Gratitude

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give,

and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.

It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements

in comparison with what we owe others.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Ethics (1949)

Ut In Omnibus Glorificetur Dei

Once upon a time, it was not unusual to find U.I.O.G.D. written on the top of a page of a letter, school assignment (if you were in Catholic school!), etc.  What do the letters, and the Latin phrase it stands for, mean? 

So that in all things God may be glorified.  This quote, found at the conclusion of Chapter 57 of the Rule of St. Benedict where he is warning against the evil of avarice and echoes the words found in 1 Peter 4:11 where he is encouraging Christian charity. 

So for us, what does it mean?  Quite simply, that in all that we do -- every thought, action, word, deed -- we need to give glory to God.  And He will reward our actions. 

Is it simple, no.  Is it something that we all need to strive for, yes.  Will we fail at times, yes.  Should we become discouraged and quit, no.  Why?  Because as we grow in grace and virtue, we become more like Him who in His great love created us out of the dust of the earth. 

Ut in omnibus glorificetur Dei! 

Lord, give us the grace to properly glorify You!

Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...

From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

What does love look like?

 

What does love look like?

It has the hands to help others.

It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy.

It has eyes to see misery and want.

It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men.

That is what love looks like.

~St. Augustine

Pilgrim George

We had a Saturday surprise visitor:  Pilgrim George.  We had heard of him from time to time in Bishop Bosco's weekly column, A View from the Bridge in our local diocesan newspaper.  With Bishop Bosco's retirement, we no longer heard of Pilgrim George's travels, but when he appeared on our doorstep, it was like welcoming an old friend.

Pilgrim George stayed with us overnight and shared his story and travel tales with us over supper.  He has walked around the world four times and his patchwork habit is made of old blue jeans.  And yes, he carries spare patches and mends it as needed.  His sandles are made from tires, and he replaces the heels every 3,000 miles. 

His vocation is to be a pilgrim.  In his own words, as he was nearing ordination (after 12 years of seminary training), he knew all kinds of head knowledge but didn't have the heart knowledge he felt he needed to be a priest.  Taking a leave of absence before priestly ordination, he made a pilgrimage from Spain to the Holy Land.  It was there that he heard his calling:  to be a pilgrim. 

In his travels, he lifts up the Cross of Christ on his pilgrim staff and ministers to those he encounters on his travels.  It's not unusual for folks to stop and talk with him, walk a piece with him, or offer assistance.  When not on pilgrimage, he lives as a hermit.  And yes, he has a Facebook page. 

God bless you, Pilgrim George!  And may your travels always bring you and those you encounter closer to Christ!

Peace

If we have not peace within ourselves,

it is in vain to seek it from outward sources.

~ François de La Rochefoucauld

Golden Arrow

May the most holy, most sacred, most adorable,
most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God
be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored
and glorified in Heaven, on earth,
and under the earth,
by all the creatures of God,
and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Amen.

God Alone

And when prayer is come to perfection, then will the soul also mount to the supreme degree of Humility, which regards God considered absolutely in Himself, and without any express or distinct comparison with creatures; for hereby a soul fixing her sight upon God as all in all, and contemplating Him in the darkness of incomprehensibility, does not by any distinct act or reflection consider the vacuity and nothingness of creatures, but really transcends and forgets them, so that to her they are in very deed as nothing, because they are not the object which with her spirit she only sees, and with her affections only embraces.

~ Augustin Baker, OSB

in Praying with the Benedictines,

A Window on the Cloister

Jesus, delight of my soul...

Jesus, delight of my soul, Bread of Angels,

My whole being is plunged in You,

And I live Your divine life as do the elect in heaven,

And the reality of this life will not cease, though I be laid in the grave.

Jesus-Eucharist, Immortal God,

Who dwell in my heart without cease,

When I possess You, death itself can do me no harm.

Love tells me that I will see You at life’s end.

Permeated by Your divine life,

I gaze with assurance at the heavens thrown open for me,

And death will shame-facedly go away, empty-handed,

For Your divine life is contained within my soul.

And although by Your holy will, O Lord,

Death is to touch my body,

I want this dissolution to come as quickly as possible,

For through it I am entering eternal life.

Jesus-Eucharist, life of my soul,

You have raised me up to the eternal spheres,

And this, by Your agony and death  midst terrible tortures.

Saint Faustina Kowalska

Divine Mercy Diary

Notebook V, 1393

I bow down before You...

I bow down before You, O Bread of Angels,

With deep faith, hope and love

And from the depths of my soul I worship You,

Though I am but nothingness.

I bow down before You, O hidden God

And love You with all my heart.

