An Advent Meditation

Advent is a time of stillness and reflection.  Sister Julia of the Verbum Dei community in San Francisco created the following presentation from pictures she took of the monastery and surrounding areas.  May this meditation help us to recognize new Advents of the Lord in ourselves and in our communities.

The Monastic Journey of Sr Godelieve

Sr. Godelieve recounts her call to the Monastery first in Belgium at the monastery of Our Lady of Nazareth and then in the United States at Redwoods. She talks of her contemplative awakening through the years and the role the monastery played in her life. Sr Godelieve at 89 years old is the senior member of our community. She is a musician, contemplative, prophetic witness to Christ in the world through social justice and most beloved sister.

Corpus Christi / Sacred Heart

These feasts of the Lord, Corpus Christi and Sacred Heart, which follow Pentecost have been especially meaningful for me this year. It seems that only after Pentecost and the Descent of the Spirit do we come to know Jesus as He wants us to know Him. And how do we know him? Through the Eucharist symbols of bread and wine that have become His very body and blood. We also know him through communion with and in His Heart.

The following is a prayer of St Aelred of Rievaulx, Cistercian Abbot of  the monastery of Rievaulx in Yorkshire England. (St Aelred died in 1167.) We read this prayer for Lauds on the Feast of Corpus Christi. In this passage St Aelred talks not only of our being fed, but of the Lord being fed also by us:

 O Lord, on what do you feed in us if it is not the sweet devotion of our heart? This devotion is a pious and sweet affection arising from the two-fold consideration of Christ’s humanity and his divinity. Happy the soul which is fed and nourished by this holy interchange. Ravished to the heights of heavenly joy, it gazes upon the glory of its creator and is delighted with the splendor of his beauty. By the ardor of ineffable desire and with the sweetness of inexpressible love, it crosses over into God, where, filled with the honey of heavenly sweetness, it tastes and sees how sweet is the Lord, how blessed is every one who hopes in him.

Candlemas at Redwoods

Watch highlights of our liturgical celebration of the Feast of the Presentation, celebrated on February 2.  It is a feast that commemorates Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple for the Rite of Purification in accordance with the Law of Moses.  At the Temple, Christ is recognized by the Simeon and Anna.  The Song of Simeon (Luke 2:22-35 ) is  often sung at Compline, the last Office of prayer of the day.  "And now Lord, you may let your servant go in peace for with my own eyes I have seen your salvation." We like Simeon and Anna wait for the Lord, the light of the nations.

Feast of St Bernard

St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) is undoubtedly the most famous Cistercian monk and abbot.  His influence was felt throughout Europe and even into the Holy Land.  He is judged harshly for his involvement in preaching the Crusades, but is loved by many monastics past and present for his writings in which he reveals and teaches a way of affective union with Christ, the Beloved.  Here are some excepts from writings:

The psalmist says: "seek God's face." Not, I think , will the soul cease to seek God even when she has found God. It is not with steps of the feet that God is sought, but with the heart's desire. And, when the soul happily finds God, her desire is not quenched but kindled. Does consummation of joy bring about the consuming of desire? Rather it is oil poured on the flames. So it is. Joy will be fulfilled, but there will be no end to desire and, therefore, no end to the search. Think, if you can, of this eagerness to see God as not caused by God's absence, for God is always present. And think of the desire for God as without fear of failure, for grace is abundantly present. (quoted from The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, p 114)

So the soul returns and is converted to the Word to be reformed by him and conformed to him. In what way? In Charity - in love. Such conformity weds the soul to the Word, for one who is like the Word by nature shows herself like him too in the exercise of her will, loving as she is loved. When she loves perfectly, the soul is wedded to the Word..... Truly this is a spiritual contract, a holy marriage. It is more that a contract, it is an embrace. An embrace where identity of will makes of two, one spirit. (St Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Song 83:23)

Sayings on Silence

Hesychia, Blessed Silence 

This icon is Hesychia, Blessed Silence, an angel that represents Christ with the qualities of Sophia, Holy Wisdom . It speaks to that interior movement of the mind into heart where we meet God in the deepest form of prayer. This is the place where Christ tells us to “Go into your room, shut the door and pray…” (Matthew 6:6)

