Redwoods Vocation Blog

Abide in my Love

2012-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sr Kathy in her chapter talk today spoke on living out the love of Christ in community. She applies today's Gospel reading to everyday situations. Sr Kathy describes a different sort of heroism that often goes unnoticed. That of suffering love that dies to my own desires and needs of the moment. This is the love of Christ which connects us to His Heart.

Monastic Experience Weekend for Young Women

2012-05-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

May 31, 2012 - June 3rd, 2012

This is an opportunity to listen deeply for God's voice as you experience the richness of monastic life: silence, the beauty of nature, private and communal prayer, and meditation. Sisters will be available to guide discernment.

The schedule includes participation in the monastic hours of prayer, Eucharist, and meditation with the sisters in the monastic choir. There will be conferences on prayer and monastic spirituality as well as time for hikes in our old growth redwood forests as weather and time permit. Meals will be taken with the sisters and lodging is in the Guest House. Some time for manual labor may also be included.

For more information contact Sr Suzanne,

vocationdirector@redwoodsabbey.org

The Risen Christ in Community

2012-04-23T11:14:00.001-07:00

Holy Week and the Pascal Vigil are the most significant times in the monastic calendar. We enter into Christ's passion, death and resurrection through the liturgy. During Holy Week, we witness the Lord's betrayal as well as the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. We engage Christ on his way to the Cross and then behold and praise Him as the Risen Lord at Easter. There is no room for a passive observer in this liturgy. We are engaged as persons, as community, and as disciples. We are challenged in our weaknesses and sins, forgiven in ultimate sacrifice of His Love and reborn in the Pascal Light.

This video shows some of highlights from our Holy Week and Easter liturgies. It opens with the lighting of candles during the Wednesday Tenebrae liturgy and then progresses to Holy Thursday Footwashing and moves into the Easter Vigil. The voice you hear is Abbot Peter McCarthy from Guadalupe Abbey in Lafayette Oregon. This is a recording of a homily he gave on the Second Sunday of Easter.

Lent - a time for repentance

2012-03-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

In this talk, Sister Kathy discusses interior dispositions of repentance. Commenting on the teachings of St John Chrysostom, 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople, Sr Kathy explains St John's four paths to repentance in terms we can readily understand and put into practice in our everyday lives.

Candlemas at Redwoods

2012-02-23T15:06:00.001-08:00

Watch highlights of our liturgical celebration of the Feast of the Presentation, celebrated on February 2. It is a feast that commemorates Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple for the Rite of Purification in accordance with the Law of Moses. At the Temple, Christ is recognized by the Simeon and Anna. The Song of Simeon (Luke 2:22-35 ) is often sung at Compline, the last Office of prayer of the day. "And now Lord, you may let your servant go in peace for with my own eyes I have seen your salvation." We like Simeon and Anna wait for the Lord, the light of the nations.

A Message of Hope

2012-01-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

It always seems as though the Christmas season ends so quickly. What do we take with us into the New Year? I think it is the message of hope. The following video is a passage from the prophet Zephaniah read beautifully by Sr Karen during one of our Christmas liturgies. My prayer is that we can listen deeply and live this word of Scripture in the New Year in order to share God's joy with all those we meet.

Advent - a time of expectant waiting

2011-12-01T11:22:00.001-08:00

Holy Anticipation

that breathtaking

space in-between

what has been

what is

what is to come (Pamela Hawkins, Weavings, Vol XXVII)

Sr Kathy gives a Chapter Talk on the meaning of Advent for us at Redwoods Monastery and for the world. Advent invites into this Holy Anticipation and Attention in order to experience "what new gesture of love God is waiting to gift us with."

Chapter Talk for the Feast of the Assumption

2011-09-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

The Assumption of Mary is the Patronal Feast of our order, Cistercians of the Strict Observance. Every monastery in our Order is dedicated to her. Many of our Offices have hymns and special invocations to her. The Salve Regina sung every Compline (Late evening prayer). Why is she so important to monastics? Who is the Mother of God? How can we know her and how does she reveal herself to us. Why was she assumed into heaven and what significance does it have? What special grace of hers we can imitate? Sr Kathy discusses these questions in the the following talk given on the Feast of the Assumption.

