April 30 - Born Upon Our Hearts

Coronation Day dawned cold and rainy. June 2 had been selected after a panel of weather experts had done their best to discover which day of the year had the best chance of being sunny and mild!

It made no difference, however. The streets were lined and deep with spectators in rain gear, many of which had camped out overnight in order to be closest to the street with the best chance of a glimpse Her Majesty as she rode by in the four-ton,golden State Coach, which had itself been undergoing a year-long spruce-up.

Her Majesty was dressed in a Norman Hartnell creation, a beautiful gown completely covered with decorative stitching in iridescent thread and seed pearls, bearing the emblems of the nations of her realm and the Commonwealth. The Irish shamrock, the Welch leek, the Tudor rose, and the Scottish thistle were all represented, all in palest color. The dress appears to be a white gown of brilliant splendor, but the Australian wattle, the Indian and Ceylonese lotus, the South African proteus and the Canadian maple leaf were also embroidered onto the gown. Hartnell had used indigenous threads and jewels as well, including mimosa, jute, and opals.

Elizabeth had eight other gowns to from which to choose, several of which might have been more au courant, but instead she literally wore her realm to her coronation, much as the priests of Israel bore the twelve tribes upon their shoulders and their hearts.

As the symbols and representations of our birth in the Lord Jesus Christ are revealed to us in this coronation event, let us be sure that we are meant to bear not only our worshipful devotion to Him but also our merciful allegiance to His people, and those whom He will call as we watch and pray, here in Cor Unum Abbey, Palace of Prayer and Praise.

Let us take time today to make a list of those we would have emblazoned on our coronation robes, and bear them with us during these weeks as we watch this coronation event unfold.



The Coronation Gown
Norman Hartnell Creation

April 28 - More Than Queen

It could be said that Elizabeth, destined by her birth to be Queen,took up a priesthood and battle authority at her coronation. As a matter of fact, she had given herself to her people five years before on her 21st birthday, in a broadcast she made from Capetown, South Africa.

“I declare to you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”

We might say, she “gets it.” Her namesake did, too, Elizabeth I speaking to assembled troops at Tilbury.

My loving people . . . We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms . . . not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.

These are not King David’s words, nor Joab’s nor Joshua’s, but can we not hear the sound of devotion and assurance, that some things are worth fighting for? Elizabeth, this Elizabeth, cannot declare war, and she would by far rather pursue peace, but she, as her father before her, will fight and will lead honorably in time of war. Our fight is not with flesh and blood, but if we will not take up arms, the battle may be lost.

We, too, have kingdom, priesthood, and battle authority. Oh, let us see how much depends upon our faithfulness, though we cannot know how far-reaching our success or failure might be! This we know, that there is a cause, that others should be set at liberty to love and be loved, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ might go forth to that end, and with this in mind, we go, privileged spectators, to Westminster Abbey on Coronation Day, June 2, 1953.


Arrival at Westminster Abbey
June 2, 1953

April 27 – ROYAL!

In Cor Unum Abbey today, and for the weeks ahead, we are making true what is real; we are putting into practice those things that have long awaited our faith and an honest, fitting, grateful response.

Was it for nothing that the Lord told us in the book of Revelation that we have been made kings and priests unto God? Some translations say “a kingdom of priests.” WAIT until we see the rudiments of Elizabeth II’s coronation. She was becoming more a priest over her people than a monarch!

But, look! Romans 5:17 tells us we are meant to “reign in life;” that is monarchy. For us, monastic monarchy! We know that if we suffer with our Lord, we shall also reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:12.) We know from Revelation 20:6 and 22:5 that we are destined to reign forever with and through our Lord Jesus Christ. When does our training begin?

In the history of the panoply of kings and queens, those best were those that anticipated the day when they would themselves be crowned, and while they waited, they served faithfully, grew to love their subjects deeply, and knew before hand what it would be to bear the burden of sovereignty.

