Design of Life – Page 2 – Benedictine Monastery

July 29, 2020

Discerning Happiness

Last week, I invited you to consider the question Jesus asked of his first disciples: “What do you want? What are your desires?” Maybe you thought about it then let it slide out of consciousness. That’s a shame – these questions tend to get swamped by the demands of daily life yet those deep desires, when properly discerned and developed give energy and colour to our lives. Lacking energy? Feeling bored with life? Then perhaps you need to listen again to Jesus’ question: “What do you want?”

Have you noticed how some people seem to have so much energy to do what they want? For many, it will be because they have listened to their heart and discerned what it truly is that they want. The operative word here is discerned. Out desires don’t come out of our hearts prioritised with an accurate scale of importance with the amount of time we should spend on each element. They come out as a jumble and are more unruly than misbehaving children screaming in the supermarket. We must work to sort out which desires will bring fullness of life and foster love to others, to God and to yourself. Yes, that question of Jesus, “What do you want?’ is crucial for cultivating happiness in our lives.

Loving God, give us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may listen to the desires our hearts. With the love and support of Jesus our brother may those desires be a life-giving force in our lives. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.

July 29, 2020

Reminding ourselves who we are…and what is important.

This week we celebrated the horse race that ‘stops the nation’. Well, most of the country did. I didn’t and I have my reasons. But before you think I’m not really Australian, let’s say I have other ways of reminding myself of what I am as an Australian. I do realise though that celebrating the Melbourne Cup has less to do with the horse race and more to do with being a way we recognise who we are as a nation. It is something we do to remind ourselves of who we are. That is what rituals are for. They regularly focus our minds and hearts of what is important in case we can get too bogged down in necessities, crises and the sheer ordinary details of life.

We need ritual in other areas of life but most importantly in our relationship with God. Rarely will God push into our lives making a big splash. Rather, in respect and love, God waits for us to respond in love. We need ritual prayer to remind ourselves of this loving, waiting God. The ritual can be as profound as Sunday Eucharist or as simple as a prayer made as the cake goes into the over. Time honoured rituals are prayer at the beginning and end of each day, and before meals. As believers, it is a good idea to ask ourselves what do we do to remind ourselves that we are people of God.

Loving God, we so often get caught up in the business of life, forgetting that your love upholds our lives. Give us the wisdom of your Spirit that we may regularly remind ourselves that your care surrounds us at all times. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 29, 2020

Life-Giving Duty.

There is something to be said for doing one’s duty. We tend to think that if we can chose to do what we want to do, we will be free and have a sense of fulfilment – that can happen. Conversely, we tend to think that when we have to do something we don’t like, we will not only feel put upon but be diminished as persons – not necessarily.

In fact, if we accept what has to be done with grace and get on with it, it can be quite a liberating experience. We are freed from the tyranny of our own likes and dislikes, freed from having to make all the decisions, freed from ourselves to get on with the task at hand. This situation happens so frequently in family life: walking the floor at night with a sick child, doing the rounds of the doctors with an elderly parent, being patient when the orange juice is spilt – you can think of a dozen instances in each day. It is in these situations that we experience one of the central teachings of our Christian faith: dying to self leads to life.

In the Gospels Jesus teaches that we have to die to ourselves to rise to the fullness of life. In his own life he showed how it was done. Now he has promised us his Spirit to strengthen and guide us. When we feel challenged, we can pray for this Spirit to come and help us transform that difficult situation into a place of grace and love.

Loving God, we often feel overwhelmed by the challenges of life, as though they are killing our spirit. Send us the Spirit of Jesus to guide us through the difficult and dark moments of our lives that we may bring the love of Jesus into our families and communities. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 29, 2020

The Big Picture

The Sunday Gospels being currently read show Jesus in a number of difficult situations. Quite simply different people come picking a fight with him. By asking nasty, tricky questions they try to ridicule him and put him down. In each situation, he deals with the questions by taking the issue to another level and transforms it into something positive. Tricky situations are part of all our lives and we can learn a skill or two from what Jesus did.

When we find ourselves in a negative or difficult situation we can be badly affected by it and become difficult and negative ourselves. All sorts of things can throw us off course: defiance from a two-year old to marriage problems, difficult neighbours to uncertainty at work. When we feel that we are being overwhelmed, we need to step back and try to see the situation at another level. One way of doing this is to stop, breathe deeply and try and imagine three different ways of dealing with the situation other than the way you normally do. It doesn’t matter how silly, outrageous or impossible those imaginings are, the very act of trying to see it differently free us from the bog of negativity. We can pray for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to see how we can bring God’s grace and love into these dark and difficult places in our lives.

