Dwelling, Healing and Calling

I have been struck by the range of emotions as holiday cheer increases mixed with a deep sadness of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.  The following words from Psalm 147 keep coming to mind:

God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

In less than a week we will celebrate Christmas…God becoming flesh in our midst.    God who knows our joy, sorrow, pain and hope.  God who mourns with us and moves us towards healing.  The scar remains however we abide in hope that God is with us and will bring us new life.  At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Christ, a tangible and concrete hope.  Our invitation is to continue to find hope in daily life with its subtleties and ups and down.  For God is truly dwelling in our midst, healing our broken hearts, binding our wounds and calling us to a deep abiding hope. 

Sr. Kimberly Porter, OSB 

Complexity? Simplicity? Incompatible?

“Why are things always so complicated? Nothing is simple anymore!”

     This phrase came up the other day while dealing with just a normal, ordinary human activity, not some technological puzzle. It launched a chain of questions:

            About complexity: Were things always so complex in human life, or did it arise from millennia of change leading up to today?

            About simplicity: What is it -  really?

     Simplicity seems to connote wholeness / completeness without a lot of parts. An apple is “simple”; an airplane isn’t. A child’s block is simpler than a Barbie doll. On the other hand, designers often describe Apple i-phones and i-pads as “simple yet elegant.”  But how can something have thousands of parts and still be “simple?” Is simplicity something different from a minimum of parts? Maybe simplicity has to do with not just how many parts something has, but its overall plan or design. How do the various parts work together? Are any parts unnecessary?

     I got to thinking about all of us who live in this age where change is constant and our society is becoming more interconnected as each day passes. This means each person’s life has many facets that interact with those of others. We’ve become like a global mobile where frequent movement and resulting changes make it harder and harder for anything to remain normal, usual or ordinary. Certainly this makes life more complicated and far from effortless.

     Jesus told his disciples they should become like children. There are lots of interpretations as to what he meant, but the notion of simplicity is often part of them. Does the complexity of today’s living mean this is no longer possible? Maybe not.

     When Steve Jobs designed his computer products, he had a basic vision and everything else had to fit into that. All aspects of the mac,  i-phone and i-pad had to be beautiful and easy to use while they filled their intended amazing functions. Maybe that is our challenge. Maybe we need to develop for ourselves a basic vision, one that will embrace all the threads of our life. For example, Brother David Steindle-Rast, OSB, speaks of life as thanksgiving; everything that we encounter is dealt with in the light of a spirit of gratitude. Benedict himself put everything into the context of finding God all around us, in members of the community, in guests, in strangers, in scripture, and in ourselves.

     There are many other points of focus people could choose to guide their decisions. For some it might be to bring justice to the poor, to preserve nature or to heal the wounded. For some it might be self-betterment in one way or another. For some it could be to shape stronger bonds within their family.

     These reflections bring me back to my starting point.  I’m thinking that our lives are not going to become less complicated unless we bring to them a sense of unity about where we are going and what we want to accomplish. If every challenge is handled as a separate entity invading our personal space, we will find more stress than we can reasonably handle. If, on the other hand, we look at each one to see how it relates to the overall vision we have for ourselves, we will be moving from increased complexity to increased harmony in our life. Simplicity will begin to reappear on our horizon, and we will find more peace.

     During these upcoming holidays as we celebrate God’s gift to the world, maybe we can make God’s vision our own as we gift others with our hospitality, our presents, our presence, our decorating….  Maybe it will help simplify for each of us this very complex season of the year.

                             Sr. Colleen Winston, OSB

Feast of St. Nicholas

     This feast on December 6 has been around for a long time. Nicholas is one of the most popular saints in both Roman and Orthodox Churches, and remembered by families everywhere in various ways. Nicholas, we are told, became a bishop of Myra in southwest Turkey c. 300, was imprisoned during Diocletian’s persecution

 (303-05), and attended the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325). He was famous for his pastoral care, and because of the many legendary stories of his charitable deeds he became the basis for the figure of Santa Claus.

     The customs continue even to today:The other day  Sr. David Ruschmann told how her family struggled during the great depression to put food on the table, but still found a way to give each child an orange for St. Nick day. I remember how we in my family would put out a bowl at the foot of our stairs in our farm house the evening before his feast, and in the morning when we came down the stairs, it would be filled with oranges, apples and nuts. The bowl became big stockings for each child as years went on. There might also be a small lump of coal in one or other stocking if that child had now been behaving as expected.

