Holy Cross Monastery Sermons (West Park): Recent Episodes
Holy Cross Monastery Sermons (West Park)
The Order of the Holy Cross is an Anglican Benedictine monastic community of men founded in 1884 by James Otis Sargent Huntington to provide a specifically North American expression of monasticism. Our commitment to worship and prayer has sustained our work since the 19th century. Our primary ministry is welcoming guests on individual and group retreats. Continue Community: https://www.facebook.com/holy.cross.west.park/See What We're Doing: https://www.instagram.com/holycross.westpark/Guest House and Retreats: http://www.holycrossmonastery.com
This recording also includes audio from the rite of First Profession by Br. Luc, beginning at 13:25.
". . .So Jesus engages his audience to go beyond the letter of the law in order to live the kind of loving relationships the Kingdom of God ushers in.". . .
"This IS an awesome place, and yet it is far from perfect. It’s still going to be cold in the winter, and the walls still look like we have a permanent water feature that doesn’t work very well. And yet, this IS the house of God for us, where we meet God in the liturgy of the church day in and day out.". . .
The poem by Edwin Markham goes like this:
"He drew a circle that shut me out — Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!" . . .
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet . . . .
"Jesus as the one executed absorbs the violence inflicted on him – takes it in to his very flesh, thereby exposing once and for all the illegitimacy of the belief that violence can ever be the best or final or even a good response to evil without the violent one becoming the thing being destroyed. The cross is the world’s sign of future hope, the event of love and victory that prefigures the world that Christ will one day rule in glory. It is also our present sign of prophetic resistance.". . .
"Peter says: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Where did Peter and the other eleven get their faith? What makes them different from all those who gave up on Jesus and went away? It is clear from all four gospels that the twelve were also plagued by doubt and fear. They suffered at times from an over abundance of pride or a lack of courage. They, too, eventually deserted Jesus at the very time he needed them the most. So, what is it that sets them apart?"
"The last thing to do after such an event is to attempt to systematize it, classify it, or analyze it. The living reality of transfiguration unveils its mystery in its own way, continues to reverberate and build courage and faithfulness. Kneeling is a posture which can seem like weakness or passivity, and if misunderstood can become just another pious mask of avoidance. Yet in the presence of the glory of Christ it is the posture of receptivity, vulnerability. By God’s grace we are becoming what we have seen, we are invited to look with wonder, and to remember that growth in the knowledge of God is knowing less than we thought we did and more than we could ever imagine.". . .
"Last week we prayed almost every day a collect that dug deeper within me with each repetition. It got to a point where I was mouthing the words along with Roy and with some of my brothers. We prayed, “Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give those things which for our unworthiness we dare not and for our blindness, we cannot ask.” This week’s Gospel passage responds well to this petition. Jesus takes all we’ve got, even our nothingness, and creates an abundance. And he makes it easy for us in the process. All he expects from us is to prepare the people to receive a meal. He expects us to invite them to come and rest a while just as he and his disciples rested up on that mountain, just before this event.". . .
"The Benedictine call then, is to be a people willing to be passionately caring; a people willing to be a challenge and example to our society as a whole; a people willing to be in the world, but not of the world; a people willing to stand at the margins of society so that we can see what really is; a people willing to meet the pain and inner death that comes with seeing the real. We do it trusting that God is always able to bring new life out of all loss. We do it with the confidence that God, who shatters our expectations and surpasses our understanding, only desires for us to evolve into the fullness of the image in which we are made."
"We may not think of Benedict as particularly revolutionary, but think what it would mean if the world as it is now were transformed into the community Benedict has in mind... Benedict, through his holy and inspired rule, has given us a plan for conversion of our ways of life to the monastic way – that is a plan not for safety, not for comfort, but for the revolutionary act of building God's Kingdom.". . .
"God loves us, engages with us and with our prayers. Often, it looks nothing like we asked. Will we move on disgruntled and ungrateful? Or will grace open our eyes to the even better gifts we have received? Those gifts that the Spirit, searching our hearts and the heart of God, knew we needed above all? Have faith. And love the Lord of Life and Creation.". . .
"They met at least once, these two, but because they were so different, probably did not like each other. They realized that they had distinct callings and went in different directions! Yet there are common threads in their stories. Each had been called by Jesus but also questioned by him. Peter with Jesus on the beach, after the resurrection - "Do you love me? Paul in a vision of the glorified Christ - "Why are you persecuting me? The rest of their lives is an answer to these questions.". . .
