery" (read immoderate laughter!)  We are
not, however, forbidden to laugh at all. Life together will always produce
some truly comical stuff, and well-ordered appreciation of that gift of
humor is right in line with a good Benedictine life.

WHAT do we laugh at, and how? Do we find humor at others' expense cruelly?
Do we laugh in such a way as to make the person feel or fool, or in such a way
as to make her feel part of a shared family joke and joy? Do we laugh with
love and  affection or with pompous derision? There are, make no mistake,
lots of good and bad ways to laugh.

Ever know someone who laughs too fast, too
often, and at things that no one else finds funny? Sometimes we laugh
along, in kindness and charity, just to keep such a one from feeling
as foolish as they well might. Pejoratively, we might say such people
were jerks, but honestly, what we really feel is that they lack depth
or maturity or both.

Christians, all Christians, even Benedictines, are commanded to
rejoice. There is a Christian imperative to joy, even in the midst of
the sufferings promised us in this life. Picture joy without one
single moment of throw-your-head-back-in-glorious-laughter. My! What
a tasteful, discreet and bloodless little party animal that would be!
What a great, lifeless remove from the abandon of genuine joy, what a
total lie!

I have never known a Benedictine so bad as to never laugh at all, and
I have known more than a few who seemed to be, to all appearances,
dreadful enough. Granted, some of the holiest ones chuckled softly a
good deal more than they roared in laughter, but ALL of them laughed!
Even those holiest ones, who tended to occasionally just chuckle,
smiled a LOT and warmly!

There are, in every age, inappropriate uses of humor. Humor is often
a nervous cover-up, an avoidance, a substitute for real
communication. I think these examples are what the Holy Rule
addresses. We are called to relate to people on a more honest level
than perpetual joking about. That playfulness may be an antechamber
to intimacy, but it is no substitute. All loving friends share jokes,
but if jokes are ALL they share, they are, as yet, neither truly
loving nor friends. It takes something more than that humor alone.

It is because humor, jokes and shared laughter can be that first step
towards intimacy that they are so very necessary for a cenobitic,
community-loving Benedictine heart. Then, of course, there is also
that Christian imperative to JOY!

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

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

+PAX

Tom of RC, a Monastic Life list member,  asked me the kind of question I LOVE to
answer: "What are the three most important things you have learned in 55 years?"
Eager to start thinking, I mused that this would take a while to ponder. To my
surprise and relief, it did not at all. Less than a minute or so, literally.

I tell you all the three most important things I have learned every single day,
at the end of the prayer requests. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace.
God is never absent.

Without these three truths, my life would have no meaning or purpose whatever.
They have dawned on me only partially as yet, and quite lately, comparatively
speaking. Still, I struggle now to try more each day to see everything and every
event through their perfect lenses of truthfulness.

God's will is best. He wills that all people be saved. Every single confluence
in our lives with that Will advances its fruition in salvation by the quickest (
and often most irritating!) way. Every single one. Every seeming disaster is
just that: seeming, a bad dream by a mistaken child fitfully asleep. My sleeping
child has usually been neither too bright, nor too trusting!

All is mercy and grace. I have spent most of my life trying to be brave about
getting THROUGH a lot of stuff, rarely unscathed and often by the skin of my
teeth. If I was thankful for anything, it was that things weren't worse and that
I had somehow survived. No more. Now I haltingly begin on the higher road of
gratitude, deep, deep gratitude for every blessing and every rejection, for
every single person that loved me or didn't, for all who sought to help or
sought to harm. Without any single minute instance of all those people and
events over all those years, I would not be exactly who I am today. Who I am is
no great shakes, but it is a place to start work from, and I would have a very
different place were it not for ALL those experiences. All is truly mercy and
grace. All.

God is never absent. And He never was. I was. Lots. Still am lots of the time. I
have to learn to be more present to Him Whose Love has never failed me, even for
an instant, ever.


So there's my answers, Tom, to your welcome question. I have another meditation
that I hope to write later, really an expansion of the "All is mercy and grace"
part, but I didn't want to make TOO big a deal of my natal feast! Thanks, by the
way to all who DID make a big deal of it. I was warmed by all your love and
prayers and greetings and swam in a day of wondrous gratitude that was just
perhaps the deepest I have ever known thus far- though I am ready and willing to
top the record later on if God allows!!

Love and prayers,
Jerome

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+PAX

Prayers, please, for Nikki, beginning her new life as an Associate of the New
Monastery, with the name Sr. Mary Elizabeth. Deo gratias! Prayers, too, for
Marlene, single Mom of four young children, who has cancer spreading from her
lungs and now possibly in her kidney. She has had severe family crises in the
past year and now has this to deal with. Ardent prayers here! Prayers for a
woman undergoing chemo in a town where she has no family and few friends. One of
those few faithful friends is one of our readers, Judith, who is trying to help.
Prayers for them both! God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 8, June 9, October 9
Chapter 7: On Humility

The eleventh degree of humility
is that when a monk speaks
he do so gently and without laughter,
humbly and seriously,
in few and sensible words,
and that he be not noisy in his speech.
It is written,
"A wise man is known by the fewness of his words"(Sextus,
Enchidirion, 134 or 145).

REFLECTION

OK, writing as one who is 40% deaf, let me try to throw some light on
what this step is NOT. Remember that Benedictines espouse balance and
that balance should avoid both falsity and extremes. Benedictines are
also human and, without the help of good formation, or maybe even
with the encouragement of bad formation, they can fall prey to
affectation as easily as anyone else.

I have always been hard of hearing, so I have long noted a tendency
by some to interpret "not noisy" as barely audible. I hardly think
that's the case. Even talking on the phone to other OSB houses I
sometimes pick this up: the whispered inflections that one commonly
only hears in funeral parlors. Needless to say, that can set a very
funereal tone, whether it meant to or not!! Just as we should not
roar or yell when it is uncalled for, neither should we tiptoe about
whispering when there is no need.

There's a further problem here. This whispering can be and often is
learned as a purely social grace, nothing more. In other words, it
can reflect a popular behavior that has nothing to do with holiness.
Just as it is easy to feign the symptoms of illness, it is easy to
feign those of holiness or humility, too, with little or no reference
at all to the condition of goodness that ought to be their root.
Affected behavior is not humility, because it is not true. No wonder
affectation can annoy others!

So, for the last of my soapbox today, we don't yell, but we don't
whisper, either, unless such adjusted speech is truly necessary.
(Who, after all, would whisper "Fire," or "Shark,"?) We seek the
Golden Mean of carefully weighed speech that others can hear.

For the worst possible example of OSB sotto voce, try listening to
one hopelessly addicted to such modulation do a reading at Mass.
This, of all things, points to its silliness. At the very time when
one truly OUGHT to be heard, a fake whisper robs the Liturgy of one
of its strongest aspects, the proclamation of the Word of God. Not
only the deaf lose out, everyone beyond a yard of so of the reader is
clueless.

Not what St. Benedict had in mind, folks! He made that
clear when he insisted that only those who can edify the hearers
should read, but we sometimes forget that.

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Gary and his wife, she is terribly over-stressed at work,
for Denise, tons of hassle selling her house and moving, and for Martha, a nomad
this summer in the midst of all that confusion. Prayers, too, for Bailey, young
grandson of Mike. Bailey broke his leg in two places while playing. Prayers for
him AND his worried grandad. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is
never absent. Thanks so much. JL

[This portion seems to beg for division into two parts, so I have
done
that in the reflection.]

February 9, June 10, October 10
Chapter 7: On Humility

The twelfth degree of humility
is that a monk not only have humility in his heart
but also by his very appearance make it always manifest
to those who see him.
That is to say that whether he is at the Work of God,
in the oratory, in the monastery, in the garden, on the road,
in the fields or anywhere else,
and whether sitting, walking or standing,
he should always have his head bowed
and his eyes toward the ground.
Feeling the guilt of his sins at every moment,
he should consider himself already present at the dread Judgment
and constantly say in his heart
what the publican in the Gospel said
with his eyes fixed on the earth:
"Lord, I am a sinner and not worthy to lift up my eyes to heaven"
(Luke 18:13; Matt. 8:8);
and again with the Prophet:
"I am bowed down and humbled everywhere" (Ps. 37:7,9; 118:107).

REFLECTION

Alcoholics Anonymous jokes about what they call "Two-steppers," that
is, people who decide to jump right from Step 1, acknowledging their
problem, to Step 12, carrying the message to others, with nothing in
between! Wrong! Doesn't work that way...

Benedictines often see a similar mistake in novices and humility.
Bingo, they go right to the twelfth degree with nothing to build
their external humility on but the images of Hollywood. Such
individuals are usually well-intentioned enough, but one look at
their demeanor will tell one that there is probably a very badly worn
tape of "The Nun's Story" among the things they left at home! (I'm
not knocking the film, I loved it, too! But it WAS Hollywood and it
is not real life! Close runners-up of the same ilk would be "In This
House of Brede" and "The Song of Bernadette" and "Come to the
Stable.")

Monastic life will do a lot of things but sorry, it will never make
you Audrey Hepburn, Jennifer Jones, Diana Rigg or Loretta Young!
People who learn that have a chance to stay, people who don't often
leave because no monastery fits the Hollywood model, though they
often keep looking for one that does!

Second Section of the Reading:

Having climbed all these steps of humility, therefore,
the monk will presently come to that perfect love of God
which casts out fear.
And all those precepts
which formerly he had not observed without fear,
he will now begin to keep by reason of that love,
without any effort,
as though naturally and by habit.
No longer will his motive be the fear of hell,
but rather the love of Christ,
good habit
and delight in the virtues
which the Lord will deign to show forth by the Holy Spirit
in His servant now cleansed from vice and sin.

