February 26 – The Goal of our Fast

This is a banner day, as will each day be when we bring ourselves face-to-face with the reason we abide here in Cor Unum:

WE DRAW NEAR!

We are not here to look dedicated or feel spiritual, and those who have been in Cor Unum for awhile and have practiced this monasticism of the heart know that appearances and feelings flee away quickly, leaving us with the daily drudgery of reading, praying, abstaining, rising earlier, resisting temptation, making changes and then always having to make more.

All that would be drudgery but for one thing: we do it all for love’s sake. We read and pray, we change, which sometimes means curtailing or even leaving behind favorite pastimes and pleasures, and are eager to change yet more, because of the hallmark of our lives . . . WE DRAW NEAR!

To the monastics of Cor Unum, there is something not right about ever asking the Lord, who left His rightful estate in glory and became the Word Made Flesh, to come near to us. “Come to us; be with us; draw near to us . . .” We say, “He has and He did and He will never leave us or forsake us!” We say, “We will draw near to YOU, beloved Lord and God; we will pursue Your nearness and Your likeness, as truly as You have come to make Your abode with us.”

We may long for His nearness and cry out for it, but we do so in the faith that He has come as near to us as the water is to the fountain, as near as the oil is to the cruse. We believe that there are things that can hide His nearness – if we turn a deaf ear to the poor or cause separation within our marriages – but He is our ever present help, our Comforter and Friend, our Beloved.

Whatever our fasting in Cor Unum, we make sure that the goal of our fast is oneness with Jesus Christ and the bearing of His image on the earth, and so as we fast,

WE DRAW NEAR!



"We Draw Near"
Abbatial Photo