a book that tells of the men in black

There is so much to tell. There is so much to know. I am referring to our book Brothers in the Desert...



Mari Graña has written an engaging and accurate account of the monastery's first forty-some years, illustrated with historic black and white photos from our archives and a stunning color photo on the cover by Jeff Page. The book will be a welcome addition to the library of any who have been in the monastery or interested in knowing the story of Christ in the Desert. It will also be a perfect gift.



Abbot Philip wrote the foreword and puts the book in the wider context of the last decades of the twentiethcentury when the monastery was taking root amidst innumerable setbacks, from the harsh winters of those days (we seem to be having much milder winters in recent times), as well as the remote setting, so few members in the community, the amount of building that had to go on, etc.



Despite of the setbacks, the monastery has endured, sometimes to the surprise of monks, friends and monastic superiors. All that and more is recounted with even a touch of humor at what we monks propose and what God disposes, to paraphrase the old saying.



We'd like to begin taking orders for the book, hopefully ready to mail to you in the coming weeks, barring any press breakdowns or shipping delays.



Why not order now and be the first on your block to own the book? We'll send it out as soon as it arrives here from the printers and hopefully you'll have great delight in possessing and reading the story of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, written with you specifically in mind, who are part of the fabric of our existence and to whom we are ever grateful for nearly fifty years of support and love for us.



Because this project is a "serious fundraising effort," we can't offer discounts at this time for multiple copies purchased or to bookstores. For those who are outside the USA, we will ship your copy using Global Priority Mail. Place your order here.

Vestments...

A distinction is often made between the type of vestment worn for Holy Eucharist or Holy Communion and that worn for other services.

Non-Eucharistic vestments are typically referred to as "choir dress" or "choir habit," in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches, because they are worn for the chanting of the Daily Office, which, in the West, takes place in the choir rather than the sanctuary.

In other traditions, there is no specific name for this attire, although it often takes the form of a Geneva gown worn with or without preaching bands and a stole or preaching scarf.

In the more ancient traditions, each vestment—or at least the stole—will have a cross on it, which the clergyman will kiss before putting it on. A number of churches also have special vesting prayers which are recited before putting each vestment on, especially the Eucharistic vestments.

For the Eucharist, each vestment symbolizes a spiritual dimension of the priesthood, with roots in the very origins of the Church. In some measure these vestments harken to the Roman roots of the Western Church.

Use of the following vestments varies. Some are used by all Western Christians in liturgical traditions. Many are used only in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, and there is much variation within each of those churches.

The rubrics (regulations) for the type of vestments to be worn vary between the various communions and denominations. In some, clergy are directed to wear special clerical clothing in public at all, most, or some times.

This generally consists of a clerical collar, clergy shirt, and (on certain occasions) a cassock. In the case of members of religious orders, non-liturgical wear includes a religious habit. This ordinary wear does not constitute liturgical vestment, but simply acts as a medium of identifying the wearer as a member of the clergy or a religious order.

the rosary

The rosary in my pocket leads me to the loving awareness of our Mother Mary's presence. But the rosary in the monastery leads me to live the myteries of that rosary.

The mysteries of the rosary are our mysteries too. The Glorious mysteries and the joyful events in the life of the Lord gives us joy and hope, the sorrowful mysteries give us strength when we have to undergo our own sorrowful events in life.

The rosary is not simply something you carry in the pocket.

The rosary has become you. The rosary is me. The rosary calls us to be happy anf faithful Christians.

The rosary calls us to be faithful when the trials come.

The rosary and I should be one. The rosary and you should be one. The rosary and they should be one...

hiding and seeking as in accepting and forgetting...

I'll tell you a story that happened to me as a 12 year -old boy. At that time, I enjoyed playing hide-and-seek.
The problem was I suffered from skin allegies brought about by dust and wind exposure. So, even if I wanted to play with my buddies, I couldn't do so to my heart's desire because the exhaustion from running and the effort would bring me to hyperventilate and an outburst of skin bumps and red rashes.