The veils of mystery hinder me not at all;

I love You as do Your chosen ones in heaven.

I bow down before You, O Lamb of God

Who take away the sins of my soul,

Whom I receive into my heart each morn,

You who are my saving help.

Saint Faustina Kowalska

Divine Mercy Diary

Notebook V, 1324

What Stability Does - Part II

Stability encourages the skill of looking for the best in the other person.  Negativite thoughts and judgments are easy, and negatiave pronouncemednts may make us feel better or even superior for a while.  But in the end, all it does is separate us in hurtful ways.  Stability, on the other hand, enables us to look for the good in each person.

Stability also brings a call for forgiveness.  When we choose to be in a community -- whatever that community is -- there are bound to be differences and often little quirks about other people that annoy or anger us.  There can also be major disagreements.  Living in a community puts before us the opportunity to practice forgiveness.

Our commitment to stay put helps us move beyond those temporary blips on the screen of life to embrace the bigger picture.

St. Benedict's Toolbox

The Nuts and Bolts of

Everyday Benedictine Living

by Jane Tomaine

What Stability Does - Part I

Stability calls us to work out our problems with the people who are a part of our lives.  When we flee physically or emotionally, we only bring our old problems with us into the new situation or relationship.  The truth is, if I don't work out my problem with this person, I'll end up working out the same problem with the next person.  Best to stay put and work things out!

Stability prevents us from running away from necessary development.  Progress is not possible without growth pangs.  We think it is, however, and respond by projecting our inner dissatisfactions on the community.  We blame others for the negativity we experience in ourselves.  Stability keeps us from being buffeted about by our moods or doubts.  We surrender them to God and seek God in the situation before us.  We can recognize that our passing moods don't necessarily represent the true desires of our hearts.  Such thinking can help us stay put until balance returns.

St. Benedict's Toolbox

The Nuts and Bolts of

Everyday Benedictine Living

by Jane Tomaine

What Is Benedictine Stability? - Part II

Benedictine stability is as countercultural in our day as it was in Benedict's.  Our culture says, "Don't get tied down.  Keep your options open.  Be free.  If it doesn't work (whatever "it" is), bag it.  Go on to something or someone else."  Stability takes a different approach.

Stability is a promise to stay put with the people with whom God has placed us.  Stability is staying put right there, knowing that Christ is at our side to help us.  Stability recognizes that there are times when God may place us in a situation not so much for what we can personally get out of it, but for what we can give to others.

Esther de Waal writes that a life guided by stability has both an exterior and an interior dimension.  The purpose of the exterior dimension -- staying in a place, relationship, or situation -- is to establish what she calls "stability of the heart."  That means being content where we are because we believe that God placed us there and is with us in every part of our life.  Where I am is important and counts because it is where God wants me.  Stability of the heart is important in our mobile culture.... we...carry with us a core that is constant -- our rootedness in Christ.  From that center we draw strength.

St. Benedict's Toolbox

The Nuts and Bolts of

Everyday Benedictine Living

by Jane Tomaine

What Is Benedictine Stability? - Part I

Stabilis is derived from the Latine word stare, meaning to stand, to stand up, or to be still.  From this comes the figurative meaing to be firm, to stand fast, to endure, to persevere, to be rooted.  The essential feature is resting on a solid foundation, fixed by strong and unshakable roots.  In a nutshell, stability is the action of staying put, remaining steadfast and faithful to the situation in which God has placed us.  It is persistently sticking with a situation, with people, and with God.

Monastic stability, as described by Benedict and as practiced by Benedictine women and men, is first and foremost a commitment to a place and a group of people in the belief that it is this place and these people who will help them find God.  The English Benedictine Basil Cardinal Hume wrote this of stability:

We give ourselves to God in a particular way of life, in a particular place, with particular companions.  This is our way:  in this Community, with this work, with these problems, with these shortcomings.  The inner meaning of stability is that we embrace life as we find it, knowing that this, and not any other, is our way to God.

...Stability is saying "Yes" to God's will for me in the place where I believe God has placed me and with the task that I believe God has given me to do.  In this we follow Jesus, who embraced the task that God gave to him. 

St. Benedict's Toolbox

The Nuts and Bolts of

Everyday Benedictine Living

by Jane Tomaine

The Scriptural Roots of Benedictine Stability

Faithfulness to place and community... is the mian ingredient in the Benedictine vow of stability.  It's a faithfulness expressed through action and it's biblical in its derivation.  All stability, the Bible tells us, is possible because God is faithful.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, hesed is the word given for God's faithfulness:  we turn from God but God does not turn from us.  We run after other gods, yet God reaches out to us to draw us back again.  The Divine Presence is constantly with us even when we choose to ignore this Presence.  Sin separates us from God through our own actions, yet our actions don't determine God's actions.  In spite of everything, God stays with us.

