Embracing the Mass

 

"They recounted what had happened to them on the road, and how they had come to know Him in the breaking of the bread."  (Luke 24:35)

Mass is the highlight of the monastic day. The other prayers prepare for it, revolve around it, highlight and underscore it... and carry its themes into every other part of the afternoon and evening. This is reasonable, logical, for "The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life...  In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1324 and 1327)

Before the great Wonder of the Eucharist, of Jesus with us in Flesh and Blood, I am, frankly, speechless. So I look to one more eloquent than I as I pass along these words: 

"We must continually remind ourselves that the greatest need in the world today is to centre our lives more and more in the oblational aspect of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; for today, when the whole world is galloping away from the very shadow of the Cross, we must embrace it and cling to it ever more firmly, in union with Jesus Christ....We should never come to Holy Mass without preparation, and it is for this reason that, in Religious Houses, the Community Mass is celebrated after the Spiritual Exercises of the morning. Of all the works of the Sacred Heart here below, Holy Mass together with Holy Communion is the Masterpiece." 

(from The Living Pyx of Jesus by 'A Religious,' Pelligrini, 1941, p. 443)

Can I get to Mass today? If so, I ask for the grace of opened eyes. Eyes that can truly see Him in the breaking of the Bread. 

But perhaps I am limited - maybe by family needs, illness, work, disability. What then? I can at least make a spiritual communion, perhaps using words like these: 

"My Jesus, I believe You are truly present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to possess You within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and I unite myself wholly to You; never permit me to be separated from You." 

(St. Alphonsus)

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org    

  

Posted by © Nancy Shuman at 11:49 PM 

*This is a repost from the archives of 8/28/12.

What IS a Cloistered Heart?

We ask ourselves the question now and then, in different ways. 

Is 'The Cloistered Heart' an analogy? (yes).  Is it a way of life? (yes).  Is The Cloistered Heart an article, a book, a blog?  Is it Catholic?  Is it people who pray for the Church and the world and one another?  

The Cloistered Heart is basically an analogy in which our lives can be seen as "monasteries," places where God is loved and lived for and served.  

In the world but not of the world.  This is not a new or different idea; rather, it is an emphasizing, a kind of "underlining," of every Christian's call.  The uniqueness of this emphasis is in its monastic imagery. 

The word "cloister" speaks of total consecration.  Those who enter a traditional physical cloister make a tangible break from the world.  Compromise does not fit well in a cloister, nor does lukewarmness, nor does complacency.  The cloistered life is absolute. 

Christians living in the midst of the world are also called to live for God.  But for us, the break is not so clean.  The world is persistent in its tugs on the heart trying to live for God.  We need support in our struggles to surrender our lives to God and to resist the world's allurements.  This is where the imagery of the cloistered heart can be of help.  "If the cloister is in a man's heart, it is immaterial whether the building is actually there.  The cloister in a man's heart means only this: God and the soul."  (from Warriors of God by Walter Nigg, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959, p. 13)


Drafted by NS 8/3/17

Utterly for God

Sometimes
words are 
unnecessary ...























Hat tip to the Institute on Religious Life for passing along this beautiful video!

Unmasking Compromise

I once wrote that compromise does not fit well in a cloister. It does, however, knock daily at my enclosure door.  It makes sales pitches through the grille, some of which are quite enticing.  It Won't Hurt Anything to Enjoy a Harmless Round of Gossip, it assures me, perhaps adding a gentle nudge to Just Go Along With the Crowd.    

If I hope to live totally for God, I must battle temptations to compromise.  God has given clear directives on how to live for Him, and frankly, most of what I encounter in the world right now is the exact opposite of these.  Every day, I must make my choices.  Every day, I must face down the grinning, smooth-talking, hand-offering, smartly-masked ogre of compromise, and I must take a stand.

It helps me to know that the battle is not a new one.  

"The earliest monasticism was directed to the tendency in the church to compromise with the world, to water down the strong wine of the Gospels to suit the vulgar taste...  Monasticism, in its development, was unmistakably on the defensive against a worldly church"  (Walter Nigg, Warriors of God, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959, pp. 80-81)

"Mediocrity is the arch-enemy of  Christianity."  (Nigg, p. 47)

"The desert fathers fought the corrosion of mediocrity not in others, but in themselves, which is what made them saints and not simply critics of civilization and preachers of penitence."  (Nigg, p. 47)

Compromise does not fit well in a cloister.  If I hope to live "enclosed in the will of God," I must see through the masks and boot compromise out the door. 

