The first one I would like to focus on is the fact that the Lord has His design on us and He called us to be monks. Well you know, God has been existing for a long time and a long time as Trinity. Way before Jesus came the Trinity certainly was working on the human race. And so we see in literate cultures, cultures that have reading and materials etc., monastic life, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. It means the human consciousness was waking up to what we would say is that we have a soul or that we are transcendent or that we have a spirit. And of course, each culture had its own shape of what wisdom meant. And so already in our nature it=s being revealed that we were made to live life in the Spirit. Distorted, of course, and not quite consistent but nevertheless already manifest. So monastic life, contrary to some peoples thinking, is not contrary to nature. And Jesus being the light of the world of course sharply reveals monastic life and gives it of course in the church and absolutely distinct element because monastic life is a call to really imitate Jesus. The wisdom that we seek is really the wisdom that flows from Jesus= own presence. And this is a tremendous gift. You know you really just have to kind of let it sink in. That the God of the universe is uniting Himself to us when we make our final vows, personally. It=s outlandish. And so God has an interest in what=s happening here at St. Andrews much more than we do. And each of us participates in this outlandish gift. And of course to enter it to go with the flow of God=s action, is what our whole journey is about.

Now you know we can look at this image from a number of angles, let=s just look at the image of marriage. When two people get married they=re not perfect, they give themselves to each other, there=s a bond between them but they have to work at that bond. But it=s already there. And we know what happens in marriage, especially in the United States, 50% don=t make it or worse. And so there=s people who are together who hardly talk to each other and all those other things. Well, we could do the same thing in the monastery. But nevertheless this is an outlandishly great gift. And the church and our own tradition have tried to heighten the implications of this because when we make vows, final vows, we go under the pall, you know, and we pray under there not sleeping, and what are we doing? We=re dying to ourselves and then the call comes, ARise, the light of Christ will guide you.@ But it=s in the context of the bondedness on the level of spouse. Now just with that alone then we could tie it into the season at the same time.

Sunday is Latare Sunday so we=re supposed to rejoice, right? Now joy on the level of Spirit, is sure sign of the presence of God. So is there joy in your heart about being a monk? Because you=re already bonded to Him. And then a number of titles should open us up to what this gift is about. If we follow the liturgy we =re anticipating Jesus to come as ASavior@, even the Blessed Mother says, AMy spirit rejoices in God my Savior.@ The Blessed Mother rejoicing in God as Savior so she=s fully aware of the tremendous giftedness of God=s saving power and presence. Well how is that happening in our life? Jesus gave us images of His saving presence in our life. A number of places. He=s the Shepherd who chases the single sheep while leaving the rest alone. So Jesus is pursuing us. He can=t be inactive. And shepherds have a whistle when they call the sheep so Jesus is whistling after us.

Where does the whistle show up? Well our conscience! In our pursuit. And we sense well I really should be praying more, WELL!!!! or this is really not nice behavior I ought to change, WELL!!!!! Are you hearing the action of Jesus? He=s your spouse. He=s pursuing. He can=t be indifferent to you. And not only that He came, He went through all this trouble to forgive our sins. He wants to forgive our sins. And He wants to heal us. But we have to be humble enough to say, AI need you.@ AI=m sorry I did this.@ And not just to forgive but to forget. He=s the one person you can count on that as soon as you confess your sins He forgets them. Not like us at our best we take some time to do that. And that=s not enough either, because He=s interested not only in reconciliation, but to lavish us with blessings, with gifts. And even that doesn=t say it. Because His purpose is to make us into Himself. Now this outlandish gift is not simply done on our own power. So you have to deepen your appreciation of the Eucharist. Because it=s precisely in Eucharist that we are transformed into Christ day in, day out. And so there we are we place ourselves on the patten with Jesus. But not just side by side but somehow inside, that is, the Father looks at us through looking at Jesus and finds us acceptable and therefore, pours on us the loving tenderness that He=s giving to Jesus comes into us. And that power gives us strength, and courage, and life, and all the reality of the Divine life that=s given to us. And it=s precisely in this that our mission follows. So our mission is not in the fact that we do this or that it=s in the fact that we are in Christ. And that everything we do is mission. So we need to begin to reflect on this because if we=re going to talk about strategic planning, and we=re going to talk about preparing for the visitation, we want to know exactly who we are and what God wants of us and what God is doing. From that then I think we=ll be in the right direction.

Back to Abbot's page