Bethlehem Monastery of Poor Clares

Spring, 2011

This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it!

 

Our dear Friends,

Yes, and not only this day, but all times and seasons are of His making – it all belongs to Him, as we sing at the blessing of the Paschal candle in the night of Holy Saturday.  These past few months, we have become much more aware of our changing seasons, since we have been seeing them with new eyes. In our last issue, we shared with you the arrival of Sister Joyce and Sister Beatrice from our Poor Clare monastery in West Bengal, India.  To our amazement, when the leaves began to change a few weeks later, we learned that they had never before experienced a Western-style autumn.  It seems that there are only two seasons in their part of India: the hot months and the chilly rainy ones.  Perhaps that is why our Lord made the colors so intense this year; we all declared they have rarely been so lovely.  We also learned that Sister Joyce had brought her camera along and she used it diligently.  There is much to share with their sisters back home.  We thought they were excited then.  Until... it snowed.

St. Nicholas sent this gift to our Sisters a couple of days before his feast in early December.  It was actually little more than a dusting, but it was enough to delight us all.  Now, first snows rarely last very long and this one was almost gone by morning.  Some days later, however, when we came from Holy Mass, large flakes were filling the air and working that transformation on plants and sidewalks that only snow can do.  This time our Indian sisters as well as our novitiate sisters (who numbered three by that time, praise God) were able to run out into it, feel it falling, pick it up and...You see, Sister Joyce and Sister Beatrice had never seen either frost or snow or ice before – it doesn’t get cold enough in West Bengal.  It was even more of a delight this time to share their delight! This snow was somewhat longer lasting, both in falling and in remaining, but it proved to be only the beginning. The Lord had yet more waiting for us, and this on His own birthday, thereby gifting us with the first “White Christmas” in the memory of anyone living in this area.   We even had icicles along the edges of our roofs.  Yes, and our pond froze over for the occasion as well.

One of the wonders of having an “international” community is the opportunity to share some of our different customs.  For example, during supper on Christmas night, our Sisters Joyce and Beatrice knelt before the refectory creche and sang several songs in honor of the Infant Jesus as is the practice back home in India.  They also shared some of the details of how they decorate the monastery in a part of the country where they have no pine or holly.  Instead they use large palm fronds, trim them with balls and lights as we do, then finish them with fluffs of cotton to stand for the snow.  They do have poinsettias, however, but they do not come in pots like ours.  They grow on large bushes in the garden!

So January arrived, opening up a whole new year that has already contained many special graces and blessings.  Among them was the opening of the Jubilee Year of the founding of our way of life when our Mother St. Clare left her parental home to join our Father St. Francis and his friars who were awaiting her at the little church of the Portiuncula.  Before that, however, came a day of another sort near the end of January.  It, too, was of the Lord’s making, but held a sense of poignancy along with its joy.  It was time for our dear Sister Maria, who has been “on loan” from our Los Altos Hills community for the past 2 years and more to return to her home nest in California.  It has been such a blessing to have her here to help with our care of dear Mother Rosaria until her blessed death last January, and then simply to help.  We sent her off on January 25, a few days before her temporary transfer expired, laden with an unlimited weight of love and gratitude to our sisters in Los Altos Hills.  We were very glad such is not able to be tangibly measured!

Now the Springtime of the year has arrived, and again we marvel at its wonder through the eyes of our dear Sisters. Our fruit trees have been especially fascinating for them -- trees that fill with blossoms before their leaves appear.  However, on another level, our gradually greening forest signals that we are moving through yet another season: the springtime of the spirit. That will reach its full glory in the splendor of Easter.  We have our Holy Father’s latest book, Jesus of Nazareth, Part II, to accompany us through the season – quite substantial fare for our Lenten journey, especially when one takes it in tandem with the two publications immediately preceding: his unprecedented interview with Peter Seewald, Light of the World, and his post-synodal exhortation, Verbum Domini (The Word of the Lord).  From this latter we would like to conclude:

“...sharing in the life of God, a Trinity of love, is complete joy (cf. 1 Jn 1:4). And it is the Church’s gift and inescapable duty to communicate that joy, born of an encounter with the person of Christ, the Word of God in our midst... According to the Scripture, joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22) who enables us to enter into the word and enables the divine word to enter into us and to bear fruit for eternal life. By proclaiming God’s word in the power of the Holy Spirit, we also wish to share the source of true joy, not a superficial and fleeting joy, but the joy born of the awareness that the Lord Jesus alone has words of everlasting life (cf. Jn 6:68).   To everyone the Lord says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).

 

Let us be silent in order to hear the Lord’s word and to meditate upon it, so that by the working of the Holy Spirit it may remain in our hearts and speak to us all the days of our lives.  Thus we too will enter into the great nuptial dialogue which concludes sacred Scripture: “The Spirit and the bride say: ‘Come’. And let everyone who hears say: ‘Come!’” The one who testifies to these things, says: ‘Surely I am coming soon!’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:17, 20).”

We invite you to join us as we celebrate the great Paschal mystery -- near the end of April this year!  This is a most unique occurrence and we cannot help wondering whether the Lord arranged it so that another great day He has made -- the beatification of our dear Pope John Paul II on May 1 – would just “happen” to coincide with Mercy Sunday...  Each of you is held particularly in our prayers these special days.  And may the Word of God, shared so richly throughout this season, dwell in your hearts, that you may know the fullness of Jesus’ Easter gift of peace and every blessing.     

Our Holy Week Liturgies in this year of the Lord 2011

April 21          Holy Thursday        Mass of the Lord’s Supper                                               5:00 p.m.

April 22          Good Friday           Celebration of the Lord’s Passion                                     3:00 p.m.

April 23                                          Easter Vigil                                                                     11:00 p.m.

April 24          Easter Sunday         Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection                                       9:15 a.m.