Feast of St Bernard

2011-08-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) is undoubtedly the most famous Cistercian monk and abbot. His influence was felt throughout Europe and even into the Holy Land. He is judged harshly for his involvement in preaching the Crusades, but is loved by many monastics past and present for his writings in which he reveals and teaches a way of affective union with Christ, the Beloved. Here are some excepts from writings:

The psalmist says: "seek God's face." Not, I think , will the soul cease to seek God even when she has found God. It is not with steps of the feet that God is sought, but with the heart's desire. And, when the soul happily finds God, her desire is not quenched but kindled. Does consummation of joy bring about the consuming of desire? Rather it is oil poured on the flames. So it is. Joy will be fulfilled, but there will be no end to desire and, therefore, no end to the search. Think, if you can, of this eagerness to see God as not caused by God's absence, for God is always present. And think of the desire for God as without fear of failure, for grace is abundantly present. (quoted from The Spiritual Teachings of Bernard of Clairvaux, p 114)

So the soul returns and is converted to the Word to be reformed by him and conformed to him. In what way? In Charity - in love. Such conformity weds the soul to the Word, for one who is like the Word by nature shows herself like him too in the exercise of her will, loving as she is loved. When she loves perfectly, the soul is wedded to the Word..... Truly this is a spiritual contract, a holy marriage. It is more that a contract, it is an embrace. An embrace where identity of will makes of two, one spirit. (St Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Song 83:23)

Feast of St Benedict

2011-07-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

This Chapter talk was given by Sister Kathy on the Feast of St Benedict, July 11th. I am endebted to Sr Edith OSB's Flickr account for the pictures of frescoes from Subiaco Italy. The frescoes portray the life of St Benedict, often within the context of his relationship with his twin sister, Scholastica. These intimate details of Benedict's life are based on The Life of Benedict, by Gregory the Great written in the 6th century. There are many English translations.

Sr Kathy mentions in the talk, the Rule of St Benedict, written by St Benedict. She begins with a quote from Fr. Christophe, a monk of Tiberine, Algeria, who was one of the Atlas martyrs featured in the movie Of Gods and Men. The book of homilies Sr Kathy mentions is only available in French at the current time.

A Chapter Talk on Trinity Sunday

2011-06-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

In this Chapter talk, Sr Kathy focuses on the Trinitarian dynamics of self-emptying love, communion and relatedness as pattern for all human relationships. Inspired Gateway to Resurrection by Sr Maria Boulding OSB and The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, Sr Kathy comments on the meaning and relevance of Trinitarian relationship in our human life. She ends with a quote from the 12th Century Cistercian, William of Thierry from his treatise On Contemplating God.

Sayings on Silence

2011-06-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hesychia, Blessed Silence

This icon is Hesychia, Blessed Silence, an angel that represents Christ with the qualities of Sophia, Holy Wisdom . It speaks to that interior movement of the mind into heart where we meet God in the deepest form of prayer. This is the place where Christ tells us to “Go into your room, shut the door and pray…” (Matthew 6:6)

Since silence is such a foundational value to our life of prayer, we had several community meetings at Redwoods to discuss our monastic practice of it. The following are some sayings taken from our discussions:

The practice of silence is not to be restrictive but expansive of God’s life within our hearts and within the heart of community
To keep silent …. In order to stay in touch with God and the ways which He calls forth an ever deepening communion
In silence and simplicity we live at the center of our call to be authentic witnesses of the Cistercian monastic life.
Silence is needed for listening to both: outer messages as well as to the deep inner ones.
Silence – stillness – inwardly and outwardly restores the balance or harmony in oneself.
Silence is an ingredient for prayer and meditation, human attentiveness and relatedness.
Simplicity is the absence of things that gives the fullness of beauty
We can try to create an atmosphere that is conducive to interiority, but it is mostly Grace and gift
Mindfulness – returning to God from thoughts, distractions to the center again and again…
I need to work on being in the present moment, watching my thoughts and motivations and importuning God’s grace when I am caught in irritations, judgments and reactions.
Do whatever work with the intention (manual labor) that it will glorify God
This value of silence gives us authentic simplicity. With the manifestation of interiority tour monastic rhythm is held in the groundedness of the Cross that frees us, little by little.

