The History of Monte Cassino

Greetings.  I thought you might like to know more about the history of the Benedictine moastery at Monte Cassino.  An excellent telling can be found at Britannica.

The following was produced by ChatGPT.  

The Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino has a long and turbulent history marked by spiritual significance and repeated destruction. Here is a comprehensive history from its founding in 529 AD to the present day:

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1. Founding and Early Growth (529–581)

• 529 AD: Founded by Saint Benedict of Nursia on a hill once dedicated to the pagan god Apollo. Benedict established the Rule of Saint Benedict, which became the foundation of Western monasticism.
• 581 AD: The monastery was destroyed by the Lombards during their invasion of Italy. The monks fled, carrying Saint Benedict's relics with them.

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2. Restoration and the Carolingian Renaissance (718–883)

• 718 AD: Rebuilt under Abbot Petronax of Brescia with encouragement from Pope Gregory II and donations from the Lombard Duke Romuald II of Benevento.
• Monte Cassino became a renowned center for spiritual, cultural, and intellectual life.
• 883 AD: The monastery was sacked and burned by Saracen raiders, causing significant loss of life and property.

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3. Second Restoration and Medieval Flourishing (949–1349)

• 949 AD: Rebuilt under Abbot Aligerno after being abandoned for decades. This era saw the monastery become one of Europe’s most important centers of learning and art.
• The 11th century marked Monte Cassino's peak. Under Abbot Desiderius (later Pope Victor III), the monastery was lavishly adorned with mosaics, frescoes, and manuscripts.
• It became a focal point of the Gregorian Reform Movement and a model for other Benedictine monasteries.

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4. Earthquake and Reconstruction (1349–1500s)

• 1349: A massive earthquake devastated the monastery, leaving it in ruins. Reconstruction began slowly due to financial and political challenges.
• By the 15th century, Monte Cassino was partially rebuilt and continued its spiritual mission, albeit with diminished influence.

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5. Renaissance and Baroque Rebuilding (1500s–1799)

• The monastery underwent significant renovations during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, culminating in the grand structure known for its splendor by the 17th century.
• 1799: The monastery was sacked by French Revolutionary troops, leading to the loss of precious manuscripts, relics, and treasures.

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6. Revival and the Napoleonic Era (1815–1944)

• 1815: After the fall of Napoleon, the monastery was restored again, resuming its role as a spiritual and cultural beacon.
• By the early 20th century, Monte Cassino had regained prominence as a religious and historical monument.

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7. Destruction in World War II (1944)

• February 15, 1944: During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Allied bombers destroyed the monastery, mistakenly believing it was being used as a German stronghold. The bombing reduced the structure to rubble, and invaluable artworks and manuscripts were lost.
• Fortunately, many treasures had been evacuated to the Vatican before the bombing, preserving part of the monastery's cultural legacy.

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8. Post-War Reconstruction (1944–1964)

• After World War II, the Italian government and the Benedictine community undertook the meticulous reconstruction of Monte Cassino.
• 1964: The rebuilt monastery was completed, faithfully replicating its pre-war Baroque design.

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9. Modern Era (1964–Present)

• Today, Monte Cassino stands as a symbol of peace and resilience. It continues to function as a Benedictine monastery and a pilgrimage site.
• The site includes a museum, which houses artifacts from its history, and serves as a memorial to those who fought in the Battle of Monte Cassino.

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Summary of Key Destructions

1. 581 AD: Destroyed by Lombards.
2. 883 AD: Sacked by Saracens.
3. 1349: Devastated by an earthquake.
4. 1799: Sacked by French Revolutionary troops.
5. 1944: Bombed during World War II.

Each reconstruction after these events underscored Monte Cassino’s enduring spiritual and cultural significance.

St Gregory: The Dialogues

Written by 6th century Pope St. Gregory I, this text is one of the only ancient accounts of St. Benedict's life and work.