This crucially important second part is why none of those Hollywood
roles quite make it AND why the first section is spared from
Jansenism. (Jansenism, you may recall, was a heresy which held that
we could NEVER be worthy, NEVER do enough penance and so forth. In
its sad extremes, it harked to a sort of Pelagian attitude, implying
that we might be able to do something if we did enough harsh stuff!
But, of course, even that would never be enough. It was a rather mean
idea of God.)

Humility is NOT affected, not presupposing, hence efforts to LOOK
humble when one is not so will fall woefully short of the mark. No
Academy Awards for this one! When they call for the envelope, it will
be empty! Genuine humility is the most unself-conscious thing in the
world. It produces the external demeanor without any further ado,
because the person actually (and usually unwittingly!) BECOMES the
truth they are striving to live. Humility shows up in the face, in
everything, just as years of bitterness or years of love often do.
You couldn't hide humility if you wanted to, but you don't need to,
because the true humility is rarely even noticed and those who are
less humble tend to discount the really humble as nobodies. In one
sense, they are quite right! Both would agree on that!

If one never gets to the joy and love of the end of this passage,
there will be no reason not to look artificially rather glum over
sins that one probably doesn't believe at heart are great anyhow.
This is where some monastics miss the mark. They can stop at the
perpetual gloom and dread point, without realizing the contemplative
joy and love beyond that.

Monasticism is true, but the Gospel is more so. Neither Jansenism nor
perpetual gloom would play very well with Matthew, Mark, Luke or
John. That means they wouldn't play well with St. Benedict, either,
as his second portion surely guarantees. Love and joy and humility
are an inseparable trio! When fear is cast out, gloom goes right
along with it!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@... St. Mary's Monastery
Petersham, MA

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

+PAX

Deo gratias! Prayers of Thanksgiving for Richard and Mary Lou,
celebrating their 31st  wedding anniversary this week, also for Matt and Bette,
celebrating their 10th anniversary today! Thanks be to God for all the graces
both couples have bestowed on so many by their married love.

Prayers, too, for the repose of the soul of Ray Charles, who died yesterday and
for
his family. I surely want to hear him in Heaven's choir!!
We should all remember to pray for those who have brightened our lives
in the entertainment world (as well as those who haven't!) when death calls
them.
God's will is best! All is mercy and grace. God is never absent.Thanks so much! 
JL

February 10, June 11, October 11
Chapter 8: On the Divine Office During the Night

In the winter time,
that is from the Calends of November until Easter,
the sisters shall rise
at what is calculated to be the eighth hour of the night,
so that they may sleep somewhat longer than half the night
and rise with their rest completed.
And the time that remains after the Night Office
should be spent in study
by those sisters who need a better knowledge of the Psalter
or the lessons.


From Easter to the aforesaid Calends of November,
the hour of rising should be so arranged that the Morning Office,
which is to be said at daybreak,
will follow the Night Office after a very short interval,
during which they may go out for the necessities of nature.

REFLECTION

In St. Benedict's time, and for centuries afterwards, life on a self-sustaining
farm, which monasteries were supposed to be, was far more difficult and
time consuming than it would be today. The simplest things that we now do
with the flick of a switch were big deals, involving lots of human workers and
every available daylight hour.

Hence, the monks got up early, very early, to get in much of their monastic day
before the sun (and the critters!) rose for the day. There was, of course, a
penitential aspect to this early rising, too, but a lot of it was the
practicality of
sheer necessity. One can look at monastic schedules in history and see that
as farm labor became less, rising times became later. No point in getting up
at the eighth hour of night , 2 AM,  if you don't have to!

There's at least a possible hint for Oblates of today in all this. Get up a bit
earlier
if you can, and devote those silent and dark morning hours or minutes to your
monastic endeavors. Knock off a late TV favorite and go to bed a tad earlier. We
always find time for what we love most. If, however, one is married and has a
spouse that doesn't want one to blissfully retire at 7:30 or so, this will not
work.
Marriage is a primary, sacramental vocation and demands precedence.

Two very human glimpses into the personality of St. Benedict here. He
is thoughtful and kind, making sure the monastics have time for a
bathroom run and he is not prudish about mentioning it. Its part of
the human and part of family life. As casually as a Mother asks young
children if anybody "has to go" before a trip, he throws out mention
of the fact that not everyone could make it through two long services
without great discomfort!

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

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

+PAX

Steve, for whom we prayed, had a successful kidney removal surgery. Deo gratias!
Continued prayers for Steve and for Helen, his Mom, who is flying out to Oregon
to help care for him. For any who watched the final interment of Ronald Reagan,
I think you'd agree the the image of Nancy Reagan saying goodbye at the last
moment was heart-wrenching and calls for some ardent prayers for her. Whether or
not one is a political fan of the Reagans, as human beings they both deserve
much love and care at this time.  Prayers of thanks for Michael, who got just
the job he needed! Deo gratias! Prayers of thanks for the family situation that
wonderful job will free up for his very devoted sister. God's will is best. All
is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much. JL


February 11, June 12, October 12
Chapter 9: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at the Night Office

In winter time as defined above,
there is first this verse to be said three times:
"O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall declare Your praise."
To it is added Psalm 3 and the "Glory be to the Father,"
and after that Psalm 94 to be chanted with an antiphon
or even chanted simply.
Let the Ambrosian hymn follow next,
and then six Psalms with antiphons.
When these are finished and the verse said,
let the Abbot give a blessing;
then, all being seated on the benches,
let three lessons be read from the book on the lectern
by the brethren in their turns,
and after each lesson let a responsory be chanted.
Two of the responsories are to be said
without a "Glory be to the Father"
but after the third lesson
let the chanter say the "Glory be to the Father,"
and as soon as he begins it let all rise from their seats
out of honor and reverence to the Holy Trinity.


The books to be read at the Night Office
shall be those of divine authorship,
of both the Old and the New Testament,
and also the explanations of them which have been made
by well known and orthodox Catholic Fathers.


After these three lessons with their responsories
let the remaining six Psalms follow,
to be chanted with "Alleluia."
After these shall follow the lesson from the Apostle,
to be recited by heart,
the verse
and the petition of the litany, that is "Lord, have mercy on us."
And so let the Night Office come to an end.

REFLECTION

There is an unfortunate and perennial heresy among would-be
liturgists, even some Benedictines, which holds that if it's long,
its good. Not so, and quite evidently not so to St. Benedict, either.
The order he prescribes for Vigils is almost exactly half the length
of the Roman cathedral Office of his time.

St. Benedict was very serious about monasticism, but he also wanted
to shorten the Office, which was obviously of central importance to
him. Why? I think he aimed, once again, at balance, at moderation and
at gentleness. His monastics were farmers, not wealthy cathedral
prelates with servants and benefices. They would have dropped rather
quickly from fatigue had he imposed the Roman Office of the time on
them.

There is a great message of moderation here for Oblates. St. Benedict
knew perfectly well that if his monastics were too long at Matins and
Lauds, the cows would be bellowing in pain from distended udders,
waiting for the high church milkers to finally arrive. See the
operative principle here? The Office is PART of one's life, a
terribly important part, but ALL of one's work and life is prayer.
Figuratively speaking, if your life and primary vocation has left you
with cows to milk, for heavens sake (literally!) go milk 'em!

Our Office, for every monastic, from Abbot Primate down to newest
Oblate novice, must be a harmonious part of our life. We are not
called to the excesses of Cluny, whose monks were in choir most of
the time, adding ever more and more gee-gaws and trinkets to the
Office. If one's children or spouse or work calls one to do less,
answer that call. No one is called to be a choir athlete, at it all
the time. Do what you can and bless God for what you cannot! He knows
what He is about.

In long dealings with Oblates I have frequently heard this issue
raised: saying the whole Office. That is fine, and some lives,
notably single ones, might make it possible. Other lives, lives
founded on sacraments like marriage, might well not. Trying to amend
one's primary, sacramental vocation to be a monastic in the world
misses the point. That primary vocation is part and parcel of HOW one
becomes a monastic in the world. Tamper with it and you mess up the
entire picture.

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
jeromeleo@...
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
St. Mary's Monastery
Petersham, MA

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

+PAX

A blessed feast of my dear friend, St. Anthony of Padua, to all!!  May his
prayers lead us all to Christ's will!
And may he get at least one of his friends I have been pestering him about to
Confession....

Prayers, please, for the meeting of Abbots and our provincial council that is
being held here this week. And for Mary and Jerome, whose guest house is chock
full of  these important guests, that we may be good hosts.

Prayers for Fr. David, a son of Sts. Francis and Anthony, whose Franciscan
vocation is calling him to move to Italy. A graced time for him and all those he
ministers to! God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent.
Thanks so much!  JL


Chapter 10: How the Night Office Is to Be Said in Summer Time

From Easter until the Calends of November
let the same number of Psalms be kept as prescribed above;
but no lessons are to be read from the book,
on account of the shortness of the nights.
Instead of those three lessons
let one lesson from the Old Testament be said by heart
and followed by a short responsory.
But all the rest should be done as has been said;
that is to say that never fewer than twelve Psalms
should be said at the Night Office,
not counting Psalm 3 and Psalm 94.


REFLECTION

The gentleness of St. Benedict, his considerate thoughtfulness is
again apparent here. Another principle comes to mind, as well. The
Office is important, but it revolves WITH us to a certain extent. It
is the axis our day turns on, but that axis may be shortened by the
season. There are circumstances under which even the Work of God
itself changes for us. Was humanity made for the Sabbath, or the
Sabbath for humanity?

