Lent 2 B - February 28, 2021

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Josép Martinez-Cubero, OHC

Second Sunday in Lent  - Sunday, February 28, 2021

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Romans 4:13-25

Mark 8:31-38

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In today’s Gospel lesson from Mark, Jesus predicts his death for the first time. He tells his disciples that he must undergo great suffering and be rejected and killed. I don’t know about you, but if someone tells me: “You know, coming up, I’ll be going through a lot of suffering, and rejection and then I’m going to be killed,” I’m not likely to say, “Oh really? That sucks! Thanks for letting me know. What can I do?” I’m more likely to say: “What?? No! Don’t say that! That’s not going to happen. We’re not let that happen!” 

So yeah, I get Peter. I give thanks for St. Peter- honest, earnest, passionate, clumsy Peter, whose mouth seems to be ahead of his brain a lot of the time, and who also boldly says the foolish things I’ve been thinking. Peter reminds me that I don’t have to get it all the time, and it is OK to say so. I can be inadequate some of the time, or most of the time because, thankfully, we’re saved by God’s grace and not by my brilliance.

It is difficult for us today to really grasp what a blow Jesus’ words must have been for his disciples because we hear them from the far side of the first Easter, the side of resurrection and triumph. What Jesus’ disciples heard must have sounded more like, “if any want to become my followers, let them become shameful to society like the lowest of criminals, take up their cross and follow me to that place of horror, agonizing torment and pain until death is the merciful release.” Carrying one’s cross meant carrying one’s own means of the most horrid death- being stretched out and bound to a cross, bleeding, gasping for air and naked. Jesus’ disciples had seen crucifixions and they knew firsthand about the terror and the agony. 

The Messiah is supposed to reveal himself in triumph and glory, trumpets and chariots of fire. That’s the story that every religious, social and historical narrative has told Peter. We can’t blame him for not getting it. For three years, the disciples have witnessed Jesus’ ability to draw in great crowds. They have seen him feed multitudes, heal the sick, raise the dead. They’ve seen him go into the temple and overturn tables and benches and drive out those who were buying and selling. They’ve heard him proclaim the arrival of a new Reign of God that will never end. Their great hope is that he will lead them in a military revolution and overthrow their Roman oppressors under whose cruelty they have lived all their lives. 

We don’t know what Peter says to Jesus when he takes him aside and scolds him, but Jesus, in what is the strongest condemnation of any human being in Mark's gospel, puts Peter in his place: “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus turns to the crowds and captures the essence of his message in two sentences: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

What does it mean to deny myself and to save my life by losing it for Jesus’ sake in 21st century USA? No, I’m afraid it doesn’t have anything to do with giving up dessert, alcohol, sugar, Facebook or YouTube during Lent, even if those are good and helpful disciplines for some to take on. But I think it has more to do with re-ordering my priorities and principles to the way of God, who’s thoughts are not my thoughts and who’s ways are not my ways. (Isaiah 55:8) It’s no longer about saving my life or placing my self-preservation at the center of every plan and purpose.

Perhaps I can begin by acknowledging that I live in such fear of suffering and death that a great deal of my energy goes into trying to avoid both. And what is my part in a consumeristic society dominated by multi-million-dollar industries that want me and need me to deny my mortality through cosmetics, vitamins, diets, and so on? What is my part in a culture that encourages individualism and “freedom” at the expense of moral responsibility, self-giving compassion and empathy? 

Jesus calls us to let go of our attachment to power, prestige, and getting ahead at the expense of others. Jesus calls us to let go of our constant need for security and self-protection, and to step out of the vicious cycles of violence that keep us from experiencing the abundant life Jesus came to give us. 

Self-denial reminds us that our life is not our own. It belongs to God. To think we are in control is a total illusion. God is in control, not us. Knowing and accepting these things free us to be fully alive. Through self-denial our falling down becomes rising up, losing is saving, and death is resurrection.

