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Community News–Pentecost 2026
Our Pentecost newsletter is out! In this issue,
- learn about our new Mission Weekends;
- read reflections from the Rev. Regina Walton on how SSJE helped her incorporate monastic spirituality into daily life;
- catch up on news from each Brother, including the recent sermon series on commitment;
- and discover new series and programs
You Are Salt – Br. James Koester
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Br. James Koester
There are a great many scriptural phrases that have slipped into common parlance. Many use them now, without knowing where they come from, and if pressed, would not really be sure what they mean. Tonight’s brief gospel is a case in point. How often have we heard someone described as a real salt of the earth sort of person? My sense is that when we say that about another, what we are actually saying is that they are good, basic, decent people. But is that what Jesus is saying when he tells his audience you are the salt of the earth?[1] Is he only saying to the crowd assembled, hey you lot, you’re a good, basic, decent, bunch of folks? Or is there something more to this phrase that has been lost over time?
I’d say, a great deal has been lost, because today we only ever see salt in small saltshakers, or in boxes of salt that sit in the cupboard for months and months. Once upon a time, salt was used, not by the pinch, but by the pound. It was used to preserve, pickle, and cook food, and not simply flavour it. It is used to clean things, melt ice, and treat sore throats. It can be used in the kitchen, around the home, and in the garden.
Because salt was so useful it came to acquire a variety of symbolic meanings over time. In Exodus, God tells Moses how to make incense, using salt as one of the ingredients, which is described as pure and holy.[2] In 2 Kings, salt is used to purify water[3] so that it’s drinkable. In Ezekiel we learn that at birth babies were rubbed with salt to cleanse and toughen them.[4] In Colossians we are told to let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.[5] So salt was used in the ancient world as a symbol of purity, holiness, and cleansing as well as truth, graciousness, understanding, and ultimately wisdom.
Over time salt was used liturgically, notably in the baptismal rites when a pinch of salt was placed in the mouth of the catechumen symbolizing their purification and their search for wisdom. At the time of baptism salt was added to the water as a sign of purification, protection and preservation.
So, Jesus’ description of his followers as the salt of the earth carried much more weight that a descriptor of a bunch of good, basic, decent, folks. In the mouth of Jesus, it is an admonition to be pure, holy, and wise. You are the pure, holy, and wise ones of the earth, Jesus tells us, giving flavour, wisdom, and truth to the world around.
As such, as Christians, our vocation is to be salt. In the seventeenth century, William Laud,[6] one of the great, albeit controversial Archbishops of Canterbury wrote the following prayer:
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.[7]
In many ways, it could be described as a prayer for salt and for us as the Church to become salt. As we watch the US Marines enter Los Angeles, drones employed as weapons of war in Ukraine and Russia, and children starve in Gaza we may want to remember that our vocation is to be salt, to be people of purity, holiness, truth, and wisdom, and pray Laud’s prayer for ourselves.
Gracious Father, I pray for myself and those I love. Fill us with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where there is corruption, purify us; where we are in error, direct us; where in any thing we are amiss, reform us. Where we are right, strengthen us; where we are in want, provide for us; where we are divided, reunite us; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen
Remember, you are the salt of the earth, and your vocation as a Christian is to be salt, pure, holy, truthful and wise.
You are the salt of the earth.
[1] Matthew 5: 13
[2] Exodus 30: 35
[3] 2 Kings 2: 20
[4] Ezekiel 16: 4
[5] Colossians 4: 6
[6] William Laud, Arcbishop of Canterbury (1573 – 1645) He was successively Bishop of St. David’s, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Bishop of London, and from 1633 until his execution at the hands of the Puritans in 1645, Archbishop of Canterbury.
[7] Episcopal Church, Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 816
Epiphany 2025 | Community News from SSJE
Community News from SSJE
EPIPHANY 2025
Christ’s Peace be with you, and welcome to SSJE’s new seasonal newsletter!
In a spirit of experimentation, we’re trying out a different way of communicating what’s going in the Society’s life and ministry. You can expect to receive this digest periodically in connection with the liturgical seasons – beginning here in Epiphany.
