Our seasoned Novice Director likes to say, “We come to the monastery to learn!” And she’s onto something. Life in Christ is a full-person, everlasting event, engaging the heart, body, and mind in a learn-as-you-go transformation.
Soon after leaving all we knew how to do, and how well we thought we knew how to do it (!), and entering the monastery, one realizes that she has a lot to learn. For example, our hearts must learn new ways of praying. Our bodies must learn new ways of working. And our minds will certainly have to learn new ways of thinking.
Thankfully, we know that it’s Jesus, not ourselves, who works such transformation. The process is slow, and it happens through just living the life, devotedly and humbly, while usually feeling like we’re only hobbling along. And hobble we do! But he provides so many supportive graces.
For instance, one rather neat way he encourages the change of our minds – to become broader, more understanding, and governed by Truth and Light – is through study. Our whole Order, in fact, values intentional formation of the mind through reading, discussion, and incorporation of lessons learned.
…Throughout their lives, the sisters continue to learn “the philosophy of Christ”… Continuing formation is to be made available to the whole community and to individual sisters according to their capacity. This formation is always to be based on the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Cistercian patrimony and is to draw from the riches of biblical, patristic, liturgical, theological and spiritual sciences. -OCSO Constitutions 58
And so, this week we welcomed Dr. Anthony Pagliarini, a theologian from the University of Notre Dame, who taught us about the Letter to the Hebrews. His knowledge and understanding of the text, conveyed with such love and joy, accomplished for us the very aim which he says that the author of the Letter to the Hebrews held in respect to his hearers of long ago:
“To exhort us to join our lives to the sacrifice of Christ.” -Dr. Pagliarini
Regarding the Letter to the Hebrews’ claim that the sacrifices under the Old Covenant have been transformed by the sacrifice of Christ, Dr. Pagliarini explained that now, under the New Covenant, “What’s ultimately sacrificed is you, and what changes is the sacrifice itself.”
Jesus, High Priest, change us more and more into being like you, living love!
