Christmas Newsletter
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| Donated Poinsettias from our Generous Benefactors Awaiting their Christmas Debut |
Christmas, 2013
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Our dear Friends,
We left you last issue standing
before the ready-to-open door of our August novena in honor of our Holy Mother St. Clare, but just
before it opened, who should come knocking but a group of parishioners from St.
Bede’s Church in Williamsburg ! They were members of the “Young at Heart”
ministry, led by seminarian Miguel Melendez, stationed for the summer at St.
Bede’s. They wanted to know more about us and visit our monastic dwelling
place. Since some of them are senior
citizens, they did not think they would be able to come for the early morning
Mass, but chose to arrive a little later for
some prayer time and parlor gatherings.
For this latter, Seminarian Miguel divided the large group into three
smaller ones. Mother assigned a few
sisters for each group to answer their questions and share a little about our
life. Our new friends truly proved to be
“young at heart” as they very enthusiastically participated in the informal
discussions and, before heading for Richmond
to visit the Little Sisters of the Poor, joined us in choir for the chanting of
Sext. We entrusted their many prayer
intentions to our Holy Mother St. Clare as we began her great novena the
following day.
You may
remember that last year, we experimented with once more having our novena
services in the evening with different priest-speakers, as do other of our Poor
Clare houses. However, our remote
location and that dusky hour prevented many of you from attending, so we
decided to return this year to having those prayers immediately following our
morning Mass. Since August 11th fell on a Sunday
this year, both our morning and evening Masses were very well attended. We thought of each of you, our dear friends,
knowing that, if you could not be here in person, you were very much so in
spirit, and we are sure you felt the intercession of our Holy Mother St. Clare
very strongly those days.
Did you
know that August also marks the beginning of the Church’s harvest season? A priest-friend pointed that out to us some
years ago. He said it begins on August
15th, anniversary of the day when Our Lord stood at the door of the
life of Our Lady and led her forth into the glory of heaven. That is why, in many places, an offering of
produce is brought to the church to be blessed, in honor of her who is the
first fruit of Jesus’ own Death, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. We had never thought of that before, but when
we looked at the liturgical calendar – oh, so many saints and blessed from that
time all the way up to the great solemnity of all the saints and beyond – spilling over right to the threshold of the
First Sunday of Advent! Just like our
own first-time vegetable garden this year!
(Remember, we told you a bit about it last issue.) As of this writing, it is still producing
Asian vegetables and perhaps some chard, but our novitiate sisters had a wonderful
time growing squash, cucumbers, beets, tomatoes, and even a few potatoes this
season. They are even looking forward
eagerly to a repeat performance next year.
September
found us joining our Holy Father Pope Francis and so many others around the world
knocking on the doors of the Divine Mercy for His gift of peace in our world,
especially in the Middle East . This vigil of silent prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament reminded us of the prayer the Angel of Peace gave to the
three shepherd children in Fatima early in
1917, telling them to pray it especially for the end of the current World
War. Do you know it? It runs like
this: “O my God, I believe, I adore, I
hope, I love You. I ask Your pardon for
all those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, do not love You.” Such
a simple prayer of adoration and intercession, yet it had such large
consequences then! Why not now as well?
The
following day saw us opening our doors to our long-time priest-friend, Monsignor Arthur Calkins, an outstanding
Mariologist and theologian, who gave us several days of retreat/classes on the
triple make-up of our human nature, demonstrating from Scripture and the
writings of several Fathers and Doctors of the Church that we are body, soul,
and spirit – not just body and soul.
From there, Father went on to speak of our Blessed Mother and her
pre-eminent role in the economy of salvation as mediatrix, co-redemptrix, etc.
as spoken of in the Council documents and various papal writings. We are so grateful to Father for all the
riches he shared which we will spend many hours unpacking in the coming months.
October,
and the feast of our holy father St. Francis on its fourth day found us once
more in Italy, this time accompanying our Holy Father, Pope Francis, on his
pilgrimage to Assisi, hometown and major shrine of his great patron. Many and varied as his stops were, we
especially relished the one he made to our protomonastery of Poor Clares there. And we could tell he relished it, too.
A
particularly beautiful door opened a few days later on October 7th. That feast, of the most Holy Rosary, saw us
welcoming our dear Sister Mary Joyce, who came to us a couple of years ago from
India ,
as a permanent member of our community.
We celebrated in high festive Poor Clare style, with a special ceremony
in our chapter room after Holy Mass, which included the bestowal of a new crown
of thorns (her original one had broken many years ago when she went on
foundation from Kerala to West Bengal) and a new ring of espousals to match
those each of us receives at our solemn vows.
We kept the whole day like a bridal day, with some of Sister’s favorite
music (a tape of the Syro-Malabar Mass) as well as some favorite Asian dishes
at our meals.
It seemed only a short time after
doors closed on that beautiful day that, on November 9th, another very lovely door swung open as our
then-postulant Erin entered into the fullness
of noviceship with the reception of our Holy Habit and a new name and title as
well. Many of you may remember from past
reports in this missive the suspense that precedes this particular event,
mostly surrounding that latter revelation.
Yes, many and varied were the guesses and suggestions submitted to
Mother on this point, but to each she only smiled and said they were very good,
but also very wide of the mark. Finally that moment of the ceremony
arrived when Mother said, “Dear Sister, in the future, you shall no longer be
called ‘Erin,’ but … Sister Maria Christi of the Immaculate Conception, with
your nameday on December 8th.”
Oh, what a perfect patroness Sister Maria Christi has -- and Mother was right: we could never have
guessed it!
And now we have crossed the
threshold of a brand-new liturgical year, as everything turns once more to the
Little One Who crossed into our world through the smallest of doors: the womb
of his Immaculate Mother Mary. As we watch for His coming, we pray with Holy
Church that our Father keep us alert -- He comes in so many guises – so that,
when He comes and knocks at the doors of our own hearts, He may find us
watchful in prayer and exultant in His praise.
A blessed Christmas to you all!
ffgfffffgggggfffggghhhhhhhggggffffffggghhh
Our Masses at Christmas
December 25 Midnight Mass 12:00 a.m.
Christmas Morning
9:00 a.m.
January 1 New Year’s Day 8:00 a.m.
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