One exciting liturgical change we have made since September pertains to our observance of weekday solemnities – the most sacred feasts in the Church’s calendar. We’ve seen high attendance at these liturgies and the simple meals or receptions we’ve hosted afterward give us and our guests a welcome opportunity to connect, converse, cultivate old friendships and make new ones. Our observance of the Feast of the Epiphany was a vivid instance of this fellowship in and as Christ’s Body. The monastery chapel was packed; guests on retreat mingled with a group of teens from a local parish and students from the Harvard Episcopal chaplaincy; Br. Geoffrey preached a rousing sermon; I continued our custom of blessing chalk for house blessings and the formal announcement of Easter. The chapel resounded with voices singing full-throated praise and the undercroft buzzed with laughter and companionship. For us brothers, these occasions thrill our hearts. They remind me especially of our interdependence in Christ. The monastic tradition in the Church is a vast reservoir of wisdom – but it doesn’t have all the answers! We need one another’s wisdom and witness on this long road of discipleship. We Brothers are nourished, inspired, and transformed by our shared journey with you.
Many of you have asked about when our next issue of Cowley magazine would be released. After much discernment over several months, the community has come to the decision that continuing to offer a print issue of Cowley no longer makes sense within the context of our broader ministry. Each issue of Cowley required an astonishing investment of time and creative labor on the part of our Brothers and staff. An additional consideration was the reality that Cowley has brought very limited exposure to new readers not already connected with SSJE’s life and ministry. We have been immensely grateful for the ways Cowley has continued to strengthen our ties with you, our friends and supporters, and we regret that some will feel the loss of this means of connection. Many longtime friends of the community will remember a time (long before I entered the community in 2014) when Cowley offered more streamlined communication about the community’s life. In some ways, this newsletter is a return to that simpler approach.
We are, however, excited to announce that in 2025 SSJE anticipates a collaborative partnership with an existing online publication, Earth & Altar. While we are still in conversation with Earth & Altar’s editorial team about the exact parameters of this collaboration, we expect that this will allow us Brothers to make substantive spiritual and theological reflection available not only to you who know us, but to a broader audience of online readers. In addition, we Brothers expect to find new inspiration and stimulation by engaging with a more diverse “ecosystem” of writers within the Church. All our own writing and reflection published via this collaboration will also be made available at our own site, SSJE.org. We sincerely hope you’ll join us in our engagement with the rich conversations unfolding via Earth & Altar’s online ministry.
One aspect of our vocation as a monastic community within the church is to remind others of their vocation to live in community. It is a commonplace that fragmentation and polarization in human society are disturbing signs of our times, and the willingness to listen to others diminishes. In light of this pervasive experience, I am more and more convinced of how truly we, as followers of Jesus, must seek the wisdom and witness of others whose vocation, perspective, and practice within his Body differ from our own. In this, we can all emulate the Magi – who left the comfort of a familiar home to follow a distant star, and returned again by different road.
I hope you enjoy reading what we’re up to in these pages, and that perhaps you’ll feel moved to share a word about SSJE to someone who hasn’t discovered us yet. We rely on you to share our life with others! Thanks for all the ways you enrich our life.
In Jesus, our light and our life –
Br. Keith Nelson, SSJE
Superior
Encountering Christ’s Body in the Southwest
– Brs. Lain Wilson and Jack Crowley
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. . . . you are the body of Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12, 27)
One of the great gifts of being Brothers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist is the opportunity to welcome to our house in Cambridge people from so many walks of life. Week by week, we invite them in and catch glimpses of the vast fabric of Christ’s body, the Church.
And one of the other great gifts is the opportunity to meet Christ’s body outside our walls.
In early November 2024, we traveled to Austin, Texas, and met Christ’s Body at the Seminary of the Southwest, Under the auspices of the Discover SSJE initiative, we had the privilege of bringing a bit of the Monastery onto campus.
Given the regularity of our own life of prayer, worship, work, and ministry, the chance to experience other ways that the Church prays, worships, works, and ministers was striking, refreshing, and, for us, restorative.