If you are interested in a good book on the practice of contemplative silence in the Christian tradition, Martin Laird, Into the Silent Land, Oxford University Press, 2006

We are all Sheep

2011-05-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

Below are notes from Abbot Peter's homily on the 4th Sunday of Easter. Dom Peter is our Father Immediate from the monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lafayette Oregon. The occasion of this homily was the close of our Regular Visitation. Each Cistercian monastery is visited every 2 years by an Abbot and sometimes an Abbess from another monastery of our Order. Visitations are usually pastoral in nature. Fr Peter stresses here that our "lived experience" as monks and nuns is that we are sheep - in a very redeeming sense.

The earliest or depiction of Jesus – a fragmented fresco - in one of the oldest churches in Rome is of Jesus, The Shepherd. This image captured the imagination and inclination of the primitive Christian community. Why? Because they knew shepherds and so the image was very much alive for them! If you have ever spoken to a shepherd – you will quickly realize his focus – his life – is all about the experience of sheep! (Here Fr Peter talked about a monk, Br. John, who was a shepherd at Guadalupe Abbey) The lived experience of caring for sheep is that the sheep are forever straying – forever going the wrong way – forever getting themselves caught in dangerous situations. And that they are great whiners.

And so in this next verbal primitive portrait of the early Christian community, our second reading, Peter reflects, “For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:25) Remember Jesus’ image of the shepherd going after that one lost sheep finding him and holding him tenderly in his arms. This, my Brothers and Sisters, is the “the shepherd and guardian of our souls” - of who we really are. Recall Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel (John 10: 1-10): the shepherd "calls his own sheep by name" and "the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice."

Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he lifts up- untroubled - and holds tenderly in his arms “who” you really are. He calls you by name. He is the guardian of your soul.

This image of Jesus, the Shepherd, whether in the Gospel or in the fresco, says in the words of Jean Vanier that “Jesus reveals himself to the little and the wounded and to the exalted of us to the extent that we accept that we are little and wounded.” The Shepherd liberates us from the prison of our egoisms and the prison of our comforts, from the prison of convention which prevents us from living as free human beings and being loved as children of God.

Now the image of sheep and therefore the image of shepherd haunts Cistercian spirituality – in the past and today. Our vow of Conversatio Morum means “WE ARE SHEEP.“ (Fr Peter is referring to the Cistercian Vow of Conversion of Manners)

Conversion – at least in this particular context, is not a precondition to monastic life - it is the monk’s life. There are no righteous works (WE ARE ALL SHEEP) and the monastic journey is always a journey of conversion. Each day a discovery of being lost and found and being lifted into the strong – tender arms of the Good Shepherd and returning to the fold!

It’s true – God favors Lost Sheep – the Shepherd does have favorites. But that includes all of us.

I will end with these words from Mother Benedict Thissen, (Cistercian Abbess of Berkel)
“The way of conversion is not situated on a moral level, which is a correction of behavior from outside and has no relationship with our real feelings and emotions, no relationship with our soul. The way of conversion is not merely situated on a psychological level, where problems are tried to be solved and behavior is approached intellectually…
What then is the way of conversion? Conversion asks a turn-about , a turn to the inner self to all that is going on in there and that is stored in there, a very patient and attentive listening… It is the way of becoming really incarnated, to be and to become this unique person I am called to be and to become.”

The Triduum at Redwoods

2011-04-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our celebration of the Triduum on Holy Thursday began with the following chapter talk from Sr Kathy, Abbess of Redwoods. Her talk set the tone for the 3 day Triduum where we relived with Jesus his passion, death, and resurrection. Guests of the monastery were invited to participate in all the liturgies. Our main celebrant was Fr Casey our brother from Guadalupe Abbey in Lafayette Oregon.

T'he School of Jesus

2011-04-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

Lent is a journey, it means accompanying Jesus who goes up to Jerusalem, the place of the fulfilment of his mystery of Passion, death and Resurrection; it reminds us that Christian life is a “way” to take, not so much consistent with a law to observe as with the very Person of Christ, to encounter, to welcome, to follow. Benedict XVI, Ash Wednesday Address

In his Ash Wednesday address, Pope Benedict goes on to explain the importance of Liturgy as a means to make present the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He calls the liturgy "the School of Jesus," where "Christ makes himself present through the power of the Holy Spirit and these saving events become real."