How are we to take up our cross in US America? Surely it has something to do with standing at the center of the world’s pain, recognizing Christ crucified in every suffering person that surrounds us. It is about following the example of Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served, who chose to give in a world that takes, to love in a world that hates, to heal in a world that injures, to give life in a world that kills. Jesus calls us to offer mercy when others seek vengeance, forgive when others condemn, and to have compassion when others are indifferent.

As we move deeper into Lent, may we deny ourselves by giving of ourselves fully, in love, as an offering, as Jesus did. May we enter into injustice with our whole being, so we can transform it. And may we experience the abundant life Jesus offers to those who ache and weep with those who suffer. ¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo! 

Amen+

Lent 1 B - February 21, 2021

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Richard Vaggione, OHC

First Sunday in Lent  - Sunday, February 21, 2021

Genesis 9:8-17

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:9-15

Click here for an audio version of this sermon

Br. Richard celebrated the fiftiest anniversary of the his ordination to the priesthood this Saturday, February 20.

This Sunday, he preached from notes.

Ash Wednesday - February 17, 2021

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Bob Pierson, OHC

Ash Wednesday  - Sunday, February 14, 2021

Joel 2:1-2,12-17

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

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Welcome to Lent!  Here we are again at the beginning of this great season of repentance in preparation for the celebration of Easter in 40 days.  We know how to do this.  Jesus outlines a three-fold practice that has been around for centuries: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.  As monks, we don't usually give alms individually, though we might be led to do so from our “personal discretionary accounts” as we call them.  And we certainly pray a lot already, so adding a little more to our prayer practice probably won't hurt us.  But fasting....that's another matter.  

Of course, as a kid I learned how to fast from my parents.  I remember Mom got a really good deal on fish sticks one year, and we had fish sticks at least once a day for the whole season of Lent.  And of course, lots of us gave up candy, particularly chocolate.  And as we got older, we may have given up alcohol, or Starbucks, or as I did one year, bookstores.  But what good did all that giving up accomplish?  Were we any better for it at the end of Lent?  

Isaiah points out to the people of Israel that they have gotten fasting all wrong.  He says:

“You serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.  Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.  Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.”  

He goes on to say:

 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?....If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, THEN your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like noonday.”

It's very clear that Isaiah thought the purpose of fasting was to change our lives and start living the justice that we proclaim God cares about.  So, how can we do that?  Our church has been challenging us to think about how we participate in the racism of our society and to begin doing something to change things.  And one thing the coronavirus has brought out in society is how the poor and minorities, those who have less than others, are often the least able to get benefits in our healthcare system.  And there are still way too many people going hungry, even in our own country.  We have a lot of work to do.  

It's easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start.  As I was scrolling down the page on Facebook the other day, I came across a very helpful post entitled “Do you want to fast this Lent?”  Someone else saw it too, and posted it on our monastery bulletin board.  It says “in the words of Pope Francis:

--Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

--Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

--Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

--Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

--Fast from worries and have trust in God.

--Fast from complaints; contemplate simplicity.

--Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

--Fast from bitterness; fill your hearts with joy.

--Fast from selfishness and be compassionate.

--Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

--Fast from words; be silent and listen.

I hope I will do a better job of fasting this year after reading such good advice.

Epiphany Last - February 14, 2021

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Bernard Delcourt, OHC

Last Sunday after Epiphany  - Sunday, February 14, 2021

2 Kings 2:1-12

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Mark 9:2-9

Click here for an audio version of this sermon

NB from Br. Bernard: I apologize. I consistentely but erroneously said Elishah for Elijah in the audio version. Jesus appears in conversation with Moses and Elijah. Oops! In my native French, their names differ by a whole syllable. They're easier to differentiate. Oh well...

In the Name of God, the Lover, the Beloved and the Love. Amen.

*****

Jesus often sought silence and solitude to pray. Last week, we heard of how he snuck away in the early morning to pray in lonely and quiet places. On this day, he decides to go up a mountain with only three of his apostles. 

