New Blogger in the Family

We've got a new blogger in the house! Our Sister Mary Berchmans has begun a blog called, "Visitation Connections" for the purpose of facilitating a forum for dialogue among the six schools in the Visitation Network. If you have a moment to drop in and visit her blog, you can find it here.

If we may be so bold as to say so -- most people, after a long career in administration settle into hobbies such as knitting or crocheting -- and good hobbies they are! We think it is meritorious that Sister Mary Berchmans has included blogging as one of her new "hobbies" (but we're pretty sure we'll still see her doing bargello needlepoint!!)

Solemn Profession Approaching

In case our readers are wondering why our blogposts have been so few and far between, it might make sense if we mention that two of our more "tech-savvy" sisters have been in retreat since 20 November. Sister Maureen de Chantal and Sister Anne E are making their retreat in preparation for their solemn vows on 1 December. You can be sure that there will be pictures and posts to follow -- once they are both out of retreat. Stay tuned and, in the meantime, keep them in your prayers!

Archbishop Wuerl Visits Visitation!

On Monday 20 November, Archbishop Donal Wuerl celebrated Mass for our school community. He is pictured at left greeting Mother Philomena and Sister Jacqueline after the Mass.

In his homily and closing remarks, His Excellency spoke of the importance of the gift of faith. His homily was crafted as a response to a question posed by a student at another local high school: "What does the Church offer me?" Archbishop Wuerl spoke eloquently to the student body and teased about keeping his closing remarks brief, lest he upset the faculty by making students late to class.

In her opening remarks, school president Sister Mary Berchmans commented that Archbishop Wuerl stands in a long line of bishops who have counted Georgetown Visitation among the sheep of their flock -- beginning with our founder, Archbishop Leonard Neale, second bishop of Baltimore.

Georgetown Visitation is grateful for Archbishop Wuerl's visit and hope that it is the first of many such occasions.

A Talking Head

It looks like a talking head, but it's actually our very own Sister Anne E, who was interviewed back in June by the Washington Post's on-line department. One would hardly know that Sister is rather shy and - most especially - camera shy. In the event that Sister seems to jump from topic-to-topic, readers should be aware that the interview was actually a little over an hour and it was skillfully edited down to just over two minutes. All kidding aside about the talking head, Sister shares honest (and, at times, amusing) pieces of her story and her journey to follow the Lord. Click here to view this short video.

A Shower?

It is not exactly a "shower" as you might imagine a soon-to-be bride having, but it is more that we have experienced a great out"pouring" of generosity by our friends, benefactors and alumnae. On Tuesday evening, after supper, our faithful friends, Nan and Kathy, brought samples of material for various aspects of our new monastery.

When we moved out, in April, for this long-awaited renovation, many of us were sleeping on mid-nineteenth century civil war hospital beds. As quaint as it may seem, it should be mentioned that some of our bedding appeared to be as old as the beds. In order to prepare us for a fresh, new beginning when we move into the monastery, Nan and Kathy, brought samples of materials and colors for sisters who may need new bedding, towels, etc. We had almost as much fun passing around the samples as we did speculating about what "flamingo" colored towels might look like in a sedate baby-blue cell. We are most grateful to all those whose thoughtfulness and generosity are making our renovation possible. (Nan and Kathy are pictured with some of the sisters who are examining the samples. )

Sr. Stanislaus and her Patron(s)

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Stanislaus Kostka, patron saint of our faithful infirmarian, Sister Stanislaus -- affectionately called "Sr. Stannie." She is pictured here, (on Ash Wednesday, you might notice) moving a few items into our "temporary infirmary," which has served us well during our time of exile. At current, Sister is making her annual retreat but we will surely celebrate in her honor. Sister is the third "Stanislaus" in the history of our monastery -- spanning an almost-unbroken two centuries with a "Sister Stanislaus" in our community.

For years the feast of St. Stanislaus Kostka was a "recreation day" for the sisters in the novitiate (our newer members remind us continually about the renewing this tradition). When Sister made her solemn vows and left the novitiate, she was made an honorary member of the novitiate on 13 November, every year, when she would join them for their recreation day.

It is fitting that, as infirmarian, Sister's Feast Day falls on the commemoration of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, patron saint of hospital administrators. As infirmarian, Sister keeps all of us healthy. The infirmary is, beyond doubt, the neatest, cleanest and most well-organized office in the house. In fact, it is such a pleasant place to visit, it is a wonder we don't get sick more often!

For a biography of St. Stanislaus click here. For a biography of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, first citizen of the United States to be canonized, click here.

Pope St. Leo the Great

There are many compelling reasons to pray for the Church today -- both the local Church and the Church Universal. The media does not always portray the Church in a charitable light and differences among Catholics are emphasized and -- all too often -- exploited. As discouraging as this can be, it is helpful to remember that the Church has seen difficult times in her past. Today, we commemorate a saint under whose watch the Church saw many difficulties.