The message here is very clear. To all prima donnas and divas, of
either sex, who think the Office revolves around their own choral
fantasies, get a life! The Office revolves around the Son and the
sun, and your identity with either remains seriously in doubt. To all
amateur musicians (or even pros with bad manners,) who terrorize
their brothers or sisters in the name of perfectionism, lighten up!
To any of said groups who claim that Benedictinism justifies their
antics, you're dead wrong. It doesn't.

Two quotes I love come to mind. One was from the late Abbot Alfred of
Pluscarden, who said: "The monastery is no place for an amateur
musician." The other is from G. K. Chesterton: "The artistic
temperament is a disease which afflicts amateurs."

The rhythm here is pure agriculture, not liturgy: when the sun rises
sooner, so do the farm chores, which have no human seasonal clocks to
tell them otherwise! Critters have to be cared for, milked and
pastured according to their clocks, not ours. The upshot of this is
that, for nearly 1,500 years, until the late 1960's, Benedictines
followed the Holy Rule's advice and said Matins differently in the
summer and winter, even in the cities. (It is worthy of note that, at
least in the U.S., agricultural enterprises were being abandoned at
about the same time as no longer economically feasible in many
houses.)

Put another spin on this and you will find, especially if you are an
Oblate, that St. Benedict intends at least some aspects of his
monastic program to adapt themselves to the environment in which the
monastic lives. Do not wear yourself out trying to make the very
square peg of a relentless monastic life fit into the intractably
round hole of a life in the world.

Don't try to make your kids (or spouse!) understand that you are
going to be monastic, no matter whether they are or aren't. For one
thing, if you in any way diminish your primary vocation, like
marriage or parenthood, you are not going to be monastic at all! The
key to our struggle is obedience and humility, not control of others.
Our oblation must be done in addition to our sacramental and primary
vocations, never instead of them.

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for a good result from Shirley's medical tests, for rain in
some parts of Florida (not in Massachusetts, please!) and for Linda,
hysterectomy on 6/17. Prayers, too, for vocations to St. Mary's Monastery and
for the grace-filled success of our Abbots' meeting here. God's will is best.
All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 13, June 14, October 14
Chapter 11: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on Sundays

On Sunday
the hour of rising for the Night Office should be earlier.
In that Office let the measure already prescribed be kept,
namely the singing of six Psalms and a verse.
Then let all be seated on the benches in their proper order
while the lessons and their responsories are read from the book,
as we said above.
These shall be four in number,
with the chanter saying the "Glory be to the Father"
in the fourth responsory only,
and all rising reverently as soon as he begins it.


After these lessons
let six more Psalms with antiphons follow in order, as before,
and a verse;
and then let four more lessons be read with their responsories
in the same way as the former.


After these let there be three canticles
from the book of the Prophets,
as the Abbot shall appoint,
and let these canticles be chanted with "Alleluia."
Then when the verse has been said
and the Abbot has given the blessing,
let four more lessons be read,
from the New Testament,
in the manner prescribed above.


After the fourth responsory
let the Abbot begin the hymn "We praise You, O God."
When this is finished
the Abbot shall read the lesson from the book of the Gospels,
while all stand in reverence and awe.
At the end let all answer "Amen,"
and let the Abbot proceed at once
to the hymn "To You be praise."
After the blessing has been given,
let them begin the Morning Office.


This order for the Night Office on Sunday
shall be observed the year around,
both summer and winter;
unless it should happen (which God forbid)
that the brethren be late in rising,
in which case the lessons or the responsories
will have to be shortened somewhat.
Let every precaution be taken, however,
against such an occurrence;
but if it does happen,
then the one through whose neglect it has come about
should make due satisfaction to God in the oratory.

REFLECTION

The idea of Vigils has very ancient Christian roots: watching all
night in prayer, particularly before Sunday, in anticipation of the
Second Coming (that they be found waiting, with lamps trimmed,) and
from the tradition that Jesus rose from the dead at dawn. The
connections of light/darkness and Son/sun are rich. Anyone who has
ever done an all-night Vigil can tell you it is a memorable
experience. They are frequently done, even in our own day, on Mount
Athos, lasting literally all night and including the chanting of the
ENTIRE Psalter.

With all this, it's no surprise that St. Benedict adds some extra
high church length to Vigils of Sunday. He still, however, makes a
lot of allowances for the monastics, even those who (God forbid!)
oversleep!! His Vigils are long, but they are quite pointedly NOT all
night! Doing an all night vigil for Sunday and every big feast would
do in a community of farmers in short order.

Many people who cut their teeth on pre-1964 Merton works, like "The
Silent Life" or "The Waters of Siloe", might think that the
Benedictines were a rather mitigated lot and the Cistercians were the
only ones who REALLY got the Holy Rule right. Well, yes and no... We
ARE a mitigated lot, we started out that way and have continued on
that middle road. St. Benedict designed his Rule as an adaptation and
yes, mitigation, of Egyptian monastic life, suitable for European
types. And no, the Cistercians are not at all necessarily the ones
who "got it right," as their own adaptations after 1964 clearly
indicate.

Our long history is one of decline and repeated reform. The reforms,
understandably enough have always been aimed at sweeping away
mitigations and laxity. Predictably, they have often swept away a
good deal of moderation in the bargain, as well! Also, predictably,
the reforms themselves decay and have to be reformed: why do you
think there are Common Observance Cistercians and Trappists- two
separate Orders?

Merton, like any of us, changed and grew. In his later years,
questions of observance and mitigation were at least less prominent
and sometimes totally absent. Right now it is probable that BOTH
Benedictines and Cistercians are living in their most relaxed and
mitigated conditions ever. That's not all bad. History might tell us
some of it will need tinkering, tightening up, but God will send the
men and women to do that in His time. Rather than adopt an attitude
of ALL-NIGHT, ALL the time, get-every-boot-camp-in-toughest--shape
and so forth, why not bask a bit in the fact that we were born mitigated
monastics and are meant to be so?

When I first read Merton, he had some growing ahead of him and I was
14...didn't make for a very complete grasp on my part! Now, instead
of scorning relaxed observance in horror, I welcome it. Both Merton
and I learned something on different schedules: God gives certain
monasteries their particular observances because they are the only
place in the world some people could ever become monks. And this is
as true of relaxed observance as it is of strict!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
jeromeleo@... St. Mary's Monastery
Petersham, MA

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Kate, eye ulcer with possible complications, for Bernie,
carotid artery surgery for blockage, for Mike, who awaits a bladder biopsy
result, and for his wife, Carol. The the eternal rest of Mr. Bennasar, father of
Sr. Meg, and for her and all their family, also for the eternal rest of Sr.
Susanna, OSB, of Our Lady of Peace Monastery, Missouri. Prayers, too, for the
job searches of Lisa and Heather. Last of all, say one for me. It is the
anniversary of my profession. Thanks so much! God's will is best. All is mercy
and grace. God is never absent, nope NEVER!  JL

February 14, June 15, October 15
Chapter 12: How the Morning Office Is to Be Said

The Morning Office on Sunday shall begin with Psalm 66
recited straight through without an antiphon.
After that let Psalm 50 be said with "Alleluia,"
then Psalms 117 and 62,
the Canticle of Blessing (Benedicite) and the Psalms of praise (Ps.
148-150);
then a lesson from the Apocalypse to be recited by heart,
the responsory, the verse,
the canticle from the Gospel book,
the litany and so the end.

REFLECTION

Ever notice how a loving parent makes allowances to the kids WON'T
slip up or be discouraged? Good teachers do the same thing. Some
things are made so deliberately easy that all of the students can
generally make it through the hoop!

St. Benedict does this with both morning Offices, beginning Vigils
and Lauds with 2 psalms that are said every day. He even stresses
that, at Lauds, the 66th Psalm is to be said slowly, so that the
monastics may have time to gather.

Those two Offices are the time people are most likely to be running
late, either because they had to bound out of bed at the last minute,
or because the "necessities of nature" break between Vigils and Lauds
delayed them unexpectedly. It is worth noting that only with these
two Offices, when tardiness can so easily occur, does the Holy Rule
make such allowance. For a further bit of trivia, these four Psalms
are repeated every day: one could miss them several times in a week
and still have said all 150 Psalms in that week.

Sometimes people (including, alas, ourselves!) can make unrealistic
conditions and demand that others meet them. The concept of failure
is built into those demands. We fence people about with our own
standards that they could not possibly meet, then condemn them for
failing to meet them! What a sad and tragic game.

St. Benedict, by his example, teaches us to be the exact opposite. He
shows us that we should be gentle and loving, that we should not be
about setting burdens on others that are guaranteed to make them fail
or quit or be discouraged. If we have received such kindness, we
should pass it on!

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Frances, positive breast biopsy for cancer, for Carol, and
for her son David, that he be able to support himself. Prayers, too, for the
eternal rest of Ray Chuang, killed in a car accident. God's will is best. All is
mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much!  JL

February 15, June 16, October 16
Chapter 13: How the Morning Office Is to Be Said on Weekdays

On weekdays
the Morning Office shall be celebrated as follows.
Let Psalm 66 be said without an antiphon
and somewhat slowly,
as on Sunday,
in order that all may be in time for Psalm 50,
which is to be said with an antiphon.
After that let two other Psalms be said according to custom,
namely:
on Monday Psalms 5 and 35,
on Tuesday Psalms 42 and 56,
on Wednesday Psalms 63 and 64,
on Thursday Psalms 87 and 89,
on Friday Psalms 75 and 91,
and on Saturday Psalm 142 and the canticle from Deuteronomy,
which is to be divided into two sections
each terminated by a "Glory be to the Father."
But on the other days let there be a canticle from the Prophets,
each on its own day as chanted by the Roman Church.
Next follow the Psalms of praise,
then a lesson of the Apostle to be recited from memory,
the responsory, the hymn, the verse,
the canticle from the Gospel book,
the litany, and so the end.

