March 30 - Code Name

A Cor Unum quote: “We discover those hours that we cannot control, and we seize those we may.”

We all have hours in every day that make just demands upon our time and our lives. It is a good thing to understand and appreciate this, and especially to see that the mother of six who manages to spend an hour in the early morning with the Lord might be giving her all, where others give out of their excess!

The true loveliness of this Abbey is that here we all learn to give what we can, to find ways to enhance the time we have been given, to gladly substitute devotion for distraction without failing to enjoy the delights God sends our way.

In Cor Unum we begin to see that three minutes of worship are powerfully able to do two things. First, they may often become five or ten minutes or even more, without capsizing the household ship, and secondly, that those minutes begin to feed us and to quench our life’s thirst in ways that whatever we were doing with those minutes, never could.

THIS is the first, best discovery . . . that it is possible to STOP.

It must be rather like discovering a new star or a planet, or that you own an island on the Cote d’Azur!

It is possible to STOP . . . to halt life in order to actually appear before the throne of grace. . . WHERE GOD IS!!! That is as true as it is incredible, and it is as powerful as it is possible. Is it any wonder that there might be dozens and hundreds of intricacies in place to keep us away, if, in fact, there are powers and principalities in place to contend with the saints? Ephesians, chapter six, says there are. Another discovery!

When we STOP even for three minutes, we prove that “they” cannot own our time. We also demonstrate that we believe they are there. “They” would rather we didn’t. Cor Unum has become the code name for “Command Central, Spiritual Regions!”, as we shall discover together, here in the monastery of the heart.


"CCSR . . . Command Central, Spiritual Regions"
Abbatial Photo

March 29 – Having It All!

Six minutes of worship! It makes us want to say WOW! . . . and giggle! Six whole minutes! For many of us, that is more than six times what we were doing before!

Closing everything out as best we can, especially shutting the door on our own busy-ness and distracted-ness and the post-modern tendency we have, the need to FEEL busy and involved and even a little distraught. If life imitates art, we look more like Salvadore Dali originals than Rembrandts, that’s for sure!

We call to mind . . . we are the Abbots and Abbesses here. We command our souls and chart our days. We discover those hours that we cannot control, and we seize those we may. Today, above all, we remember what TRUE religion is meant to be:

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:26, 27)

Before we let Brother James be the one who sets a match to our convent, let us consider . . . would he? We are here in Cor Unum that our relationship with the Father and His Son, our Lord, would so deepen, that it might be so strong and vibrant, that His love would be manifest in us and through us in ways we have been – too busy! – to exercise heretofore. Who does not know a widow they might visit? An orphan, even an orphan of divorce, we couldn’t take to a movie?

Like Virginia, Cor Unum is for lovers! We know we love; we just haven’t always found time to put love into action. We love God first and best, just as Jesus taught us, and in this Abbey we will ever remember that our love for Him will overflow in love for others, and in wisdom to love them well and to their profit, too! We are neither exclusively contemplative sisters and brothers, nor “active” sisters and brothers, we are the loving, obedient servants who dwell here in the monastery of the heart, and we will have it all! Of course, we may have to have a little less of some things in order to get it! Onward and upward, dear ones!



"Having It All"
Abbatial Photo

March 28 - Worship and Religion

We’ve done it! We’ve stepped over the threshold of a monastery as real as those that adorn the hills and valleys of ancient European towns and villages, and those that used to be barns and Quonset huts in America!

We’ve entered a cyber-cloister, and we have elected a Superior . . . our own consecrated will and devotion! . . . that the Father may be worshiped and adored, that the Word of God will have its way in us, implanted and saving our souls, and that our prayers will be heard and answered.

As you can see, we have much more to explore, many more corridors to investigate and doors to unlock, but we have made a worshipful beginning. Three minutes is such a long time, especially compared with “zero!”

Not, of course, that our monastic souls did not lift themselves up to the Father before, but in the Abbey we begin to make Him and His pleasure the focus of our worship, more than merely enjoying the benefits of worshipful privilege. It’s a distinction that makes a difference!

We have spoken of worship, but what of religion? We don’t even like that word! Nevertheless, the Word of God gives us a definition of religion, from the pen of the Lord’s brother, James. He defined religion for us, and pure religion at that. Do we remember that he spoke not a word about Bible study or prayer or worship in his definition? Gracious!

Worship today, dear ones. Try to find TWO three-minute intervals for the grateful, fervent worship of the Lord our God, wherein our hearts and our words are directed to His love and glory twice in the day before our heads hit our pillows.

Tomorrow, we will see if worship and religion can dwell together, here in Cor Unum, the monastery of the heart!


"Cloistered in the City"
Abbatial Photo

March 27 – Three Minutes

Three minutes is SUCH A LONG TIME! Did you not think so yesterday? Three minutes of fervent and uninterrupted worship, generated from our own hearts, not just sing-a-long, much as the Abbey appreciates worship cds! Wasn't it wonderful!

