Ever New

This could be an advertisement for the "old technology" meeting the new.

At the conclusion of Saturday's Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, some of our sisters took the opportunity to sign the vow book. (It needn't be done immediately after Mass but some prefer to sign the book earlier in the day than others -- just so long as each sister has a chance to sign the book before the day is over.) Our venerable Sister Raphael, at 99 years young wheeled herself over to the book and, leaning on the lectionary for balance, signed the ancient vow book. A pen and a 197 year-old book -- it would seem -- qualify for "old technology."

Enter the new technology. As some of us watched Sister Raphael sign her vows we mused about how nice it would be if we had a camera to capture the moment. One of our Oblate seminarians who had joined us at Mass to renew his own vows was quick thinking and reached for his iPhone. Thanks to our very own Michael Castrilli, OSFS we have these lovely photos of Sister Raphael to share. In addition to our photo-snapping seminarian we were joined by three other Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. It was a delightful "family reunion" for a splendid Feast day.

"This is the way, my dear Sister. Grace will never be wanting to us if we are faithful in seconding its attractions; thus will God bless us and our labors."
St. Jane de Chantal

For Those Who Pray

... that's a literal translation of "Pro Orantibus" which is what the Vatican celebrates on Saturday 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary. Since 1955, the Church has dedicated the Feast of Our Lady's presentation as a day to pray for those whose contemplative vocations give them the great privilege of being available to pray for others.

Here in our monastery of the Visitation of Georgetown, we are blessed with the best of both worlds. We are steeped in a 400 year monastic tradition (okay: 399 years, 5 months, and 14 days to be exact) and our particular monastery was founded in 1799 for the dual apostolate of prayer and education. So, while we observe a monastic horarium and monastic customs, the "work" we do each day is done -- for the most part -- both in the monastery and in the school. It is a unique blend of contemplative life and the apostolate of education.

This beautiful feast is especially meaningful for us for two reasons:

First, since it is "pro orantibus" day, we are very mindful of the number of people who call, email, write letters, send faxes, etc., with special intentions. And we are grateful for the Church's prayerful support of this precious responsibility of praying for those in need.

Second, 21 November is a very special day for us since it is the day upon which all Visitation sisters around the world renew their vows. Each sister will rewrite and resign her vows (the short formula) in her monastery's vow book. Our vow book dates from 1812 and has the vows of every sister who has even been professed in our house -- or who has ever been visiting on this feast (we have a special page in the vow book for guests, visiting sisters who happen to be with us on this day.)

As is the custom of our Order, all Visitation monasteries observe a mini-retreat for the three days prior to the renewal of vows. Do pray with us as we prepare to reecho our "Yes" to the Lord on Saturday morning!

Our Friendly Neighbors

We were delighted to welcome members of Georgetown University's Catholic Daughters for a day of reflection on Saturday. After a morning of praying and listening to a spiritual conference ... and before their afternoon spiritual walk-n-talk, the group assembled some foam turkeys in the spirit of Thanksgiving: both the up-coming holiday and in a spirit of gratitude for the many blessings we receive in our daily lives.

How many Georgetown students does it take to assemble a foam turkey? Many, it seems. Turkey-making isn't as easy as it looks!

This is a pretty turkey in progress; her other eye is just about to be attached. She's wearing her finest collar for the day of reflection!

This poor turkey lost an eye during assembly. His owner wanted to emphasize that, despite his loss, he is still a "thankful turkey." A subtle reminder to all of us not to forget to count our blessings -- even during challenging times.

Advent Approaching

It's hard to believe that Advent is just around the corner. Today's first reading whets our appetite for the first of the Great O Antiphons which we will sing on 17 December:

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: Veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

----

O Wisdom, you who come forth from the mouth of the Most High, and reaching from end to end, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence.

We are reminded that the Lord, to whom the title of "WISDOM" is applied, is the great choreographer of creation. And the image of him ordering all things "sweetly and mightily" is a poignant -- and delicate combination -- of attributes. The created world around us is not the only place where the Lord's order can be seen. The circumstances which surround us -- the "soup in which we find ourselves," to use an expression from St. Francis de Sales -- are also part of Wisdom's work. It can be easy to acquiesce to the Lord's ordering of circumstances when they are pleasing to us; it can be a challenge, however, to accept them when they interrupt our own order and our own plans. Let us, this day, pray for the grace to accept the circumstances that the Lord orders, trusting that his might and his sweetness will assist us. Let us entrust our day -- and our lives -- to his divine Wisdom.

"There is nothing so gentle as true strength and nothing so strong as true gentleness."
St. Francis de Sales

Award!

