Solemnity of the Mother of God

And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.

Luke 2:19

Reflecting in Her Heart

The first day of this New Year finds me in a new way of life; a way of life totally unanticipated at the beginning of 2015. I am no longer a Redemptoristine nun. I no longer live in a monastery pursuing the daily round of prayer, work and recreation. I can no longer depend on the work of others to keep life spinning. It is hard, at times, to know who I am now. (A previous post offers some background to this profound change.)

To append this change to the list of events to which I often refer as "my checkered past" makes me shake my head in disbelief. Italian-American Brooklyn boomer, daughter and sister, college girl, wife, mother, divorcee, single mom to three sons, teacher, graduate student, librarian, parish and community volunteer, contemplative nun, grandmother, and at the age of 70 a lay person once again. It really makes me wonder.

Running over the list in my mind I most often tend to dwell on how much I messed up; all the times and places in which I failed; all the people I let down and did not love well; and all the times I imagine being a disappointment to God. I see all the broken places.

But I have been urged to turn away from notions of brokenness and rather to ponder the continuity of spirit (with an upper case 's' as well as lower) which undergirds the meandering events and occupations of my life. 

The presence of God was always there; the guidance of the Spirit; desire for the Holy One; and the "Hound of Heaven" unrelenting in pursuit of a soul often not knowing where it was headed.

Today's Gospel is a simple one concerning the shepherds coming to see Jesus and praise Him and Mary's reaction to it all. Luke says, "Mary kept all of these things, reflecting on them in her heart." Another translation offered, "Mary wondered at these things, and pondered them in her heart." I wonder and I ponder. "Wonder" suggests awe at the mysterious ways of God and "ponder" speaks of the effort to plumb all these things for depth of meaning.

I have said that I am currently exploring a new contemplative path, a way of living contemplatively in the world as a lay person. In this context my small but very comfortable apartment may be considered my hermitage. I do relish my time here alone. But I am too much of an extrovert to ever dignify myself with the title of hermit. Rather I have returned to an image from the writings of Maria Celeste Crostarosa, foundress of the Redemptoristine Nuns. One collection of her writings is entitled "Il Giardinetto", or "The Little Garden."

But this is no ordinary garden. She suggests that a more precise meaning is this; that for God the 'giardinetto' is the dear enclosed garden in which God and the soul enjoy each other. My little place can be this enclosed garden. It has all the verdant, cool, shady loveliness and protection of a childhood remembrance; the lush grape arbor seriously cultivated by the old Italian immigrant gentleman who lived next door.  

So as Mary kept, wondered, reflected and pondered in her heart the wondrous things that had taken place in her short life, I do the same but with a longer list unrolled over a whole life time and still unfurling to reveal its mysteries. In daily meditation I struggle to center myself, to enter the precious enclosed garden and ponder the meaning.

A Spiritual "In-Service" Recommendation

With the closing of ministry at Mount St. Alphonsus as of January 1, 2012 many things that we have enjoyed there will come to an end. One of them is a tradition begun by Father Francis Gargani, CSsR in the early 1990s. At that time, Brother Donald Bisson was serving as novice master in the Marist community down the road on Route 9W. Never one to miss an opportunity to get first class presenters on the Mount's program schedule, Father Francis arranged for Brother Don to give two Saturday presentations in the fall and two in the spring each year. Brother Don's expertise is in the areas of spirtuality and Jungian psychology. At. first amature recordings were made of the presentations and now most of them are available on CDs available at his website.

The last presentations that Brother Don will be giving at the Mount will be offered on Saturday, October 8 and Sautrday, November 19, 2011. Each begins at 9:30am, ends at 3:30pm. The cost for the day is $60.00 which includes lunch. Reservations are reququired.

Call 845-384-8000.

Saturday, October 8 - Intentional Community

In Our hectic and individualized society, ther is a growing hunger for intentional communities of faith and growth. This workshop will attempt to assist all forms of communities: families, religious congregations, support groups, parishes, etc., to become more conscious and intentional in living the call to unity and love.

Saturday, November 19 - Intentional Pilgrims

We re all called to the holy, but the pilgrim is an individual who is consciously on the quest of life long conversion. This workshop offered from a Jungian and Christian perspective will examine the cost and joy of being a daily pilgrim to the Divine even from the margins of our lives.

