Bethlehem Monastery of Poor Clares
Spring, 2008
Our dear Friends,
O Crux Ave, spes unica!/ Hail, O Cross, our only hope! O the mysteries of God’s time! Hardly have the carols and bells of Christmas faded than the sights and sounds of the Lenten season have appeared in our homes and churches. It seems such a short time since we were sitting at our keyboard, writing to you in the midst of the antiphons of Advent, many of which, in point of fact, do proclaim in so many different ways that “Redemption is nigh!” So caught up are we in the joy of the coming of our God to the earth, however, that we rarely think of how that redemption will be brought about. How many of us ever get as far as the words of the oldest carols that tell us rather plainly how “Nails, spear shall pierce Him through; the Cross be borne for me, for you”? Truly, our calendar this year gives us a once-in-a-century (they say) opportunity to experience how everything flows toward and from the great Paschal Triduum we are about to celebrate. As we look forward in hope to those great days, however, we also want to look backwards in gratitude to share with you the happenings, small and great, that the Lord has been pleased to work in our midst since our last issue.
As many of you know, we have been working for quite a while to meet the on-going challenge of correcting – or at least improving -- the drainage/erosion situation on the hills behind our monastic home. Each attempt has brought some positive change, some of it quite remarkable, such as the extension of our blacktop roadway spoken of in past issues. These past couple of months, however, we decided to do a major re- grading and re-seeding of the slope behind the north side of the house as well as of a couple of small patches of ground (one couldn’t – then – call them lawns) on the south side outside our kitchen and laundry areas. This also included creating an ingenious system of buried perforated pipes in those two areas designed to carry so-called ‘storm water’ from various downspouts not only away from the house but into the ground without disturbing its surface. We have been very pleased with the results, and the bright green of the new grass now coming up gives us sure promise of the spring just over the horizon!
While all this was going on, Christmas came with that hope always springing new from the coming of our God, and with it, yet another “first” here on Mount St. Francis (yes, we do still have them, even in our fourth year here!). This time, it was our first ever celebration of the Holy Night with a Dominican priest at our altar in the person of Father Kevin McGrath, O.P. Father is librarian at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and was actually fulfilling a long-awaited “first” of his own: he had never before had the opportunity to preside at the Christmas Midnight Mass. Gifted as he is with a beautiful singing voice, Father had always before been assigned to lead the schola or else to celebrate some other Mass that day. And so, when Mother contacted his friary about our need, Father was happy to offer his services, making this year’s celebration memorable for both of us. We discovered that, besides being librarian, Father teaches an introductory course to St. Thomas Aquinas. We were so delighted at this discovery that he has promised to return to share a few things with us at some time in the future.
Speaking of sharing, we have been blessed once more through our shared sisterhood among our federated Poor Clare monasteries. Our St. Louis sisters have gifted us with the presence of their Sister Mary Rose for three months to help with our infirmary duties, bringing her own experience in caring for several of their sick sisters in time past to enrich our own. We can never be grateful enough for the help we have received these last few years from them and from you all as we grow in age and (hopefully) in grace as we look forward in hope to that blessed place awaiting us which the Lord Himself has prepared by means of His Paschal mystery.
February brought a different sort of sharing as Father Christian, O.S.B., and Father Francisco, O.S.B., monks from the Abbey of Christ in the Desert in Abiquiu, New Mexico, came for a few days to share with us their experience of being part of an international community. The Abbey is one of the few strictly contemplative Benedictine houses in this country and is one of the most flourishing, having at present 35 monks, many of whom have come from Mexico or Vietnam. They also have two foundations in Mexico and are discerning the possibility of one in Korea. Their days with us were most enriching as we may someday receive new members of Hispanic or Asian background. As both Fathers pointed out, this would help us reflect a more accurate picture not only of the Church in our own country, but of the face of our country itself as well. And so, we continue moving forward into this new year of grace, rejoicing to discover in each new day the Lord’s unfolding plans for us.
Part of those unfolding plans have included the completion of a few of our own. One of these was the addition of several rows of stonework behind the presiders’ chairs in our sanctuary in mid-February. That wall looks so finished now and needs only the crafting of the seating envisioned in our original design to bring our first dream for it fully true. Another area of fulfillment lay in our cemetery at the arrival of long-awaited headstones a few weeks ago. It is most moving now to see the graves of our dear Sisters Paula and Mary marked in granite as together they keep watch near the foot of the great Crucifix, sign and symbol of that which is the key to our salvation. As Pope Saint Leo the Great sang so many centuries ago:
“O wondrous power of the Cross! O unspeakable glory of the passion which became the Lord’s tribunal, the world’s judgment, and the power of the Crucified! From your cross you draw all things to yourself, O Lord!...Your cross is the font of all blessings, the source of all graces, and through it the believers receive strength in return for weakness, glory in return for shame, life in return for death.”