________________________________________________________________________
For Prayer and Reflection:  

• Do the above quotes strike me in any way? 
• If I look for compromise around me today, what masks do I catch it wearing?
• Have I developed habits of compromise in my life?  Are there scriptures or prayers I can use to battle these?

"I beg you through the mercy of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.  Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God's will, what is good, pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:1-2)

This is a slightly edited repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'  

But Contemplation

The Reward

Your Monastery

'You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is within - the Spirit you have received from God.'  (1 Corinthians 6:19)

'Monastic life,' wrote Louis Bouyer, 'is nothing else, no more and no less, than a Christian life whose Christianity has penetrated every part of it.' With this in mind, I'd like to take a deeper look into what it can mean to 'be' a monastery in the midst of the world. 

As before, click on any line below to open that post. 


And Our Monastery Is...

The Right Address

In Substance the Same

Let Me Be a House of God




Samuel van Hoogstraten painting, digitally altered

In Every Vocation

The World For Which I Was Born

I was recently reminded of something a friend wrote to me some years ago. 'Sitting in a monastery of nuns,' this woman said in a letter, 'I knew I didn't belong in their life and yet I didn't belong out in the world either. The closer you get to His Heart, the farther you get from everything else, which is really as it should be... I felt that the problem with being in the world is that so often you are distracted from loving Him, which is all I want to do. When you are in the monastery, everything reminds you of Him no matter what chore you are presently doing. But His will is mine, so wherever He wants me is what I really want too. What I fear is taking Him for granted and becoming lukewarm.'

My friend's fear is one I know well. Taking Him for granted. Becoming lukewarm. How I wish I could say these things have never happened to me, but I cannot. Lukewarmness can seem normal, even cozy, and I sometimes find myself settling down in it and feeling right at home. Being distracted from things of God doesn't seem like such a problem then, when the world around feels eternal and entrancing and like it must be the forever-world-for-which-I-was-born.

But the truth is: the world around is not The-Forever-World-For-Which-I-Was-Born. 'God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.' The Baltimore Catechism said it well.

'When you are in the monastery,' wrote my friend, 'everything reminds you of Him.' While monks or nuns enclosed inside walls are not yet in the Forever-World, they live twenty four hours a day inside a reflection of it. Their time is entirely spent on the pathway to Home. They wash dishes on that path. They do laundry on that path. They eat and sleep and garden and pray and laugh and sing on that path. They live in an entrance foyer to Heaven, and everything around reminds them of where they're headed and for Whom they were made.

As a laywoman in the world, I too am called to the pathway. But mine is not so clearly marked. I have no monastic schedules to keep me on the trail. I don't spend every moment of every day with a community of people all focusing in the same direction. If I listen to friends or co-workers or celebrities who don't know or accept why God made them, I can even lose sight of my own awareness of the truth.

Probably this is why some of us can feel more at home in a monastery than in the world.
Because really - we are.


(When I start to lose sight of my real pathway, I am helped by what several saints have had to say about this kind of thing.  A few of their exhortations can be found by clicking here.)


Painting: Jan van Helmont

"Mediocrity Has Deep Roots"

Among my recently uncovered treasures from a friend, I found the following excerpt from one of my favorite books...

Someone asked Father Thomas Dubay: "is it realistic to suggest in our century that busy lay men and women in an extremely complex and driven society habitually 'go off some place where they can be alone and pray?' Not a few people would accuse you of trying to monasticize lay life."

Father's response: "Yes, I am well aware of the criticism, but it is superficial and off target. The crucial question is not what I am or am not trying to promote, but what the Lord and His saints, married as well as religious, have done and what He and His Church teach. 
     The monasticizing objection probably stems from a subconscious tendency we wounded humans have to dilute the radical call of the Gospel. People given to one-step thinking love to put labels on what they do not like, and then think they have disposed of the matter. Mediocrity has deep roots. 
     Lay men and women today who are serious about prayer - and I know from personal experience with them - completely reject this criticism. Yet, you ask whether contemplative solitude is realistic in our day and in all states of life. The answer to your question is an emphatic affirmative. Especially in our complex and driven society, as you put it, do we need healthy solitude with God. Solitude is a time for unwinding, for BE-ing. Modern men and women are over-stimulated, over-worked, over-met, over-talked, over-amused. That is one reason so many are superficial and trivial. There is no chance for them to grow and develop beyond where they are. 
     In solitude we begin to possess what we already have. Seeds can begin to grow. In Christ we already have everything, but over-activity and over-stimulation smother it." (Thomas Dubay SM, Seeking Spiritual Direction, Servant Books, 1994, p. 173)

I look at these words and wonder: is anything smothering the "everything" Christ has provided for me? Am I over-amused, over-stimulated, over-anything? 