We arrived just in time to celebrate with the community a stunning Dia de los Muertos service. In image and word, song and sacrament, the community made present its departed loved ones. For us Brothers from Cambridge, it was an eye-opening and humbling glimpse of all that the Church is.
That sense of humility in the face of all that the Church is carried through the week. We were there on Election Day—and the day after—presences in and for a community that experienced the full gamut of emotional responses . . . and a community that knew the work of the kingdom of God was much, much bigger than one day in November. Another humbling glimpse of all the Church is.
The Discover SSJE initiative does many things, but ultimately its aim is to provide space for encounter. This may be in the form of visits out to seminaries, or support for students and young adults to come to us to encounter God in the experience of retreat. Crucially, the encounter we try to facilitate goes two-ways. If we hope that in our presence, our conversation, and our ministry we can show a bit more about who we are, as monks of the twenty-first century, and what we can offer to the future leaders of the Church—we also hope to learn from them as well: what they dream and fear and desire. Our hope is that in this encounter we will all be changed.
We hope that those whom we encountered in Austin—seminarians, faculty, and staff—were changed.
We know we were.
Br. Keith Nelson | On September 1 I was installed as Superior of SSJE. This Fall and Winter have largely been taken up learning a new rhythm of tasks and responsibilities as I live into this ministry day by day. I have been grateful for the daily support and encouragement of many! I led two retreats on Creation-centered themes: “Christ in the Wild” at Emery House and a short version of the same program (adapted for indoors!) at Trinity Church, Copley Square. I also enjoyed leading a weekend program at the monastery on the Revelation to John and the Christian imagination, which I adapted for a day of teaching with the deacons of the Diocese of MA. Connecting with friends, supporters, and advisors of the community this Fall has been invaluable. Several rounds of online conversation with members of the Fellowship of St. John has also been exciting, as the community imagines some structural enhancements to the FSJ. It has been a special joy to continue learning and growing as a new priest (ordained in Dec. 2023), including officiating my first wedding.
Br. Jack | The two biggest recent changes in my life came at the end of the summer. On August 10, I became a Life Professed Brother at SSJE. It was a joyous day and full of celebration. One week later, my Brother Keith was elected Superior and asked me to be Deputy Superior. I have spent the last few months growing into my role as Deputy Superior as well as learning how to be the treasurer for the community. Starting this month, I am also the vocations Brother. Needless to say, I am doing a lot of praying, question asking, and learning with all my new roles.
Br. Luke | Several Brothers and guests picked up trash and cut back invasives in the park by us in September partnering with the Charles River Conservancy. I enjoyed leading the Fall Work Weekend at Emery House in October especially also worshipping outside. I supported Christ in the Wild and led an Advent Retreat. I visited Princeton Seminary and shared my vocation story with its directors of field education and senior placement. We three were MDiv students there together twenty years ago. I attended a program retreat in another state which was personally nourishing and kindles other possibilities for me as a leader.
Br. Jonathan | The community’s internal ‘generational shift’ transition constitutes much of my ‘news’ in the present program year. In September, my position as treasurer of the Society was transferred to Brother Jack for his able oversight. My position as choir brother in liturgical music planning and training began a shared leadership with Brother Lain, and I’ve taken on the role of sacristan (assisted by Brother Jamie) in the daily work of worship preparation. On December 13th, Brother Keith and I gathered with over 60 members to present proposals for renewal of the Fellowship of Saint John through local gatherings, retreats and member volunteers acting as mentor/formation ministers.
In pastoral ministry, I had the honor of preparing FSJ member Beth Rosenquist for reception into the Episcopal Church, and of presenting her at a diocesan confirmation service on October 5th. I continued a full ministry of individual spiritual direction and supervision, locally, online and with guest retreatants, and have continued to place the many intercession/petition requests received before the brethren for public and private prayer. Personal areas of intercessory concern lie in solidarity with those economically enslaved internationally; with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers; and oppressed racial and gender minorities.
It was a pleasure and joy to attend (with Brother Curtis) the 50th anniversary profession celebration for Sr Maria Teresa, OSA on November 4.