WOW! Our friend, NC Sue at "In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being" was thoughtful enough to consider us as a "Gorgeous Blogger" in her post of 30 October. We are, admittedly, a bit late in our acceptance and conferral of our own six "Gorgeous Blogger" titles.

As part of the award, we will be telling you six things about ourselves which are little known and then recommending six other blogs for this honor.

In no particular order, here are six random facts about our monastery:

1. The oak beams which support both wings of the monastery are all hand-cut and are held together with hand-fashioned nails (you don't find those at Home Depot!)
   
2. Sunday, in season and out of season, is ice-cream for dessert at dinner. Heaven help the dispenser who runs out of ice-cream!
3. The community is evenly (and hopefully charitably) divided along "GOLD TEAM" and "WHITE TEAM" lines. This Saturday is the fall Gold-White contest ... Sister Mary Blogger doesn't want to be biased, but she's got a tiger print-tie to take to the game with her!
4. In our monastery cemetery, one will find the graves of the Foisy sisters; they were blood sisters who joined our community and received the religious names, "Sister Mary Ambrose" and "Sister Mary Augustine." They happen to be cousins of Blessed Andre Bessette.
   
5. Prior to our renovation in 2006-2007 most of us slept on beds which were donated to us from hospitals after the Civil War ended.
6. Our vow book, in which every professed sister writes her vows, dates to 1816 and has the name of every sister who has ever professed her vows (or renewed her vows) in our house!

Here are six Gorgeous Blogs worth visiting:

1. Our monastic buddies up in the Garden State, the Dominican Sisters of Summit!
2. The fabulous flower garden at Little Flowers by our local friend, Elizabeth.
3. Our "repeat-offender" whose made her annual retreat with us several times has a beautiful blog about life as a consecrated virgin.
4. It's hard to resist the wonderful reflections of Sister Genevieve Glen, OSB who has penned many of the hymns found in the "Magnificat" for which she serves as editor of the daily offices.
5. We enjoy the adventures and reflections of Sister Veronica at Franciscan Footprints.
6. Lastly, the "Gorgeous" blog is no longer continued but has ended for a "Gorgeous" reason ... and the nifty title was too good for this grammarphile to resist. Do have a peek at Quantitative Metathesis.

Thanks to our friend, Sue, for the award. We look forward to reading six things about some of our fellow bloggers.

The Sophomores Cometh!

Yesterday marked the first of several visits we'll be having with members of our sophomore class. In a series of seven gatherings of 15-20 students, our campus ministry staff is introducing the second-year students to different ways of praying with scripture. They receive some background information on the Liturgy of the Hours, attend daytime prayer, eat dinner ("lunch" to them) with us and then, after lunch, they learn about Lectio Divina. Pictured above, the sophomores and sisters gather for a brief introduction before grace.

"Simplicity towards God consists in seeking Him only in all our actions, whether we are going to the Office or to the refectory . . . let us go everywhere to seek God and to obey God."
St. Jane de Chantal

Happy 99th Birthday

No, that's not a Halloween costume, it's a bit of a photographic embellishment to mark our dear Sister Raphael's 99th birthday today! Sister offers (almost) a century's worth of wisdom marked by her characteristic wit and humor. Among sister's witty remarks is the "gold standard of citrus." When a sister offers our local nonagenerian a piece of orange or grapefruit at a meal other than breakfast, her reply -- with a smile -- is: "Gold in the morning, silver at noon and lead at night. No thank you, dear."

As a librarian for many years, Sister Raphael has a great love for books. In addition, she is insatiably interested in maps. Perhaps, somewhere in her past, a great-ancestor was a cartographer! Please join us in thanking God for sister's good humor and good health. We hope to be adding a third digit this time next year!

Steubenville Video -- Finally!

It's taken us quite a while to collect our happy memories from this year's vocation fair at FUS. Part of the reason we are almost a month late in sharing a window into our trip is that we've graduated to a new video editing program. Thanks to our school's IT department, we are using Sony Vegas to edit our videos. Although the possibilities for transitions and fades and other such features are wonderful, the "learning curve" is a steep one, so we're a bit slow in the "Shoestring" department these days. Do enjoy a short road trip with us!

Even More Shameless Promotion

Pardon the shameless promotion:

Tonight we will be showing the movie "Therese" at 7.15pm and serving pizza to locals who wish to join us for movie night. The movie will be shown in the school's "Little Odeon" on the third floor of Founders' Hall. From 7pm to 7am we will be having all-night Adoration. Movie-goers are welcome to stay and pray after the show!

Solemn Profession

This video needs little introduction but the appearance needs a bit of an explanation: this is our first attempt at using HD video ... so embedding the window at the correct HD size did not -- apparently -- go as smoothly as planned. Fortunately, Friday's event did and we're pleased to share a few minutes of it with our readers! Sister Mary Roberta made her solemn profession on the Feast of St. Margaret Mary and here we have a 3 minute recap of the highlights. Thanks to our school's IT department for use of the software which made it possible to edit in HD. Revisit with us this momentous event!