 

St. Gregory first introduces the life of Benedict with information about his birthplace in Italy, his parentage, and his primary education. St. Gregory tells us that at an early age, St. Benedict abandoned all worldly cares to seek a life of close union with God. In his adulthood, St. Benedict built twelve monasteries and was believed to have performed numerous miracles. St. Benedict is largely known for his book The Rule of St. Benedict, a collection of spiritual and administrative instructions for monks--as a result of this achievement, St. Benedict is often recognized as the founder of Western monasticism.

 

The second half of St. Gregory's text is the reproduction of St. Benedict's seventy-three chapter Rule. Although St. Gregory never engaged with St. Benedict himself, he was able to craft this illuminating portrait of St. Benedict's life by consulting several of St. Benedict's close disciples and successors.

Emmalon Davis 

 

 

Click here to see and read a reproduction of early edition of The Dialogues.

The Medal

Let love be affirmed...

So great was Christ's compassion for its weakness that "he mercifully placed it on his sacred shoulders" and so carried it back to the flock.  (Luke 15:5)

Our role, the Rule of Benedict insists, is to soothe what hurts them, heal what weakens them, lift what burdens them and wait.  The spiritual life is a process, not an event. It takes time and love and help and care. It takes our patient presence. Just like everything else.

Sr Joan Chittister   

The great work of growth....

Today's reading can be a bit of a challenge for those of us who always want to fix the broken in the other.  Sister Joan reminds us...

Sometimes pain itself cures. Benedict wants the cure to have the time to heal. Meddling, agitating, distracting a person from the great work of growth at such an important time in a person's life is grave fault itself. 

In those moments when we see pain in those whom we love, we are called to quietly reflect on the potential value of the healing properties of that pain.  It seems antithetical to allow the suffering to continue. I believe Benedict invites us reflect carefully on the healing potential in life's painful encounters--the potential for significant and meaningful growth.

Serious Faults....

 There is no failure except in no longer trying....

Atonement

Things broken must be mended; things running away with us must be curbed; things awry in us must be set straight.

Sr. Joan Chittister

How do we impose discipline on ourselves?

How do we lead ourselves by rewards?

How do we encourage & nurture ourselves to lead moral and productive lives? 

How do we set and maintain a path of growth?

 

 We must surrender.  In His hands we will prevail.

Follow the Christ within you...

Benedictine Reading List

Pray....

When God is its center....

Sister Joan reminds us that life is better when God is at the center.  Not surprisingly she observes this after reading Benedict's writing on the role of Alleluia in our lives.

The Navahos wrote, "We felt like talking to the ground, we loved it so."  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "The earth laughs in flowers."  Benedict of Nursia wrote, say "Alleluia" always, no matter the time of day, no matter the season of life.

Sr Joan Chittister

 

Alleluia ~ Praise the Lord!

 

When earth first opens its eyes....

 At the break of dawn, every day of the week, Benedict, through his organization of the morning psalms, reminds the monastic of two unfailing realities.  The first is that life is not perfect, that struggle is to be expected, that the human being lives on the brink of danger and defeat at all times.

St Joan Chittister

In Chapter 13, The Celebration of Lauds on Ordinary Days, Sr Joan reminds us of the importance of order in which we recite the Psalms, the story they tell, and the comfort they bring.

In his meditation on Psalm 92, Charles H. Spurgeon further reminds us of the beauty and peace to be found in the psalms.

You declare Your loving kindness in the morning.  There is a peculiar freshness and charm about early morning praises, the day is loveliest when it first opens its eyelids, and God Himself seems then to make distribution of the day's manna, which tastes most sweetly if gathered before the sun is hot. It seems most appropriate that if our hearts and harps have been silent through the shades of night, we should be eager again to take our place among the chosen choir who ceaselessly hymn the Eternal One.

And Your faithfulness every night. No hour is too late for praise, and the end of the day must not be the end of gratitude. When nature seems in silent contemplation to adore its Maker, it ill becomes the children of God to restrain their thanksgiving.  Evening is the time for retrospect: memory is busy with the experience of the day, hence the appropriate theme for song is the divine faithfulness of which another day has furnished fresh evidences. 