God's faithfulness to us is the model for Benedictine stability.  Benedict says that we can be faithful because God is faithful...  God in Christ is our Rock and as Christians, we want to put on Christ and become a rock, too.  We want to have a firm and solid center at the core of our being so that we can withstand the unpredictability and transience of our world.  What makes us stead is having a heart that rests in God...  Stability also means to remain, abide, be united to, live in, dwell in, or stay with.

St. Benedict's Toolbox

The Nuts and Bolts of

Everyday Benedictine Living

by Jane Tomaine

Sequence for the Virgin

A royal scepter and a crown

of purple, a fortress

strong as mail!  O fortress

of maidenhood, scepter

all verdant:

The way you bloomed would have startled

the grandsire of us all,

for the life father Adam

stripped from his sons (praise

to you!) slid from your loins.

You never sprang from the dew,

my bloosom, nor from the rain --

that was no wind that swept

over you -- for God's

radiance opened you

on a regal bough.  On the morn

of the universe he saw you

blossoming, and he made you

a golden matrix, O maid

beyond praise, for his word.

Strong rib of Adam!  Out of you

Gold scupted woman:  the mirror

of all his charms, the cares

of his whole creation.  So voices

chime in heaven and the whole

earth marvels at Mary

beloved beyond measure.

Cry, aloud!  A serpent

hissed and a sea of grief

seeped through his forked

words into woman.  The mother

of us all miscarried.

With ignorant hands she

plucked at her womb and bore

woe without bounds.

But the sunrise from your thighs

burnt the whole of her guilt away.

More than all that Eve lost

is the blessing you won.

Mary, savior,

mother of light:

may the limbs of your son be the chords of the song

the angels chant above.

~ Hildegard of Bingen

in Praying with the Benedictines,

a Window on the Cloister



God Alone

And when prayer is come to perfection, then will the soul also mount to the supreme degree of Humility, which regards God considered absolutely in Himself, and without any express or distinct comparison with creatures; for hereby a soul fixing her sight upon God as all in all, and contemplating Him in the darkness of incomprehensibility, does not by any distinct act or reflection consider the vacuity and nothingness of creatures, but really transcends and forgets them, so that to her they are in very deed as nothing, because they are not the object which with her spirit she only sees, and with her affections only embraces.

~ Augustin Baker, OSB

in Praying with the Benedictines, A Window on the Cloister

Why were the saints, Saints?

Because they were cheerful

 when it was difficult to be cheerful,

patient when it was difficult to be patient,

and because they pushed on

when they wanted to stand still

and kept silent when they wanted to talk,

and were agreeable when they

wanted to be disagreeable.

That was all.

It was quite simple

and always will be.

seen on a picture at Alverno Retreat Center, Salisbury, PA

A Taste for Prayer

The desire for prayer is that internal attraction towards prayer.  It is not a question of our attitude being "I ought to pray," but a question of "I want to pray."  It is true there is a midway stage where I can say, "I want to do what I ought to do."  And this is fair and proper, but is is insufficient.  There has to grow with us a desire for prayer, a nostalgia for prayer, a taste for prayer...  But the desire for prayer is something which comes, I suspect, only slowly and with practice.  I think it a truism of prayer to say that the desire for it, the taste for it, follows the practice of it.  It is not because we are drawn to prayer that we first begin to pray; more often we have to begin prayer, and then the taste and desire for it come.

~ Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB

in Praying with the Benedictines

Love...

"Totally love Him, Who gave Himself totally for your love."

~ St. Clare of Assisi

Blessed Trinity in One

As the Flame of fire has three qualities,

so there is one God in Three Persons.

How?

A flame is made up of

brilliant light and red power and fiery heat.

It has brillian light that it may shine,

and red power that it may endure,

and fiery heat that it may burn.

Therefore, by the brillian light understand the Father,

who with paternal love opens His brightness to His faithful;

and by the red power,

which is in  the flame that it may be strong,

understand the Son,

Who took on a body born from a Virgin,

in which His divine wonders were shown;

and by the fiery heat understand the Holy Spirit,

who burns ardently in the minds of the faithful.

~ Hildegard of Bingen

in Praying with the Benedictines

The Science of the Cross...

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) whose feast we celebrate today is a saint who lived of just the last century.  Below we share some excerpts from the Homily of Blessed Pope John Paul II at her canonization Mass:

The spiritual experience of Edith Stein is an eloquent example of this extraordinary interior renewal. A young woman in search of the truth has become a saint and martyr through the silent workings of divine grace: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who from heaven repeats to us today all the words that marked her life: “Far be it from me to glory except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. 