Loving God, we want our lives to be full of love, light and joy but so often we find ourselves overwhelmed by difficulties and failure, both of others and ourselves. Send us your Spirit that we may respond like Jesus with wisdom, wit and ingenuity. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 25, 2020

Rest in your Love

Rest is so important, so sacred that it is one of the first practices God recommends to us. The capacity to rest and to enjoy life go closely together and they are linked with the ability to worship God. To sleep, to snooze, to stop and enjoy watching the kids play, just to watch the world go by, these are all important ways of becoming happy.

Strangely enough part of our ability to rest comes with the ability to appreciate our work. No matter how humble our work is, it is only demeaning if we take the attitude that it is. Even if we don’t like our work, that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to do a good job and then appreciate that. When we have done that then we can truly stop and rest. My grandfather’s last job was as a cleaner but he took great pride in his work and was one of the most contented people I knew – and that contentment made him a very attractive person. At his funeral there were so many friends of all ages who said he was so good to them. His goodness consisted in the ability to stop and be, to rest with people and show interest in them.

Heavenly Father, Jesus called us to rest in his love just as he rested in your Love. Send us your Spirit so that we may let go of the cares that distress our hearts and minds. May we share your peace and love with each other. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 25, 2020

Why are we allowed to do the things we shouldn’t?

Yesterday, I heard of someone who said he couldn’t believe in God, given what had happened in Norway. How could a loving God allow such a horrific killing spree to take place? The question is a valid one and one that could be made of many situations concerning suffering that is caused by people. It is also one that can be made of many situations in our life. Why are people allowed to cause us such deep suffering and why are we allowed to cause others suffering? Because God has given us free will and God respects that freedom even when we abuse it and act in ways that are profoundly inhuman, even violating the sacredness of others’ lives. This is difficult for us to comprehend.

Parents have some insight into this. You can spend yourselves giving the best example and teaching your children to make right choices but part of becoming adult is for them to make choices that differ from yours. Good parents know they have to relinquish control, usually as the children become adults, and that they are not responsible for all the choices their children make as adults. How awful the parents of mass murderers must feel. Even if they had given their children a tough childhood, that is no excuse for depravity.

In our use of free will, we can be most like God: loving, caring, creative; or most devilish: hating, vindictive, destructive. While we are horrified by what happened in Norway, this can also be a wake-up call to us: how do the choices I make each day, give life or destroy life? If we allow ourselves to just drift through life, we are not using our free will and harm can come of this. We are made to knowingly and willingly share in God’s passionate love of the world.

Loving God, at times we are horrified by the terrible actions of people. We pray for grieve the loss in recent tragedies of family or friends. May we learn to treasure those we love and carefully consider the effects that our own choices will have on their lives. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

July 25, 2020

Making a Good Atmosphere

In the past week, the news has been dominated by the death of Osama bin Laden and whether or not his execution was the right thing but I don’t want to discuss that. What has appalled me though has been the gruesome details broadcast repeatedly and the issue of whether the photos should be displayed as well. For right or wrong, this was a violent act, and the clamour for photos says a lot about our values as a society.

Why do we give more attention to negative actions than positive? Imagine you’ve been out driving. In your trip you experienced an act of driver rudeness and three acts of courtesy and patience. What do you describe when you get home? Most people describe the bad and ignore the good. What influence does that have on our children? They learn that the bad will get attention and good will be ignored. Talking about the bad may seem interesting at the time, but the emotional effect it leaves behind is unsettling. Talking about the good leaves a sense of peace and harmony in its wake.

Children will model their behaviour on what they see and hear. If they see us noticing kindness and good service and praising it, they will realise that being kind and of service is a good way to be. Even better, if they see us being kind, patient and of service, they are more likely to live that way. And then wouldn’t that make family so much more enjoyable.

Loving God, you surround us with so much good. We recognise that there is evil and sin in our world. Send us your Spirit of Wisdom so that we may celebrate the good in our lives and work to overcome the bad. May Jesus’ example of love in the face of hatred be our model and inspiration. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 25, 2020

The Joy of Work.

