Cor Unum Abbey

                  Compassionate . . . powerful . . . wise . . . patient . . .

                  These lovely attributes belong to God, and we see them, but we seldom turn our regard to His beauty.

                  We see and appreciate and admire, greatly admire, His creation, but HIS BEAUTY … let’s make it our constant aim to see Him as He is, and He is beautiful.

                  On earth, the prophet Isaiah tells us that Jesus was not the most handsome, eye-catching of men.

                  We don’t imagine that, even in heaven, we will be above all impressed with how “good looking” He is, when we are at last face-to-face with His power and wisdom and goodness and love, but we won’t be unimpressed, either! Oh, no! He is BEAUTIFUL, and with all else that will take our breath away, we will see His beauty.

                  We might say that His goodness and mercy and wisdom and strength and love are BEAUTIFUL, and indeed they are, but considering that He made all that we see that is of surpassing beauty on the earth, all His beautiful attributes will be matched by His . . . beauty . . . His handsomeness . . . His “comeliness.”

                  What would it be, here in Cor Unum, to seek and to see the “beauty of the Lord” as it is revealed to us, today?

                  It’s a lovely challenge.

Head of Jesus

Enrique Simonet, by permission, Wikipedia

public domain in the U.S.

                  “One thing have I desired of the Lord . . . that will I seek after.” Psalm 27:4

                  Without doubt, the strength of the cloistered life is FOCUS. The monastic left life in the world in order to obtain a more saturated life in Christ and to have as much of Him as one life can hold.

                  Some nuns focus on worship and some upon contemplation and some upon oneness, but all are focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ and lives lived with Him and in Him.

                  Without doubt, the reason we are here together in Cor Unum is FOCUS. While we live in the world, we are not “of it” either, and we are determined that we, too, shall and have as much of God as one life can hold.

The fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 29, tells us that if we seek the Lord with all our hearts, we will find him. In Cor Unum we have left ourselves no excuse. He knew that some of us would be married, that some would have children and that most would have to work for a living. So . . . we seek Him in and through our marriages, our parenting, and our labor among the sons of men. We know that can find Him there! He instituted all of those entities!

What is it worth to us to FIND GOD? We agree that we are already as “saved” as we’re going to be; what is it worth to us to “find Him” and never let Him go? Clearly, part of the worth of finding Him is this . . . by the time we do, we will have become whole-hearted in the search! That is a superpassing-good thing in itself, and it is our destiny.

The Novice, by Elmore

public domain 

                  We have studied the practice of Lectio Divina as it is instituted in many convents and monasteries worldwide. There are several methods of practice, quite a few in fact, and any method will serve as long as it brings us to our reading as though God were speaking to us, reading with us, pointing out the things in Scripture that we particularly need to see.

                  The all-important aspect of Lectio, as the nuns call it, is the interaction between God and His Word and the one who participates. They consider, as we must if we stop to think about it, that since this is a living Word, God is speaking, and we must listen carefully. If God reveals wisdom, we must treat it as silver and gold. If God commands, we must . . . and we can . . . obey!

                  It is reasonable to guess that one reason Christians do not read their Bibles more than they do is not because they do not have an understanding of these things, but because THEY DO.  If the Word of God is alive, and if the Lord will accomplish all His Word, we might shy away.  There are so many accounts of God’s judgment in there!  There is highlight of our sinful condition on nearly every page!  

                  Ah yes, my beloved Sisters, but written over all is the “paid in full” notice of our redemption!  Reading with the Lord, we see our condition, but we see His as well … the unspeakable generosity and mercy of a Father who loved us enough to send His Son to take our place in death.  We see the obedience of His Son, His willingness to be made sin for us that we might be made righteous before the Father He loves.  We see that love does obey, but obedience isn’t grievous – it is unfailing, unending joy.  Unless we know His mercy and grace toward us, unless we trust His redemption and the plans He has for us, we won’t read.  We might see something we won’t like in this immutable Word.  Yet if we will not hear, we cannot know how truly free we are, free even to suffer for Jesus’ sake and to count it all joy.

                    I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. (1 John 2:21)

                     In Lectio, the young postulant who reads the words above will soon read these as well:

                     Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. (John 13:17)

                      Lectio is reading at God’s knee.

                  It is time for a little “abbatial imagining,” once again.

                  Let’s imagine that we are in the middle of our fifth month in the abbey. We came in at the start of the year, we learned our way around in the cold of winter, while the days were short and the Divine Office was hyphenated with coughs and sneezes.

                  Now the early spring rains have greened all the trees and shrubs and brought flower stalks to the ready and the first roses into bud. The abbey is at its freshest; the professed nuns are full of after-Easter readiness toward the duties and delights of spring and summer.

