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February – September 2010 Mount Michael Abbey, Elkhorn, NE
Dear Oblates,
The monastic journey is the journey of Lent, the path of seeking God. Saint Benedict in the Rule
gives us a chapter on Lent to encourage our faithfulness to this journey. Christ calls us to conversion, to
“metanoia”, like Jonah called the people of Nineveh.
Conversion happens when we respond to God’s gift of Grace and Love.
The call to come out of the tomb of darkness is to unbind, to tear off all that is keeping us in bondage and
fear.
The Prophet Jonah hears the call of the Lord but refuses to LISTEN.
He tries to run away from the voice of the Lord, calling him to service. And we know the consequences of
his disobedience.
God calls us each day to be instruments of His Love. God will persist in the call anytime we fail to
answer or run away. Of course, there are consequences when we disobey.
The Bible tells us that the Ninevites do listen to Jonah and put on sackcloth and ashes and turn
away from their evil ways, and God does relent and does forgive them. If we continue reading the Book of
Jonah, we see Jonah becoming bitter because of God’s forgiveness towards the people of that pagan
nation.
We, too, at times find forgiveness hard. We murmur when the last receive as much pay as the first.
We are angry when the father welcomes back the younger son, but God’s ways are not our ways,
because our God is a God of Compassion, Mercy and Love.
God waits for our return and conversion with a joyful banquet and offers forgiveness, reconciliation
and healing. Let’s enter into the joy of God: our God welcomes us back as His beloved sons and
daughters, as “Sacred Vessels” of the altar.
The monastic community prays for you daily. Thanks for your Oblation to Mount Michael Abbey.
We thank you for your gift.
Peace,
Abbot Theodore
Brother Jerome
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they
rest in peace. Amen.
Let us remember our deceased Oblates in our prayer:
? Mary Alice Jenkins died on August 19
th
, 2009
? Louise Ries died on January 17
th
, 2010
? Agnes Murphy died on January 20
th
, 2010
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From: “Christ in His Mysteries” by Blessed Abbot Columba Marmion, OSB
Meditation on the Stations of the Cross.
IV Station. JESUS MEETS HIS AFFLICTED MOTHER.
For the Virgin Mary the day had come, when the
prophecy made by Simeon was in her to come fully true: “A
sword shall pierce your own soul.” (Lk 2:35). In the same way
that on an earlier occasion she had united herself to Jesus in
offering Him in the Temple, now she wishes more than ever to
join her feelings with His and to share His sufferings at this hour
when Jesus is about to complete His Sacrifice. She betakes
herself to Calvary where she knows her Son is to be crucified. On the way there, she meets Him.
What an immense sorrow to see Him in that frightful state! They look at each other, and deep
calls to deep- the abyss of suffering of Jesus and the abyss of compassion of His mother. What is
there that she would not do to help Him?
This encounter was at the same time a source of sorrow and a cause of joy for Jesus. A
sorrow, in seeing the profound desolation into which His very sad state was plunging the soul of
His mother; a joy, in that thought that His sufferings were paying the price of all the privileges that
had been, and would be, showered on her.
That is why He hardly pauses. Christ had the tenderest heart there can possibly be. At the
tomb of Lazarus He shed tears; He wept over the misfortunes that would be coming upon
Jerusalem. Never did son love his mother as much as He did; when He encountered her so
desolate on the road to Calvary it must have moved Him in every fiber of His heart and yet, He
continues His journey to the place of His execution, because that is the will of His Father. Mary
associates herself with this feeling; she knows that all things have to be accomplished for our
salvation; she takes her part in the sufferings of Jesus by following Him all the way to Golgotha,
where she will become Co-Redemptrix.
Nothing of the human ought to hold us back in our onward journey to God; no natural love
ought to put a shackle on our love for Christ. We must continue further in order to stay united with
Him.
Let us ask the Virgin, in her contemplation of Jesus’ sufferings, to associate us with her,
and to give us a share of the compassion she showed for Him, so that we may thereby obtain a
hatred of sin which has required such an expiation. It has occasionally pleased God to imprint on
the bodies of some saints, like St. Francis of Assisi, the stigmata of the wounds of Jesus, so as to
manifest in a form perceptible to the senses the fruit produced by contemplation of the Passion.
We ought not to desire those exterior marks, but we ought to ask that an image of the suffering
Christ be imprinted in our hearts. Let us beg the Virgin for this special grace:
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Savior crucified.
O Mother, behold your Son; through the love that you bear Him, may a
remembrance of His sufferings accompany us wherever we go. It is in His name
that we seek this; to refuse it to us would be to refuse it to Your Son Himself,
seeing that we are His members. O Christ Jesus, behold your mother; for her
sake, grant that our heart be with you in your sorrows, so that we come to
resemble you.
If you would like to submit any thought, prayer, poem or personal reflection to be shared
with all our Oblates in our next newsletter, please write to
Francesca, e-mail MDammermann@aol.com by August 31
st
, 2010.