A question I will be taking into my own next solitude with God is: "Lord, I am over-what(s)?"

(Seeking Spiritual Direction can be found at this Amazon link.)

But in Purity of Heart

'If we do not venture to approach men who are in power, except with humility and reverence, when we wish to ask a favor, how must we beseech the Lord God of all things with all humility and purity of devotion? And let us be assured that it is not in many words, but in the purity of heart and tears of compunction that we are heard.'

St. Benedict, founder of western monasticism.  Feast day July 11.

Click here to see how St. Benedict can inspire our lives in the world

Painting: From Monte Olivieto Magiorre, St. Benedict

Acting Logically

'Jesus told him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life;  no one comes to the Father but through Me.'' (John 14:6)

'The monk is precisely the Christian who has recognized in Christ 'the way, the truth, and the life' and who intends to act logically over this discovery, a discovery of such a nature that it should not leave any of those who have made it tepid or indifferent.' (Louis Bouyer of the Oratory, The Meaning of the Monastic Life, P.J. Kenedy and Sons, 1950, p. 68)

- If I recognize in Christ the way, the truth and the life, am I acting logically over this discovery? Are the things I do and say, on a daily basis, consistent with my belief in this truth?

- Have I grown tepid or indifferent? If so, do I have any idea how this happened? And what can I do to get back on track?  

'The Christian life is nothing else but Christ; the monastic life is nothing else but Christ. The requirements for the Christian and for the monk are in substance the same; the difference lies only in the particular kind of stress that is given to them. The Church exists so that souls should lead the life of Christ; the monastery exists for the same purpose. Whether it is union with Him in the world or in the cloister, it is union that is the soul's purpose.' (Dom Hubert Van Zeller, The Yoke of Divine Love, Templegate, 1957, p. 182)

The Absolute Center

'The chapel looked narrow, high, sacred, mellow with mingled colors, and lovely in its vague richness and calm. An ancient picture, browned by time, represents Martha and Mary in a composition of much dignity, and hangs directly over the altar... (A Story of Courage, p. 36) 

The first place a person is likely to visit in a monastery is the chapel, for in the chapel is found the center of monasticism.

This is because Jesus is the Absolute Center of cloistered life. To miss this truth is to miss the point of monasticism, and it's to miss the whole point of having a 'cloistered heart.' 

How can a man or woman leave home, possessions, career, entertainment - and so many things the world considers important - in order to take up residence behind enclosure walls?  For what reason would a person even consider such a thing?  

The Reason is a Person.  Without this Person, cloistered life would be pointless and empty and fruitless and vague.  

If we know and remember nothing else about monasteries or various aspects of consecrated life, we must remember this:   

Jesus is the Reason for it all.  

"The fundamental question: ' does he really seek God.'  Let us state the fact without beating about the bush:  a monastic institute which ceased to put this question to its postulants, or which inserted some different question in its place, would cease ipso facto to have any right to the name monastic.  The search, the true search, in which the whole of one's being is engaged, not for some thing but for some One:  is the search for God.  That is the beginning and end of monasticism.  If it is to be truly God which we seek, we have to seek him as a Person."  (The Meaning of the Monastic Life, Lois Bouyer of the Oratory, PJ Kenedy and Sons, NY, 1950,p. 8)

'The Christian life is nothing else but Christ; the monastic life is nothing else but Christ. The requirements for the Christian and for the monk are in substance the same… whether it is union with Him in the world or in the cloister, it is union that is the soul’s purpose. Nothing else matters but this.” (Dom Hubert Van Zeller, THE YOKE OF DIVINE LOVE, Templegate, Springfield IL, 1957, p. 182) 

 

"We are, each of us, a Living Cathedral.  Each is his own chapel. And provided we are in a state of grace, God lives and dwells within us… (so) we must live and act as if we were dwelling in a church in the presence of the Tabernacle.” (The Living Pyx of Jesus, Pellegrini & Co., Australia,  1941)

(This post is primarily a combination of wrtings from our archives)

thecloisteredheart.org    

Photo at top: N Shuman, Georgetown Visitation 1990s

Painting at bottom: Bernhard Plockhorst, The Consoling Christ


This post is part of our series 'A Story of Courage.' To continue in chronological order, click this line.