It was probably easier to escape the crowds’ attention in a small committee than when he moved with his whole band of disciples. When he did the latter, the crowds followed him or even preceded him where they thought he was headed next. Solitude from the crowds was a necessary but challenging gift to claim.

Jesus, Peter, James and John manage to slip away undetected. And they choose to go up a nearby mountain. It takes effort and concentration to hike up a mountain. I imagine a relative silence settling amongst the four walkers as they pay attention to their footfall and take in the beauty of the landscape.

Eventually, they reach a high point on the mountain. The vista opens up and they can see for miles over the Galilean country. They settle down to rest a while and pray. And as prayer absorbs them, they eventually become aware of Jesus’ transfiguration.

He appears to them as he has never appeared before. He appears glorified. It is even hard to keep your gaze on him so dazzling he appears. And he is in conversation with Elijah, the most prominent of Prophets, and with Moses, the giver of the Law. The company Jesus keeps here assigns the next-to-highest level of honor to him.

Peter feels the moment couldn’t get more solemn and glorious. And he feels compelled to say something rather than stay enraptured in contemplation. But there is really nothing one can say that could meet the occasion.

As it is, Peter wants to capture the moment and perpetuate it. I understand his desire but the event keeps developing. Does God ever allow us to put God in the box of our own making? God doesn’t in this case.

Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

The One even more glorious than Elijah and Moses interrupts the scene and overrules whatever the disciples might have concluded from the earlier events. God godself speaks to the apostles. Now Jesus is assigned the very highest level of honor. He is the Son of God. This goes well beyond the Messiah, the Anointed One, that Peter confessed only six days ago. Yes Jesus is the Messiah, and he is also God’s very Son.

The teachings of Moses and Elijah are important, no doubt. But even they simply confer with Jesus. For even more important than the Law and the Prophets is to listen to Jesus, proclaimed the Son of God. 

Mark doesn’t bother to tell us what Moses, Elijah and Jesus talked about because the more important content comes directly from God: “listen to him.” Listen to Jesus.

*****

Six days before, the disciples had heard things from Jesus that they found difficult to listen to and accept, if not understand. Jesus told them about his upcoming passion, death and resurrection. 

And Jesus had told them that “... those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Those are hard words to listen to and to take in, not to mention hard to live by.

It would be so tempting to accept the mountaintop glory without accepting the harder messages that Jesus conveys. Peter would like to bask in the glory that God projects. But instead, God charges the disciples with the mission to do as Jesus tells them. And that isn’t easy and it often will not look glorious in the eyes of the world. 

God’s love will prevail in ways that are not the ways of the world. The disciples will prevail if they follow the way of Jesus not the way of the prevailing domination system. Jesus will die an ignominious death, and he will be resurrected. The disciples will lose their lives for His sake. And they will gain true life in so doing.

*****

But it is time for our mountaintop experience to come to a close. And “Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.” The Jesus they have always known, the very human Jesus, the One they are to listen to. Jesus is enough. Listen to him.

Some of us receive mountaintop experiences. Thanks be to God. But not to all of us. Most of the disciples did not come up that mountain. Yet all of us, whether we stayed in the valley or came back down from the mountain, have to listen to God. What is God’s will for the work to be done in the humdrum valley of everyday life?

We are to listen to Jesus in our very normal and ordinary lives. That’s where God’s work of Love awaits us. And if we were fueled with energy by our mountaintop experiences, lucky us. But we shouldn’t attempt to become spiritual bounty hunters. We shouldn’t keep looking for spiritual highs instead of doing the daily work of Love.

As our Brother Roy calligraphed so beautifully, “Pray often, pray early.” But then step into the rest of your life, feel the holy ground under your feet, and do the loving that God wants us to do. 

And as St Benedict wrote in his rule, always, “Listen carefully, my child, to the master’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” (Rule of St Benedict - Prologue).

Amen.

