Should Monks Have Anything of Their Own?

+ Please pray the Divine Mercy will shine upon all those who have taken their own lives. +

Chapter 33: Whether Monks Ought to Have Anything of Their Own
Mar. 11 - July 11 - Nov. 10
This vice especially is to be cut out of the monastery by the roots. Let no one presume to give or receive anything without the Abbot's leave, or to have anything as his own-- anything whatever, whether book or tablets or pen or whatever it may be-- since they are not permitted to have even their bodies or wills at their own disposal; but for all their necessities let them look to the Father of the monastery. And let it be unlawful to have anything which the Abbot has not given or allowed. Let all things be common to all, as it is written (Acts 4:32), and let no one say or assume that anything is his own. But if anyone is caught indulging in this most wicked vice, let him be admonished once and a second time. If he fails to amend, let him undergo punishment.


A FEW THOUGHTS

As I quoted the other day, "Wantin' ain't needin!" Monastics with a good Abbot/ess may not have much of a problem with excessive consumerism although pride of ownership could possibly still become a problem. But it is the "excess" implied in both this instruction and in the Black Letter that is a little troublesome for me. Exactly how much can a soul use or waste before she/he becomes "excessive"?

I know a very saintly monk who spent a long time gazing at his towel
and thinking, "I'd like to have a new one". It wasn't a rag of a towel. No indeed, it showed a little wear but was certainly serviceable. But he'd had that particular towel for such a very long time! It had certainly fulfilled it duty well but the fact was that he had just grown tired of looking at that same old towel.

As he gazed at the towel hanging there, he was undecided exactly what he should do....so, as was his habit, he prayed about it. He thought and he prayed.... he thought and he prayed... and as he prayed he looked at the towel. The more he prayed and the more he thought, the more guilty he began to feel about the "wanting" of a new towel. "After all", he reasoned, "Some people have no towel at all! How selfish of me!"

Much to his credit he never progressed to the point of actually asking for a new towel because he said he finally realized, "It really is still a perfectly good towel and probably has a lot of service left in it. How greedy and silly of me to want a new one when so many have so little."

Isn't that beautiful! And every word is true. Now that is what anti-consumerism is all about. I like to think I do my part to be a faithful steward of God's stuff but if I had one tenth of that good monk's attitude I'd be a contented soul. We must all beware of the pride of ownership.

Granted Oblates must have stewardship over the things necessary to
get to work, clothe our families, provide nutritious food and all the
stuff we need to live in the world. But we are called to be *in* the
world not *of* the world. Serve and worship God or mammon; we can't
do both! Jesus told us that, Beloveds!

See... I don't think it's just being a little more careful with the water or the gas (both kinds) or the electricity or all the hundred and one disposable goods we use every day.

It's not starting from 100 and reducing by one or two. It's the attitude of starting from zero and keeping the count as close to zero as possible that I'm speaking of.

Perhaps Oblates, "living away from home", can't be quite that minimalist but you get the idea. It's all in the attitude and the commitment. Personally I think the idea of two pair of trousers our good Brother Jerome mentioned is right on the money and I did it myself for a very long time. The I cut the the choice in half..... sort of. I still have two pair of trousers. I have a black pair of trousers and I have... another black pair of trousers. I have more shirts than I have trousers though! They run the color spectrum from black to.....well, black.

I wasn't always like that. I had the closet packed at one time but, thank God, He blessed me with an appreciation for the "less is more" attitude quite some time ago. As far as clothes go, anyway. I would never deprive my wife or family of anything they think is necessary but, for myself, I keep life as simple as I can.

Well, I'm going to Mass now....time to change clothes....this is the week for my black trousers and shirt.

The LORD gives food to the hungry

"Do not be afraid.... For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,
'The jar of flour shall not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry ....'"

The LORD ... gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free....

The fatherless and the widow he sustains ....

Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to take away sin
but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.

1 Kings 17:13-14

Psalm 146:7, 9

Hebrews 9:28

The Gospel, Saint Mark 12:42

I think someone took these readings from the Novus Ordo, or post-Vatican II missal, but I really like them and feel that they're an expression of what my Christianity is-or at least should be-about.

I really love the Traditional Latin Mass and now Sunday's my favorite day of the week.

But I feel that I'm a sinner who needs salvation. I knew this for a long time, but I'm taking this fact more seriously now that that I've been attending the Latin Mass and listening to Father's homilies and guidance in the confessional.

I feel that I'm more trusting to the Lord now and the focus on whatever's been going on in my life now-that the important thing is that I'm in a state of Grace-and that the Lord is truly looking after me. And I'm sure He really appreciates the widow dropping her last two cents in the collection basket-while He wishes that many of the more fortunate-such as a millionare who drops only a 20-dollar bill in the basket each Sunday-would be more generous.

