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| Joy on the Soapstone Trail Near St. Mary's Monastery |
Cultivating joy
is an act of resistance
to any person, event, or system
that would have us believe
that death has the final word on our lives.
+ Willie James Jennings,
To close the month of May 2024, I had the honor to help host another St. Mary's Monastery retreat with people from Congregational, Baptistic, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and Anglican backgrounds, for a special time at the monastery focused on the Benedictine rhythms of prayer, infused with Psalms throughout.
Before we arrived, everyone was invited to read, meditate on, and memorize Psalm 63:1-5 to prepare for this sacred time together:
Psalm 63
1 God, You are my God,
earnestly I seek You;
I thirst for You,
my whole being longs for You,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water:
2 I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
3 Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will praise You.
4 I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied
as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.
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| St. Mary's Monastery Sanctuary in Petersham, MA |
On previous retreats, the practices of reading and praying the Psalms, especially connected to compline and prayer in the night with the monasteries, have proven life-giving for me. But this time, it was the mid-morning prayer hour of terce immediately after the mass that blessed me the most. Below is some brief background related to the different prayer hours during the morning provided in Leighton Ford's The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence in All Things:
The “morning” journey(s) are
when our day starts and
where our life begins
with all its potential and challenges.
The “time before our own time”
— Vigils —
is the time for us to address
our Creator with thanks and openness.
Lauds
come just before dawn …
It is the hour that takes us
from darkness into light —
awakening to life, to God.
is the marker of midmorning.
It was at this “third hour”
on the day of Pentecost
that the Spirit came
to the early Christian community,
as the enabling Power of their witness.
In the monastery
Terce
is time to take a break from busy work,
time to receive a midmorning blessing
with a focus on the Spirit
and the aliveness of His presence.
Before I arrived at St. Mary's Monastery, a theme I thought God wanted me to focus on was joy in His presence and cultivating joy as an act of resistance throughout this year. And so when I lingered after the mass at 9:30 a.m. the first morning we were there, returning to the faint aroma of incense in the simple, yet beautiful sanctuary, I could only smile when these were the verses from the Psalms I was invited to meditate on in both Latin and English with the monks and the nuns serenading the day:
Psalms 8
1 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name
in all the earth!
You have set Your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of
children and infants
You have established
a stronghold against Your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You have set in place,
4 what is mankind
that You are mindful of them,
human beings that You care for them?
5 You have made them
a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers
over the works of Your hands;
You put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name
in all the earth!
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| Soapstone Trail near St. Mary's Monastery in Petersham, MA |
The joy in Psalm 8 is not only present in its ancient and fresh praises throughout, but it also stirred in me the right response to the gorgeous view we got to see as a community of retreatants together after a steep hike later that day.
And the joy in the moment of Terce that also brought a smile to my face was personal because less than 24 hours earlier I was discussing this exact Psalm with my oldest daughter as we considered some of the psalms her and her boyfriend had been reading (1-11 as of last week). We watched the Bible Project video on Psalm 8 and enjoyed a quiet break after school together in the month of May-hem.
The next morning of Terce, I was awakened to joy again during a cool, calming, and serene rainfall with this Psalm:
Psalms 16
1 Preserve me, God,
I take refuge in You.
I take refuge in You.
2 I say to the LORD:
"You are my God.
"You are my God.
My happiness lies
in You alone."
in You alone."
3 He has put into my heart
a marvelous love
for the faithful ones
who dwell in His land.
4 Those who choose other gods
increase their sorrows.
Never will I offer
their offerings of blood.
Never will I take their name
Never will I take their name
upon my lips.
5 O LORD, it is You
who are my portion and cup;
it is You Yourself
who are my prize.
who are my prize.
6 The lot marked out for me
is my delight:
welcome indeed the heritage
that falls to me!
7 I will bless the LORD
who gives me counsel,
who even at night directs my heart.
8 I keep the LORD ever in my sight:
since He is at my right hand,
I shall stand firm.
9 And so my heart rejoices,
my soul is glad;
even my body shall rest in safety.
10 For you will not leave
my soul among the dead,
nor let Your beloved know decay.
11 You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in Your presence,
at Your right hand happiness forever.
Multiple people on the retreat mentioned how Psalm 16 had been special for them, too, during this hour of Terce. This time was not only good for my spirit with the Spirit, but good for many others during this hour when the Spirit came down at Pentecost. And while verse 11 had been one I have returned to again and again, I'm now looking forward to returning to the entire Psalm during 2024 to ask the Spirit to move in this way among my family and among Emmaus City Church so that we all can sing as part of Christ's body in Worcester:
8 I keep the LORD ever in my sight:
8 I keep the LORD ever in my sight:
since He is at my right hand,
I shall stand firm.
9 And so my heart rejoices,
my soul is glad;
even my body shall rest in safety. ...
11 You will show me the path of life,
the fullness of joy in Your presence,
at Your right hand happiness forever.
St. Mary's Retreat Reflections:
The guest house was great
and the chapel so beautiful and welcoming.
The diverse people reflected the Body of Christ
and through the readings, sharing,
praying, eating, and singing —
the Spirit quickly knit us together.
+ Brian M.
It really helped me return
to a grounding perspective
during a particularly busy season ...
When life gets worked up into a frenzy,
it was a great gift of God
to come back to a space
where I can remember that
things won't fall apart without me.
+ Kate K.
I want to do this again because
my soul often needs
this type of refreshment.
Many other “retreats”
offer a time away
but don’t refresh the soul. But
this retreat at St. Mary’s
was a huge refreshment.
+ Nate B.
The guest house was great
and the chapel so beautiful and welcoming.
The diverse people reflected the Body of Christ
and through the readings, sharing,
praying, eating, and singing —
the Spirit quickly knit us together.
+ Brian M.
It really helped me return
to a grounding perspective
during a particularly busy season ...
When life gets worked up into a frenzy,
it was a great gift of God
to come back to a space
where I can remember that
things won't fall apart without me.
+ Kate K.
I want to do this again because
my soul often needs
this type of refreshment.
Many other “retreats”
offer a time away
but don’t refresh the soul. But
this retreat at St. Mary’s
was a huge refreshment.
+ Nate B.
is like an oasis in a journey
across a desert land.
The pace of life as a parent,
ministry leader, and community activist
can feel overwhelming at times,
and the avalanche of the daily grind is real.
This retreat provides a respite
for a weary soul
or an opportunity to be more attentive
to God's omnipresence and the love of Jesus.
+ Ron W.
Go into it expecting rest
but getting so much more.
+ Marty H.
It was so refreshing and restful
for my body, mind, and soul!
It reoriented me to a place
of centeredness with God
and enabled me to feel renewed
in my calling and empowered to go back
to the fullness of life
with a sense of calm, focus, and joy.
I really appreciated the good mix
of solitude and fellowship
and the ways other participants' journeys
were an encouragement to mine.
+ Katie W.
I liked the whole thing.
+ Aaron K.
+ It Is Solved by Walking
More Abbey Awe Posts:
+ Awakening to New Wonder in Vigils
+ Finding God in a Thin Place
+ God Moves Thru Unlikely Saints
+ Facing Death w/ "Of Gods & Men"Next Post:
+ It Is Solved by Walking
With presence and peace in Christ,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us
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