We may never rule over anything but our children and our dogs, and who among us would not rejoice to fulfill those rightful duties with honor and success, but here in Cor Unum we know that we are called to have sovereign jurisdiction over our souls. Will our Father call us down for presuming to keep guard over our hearts and our minds and our mouths, even unto wearing the crown of righteousness and bearing a scepter of self control? Let us see what an ancient monarchical ceremony can teach us.

Diadems in place this morning? Are we crowned with the lovingkindness and compassion that we have received? Oh!, let us bear the majesty of our Lord God and Father, King of Creation, Lord of All, whose people and children we are, a chosen generation, a ROYAL priesthood! Here in Cor Unum, we speak not of a bejeweled emblem on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt, but of a real crowning, the certainty on our heads and the assurance in our hearts of our Father’s majesty.

Queen Victoria's "Small Crown"
Wikipedia

April 26 – About to Be Crowned

Let us speak today of the crown of Elizabeth’s crowning. It is St. Edward’s crown, worn only once in a lifetime, at the coronation of the sovereign, and only by six monarchs in all, due to its tremendous weight, nearly five pounds. It is set with 444 precious stones and was worn for the first time by Charles II, in 1661. Others have had the crown laid upon their caskets when lying in state.

Worn only once, officially, but in order to be able to bear this crown during the long and arduous coronation ceremony, it was delivered to the Palace several weeks ahead of time so that Elizabeth could accustom herself to it. During that time she was often seen sitting at her desk or walking the corridor with this magnificent, irreplaceable symbol of her sovereignty sparkling on her head.

How can we begin to imagine the beauty of the stones, enormous rubies and emeralds and diamonds glittering in the light and glinting off the walls? How can we understand what it would have felt like to have it placed upon our heads, the solemn acquiescence of one woman’s devotion, under God, to her peoples and their allegiance to her, and of her understanding of her God-given responsibility?

We are an Abbey, after all, and we have an abbatial practice before us. May the Lord guide us in all that will bring us into the fullness of His Son, and with that in mind, here is a Cor Unum directive for as many as will be pleased to accept it.

For the next weeks, as we take a close look at all the accoutrements of Elizabeth II’s coronation service, let us be sure that we are more than hearers and observers in this pageant. Step by step, to the degree that we have royal robes, let us don them; as we, like Her Majesty, have been given a sword, let us wield it.

As she wore the Coronation Crown “at home” in the weeks before the ceremony, let us put ours on in the morning, beginning today. Hers was worn officially only once; ours are ours forever, with crownings to come and crowns to lay at the feet on our Lord and God. Let’s get “comfortable” in them, which is to say, let us get accustomed to the weight of their glory, which no man can truly bear, but by the grace and strength of the Lord, our King, and to His glory.


Coronation Crown
dbking, posted on flicker

April 25 – The Crowned Head

Coronation Day was not the first time Elizabeth II had ever worn a crown. As a child, on the day of her father’s coronation in 1937, she wore a diadem, as she had done for many public appearances as a child and young woman. On that day, she was Heir Apparent, next in line for the throne. Can we imagine this?


Once again, we must pause and try to consider what it would be to have placed upon one’s head, not just a decorative tiara for “prom,” but a rightful crown, and with all the responsibilities attending upon its weight. We ought to consider, because we are crowned, and we had best comport ourselves accordingly!


We are crowned with “lovingkindness and compassion” (Psalm 103:4,) and like any member of the “royal” family, we need to be those who exude the qualities of our crowning. The best kings and queens have always known that they wore a crown of service toward their peoples, and we in Cor Unum know that we are on this earth as servants, not lords.


At the same time, our position is high – very high. As Elizabeth II is rightly called, “Your Majesty,” and those within her family are “Highnesses,” we may even more certainly think of ourselves in the same way, royal highnesses under the protection and direction of His Majesty, Jesus Christ. His direction sends us to serve others and to worship our God and Father; His position determines our lofty and rightful place on earth and in heaven. At His footstool, we would be high above all. Seated as we are at the right hand of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, we ought to bear the weight of our royal privilege in all “lovingkindness and compassion.”