"I choose Jesus, my Lord and my God,
for the only object of my love . . ."

from the Profession formula for the Order of the Visitation

Climate Change is the Answer, NOT the Problem!

This is our third year of participating in "BAD" -- blog action day. To quote the organizers of this year's BAD, "Anyone is free to join in on Blog Action Day and there is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions." With that liberty in place, we'd like to put a Salesian spin on the discussion.

It is true that our lifestyles as individuals and as nations can affect the environment in a positive or negative way. Our impact on the environment as it relates to climate change, however, is only a symptom of a larger problem. The larger problem is our diminishing respect for the dignity of human life and a lack of recognition for the Lord's splendor in the created world around us. What's the solution to this problem? Climate change. Not a "global warming" kind of climate change, but a change in the CULTURAL CLIMATE.

Climate change will be a wonderful thing when it means that we respect the dignity of the unborn child; when we revere and honor the wisdom of the senior citizens among us; when our interactions with one another are marked by mutual respect and kindness. When we do not respect human life as a gift from God, it is not a surprise that we fail to treat the environment with gentleness and respect. Changing how we treat the environment will only happen when we change how we treat one another. The God of the universe, who created us out of love, longs for the day when we treat one another with a respect worthy of the kingdom of God. When we treat each other with gentleness and love we cannot help but to treat the world around us with respect for we will see God's handiwork in every flower, every raindrop and every creeping, crawling critter around us.

"Thus it is that good thoughts and holy aspirations may be drawn from all that surrounds us in our ordinary life. Woe to them that turn aside the creature from the Creator, and thrice blessed are they who turn all creation to their Creator’s Glory."
St. Francis de Sales

"Blessed is the soul who seeks God everywhere. For she will find Him everywhere and everywhere she will seek what she has found!"
St. Jane de Chantal

Profession Approaching!

The countdown has begun! This Friday at 11am, during the Feastday Mass for St. Margaret Mary our Sister Mary Roberta will be making her solemn profession. Locals can still RSVP to the monastery by phone or email. A lunch reception in the Heritage Room will follow the Mass. Do join us if you are able to and do pray for sister as she continues her retreat. Stay tuned for pictures from this great event!

Post-Meatball Post

We never did figure out who it was who suggested that the meatballs at the "Monastic Meatball Supper" were the size of bowling balls ... but Sister Anne E had a quick retort at the suggestion. We'll spare our readers the gory details of the "how big meatballs should be" discussion.

Our second "Monastic Meatball Supper" was a big hit with over 40 guests in attendance and well over 90 meatballs consumed -- not that anyone was counting! Above, the "picture yourself with us" display was a popular attraction both before and after the meal. Males and females alike enjoyed being a Visitation Sister for a moment while their friends took pictures of the sight.

Among the diverse group we were privileged to have students from Georgetown, George Washington, American University as well as a number of recent grads who are working in the area ... and a bunch of nuns, too! :)

This year's program included an historical sketch by our Sister Mary Archivist and it concluded with a tour of our crypt and a few historical anecdotes about the 41 nuns, 2 priests and archbishop who are buried there. Thanks to all who attended and made the evening a most enjoyable one!

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
1 Cor 10:31

Book Recommendation

In this year when we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the publication of St. Francis de Sales' book "The Introduction to the Devout Life" we share a book suggestion which could be considered -- very affectionately -- the "low calorie" version of our Holy Founder's great work.

The Rev'd Bernard Bangley, a Protestant minister who discovered St. Francis de Sales over 30 years ago, has taken St. Francis de Sales' classic work and written what he calls a "paraphrase." If you have not already read the IDL, Bangley's work is a wonderful place to begin. Some of the images which St. Francis de Sales uses that are unique to his cultural era are explained in Bangley's introduction to the book. The language is new and fresh but the themes are clearly the work of de Sales' prolific pen.

Perhaps, dear readers, you have a friend who may not be ready for the IDL as it is written in its delightful 17th century parlance and the sterling 1950 Ryan translation ... but this "stepping stone" is a great gift for one just beginning the spiritual journey.

In the interest of full disclosure, the monastery neither sells these books nor profits from the sale of Rev. Bangley's work. We just think it's a great book. (If, however, you'd like to help us out, you can purchase a copy of our 400th anniversary book by clicking here for an order form-- shameless promotion at its best!)