When darkness has settled down over all things, then there comes over wise people a congenial, meditative spirit, and it is most fitting that they should take an expanded view of the truth and goodness of Jehovah. 

Charles H. Spurgeon

  

Tread tenderly...

Tread tenderly upon life around you.  There is room for all of us in life.  We are each an ember of the mind of god and we are each sent to illumine the other through the dark places of life to sanctuaries of truth and peace where God can be God for us because we have relieved ourselves of the ordeal of being god ourselves. We are called to be kind, gentle, and calm--never smothering the other.

There is a great paradox of being kind and gentle to those with whom we do not agree--they will find we are easy to be around, and in time, they may follow the teaching we live out in our lives.

The Humble Person

The humble person cultivates a soul in which everyone is safe.  A humble person handles the presence of the other with soft hands, a velvet heart, and an unveiled mind. 

We are transparent.  We are who we seem to be.  

There is room for all of us!

Humility

The following is a gentle summary Chapter 7 drawn from Sr Joan's commentary.  Gentle because some of the content of each of the 12 steps has been gently reorganized to allow this writer to better follow what St Benedict is asking us to do.  I invite you to read this periodically.  I have added it to the links of interest so it will always easily be accessable.

Perseverance....

 The God-life, Benedict is telling us, is a never-ending, unremitting, totally absorbing enterprise. God is intent on it; so must we be. The Hebrew poet, Moses Ibn Ezra, writes: "Those who persist in knocking will succeed in entering." Benedict thinks no less. It is not perfection that leads us to God; it is perseverance.

                                                                                                                    Sr. Joan Chittister

We are capable...

 One of the great ironies of humility is that...

...if we have it, we know we are made for

 greatness, we are made for God.

Sr Joan Chittister 

Humility....

We've now begun one of the most important chapters in the Rule of Benedict.  I believe Sr Joan is correct when she says...

If the modern age has lost anything that needs to be rediscovered, if the Western world has denied anything that needs to be owned, if individuals have rejected anything that needs to be professed again, if the preservation of the globe in the twenty-first century requires anything of the past at all, it may well be the commitment of the Rule of Benedict to humility.

Humility allows us to form a proper sense of self in a universe of wonders. Humility is the basis for right relationships in life and necessary if we truly want to grow in the Spirit of God.  As Sr Joan points out...

...being sinless is not enough.  [We are called to be] steeped in the mind of God.  [We must] become aware that the God we seek is aware of us.

God is within us to be realized...it is simply a matter of opening our eyes to the light that drives out the darkness within us.  

 It is a matter of gaining the God within, the love of Whom impels us to good.

 

 

 

Benedictine silence....

 Sr Joan writes...

Silence is a cornerstone of ... spiritual development but the goal of monastic silence is not non-talking. The goal ... is respect for others, a sense of place, a spirit of peace. 

Benedictine spirituality forms us to listen ... for the voice of God.  Benedictine spirituality forms us to know our place in the world. When we refuse to give place to others, when we consume all the space of our worlds with our own sounds and our own truths and our own wisdom and our own ideas, there is no room for anyone else's ideas.

Benedictine spirituality is a builder of human community. When talk is unrestrained, when gossip becomes the food of the soul, then the destruction of others can't be far behind. When talk is loud and boisterous, when we make light of everything, when nothing is spared the raillery of a joke, the seriousness of all of life is at stake and our spirits wither from a lack of beauty and substance.

Grow in the silence. 

To bear the heat of life...

Sr Joan does a lovely job today of helping us see the role of others in our lives.  

"Why do you need teachers?" the visitor asked a disciple.

"Because,' the disciple answered, "if water must be boiled it needs a vessel between the fire and itself." 

Hold this metaphor gently in your hand...now...think about someone in your life that has always been there to guide, shelter, and shape.

