Ora et Labora, Part Two

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on March 6, 2015
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 494px-Lavery_Maiss_Auras

We’ve come at last, to our very first prescribed Office.  Who prescribes it?  Each, for herself, as it will always be, but if you are willing, let’s take that idea of reading through the Psalms and make it work for us.

First, we choose a time of day that we can command, a time that is usually our own when we can claim about five minutes to do with as we please.  For now, try to schedule it during other than the early morning hours.  Many already have a morning practice of prayer and Bible reading, and if not, we will fill those first minutes of the day with wonderful delights of devotion before long.  Meanwhile, we are endeavoring to find our way back to the Lord at least three or four times during each day, which for most of us is the more difficult part.  Once we get rolling, so to speak, we like to fly, but this is the beginning of our own Opus Dei, the “work of God.”  Here are Jesus’ words to the man who asked how he might busy himself with the work of God:

“This is the work of God; to believe In the One He has sent.”  (John 6:29, NIV)

Whatever five-minute timeslot you choose, mid-morning, noon, mid- or late-afternoon, there is probably an Office that corresponds with the time!  We will get to know them and their various contributions to a monastic day – Vespers, None, Compline, Lauds, and more.  They are classically beneficial to a busy schedule, but this is your Office, and you can call it whatever you want!  For now, find a time and frame it, not at 9:00 in the morning or 3:00 in the afternoon, but put it, “First thing after the children are down for their naps,” or “before washing the breakfast dishes” – or right after, if you are good at keeping your word to yourself.  It is difficult for most of us, once we start moving, to stop, like those Newtonian laws of physics we all learned. (A body at rest tends to stay at rest, and a body in motion tends to stay in motion!)

We do stop when we are acted upon by an opposing force, like an invitation to afternoon coffee!  Even so, many of us can claim to have turned down attractive invitations on occasion because we were caught up in a whirlwind of housecleaning or scrapbooking.  Which one of us hasn’t stayed home sometimes just in order to sit in front of a favorite movie or television program?  Speaking Newtonianally, we were in motion, sitting on the couch.  We were actively watching the show we did not want to miss!  When it was over, then we had to deal with the inertia into which our physical bodies had sunk; they were at rest and sometimes we watched another movie because they were tending to stay at rest!

Monastics can tell you that all these principles can be put to very good use for us.  Here in Cor Unum Abbey, we introduce opposing forces of our own choosing, devotions and dedications that oppose our spiritual inertia, and in inverse proportion, we begin to find rest from our labors no matter how hard we work mentally and physically, because we choose stillness as well.  The day will come, my dear Sisters, when spiritual rest will be such a powerful reality for us that we will tend to stay at rest, even from former all-consuming efforts toward self-justification and manipulations.  The day will come when our tendency to “earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) and our aptitude for abiding in Christ (John 15:4-9) will not be extinguished.  There will be no opposition with enough force to interrupt our trajectory.  We must begin with a simple decision never to turn back.

“ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

 

 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

 

 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

 

 We are training ourselves to take time with the Lord.  Before long, we will find that we have a new velocity toward the Lord.  Tremendous winds do not keep big jets from reaching their destinations.  While airline flights are sometimes canceled for safety’s sake, nothing can keep us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:39)  Here in this Abbey, that means nothing can keep us from returning that love in worship and prayer and in seeking the place of abiding of which Jesus spoke, not even if we miss our prescribed time now and again.  That isn’t the perfection we seek; ours will become the perfect heart of love for God that will not be denied.   We are developing hearts that won’t permit the winds of distraction or even our many failures to keep us from our destination.

Now, back to our five-minute Office in the Psalms.  We might fit in as soon as we get home from work, in our rooms just before changing clothes and going out to conduct the rest of the evening.  Perhaps you can take time just before or after your shower, when you have a little bit of solitude to call your own.  For most of us, it isn’t that we can’t take five minutes, it is that we have become accustomed to lingering over more entertaining pursuits and leisures and then rushing through the God-ordained structures in our lives.

Before technology, for which we are very grateful, the lighting of lamps and the milking of cows and the laying of wood for the morning fire hemmed in the hours of every day and every season.  There were dozens of little absolutely necessary intervals in place.  In order to regain all those lost boundaries, we must find the ones that work for us where we are.

We spoke of children and naptime, for instance.  This is a perfect example of how we may establish a Divine Office that can be kept.  Oh, the joys of welcoming children into your Abbey!  Find a children’s version of the Bible and read a Psalm to them as you put them down to sleep every afternoon.  You will need time by yourself and you will learn to find it, but young mothers can work in several extra Offices by including your little ones.

That, dear ones, is your first new Office, however you spend it and wherever you put it.  It might be your second or third interval with the Lord, if you are already praying and reading your Bible morning and evening, but we will make this one special because it does interrupt the tug of the day, and that’s the whole idea.

Because this is a very short Office – and because it is the Psalms and often prayerful in nature – kneel as you read, if you can.  You might find that this will become a simple and healthy benefit for your soul.  We will talk more about those oft-maligned practices that have meaning and power in the Scripture.  Otherwise, just quiet your heart and devote your attention to every word as best you are able.  Before long you will be making each reading a prayerful, worshipful experience, every day, after you’ve had your tea … or brought in the mail … or taken the dog for a walk … but continually and with increasing power to reflect and believe!

We are headed toward our hearts’ desire, that we would be able to worship and pray and give thanks and listen and obey and fill our hearts with the love of God every day and throughout the day, never checking Him off a list, but always acknowledging the fervor with which our spirits long for Him unceasingly.  Ours is to live in Him and learn of Him and hear His Voice and pray until our faith receives the answer.

