Holy Rule for February 17
11 views
Skip to first unread message
St. Mary's Monastery
Feb 16, 2026, 5:00:22 PM (4 days ago) Feb 16
to holyrule
+PAX
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
February 17, June 18, October 18
Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints
On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals let the Office be performed as we have prescribed for Sundays, except that the Psalms, the antiphons and the lessons belonging to that particular day are to be said. Their number, however, shall remain as we have specified above.
REFLECTION
Check out the sickening glut of consumerist advertising that attends the approach (even the very remote approach!) of Christmas, Valentine's Day, or any other holiday whose traditions include gift-giving. Man, the sharks move in for the kill! We can firmly trust the secular world to promote and protect the days from which they stand to profit.
In fact, in the US, at least, we can count on the greeting card industry to even increase those special days. Long since bored with just Mother's Day and Father's Day, now the card industry has now gone to Grandparents' Day, Secretaries' WEEK, and who knows what is next. (Not that I don't love Secretaries, I do, but let us be frank, the greeting card industry had something other than love and gratitude in mind.)
There's a truth in all this annoying materialism; those who profit from a thing must make it special themselves. In other words, we must use our best efforts to celebrate our own feasts, in our own hearts, for our own spiritual gain, since it is highly unlikely that the holiest feasts for us (unless one is named Valentine or Patrick!) are likely to turn up anytime soon in the scheme of secular promotion.
In our monastery, we celebrate feast days, not birthdays. This took a bit of adjusting to, but now my feast day is the one everyone knows about and tries to make special. WE make feast days special. We profit from them spiritually and it is up to us to ensure their importance.
Take a hint from this chapter and go out of your way to make your own special saint's feast or feast of the Lord come alive for you. For years now I have loved Feb 2, the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas. It has become my favorite feast and I honestly look forward to it and revel in it. But I had to do that myself, to nurture the associations with the day and so forth. All of us can give that gift to ourselves and there's no consumerist madness involved! Especially in families, this can give the grace of a holy and joyous celebration that is truly ours, not some whim of the corporate world or a meaningless secularity.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
February 17, June 18, October 18
Chapter 14: How the Night Office Is to Be Said on the Feasts of the Saints
On the feasts of Saints and on all festivals let the Office be performed as we have prescribed for Sundays, except that the Psalms, the antiphons and the lessons belonging to that particular day are to be said. Their number, however, shall remain as we have specified above.
REFLECTION
Check out the sickening glut of consumerist advertising that attends the approach (even the very remote approach!) of Christmas, Valentine's Day, or any other holiday whose traditions include gift-giving. Man, the sharks move in for the kill! We can firmly trust the secular world to promote and protect the days from which they stand to profit.
In fact, in the US, at least, we can count on the greeting card industry to even increase those special days. Long since bored with just Mother's Day and Father's Day, now the card industry has now gone to Grandparents' Day, Secretaries' WEEK, and who knows what is next. (Not that I don't love Secretaries, I do, but let us be frank, the greeting card industry had something other than love and gratitude in mind.)
There's a truth in all this annoying materialism; those who profit from a thing must make it special themselves. In other words, we must use our best efforts to celebrate our own feasts, in our own hearts, for our own spiritual gain, since it is highly unlikely that the holiest feasts for us (unless one is named Valentine or Patrick!) are likely to turn up anytime soon in the scheme of secular promotion.
In our monastery, we celebrate feast days, not birthdays. This took a bit of adjusting to, but now my feast day is the one everyone knows about and tries to make special. WE make feast days special. We profit from them spiritually and it is up to us to ensure their importance.
Take a hint from this chapter and go out of your way to make your own special saint's feast or feast of the Lord come alive for you. For years now I have loved Feb 2, the Presentation of the Lord, or Candlemas. It has become my favorite feast and I honestly look forward to it and revel in it. But I had to do that myself, to nurture the associations with the day and so forth. All of us can give that gift to ourselves and there's no consumerist madness involved! Especially in families, this can give the grace of a holy and joyous celebration that is truly ours, not some whim of the corporate world or a meaningless secularity.
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages