Christmas 2000
Bethlehem Monastery of Poor Clares
Newport News, Virginia
www.poor-clares.org
"Zion is our mighty citadel, our saving Lord its wall and its defense;
throw open the gates, for our God is here among us, Alleluia" (antiphon for Advent)
Our dear Friends, near and far,
With this antiphon our community passed through the portals of the Great Jubilee Year almost a year ago! The careful preparation for the Jubilee Year, led by Pope John Paul, has united the whole Church in' entering into this sacred time and celebrating it together world-wide. The Great Jubilee, as we experienced it in Bethlehem Monastery, has been the wellspring and the heart from which all other events have sprung. The latter days of Advent, 1999, provided a mounting "count-up" as we neared the great beginning, and now we have such a sense of time that the very ticking of a clock in our silent moments is itself a sacramental. This Year of years, streaming with the mercy of God, will soon close its holy doors, but instead of turning us away we are rather gathered into the embrace of our true Family, the Most Holy Trinity. ''... and if you do not succeed in keeping the commandments, never consider yourself lost. Deeper still, beyond your shame and disgrace, there is Christ. Turn to Him, let Him love you and bestow His strength upon you. " (Olivier Clement)
The same octave of this jubilant beginning brought the temporal passover from one millennium to another. We "cloistered" the last four days of 1999 and entered into a retreat on the Prologue of St. John's Gospel preached by Father Marc-Daniel, O. Cist., and then crossed the frontier of time in the context of a midnight Eucharistic celebration. "We must learn at times to stop and listen to the silence, to savor it, and be awed by it, becoming like a chalice to receive it... Going no further, we pause in silent, at times overwhelming anticipation, and become, ourselves, silent expectation."
Ecumenism is a favored theme of the second Vatican Council and, particularly, of Pope John Paul II. And so it is with us. This is why it was so right to have eight Protestant ministers join eight Catholic priests in blessing our new property, and why we asked a newly arrived Orthodox priest to come and speak to us about ... well, things Orthodox. Father George Chioros, a Chicago native, is well rooted in close Orthodox/Catholic relations, and so our evening with him deepened a hunger, unveiling anew the mystery of prayer and of our vocation..."St. Francis de Sales predicted that at a decisive point in history there would come the decatenatio sanctorum: unleashing of the saints. Now the union in Christ and encounter between Eastern and Western Christians are undoubtedly as favorable a set of conditions as any for this decatenato."
The Paschal Triduum also had a jubilee splendor about it. Based on circumstances such as the age of the celebrant, or daylight savings time changes, we have had varied times for our Paschal Vigil over the years. This time we remained within a more Poor Clare time frame. The three hours beginning at 11 p.m. were really pure kairos (God's time)! So was the entire Octave, and so was the time of our federation chapter soon after. The Love of Christ gathered us together and its Eucharistic theme, the theme of our very lives, was so manifest in every shared experience and encounter. "If we want to make a conscious and honest request for this Bread, we must assume another obligation: that of sharing. Eucharistic communion is a sharing. As St. John Chrysostom would say, the sacrament of one's neighbor cannot be separated from that of the altar."
Late summer was a jubilee season for Bethlehem Monastery. Sister Mary Colette of Our Lady and Sister Pia Marie of the Sacred Stigmata were the first two postulants to enter after the Roswell foundresses came to Newport News. On August 2, the feast of the Portiuncula, and September 29, feast of the Archangels, these two 'little portions" claimed by God in vows twenty-five years ago, reconsecrated their lives and once more donned their crown of thorns, this time interwoven with delicate flowers. Sister Mary Pius of the Queen of Heaven celebrated forty years of vowed life on August 5, feast of Our Lady of the Snows. The Transfiguration feast became for us a liturgical center- piece this year, and throughout this time of jubilee we were blessed to have (on loan) an original icon written by a monastic iconographer in the Holy Land: the luminous and sacred Mandylion (Face of Christ) "Transfiguration is not at the end of our journey. It is given us even as we walk with bleeding feet and bleary eyes, even as we stumble, lose our way and, like Elijah, say to God, 'Enough.' The radiant beauty of the Face of Christ is the beacon of all who suffer, who fail, who search in the night. We are transfigured, not by any efforts of our own, but by holding ourselves quite still, in naked faith, before the Face of the Beloved." (Fr. Marc Daniel, O.Cist).
In late October, God unveiled yet another jubilee surprise for us in an almost miraculous way. Father Gregory Elmer, O.S.B., was unknown to us and we had never heard of St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, California, either, but a new servant of God, whom we rightly call Brother Steven, through a simple introduction, set in motion a rapid unfolding of this Divine gift. A week later, Father Gregory took us, gently yet powerfully, into the fiery heart of the Scriptures, namely, the Last Supper discourse in St. John's Gospel. There we now remain, even though the suspended activities of the monastery in retreat week have resumed. There we wish to remain and we do so through the incomparable gift of the Eucharist and the Scriptures. Adoration of the Eucharist was intensified during the crucial presidential election and many local friends joined us in petition to God from 6 a.m. on November 7 until midnight. The unprecedented events of the election prompted us to continue with extended adoration and supplication that week. "It is by staying still in silence, and possibly for long periods before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that we perceive what he wants from us,,, put aside our own plans to make way for His, and let God's light gradually penetrate the heart and heal it. " (Father Raniero Cantalamesa)
Up to now, we have not mentioned our relocation project, but it looms large for us. We have set Sunday March 18 as our date of groundbreaking ceremony, and we do so with a leap of faith since we are still far from the goal financially. Any gifts that you may send us in honor of the Birth of Christ will be diligently saved for the Bethlehem that will soon begin to rise on that forested hill in Barhamsville, New Kent County. We thank you for all the wonderful support you have given, and especially for sharing our eagerness as we move through such an historic moment in our community's history. May your Christmas be filled with grace upon grace in Jesus, joy of man's desiring.
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