For Love of the Sheep

picture attribution

"My solemn word is this:  I am the sheepgate.  All who came before Me were thieves and marauders whom the sheep did not heed."

"I am the gate.  Whoever enters through Me will be safe.  He will go in and out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy.  I came that they might have life and have it to the full." 

"I am the good shepherd." 

 "The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep."

                                                        (John 10:7-11)

                                                                 

And You... Who Do You Say That I Am?

One thing (or I should say, one Person) is central to cloister of the heart.  Without Him, there is really no point to either spiritual or physical monasticism. 

Oh, but there are monastics of other faiths besides Christianity, some might remind me.  True.  But their focus is not upon a Savior, for they have none.  They do not have a Messiah who suffered and died to free them from their sins.  I think Thomas Merton, in the book The Monastic Journey (Sheed, Andrews & McNeel Inc., Kansas City), put it well when he wrote:  “The pagan has no Christ, no Holy Spirit, perhaps even no personal God at all.  He has to struggle upward to union with the ‘Supreme Being’ - ‘The Absolute’ - by sheer force of his own will and by his own fortitude, relying on his own battery of religious practices.  His task is one of almost unbelievable difficulty - and this explains why pagan religions are all shot through with compromise and despair…. Besides, with all the subtlety and heroism of the purest techniques of natural religion - what does man finally encounter?  Not God - only himself.  His purified self, if you like, but still it is only himself.”

I do not want to spend my days in the spiritual cloister with only myself.  What a useless, fruitless, joyless, un-doable stretch of days that would be.  My focus is not on monasticism, but upon the Lord of the Monastery.  And who is that Lord?

In one of His discussions with His disciples, Jesus asked “who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  There were several answers before Jesus turned the question into something more personal.  “And you… who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15)

Scripture answers this question.  Jesus is the “reflection of the Father’s glory, the exact representation of the Father’s Being.”  (Hebrews 1:3).  Jesus is the Messiah (Mark 14:61-62)… . 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us plainly: “He is the only Son of the Father, He is God himself.”  (#454).  This is Who Jesus is, in His essence. 

What if Jesus were to stand before me, this very day, look intently into my eyes, and ask me personally:  “And YOU.  Who do YOU say that I am?......”  

How would I respond?

For prayer:

“This Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders which has become the cornerstone.  There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by which we are to be saved.”  (Acts 4:11-12)

“At Jesus’ name, every knee must bend, in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father; Jesus Christ is LORD!” (Philippians 2:10-11)

“And you…. who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

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


(For a brief message from Pope Benedict XVI about the centrality of Jesus, click here)

(This post is part of Catholic Bloggers' Network monthly Round Up)

Listening for the Bells

Monastery bells ring out at regular times throughout the day, and often in the night.  Each peal is a call signaling that it's time to pray, eat, work, meet....

In my life, too, I have "bells."  I admit that I both love and dread them.  Sometimes I think I'd find them more agreeable if they rang forth with monastic regularity, and I could know I must show up for dinner at noon and prayer at 1:00 and back to my work at 2:00.  But no; the bells calling me are usually unpredictable.  They rrrbrbrring forth from the phone, call with a baby's cry, clang in a doorbell.  

Today, in a moment of hassle (of the sort that can feel overwhelming), I decided to make peace with the bells. I think this decision came with a ring of inspiration.  I was overworked, overtired, with too much to do in too few minutes and no energy left to do it with.  

And it hit me.  With a "DONG," it hit me.  I realized that I was scrubbing and gift-wrapping and preparing and rushing and being interrupted because there are people I love who would prefer a clean house to a dirty one.  And because a little one has a birthday.  And because there are family members and friends visiting, in two different batches, over the next week.  And because I have the incredible gift of a family.  My goodness - how blessed am I!!

Yesterday I wrote about counting my blessings.  Today I counted them clang-by-clang.  I had already been thinking of writing about monastery bells, so today I was aware of every sweet chime.

God asks of me what He asks of those in physical monasteries..... obedience to the "bells."  Loving attention to the responsibilities of my life.  What an opportunity for thanksgiving this could be.   "Thank You, Lord, for Linus's birthday.... thank you that he was born."  And if the phone rings as I'm gift-wrapping?  "Thank You for the friend who's calling."  Oh... the friend has a need?  I can pray for that as I mop the floor...

Again, it may sound "simple."  But I've found that the most "do-able" things to help my life of prayer are often just that.   

For prayer and reflection:

"Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe."  (St. Therese of Lisieux)

"The way we came to understand love was that He laid down His life for us; we too must lay down our lives for our brothers.... little children, let us love in deed and in truth and not merely talk about it."  (1 John 3:16 & 18) 

(public domain photo)

This post was re-posted by THE FEMININE GIFT 

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman. 
thecloisteredheart.org    

Considering Lilies

I think we have time for one more stroll around the cloister garden before this day is done.  We can rely on the bells to remind us when to come inside; in the meantime, I'd like to consider the lilies....

"Take the lilies:  they do not spin, they do not weave; but I tell you, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like any one of them.  If God clothes in such splendor the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown on the fire tomorrow, how much more will He provide for you..." (Luke 12:27-28)

If I look around today, can I see ways in which God is providing for me?   A roof over my head, food to eat, water for a shower?  His provision can be seen in ways as broad as sunshine and as specific as a note arriving in the mail when I need a smile.  It may seem the simplest of exercises to "count my blessings," but I've found it an effective aid to help me remember God's personal care for me.  

For prayer and reflection:

"Are not two sparrows sold for next to nothing?  Yet not a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent; so do not be afraid of anything.  You are worth more than an entire flock of sparrows."  (Matthew 10:29-31)

(public domain photo)

Further into the Garden...

It's hard to stay out of the garden when spring has freshly arrived.  It is a time of new life.  A time of celebration.

We are now moving into the final days of Lent, when we will focus more intently upon the greatest expression of love the world has ever known.  I find my mind going to another garden, one from which Our Lord was taken just before He suffered for you and for me.

I don't know what "areas of the monastery" we'll be visiting in the week and a half just ahead, but I do know this much.  I will be praying - and I invite you to as well - that we will all see more deeply than ever the personal love Our Lord has for each and every one of us.  Love that would suffer to the death.  Love that would rise and bring us eternal life. 

Occasionally we will look into Scriptures we've cited before... this is because Scripture is fresh each time we pray with it.  The more we look, pray, consider, the more we see and experience and hear and realize and know His personal love...

"Arise, My beloved, My beautiful one, and come!  For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land.  The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.  Arise, My beloved, My beautiful one, and come!"  (Song of Songs 2:10-13)