12 Sunday in Boring Time

12th Sunday of the Year

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Okay, I want to say up front that my blog has become less attended to due to the daily reflections I do on the RB Reflections. That doesn't mean I have forgotten this blog, it is once I've squeezed our my brain for a reflection about how many psalms to say at the little hours, there is not much left in me worth saying.

Except of course the truth about my life. As I wrote in the last entry, my life is all about renunciations for Christ. For the past two days this hymn has been rolling around in my thoughts, so I thought I'd share it with you so that maybe it can infect your thoughts as well.

"They cast their nets in Galilee,
Just off the hills of brown;
Such happy, simple fisherfolk,
Before the Lord came down.

"Contented, peaceful fisherfolk,
Before they ever knew
The peace of God that filled their hearts
Brimful, and broke them too.

"Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless, in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head-down was crucified.

"The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod.
Yet let us pray for but one thing
The marvelous peace of God."

Amen.

What a Year Already

In the last years time I have:

1. Stopped smoking cigarettes.
2. Stopped smoking weed, which was my only defense against anxiety attacks which raped my body and psyche four days out of every two weeks.
3. Stopped a toxic relationship.
4. Gave a long time, well loved friend an ultimatum, "so long as crack is in your life, I am not."
5. Got really serious about renunciations, and guarding my thoughts.
6. Committed myself to writing a reflection on the rule, every day.

And what do I get?

1. Nights that are lonely and difficult like nothing I've faced before.
2. Enough grace to handle the nights.
3. Some prophetic dreams with messages for other people.
4. Some very confusing and horrible dreams.
5. A mission from God to pray for those on the verge of suicide.
6. The grace to continue my long conversion.

Is it worth it? Yes.

‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12

Fr. Elias = Abbot Elias

There ceremony was incredible. You wouldn't think that those quiet monks had it in them to pull off a ceremony of truly majestic proportions, but by golly, they did! If you have not seen the pictures then for crying out loud get over there and look at them. By all means inspect the pics of them back in the chapter room, but do NOT miss the pics at the bottom. Of particular interest is that banner.

For a complete description of the banner you need to talk to Bill. he writes an email called Gethsemani Musings that comes out nearly daily. It's worth it. Drop him a line and get on that list. Bill is a holy man, although he will deny it with a thousand examples, he's a holy man.

I really had nothing to say tonight, except that if you missed Fr. Elias become Abbot Elias then you missed it. Marta, Bill and I were there. Of course, it was Father's day, so we will forgive the rest of you for not coming. Oh, and gas is $4.00 a gallon. Okay, we'll forgive you for that too. Still, it was an uplifting experience that has provided me with a slew of lifetime memories. One is Br. Luke and how magnificent he has become on the organ! Wow!

Okay, good night.

Holy Moly

Well, since I blogged last I've been to Louisville with my entire family to carry out an intervention that did not need to be done. We learned that fact only at midnight, and having upset everyone in a five mile radius. We thought a family member was in jeopardy, she was not. Not only was she not in jeopardy, she had been telling us tall tales.

So there was a huge emotional outburst in the Waffle House where one of the supposed "bad guys" works, by my Niece, whom I tried to calm down, but her screamed threats o' death if the man hurt her sister, nearly got the police called on us.

Now, by nature, I am an empath. If you feel it, chances are I feel it too. In fact, walking into a room that is divided over some question is about enough to send me to bed. Time has taught me not to be a sissy about such things, but this outburst related to family issues, so I had a good cry in the Waffle House, followed by crying as I drove all the way back to Bardstown in the middle of the night.

The next morning I saw someone had called late at night, and hoped it was the missing niece telling us to chill out. No, it had been the niece, niece A, who flipped out in the Waffle House calling from the police station where she was in the process of swearing out a Mentally Incompetency Warrant on her sister. That just depressed the living hell out of me, because we'd met both the supposed "bad people" a man and his wife who are simple people and took my niece in out of kindness.

A warrant meant their house would be invaded and my niece would be dragged down to University Hospital, and ill will between her and her sisters would reign for the next several generations. So all day I'm sad about that until the other niece, niece B, called to tell us that the police refused the warrant because niece C had not threatened suicide in the last 24 hours.
Joy! What joy that was. Of course, I'd told both niece A and B that niece C was in the habit of saying such things for dramatic effect. They ignored me. The fact that niece C had lived with us for seven years seemed to have rolled out of their consciousness. Anyway, I was happy.

It's then almost bed time on Friday night and a long time, well loved friend, calls. He wants to come down and smoke Crack Cocaine in my house, so he can have a safe place. Part of me wanted to say, yes, because he is my friend and I can ignore it. But another part of me said, "Hell no." So after a conversation that tore my heart out, I told him basically that as along as crack cocaine was in his life, I was not.

Two nights in a row my life is in hell. Then Saturday morning I have to get up, and face writing the reflection on the rule. Then Sunday was my local Lay Cistercian meeting at Gethsemani Abbey, which I love.

All of this has to be piled on the ongoing nightmare that is Countrywide Mortgage, and our efforts to get away from those lying, cheating scum, and move our mortgage to a local bank.

So, that's why I've been silent. What's up in ya'lls life, eh?

Lay Cistercians and the Ninth Sunday in Boring Time

Old Style

New Style

I am bored with defending why I publish both, so I won't bother with it anymore. I publish both and that is that.

Yesterday our local Lay Cistercian group met at the Abbey for our monthly meeting. Some felt that the business part of the meeting went on too long, I thought it was much more interesting than the books were are currently reading. My main reason is one of these days I'm going to have to take in their a murder mystery, and that should really get things going. I don't always read religious themed books. Sometimes, the last thing on earth I want to read is a religious themed book.

I do the Liturgy of the Hours, and that provides plenty of spiritual reading in the Office of Readings, and the optional Lectionary at the back of Christan Prayer. When I throw in Lectio Divina, who has time for another book on spirituality? Not only that, but how many ways can the same thing be said? If you read one book on the Eucharist, you've read them all. I know that's a crass generalization, but I've read a lot of book on the Eucharist.