Great Britain and the Commonwealth nations have been blessed in these last monarchs, who have known that their most high position is one of humble, noble service, under God. Let us offer our heads and hearts to the burden of nobility, never denying our King and kinship to Him, never forsaking the “Royal Law” of kindness and of DOING unto others as we would have them do to us.


It is a very high privilege, this coronation, and it is ours in this Abbey.



Darlington, Decorated for George VI Coronation Day
by Abonson,Wikipedia

April 24 - The Accession Council

Elizabeth had been queen for nearly a year and a half before her coronation day, faithfully fulfilling her role and responsibility. Just days after her father’s death and after her return flight from Kenya, she stood before the Accession Council and oaths were read and signed and with trumpet and proclamation in every city and hamlet, she was proclaimed the rightful Queen.

Who knows what ceremony may have taken place in the heavenlies when our “oaths of allegiance” were spoken, as we asked for the Lord’s forgiveness and received His grace and newness of life? Of the many things we seldom contemplate, it would be a little strange to imagine that we entered into eternal life, into Jesus Christ Himself, with no mention made before our God and Father. We are learning that it is for us to make mention of great and wonderful things here on earth, and to SPEAK of the greatness of all Jesus accomplished and all that He sustains day by day.

As surely as she became Queen of England and its sovereign and commonwealth nations, we have become heirs of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that very next day following the Accession Council, plans began to be laid for her coronation, which would take place in June of 1953. We are crowned, we will be crowned. She is crowned and will be crowned, as she believes in the atonement of Jesus Christ and lives as one of the faithful, the saints in the earth. Oh, the things she could tell us of coronation, its splendor and its responsibility!

Let us see and hear all that we may, and let us be sure that the diadem of the splendor of the finished work of Jesus our Lord has been placed upon our holy heads, my dear and fellow brothers and sisters here in Cor Unum Abbey.

April 23 - Standing Out in a Crowd

The time comes for us when we must in honesty ask, “Who is richer than we? Who has more prestige? Whose work is more demanding, more fulfilling, or more important? Impoverished, we have no lack. Dishonored for Jesus’ sake, we bear His glory. We look for His coming . . . we are privileged in the earth and in heaven we shall see His face. By our words, others may enter into eternal life.

Should we begin to see our lives and our destiny in this way, we would not be able to spare the time for envy, nor would we sink ourselves into foolishness. We would rejoice to wear diadems and robes of righteousness and glory, and neither habit nor haute couture will ever compare.

When Elizabeth II steps out in public duty, she is never difficult to find in a crowd, despite her diminutive frame. She purposefully wears brilliant colors; even her favorite pastels are saturated color, for she knows that it matters to her people that she can be seen. Here again, it is very difficult for us to imagine what it would be like to have the heart of a country woman, as she once said she would like to be (with horses!), and yet to be given to “majesty,” to be the sovereign representative of her people before their government and before God.

When we have walked awhile in Cor Unum, we will begin to recognize that we are “seen,” as well. In a crowd of people, the lost will find us, the needy will look to us, and not for a hand-out, but for their share in the riches of life in Christ.

Who shall we envy? Where in our hearts could selfish ambition reside? Together we contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, that we may WALK WITH GOD, and yet bear the humility of Christ in the earth. We stand out in a crowd, beautified by holiness, radiant with hope. Her Majesty the Queen would commend, and has honored, lives lived unselfishly and for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

She gives the distinct impression that she hopes to enter heaven as one who has served Him well, as she vowed to do on the day she was crowned. Let’s take our places in that coronation abbey.


Her Majesty Greets NASA Employees
BY PERMISSON

April 22 - Whom Should She Envy?

We spoke yesterday of the training required to bring a half-ton beast into perfect submission to its rider. By what device? By the use of a small bit and a bridle in the hands of a skilled equestrian.

We also saw that Queen Elizabeth is known to have “a way with horses,” and she herself was trained by master horsemen.

