Virtual Vocations Retreat

This retreat moment is borrowed from
"For Your Vocation" & the USCCB:

Scripture Reading: Psalm 8:3-4

When I see the heavens, the work of your hands,
the moon and the stars which you arranged,
what is man that you should keep him in mind,
mortal man that you care for him?

Reflection:
“The source of every perfect gift is God who is Love – Deus caritas est: “Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16). Sacred Scripture tells the story of this original bond between God and man, which precedes creation itself. Writing to the Christians of the city of Ephesus, Saint Paul raises a hymn of gratitude and praise to the Father who, with infinite benevolence, in the course of the centuries accomplishes his universal plan of salvation, which is a plan of love. In his Son Jesus – Paul states – “he chose us, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him in love” (Eph 1:4). We are loved by God even “before” we come into existence! Moved solely by his unconditional love, he created us “not … out of existing things” (cf. 2Macc 7:28), to bring us into full communion with Him.

In great wonderment before the work of God’s providence, the Psalmist exclaims: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:3-4). The profound truth of our existence is thus contained in this surprising mystery: every creature, and in particular every human person, is the fruit of God’s thought and an act of his love, a love that is boundless, faithful and everlasting (cf. Jer 31:3). The discovery of this reality is what truly and profoundly changes our lives. [Pope Benedict XVI, Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God, WPDV Message, 2012]

Personal Integration:
How does this reality change the way I see myself? How does it help me understand my identity?

How does this knowledge change the way I perceive and treat each person I encounter?

(A time of sacred silence should be observed.)

Closing Prayer of Self-Offering:
God our Father, thank you for creating each us out of your boundless, faithful and everlasting love.  As we seek your loving will, help us respond to your love with generous and willing hearts.  Amen.

Visit www.facebook.com/foryourvocation for more information.

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

This image of Christ with a community of
faithful in the background greets each
of the sisters entering the Chapel
for the Liturgy of Hours and Mass.

Greetings,

Pope Benedict XVI's message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations began with a reminder of how it all begins...The source of every perfect gift is God who is Love – Deus caritas est: “Whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16).  Our love for God in response to the love God has freely shared with each of us.  This love is then shared with each other in the dailiness of our community life through our self-offering.

It is in this soil of self-offering and openness to the love of God, and as the fruit of that love, that all vocations are born and grow. By drawing from this wellspring through prayer, constant recourse to God’s word and to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, it becomes possible to live a life of love for our neighbours, in whom we come to perceive the face of Christ the Lord (cf. Mt 25:31-46). To express the inseparable bond that links these “two loves” – love of God and love of neighbour – both of which flow from the same divine source and return to it, Pope Saint Gregory the Great uses the metaphor of the seedling: “In the soil of our heart God first planted the root of love for him; from this, like the leaf, sprouts love for one another.” (Moralium Libri, sive expositio in Librum B. Job, Lib. VII, Ch. 24, 28; PL 75, 780D).

Our community followed this call to prayer out of love for those discerning God's Call.  We remembered those women and men pondering their vocation during our intercessory prayer at our Liturgy of the Hours and Mass, we also added an prayer to be shared together in the refectory.  These are additional to the daily prayers offered by our elders in their own devotionals and our Tuesday intercessions for vocations.  This day of prayer also leads to wonderful discussion.  Many of the sisters shared their own vocation stories throughout the day...God works in mysterious ways...and none more dynamic than how He tugs on each sister's heart to lead her to follow Him.

Blessings,

Easter Blessings

Greetings,

Father lights the Easter Candle held
by Sister Penny while Sisters Acolyte
and Sacristan look on.

Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday are filled with all the symbol, sacrament, and sacred to fill a year of Sundays.  This year we were blessed with perfect weather for the blessing of the Easter Fire and new Easter Candle.  Many of the sisters, our family members, and friends gathered in front of the Chapel as Father blessed the new fire, carefully tended by our Sister Gardener, as Sister Penny, prioress, held the Easter Candle for procession.  But the fire blessing is only the beginning...the coals from the fire were used to light the incense for the Vigil, and then the whole of the gathering slowly processed inside to our Chapter Room for the Liturgy of the Word. 

After remembering God's promises through all seven of the Old Testament readings and Epistle, we rejoiced to sing out the "Alleluias" for the Gospel.  The homily wasn't as short as Mark's Gospel, but Father focused on four little words from Mark that changed the world..."He is not here!"

We then followed Sister Prioress and the Easter Candle to the entrance of the Chapel and our newly filled water font for the blessing of water, our renewal of Baptismal promises and the sprinkling rite.  In the midst of this solemn profession, Father doused us all quite well with the Holy Water; until he got to the Prioress and Acolyte.  These sisters had their hands full of the Roman Missal, incense, and Easter Candle; with a broad smile on his face, he lightly touched each of their forheads with the aspergillum (sprinkler).  Newly blessed and renewed in spirit, we all processed in statio into the semi-light of the Chapel.  The sisters at the front lit tapers from the Easter Candle to light all the altar and dedication candles as we sang the Gloria.

It was wonderful to fill the arches of our Upper Chapel with soaring music again.  The sanctuary and altar festooned with white lilies, bright spring flowers, and pussy-willow branches all reminding us of new life.  As the Chapel lights flickered to life, we continued with song, prayer and praise.  It was a joyous night to share with our sisters, family members, and friends of the monastery.

Blessings,

Good Friday

Greetings,

The monastery looks still from the outside.  We step away from our daily works and ministries and step into the silence of this day.  The shift even in our prayer is noticeable even to the visitors who join us for retreat during the Triduum... Lauds did not begin with the standard call to prayer and crossing of our lips since the prayer begun on Holy Thursday continues through today.  Our hymn, chanted Psalms, and Canticle of Zachariah were done with with only an occasional single tone from the organ to keep us on pitch.  The reading from Lamentations was chanted by our cantors of the monastery.  The three to six part Latin harmonies were as hauntingly beautiful as the cries for God's mercy that they contain. 