Still, we smile together! Three minutes out of a twenty-four hour day. Three minutes out of 960 waking minutes . . . and that’s if we sleep eight hours, and not many of us do, in our at-home monasteries. Let’s see: we spent .3125 percent of our day in focused worship yesterday.

Well, HOORAY! That might be .3125 percent more than we spent the day before.

This is not to replace singing along with our favorite worship music in the car (although the Abbey has another practice for motoring monasticism, as well!) Our three minutes of worship are not, of course are NOT, a replacement of the many times each day when our hearts turn in gratitude and praise to our God and King.

Oh, the joys of commanding our own souls! If we are here, we know God is worthy to be praised. We know that He called Israel out of Egypt that they might worship Him, and we know we have been called out of darkness for the same purpose. Our monastic hearts are housed in these busy souls, with ever so many things to do, prey to ever so many distractions!

We command our souls in Cor Unum. We greatly respect the internal reminders that are given, once our minds are made up . . . “Stop and pray. Take a worship break! Chart your day and steer your course, and make the Lord the centerpiece of all!” It is AMAZING how those reminders don’t come when we have made no plan or commitment in a devotional direction! . . . but when we do, the Spirit of the Living God will confirm our choices.

Today in Cor Unum . . . let us take another three minutes, our .3125 percent of the day, and spend it in pure worship. Some might find two, three minute intervals, or one five minute interval . . . can we even imagine it? We can do it, if only we will obey our own commands!


"Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock!"
Abbatial Photo

March 26 - Let Vocation Begin!

We saw yesterday that Regina Laudis Abbey was birthed through a missionary vision, two women who wanted to bless America with a Benedictine house of worship. Vision is a powerful ally for us in Cor Unum. Who, or what, is it that we wish to bless through our devotional commitment?

We bless God, of course, first and foremost, always. The monastic knows that those who so live to bring pleasure to God are those most apt to change the atmosphere around them as well. Daniel in Babylon, Abraham’s servant on a mission, Ruth gleaning on Naomi’s behalf, and of course, Joseph wherever he went! We change the climate wherever we go, or at least we may if we will! We may always bring joy and peace, we may always impart contentment and hope, on condition that we abide in them ourselves.

David played on his harp, and Saul’s devils were divested of their power to torment. Let us draw a monastic conclusion: if we will worship, being ourselves, even the least of us, greater than John the Baptist who was greater than all (Matthew 11:11,) things will start to change.

If we will pray, believing that we receive those things which we ask of the Father, things will start to change. (Mark 11:24)

If we will begin to see ourselves as God sees us, things will start to change. (Proverbs 23:7 and Colossians 3:1 and 2)

When we begin to speak the truth from the Father’s perspective and heart, things will start to change. (Isaiah 55:11)

These, my dear friends, are monastic practices, and in the cloister of our devotion, they become fervent, faithful, and fruitful.

Today is such a beautiful, rich, peaceful, powerful day in the Abbey. Find a spot and find time today to worship the Lord, our Savior and King!, for at least three minutes! Ask for nothing! Repent later! Let us open our mouths . . . the Lord will fill them with praise! If faith allows, try three minutes morning and evening . . . and let vocation begin!


"On the Right Path"
Abbatial Photo

March 25 – “Who Starts a Monastery?”

Today we consider the question, “Who starts a monastery?”

Ever wondered about that before? It has happened in many ways in history, which is interesting in itself. Perhaps we tend to think that the Pope says, “Here is a nice dormitory adjacent to a nice church, and here are some nice bolts of fabric for you . . . go make habits and start chanting the Divine Office!”

Not usually! This intrigues us! Most abbeys have begun just as ours did, with one or two hearts that wanted the privilege of living in worship and the discipline of forcing the soul to comply with the desires of the spirit (the one being willing and the other, weak!) Technicalities! They can make or break us.

That pair, or maybe three or four at most, of seeking, searching, determined men or women would commit to one another with a goal and vision before them. They determined upon worship; they determined upon prayer; they made sure they would have at least enough isolation and stillness to command their own souls.

When Mother Duss formed the Regina Laudis community, she came to America from France with one monastic sister. Her heart had been prompted by the white star on the hood of a Jeep as the American military rolled into Jouare to deliver the city from Nazi occupation. In America, a Protestant benefactor gave them land, and the community grew, but without gaining full abbatial standing for many years. They worked and worshiped without papal support.

This little community would never have survived without uncompromising vision. Neither will our devotional habit! They saw themselves as bringing blessing to this country and so became one of the first Benedictine houses of worship in America. We must see ourselves as bringing pleasure to the heart of God and obtaining from Him those things we ask in prayer. If not 100% of the time just at first, 30% is a good starting place. If not 30%, 15% of prayers answered is vastly more than no answer to any prayer, for none are ever offered.

