I want to correct something I
wrote yesterday. Talking about retirement, I said that I was not doing anything
“important and meaningful” in the college. Perhaps not, but I am doing
something important and meaningful in the Church and in the world: I am living
the monastic life. Some may not see that as important and meaningful, but for
those of us who are living the life have a strong sense that we are doing
something that the world desperately needs.
We live a life where there is a
great deal of silence in a world which is saturated with noise and idle
chatter.
We live a life based on vows
that the world sees as meaningless and unnecessary: Obedience, stability and conversatio,
which means “conversion of life according to a monastic manner of life.” In
essence, conversatio assumes the three evangelical counsels of poverty,
chastity and obedience. In living the monastic life, we place a priority on
things which the world sees as unnecessary and unwanted. But in living this
life we are giving witness that these things are important, although
relatively few people are called to live the vows in their regular lives. But
who, I ask, would not benefit from more of these things in their own life?
We pray the psalms every day.
Over the course of two weeks, we pray just about every one of the 150 psalms.
These psalms express all the emotions, hopes, dreams, and dilemmas of everyone
at one point or another in their lives. We pray the psalms, and the entire
Liturgy of the Hours, for those who cannot pray. So when, for example, I
pray the words help, O Lord, for the
waters have risen to my neck, I am praying those words for anyone who is in
that situation in life at that particular moment.
I could say a lot more, but don’t
think it’s necessary at this point, other than to day that when all is said and
done, the most important thing we can do for anyone is to pray for him/her. I
have always felt that the world is being saved by little old ladies sitting in
the rocking chairs praying the Rosary day after day. The famous monk Thomas
Merton first visited his monastery (Gethsemane) and felt that it was the prayer
of the monks who were holding the world together at a time when it was about to
implode (WWII).
I’ll conclude with a couple of
verses of Psalm 33, which is psalm
of thanksgiving for having been delivered from war:
They are happy whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen as his
own. (v. 12)
Our soul is waiting for the Lord. The Lord is our help and our shield.
In him do our hearts find joy. (v. 20-21)
and finally,
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place our hope in you. (v. 22)
God bless you.
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