Reflection for First Vespers for the Feast of St. Benedict
Red Plains transfer weekend, March 20, 2009
Gospel: Mt.19:27-29

by Sister Janice Futrell, OSB

Dear Sisters -- ALL:

Who among us could have realized much ahead of time that we would be hearing on this day these particular words from the
mouth of Peter --"look what we have left…what will we have?"

Fairly often, as we know, Peter says it like it is, right in the moment; you can hear and feel-with-him a world of feelings!!

BUT there is another key word in his question and that is – "...FOLLOWed you" !!
"Look, we have left everything & followed you.
What then will we have?"
A question -- direct, poignant, waiting. “What will we have?”


And what have we left?!
Certainly every Sister here in her personal journey,
as well as ALL of us in the journey of each of our communities have had such times….
FOR US…(first in Indian Territory, which then became the state of OK)
--- Guthrie to Tulsa... then to Oklahoma City and next to Piedmont.
(you will hear more of that thread this evening…!!)

FOR YOU…some have mentioned: closing of Lillis;
shifting of your college to the north & it changes;
loss of the Administration building.

And for ALL of us, in our leavings and in our followings --
a journey of obedience AND of growth in humility!

Pain, suffering, resurrection -- over and over, isn’t it?
Times of separation, times of integration.

A continuing journey of our individual BAPTISIMAL moment
enfolded in the BENEDICTINE WAY of community –
its prayer and work, its hospitality and service.

Benedict knows that in this hearing of Jesus' call to "follow me,"
we can count on "the Lord in his love showing us the way of life,"
and he continues by saying, "let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide." (Prologue. 20. 21.)

Benedict also tells us that those of us called onto this path ,
to seek God, DAILY, -- no matter what! ,
that we are called to do so - IN & WITH & THROUGH others, our Sisters.


What, then, have we Red Plains Sisters found here, with you?
How very well there is expression of that in the words we have been singing during this First Vespers.
In the very first line of the first Psalm we have the question,
"Who is welcome in your house?"
And in the Canticle, using Colossians, we have the answer,
"We give thanks…(for your) finding room for us"!
With Benedict – as in the fourth Antiphon--indeed, Sisters,
your "heart grew wide!"
We thank you! We are humbled!!

So in coming to you, what is our intention?
First, as individuals and as community, we seek to do God’s will!
AND, we seek to do this BY living out the baptismal experience of dying, with its rising,
by entering into the vitality of Benedictine life here in this monastery, Mount St. Scholastica.


With you, Sisters, OUR Sisters, we want so much to respond YES to Jesus’ own later question to Peter – "Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" (pause)
And hearing YES, Jesus continues with,
"FOLLOW ME!"

How true for us all at this time, I believe, are words I read in a recent copy of Living Faith:

"God mysteriously inches into our lives like the morning tide or a tiny whisper...In such moments and experiences, our attention is riveted on the present moment as an interior door is thrown open in welcome. We find ourselves invited into a mysterious darkness pregnant with the loving divine Presence. We are taken by the hand and led to a place that feels all too familiar and yet is strangely new. At such times, we are welcomed home."

And so, Sisters, may we then, truly prefer nothing whatever to Christ,
and indeed be brought ALL TOGETHER to everlasting life….AMEN! So be it!!