The love of Christ was the fire that inflamed the life of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Long before she realized it, she was caught by this fire. At the beginning she devoted herself to freedom. For a long time Edith Stein was a seeker. Her mind never tired of searching and her heart always yearned for hope. She traveled the arduous path of philosophy with passionate enthusiasm. Eventually she was rewarded: she seized the truth. Or better: she was seized by it. Then she discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the incarnate Word was her One and All. 

This woman had to face the challenges of such a radically changing century as our own. Her experience is an example to us. The modern world boasts of the enticing door which says: everything is permitted. It ignores the narrow gate of discernment and renunciation.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was able to understand that the love of Christ and human freedom are intertwined, because love and truth have an intrinsic relationship. The quest for truth and its expression in love did not seem at odds to her; on the contrary she realized that they call for one another.

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross says to us all: Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth! One without the other becomes a destructive lie.

The mystery of the Cross gradually enveloped her whole life, spurring her to the point of making the supreme sacrifice. As a bride on the Cross, Sr Teresa Benedicta did not only write profound pages about the “science of the Cross”, but was thoroughly trained in the school of the Cross. Many of our contemporaries would like to silence the Cross. But nothing is more eloquent than the Cross when silenced! The true message of suffering is a lesson of love. Love makes suffering fruitful and suffering deepens love.

Through the experience of the Cross, Edith Stein was able to open the way to a new encounter with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith and the Cross proved inseparable to her. Having matured in the school of the Cross, she found the roots to which the tree of her own life was attached. She understood that it was very important for her “to be a daughter of the chosen people and to belong to Christ not only spiritually, but also through blood”.

Dear brothers and sisters, the divine Teacher spoke these words to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. What he gave his chance but attentive listener we also find in the life of Edith Stein, in her “ascent of Mount Carmel”. The depth of the divine mystery became perceptible to her in the silence of contemplation. Gradually, throughout her life, as she grew in the knowledge of God, worshiping him in spirit and truth, she experienced ever more clearly her specific vocation to ascend the Cross with Christ, to embrace it with serenity and trust, to love it by following in the footsteps of her beloved Spouse: St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is offered to us today as a model to inspire us and a protectress to call upon.

The above editted text is used as the second reading for today's Office of Vigils.

Kindness...

Be the living expression of God's kindness;

kindness in your face,

kindness in your eyes,

kindness in your smile.

Let no one ever come to you

without leaving better and happier.

~ Blessed Mother Teresa

The power of prayer...

Without prayer a man will not persevere long in spirituality;

we must ahve recourse to this most powerful means of salvation every day.

~ St. Philip Neri

Humility as Truth, Part IV

We Are Stalled Human Beings

None of us has had an uninterrutped journey through life.  We have all had bad experiences which have led us astray, slowed us down, brought us to a halg, or maybe even sent us tumbling backwards.  There have been difficulties, mistakes, inconsistencies.  Sometimes these are caused by others.  Sometimes they are aided and abetted by ourselves.  As a result, we adults carry through life a measure of woundedness, although we are rarely conscious of its full magnitude.  the fact is that we have not progressed to the extent of our innate potentialities.  Many past events continue to have a permanent effect on our lives.  We also bear the burden of shame at our own imcompleteness.  Each one of us has fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

Humility involves the acceptance of the liabilities of our personal history as reality.  We do not have to approve what others have done to us or the ugliness that we have embraced and the laziness that has left us stagnant.  It is a question of recognizing the truth of our present situation as deriving from the past and beginning anew.  Pride denies the past has passed.  It ignores present possibilities by constantly reliving former experiences in an effort to correct what is beyong our power to change.  It is the kind of perfectionism that cannot accept the approximativeness of most human life...  Trying to tinker with the past is an exercise in bad faith.  We use former unfairness, for example, as an excuse to refuse the demands of the present.  Those who consider themselves victims are often notoriously insensitive to the hurt they inflict on others...

If we do not accept the unreality of some of our ideals, it may be that disappointment will make us unwilling to attempt anything bold.  Challenges are unwelcome because each choice we make narrows the possibilities for the future...  We will never interact creatively with the present unless we accept that whatever we do will involve leaving aside alternatives and being satisfied with something that may well be imperfect.

from A Guide to Living in the Truth:  Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility

by Michael Casey

Humility as Truth, Part III

We Are Sinners

...Sinfulness is not the whole truth about the human condition, but it is certainly a reality.  Nobody wants to admit bing a sinner, so must of us have to make a conscious effort to discover the reality of sin that is hidden beneath the surface of our well-meaning lives.  Otherwise we quickly slide into delusion.