For the record, here in Cor Unum Abbey, we remember that our prayers are meant to be answered. We are commended by Jesus Christ to faith and to receiving of God what we ask of Him. We have vision; we have hope. We are about to have practice, and we will see progress. Who starts a monastery? We do.


Small Beginnings
Abbatial Photo

March 24 - Caves and Cathedrals

March 24 -
Here in Cor Unum, when we take twenty minutes to pray or spend five minutes in worship (if that isn’t in your Divine Office yet, welcome!) we join the chorus of those singing in mountain caves in Korea and those schooled in Gregorian chant in Bavaria. Even now, others are reading, others are heeding, others are giving their day to the goodness of God, commanding their minutes so that the hours will flow together in celebration of the One Who has loved us with an everlasting love.

All this is current, historical reality, whether it crosses the path of our minds or not. In Cor Unum, we choose to take part. Our hearts cry out, “With as many as are worshiping the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, with as many as are bringing their prayers and their devotion before Him, I join their number and their song!”

We bring our monastic souls before our King, and we say, “Father, wherever You are worshiped, wherever there are those who have brought their lives before You for the sake of Your pleasure and Your kingdom, number me among them! Hear my prayers with theirs; join our souls with Yours!”

The Father has a soul. Did you know it? He says, in Jeremiah 32, “I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.”

This God, our Father, who has covenanted to do us good and never turn back from doing us good, it is He Whom we seek, His life we make our own, His throne before which we bow, and for the sake of His pleasure that we order our days and chart our paths so that we may have time for Him and with Him, that in the caves and the cathedrals of our own hearts, our Cor Unum Abbey, we may enjoy and exalt Him forever!


Montserrat Abbey,
Richard Schneider
by permission

Mar 23 - Deliberate Pursuit

In the last days together we have said that our monastery is a place where we seek God alone, together! . . . where we share a common goal and can encourage one another through the hard work of running to win . . . and where we keep and sharpen a corporate vision, that of walking with God and celebrating His glories and His nearness together, always.

Today we must bolt these three together with the pegs that will keep us monastic in the truest, best way: today we remember that it is for freedom that we have been set free, and that, like Jesus, it is for the joy set before us that we endure.

We aren’t here for the joys of the monastery. Rather, we pursue a cloistered devotional life because we are in deliberate pursuit of the God we love. Jesus tells us that the love He has for the Father will be in us, and that the very love the Father has for Him will be ours, too! That’s a lot of love! When we have tasted this kind of deep, penetrating goodness, we must have a steady diet of the love of God!

Our monasticism is our way of living the non-option. Together we are worshiping, hearing, trusting, obeying, enjoying, petitioning, and knowing the God Who lets us – invites us! – into the closest kind of relationship. Invited, we are going to show up!

Lonely? Yes, compared with lives ever and mindlessly full of people and events, games and diversions, but NO!, not even slightly lonely when we begin to experience the friendship of God. Never alone! Never dull or bored or ineffectual or apathetic, never without wisdom, never without vision, never perishing … never “there” when God is “here,” and why? Because when boredom and confusion threaten to set in, we run, we remember and put our training into practice. This is Cor Unum; it is the monastery of the heart. We ring the bells and we lead the worship. All together, with saints all over the world, we make those solitary choices to run and win. We train for overcoming, alone and never alone.


Benedicite, dear Sisters! Benedicite, amen!




Our Window On the World
Abbatial Photo

March 22 – We Are Here for the Nearness

Our spiritual gym and cloister is built of living stones; we live in the midst of the humanity God has chosen for us.


Loved ones and loud ones and lonely ones and lousy ones, it wouldn’t be Cor Unum without them! In a “real” monastery, the idea is to become one of many who take up as little time as possible from the common purpose, contributing to and not distracting the overall effort which is unceasing prayer and praise. They live – and several touching stories indicate that they will even die – in such a manner as to make sure the Divine Office is supported and never interrupted by their human-ness.


Not so your monastery? No matter! Does is it seem as though others not only distract but conspire to capsize your devotional raft? We will learn together how to make the most of every interruption, every demand upon our time, how to turn distress into devotion and pressure into praise. Here in Cor Unum, we take what we do not have in terms of traditional monasticism and make something enviable of it, and “they,” those cloistered ones, will teach us how to do it!


They have their interruptions and distresses, too. What they have that we must cultivate is a vision and a determination that the nearness of God is and will ever be their good. Those words were not spoken by a hermit, but by a court official, a man with things to do, places to go, people to see, and as we can see in the Psalm that contains this proclamation (#73,) a man with hard questions and pressures in his life, as well.