The Household of God

The Household of God: Monastic Architecture

Holy souls setting out on solitary journeys into the deserts of Egypt in the 3^rd century of the Christian era provided the first expression of a movement from which monastic religious life would ultimately emerge. The landscape of the desert, the landscape of desolation, was sought as the proper setting for life with God alone. The call to set out, to withdraw from worldly cities, became more and more pronounced in the aftermath of the Edict of Milan issued in AD 313. Signed by emperors Constantine I and Licinius, the edict proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire at the conclusion of the Diocletian Persecution. This declaration legitimized the followers of Jesus Christ as well as their Church thus eliminating the possibility of martyrdom for illegal activity as the penultimate sacrifice in true devotion. Absent bloody martyrdom, men and woman began to satisfy their desire for total self-donation by seeking the ‘white martyrdom’ of withdrawal to solitude and silence in deserted territories. The most outstanding of these early hermits came to be known as the Desert Mothers and Fathers, the holy Ammas and Abbas. Magnetic in holiness, they drew those who wished to live for God, to pursue a life of constant prayer.  This way of being would be attained by attachment to these experienced mentors, stern, demanding, and wise, who taught more by example than words. From clusters of followers gathered around a hermit practitioner with a reputation for holiness gradually rose monasteries, organized communities under the tutelage and authority of a spiritual superior. Slowly clusters of solitary hermits became organized cenobites, women or men living in religious community together. Eventually rules of life would be formulated, the most well known written by St. Benedict in the 6^th century.

An introduction to development of monasteries from the historical perspective sets the stage for explanation of the nature of monastic life and community. Lack of familiarity, even among Catholics, of the purpose and features of the monastic household has become apparent as we seek a new location for our contemplative monastery. There is little, if any, sense of the organic daily reality of the monastic enterprise. Questions and suggestions received from family and friends; from apostolic religious whose life is dedicated to active service; and most profoundly from conversation with laity, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, indicate that the purpose and nature of contemplative monastic life remain to them almost a complete mystery. In addition, the fact of a relationship of architecture, the structural design of a monastery, with the intended use of this specific type of dwelling is lost. It has become necessary, over and over again, to explain how a monastic structure truly illustrates the principle which states ‘use determines form’.

Generally, the image conjured by the word ‘house’ is a dwelling in which one family whose members are related by blood makes its home. The image is limited to an experience of home as either an ordinary family dwelling or, in the case of vowed apostolic religious, as the typical residence for an active community. The visualization is limited to an abode which is a place of safety, nourishment and restoration for those who will be sent out into the world to be educated, to earn a living, to contribute to the well-being of others, to relate to the body politic and to be integrated into all facets of society and culture.

The monastic house, any monastery, is not intended to be such a launch site. It is not a place designed to send members forth prepared to act on the world stage. While a call to action is the most common vocational call, the monastic, the monk or nun of our time, no less than the hermit St. Anthony or the great Pachomius, father of monasticism, is called to go apart; to migrate to a place at the margins of social intercourse; to cultivate in silence and solitude an intimate relationship with the Divine. Recognizing their weakness and as an expression of humility, monastics seek the support and challenge of organized community as well as the authoritative guidance of experienced practitioners as they travel the path of interior transformation into the likeness of Christ within community.

From the very beginning these purposes motivated the creation of highly self-sufficient and self-contained enterprises. However varied in nuance of expression by virtue of spiritual charism and chosen modes of life, the members of all monastic orders pray, work, nourish themselves and recreate together. Prayer, both communal and private, is the central core, the rotating energizing hub from which all other functions radiate. Monastic institutions support themselves by work done within the monastery walls even while income is augmented by the philanthropy of benefactors. In earlier centuries the work was mostly agricultural, even for monasteries of women. In time income would also be generated through handicrafts and the arts: carpentry, calligraphy, manuscript copying and illumination, bookbinding, embroidery, lace making, weaving, woodworking, pottery and production of wine and foodstuffs, etc. These enterprises required space for organized production especially in communities where membership could soar to over one hundred. Today a common source of income for monasteries of women is the manufacture of altar breads (hosts) for Eucharist. It is a difficult and highly mechanized work requiring a great deal of space. Our own monastery business requires a space resembling a garment factory; rows of industrial sewing machines flanked by large cutting and ironing tables, surrounded by racks of neatly sewn ceremonial capes for the Knights and Ladies of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre ready to be packed and shipped.

Until thirty to forty years ago a few monastic architectural terms remained in the general Catholic memory. A Catholic vocabulary included the word cloister. However, the mental image of that term was often limited to an experience of some dark monastery vestibule dominated by a turn set into a wall. A delivery could be placed in the cylindrical device which would be rotated by an unseen hand while a disembodied voice uttered a word of appreciation and blessing. A second but none the less limited mental image associated with the word cloister was that of the monastic parlor where a privileged visitor could get a glimpse of a heavily veiled nun separated from her guest by metal grille work sometimes appointed with spikes to remind that the encounter would not include a touch or kiss.

