In the gospel of today Jesus tells the story of two men who went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the upholder of the law, and the other a tax collector (Lk 18:9-14).  The prayer of one is received by God, the other is not.  One goes inward and puts his glance on himself, on his own conversion; the other looks at his neighbor, he does not go inward. 

Today’s gospel is the healing of the ten lepers (Lk 17:11-19).  There are several themes that one can draw out of this gospel.  One being ‘thanksgiving’ and how gratitude keeps the heart wide open as it acknowledges the extravagant gifts of God upon us, especially in our need.  The gospel concludes with Jesus addressing the one leper who returned to offer thanksgiving for the healing he received.  Jesus’ reply is telling us something very important on this journey of faith that we are all on. 

Right now, let us ask Jesus, like the apostles: “Increase our faith”.  To ask something, to desire something beyond our ego demands, what would this be like?   To desire and thus to ask from the depths, ‘Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord’…I cry, I desire for my faith to grow.

As part of the OCSO General Chapter, participants, Abbots, Abbesses and delegates attended a Papal Audience.  In his talk, Pope Francis spoke about the importance of dreams.  Dom Bernardus, our newly elected Abbot General, opened this year's chapter by inviting all the Superiors of our Order to share their dreams.  Over the course of the 3-week meeting in Assisi, the Superiors worked on many issues facing us today, but they also left room for creative responses to the challenges and opportunities.  

How does an ancient Rule, specifically the Rule of St. Benedict, offer a perspective and ways forward in implementing ‘synodality’ for the present and future renewal of monastic life and of the Church?  This is the subject of a short essay by the Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Congregation, Gregory Polan, in the American Benedictine Review (March, 2022,73:1, p.1-9).  Abbot Gregory focuses on chapter 3 of the Rule, ‘Calling the Brethren to Counsel’.  He notes that there are other references to synodality in the Rule, however, for his short essay he focuses only on chapter 3.  I like to reflect on two other areas where a ‘synodal’ reality exists in the Rule of Benedict, and there are more references than what I will speak about this morning.