There is no going through life alone.  We need wisdom figures ... teachers, fine parents and mentors, tender husbands and gentle wives, good friends ... who listen to us as much as we listen to them....  

 

The wize smile quietly....

 I worked for a man who had the most interesting smile--it was a quiet smile--not quite Mona Lisa--but surely not what I would call a grin.  Today, I realize it was indeed a quiet wize smile.  Today, I believe he was watching a young man, loud, always certain and willing to talk...and he was thinking...when will he learn.

I'm more than a little embarrassed to tell you, I remember that smile from 30 years ago--and I am troubled by how little has changed.  And so, Benedict and Sr Joan remind us again today, 

Benedict wants moderation, balance, control...hold all of life in perspective...not to be overtaken, consumed, swept up, swallowed....

Let me close with a gift from a dear friend...

                        We travelers, walking to the sun, can't see

                        Ahead, but looking back the very light

                        That blinded us shows us the way we came,

                        Along which blessings now appear, risen

                        As if from sightlessness to sight, and we,

                        By blessing brightly lit, keep going toward

                        The blesséd light that yet to us is dark

        

 

 

How we are called to be...

We are now in the heart of Chapter 4: Tools of Good Works.  I pray I am ready.  The Christian call is a simple one--but how so hard to live by.  Benedict writes

"Do not repay one bad turn with another" (1 Thessalonians 5;15; 1 Peter 3:9).  Do not injure anyone but bear injuries patiently.  "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27).  If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead.  "Endure persecution for the sake of justice" (Matthew 5:10).

We are to stay gentle even with those who are not gentle with us.  The Gospels, Sr Joan reminds us, don't talk about winning; they talk about loving.  

We must be prepared  to bear whatever blows it takes for the sake of justice, quietly, gently, even lovingly, with never a blow in return.

 

 

Our call...

Benedict reminds us frequently that we are called to love God with our whole heart and our neighbor as our self.  Most importantly, we are called to set out every day to see the Christ in the other and to treat the other as Christ.

What a challenge this is for most of us!  And then Sr Joan raises the bar, reminding us we are called to engage in the great Christian enterprise of acting for others in the place of God--every day, in every moment.  St. Teresa of Avila made this clear....

 Christ has no body but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet, and loves with my heart.   

If we can embrace this truth, .... allowing that transformative love to permeate all of our work, we will not only build the Kingdom of Heaven,  but we will also find eternal rest and peace for ourselves.

 Reading now from Sr Joan....

The monastic heart is not just to be a good heart.  It is to be engaged in the great Christian enterprise of acting for others in the place of God.

Sr Joan Chittister 

Our role....

Sister Joan recently talked to us about the role of the abbot or prioress, saying...  

The role of the abbot or prioress is to direct their energies to bringing the community to the white heat of the spiritual life....

I invite you to consider if this might be our role in our community--not so much by preaching, but by the way we live out our lives in our community.  We are called to care for each other.  You are teaching me this every day.  And, we are called above all else, to persist; to never lose hope!

Benedict knows there is a spark of the divine in all of us.  We are called to see it in each other and to help it grow.

The Jubilee Medal of Saint Benedict

 

For more on the medal please click here.

Today's challenge....

There are times in our lives when we are confronted by ideas that don't seem to belong where we live.  I believe, in those moments, we are called to listen even more carefully and seek the word of God in the voice of the other.  For some, the following may be one of those moments.  For others, it is where they live. 

The Time to Embrace

What we need to develop in our time is a spirituality of embrace, the sanctification of feeling. We have been told that the greatest of these is love, but we do not really believe it. Not on the rational level. We have been told to be willing to repeatedly turn the other cheek but we do not risk it. Not on the social level. And yet, until we have the grace to regurgitate at the sight of brutality anywhere, what hope can we possibly have for the success of divinity's great experiment––the mind of God in the human heart.