Br. David | In addition to accompanying Br. Curtis on the Washington D.C., I led a weekend retreat here at the monastery on the Gospel of Mark from October 31 to November 3, drawing a contrast between Roman rule and the Kingdom of God which Jesus proclaimed.
Jamie and I will be leading a Saturday workshop on “Teaching Others to Pray” at St David’s Episcopal Church in Kennebunk, ME on February 22. And I traveled to Michigan in November to celebrate my father’s 100th birthday!
Br. Curtis | I continue to preach, to meet with individuals for spiritual direction, and to correspond with and visit prisoners. In October-November I recorded 4 podcasts for lawyers nationwide about being really present to the gift of life. In October 2024, Br. David and I visited the Smithsonian’s Museums of Native-American and African American History, Washington. In January 2025, Br. David and I led 30 people on a 4-day “Legacy of Racism” pilgrimage to Montgomery, AL, hosted by the Equal Justice Initiative’s very arresting Museum, Monument, and Memorial: https://legacysites.eji.org/about/ In late January Br. Lucas and I led students of Harvard Divinity School on retreat at the monastery.
Br. Geoffrey | During these past months, I have stayed mostly at home, sharing in the daily work and ministry of the community. I am in charge of the gardens here at the monastery, and have been busy getting things ready for the winter. It has, as always, been a delight to see the leaves of our trees slowly take on their dazzling fall colors. I am also the initially professed guardian, and have had regular meetings with our initially professed brother Lain. Most recently we have been studying church history, and working our way through the volumes of the excellent ‘Pelican History of the Church.’ One of my passions is for Latino ministry, and I have continued my ministry with the Episcopal Missionary Order of the Epiphany, which has involved lots of Zoom meetings with members who are living in this country as well as in Colombia and Ecuador. Nearer to home, I have led a bilingual retreat day for the parish of St. Luke’s/San Lucas, Chelsea. One note of sadness during these past months has been the death of my dear friend Robert Willis, who was Dean of Canterbury and a good friend of the community. I was honored to have given the eulogy at his funeral, held in mid-November at Christ Church, New Haven. Our Rule talks about the importance of regular exercise, and I love cycling! Most days, when the roads are not icy, I enjoy cycling around the city and along the Charles River cycle paths.
Br. Lucas | I helped organize our Election Day vigil in November. In December, I led an Advent-themed quiet day for the Church of the Epiphany in Winchester, Massachusetts. In my role in SSJE’s communications, I continue to work on various tasks, including our website and print materials. I preach regularly and am more involved in our singing and chanting. I also help lead our weekly Student and Young Adults group and our Residency program.
Br. Lain | This past year, I facilitated our celebration of the Season of Creation, and offered a Saturday Workshop, “Imag(in)e Creation,” and a creation-inflected program retreat on “Praying with Scripture.” Alongside Br. Jack Crowley, I visited the Seminary of the Southwest in early November as part of our Discover SSJE initiative to meet with seminarians and introduce SSJE and its resources to them. Finally, in early December I led an Advent Quiet Day, “Cosmic Mystery, Human Family,” for Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Wakefield.
One major change in my life has been the move to my role as Guest Brother. It’s been both a challenge and gift, especially the opportunity to engage directly with those who join us on retreat.
Looking ahead, I am particularly excited about an opportunity to lead a Lenten retreat for my former parish, Christ Church Georgetown, in Washington, DC. I have immense gratitude for the invitation and the chance to offer back to a parish that has given me so much something of what I have been given here at SSJE.
Br. Jamie | I recently returned from a week of silent retreat at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California. As someone whose life is shaped around offering retreat hospitality to others, it is grace-filled to receive retreat hospitality from others. The retreat center is located near the heart of Silicon Valley, yet it feels a place apart, with its soaring hilltop vistas, winding trails through olive trees, morning visitations from the resident deer community, and burbling spring waters of Adobe Creek. I am grateful for a skilled Jesuit spiritual director and time-tested Ignatian spiritual wisdom. Back in Cambridge, I have enjoyed beginning to preach at weekday Eucharists and look forward to my next novitiate class, which will focus on leading retreats and quiet days.
