Fr michael gaitley biography of mahatma gandhi

In the 19 century, such notables as Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Bronson Alcott conducted experiments in simple living.  In the 20 century, Mahatma Gandhi lived simply in order that others might simply live.  During the same century, Thomas Merton sought to embrace and live out the Cistercian monastic charism of simplicity of life, which is rooted in the Rule of Saint Benedict.  According to Merton, “The very essence of Cistercian simplicity is the practice of charity and loving obedience and mutual patience and forbearance in the common life which should be on earth an image of the simplicity of heaven.”[1]

As a Cistercian monk, Merton studied, wrote about, and sought to live out Saint Bernard’s understanding of simplicity.  According to Merton, Saint Bernard’s teaching on simplicity of life is valid for all Christians, not simply for Cistercians.  Reflecting on Saint Bernard’s teaching, Merton notes that when Adam and Eve fell from grace their pride was the birth of sin and the immediate ruin of human simplicity.  Duplicity (doubleness in self) then concealed each person’s natural simplicity.

Merton explains that, for Saint Bernard, in order to reach the desired return to one’s original, natural simplicity, one must first develop simplicity in the sense of sincerity that includes the awareness of one’s shortcomings.  Next is simplicity in terms of humility, which involves self-acceptance as one dependent upon God for all things, especially one’s very existence.  For Saint Bernard, a further form of simplicity is that of the intellect.  Regarding intellectual simplicity, Saint Bernard stresses that the one thing necessary in life is knowledge and love of God and that the only way a person can truly know God is by loving God.  Additionally, as Saint Bernard indicates, there is also the matter of simplicity of will that manifests itself in one’s embracing the common will, which is the good

It’s time to return to Perpetual Adoration after the pandemic, and the world needs it now more than ever.

At Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris, the COVID-19 pandemic never stopped its 135-year perpetual adoration tradition, but it was hard. At parishes like Blessed Sacrament Parish in Wichita, Kansas, it took a lot of phone calls to restart the practice. At my own St. Benedict’s Parish in Atchison, Kansas, the pastor’s goal is to restart Perpetual Adoration in the chapel that touched countless lives.

The hard part for any perpetual adoration chapel is finding late-night and early-morning adorers. But there are great reasons a difficult hour is actually better. Here are eight.

1: To obey what the Lord specifically asked.

In his Agony in the Garden, Jesus told the Apostles “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” When they slept instead, he said, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?”

It has always been a matter of shame and sadness that, in his hour of greatest need, his friends grabbed an hour of extra sleep. But it’s never too late to change our answer and fulfill his often repeated commandment to “Watch and pray.”  (Here’s a minute-by-minute guide for praying a Holy Hour.)

2: To be an example for others.

I’ve written before about how my life was changed by obituary coverage of Tom Vander Woude, the Virginia man who died saving his 19-year-old son with Down syndrome from a septic tank.

Among the many remarkable details of his life, I learned that he kept a 2 a.m. Holy Hour once a week, and to be more like him I kept one ever since, until the pandemic.

St. John Paul II said that, even when he himself was an old man, when he woke in the middle of the night he would remember waking as a child and seeing his father at prayer. That dad’s middle-of-the-night prayer changed the Church.

3: St. John Paul II was driven by the call for early morning prayer.

A constant