REFLECTION

Again, we have the gentleness of St. Benedict, insisting on the slow
recitation of Psalm 66, to give all the stragglers and strugglers
time to arrive! But we have it here in other respects, too. Check out
the length of the Canticle from Deuteronomy. Pack a lunch!! St.
Benedict divides it, drops one Psalm and lets one half of the very
long canticle take its place.

Even though St. Benedict went out of his way to shorten the Roman
Office of his day, here he says that the canticles chosen by the
Roman Church for most of the week should be used. When he sees a good
idea, he embraces it. When he sees a need for change, he does that,
too. It is very evident that he did not care for lengthy services,
that he did not want his monastics to become liturgical gymnasts,
spending ALL their time working out! As always, he wanted balance.

We must always be careful NOT to read St. Benedict with purely 21st
century eyes. Liturgy and uniformity were very, very different in his
time. If anything, uniformity was little known. The greatest
ascendancy of the Roman usage before Trent in Europe- and even that
was far from complete- would come hundreds of years later, under the
aegis of Charlemagne. The enforced uniformity of Trent was over a
thousand years away.

Trivia: We forget that the Roman rite of Trent was not used
everywhere before the 16th century, or even used everywhere AFTER the
Reformation. One of the minor complaints to arise about the priests
of the post-Reformation English mission was that some used the new
Roman Mass of Trent, while others clung to the more ancient and
properly English rite of Sarum. Dominicans, Cistercians and
Carthusians retained their own rites, with Gallican peculiarities,
right up until the late 1960's. Carthusians still use their own rite
for Mass and Office, currently the most ancient and rare rite in the
West.

Hence, when we see St. Benedict setting up his own complete Psalter,
that is not unusual: every monastery would have to do that for
itself, some better than others. It was that "some better than
others" part that St. Benedict wished to avoid: he set a standard for
his monasteries that would protect them from the surrounding extremes
of too much or too little.

Love and prayers,

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

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

+PAX


Prayers, please, Hank, 55, who died suddenly and for his wife, Pat, and sons,
Nick and Chris. Prayers, too, for Johnny, prostate cancer spreading to bones,
Linda, having her hysterectomy today and for a clergyman who is thinking of
leaving his ministry and his faith. Deo gratias, prayers of thanks for Bernie,
whose carotid surgery went well!

God's will is best! All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much!
JL

February 16, June 17, October 17
Chapter 13: How the Morning Office Is to Be Said on Weekdays

The Morning and Evening Offices
should never be allowed to pass
without the Superior saying the Lord's Prayer
in its place at the end
so that all may hear it,
on account of the thorns of scandal which are apt to spring up.
Thus those who hear it,
being warned by the covenant which they make in that prayer
when they say, "Forgive us as we forgive,"
may cleanse themselves of faults against that covenant.


But at the other Offices
let the last part only of that prayer be said aloud,
so that all may answer, "But deliver us from evil.

REFLECTION

The Our Father is THE Christian covenant of peace. If St. Benedict
insists it be said aloud twice a day, it is because he knows well the
tempests- nay, HURRICANES- in teacups that can spring up in any
enclosed home group, be it cloister or family. Things get magnified
inappropriately precisely because those we live with are dear to us.
If they weren't, they would be much less able to hurt or annoy us!

There weren't subways in St. Benedict's time, but there was a world
outside. Picture yourself riding a subway with any or all of these
types: an alcoholic, an abuser, a severely disturbed mental patient,
a tragic drug addict. These are just the ones that we might notice,
too. All of us on the subway ride daily with liars, thieves,
adulterers and worse, we just don't know it. Even though the subway
can offer a bit of a challenge to Christian peace, to forgiveness,
one usually has only to wait for one's stop, hoping meanwhile that a
transit cop will appear. If the situation is really frightening, one
could get off early and catch the next train.

In family or community, sometimes even in the workplace, we may not
change trains. Not only that, but there are often no transit cops at
all. (Even less than in Boston, where one may safely wonder how we
can afford all those parked MBTA cruisers with so few officers ever
in evidence to justify the expense....) Always remember that
Christian life, Benedictine life, is never tested when it is easy.
Alas, it is only through testing that we grow, that our practice
improves.

On the subway or bus, or even in the artificially detached situation
of world newscasts, it can be a LOT easier to forgive. It comes at
little or no price at all. It's pretty easy to forgive even horrible
criminals if they have not harmed our home circle, if they have not
directly harmed us. Hate to say it, folks, but the easy stuff is not
where it's at for us. A 50 yard dash may be the beginnings of an
Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, but it is never the whole
picture.

The key to Benedictine peace is forgiveness, which is why St.
Benedict stresses that phrase and calls it a covenant. It truly IS a
covenant of peace. We are daily asking God, twice out loud, but
ideally many more times than that alone, to forgive us in the measure
that we forgive. Whoa! Risky business there! Any chain's strength is
decided by its weakest link, so think of the person you LEAST
forgive. There you will have the model you are suggesting to God that
He use in forgiving you. As Fr. Hugo used to say: "You love God as
much as the one you love least."

Fortunately, for most of us, I don't personally think God feels
Himself completely bound by the terms we offer Him. If He did, I
imagine heaven would be a quite appallingly empty place, indeed.
Nevertheless, I'll bet He will remind us of the terms we offered and
how little mercy they would afford us. That is one very good reason
why Roman Catholics believe in Purgatory- a chance to shower off the
terms we offered God that were so limited they would never cut anyone
much slack!

Roman Catholicism and most other mainline Christian denominations
have not been known as peace churches, historically. They have not
made the dogmatic necessity of pacifism that the Mennonites or
Quakers have. Still, it is very hard to look at the Gospel itself or
at the daily Our Fathers and understand how so many wars have happened in
Christian history, especially between allegedly Christian nations.

The terms we have offered God as to how we would
like to be forgiven have been far less than optimal. "OK, we will
forgive you AFTER we have reduced your country to rubble and your
population by say, 20-30% or more...." If God took (or takes!) us at
our word, we shall be in deep trouble, indeed.

If every monastery refectory, every dining room table and every
workplace lunch room had perfect forgiveness and peace, there would
likely be no war. Wouldn't happen, because genuine peace truly is
contagious. Do you see why we have to start at home, to start small?
It's the only place we have to begin.

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

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

+PAX

Continued prayers for Linda, recovering after her surgery yesterday with no
apparent cancer. Deo gratias!! God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God
is never absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 17, June 18, October 18
Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the
Saints

On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals
let the Office be performed
as we have prescribed for Sundays,
except that the Psalms, the antiphons and the lessons
belonging to that particular day are to be said.
Their number, however, shall remain as we have specified above.

REFLECTION

Every love life needs a bit of variety now and then, even the
monogamous ones, even the celibate ones, and, let us face it, our
prayer is (or ought to be!) a love life. Without marking certain days
as special, our Office would quickly become a bland and tedious bore.
On the other hand, mark too much as special and people soon get worn
out. Variety itself becomes boring and a chore. What sane married
couple would insist on spending every night in a different motel? One
or both would quickly tire of that and it would destroy the very
unity it was aiming to protect.

Having lived in a monastery for part of the 1960's and 70's where the
liturgy became the sad equivalent of a revolving door, changing often
and not often well, I can speak from experience. It became dreadful
to wonder what would happen next. It pulled out the necessary
underpinnings of a certain stability (gasp!) and changelessness that
a Benedictine life of prayer requires.

Ah, but in the quest for simplicity carried to unfortunate extremes,
it did, at times, become UTTERLY changeless. Same old same old, every
single day with nothing different but the prayer at the end, if that.
("Oh boy, it must be Tuesday again....!") No antiphons, just psalms
and canticles. No music other than the hymn, same seven each week for
each hour, a few good, many bad.... No Glory be between Psalms, just
one at the end. It was dull and gave even more of an impression
of "let's just get this over with" than the old Office did at its
very worst. One often wondered why we still bothered to go to choir.

A balance between variety and stability is where the virtue truly
lies. I have never heard anyone complain about singing or saying the
same unchanging parts of the Mass every day, because they are set in
the midst of elements that DO change every day. The same must be true
of the Office to a certain extent. When SO much changes at feasts
that one longs and pines for a weekday with one book and NOTHING
special, that balance has been missed. On the other hand, the
changeless mundane misses the balance as well. One should never have
to come out of a "simple" Office and think quietly: "Wow, that was
dumb...." (But I often have.)

St. Benedict built the necessary change right into his Office for
monasteries. Ignore his bottom line or extend it unduly and you get
into trouble. In this instance, as in so many, he was far wiser than
we are, than people of any age are.

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

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+PAX

A blessed Feast of St. Romuald to all! Thanks be to God and to St.
Romuald for all those Camaldolese monastics that enrich our lives!!

Prayers, please, for Steve, 54, who has died, and for his wife and daughter.

God's will is best! All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much!
JL

February 18, June 19, October 19
Chapter 15: At What Times "Alleluia" Is to Be Said

From holy Easter until Pentecost without interruption
let "Alleluia" be said
both in the Psalms and in the responsories.
From Pentecost to the beginning of Lent
let it be said every night
with the last six Psalms of the Night Office only.
On every Sunday, however, outside of Lent,
the canticles, the Morning Office, Prime, Terce, Sext and None
shall be said with "Alleluia,"
but Vespers with antiphons.

The responsories are never to be said with "Alleluia"
except from Easter to Pentecost.