We are the monastics of Cor Unum. What then, how, shall we apply ourselves to the training of our tongues? Brother James does not seem to hold forth much hope for us, at first glance, but since we know that cannot be the case, let us look to see what he really said. The time is long past that these “tiny members” should speak the sparks that set forests aflame, or pour bitter water instead of sweet.

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

It would seem that envy and ambition are truly problematic! Let us consider Elizabeth for a moment. Whom should she envy? Not many for fame or wealth. She has a unique beauty; no, not the Marilyn Monroe type, but she could have gone for “Rita Hayworth" ("Angelina Jolie"), had she the mind to do so. Instead, she seems to have done an extraordinary job of being content with who she is.

Easy, we say, when you are born into fortune and prestige. Not easy, we should realize, when our lives are not much more our own than a galley slave, nor when, having beautiful and precious jewels and rich clothing, we must get up each day and wear them on display, like it or not. Her secret, we believe, is just what we have here in Cor Unum: calling and devotion. She doesn’t have time for envy or ambition; her life is streamlined and dove-tailed into one purpose, to be given for her people, to stand for them and with them, and she speaks toward that end.

Let us draw wise conclusions for ourselves here today in this heart’s monastery.




Playing Dress-Up EVERY DAY

April 21 - Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

Probably without balloons and noisemakers, Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her 87th birthday today! This is her actual birthday; the official birthday celebration is in June, when she will attend the Trooping the Color events that mark the day.

On that day “fully trained and operational” troops that comprise the Household Division present their allegiance in parade and salute on Horseguard Parade in Whitehall. Truly, with a bit and bridle, a horse can be trained and hundreds of horses can become a panoply of precision and beauty, all in honor of the realm with Queen Elizabeth at its sovereign head.

Elizabeth took the salute for many years on Burmese, her favorite horse, and on which she mastered control on the day that blanks were fired at her, startling horse and guards, but not unseating the rider.

We know that our incisive brother James has revealed to us that if we could but control our tongues as well, we would have mastered something of note.

Elizabeth has. It is nearly impossible to find a quote, even overheard in private by rogue servants printing tell-all books, that can paint her as anything less than . . . queenly. She manages this, it seems, by saying little instead of much, but when she speaks, she has become fluent in innocent, interesting, inspiring conversation, perhaps because she always speaks to the interest of others.

Today, on her real birthday, there will be 21, 42, and 60-gun salutes in various parts of her realm, but we in Cor Unum salute her discretion, and that she might appreciate more than all. It has been said that she has an uncanny ability to let a horse know what she wants of it, and then to coax the animal to do as she bids. Shall we not, here in this monastery of the heart, do so with our tongues? Shall we not make certain those tiny members know that they are bridled by kindness and with the bit of wisdom they will be controlled, now and forever? They, like the splendid mounts of the Household Division, are not on parade to display themselves but rather, the glory of their sovereign. Shall we say that if the one can be done, the precise training of a strong and fiery beast, we can apply ourselves to do the other?

In truth, Elizabeth has done both, in the cloistered world in which she is today celebrated and loved.



Trooping the Color for the Last Time on Burmese
Sandpiper

April 20 - Know Thyself!

The Abbess is about to share with you one of the most important things her reading ever taught her, one of the most far-reaching insights ever illuminated for her inside the leather-bound book that houses the revelation of the Lord God.

This is how Lectio Divina works, and this is how a monastic queen might become a great woman of God, a vital and magnificent, soft-spoken sovereign.

In reading one day, the Abbess began to wonder how it was that Jesus Christ came to know that He was the Son of God. As an infant in the manger, was His mind fully formed, did He lie upon the straw, swaddled against the chill, and think through the arrival of the shepherds and the wonder of His parents? Did the Father speak to Him one day when He was alone, or did He hear in a dream, “You are my Son; I thought You ought to know!” None of these possibilities seemed plausible. The Voice of God did proclaim Jesus’ Sonship, when He was baptized by John, but clearly He by then already knew Who He was.

Wonder of wonders, Jesus came to know Who He was through the Scripture. As the Word was read to Him, and as He learned to read it, everything that was true of Him registered true in His soul and spirit. Just as we read, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and know that it is quite true . . . of us . . . He read, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14,) and knew these words were true of Him.

