Prophet Priest and King We Praise

Entomb Him we must obey.
Take Him down from the cross,
on our hearts to gently lay.
Rest in us dear sweet King,
as your praises thus we sing!
How are we to be your fruit?
Unless the harvest of you gains,
the hearts of those we have not slain,
but loved in mercy by your grace.

Let us remember in each our days,
that Resurrected we must proclaim.
Only then, then are you gift to sing,
as we render you ready - forever King.
Forgive our failing, forgive our fear,
the world is harsh and ever plunges,
in us, as in your side, the piercing spear.
But we are ready, ready to die,
for you our King through the veil of tears.

Let us not forget that we are yours,
tasked and asked to be with all.
Open their ears and hearts to listen,
as we whisper your Word as sung,
knowing then our work, it has begun.
Teach us, ever merciful Lord,
that we should humbly pray and raise;
our voices to all, exhorting the tune-
of Prophet, Priest and King we praise.

You are what you eat!

For "the partaking of the body and blood of Christ does nothing other than make us be transformed into that which we consume". (55*) LG 26


The fruit of the Eucharist is personal presence. Christ present. Christ re-presented in this small wafer. Consecrated out of love, our ingestion takes place in one single time and place but transcends this moment to join all the other moments with every other host offered everywhere, every time, with everyone. And so with our acceptance and receipt of this gracious gift of Christ, we become Him and He draws us up to Him. Everyone who partakes of Christ in the Eucharist joins as one body to unite ourselves to Him and to each other. He looks down on our suffering and out of compassion and tenderness for our sinfulness, He transforms Himself into this small wafer of wheat to meet us in our pilgrimage of faith. And so, as we are drawn up to Him, we are transformed by the grace of His presence. Our sinfulness forgotten, He welcomes us into His loving presence, to fill us, and meet us and reunite us to each other, living and dead. A true communion of saints. Our transformation is that call to become saints. In consuming, we are consumed by Him, the Bread of Life.

Ecumenical Noise

Is it more important to focus on living the Gospel in our midst than the arguments of our creedal faith and its liturgical expression? Is it more important to remember the historical development of the Sermon on the Mount and its etiology in the Hebrew Scriptures' Levitical Holiness Code. Its expression also in the Qur'an? Isn't the fact that we believe in One God the only point that really matters? And why do we in our human perspectives with all its frailties, believe that we can know the mind of God who searches the heart of all? Is this place, this place of believing in One God, the place of unity between us, that supersedes all other experiences and expressions of religion? Creedal or Liturgical, Dogmatic or Doctrinal? Is this the place where we begin to live, "Love God and love thy neighbor as thyself?" Isn't this the goal of all religions?

So what does a monastic heart, purity of heart, or new monasticism have to say about this? It is precisely in cultivating this purity of heart within us, this stripping away of the vanities we feel comfortable with in order to feel safe within ourselves that we are asked by God to surrender. We are asked to let go of the things of the world, the feelings of the world that would take us anywhere or anyplace other than an expression of love. We are asked to strip away the hardness of our hearts, to smash (horeb) our human hearts to allow the seeds of faith and love to flourish within and around us. This love will thrive to tear away the disingenuous, distracted and detached person to purify and flower the authentic, attached and attuned person whose heart is oriented to God, the Divine, and thereby all divine and godly things in others. Only then can we recognize any other and all others as neighbor. It is the achievement of harmony of heart and therefore the achievement of peace. A way of practicing radical hospitality to others.

Until we welcome within this new purified heart, our neighbor, and love them as ourselves, while loving ourselves in the God we believe in, our religions and their expressions will continue to divide our hearts and us. We are each created unique and good, as different as the wild flowers in a field. Each flower follows the sun with its roots intermingled with the roots of the flower next to it, yet all depend on the same "living water" to exist. Why in the world would we choose to see that as something to be changed, to become standardized, and thereby eliminate the natural beauty that exists?

All in the Ecumenical dialogue will be "noise" until we recognize and accept that the way someone else loves God will always be different than us. We are all fed from the same spring and nourished from the same source. The way another expresses their love of God and neighbor may actually be better than my own. How wonderful this celebration of love should be exhorted and not maligned. Harmony of heart, harmony in our houses of either Church or domestic church or sacred place is the expression of new monasticism... a state of being... not a destination point. It is a place of balance, within us, between us and among us. God Bless.

Cliffs of Moher

Climbing ever farther into a cloudless sky,
Reaching out across a stone cathedral.
Blueness meets the music of waves as
Hearts crash into steep cliffs -
Aghast with wonder and awe!

Stone slopes for sure footing.
Winds glide souls together
As seabirds caw their delight.
Effortless in a quest for union -
Precipice breached by pods of nature.

Stillness

A small stone-like thing
waiting, waiting
to be touched.