Our Holy Week Liturgies in this Year of the Lord 2008
March 20 Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper 5:00 p.m.
March 21 Good Friday Celebration of the Lords’ Passion 3:00 p.m.
March 22 Holy Saturday Easter Vigil 11:00 p.m.
March 23 Easter Sunday Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection 9:15 a.m.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Bethlehem Monastery of Poor Clares
Christmas 2007
“I saw the new city, Jerusalem, descending from God, the source of all love.”
Dear Friends,
From the sentence above, perhaps you can get some idea of the glory of our autumn here on Mt. St. Francis! The blazing reds, brilliant golds, and deep russets that met our eyes when gazing out each window may have been a mere shadow of that heavenly city, but one could not but be reminded of that mighty army of all the saved. Further, just as in the heavens, star differs from star in glory, so on Mt. St. Francis did tree differ from tree, in a way not noticeable in any other season of the year. It was amazing to notice how each tree had its own peculiar shade of whatever color as if in this last phase of its life, it had at last attained its own individual identity. In some way, our forest also seems an apt symbol for the various events of the past months since we last wrote, each so distinct and yet blending with each other so well to form our life as a whole.
The spectacular amount of gold on our hills this year has been especially significant for our Sister Mary Agnes, who celebrated her Golden Jubilee of holy profession this past August 22. Sister’s priest-nephew, Father Joseph Wheelock, was joined that morning at the altar by eight priest-friends, most of whom had met Sister while she was chapel sacristan in years gone by. Sister’s family and friends drove from upstate New York to celebrate with us, while friends from the area succeeded in filling our public chapel to overflowing. We learned later that some had even taken the seats available in our balcony area! A Poor Clare Golden Jubilee is celebrated for three days, and Sister’s nephew was able to be with us for two of them. The third brought us the joy of the presence of a dear priest-friend whom we had not seen for a number of years: Father Terrence Cyr, O. Carm. Father had been one of our chaplains in Newport News in the 1980’s when Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish down the street from us was staffed by the Carmelites. Father Francis Simeone, our regular chaplain, concelebrated the Mass with him, but gave the homily at our insistence.
Speaking of Father Simeone leads us into one of the next milestones in our journey of the past months: the completion of Father’s log house, the progress of which you have been sharing through this newsletter. Father was able to move into his new home the last Friday of October and is quite delighted to be there. Just now he is engaged in its furnishing (he was living in a small apartment before) and is completing all those little odds and ends that seem to come with the finishing of any new home.
Another move of some consequence took place several weeks after the blessing of our new cemetery site which, faithful readers of our newsletter that you are, you may remember from our last issue. Our good friends from Weymouth Funeral Home, who had moved our deceased Sisters Mary and Paula from Newport News about a year before we ourselves arrived, transferred their remains this one final time with a painstaking care worthy of an archaeological dig and this even though the process lasted for the greater part of a very hot southern Virginia day. Thanks to their expertise, we now have the joy of being able not only to see the great cross from our west-facing windows, but also to visit the grave-sites whenever weather permits. This we did as a community in the early afternoon of November 2, All Souls Day. We formed a procession at the foot of the stairs leading to our infirmary porch and walked up the hill praying the Rosary not only for our sisters, but also for each of our deceased friends, relatives and benefactors, looking forward in joyful hope to the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Looking forward in hope was the theme of the several days Father Robert McCreary, O.F.M. Cap., religious assistant to our Poor Clare federation, spent with us November 8 - 12. Father is always such an inspiration and always about the Father’s business of bringing new life and hope wherever he goes. This makes him very like our Holy Father Pope Benedict, who witnesses the joy of knowing Christ Jesus in the sure hope of enjoying His company in the light of glory forever. Yet, some years ago, the then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote: “Our faith and our love are ever incomplete as long as we walk this earth, and they are constantly threatened with extinction. For this is in truth the time of Advent. Nobody can claim, ‘I am redeemed once and for all.’ In this temporal world we do not find redemption as a completed fact of the past, nor redemption as a completed, final fact of the present; rather, redemption is found only in the manner of hope. God’s light illuminated this world I n no other way than in the lights of hope, put by his loving kindness as guides on our way. How often we are saddened by this: we long for more, we desire the full, complete, incontestable reality here and now. And yet, in the end, we have to admit – could there be a way of redemption more appropriate than the one telling us, who are ever becoming and on our way, that we have reason to hope? Could there be a better guiding light for us, who are ever pilgrims, than the one that sets us free to step ahead without fear, because we know, that at the end of the journey, there awaits the light of an eternal love? In these weeks of Advent, the Holy Virgin Mary stands before us as the woman who carries the hope of the world in her womb and thus walks ahead of us on our way as the sign of hope. She stands before us as the woman in whom the humanly impossible has been made possible through God’s saving mercy. And thus she becomes a sign for us all. For relying solely on ourselves, on the meager flame of our good will and the wretchedness of our deeds, we will not achieve salvation. This is utterly insufficient. It is impossible. Yet God, in his mercy, has made possible the impossible. We only have to say, in complete humility, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.’” (cf. Co-Workers of the Truth, p. 385)
Yes, it is in hope that we are saved and as we stand once again in this season of Advent, it is with joy that we welcome our Holy Father’s new encyclical on that very theme. How appropriate that it be issued at the threshold of the Church’s new liturgical year, so that Jesus, Hope of the world, and His holy Mother may go before each of us into this coming New Year.