These dark images spoke of separation and carried the notion of possible contamination by the world. They do not give testimony to the real purpose of the cloister or the traditional monastic enclosure from its beginnings to our time. While in the distant past some real protection from outside forces may have been required, the true purpose of monastic enclosure is to preserve and enhance the apostolic work of contemplative nuns which is prayer. The typical cloister, indeed any architecture of enclosure, protects by design the life to which the nuns within have dedicated themselves. The cloister or enclosure is constructed in such a way as to ensure that degree of silence and solitude in which the life of prayer can be born. Today few monasteries retain the vestibule turn or the metal grille in the parlor. Noting the absence of these features many conclude that the nuns must no longer require any form of enclosure. The direct opposite is true. Monastic cloister or enclosure is a living space for the community set apart from space open to the public (chapel, library, parlor, meeting room, etc.). In the public places nuns may mingle freely with those who come to worship, to unburden their hearts, to seek spiritual direction or to experience the monastery as a school of prayer. Today, our contemplative monastic community does not wish to be defined only by the descriptor which declares us ‘cloistered’, as  women who live separate of from the world and from those who live in it as if warding off contagion or, even worse, announcing ourselves as special in the eyes of God. Rather, we present ourselves as a dedicated praying presence in the world, a burning flame of praise and petition before God. Contemplatives do whatever they find suitable in order to follow the often repeated directive of our Church to be ‘a school of prayer’ and offer comfortable spiritually enriching public spaces in their monasteries. At the same time, the heart of our vocation to constant prayer in the midst of the Church requires some more protected space provided by the architecture of enclosure. The enclosure is that more private space in which the contemplative way is lived by a community praying, working, eating and recreating together while managing a large household. Above all it is a space that allows for those activities as they cluster around the true center of the life; prayer and praise expressed at the Eucharistic table in the Mass and in the daily round of Liturgy of the Hours. The enclosure thus supports the public prayer life of the community and also guarantees an environment conducive to a quiet and recollected way of being personally available to God.

The monastic pilgrim travels two inseparable parallel paths in a journey of self-abandonment and interior transformation into Christ; the way of prayer and the avenue that is life in community. Within the enclosure created to support and protect a life of intensive intimacy with God and intensity of relationship with a stable group, all of the functions of the monastic household are carried out twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within a fixed group of members. Unlike the nuclear family or the small group of apostolic religious living together, the contemplative monastic residence must have room for everyone to do everything together most of the time. No members will be off to a ball game or have a late night at the office. No one will go out to work. No one can arrive home after a long hard day and announce their departure to take in dinner and movie with a friend. These realities determine architectural form. The dining room and community room (living room) have to be larger than one might expect. Anyone whose work for the community requires a private office space has to have one within the confines of the monastery. The income generating work of the community, whatever it may be, will call for considerable space, the equivalent of a small manufacturing enterprise including materials storage, assembly, shipping, ordering, etc. All of the members of the community will share the work of maintaining the household. Cooking, cleaning, communication, greeting and housing guests, and scheduling, to name a few typical household tasks, also affect the need for space within the enclosure. In addition, just as the nuclear family has a role in educating its young members so does the monastic family. Like any good parent, the monastic community seeks to provide sufficient resources as well space for instruction and study to equip and inspire new members for the life they have chosen. Monastic structures are designed to provide for both this intensive life in community and the solitary search for God which is the vocation of each member.

In early efforts to find a new home for our community we visited a number of large, attractive, newly constructed homes. It was our hope that one might be suitable as a monastery. We also visited older structures originally built for active congregations of religious. Invariably we realized that each structure conformed to the rule which declares ‘use dictates form’. Private family homes, no matter how large, were built to be just what they were. Buildings designed for apostolic religious supported the kind of life they lead, a life with work outside the residence, a life in which not all members of the community would be present at any time. So fit were these buildings for their specific function that no effort at remodeling would successfully transform them into a suitable monastic structure. Arriving at this conclusion brought us to in-depth consideration of our monastic enterprise. It required us to ponder the question, “What is it we wish to protect; what is it we wish to nourish and pursue in the structure we envision?” Use determines form, not the other way around. In the end we also recognized that no mere structure will guarantee dedicated contemplative life. Thoughtful design provides suitable space, an environment conducive to prayer, a place apart. The rest is the work of God’s grace in the desiring soul.