REFLECTION

When I lived in the Byzantine rite for a very happy while, one of the
things that surprised me was the fact that they still used Alleluia
in Lent. That sounded strange to my Western ears, but not for long.
In the West, Alleluia has become virtually nothing but a synonym
for "Hooray!" In the East, not so. Our Western connection of Alleluia
as primarily a word of rejoicing reserved for happy times is not
quite on the mark, with all due apologies to St. Benedict and the
rest of Western tradition.

When was the last time you stopped to think that "Amen" really
meant "So be it"? I do now and then, but usually just parrot the word
out without a thought. So it is with most people saying
Alleluia. "Oh, yeah, uh...alleluia...." Alleluia means "Praise the
Lord." Focus on this and one can readily see why the East still says
it during Lent.

Of course, St. Benedict's prescriptions here are a perfect blend of
change and variety for the Office. They "dress up" the most festive
times of the years and provide a break from the ordinary. Probably
what St. Benedict had in mind at the time was that our hearts should
be so full at Paschaltide that no other words would do: only the
ineffable stuttering out of "Alleluia!!" would convey our joy. He
wasn't wrong about that, but saying Alleluia mindlessly misses the
point.

So, forgive me, does saying Alleluia only at joyous times. The
charismatic movement in the 1970's made popular the English
equivalent of Alleluia: "Praise the Lord!" It was an expression of
joy and gratitude for whatever God had done for one. Ah, but then
the "whatever" part of that phrase soon came to be evident! A very
clever catch phrase evolved for those times when things WEREN'T so
great, when one had difficulty appreciating what sometimes seems like
God's decidedly strange sense of humor. On such occasions, they
said: "Praise the Lord Anyhow!" Now that one is probably closer to
the real sense of "Alleluia!"

Our Office and Mass may change in Lent in the Western tradition, but
our hearts must always and everywhere, in every circumstance,
say "Alleluia!" and really mean it, really know it.

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for John, difficult and slow recovery from colon surgery, for
an elderly priest in Ohio with pneumonia, for Rosemarie, nearly 80 and stressed
from caring for her 2 year old great granddaughter. Prayers, too, for all our
fathers and grandfathers and uncles, biological and spiritual! Prayers,
especially for the two families we have prayed for who lost their Dad just days
before Father's Day, and for all for whom this holiday is particularly hard.
God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much!
JL

February 19, June 20, October 20
Chapter 16: How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day

"Seven times in the day," says the Prophet,
"I have rendered praise to You" (Ps. 118:164).
Now that sacred number of seven will be fulfilled by us
if we perform the Offices of our service
at the time of the Morning Office,
of Prime, of Terce, of Sext, of None,
of Vespers and of Compline,
since it was of these day Hours that he said,
"Seven times in the day I have rendered praise to You."
For as to the Night Office the same Prophet says,
"In the middle of the night I arose to glorify You" (Ps. 118:62).


Let us therefore bring our tribute of praise to our Creator
"for the judgments of His justice" (Ps. 118:164)
at these times:
the Morning Office, Prime, Terce, Sext, None,
Vespers and Compline;
and in the night let us arise to glorify Him.

REFLECTION

Tucked neatly into all this business of naming and counting the Hours
of the Divine Office comes the actual reason we go to choir or say the
Office alone. It is "our tribute of praise to our Creator 'for the judgments of
His justice' "  God makes neither junk nor mistakes!

OK, tribute, praise, glorify, all those things are familiar enough to
us, but the zinger here is "for the judgments of His justice."
Whoops! A lot fall out on that one! Whether we realize it or not, the
reason we praise God as Benedictine is to thank Him for ALL His
decisions in regard to us. That isn't easy, but it is terribly valid
and terribly necessary.

We thank God- admittedly sometimes with gritted teeth- for all the
things that did and DIDN'T work out the way we wanted them, for every
acceptance and every rejection that brought us to be as we find
ourselves today, in His arms. The jobs we didn't get, the great loves
which were not reciprocal, the course we flunked, the kids that went
wrong, the illness that dogs us, the spouse we should never have gone
out with twice, the unwanted pregnancy, the miscarriage, EVERYTHING
that has shaped our lives and persons is something we thank God for
in the Office.

I mention only the difficult things, because anybody can be thankful
that the apparently GOOD stuff worked out. Nor am I saying all the
bad stuff is God's fault, or that it's our own fault, but ALL of it
is turned to GOOD by God, and that is worth singing about! All of it!
If we look back honestly, we can see the hand of His goodness in the
darkest times, we can see it in NOT having our way, we can see it in
everything.

Since the way God turns all to good is a mystery we shall never know
fully in this life, we cannot adequately say much of anything but
thanks and praise, the stammered joy of someone who has received a
really great gift and is astounded at such generosity. Thanks, God.
And hey, You really DID know what You were doing all along, didn't
You?

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Frances, mastectomy today, also for the repose of the soul
of Abbot John Eidenshenk, OSB, of St. John's, Collegeville, Minnesota, who died
Saturday. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent.
Thanks so much. JL

February 20, June 21, October 21
Chapter 17: How Many Psalms Are to Be Said at These Hours

We have already arranged the order of the psalmody
for the Night and Morning Offices;
let us now provide for the remaining Hours.


At Prime let three Psalms be said,
separately and not under one "Glory be to the Father."
The hymn of that Hour
is to follow the verse "Incline unto my aid, O God,"
before the Psalms begin.
Upon completion of the three Psalms
let one lesson be recited,
then a verse,
the "Lord, have mercy on us" and the concluding prayers.


The Offices of Terce, Sext and None
are to be celebrated in the same order,
that is:
the "Incline unto my aid, O God," the hymn proper to each Hour,
three Psalms, lesson and verse,
"Lord, have mercy on us" and concluding prayers.


If the community is a large one,
let the Psalms be sung with antiphons;
but if small,
let them be sung straight through.


Let the Psalms of the Vesper Office be limited to four,
with antiphons.
After these Psalms the lesson is to be recited,
then the responsory, the hymn, the verse,
the canticle from the Gospel book,
the litany, the Lord's Prayer and the concluding prayers.


Let Compline be limited to the saying of three Psalms,
which are to be said straight through without antiphon,
and after them the hymn of that Hour,
one lesson, a verse, the "Lord, have mercy on us,"
the blessing and the concluding prayers.

REFLECTION

Just as Lauds and Vespers are fraternal twins, at dawn and sunset, so
are Prime and Compline, before work and before bed. Both are somewhat
different from the other minor hours, but, like Lauds and Vespers,
they share a similarity and complementarity of sorts. Prime was
suppressed in the Roman rite, but not in the Monastic usage. Still,
in the reshuffling of things, Prime got lost in many, if not most
houses.

That's too bad, in a way. Just as Compline features many things that
prepare one for sleep or for the death it prefigures, always a
possibility, so Prime prepares one for the day at hand, for its work
and for life. The traditional time given for the celebration of Prime
was "before work."

Some older Oblate manuals used to offer the full text of Prime for
every day, with the other hour being the changeless Compline. That
made a great deal of sense. Many Oblates who could only dream
spending morning hours before work or school celebrating Matins and
Lauds could easily fit Prime into their schedule and its whole
liturgical slant was to prepare them for and bless their work day
ahead.

One reason Prime became such a prayer for one's workday is that, over
centuries, the minor hour got merged with a lot of stuff that
ordinarily happened in the Chapter room daily: reading the Rule and
assigning work. Hence, some of its additions may not have been of the
purest type, but let us face it, we are an age that rarely insists on
purism, and chiefly only when it agrees with agendas we already are
bent on anyway.

Since these are easily added to any scheme of morning prayer you
might be using,let me give you the two prayers offered at the end of
Prime. Either or both are a great way to begin the day and quickly
memorized. Just remember, as you say them, to join your heart to the
thousands and thousands of monastics who said them every day before
you. They are a very neat connection to our past and to the saints of
our Order who have gone before us.

"Lord God Almighty, You have brought us to the beginning of this day.
Preserve us now by Your power so that in this day we may not fall
into any sin; rather, that all our words, thoughts and acts may be
always directed to doing Your justice. We ask this through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen."

"Lord God, King of heaven and earth, be pleased this day to direct
and sanctify, to rule and govern our hearts and bodies, our thoughts,
words and deeds according to Your law and in obedience to Your
commandments. Now and forever may we attain salvation and freedom by
Your help, O Savior of the world, Who lives and reigns forever and
ever. Amen"

Enjoy them and use them!

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Buddy, early 20's, bipolar and off his meds, a lot of needs
for this troubled young man and his worried family, especially Joy, his Mom.
Prayers, too, for Suzanne, asked to resign after four years of very hard work by
a pastor not well acquainted with the whole picture. Prayers, too, for Alan, who
had a heart attack on Sunday and bypass surgery yesterday, and for Donna, his
wife and A.J. and Amanda his kids. Prayers, too, for Tom, whose quick action at
a family party got Alan treated immediately. Prayers for Peter, 70's, serious
heart problems, and for Sally, his wife. prayers for Megan, 19, possible
ulcerative colitis, and for her  parents and aunt who are so concerned about
her. Prayers for Paul, 45, brain tumor, and for Rebecca, his wife and for his 7
yr. old daughter. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent. Thanks so much.  JL

February 21, June 22, October 22
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

Let this verse be said:
"Incline unto my aid, O God;
O Lord, make haste to help me,"
and the "Glory be to the Father"
then the hymn proper to each Hour.


Then at Prime on Sunday
four sections of Psalm 118 are to be said;
and at each of the remaining Hours,
that is Terce, Sext and None,
three sections of the same Psalm 118.

At Prime on Monday let three Psalms be said,
namely Psalms 1, 2 and 6.
And so each day at Prime until Sunday
let three Psalms be said in numerical order, to Psalm 19,
but with Psalms 9 and 17 each divided into two parts.
Thus it comes about that the Night Office on Sunday
always begins with Psalm 20.