We will talk further about the time-honored methods of reading prayerfully, but for now, as you read a Psalm each day (start wherever you wish, and just keep going!), try to read aloud if you can, even if in a whisper, and don’t hesitate to put all the joy and glory and pathos into your reading that is there in the text!

One last thing: now that you have a Psalms Office, sanctify that time to the Lord.  Don’t be afraid; He won’t smite you with boils if you fail to keep it perfectly.  What do we think of Him??  If you want to return to the experience of His Presence time and again, and not just on the run, He wants you there.  Give those minutes to Him, and He will be waiting when you arrive and come looking for you to bless you if you can’t make it.  He is the lover of our souls.  He will be at least as gracious to us while we are making these monastic decisions as we would be toward a child trying for love’s sake to sweep the kitchen with a toy broom.  Wouldn’t you agree?

Miss Auras, John Lavery

Wikipedia, public domain

“Ora et Labora,” Part One

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on March 5, 2015
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It is a “job ’o work” getting a few dozen women fed three times each day, even if the meals are simple and the choices non-existent.

They all have laundry to be done as well, and because many larger convents and monasteries are self-sustaining, there are gardens to be planted and tended, eggs to be gathered, cows to be milked, and often as not, a little business on the side to help pay the bills, perhaps bee hives or bread-making.

The difference between us and cloistered monastics is shrinking, isn’t it?

Saint Benedict had a solution, and it is famous in monastic circles. He coined the phrase, “Ora et Labora,” “Prayer and Work,” and that’s what makes cloistered life hum.   His instructions were more than practical; he knew that the Scripture highlights a fundamental principle, one that saved the lives of the early Puritans under the governorship of William Bradford, and it is, “who doesn’t work, doesn’t eat.” This wasn’t Scriptural or colonial “to bed without supper,” it is a fact of community life and honor in the Abbey as it was in Plymouth Colony, where that little band survived. Those who had come before them were looking for gold washed up on the seashore or under the mushrooms; they were put out on the beach without leadership or vision or much of a work ethic. These earlier adventurers couldn’t take care of themselves and they fled for home or starved.

Cloistered nuns have to take care of themselves, for no one else is allowed inside. Only under the most serious conditions does anyone enter … usually severe plumbing or medical emergencies! In those cases, in traditional houses, the Portress would precede the visitor down the maze of corridors, ringing a bell to let her Sisters know to stay out of sight for the time being.

Also in those days, a large house would have a full complement of extern sisters, but never full enough to keep their enclosed Sister Nuns from having to pick apples at harvest or help with the planting when there was a break in the weather. The gardens and apple trees, were, of course, all accessible within the walls of the Abbey, along with walking paths for daily exercise, that enclosure would be kept.

Extern Sisters wore the same habit and attended Mass and Recreation with the cloistered nuns, but they did not chant the Divine Office with them because of their more rigorous work schedule. They did and do keep the Office together, at least in part, fitted into their busy days, but they must have supper on the table, and on time! Sound familiar?

Theirs was considered just as important a role as their Contemplative counterparts, and given all the more honor because everyone knew that without the Extern Sisters, the Enclosure would fail. Our focus is on the contemplative side of cloistered life, but we could say in truth that if an Extern Sister can take time out for prayer five or six times a day (and seven or more in times past,) so can we! Those intervals may be short, but our love for the Lord and His for us will make them sweet.

Let’s be sure that, when we are honest-hearted about the intervals of time that we do have at our disposal, the fact that we took the time, matters. Time is given to all, and precisely the same twenty-four hours, no matter our station in life. The at-home nun who kneels beside her bed to read one Psalm every day at the fitting interval, when five minutes is truly all she has, makes a difference for herself. Later, or earlier, she might have another five or thirty. Those who can take an hour in the morning or twenty minutes at lunch or ten minutes in the car alone, every day, sanctified to the Lord, will not be unrewarded. No Abbess can make that guarantee of herself, but it has been made by the Lord.

 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6, ESV)

So, to us. We ask ourselves, as we often will, what might be the result if we will “carpe minutam,” … seize the minute, if the day tends to get away from us?

Here in Cor Unum, each of us is Abbess, Contemplative Nun, Extern Sister, and Portress, all rolled into one. (The Portress is an enclosed nun who has a secretarial position, often in service to the Mother Abbess, and who has the most contact with the Extern Sisters and the outside world, primarily through the media.) Even if we don’t have to feed a family, we do have to feed ourselves, my dear widowed and solitary Sisters, and we will learn as we go that one must “eat well to fast well,” a pithy monastic saying. Someone has to sweep the porch and scrub the sinks and fold clothes, even if only for oneself.

Three hundred sixty-five days each year. That’s a lot of dishes and a lot of sweeping, but it’s a whole lot of devotion, too. We must begin to think much more expansively! Taking the example of Psalm reading, that would cover the entire book of Psalms twice each year. Not all, perhaps, but many of us would have a hard time remembering the last time we read all the way through the Psalms twice in a year!

Sister Brigid always reminds us … “By the mile, it’s a trial, and by the yard, it’s still hard … but by the inch, it’s a cinch!” Saint Benedict didn’t include those words in his rule … too bad!

Keep that thought in mind, Sisters and Brothers. Tomorrow, our first “Office.”

The Divine Office

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on March 4, 2015
Posted in: Uncategorized. 1 Comment

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The Divine Office is the teenager who stays home from a dance to attend a family get-together.

It is the husband whose wife doesn’t have to prod him to put down the newspaper or turn off the television.

The Divine Office is the wife who gets small children peaceably ready for bed after dinner so she can spend the rest of the evening with her husband.