                  To the new postulants however, the craving for “down time” is nearly endemic! The Abbess sees and knows, and she prescribes walks around the cloister garden. She schedules extra work details among the rows of new vegetable sprouts. The Choir Mistress introduces a selection of ancient motets to be made ready and performed at the end-of-summer concert.

                  All the while, those who have been inside the Abbey walls for many spring seasons know that nothing “works” as well as the work of devotion; nothing works as well as not leaving. The younger nuns are fitting their hearts to devotion, and after all, that is why they came.

                  We do the same, here In Cor Unum Abbey.  As we “stay,” we begin to see that all things do indeed work together for good for those of us who love Him, and the greater part of that good is that in all things we learn to know Him better and trust Him more implicitly.   Hope leafs out and begins to bud, and the blossoming of hope never disappoints.

                  There is an eternal spring in the souls of those who want nothing more than they want the nearness of God.

John 12:45, 46 … “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.  He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.

                  Having seen what Moses saw, having come to know that God is WORTHY to reclaim all that has been lost, that He is worthy to make something of nothing and that He alone can do so, that all glory belongs to Him, we can see this about ourselves . . . we don’t have to be “stiff-necked” anymore!

It is not just that we should be humble or ought to yield to God, but that we MAY! We do not need to buffer our lives against the eventualities of life when His eye is upon us and He holds the seas in the palm of His hand!   Many of the “eventualities” and circumstances of life that have wounded others can be circumvented as we listen to God and do just as He says. Other matters will come to our address, but the Name of the Lord will be on the envelope, whether persecutions (in which we rejoice), tribulations, (in which He has overcome on our behalf), or distresses (in which we are more than conquerors!) … Matthew 5:11, 12 … John 16:33 … Romans 8:35-39

Would we rather maintain our rights . . . or acquire His righteousness? Would we rather bequeath to our children faith or fear? Would we rather fall upon the rock or have the rock fall upon us? It is an evil effect in every generation that whispers that the humble soul will be trod down, like a “doormat.” The reality of humility will be for us as it was for Moses … we shall see God!

In Cor Unum, the humble soul is the one that confronts a difficulty in the Presence of God, asks for directions at His Throne, and follows through IN THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST (Galatians 2:20,) which has been given to those who believe.

The Scripture tells us that Moses had paramount meekness among men. One would be hard-pressed to find another man with this degree of strength, leadership, vitality, or success. Certainly none knew God as Moses did in his day. None sought God as he did, although Joshua was following in his steps.

If this is what meekness did for Moses, we need more of it!

Abbey photo

                  When Moses asked to see the Lord, the most astounding part of the incident was that he had just been offered all the glories of earth. He chose instead, a glimpse of God.

                  In the 32^nd chapter of Exodus, the stubborn rebellion of Israel had endured for so long that the Lord God Almighty said He would be finished with them and give their place to Moses and his sons. But Moses would not go for it! Can we imagine this?

                  Moses’ cry to the Lord reveals something so exceedingly marvelous that we can scarce take it in! He said that it must not be that the nations all around should think for one moment that God could not BRING IN to the land the people He had BROUGHT OUT of Egypt. He asked instead, he besought God, that He would go with them, that they should not go forth without the Lord, at all.

                  Look, beloved! Do we see it?

                  It was shortly thereafter that Moses asked, “Show me your glory!” . . . but rightly understood, this man, meekest among all men, had already seen the aspect of God that we ought to long to behold; Moses saw that God is worthy to finish what He has begun. He is worthy to make a great nation of a stubborn and stiff-necked people. God does all things well. He never fails. The most important part of His life and nature to us is, that He goes before us, and His Presence goes with us.  Just what Moses wanted!  

                  We can see what Moses saw, no matter how dark the days, no matter how long the night.

  As we ride out days of uncertainty, read headlines flaunting difficulties and tragedies, and when we experience numbing adversity, we begin to notice those bright rays of advancing majesty.

                  The Scripture tells us that God hides in canopies of darkness and rides on its wings on His way to our deliverance. Every cloud has a silver lining? It’s far more real than we ever dreamed.

                  Every shadow is the mist that comes between us and the light.

                  The clouds that roll in might envelope us for a season, but they never actually diminish God’s glory, and like the fog, no matter how thick and grey it may be at dawn, the sun burns it away. The glory of God . . . His lovingkindness and faithfulness and mercy, as Moses saw Him . . . will shine through.

In this monastery, we begin to look for what we want to see, not because of wishful thinking or transcendental mind games, but because in Cor Unum what we want to see is there, always there, never leaving us or forsaking us. All things are being summed up in Jesus Christ, and He shines.