So whenever I am fully relaxed and the climate is still with no dust in the wind, I would sneak in a game of hide and seek with one of my nephews of my age. I would always cheat, so he would always become the "it". I guess he handed me the privilege because I was the uncle and he was the nephew.

One day, while we were playing the game, I hid under the bed. The place under was dusty and filled with cobwebs.I knew I shouldn't be there but I didn't want my nephew to find me because I did not want to be the "it". After awhile, my mother came along and saw me hiding under the bed. She yelled at me, "Why are you there? Get out of there, you might end up getting rashes and shortness of breath again." I replied, sshhhhh, "don't make noise. I am hiding here. Nestor might find out I'm here." My mother asked, "Why will he look for you?" "We're playing hide and seek," I replied. "But Nestor left already." She told me. She laughed, but then i couldn't find amusement in the situation. Instead I cried. That was the last time I played hide and seek with Nestor.

My mother noticed that I was not playing the game anymore. She told me, "when you play hide and seek and no one looked for you, you felt bad and cried. Do you realize God also expects to be found by you even if God realizes that you have gone in search of the less fortunate ones?" She continued, "Actually, God is no longer hiding. God is already in front of you, yet you still look to the other direction because you refuse to accept God. If you were hurt, if you felt bad and you were upset because Nestor did not look for you when you had expected him to be looking for you, then can you just imagine how painful it must have been for the Lord when we accepted Him and then forgot about Him."

Maybe, now we can say to God: "Pardon us Lord for not making you the top priority. Forgive us Lord for accepting You and then forgetting all about You."

changes...

Unfortunately, life is just a series of changes...

And changes are actually God's opportunities to make us new! Changes are God's opportunities to make us young.

A change is not a chapter being added. A change is a new door being opened to us.

What is left for us is to let God bring about these changes to form us even more.

What is asked of us is to look at the changes in our lives as means to broaden our horizon, our commitments, as means to express to the Lord our faith in Him in spite of the changes that we have to undergo.

A change is an opportunity for us to launch into the deep, to open new frontiers and thresholds, to open new doors, to begin all over again.

Take courage. The Lord is with us. Praise God!

St. Benedict's Holy Rule, Chapter 58. The Procedure for Receiving Brothers

"1Do not grant newcomers to the monastic life an easy entry, 2but, as the Apostle says, Test the spirits to see if they are from God (1 John 4:1).

3Therefore, if someone comes and keeps knocking at the door, and if at the end of four or five days he has shown himself patient in bearing his harsh treatment and difficulty of entry, and has persisted in his request, 4then he should be allowed to enter and stay in the guest quarters for a few days.

5After that, he should live in the novitiate, where the novices study, eat and sleep. 6A senior chosen for his skill in winning souls should be appointed to look after them with careful attention. 7The concern must be whether the novice truly seeks God and whether he shows eagerness for the Work of God, for obedience and for trials.

8The novice should be clearly told all the hardships and difficulties that will lead him to God. 9If he promises perseverance in his stability, then after two months have elapsed let this rule be read straight through to him, 10and let him be told: "This is the law under which you are choosing to serve. If you can keep it, come in. If not, feel free to leave."

11If he still stands firm, he is to be taken back to the novitiate, and again thoroughly tested in all patience. 12After six months have passed, the rule is to be read to him, so that he may know what he is entering.

13If once more he stands firm, let four months go by, and then read this rule to him again. 14If after due reflection he promises to observe everything and to obey every command given him, let him then be received into the community.

15But he must be well aware that, as the law of the rule establishes, from this day he is no longer free to leave the monastery, 16nor to shake from his neck the yoke of the rule which, in the course of so prolonged a period of reflection, he was free either to reject or to accept."

++++++++++++++++++++
The principle of not giving newcomers an easy entrance into monastic life is a very good principle. This tests the man who wants to come to the monastic life.

The way of making that entrance difficult may change from age to age and from monastery to monastery and from culture to culture. The principle is the same: don't let someone into the monastic life too easily.

On the other hand, today most vocations have to be encouraged and not discouraged. Men in our time and in the western cultures tend to be much more fragile in lots of ways than before.

But it is clear that the monks appointed in charge of vocations must be skilled at winning souls. In the past, in many monasteries, there was very little effort to win souls.

Vocations were numerous and it was very simple to weed out anyone who did not cooperate with the life or with the personnel. This situation often brought about rejecting candidates who required more attention and more work.

Today, with the enormous decline in vocations in most "developed" countries, there can be a too easy acceptance of vocations. On the other hand, communities must learn to draw vocations, to work with them and really to form them.

We no longer have the cultural structures that in the past kept monks in monasteries even when they probably should not have been there.

The great challenge is formation: helping a man truly become a monk. Helping a man put all of the energies of his life into being a monk.

There is so little commitment today that even after solemn vows a monk can feel quite free to leave monastic life if it no longer pleases him. This same phenomenon happens in marriages today, so we should not be surprised.

Again, the challenge is formation in commitment, formation in suffering, formation in an authentic spirituality.

May the Lord help our community attract vocations, help us to form them with grace and in nature, and help them and us persevere until death!

Dom Marcus and Dom Anton renewed their Vows last Thursday of this week. The renewal took place in our Chapter Room. They will be completing another year (and the last year), from the day they renewed their Temporary Vows, before they take their Perpetual Vows next year sometime in May. The sisters of our neighboring community of Benedictine Monastery of our Lady of the Desert were all invited to witness the event. To Dom Marcus and Dom Anton, we wish them all the best for their last year of living up on their Temporary Vows!

Jesus' failure...

Judas was a good treasurer, a good secretary and a good keeper of secrets as well.
The first secret he successfully kept was his transaction with the elders for 30 pieces of silver in exchange of Jesus.

Though he was successful in keeping it secret from everybody, he could not hide this plot from Jesus, who is God. Jesus knew of his avarice. he knew the plot.

Jesus, however, did not take any drastic action against Judas. He did not tell the apostles who would have gone after Judas' head. Neither did Jesus outrightly punish Judas for his sin. Instead, He appealed to Judas in the name of love.

Since Judas did nothing despite the appeal, we can conclude that Jesus failed with Judas.
But Jesus succeeded and Judas failed. Jesus succeeded because He did not give in to the temptation of violence, hatred, and instant punishment.

Have you ever felt your appeal of love go to waste because it was not heeded?

Well, your appeal was not wasted. Love and goodness are never wasted because God never meant them to be.

who among us?

Who among us can say that we have not committed a sin? Who among us can say that we have not prostituted ourselves in utter infidelity against God?

We all need healing, spiritual healing. And if you want to be healed, Remember that the Lord is always here for us.

WE only need to act and don't miss your act of reaching out.

Let us reach out to God in silence and say: "Lord, I want to be healed. Restore health in my soul, Lord, I want to be healed, heal me Lord."...

humble beginnings...

The Parable of the mustard seed is for all Christians. A big tree grew from a small seed where birds made their nests. We are similar tot he mustard seed.

Who among us can say that we were already great when we were born? We all started small and dependent on someone else.

But because of the goodness of people and the kindness of of situations around us, we grew up and made something of ourselves.
We are like the mustard seed that started with a humble beginning, only to take its place in the world later on.

But even if the mustard seed has grown into a tree, it should first recognize its humble beginnings as the smallest of seeds.

What is the fate of those who do not recognize this? Jeremiah compares the ungrateful who refuses to remember their humble beginnings to a man who has not changed his undergarments for a year. He stinks!

Let us ask the Lord to protect us from being like that stinking person.
It is abominable to think ourselves as such stinking one!

don't compromise...

Very few of us, or even none of us yet, have experienced being possessed by the devil. But even though , many of us have acted like we actually were possessed.

Kicking a dog without a reason, shouting at a child simply because you are tired, gossiping about other people, and pretending to be something or somebody we are not, are signs of diabolical possessions. Many none of us would shriek and bleed, yet many of us have lived this way.

