Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

Today's Mass Readings

Today, St. Luke presents us with the beautiful account of Jesus’ visit to the home of Martha and Mary, a favorite scripture passage for Benedictine monks. In the gospel we hear of Martha, who is distressed because of the heavy burden of serving her guests and of Mary, who sits at the Lord’s feet, listening to his every word. Jesus tells her “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her” (Lk 10:41-42). Jesus does not reprimand Martha for her service of others, but he gently chides her for fretting over unimportant details and forgetting the guest for whom such service is intended. He praises Mary for her attentiveness to his words and making her relationship with him a top priority. (One might imagine that Jesus actually concluded his remarks by suggesting to Mary that she give her sister a hand in the kitchen!)

In most monastic communities in the United States, there has always been a healthy tension between contemplation and service. Abbot Frowin Conrad, OSB, founder of Conception Abbey in 1873 intended to establish a monastery dedicated entirely to a life of contemplation. (From Abbot Frowin’s diary we read “And so there stood in the New World a place of prayer, dedicated to Him from whom all blessings come.”) But from the moment he arrived in Nodaway County, Missouri, he realized that the community was also called to also minister to the local Irish and German immigrants, to Indians in the Dakota territories as well as to establish a school for the education of young men (as did our Motherhouse in Engelberg, Switzerland). A new mural in our monastic dining room portrays this Martha-Mary scene and is a daily reminder to the community of this wholesome “anxiety,” which exists in our lives as monks.

This same tension exists in the lives of all Christians. We must all find the balance in our lives between our desire for a deep personal relationship with Christ and the call to minister to the needs of others. A genuine life of mental prayer must lead to an expression of acts of charity for our brothers and sisters. And an authentic life of service to others must be undergirded by a solid foundation of personal prayer. Let us pray to find that balance within our lives—to move toward and ever deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and at the same time to a life of self-forgetfulness and charitable service. Did not Christ give us the perfect example of One who had a deep relationship in prayer with the Father and freely gave his very lifeblood out of love for us?

Reflection by Br. Michael Marcotte, OSB