Our personal Divine Office is the time we would like to spend in prayer for our families and churches and nations, but never seem able to acquire.

So far, unless it must diverge, this blog is written for all of those who have monastic hearts, hearts to live out their interior lives in an effectual devotion to God. So far, we are in this together, but there are those among us who have long evenings alone stretching before them, with nothing but time to do with as they please, and there are those who, at best, must fit God in between dinner, chores, children, and the life and health of their marriages. These lifestyles are quite dissimilar, but for the heart of worship.

Who understands this time/effort paradigm better than our God and Father, Elohim, the Creator God, who gave us marriage, family, obligations … and for almost all of us, eventually, solitude? Who but He can measure five devoted minutes on a scale with 55 devoted minutes and call them equally weighty?

He also gave us grace and the ability to set the course for our souls, to make choices between those things which profit and those which do not, and he gave us the mental capacity to see that a little time well spent, when that’s all we have, is far better than none invested because we wish we had more!

After more than ten years in this at-home Abbey, I can tell you that the hard part is still just taking the time I’ve been given. I can also tell you, it does get better when one keeps trudging along inside the verges of one’s own Divine Office.

Trudging? Trudging? Trudging toward a glorious relationship with God?

Yes.

It isn’t the relationship that’s tedious or painstaking, far from it. It’s the keeping to the path that is so daunting. One of us refers to it as a path “with handrails.” How is it possible that after so many years of knowing the mercies and the graces and the goodness of God, that we still say, “Not tonight, my Lord; I have a headache.”

I will not often get personal in this narrative and over these days together, but I think you may enjoy this little vignette.

After my husband died, about a week after his funeral, I finished dinner and faced my first evening alone. Our children had been here for nearly a month prior to his death and afterward, helping one another, comforting, showing the wonderful stuff they’re made of. Friends and neighbors had kept up a steady stream of every kind of assistance and kindness, never overbearing, just available and removing every possible practical difficulty. Now, for the first time, I looked around and faced the rest of my life alone in the house, alone in my heart, no longer married, no longer one of two in love.

However … I had been practicing these tiny Divine Offices for six or seven years. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, tiny disciplines of thanksgiving and intercession and stillness, and I had told the Lord the night Frank died – propped up on pillows, alone in our bed – that I was determined to spend the rest of my life grateful for what Frank and I had been given instead of mourning over what had been taken. I knew and I said, as King David had said, “He will not come to me, but I will go to him,” and that was the end of the matter, except for the three and a half years it took to begin to get used to living without him.

So, on that first night alone, I did the dishes and put them away, picked up my Bible and went into the den. I sat in Frank’s chair. I said to the Lord, “I will be to you what I was to Frank, and I hope even more, if You will give me grace for it. My evenings are Yours; I’m Yours … I won’t make You look like a poor substitute for a great husband.”

I opened my Bible, and my eyes fell upon a verse, an obscure verse in Jeremiah … that I had been trying to locate for ages. It was just a little verse of Scripture, but I had looked and looked for it; it was something lovely the Lord had shown me long before that I didn’t want to lose. It wasn’t relative to marriage or death or anything immediately pertinent, just something lost, now found. Perhaps one day I will tell you about it, but that wasn’t the point then or now. It was just a little present, a little something wrapped in love, as if it had been a bracelet I had seen and admired and Frank had gone back to get it for me and keep it for a special moment. “Here, darling, this is for you.”

The joy, like a wedded bliss, that flooded my heart was indescribable. I knew I’d been heard, I knew I’d been taken seriously, I knew beyond doubt then or now that my Lord was glad I was there with Him, and I knew that, for whatever reason Frank had died so relatively young and all our future cut off, all was well and that I would mourn with a healthy hope. I was Frank’s, but now I am the Lord’s, in a very special way. He is not a poor substitute for any loss; He is all and in all, and He is ours and we are His.

Thus began this more intense version of my Divine Office, but I can speak to you from both perspectives, both the snatching what time you have and filling more time than you wanted. The key, I believe, is to remember this: we are making a freewill offering. Nobody forces this devoted life upon us. There are societies aplenty for men and women alone and men and women too busy already. There are books to read and a few really good television programs and some great movies and good time to spend with dear friends. There is also a Lord, a Savior Who is Lord, near enough to touch, well able to comfort and inspire and revive any soul.

One more personal observation, and then we will return to our look into the rudiments of disciplined devotion … while it is true that I wept at times as though my heart would burst through my chest, it was always for missing Frank and always with a sweet gratitude, no matter how devastating the sorrow. I think those years of what seemed like catch-penny devotion made the difference, along with a will to obey what I was learning along the path.

Iglesia Santa Maria monastery

ecelan, by permission, Wikipedia

A Holy Vocation

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on March 3, 2015
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The new Postulant has entered the Abbey, welcomed and surrounded by her new Sisters, and no doubt with eyes like saucers, trying to take everything in. She doesn’t soar above every pang of separation and doesn’t try to, but she is in her own “happiest place on earth,” and she wants to experience every shining floorboard and flickering candle.

This is her new home, and it will most likely be until her death. We will talk later about the Benedictine vows of stability, a two-way pledge between the monks and nuns who have chosen the house, and the house that has chosen them and won’t send them away. The “abiding” of which Jesus spoke in the fifteenth chapter of John is our stability, and without doubt, we are meant to have it, to hide ourselves in Christ, His Spirit alive in us. That is Cor Unum Abbey, this monastery of the heart.

