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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Happy Anniversary!

Greetings,

Sacred Heart Monastery celebrates our 131st anniversary today! We were founded on November 17th, 1880 at MariaZell in the midst of the Dakota Territory. Our pioneering sisters came from the majestic Swiss Alps to the grand plains of the Dakotas. Their faith in God and perseverance guided by the Spirit still amaze me when I consider all the challenges of their early days in our founding. Including a rattlesnake that would sneak into their first dugout 'covent' and drink up the fresh milk overnight!

At home, the Monastery will be celebrating with special commemorations in our Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, and meals. Here at our Convent apartment, we too are celebrating in the Liturgy of the Hours, but we've moved a bit of festivity to Saturday. Sister and I invited some of the other Nebraska Sisters to our new apartment for a celebratory meal and prayer to commemorate the founding. No rattlesnakes invited!

Blessings,

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Feast of All Souls

Greetings,

Today we remember and commemorate our beloved dead. The reading from the Old Testament for this celebration are an inspiration for those of us who mourn. Three of our sisters have died since the last Feast of All Souls: Sisters Verena, Harriett, and Bennett. I love to imagine them as pure gold sparks dancing about God's field of glory with all of our sisters who have gone before.


"The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead...but they are in
peace...they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them
worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial
offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall
shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble...those who trust in him
shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: because
grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect." ~
Wisdom 3: 1-9

Our cemetery is a beautiful place to reflect on Benedict's admonition to keep death daily before our eyes; not as a threat or out of fear, but as a hope-filled promise of what is to come. It is a powerful meditation to walk among these sisters in our cemetery, ask them for their prayer and support, and remember that as we are all part of this Communion of Saints, they are still with us today.

Blessings,