The Abbot’s Notebook for March 1, 2017
Blessings to you! I arrived home last night, returning from South Africa. I wrote most of these before I came home, knowing that I would not have much chance to write on the way. It is good to be home. It is a gift to begin the time of Lent in my own monastery.
Brother Noah Enzor left our community recently. He had almost completed two years of temporary vows. I will miss him a lot, both for his warm and good personality, but also because he was my assistant in so much of the work that must be done. Please pray for him.
Brother Dominic has recovered from some infection that caught him on his return trip from India, where he had gone to visit his family.
My time in South Africa at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Polokwane was intense, as it is often is when there is a community evaluation in process. Brother Ghislain Maluvu, OSB, was appointed the new superior of the monastery there and the next day was ordained a deacon. Soon he will be ordained a priest. The Monastery of Christ in the Desert has been helping and supporting Saint Benedict’s Abbey in Polokwane for almost three decades, at times more intensely and at other times with less intensity.
We began Lent this morning. When I was young, Lent was lived intensely and great fervor, with perhaps most of the emphasis on fasting and penances. Today the focus of Lent is much more clearly on a time to seek to intensify our lives so that we can understand the mystery of Christ and His love more profoundly. The focus is more on preparing ourselves by works of mercy and love.
Anyone who has tried to love consistently and to live a life of mercy to others knows that such a commitment implies immediately an enormous amount of penance and self-sacrifice. We find that our humanity is wounded. We can easily think of doing good and of being merciful, but actually doing good and being merciful consistently every day is practically impossible for us.
Saint Paul reminds us in his writings: I do the evil which I don’t want to do and I fail to do the good which I truly want to do!
Surely we do meet people in our lives who seem fairly consistent in doing good and in being merciful for others. Even they struggle, however, to be faithful. Our task is not to admire such people but to become more like them so that we too become more consistent in doing good and in being merciful.
Lent is a time, perhaps, when we can go back to the basics of the spiritual life. We can ask ourselves: Am I taking time to pray every day? Am I taking at least a little time each day to read something from the Bible, from our Holy Scriptures? Do I sit with the Lord Jesus in silence for at least a few moments each day? Do I do some small act of self-denial every day for the good of others? (This could be something like eating just a little less and then giving a small amount of money to a homeless person or to some organization that helps the homeless. It could be giving up time that I might spend on my own things and giving 10 minutes to help another person. There are countless examples of helping others, even in the smallest of ways.)
Lent is not a time to become a spiritual giant! The spiritual life is not about becoming a spiritual giant today or even tomorrow. The spiritual life is about trying to take one small step today on the road that Jesus has given us—no matter how small that step may be.
Lent is a time to remind ourselves that the only way to the Lord is to follow Him on the way. The way is our normal life. We should walk humbly and trustingly with our God and know that each smallest step is important in staying on the way and in arriving to the Kingdom.
Lent can also be a time to reflect on the ways we have not stayed on the way of Jesus. This reflection is not about trying to make ourselves depressed! Rather it is an encouragement to be honest with ourselves. All of us a can look back in our lives and recognize at least some times when we have turned away from the Lord. We can admire Saint Peter for his loud and strongly emotional repentance, which we find in our Scriptures. Perhaps our repentance won’t look the same, but that does not matter. What matters is that in our lives, we begin to recognize those realities that draw us away from the Lord so that we can begin the struggle against them!
Lent can be a time of reflecting on those people who have helped us stay on the way of the Lord. Our hearts should always be grateful for them. May we ourselves be people who help others stay on the way of the Lord.
Saint Benedict asks his monks each Lent to take up some small practice of self-denial so that when Easter comes, the monk can have some joy once again when the self-denial ends. When I was young, lots of people gave up smoking. That has changed! But any of us can recognize that there are small things that we can give up without others noticing. These should be things that others will not even notice. But then when Easter comes, we can once more resume those things and smile a bit as we rejoice.
As always, I promise my prayers for you. I will once again celebrate a Holy Mass this week for you and for your needs and intentions. I will also pray that this Lent may be a time of special grace for you. Please also pray for me and for all of the sisters and brothers of Christ in the Desert and the communities associated with ours. I send you my love and prayers.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
