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O Little Town of Bethlehem

On January 3, the optional memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus, we gathered to bless our new statue of Jesus. The ceremony began at 4:20 pm when we informally gathered by the garage.

Our chaplain read a number of prayers of blessing and sprinkled the statue with holy water.

To conclude the ceremony we sang 3 verses \”O Little Town of Bethlehem\”. It was not considered a public event, but we did invite our generous benefactors who helped make this special occasion possible.
 

May all those who look upon or pray before this statue of the Child Jesus be blessed in a very special way.

"Baby Jesus is Here!"

On the eve of Christmas Eve – December 23 – a message was passed among the nuns, \”Baby Jesus is here!\”  A statue of the Toddler Jesus, that is. But first let\’s give some background.

Religious communities periodically have what is called a \”Visitation\”. We have one every 3 years. A visitation is a time for the community to examine itself on its strengths and weaknesses in order to continue growing and improving. It is usually presided over by a Dominican priest appointed by the Master General. Each Sister, from the youngest to eldest, has the opportunity to speak privately with the visitator. A recommendation from a visitation over 20 years ago was to compose a \”mission statement\”, which we did. Our statement referred to the Monastery of the Infant Jesus as a \”spiritual Bethlehem\”. Time went by, then we had our last visitation 2 years ago, and a different visitator recommended that we have a statue or shrine to the Infant Jesus, our patron, in the outside area.

When we were founded in 1945 we did have a lovely statue in the front yard; but when we moved into our new buildings in the late 1960\’s the statue ended up in our infirmary yard. We did not want to put this one outside for fear of vandalism, but more importantly because of its historical and spiritual meaning to the Sisters. So, we decided to get a new one; that was easier said than done. But after much help from a dear friend, we now have a beautiful new statue that arrived and was put on a pedestal in December 23.  

Christmas Eve

Every year on the morning of Christmas Eve about 6:30 we gather in the Chapter Hall, (a large room for solemn monastic occasions) . There is a special reflection, usually given by one of the younger Sisters. This year it was given by our Novice, Sister Mary Therese. It was very good and you can read it below the next photo.

Also, each year on Christmas Eve after Vespers (Evening Prayer), our chaplain comes in and blesses the Nativity Scenes in the Community Room and Refectory (dining room).

Solemn Chapter 2016
     This year, the Dominican Order celebrates the 800th anniversary of its founding. St. Dominic founded an Order 800 years ago dedicated to preaching the truth of the Gospel. Specifically, he wanted to preach the Gospel to the Cathars–heretics who believed in a dualistic reality in which matter and spirit were opposed to each other, with matter being evil and only spirit being good. Our Order was initially established to combat a heresy that the miracle of Christmas challenges.
     What is so special about Christmas? Why is Christianity the only religion that celebrates the birth of its founder, a birth that happened decades before Christs really \”did\” anything, things that identified Him as a religious leader such as preaching and performing miracles? Of course, the conception and birth of Christ is itself a miracle. The Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit and bore Jesus Christ, God made man.
     But the fact that God became a man at all is an even greater miracle. We Christians, 2000 years later, are accustomed to the idea of God becoming man. It is hard for us to understand how truly shocking this event was. Why did God come to earth as a baby? What would have happened if He had come to earth as a grown, powerful man, as one would expect a God to do it He came to earth at all? And why DID He come to earth as a man at all? Could He have saved us just as a divine, spiritual being? What\’s so important about our physical nature that God wanted to redeem that, too?
     God is spirit, with no physical nature, and thus it is tempting for us to dismiss the physical as \”lesser,\” particularly as it is easier to see the flaws, brokenness, and messiness of the physical world. The spiritual world is exalted, esteemed, even mysterious, which makes it seem better and more important than the physical. But God created the physical world, and God created all things good. God Himself values the physical, natural world; He created it and wants it to exist and be saved.
     With the celebration of Christmas, we are reminded of the goodness of the world. God chose to come to earth as a human to redeem our humanity. He wanted to redeem not just our souls but our bodies as well. And He did that by living as a normal, physical human being, which includes coming into the world as a baby, just like everybody else does. From the day of His conception to the day of his crucifixion, Jesus endured all the suffering and messiness of a physical body in our fallen world. He chose to come to earth through a physical mother, instead of descending from on high in a glorified body. He lived nine months in Mary\’s womb and then was born, coming t\\into the physical world the same way every other human being does. He then experienced childhood and all of the growing pains and scraped knees that every other child has. As an adult, He endured hunger and thirst and extreme discomfort during His mission of preaching and healing. And during His passion, He suffered unimaginable physical and emotional pain. And in experiencing a fully physical human life, Jesus redeemed humanity in both our bodies and our souls.
     Christmas is a celebration of the goodness of the physical world, because we celebrate God\’s great decision to incarnate as a physical human being in order to redeem the physical world. God created the natural world, and He created all things good. The natural world is now fallen, yes, but it is still fundamentally good and worthy of redemption. God created us as both body and soul; we are embodied souls. The \”real me\” includes both spiritual and physical natures, and we are not truly human without both. Even in the next life, we are promised a resurrection of our bodies, so that our physical and human natures will be forever united in the Kingdom of God.
     The miracle of Christmas proves that God loves us completely, both body and soul. He loves us more than we love ourselves. It is we humans who are tempted to reject the physical, in all its ugliness and pain. But God loves our entire humanity. He wants our spirit, but He also wants our body. At Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation, in which God embraces our human nature with complete love and acceptance, in all our frailness and woundedness. Christmas is a celebration not just of Jesus becoming human, but of all  of us being created in His great family of humanity, a family He joined to bring together as one body to redeem.