 

Sometimes the Same Changes

'The Convent of the Visitation in Georgetown is a large three-sided structure of brick, enclosing a great garden. Across the street is a row of cosy dwellings, standing somewhat back from the sidewalk... The city and the suburb have been gradually welded into one by a continuous and expanding web of streets and houses, so that now they stretch up to the very border of the convent demesne.' (A Story of Courage, p. 6)

This is precisely what I've met with on my visits to this convent. The looming structure, those cosy Georgetown rowhouses in gentle colors of yellow and grey, all surround a garden that I find great indeed. The city has stretched a great deal more since the above was written, so that city and suburb now wrap entirely around the monastic dwelling. Yet reading this century old book, I am sometimes astonished by what remains the same.

At other times, I'm charmed to see what has changed.

'At the southern corner of the convent, the patient horse-car from the heart of Washington plods its equine way.'  It is something I cannot imagine, this horse car patiently plodding. Sitting outside in the walled garden, I've been struck as much as anything by noise. But I'm getting ahead...

'The convent proper - or, as it is often called, the 'monastery' - is a long, plain four-story brick house...'

One thing I used to find puzzling was the use of the word 'monastery' for what I was calling a 'convent.' Weren't monasteries for men, and convents for women? When I began trying to learn which was what, I would have been happy to find an 'Internet' (I was still 'patiently plodding' through stacks of library books in my study of cloistered life). Today information is literally at one's fingertips, of course, and I found the following basic definitions (here) at Catholic Online Encyclopedia:

'Monastery: An autonomous community house of a religious order, which may or may not be a monastic order. The term is used more specifically to refer to a community house of men or women religious in which they lead a contemplative life separate from the world.'

'Convent: In common usage, the term refers to a house of women religious.'

'Cloister: Part of a convent or monastery reserved for use by members of the institute.'

As we continue this little adventure, I will most likely use 'monastery' and 'convent' interchangeably - simply because 'convent' is the word most often used in the Lathrop's book.

And I interrupt this post for a bit of news... Thanks to a new scanner, plus a lot of late night digging through old scrapbooks, I can now share 20-ish year old pictures I've snapped at the very monastery we're 'visiting,' as well as in a few other monasteries (convents) over the years.

Along the way, we'll of course be looking into how what we see and read can be applied to our lives in the world, for that is what we do here, isn't it? By the grace of God, that's what we try to do.

Photo: Cloister garden, Georgetown Visitation Monastery, 1990s, N Shuman photo


This post is part of our series 'A Story of Courage.' To continue in chronological order, click this line.

No Less Than This

In Substance The Same

'The Christian life is nothing else but Christ; the monastic life is nothing else but Christ. The requirements for the Christian and for the monk are in substance the same; the difference lies only in the particular kind of stress that is given to them. The Church exists so that souls should lead the life of Christ; the monastery exists for the same purpose. Whether it is union with Him in the world or in the cloister, it is union that is the soul's purpose.'

Dom Hubert Van Zeller, The Yoke of Divine Love, Templegate, 1957, p. 182

 









Painting of monk: Restout, Seated Carthusian Holding Open Book, in US public domain due to age
Silhouette of praying man via Pixabay

What Does This Have to Do With Me?

'The monastery is the house of God... the monk is a witness to God... an athlete, a slave in the service of his divine Master, a soldier fighting for the heavenly King, a pilgrim journeying towards the heavenly Jerusalem.' (Daniel Rees, Consider Your Call, Cistercian Publications, p. 100)

Taking another look at what it means to be a cloistered heart, I consider the monastery. I always imagine a building tucked away in the woods, perhaps on a hill, just glimpsed (by me) through a little stand of trees....

The life inside is one of prayer and living within the will of God. People who enter there - and who remain - are dead serious. They aren't playing games. They are not settling for halfway commitments and compromised yeses. They don't dabble in prayer now and then, when they need something or when they feel a touch of consolation, shooting up a Hail Mary between their favorite TV shows and a trip to the mall. They pray throughout the day and in the night. They eat, sleep, dress, work, play, sing, read, serve, breathe for Christ.

But wait. What, if anything, does this have to do with me?  My call is to live in the midst of the world.

If I'm serious about living for God, this has a lot to do with me. I believe monastic totality has a great deal to teach all of us as we serve Our Lord in our families, homes, parishes, neighborhoods, workplaces - day after day.  