Cecelia went first to Recreation, the hour when strict silence is broken and the Sisters gather with their handwork and with stories to tell about the funny and interesting things they have observed in quiet, at work and in prayer. Perhaps the Abbey cat has been leaving offerings at the feet of a venerable saint’s statue, or there may be news that blackberries need to be gathered assiduously over the next few days. When the bell or the clapper sounds the end of Recreation, the Sisters fall silent on the instant, gather their things, and make their way to Chapel for the Vespers Office.

Let’s be reminded continually that whatever we may think of cloistered life, those who take up a holy vocation do it for the sake of the pursuit of the Lord, and so may we, right where we are. We must do this right where we are, or it will never get done. We have this life and these boundaries and these responsibilities, and most of us are too old or too married to join a convent, anyway! Even so, if “real” monastics can give long hours to worship and prayer each day, we can give long minutes, at the very least.

Forget those myths about monastics trying to escape reality; there may be some men and women who enter in the hope of a fairy tale of religiosity, but seldom will those individuals be able to stay to the taking of Permanent Vows. Centuries of abbatial oversight can spot pretenders before they are ever admitted, and after that, the strength of character and laser-like focus required to remain does not often appear in someone trying to hide from life.

So then, what about us? We will need our own commitment and focus in order to live in this world, but not of it. If we determine to abide in Christ, His Word abiding in us, we have already seen that it won’t just happen, magically, but it will happen. As we learn to watch and pray and to keep ourselves in the love of God, as we learn that we share more of the life of God in Christ than ever we have imagined, one with Him now, not just in death, and as we keep plodding in pursuit, we will make progress. Interestingly, monks and nuns would be the first to say that, when one of us begins to take up the rigors of a disciplined devotional life at home, they are our most enthusiastic cheering squad. They know the rewards, and they know how difficult it is to persevere in the workaday world. That’s why they left it, and because they were willing to pay the price to have those fixed and unfailing hours in devotion. What would they say to us who will not be denied? If they wore hats, they would take them off to us! Three cheers for us!

Never forget, dear ones, we can always have those things that have been commanded and promised, and we have been commanded in our love for God and for others. Over and over again we have been instructed to watch and to pray, and to give thanks in all things.   We have been promised the rewards of quietness and confidence, and when we are in no way alarmed by anything that transpires, our enemies are thrown into confusion. (Philippians 1:28) Those blessings cannot be for in-house monastics, only.

Night is coming on, and the Vespers Office will be sung, with the new postulants losing their places, completely confused, trying not to make a spectacle of themselves. Rather like us, starting out. Six months later, all the new Sisters are surprised at how far they have come and how very far they have to go. So, too, shall we all be, here in Cor Unum Abbey.

It is time to take a look at this Opus Dei, this Divine Office of worship and prayer and see what we can make of it for ourselves. Theirs will never be ours, but then, ours will never be inferior, not in the slightest, when we devote this freewill offering to the Lord our King.

A Monk’s Cell

HombreDHojalata, by permission

Day One … INTO THE ABBEY … “Passion Christi, Conforta Me!”

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 27, 2015
Posted in: devotional life, monasteries, monasticism, personal devotion, the image of Christ. Leave a comment

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Mother Catherine Thomas, in her classic work, My Beloved, writes that the first words she heard at her entrance to a Carmelite monastery were, “Passio Christi, conforta me!”

Passion of Christ, comfort me!

I like that! The ancient founders of monasteries could have come up with something more mysterious, perhaps a secret handshake or a password, but I like those comforting words. I imagine that they are meant to remind the newcomer that Jesus knows what it is to surrender one’s life. At the same time, Jesus has a passion, as we would define it, for oneness with His own, His people. We know it, but most of us have not yet begun to appreciate it as we might. Here in Cor Unum Abbey, we are giving ourselves to that end.

We do well to enter this new pursuit, this personal monastic adventure, comforted in our resolve. If we make progress, if the Nearness of God becomes our all-consuming good (Psalm 73:28,) it won’t be an easy marathon, but the comforts are colossal and well worth every footsore step. We will know times of joy and fulfillment unlike anything else that life can afford, but the very best pleasure is knowing that it is possible to delight the heart of God. (Song of Solomon 4:9, Jeremiah 9:24)

Into the Abbey … one moment you’re on the doorstep in your street clothes, Smart Phone in your pocket or purse, the next … you take a step over a threshold and heavy oaken doors close behind you. Keys turn in the lock. It seems romantic in movies; not so simple a choice in reality.

Our choosing is not as immediately profound, but when we make it in good faith, it is just as binding and just as apt to take us where we want to go, into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord. We don’t have to surrender our phones, but this is for real. This is stepping into the pursuit of the Lord our God.

Inside these walls, grief and bitterness will have to give way to hope and forgiveness. Pride and fear will have to show themselves in all the little hidey-holes they have found for themselves. We will have to cut away little chunks of our souls, the dark and rotting spots, where we have rather enjoyed being jealous or angry or covetous or lethargic, but this is the most successful operating theater in existence. Even incurable wounds will be healed (Jeremiah 30:12-17).

Moreover, seldom if ever will we do more than to make tiny steps in a right direction. There will be a few glorious conquests of our selfishness and pride, but most of the time it will be one finger ledge, one toe-hold at a time.

Inside the Abbey, Sister Cecelia was taken to change into her postulants’ habit, and even that was rather plain and sophomoric compared with the full habit of the Professed Nuns, but she was glad. She then met the community, a happy and congratulatory scene. Cecelia had been corresponding with the Mother Abbess for quite awhile, and she knew something of the rudiments of a monastic vocation.