A Retreat Opportunity

Weekend Retreat at Linwood

Spiritual Center, Rhinebeck, NY

"Reclaiming Wisdom in Challenging Times"

Presenter: Brother Don Bisson, FMS

Silent Atmosphere with Daily Spiritual Direction

March 6-8, 2010

(845) 876-4178

The Spiritual Practice of 'Making Retreat'

When I was a young, pre-Vatican II Catholic, we spoke in Lent of 'giving up' things or, less frequently, of taking on some holy devotion like making the Stations of Cross daily or going to Mass on weekdays. We did not talk in terms of 'spiritual practice'. This is a term we have been blessed to be able to borrow from Eastern religions whose traditions are so much more familiar to us in light of the ecumenical thrust of the Council.

Whatever the vocabulary, the act of 'making retreat' has been a common part of Christian 'spiritual practice' since the earliest times. Devoted Christians have always sought to imitate Jesus in going apart, seeking a deserted place, removing themselves from the norm of life, to commune with the Father. We read the lives of saints and learn of their life-changing spiritual experiences while on retreat or pilgrimage. We know men and woman who have 'made retreat' in Lent or Advent or some regularly set time every year, marking off the days on their calendar in advance as surely as they mark the birthdays of those they love and want to be sure to remember. I have met men at Redemptorists retreat houses who would not dream of missing their annual retreat, proudly boast of their longevity in the practice, and have, in turn, initiated their sons.

As contemplative nuns our spiritual practice includes daily periods of silence designed for 'going apart' to "sit in your cell as if in paradise". (Rule of St. Romuald) Each of us picks one day a month for personal retreat and has a ten-day long retreat during the year. The community retreats together for ten days each year. For many years before entering this monastery occasional 'retreating' was my practice - weekends with a theme at a retreat house, long silent retreats with daily spiritaul direction, and once a solo vacation to a remote place that evolved into a spiritual experience of 'going apart'.

Regardless of the history of this time-honored tradition in our faith, regardless of the spiritual necessity of this discipline for those searching for God, the average Catholic has never been on a retreat and many do not even know what a retreat involves or would mean for them. Years ago I observed a very devoted women - wife, mother and grandmother - attend Mass daily and exercise various ministries in the parish. When I found the opportunity I recommended an 8-day silent retreat in which she would get some input and have daily spiritual direction. In response, she told me that her priest/spiritual director told her she was "not ready for such an experience"! I still feel that his assessment was a diservice to a woman of great faith.

The number of books concerning spirituality on the shelves of mega-book stores gives testimony to the general hunger for God present in people today. Many practicing Catholics, if asked, will express their inner desire for more, more of God than what happens for them in their parish at weekly Mass. "Making a retreat" - a half hour in a day, an hour a week, a weekend every now and then or a week each year would be spiritual medicine for such as these. A retreat is an effort to stop, to waste time with the Lord, to smell the roses, to sense the gift of God in their aroma, to hear what God might be offering in love in this very moment, to feel the embrace of the Almighty.

Our Lay Associates Renew Their Commitment

Each September, our Lay Associates renew their commitment to the charism and spirituality of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer and to their association with our contemplative monastic community. We are grateful for their collaboration and friendship. They meet here in the monastery on the second Sunday of each month in the afternoon to catch up with each other, to receive input from one of the sisters or a fellow associate, to pray the Office of Vespers with the community and to enjoy 'tea and conversation.' Our associates are a blessing to us. That blessing is reflected in the remarks offered at the end of the Mass by our associate Jeannie Snyder.

The Riches of Being an Associate

How good it is to share and participate in this renewal celebration of our lay associate commitment to follow the way of Jesus by making the redeeming love of God present in our daily living.

At last month's associate meeting, in my absence, I was elected to extend a few thoughts today on the "Riches of Being an Associate." Sr. Moira [coordinator of the associate program] chose this title as she gently chided me, "This is what happens when you miss a meeting!" Let this be a lesson to all of you!

After reflecting on my years as an associate and those times of just being present to the movements and charism of the Redemptoristines, I would like to mention what has caught my attention, captured my imagination, and deepened my spirituality, namely, what it means to be a contemplative living in community and what it is to make conscious contact with God.

Contemplatives are truly in love with God and live that love with each other. Contemplatives gently strive for silence of the heart - which, I believe, is a study in humility - that "perpetual stillness of the heart"...that cannot be "vexed or sore." Contemplatives believe in Living Simply, Listening Intently, and Loving Freely, so you don't need much or desire to receive much. But contemplatives do need nourishment - silence, solitude, prayer, the Eucharist. Contemplatives seek times and places to pray, to "re-quiet" even in the midst of a workaday world. Contemplatives are not afraid of the dark night; they know that in stillness they are protected by a deep, abiding love. Contemplatives know that it is o.k. not to know. Contemplatives are called to carry out God's loving will in community - as associates, not just in here, but out there too.