When Elizabeth reads about her lineage, she knows exactly who lived and died and what happened that she should now sit upon the throne of her destiny. She knows by what historical and constitutional “right” she has become Queen.

Here is the wonder! . . . when we read the Scripture, we may know with eternal certainty just who WE are, as well! “I have called you by name; you are mine.” (Is. 43:1,) and “You shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Jeremiah 30:22.”

Elizabeth has an ancestry that links her with many of the crowned heads of Europe. We have a crown laid up for us, a crown of righteousness, if we will love Jesus’ appearing (2 Timothy 4:8,) and we shall wear it, as surely as Elizabeth wears hers. This is our Lectio Divina, and this is our inheritance. Amen.


Nottingham Council House
The Young Queen

April 19 - Leather Bound

Let us continue for another day on the subject of Elizabeth’s tutelage.

She says that she reads rather quickly, and that she must, for she is presented with scores of papers day by day, in the ubiquitous “red boxes” that find her no matter where she is, no matter where she travels. In them are the private missives written by government officials, important correspondence from other world leaders, and personal papers of importance or of a private nature.

Two days each year, Christmas Day and Easter, are the only days she is given a reprieve from those boxes. She has said, when a well-meaning friend encouraged her to let them go for a day on holiday, that she never can. “If I did, I should never catch up!”
Oh that we in Cor Unum should have a hearty sampling of the Gospel, of the Law and the Prophets, the Psalms and Proverbs and Epistles, delivered to us each day in a leather-bound box, official and awaiting our attention and sometimes our response!

Of course, we know we do, delivered in a leather-bound, or cloth-cover Book, and our response is at least as important as hers.

There have been kings and queens of England who slopped over their responsibility toward those boxes, and slopped martinis over the loose papers, unread, but this is not Elizabeth. She is the Queen of her Abbey, and she does what it requires of her.

Here is the difference: her reading cannot return a reply, but our can and does! She might write and response and hear back again: we need only lift our hearts and voices to our Correspondent and hear from Him on the spot, at least with His Voice of Comfort, Compassion, or divine Compulsion. All welcome!

We are told that Elizabeth knows the Book of Common Prayer backward and forward, replete as it is with the Word of God. She knows the Scripture. She is reading something more than those boxes . . . something in addition to those boxes. We know she hasn’t the time . . . she must then, have found it, there in the Cor Unum of her palace home.




Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

April 18 - The Royal Tutor

The parallels between Cor Unum and Buckingham Palace are tremendous. Nearly everywhere that Elizabeth has lived has had some abbatial quality, and we can learn much from what life taught her.

As a child, she was secluded more in relation to her parents’ desire for a simple life than because of her royal birth. When she was born, her grandfather, George V, was still on the throne, with two strong young sons in line for the crown before her. Her father was the younger son, and Prince Albert wanted nothing better than to live quietly with his beloved wife and two daughters. Their lives were structured but happy, and as quiet as a royal life could manage to be.

Still, Elizabeth’s grandmother, Queen Mary, always reckoned to be a woman with tremendous foresight, made sure her granddaughter received a broad, if not a deep, education, often speaking personally to her tutors to make sure plenty of memorization, history, reading and language were included in the program. Her prized tutor, Henry Marten, drilled her in constitutional law and history, and later in life, her prime ministers were always amazed at how very well she understood even the fine points of that document.

Here we pause to ask ourselves, do we in Cor Unum know the fine points of our faith? Do we study and revere them, as Elizabeth did the constitution of her realm? Can we easily explain the rudiments of sacrificial living, of the correlation between grace and faith, or do we truly understand what it is to DISCIPLINE a free and sanctified soul?

Our best course is to have what Elizabeth had . . . regular lessons with a capable tutor. We ask ourselves the abbatial question: What did Elizabeth have that we have not, for we have the Teacher Jesus sent to us, the Spirit of Wisdom and Truth. What royal regard our Lord has had for us, here in Cor Unum, the monastery of the heart.

