Anne Arundel Community of Reconciliation (AACOR) Monastery
Employing ancient Benedictine wisdom, we seek to reclaim the balance and harmony often missing from modern life. We pause regularly to center our life and action in the Spirit. We practice hospitality and intentional listening. We welcome the unexpected, and the sacred in the everyday. As we begin to integrate Benedictine spiritual foundations and practices into our lives, we find ourselves slowly transformed. Ultimately we recognize that true change in the world comes first from a transformed heart.
Every Thursday we will post a discussion thread and we hope to offer occasional gatherings--in person--to supplement our online discussions. This online version of the AACOR is intended to build and support community through the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. corridor, and will be particularly useful for those who are unable to attend the Benedictine gatherings at St. Anne’s Church in Annapolis. Welcome!
“We must prepare our hearts and bodies.... Listen carefully...Let us open our eyes to the light that comes from God, and our ears to the voice from the heavens that every day calls out...Love God with your whole soul and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself...your way of acting should be different from the world’s way; the love of Christ must come before all else...these, then, are the tools of the spiritual craft.” -The Rule of St. Benedict
Index of all posts on this group page. Sort by category, name, date or number of comments.
| Category | Title |
Post date |
New comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other | Fasting and Feasting | March 7, 2012 | |
| faith | Trust | February 16, 2012 | |
| Other Prayer | Seek and Find | February 9, 2012 | |
| Other | Quiet | February 9, 2012 | |
| faith | Faith | January 25, 2012 |
= Content viewable by any logged in MOH member.
= Content viewable by members of Anne Arundel Community of Reconciliation (AACOR) Monastery only.
Comments added by members are always private.
Do not fear the silence
It is anything but quiet
But do not enter if you are not ready
To hear what you have never had ears to hear
You are deaf from wandering
Your small corridor of noise
Take off your earphones
File the remote
Set your face toward the riot
Vibrating in the profound depths of silence
Lectio Divina: excerpt by Thomas Merton
What you need most
in this dark journey
is an unfaltering trust
in the Divine Guidance.
As well as the courage
to risk everything for Him…
What matters
is for you to be heroically faithful
To faith and to love.
Lord, I do not know what to ask of you---only you know what I need.
I simply present myself to you; I open my heart to you.
I have no other desire than to accomplish your will.
Teach me to pray. Amen
--Francois Fenelon
Make everything in you an ear,
each atom of your being.
And you will hear at every moment
what the Source is whispering to you,
just to you and for you
Without any need for my words or anyone else’s.
You are—we all are—the beloved of the Beloved One,
And in every moment, in every event of life,
The Beloved one is whispering to you
exactly what you need to hear and know.
Who can ever explain such a mystery?
It simply is.
Listen and you will discover it in every passing moment.
Listen deeply within
To hear the voice of God
Who shepherds us
and leads us forth to new life.
O God of Peace
You have taught us that in returning and rest
we shall be saved,
In quietness and in confidence
shall be our strength
By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray,
To your presence
Where we may be still and know that you are God.
Lectio Divina: 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, 1Peter 3:3-4
St. Anselm of Canterbury
O Lord my God,
Teach my heart where and how to seek you
Where and how to find you.
You are my God and you are my Lord,
Though I have never seen you.
You have made me and remade me,
And you have bestowed upon me
All the good things I possess,
And still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Trust Him when dark doubts assail you,
Trust Him when your strength is small,
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Seems the hardest thing of all.
Trust Him, He is ever faithful;
Trust Him for His will is best,
Trust Him, for the Heart of Jesus
Is the only place of rest.
Trust Him, then, through doubts and sunshine;
All your cares upon Him cast,
Till the storm of life is over,
And your trusting days are past.
Lectio Divino: Ephesians 4:15-16
Lectio Divina: Luke 12:32
Do not store up treasures on earth,
For it is your Father’s good pleasure
To give you the kingdom.
Jesus modeled kenosis as the path of transformation—in Greek, “letting go” or "emptying oneself"
I AM the resurrection and the life.
The Word of God is very near to you,
it is in your mouth
and in your heart
for your observance.
See, today before you
I put life and prosperity,
death and disaster...
Choose life. Dt 30:14, 15, 19
Lectio Divina: Isaiah 26:3; 30:15
O God,
You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are fixed upon you.
O God,
Be all my love,
All my hope,
All my striving;
Let my thoughts and words
flow from you,
My daily life be in you,
And every breath I take
be for you.
Amen
--John Cassian, Conferences
Lectio Divina: 1 John 14
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
I am the Way
And the Truth
And the Life.
Benedict says it is here, where we are, that a life of grace can happen---when we consent to live in the present.
Lectio Divina: Isaiah 55
Ho, everyone who thirsts
Why do you spend your money
For that which is not bread?
And your labor
For that which
Does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me,
And eat what is good
And delight yourselves in rich food.