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Characteristics of a Christian

We were delighted to have a lecture by the pastor of our St. Patrick parish, Rev. Gavin Vaverek. He came over on the morning of January 9 to give us the \”Ten Characteristics of Our Christian Identity\” which he based on talks by our Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland.

The talk was very interesting, imaginative and thought provoking. You might want to examine yourself on the characteristics. We will list them below. Now remember, each word is important.

Joyfully Catholic
Divinely Inspired
Passionately Committed
Wisely Obedient
Solidly Orthodox
Generously Merciful
Happily Serving
Culturally Aware
Nobly Simple
Historically Rooted

Another way to consider these characteristics is to reflect on how they are manifest in the lives of Jesus and Mary, or one of your favorite saints.

Epiphany Blessings – part 2

This week has been one of many blessed events, unfortunately we are a little slow in recording them. We will try to keep up with God\’s shower of graces!!

Not only is the Feast of the Epiphany a deeply significant religious day, it is also our day of sharing fun and gifts with one another. The Professed Sisters entertain the community in the morning and the Sisters in the Novitiate usually have the evening.

The Professed Sisters are champions at providing enjoyable games for us. We divided into three teams and began with a bean bag toss. Poor Frosty the Snowman didn’t get much to eat.

Our two MCs were right in the Christmas spirit. They explained their unusual costumes by saying that they were living in the PRESENT!

Sister Mary Margaret, on the left, is filling us with funny puns; while on the right, Sister Mary Gabriel enjoying the bean bag toss.

In the photo above, Sister Mary Gabriel is demonstrating how to move 10 ping-pong balls from one bowl to another. In the photo below, Sister Mary Jeremiah is racing to get the task completed in the time allotted … which she did.

Another game involved jigsaw puzzles using common products from the kitchen —

The morning concluded with an hilarious game with gift bags. This game has become something of a tradition because it is so much fun. We each received a bag filled with mysterious goodies. But to keep us from becoming too attached or selfish, we had to move them around the circle while a Sister read us the poem of “The Night Before Christmas”. This version was annotated with many “lefts” and rights”. Every time one was mentioned we passed the bag in the correct (sometimes) direction. By the end of the poem the original bag was half way across the room. You might want to try it next year. It is lots of fun with many laughs and goofs.

Epiphany Blessings

Today is the great Feast of the Epiphany – the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles! Image result for epiphany blessing

The Greek word epiphany means manifestation. Jesus is being manifested to all the nations.

It seems that this Feast has always been one of special interest to children, perhaps because in many countries this is the day of gift-giving. But many of us remember as children, singing parodies of “We Three Kings”, usually “smoking cigars” that go BANG.

But it actually has great spiritual significance, for it shows that the Messiah-Savior came not only for his own people-the Jews-but for ALL people. Again, in many countries this is the time for blessing houses, as a way of sharing in the visit of the Magi to the Holy Father\’s small “house” in Bethlehem.

Our Chaplain told us of a tradition his mother had and that the adult-children have carried to this day. His mother would put aside the first Christmas card that depicts the Magi that arrived at their home. On the Feast of Epiphany she could put it above the front door. It would stay there throughout the year until the next Feast of the Epiphany. Some of us think that perhaps this is an abbreviation of another tradition from Europe.

It is the Epiphany Blessing in which the house can be blessed by a priest or the head of the house can do the Epiphany Blessing. This is a very popular tradition in Italy.

All gather around the main doorway. Prayers are said to bless the house. Then the leader takes a piece of chalk and writes over the lentil or along the doorposts the following letters:

20 + C + M + B + 18

20 = and

18 = signify the current year 2018

+ = separating the numbers and letters reference Christ by the Cross

C = Caspar

M = Melchior

B = Balthasar

These are the traditional names of the Three Kings. But the initials CMB also stand for a Latin phrase: Christus Mansionem Benedicat which means May Christ bless this home.

This Blessing in some sense is reminiscent of the blessings of the doorposts by the Hebrews in Egypt during the 10th plague, and the beginning of the Exodus.

True Greatness

St. John the Baptist still has importance for us today. He can teach/show us the Way to True Greatness. In speaking of Jesus, he said:

He must increase;

I must decrease.

Humility is the way to true greatness; the path to complete joy.

When we a confronted with other people who have different ideas or do things differently than we, it is humility that enables us to believe that others sometimes might know better than ourselves.

A New Year — 2018

Today in the Liturgical Calendar we celebrate Mary, Mother of God and the World Day of Peace.

We would like to share a few spiritual nuggets from our Chaplain\’s homily this morning.

**Every time Mary is mentioned in Scripture she is concerned about someone else. Can we say the same of ourselves? Are we thinking of others, serving others, concerned for the welfare of others?
Today is a good day to begin trying to follow Mary’s example in 2018.

**At Cana, when Mary told Jesus that there was no wine, He replied that His hour had not yet come. Perhaps as His Mother, she was thinking, “Oh, yes it has. Yes. It has!” We can look to her to guide us in our service of God and neighbor.

Have a very Blessed New Year!

It\’s Still Christmas!

While most people have already taken down their Christmas decorations and \”moved on\” to the next thing to occupy their time and minds, we are barely half-way through celebrating Christmas. We are only on Day 5 of the Octave of Christmas. That means that Christmas is such a Big feast that it takes 8 days to actually celebrate and embrace the Reality. Then, there will still be another week of the Christmas Season, which, this year, concludes on January 8 with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Advent was very short this year with only one day of the Fourth Week. The Sisters did not have much time to change from the Advent purples to the Christmas reds and greens, especially in our Chapel and our Refectory (dining room). So, simplicity was the key element to decorating, but the results were just as stunning.