Once upon a time, there lived a little girl in a tremendous city, a beautiful child in an ivory tower, or at least it might have been, for how many times she escaped her front door.

Once she did take a ride on the underground, in the company of her most capable nanny, and once or twice she was taken to look at some of the beautiful paintings and exhibits that others could visit every day, but then, she had beautiful paintings and artifacts in the castle where she was kept. Every now and then, she even had a friend, specially imported for the afternoon, and they would take tea together and try to discover how to have fun.

She was actually rather good at fun, but much more than that, she was so interested in others and so kind-hearted, that fun found its way into the castle quite naturally for a little while. The King and Queen were fun, but busy, and she passed a happy childhood somehow, if lonely and utterly unusual. It was also unusual because she didn’t want fun anywhere near as much as she wanted to be glad.

The little girl, you see, was a princess, and that is where the fairy tale ends. I mean to say, she was no fairy tale princess; she was the genuine article. When she was still quite young, but old enough to understand the gravity of her destiny, her father had become King of the realm, and nothing then stood between her and the throne but her father’s long life. Sadly, long life was, for him, a fairy tale, and she herself became the monarch, a most monastic monarch, as most modern monarchies must be.

Often, it would seem, the better the reign, the lonelier the sovereign. It is no accident that many of the best kings and queens have been the happiest married, for a good marriage does dispel some of the ache of a lonely calling. It is not to be wondered that kings and queens have surrounded themselves with witty, winsome, and sometimes wise courtiers, but only the truly monastic have been truly great. We define monastic as alone and content before God, no matter where, no matter what, no matter when, no matter what anyone else is doing. Alone and content and with the most high calling, that He should be pleased by our faith and in our love, and in this Elizabeth II, Regina was superior of her Abbey and as Queen of her realm, a modern monastic.



"Ivory in Every Tower"
Abbatial Photo

April 16 - Packing Our Bags

We have seen that we each have a daily regime: start the coffee, read the news, check email, take a shower, check email, leave for work! Perhaps we see this more clearly now than we did when we began, and perhaps we are beginning to make note of a few tendencies that are more engrained in us than they have been well known to us!

Do we categorically refuse to eat alone unless we have a book open on the table beside us? Do we forsake other things of surpassing importance for that one television show that we will not miss? After a hard day, are there things we somehow will always manage to enjoy in the evening . . . a long conversation with a friend or a bowl of ice cream, for instance?

When we pause to consider, not one of those things is made available to the in-house monastic. She must spend all of those intervals with the Lord, learning never to leave Him in thought or deed, making worship her purpose and stillness her “leisure.” All this is the choice of each.

The cloister to which we are about to travel is one of astounding earthly treasure and overwhelming earthly tasks. There is opulence and obligation beyond anything most of us have ever experienced or even imagined. Who could count the diamonds or the difficulties under her roof?

Like the nuns of Regina Laudis Abbey, this “Sister” must not claim more for herself than she has been given, and she, as they, must not give less of herself than is demanded by her “job.” Both they and she believe that what they have is theirs by Divine Right, and that who they are and how they order their days, matters supremely. We have much to learn from her, dear ones. Beginning tomorrow, Cor Unum will be our passport to an unprecedented excursion, and when we return, none of us will ever be quite the same.

April 15 – What We Have Learned in the Abbey

Before we avail ourselves of the most noble privilege of joining this hermetical “Sister” in her most extraordinary cloister, let us be sure of what we have learned in Regina Laudis Abbey.

First, we are here by choice. We are loved inside and loved outside, but we enter for love’s sake, and we stay for love’s sake. We know that our gracious and saving Lord is with us while we watch television or go to the movies, but we cannot be with HIM in the monastic sense if we will not forsake lesser things for the opportunity to present ourselves before Him in worship and prayer. In short, He has promised never to leave us or forsake us, and He has also enjoined us to present ourselves at His place of residence, at the throne of grace, and to take our rightful place at His right hand.