'Every Christian must seek to follow Christ in obedience to the will of the Father, must pray, exercise faith and hope and love, make use of the sacraments, and live in the Spirit. Neither in the end nor in these primary means is the monk essentially different from any other Christian.... ' (Rees, p. 4)

'All who have put on Christ have heard the call to seek God. The monk is one for whom this call has become so urgent that there can be no question of postponing his response to it; he must accept forthwith.. in every Christian vocation lies the germ of a monastic vocation.'. (Louis Bouyer of the Oratory, The Meaning of the Monastic Life, PJ Kenedy and Sons, 1950, from preface)

'In every Christian vocation lies the germ of a monastic vocation.'  

It has a lot to do with me.

This is an edited repost from our achives. © 2015 N Shuman 
thecloisteredheart.org

Photos via Pixabay

Visiting the Visitation: a Field Trip

When I came across the following video recently, I realized we haven't had a "field trip" here in awhile.

So let's take a(nother) look at the Visitation of Holy Mary, which was founded by Sts. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal in France in 1610. 

One of the goals of the Order is to live "in profound humility toward God and great gentleness toward the neighbor." It is a beautiful (and immensely practical) goal to strive toward for those called to serve God in the midst of the world.





'Our Congregation should hold itself among the Congregations as the violet is amongst the other flowers - low, small, and subdued in colour; happy, because God has created it for His service, and to diffuse a little fragrance in the Church. Everything that tends most to God's honour and glory must be loved and followed above all things. This is the rule of all true servants of Heaven.' (St. Francis de Sales)

A Monastic Adventure in Sequence

We all know that blogs 'read backwards.' This is handy when we want to catch up on the latest news from someone. It's a bit tougher to work with if we're trying follow a particular thread of thought. In that case, we probably prefer to read posts in the order in which they were written.

This summer, we've looked into various monastic topics. As you may recall, we tried a basic 'format' for each subject.  The sequence went something like this: 

1.  Physically Cloistered  
2.  Spiritually Cloistered 
3.  Scripture and/or Saints Speak
4.  How We are Living This

Something like this does not become 'dated.' Therefore, I've linked these topics in chronological order, just as I did for the 'monastic days' we recently re-visited. We can click on any topic below, then read from post to post (approximately two to five posts on each topic).

I invite anyone who cares to do so to click on any subject that might be of interest.  At the bottom of that post, there will be another link, and on and on. 


Monasticism, Physical and Spiritual

The Monastery

Enclosure

Inside the Walls

The View Through The Grille

The Chapel

The Choir Stall

A Brief Retreat

The Garden               

In the Habit

Total Commitment

In The Cell

Prayer: Staying on Track

The Lighter Side (recreation)

Our Refuge 

Pictures on this post in public domain

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz

Out of the Turmoil of Life

"We know but too well that we deteriorate by our friction with the world.  Our clothes get worse for the wear, and so do our souls.  The trees and flowers lose their bloom in the midst of large cities, and become sickly and easily die; so the spirit becomes tainted with the atmosphere around it - often indeed, it falls into serious disorder with complications.  What hubbub, what warfare, what tumult it has to live in!  Who shall stand unscathed, loyal to faith and generous self-sacrificing love in the midst of it?  Men of business, in the forge and working-house of thought, get away to the pure air of the country to recoup their powers.  Must we not do likewise - get out of the turmoil of life, and enjoy the spiritual atmosphere of the retreat, to restore and renew our spiritual life and vigour?" (from Fervorinos from the Lips of the Master, compiled by a Religious, Pelligrini, Australia, 1940, pp. 240-241)

While we shall stick to the 'adventure' we began over a month ago, this week we're doing things a little differently.  Taking a cloistered break, perhaps.  Not moving away from the monastery....  oh, indeed not.... but instead (hopefully) sinking more deeply into it.  I will be looking out, this week, for things to help us do just that. 

In my part of the world, we're in the thick of summer.  Summer heat, summer gatherings, summer noise.  Picnics, reunions, sports, weddings, children's activities.... while these may be enjoyable, they can produce a hubbub and tumult in which we come face to face with the challenge to "stand unscathed, loyal to faith and self-sacrificing love."

Even those inside monasteries go on retreat - right where they are.  They go into seclusion (normally once a year) for their own spiritual refreshment.  

I found three minutes of refreshment by watching the following video.  But I didn't merely watch it.  I "settled into it" and let it simply wash over me.  Then I did so again.  

Got three minutes?  That's all this takes........






(Disclaimer: ads on any videos I post are never chosen nor endorsed by me. You can usually click out of the ones across the bottom of the screen by clicking on the little "x" on the upper right inside the ad box)



To continue this brief 'retreat,' click this line