Around the Abbey

The Presentation of the Lord

Look upon that candle burning in Simeon’s hand. Light your candles by borrowing from that same light. Come to Him and be enlightened, so you are not merely carrying lamps but are lamps yourselves, shining inside and out, shining for yourselves and for your neighbor. Be a lamp in heart, in hand, and in lips. -Guerric of Igny

One of the mysteries of a monastic vocation is that God manages to call us from what we know and love, and can see and touch, to a hidden life – a life of enclosure, silence, celibacy, and prayer.

Jesus invites people of all backgrounds, views, and personalities “out” of his wonderful world and “in” to the wonders of his Heart, where he remakes us and all the world into something eye has not seen nor ear heard.  Something as intangible yet utterly real, as quiet yet totally radical, as invisible yet all-powerful – as Love.

But how does God do it?  How does Jesus call us from out there to in here?

For some of our sisters, the mystery first stirred through a word spoken to the heart, whether in prayer, while reading, or while just riding the subway home from work!  For another, it began with a love for the psalms.  For another, with an interest in the Rule of St. Benedict.  Another, with a broken heart. Another, with a desire to serve the poor. Some were awoken in the night.  Some were simply invited in by a friend.

But common to every call is an inherent wideness, a larger participation. While Jesus uniquely teaches each of us to give our lives, he invariably employs others to help us actually do so. When Simeon and Anna received little Jesus on the day of his presentation in the Temple, exultant over the arrival of the one for whom they’d given their lives, isn’t it likely that a passerby heard the joy in their voices, saw the light in their eyes, and were drawn in to follow him fully, too?

On this World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, will you please pray with us, and for us?

Is there someone whom the Holy Spirit is prompting you to ask, “Have you ever visited a monastery?”

Maybe send her a link to our Vocations page (https://mississippiabbey.org/vocations/), or him to our New Melleray brothers’ site (https://newmelleray.org/). Or email us at vocations@olmabbey.org, and we’ll gratefully send you print materials to share at your parish, on your campus, at your favorite coffee shop, local library, subway station…

We can plant, we can water, and we can hope and hope and hope! And God the Promise-Keeper causes the growth.

(It’s great fun really, to participate in the wonder of it all!)