New Vocations Video
Could your life be "monk shaped"?
For Religious Life Sunday, Brothers created a new vocations video, reflecting on what drew them toward the religious life. This was part of the third annual observance of Religious Life (Sunday, January 26 2025), a day that focuses our efforts to tell all Episcopalians and Anglicans about our Religious Orders and Christian Communities, and what we offer the church., and what we offer the church. https://www.religiouslifesunday.net.
Watch the video here, and keep your eyes out for more vocations videos, coming soon!
"Every part of our being is made alive by the pure Body of Christ within us..."
– from a recent sermon by Br. Jim Woodrum
Society of Saint John the Evangelist, 980 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
617-876-3037 | friends@ssje.org
Patience and the Crucible of Life
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⇓ Download, print and share: Patience and the Crucible of Life
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “patience” as “the calm abiding, a quiet and self-possessed waiting for something”; however the etymology hints at the normal context, which is often very difficult. “Patience” comes from the Latin patientia, which is a “quality of suffering” – suffering with calmness and endurance, what the scriptures call “long-suffering.” And suffering you often are when you are forced to relinquish your desires, or when you are left to wait without recourse. Patience is oftentimes not pretty and may feel vapid; sometimes there is a storm before the calm. It is one thing to wait in eagerness for something delightful we anticipate will unfold. It is another thing when we must be a patient patient because we are not in control over suffering – our own suffering or that of someone else whom we carry in our heart.
Here is a disclaimer. Sometimes we should not be patient. Some things we encounter in life are urgent, and we must act now.
But in the normal gestation of life, we must often wait. Without our learning patience, we will miss being present to a great deal of life. Life entails so much waiting. When the answer is not forthcoming, when something is not being resolved, when the door is not being opened, when someone is not acquiescing, when we have lost any sense of controlling some circumstance, we may experience a certain anguish or anger. To experience the fullness of our life, we must learn to wait well. Saint Francis de Sales advises, “What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel of love, and an ocean of patience.” Patience is a quality of waiting.
Patience does not come easily to most of us, for several reasons. Our ego, how many of us grandstand our own importance on the stage of life, can be a great impediment to patience. What I want, and when seems right, when I am entitled. It took me many years to distinguish the adoring love I experienced amongst my own family-of-origin from my true place in the world. For some of us, the context of learning about patience has very little to do with us, personally, and everything to do with others. They have their place, their needs, their hopes and desires. I must wait my turn. Sometimes there are many people in line ahead of me. The Jesuit priest, Anthony de Mello, describes the necessary shearing of the ego that can happen as we grow older: “Before I was twenty, I never worried about what other people thought of me. But after I was twenty I worried endlessly about all the impressions I made and how people were evaluating me. Only sometime after turning fifty did I realize that they hardly ever thought about me at all.” The stage on which many of us learn about patience is discovering we are seldom THE STAR and more often the extra. We have an important and unique part in life, but so does everyone else. We must learn, listen, and become patient in the waiting.
Having to wait may prove to be a crucible to your soul, burning away what does not belong. You will not always get what you think you want in life. Jesus describes himself as “the gate” and “the door,” and sometimes he bars the way (John 10:1-9). As I reflect back on my own life, I teem with relief and gratitude for so many things I thought I wanted but was denied. (In my younger years I was nicknamed “Curtis Armtwist.”) I realize now that had this-and-that or such-and-such have happened, I would have ended up in a very different place.
Sometimes, by God’s grace, we are denied our dearest hopes. T. S. Eliot writes of how we often want what proves to be the wrong things, and how “the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: so the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing” (T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) in Four Quartets: East Coker, III, 11. 23-8). Patience can even mean learning to be grateful for the doors that did not open before you, and, therefore, the new direction in which you turned which has brought you to where you are.
Finding the goodness in waiting, in slowness, is quite countercultural; however our having to wait may turn out to be a great kindness of God towards us.