Santayana writes: "The young person who has not wept is a savage and the old person who will not laugh is a fool." The spirituality of embrace depends on our willingness to put down the trappings of false intellectualism, of rationalism, of patriarchy so that both men and women alike can draw on their emotions without shame and be directed by their noblest feelings without fear.

Human community and globalism hang in the balance. The values we bring to decision making in the modern world are no longer a matter of purely private or personal importance. We cannot pretend to humanity and continue to deprive ourselves of half our way of perceiving at the highest levels of function. 

To embrace the other, to take the stranger into our lives, to trust that the other is motivated by the same cares and loves as we are, redesigns the human race. It is the ability to allow human feeling to become a reputable foundation for decision-making at the highest levels that engenders the necessary antidote to a depraved rationalism. For too long have we allowed a false masculinity to guide the judgments of the church and justify the character of the corporate world and engorge a suicidal militarism and direct the policies of governments and reduce humanity to the rationalization of objectivity and deny the people of the world the validity of the feminine, of the feelings, in both women and men.

Reason has become the human sin; independence and individualism our pathology. Facts we have aplenty. It is feelings we lack.

The time to embrace is now, before autonomy destroys community and leaves us less human at the end of our evolutionary process than when we began. Adoration of the rational has not worked. Only embrace can save us now.
                  ––from For Everything A Season, by Joan Chittister (Orbis)

The Spiritual LIfe....

The spiritual life is a way of being -- open to God and open to the other!

It is difficult for me to chose which of the chapters is the most important.  Chapter 7 on Humility is surely a prime candidate.  However, I believe the Prologue surely sets the stage--preparing us for what is to come.  St. Benedict's writing and Sr. Joan's September 3rd commentary are full of very simple and so very rich life wisdom.  Take a moment and see just how many pearls you can find.

Seriously....  Go....  Now.....

Read it again....

To become what we hate...

 Benedict makes it clear that the desire for good

is not an excuse for the exercise of evil in its behalf.

This reading is important, then, for people whose 

high ideals lead them to the basest of means

in the name of achieving good. To become what 

we hate — as mean as the killers, as obsessed as the haters

is neither the goal nor the greatness of the spiritual life.

The Rule of Benedict, Sr Joan Chittister        

I was rightly reminded today by a dear friend, that context IS important.  And so it is that Sister Joan reminds us that the end does not justify the means....

Chapter 64

 If in the course of life, you find yourself in a position of leadership--read Chapter 64 and Chapter 65 closely. 

They were written for you.

The Spark of the Divine

Benedictine spirituality reverence for the other based on the spark of the divine that is in us all is a gift to be given to a century alive with distinctions it will not admit and an insight into the sacred, scarred and bleeding, that it does not see.  

The Rule of Benedict, Sr. Joan Chittister

 

Dear Lord, forgive me for self-centered blindness.  Help me open my eyes to see and server your world.  Amen

 

God's Call to Us

Be still and know that I am God

Be still and know that I am

Be still and know

Be still

Be 

Benedictine Spirituality

Spirituality is a way of life.

We are called to be what we say we are.

Simple.

Centered in God.

To be a Christian is a full-time identify.

We are called to heed the Gospel call

whomever we are with and wherever we are.

It is a never-ending pursuit of faith

and through His abiding Grace

we will prevail.

The Single-Minded Search for God

Work is not what defines the Benedictine--it is the single-minded search for God.  The purpose behind everything we do gives our lives meaning.  It is this purpose that frees our hearts.

Creative and productive work are simply meant to enhance the Garden and sustain us while we grow in God!

The Mystery of Asking

Humbly asked [God] to remove our shortcomings.  

—Step 7 of the Twelve Steps 

This week’s meditations continue to explore the wisdom of the Gospels and the Twelve Steps. Father Richard responds to the perennial question, “Why do we pray?”: 

If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do both Step 7 and Jesus say, each in their own way: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7)? Are we trying to talk God into things? Does the group with the most and the best prayers win? Is prayer of petition just another way to get what we want, or to get God on our side?  

