This past Christmas Season (the longest possible – a little more than 20 days) ended (as always in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar) with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Among the many themes embodied in the feast is the privilege we have of being baptized Christians. Our Lord took on human flesh; so our flesh has become sacred. Our Lord was baptized in the Jordan; so we are united with Him in a powerful way through the sacrament of baptism. Our Lord was sent forth by the Holy Spirit on a mission to “bring glad tidings to the poor” (Lk 4:18); so we have the mandate and the honor of continuing His mission of serving the needy with self-emptying love and of evangelizing…

Daily life is replete with decisions which may seem insignificant in themselves but which cumulatively can draw us closer to Christ or can distance us from Him. We as Benedictine Oblates and monks are called in a special way to “prefer nothing whatever to Christ” (RB 72:11); so to choose in accord with love for Christ even in the smallest of matters is a substantial dimension of our Christian commitment. As the autumn has brought colder weather, the water coming from our faucets, especially early in the morning, has become colder. While washing up early one day, I reflected on the choice I had either to accept the cold water (from the hot-water tap) or to keep the water running…

A substantial dimension of Christian life is the struggle against evil. In our 21st-century society we are often jolted by egregious crimes reported by the media, but we tend not to realize that flagrantly evil actions are generally preceded by a series of sinful choices. St. Benedict surely knew of the daily individual and communal battles against self-will. In those conflicts we must take up the “noble weapons of obedience to do battle for the true King, Christ the Lord” (RB Prol:3). The one who wishes to dwell in the tent of God’s Kingdom is the one who…

The Paschal Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday (including also the quiet waiting of Holy Saturday before the Easter Vigil) is the most sacred time of the Church year. All the faithful are urged to attend as many of the liturgies as possible because what they commemorate is at the core of our Christian lives. Priests are reminded that the Chrism Mass and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper celebrate the origins of their priestly vocation, to which they should gratefully recommit themselves with ever greater zeal. Monks, too, have a special role in celebrating these sacred liturgies in community with prayerful preparation, reverence, and careful attention to the profound personal…

We live in a non-ideal world, in a non-ideal Church, and in non-ideal families and communities. Some of the flaws are unavoidable while others, alas, stem from evil choices. We Christians live by high ideals, but we almost always fall short. We monks and Oblates know that we should not murmur (RB 34:6-7), and yet sometimes we grumble about our problems to get a bit of fleeting relief. We know that we ought always to be moderate in our consumption of food and drink (RB 39 & 40), and yet some of us chronically overindulge or think immoderately about the next meal. We know that “nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God” (RB 43:3), and yet we may often fail to find enough time to pray the portion of the Divine Office to which…

Preparing well for anything takes discipline. If I am going to preach at a Sunday Mass, I must discipline myself to spend some time almost every weekday to reflect on the Sunday readings, to jot down relevant thoughts, and eventually to organize them. If I am traveling to an unfamiliar destination, I must discipline myself to obtain good directions and to follow them. (Most of us probably know from experience that failure to do this can result in disaster!) Cooking a festive meal requires discipline to mix well and time well. Facing an athletic contest likewise requires much…

Is lectio divina a problematic task fraught with difficulties, or is it a marvelous opportunity to encounter Christ? A number of people, including Oblates, have told me that they find it very hard to practice lectio. They verbalize their hardships with such expressions as “I read and read, and nothing comes”; “I don’t hear God saying anything to me”; “I have no insights”; or “I just feel bored and distracted.” Indeed, I agree that the practice of lectio can be difficult and unrewarding at times. I recently finished going through the prophet Ezekiel for my lectio. The last chapters of that book describe in great detail…

This past fall I was doing my lectio divina with the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. Praying over this prophet’s words can be difficult for me because the text frequently seems to portray God as upset, angry, and even destructive. Jeremiah includes such prophecies as, “See now, says the Lord God, my anger and my wrath I will pour out upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn without being quenched” (Jer 7:20). He also proclaims, “For the Lord has wrought our destruction, he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord” (Jer 8:14). How can this be? What can it mean for us? Perhaps we would like to dismiss these words as a distorted or exaggerated description of God from the Old Testament or would prefer to apply God’s…

We live in a society of many imbalances, one of which involves work. Large numbers of people are unemployed or underemployed. Other people are overworked, sometimes because others have been laid off and leave additional burdens behind for the remaining employees. People without sufficient work or income may be tempted to become discouraged and murmur. Those with too much work can likewise be tempted to lose heart and grumble. What do the Holy Rule and Benedictine monastic life have to say in response to…

As someone who is fortunately able to attend our community’s daily Mass and Liturgy of the Hours almost always, I am also very aware of the flaws that can occur from time to time. Aside from the graces to refocus on prayer and to overlook or forgive quickly, some of the failings contain hidden lessons for our journeys of faith. I have noticed that one frequently misstated phrase in the Mass occurs in the preface for martyrs, which includes the words, “You choose the weak and make the strong.” Having often heard the error “You chose the weak,” I wonder if this misstatement reflects a common human tendency to think of God’s marvelous actions…

This summer there is much new life in our monastic community. On the morning of July 9, five new novices were clothed with the monastic habit and took on new names. In the evening the four novices who had entered last year professed their first vows. Although we had no monks professing solemn vows this year, we now have thirteen “junior monks” (those in temporary vows), and most of these men are in their twenties and thirties. Also, during our intensive community meetings on July 8 and 9, we monks discussed a number of new situations in a new way. For us monks of the Archabbey…

During the past several decades our world has been dealing with a “crisis of authority” both in secular society and in the Church. Indeed there is a crisis. People in authority have often abused the trust placed in them, and in the case of the Church it is a sacred trust. Yes, the media have sometimes been wrong, and their destructive charges have often been directed disproportionately against the Church and Christianity. Nonetheless, we must face the fact that flagrant misuses of authority are widely known and that many people…