The Eve of Pentecost / Whitsunday

Come, Holy Ghost our souls inspire,
and lighten with celestial fire.
Enable with perpetual light
the dullness of our blinded sight.

Thou the anointing Spirit art,
who does thy sevenfold gifts impart
Anointed and cheer our soiled face
with the abundance of thy grace.

Thy blessed unction from above
is comfort, life, and fire of love.
Teach us to know the Father, Son,
and thee, of both, to be but One.

that through the ages all alone,
this may be our endless song:
praise to thy eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Veni Creator Spiritus,
9th Century

Mystagogia #8

In the week following the Ascension, the Collects of the Day turn our hearts toward the coming of the Holy Spirit, the empowerment from on high. As disciples of Christ, we pray that with Jesus' ascent into heaven that we will not be left alone or comfortless, and beseech him to send us the strengthening presence of the Holy Spirit. It will be through the agape-love of the Holy Spirit that we will be raised to newness of life and continue to grow into the full maturity of our Lord and Savior. Through the Wind and the Fire, my the Spirit come now upon us with power distributing among us the gifts of the selfsame Spirit, that dedicating ourselves more and more to the service of God, and living more fully the riches of our faith,

The Feast of Augustine of Canterbury

O Lord our God, by your Son Jesus Christ you called your apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless your holy Name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives, and reigns with ou, and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict

On Humility

Holy Scripture, brethren, cries out to us, saying,
"Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled,
and he who humbles himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
In saying this it shows us
that all exaltation is a kind of pride,
against which the Prophet proves himself to be on guard
when he says,
"Lord, my heart is not exalted,
nor are mine eyes lifted up;
neither have I walked in great matters,
nor in wonders above me."
But how has he acted?
"Rather have I been of humble mind
than exalting myself;
as a weaned child on its mother's breast,
so You solace my soul" (Ps. 130:1-2).

Hence, brethren,
if we wish to reach the very highest point of humility
and to arrive speedily at that heavenly exaltation
to which ascent is made through the humility of this present life,
we must
by our ascending actions
erect the ladder Jacob saw in his dream,
on which Angels appeared to him descending and ascending.
By that descent and ascent
we must surely understand nothing else than this,
that we descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility.
And the ladder thus set up is our life in the would,
which the Lord raises up to heaven if our heart is humbled.
For we call our body and soul the sides of the ladder,
and into these sides our divine vocation has inserted
the different steps of humility and discipline we must climb.

The Feast of Bede the Venerable

Heavenly Father, you called your servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to your service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship: Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of your truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make you known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict

On the Spirit of Silence

Let us do what the Prophet says:
"I said, 'I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue.
I have set a guard to my mouth.'
I was mute and was humbled,
and kept silence even from good things" (Ps. 38:2-3).
Here the Prophet shows
that if the spirit of silence ought to lead us at times
to refrain even from good speech,
so much the more ought the punishment for sin
make us avoid evil words.

Therefore, since the spirit of silence is so important,
permission to speak should rarely be granted
even to perfect disciples,
even though it be for good, holy edifying conversation;
for it is written,
"In much speaking you will not escape sin" (Prov. 10:19),
and in another place,
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21).

For speaking and teaching belong to the master;
the disciple's part is to be silent and to listen.
And for that reason
if anything has to be asked of the Superior,
it should be asked
with all the humility and submission inspired by reverence.

But as for coarse jests and idle words
or words that move to laughter,
these we condemn everywhere with a perpetual ban,
and for such conversation
we do not permit a disciple to open her mouth.