How do we exorcise the devil we see in our loved ones? --The first thing to keep in mind is, never compromise with the devil.
We must never say something is "alright" when in fact, it is not.

We must never say, " "Let it pass," when in fact we should confront it.
Evil must be confronted as evil, and there should be no compromising.

sins of the flesh...shadows of the past...

Some of us live by our shadows. Some of us live by the shadows of our flesh and this is why we are not happy and we are not at peace.

The shadows would be what St. Paul calls lewd conduct, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, bickering,, jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalry, and dissensions. These are the sins of the flesh.

On the other hand, some of us live by the echoes of the past. Our hearts continue to cling to what has been there in the past. We just echo and echo and echo. If you analyze what an echo is, it is nothing!

St. Paul and the Lord invite us, not to simply live by the shadows of the flesh, not to simply live by the echoes of the past or by the echoes of social, economic and political structures.

For whom do you live? By whom do you live? By your echo? By your shadow? By yourself? Or by the Spirit?

because of sin...

Because of sin, that which was created is spoiled and that which was created healthy becomes sick.

It is also sin that prevents the completion of time.

Because of sin, we delay the coming of God's Kingdom. Because of sin, the reign of God is delayed and obstructed.

This is not because God was powerless, but because we are exhausting all means to delay the plan of god.

Our origin is God. Our destiny is God. Our condition is sin. Sin destroys our origin and destiny.

Now is the time to turn away from sin. Now is the time to return to our original goodness.

Now is the time to set our hearts on hastening the reign of God...

keep on trying...

The problem with us today is our lack of perseverance. We must learn from our mistakes but we should never give up trying.

At times we easily give up because we are men and women of little faith. Noah persevered till he succeeded.
The Lord kept on trying until the blind man could see.

St John of the Cross says to us: "We receive from God as much as we expect fromm Him."

If we expect a little, we will receive a little. If we expect much, miracles will happen!

the mission of the Church...

The Church is compared to the shrub of mustard. From here, we can learn two missions of the Church:
First- According to the parable, is that different birds nest on the tree branches. Such is the Church. The Church exists, not only for an exclusive community, but for all men and women.

second- according to the parable of the mustard seed, the Church exists in order to give rest to the birds.

The Church exists in order to give rest to the people. When we are tired, we go home and go to bed. When birds break their wings, they return to their nest. When children are bruised, they ran to their parents. When adults get hurtthey seek the comfort of their paternal or maternal homes. Such is the Church.

It is for people who have no place to return to, for people who have no homes waiting for them, for people who want to rest, but cannot.

The Church is not here to confuse people,. The Church is not here to make trouble.

The Church is here to offer rest!

a knockout...

Many years ago, I was very disturbed when I picked up a newspaper one day with the picture of Tyson and Seldon in the ring. Tyson knocked out Seldon after just a clear 109 seconds from when the fight began.
According to the news, the people in the stadium were screaming: Fixed Fixed!

It is disgusting to know that while there are many people fighting for human rights and violence, yet here, we have millions of dollars invested in sports that entails a fight between two men trying to outdo each other and dump each other like rugs if need be.

For some peculiar reason, we seem to enjoy watching fights.
Who still believes in strength lying in gentleness?
What child will listen to you when you say to him: "Don't hit back. Jesus never did. Do not own guns. Jesus never did."
How will the child laugh interiorly at anyone who said this?

When will we ever stop getting on that boxing arena and pulling all the punches at a hurt opponent? When will we stop taking delight and see someone else as a rug?
More and more people should be totally knocked out and floored by kindness, patience and tolerance and not to be used as rugs to pin down on the floor of life.

do you like mangoes?...

I still remember the day when a couple invited me to their celebration of their patron saint in Sampaloc. I agreed to go and told them to pick me up in the school campus waiting shed where I will standby and wait for them.

The couple's son, who is my eight grade student, picked me up with his mom instead. On our way to their house, we passed by a street vendor selling guavas and mangoes.

"Look, Joel! Look at those fruits!" Joel must have seen how wide eyed I had gotten about seeing those fruits in the vendor's push cart that he asked me: "Sir Albert, do you like mangoes a lot? Is that your favorite?"

