Go forth now, if you can!

It’s been a quiet time in the Clyde blogosphere this past month.  My blog has suffered from inertia - that fundamental principle of classical physics:  ‘the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion.‘   So in other words, an unwritten blog tends to remain unwritten unless acted upon by an outside force.  I was traveling on some business trips for the congregation in January so that is my excuse for procrastinating.  :)

display in our hallway on Feb. 10th
 note sign under the umbrella

We just celebrated the Feast of St. Scholastica yesterday on February 10th.  She was the twin sister of St. Benedict.  We only know one little story about her from St. Gregory who wrote Benedict’s biography in his Dialogues - “The Life and miracles of St. Benedict.”   It states she was consecrated to God in early childhood and used to visit with him once a year.  On these occasions he would go down to meet her in a house belonging to the monastery a short distance from the entrance and there they would have conversation on the spiritual life and sing God’s praises.  

On this particular visit they stayed together until it was quite late.  Scholastica asked Benedict to stay on but he replied, “You know I cannot stay away from the monastery.”

When he refused, Scholastica folded her hands on the table and rested her head upon them in earnest prayer.  When she looked up again, there was a sudden burst of lightning and thunder accompanied by such a downpour that Benedict was unable to set foot outside the door.   The very instant she ended her prayer, the rain poured down.

This caused Benedict to complain bitterly, “God forgive you sister, what have you done?”

She answered, “When I appealed to you, you would not listen to me.  So I turned to my God and he heard my prayer.  Go forth now now if you can, leave me here and go back to your monastery.”  (So Benedict ends up staying and they both derived great profit from sharing their thoughts on the interior life)

I love this brother/sister dialogue...it reminds me of my growing up years with my own dear brothers.   I can almost hear Scholastica saying “nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah”...after she said, “Go forth now if you can...”

It is said that St. Scholastica was heard by God because ‘‘she loved more.”  In other words, she wasn’t worried about following the rule to be back in the monastery like Benedict was worried about.  She just wanted to continue the wonderful ‘God conversation’ they were having.  

We midwest farmer folk, especially in this time of drought, would love to be able to call down rain at will like Scholastica.   But the point of the story is not being able to summon weather at will, but about LOVE.  God always hears our prayers but our motivations are important.  

Prayers asked in love united to the will of God, will surely be answered.  Submitting to the will of God is the important part....and the hardest!  

We invite the monks of nearby Conception Abbey over for Vespers and supper every year on this day.   It's a great way for us to continue the tradition of Scholastica and Benedict sharing a meal and conversation.  I understand it snowed heavily one year (before I entered) and the monks couldn't make it over.  However, we had all this food prepared so a couple of the monks came over in a four-wheel drive pickup and we gave them the food we had ready.  So, we didn't feed their souls with conversation but we did still manage to feed their stomachs!