Here are some of ours:

  • We will use time-honored tools for making sure that the Word of God dwells in us richly, conforming us to the image of Christ.
  • We will make adversity and loneliness work for us, mightily.
    We will learn to practice silence for a season every day, some longer, some shorter.
  • We will begin to pray more and more diligently … giving ourselves not only to prayer but to a lifestyle of intercession …
  • We will learn to hope, beyond wishing.
  • We will get to know the glories of “Conversatio.”
    This time next year, we will know we have made progress in this place.

This place. It is an imaginary Abbey, but we aren’t playing make-believe. We can know that we aren’t alone in this invisible cloister, as its walls and corridors and chapel are being constructed in our hearts. We begin to hear the bells at all the proper times of day.

We can make sure that, together with one another, “Marketplace Monastics” the world over, we are obtaining Christ, which is why we’re here. Like Paul said,

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12, NIV)

“All this” is all Christ, His abiding and our abiding in Him, learning to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 23, 24.) Speaking of the bells, they are ringing for Vespers. Follow the veil in front of you, and welcome to the first day of the rest of your holy vocation.

Altenberger Dom (Altenberg Monastery)

Uwe Barghaan, by permission, Wikipedia

Introduction to Marketplace Monastics, Part 2

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 24, 2015
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Many of us have had or do have children or employees under our watch-care. How often have we expected of them an adherence to simple rules that we ourselves did not emulate in our private lives?

“Eat your vegetables,” “brush your teeth,” “finish your homework,” and of course, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all!” … while we ourselves struggled with the effects of poor nutritional choices and a crushing disorganization or a damaging tendency to gossip? All could have been repaired long ago if we had been obedient to our own good sense. “Eat your vegetables,” “brush your teeth,” “finish your homework,” is to them what “drink less coffee,” “get proper sleep,” “be on time,” and “don’t gossip” ought to be to us.

Here in this Abbey, change will take place, most of it gradually, and all of it in the direction of a closer walk with God, enhanced personal relationships, and a much more effectual life of prayer. We will begin to dwell in Christ in that settled down way that depends upon hearing and obeying, and upon the cultivation of an unfeigned love, of peace, and of joy.

Second rule of Cor Unum Abbey – You, in Christ, are the Superior of the monastery of your heart … and His Spirit will lead you in triumph.

How many, how colorful, how right, how desirable are the Lord’s strictures to us concerning personal responsibility! They range from the commandments given in the wilderness, from which we are not exempt until the law is fulfilled in love (Matthew 5:;17-20), to words that command the impossible:

Deuteronomy 28:1-7 … “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.  Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.  Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.  Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.  Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. (esv)

 

Luke 10:27 … And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (esv)

 

We know our love for God is not as whole as it could be, we know that we are not yet made perfect in love, but we don’t excuse ourselves from the pursuit, from the race … from the arena. As the Holy Spirit is given to help and inspire and strengthen, we enter into the training about which Paul spoke. (I like thinking of Paul as a man who knew how to “put up his dukes”!) There has never been a coach to compare with the Holy Spirit of God. He tells us how to make the wind work for us on every vault toward greater kindness. He goads us to run a little further or a little faster and tells us which spiritual muscles to call into greater service. He makes sure, if we will submit to his oversight, that we are properly nourished and rested, at least in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a heartbreak it would be to discover how far we might have gone with His instruction and preparation, if only we had shown up for practice!

Accordingly, I don’t run aimlessly but straight for the finish line; I don’t shadow-box but try to make every punch count. (1 Corinthians 9:226, CJB)

 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear . . . (1John 4:18, NIV)

We will remember continually that we are called to seek the Presence of the Lord and to find our pleasure in His nearness. Anyone might balk at the idea of doing more than an already busy life can manage, but it is invigorating to see the difference it makes when at last we put Christ Jesus first, when He has preeminence over all things, and not with lip-service only. Time begins to warp into plenty of time; effort begins to rejoice rather than repress our hearts, in the middle of grave difficulties, we catch ourselves smiling a knowing smile … indeed, we have been chosen to bear the image of our Lord in this life.

Those who are true monastics know that nothing must be practiced that takes away from the rightful joys and sanctity of marriage or parenthood or the honor of work and responsibility. No, the inclusion of a personal Divine Office, if it is really divine, enhances life and relationships. We seek the life to be found in that close place, that closet, of which the Lord Jesus spoke, the life that is manifest when we learn to find God here and find Him now and then begin to display the open reward of the discovery.

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6, NASB)

 

Trust in the Lord and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

your vindication like the noonday sun. (Psalm 37:3-6, NIV)

 

Much more than petitionary prayer will be discovered within these walls, of course. Marketplace Monastics have given up other things in order so to live, but they live well by happy standards, and what they do without is nothing that, in Christ, they would wish to retain. Family and fellowship and feasting and fun are all to be had – and let no one tell you that cloistered nuns do not enjoy all of those, as well, if perhaps on a smaller dietary scale!

Monastic pleasures are, to some degree, measured for those we will call “real” nuns, but the grand weight on the other side of the scale is practiced devotion to God and a boundless sense of His Nearness. They have, as Mother Mary Francis wrote, “a right to be merry,” as do we, the monastics of Cor Unum Abbey.

For us, when we set out to live lives of unfeigned devotion, some things will have to be replaced, because our lives are always full of whatever we do every day, even if it is patently nothing. For many it is overwork, for some it is excessive leisure and play, and for many, many others it is ennui, that elusive nothingness that makes one old and sad and useless and gives no account for itself.

Kiss that goodbye. We are meant to be ripe like fruit, lovely and luscious fruit on a healthy vine. The tomatoes in the garden or the potted plants on the back porch tell us, too many days without water will scorch the life out of a prize show of fruit or flower. We can learn much if we will investigate what it is that the monastics of this world, those in and those outside the cloister, do with the twenty-four hours they are given, for they certainly do find the spout of Living Water and plant themselves beneath.