This same power and presence is the foundation of the monastic Liturgy of the Hours. At Vigils, we keep watch for the Messiah in all His comings - Past - Present - Future. The psalms we recite recall the longings of ancient Israel. In prayer and meditation, we commune with His presence in our hearts. And we stay awake so that we may be ready for His return.

With the dawn (Lauds), we greet the rising of the sun and celebrate the arrival of the Savior by singing the Canticle of Zachary (Benedictus):which describes the loving kindness of the heart of God as "a dawn from on high." During the prayer at noon (Sext or Midday) we chant the psalms of ascent. These are ancient psalms that have been sung by Jewish pilgrims as they go up to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals. At evening prayer (Vespers), we sing with Mary, the Mother of God, her Magnificat and recount God's mercy and plan of salvation.

At Compline, the day is complete. We end the prayer with a blessing from the Abbess and remember the words of Simeon, " Now Lord, you may let your servant go in peace, for with my own eyes, I have seen your salvation."

This is the rhythm of the Divine Office which forms us into monks and nuns. During a liturgical season, such as Lent, prayers, hymns, readings, and antiphons become even more centered on Jesus and draw us deeper into His life. A good example of this is a common Cistercian hymn often sung at noon prayer. "The hour it is when Christ did thirst, for Justice thirsted on a tree. His lips were slaked by no relief - except a poor man's psalm of grief." The hymn works in us because it is noon, the time of day that tradition commemorates the beginning of Christ's passion. It is Lent, we have been fasting and we are hungry and maybe a little thirsty. The liturgy invites us to unite our own experience, which has been structured by our monastic schedule, with the experience of Christ. At the same time we are the monastic choir, singing psalms - so we also take on the role of the "poor man", the one who agonized with Christ at His hour of suffering.

As we come nearer to Holy Week, may we make time to experience this school of Jesus, attending liturgies not only in church but also in the prayer of the heart. May the living Jesus touch us all very specially this Lent.

Sr Claire remembers the brothers of Tibhirine

2011-03-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sr Claire, Novice Director at Redwoods Monastery, reflects on the movie, Of Gods and Men and her personal remembrances of the brothers.

Have you heard about the movie: “Of Gods and Men”?

It is about our Cistercian brothers in the monastery of Tibhirine, in Algeria. They lived the simple everydayness of Cistercian life: a life that combines prayer, lectio, manual work and community in a daily rhythm. Each one had chosen Tibhirine, Algeria as a way to share their love and respect for the Muslim people and for Algeria. The brothers lived in harmony with the people of the surrounding village, in their joys and sadness, and created a work-cooperative with them for farming and vegetable gardening that deepened into a kind of inter- religious dialogue. It was a vocation within their monastic vocation.

In the nineties the civil war broke out in Algeria. In this difficult context, they walked a narrow path of love and non-violence between those they called the brothers of the plain (the Algerian Army) and the brothers of the mountain (the extremists), both as individuals and as a community.

The movie shows the process of their struggles that eventually resolved into the peaceful consent of following Christ who loves us until the end. They are witnesses of this unconditional love of God for each of us, entrusting who they were to the God of Mercy. “Love hopes all things, endures all things” as the prior encourages Br Christopher overwhelmed by his fears. It is this way of Christ, love poured out, that is so powerfully expressed. In one of the last scenes of the movie, in a Eucharistic symbol, they share the wine of the Kingdom around the same table of their daily meetings. In a profound and deep peace, they consent to what may happen.

This story is true and a lot is still to be discovered and received from this human and divine drama. I met 2 of the real monks: Br Paul in January 1994, just 3 weeks after the first visit of the GIA at Christmas night. “If the GIA came to us again, there is nothing to be done; we cannot escape” he told me with a disarming simplicity and goodness. He was aware of the reality of the situation and accepted it.

I met also Br Christian, during a seminar on Islam. He was a man of interiority, prayer and peace, totally given to God; one could not be but impressed by his deep way of smiling and his prayerful presence to everyone.

His prayer each day had become: “Lord, disarm me, disarm them,” knowing that violence, fear and rejection start in our hearts. He too was conscious of where his yes could lead him and his community, forgiving beforehand the one who could kill him. With a calm and bass/low voice, he shared what his community was going through.

They are our brothers who opened the way before us. Let us receive their witness of faith, hope and love as we too journey towards a full consent of who we are, loved to the extreme, and choosing to be like them “lovers of all”, in our ordinary life where sometimes the extraordinary invites itself.