This is the mystery of asking. Why is it good to ask, and what really happens in prayers of petition or intercession? Why is it that Jesus both tells us to ask and then says, “Your Father already knows what you need, so do not babble on like the pagans do” (Matthew 6:7–8)?  

I believe prayer is a symbiotic relationship with life and with God, a synergy which creates a result larger than the exchange itself. We ask not to change God, but to change ourselves. We pray to form a living relationship, not to get things done. (That is why Jesus says all prayers are answered, which does not appear to be true, according to the evidence!) God knows that we need to pray to keep the symbiotic relationship moving and growing. Prayer is not a way to try to control God, or even to get what we want.  

Prayers of intercession or petition are one way of situating our life within total honesty and structural truth. We are all forever beggars before God and the universe. We can never engineer or guide our own transformation or conversion. If we try, it will be a self-centered and well-controlled version of conversion, with most of our preferences and addictions still fully in place, but now well-disguised.  

So, Step 7 says that we must “humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.” We don’t dare go after our own faults or we will go after the wrong thing—or, more commonly, a clever substitute for the real thing. Instead, we have to let God first reveal our real faults to us (usually by failing and falling many times!), and then allow God to remove those faults, from God’s side and in God’s way.  

It’s important that we ask, seek, and knock to keep ourselves in right relationship with Life Itself. Life is a gift, totally given to us without cost, every day of it, and every part of it. A daily and chosen “attitude of gratitude” will keep our hands open to expect that life, allow that life, and receive that life at ever-deeper levels of satisfaction—but never to think we deserve it.  

Selected from Richard Rohr, Breathing under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, 10th anniv. ed. (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2011, 2021), 57, 59–60, 61. 

A Prayer for Leadership

Give us, O God,

leaders whose hearts are large enough 

to match the breadth of our own souls 

and give us souls strong enough

to follow leaders of vision and wisdom.

In seeking a leader, let us seek 

more than development for ourselves—

though development we hope for—

more than security for our own land—

though security we need—

more than satisfaction for our wants—

though many things we desire.

Give us the hearts to choose 

the leader who will work with other leaders

to bring safety to the whole world.

Give us leaders 

who lead this nation to virtue

without seeking to impose 

our kind of virtue 

on the virtue of others.

Give us a government

that provides for the advancement

of this country

without taking resources from others 

to achieve it.

Give us insight enough ourselves

to choose as leaders those who can tell 

strength from power,

growth from greed,

leadership from dominance,

and real greatness 

from the trappings of grandiosity.

We trust you, Great God,

to open our hearts to learn 

from those to whom you speak 

in different tongues 

and to respect the life and words

of those to whom you entrusted

the good of other parts of this globe. 

We beg you, Great God,

give us the vision as a people

to know where global leadership truly lies, 

to pursue it diligently,

to require it to protect human rights 

for everyone everywhere.

We ask these things, Great God, 

with minds open to your word

and hearts that trust in your eternal care.

Amen.

Sister Joan Chittister

Vision and Viewpoint

The Bishop's Gift

Once a little church had fallen upon hard times. The rector and precious few were left in the congregation—most over 60 years old.

In the mountains near the church there lived a retired Bishop. It occurred to the rector to ask the bishop if she could offer any advice that might just save the church. 

The bishop welcomed the priest and commiserated. “I know how it is” she said, “the spirit has gone out of so many people. Many churches are struggling—our sense of community seems to be fading.” So the Bishop and priest wept together, and spoke quietly of deep things.

The time came when the priest had to leave. They embraced. “It has been wonderful being with you,” said the priest, “but I have failed in my purpose for coming. Have you no piece of advice that might save our little church?”

The Bishop simply replied, “I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is among you.”

The rector, returning to the church, told the small congregation what the bishop had said. In the months that followed, the church members pondered the words of the bishop. “The Messiah is among of us?”  As they thought about this, they all began to treat each other more kindly on the off chance that, that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that he or she might be the Messiah, they also began to treat themselves with extraordinary care.

