Deb Krummel
April 7, 2020
Dear All,
As I sit in prayer this Morning this was sent to me and wanted to share. As we journey holding on to Hope, May your morning be accompanied by the sunrise out of the darkness of night into the morning; Blue of Hope on the horizon, our true sign that the light is coming. Amen
Dear All,
As I sit in prayer this Morning this was sent to me and wanted to share. As we journey holding on to Hope, May your morning be accompanied by the sunrise out of the darkness of night into the morning; Blue of Hope on the horizon, our true sign that the light is coming. Amen
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Dear Sisters,
I received this today from Fr. Luke Mallett. As I read it and pondered SFTJ it struck me to share this with each of you. It is how we began our weekends, doing Lectio Divina. Let us journey together each day taking the time to once again practice Lectio Divina. Chose a verse and listen. Make the space.
Also the Mountain top experiences and the valleys. I encourage each of you to list , “How you have experienced the work of God through Jesus.”
Let us all pray together and know we are not alone.
Sermon:
Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent. Today I strayed from the readings to focus more on the situation of life in which we find ourselves. May God bless you and your families during these difficult times. Please be assured of my prayers for each and every single one of you:
Like many others, I have been really struggling over the past week as I try to adjust to the increasing strictures put into place to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus. The closure of things like gyms and restaurants and churches has completely changed my routine to the point where there is very little that I can do that feels normal. So, I sit in my place trying to find things to do that will entertain me, only to end up feeling even more bored and isolated in the end.
As I was sitting in my place reflecting on this and starting to feel claustrophobic, I was reminded of a visit I once made to the Abbey of St. Scholastica in Subiaco, Italy. This little Abbey is important because it was built over the small cave where St. Benedict once lived for three years straight without leaving. Here I am struggling to entertain myself and feeling claustrophobic when I am surrounded by games and movies and books, while St. Benedict peacefully lived in a cave no bigger than a small cell for three years with nothing to do but pray.
For those of us who might be struggling in this time of social distancing, I think that there is much that we can learn from the example of St. Benedict. He was able to pass the time in his little cave peacefully because he spent it immersed in prayer with God. Some of this time was spent in private prayer with God, some of it was spent praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and some of it was spent in prayerful study of the Scriptures in a method now known as Lectio Divina.
As we know, during the season of Lent we have all been called to enter more ardently into prayer. And so as we are increasingly isolated into our homes, it would be especially appropriate to imitate St. Benedict and turn our homes into little cells of prayer as well. Obviously, most of us are not called to be monks, so I am not implying that we should completely shut off the world around us and give every waking moment of our day over to prayer.
What I am suggesting, however, is that we should all create little spaces in our homes where we can enter into prayer and shut off the distractions of the outside world for at least an hour a day, if not more. This could be done by designating a specific place, or at the very least a specific time, for prayer so that those around us know that we are entering into prayer and should not be disturbed.
For those who don’t already have the habit of prayer, this can be difficult at first. The good thing is that right now, we have all the time in the world to work on it! Routines always help when developing habits, so it is useful to try praying at the same time every day, starting with however long we can last until we slowly build up the ability to pray for longer stretches of time. It is also useful to have something to guide our prayer time, something like the Liturgy of the Hours or Lectio Divina that helps us to slowly reflect on God’s word until something grabs our heart and draws us into silent, prayerful dialogue with God.
Those who enter into this moment of intimate union with God will discover that everything else will drop away, if even only for an instant. We will no longer be sitting on our couch our in our room, but instead find ourselves cast out of our little cell into the infinite expanse of God’s love. This is especially powerful when we are struggling with feeling trapped and restless with nowhere to go and nothing to do. This moment of prayer brings us peace, a peace that remains even when we come out of prayer and return back to the world around us. This peace that surpasses all understanding can help us to understand how someone like St. Benedict could immerse himself into prayer in such a little cave for so long.
Our time of prayer will become for us an anchor of peace in the midst of a chaotic world which is beyond our control. As we experience this great gift, we should want to share it with others as well, especially those with whom we are living. We should want to invite those around us to also take a moment to turn off the tv and the games to enter into quiet prayer with God. Think of the great gift of having a few moments when the entire home is quiet and given over to prayer with God. Think of how much easier it would be to forgive each other for the little frustrations that come from living in tight quarters, if we all come out of our time of prayer filled with peace.
And yet, it is not enough to simply pray alone, for we are also called to pray together as a community. Despite the fact that many of us are currently unable to attend church on the Lord’s Day, we are still called to “keep holy the sabbath.” As I say this, I am reminded of the Israelites when they were in exile. During this time, they initially suffered because the only way that they knew to worship God was to offer sacrifices in the Temple, something that they couldn’t do outside of Jerusalem.
Over time, they realized that during the time of their exile they could also worship God by gathering together to reflect on His word. This later became what we now know as Synagogue worship, a practice which undergirds our tradition of reflecting on God’s word in the Mass. So while we may not be able to join together in our churches at this moment in time, we can still “keep holy the sabbath” by gathering together within our households to reflect on God’s word and share the many ways that God is speaking to us during this time of our own personal exile.
