Posts Tagged ‘#offering’
Belonging to God – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
The Feast of the Visitation
The Profession in Initial Vows of Br. Jamie Robert Nelson
The Visitation of St. Mary of Nazareth to St. Elizabeth is a simple but profound story about an interpersonal encounter. The younger woman, Mary, has experienced a life-changing encounter with an angelic messenger and seeks the wisdom and stabilizing presence of an elder relative and friend. The elder (unbeknownst to the younger) has also experienced a life-changing encounter with God. While we can only assume Mary and Elizabeth were close prior to this visit, the mutual self-disclosure of God’s awesome hand at work in each of their lives establishes a bond that will send ripples all the way down the history of salvation. Elizabeth will give birth to John the Baptist, the last of the prophets. Mary will give birth to Jesus, the Word made flesh.
At its heart, this is a story about the power of belonging. Elizabeth has certainly known how it feels not to belong. Her long years of infertility in a culture which considered childbearing to be a primary expression of God’s blessing positioned her outside the circle of proud mothers. Mary is still quite young, but she has been told that she will bear a child by the Holy Spirit, independently of a human father. This foreshadows her own difference, and the difference of the child she will bear. From our vantage point, that difference was both special and miraculous. In the midst of its unfolding, it was scandalous and impossible. Read More
A Whole-Self Response – Br. Lain Wilson
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Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, God-bearer
Our reading from today’s Gospel passage had me casting my mind back to high school English.
We naturally read the woman in the crowd’s statement, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” (Lk 11:27), as an example of synecdoche, a figure of speech that substitutes a part for the whole: “womb and breasts” stands in for “woman,” or, more specifically, “mother.” I’m sure you’ve heard versions of this: hungry mouths, a pair of shoulders, a willing hand.
But even if these only stand in or point to the whole, they nevertheless overemphasize a specific function relative to everything else. If the mother is only identified as the parts of her body necessary for giving birth and sustenance to a baby, then what about the rest of her? What about those infinite permutations of histories and emotions and motivations that make each of us who we are, that make each woman, each mother, who she is? We are each more than our parts, more than our biological functions.
Jesus’s response may on first hearing seem overly harsh: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Lk 11:28). But he doesn’t deny his mother Mary blessedness; rather, he affirms that she finds blessing in her whole-self offering. “All generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48)—not because Mary just happened to have a womb, but because she heard the words of God through the angel, because she pondered and questioned and ultimately said yes: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Read More
The Blood of a Blessed Martyr – Br. Lucas Hall
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Br. Lucas Hall
Feast of St. Alban
Today we mark the feast of St. Alban, the first martyr of Britain. In the third century, Christians were subject to various persecutions in the Roman Empire, and the story goes that the then-pagan Alban, living in Roman Britain, hosted a Christian priest in his home who was fleeing persecution. Impressed by the priest’s devotion to prayer, Alban joined him, and converted. When it came to light he was hiding the fugitive priest, Alban donned the priest’s robes and went to death for him. He refused to partake in a pagan votive offering, saying, “I worship and adore the true and living God, who created all things.” For this, he was beheaded on a hilltop at the town that now bears his name.
I must admit, I cannot speak solely of Alban today. Partially, it’s because this early Church martyr calls to mind the Church’s general age of martyrdom, when the experience of persecution necessitated developing a theological understanding of the concept. But it’s more personal than that. You may know that we brothers take initial vows for a few years before taking life vows. Today is the anniversary of my initial vows. And earlier this week, the anniversary of my life vows, was the feast of Bernard Mizeki, another martyr. By happenstance, or something more, I cannot encounter these martyrs without thinking more broadly of their witness to the vocation of the Church, my own included. Read More
God is Reigning from the Tree – Br. Lucas Hall
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Br. Lucas Hall
Palm Sunday
There’s no such thing as a tree.
I’ll explain.
Biologically, we tend to group living creatures, different species, together with their closest relatives. Take birds, for example. There are many different birds, ostriches, hummingbirds, penguins, vultures, the list is vast. But every bird is more closely related to every other bird, than they are to any creatures outside of that group, “birds.” It’s a neat, tidy category.
But that’s not true of trees. When we look at plant genetics, when we look at the fossil record, we see that what we commonly call “trees” isn’t a neat, tidy category of close relatives. Instead, the development of trees, of tall, massive, woody plants, extending up above other plant life, is a strategy, a structure, a way of being, that emerges again, and again, and again, in different plant families over many years. Our much-vaunted palm trees are more closely related to grass than they are to, say, a pine tree.