We are all part of various communities - yes, we are. Take a minute to think of all the communities you are part of - family, work, school, parish, volunteer, Internet, social clubs, friendship. Here we are more than a number. Being "part of" is being witness to that which is greater than ourselves; losing the "I" for the "We." We enter willingly and lovingly, doing our part. We are called to help the other. Life has become and is richer in community - in connection and relation to Christ in each of us. And in our community as Associates we are called to be a Living Witness, a Memorial of this Living Christ. Father Joseph Oppitz in his biography of Venerable Maria Celeste Crostarosa wrote, "the... community is really the locus of the loving Intent of the Father to form a community of love through the life of His Son. Community means the carrying out of this loving Will... It is an irradiating 'presence of redemption.'"Celeste herself wrote in her Rule, "... But we must go forward united together and transformed by the actions of his most holy life, with which we identify, in a way that enables us to say, as the glorious apostle of the gentiles said: 'I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.'" This directive from our Foundress can only, it seems to me, be accomplished through conscious contact with God.

As Associates, our conscious contact has been deepened by our connection to this contemplative community. We are partners in the apostolate of prayer. Because of this conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation, we can awaken to the Living God in ourselves and in our communities. We've learned to discipline ourselves in order to create a mindful habit of prayer... "Pray always," we are told. How are we doing in love and service? We are apt to check in with Jesus, Mary and our loving Father throughout the day - praying for His will only? If we are making conscious contact, we are likely to catch our self-will running riot and turn it over to God taking ourselves out of the center of everything and putting God there instead. If we are in conscious contact with God, we engage in a nightly examen before closing our eyes. We try to see where we can be or do something different tomorrow so we don't fall short as we did today. Conscious contact asks us to make 'alone time' with God in retreat or in moments carved out of our busy days and weeks. Be still and know that I am God...Be still and know that I Am...Be still and know...Be sill. Discipline to habit only through conscious contact.

To close, I am grateful - we are grateful - for the riches of a community of contemplative consciousness. May all of the Sisters, Brothers and Fathers of the Order and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and their Lay Associates continue to be abundantly blessed with peace and all good, and may they continue to inspire those on the journey to God.

First in Lenten Contemplative Studies Series

Contemplative

Values

for

Daily Living

(The following is an excerpt of remarks presented in the first of our Lenten Series. We were delighted that thirty-five people chose to join us, many coming into our monastery for the first time. The group ended their time with us by joining the community in singing Night Prayer, the Office of Compline.)

Judging from the titles one finds on the shelves of books stores these days, it is plain to see that contemplative living has become as cosy an idea as "Martha Stewart living." Titles indicate that living life contemplatively is not just for official contemplative nuns or monks; that contemplative emphasis can benefit all; that it is a healthier way physically, psychologically as well as spiritually. What would that look like in the life of an ordinary person?

A contemplative life is lived: prayerfully, simply, consciously, and faithfully.

Any observation of contemplative monastic life will find immediate focus in the life of prayer. It is so ideal to have you share in our communal prayer at the end of this presentation. In a way, you do not really experience a monastery unless you attend a time of communal prayer. Those who spend time with us express in a myriad of ways how prayerful the place is. And the communal prayer supports individual lives of attentive prayer. We ARE invited to spend enough time in private prayer, contemplation or meditation to anchor our lives in the power beyond us.

To live simply – here I have to tell you a bit of my story. Over the years, to defend myself from the incursions of three growing sons I made my bedroom at home into my little kingdom complete with TV, VCR, radio, tape and CD player, computer, sewing machine and, of course, a telephone. My feet would hit the floor in the morning and at least one, if not two, of these devices would be turned on. I cooked while talking on the phone; never worked without media accompaniment of some kind. About two years before I entered I began my shift into the contemplative way by not turning on the car radio for the drive to work. Big sacrifice! A year before I entered I began to do my morning routine at home in silence. That was a big change and you may not want to go there but I share it because I was as addicted to it as anyone else. But the truth is to live simply we have to say “no” more often so that we are not constantly bombarded and shaken from our efforts toward interior contemplation. And we may also consider that it is necessary to live simply in order that others may simply live. It seems to me that this is where “the rubber hits the road” when we speak of ministry to the most needy and abandoned. Can we in some ways, even though they be small ways, put our money where our mouth is. This may mean re-examining our charitable giving or reconsidering what we might do to benefit others in our spare time. It might mean making a renewed effort to repair, re-use or recycle the stuff we take for granted or accumulate. I might mean asking questions like: Am I making right use of our water resources? Do I need to buy the next big thing?

