Clare-Light on the Mountain

2008-08-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. From this opening line, perhaps you can guess what has been the big event of the past several months: yes, the visit of our Holy Father Pope Benedict to these United States of America this past April. What a grace for our country, and one that will be commented on and pondered upon for quite some time to come, at least for his Poor Clare daughters, and we are sure for the rest of you as well. Judging from the welcome given him by our President, and the enthusiasm of the various people he encountered along his way as well as that of the groups he addressed during those historic days, we were not the only ones who saw in our Holy Father’s arrival some little glimpse of the coming of the Lord in His glory. In the light of our Holy Father’s visit, it could only have been God’s Providence that Easter came so early this year. Who but He could have so arranged things so that his days with us should fall almost exactly in the middle of the Paschal season? It was such a perfect time for him to come, those days when, in the beauty of the lilies Christ rose up in victory over sin and death with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. It was quite evident to all who saw him that our Holy Father is one who has gazed upon that glory and been transfigured in such a way as to become similarly radiant himself. Thus he spoke to us all, not just in his words, but with the light of his face, when he declared to the young people in New York: “Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. it is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. in seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately Truth is a Person: Jesus Christ. “That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others... “Let your imaginations soar freely along the limitless expanse of the horizons of Christian discipleship ... Authentic Christian discipleship is marked by a sense of wonder. We stand before the God we know and love as a friend, the vastness of His creation, and the beauty of our Christian faith.” Now, of course, for such an event, there had to be enormous preparations. and these we followed with interest through the various periodicals we receive. Then, in early March, a letter arrived from our Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, which he had sent to all the contemplative communities in these United States. In it, he requested our special collaboration in the spiritual preparation for our Holy Father’s visit by making each of his various venues “the object of your adoration, of your prayers, of your consecration, of your suffering and self-offering. Invoke the wind of a new Pentecost on the Church in the USA; the joy of belonging to Christ and His Church ... the pastoral creativity needed to bring Jesus Christ to all those who are thirsting for Him ... I am deeply convinced that my request is fundamental to the real success of the pastoral journey of the Pope...” With this request. we became directly involved, not only in the preparations for his coming, but also in the necessary follow up for while, as every good gardener knows, the preparation of the soil to receive the seed is important. nothing will happen unless that seed is properly watered and tended. That is our work now. It was with that follow-up work in mind that we greeted yet another “first” in our monastic history: the nocturnal lightning strike, and it happened not even an hour after our Holy Father took off for Rome aboard the Alitalia Shepherd I. It began as most other storms with wind and rain and thunder and lightning and since it occurred after our 8:45 retiring time, might have passed mostly ignored, just like any other thunderstorm. Then came two great cracks of thunder — sharp and close. Noticed, but not given much significance until one of us got up a few minutes later and tried to draw some water. Nothing happened. After some thought, she remembered the lightning and began to wonder... Sure enough, upon investigation, she found that the breakers controlling the pump for our well had been blown and refused to reset. What to do? Thanks be to God, we were able to contact our electrician at that (to us) rather late hour but which (to him) was likely still relatively reasonable and make arrangements for him to come out first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, Mother Abbess and Sister were able to draw enough water from the basement storage tanks to provide for various of our needs at least through the rest of that night. We are so grateful to our friends who came to our aid with quantities of bottled water through the next day. For it took most of that day and the skill of two different technicians to get everything going again. And when Sister Water finally spurted full force from faucets on the second floor late in the afternoon, some very grateful Poor Clares blessed the Lord for His goodness to us through so many of you. (As a little P.S.: the lightning did not actually strike either our well or the electric panel controlling it. We later discovered it had struck the ground between our tall privacy fence and one of our outdoor street lights, then traveled along the underground wire to blow the panels. Several sections of the fence will need to be replaced as will a sensor in our large fire prevention water tank, which was also damaged by the strike.) Actually, our Sister Rain has been mostly a blessing throughout this past spring season. Her abundance has encouraged our gardens to come to quite some fullness, so that the vision of our landscaping friends and helpers seems to be at last coming into reality. In other areas also, the generosity of our faithful Knights of Columbus is bringing completion to other projects around the house. Handcrafted Stations of the Cross were erected in our small adoration choir; drywall and acoustical ceilings were installed in several rooms in our basement that had to be left unfinished at construction time, and sanctuary seating brought from Newport News was refinished to match the rest of the appointments. Another friend has been working on finishing the priedieux and benches that will complete the furnishings in the adoration choir. So many, many things — each in its own way proclaiming the glory of the Lord. Yes, our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. In the visit of our Holy Father, in the generosity of our friends, in the splendor of shared sisterhood in the presence among us of Sister Mary Rose of St. Louis and Sister Mary Annuntiata and Sister Maria of Los Altos Hills who each came for a few months to help out when we found ourselves a bit shorthanded. As we move forward into the month of August and the feast of our Mother Saint Clare, that loyal daughter of the Church, who saw the visit of Pope Innocent IV to her dying bed as one of the great graces of her last days, we gather all your intentions into our prayer in our Solemn Novena beginning August 2. That brings us to a very important announcement. This year the Novena will be at 7:00 p.m. each evening from August 2 through August 10, when we will have the traditional blessing of Clare Breads. If you live nearby, we invite you to join us in our chapel for prayer, led by our faithful chaplain, Father Francis Simeone; if you live at some distance, we invite you to send in your petitions to be included in the intercessions each evening. Be sure each one will be entrusted to our Holy Mother to be lifted up to the Father of Mercies, the Giver of all good gifts. Then, on August 11, our Mother St. Clare’s feastday, we will have two Masses in her honor, one at 8:00 in the morning and the other at 7:00 in the evening — yet another “first” for us here on Mount St. Francis! “Daughters,” our Mother St. Clare cried a few hours before she died, “do you see the King of Glory as I do?” May her prayers, along with the words of our beloved Pope Benedict in America, enable us to so do.