If you like to reflect more on these lives, 2 books are worthwhile:

John Kiser The Monks of Tibhirine

Bernardo Olivera: How far to follow? The monks of Atlas, Cistercian Publication, CS 197

Of Gods and Men

2011-03-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Fifteen years ago on March 26, 1996, our brothers at the Trappist Abbey of Tibhirine in Algeria were kidnapped. Two months later, on May 21st, they were killed, caught in the deadly strife between terrorist forces and the Algerian army. Of Gods and Men tells their story - their interior struggles as well as their love of the Algerian people. The movie portrays our brothers as the ordinary monks that they were however extraordinary their circumstances and shows the sanctity of their call to be Christ's life and love in the world. I highly recommend it. http://www.sonyclassics.com/ofgodsandmen/

Fr Christian's Testament - Prior of Our Lady of Atlas in Tibhirine Algeria

This testament was composed by Dom Christian de Cherge in Algiers, December 1, 1993 and produced in Tibhirine, January 1, 1994. It was opened on Pentecost Sunday, 1996, shortly after the monks were killed.

If it should happen one day—and it could be today—that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to encompass all the foreigners in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to this country. To accept that the One Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure. I would like them to pray for me: how worthy would I be found of such an offering?

I would like them to be able to associate this death with so many other equally violent ones allowed to fall into the indifference of anonymity. My life has no more value than any other. Nor any less value. In any case, it has not the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I share in the evil which seems, alas, to prevail in the world, and even in that which would strike me blindly. I should like, when the time comes, to have a space of lucidity which would enable me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down.

I could not desire such a death. It seems to me important to state this. I don’t see, in fact, how I could rejoice if the people I love were indiscriminately accused of my murder. It would be too high a price to pay for what will be called, perhaps, the “grace of martyrdom” to owe this to an Algerian, whoever he may be, especially if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.

I know the contempt in which Algerians taken as a whole can be engulfed. I know, too, the caricatures of Islam which encourage a certain idealism. It is too easy to give oneself a good conscience in identifying this religious way with the fundamentalist ideology of its extremists. For me, Algeria and Islam is something different. It is a body and a soul. I have proclaimed it often enough, I think, in view of and in the knowledge of what I have received from it, finding there so often that true strand of the Gospel learned at my mother’s knee, my very first Church, precisely in Algeria, and already respecting believing Muslims.

My death, obviously, will appear to confirm those who hastily judged me naive or idealistic: “Let him tell us now what he thinks of it!” But these must know that my insistent curiosity will then be set free. This is what I shall be able to do, if God wills: Immerse my gaze in that of the Father, to contemplate with Him His children of Islam as He sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ, fruit of His Passion, filled with the Gift of the Spirit whose secret joy will always be to establish communion and to refashion the likeness, playing with the differences.

This life lost, totally mine and totally theirs, I thank God who seems to have wished it entirely for the sake of that JOY in and in spite of everything. In this THANK YOU which is said for everything in my life, from now on, I certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today, and you, O my friends of this place, besides my mother and father, my sisters and brothers and their families, a hundredfold as was promised!

And you too, my last minute friend, who will not know what you are doing, Yes, for you too I say this THANK YOU AND THIS “A-DIEU”-—to commend you to this God in whose face I see yours. And may we find each other, happy “good thieves” in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both. . . AMEN!

The Mission of our Monastery

2011-03-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

Sr Kathy, the abbess of Redwoods Monastery, talks about the mission of our monastery, contemplative prayer, the hidden life and inner transformation.

Feast of Our Founders: Robert Alberic and Stephan

2011-02-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

Last month we celebrated the Feast of the Founders of our Order, Robert, Alberic, and Stephan Harding. These men left the wealthy and powerful Benedictine monastery of Molesme in France and founded the monastery of Citeaux in Dijon in 1098. They sought a deserted place in the wilderness where they could more fully enter into a life of continual prayer and silence and embrace values of poverty and simplicity. They heard a call and they followed their vision.

In 1939, a man by the name of Bob Usher, a Hollywood art director and set designer was driving through the Lost Coast area of Northern California and saw loggers cutting down ancient redwoods. He immediately stopped the car, told the loggers to stop cutting. He was buying the property. He heard a voice and obeyed it.