Epiphany 5 B - February 7, 2021

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Luc Thuku, OHC

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany  - Sunday, January 31, 2021

Isaiah 40:21-31

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

Click here for an audio version of this sermon

 

Today we gather to celebrate God’s love and mercy shown to us in His son Jesus who was born, lived and suffered like us and for us, to set us free from the dominion of sin and evil. Sin and evil are most of the time made manifest by various illnesses and death. Our readings this morning are showing us that when we believe in God; and in the presence of Jesus, they are all powerless! The readings also point us to the fact that God will always meet us at our point of need. 

The Gospel passage today is a continuation of the first chapter of Mark which is describing to us the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. He has already called disciples. He has also performed his first sign in the synagogue at Capernaum by healing a man with an unclean spirit by rebuking the spirit and calling it out of him!  The people are amazed and talk about the new teacher who is teaching and acting with authority, unlike their leaders the pharisees and the scribes. 

After the healing in the synagogue, Jesus enters the home of Simon Peter. A home is more that a roof on four walls. We humans have to mark out our personal lives from the public square, separating family and friends from the general crowd. An ideal home therefore offers a secure, comfortable place to drop off the many impersonal masks, both literal and spiritual, that we use to shield ourselves from an equally impersonal world. Although Jesus didn't have a personal home, he too leaves the public area of the Capernaum synagogue to retreat to a private household with his friends. There, death threatens to disrupt the rest Jesus and the brothers who had invited him would expect to enjoy. He finds Peter’s mother in law in bed with a fever. The duration and the intensisty of the fever or the illness that was causing it we do not know from Mark although Luke 4:38 says it was severe or great. We, however, know one thing and that is, a valued family member was unable to be up and about her work. Her calling had been taken from her by an illness. 

Jesus heals Peter’s mother in law instantly. We do not hear her asking to be healed but Jesus heals her anyway! He does this by simply taking her by the hand and raising her up. The word or verb used, raising up (Egeiro in Greek) takes a significant meaning in the gospels and in Christian communities everywhere. The word is even applied to Jesus himself. The word suggests new strength being imparted  to those laid low by illness, unclean spirits or even death, so that they may rise up again to take their place in the world. 

Once healed, she right away goes ahead to serve! Jesus later on will say that his own ministry is to serve rather than to be served. If serving characterizes the Christ of God, it also characterizes his disciples. Some Westerners and extremist feminists may see Peter’s mother in law serving immediately as an example of an oppressed woman whose whole life is pathetically a perpetual service to men. If we however read this in its Middle Eastern, as well as in the African and many of the so called “primitive” cultures, context where the matriarch of the house was the host in chief, then we will understand that rather than being oppressed, she takes the pride, honor and place of the first character in the Gospel who exemplifies true discipleship! Jesus therefore restores Simon’s home and simultaneously reveals the saving truth of who he is.  

After the healing in the synagogue and at Peter’s house, word of course spread, as is usual in a village context, that something great has taken place. So far the healings were unsolicited but this is about to change. Later in the evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons and we are told the whole city was gathered around the door. He cures them all and casts out demons without letting them speak because they knew him. Remember it was still the Sabbath and those of the “strict observance” or the cowards among them who hid behind the rules and regulations, wouldn't want to be seen to break the law by carrying the sick which would be regarded as work and since the sabbath ended at sundown, that is why they all flock to the house at that hour. 

Illnesses bore a heavy social cost. The sick person was unable to earn a living or contribute to the well being of a household. The ability of the sick person to take their proper role in the community, to be honored as a valuable member of a household, town or village would be taken away from them and some illnesses, for example leporosy, meant the person would be totally cut off and become an outcast.  Healing therefore is about restoration of dignity, restoration to community, restoration to a calling, restoration to a role and restoration to life! As we Christians and monastics know very well, a life without community and a calling is a bleak life!  

