+PAX Let us pray for all who wished us a Happy New Year, and for those we wished the same. A Blessed 2015 to all. Prayers for Alex and his family, much peace and reconciliation needed to heal bickering. The Christmas Octave is over, but the season of Christmastide lasts till the Baptism of the Lord, later this month, so keep on praying for those you have exchanged greetings, cards or gifts with. Make your intentions include those of years past, too, a nice way to include in prayer those dear ones no longer with us. Prayers, please, for vocations to St. Marys Monastery. Please ask God to send us some good men in 2015. Lord, help us as You know and will. Gods will is best. All is mercy and grace. God is never absent, praise Him! Thanks so much. JL January 2, May 3, September 2 Prologue (continued) Let us arise, then, at last, for the Scripture stirs us up, saying, Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep (Rom. 13:11). Let us open our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with attentive ears the warning which the divine voice cries daily to us, Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts (Ps. 94:8). And again, Whoever has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Matt. 11-15; Apoc. 2:7). And what does He say? Come, My children, listen to Me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Ps. 33:12). Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you (John 12:35). REFLECTION Check out the similarities of this section, at the beginning of the Holy Rule, and the readings of early Lent, which stress that now is the acceptable time. It brings to mind St. Benedicts later chapter which says that the monastic life ought always to have some semblance of Lent. That perpetual Lent chapter is the source of a lot of grumbling about austerity from one camp and cheering about it from another. Both may have missed a salient point. Perhaps the greatest element of perpetual Lent has less to do with austerity- even the monastic fast did not last all year. What IS perpetually in style is wakefulness and self-examination. Monastic life withers in either smugness or a rut. What St. Benedict wants us to do is always to try and stay at that serious moment of taking inventory that many of us feel at Lents beginning. We need to always be checking what needs to be cleaned up and we need to be prepared, even a bit eager, to start working on it. New Years is a perfect time for such examination, but keep it going all year. This is why a daily examination of conscience is so necessary. Compline, the traditional liturgical place for such examens, is a very apt place for same. As we prepare for sleep, which prefigures death, we prepare also for death, by examining our faults and asking forgiveness. The Holy Rule, like Lent, is by no means the gateway to an easier life, but to a holier one. As we actually grow in holiness much of it will become easier, more natural to us. But until that time, it is a struggle and, in unconquered areas, it remains something of a struggle for all of our lives. Whats hard about that struggle isnt fasting or penance, but changing ourselves. Austere practices are just a means to that end, not ends in themselves. The whole idea of Lent and the Holy Rule is lasting change for the better. Lent is a seasonal construct to get us to begin anew, the Holy Rule says that beginning anew must be a daily thing. Lent is an attempt to get us to do for forty days what we ought to have been doing all year. The Holy Rule is a way to do what we ought to do all year, every day. Love and prayers, Jerome, OSB stmarysmonastery.org Petersham, MA
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 23:23:35 +0000
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