Such considerations lead us to another feature of the contemplative orientation. To live consciously is to be fully present, fully aware. We may not need to change anything we do but it is valuable to ask ourselves occasionally, “Why am I doing this?” “Why do I come here; why do I buy these things; why do I spend time with these people or doing these things; why do I vote the way I do?”

To live consciously also implies being AWAKE. Did you ever find yourself talking to someone and suddenly realize that they had zoned out, left you and gone off to some other world, giving you the impression that they were no longer listening? Knowing that feeling when others tune us out we have to ask ourselves, “Who is it that I may not be paying attention to, listening to, being present to?” Could it be your spouse, your child (small or grown up), your friend of many years, your newly widowed elderly neighbor, the person sitting nearby at Mass, the hungry or homeless who flock to Catholic Charities and Family of Woodstock, the starving people of Sudan? I don’t know. But I do know that I tune people out all the time. A contemplative stance requires that I be present and accounted for.

Another aspect of living consciously is to be awake to our surroundings. God can speak to us in the beauty, wonders, and awesomeness of nature. Fr. Bede Griffiths, an English Benedictine monk who became famous as one of the first Christians in history to look with deep respect and genuine spiritual curiosity at the great religions of the East, eventually formed a Benedictine ashram community in India. He recorded this little description of his earliest “religious” experience. As a young teen he was walking near his school playing fields on a summer evening.

A lark rose suddenly from the ground beside the tree where
I was standing and poured out its song above my head, and then sank still
singing to rest. Everything then grew still as the sunset faded and the
veil of dusk began to cover the earth. I remember now the feeling of
awe which came over me. I felt inclined to kneel on the ground, as
though I had been standing in the presence of an angel.
(The Golden String:An Autobiography 9)

Can we allow ourselves the kind of time necessary to experience such things? Can we stop and smell the roses? Sabbath is another name for stopping to smell the roses. Judith Shulevitz is a Jew who decided to re-appropriate the Sabbath of Orthodox Judaism. In her NY Times article “Bring Back the Sabbath – Why Even the Secular Need a Ritualized Day of Rest” she wrote, “Interrupting our ceaseless striving requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will…We have to remember to stop because we have to stop to remember.” Sabbath time restores balance to our lives, the balance between action and rest, the exterior and the interior life, conversation and silence. Any monastic horarium, the schedule of the day, is very balanced. When I entered, complete with my body clock set to the demands of life as a working laywoman I found the schedule difficult to adjust to. I mean – rest and be quite from 1:30 to 3:30pm – that is the heart of the day! How will I get anything done? Soon I came to realize that I would be well advised to pray when the schedule said pray, work in the established work time, recreate when time was offered for that and rest when I was given the opportunity. It created a perfect balance.

The last of the over-riding principles on the contemplative way is to live faithfully. Each of you, I am sure, has lived out of your faith or beliefs about the meaning of life for a long time. And each of you, I am just as sure, has lived faithfully committed to a vow, an ideal, a work. So this is nothing new to you. This is the grace to persevere in the daily; to keep on keeping on. This may be the greatest challenge in any life. It must prevail over routine, boredom, disappointment, disenchantment. It may also be called upon to prevail over real agony, real physical, mental or emotional disability or a myriad of other extreme challenges to the stamina to persevere.

Be Sober and Alert

It is now the hour for you to wake

from sleep.

The night is far spent;

the day draws near.

Let us cast off the deeds of darkness

and put on the armor of light.

Let us live honorably as in daylight.

Romans 13:11b, 12-13a

This message from the Epistle to the Romans was the scripture reading at Morning Prayer today. Thematically, it underscores the message of all the allusions to the end times in the readings for Mass of these last days of the liturgical year: Be awake; You know not the hour; It will come like a thief in the night.

What are these end times? Ultimately it will be the end of the world. In a personal sense it will be the moment of death, our last breath, the final embrace of God in the next world. But just as we are so often urged to live in the moment, to savor the moment lest we miss its gift and its promise, perhaps we are being reminded to be conscious in this moment because each moment has its end, each moment offers the possibility of life or death. Each moment offers a gift of opportunity which will expire in no time at all.