Of course, I must be honest that my faith wanes sometimes, like it has recently. I used to say quite a bit that I had "the faith of an atheist", but I have not been feeling that way during the 9 months I've been attending the Latin Mass until recently when I had a setback. I haven't been feeling well lately and been feeling like I need a little more "tender loving care" from the other human beings in my life-not just from the Lord. But they don't always choose to give it. Maybe my faith is being tested right now.

Gratitude

We had a different priest say the Latin Mass yesterday morning. The one we usually have is on retreat.

The priest we had this time talked about being gratitude. He also said that there's a restaurant in Michigan he stops at on the way to "my native Canada." I've known for a long time that the Canadians' Thanksgiving is held in October-not November. Must be wonderful being a Canadian living in the United States-getting to celebrate Thanksgiving twice! I had that pleasure one year. I was going with a man who lived with a Canadian citizen. I was invited over to their house for Thanksgiving twice-both in October and in November. It was awesome! In fact the food the Canadian's wife fixed in October was the same as what we have in November in the US.

My friends in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) refer to November as Gratitude Month and say that the Canadians' Gratitude Month is October.

What a wonderful thing to have 61 days dedicated to being grateful!

Many times I'm not grateful enough-and complain about things not going my way-instead of being grateful for the good things.

I'm grateful today that I have a room to retreat to with a full bath and a phone (same number I had in my apartment) without people constantly banging on my door all hours of the day and night-regardless of what I'm doing trying to get money out of me for cigarettes-or at least a can of pop-as if I were responsible for feeding their addictions.

I'm glad that I can spend some time here praying at different times without having to constantly being distracted by noise or being dragged out of my "prayer closet" to see what anyone wants. I think this really helps me spend time with the Lord-and His Mother-when things are quiet most of the time-or that the noise out in the hall is not there to get me to do anything for anyone-it's just there.

I'm grateful that there are plenty of dogs and cats I can visit and pet. We can't have a dog or cat at the place I live, but we can have pet fish in our rooms-and I have a couple of them. I have a friend who has dogs and cats at her house. I get to go over there and pet them. Actually, there's just ONE dog at her house-she called me to tell me the other one is missing and to tell me to have EVERYONE I know pray for the other one to come back.

I'm not exactly rich or the healthiest person around-but others have it worse than me. Of course this is not good that people are so sick and poor-they do need our help.

And I'm grateful today that Jesus and Mary love me and want me to be in Heaven with them. In fact the ONE thing that Father says matters the most-that no matter what else happens to him is that he is in a state of grace!

I guess I haven't been thinking about that very much before attending the Latin Mass as much as I've been admiring the Protestants for their love of Jesus. But thinking of what Father says sometimes helps me to keep my sanity about even things that seem catastrophic-such as my rent check bouncing on me in July.

I've been very grateful that someone did the Heimleich maneuver on me and saved me from choking to death on a tiny bran flake. The feeling of gratitude I have about being alive-in the physical sense-reminds me of how I need to be grateful to Jesus for saving my soul-so I can go to Heaven when I finally have to leave this earth. But the sanctifying grace given by Jesus is far more important than anything that can be done by any man, woman, or child to keep me breathing so I can still be with them on Earth.

Be A Saint!

I've been browsing around on eBay to find more missals and other books to sell to the people at the Latin Mass and and at our parish's next yard sale.

I love what one seller has on the page with the description of the item he/she's trying to sell. This person prays for anyone who buys at least one item from him/her and wants to be kept in our prayers.

The paragraph ends with "....the only tragedy in life is not to have become a saint."

How true. It reminds me of something Father says that the thing that matters most is that one is in a state of grace. This matters even more than if you have food in the house-or whether you're dead or alive.

In fact Father did tell us in one of his homilies that one mother said to her sons, "As much as I would hate to see you dead, I'd rather you die and be in a state of grace than to be alive and in mortal sin."

And some people have been murdered for going along with what the Lord wants of them rather than to commit some sin so that they could live (in the physical sense.) These people have been rewarded for losing their lives for their obedience to God-no time in Purgatory-straight to Heaven! These are the martyrs.

I've read about how and why some of them have been killed-many have even been killed for refusing to commit a mortal sin.

A friend of mine started a group on Facebook about St. Maria Goretti, who went to Heaven at age 11. Some young man wanted to make her give up her virginity and murdered her because she refused. The Lord miraculously kept her alive for 24 hours while she prayed for the man and witnessed to him about the Lord. Eventually he repented and talked about how the young Saint had helped him come closer to the Lord.

Sure other things matter. I was very unhappy about the check for my rent bouncing-but this is better than being in a state of mortal sin. Hearing Father's words about a state of grace being what really matters was a real comfort to me. When I saw him last Saturday night at the mostaccioli dinner, I told him about how I thought of his words about being in a state of grace. I told him that if I didn't hear him talking about a state of grace like that I probably would have had a "nervous breakdown" over the bad check. True, overdrafts like that also need to be taken seriously.

But like everything else on this earth even bad checks don't "hold a candle" to mortal sin.