Emmanuel, Come!

(tune: O come, O come Emmanuel)

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

With each succeeding day, the O of our invocation, and the Veni of our supplication has grown more confident, more intense and, in a sense, more urgent.

Emmanuel. Is there a name sweeter or more tender? God-with-us. “Nothing in our difficulties, our misunderstandings, our sorrows, even in our agony, will find us alone. We will always have Someone with us, Someone present in our very heart to give the strength and light necessary in those moments.” (1964, Mother Marie des Douleurs Wrotnowska) Therefore, we never again need to be afraid or worry.

Be Emmanuel for us always. Never leave us, always with us.
Amen.

Come, O King of the Nations!

(tune: O come, O come Emmanuel)


O come, desire of nations, bind,
In one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid thou our sad divisions cease,
And be thyself our Prince of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

One translation of this antiphon says, Christ is the “cornerstone that binds two into one”. It also says, “Come, and bring wholeness to man.” In other words, Jesus as King of the universe, is the only One Who can truly bring peace among peoples and to each individual heart. We have been fashioned from the dust. So now, today, we ask to be refashioned, reshaped, reformed by Christ, the Word through whom all things were made. 

In His Church, Christ originally united Jew and Gentile, and now and until the end of time, every nationality and race can become one in His Mystical Body. Every time a human being seeks the splendor of the truth, the radiance of beauty, the purity of goodness, he seeks the Face of Christ, the “Desired of all nations.”

Come, Christ, make me over, change me,
reshape all that is misshapen in me.
Amen.




O Radiant Dawn!

(tune: O come, O come, Emmanuel)
O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death\’s dark shadows put  to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel!

“Light from Light, true God from true God.” We recite these words every Sunday in the Creed. God is light. Light was the first thing He created according to Genesis 1. Most (though not all) creatures need light to live. Light is compared to truth; living in the light is also living in the truth.

Christ is the Light of the world, the “dawn from on high.” From earliest times, Christians have turned towards the East to pray. Christ is the Dayspring, the rising sun who dawns upon us from on high “to give light to those in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:9). The eastward orientation of churches and altars is a way of expressing the great cry of every Eucharist: “Let us lift up our hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.”


Let us live with our gaze fixed on God
within the communion of saints.
Amen.

O Key of David!

(tune: O come, O come, Emmanuel)
O come, Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

The Lord offers to lead us out of the darkness of our narrow minds, if we will but desire it. We don’t have to make long speeches to God. One word is enough, “Yes.” The mystery of the Annunciation, which is the Gospel for today is essentially, that one word, “Yes,” fiat. As Dante would tell us, the Love that moves the sun and stars waits for our response of a loving, trusting “Yes.”
On the shoulder of Christ was placed the key of the Cross, the key that opens what no mortal can open, and that closes what no mortal can close. In the image of a great key placed on His shoulder, we recognize the figure of the Cross placed on the shoulder of Christ, the key by which heaven is opened and hell vanquished. The way of peace is the way opened before us by the Cross-bearing Christ. Christ, with the key of the Cross, opens the door before us.

Lord, we give you the key to our hearts.
Unite our hearts to Your Sacred Heart.
Amen.