For today we are taking a moment to remember that Jesus told us how to find the “work of God.”  It is, He said, “to believe on the One whom He has sent.”  (John 6:29)  That is our vocation, and it is a worthy one indeed!  As we live out our lives in the Abbey of our souls, we will discover simple, happy, effective ways of laying aside every sin and weight that would keep us from running this divine race, the goal of which is CHRIST!

Here in Cor Unum, we believe that God can be known, that He wants to be known, and that the knowledge of God will ever be our strength and our fulfillment in life, wherever life leads us.  God leads us, in life, into His Son, our Lord.

Inside these walls, you won’t miss the will of God, even while you hold down a demanding job, fulfill civic obligations, drive children to sports and practices, fold clothes, wash dishes, love your husband, or, as many women have found even more difficult, as you face another day alone and without even the anchor of work and obligation.  Postulants and novices are we all; tomorrow, we will take a look at the one and only vow that obligates us to try this holy vocation.

Toward that end, we are beginning the New Year with a project.  It was introduced first to a young man in prison by a minister who visited there.  He challenged the inmates who came to hear him speak to get hold of a Bible and read through the Gospels five times.   That’s all.  One of them, at least, took him up on it.  The minister had told them that, on his own third reading of the life and the very words of Jesus Christ, his life had been changed forever.  The inmate, a very young man with quite a long sentence, who had been raised in the church, said that on the third reading, his life, too, underwent a change so dramatic that today he is the pastor of a thriving church “on the outside.”  He’s still young, but he speaks powerfully of the Person of God.

It is that Person Whom we seek.  In the Song of Solomon, the Shunnamite could not rest until she found the one her soul loved, (3:4.)  There is a pursuit, and there is a discovery and a very great reward.  We all hope that during the year ahead, inside these cyber walls, that we will find Him, and toward that end, we set ourselves to settle for nothing less.  We will remember and we will determine that nothing less, no amount of involvement and no degree of happy feeling will take the place of True God.  Having found Him, we will have true love for others, true peace, the kind that passes understanding, and true hope, which never disappoints.  (Romans 5:5)

Even so, with benefits marvelous and eternal, it is Jesus we seek, Jesus for His own sake, Jesus Himself.  If that is the desire of your heart, or the desire you want to see rule in your heart, you have come to the right cloister.  Five times through His life of earth, hearing every recorded word that He spoke, seeking Him, looking for Him, hearing His voice … author and pastor, Francis Frangipane says that the only difference between the us and the disciples was that they had three and a half years of undiluted Jesus.  We here in Cor Unum will find a way, many ways, and all by His own provision, to come just as close.

After all, we have His Spirit, and that is close indeed.
Red-Headed Woman in the Garden of M. Foret

Toulouse Lautrec, public domain and by permission Continue Reading