Here it is important to realize that weare speaking of sin more as a theological reality and less as the experience of personal guilt.  WE are not identifying humanity or human weakness with sin.  Instinctual thoughts and desires, no matter how disreputable, are not sin.  Sin is the free preference for evil over goodness.  Itis the absurd choice we humans often make for what is intrinsically of less value.  Sin is the rejection of the human tendancy to see the good, the beautiful, and the true.  Sin is, fundamentally, the denial of our nature.

Sin concerns especially the breaking of relationships.  When we sin against God, it is not mearely a violation of the divine law, but it is a turning away  from the God who seeks us and call us to fuller life.  Like the Prodigal Son, we turn away from the warmth of paternal love and lose ourselves in searching for oblivion.  It is not a cosmic disaster on a grand scale, but simply a puzzle of personal tragedy.  No wonder God regards our aberation, as Julian of Norwich says, "more with pity than with blame."

Humility as Truth, Part II

We Are Creatures

The recognition of our earthly nature leads us to affirm that our fundamental relationship with God is one of dependence.  We are not the source of our own being:  our race exists only because we receive life from another.  However great the divine condenscension, we are never on a par with God.  Truth in prayer, worship, and service of God is characterized by the realization that all that we have comes from God; we have nothing to contribute to the relationship but our needs.  Our deepest spiritual experience is to feel utterly dependent on God and to want to submit ourselves to the divine will.  The mystics talk about a point at which the soul becomes absorbed in God and seems no longer to have an automomous existence.  God creates.  God sustains us in being.  Like children who buy Christmas gifts for their parents with money received from them, we can give nothing to God that has not first been God's gift...

The truth is that our being is incomplete without God.  To seek God is, therefore, a fundamental tendamental tendency of our nature.  "You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."  We cannot attain human fulfillment except in relationship with God.  There is a space in us that can be filled by only God.  There is a certain spiritual potentiality that never comes alive if we are locked in a world of self-sufficiency.  "Look to God that you may become radiant" (Ps. 34:5).

from A Guide to Living in the Truth:  Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility

by Michael Casey

Congratulations, Bishop-elect Persico

We extend our prayers and best wishes to Bishop-elect Lawrence T. Persico, the newly named 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Erie.  The loss of the Diocese of Greensburg is a tremendous blessing to the Diocese of Erie. 

Bishop-elect Persico served as chaplain here at St. Emma Monastery from February 11, 1988 until January 27, 1998, when he was named pastor of St. James Church, New Alexandria, PA. 

May the Lord abundantly bless your ministry, Bishop-elect Persico.  Please be assured of our prayers now, as you prepare to begin this new ministry as shepherd of the Diocese of Erie as well for many more years of fruitful work and ministry in this vineyard of the Lord.

Humility As Truth, Part I

We Are Not Divine

In the Garden of Eden the first temptation succeeded because it promised that we should become gods.  This desire is the essence of pride.  We want to deny our earthly origins with their consequences of vulnerability, weakness, labor, social constraint, and limitation.  We refuse to be satisfied with a medium level of gratification.  We demand a high level of pleasure, total freedom, power, a good reputation and a complete absence of irritants.  And we want them now.  Whatever gnaws away at our capicity to be happy in the restricted possibilities normal human life offers may be labeled as the opposite of humility, that is "pride."  We demand from others what they cannot possibly give us.  We are resentful that they do not give us all that we want.  Humility, on the other hand, leads us to find contentment in the ordinary, obscure, and laborious occupations that constitute our daily existence.

from A Guide to Living in the Truth:  Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility

by Michael Casey

A Prayer for Christ's Mercy

O Lord,
show Your mercy to me
and gladden my heart.
I am like the man
on the way to Jericho
who was overtaken by robbers,
wounded and left for dead.
O Good Samaritan,
come to my aid.
I am like the sheep that went astray.
O Good Shepherd,
seek me out and bring me home
in accord with Your will.
Let me dwell in Your house
all the days of my life
and praise You for ever and ever
with those who are there.
Amen.

~ attributed to Saint Jerome

"Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock..."

"Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock."

(Rev. 3.20)

O most loving shepherd,

who, not satisfied with sacrificing

Yourself once to death on the altar of the cross

for the love of Your sheep,

has moreover been pleased to hide Yourself

in this divine Sacrament on the altars of our churches,

to be always near,

and to knock at the doors of our hearts,

and thus obtain Your admission!"

~ St. Alphonsus Liguori