And there is so much to which we are invited to be conscious. The call to contemplation is a call to consciousness, to awareness of the moment, awareness of those things, those events, and those people around us - what we allow to fade into the wood work by our lack of consciousness, our lack contemplative seeing, savoring and appreciating. Greater contemplative awareness calls us to linger in the moment and by our recognition of reality to be summoned to react with generosity, thanksgiving, compassion, service and a whole host of other human responses to which Jesus invites by teaching and example.

Many of us have been drawn into the endless hype concerning a presidential election that will take place a year from now. This is, it seems to me, a vast wasteland of distraction from what is real in this moment, in this time. Endless debates, miles of video tape, filled with words that toss about the horrible realities in such careless fashion that we can no longer see them for what they are, the very things we are to regard in sobriety and alertness.

How distracted we can become from what is real. How distant we become from that state of consciousness, that contemplative vision that sees in truth, names truth and creates a response that comes from deep within the soul and the psyche. And so we pray, "Let us cast off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

Living Life Contemplatively

It would seem that contemplative living is in vogue. Do a search on Amazon.com for “contemplation” or “contemplative living” and you come up with over 15,000 citations! It would seem that the idea of living more contemplatively has become as cozy a notion as “Martha Stewart living.” Here are some of the titles you would find:

A Listening Heart: The Art of Contemplative Living by David Steindahl-Rast
Organic Spirituality: A Six-fold Path for Contemplative Living by Vandergriff
The Better Part: Stages of Contemplative Living by Thomas Keating
The Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life by Teasdale & Wilber
New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s
Religions by Teasdale
Mirror of the Heart: Consciousness at the Root of Identity also by Teasdale

There must be something to this. Since such a list (and the shelves of Borders and Barnes and Noble too) reflects that a lot of other people must be coming to that conclusion.
In my first talk I tried to convey the meaning of Redemptoristine lives, indeed all contemplative life. But I tried also to communicate how this orientation in life is not just for us as official contemplatives, official nuns and monastics. All of us are called to great union with God. That is why we are here. Remember the Baltimore Catechism teaching? Why did God make me? Answer – “To know Him, to love Him, to serve Him.” To know, to become more intimate with any one we must engage in loving companionship and mutual sharing.
Earlier I spoke of our call to be “living memories” of Jesus. If we profess the faith, if we listen to our baptismal call, isn’t that what we are all meant to do within our own particular life circumstances?
The fruits of such contemplative living are a strengthening of faith, an increase in charity and clarity of vision. How could this look in your every day life? Another way of talking about this is to ask, “How can we, indeed all of us, whether we are monastics or lay people, how can we live in a way that is consistent with trying to be a living memory of Jesus. How does trying to keep your “eyes on the prize” look in the day to day of relationships, family life, career, the line at the supermarket, the crowded waiting room of the doctor’s office, participation in local and national politics and, on the grand scale, being a citizen of the world?
But giving witness to an interior disposition, an interior dedication IS what we are talking about here. We have an old mimeographed copy of a translation of a scaled down version of Alphonsus’ The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ done by Father Bernard Haring, the great Redemptorist theologian. In his note on the translation he wrote, “Over and over he [Alphonsus] reminds us that ‘surface’ Christianity is not enough. We must surrender to the overwhelming force of the love of Christ, and allow ourselves to become transformed into the redeeming Christ.” Therefore to live contemplatively is to give witness, to become Celeste’s “viva memoria”, a living memory of the Redeemer for ourselves, those with whom we live in family or community and those with whom we share the planet.
In his book, Contemplation in a World of Action, Thomas Merton wrote:
…I am talking about a special dimension of inner discipline and experience, a certain integrity and fullness of personal development,
which are not compatible with a purely external, alienated busy-busy
existence. This does not mean that they are incompatible with action,
with creative work and dedicated love. On the contrary, these go together.
A certain depth of disciplined experience is a necessary ground for fruitful
action. Without a more profound human understanding derived from
exploration of the inner ground of human existence, love will tend to be
superficial and deceptive. Traditionally, ideas of prayer, meditation and
contemplation have been associated with this deepening of one’s personal
life and this expansion of the capacity to serve and understand others. (Chap. 9)

