January 25th, 2004

May the Grace, mercy and Peace of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ Our Beloved First Love BE with you, beloved Brothers and Sisters and Advisory Council and others who are friends in Christ Jesus...

I count it a blessing from our Most Noble and Gracious King, Jesus that he
has graced us all with the blessings of knowing him in the humility of Spirit he has so graciously given to us all in Christ Jesus.

We are in ourselves nothing special, but he has made us special by grace and through faith in the Beloved accepted and made heirs by and through and in him.  Praise his Holy Name forever!  Amen.

PRAYER
PROCLAMATION
PRAXIS

For our community of Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus on this day I am writing, having slept for several hours because of me weakness from a viral respiratory infection ~ God has restored my strength and awakened me physically and provided some more insights an directions from him who is alone worthy of all glory honor and praise ~ ad majorem dei gloriam!  Amen

In PRAYER, beloved, we seek the Face of Jesus, him alone who is worthy of all the glory, honor and the praise.

In PRAYER, we see ourselves as his redeemed, so sinful, yet beloved and made to be and become his friends through the sacrificial death and resurrection of him who paid the ransom for us and provided completely by and though his precious Body, Blood - Soul and Divinity ~ all he is make us who we are and are becoming in and through Christ Jesus our Blessed Lord and Savior.

In PRAYER we contemplate him and know him in Holy Scriptures to be all he says himself to be, Self-revealed and Perfect Love.

Thus, In PRAYER we seek JESUS the Author and Perfector of our most holy Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the CROSS despising the shame and is set down at the Right hand of the Father in the Majesty that is HIS Alone in God the Holy Trinity.

Thus, we PROCLAIM him who Is, who was, and who is to come, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Thus, who do we PROCLAIM?

It is simply HIM who is our only Love, our only Savior, our only Lord, the Head of the Body of Christ, the Church of the First Born, the First Begotten from the Dead!  Him.

We PROCLAIM him who is our Blessed Hope, our First Love.

He is the One our Mother Mary rejoices in and in whom with her own soul rejoices and magnifies ~ "Magnificat. anima mea dominum!"

He is the One the angels bow before and the seraphim (cherubim) say always and forevermore "Holy Holy Holy" before the Triune One.

He is the One all heavens and earth will bow before in the Day of the Lord, Day of Christ, the Day of God.

In HIM, through HIM and from HIM all was created for the Glory of God alone.  He created us in Love that we might respond to him who is our First Love in Perfect Love.

Ah, yes, In him, through him and with him we have our beings and our
purpose.

Thus, we have our PRAXIS, our opus dei ~ within and through us of our ora et labora.

We have our PRAXIS in the Regula (Rule of Benedict) locally, but that
greater ora et labora in the Word of God and the Eucharist.

This is not a legalistic bondage for us but a dynamic of the PRAXIS we share in a community of Common Faith to purposefully and prayerfully proclaim this in praxis.

I say PRAXIS because we are called unto Holiness of Life in HIM, new life, not our own works of righteousness which we have done ~ but the working of God's Holy Spirit always through our surrendered, consecrated lives to be and become Channels only, Blessings of God ~ holy vessels containing so much on HIM (as if he could be quantified and held?) that we overflow to others around us and become so like HIM to be his hands and feet and Body in a lost and hopeless world that has chosen to forget him.

This is where sectarianism, all the barriers we have erected, should fade
away at the sight of HIM.

The Image that was Marred for us IS Our coming KING Jesus.  Let us all bow before HIM and love our First Love together in the Unity of Faith around HIM.

Oh, to be like Him?

Thus, the PRAYER and the PROCLAMATION of HIM in all of his Beauty and it is in HIM we are to become those who flow outward from HIM to that fruition of PRAXIS as the Body of our First Fruits, Christ Jesus, does best in HIM.

My closing PRAYER is this one.

My Jesus in simple humility I bow before you who alone are worthy of all glory, the honor and praise.

With Mary we Magnify your Name, not ours.

With the holy angels and saints we adore you alone who have made us worthy to stand in the ministry of the Word and Eucharist.

In God alone is our Precious Treasure.

We worship at the Fount of all blessings, deeply in Love with you, Lord
Jesus Christ.

Unworthy as we are in self and own merits ~ yet, we are made worthy and
transformed because of your Gracious Gift of and in our First Love, Jesus.

Keep us from falling dear Savior and if we do fall, and fails as we do, pick
us up and place us on your Path firmly rooted in YOU, that Path of the Way, the Truth and the Life.

You are~~ by, in and through Our Most Noble KING, LORD and SAVIOR ~~ Christ Jesus!

Anthony
Benedictine Community of Saint Anthony

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