2008-04-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-12-25T12:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-07-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

Help for our Poor Clare Sisters in Mexico

We just received the following letter from the prior in the Benedictine Abbey of Christ in the Desert. He is concerned about a Poor Clare community in Mexico that needs to purchase some property near their monastery because others who wish to buy it have plans to build a hotel and discoteque there. If anyone is inspired by God to help our Sisters, please contact Father Christian as soon as possible. Be assured that the Sisters will pray for you and the Father of Mercies will bless you most abundantly!

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

2007-07-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-03-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

Spring, 2007

Our dear friends,

“The day has come, Your saving day, in which all things shall bloom anew.” Yes, spring has come to Mt. St. Francis, and with it the renewal of the earth heralded by the filmy green appearing on trees and the dauntless crocus coming up in odd places – reminders of the days not too long ago when flower beds had not yet been delineated nor lawns been planted and construction was still very much a part of our lives. And yet, as we begin our fourth year in our new home, we discover that construction will likely continue to be as ongoing materially as it should be in our spiritual lives. Looking back over these past few months, we see much in both areas.

We closed our third Christmas season here on Mt. St. Francis on January 7th with the restoration of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis each Sunday following sung Vespers (Evening Prayer) and the recitation of the rosary or some other seasonal devotion. On that memorable day, for example, we sang one of our favorite Christmas “specials” between each decade of the Joyful Mysteries, while on the First Sunday of Lent, we read excerpts from our Holy Father’s message for Lent between each decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We were pleased that a number of our friends came to join us that day in January, and, to a greater or lesser extent, the following Sundays as well. And so, we would like to renew our invitation to join us at 3:40 p.m. on Sunday afternoons (Palm Sunday being the one exception) as an opportunity for spiritual refreshment and renewal especially in this Lenten and soon-to-be Paschal season.

Another opportunity of spiritual construction for us was the arrival on March 3rd of Mother Miriam, P.C.C., abbess of our Poor Clare monastery in Kokomo, Indiana, who is the head of our Poor Clare Federation of Mary Immaculate, and her companion, Sister Michael Marie. It was a time of rich sharing based on Mother’s keen interest and experience in gardening. As little plants of our Father St. Francis, as our Holy Mother St. Clare delighted in calling herself, we relished her advice on the multiple variety evident in every garden and the fact that plant differeth from plant (to paraphrase St. Paul) not only as regards proper watering and pruning, but also in what one can expect each plant to produce. A plant that is supposed to bloom once a year or once in a lifetime cannot be expected to do so every month, for example, as much as one might like it to. Wishing to share as much as possible of our own unique garden, we took Mother hiking to several of our favorite outdoor meditation areas. Thanks to the hard work and generosity of a number of our friends with chain saws and several other volunteer groups we now have four or five trails and three outdoor stairways that make these areas more accessible to us.
Accessibility to the high places has turned out to be one of the happiest benefits of the new asphalt road we had put in last December, even though its primary purpose had been better erosion control. Thus, we made the decision to extend it all the way over the hill and down to an area overlooking Godden’s Pond where we had gathered to pray First Vespers of the Solemnity of our Holy Father Francis after our ground blessing ceremony in October of 1999.

