Remembering Pope John XXIII

 

This week is the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope John XXIII, a man who came from humble origins, rose up the ranks of the Church, but never lost his humility and, throughout his life, remained open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Pope John was beatified in 2000 by Pope John Paul II. In this Year of Faith, celebrating the Second Vatican Council which Pope John inaugurated, his life and ministry provide a beautiful meditation on sanctity in action.

Although not a Benedictine, Pope John possessed some characteristic Benedictine qualities, notably the quality of humility. Humility is at the heart of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Benedict’s humility is about authenticity: knowing who we are, and understanding that, with all our flaws, God loves us unconditionally. It’s also about realizing that, although we’re not perfect, God can still work through us in our daily lives.

Realizing that God loved him unconditionally, John was able to take that one step further and see that God loves each of us in the selfsame way. He is quoted as saying: "We were all made in God's image, and thus, we are all Godly alike." We share a common humanity and are loved infinitely by God in that humanity.

Blessed Pope John XXIII, was a man who lived authentically and compassionately, rooted in faith and never forgetting his humanity. He saw his most sacred duty as being the shepherd to all people of good will. He loved.  That meant he didn’t just utter words about loving, he loved people practically in his everyday dealings with them, visiting the sick, the imprisoned and the marginalized. In other words, he lived the Gospel.  Whatever he achieved flowed from his capacity to love and to allow God to work through him. Let’s pray for the humility to love as Pope John loved.

 

Karen Rose, OSB

God in the Ordinary

It’s Ordinary time in the Church’s calendar.  This so-called “Ordinary time” started after the high feasts ofEaster, Ascension and Pentecost.  “Ordinary time?” we ask, “but now we begin summertime when the living is full.  What can the Church calendar be eager to teach us?”

A few days ago, one of our sisters hinted at the answer; she prayed: “We ask you now, O Holy Spirit of God, to stay with all of us as we begin to live ordinary time, secure in your love. Amen.”

How often, when we are faced with some decision, disaster or even evil, do we jump into action? Yet, Scripture tells us that “in quietness and confidence, shall we find our strength (Is. 30:15).”  We are asked to be still and allow God to be God (Psalm  46:10 ). God wants to direct us, if we but put our trust in God, if we not allow fear to overcome us, if we not take the entire burden upon our shoulders.  Today, in the smallest of things, we can practice being still and trusting our God so that the threats and uncertainties of this summer will not overcome us!

Ordinary time but extraordinary events, and many of them:  weddings, births, deaths, vacations, plantings and harvesting, decisions and transitions.  In the midst of these and others, can we remember that we have asked the Holy Spirit to stay with us as we live, secure in an extraordinary love?  We will need to be still in order to know God’s presence among us, no matter what!

 

Renee Domeier, OSB

Real Beauty

Krista Tippet, in her Feb 23, 2013, blog for her NPR “On Being” program, offered John Donohue’s definition of beauty.  He said, “Real beauty is that, in the presence of which, we feel more alive”.

 



Photo by S. Nancy Bauer

Perhaps you have been enlivened by glimpses of nature’s real beauty these past weeks. In Minnesota, it has been sprouting leaves on winter-rested trees; bringing us patterns of familiar sounds from returning robins; encouraging sturdy spring flowers to poke their heads through last fall’s shriveled leaves, and gifting that beautiful forgotten smell of fresh rain on bone dry sidewalks, swept clean of winter’s ice-melting dust.

There also have been life-giving sightings of real beauty indoors.

·        The transpersonal connection, between an elderly sister and her care giver when mutual laughter emerged

·        The beauty of unbounded affection, as a five year old ran into the arms of his beloved great aunt

·        The life-giving-beauty of solidarity, as a tear-covered-face and encircling arms supported a family member during a difficult loss

 

Alive again, alive again, thank God I’m alive again!

 

As the Spirit again floods us with its transforming and life-giving light, may our eyes see in brighter hue the enlivening beauty that softens the soil of our hearts and emerges as a shout of spontaneous gratitude and praise or a delightful beauty-gasp.

 

Mary Rachel Kuebelbeck, OSB

Mystery of Pentecost

Recently I discovered two Spirit-filled interpretations of the mystery of PENTECOST. One is a Spirit Psalm, inspired by the image of the Spirit rushing upon David in 1 Samuel 16:13. The other is from The Message, the New Testament in contemporary language. Let us pray both:

Rush upon us, O Spirit of God!
From this time on, rush upon us
like living water,
like leaping fire,
like fresh breath through an open window.
For this time, rush upon us, O Holy Spirit,
with wisdom and knowledge,
with understanding and counsel,
with wonder and recognition and awe.
Just in time, rush upon us, O Spirit of God,
in life-giving words,
in songs from the voiceless,
in a passion for witness.
At this time, rush upon us, O Holy Spirit;
this hopeful time,
this searching time,
this preparing time,
this coming and going time,
this trusting time,
this new time,
this full time.
All the time,

Rush upon us, O Spirit of God!