This brings us back to the central point which is that we are all called to make our homes little cells of prayer, a place where we can set aside the distractions of the world to enter into communion with God, both individually and together as families. God willing, none of us will have to live in this new reality for years like St. Benedict did, but we can all take this time as the true opportunity which it is… an opportunity to create new habits of prayer that will bring us peace and carry us through this troubled time, but also a chance to create new habits of prayer that we will carry with us out of this exile into the future.
Dear Sisters,
I received this today from Fr. Luke Mallett. As I read it and pondered SFTJ it struck me to share this with each of you. It is how we began our weekends, doing Lectio Divina. Let us journey together each day taking the time to once again practice Lectio Divina. Chose a verse and listen. Make the space.
Also the Mountain top experiences and the valleys. I encourage each of you to list , “How you have experienced the work of God through Jesus.”
Let us all pray together and know we are not alone.
Sermon:
Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent. Today I strayed from the readings to focus more on the situation of life in which we find ourselves. May God bless you and your families during these difficult times. Please be assured of my prayers for each and every single one of you:
Like many others, I have been really struggling over the past week as I try to adjust to the increasing strictures put into place to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus. The closure of things like gyms and restaurants and churches has completely changed my routine to the point where there is very little that I can do that feels normal. So, I sit in my place trying to find things to do that will entertain me, only to end up feeling even more bored and isolated in the end.
As I was sitting in my place reflecting on this and starting to feel claustrophobic, I was reminded of a visit I once made to the Abbey of St. Scholastica in Subiaco, Italy. This little Abbey is important because it was built over the small cave where St. Benedict once lived for three years straight without leaving. Here I am struggling to entertain myself and feeling claustrophobic when I am surrounded by games and movies and books, while St. Benedict peacefully lived in a cave no bigger than a small cell for three years with nothing to do but pray.
For those of us who might be struggling in this time of social distancing, I think that there is much that we can learn from the example of St. Benedict. He was able to pass the time in his little cave peacefully because he spent it immersed in prayer with God. Some of this time was spent in private prayer with God, some of it was spent praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and some of it was spent in prayerful study of the Scriptures in a method now known as Lectio Divina.
As we know, during the season of Lent we have all been called to enter more ardently into prayer. And so as we are increasingly isolated into our homes, it would be especially appropriate to imitate St. Benedict and turn our homes into little cells of prayer as well. Obviously, most of us are not called to be monks, so I am not implying that we should completely shut off the world around us and give every waking moment of our day over to prayer.
What I am suggesting, however, is that we should all create little spaces in our homes where we can enter into prayer and shut off the distractions of the outside world for at least an hour a day, if not more. This could be done by designating a specific place, or at the very least a specific time, for prayer so that those around us know that we are entering into prayer and should not be disturbed.
For those who don’t already have the habit of prayer, this can be difficult at first. The good thing is that right now, we have all the time in the world to work on it! Routines always help when developing habits, so it is useful to try praying at the same time every day, starting with however long we can last until we slowly build up the ability to pray for longer stretches of time. It is also useful to have something to guide our prayer time, something like the Liturgy of the Hours or Lectio Divina that helps us to slowly reflect on God’s word until something grabs our heart and draws us into silent, prayerful dialogue with God.
Those who enter into this moment of intimate union with God will discover that everything else will drop away, if even only for an instant. We will no longer be sitting on our couch our in our room, but instead find ourselves cast out of our little cell into the infinite expanse of God’s love. This is especially powerful when we are struggling with feeling trapped and restless with nowhere to go and nothing to do. This moment of prayer brings us peace, a peace that remains even when we come out of prayer and return back to the world around us. This peace that surpasses all understanding can help us to understand how someone like St. Benedict could immerse himself into prayer in such a little cave for so long.
Our time of prayer will become for us an anchor of peace in the midst of a chaotic world which is beyond our control. As we experience this great gift, we should want to share it with others as well, especially those with whom we are living. We should want to invite those around us to also take a moment to turn off the tv and the games to enter into quiet prayer with God. Think of the great gift of having a few moments when the entire home is quiet and given over to prayer with God. Think of how much easier it would be to forgive each other for the little frustrations that come from living in tight quarters, if we all come out of our time of prayer filled with peace.
And yet, it is not enough to simply pray alone, for we are also called to pray together as a community. Despite the fact that many of us are currently unable to attend church on the Lord’s Day, we are still called to “keep holy the sabbath.” As I say this, I am reminded of the Israelites when they were in exile. During this time, they initially suffered because the only way that they knew to worship God was to offer sacrifices in the Temple, something that they couldn’t do outside of Jerusalem.
Over time, they realized that during the time of their exile they could also worship God by gathering together to reflect on His word. This later became what we now know as Synagogue worship, a practice which undergirds our tradition of reflecting on God’s word in the Mass. So while we may not be able to join together in our churches at this moment in time, we can still “keep holy the sabbath” by gathering together within our households to reflect on God’s word and share the many ways that God is speaking to us during this time of our own personal exile.
This brings us back to the central point which is that we are all called to make our homes little cells of prayer, a place where we can set aside the distractions of the world to enter into communion with God, both individually and together as families. God willing, none of us will have to live in this new reality for years like St. Benedict did, but we can all take this time as the true opportunity which it is… an opportunity to create new habits of prayer that will bring us peace and carry us through this troubled time, but also a chance to create new habits of prayer that we will carry with us out of this exile into the future.