The soul plummeting,
plumbing to depths
unreachable.

From the blue midnight
of eternal skies falling
to water.

Tearless slack-jawed
shock fills a quiet room
in screaming.

Time is a cruel tutor
of limitless emotion,
awed in silence.

Stillness, paralyzes
a lost self to awaken
to brutal reality.

Exaltation of The Cross

This was my call to Ireland. Yes, there will be PhD work and the beauty of exploring and researching New Monasticism and there will be fruit from this venture as I can attest to a number of people here who already listen in rapt attention when I speak of things spiritual and loving. This is the blessing of the cross. But alongside this there will be trials of the sort that is to bring healing to this country and so many hurt, abandoned and feeling alone as Ireland does not know how to approach healing the trauma that exists here.

And I wonder each day... has my life and its own suffering and experience and education led me to this cross to embrace? So as I am blessed, I am also under trial. And isn't that what we are all called to in a life of holiness.... to embrace the cross? To rely completely on Him who calls us to act in the world? And as a Benedictine, aren't I to spend my life navigating the subtlety of prayer and whatever work God calls me to do in a spirit of peace and harmony, knowing that it is His will to decide when to accost a soul with trial and simultaneously bless them with every grace to be fruitful? Isn't that why I have courage and yet can remain as a child, humble and apt to cultivate purity of heart? To see both the cross in front of me and the rainbow overhead and to remain in a state of awe and wonder at the actions of my Beloved as He rushes through me like water to fill every nook and cranny needing His help? And isn't this why I feel breathless after every one of these moments? And energized to His power and magnificence?

I said my prayers this morning to Mary, to cover me with the mantle of her purity and grace to intercede for me to her Son. I was struck over and over again this morning that Jesus was called to save sinners. And for those who listen, the saving is kind and gentle; those who are rebellious, the saving is full of trial and they may refuse and walk straight on to the path of the hell they create for themselves. But the first echo within me of the Divine call many years ago was, "Save sinners." And it was a command, not a question. And so I do as best as I can. And I am never alone, Christ is within me. And even though I have been beset by the normal spiritual trials of my own spiritual development, and the ungodly at every turn tries to deceive and frighten me, my house is built on the rock of Faith and cannot be washed away. And so I go, arms submitted to the Beloved I love, who comes before all else and surrender to His plan for me. And His plan is always this.... there is the grace that pours down through me from Him to others and the trials and burden to bear. But since I am yoked to Christ, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. And so He blesses me every day with something.

And so this refrain today... a son of God waits to be spoken to in sentences of love. It is patience that makes us divine. Exult in the embrace of the cross as you lay your head on the dust and dirt of the feet of Christ and gaze up into His eyes of compassion and know this one truth. It is mercy He desired. His words were of love and empathy for the sinners in His midst... He wanted to heal the world. And that means you and me.

In Remembrance of 9/11

The grace of Divine love led me today after mass into a shop... a destiny of sorts for two mourning souls to join in peace and share a grief that strikes us so suddenly, we remain breathless sometimes for years on end.

Irish, she heard of my loss at 9/11 since I could not come back on Saturday when she next worked... I would be in prayer, in remembrance. She too had lost a loved one, her son's fiance on the plane from Argentina to Dublin that went down into the cold seas forever lost... whose son crushed with grief became surrounded by friends, first one, then two, then many, each day to support and comfort him. The girl was so young, a Trinity medical student and was the love of his life... a smile that could light up a room and a heart so in love. And so his mother through tears chose a white candle to honor both and light on 9/11, she gave it to me... a moment shared, in solidarity that sometimes the way of the world is not to be understood, but accepted. As each day is a day of death that should never happen... tragedy that should not be... loss that cannot be recovered.

I am remembering my father, trapped underground in NYC in a subway on his way to meet his lawyer in the twin towers. She was killed that day... my father lingered and died a few months later... I am remembering my children whose father was also in NYC that day, who cleaved to me watching the sights and sounds of the towers falling again and again... I am remembering my daughter who in her shock felt helpless and fell asleep wrapped in a blanket from a long ago childhood... I am remembering my son who helped me hang the large American flag over our front door as he told me he wished he was a firefighter and could have saved them all. I am remembering my friends... so many who were there, some lost forever and some who simply lost their way after that day.

And I gaze on this white candle that I will burn on 9/11 in a spirit of peace and love for those who have lost their lives or their selves. And I will pray for those who choose to burn the Holy Qu'ran rather than a candle of peace, knowing that their flame is a flame of intolerance and hate and mine is a flame of Divine love.

In remembrance for peace, I choose to cultivate purity of heart and allow the chaos of others not to touch my soul. It is in the stillness of peace that love is procreated and released into the world.

And so my new friend in Dublin... this flame of love is for us both.