Benedictine All Souls

May the memory of the deceased monks, nuns, sisters, and oblates be eternal.

AK abbot.JPG

Historically [supposing that your view of history goes back before 1900], today is the traditional date for the liturgical memorial of All Benedictine Souls. You are not going to find many American Benedictine monasteries observing this commemoration. Sad, I think. They will offer the argument that the Church’s November 2nd commemoration of All Souls (and for that matter, All Saints) to include the monks and nuns of the Order.
 
As a monk noted, monasteries who hold this idea are employing “the same argument that was used at the time of the Reformation to eliminate the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, since we are all ‘saints.’ Whatever the theological merits of this position, even the Episcopal Church has recognized its psychological deficit and has restored All Souls on November 2.”
 
Old fashioned or not, there is a good value in retaining the observances of All Saints and All Souls of Monks and Nuns. Informed opinion indicates that when monasteries remember the nuns and monks who have gone before us in faith and perseverance, remembers not only persons but also puts eschatological hope that eternal life is possible and indeed ought to be sought.
 
We pray for graces of light, peace and mercy for our departed monks and nuns, sisters and oblates ask for their prayers for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini


Frances Cabrini first US citizen canonized.jpgMother Frances Cabrini, the first US citizen to be canonized by the Church spent a night with the
Benedictine sisters at Mount Saint Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas. 


Recorded: “In the
winter of 1902 the new convent and the new chapel had a special visitor. Mother
Frances Xavier Cabrini, traveling west, stopped over night. Sister Barbara
loved to recall: ‘She was a very nice ordinary Sister. She liked coffee.'” 

from The Meaning of the Mountain, by Sr. M. Faith Schuster, O.S.B.

(Mother Cabrini was on
her way to Denver to care for the Italian immigrants.)


Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini once said, “We must pray
without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material
success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on
arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone.”

Connecticut lawmakers to consider physician assisted suicide


The front page
of today’s New Haven Register carried an article by Jordan Fenster,
“Right-to-die bill may be discussed by legislature” by which the citizens of
Connecticut were alerted to the possibility that in the next session of the
legislature the question of assisted suicide will be on the table. Following
the defeat of Massachusetts ballot on the same subject last week, the contagion is now again flowing south. Already three US states, Oregon, Montana and Washington, allow for
physician assisted suicide. 34 states prohibit lethal doses of medication that
would end human life.

Let me say from the outset, this is not a Catholic issue. Persons of belief and unbelief ought to be concerned about the potential passing of a law that legalizes medically induced suicide. Hence, this is not a conservative issue. This is not a an anti-human dignity issue. It
is just the opposite: this is a human issue. Who we are a human beings, and how
we teach each other is a human issue that is informed by what we believe and
how we behave. Committing this legislative error is a problem of education.
Recall that in the past when a similar bill was brought to the CT voters it failed only 51-49%.

Several weeks ago there appeared in the New York Times an
intriguing OP-ED article that I believe we need to seriously consider in the
discussion of physician assisted suicide. Considering voices that differ from ours need to be thoughtfully taken into account because we are people use who reason to frame our moral lives. We can’t simply dismiss the other and therefore I appeal to people of belief and unbelief to reasonably discuss what’s at stake. When we rush the discuss without fact we always get burned.

In my opinion not enough attention has been devoted
to considering how this legislation has been lived out in this country and in
others, nor have we considered the philosophical, theological, sociological and
human consequences of such an act. Most often our heart-strings are pulled, even stretched leading us to decide weighty matters without due attention to the reality in front of us –to the person and people and intimately connected with life and death issues. We also don’t always adequately consider the eternal consequences of killing someone before natural death happens. 

Who’s life are we “making dignified” by engaging death before it’s naturally
presented? What really is human dignity? What does it mean to be truly a man or
a woman in relationship with other men and women here-and-now, and following
death? To what extent does fear, anxiety and perceived suffering dictate how we
think and act toward others? Are we sufficiently aware of and sensitive to the difference between ideology and being a person, no matter how debilitated?

Here is Ben Mattlin’s October 31, 2012 New York
Times article published online.

Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast

Continue reading Connecticut lawmakers to consider physician assisted suicide

New Norbertine abbot blessed

new abbot of Santa Maria de la Vid.jpgThe Nortbertine Order is not that well known in the USA, though it is a venerable way of living one’s vocation: canons praying the Divine Office, living together in community, and being apostolically engaged in the local Church.

In the USA, we have the primary Norbertines abbeys of St Norbert’s Abbey (WI), Daylesford Abbey (PA), St Michael’s (CA) and now Santa Maria de la Vid (NM). There are several other priories of Norbertine canons but I want to highlight the recent abbatial blessing of Joel Garner as the first abbot of Santa Maria.

May the Blessed Virgin and Saint Norbert to continue to richly bless Abbot Joel and his community through their intercession before the Throne of Grace.

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New York Encounter 2013 – Experiencing Freedom


The New York Encounter 2013 is forthcoming on 18-20
January 2013. The theme for this year’s Encounter is “Experiencing Freedom.”


Our friends in the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation have put
together a wonderful moment of witness and education. Please find information
for the New York Encounter from the organizers. 


The proposed Program NYE 2013.pdf

Benedictine All Saints

last judge monks.jpgToday is the liturgical observance of Benedictine All Saints. Let’s pray for all those monks, nuns, sisters and oblates who lived a life of holiness and perseverance in the monastic life.

Not to be a “Debby-downer” BUT, it is not likely that many Benedictine monasteries in the USA will observe today as a feast of all holy monks and nuns. Sadly, many of the monastic superiors have given-in to painting life in their in the monastery with the color beige: there’s no vitality of tradition.
Historically, according to a note in an Office book, “Up to the end of the sixteenth century, there was no general feast of this name for the whole Order, since the “Order of St. Benedict”, in the modern sense, was unknown. In individual monasteries, as Monte Cassino, Cluny, Fontenelle, etc., a feast of all the saints proper to the monastery was observed, on different dates; only by the revision of the monastic Breviary by Paul V, in 1612, a general feast of All Holy Monks of the Order was instituted, on the above date.”
Let us pray,
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the example of the holy Monks [and Nuns} may stir us to a better life: that so we may imitate the actions of those whose solemnity we celebrate.

Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

St. Josaphat, Ukrainian bp.jpgToday, with the feast of Saint Josaphat (c. 1580-1623), we ought to mourn the sad division of the Church that exists between East and West.

The Church prays,
Stir up in your Church, we pray, O Lord, the Spirit that filled Saint Josaphat as he laid down his life for the sheep, so that through his intercession we, too, may be strengthened by the same Spirit and not be afraid to lay down our life for others.
Notice that the prayer calls to our attention that we too, are called to be witnesses to the work of unity, even to the point of laying down our lives for others. Here the use of the word ‘witness’ is used in two ways: giving testimony by word and deed and dying, if need be, with our own lives. Here’s the dual meaning of the martyr (witness).
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Continue reading Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

Cardinal Dolan tells US bishops: work on your own conversion first


The USCCB
President Timothy Cardinal Dolan began his address saying that we need to
attend to “First things first: we are first believers in Christ: the way, the
truth and the life…We need to recall that the Lord said, “Seek first the
Kingdom of God”: it is God who first engages us…”

Continue reading Cardinal Dolan tells US bishops: work on your own conversion first

Dorothy Day’s cause for canonization by US bishops

Dorothy Day half-length portrait, seated at de...

The Servant of God Dorothy Day’s cause for canonization may move forward (or not) depending on how the vote goes. The bishops of USA are meeting this week in Baltimore for the annual business meeting.

Dorothy Day is a Benedictine Oblate of Saint Procopius Abbey. She holds the ecclesial title of Servant of God which denotes that the Nihil Obstat (which says that the Vatican is open to the cause moving ahead).
Cardinal Dolan recently said that Day was a woman of the Church –the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Roman Church; she loved her faith. She had a reasonable view of the Church’s ministry, even her sinfulness and yet she held firmly to the intimate connection between the Jesus Christ and the Church.
The anniversary of the Servant of God Dorothy Day’s anniversary of death is forthcoming on November 29 (1980).

Listen to what Cardinal Dolan said about Dorothy Day is here.