As many of you already know there are actually two feasts of St. Benedict in the calendar for Benedictines. On March 21, we celebrate the Transitus of St. Benedict. This means his "passing," or his death. That is normally the day when we celebrate the saints days; that is, the day they pass from this life to eternal life. On July 11, we celebrate another feast of St. Benedict. This is the day the universal Church celebrates the feast of St. Benedict, primarily because March 21 usually comes during lent. The Benedictines have been given permission to celebrate one of these days as a solemnity and the other as a feast. Each monastery makes that decision. Here at Conception we celebrate the solemnity on March 21. That works better for us as most of the monks are at home, the students are here, classes are canceled for the day etc. Therefore, we celebrate July 11 as a feast. This year July 11 comes on a Sunday. A feast cannot take the place of a Sunday, a solemnity does take the place of the Sunday Mass in ordinary time. Thus, this year we here at Conception will not celebrate July 11 as a feast at all. I hope this is clear to all of you. A number of you will be here for the "Pray and Work" weekend but we will on Sunday simply celebrate the regular Sunday Mass and not the Mass of St. Benedict.

_______________________________________________________________________

Now just a few words about St. Benedict even though we do not celebrate his feast on July 11 this year. All of us know that St. Benedict frequently makes use of scripture in the Rule. In an appendix of RB80, an author writes:

" Whatever other factors may have been involved in the rise and development of the monastic movement, there is no doubt that the central factor, without which the monastic movement is simply unthinkable, is the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The monastic way of life was conceived as a response to the precepts of Scripture. St. Athanasius portrayed Anthony as taking up the monastic form of life in simple obedience to hearing the words of Scripture."

Through the Scriptures one of our primary goals in the monastic life has to be to conform our lives more perfectly to Jesus Christ. To become more Christ like. We are "to put nothing before our love of Christ." That is why we come to the monastery, that is why we become oblates.

Jesus Christ is so much the center of our monastic life that St. Benedict tells us "the Abbot is seen to hold the place of Christ" in the monastery. We are also to serve Christ in one another, and especially in our guests, in the sick, in the poor. We are in short to prefer nothing whatever to Christ.

May God continue to bless us, may he help us to be faithful to the Scriptures and always to serve Christ in all we do.

Oblate Cassian Heath in St. Stephen's newly renovated chapel. Cassian built the furniture for the Holy Cross Oratory in the Seminary as well.

In Chapter four of the Rule St. Benedict list the instruments of good works. Number 22 through 33 of these instruments could be called "The love of enemies."

To quote from the Rule: "You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge. Rid your heart of all deceit. Never give a hollow greeting or peace or turn away when someone needs your love. Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue. Do not repay one bad turn with another. Do not injure anyone, but bear injuries patiently. Love your enemies. If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead. Endure persecution for the sake of justice."

Love of others and even love of our enemies has a place in everyone’s life, even sometimes in monastic life. St. Benedict was very human. He knew the human situation. Of course we will all have enemies in life, those who do not like us because the life we live, or because we live a life in contradiction to their life.

The first thing to take to heart of course is to try to not be anyone’s enemy ourselves. But if we do have an enemy then these practical suggestions that St. Benedict lists here should be taken in hand.

Not to yield to anger. The first thing we want do when we have an enemy is to get angry. While this is natural, this must be stopped immediately and not nourished. Not to nurse a grudge is a good way to get away from anger. We must step in and try to stop the object of the anger or the anger can easily become uncontrollable. The more we nurse the grudge the greater will become our anger.

St. Benedict also encourages us: not to hold guile in our heart, not to make a false peace. Remember that sincerity and truthfulness are of first importance in dealing with others. They are of first importance if we are to love others.

It seems to me that St. Benedict in this section gives us some very good advice in how to deal with others, whether that be our confreres in the monastic life, our friends, our co-workers and, yes, even our enemies. Let us reflect on these words of the Rule and see how we can put them into practice in our day to day life.

