Cultivation Blog

Those of you fortunate enough to know Br. Edward Mancuso are probably also blessed to recognize the name “Solanus Casey.” Rarely have I encountered the Abbey’s beloved Guest Master without sharing a moment of prayer for Blessed Solanus’ intercession, and since we celebrated his feast day on July 30, I’ve been thinking about this holy Capuchin priest, for whom Br. Edward has such a joyful devotion.

Known for his gentleness, his gratitude, and his merciful compassion for the poor and sick, Father Solanus espoused a trusting simplicity of faith rooted in that “peace the world cannot give.” And though throughout his life he served communities in Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, and Detroit (where the Solanus Casey Center is located), I particularly like to imagine him in his role as porter at St. Bonaventure Monastery, where he welcomed each guest with such attentive hospitality and offered the comfort that never ceases to “thank God ahead of time.” Blessed Solanus trusted that the Lord would bring good from all things, and in response God worked many miraculous healings through his intercession, both during life and after his death.

Before we all rush headlong into the weekend, I wanted to take a moment to share with you the prayer for Blessed Solanus’ intercession and canonization. Since Br. Edward first introduced me to it, I have come to love the way its simplicity and trust cut through the anxious circles I sometimes make in my prayer. Like Blessed Solanus himself, this prayer reminds me that inviting God into my life each day – and trusting Him to act in me even (or especially) when I don’t trust my own capacity – only takes the simplest, earnest movement toward God:  

O God, I adore You. I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and May Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave Father Solanus.

If it is Your Will, bless us with the Canonization of Father Solanus

so that others may imitate and carry on his love

for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your Will, to hear my prayer for… (your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His Designs.”

May each of us renew in simplicity our commitment to God and our trust in His Love, which never fails to act in and through all things.

While the monks of Belmont Abbey – and Benedictine communities around the world – reserve March 21 for the most solemn celebrations of St. Benedict, yesterday’s more generally observed feast of July 11 nevertheless holds a special place in our hearts, and it is often a day when our monks observe vocational milestones.

Last year Br. Leo Young made his Solemn Profession, embracing his vocation and dedicating his life to God through the rooted particularity of this monastic community. And this year the monks of Belmont Abbey welcomed two young men into the next stages of their discernment: one as a novice and one through First Profession, or Temporary Vows.

As I listened to these vows yesterday during Mass, I thought about the ways we discern God’s will in our lives. A Benedictine monk in discernment seeks the will of God through prayer and work, ora et labora. He listens within the Divine Office, the Mass, and the Scriptures. He attends to the shared life of his confreres, the humble rhythms of community life. And although the monastic life is a distinct calling and a particular vocation, discernment is something we all need, and we seek God’s voice in many of the same places: in our own prayer and work, in the Liturgy, the Bible, our families and communities.

We, too, can cultivate the quiet patience that waits for God to reveal Himself. And even if most of us don’t formally vow ourselves to a discernment period, we can still commit to following God’s will no matter what He asks, knowing that the more we give ourselves over to Him, the more He promises to fill us with the Life and the Love that surpass understanding.

Please join me in praying for the Belmont Abbey monastic community – and especially its newest members, as they continue their journeys of discernment over the coming years. May this joyful Feast of St. Benedict remind us to listen to God’s voice in our own lives, knowing that His love and generosity are always orders of magnitude greater than we can fathom.

I’ve been thinking this week about St. John the Baptist, whose feast we celebrated on Monday. The Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist is “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord!’”(John 1:23) His call to conversion disturbed or inspired, depending on his listeners, but he spoke out fearlessly to all, even to King Herod himself, who had taken his brother’s wife in contravention of God’s law.

It can be a challenge, at any time, to speak up in defense of the Truth, and St. John the Baptist’s martyrdom is a sobering reminder of why. But Monday’s feast, June 24, doesn’t commemorate his death, the way such days usually do. (For that we have another feast on August 29.) Instead, this week we celebrate John the Baptist’s birth, and this unusual circumstance reminds me: there’s another side to our call to speak the Truth, a side that doesn’t diminish the risk or the danger but instead shows us why it’s worth facing.

After all, Christ Himself was present at the birth of John the Baptist, within the Blessed Mother’s womb. The unborn John leapt in recognition within Elizabeth when Mary arrived, ready to tend to her cousin in the last months of pregnancy. And the purifying joy John expressed in that moment, even before his birth, evokes the joy of a call that is more than a call – that is a Person – and reminds us just how profoundly our human calling embraces who we are in our divinely created selves, even before we take our first breath.

The One for whom we help “prepare the way” in each other’s lives actually precedes us, offering the joy of His promised salvation long before we are conscious of our need for it. He accompanies us from the beginning.

Our God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, so proclaiming Truth at all costs means proclaiming Him, truly. It can be easy to distract ourselves with fear and anxiety at all the obstacles to speaking up, but St. John the Baptist reminds us, at his birth, that embracing this call is embracing the deeply personal Love of Christ, enduring forever and worth the cost.

Happy Feast of the Visitation!

Following the Annunciation, with the Christchild newly alive in her womb, the Blessed Mother must have felt the need to process and cherish all that was taking place in and through her. Nevertheless, instead of retreating into a perfectly understandable period of adjustment and preparation, Mary immediately reached out to help her cousin. 

From the angel’s message, Our Lady knew that Elizabeth had “conceived a son in her old age” (Luke 1:35). She knew, too, that this would mean not only the jubilant fulfillment of her cousin’s longing for a child but also the physical and emotional burden – however welcome – of bearing a child late in life. Elizabeth’s joy and Elizabeth’s need both called to Mary, who set off without hesitation for the hill country. 

This in itself would be reason enough to celebrate today. After all, it shows that our Blessed Mother goes out of her way to be present to those who need her, even before they ask. But the Visitation brings with it so much more.

True to the irrepressible abundance of God’s generosity, even Elizabeth’s miraculous motherhood and Mary’s responsive love only express a portion of the beauty in this feast. For Mary does not arrive alone. Her “yes” to God means that God Himself is incarnate within her, and her “yes” to her cousin’s need means that she carries this Presence to Elizabeth and her unborn child, John the Baptist. 

I can only imagine Elizabeth’s joy at conceiving a child after so many years – and at a point in her life when the possibility, even under the best of circumstances, would have been impossibly remote. Not only did God answer her prayers – not only did He use this answer to herald the long-awaited Messiah of her people – but as if these things weren’t already far beyond her hope or expectation, He followed this answer with His own presence in her home: “Who am I,” Elizabeth wonders aloud on Mary’s arrival, “that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43) 

The Feast of the Visitation shows us how much and how tenderly God wants to bless us, even in and through each other. Mary reminds us that in reaching out to those in need, we become vessels of God’s merciful Presence. And Elizabeth reminds us that even when our prayers seem to go unanswered, God is preparing to visit us with the unsurpassable joy of His presence.

May God bless you on this glorious feast!