Advent: We Begin in Song

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In A Monastery Garden

'The beginner must think of himself as setting out to make a garden in which the Lord is to take His delight, yet in soil most unfruitful and full of weeds.  

'His Majesty uproots the weeds and will set good plants in their stead.  

'We have now, by God’s help like good gardeners, to make these plants grow.  We must water them carefully, so that they may not perish, but may produce flowers which shall send forth great fragrance to give refreshment to this Lord of ours, so that he may often come into the garden to take his pleasure and his delight among these virtues.' 

St. Teresa of Avila






To our e-mail subscribers: this post features a 5-minute video, which may be seen by going to the blog itself. On a personal note: when I began viewing this, I thought it might be too long. By the time it was halfway through and the chant had begun, I wanted it never to end.

Painting: Albert Edelfelt

Christ is Near

"Hark, 
a herald voice is calling;
'Christ is near,' 
it seems to say; 
'Cast away the dreams 
of darkness,
O ye children of the day.'"

(Roman Breviary Hymn, 5th century)

Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

Painting: William Adolphe Bouguereau, 1888

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The Sound of Eternity

'Song is the leap of mind in the eternal breaking out into sound.'

St. Thomas Aquinas

Painting:  Czigány, The Singing Monk


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And Holy is His Name

Art:  Spinello Aretino Coronation of the Virgin
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Welcome to Our World

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Veni, Veni Emmanuel

"The Babe
Who is about to be born
does not come on earth
to have an easy life
or to enjoy spiritual
and temporal comforts,
but to fight,
to mortify Himself, 
and to die."
                    St. Francis de Sales





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It's Time....

I am not writing a typical post today, yet I feel there is something to say.

I suggest that we re-visit To Carry the Fire (click this line)....











And that we take a few minutes to listen to these lyrics...





Then that we carry in our hearts and voices and actions the blazing, brilliant truth of Jesus Christ.  We don't have to look far to find those who are confused, those who've been told that lies are truth and truth is lies, those persons and nations and parts of the world who are in desperate need of prayer.  

There is no time to waste.  Let's go light our world. 

To Sing This Day For God

Having begun my day in conversation with God, I remain in communion with Him wherever I go.  I can be a "portable monastery" - for what IS a monastery, after all, if not a place where God is loved and served and praised?

And so I go forward, into the swirl of life around me.  I go in gratitude, singing silent songs wherever the day may take me.  I carry along the fruits of lectio.

Within my heart, the hymn of praise goes on and on and on.

I am a walking monastery.  A dancing monastery.  A refuge of love for my Lord.

"David, girt with a linen apron, came dancing before the Lord with abandon, as he and all the Israelites were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the sound of the horn." (2 Samuel 6:14-15)











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His Word, My Refuge

Monastic Goodnight

Darkness falls around the monastery.  Recreation is over, and it's time for the Night Office.  The Sisters end their day where they began it, in the presence of their Lord.

The chant of Night Office lulls, comforts, hushes, swaddles, soothes souls into rest.  As the prayer draws to a close, the Sisters will turn toward an icon of Our Blessed Mother and sing a hymn to conclude this monastic day.  And then Grand Silence will fall upon the monastery, after which no one will speak.  

Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace.

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now,
and will be for ever. Amen.

Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace....

click picture for a monastic goodnight

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A Perpetual Hymn

"We cannot go to Jesus in the Tabernacle at every moment of the day, but we can turn inward to the Triune God at any moment, even in the midst of our day's worst difficulties.  Indeed, for the soul that has attained to intimacy with Jesus, whose endeavour it is to identify herself with her heart's permanent Guest... her entire life is no more than a perpetual recourse to her Beloved.  At each moment of the day, implicitly or explicitly, she makes herself one with the inclinations of His Blessed Will.  She mingles her own weak voice with those Infinitely Pure Tones that, from the Soul of Jesus, ascend without ceasing to the Eternal Father.  Her love is a perpetual hymn with Jesus to the Glory of God" 
        
(The Living Pyx of Jesus. Pelligrini, 1941, p. 27)

(St. Cecilia painting in public domain)