We consider each day a service of worship; we find and make time to worship Him, perhaps only a few minutes at first, and we learn to expand our worship as we read our Bibles devotionally, worshipfully, and prayerfully. We quiet our souls in His Presence, and we set our gaze and our hearts upon Him and Him alone. We do the things that daily activity, no matter how noble, cannot afford us.

There is so much more to see and to learn, and there is so much to encourage us to make our lives a pageant of worship and prayer and hearing and obeying. We will sing to Him as He sings over us, even if we must croak on earth and warble in our hearts. We will learn to love His ways and to hear His Voice and to obey in fullness of faith and hope. Before too long, both our work and our leisure will be infused with goodness and purpose and joy, and even when we are cast down, we will not be ruined for we will find contentment in all that He sends to us. For one more day, we will look to see where we stand, and then we shall enter majesty!

April 14 – The Discipline of Sequence, Part One

We are about to discover the worship and devotion of another “cloister,” dear ones. In a few days from now, we will be entering an opulence, a beauty, a sanctuary real and functional and historically fascinating wherein lives one hermetical “Sister,” if she might be so kind as to forgive the liberty we will take. Truly, she is one of us, if Cor Unum is the monastery of our hearts.

As we have journeyed together through the virtual Abbey of our souls, taking concrete abbeys as our model, we have seen that those who are enclosed in them have made the difficult choice which was the easiest possible way for them to gain what they wanted above all else. They wanted to worship from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, and they wanted to see if they could live so close to the Lord they loved, that there would not remain any separation in adoration or obedience. They stepped into conventual training academies to see if by perseverance, and with expert help, they might become spiritual Levites, giving glory to God and praying diligently for those He loves.

For us, our monastic day starts in front of the brew station or sometimes the dishes that accumulated after the last dishes were washed and put away, we open our Bibles, we worship and pray, and we put in a load of laundry, walk the dog, often the children’s dog!, get little ones up and ready for school, help find a lost cell phone or car keys, get to work on time, spend the fruitful part of the day being fruitful on behalf of others, come home and start dinner, put in another load of laundry and fold both big piles of clothes, and we must not sit down to relax until the dishes are done and the checkbook balanced. We make time to return to worship and prayer, without neglecting those who need us and want us at home.

We have seen before and we are reminded: we have a regime, as surely as do the nuns in any house, anywhere. Ours suffer more interruptions, and we are more free to violate our own best interests, our own schedules and best plans to get the most done and leave the most time for leisure and family fun and romantic interludes. Now, we are about to visit an enclosure where one woman accomplishes more in a day that many of us do in a week or more. First, for the sake of our devotion, another short review, and then, the majesty of discipline!

April 4 – The Office of Lauds

Our Lenten season of fasting and focus is drawing to a close. Those world-changing days in the calendar of Jesus’ life are drawing near.

Imagine what it would be to know that before the week was out you would be surrendering your life, bearing the sins of everyone you knew, and completely without their gratitude or their understanding? Our Jesus did this for those he knew and those whom he had never met and those who would live many centuries later. You and me and those we love, to be precise.

Gratitude has saved lives from ruin; it has saved lives from despair and suicide and bitterness and regret. Oh, to live in the unfailing gratitude of the love and the sacrifice of God! The Son obeyed; the Father gave!

Our thanksgiving is so much more profound than for the beauty and the bounty of this life alone! We live! and we will live again! This all-too-feeble flesh will not abide in gratitude, but we are the abbots and abbesses here. Our Will and strength are consecrated under the direction of the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. As we teach our children to make their beds and brush their teeth every day, we instruct our own souls and our mind and flesh must follow … we will worship and praise our God, and we will give thanks with a grateful heart, for we are a people redeemed!

Out of the kingdom of darkness and death, we have come into the glorious light of God! We begin to be a people that could more easily go a day without our meals than to fail to drink deeply of the nearness of our God.