REFLECTION

Since Prime was to be said before work, its Psalms could vary. The
Tuesday through Saturday repetition of the same 9 Psalms for minor
hours excludes Prime, which was probably said in Church or Chapter
room, or partially in both. Since Prime was celebrated where books
were available, it could use different Psalms every day and did.
There was no need for the memorization which would allow farmer monks
to celebrate None in the midst of a hayfield.

I was glad to hear from some who especially loved the prayers of
Prime. So do I! Here, however, is yet another offering from the
Office of Prime: its hymn. Being metrical, it is easily memorized. A
nurse friend of mine told me years ago she used to sing this hymn
every morning at an Episcopal summer camp for kids. Not a bad idea at
all! Enjoy!

Love and prayers,
Jerome, OSB
http://www.stmarysmonastery.org
jeromeleo@...
Petersham, MA 01366

HYMN

Now that the daylight fills the sky
We lift our hearts to God on high,
That He, in all we do or say,
Would keep us free from harm today:

Would guard our hearts and tongues from strife;
From anger's din would hide our life;
From evil sights would turn our eyes;
Would close our ears to vanities.

So we, when this new day is gone
and night in turn is drawing on,
With conscience by the world unstained
Shall praise His name for vict'ry gained.

To God the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, three in one,
Be endless glory as before
The world began, so evermore. Amen.

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for the success of our Oblate Day this Saturday and for all who
are preparing for it. Prayers, too, for the ongoing post-operative healing of
John, Linda and Muriel. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 22, June 23, October 23
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

At Terce, Sext and None on Monday
let the nine remaining sections of Psalm 118 be said,
three at each of these Hours.


Psalm 118 having been completed, therefore,
on two days, Sunday and Monday,
let the nine Psalms from Psalm 119 to Psalm 127
be said at Terce, Sext and None,
three at each Hour,
beginning with Tuesday.
And let these same Psalms be repeated every day until Sunday
at the same Hours,
while the arrangement of hymns, lessons and verses
is kept the same on all days;
and thus Prime on Sunday will always begin with Psalm 118.

REFLECTION

Running psalmody, that is, reciting the Psalms in numerical order, no
matter what came next, was a very common ancient monastic practice.
Since one of the principles behind the Psalter was to "get it all in"
in the space of a week, that running psalmody was a natural
consequence. St. Benedict obviously had some of that on his mind: he
goes from detailed directions about the spacing of the longest Psalm,
118, right into assigning the next 9 to the minor hours which are
repeated throughout the week from Tuesday to Saturday.

As a result, one could safely say that there is nothing specific to
the time of day as such about these Psalms, but that it not entirely
correct. These nine Psalms from 119-127 are gradual Psalms,
pilgrimage songs. They were sung by the Jews as they were going up to
Jerusalem. They are filled with the tension of anticipation and
possession of God's Temple and His blessings, they are songs
of "already" and "not yet".

The gradual Psalms are short, compact units, easily memorized. Since
memory is one thing the Holy Rule no doubt was providing for- these
Offices frequently had to be said on the spot, in the fields, it is
very likely that this group were quite deliberately chosen. No one in
their right mind would suggest some of the longer Psalms from Matins
for easy memorization!!

Regardless of what St. Benedict may or may not have had in mind, the
Holy Spirit can use all of us, even St. Benedict, in ways we do not
realize. Read through these Psalms and picture yourself saying them
in a distant field, with the Abbey in view, but far away. Get the
idea? The pilgrim songs that speak of already AND not yet were the
perfect thing for monastics to say in such circumstances. Jerusalem,
the House of God, was both a distant view and a complete possession,
since ALL of the monastery is the House of God.

History and economics has changed this somewhat, but until the 20th
century, most Benedictine abbeys were built on prominent rises in
the midst of hundreds of acres of cleared farm land. They were, after
all, farmers, and as the old saying goes: "Benedict loved the hills..."
In times past, the image of a towering abbey church dominating a wide
expanse of well-tended farmland was a usual thing.

A complete aside here, but the first time I ever went to St. Vincent Archabbey,
the protoabbey of our Order in the US, I was a Florida boy with little or
no sense of Pennsylvania geography. I was VERY eager to get there, to
see the place, as I had just finished reading the biography of Archabbot
Boniface Wimmer, its founder. I knew we were getting closer, but was not
prepared for what happened next.

All of a sudden, after a turn in an very ordinary  road, a vista such as I have
described sprang into view. It was a veritable Theophany to me! There, on a
hill, stood the Archabbey Basilica, twin towers reigning over gently rolling
farmlands.
I shall never forget the wonder of that moment, now nearly 30 years ago.
Truly, my heart "rejoiced when I heard them say,  'Let us go to God's house.' "

It is easy, terribly easy, to forget that we live "in the House of
God." We do, all monastics do, Oblates do, everyone does. It IS God's
world. Being reminded of this by those Psalms of journeying is a
great idea. Our feet really are "standing within your gates, O
Jerusalem!" We look from afar and see that Jerusalem is a city
compact, a unity of peace and order. Who has seen a monastery on a
hill and not had similar thoughts? Even the accidental end of the
sequence (which continues in Vespers,) has a wonderful
application. "Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in His
ways!" It recounts the joys and protections of a life lived for God
and ends with the plea: "On Israel, peace!" Just picture yourself
saying that at the end of a hard day's work in the field, looking at
the Abbey Church. Not shabby!

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

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

+PAX

A blessed Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist to all!  His importance
in the grand scheme of things is underscored by the fact that we only celebrate
the Nativity of two people other than Jesus: Mary and John the Baptist.

Prayers, please, for Sr. Marian Hahn, a Cenacle religious with rapidly advancing
cancer, also for Mike & Christie and Bonnie & John, celebrating their third
wedding anniversaries, for Alan's return to the faith, and for a safe and holy
pilgrimage for Jodie and those with her. God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much. JL

February 23, June 24, October 24
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

Vespers are to be sung with four Psalms every day.
These shall begin with Psalm 109 and go on to Psalm 147,
omitting those which are set apart for other Hours;
that is to say that
with the exception of Psalms 117 to 127 and Psalms 133 and 142,
all the rest of these are to be said at Vespers.
And since there are three Psalms too few,
let the longer ones of the above number be divided,
namely Psalms 138, 143 and 144.
But let Psalm 116 because of its brevity be joined to Psalm 115.


The order of the Vesper Psalms being thus settled,
let the rest of the Hour --
lesson, responsory, hymn, verse and canticle --
be carried out as we prescribed above.


At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day,
namely Psalms 4, 90 and 133.

REFLECTION

Maybe it's just me, but I find Vespers and Compline very different
and refreshing. They are evening hours, not followed by work, except
for the light clean up after supper, which is not a main meal here
anyway. Vespers makes me think of finally getting home and shutting
the door after a long day and a tough commute. It is a flavor no
other hour has for me. It ends the workday, leaving the evening for
family. Not shabby! A rite of passage from the job to the home hearth!

A brief glance at the Psalms for Vespers will show that they are yet
another example of consecutive, running psalmody. One right after
another, except for a few which get bumped elsewhere or are
thoughtfully divided because of their length. Apparently by numerical
happenstance, Psalm 140 winds us in the Vespers grouping, and it is
most appropriate: "Let my prayer ascend to You like incense and the
lifting up of my hands like an evening sacrifice." Historically,
Psalm 140 has appeared in the Vespers or services of light
(Lucenaria) of many, many rites.

For active monasteries, or for busy Oblates in the world, evening and
early morning are often the only times we get of relative cloister
and focus. The morning hours are largely available to anyone willing
or able to get up while the rest of the world (including offspring!)
sleeps, the evening hours perhaps less so. Those evenings are family
times par excellence and our first vocations must always be respected.

If, as a working parent or spouse, getting home means just getting
started with dinner, don't despair! There is (or can be, if you
provide for it,) a lot of undistracted solitude in cooking, even if
it is rather harried cooking. (Guests often ask what they can do to
help me in the kitchen. My usual response, I hope said kindly enough,
is "Yes, don't talk to me while I am cooking. I get too focused!" If
you can GENTLY establish a similar program of don't-talk-to-me-while-
I-am-cooking, go for it. The solitude of a kitchen at work feeding
loved ones is a rich one, indeed.

If you are into tapes, get one of somebody else singing Vespers and
play it. Heaven knows, if you can put up with the kids' music, they
can put up with yours for half an hour a day. Even if you do not
listen to every word, the soothing chant will settle into your bones,
become a backdrop of peace on which you can position the rest of your
evening. Give it a shot for two weeks and I'll bet you find your
evening meals and later times very different, because YOU are
different!

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

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

+PAX

A huge Deo gratias for Cathy and Todd, for whom we prayed. Cathy was pregnant
with an ovarian cyst. The cyst has vanished and the baby (now named Samantha!)
is the size of a potato in Cathy's womb and seems fine. Thanks to all!! God's
will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. JL

February 24, June 25, October 25
Chapter 18: In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

The order of psalmody for the day Hours being thus arranged,
let all the remaining Psalms be equally distributed
among the seven Night Offices
by dividing the longer Psalms among them
and assigning twelve Psalms to each night.


We strongly recommend, however,
that if this distribution of the Psalms is displeasing to anyone,
she should arrange them otherwise,
in whatever way she considers better,
but taking care in any case
that the Psalter with its full number of 150 Psalms
be chanted every week
and begun again every Sunday at the Night Office.
For those monastics show themselves too lazy
in the service to which they are vowed,
who chant less than the Psalter with the customary canticles
in the course of a week,
whereas we read that our holy Fathers
strenuously fulfilled that task in a single day.
May we, lukewarm that we are, perform it at least in a whole week!