At present, our construction plans are focused on the building of the small house for our chaplain, Father Francis Simeone, near the front entrance of our driveway. At this writing Father has a well and an access road. Soon – if the rains that delayed our own building continue to hold off - there may be a foundation laid and walls going up. Father opted for a log-cabin type house, something he has dreamed of for a number of years. It is a joy for us to be able to provide this for him who so faithfully provides the Bread of Life each morning for us and for all who frequent our chapel.

We invite you to join us in the celebration of the great Paschal Triduum April 5 – 8. To our great delight our liturgical calendar coincides this year with that of our Eastern Rite brothers and sisters, so that with one voice the cry may go forth:

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Hrestoss vosskrese! Voestos vosskrese!

Our Holy Week Liturgies in this year of the Lord 2007:

April 5, Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper 5:00 p.m.

April 6, Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion 3:00 p.m.

April 7, Easter Vigil 11:00 p.m.

April 8, Easter Sunday
Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection 9:15 a.m.

2006-12-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here is our Christmas newsletter. You who are reading are the first ones to see it as we still do not have our snail mail bulk mailing out yet. Murphy's laws seem to be most operative during bulk mailing time! Hopefully, it will be out by the end of the week. Enjoy!

Bethlehem Monastery of Poor Clares
Christmas Newsletter
2006

Our dear friends,

“Sing to the Lord a new song! Give thanks to Him and bless His Name!” Looking back over these weeks since last we wrote, we discover to our delight that we are still in the season of “firsts” and are yet singing that new song of discovery about the new home God has given us through you. But how can that be as we approach the completion of our third year on Mt. St. Francis? Now, it is true, some of these are much more mundane than those we have heretofore shared with you – like our first changing of the large lights illuminating our sanctuary. Yes, we have indeed been here long enough to begin changing light bulbs! If you keep in mind that these lights are mounted on the timbers supporting the cupola and are therefore some thirty to forty feet above the floor, you know this was to be no ordinary operation, and so we waited until a significant number had burned out before contacting a local electric company. There followed several hours of fine-tuning of the focus with our friend and neighbor Neal Lockwood atop a long extension ladder. Then we had our first experience of a long-term (more than 75 hours worth) power outage when Tropical Storm Ernesto blew in, giving our generator its first big workout and us a new appreciation of extension cords and flashlights. Perhaps it was the trauma of switching from Old Dominion power to home generated power and back again that caused our nearly 30-year-old kitchen freezer to finally give up the ghost shortly afterwards. Thanks to you, our dear friends who support us so faithfully, we were able to replace it with one of more substantial size. This presented a real challenge to our Mother Vicaress’ ingenuity in planning and rearranging the kitchen area so we could fit the larger appliance into a space meant for one half its size. But with the help of our gallant Knights of Columbus and a few professional moving men, a built-in cupboard was transferred around the corner into a place until then occupied by our other vintage freezer, which was then moved to the adjoining bakery, necessitating the relocation of a couple of other appliances as well. A good example of one thing leading to another and another!
But there have been “firsts” on other levels as well. One example: the first ever anywhere (we are told) day of reflection for young men and women discerning a religious – and specifically Franciscan – vocation, which took place on November 11 in collaboration with our good friend, Father Russel Murray, O.F.M. Beginning with Holy Mass at 8:00 a.m., the young people who came had an opportunity to follow our schedule of prayer interspersed with talks by Father Russel, Mother Clare, and Mother Vicaress Therese, experience our monastic cuisine, speak individually with either Father or one of the Mothers, and share an evening recreation with a number of the sisters in our parlor. It was a good “first-time” experience for all involved, seeds were planted and watered, and we trust in God to give the growth.