  When I came to the community, we found little boxes of candy hanging on the banister for 3^rd down to the ground level, one for each Sister.  When I taught the children in school, grades one or two for some 13 years, St. Nick would come to homes with many kinds of foods or toys, etc. by Dec. 6^th.  These children would come to school very excited, telling their friends about their surprises that morning.  There were always children who did not receive anything but the next day, those children would come to school telling what St. Nick left for them. It always made me smile, how the parents got the message about St. Nick from their children.  Children always spread the good traditions, and they never forgot about St. Nicholas, the generous Bishop who loved the children and cared for the poor.  I know there will be a basket of goodies in the living room of our floor at the Monastery on December 6^th. How about you?  Does St. Nick still come to your home? 

              Sr. Mary Tewes, OSB  

Advent: our time of waiting

     Have you ever had the experience of waiting for a baby to come?  There is much anticipation and excitement while getting ready.  There is expectation and hope and much preparation. 

     This is our Season of Advent.  We are indeed waiting for a baby to be born.  The baby is very special, He is our Savior!  While the Jewish People were awaiting the Messiah and Mary and Joseph were awaiting the birth of Jesus, there was much hope and anticipation. 

     Although Jesus was born over 2000 years ago, we must also live this reality in our own lives to make it present to us today.  We do this through our celebration of the various feasts of the Church.  We do this through our celebration of liturgy and our celebration of the Church’s liturgical year. 

     The liturgy of Advent is rich and meaningful.  Through it, we enter into the mystery of Jesus and the mystery of waiting and anticipation.  This is why the Church insists on the Season of Advent as a time of waiting and preparation.  However, our culture is such that we must always be very busy about so many things.  Like the Gospel, when Jesus tells Martha, his friend, “You are worried and busy about so many things, only one thing is important.”  In Advent, that one thing, is preparing ourselves for the coming of Jesus into our hearts, to live Jesus’ way of life, and to prepare for the final coming of Jesus at the end of time. 

     This Advent, let us become less concerned about so many “things” and center in on the real meaning of the Season.
     Sr. Barbara Woeste, OSB

What are You Doing?

     A high school classmate called me recently and after a short chat about news about other classmates, asked the big question, “What are you doing these days?”

     This question puzzled me because I no longer have a specific “job”, like Spanish teacher or diocesan tribunal assistant or ecumenical coordinator to give as s simple answer. Here is a list of the scattered activities I do. I attend meetings: community, committee, liturgy, vocation, retreat, special events meetings. All require some preparation and follow-up as well as attendance. There are also my regular household tasks at St. Joseph House and work I do at the monastery as the need arises. As for prayers, I meditate and take part in the Divine Office daily. I can’t, however, respond to the question above with just a list of tasks, of things I am dong.

     I believe that these activities are truly work, the “labora” that St. Benedict requires of his followers. “Ora et labora” shape Benedictine life. Practically speaking, the “the Work of God” means prayer and work and is my primary job. Daily prayer in common, morning, noon, evening and night, along with personal lectio meditation provide the spiritual energy essential for all the other work in and out of the monastery. Both ora et labora shape our every day and whole lives.

     What am I doing these days? Essentially the same things I have been doing since I entered St. Walburg Monastery sixty years ago: praying and working as St. Benedict directs. Truly regular and very life giving!

     Sr. Martha Walther, OSB 

Haiku for November

All soul's month is here

Come November every year

Pray for the deceased. 

We hold them so dear

But see them on earth no more

Stil so close they are!

Communion of saints

Drawing us close again

So united still.

"Come to me God says

No more suffering no tears

Come, now dwell with Me."

Sr. Victoria Eisenman, OSB

We Are This Temple

St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome

      This coming Friday (Nov. 9) we celebrate the dedication of the basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of the city of Rome, once a royal palace and basilica which belonged to the Roman emperor Constantine and his family. 

     At one time to say “the Lateran” was equivalent to saying “the Vatican” today. This continued up until the 14^th century. When the papacy moved from Rome to Avignon for 70 years, the Lateran basilica fell into ruins from lack of use as well as from several earthquakes which ravaged it. The church was rebuilt several times. Its present appearance dates from the latter part of the seventeenth century, from a renovation carried out by Pope Innocent X. 

     The Liturgy of the Hours of this feast reminds us that “the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.” We are the church in which God dwells. No earthquake will damage this holy place, nor threaten its foundation, built as we are on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. St. Thomas of Villanova compares us further to the temple in which God walks about: “Whenever you feel within yourselves the movements of good desires, the pangs of contrition, or the fire of devotion, recognize the steps of God, the signs of the Holy Spirit, walking in the temple.”

     Sr. Christa Kreinbrink, OSB