On The Liturgy

Father Aidan Kavanagh, OSB reminds us of some first principles regarding the liturgy:

What this Word has always told those who celebrate the liturgy is that the Holy One in whose presence they stand is pleased to have them stand there precisely because of their sin, which merited so great a redeemer, and that because of this they have no abiding city. Their home is with God in Christ, who reveals his Father just as the Holy Spirit reveals him to them as the Christ of God. Their liturgical worship belongs to these three, who allow us to take our unmerited and gratuitously given part in it, and it discomforts us as it comforts. In no way must it confirm us in our illusions—that this liturgy belongs to us, or our social class, or our culture, or our world; that we are without sin; that our salvation is sure in spite of what we do; that our prognosis is only progress; that our city will abide; that our glands preside; that more education has all the answers. A “divine liturgy” is a countercultural tornado, and we do it not for ourselves, or the parish, or the Church, but for the life of the world.

Taddled from the online version of Commonweal: A Review of Religion, Politics and Culture, May 23, 2007

A Waiting Place

The season between Ascension Day and Pentecost is a time of "waiting" for the church. It is a mini-Advent but with a difference. Where Advent anticipates the coming of God in the midst of human history with the birth of Jesus. This season opens us to receive the strength and power of God for our lives and ministry. The Holy Spirit renews the face of the earth and quickens our hearts for the joy which is to come. This Gift forms faith and draws us into community, it quickens the hearer in his encounter with Holy Scripture, it enlivens our gifts of bread and wine transforming us into the Body of Christ, it forgives our sins and makes it possible for us risk ourselves in the proclamation of the Word. Indeed, we who are followers of Christ are intoxicated with the love that his given birth to creation and saved us in spite of ourselves. May we begin to see in the coming days the brightness of the flames that warm the hearts of all people and inflame our love for God.

The Forty-Sixth Day of Easter

Father, let your Spirit come upon us with power to fill us with his gifts. May he make our hearts pleasing to you, and ready to do your will, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict

On Obedience

But this very obedience
will be acceptable to God and pleasing to all
only if what is commanded is done
without hesitation, delay, lukewarmness, grumbling, or objection.
For the obedience given to Superiors is given to God,
since He Himself has said,
"He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).
And the disciples should offer their obedience with a good will,
for "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7).
For if the disciple obeys with an ill will
and murmurs,
not necessarily with his lips but simply in his heart,
then even though he fulfill the command
yet his work will not be acceptable to God,
who sees that his heart is murmuring.
And, far from gaining a reward for such work as this,
he will incur the punishment due to murmurers,
unless he amend and make satisfaction.

Mount Saviour Monastery

Mount Savior Monastery is a Roman Catholic Benedictine Community a few miles outside of Elmira, New York. The rector is an ecumenical oblate of this community and spent a month of his sabbatical with the monks in August of 2000.

The Forty-Sixth Day of Easter

God of mercy, unite your Church in your Holy Spirit that we may serve you with all our hearts and work together with unselfish love through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict

On Obedience

The first degree of humility is obedience without delay.
This is the virtue of those
who hold nothing dearer to them than Christ;
who, because of the holy service they have professed,
and the fear of hell,
and the glory of life everlasting,
as soon as anything has been ordered by the Superior,
receive it as a divine command
and cannot suffer any delay in executing it.
Of these the Lord says,
"As soon as he heard, he obeyed Me" (Ps. 17:45).
And again to teachers He says,
"He who hears you, hears Me" (Luke 10:16).

Such as these, therefore,
immediately leaving their own affairs
and forsaking their own will,
dropping the work they were engaged on
and leaving it unfinished,
with the ready step of obedience
follow up with their deeds the voice of him who commands.
And so as it were at the same moment
the master's command is given
and the disciple's work is completed,
the two things being speedily accomplished together
in the swiftness of the fear of God
by those who are moved
with the desire of attaining life everlasting.
That desire is their motive for choosing the narrow way,
of which the Lord says,
"Narrow is the way that leads to life" (Matt. 7:14),
so that,
not living according to their own choice
nor obeying their own desires and pleasures
but walking by another's judgment and command,
they dwell in monasteries and desire to have an Abbot over them.
Assuredly such as these are living up to that maxim of the Lord
in which He says,
"I have come not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).