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LENTEN JOURNEY: JOURNEY TOWARD GOD
By Francesca Dammermann
Lent is a Blessed Season of recollection, review of my life and
conversion.
With Christ always before my eyes, I look at my life, take extra time to
slow down and stop in my tracks to revise my relationship with my Lord
and with all those around me.
Lent is a time to renew my Baptismal Wholesomeness and Purity,
a time to discover anew the sacred image of the Divine that is within me:
created by God out of Love and for Love, created in His image and
likeness, I am called to contemplate His face imprinted in my heart. It is
God’s Grace that opens my eyes to His beauty in me. It is God’s Grace
that reveals my faults, and shows me the path I need to walk so as to get
rid of all that separates me from the Lord and to restore my friendship
with God and others.
Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving become integral part of my walk towards the celebration of
Easter:
- In Prayer I try to rediscover some prayers and devotions, that seem to be forgotten in my life. I try
to look at them with new eyes and pray with a new heart, a heart committed to Love alone: prayer is
meant to lift us to “love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind.”
- Fasting from food is training my body and my mind to control my selfish wishes, in order to die to
my own will and be ready to do the will of the Father.
- Through Almsgiving, I am learning to share of what God has given me with others, especially
those in need, becoming a living example of Jesus’ words, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Lent is also a time for silence, not only exterior silence, but above all interior silence, so that I may
reconnect with God and fully hear and receive His Word in me.
As Mother Teresa of Calcutta speaks about this sacred silence, may her words find a home in my heart:
“To make possible true interior silence, we shall practice:
- Silence of the eyes, by seeking always the beauty and goodness of God everywhere closing it to
the faults of others and to all that is sinful and disturbing to the soul.
- Silence of the ears, by listening always to the voice of God and to the cry of the poor and the
needy, closing it to all the other voices that come from the evil one or from fallen human nature:
e.g. gossip, tale-bearing, and uncharitable words.
- Silence of the tongue, by praising God and speaking the life-giving Word of God that is the Truth
that enlightens and inspires, brings peace, hope, and joy and by refraining from self-defense and
every word that causes darkness, turmoil, pain, and death.
- Silence of the mind, by opening it to the truth and knowledge of God in prayer and contemplation,
like Mary who pondered the marvels of the Lord in her heart, and by closing it to all untruths,
distractions, destructive thoughts, rash judgment, false suspicions of others, revengeful thoughts,
and desires.
- Silence of the heart, by loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength and one another
as God loves, desiring God alone and avoiding all selfishness, hatred, envy, jealousy, and greed.
Our silence is a joyful and God-centered silence; it demands of us constant self-denial and plunges us into
the deep silence of God where aloneness with God becomes a reality.
To foster and maintain a prayerful atmosphere of exterior silence we shall:
- respect certain times and places of more strict silence,
- move about and work prayerfully, quietly and gently,
- avoid at all costs all unnecessary speaking and notice,
- speak, when we have to, softly, gently, saying just what is necessary,
- look forward to profound silence as a holy and precious time,
a withdrawal into the living silence of God.”
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Under the Light and Guidance of the Holy Spirit, let us walk with Jesus, into
the embrace of the Father: have a very Blessed Lenten Journey!
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Oblates Meetings
Sunday, March 7
th
(1
st
Sunday)
2:30 – 5:00 pm LENTEN RETREAT
5:15 pm Evening Prayer
Sunday, March 21
st
(3
rd
Sunday)
FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT
5:15 pm Evening Prayer and dinner with
monastic community.
Please RSVP Brother Jerome at 206-2069
or e-mail at jkmiecik@mountmichael.org
Sunday, April 11
th
(2
nd
Sunday)
2:00 – 3:00 pm Oblate Novices
3:00 – 4:30 pm Lectio Divina/ Meeting
4:30 – Social
5:15 pm Evening Prayer
Sunday, May 2
nd
(1
st
Sunday)
2:00 – 3:00 pm Oblate Novices
3:00 – 4:30 pm Lectio Divina/ Meeting
4:30 – Social
5:15 pm Evening Prayer
JUNE: NO MEETING
Sunday, July 11
th
(2
nd
Sunday)
5:15 pm Evening Prayer followed by
Potluck Picnic – Please bring a dessert or
salad to share
Mount Michael Oblates
A Newsletter of the Oblates of
Mount Michael Abbey
22520 Mount Michael Road
Elkhorn, NE 68022
AUGUST: NO MEETING
Sunday, September 12
th
(2
nd
Sunday)
2:00 – 3:00 pm Oblate Novices
3:00 – 4:30 pm Lectio Divina/ Meeting
4:30 – Social
5:15 pm Evening Prayer
In each of our lives Jesus comes as the
Bread of Life- to be eaten, to be
consumed by us. That is how he loves
us. He also comes as the Hungry One,
hoping to be fed with the bread of our
life, with our hearts that love and our
hands that serve.
(Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta)
On June 19
th
, 2009 Pope Benedict
officially opened the
Year for Priests, which will run
through June 19
th
, 2010.
Let us continue to include all our
beloved Priests and Seminarians in
our daily prayer!
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