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us . . . It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it, found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the Christians, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength! (Ephesians 1).”

Now, isn’t that what we all desire in and for one another!? Glorious Pentecostal in-Spiriting!

Renee Domeier, OSB

Thank You, Blog

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic for me. As communications director for the monastery, I am editor of our magazine, Benedictine Sisters and Friends, which is published three times a year. The spring-summer issue is due at the printer tomorrow. I love putting together the magazine, working with our Editorial Board to determine the theme, engaging people to write some of the articles, having an opportunity to learn more about our community through the articles I, and others, research and write. I value the support of my colleagues. I value their input and encouragement and, with a little more difficulty, their critical eyes. Do you think, though, that when I am running around, desperately trying to get everything done, I'm actually thinking how grateful I am for all these things? Well, I'm not. I'm horrified when anybody asks me to do the smallest thing that takes me away from the Big Task - the Magazine. Having a passing conversation with anyone becomes a trial, not a joy (and I'm a person who loves visiting in normal circumstances). However, because I decided that I was going to write a blog on the subject, I set myself the task of thinking about what is good about the whole experience, and I came up, just off the top of my head, with all these things. It made me think that maybe it's a good idea, when anything seems stressful or difficult, to step back for a few moments and think about what's good in the situation. So, writing the blog has, I feel, taught me a valuable lesson. Thank you, Blog.

Karen Rose, OSB

Seeking Out Truth

Sister Roberta Werner has recently written a book, Reaching for God. The book, which is a compendium of Benedictine life and prayer for the lay person, will be published by Liturgical Press in June 2013 (for more information, go to www.litpress.org )


The experience I had while recently writing my book was full of opportunities to reflect on the importance of the interconnectedness of humankind, and the need we have to continue the search for accurate information, and clear, truthful communication. Here is an example of my recent experience of the necessity to go beyond the obvious and the “given” to continue to search for truth. I was quite sure that a certain source I had found offered a correct translation of a specific Latin text I hoped to quote in my book, but I could not rest until I confirmed the accuracy of the translated passages. In my quest for the truth I went back to the original Latin document; then contacted 10 people whose forte was Latin and gave them a copy of the original medieval Latin text whose translation I sought. Six of the people claimed in their modesty that the passage was too difficult, but four tackled it. SURPRISE! All four agreed that the printed translation I had discovered was incorrect, and that the meaning was indeed the opposite of what that original translator had stated.

I can’t help but wonder how often in our culture we accept as true the data, the reports, the statements, the quotes that are fed to us by the media and greet us from the printed page. By the time the news reaches us, has the essence of the truth been changed? Has the report been transmitted by someone who had an axe to grind or by those who sifted it through their personal emotional filter before transmitting it? I’m not advising total skepticism, but I do think that I shall be even more careful from now on to go to the source, to treasure truth even more intensely. How can we trust when there is casual transmission of facts? How can we even be sure of developing a relationship with any content (or even any person) if there is hypocrisy, double-talk, information taken out of context? Time and again my experiences have taught me to be careful to check my sources regarding any type of information. Hitler, and others before and after him, have proved that if a lie is told often enough, people start to believe it is truth. Hopefully I am continuing to learn to first seek, search, probe for truth, and thus come closer to what really is.

Roberta Werner, OSB

Transitions

 

When ten of us arrived at the Institute of Religious Formation in Chicago last August, we spent several days transitioning into our new life that we would be living for the next nine months. We were given lots of time to discover the neighborhood, learn about each other, and to find everything we needed on campus. We were even taught about the Chicago transportation system by  taking a bus downtown. The director of the program reminded us several times that the reason for the extensive time we were given that first week was so that we would experience and reflect on what new candidates to our religious communities experience when they first arrive.  One of those days early on we took the Myers-Briggs personality test and a few days later someone gave us our personal results and the class results, i.e. the class profile.  I distinctly remember not thinking much about our class profile at the time because they were just names on a chart.

For the last week or so we have begun the process of transitioning out of the IRF. The classes are winding down; we have had our last class with Kevin, the psychologist who met with us every Tuesday morning since September. We are completing our projects, both team and individual, and planning for our closing liturgy on May 14. One day last week Paul, the director of the IRF, put up on the board the chart of our Myers-Briggs class profile from the beginning of the year.  Because I now know my classmates so much better I could actually go over some of the experiences we have had together and understand behavior, theirs and also mine.

I have learned a great deal these past eight months from the classes, from books and articles, from my classmates and teachers, but above all in this type of program one has the opportunity to grow in self-knowledge. I will be ever grateful to Sister Michaela and my sisters for giving me this extraordinary experience.

But we are not quite finished yet!  We leave on May 19 for a two-week retreat in the Holy Land.  My next blog will be from there.

Helene Mercier, OSB