But, come on. Of course trees are a thing. Of course there’s such a thing as a tree. They’re just not a neat and tidy biological category. Instead, we should think of trees as a phenomenon, a dynamic happening, bubbling up from the substrate of the natural order, erupting forth in any place where this particular mode of being can gain purchase, and thrive, and live. Read More
The Emergence of Courage – Br. Curtis Almquist
Br. Curtis Almquist
Saints Agnes and Cecilia of Rome, Martyrs
In the calendar of the church we remember today two early Christian martyrs: Saint Cecilia and Saint Agnes. Saint Cecilia, as a young woman, was married. She converted to Christianity members of her own household; however in the face of the demand from the Roman government to offer sacrifice to pagan idols, a demand she refused, Cecilia was martyred year 280. Saint Agnes, a 12-year old child, was brought to a civil magistrate, before whom she refused to renounce her Christian faith, and she, too, was martyred, this in year 304. Saint Ambrose of Milan wrote about Agnes that “all were astounded that she should come forward as a witness to God when she was still too young to be her own mistress.” The various accounts of Cecilia and Agnes’ martyrdom are appalling, which show something of the impact of the life and death these two young women made upon their contemporaries and succeeding generations.
The word “courage” comes to mind in remembering martyrs such as Cecilia and Agnes. Our word courage comes from the Latin word for heart, cor, then the Old French, corage. Courage emanates from the heart, the heart symbolizing the essence of a person. We hear Jesus say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”[i] But courage is not something to work on. Becoming courageous is not a spiritual calisthenic. Courage comes as a byproduct, a characteristic or an action which is quite invisible to the person themselves. I have never once heard someone described as having done something courageous who sees this about themselves. Courage is in the eye of the beholder, not in the awareness of the actor. Read More
It is Enough – Br. James Koester
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I know exactly where I was. I was sitting in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral. It was March 1976. To be more exact, it was the Fourth Sunday in Lent. With a little detective work, I know that it was 28 March 1976.
I know that it was the Fourth Sunday in Lent, because the gospel that day was this story of the boy with the five barley-loaves and the two, small fish. I remember to this day the experience of hearing, as if for the first time, the story of the young lad who shared his lunch. Now, every time I hear this passage, I find myself sitting in Canterbury’s quire.
This story opens chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. The chapter begins here, which is part of the larger feeding story, and then moves on to the Calming of the Sea, and finally the Bread of Life discourse. It’s an incredibly rich and significant chapter, full of possibilities. Because it is so rich, the story of the boy is often lost. It’s easy to overlook him, or to lose him altogether. In fact, the other three gospels, all of which record this miracle, fail to mention the boy. And John fails, or has other reasons, not to name him. It is this nameless boy who has held my attention for over forty years. Read More
Offering Love – Br. Luke Ditewig
Jesus paints the picture of two people: a judge, a man with authority with no respect for others who won’t be ashamed, and a widow, weak and vulnerable. The widow comes persistently asking for justice such that the judge relents, so as to stop being bothered.
Have you agreed to something like the judge? Given in just to stop someone from bothering you. Have you received something for acting like the widow? Persistently present, continually asking. Have you ever felt that God is like the unjust judge? Distant, unhearing, refusing, without respect or shame. Has prayer felt like repetitive knocking or finger pointing? Read More
The Offertory Posture – Br. Lucas Hall
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The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
In the celebration of the Eucharist, the priest may say two prayers over the bread and wine immediately following their placement on the altar. In these prayers, the bread is called the fruit of the earth, the wine, the fruit of the vine; both are identified as having been received through the goodness of God, and both are called “the work of human hands.” This understanding, what I’ll call the “offertory posture,” positions us and our labors as intertwined with God’s own goodness and creativity. Our work, and the fruit of it, is also the fruit of God’s creation, and anything we create is to be viewed as coming ultimately from God, and offered back to God. This reciprocity of giving involves continuous interchange between God and his people. Read More
George Herbert and the Heart’s Altar – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Lenten Commemoration – George Herbert (1593-1633)
Matthew 5:1-10
Our God and King, you called your servant George Herbert from the pursuit of worldly honors to be a pastor of souls, a poet, and a priest in your temple: Give us grace, we pray, joyfully to perform the tasks you give us to do, knowing that nothing is menial or common that is done for your sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
In the calendar of the church, we commemorate today a 17th-century Church of England country parson named George Herbert. Down through the centuries, he is most remembered for his arresting, revealing, passionate poetry, which was published posthumously. There was a secret to George Herbert’s greatness, but not the obvious. Read More
Laying Down our Lives – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Romans 8: 28-39
We know that all things work together for good* for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. *30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Read More