A God of Surprises

Tomorrow is Passion (Palm) Sunday, the start of Holy Week. I'm very pleased to be singing in choir at my parish, and I hope that the experience will remain an inspiring one through the coming months. I believe it was St. Augustine who first commented that "A person who sings prays twice."

 

I haven't written here much since I've been busy with work (a full time job and an on-going string of free lance editing for which I am very grateful). A quick update:

• I'm still on track for paying off my last piece of personal debt by the end of June. Yay!

• I will be returning to NYS mid-June for my cousin's ordination (he is becoming a Catholic priest). At that time I will visit friends and family, and nose around some of my old stomping grounds in Elmira. 

• I will also be visiting the Transfiguration Monastery in Windsor, NY when I'm back for my summer visit. I'm very excited about finding them; interestingly, they were founded around the same time that my family moved from Boston to Elmira, the same year my father died. I lived in Elmira and the surrounding areas for years without knowing they even existed. Then, about three weeks ago, I found them in a search online. God's timing is always interesting; He is a God of surprises, for sure.

I had hoped to discern more closely with the Boston Carmel, but that was not meant to be, so after returning to Center, I started anew with a more open heart. Monastic life = YES. Cloistered life = ????.  So as I began to open up to other ideas and forms of life, the Benedictine spirituality returned as a possibility - one that I'd mused about a couple of years ago, but then found myself drawn to the Carmelite life.

In particular, the Camaldolese form of Benedictine life, which was a reform generated by St. Romuald in the 11th century, seems to contain the elements of Carmelite life that had attracted me so much - hermits living in community, the emphasis on balance between solitary and communal living while maintaining a silent atmosphere where relationship with God is primary - yet not being cloistered as the Carmelites are. Benedictines include hospitality as part of their charism, which is why you will always find guest houses, spiritual programs, and the Daily Office and Mass open to the public in a Benedictine monastery or abbey. The Transfiguration Monastery takes as its basis the Camaldolese Rule. 

This latest round of discerning with Boston Carmel and now this Benedictine Community has taught me a lot about myself and my vocation in life. I'll finish that thought with a quote from St. Romuald:

Empty yourself completely and sit waiting.

Please pray for me. I will be praying for you this Holy Week. I hope and pray that you find the space to open yourself to what God is breathing in you; what new life He is asking you to embrace in His Love. It may not be at all what you expect...