Holy Cross Monastery Sermons (West Park)

. . . "[M] eet Jesus, who suffered, so that when we are suffering we know God is with us through our suffering; meet Jesus, who was utterly alone by the end of the story, so that when we feel alone we know God is with us in our aloneness; meet Jesus, who cried out in despair, so that when feel ready to give up, we know that God holds onto us; meet Jesus, who died, so that we know God understa...

" As we read the biographies of our departed brothers around their death dates in chapter, I am moved over and over again by the recurrence of a phenomena: at some point in the life of each brother he heard, he got up, he met a purpose, and he gave himself in a way that served a particular need, provided an essential offering of work and wisdom for the community. For some it was a role in lea...

" As Lent gives way to Holy Week and Easter the question we can ponder is how can we die? What of my own attachments can get nailed to the cross with Jesus? What pieces of myself can I toss into the tomb? Can I kindle a bonfire of my own vanities at the Easter Vigil? What space can I clear for resurrection to fill? What seeds can I drop into the ground? And what might spring up from them?&quo...

"Springsteen’s remarks describe something of the interaction between the Crucified and Glorified Savior and the believer who turns to him entirely wholeheartedly. David Remnick is asking Springsteen about his manner of concert performance in the 70s, to which he replies: “Losing myself was something I was shooting for. I’d had enough of myself by that time to want to lose myself — so I went o...

"Jesus comes to our Temple/world with the challenging questions and the listening ears of the young, those on the cusp of adulthood who perceive, perhaps as we cannot, the ever-widening gap between our rhetoric and our realities, both within the church and without. I think of those students from Parkland and from around our country who are rising up to become the ears and the eyes and the voi...

Who are you following?

"It happens quite often, when speaking about prayer, that an associate, or a student, or a directee, or a guest will say something like: “I’m so busy, that I can’t find time to just sit and pray. But, I mean, I talk to God all the time. I talk to God while I’m working, while I’m exercising, while washing dishes.” Etcetera. My response is always the same: “That’s great that you talk to God all...

"He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them."Mark 1:31

"When you know yourself, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the children of the Living One. If you do not know yourselves, you live in poverty, and you are poverty."

"Today, I ask ourselves: What is God’s desire for us? How are we resisting that desire? Can we ask God to tip us over into His desire? Can we pray that? When He calls, can we answer “I’ll be out in a minute!” -- rather than in 2 years, in 5 years, whenever my conditions have been met.". . .

"We have heard the phrase “created in the image and likeness of God” so often that we don’t appreciate what it says about us. Our family of origin is divine. We were created by a loving God to be love in the world. Our core is not original sin, but original blessing. Good theology cannot make up for negative anthropology. From God’s side, we are always known and loved subject to subject, just...

"Jesus did not flee the world. And his miracles of healing, feeding, exercising, and so forth, were not just palliative care for those fortunate enough to come into contact with him. Jesus really intended to establish the Reign of God here on earth. As baptized Christians we are called to continue the mission and ministry of Jesus, to subvert the Kingdom of Satan and to foster the Reign of Go...

Not too much light.

"And so Christmas as reception emerges in the heart of Mary. Take her response into your heart. Stop, be still, look, listen, read the story, read it again, let it read you. Step into the ebb and flow of it, let it teach you how to be human, how to be. “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart”. . . ."

"All I knew was one sound,not even a word. But then I foundmy voice. Or was it God’s?for neither God nor Ihad everspoken before.". . .

. . . "This feast is the commitment to life made incarnate. It is the call to see God everywhere, and especially in those places we would not expect to find glory or grace. It is also an obligation to see that everything leads us directly to God, to realize that there is no one, nothing on earth, that is not the way to God for us. The moment we can really look to everyone and everything as a...

"All this would help Jesus remember the saying that “While God waits for the temple to be built of love, people bring stones” and reenforce the later realization of John the Evangelist that Christmas is about how God moves among us in a tent.". . .

"I also know that injustice and war and poverty and hunger will continue to thrive if we do nothing. But if we do what we can, knowing that there are many aspects of the situation beyond our control, we can make progress toward a better world because God is with us, too, helping us to slowly overcome those forces that work against us."

"You may feel guilt at errors and omissions of your life. But dwelling in guilt does not in itself turn your life around to God. You need to give up your sins by giving them to God and letting them go to focus on the business of living your life in God’s unconditional love, as God’s instrument of love in the world. Action is needed for repentance; new action, graced action, love in action. &q...

One day God gonna right this wrong. One day God gonna right this wrong. One day God get'cha!

So, you want a King?

We, unaccustomed to courageexiles from delightlive coiled in shells of lonelinessuntil love leaves its high holy templeand comes into our sightto liberate us into life. Love arrivesand in its train come ecstasiesold memories of pleasureancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold,love strikes away the chains of fearfrom our souls. We are weaned from our timidityIn the flush of love's lightwe...

Sadly, most commentaries and interpreters assume that the master is Jesus and the slaves are disciples and the return is the second coming. I say "sadly" because Jesus as the master here is a serious problem. If Jesus is the master, we have to contend with him in his own voice calling the talent-burying slave "worthless". This kind of entitlement exegesis can reinforce a distor...

"You are to interpret to the Church, the world. Not interpret the Church to the world—that’s a very different thing—but interpret the world to the Church. You are to be a voice for the whole messy, broken, beautiful, becoming, hurting, longing world. You, Aidan, as a deacon, are to place your ear against the breast of the world and listen for the heartbeat of God, for the longings of God, and...

The darkness drops again, but now I know. That twenty centuries of stony sleep. Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?