Our Masses at Christmas
(Please call 757-566-1684 to confirm)
December 25 Midnight Mass 12:00 a.m.
Christmas Morning 9:00 a.m.
January 1 New Year’s Day 8:00 a.m.
Friday, July 27, 2007
MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT
P.O. BOX 270 + ABIQUIU, NEW MEXICO 87510-0270
July 17, 2007
Dear Mother Abbess and Sisters in Christ,
Christ’s peace be with you and greetings from New Mexico!
On the feast of Saint Benedict this year Mother Abbess Josefina of the Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Clare, Yautepec, Morelos, Mexico, phoned me to ask for prayers. I was privileged to visit that Monastery a few years ago and to witness their good zeal as they strive to build a new Monastery and adequately receive the many promising vocations to their way of life, a strict Poor Clare observance. They still have work to do to complete the Monastery, but move forward with strong faith.
Mother Abbess Josefina called to ask for the prayers of us monks, interceding through Saint Benedict, for an urgent need at this time. Right next to the nuns a small piece of property is up for sale and the likely buyers are planning a hotel and discoteque there!
This of course could easily ruin the life of the nuns with all the noise and traffic from the discoteque on their otherwise quiet lane. The nuns are really concerned and understandably eager to purchase the property themselves, but really have no means to do so. The cost of the property in U.S. dollars is approximately $280,000.00.
I assured Mother Abbess of our prayers and I asked her if the Franciscans of the world have an organization similar to what the Benedictines have, called AIM (Alliance for International Monasticism), which assists “Third World” Monasteries of the Benedictine Order, for projects just as this one the nuns in Mexico are facing. Mother Josefina said she is not aware of any such organization, but it came to mind to ask American Poor Clares if they are able or know of people who may be able to contribute to “help save the Poor Clares” of Yautepec. I know you are mendicants and I realize fully your own limited resources, but thought I would ask. I am learning more and more as time goes on that we Benedictines are also mendicants; at least we of Christ in the Desert. So I ask in faith.
If there is any way you could contribute or find others to help in such a project, I will see that each and every penny gets to the nuns. We are used to such transactions as we have two Monasteries ourselves in Mexico. We are simply acting as “brothers in the faith” of the Poor Clares to see if we can assist in their hope of obtaining the property. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to set their minds at ease.
The money you may wish to contribute or may be able to find from others could be sent to us here in New Mexico or I can easily find out what bank the nuns use in or near Yautepec for funds to be deposited there. It is large sum that is needed, I fully realize, but it does not seem out the realm of possibilities. Miracles still happen, as you well know.
If you are able to respond to this appeal, may God bless a hundredfold. If you cannot, know the nuns will appreciate your prayers very much for this special intention.
Please let me know how you would like any money to be sent to the nuns in Mexico (either through us at Christ in the Desert or directly to the nuns bank account) and we’ll rejoice greatly in whatever we can do.
My email address is: monkchristian@gmail.com
My telephone number is: 801-545-8566. Begin to leave a message and if I am in my office I will pick up the phone.
Thank you for reading and considering this request and for your very important contemplative witness in our world today. You are in our prayers and I ask you to keep us in yours.
Fraternally in our Lord,
Father Christian Leisy, OSB
Prior and Business Manager
Monastery of Christ in the Desert
P.O. Box 270
Abiquiu, New Mexico 87510-0270
Summer Newsletter, 2007
Lord, for the wonder of Your snow and the wonder of Your ways, we thank You.