Work – we all have to do it, whether we like it or not. Even if we like it we tend to have mixed feelings. There is almost an expectation in our society that unless our work is deeply ‘satisfying’ and well paid, we will whinge about it. Yet it doesn’t have to be like that. In the past week, we have celebrated both Labour Day and the Feast of St Joseph the Worker.

Our Christian faith holds that by working we share in God’s creative power. In the Creation Story we see God stopping to admire the divine work and proclaim it as good, even very good. In the Gospels we see Jesus working as a tradesman for years before preaching. We are made in God’s image and we, too, should take satisfaction in our work. No matter how humble or boring it is, we find that when we finish a task and appreciate what we have done, we grow as human beings and we have a sense of satisfaction and joy. Yes, we should be paid a fair wage – that is the way the wider society shows it appreciation of our work – but our respect for and pride in our work is more important than money.

It is important for our children to learn this sense of satisfaction. They need to do chores around the house. Even though it can be a bother for us to teach them (it is far easier to do it ourselves), even though they grumble and argue, even though work done might not be up to scratch, they get a sense of belonging to their family and community that no amount of verbal affirmation can give them and at the same time, you, as parents, have the opportunity to be their teachers in the important skills of life.

Loving God, you delight in creation. As we work, may your Spirit play within us do that we may delight in sharing your care for people and creation. May the example of Jesus, the tradesman, inspire to take pride in our work. We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 24, 2020July 24, 2020

Whatever you do, keep holding hands.

One of the most poignant effects of mobile phones is what happens when people get caught in disasters. Facing their death, they ring their loved ones to tell them how much they love them. Like most of us, they probably went through life taking the next day for granted and in that mindset would have had all the usual discussions and disagreements with the ones they love. Now with only a few moments left they want to convey all the preciousness of their love. No-one ever rings to have the last word in an argument.

This experience raises the question: how are we to go through life, expressing our love, yet still having all the problems that normal relationships entail. I heard of a practice of Marriage Encounter. At one stage in that programme, the couple were to sit holding hands and then they could say whatever they wanted or needed to say to each other – so long as they kept holding hands. The holding of hands expressed a love deeper than any pain or hurt that may have been expressed. In our life together, we need small rituals like this to convey to each other that our love transcends any ‘problems’ that arise between us. So if we never get the chance to make that final call, our love still would have been expressed.

We need that too in our relationship with God. At times we do not like what God is doing in our lives, and we need to be frank about how we feel, so long as we keep holding hands with God. No matter what we say or do, we can be assured God will never drop our hands.

Loving God you want us to love like you.. Send us your Spirit to strengthen our love so that whatever difficulties we face we may continue ‘to hold hands’ with each other in love. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 24, 2020

Where is God in all this?

Across our country this month we have experienced devastating disasters – flood and fire. In the anguished grief that has engulfed our community we can well ask : Why is such suffering allowed? Where is God? To the first question I do not know the answer but the answer to the second is: God is with us. God is not some super being that takes away our pain and makes everything all right. Rather in the person of Jesus we see God coming close. Jesus lived our life, suffered our sufferings, died our death so that we may share the divine life. God shares our passion.

In Jordan Rice, of Toowoomba, who sacrificed his chance of survival that his brother might live, God is with us. In the passing rescuers who risked their lives to try to save his family, God is with us. In the police swift rescue teams who saved people foolishly playing in raging waters, God is with us. In the pharmacist at Emerald who chose to fill scripts so people had their medicines rather than work to save her house, God is with us. In the police and army personnel who sift through the houses at Grantham that all bodies may be treated with respect, God is with us. In the numerous volunteers who help with the clean up, God is with us. In our leaders, who have risen to the occasion, God is with us. Whenever we see people, move out of their self-centred concerns and care for others, we see God in our midst.

I write this in the Rockhampton region. I have been amazed at how smoothly this disaster has been managed and would like to honour the public servants and civil authorities who have drawn up the Disaster Management Plans that allowed our leaders and present authorities to respond so quickly. I think especially of the engineer (sadly unnamed) who decided to rebuild the Alligator Creek bridge, north of Rockhampton, 20 centimetres higher after the 1991 flood. Because of his foresight, our region, which has 100,000 people, always had food, fuel and medicines during this crisis. In that type of care, good ordinary work by ordinary people, God is with us.

Loving God our hearts, minds and even our bodies have been bruised by the disasters that have hit our country yet we have been inspired by the generosity and goodness of so many. Send us your Spirit that we may continue to live and love generously. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us

Sr Kym Harris osb