Slightly embarrassed, I felt I had to tell my student the truth even if he may not believe me precisely because of the enthusiasm I displayed about the fruits on display.
I answered, "No, Joel I do not like mangoes." I am into taking my best diet pills so I don't need those fruits anymore.

Just as I thought, he was surprised to hear that answer. Disappointed, he said, "If you do not like mangoes, then why did you get excited abut seeing them?" "Well, I thought you might like the sight of really big mangoes and guavas." Laughter filled the car.

Now it was my turn. "Do you like mangoes Joel? What is your favorite fruit?" He shrugged his shoulders and said "I, too, do not go into fruits right now as I am taking my body building supplements. although I love to eat fruits and mangoes are my favorite just as I am my mama's favorite. "Isn't it that I am your favorite, mama?" His mother replied, "Yes, you are my favorite, Joel!"

I gave such a loud and amused laughter that Joel seemed contented with leaving the discussion alone on that note.

He beamed with pride as he was told he was his mama's favorite although he knew that he was not the only child in the family of five children. Joel could not care less about the guavas or mangoes for that matter. So I thought....

Honestly, is there such a thing as treating everybody equally? WE complain when our parents give more attention to our siblings than they do to us. Is treating everybody in the same way a sign of virtue?
It is not really a sign of virtue to treat everybody in the same way. Even St Paul says that he did not treat everybody in the same way. To the Jews, he was a Jew; to the Gentiles, he was a Gentile; to the weak, he became weak. Paul adjusted himself, according to the need of the person he was dealing with.

His goal was to bring others to Christ. In being flexible and sensitive to the needs of those around him, St Paul actually became another Christ for the people.

Are we another Christ to other people?

moving over...

In several occasions, I have had to listen to some of people coming to me in groups and asking me to mediate (in prayers) on their case for them. What case? Eviction.

I had a chance to listen to the heartaches of some squatters living in the area near the way to the nearest city where I go for my occasional city appointments.

I sat with a group whose homes near a popular lake were being demolished by a troop of uniformed cops equipped and armed with Leupold Riflescopes and other forms of ammunitions.

The common denominator of these groups is that they they just wanted to be listened to, to be given a little more time to pack or see the fulfillment of the promise that they are going to be given a new place where they can build new homes for themselves.
If man can do this to his fellowmen--bug them off like flies where they are not wanted- can you imagine how easy it is to send away animals from a familiar habitat, so to speak?

In the name of industrialization, we have the right and the power because God made us master of all these. That is true- but God, being the Master of us all, may one day say we are merely on this earth which is squatting in some place of the universe, taking up space which God now intends for something else.

What if one day, without notifying us, He decides that He wants to evict us or make us move over? Will we have time to move over when in reality we will not even have a single second to move over?

when we risk making mistakes...

We all have to make decisions. Jesus also had to make decisions.

In making decisions, we risk making mistakes. We can make a perfect decision, a mixed decision, or a devastating decision.
Jesus chose twelve men. He made twelve decisions, but only eleven were correct.
He made a mistake in choosing Judas.

When we make decisions, we must be ready to make mistakes. What is important is how we handle them.

Many of us carry our mistakes on our shoulders like backpacks. We tell the world, "I have made a mistake." We doom and condemn ourselves to unhappiness. Our familiar song is "Hope". If only I did not do it. If only I did not buy those things, If only I did not allow this things to happen. etc etc...Then we tell everyone about our mistake and carry it like a heavy luggage in our back. This is very unlikely and unbecoming.

On the other hand, some people make mistakes, realize them, then tell God, "Lord, I made a mistake. Help me to begin again. Help me to rise again. Help me stand straight again because I know I am a brand new person because You are rich in mercy."

This is wisdom. It is foolish to be carrying around mistakes on our shoulders like heavy burden and load wherever we go. God does not ask us to do that.

Of the twelve decisions that Jesus made, He made one mistake but He did not carry it like a heavy load. He gave Himself a fresh start.
What about you?