All About Focus

In today's Gospel we hear Our Lord speak some very challenging words. Typically, as Catholics, we are not wont to read Sacred Scripture only at its literal level, allowing room for the Holy Spirit to move our hearts closer to what the inspired texts are intended to teach us. It is hard to hear our Lord say to the man who wanted to bury his father, "Let the dead bury the dead" and to suggest to the man who wanted to go home to say farewell to his family, that he is not fit for the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes we associate this Gospel passage -- and those who are represented in it -- with people who have made a dramatic change in their lives in order to follow Our Lord more closely. Those of us who have left our families to enter a religious community or, perhaps, those who have left behind a way of living which was incommensurate with the Gospel -- we might be among those who could be pictured in dialogue with Jesus in today's Gospel. This text, however, speaks to all of us who have chosen to follow Jesus. It is not about forsaking family and foregoing the corporal acts of mercy such as burying the dead. Rather, it is about our focus: do we do all things in Christ, with our eyes cast upon Him or do we do them for other motives.

When we leave our families in order to enter religious life -- in the case of our community -- we do go home and say good-bye and we even visit periodically after we have entered. This reading is about how we do the things we do. Whether we do corporal acts of mercy such as burying the dead or feeding the hungry we must examine our motives and keep our eyes on the Lord. "Setting our hand to the plow and looking back" is about looking away from Christ and losing focus. Let us pray for the grace to keep our hands on the plow and our eyes on the Lord.

Perhaps a quotation from our constitutions will shed light on how we strive to live this particular passage of the Gospel:

"If the sisters leave relatives sand friends and all that they have loved in the world, it is not in order to cease loving them but to prefer Jesus Christ, and in Him to love them with a stronger love."
Constitutions Chapter XII, no. 53

All-Night Adoration

Chapel of the Sacred Heart. 1.00am Saturday morning:

St. Francis de Sales on the Divine Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament:

"Love perceives the presence of the Beloved by the fact that he spreads his attractions throughout the heart and then gathers and carries the whole soul to its Beloved by means of a most agreeable inclination, a most sweet turning and bending of all its faculties towards the Beloved. He attracts them to himself by the gentle power whereby he ties and draws hearts as bodies are drawn by material cords and bands."

Shameless Promotion ... yet again!

Last year's meatball supper was such a success that we thought we'd have another one this year. Worry not, that's not spaghetti sauce on the advertisement; it was supposed to be "fireworks" but it does appear to look more like someone dipped the flier in the sauce pot!

All are welcome for Vespers, supper, and our short program. Last year's program included a pericope about how we "dance" in the monastery (metaphorically, not liturgically); it was so well received that we might have to have an encore ... or maybe we'll conclude with a tour of our crypt. Program details to be determined!

Locals who wish to attend may do so by emailing us by September 27th.

Safe Arrival

After homeroom yesterday morning, the Visi "vocationmobile" began its journey and arrived at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in time for the 4.45pm Mass on Thursday afternoon. After Mass, some sisters ventured down to the chapel of the Portiuncula. Just behind the small stone statue is an outdoor path through the Stations of the Cross. Sister Anne Francis and Sister Mary Roberta demonstrate their preparedness for this spiritual exercise by showing off their shoes. (Good thing we're not the "discalced" Vistandines!)

St. Francis de Sales did not say too much about wearing shoes, but he did have a very interesting metaphor about the feet of our souls (not the soles of our feet!):

"Your affections are the feet of your soul. If your affections are warm and tender, your judgment will not be harsh; if they are loving, your judgment will be the same."

Steubenville Bound!

It's that time of year again. This Thursday we'll be loading up the school van and heading to The Franciscan University of Steubenville. The above picture is not 100% accurate: we'll have some luggage with us (and the tires of the school van will be checked for proper pressure - and shape - before we leave!) and sisters don't usually look so happy and relaxed when Sister Anne E is driving ... but other than that, the image is close to reality.

If you are attending the fair, be sure to drop by and visit our table. Don't miss the opportunity to "picture yourself" with us.

New readers might be interested in our 2006 visit, our post and video from 2007 and our pre-post and video from 2008.

The Family is Growing

We welcome yet another sister to Facebook. This week Sister Mary Roberta joined FB under the pseudonym, "Hermana Roberta" since FB does not allow new members to use religious titles as part of their names. Imagine that!?!

We know that Sister -- er Hermana, that is -- will be a FAN of our monastery's page -- if she isn't already and she'll probably find herself collecting some new friends, too! Fans of the monastery page -- and friends of "Hermana Roberta" -- will enjoy Sister's gentle words and delightful sense of humor in their comment boxes.

Hermana Roberta joins Sister Anne E, known as Hermana Anna and a host of monastery friends and Visitation alumnae.

Stay tuned on the monastery's FB page for upcoming events this fall ... including a special event on the Feast of St. Margaret Mary!