The day begun in prayer continues quietly.  Sisters have the opportunity for private reflection, devotion, and prayer throughout the day.  While praying our Sorrowful Way through the back lawn, I saw other sisters taking advantage of the bright spring day for outdoor prayer by our shrines or on a sunny bench.  Others prayed their way through their flowerbeds...pruning and weeding away the remains of winter to make way for new life.  Our sisters preparing the liturgies for today quietly set the Upper Chapel for our Commemoration of Christ's Passion.

Other changes in our day include our meals.  While all our Fridays at the monastery are 'meat free,' today there is also a restraint in the meal...fasting with simple, light meals.  However, there was one exception, Sr. Marcine's hot cross buns.  Freshly baked, these slightly sweetened buns were studed with currants and adorned with a simple cross of icing, a treat and a symbol.

Finally, there will be no Vespers tonight.  We leave that gap, a reminder of Christ's sacrifice.  An open space we know should not be there and is then all the more noticeable and keeps us aware. 

Blessings,

The Fourteenth Station: Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

I will praise you, O Lord, for you drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. O Lord, you brought me up from the lower world; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit. Sing praise to the Lord, you his faithful ones, and gives thanks to his holy name. For his anger lasts a moment; his good will is for a lifetime. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with dawn comes rejoicing.  Psalms 29: 2-6

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."  John 11: 25

The Thirteenth Station: The Body of Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and I will bring you back to your land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live. You shall know then that I am the Lord. I have promised it, and I will do it, says the Lord.
Ezechiel 37: 12-14

Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  John 12: 24

Holy Thursday

Greetings,

Our Holy Thursday service is complete; silence now hangs in the monastery hallways like the incense and beeswax from our procession with the Blessed Sacrament. Our evening of celebration, prayer and commemoration is reinforced by our call to community.

Following monastic tradition, we held our foot washing ceremony in our Chapter Room for the sisters of the community.  It is a simple service with scripture, chant, and then prioress, sub-prioress, and procurator sit or kneel between the choirs of sisters as we, one by one, come forward to have them wash our feet.  It is powerful to watch as the sister we elected as leader, carefully remove the shoes and socks of each sister and then gently wash and dry her feet before returning the footwear. 

"I chose my classmate [sister who entered at the same time] to wash my feet and it was very touching.  In fact, it brought me to tears.  Being a servant is what my life is about--bringing God's love to others." Sr. Barbara, perpetually professed many years.

"I chose to have my foot washed as a challenge to allow myself to be served rather than focusing on serving others.  At times, I find it very difficult to be served.  We need to remember to allow others the opportunity to serve."  Sr. Barbara, perpetually professed about six months.

After a closing prayer by our prioress, we processed from the Chapter Room to the refectory for a meal celebrating community and love, our love for each other and for Christ.  We shared wine and fresh breads, a wonderful meal that was hard to leave in preparation for our Holy Thursday Mass and upcoming silence.

At the end of our Mass, we processed ahead of Father Monk bearing the Blessed Sacrament to the St. Joseph Chapel.  We sang the Pange Lingua in our Bishop Martin Marty Chapel; then our musician sisters picked up the tune on clarinet and bass clarinet in the dim hallways as we silently followed the candle bearers.  The incense swung by Sister Acolyte before Father still lingers in the hallways, drifting up the stairwell.  We chanted the last verses of the Pange Lingua without accompaniment in the little Chapel as Father turned the key on the tabernacle.

Triduum silence has begun; it is palpable, heavy like the scent of incense and beeswax from the procession.  A silence that will nurture our prayer and reflection that we share as community over these days of Triduum.

Blessings,

The Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

My people, what have I done to you? or in what have I offended you? Answer me. What more should I have done, and did not do? I led you out of the land of Egypt, and you prepared a cross for me. I opened the Red Sea before you, and you opened my side with a lance. I gave you a royal sceptre, and you have given me a crown of thorns. With great power I lifted you up, and you have hung me upon a cross. My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I offeneded you? Answer me.
The Reproaches of Good Friday

Jesus said, "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more." Luke 12: 4

The Eleventh Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, far from my prayer, far from the words of my cry? O my God, I cry out by day, and you answer not; I cry out by night, and there is no relief for me. All my bones are racked.  My heart has become like wax melting away within my chest. My throat is dried up like baked clay, my tongue cleaves to my jaws; they have pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones.  Psalms 21: 2-3, 15-17b

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."  Luke 23: 34

The Tenth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

Happy is the man whom God chastises! Do not reject the happy punishment of the almighty. For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands give healing. Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak; I looked for comforters, and I found none. Rather they put gall in my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinigar to drink. Job 5: 17-18, Psalms 68: 21-22

Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."  Matthew 5: 44-45

The Ninth Station: Jesus Falls a Third Time

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The Lord is my life's refuge; of whom should I be afriad? When evildoers come at me to devour my flesh, my foes and my enemies themselves stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war be waged upon me, even then will I trust.  Psalm 26: 1-3

Jesus said, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."  Luke 9: 62

The Eighth Station: Jesus Speaks to the Women of Jerusalem

These outdoor, tile-mosaic Stations of the Cross were designed
by our own Artisan Sisters of the Monastery.

Come, all you who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering, suffering with which the Lord has afflicted me on the day of his blazing wrath. At this I weep, my eyes run with tears; far from me are all who could console me, far away are any who might revive me. 
Lamentations 1: 12-16

Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."
Luke 23: 28