July 4th Independence Day

Excerpted from Love on the Mountain, Robert Hale, OSB Cam.

We Americans of the community are celebrating, somewhat sheepishly, our country’s birthday. Joshua wore his army uniform to lunch, medals and all, to the amused delight of everyone. But the Eucharist readings were all about peace. And the amazing second reading at Vigils, from a sermon attributed to St. Peter Chrysologus, carried that peace theme to the depths of the heart, making it the sum and substance of the Christian, certainly of the contemplative life. Some passages:

Blessed are the peacemakers, the evangelist said, dearest brethren, for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9). Truly Christian virtue grows in a person who enjoys the unchangeable possession of Christian peace, nor does one come to the title of Child of God except through that of peacemaker. Peace, dearest brethren, rescues us from servitude, provides us with freedom, changes our identity before God, changes our condition from servant to child, from slave to one who is free. Peace among brothers and sisters is the will of God, the joy of Christ, the contemplation of holiness, the rule of justice, ... a praiseworthy discipline in every regard. Peace lends strength to our prayers, enables our petitions to reach God easily... it is the plenitude which fulfills our desires. Peace is the mother of love...Peace must be preserved according to the Lord’s precepts, as Christ said, I leave you peace, my peace I give you, that is, as I left you in peace, so in peace I should find you.

 
 
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Saint Romuald’s Brief Rule

Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms—never leave it.

If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind.

And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.

Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor.

Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him.