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

Just a Heart Determined

                        'Neither skill nor knowledge is required to enable us to go to God,
                        but just a heart determined to turn to Him only,
                        to beat for Him only,
                        and to love Him only.'

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection


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A Living Tabernacle

 

                                                 'I am God's temple,
                                                 my heart is a living Tabernacle,
                                                 and there at each moment I can live
                                                 and act continually
                                                 under His eyes
                                                 and under the vivifying impulse of His love.'

 (from Fervorinos From Galilee's Hills, compiled by a Religious, Pelligrini, Australia, 1936, p. 72)

 Frederic Leighton painting

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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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What a Joyous Mystery

                                                 

'What a joyous mystery is your presence within me, in that intimate sanctuary of my soul where I can always find you, even when I do not feel your presence.  Of what importance is feeling?  Perhaps you are all the closer when I feel you less.'

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Marksy photo; click here for full attribution

See That the Lamps are Alight

'Faith tells us that our heart is a Sanctuary, because it is the Temple of God, the dwelling-place of the Holy Trinity.  Let us often visit this Sanctuary, and see that the lamps are alight - that is to say, Faith, Hope and Charity - and frequently stir up our faith when we are studying, working, or eating, when we go to bed, and when we rise, and make aspirations to God.'

St. Paul of the Cross

As in a Fortress

"O Jesus, I am locking myself in Your most merciful heart as in a fortress, impregnable against the missiles of my enemies.” (St. Faustina Kowalska, Diary, #1535)

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Planed and Polished

'A monastery is an academy of strict correction, where each one should allow himself to be treated, planed and polished, so that, all the angles being effaced, he may be joined, united, and fastened to the will of God.'

St. Francis deSales

Revisiting the Monastery

                                                                                      (click this line for photo attribution)


I need to be reminded of the fact that, in the midst of this world, I am a "walking monastery."  It is so easy to forget this.  I need help.

Perhaps you're like me, and appreciate a reminder now and then.  If so (and even if not), I hope you'll drop by every day or so during the next (week? week and a half?) for a visual "refresher course."  I expect this little adventure to be practically wordless, although at present I'm not sure.

Some posts may have more than one image.  Some days might offer more than one post.  There could be a video ... a song.... a few words.... a photo.... who knows?

Let's re-visit the cloistered heart monastery.  What do you say?

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