REFLECTION

In his book, "The Benedictine Way", Father Wulstan Mork, OSB referred
to this chapter. I was a bit surprised, because the chapter is often
eclectically cited, stressing the ability to rearrange psalmody, but
not the requirement to do all 150 in one week. Father Wulstan wrote
that, whatever else we had done in reform of the Work of God, we had
often failed this one-week principle entirely and he found it strange
that something so insistent could be ignored. Given the centrality of
the Work of God in Benedictine life and the language employed, this
would seem to be a matter of greater import than just removing knives
before sleep.

I hasten to add a word of caution to Oblates here: the Holy Rule is
referring to choral Office in monasteries. To undertake for oneself
such an Office could well be unwise, and sometimes, even wrong. The
conditions of one's state in life come first. Oblates who are parents
or married have kept Vigils and Nocturns with sick children or
spouses of which professed monastics would never dream. Don't get
hung up on this one. SHARE the Office all you can, but tend first to
the responsibilities of your state in life.

OK, having said that, let's talk a little about monasteries and the
Office. The old notion of monastics as professional pray-ers whose
only mission in life was the celebration of the full liturgy is
simply bunk. Nothing in the Holy Rule supports that extreme view. On
the other hand, many things do support the idea of a task, a service,
even, to some extent, a burden of the Office that monasteries assume.

Put another way, balance, as always, is put forward here. The Office
should be neither too hard nor too easy. It ought to chafe a bit, but
not overwhelm, just like the Rule's injunction that both the weak and
the strong may have something to strive for and be not discouraged.
If we make the Office TOO easy, it becomes merely a dash of
devotional side-dressing to a busy, but otherwise only faintly pious
life.

The busyness of modern life is nothing compared to the amount of
labor required to maintain life in the first centuries of the Order's
existence. Neither were there lay brothers to do all that work in
those days, since they were a much later development. No electricity,
no indoor plumbing, no running water, no phones, no cars. In the
midst of a life that we would find crushingly different, St. Benedict
insisted on the weekly 150. Hmmmm......

We live in a world where countless labor-saving devices and perks
give us far more time than anyone in history has ever had. Are we
always good stewards of that largesse? Heaven knows, I don't want to
give up those modern advantages, look at how hooked on computers I
am. But what do we do with all that time?

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for a teen Search retreat this weekend, for teens and staff and
grace for all, for Dottie, having surgery on Tuesday, and Lou, her husband of 50
years, for Susan, for whom we have prayed, close to death with cancer, and for
her family. prayers, too, for a mother/daughter relationship to strengthen, for
a troubled marriage, and for Sharee and Bill's problems to resolve. God's will
is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 25, June 26, October 26
Chapter 19: On the Manner of Saying the Divine Office

We believe that the divine presence is everywhere
and that "the eyes of the Lord
are looking on the good and the evil in every place" (Prov. 15:3).
But we should believe this especially without any doubt
when we are assisting at the Work of God.
To that end let us be mindful always of the Prophet's words,
"Serve the Lord in fear" (Ps. 2:11)
and again "Sing praises wisely" (Ps. 46:8)
and "In the sight of the Angels I will sing praise to You" (Ps.
137:1).
Let us therefore consider how we ought to conduct ourselves
in sight of the Godhead and of His Angels,
and let us take part in the psalmody in such a way
that our mind may be in harmony with our voice.

REFLECTION

Students act differently (usually worse, alas...) for a substitute
teacher. Employees are different when the boss is off for the day.
These assortments of different behavior are pretty much shot through
the human condition, though not necessarily always a good idea.

Sometimes, we conduct ourselves in an artificially nice (or wicked!)
manner because we do NOT know with whom we are dealing. Our
politeness or our shyness or boldness can be terribly false facades.
Whether our projections are attempts to be cool and with it or
decidedly cultured and subtle, they can be masks, and are at times!

The message here is no masks. Know Him in Whose presence and House
you are. But really KNOW Him. That can take a lifetime of trying on
and shedding as false different modes of conduct.

God, like so many things, is very Benedictine in His perfection,
which stands between the extremes in which we are prone to think of
Him. If you think God is pretty much like the strictest teacher you
ever had, who ran a real death camp of a classroom, guess again.
You're dead wrong. On the other hand, neither is God Lenny Bruce,
though I surely hope He has chuckled at some of my earthier moments
more than once!

God is Parent and Creator and we are always creatures, but we are not
always children. We have to grow to the adult relationship with God
that fortunate children eventually share with their parents. (If we
never got to do this, and many haven't, establishing such honesty
with God is going to be a bit of a chore... Keep trying!)

As we grow in our knowledge of God, our behavior around Him (and we
are ALWAYS "around Him", that's another clear message of the Holy
Rule!)changes. It becomes more real and more natural. It changes with
a very clear eye to Whom God is and who we are. It changes from
knowledge born of love and security.

A final little word here about the angels. We are in the sight
of "the Godhead and His angels." Even Protestant churches which would
not approve of prayer to saints can find ample Scriptural bases for
praying to angels! Again and again we see people conversing with
God's messengers in the Bible. Hence, don't waste 'em! None of us is
so rich as to afford to ignore friends! Let the angels help. Ask them
to help you on your road. The briefest glance at their Scriptural
track record will show one that that is something they are very good
at! Ditto protection. I ask the angels to guard (and lately, WARM,)
my quail and chicken houses every single night!

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, for Louisa, 24, lymphatic cancer, waiting for bone marrow transplant
from her brother, and prayers of thanksgiving for a holy pilgrimage for Jodie.
Continued prayers for the recovery of John and the conversion of Alan. Prayers,
too for Nancy, 50's and nearing death from cancer, and for her friend, Steve,
who asked prayers for her. Prayers for the health of Buzz, diabetes, and his
wife, Cate. Prayers of thanksgiving for a successful Oblate Day here yesterday.
Deo gratias!! God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent.
Thanks so much.  JL



February 26, June 27, October 27
Chapter 20: On Reverence in Prayer

When we wish to suggest our wants to persons of high station,
we do not presume to do so
except with humility and reverence.
How much the more, then,
are complete humility and pure devotion necessary
in supplication of the Lord who is God of the universe!
And let us be assured
that it is not in saying a great deal that we shall be heard (Matt
6:7),
but in purity of heart and in tears of compunction.
Our prayer, therefore, ought to be short and pure,
unless it happens to be prolonged
by an inspiration of divine grace.
In community, however, let prayer be very short,
and when the Superior gives the signal let all rise together.

REFLECTION

There is a necessary tension in Benedictine prayer, both public and
private, between the awesome majesty and otherness of God and His
infinite closeness and approachability. God is among us. He is not
the guy next door, but neither is He some untouchable, easily
offended emperor or sultan. Both these truths must be addressed in
order to maintain a correct balance.

God doesn't need ceremony, He doesn't need anything. All the high
church in the world might (or might not...) tickle His fancy, but it
does not one whit for Him personally. The rub here is that WE need
what we offer to God, and that has been all too often forgotten in
the last 40 years or so. In a very real and subtle sense, we BECOME
what we offer to God, often quite unnoticed by ourselves. The upshot
of all this is clear: offer God the lowest possible common
denominator and that is what those offering will become; offer Him
empty and presumptuous high church and be not surprised when those
offering such things become rather pathetically silly themselves. In
fact, sad fact, either extreme will make people pathetically silly
and spiritually impoverished besides.

Balance, always balance! The Holy Rule says "our prayer should short
and pure." Fine, but the last part of that phrase has often gotten
lost in the struggles of reform. Just plain short doesn't get it. God
doesn't care about short, except insofar as it cheats us, those He
loves. The balance of short AND pure will feed a normal soul well.
Hence, if you find liturgy in any given place leaves you at least
hungry and maybe starving, it's a safe guess that something might be
wrong. God is still served, but His people often are not. That should
upset both God and us.

Many of those who tinkered with the Office in some of our monasteries
were neither mystics nor liturgists. One hopes that, even though
foolish at some extremes, they were at least well-intentioned.
However, having lived with some of them, that is a difficult ruse of
charity for me to maintain.

Many who tinkered in the 60's and 70's are long since seeking their fulfillment
elsewhere, with partners of either gender.  Much of their tinkering was done
in the midst of their worst vocational  crises, with predictable results.The
problem
is that at any monastery,  such things have a dreadful way of outliving their
progenitors. Monastics have a tendency to leave things in place, not always
wisely, by any stretch.

I can only speak of the guys I knew personally, but many of them had
a seriously deficient sense of history AND liturgy, not that either
were paramount concerns in their eyes. The very 60's name of the game
was a tragically appropriate line (from Laugh-In, yet!!) of "What's
Happening NOW!" Whoops...not precisely the way the Council put it.
They eagerly dismantled and reassembled monastic liturgy as if it had
all the excesses of 11th century Cluny in 1964.

It didn't. It needed work, but it wasn't Cluny. In many cases, they reduced
liturgy to less than the historical reaction to Cluny of Citeaux and the first
Cistercians in 1098. Hey, if they didn't have Cluny in the first
place, going to more starkly bare liturgy than Citeaux was a bit of
an over-reaction... Especially if the people involved were not
Cistercian mystics, and let us be frank, they were not.

This mess, and it is just that in some cases, will not end in my
lifetime. I long hoped that it would. I longed to live again in a
church where it was otherwise. Ain't gonna happen, and that is hard
to accept. Sigh... What an odd sense of humor God has in creating us
when He does, at times that seem so out of sync, but somehow must not
be.