I apologize for not having written on this blog since early May. Since that time we have closed out the school year, had our community retreat, celebrated the Solemnity of Pentecost and this past Sunday celebrated the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.

The school year closed with graduation on Sunday, May 16. So another group of students move on, many of them to theological studies in schools of theology, while others will decide that the priesthood is not their vocation so will go into another field of work. Already the prospects for next school year look good as more young people seem to be considering the priesthood as a possible vocation in life. Pray for them.

On Monday evening, May 17, we began our community retreat. Our retreat master this year was Father Ronald Witherup, P.S.S., a Sulpician priest. This community was founded in France after the Council of Trent, especially to train young men for the priesthood. Father Witherup was a wonderful retreat master. His retreat was entitled: Paul and Benedict: The Christ-Centered Life. He has been studying the Rule of St. Benedict in recent years and he is already a well known scripture scholar in the Letters of St. Paul. He is seeing how often Benedict uses Paul and obviously was well acquainted with his Letters.

Then on Sunday, July 23, we celebrated the Solemnity of Pentecost. The Abbot was celebrant for the Mass. With this feast we of course concluded the Easter season and began so called Ordinary Time. Ordinary time simply means we do not have a special emphasis on a particular event in the life of Christ during this time. This season of the Church Year will run all the way to Advent now. This is year C in the lectionary so the Gospel readings will be from the Gospel of St. Luke until Advent, 2010.

Sunday, May 30, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. A beautiful feast which helps to remind us that God is a family of love. God is one, but there are three persons. That is a mystery which we cannot fully understand. Perhaps an important lesson we can learn from this feast is that we have a relationship with that Trinity and so we need to enter into a relationship with the three Persons. The Father sent the Son to redeem us, and then the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit who continues to be with us until the end of time. God is a community of perfect sharing and equality. May we too become more and more a part of that community.

To read Fr. Kenneth personal blog go to: http://kennethosb.blogspot.com/

God bless all our oblates and all of you who read this blog.

Next Sunday, May 16, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. This feast was formerly celebrated on Thursday and was frequently called "Ascension Thursday." Now, at least in the U.S.A., it is celebrated the following Sunday in most parts of the country. With this feast we also approach the conclusion of the Easter Season in the Church. The following Sunday, May 23, will be the Solemnity of Pentecost and that feast marks the conclusion of the Easter Season as we return the following day to Ordinary Time.

As we reflect on this feast of the Ascension many of us think of Jesus saying "goodbye" to his disciples. At the Last Supper and after his resurrection he gave them many instructions. Some of us as human beings find it difficult to say "goodbye." When our chances are slim of seeing that person again in this life, it is more difficult. Sometimes it is interesting to see how different people deal with this. Sometimes a person will laugh about it, sometimes a person will just avoid saying "goodbye." I personally have always found it rather difficult to say goodbye.

How did the disciples feel when they observed their Lord and Master ascending into heaven? On one hand they had some reason to feel sad and to fear. Jesus was returning to the Father, and while he had told them he would continue to be with them, they probably found it difficult. However, they also were very much aware of the mission Jesus had given them and that they were to preach the Gospel to the whole world. They did not yet understand so many things. But, after the Ascension, we are told they went back to Jerusalem full of joy to await the coming of the Holy Spirit.

We too sometimes would like for Jesus to be with us in the flesh. We want to see him to touch him and have him answer our questions, and give us all we need. But, hopefully, we, like the disciples, realize we must stop looking into the sky and must go to our villages, towns, and to the whole world, to spread the Good News. We now must carry on the mission initiated by Jesus Christ. We must continue to try to make the kingdom of God a reality in our world.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit and that Spirit gave the apostles and disciples a new strength and new energy to preach the word of God. May we, too, then prepare ourselves to receive that Spirit so that by our example, our lives and our words may bring the Gospel message to all we meet.

To read Fr. Kenneth’s person blog click here.

To view Fr. Kenneth’s photos on his web site click here. You will find oblate pictures here under the album "oblates 2010," or a couple earlier years.

God bless all of you.