“Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn” (Joel 2:13).  What is the prophet Joel saying?  Clearly it is a poetic metaphor: God does not desire to hurt us…this is about enlarging the heart…converting the heart, making the heart as wide and deep as that of the heart of Christ.  The heart is to be broken open for love, for love to increase, for forgiveness and mercy to lead over a critical demeanor, over a hardened heart. 

“At all times the lifestyle of a monk ought to have a Lenten quality” (Benedict’s Rule, A Translation and Commentary, RB 49:1, Terrance Kardong, p.402).  Now this sounds heavy, does it not?  However, if we reflect more on chapter 49 of the Rule, we will see that Benedict has a healthy and profound theological perspective on Lent.

Father Peter McCarthy, OCSO, Abbot of Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey is visiting us for a few days from Oregon.  Today at Mass for the First Sunday of Advent, Abbot Peter used a poem from Denise Levertov to frame his homily on the temptations of Christ and our temptations.

"Jesus comes to us through the holes in our lives, not through the filled places..."  Listen to Fr Peter's entire homily here.

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 32 The Tools and Property of the Monastery
Mass: Dt 26:4-10; Resp Ps 92; Rm 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13

In today's Angelus Address, the Holy Father related the three temptations Jesus faced in the desert to 'three paths the world proposes, promising great success.

Pope Francis has asked that in this Jubilee Year “the season of Lent…be lived more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate and experience God’s mercy” (Lenten Message of Pope Francis, 2016).  This statement of the Pope caused me to ask:  What is the context for experiencing God’s mercy?  What demeanor or interior attitude do we need, which enables the mercy of G