A Poem: empty darkness

at arms length she
holds the church
withholding herself
she hides from grace

reclusive and alone
yet isolate and pure
she holds herself erect

now in death
her company no more
she awaits
the darkness
without definition

Fellowship Conversation?

I wonder what goes on during fellowship hour? What are most of the conversations about? Do people introduce themselves to one another? Do they share a little bit about where they are from and how long they have been members and communicants of the parish? Do they talk about world events and the tragedy of war and poverty? Do they talk about the needs people have within the parish family as well as beyond? Do they talk about their involvement in a servant ministry and the difference that ministry makes in the life of the parish? Are there suggestions about how the congregation might become more involved in the larger community reaching out to those in need? Do they make suggestions about how our life together might be strengthened, and do they share names with one another of people they haven't seen at worship for awhile and promise to call them sometime during the week? Do they engage those who are responsible for Christian formation and education and let them know how that ministry may help them be better Christian parents? What really goes on during fellowship hour?

Besides being a place of meeting following the liturgy it always has the possiblity of becoming the launch pad for ministry and mission.

The Eucharistic Offering

Why, on occasion, are the people incensed within the context of the eucharistic liturgy? What does this action imply?

Immediately following the procession, the Altar Table is incensed reminding us of the sacrifice of Christ, his offering of himself to the Father; during the offertory, incense is also used as the offering of bread, wine, and alms are presented on the altar; and the people are incensed as a sign of their own self-offering to God in the context of the Eucharistic Liturgy - "And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls, and our bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee." Those who believe gather week by week to make their offering to God and through their offering they become the Body of Christ.

Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us,
a (fragrant) offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:2

Preparing for Pentecost

The unfolding mystery ... is the paschal drama, the tale of the Son's dying and rising and ascending with humanity to the Father, a tale retold in the small circle of the monastic day, again in the wider sphere of the Christian week, and again in the cosmic cycle of the Christian year - an archetypal pattern made real by the power of the Holy Spirit, inexhaustible renewer of exhausted hearts. From the 40 days of Lent, whose knots and loopholes tell us that we are still in our sins, we reliably do make it to the 50 days of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, where we hear the final word God wants to say to us.

The Easter Monday prayer Vivendo teneant! .... "may we hold on to this in our lives!" - sums up ... monastic wisdom. The Christian regularity for which monasticism provides a template, daily rehearsing the paschal mystery, singing the psalms until they repeat in the heart, sitting at table with the same companions over the same unremarkable food, all this repetition leads not to boredom but to joy - objective Christian joy, the precise opposite of happiness on demand. We are to be sunk in joy whether we like it or not. Joy is ... a "Trinitarian conspiracy."

Carol Zaleski reflecting on Don Hugh Gilbert's
Unfolding the Mystery in Christian Century, May 1, 2007

The Forty-Fifth Day of Easter

O God, by the glorification of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit you have opened for us the gates of your kingdom: Grant that we, who have received such great gifts, may dedicate ourselves more diligently to your service, and live more fully the riches of our faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict

Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works

62. To fulfill God's commandments daily in one's deeds.
63. To love chastity.
64. To hate no one.
65. Not to be jealous, not to harbor envy.
66. Not to love contention.
67. To beware of haughtiness.
68. And to respect the seniors.
69. To love the juniors.
70. To pray for one's enemies in the love of Christ.
71. To make peace with one's adversary before the sun sets.
72. And never to despair of God's mercy.

These, then, are the tools of the spiritual craft.
If we employ them unceasingly day and night,
and return them on the Day of Judgment,
our compensation from the Lord
will be that wage He has promised:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9).

Now the workshop
in which we shall diligently execute all these tasks
is the enclosure of the monastery
and stability in the community.

The Forty-Fourth Day of Easter

O Lord, you have given us the grace to know the resurrection of your Son: Grant that the Holy Spirit, by his love may raise us to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.