. . . "At God's insistence Job must confront what he fears most. He faces the chaos and the cosmos, his immediate situation and the larger picture. As he does, his blinders fall off. He says, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (42:5). His narrow moral framework gives way to a cosmic vision of the Divine. His question is never answered. He is comforted not by an explanation but by a vision. The chaos is still there, but so is God, and that is enough. Job is offered something more than answers: he is assured of God's Presence." . . .
"How often have we allowed our fear of the losses of aging and financial insufficiency to lead us to the safe choice rather than the prophetic one? How often have we really turned down the volume of our certainty that we have the right answer or the right way forward to listen to the deeper stirrings of the Spirit within our own or another’s heart? Is our first question always “what new work is God calling forth from us today?” Or is it often, “what do I want and how can I get it?”". . . .
"I wonder what Jesus must have said to the disciples after the encounter with the Pharisees at the grainfields? I’m thinking it may have been something like: “thanks a lot for getting me in trouble with the darn Pharisees.” ". . . .
"The nourishment of God brings peace and a restless longing for more. The life of which Jesus speaks is an end of the journey, the filling of desire, only to send us at the same moment onward to new searching and hollows our spiritual bellies to create anew the very appetite he himself feeds. ". . .
"The comingling of gift and self-offering, of fullness and emptiness, is the flow at the heart of divine love. It is how God first created all that is—by pouring out her substance into matter—“the prodigal, squandering herself” to paraphrase Karl Rahner. It is how Jesus redeemed the world, first being given the gift of himself at his baptism, and then consenting to the pouring out of his life in love on the Cross. And it is how the Spirit makes us children of God—by first returning us to ourselves and then enabling us to empty the Self of selves in service to the world.". . .
" It strikes me that for most of my life I have thought of Pentecost as a day for speaking. But the story from Acts is as much about listening as speaking... about drawing breath – spirit...". . .
" Imagine that: a universe in the truest sense of the term...cosmic unity in diversity, complexity interrelated and codependent...created and connected and nurtured and sustained: in love, by love, for love.". . .
. . . "We are called to let go and not cling to our old ways of knowing Jesus Christ so that we can recognize him anew in our lives today—here and now.". . .
" Jesus made his choice. His choice becomes explicit by his life journey to Golgotha on the Cross. He travelled this road with a singular will more fierce than any will or desire that greed, violence and hatred can possibly tame. Jesus’ other choice is God, and in many ways, Jesus’ heart is restless until he rests in God.". . .
"In 1968 the Kerner Commission established by Lyndon Johnson to examine the causes of the racial riots of the previous few summers released its report which rendered the failings of institutions and social forces that had delivered the country to that moment of racial reckoning, beginning in the Colonial era and continuing through the formation of what were then called ghettos. The report stated, bluntly, that what white Americans have never fully understood — but what the Negro can never forget — is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, maintain it, and condone it. The report is best remembered for its warning that, barring corrective measures, the nation would continue on its path toward becoming two societies — one black, one white — separate and unequal." . . .
When you walk down the road. Heavy burden, heavy load. I will rise and I will walk with you.
Walk with you. Until the sun don't even shine. Walk with you. Every time. -----Touched By An Angel: Theme Song.
" We tend to do things wrong before we even know what right feels like. But mistakes do not seem to be a problem for God; they are only a problem for our ego that wants to be pure spirit. Living solely out of our ego splits us off from our body. God is an expert at working with mistakes and failure. It is no different for us than it was for Mary. In some ways it may seem simpler to obey arbitrary rules about diet or sex than to truly honor the living incarnation we are.". . .
"What does resurrection look like in the face of this flood of loss? How do we proclaim the good news of God in Jesus Christ as the darkness grows deeper, not lighter, and as the light seems further away than ever ?" . . .
"Let us enter these days as if it were the first time of having our foot washed, with all its tender and awkward associations. Or keeping night vigil, or hearing the Passion narrative sung, or seeing the Easter fire or hearing the Exsultet. Let it be as if we had no idea what to expect next, yet being fully present with eyes and ears and hearts wide open. Let the sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ this night be as though it were the very first time that you and I were tasting the food of Paradise. Let it be as if we are seeing our old friend, Jesus, for the first time, maybe not just after thirty days but after thirty years. Let it be as if you were entering your new home, as you once did through the waters of baptism, and finding there a place where you could be fully safe and fully yourself, at home within your own skin. Let it be as if you were a Jew visiting Israel for the first time and knowing deep down that in some sense have come home to your true native land.". . .