This morning, Jesus is reminding us that his ministry involves restoration of those cut off from community to a full role in community. Anyone who has ever been seriously ill in our own time will understand the joy of simply being back as a participant in the ordinary activities of living community life. It is then that we realize that there is nothing ordinary about life in community! The major lesson here is that Our God, made present in Jesus, always takes us by the hand and lifts us up! He heals us and makes us whole physically, mentally and spiritually, not just for our own comfort and wellbeing but for service! Healing and curing were, and still are, just signs to show that the kingdom of God has come among us. The real sign of the new age will be Jesus’ death and resurrection. Many of us are attracted to miracles and healings and fervently pray for them, which is not a bad thing in itself, but the question is, are we ready to respond to the invitation of Jesus to take up his cross?  

Paul in the second reading we heard this morning, from 1 Corinthians 9: 16-23, reminds us that we need not boast, or make celebrities of ourselves, when we proclaim the Gospel for it is an obligation that we have laid upon ourselves freely by becoming followers of Jesus, and woe to us if we do not proclaim the Gospel. We very well know that ninety percent of proclaiming the Gospel is by our way of life and only ten percent is by word of mouth. The holy saint, Francis of Assisi, understood this very well when he urged his disciples to preach the Gospel at all times and use words when necessary. We, like Paul, are called to become all things to all people so that we might by all means save some, and salvation as we have seen from the example of the Savior himself means restoring dignity to all people especially those from whom it has been robbed by evil, be it the evil naturally occuring in the world such as illnesses, or the man-made evils that include oppression, discrimination, fear, hatred, greed, poverty, and so on. This at times will and ought to put us on the cross if we are preaching the true Gospel. 

We may think that we are not strong enough or get discouraged by the times we fall short and possibly give up. Sometimes we even claim that God has abandoned us especially when the going gets tough but that is not the case. God’s promises are true for those that believe so wait and abide in him.  

This is made clear this morning in the last verse of our first reading  from Isaiah 40:31. We have been reminded that “youths may faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall BUT those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will rise up high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint”. 

There are difficulties in life that overwhelm the strongest of people. There are fears that keep eating even the strongest of human hearts. Young men faint, stumble and fall because of trusting in their own inner strength and human resources which are not a sufficient shield in the storms of life. Only God’s power is sufficient to sustain us and only His protective hand can shield us from the storms of life.  

Our God is a God of comfort and grace. He never goes back on His word, nor does he grow weary. In His loving kindness, He gives grace to the humble  and renews the strength of those that wait upon Him by faith. Even when our senses and logic seem to suggest the opposite, or appear to contradict His promises, if we have faith, it will help us soar with wings as eagles to rest in His promises. Just like an eagle’s strong wings carries it higher and higher to safety in the skies, let us pray this morning to God to strengthen our faith  so that we can trully believe we are children of the most high. Let us ask for confidence that assures us that we can soar and reach Him in faith as we face  evil, illnesses, death and all our fears both real and imaginary. 

Amen.

The Presentation of our Lord - February 2, 2021

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Randall Greve, OHC

The Presentation of Our Lord - Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Malachi 3:1-4
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40

Click here for an audio version of this sermon.

When I was a seminarian at Wycliffe College, one of my classmates was a woman in her twenties who was interested in monastic life and wanted to hear the story of my call and vocation.  I told her about my first visit to any monastery, Gethsemani Abbey, in 1991, and how, in retrospect, that visit began an interest and attraction that led ultimately to the Order.  “Isn’t it too bad that you wasted all that time when you knew you had a calling?”, she said.  I replied that those years were not wasted, but preparatory.  It was a long and often frustrating time, those years between 1991 and 2005, when I entered.  

The call was there, but I had to grow into it, give myself to it.  And that took time, and I was impatient.  I know that now, looking back, but there were times in the 90s when I did indeed think I was wasting time.  We only know we are being prepared for the main vocation of our lives after years pass and we look back.  In the moment, it can feel as if nothing much is happening, that the waiting is going nowhere.  In those years I knew there was something I was supposed to do, somewhere to be, and the quicker I figured that out, the quicker I could get on with living my actual life.  Anything before that, any life other than that, had to be unfaithful, squandered, frivolous.  We both, my friend and I, in different times and ways, were tempted by lust for the instant – that wanting to know and do, now - why wait, why waste time?