We would like to share some photos of the ingenuity of our Sisters.

First, is our Chapel which is usually decorated from floor to ceiling with greenery, ornaments and lights, etc. This year there is a simple single strand of white lights on the tree. Of course, the beautiful poinsettias make anything look elegant and lavish.

The Sanctuary is prepared for Benediction on Christmas night.
We use an elaborate monstrance for Exposition on special days such as Holy Days.

Our Chapel will look like this until January 8.

Second, is our Refectory which the Sisters in the Novitiate decorate. They had a clever idea this year to use simple bows to dress-up the walls. Instead of the multiple piece large Manger Scene, they displayed a simple, but tastefully, made banner.

Merry Christmas

In our Monastery, we like to keep the Season of Advent as much as possible. We begin to decorate for Christmas only a few days before Christmas. This year was unusual because the Fourth Sunday of Advent was also Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is the threshold into the great Season of Christmas. We begin the day with an ancient monastic custom of Solemn Chapter after Morning Prayer. The Christmas Proclamation from the Roman martyrology* is sung by one of the nuns and a sermon given by another nun on the Mystery of the Incarnation.

*In olden days, this was a reading of all the saints to be celebrated the following day.

A Traditional Translation of the Christmas Proclamation

On the twenty-fifth day of December;

In the year five-thousand one-hundred and ninety-nine from the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;

In the year two-thousand nine-hundred and fifty-seven from the flood;

In the year two-thousand and fifty-one from the birth of Abraham;

In the year one-thousand five-hundred and ten from the going forth of the people of Israel out of Egypt under Moses;

In the year one-thousand and thirty-two from the anointing of David as king;

In the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;

In the one-hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;

In the year seven-hundred and fifty-two from the foundation of the city of Rome;

In the forty-second year of the reign of the Emperor Octavian Augustus;

In the sixth age of the world,

while the whole earth was at peace—

JESUS CHRIST eternal God and the Son of the eternal Father,

willing to consecrate the world by His gracious coming,

having been conceived of the Holy Ghost,

and the nine months of His conception being now accomplished,

was born in Bethlehem of Judah of the Virgin Mary, made man.

The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the flesh.

Our Sister-Preacher this morning gave a beautiful talk in poetic form which we would like to share with you. To read it,just go to the next picture and it is below it.

Also, on Christmas Eve after Vespers, our Chaplain usually comes inside the enclosure and blesses the Nativity Scenes in our Community Room and Refectory.

One dark night,

Fired with love’s urgent longings

Ah, the sheer grace!

I went out unseen,

My house being now all stilled

A canopy of stars puncturing the black sea of space

The eyes of the animals transfixed

Transfixed on the newborn baby in their midst

Did they think of Noah perhaps?

The Noah who spared their species when the dark seas of earth

Raged over the landscape with unrelenting fury?

Obliterating the stain of somber memory?

A new heavens and a new earth.

In silence he comes forth

Unseen

Shrouded

Obscure

Poor

“Behold I make all things new”

On that glad night

In secret, for no one saw me.

Nor did I look at anything

With no other light or guide

Than the one that burned in my heart

A frigid chill with its high-pitched scream

forces its way in between the timeworn slats of their dilapidated shed.

Yet, a light shines in the darkness

And the darkness does not overcome it.

Here burns the true light of the world

Like the dove

Creating in the hushed silence of primordial earth

Here burns the light of the world

The quiet voice raised above the din to meet Elijah’s waiting ear

“I am the Alpha and the Omega

The beginning and the end”

“How long have I loved you beauty ever ancient ever new

How long I have loved you.”

The slow counting of eons gone by

All consumed with a single purpose

Each expectation whose signs may be read in constellations and stars,

In giant expanse or a grain of sand.

In the time deemed right by Thine omnipotent hand

The time has come

Has come to save.

“Who is man that You take notice of him

Or the son of a man that You make account of him?”

The Word made flesh

Clothed in the creature He had made

Reaching out with love’s silent longing

To grasp the rag enfolding Him

With hands no bigger than a pebble on the shore of the sea

He comes:

Vulnerable

Lowly

and Fragile

“But now, O Lord, You are our Father;

We are the clay, and You are our potter;

And we all are the works of Your hand. (Isaiah 64:7)”

Upon my flowering breast

Which I kept wholly for Him alone

There he lay sleeping

And I caressing Him

There is a breeze from the fanning cedars.

The crunch of dried hay beneath footsteps

A cloud, like smoke, escapes the lips that are cold and dry

Bursting and shredding it explodes upon the scene

Smothering the voice of the cricket in the night

The eyes of the shepherds

Stabbed with light

Behold an angel praising glory

Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to men of good will.

After the angel

Stillness

Stillness except for one thing

The bleating of the innocent lambs

A sacrifice for a forgotten temple

While their true Master and Creator

Was flogged without mercy

In its wake

Amid their cries for freedom.

Humanity

No longer saved by the reddened door posts of old

Or the staff resting in Aaron’s hand

To pay the ransom we had incurred

The ransom so many knew not when.

Such is our life

And such is our hope

Imperceptible

For now, in peaceful slumber,

Cruelty hides its wrath

For now, the creatures have their king

For now the Shepherds and angels adore

And

For now, a single kiss

That will soon give way to a crown of thorns

For now he is Lord

King of the Universe

He is our salvation and redemption

Our God

Of beginning and eternal end.

A hand pressed into an arm

Shivering from want

The mother picks up the child for the shepherds to see

I abandoned and forgot myself

Laying my face on my Beloved

All things ceased; I went out from myself

Leaving my cares

Forgotten among the lilies.

I came to bring fire upon the earth,

and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49)”