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.
Monday, December 11, 2006
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”)
¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯
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
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”)
¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯
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
Sunday, October 29, 2006
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!
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!
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