As time went by, people visiting the little church noticed the aura of gentle kindness that surrounded the members of the small church; their care for one another and everyone in the community.  Hardly knowing why, more people began to come back to the church. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought more friends. Within a few years, the small church had once again become a thriving church, thanks to the bishop’s gift.

The Sick

 Today is July 15.  

Benedict continues to talk about service.  Today the focus is on caring for the sick.  However, read closely, for Benedict and Sister Joan offer far more than you might first think from a chapter simply titled The Sick.  

The purpose of maintaining the body is to make it possible to acquire wisdom.  For you see, every day we have gives us another chance to become the real person we are meant to be.  Never give up.

How much of our precious time do we spend on those with little time left? Every bit of kindness, every tender touch can heal...perhaps even in ourselves.  

 

Service

Today is July 14th.   

We are meant to serve the community--for it brings together
the transcendent and the transforming. 
Prayer and work influence and fulfill each other.

Service

Today is July 13th.  

Chapter 35 speaks to the importance of service to our community.  Benedict reminds us that

Members should serve one another.  It fosters love.
Serve one another in love.

Sister Joan goes on to point out that the spiritual life is not simply what we think about; it is what we do because of what we think.  If we do not serve one another we are, at best, a collection of people who live alone together.  Love and accountability should be the fulcrum of community life.

Benedictine Spirituality

Today is July 10.  

Sister Joan reminds us today that Benedictine spirituality cares for the earth and the integration of prayer and work, body and soul, as essential parts of the journey.  A seemingly simple idea but essential to becoming who He calls us to be.

A Fresh Beginning

 Today is July 6.  

Benedict and Sister Joan offer us a wonderful reminder today.

We must settle down and do something serious with our lives, knowing that everyday we must make a fresh beginning.  

Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord!

Patience Presence

Today is July 4, 2024. 

There is much to be found in today's reading from the Rule and Sister Joan's commentary.  It is yet again one of those readings we might initially think is meant for another time and place.  I quietly offer the following observations, drawn directly for Sister Joan's commentary.

The Rule of Benedict is for human beings.  We are just simple people who never meet our own ideals. Our role is simply to try to soothe what hurts them, heal what weakens them, lift what burdens them and wait.  The spiritual life is a process, not an event.  It takes time and love and help and care. 

It takes our patient presence. 

 

Most important of all...

Today is July 2, 2024.   Sister Joan reminds us today of what may be the most important adage in all the Christian literature ever written...

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

God truly loves us beyond measure.  Oh my...beyond measure.  That dear one is a lot!  And, He asks us every day to, 

"Pick up my cross and follow me." 

We must pick it up.  Oh, and yes, we will drop it.  And then, He calls us to pick it up again, and again, and again.  He understands.  And, so His call to us today is, 

"...persevere, keep trying--I will be with you always."

His invitation is clear.  We must at all time be open and honest with ourselves--truly see ourselves as He see us.  And, remembering there is no failure except in no longer trying.

Patience

When I returned home today from our time together this morning, I continue to think about our discussion of the gospels and our private morning meditations.   I was drawn back to my bookshelf and I came across a worn old book, titled Daily Strength for Daily Needs.

I'm not sure how this book found its way into my library, but I feel fairly certain it was among my parents belongings. The book was originally copyrighted in 1884 and a note from the publisher suggests this book was printed in 1934.

And then the phrase came to me--from generation to generation.  Where had I heard this before? Knowing that so much of my faith has been, by His Grace founded in worship and study at Christ Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I turn to the book of common prayer and found this prayer.

Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name.

Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.

Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ our great High Priest, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, your Church gives honor, glory, and worship, from generation to generation.  Amen

And so from Daily Strength for Daily Needs, I pray for each of us...

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disturbed because of your imperfections, and always rise up bravely from the fall. I am glad that you make a daily new beginning; there is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be continually beginning afresh, and never to think that we have done enough.

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1602)