. . . "[M] eet Jesus, who suffered, so that when we are suffering we know God is with us through our suffering; meet Jesus, who was utterly alone by the end of the story, so that when we feel alone we know God is with us in our aloneness; meet Jesus, who cried out in despair, so that when feel ready to give up, we know that God holds onto us; meet Jesus, who died, so that we know God understands death, and the fear of death, and reminds us that death does not have the last word; meet Jesus, who meets us exactly where we are, just the way we are, with open arms just like the father of the prodigal son.". . .
" As we read the biographies of our departed brothers around their death dates in chapter, I am moved over and over again by the recurrence of a phenomena: at some point in the life of each brother he heard, he got up, he met a purpose, and he gave himself in a way that served a particular need, provided an essential offering of work and wisdom for the community. For some it was a role in leadership, especially those who brought care and calm in times of turmoil or change. For others it was the realization that their best service was a quiet, steady, behind-the-scenes gift for keeping things going. For all of the variety of stories and personalities, and indeed many struggled and suffered profoundly with their own issues, none of them could have predicted the twists and turns their lives would take within this community or how responding to the monastic vocation in this Order would be a source of stretch and challenge, of joy and consolation. The only assurance was that they had each other and their common commitment to keep getting up together. I think to myself as I hear the biographies, “It’s almost as if he were born for this”. And of course he was. If there are saints in our history, saints among us now, and there are, they did not and do not ask for the title, much less the trials and sacrifices that formed their holiness." . . .
" As Lent gives way to Holy Week and Easter the question we can ponder is how can we die? What of my own attachments can get nailed to the cross with Jesus? What pieces of myself can I toss into the tomb? Can I kindle a bonfire of my own vanities at the Easter Vigil? What space can I clear for resurrection to fill? What seeds can I drop into the ground? And what might spring up from them?" . . . .
"Springsteen’s remarks describe something of the interaction between the Crucified and Glorified Savior and the believer who turns to him entirely wholeheartedly. David Remnick is asking Springsteen about his manner of concert performance in the 70s, to which he replies: “Losing myself was something I was shooting for. I’d had enough of myself by that time to want to lose myself — so I went on stage every night to just kind of do exactly that. Playing is orgiastic. It’s a moment of both incredible self-realization and self-erasure at the same time.". . .
"Jesus comes to our Temple/world with the challenging questions and the listening ears of the young, those on the cusp of adulthood who perceive, perhaps as we cannot, the ever-widening gap between our rhetoric and our realities, both within the church and without. I think of those students from Parkland and from around our country who are rising up to become the ears and the eyes and the voices of conscience to our nation and who cry: “Enough already!”". . .
"It happens quite often, when speaking about prayer, that an associate, or a student, or a directee, or a guest will say something like: “I’m so busy, that I can’t find time to just sit and pray. But, I mean, I talk to God all the time. I talk to God while I’m working, while I’m exercising, while washing dishes.” Etcetera. My response is always the same: “That’s great that you talk to God all the time, but think about this. If to a loved one (spouse, child, close friend, etc.) all you do is to say: ‘I would love to spend time talking to you, but I’m so busy. Let’s talk while I’m working, while I’m exercising, while I’m washing dishes.” But you never stop, set time apart to just be with that loved one. What would that do to the relationship?". . .
"He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them."Mark 1:31
"When you know yourself, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the children of the Living One. If you do not know yourselves, you live in poverty, and you are poverty."
"Today, I ask ourselves: What is God’s desire for us? How are we resisting that desire? Can we ask God to tip us over into His desire? Can we pray that? When He calls, can we answer “I’ll be out in a minute!” -- rather than in 2 years, in 5 years, whenever my conditions have been met.". . .
"We have heard the phrase “created in the image and likeness of God” so often that we don’t appreciate what it says about us. Our family of origin is divine. We were created by a loving God to be love in the world. Our core is not original sin, but original blessing. Good theology cannot make up for negative anthropology. From God’s side, we are always known and loved subject to subject, just as the persons of the Trinity know and love one another. We are never an object to God. Yet, like Samuel, all too often we are sleeping, not fully sensing the divinity around us or within us. Our hearts, minds, and souls are dulled so that we can spend our lives in the temple, but never hear or recognize God’s call.". . .
"Jesus did not flee the world. And his miracles of healing, feeding, exercising, and so forth, were not just palliative care for those fortunate enough to come into contact with him. Jesus really intended to establish the Reign of God here on earth. As baptized Christians we are called to continue the mission and ministry of Jesus, to subvert the Kingdom of Satan and to foster the Reign of God. This demands we place the good of others before our own, even to the point of giving our own life completely, in love, even to the point of death. It requires humility, obedience, surrender, and the cross. As Jesus did, we die but are also raised to new life.". . .
