Morning Devotion for the season after Pentecost
Monday November 8, 2021
Ammonius, hermit c. 403
The Invitatory
O give thanks unto the Lord, and call upon his Name; tell the people what things he hath done.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end.
Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
Reading: Matthew 23:1-12
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
The beginnings of Christian monasticism are the result of an odd turn of events in the history of the early Church. From its initiation, the Church catholic was no stranger to suffering. As a budding minority faith which intrinsically subverted hierarchical power structures, Christians quickly became the targets of regular persecution and violence. In some odd way, the martyring of faithful Christians became an outward sign of a strong faith and the legitimacy of the Gospel. So close was the relationship between martyrdom and the Church’s identity that the resulting peace brought about by emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the early 4th c. led to a crisis of identity within the followers of Christ.
In the new world of Christendom initiated by Constantine, martyrs quickly became a vestige of a former Church under persecution. Christians felt compelled to find a proxy for the suffering that was externally imposed upon them. From this odd moment in history was born the monastic movement. By self-imposed disciplines and ascetic practices monks became the new martyrs of the Christian Church. A faith once built upon the blood of the martyrs was now built upon the sweat of monks.
I think this knowledge of basic Church history gave me a healthy skepticism of religious orders and monastics. Not long ago, I had a hard time understanding why a dear and brilliant friend from Princeton would elect to enter a semi-cloistered convent. To me, even this humble act of vocational submission to God felt like a loss to the Church and to the world. The world needed more people like my friend but now she had extracted herself from it.
I began to understand my friend’s vocational identity and commitment as I began to fall more deeply into my own vocation as a priest. Days before my ordination to the priesthood, I read the following words from the great Thomas Merton: “We know when we are following our vocation when our soul is set free from preoccupation with itself and is able to seek God and even to find Him, even though it may not appear to find Him. Gratitude and confidence and freedom from ourselves: these are signs that we have found our vocation and are living up to it even though everything else may seem to have gone wrong. They give us peace in any suffering. They teach us to laugh at despair. And we may have to.” For some, the monastic life may be the truest approach towards gratitude, confidence, and freedom from self. To locate our vocation and pursue it wholly, whatever it might be, is indeed the greatest peace we will ever find on this side of resurrection life.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Drive far from your church, O God, every vain spirit of clerical ambition, that, like your servant Ammonius, we may refuse to conflate ordination and leadership, and may never confuse rank with holiness; in the name of your son Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our great High Priest. Amen.