Finding the goodness in waiting, in slowness, is quite countercultural; however our having to wait may turn out to be a great kindness of God towards us. The scriptures consistently refer to us as “children of God” (not “adults of God”). Children are not developmentally ready to know everything at once. There is a progression in our capacity to know, which God knows. The apostle Peter awakened to this realization. He writes, “Beloved, while you are waiting, be at peace… and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Peter 3:9, 15). Our experience of having to wait may, in actuality, be God’s experience of waiting on us until we are ready for more. Take heart. Simone Weil, the great French spiritual writer and political activist of the 1940s, writes how “waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”
Here’s one more benefit. Adding the phrase “patient waiting” to your soul’s vocabulary may be a helpful intervention to the onset of anxiety. There is a freedom that can be gleaned in your being powerless to know the future. God knows. God knows what you do not know, and God knows that you do not know. In the beginning of creation, God creates an interchange of light and darkness to fill each of our days. It is as true for the sky as it is for the soul. We can only bear so much light. Light can be as blinding as darkness. The eyes of your heart will be enlightened with as much light as you can bear (“The eyes of your heart,” an evocative phrase of Saint Paul in Ephesians 1:18). When you are in the dark, God is not in the dark. The psalmist writes of God: “Darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike” (Psalm 139:11. See also 1 John 1:5). If you are in the dark about something, your waiting invites patience for the dawning. The dawn will come in the fullness of time.
When you are in the dark, God is not in the dark.
Waiting patiently is not a limp submission. Waiting patiently is an active presumption that God is at work in our life in ways beyond what we could ask or imagine (See Ephesians 3:20-21). When you have no choice but to wait, open your eyes and open your heart to what you otherwise might have missed. You do not have what you are waiting for – what is next – but you do have what is now. Don’t cut in line. Be present to what is now, even if it is full of struggle. You will find the companionship of God’s real presence in the waiting, which is the fruit of patience.
I waited patiently upon the LORD;
he stooped to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the desolate pit,
out of the mire and clay;
he set my feet upon a high cliff
and made my footing sure.
– Psalm 40:1-2
Questions for Reflection
– Do you struggle with waiting? What is it about the experience that is hard for you?
– When and how have you, conversely, discovered the goodness in waiting and slowness?
– What practices help you to stay present and grounded in times of waiting?
Patience does not come easily to many of us, for many reasons. Yet in this moving reflection, Br. Curtis Almquist suggests a few of the many reasons that being forced to wait can actually be a gift. We are all invited to discover the countercultural (and surprising) goodness of waiting.
Sign up for Rule of Life texts! One Rule a Day
Join us in daily meditation with SSJE’s Rule of life. The Rule of Life is a series of principles the Brothers follow every day. The Brothers of SSJE go through and read one Rule each day, and we would like to share this with you! By signing up to receive Audio Rule text messages you will get to experience The Rule the same way the brothers do. You will get one rule per day for 49 days. You can listen to or read each rule as it is sent out to you and apply the valuable monastic principles to your daily life.
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Test: In the Midst of Our Mess
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Take a Breath
Slowly
Breath Again
In the Midst of Our Mess
Br. Keith Nelson
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Jesus saves.
In the church, knit together as his Body, we believe that Jesus saves us from sin – our own and the sins of the whole world. Jesus saves us from death: by his incarnation, by his freely given human life, and by his freely chosen death on the cross. Jesus saves us from the worst in ourselves: from our daily blindness, ignorance, resentment, and failure to love. As we name in the Nicene Creed, all that he did, and all that he does, is offered “for us and for our salvation.”
Jesus saves. Today I believe that with my whole heart – though I haven’t always.
It’s not hard to imagine that somewhere there is a person who doesn’t believe they are in need of saving. The message that “Jesus saves” rings hollow in their ears, little more than a tired slogan tied to a narrow-minded agenda. In fact, they and their many friends hear this proposition and yawn, or chuckle, or roll their eyes. The offer of that kind of Savior is not what they need. Perhaps you yourself struggle with the assertion that Jesus saves.
OK, let’s start again.
Jesus heals.