We will look into many such lives, but above all, we will start living them!

Lest we be tempted in any way to say, “Some can, but I cannot,” the profound hope woven into these pages is that nothing will be written that cannot be catalogued under the express will and purpose of God … that we should seek Him with our whole hearts and love Him, heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and that we should take our places abiding in Christ and His Word in us. That we should learn to lose our souls that they might be found. All this must be possible to butcher and baker and candle-stick maker, to wife and mother, husband and father, to widows and college students, single parents and single men and women, even to those wondering in their hearts, where and how long before their hearts find a home. We may have this life of fruitfulness in and toward Christ Jesus, if we will.

Let us begin with this revelation from the Word of God: truly, hope deferred makes the heart sick. It is up to us to defer our hope no longer. Happily or tragically married or single, imprisoned or impaired, never was real hope to be found in any other than Christ Jesus and His Kingdom within our hearts. The one who seeks God and His astonishing Kingdom, will find.

Not only in Bethlehem, Connecticut, within the wall of Regina Laudis Abbey, but in many of the more enduring orders, it has been the more exacting practices that have prevailed, and a spot of exactitude might help us all, here in the workaday world they left behind. Let us follow a young postulant into cloister, and see if we, too, might not benefit from the manifold joys of a more disciplined devotional life.

The ancient monastery (10th century) of Sanahin, in Armenia

hansdewaele, by permission, Wikipedia

Introduction to Marketplace Monastics

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on February 20, 2015
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Buckfast_Abbey_-_geograph.org.uk_-_932824

Every evening, in Bethlehem, Connecticut, forty Benedictine nuns settle into the Night Silence that follows Compline, the last Office of the day. All speech is curtailed but for the prayer and praise of Matins at 1:50 a.m., then the profound monastic silence continues until well after daybreak.

Forty is rather a large community in this day and time. One cannot help wondering how it is that this monastery (Benedictine nuns live in monasteries, not convents) seems to be thriving when compared with many others. Perhaps it is because Delores Hart is cloistered there.

Mother Delores has become something of a monastic celebrity. She was a beautiful Hollywood ingénue in the 1950’s, just beginning a meteoric rise to fame. She made ten films, gave Elvis Presley his first on-screen kiss, and enjoyed tremendous success on Broadway before a day trip to Regina Laudis set in motion a change of vocation. From starlet to postulant to Professed Nun, she is still the only cloistered monastic who receives a ballot from the Screen Actors Guild every year when the Oscar nominations are announced!

Although a charming documentary of Mother Delores’ life was nominated for an Oscar, the nuns and superiors of Regina Laudis attribute the permanency of this monastery to, of all things, the fact that the nuns maintain a traditional approach to monasticism. They wear the full habit, a practice nearly lost since the councils of Vatican II, and they sing and pray the Divine Office in its entirety, in Latin, in Gregorian chant, every day. Many religious orders have curtailed their Office to only two or three communal gatherings, sometimes optional. Mother Duss, the founding Superior of Regina Laudis Abbey, said that she was intuitively certain that the ancient paths were the ones marked out for her Sisters. It seems she knew what she was talking about.

What now has any of this, the success or failure, indeed the existence or dissolution, of the Abbey to do with you or me? Of what interest to us are habits, long, short, full or forgotten, of what manner of intrigue or matter of importance is it to us whether nuns in Bethlehem, Connecticut or Bethlehem, Israel (and there are convents there) sing or chant, pray or maintain silence?

It is this. While these women and others like them, men and women all over the world, are living lives of intense prayer and praise on purpose and continually, learning to hallow and appreciate the nearness of God every hour of every day, they in their cloisters are not alone.

A tiny fragment of society, they are joined by hundreds of thousands of others in all walks of life, still a tiny slice of the population pie, but just as devoted within the confines of their workaday vocations as the nuns of Regina Laudis are in theirs. These “marketplace monastics” have learned the delights of devotion and the dignity of self-discipline. Across the board, they make no claim to have become experts in their chosen pursuit; first they chose, and then they learned to follow hard after the Lord they love.

These urban professionals, these young mothers and older widows and college students and “still single” men and women are the monks and nuns on their block, living in townhomes and tenements, in the suburbs and the outback. Some are Catholic, and there is a sweeping move of Catholic oblates who take their at-home monasticism very seriously, but others are just believing Christians who want to make sure their prayers are “without ceasing” and that they are faithful in worship and thanksgiving and stillness along the way. Some have fit devotion into their marriages and professions and parenthood and some have fit it into solitude and loneliness. If you are alone, if your life has taken a turn into widowhood or divorce or if you have remained single stretching over more years than ever you would have imagined, there is a place for you in this Abbey. This is Cor Unum Abbey, the monastery of the heart.

Do not imagine that crossing the threshold means you can never marry or that you can never again go out to dinner with friends. Do not imagine that if you choose to remain single and begin to want to stay so, that you cannot dwell here in fullness of joy all the days of your life. This cloister is founded upon Jesus’ words in the fourteenth chapter of John, words perhaps all too often misunderstood.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:1-3, NIV)

 

We often hear these verses quoted from the King James translation … “In My Father’s house are many mansions,” and we do like the sound of that, but Jesus did not go to the cross or return to heaven to build ornate palaces for us … there may be splendid ones in heaven (or there may not,) but that is not the place prepared by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of our salvation. The preparation of which the Lord speaks was that which made ready a way that we might dwell in Him and He in us, an accomplishment which is light-years beyond any architectural magnificence, on earth or in heaven.