So, as we have considered that those who take up modern, at-home monasticism do so in order to do lonely things in the company of many others, that they cloister their souls in order to win their race, and that they keep before them a vision and a hope. Of all the good pleasures and rewards this life may hold, the very best of all is the unbroken fellowship, the “Practice of the Presence,” of the unfailing, unforgotten, incomparable nearness of God.


Daughters of Mary,
Gregorian Chant,
by permission (Wikipedia)

March 21 – Live-In Membership

We said yesterday that monasticism is a congregation of aloneness, a gathering place, even a cyber place, for those whose leisure activity is a sprint toward the fullness of the Lord. No one can seek Him instead of another (although on behalf of another, great things may be won.) Each alone must find Him and hold Him fast, but we can discover others who are in pursuit.


Most runners will tell you they’d rather go out for a nice two-hour training effort than spend twenty minutes on sprint intervals, and many Christians “run” that way. They jog along, staying the course, and nothing is better than staying the course. However ...


It’s just this, there’s just this little matter of running to win. In any marathon, the field may be ever so large (in some of the larger races it can take well over an hour for all the contestants to cross the starting line,) but probably not one in a thousand of the many thousands who participate have even thought of winning, never mind the hope of it!


The Scripture seems to indicate otherwise for us. We are to run and train with victory in mind. We get into the ring of life and we box, but not at shadows. A monastery is a congregation, indeed, but more than that, it is a live-in gym membership. We buffet our lethargies, our excesses and out excuses; we burn off the fat of gossip and complaining, we have zero tolerance for offense, and day after day we are steadily building up our prayer and worship muscles.


A good workout is hard work, progressively difficult, and nobody can do it for us, but it is often much easier to get to the gym with a friend. Welcome to Cor Unum Abbey, where the membership is free . . . but not cheap.


Never Alone
by permission

March 20 – Why, “Monastery”?

So many wonderful allegories have been penned to describe this Christian life! Pilgrim’s Progress, Hinds’ Feet on High Places, and Dante’s much-translated works, are but a few.


Why do we in Cor Unum explore the monasticism of devotion? One reason overrides all others . . . as professional monastics know, the very word denotes singularity, “mono,” as in “monocle,” “monogram,” and “monochord” (a one-stringed musical instrument.) What we do, we do alone. That’s why we congregate here, because our choices are lonely!


We aren’t meant to be alone, you say! So right, so true . . . that’s what church is for, you say! . . . right again! If you are here, even at the door of Cor Unum, you know that no amount of church can make up for the absence of personal devotion. What’s more, every minute of personal devotion will make the Church become more what it should be.


For monastics, those whose devotion fills many hours between Sundays and those who so wish their devotion filled more hours between Sundays, it is a wonderful thing to share the loneliness! The true “nun” will worship and pray, meditate upon the Word of God and direct her soul in paths of righteous joy and strength whether or not anyone else comes along. It’s nice, however, to meet fellow wayfarers on the road.


If you are a “real” monastic ... you know, like the princess and the pea! ... you know that there are those out there who don’t at present care two peas for any more devotion than they find in church, if that! “They” may not understand “us,” but “we” understand “them!” Devotion hurts! We have come to know…devotion heals!


There is one other important reason why we have passed through those heavy doors . . . we will take a look at it tomorrow, together¸ here in Cor Unum Abbey.



Senanque Abbey (Dormitory)
by permission

March 19 – Guided Tour

We are traveling along the corridors of Cor Unum, by way of a guided tour through a Benedictine monastery. We are exploring from room to room, admiring the beauty and purpose of the cloister where some of us will spend the rest of our lives.

This is, for us of course, the monastery of the heart, that hidden cloister that no one can see until the results of our entry becomes apparent to all.

We are here in Cor Unum to meet with the Lord of Life, an opportunity open to all the world, at least as far as the Gospel of Jesus Christ has gained entrance. All over the world, in at least as many closets as there are lives born again, the Father waits.

All over the world, God’s own people have other things to do, as have we had, but now we are come to the doors of this cloister, bringing ourselves to practices and a profession enclosed.

What can compare with the joyous liberty of knowing a God who makes no demands but those of love? One thing can. We can see to it that we meet those demands!

We get to be here! If we were better at conducting our busy lives and incorporating all the worship and prayer for which our hearts yearn and the world waits . . . well, the shelves would be empty at the Christian bookstore.

We are not so good at that. So we close ourselves in by our own choice. We ourselves turn the key in the lock on the inside. We forsake first every worthless thing and then everything that is worth less than intimacy with God. Although it takes a little time to make some necessary changes, we have become the monastics of Cor Unum.

Jesus told us, “When you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to the Father which is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:6) We are, without any doubt, here for the reward. We hope that it will be this, that God’s pleasure will be touched, and that such as we have we will ever give, in the glorious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.