  

In the Gospel reading for the Presentation, Simeon and Anna build upon Luke’s unfolding of a beautiful story of waiting and hope, desire and fulfillment.  The Gospel of Luke is the Gospel of patience, longing, and the joy that bursts forth when the Savior appears – more compassionate than we could have imagined, more beautiful than we believed possible, more mysterious than makes us comfortable.  In his amazing book Symbol and Sacrament, Louis-Marie Chauvet, speaks of Luke as describing the “presence of the absence of Jesus”.  From the Visitation to Mary, a young woman from a small, insignificant village, to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we encounter the Christ whose manifestation is at first gentle, almost secret and unobtrusive.  In his ministry, Jesus can be heard and seen and touched, but never controlled, possessed, conjured.  He comes to the willing, the searching, even in disguise, and then disappears.  Luke’s is the spirituality of being visited, graced with a grace we could not have imagined, did not earn, and cannot possess. 

 

Simeon and Anna have waited, not for minutes or months, but decades.  Not wasting time, not sitting idly by, but already within them is the presence of the Savior, absent to their senses, not yet enfleshed, but truly present in the person of the Holy Spirit.  The spirit of him for whom they wait but do not see is resting on them, which inspires their faithful watching.  Gregory of Nyssa speaks of the mystery of yearning and satisfaction.  We ascend up the mountain to God, in the cloud, not seeing the top, not ceasing or falling back, not in order to finally fulfill the desire to see, not because our arrival at the top is guaranteed or even the end, but because the desire is the fulfillment, to ascend is already to have arrived, the cloud, if we were to discern wisely, is not the barrier to the vision of God, but is already the presence of the mystery itself.  Simeon is “looking forward to the consolation”, the “comforting spirit”… “and the Holy Spirit rested on him.”  Anna is fasting and praying day and night, “at that moment she came…”   The Presentation itself is the fulfillment of that for which Simeon and Anna had hoped and believed.  But their faithful prayer, their attentive presence, all the long months and years that led to this moment were not wasted.  They were living their vocation long before Mary and Joseph and the Baby appeared that day in the temple. Jesus’ presence and power are revealed to those who watch and pray.

How often I still want to know, measure, figure it out – and quickly. How often I would rather possess Jesus than welcome his resting presence; put him to work for me rather than gaze into his eyes.  We all certainly work hard around here and set about our tasks with diligence and care. Sometimes I wonder whether the Holy Spirit is running to catch up with me rather than resting on me!  Within all our good and hard work, let us remember that our vocation is more than the sum of our tasks.  While the important outer work goes on day by day in beautiful and visible ways, there is another kind of work happening below the surface.  The work of God in my soul happens in secret, hidden even from me.  It seems the things that matter to God are not all that public or spectacular.  God usually prefers the quiet and slow. 

We are invited to become people on whom the Holy Spirit rests, in whom this way of expectant waiting and watching and welcoming is the heart of our life in the world.  This rest becomes the companion to all our activity, all our prayers, so that we do everything from peace, not chaos.  We hold ourselves open before the God who prays from within.  The awareness of the desire for divine encounter, the longing for an experience that seems just out of reach, conceivable but not acquired, is ordinary spiritual life.  God can choose to visit us in ways that seem to us to pierce the veil between heaven and earth in which we catch an extraordinary glimpse of the mystery, but those are rare.  Memorable moments come by God’s grace, but do not last very long.  Our openheartedness is not for the sake of an experience, but for the sake of seeing Christ everywhere and in all things.  

In a culture, sometimes even a monastery, that is prone to the worship of productivity, it is tempting to live on the surface and reduce our spirituality to what we can perceive and effect.  We are ushered into the story today to take our place among the waiters and wonderers, with Mary and Joseph.  We, too, are held by the promise of our encounter with Christ in that yet awaits in that place where the dark glass is made clear and we see face to face.  And then the One who was held by Simeon and Anna will hold us in his arms, and we can join in the song of seeing and light.

Amen.