Our dear friends,
Perhaps you are thinking this is a rather peculiar way to begin our summer newsletter? Well, yes, but it was also somewhat peculiar for us in southern Virginia to awaken on Holy Saturday , April 7, to discover that our Eternal Father had indeed clothed our world in a reflection of the whiteness of the Lamb , the Splendor of His glory, in preparation for the great Paschal feast about to begin. True, most of this, our one and only real snowstorm of the 2006-07 season, had melted by the afternoon, but the flakes were still falling enough through the hours of the morning to delight us and the air was still chilly enough towards evening to warrant having our very first indoor blessing of the new Easter fire that night. Yes, we opened our Paschal vigil in the center of our high-ceilinged refectory, setting the makings of the new fire in the place where, a few months before, we had placed our community Advent wreath, each a sign and symbol in its own way of that Life which is the Light of men. That Light shines on in the darkness, a darkness even now in process of being overcome by the Victor of the Cross.
And transformation, both spiritual and material, seems to be the business we have been about these past few months. On the physical level, our gardeners have been hard at it transforming the areas nearest our house into lovely gardens for walking , hiking, and just plain admiring. This spring, they were greatly aided by the unexpected gift of several truckloads of trees, shrubs, and various flowering bushes left over from a landscaping project of the contractor who laid our new roadways and who has become our good friend, Mr. Isaac Forrest. Surely Our Lord has been showing His good pleasure in all their labors by Himself transforming our hillside flower beds into spectacular displays of iris, lilies, daisies, roses, peonies and hydrangeas, much to the delight of our Sister sacristan who carries in as many as possible to grace the sanctuary of our monastic church.
The transforming power of concrete has also been one of our discoveries recently. We saw the need for a solid path in a couple of areas and so, as a sidewalk to our Father Simeone’s new house was being arranged, Mother asked if the workmen could lay a couple of the same for us as well. Thus we now have a long, gracefully curving walkway extending from the bottom of the stairs of the infirmary porch out to the asphalt drive and another, much shorter walk leading from the asphalt drive to the base of the large outdoor crucifix in what will one day be our new cloister cemetery. And this brings us to the greatest transformation of our landscape of all: the blessing of said new cemetery area on the solemnity of Corpus Christi.
But why are we about moving our cemetery? In our original site plan, we noticed two possible areas on which to place our new monastery building and decided to use the one nearest the entrance of our driveway as the last resting place of our departed sisters and the one farther back for living space for ourselves. However, after the busyness of building had subsided and we were settled into our new home, the site of the cemetery proved to be a rather formidable piece of hiking, making visits to the gravesites difficult or almost impossible for some of us. And so, with our newly paved roadway opening up new areas behind our monastery, we decided to move our sisters to a place on the hill just behind us. To this place we processed after Mass on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi singing Psalm 118 with the antiphon “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.” When we arrived, Father Simeone remarked how appropriate it was to have chosen this day for the blessing, because it is the Blessed Sacrament that is our food for the journey of each day of our lives and especially for this last of all our journeys as we set out for the new and eternal Jerusalem.
We took a journey of another sort during our annual retreat in mid- June, as Father Mark Gruber, O.S.B., a monk from the Abbey of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, led us back 4,000 years into the world of Abraham, our Father in faith. His knowledge of biblical anthropology and the cultural milieu of that era made each of the characters come alive and transformed our appreciation of the Scriptures as the Word of God at work within our daily experience of the world around us. In our own day, as in that of Abraham, there are many threats in the world, but, as our Holy Father remarked on his journey to Brazil: “… faith gives us the assurance that God is always stronger and remains present in history. With this awareness , we can,” he said, proclaim that “life is beautiful… it is always a gift and even in difficult conditions, life is always a gift.”
Very soon now, we ourselves will be proclaiming that very special gift, as we celebrate with our Mother Rosaria the wonder of His ways through all the 80 years of her life. Poor Clares usually do not observe birthdays – at least not publicly- but when one has attained to that particular milestone, then, along with our Holy Father, who celebrated his own 80th in April, we indeed come together and with her give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Shortly thereafter, preparations will begin in all earnestness for the days of Jubilee for the 50 years of Poor Clare living of our dear Sister Mary Agnes. Yes, our August days will once again ring with golden bells of thanksgiving as we invite one and all to “come and hear, all you who fear God; I will tell what He has done for me!” (Psalm66) Please cf. the enclosures for dates and details.
In between occurs the celebration of her whom we call Mother: St. Clare of Assisi, who so greatly appreciated both the gift of life and the grace of vocation. We will be remembering each of you and your many intentions during our solemn novena of August 2 – 10, and especially on her feastday, August 11. Like her, may we cry out:
Father, for the wonder of Your love and the marvels of Your ways, we thank You , forever and ever. Amen.