The present pandemic has turned our lives, world-wide, upside down. Covid-19 has affected the global community and its economies in ways that none of us have lived through before now. Through the pandemic we see how interconnected we all are. Are not the living ‘saints’ those in the medical field who willingly risk their lives daily to care for us? As we live surrounded by so much uncertainty about the present and the immediate future, perhaps it is good to step back and ponder our lives. What, as a monastic community, do we need to renew or work to change in order to continue to mission God’s enduring word of life, of hope, of love?

(Above Thomas Merton at Redwoods Abbey, 1968)

His wounds open us to mercy…His wounds break our wounded hearts open to receive the mercy that flows from him…How striking that mercy and forgiveness of sins is connected to Jesus’ Resurrection…There is no life says the Risen One without mercy and forgiveness…This message must continue to be voiced and lived by all Jesus’ disciples and that includes us.

In today’s liturgy we behold Jesus’ self-gift in the washing of the feet ritual and in the Eucharist where Jesus offers his body and his blood for the world. Self-giving is an act of agape: unconditional love, the highest form, the deepest form of love…This is the diptych of today’s two rituals and of what we will be participating in.

Listen to the Chapter Talk here:

The gospel of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, is the last of the ‘signs’ in St. John’s gospel where Jesus reveals in his person the glory of God.  The context for ‘believing’ in John’s gospel involves an encounter, an encounter with Christ.

Conversion to a deepened faith: the eye of the heart continually needs this transformation…transformation into a living and growing faith.