First rule of Cor Unum Abbey …. Jesus Himself is our cloister, and we make our hearts a dwelling place for His abiding. (John 15: 4 and 7)

One of the most well-known of those who founded religious orders was St. Benedict, who wrote his “Rule” that others who chose to live together in their pursuit of the Lord might do so as effectively and righteously as possible. Many others followed, among them St. Francis and St Clare and Finnian of Clonard, in Ireland. Many serious-minded seekers after faith and righteousness left record of a written, personal “rule.” George Washington had one, a guide for living a life of integrity, and among his peers he stood out, unequaled in their eyes. Marines and West Point Cadets have Codes of Honor and of Conduct, and so do physicians and fire fighters and nurses and brick-layers, too, when they are at the top of their field.

If you look up “code of conduct” on the internet, you will see everything from a Jedi Code (the Wookieepedia) to rules for Sharia law. In between are such things as “May I Shake the Lady’s Hand,” an expose on Hebrew cultural manners, and a code of ethics for those who work on Mercy Ships, bringing medicine and surgical care into Third World countries. Of particular interest is an article that stresses the importance of introducing a moral code to children at a tender age, suitable for their years.

In this sanctuary, we order our lives according to the leading of the Holy Spirit upon our own hearts; the only Superior here is one’s own ability to listen and obey as God leads us onward. Ever in keeping with the written Word of God, for us it’s rather like making good resolutions each New Year and actually keeping them. Where the Bible addresses “surfeiting” and “buffeting the body” and watchfulness with “prayer and fasting,” we make a start, with small steps in a right direction. Excesses of discipline and excesses of lethargy and laziness are both ungodly, so we keep to a humble path. It is humbling to keep going with only the smallest of successes, and it is humbling to come to terms with how hard our “flesh” will fight to be free from any spiritual progress whatsoever.

Monks and nuns who have paved the way in “real” monasteries have greatly helped us. Like the Marines, we will become a no excuses kind of Abbey, but ever in the ways that suit our individual lives and our calling in the Lord.

Many of us have had or do have children or employees under our watch-care. How often have we expected of them an adherence to simple rules that we ourselves did not emulate in our private lives. Eat your vegetables, brush your teeth, finish your homework … while we struggled with the effects of poor nutritional choices and a crushing disorganization or a troubling impatience that we could have repaired if we had been obedient to our own good sense. “Eat your vegetables,” “brush your teeth,” “finish your homework,” is to them what drink less coffee, get proper sleep, and be on time ought to be to us.

Here in this Abbey, change will take place, most of it gradually, and all of it in the direction of a closer walk with God, enhanced personal relationships, and a much more effectual life of prayer. We will begin to dwell in Christ in that settled down way that depends upon hearing and obeying, and upon the cultivation of an unfeigned love, of peace, and of joy.

Buckfast Abbey, Devon, England

Community of Roman Catholic Benedictine Monks

photo by Sarah Charlesworth, by permission, Wikipedia, Creative Commons

January 27 – Monastic Pity

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 28, 2015
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Cindarella_illustration_by_Charles_Robinson_1900

            We spoke last time of the perfections of living in Christ, of abiding in Him, despite our imperfections. Thank God there is perfection for us that does not require an absence of weakness and insufficiency!

Let’s take self-pity for an example. Few if any of us can say we have never known a dose of it, and there are those who have drunk to intoxication! It is a repugnant fault, in ourselves and in others, but here in Cor Unum Abbey, this monastery of the heart, we rejoice. This tyrant will serve us! If we have seen our pride, our fears, our jealousies … our self-pity … the snare is broken, and now this enemy is going to have to serve us well.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have our very, very worst traits as plain to be seen as the portraits that emerge when the sun shines through a stained glass window? Not at first, of course, because we’ve been trying to hide them for so long, but after awhile, and when we learn that others see right through us and lovingly care for us in all the dark spots … what a relief!

So, taking self-pity as an example, we begin to repent of the fear that fuels it and the pride that it engenders. (If we look, we will find both in the mix, almost every time.) Where there was that loathsome sniveling, there will be the courage of a lion. What did we fear? Most often, it was neglect. Suddenly, and as our pride is leveled in honesty of heart, we begin to exult in our weakness, our great need for attentions and diversions, for now we give all the more our attention to the Lord in all things – perhaps He would enjoy what we would enjoy!  We trust that His attentions to us are unfailing and sweet, even though unseen at times. The very fact that our need for notice is so visceral proves to us that His thoughts turn to us more times in one minute than we can count. We weren’t made wrong; we need all that self-pity covets, but we must eat from the tree of life, and that will ever be a feast of faith.

The day will come when we cannot even enjoy the joys of life without Him. It’s a love affair. We need pleasures, we badly need respite and laughter and the stimulations of beautiful things, so for now, we give them to Him, in all deficits of fun and fellowship and finance, we honeymoon with Him. Those whose needs are greatest, those most forgotten and most forsaken, bring the entire flask of unmet expectations and its fragrance does the impossible: it perfumes heaven. My dear, dear sisters in Christ … the fragrance of our surrender and our faith perfumes the dome of heaven in which He sits, at the right hand of the Father.

Be honest. You may not have the love or the money or the opportunities on earth that others have, but no one can love the Lord in your place. No one can do what you are doing or sacrifice what you have to give. Bathe the feet of your Lord, for this earth is His footstool. Bathe His feet with your surrender to His unearthly love. Don’t ask to see or feel love … give it. Love everything about Him while you suffer the lack of other pleasures. Love those you serve, for He will feel it, pray for those who despitefully use you, for He will see it and revel in your kindness. Glance His way, always … it will ravish His heart! Rejoice to see the ugly stepsisters leaving for the ball. You know you don’t need a fairy godmother … the Prince is at home with you.