Since silence is such a foundational value to our life of prayer, we had several community meetings at Redwoods to discuss our monastic practice of it. The following are some sayings taken from our discussions:

• The practice of silence is not to be restrictive but expansive of God’s life within our hearts and within the heart of community
• To keep silent …. In order to stay in touch with God and the ways which He calls forth an ever deepening communion
• In silence and simplicity we live at the center of our call to be authentic witnesses of the Cistercian monastic life.
• Silence is needed for listening to both: outer messages as well as to the deep inner ones.
• Silence – stillness – inwardly and outwardly restores the balance or harmony in oneself.
• Silence is an ingredient for prayer and meditation, human attentiveness and relatedness.
• Simplicity is the absence of things that gives the fullness of beauty
• We can try to create an atmosphere that is conducive to interiority, but it is mostly Grace and gift
• Mindfulness – returning to God from thoughts, distractions to the center again and again…
• I need to work on being in the present moment, watching my thoughts and motivations and importuning God’s grace when I am caught in irritations, judgments and reactions.
• Do whatever work with the intention (manual labor) that it will glorify God
• This value of silence gives us authentic simplicity.  With the manifestation of interiority tour monastic rhythm is held in the groundedness of the Cross that frees us, little by little.

If you are interested in a good book on the practice of contemplative silence in the Christian tradition,  Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land, Oxford University Press, 2006

T'he School of Jesus

Lent is a journey, it means accompanying Jesus who goes up to Jerusalem, the place of the fulfilment of his mystery of Passion, death and Resurrection; it reminds us that Christian life is a “way” to take, not so much consistent with a law to observe as with the very Person of Christ, to encounter, to welcome, to follow.  Benedict XVI, Ash Wednesday Address

In his Ash Wednesday address, Pope Benedict goes on to explain the importance of Liturgy as a means to make present the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  He calls the liturgy "the School of Jesus," where "Christ makes himself present through the power of the Holy Spirit and these saving events become real."

This same power and presence is the foundation of the monastic Liturgy of the Hours.  At Vigils, we keep watch for the Messiah in all His comings - Past - Present - Future.  The psalms we recite recall the longings of ancient Israel.  In prayer and meditation, we commune with His presence in our hearts.  And we stay awake so that we may be ready for His return.

With the dawn (Lauds), we greet the rising of the sun and celebrate the arrival of the Savior by singing the Canticle of Zachary (Benedictus):which describes the loving kindness of the heart of God as "a dawn from on high."  During the prayer at noon (Sext or Midday) we chant the psalms of ascent.  These are ancient psalms that have been sung by Jewish pilgrims as they go up to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals. At evening prayer (Vespers), we sing with Mary, the Mother of God, her Magnificat and recount God's mercy and plan of salvation.

At Compline, the day is complete.  We end the prayer with a blessing from the Abbess and remember the words of Simeon, " Now Lord, you may let your servant go in peace, for with my own eyes, I have seen your salvation."

This is the rhythm of the Divine Office which forms us into monks and nuns.  During a liturgical season, such as Lent, prayers, hymns, readings, and antiphons become even more centered on Jesus and draw us deeper into His life.  A good example of this is a common Cistercian hymn often sung at noon prayer.  "The hour it is when Christ did thirst, for Justice thirsted on a tree.  His lips were slaked by no relief - except a poor man's psalm of grief."  The hymn works in us because it is noon, the time of day that tradition commemorates the beginning of Christ's passion.  It is Lent, we have been fasting and we are hungry and maybe a little thirsty. The liturgy invites us to unite our own experience, which has been structured by our monastic schedule, with the experience of Christ.  At the same time we are the monastic choir, singing psalms - so we also take on the role of the "poor man", the one who agonized with Christ at His hour of suffering.

As we come nearer to Holy Week, may we make time to experience this school of Jesus, attending liturgies not only in church but also in the prayer of the heart.  May the living Jesus touch us all very specially this Lent.