Near the end of November, we joined in prayer with many millions worldwide as our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, made history with his own “first” – his visit to the Patriarch of Constantinople in Turkey to celebrate the feast of St. Andrew, patron of the Eastern Churches. We have been anxious for his safety ever since radical Moslems began violent protests over his address in Regensburg last summer, and so were happy to receive a copy of the prayer that Bishop William E. Lori, Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus composed to ask God’s blessings and protection on his journey. As Bishop Lori requested, we prayed it at the close of Holy Mass each day from Sunday, November 28, Feast of Christ the King, until Friday, December 1, only on this last day, it was really an act of thanksgiving for his safe return to Rome.
Do you remember that some months ago in our Easter newsletter we mentioned our Father Simeone’s desire to build a little house on the plot of land between our front entrance sign and our cemetery, known since our beginning days as the “chaplain’s acre”? Some of you may have noticed a construction sign posted there recently, for yes, plans and negotiations have continued throughout the intervening time and one of these days site-work and building will actually begin. Perhaps by the time our letter reaches you, the contractor who will be laying Father’s driveway will have completed laying a much-needed roadway behind our own house as well. We are hoping this will help correct a long-standing erosion problem on the slopes there, which at the moment resemble an aerial model of the Grand Canyon.
Other things to look forward to in this 50th anniversary year of the arrival of the first Poor Clares in Virginia include the resumption of Sunday benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis, thanks to our good Father Simeone. While we have been having all-day exposition nearly every Sunday since our arrival, concluding with sung Vespers (Evensong) and the recitation of the rosary, the remoteness of our new home and the lack of priests or deacons nearby have prevented us from closing with the final benediction. We will be posting an announcement in local parish bulletins, but we take this opportunity now to extend an invitation to join us in prayer even now for adoration during the day. Perhaps those of you who would like to pray with us, but are not able to make our 8:00 a.m. Mass would find our Vesper service, which begins at 3:40 p.m. on most Sundays, a more feasible time to come. Other times when we are gathered for prayer are posted on our website, www.poor-clares.org, newly reconstructed thanks to the expertise and several months of hard work of our Sister M. Antonette of our community in Eindhoven, Netherlands. However, you are welcome to come for prayer anytime during the day because our monastic church is open to everyone from approximately 6:30 a.m. through approximately 6:00 p.m.
As our third Christmas here in Bethlehem Monastery in Barhamsville approaches we would like to share a definition of love made by a little child about this time of year:

“Love is what is in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”

May each of you have hearts so full of listening that, like Mary, you may be aware of the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior who has appeared, become completely at home with the Word of the God who is Love, move in and out of it with ease, and let it form the basis of all your doings. (cf. Pope Benedict XVI, “Deus Caritas Est”)

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Our Masses at Christmas
(Please call 757-566-1684 to confirm)

Midnight Mass 12:00 p.m. Dec. 25
Christmas Morning 8:30 a.m. Dec. 25
New Year’s Day 8:00 a.m. Jan. 1

2006-10-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

Summer Newsletter, 2006

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His love endures forever! This first cry of the jubilant Church after the awakening of the Alleluia from its Lenten repose has certainly been our song these past few months. Many indeed have been our reasons for giving thanks since we last wrote you, such as the return of our Sister Christine to our Midnight Office; quite a milestone in her slow but steady recovery from January’s back surgery. Thanks to devoted doctors and therapists, she has been able to return to many of her former occupations as well, and has even taken up a couple new ones! Mother Rosaria has also made a comeback, and can be seen occasionally pushing her wheelchair as an alternative to riding in it!

The bond of shared sisterhood that has been so much in evidence these past months by the presence among us of dear Sister Mary Catherine from St. Louis was further enhanced in early May by the days of our Federal Chapter, held this year in Los Altos Hills, California. Sister was elected delegate from St. Louis and her departure for those few Chapter days with Mother Abbess and our own delegate, Sister Mary Agnes, prepared us for her return to her own monastery on May 30. But by far our greatest reason for thanksgiving were the graces of our days of Jubilee – golden (Sister Christine’s 50th will continue until August 2), ruby (Sister Charitas’ 40th began on Easter Sunday), and silver (Mother Abbess’ 25th beginning Easter Monday).