If the historical portrait we have inherited told us nothing else, it would point to a man known far and wide as a healer. As a band of pilgrims tracing his footsteps, we believe that Jesus, our Savior, was also a healer at heart. We have seen and known in our own aching flesh how he bends down and reaches out to touch the leper, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the bleeding and broken and forsaken of the world.
In healing bodies, he healed hearts and souls, and lives even now to do the same. Jesus heals.
Our imaginary friends don’t believe they are in need of saving. But if pressed, they might admit that, in some sense, they are in need of healing. Deep down, they have felt the dis-ease of living – that feeling when they rest from all their motion and commotion that things are not entirely right, that something is off kilter, out of balance. A bruise, a burn, an open cut throbs beneath the surface. They long to say, “I’m sorry,” but to whom? If they were to come across Psalm 51; if they were to read the words, “The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise”; they might remove the bandage from the wound within and yield themselves, even if for one trembling moment, to God’s healing touch.
But healing hurts. After all, the wound has been there so long. It’s easy to give up on the course of treatment.
OK, Jesus says. I’ll meet you where you are.
OK, Jesus says. I’ll meet you where you are.
Jesus meets us where we are.
Jesus does not wait for us to get our act together. He doesn’t wait for us to clean the snot off our noses or put on a clean shirt. He doesn’t wait for us to decide what exactly we think of him. He certainly does not wait for us to solve the mystery of human suffering, or articulate an airtight personal theology, or establish an invariable routine of daily prayer. He does not wait for us to prove that we deserve his love.
If your experience is anything like mine, here’s what Jesus does:
On a Thursday night at 9pm – when your heart feels as empty as your refrigerator – Jesus pulls a chair up to the dinner table and helps himself to a piece of your leftover pizza. Jesus doesn’t care that you didn’t cook, that you didn’t even know he was planning a visit, or that you don’t have any clean towels. Shhh. I’ll meet you where you are, he whispers.
If we let him eat our leftover pizza and use our dirty towels; we can be certain he will return the invitation.
Jesus met Andrew and Peter by the Sea of Galilee, mending their fishing nets, because that’s where they were. He met Zacchaeus standing in a sycamore tree; he met Mary Magdalene in the prison of her own mind, possessed by seven demons; he met Paul on the road to Damascus intent upon persecuting the early Church. Jesus met Matthew sitting at the tax booth. And he met all of Matthew’s friends at dinner in Matthew’s house – a group of people who had likely never had dinner with a rabbi and felt disillusioned and cynical about the institutional tradition that had labeled and judged them. That’s just where they were.
But, you see: that is how Jesus saves. That is where Jesus heals. Jesus saves us and heals us by meeting us where we are.
If we let Jesus do this; if we open the door to let him in, even once; if we let him eat our leftover pizza and use our dirty towels; we can be certain he will return the invitation. He will invite us to be with him where he is. Jesus takes us where we are, as we are – and, before we know anything about it, summons out what we shall be, one moment of meeting at a time.
To Consider:
How does the idea of Jesus meeting us where we are challenge your expectations of spiritual growth and transformation?
What parts of your “mess” do you try to hide? What would it look like to allow Jesus to meet you in your imperfections and brokenness?
How might you open yourself more fully to the transformative love of Jesus?
To Try:
Take some time praying with Luke 5:1-11. Peter is exhausted after spending a whole night fishing and has caught nothing. At first he is doubtful that Jesus can contribute anything to the situation. When the presence and power of Jesus are made known through a catch of fish that begins to break the nets and even sink the boat, Peter cries, “Lord, go away from me, for I am a sinful man!” In the midst of his dim assessment of himself and his prospects, Jesus chooses him to be a “fisher of people.”
When have you felt like Peter, protesting that your life situation was too messy to let Jesus get involved?
What does it feel like to practice consent to Jesus’s power and presence in those moments?
Conflict = Jesus in our Midst?
Are you encountering tension in the midst of gatherings with family and friends this holiday season? In this utterly relatable reflection, Br. Jack Crowley takes us from an imagined argument – had entirely in his own mind while in the shower – through the complex realities of the tension that marks all forms of community. What if Jesus is right there in the midst of those heated conversations?