A contemplative life is lived: prayerfully, simply, consciously, and faithfully.
To live simply – here I have to tell you a bit of my story. Over the years, to defend myself from the incursions of three growing sons I made my bedroom at home into my little kingdom complete with TV, VCR, radio, tape and CD player, computer, sewing machine and, of course, a telephone. My feet would hit the floor in the morning and at least one, if not two, of these devices would be turned on. I cooked while talking on the phone; never worked without media accompaniment of some kind. About two years before I entered I began my shift into the contemplative way by not turning on the car radio for the drive to work. Big sacrifice! A year before I entered I began to do my morning routine in silence. That was a big change and you may not want to go there but I share it because I was as addicted to it as anyone else. But the truth is to live simply we have to say “no” more often so that we are not constantly bombarded and shaken from our efforts toward interior contemplation. And we may also consider that it is necessary to live simply in order that others may simply live. It seems to me that this is where “the rubber hits the road” when we speak of ministry to the most needy and abandoned. Can we in some ways, even though they be small, put our money where our mouth is, where the charism has meaning?
To live consciously – is to be fully present, fully aware. We may not need to change anything we do but it is valuable to ask ourselves occasionally, “Why am I doing this?” “Why do I come here; why do I buy these things; why do I spend time with these people or doing these things; why do I vote the way I do?”
To live consciously also implies being AWAKE. Did you ever find yourself talking to someone and suddenly realize that they had zoned out, left you and gone off to some other world,that they were no longer listening. We may ask ourselves, “Who is it that I may not be paying attention to, listening to, being present too?” Could it be your spouse, your child (small or grown up), your friend of many years, your newly widowed elderly neighbor, the person sitting nearby at Mass, the hungry or homeless who flock to Catholic Charities and Family of Woodstock, the starving people of Sudan? I don’t know. But I do know that I tune people out all the time. A contemplative stance requires that I be present and accounted for.
Another aspect of living consciously is to be awake to our surroundings. God can speak to us in the beauty, wonders, and awesomeness of nature. Fr. Bede Griffiths, an English Benedictine monk who became famous as one of the first Christians in history to look with deep respect and genuine spiritual curiosity at the great religions of the East, eventually came for form a Benedictine ashram community in India. He recorded this little description of his earliest “religious” experience. As a young teen he was walking near his school playing fields on a summer evening.
A lark rose suddenly from the ground beside the tree where
I was standing and pour out its song above my head, and then sank still
singing to rest. Everything then grew still as the sunset faded and the
veil of dusk began to cover the earth. I remember now the feeling of
awe which came over me. I felt inclined to kneel on the ground, as
though I had been standing in the presence of an angel.
(The Golden String:An Autobiography 9)

Can we allow ourselves the kind of time to experience such things? Can we stop and smell the roses?
The last of the over-riding principles on the contemplative way is to live faithfully. Each of you, I am sure, has lived out of your faith for a long time. And each of you, I am just as sure, has lived faithfully committed to a vow, an ideal , a work. So this is nothing new to you. This is the grace to persevere in the daily; to keep on keeping on.
I am going to give you a bookmark with some additional thoughts that may inspire in the future. Just a few comments about them:
Nothing you do is really wasted time. Prayer is time “wasted” on relationship with God. The “silent witness of brotherly presence” is time “wasted” for the sake of charity in community.
Finding a balance we can live with … including Sabbath time. There is so much that calls to us to minister, to serve, to help, to organize, and even to listen. Without balance these are invitations to discouragement and burnout. Thoughtful, conscious consideration on how you balance your commitments and your needs is an expression of a contemplative value, the value of what we call monastic leisure.
Allow your particular community to “work” on you. In your rule and ours the section on the vows is preceded by a call to life in community characterized by charity, a life that by is very nature is to be an instrument of our conversion. The call to love is a challenge and formation by community can sometimes be painful. But to be attentive and receptive to it and God’s voice within it is to be contemplatively surrendered to cooperation with grace.
Attending to issues of peace and justice for all people, the earth and our cosmos. Sister Paula spoke to this value in her words about living consciously. The only thing I might add is that we may experience the call to this in very small ways and therefore ignore them. It speaks to our ability to live with difference in our most intimate communities and all the way out to the family of nations. We can hope that the prayer of contemplation that “fixed gaze” will heighten our awareness.
And finally, aspire to an attitude of gratitude. A few years back Oprah Winfrey steadily advised her listeners to keep “gratitude journals”. It became quite the rage. Her viewers wrote in about how taking a few minutes a day to write five things that they were grateful for had produced massive changes in attitude, relationship and morale. And for us, who are so very blessed by our communities, our families, and the wealth of this country surely this is an exercise we cannot ignore.
This is the new saintliness to which you too are called – to keep our eyes on Christ so that we might see Christ Jesus in all things.






Now we would like to give you some time to consider how this contemplative attitude might fit into your lives as you live them today.

Is any of this appealing at the outset?
What might the challenges be for you?
What might your life, daily routine, choices look like?
Do you find this realistic or off-putting?