January 4 – Seek, and You Will Find

Live-in monastics all over the world have systems in place to make sure that they will worship and pray and study and eat and work and meditate with happy regularity. We do not have what they have, but we can train ourselves to worship through suffering, to pray through trials, and to rejoice evermore. We can make sure God Himself is penciled - inked! - into our busy lives!

Scripture is full of paradoxical injunctions: love your enemies! Pray for those that despitefully use you! Let your laughter be turned to mourning! Let your mourning be turned to joy! The humble man is lifted up, and the rich must exult in his lowliness. All of this makes sense to the monastic soul, which understands that all things are being culminated in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here in Cor Unum, we regulate our lives around the love of God. For us, it isn’t enough to talk about Him, we must talk to Him. It is not enough for this monastery to plan to pray; we pray!

We take the time we have been given, we look at the things we must do for our families and according to the responsibilities that are ours, and we factor in time with God! Our families need, more than anything else, that we will be in our homes as disciples of Jesus Christ, wise and patient and kind. When we fulfill our obligations at work, at church, and in the community, we show up filled with a Spirit not our own, an unoffended, peaceable, diligent, humble, gracious Spirit, and we are those on whom our employers can depend and in whom our co-workers can trust.

We have time for God. John Wesley used to say that the only way he was able to fulfill such a rigorous schedule of travel and study and preaching was to give the first three hours of the day to the Lord! What might we discover if we lavished the first fruits of our day upon Him, returning throughout the day to give Him honor and praise, to express our gratitude in earnest waiting and listening, and to begin praying until the answer comes?

In Cor Unum, we are ready to find out! Seeking hard after God, we are sure to find Him here, in the monastery of the heart.


"Take Time"
Abbatial Photo