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Suppers & Refreshments
First Tuesday Suppers
We are happy to resume First Tuesday Suppers, beginning 1 August. Please bring a friend and join us for the 5:30pm Eucharist on the first Tuesday of the month followed by a simple supper downstairs.
Sunday Refreshments
We invite you to stay after the Sunday 9am Eucharist for refreshments in the Guesthouse Garden or in the Chapel depending on the weather. If you would like to bring a baked good, there’s a sign-up sheet in the narthex.
Online Retreat – Resting in Christ: Unitive Awareness
Dates: January 13 (evening) to January 16 (morning)
Facilitator: Br. Nicholas Bartoli, SSJE
Read the welcome letter from Br. Nicholas below the form, then register here:
Dear friends,
Our primary intention for this retreat will be to rest deeply into the silence and stillness of God’s presence, abiding in God’s Kingdom within. We will explore what is means to cultivate an awareness of the present reality of God’s Kingdom as a unitive or nondual unknowing. We will encourage a shift in our identity through the process of self-emptying as we discover our True Selves in Christ. To facilitate our journey into this silent land we will commit to not engaging in conversation outside of designated times. This time of silence will start on Thursday evening and end at 11:00am on Sunday morning.
Aside from when necessary to participate in the retreat, please refrain from using electronic devices (televisions, phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatch, etc.) as these devices make it extremely easy to avoid the solitude of a humble heart where the Holy One dwells, and Christ is born. If you would like an even more thorough experience of silence, you may consider limiting your reading to only what is part of the retreat. Of course, all kinds of writing and expression, like journaling, drawing, etc., are encouraged.
As a service to yourself and the other retreatants please be ready to commit to the entire duration of the retreat so that we may sanctity our time together. Since this is an online retreat, you will need to take full responsibility of your own experience of silence, stillness, and solitude during this time. It may be helpful to take care of things like shopping before the retreat starts and to let your friends and loved ones know that this will be a time of retreat for you. Also, please remember this most important point: this is your retreat, so listen to the wisdom of your body, mind, and spirit as you decide how best to participate.
We will share a practice of silent centering prayer three times on Friday and Saturday, and once on Sunday morning. These will be rich opportunities to share this silent journey together. These sessions will thirty minutes long, however you can practice as long as you’d like. If you need a refresher on centering prayer, there is an instruction and practice video here: https://www.ssje.org/2021/03/19/centering-prayer/
A full schedule will be sent to participants before the retreat starts.
Peace and Be Well,
Br. Nicholas, SSJE
Sufficient Grace: Praying with the Calling of Illness
Thursdays October 7, 14, 21 from 7:15 pm to 8:15 pm EST via Zoom
Sickness is one of life’s greatest hindrances to our usual notions of human freedom and thriving. Chronic and mental illnesses especially can leave us feeling afflicted, as if punished or abandoned by God; or as though the springs of our prayer have dried up. But perhaps there is more to these times in our experience than meets the eye. What if sickness—particularly chronic or incurable sickness—is not in the end a punishment or affliction? What would it be like to turn over our experiences of sickness to God in loving trust that God’s grace is sufficient at all times? What would it mean to believe that “power is made perfect in weakness?” Join Br. Sean Glenn on Zoom for a three-week offering of reflection and space to hold before God the mystery of human sickness.
On October 7, we begin a three-week series on Sufficient Grace: Praying with the Calling of Illness. This is chance to explore together the sometimes unspoken and searching dimensions of the reality that our walk with God is often marked by illness—sometimes chronically and incurably. We realize that some aspects of this topic may be tender and sensitive. We wish to name the vulnerability such conversations around this topic may bring. This offering is limited to 20 people. If your life is touched by the profundity of illness, and you would welcome some reflection and sharing on journey with Br. Sean Glenn, please register below.
We Brothers are also offering a variety of programs unlimited enrollment. Please see: www.SSJE.org/programs.
Register here:
Thank you for your interest in this program. Unfortunately, this program is full at this time. Please email guesthouse@ssje.org to request a place on the wait list.