Indeed, Jubilee bells are still echoing in our hearts after celebrating the third silver Mass of thanksgiving for our Mother Abbess and following it with a long-awaited first meeting with our Bishop DiLorenzo. But her first two days fell within the great Paschal Octave itself, and as the great Paschal Alleluia once again lifted its wings over our choir, it seemed to be intoning as well the great thanksgiving we all felt in our hearts for the vocation of our Mother. It would be difficult to include here the many aspects of these special days - the chants of the Mass, the Sisters’ choreography built around the Litany of the Holy Face, the generosity of those who supplied and served the receptions after each of the Jubilee liturgies, etc., etc., each of which would deserve a paragraph in itself. And so we have chosen simply to share excerpts from the homilies given at Mother’s first two celebrations.

Father Marc-Daniel Kirby, O.Cist., began on Easter Monday, by tracing out the paths of our Mother’s vocation from the day “over 25 years ago when you took your first steps in the Paschal dance of the Poor Ladies on the threshold of that little monastery of so many beginnings in Newport News.…On Harpersville Road, in a little garden enclosed, He waited for you, the great and fearful God of the Exodus. There He came forward to greet you, the Bridegroom shining with wounds like stars…There is for all of us who have been loved by Christ and set our gaze upon His Face, this costly coming away: the leaving of the familiar for the strange, the folly of forsaking certainty for uncertainty, the madness of a “Yes” to the invisible, of a “face-to-face” in the blackest night, of a journey into uncharted vastness… and why? Because He chose you, because on you He set His Heart, because in some mysterious way He let you hear His Voice and catch a glimpse of His Face… Dear Mother Mary Clare, twenty-five years is a mere beginning, not an end. We are with you today, all of us…We are with you in joy, with you in thanksgiving, with you in the wildness of taking holy risks, and in presenting you again today to the One who presents Himself to you, saying “Hail!”

This communal aspect of our shared commitment was taken up in a slightly different mode a few days later on Easter Thursday by Father Robert Avella, a close priest-friend from the Arlington Diocese in northern Virginia (and more recently by our Bishop on June 11): “…Vocations in the Church…are called by God into reality…for many purposes. Many things God has in mind, and it can be a whole richness of events that occur because you are there, you chose to love God first, you chose to love, period, in this world that can be very selfish. And therefore God blesses your love in so many ways, but does so on this day in reminding you of some things that have been occurring in your life in these 25 years.

“The first I would like to speak of is that you truly are not alone…The bond you have as sisters united in your nuptial love for the Lord, but also living 24-hour days in a way of your founders St. Francis and St. Clare, protect and ensure your first love, and allow it not to be lost. And things do get lost in our world. But when you are standing with others who are committed like you, then you know a day like this, a 25th anniversary, is not just your day. It is a day when the community celebrates your day. And rejoice in it because it is our day as well.

“Religious vocations are a reminder to the Church and to every day members of the Church of man’s early love with God…It is like Genesis when one gives himself completely to God for no other reason than to love, then we begin to believe again that we can find our way back to the house of God, to know that companionship, to truly experience what it means to be close to Him…All of us thank God for you and for what you did 25 years ago. We thank God for your trust in Him, your belief. We are grateful that you continue to love with your whole heart, your whole being in love with Jesus. And we are thankful that you offer us our hope of living faithfully in the world, trusting in God each day even as we stumble, knowing He’ll pick us up and remind us of our calling. That is why it is a joyous celebration for us as well as you.”

And we, gathering each and all of you in our grateful prayers, carry you with us toward the month of August and into the great novena to our Holy Mother St. Clare whose whole life was so thank-filled as to become itself a eucharist, as our late beloved Pope John Paul once wrote. Beginning August 2, and continuing until her feastday August 11/12 (our celebration covers both days), your special needs and intentions will be in our hearts and on our lips as we invoke her powerful intercession. May the answers from the Lord of her heart be as abundant as the flowers making happy riot on the slopes of Mt. St. Francis these days, each one seeming to cry out an echo of the last words of our Mother St. Clare:

May you, Lord, be blessed, who have created me!