"And so Christmas as reception emerges in the heart of Mary. Take her response into your heart. Stop, be still, look, listen, read the story, read it again, let it read you. Step into the ebb and flow of it, let it teach you how to be human, how to be. “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart”. . . ."
"All I knew was one sound, not even a word. But then I found my voice.
Or was it God’s? for neither God nor I had ever spoken before.". . .
. . . "This feast is the commitment to life made incarnate. It is the call to see God everywhere, and especially in those places we would not expect to find glory or grace. It is also an obligation to see that everything leads us directly to God, to realize that there is no one, nothing on earth, that is not the way to God for us. The moment we can really look to everyone and everything as a revelation of God, is the time when war, prejudice, and hunger would disappear. Everything would be gift, everyone would be sacred.". . .
"All this would help Jesus remember the saying that “While God waits for the temple to be built of love, people bring stones” and reenforce the later realization of John the Evangelist that Christmas is about how God moves among us in a tent.". . .
"I also know that injustice and war and poverty and hunger will continue to thrive if we do nothing. But if we do what we can, knowing that there are many aspects of the situation beyond our control, we can make progress toward a better world because God is with us, too, helping us to slowly overcome those forces that work against us."
"You may feel guilt at errors and omissions of your life. But dwelling in guilt does not in itself turn your life around to God. You need to give up your sins by giving them to God and letting them go to focus on the business of living your life in God’s unconditional love, as God’s instrument of love in the world. Action is needed for repentance; new action, graced action, love in action. "Love must act as light must shine and fire must burn" as James Huntington, our founder, wrote.". . .
One day God gonna right this wrong. One day God gonna right this wrong. One day God get'cha!
We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.
Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love's light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be.
Yet it is only love which sets us free. . . .Maya Angelou, Touched by an Angel
Sadly, most commentaries and interpreters assume that the master is Jesus and the slaves are disciples and the return is the second coming. I say "sadly" because Jesus as the master here is a serious problem. If Jesus is the master, we have to contend with him in his own voice calling the talent-burying slave "worthless". This kind of entitlement exegesis can reinforce a distorted image of God as one who rewards the successful and damns failure, which is not the gospel.
"You are to interpret to the Church, the world. Not interpret the Church to the world—that’s a very different thing—but interpret the world to the Church. You are to be a voice for the whole messy, broken, beautiful, becoming, hurting, longing world. You, Aidan, as a deacon, are to place your ear against the breast of the world and listen for the heartbeat of God, for the longings of God, and then come back and say “Church, Church, let me tell you what God is doing in the world, what God needs in the world, what the Spirit is up to outside our walls, let me interpret the world to you.”". . .
The darkness drops again, but now I know. That twenty centuries of stony sleep. Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
"Being heard is one kind of power, and being free is another. We have undervalued women’s speech for so long that we run the risk of overburdening it.". . .
"Our Gospel for today’s feast is Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the meek, the poor in spirit, etc.” And the word “blessed” we still apply to saints today, the great exemplary ones—“the Blessed Virgin Mary,” “Blessed James Huntington.” And we get a much better sense of what Jesus was up to with this word if we look at the Aramaic that underlies the New Testament Greek. The word for “blessed” that Jesus would have used in his own language is the Aramaic tubwayhun, which literally means “ripe” or “ready for the picking”—a word from the agrarian culture Jesus grew up in. And when that word is used in reference to people, it can mean mature, integrated, whole, complete.". . .
"Our God is a God of grace, and does not exclude anyone from the Kingdom. We do it to ourselves. We do it every time we struggle with self-condemnation or question whether we’re enough. We exclude ourselves from God’s grace every time we have to be in control, be right, or have all the answers. We do it every time we carry grudges, anger, or resentment. We do it every time we make judgments about others’ belief, choices, or lifestyles. We exclude ourselves from God’s grace every time we let our egos get in the way and we choose not to do the work of reconciliation and healing."
How different things may have been if enough people had refused to go along with what their government was doing. Just because something is legal does not mean that it’s morally right. And today, we hold in esteem those who risked their lives to resist the Nazi regime as heroes. There were several people who resisted, either behind the scenes or directly.
Jesus often made unusual and uncomfortable comparisons in his parables to challenge the assumptions of his listeners. We are as confused, and surprised by this story, as those who first heard it. We don’t know what to do with those scriptures which reverse the rules as we know them, especially challenging our conceptions about who is in and who is out. The temptation is to ignore them, or explain them away. We get the connection between the kingdom and people being invited in from the streets, but then there is the unexpected and extreme behavior of the king toward one of the guests.