On three Sundays of Ordinary Time in 2008 and 2009 I attended mass at St. Procopius Abbey with the abbot, Fr. Dismas Kalcvic, presiding at each. These were NOT the only Sundays where I have gone to mass at the abbey or other churches but I have made notes about the contents of those sermons and have decided to present them here. Because they seemed to make sense.

As you may note this is the second time I have tried to describe the Abbot's sermons. The three I've picked are certainly NOT the only one's I've heard from the Abbot that have struck me. But they are probably ones that have hit the hardest and thus got more of my attention than normal. (If you have the opportunity attend mass at St. Procopius on a Sunday at 11:00 am and hear for yourself.)

As with my previous commentary I won't try and reproduce the sermons verbatim here. But I will try and catch the spirit that moved me.

On the 4th Sunday in 2008 the passage from the gospel of Matthew concerning the beatitudes. (Matthew 5:1-12)

In the "sermon on the mount" part of Matthew's gospel Jesus lays out nine attributes that are generally regarded as Christian. And more specifically they are regarded as being attributes of those who are to enter the kingdom of God, e.g. "Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy."

The abbot pointed out that each listing of the attributes is really composed of two parts. Typically we focus on the first part: attributes defining who enters the kingdom. But if we look at it backwards we see that it also provides a description of the attributes of the kingdom! And as such they provide us with a vision of hope.

Before expanding on that idea the Abbot pointed out that hope is a necessary virtue for a Christian. As people we hope for many things. Some things are personal e.g. "I hope I am successful in what I've started." Some things are shared hopes, e.g. "I hope the weather's nice." And some may be of a more dreamy quality. The ones that are important are the ones we influence. And thus we come to the beatitudes themseleves.

Looking at the nine items backward we find they describe a kingdom that can be ours where there is comfort, peace, justice, righteousness, mercy and God himself. In other words this is the description of God's kingdom and perhaps more specifically we can find in them descriptions of the nature of God himself.

Now looking at from the more traditional description of human attributes we see that those who are to share in God's life are humble, merciful, see suffering in this life, seek justice and peace, are clean of heart and are willing to live with the persecution of the world because they believe in these things.

And it is the hope of those with these habits that, by perseverance, they will at last see the Kingdom of God.

On the 4th Sunday in 2009 the passage from the letter of Paul to the Corinthians (1Cor 7:32 - 35) concerned focus in life. The abbot pointed out four things we might consider in how we chose to live a life where God is (intended) to be our goal. These four items are actually from St. Theresa of Lisieux (with some overtones of St. Francis De Sales).

First we should be realistic. Whatever we do in life should be based on where we are and what we can do. We may want a spiritual direction but that spiritual direction should reflect the life we have: If we are married and have a family and obligations we should not aspire to become a Carthusian monk!

Second, practice the presence of God. Remind your self during the day that there is nmore to life than the things that cluter up living, that there is a God beyond this life that we should think and meditate on.

Third, try and make Jesus that rreminder that God did enter human life and share it with us for the specific reason that He loves us. (John 3:16)

Fourth, get outside your self and focus on others. Your life is not about you but what good you do and evil you avoid.

On the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Times 2009 the sermon focused on the book of Job (Job 7:1 -4, 6 - 7).

This one is a hard one (for me) and I expect for many other people: How can we believe in a benevolent and loving God if there is so much suffering in this world? The abbot pointed out that God's answer (paraphrasing here) to Job as he laments his fate is "Do you really thing you have the whole story?" As an analogy think of a huge book that we are allowed to see only a fragment of a paragraph of. If that paragraph describes suffering we may think that all of the book is about suffering. If it describes wealth and success we may assume the book is about wealth and success. But our problem is that our view is small compared to the reality of the world and all its history.

Yes, there is certainly suffering in our lives and those of others. But is that the whole story? Could we ever have the whole story? Drawing on the gospel reading (Mark 1: 29 - 39) the Abbot noted that if we believe in the story of our redemption through Jesus's death and resurrection we can see that God cared enough to be one of us and share our suffering and provide healing. And even now God acts in this world for good. It is this hope that we must remember and act on even if we never get the "full story."