Monday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

The Passion of Saint John the Baptist

Saint: Saint Beatrice of Nazareth, Flemish Cistercian Nun (1200-1268)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 71 Mutual Obedience

Mass: Jer 1:17-19; Resp Ps 71 or 1 Cor 2:1-5; Resp Ps 119; Mk 6:17-29

For Saint Beatrice of Nazareth: Songs 8:6-7 or 1 Cor 13:4-13; Resp Ps 44; Jn 17:20-26

May your right hand show you wondrous deeds.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

HEART OF MARY, VICTIM OF LOVE,

PRAY FOR US.

I have made known to them Your name and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved me may be in them and I in them.

(Jn 17:26)

We are honored to commemorate Saint Beatrice of Nazareth, erstwhile Beguine turned Cistercian nun and foundress of Our Lady of Nazareth Abbey, our motherhouse in Brecht, Belgium. It was from there that the founding group of 12 nuns came to Redwoods in 1962. 

First, we learn something about Beatrice:

Though she was born of parents who were great in God's eyes, adorned with the reputation of being very religious, she was more sublime than the sublime and more perfect than the perfect. She exalted their glory by her own virtues, and made them illustrious by the more copious light of her perfection.

(The Life of Beatrice of Nazareth, 1200-1268, trans. Roger DeGanck, Cistercian 1991, p. 21)

And now something from Beatrice from The Seven Manners of Holy Love:

There are seven manners of loving which come down from the highest place and which return again to the summit from which they came.

The first manner is an active longing which proceeds from love. It must rule a long time in the heart before it can thoroughly expel all opposition and it should act strongly and skillfully, and progress eagerly in this ...

The soul desires to lead its whole life so as to work, grow, and ascend to a greater height of love and closer knowledge of God, until it reaches that perfection for which it is fully made and called by God.

(Beatrice of Nazareth, The Seven Manners of Holy Love, in The Life of Beatrice, Book Three, p. 289, 291)

SAINT BEATRICE OF NAZARETH,

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST, 

PRAY FOR US.

NB. Father Roger DeGanck, ocso, monk of Westmalle Abbey, was the first and longtime chaplain for the nuns of Redwoods. RIP.

Today's photo: Bee on flower, for Saint Beatrice of Nazareth. God, your God, has anointed you.

© Gertrude Feick 2022