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

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

+PAX

Prayers, please, for Susan, who died Friday, and for Michael, her husband and
all her family, also for Christie, who missed passing her exam for teaching, but
will try again!  Prayers, too, for Justin, elevated blood levels in prostate
cancer screening and high cholesterol, as well as Jerry, his brother, who has
prostate cancer. God's will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never
absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 27, June 28, October 28
Chapter 21: On the Deans of the Monastery

If the community is a large one,
let there be chosen out of it
brethren of good repute and holy life,
and let them be appointed deans.
These shall take charge of their deaneries in all things,
observing the commandments of God
and the instructions of their Abbot.


Let men of such character be chosen deans
that the Abbot may with confidence
share his burdens among them.
Let them be chosen not by rank
but according to their worthiness of life
and the wisdom of their doctrine.


If any of these deans should become inflated with pride
and found deserving of censure,
let him be corrected once, and again, and a third time.
If he will not amend,
then let him be deposed
and another be put in his place who is worthy of it.


And we order the same to be done in the case of the Prior.

REFLECTION

Did anyone read this as I did at first, many years ago, and
wonder: "Why did St. Benedict give them an academic name
like "deans"? Well, it was probably the other way around! Since the
first schools were monastic ones, it is quite likely that the
term "dean" entered academia via the Holy Rule! Surely the academic
gown of today is a modified form of our Benedictine choir robe, the
cowl or cuculla. In fact, Benedictines used to wear their cucullas
with the appropriate academic hoods as their formal dress at
graduations and the like. With all due respect to the johnny-come-
latelies like the Dominicans, Franciscans and Jesuits, when they don
full academic regalia, they're wearing a derived form of our choir
habit!

But, enough of trivia...This chapter repeats another important
consideration in St. Benedict's plan: people are not to be
overburdened. This theme is less noticeable than the more important
ones of moderation and the like, but it is there. Again and again,
the Holy Rule says that people should have help with their charges,
certain officials should even be exempted from serving in the
refectory.

Two things are going on here, both very important. Surely the first
is kindness, gentle consideration for human frailty. The second,
however, is every bit as defining and important: we are not our work,
we are not our jobs, our vocation and worth is only connected to such
things tangentially at best. Our motto is Work AND Prayer. The
message is that neither of these should make the other impossible.

This message is equally important for both choir monastics and
Oblates. If your work is so much that your prayer suffers, something
is wrong. However, especially true for those of us in the secular
world, if your prayer is so much that your job or children or
marriage suffers, something is REALLY wrong. If your work deprives
your family or spouse, it might be time to look at changing it, time
to rearrange goals and priorities a bit.

One of the occasional problems of modern life everywhere is not just
that we are too busy, but that we FOCUS too much attachment and will
on stuff that really doesn't matter. Change that focus. Picture your
job today if you had died yesterday. The important stuff would still
get done by someone else. The rest, your own agenda, would go merrily
down the tubes. Well, learn from that! A LOT of our own agendas are
worth little more than that: going down the tubes. So why waste so
much time and spiritual and emotional energy on them? As it does so
frequently, the Holy Rule and Benedictine life tell us: "Get real!"

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

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

+PAX

Deo gratias, prayers of thanks for the successful teen Search retreat in Texas!
Prayers, too, for Cynthia, seeking a full-time library job with benefits. God's
will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much!  JL

February 28, June 29, October 29
Chapter 22: How the Sisters Are to Sleep

Let each one sleep in a separate bed.
Let them receive bedding suitable to their manner of life,
according to the Abbess's directions.
If possible let all sleep in one place;
but if the number does not allow this,
let them take their rest by tens or twenties
with the seniors who have charge of them.


A candle shall be kept burning in the room until morning.


Let them sleep clothed and girded with belts or cords --
but not with their knives at their sides,
lest they cut themselves in their sleep --
and thus be always ready to rise without delay
when the signal is given
and hasten to be before one another at the Work of God,
yet with all gravity and decorum.


The younger shall not have beds next to one another,
but among those of the older ones.


When they rise for the Work of God
let them gently encourage one another,
that the drowsy may have no excuse.

REFLECTION

Hastening "yet will all gravity and decorum" has prompted many a
community joke, many a wry comment as one ran most ungracefully,
parts of the habit flapping wildly in the breeze, to whatever the
bell was about to make one late for! St. Benedict far antedates the
Three Stooges, but he still took precautions to ensure that we would
not look EXACTLY like Moe, Larry and Curly when we went to choir or
dinner! Admittedly, some of our human tendency still arises to give a
partial glimpse of that comedic trio, but, as always, the picture is
balanced!

The idea of sexual temptations being thwarted by a lamp burning and
fully clothed juniors interspersed among seniors has been mentioned,
but there is also another very pragmatic rationale. First off, the
young, even in monasteries, tend to giggle. No point in turning grand
silence into a noisy slumber party!

Even more importantly, the elderly may have problems during the
night if their health is declining. Hale and hearty (and hopefully easily
awakened!) juniors nearby promise them assistance, if needed. However,
if you want a humorous take on the knives issue, it may have been to
prevent mayhem and murder of snorers, an idea which has occurred
to many light sleepers!

Of course, dormitory sleeping is a thing of the past in our Order
today, but its nice to see that thoughtfulness behind its original
expression in the Holy Rule. There's a bit of the "mother" in St.
Benedict, going out of his way to mention a small detail like not
sleeping with knives. It is worthy of note, however, that St.
Benedict, as always is MODERATELY maternal, not neurotically so! He
doesn't get all bent out of shape, but he cares greatly and deeply.

One of the most beautiful images in this passage is the exhortation
to "gently encourage one another" at the hour of rising. Remember
that the strictest silence of all prevailed at this time. Now picture
the monastics gently encouraging one another! With no words, there
had to be a lot of touch, a lot of gentle smiles, a lot of warmth and
care expressed NON-verbally.

A very good idea of how loving a monastic is can be had by disturbing
their silence (or sleep, I imagine!!) Is the reaction cross and
withering? Watch out for that one! Is there a smile, even a warm one,
a reaction of sweetness? Well, when silence is over, that is a
monastic to whose words you may want to listen carefully.

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

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

+PAX

Someone's heart aches for an intention about which they feel they can say
nothing. Please pray for that someone! God's will is best. All is mercy and
grace. God is never absent. Thanks so much! JL

February 29, June 30, October 30
Chapter 23: On Excommunication for Faults

If a brother is found to be obstinate,
or disobedient, or proud, or murmuring,
or habitually transgressing the Holy Rule in any point
and contemptuous of the orders of his seniors,
the latter shall admonish him secretly a first and a second time,
as Our Lord commands (Matt. 18:15).
If he fails to amend,
let him be given a public rebuke in front of the whole community.
But if even then he does not reform,
let him be placed under excommunication,
provided that he understands the seriousness of that penalty;
if he is perverse, however,
let him undergo corporal punishment.

REFLECTION

While some today may chafe at these chapters, known as the penal code
of the Holy Rule, believe me, the modern problem is NOT that they are
too stringently enforced. Quite the opposite. The Benedictine
atmosphere of gentle moderation can cloak and empower a lot of
timidity and cowardice, too. Neither are very loving, they're just
useful means of avoidance.

Not all love is tough love, but all love IS tough. When a parent or
boss or superior chooses their own comfort by avoiding confrontation
with a problem member, everyone suffers. Those in authority are
called to love, and love leaves no stone unturned, not even those
that are horribly difficult to lift.

The message here for all of us is "Look at your own choir stall",
which is a Benedictine way of saying "Mind your own business and
examine your conscience." If you are in authority, or get there
someday, don't be a flop or an unloving wimp. If you are not in
charge, don't make yourself one of the problems. It is terribly hard
for rank and file to ignore what ought not to be ignored, but
sometimes we simply have to do so or leave. That is one of the VERY
great ascetic disciplines of common life. Believe me, fasting pales
to nothing beside this one. I'd rather fast any day!

I have known monastics (and employees and managers and parents!) who
forced more than one person out by their unchecked behavior, something a
good superior could have fixed or at least mitigated. To assume that the
offenders
were ALWAYS the instruments of God's will in such cases, that the person
was supposed to leave or "just couldn't take it," is blatantly false and
pathetically
stupid. It is even more tragic when the one in charge is taking the easy way out
by non-intervention. That scenario would be tantamount to saying that child
abuse
was just an instrument of God's will. It isn't. No serious offense is and no
monastic
should be left in such peril uncorrected.

God's will has to work around and in spite of human frailty, but
human frailty can and does often put huge obstacles in the way.
Meanness and abusiveness can destroy others' vocations as well as
one's own. So can cowardice and inactivity in the name of false
charity.

Over the years I have heard excuses close to whining from people in
all areas of authority: political, ecclesiastical, parental, monastic
and administrative. "Nothing can be done about so-and-so. My hands
are tied." I hate to say that I remain unable to completely buy that,
largely because sometimes I've been around long enough to see a
successor (or the juvenile courts!) DO something about so-and-so.

I have also been in charge enough times to realize that often
something CAN be done. It is not palatable or easy, but it is
possible. One of the things that strengthened me as listowner was the
memory of weak superiors and ineffectual bosses and the tension of
living in the chaotic messes they enabled by abdicating their
responsibility.

Monastics come to the Holy Rule for the benefit of discipline and
growth and guidance toward holiness. We have a right to same, and no
one should have to know that only for child abuse will he or she get
it. There are many, many abuses that involve neither sex, nor
children, nor outsiders that require equal attention.

If we take an firm hand in one area only (an area which, it must be
noted, is financially very dangerous...) we will look rather foolish
in priding ourselves that we are left with a community that can keep
its hands off children. There's more to it than that. Much more.

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

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