We will spend time together looking into the wonders of prayer and the delights of the “Lectio Divina,” but in this season we have brought our hearts and lives before the Lord, before His throne, to honor Him … to worship Him! We have found those pockets of time that are HIS and meant to be, and now we consecrate them, we seek open-ended opportunities to turn three minutes into more, all that the Lord will give, and to have, here in this monastery, an office of “Lauds,” of praise, that belongs to the God to Whom we belong. We are the monastics of this Abbey, and we will “sing and make melody in our hearts.” Monastic life survives to this day – here in Cor Unum, the heart’s cloister.




"Making Melody"
Abbatial Photo

April 3 – Grace Upon Grace

We looked yesterday at the dual nature of monastic love and the dual engines that foster it. We love God and we love others; we learn of God and we learn to know ourselves, the people whom God has loved.

What might family life look like if its members knew they would be living under the same roof to the day of their death? That puts an interesting spin on things, doesn’t it? That’s the monastic future! We do not have that vision for our future or for that of our children, but we know this, we may love them as long as we live! No distance can keep us from it, no disappointment can forbid it. We may love within our homes, and we may love those who have been sheltered and nurtured there, no matter where they are. They are “our” children. We may love "our" friends and "our enemies," too! They belong to us!

As we develop lives of devotional strength and majesty, as we become worshipers of God in spirit and in truth, our love becomes wonderfully powerful in its effect. Selfish, encroaching, smothering love will be sifted out and blown away, and the love that spoke the perfect world into being that men and women might live here and love here will be ours, and it will have power.

To set out to love others without the ongoing, refreshing, invigorating, wise and true worship of God, is to love little and not quite honestly. To set out to love God without opening our hearts to those He has placed in our lives is to love without faith, and without faith, it is impossible to please Him.

We practice love; that is how we live here in Cor Unum. We begin to treat our Father and Lord as we ought. How do we at all know God without bowing before Him? How do we bow before Him that He will not lift us up to wash the feet of those around us? We take time to love God today, to bring our love before Him and to give it, to proclaim it, to return it to Him. He gives us outlet for the love that fills our hearts, and those avenues are before us, heart to heart, daily.

Let us worship, dear ones, worship on purpose, let us worship from the depths of our souls this day, and then let us find someone to love with the love of God. A card, an invitation, a helping hand - let us worship before the throne of grace and by the grace we receive there, for we are the monastics of Cor Unum, the monastery of the heart.


Practicing, Not Playing
Abbatial Photo

April 2 - Pouring Out

The cloistered monastic is on a course to discover two things day by day. First, all that can be known of God, and secondly, all that must be known of the heart that would live in His Presence.

God is love, and love beckons to us, calls us, to enter into lives of loving, living fellowship. There are many times when we want to be loved much more than we want to learn love, but with God, those two events are not mutually exclusive. The better we know Him the deeper our trust and love for Him; the more we love Him, the more certain we will pursue that relationship that begins and ends in the depths of His love.

We often want proofs and independence more than obedience and trust; God wants love to prove reality. If we love Him, we will obey His commands. (John 14:15 With Him it is always, “Go ahead and love!”

So we take our three minutes, our six minutes or more, each day, and we open them up and pour them out upon the Lord, our Love. Soon, we won't have to count minutes! This will never be that which we do instead of loving others. Ours is a dual command: we love God and we love our neighbors as ourselves. We know that God receives our love when we love others. He told us so. When we visit the sick and those in prison, when we clothe the naked and feed the hungry and open our doors to those in need, the Lord receives those kindnesses as though we had done them for Him. (Matthew 25:24-46)

Monastics put themselves where they must keep learning and keep loving; they lock themselves into a devotional marriage, and many become sweet and strong in the outworking of that commitment. Here in Cor Unum, the walls around our lives are plenty strong enough to help us “learn of Him.” We may bring Him pleasure just where we are, doing just what we should be doing, if we will only keep the law that is written on our hearts.

For us, a vital aspect of that law is that the Sovereign God, reigning on high, is worthy of our worship. We love one another; we worship God. We pour out kindness and we pour out worship, and we are filled with joy here in Cor Unum, this monastery of the heart.


"Overflow"
Abbatial Photo