In the late 50's walking in his beloved redwoods, Bob Usher heard an audible voice tell him to give the property to the Church. Because of this locution, he contacted the Bishop who approached the Trappists (Cistercians of the Strict Observance)about the idea of beginning a new monastery. The Cistercian Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth in Belgium had just discerned that they would wanted to begin a new foundation. So they came to the wilderness area of the Lost Coast in California, founding Our Lady of the Redwoods. Bob Usher joined the New Clairvaux Monastery in Vina California.

These are all stories of people who heard calls and followed them. We are thankful for their courage, vision and fidelity. We are also deeply connected to them. Times change - but the deep desire to live God's call more authentically does not.

The Divine Child and Spiritual Motherhood

2011-01-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

As I look back over the series of Ordo’s* that marked this Advent and Christmas Season, I am amazed at the wealth and depth of the liturgical seasons. This is a unique grace of living in a monastery and one that is not as readily available in the busy world outside the monastery. In the monastery, we live the life of Christ in the liturgy. We long for his presence in Advent, we celebrate his birth with the Holy Family, Shepherds and Maji during the Christmas Season, and now we experience His Baptism and the coming of salvation for all human kind. The daily liturgical hours bath us in the holy remembrance of Christ’s life and Spirit. It is the primary way monastics fulfill the precept of St Paul to “put on the Mind of Christ.” Through this constant contact, we hope to be transformed into His Presence and Light for our world.

This past Advent and Christmas our liturgy was filled with references to the Divine Birth and Spiritual Motherhood. According to ancient monastic tradition, we are mothers not because of our gender, but because of our vocation. We, like the Mother of God, are Christ Bearers. Every Cistercian monastery is dedicated to Our Lady. She is the model of the ideal monk because she is the Mother of God and spent her life contemplating these things in her heart. And while she birthed Christ once in the flesh, Mary continually gave birth to Him in the spirit through her prayer and contemplation. Blessed Geurric of Igny (12th century Cistercian Abbot) has this to say, “For she who conceived God by faith promises you the same if you have faith; if you will faithfully received the Word from the mouth of the heavenly messenger you too may conceive the God whom the whole world cannot contain, conceive him however in your heart, not in your body. And yet even in you body, although not by any bodily action or outward form, nonetheless truly in your body, since the Apostle bids us glorify and bear God in our body.” (2nd Sermon for the Annunciation 27:4)

Guerric further instructs his monks, “Keep watch then, holy mother, keep watch in your care for the new-born child until Christ is formed in you who was born for you...” (3rd Sermon for Christmas, 8:5)

As we enter Ordinary Time, let us not loose touch of this great Mystery. Let us nurture the Divine Child in our hearts and our world.

*an Ordo is a list of the day's monastic prayer services, listing readings, hymns, proclamations and antiphons.

The Sisters of Redwoods Sing Adeste Fideles

2010-12-23T12:03:00.000-08:00

The Monastic Bow

2010-11-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

If you step inside a monastery or view a monastic choir, one thing that may strike you is that we do a lot of bowing. What is this bow all about? We bow when entering the Church, during the liturgy, and to each other and to guests. Bowing becomes part of our custom and way of life. It is a way of giving respect and honor to the other - a letting go of my own self importance. Like the sign of the cross, the bow is a body prayer.
As I bow, I am reminded of the earth and my own littleness. It brings me back to the "humus" of humility. But something wonderful can happen when I bow. I can be overwhelmed with joy and gratitude. In becoming open to the other - God, my neighbor, the earth - I find a much deeper relationship even with myself. Benedict says it this way, "All humility should be shown in addressing a guest on arrival or departure. By a bow of the head or by a complete prostration of the body, Christ is to be adored because he is indeed welcomed in them." Rule of St Benedict, Chapter 53.

A Chapter Talk by Sr Kathy

2010-11-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

A custom at Redwoods Monastery is the daily reading of the Rule of St Benedict and a teaching from the Abbess on the Rule. On Sundays and Feast days, the Abbess usually presents teachings on a spiritual topic that emphasises a certain aspect of our monastic life. Last Sunday Sr Kathy, Abbess of Redwoods Monastery shared a short reflection on Chapter 36 of the Rule of St Benedict as well as an in depth reflection of the experience of God. Her reflections are based on a book by Fr Iain Matthews, The Impact of God, Soundings from St John of the Cross.

