Easter 2005
Bethlehem Monastery of Poor Clares
5500 Holly Fork Road, Barhamsville, Virginia 23011
www.poor-clares.org
Our dear Friends, near and far,
Our Lenten journey has only taken us ten days into its mystery, and yet this journey of the heart, the soul, toward God has such vast horizons, such wondrous invitations through the daily "food and drink" of the Liturgy. Outside, winter is scarcely finished, and there are but faint hints of re-flowering in nature, yet the call to that inner springtime shakes the roots of our inmost being and calls forth life! As our house bell tolls at three- o'clock every afternoon, each sister or group of sisters pauses from the work of the moment to focus on the eternal Now in the Passion of our eager Lover, Christ. Turning to the crucifix we pray:
O great Passion! O profound Wounds! O outpouring of blood! O highest Sorrow! O Death suffered in every bitterness!
Be to us healing, and eternal Life.
Lent in the Year of the Eucharist is a time set aside for adoration. "Stay with us, Lord Jesus" is the cry of our hearts. Our daily trysts and mid-nightly watch makes us representatives of the expectant Church, awaiting His coming at every moment. Into Lent we place a weekly semi-retreat day with the Latin name "Reflorelegium Day" or spiritual re-flowering. The idea comes from a verse in a sixth century Lenten hymn for Morning Praise (Lauds): The day has come, your saving day, in which all things shall bloom anew; Let us rejoice in it so that by grace we be led back to you. The monastery is stripped of anything superfluous and stands alone, in the elegant simplicity of its architecture, inviting us to un-clutter ourselves beginning deep within. Outside clean-up is also on the agenda: vestiges of winter are cleared from our gardens; ground is broken for the first vegetable field out back; personal inventory goes on in our monastic cells and workplaces resulting in a pile of "sharables" or "give-aways." Our simple meals and daily schedules go hand in hand with this season closed to parlor visits and personal correspondence. Even Poor Clares have to make an effort to enclose the heart that is served by our vow of enclosure!
Community news in brief: The first Christmas in our new home was the best part of 2004. All the struggles of moving and getting organized, of ironing out the remaining hitches in construction, even if incomplete, were put behind us, or buried deep within our communal sub-consciousness on December 17th, the day of the beginning of the Great "O" antiphons...that is, until December 23rd when a fire protection pipe burst in the attic above the dormitory and water came spilling into Sister Colette's cell through the smoke detector and heating vent. This was but a small interval of inconvenience in an otherwise lovely season. So many friends helped the decorating cause by providing trees, greens, candles, pine garlands, wreaths, and lights. We knew the new space called for something original, so we set to work, first pondering and imagining. Then we put on our aprons and went to a room in the basement where we had stored a lot of rough-cut hemlock wood, which Vermont Timber gave to us after building the porches surrounding our courtyard and front entranceway. Two little flatbed wagons kept appearing at the back stairwell to carry loads of wood being relayed up the steps. Most of it was then transported into the choir and chapel. With it we built rustic platforms for the manger scenes and even had some left over on which to place all the beautiful poinsettias provided by so many friends. The whole arrangement would never have looked right in the Newport News choir and chapel, but here it blended perfectly.
At this writing, Sister Emmanuel is rounding the last corner needed to have her permanent residency card; our Vicaress, Mother Christine, just designed the memorial card for her Golden Jubilee this summer; and Bishop DiLorenzo has accepted our invitation to preside at her jubilee Mass on August 6th. The summer newsletter will give more details.
We now wish to share a meditation on the Cross. We hope it will draw you deeper into the mystery of the "Great Lent" and prepare you for "Great Week," the all-Holy Week:
from the "Dream of the Rood":
"Long ago it was that I was cut down at the edge of the forest, moved from my trunk. Men bore me on their shoulders, they set me on a hill. I saw then the Lord of mankind hasten with great zeal that He might be raised upon me.
"Then the young Hero - He was God Almighty - firm and unflinching, stripped himself: He mounted on the high cross, brave in the sight of many. when he was minded to redeem mankind. Then I trembled when the Hero clasped me; yet I durst not bow to the earth, fall to the level of the ground. But I must needs stand firm.
"As a rood I was raised up: I bore aloft the mighty King', the Lord of Heaven. They pierced me with dark nails; the wounds are still plain to view in me, gaping gashes of malice. I was all bedewed with blood, shed from the Man's side, after He had sent forth His Spirit. I saw the God of hosts violently stretched out. All creation wept, lamented the King's death: Christ was on the cross.
"Now the time has come when far and wide over the earth and all this splendid creation, men do me honor; they worship this sign. On me the Son of God suffered for a space: wherefore now I rise glorious beneath the heavens, and I can heal all who fear me.
"Now I bid thee, my loved man, to declare this vision unto men; reveal in words that it is the glorious tree on which Almighty God suffered for the sins of mankind and the old deeds of Adam..."
Glad of heart. let us worship the Cross with great zeal. We now have joy of life that can seek the triumphant Cross, do it full honor. May the Lord, who here on earth suffered aforetime on the Cross for the sins of men. be a friend unto us: He has redeemed us and has given us life, a heavenly home.
Return to Chronicles