Charles Robinson, Cinderella, 1900

public domain

January 23 – Simply Perfect

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 23, 2015
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1280px-Spices1

            The perfections of this kingdom are, like everything else about it, of so sublime a nature that our frail understanding requires a heavenly grace in order to begin to take them in. So, help us, Father …

For instance, here there is a perfection known as repentance. The only way it can come to the fore is through the knowledge of our dark and vile sinfulness. The better we see our inherent imperfection, our inbred iniquity, the more perfect our repentance, and repentance is the perfect solution to our heinous imperfections of soul and decision.

Then there is the grace of humility, which is the perfect antidote to the pride and and self-reference that mask our fears. We are told, beyond the reaches of natural intellect, that perfect love casts out fear, and we learn here in Cor Unum to humble ourselves to the love of God in Christ Jesus. This is the perfect response to the perfections of this love that knew no bounds and knows no end.

Pride, greed, self-pity … we are so far from perfect at every turning. There is this perfection ever at hand: we confess our sins, to the Lord Who loves us and to another, and we pray for one another that we may be healed, and that is the perfect thing to do, both for those oppressed and those looking on. (1 John 1:9 and James 5:16) The perfections that define eternal life have to do with loving one another (Matthew 19:16-22,) and this vocation is given to each and to all. We know that the perfections of love nearly always call us to love others in their startling imperfections, and to pray for them in the perfection of faith and hope.

We are called to be a perfect-hearted people. One thing that particularly marks the monastic man or woman is the near absence of self-pity, and in order to stay, each must pursue it and overtake it; the monastic must not turn back until it is consumed and trampled under foot (Psalm 18:37-40.) It is perfectly necessary. Monastic joys are difficult to understand, for to all appearances “real” monks and nuns have surrendered all the pleasures that, for the rest of us, make life as close to perfect as we think it can be. This absence of self-pity flavors the monastery, and flavors it by its absence, as if one had never eaten any but grossly over-salted eggs.

We are meant, one and all, to abide in Christ, and He, not our imperfections, is the savor of every day. I visited a spice market in New York City, and before me stretched long rows, dozens of rows, of beautiful, fragrant, colorful herbs and seasonings, more flavors than it would seem could be known to man! I never thought I would compare the Lord Jesus Christ to a spice market, but the Shullamite does, in the Song of Songs! In all our imperfections, there is a divine zest that makes life delectable, like the first spoonful of a bona fide, slow simmered Boeuf Bourguignon. Yum!

In abbeys of stone and steel, there are those who leave because they mistook their vocation, but those who stay have learned to sink their souls deeply down into the compassions of the Lord. This is vital! All good things are given for us to enjoy, but one thing excels, and that is He, Himself, the Jesus that Mary chose, at His feet. This is the greatest perfection of them all, this decision and determination to abide in Christ, as He abides in us. Truly, for us there is no other vocation; not one of us is not called to abide! Here in Cor Unum Abbey we treasure Jude’s instructions, nearly the last words in Scripture before the Revelation. These words point us back, at the close of the written word, to Jesus’ premier exhortation, “Abide in Me!”

            “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” (Jude 20, 21)

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” (D.H. Lawrence)

 

Moroccan spice market 

Bertrand Devourard, wikipedia 

January 21 – A Change of Habit

Posted by Cor Unum Abbey on January 21, 2015
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800px-ACU-BDU-WWII_uniform

We spoke last time about those in Scripture who have commanded their souls, their eyes, their lips, for the sake of the Lord their God. These are “the mighty ones” in the earth, and we want to be numbered among them.

If we hadn’t realized it before, Jesus tells us that, as willing as the Spirit is, the flesh is weak. It’s nice that He let us know that He knows that! Even so, there are a few phrases that have no coinage in heaven, for instance, “I’m only human!” and “nobody’s perfect!” Believers in the Lord are commanded to “Be perfect, as My Father in heaven is perfect,” and to stop acting like “mere men.”

You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? (1 Corinthians 3:3, NIV)

Here in Cor Unum Abbey, we are endeavoring to wrap our heads, or at least our faith, around the fact that we don’t get a pass for being imperfect, weak, human beings. If our Lord tells us to put on the new man, and He does, we can do it. It is a change of habit much more extraordinary than when the new postulant takes off her worldly clothes for the last time.

If only we could take off our bad habits for good, shuck them like corn silk and be done with them. No, our sin nature is so corrupt that even such a glorious exchange would be dangerous for us, for then we could boast and gloat and become very prideful in our sinlessness. That doesn’t work at all!

We are back to trudging, one foot in front of the other. Learning to speak gracious words, and sometimes because of the unkind things we’ve said only recently. We are becoming kind and gentle in heart, because we are willing to crucify our angry self-righteousness on a daily basis. We help one another to be careful of the things we allow, the “everybody does it” deceptions and the misconceptions that tell us we will explode into insignificance and psychosis if we don’t express ourselves freely.

The good news is that change will take place, righteousness will become our adorning, and power and might will be the strength of our new wardrobe. This is a real change of habit, and we can have it in dungarees or racing tights or BDU’s (Battle Dress Uniforms,) if we won’t give up.

More coming up on the habit of change!

Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Army

SFC Dan Dennison, SPC Ronald Jones and MAJ Steve Thrasher line up to show the U.S. Army’s new Army Combat Uniform, the outgoing Desert Camouflage Uniform and the uniform worn by U.S. Army soldiers in World War II. The U.S. Army soldiers in the photograph were working in displays at the Public Service Recognition Week event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Eric Cramer May 4, 2005