Feast of All Saints of the Benedictine Family

2010-11-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate Benedictine saints. As Cistercians we include our saints as well, the famous ones like St Bernard and the many unknown holy monks and nuns who have lived their monastic life in fidelity and love. At Lauds (Morning Praise) this morning, we read the following proclamation from the Rule of St Benedict:

As we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God's commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love. (Rule of St Benedict, Prologue)

How well this quote summarizes the Cistercian Monastic quest. This is certainly the life we seek with God and our brothers and sisters. It is a path to union with God made possible through the reformation of our hearts in the Image of Christ. Below the well known scholar monk, Charles Dumont, articulates this quality of Cistercian Spirituality.

By their solicitude to be true to the Gospel in their reform of the monastic life, the first Cistercians gave a special place to three themes: greater faithfulness to the spirit and the letter of the Rule of Saint Benedict, stricter personal and communal solitude which foster contemplative prayer, and love of Christ poor and humble: the God who became man. It is this last one, the Divine Incarnation, which St Bernard endeavored to develop, thereby giving a new sensitivity to all Christian spirituality: Christ approached humanity by love. This soon became the principal charism of the Cistercians' life, both interior and exterior. Application to reading and studying the Bible and their spiritual masters' commentaries on it, especially their homilies on that sacred song of love, the Song of Songs, made their teaching and life what they call a school of charity - even a special school of charity, or a school of the Holy Spirit. In this school, first of all and above all, one teaches and learns to obey God's first commandment, the source from which the others flow: "You shall love..." (Mt 22:37). There the monk or nun applies him or herself first of all to studying the psychology of love which for them is founded on freedom. Freedom is the most distinctive trait of the soul created in the image and resemblance of the Creator's infinite freedom. A human being's freedom is exercised especially in natural affectivity which by grace becomes charity or spiritual love." (quoted in Charles Dumont Monk - Poet, A Spiritual Biography, Elilzabeth Connor, OCSO pp. 170-171)

Sr Karen shares her Vocation Story

2010-10-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

It's all about finding the hidden treasure....

My vocation's journey has its own beauty and simplicity.

It all began in God's heart. God's says "Before you were in your mother's womb I consecrated you" (Jer1:5). This became clear to me little by little.

When I was just trying to give some meaning to my life, a friend of mine asked me in a note. (for we were in a meeting), 'Do you want to learn to pray?' I whispered, 'Yes, I would love to' and pondered the thought, Prayer

Sr Karen kneels at her Solemn Profession during the Litany

After attending to a few prayer meetings at my friend's house which were lead by the Verbum Dei Missionaries, whose ministry is prayer and Word, the Word of God began to heal me. I resisted for a year to go to their retreats, but something awoke in me when I saw so much happiness in the women that came back from the retreat. I began to wonder what it was that they received that made then so happy.

Finally, I went to a three days retreat. I was immersed in the love of God through the Word and the missionaries. "Through human cords I will bring you to me" (Hos 11:4 ) I experienced much happiness and a peace that the world can not give.

What made me so happy? I had found the Treasure, and was ready to sell everything. At that moment selling meant that I would have to make room in my busy schedule and heart for prayer.

The more I prayed, the more I understood that my life was meant to be for God. One day in my heart I consecrated myself to God. The more I followed the farther I needed to go in my consecration. I knew my vocation was not to be a missionary, but where would I go? Where would I make my consecration more concrete? This time of uncertainty was very painful for me, but I continued.

One day I was tired of longing for something more and in my prayer kneeling before the tabernacle I said, "I do not care where, today I renew my consecration to you, where I am." Jesus responded to me saying "but I want you there" An image of the Redwoods Monastery, the monastic Trappist community, whose ministry is prayer and manual work and which I had visited a few months before, came to my mind.

Immediately I resisted. I said, "I am fine here" I cried because it was so clear what God wanted from me at that moment. And two passages from the bible came to me,

"For them I go to the sacrifice that makes me holy that they may be holy" (John 17:19) and "It is not longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20)

Now this call is deepening in the ordinariness and beauty of monastic life. A gift!

As the Rule of St. Benedict which we follow states at the end. "This rule is only for beginners." The Treasure we possess inside has no end. May you find that treasure.