During his papacy, St. Leo the Great combated several five and six-syllable heresies as well as an invasion by the Huns. Perhaps one of the intentions closest to his heart was that of Church unity. As we honor his memory today, let us ask his intercession for a greater unity of hearts and minds in the Church.

For a (relatively) short -- but stellar -- homily on the Incarnation, click here.

"I will dwell only on that union which we ought to have with each other. This union has been earnestly preached and taught to us by Our Lord, equally in word and example. . . . To love God without loving the neighbor, who is created in His image and likeness is impossible!"
St. Francis de Sales

Irritation or Invitation?

So often we hear heaven referred to as the "heavenly banquet." In today's Gospel, Jesus is responding to a fellow guest who remarked about those who will dine in the Kingdom of God; he replies by telling the parable of the invited guests who make excuses as to why they cannot come to the dinner. Although it may be difficult for us to imagine ourselves making excuses, at the last minute, about why we are unable to attend a formal event we might consider the metaphor on its deeper level. If it is the Kingdom of God to which we are invited, how often do we make excuses?

We are invited to a foretaste of heaven, here on earth, when we live in accord with God's will -- in union with His heart. How often are we presented with opportunities to taste heaven and how often do we mistake them for something else? Perhaps we are assigned to work with someone who is very skilled at trying our patience. Do we see it as an irritation and try to get out of the assignment or do we see it as an invitation from the Lord to make his Kingdom present by the way in which we cheerfully overlook the shortcomings of our neighbor. Perhaps the only available seat in the lunchroom today is next to someone whom we do not like. Do we see that as an invitation to the heavenly banquet -- to be polite and cordial to one whom we would prefer to avoid or do we think of a reason why we need to have lunch in our office -- or at a later time?

The Kingdom of God is at hand -- at our hands -- we have only to respond generously and lovingly.

"Let us walk joyously among the difficulties of this passing life; let us embrace with open arms all the mortifications and afflictions that we will meet on our way, since we are sure that these pains will have an end when our mortal life ends."
St. Francis de Sales

Humility: True or False?

Today's Gospel is a gentle reminder to cultivate that very attractive -- yet very hidden -- virtue of humility. Jesus gives us the example of one who seats himself at a wedding, suggesting that he should seek of place of lesser honor so as to avoid the humiliation of being demoted, so to speak, were a higher ranking guest to arrive. This example, however, might seem a little foreign to us in a culture where our social structures often preclude such an embarrassing faux pas. Today, most weddings or other formal events have pre-arranged seating assignments. In view of this, we might have a hard time seeing this Gospel as little more than a lesson in politeness.

What Jesus is getting at, it seems, is the interior disposition of the person. We should not seek places of honor, yet we should accept them graciously if they are offered to us. If we were to sit at a lower place in order that we may be noticed when our seat is changed then, perhaps, we have lowered our seat without humbling our heart. If, however, we were to sit at a lower place, content to be there and accept graciously an offer to move higher -- if we receive such an offer -- we find our heart in quite a different place. It is not where we sit that matters so much as how our hearts are disposed. And that is known to God alone.

It should come as no surprise that St. Francis de Sales has a great deal to say about this most august of virtues. This is a mere snippet:

"We pretend to hide ourselves, so that the world may seek us out. We feign to wish ourselves to be considered the last in the company and to sit down at the lowest end of the table, but it is with a view that we may be invited to pass more easily to the upper end. True humility does not make a show of itself or use many humble words; for she desires not only to conceal all other virtues, but most of all to conceal itself."

St. Francis de Sales

Solemnity of All Saints

Why on earth are we sporting a picture of the Pantheon on the Solemnity of All Saints? We could make our readers guess and hold a little contest in the comment box to see which of our readers knows the history of today's Solemnity...but it's not fair to make our readers guess. The Pantheon was built by the Emperor Hadrian as a temple for "all gods" -- hence the name, borrowed from the Greek. About three centuries after the Church began commemorating "all martyrs" Pope St. Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon as a Christian Church under the patronage of the Mother of God and the Holy Martyrs. Over the course of the next two centuries (and thanks to a couple of Popes named "Gregory") a Chapel in St. Peter's Basilica was dedicated to "all saints" and the Solemnity was formally extended to the whole Church on 1 November. A happy Solemnity to all our readers!

"A sad saint is a sorry saint!"
St. Francis de Sales

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today's Gospel, the words of the crowd to the blind man are striking -- arresting, even: "Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you." The blind man had been calling out to Jesus to have pity on him and had been rebuked by the crowd; and now that Jesus asked for the blind man to be brought to him, the crowd speaks a word of encouragement. The crowd speaks to us, too.

So often we call upon the Lord, begging for his mercy, asking for the grace to do his will. How often, however, do we stand poised with courage awaiting his response? Most of us, when we pray, have some idea of how we would like the Lord to respond to our plea. We want to desire God's will for us but, sometimes, deep down inside -- if we are really honest -- we hope that what we desire is already a part of God's plan for us. Desiring our will and God's will to be one in the same is a good and noble prayer -- so long as we are open to the Lord's will as it unfolds -- even when it is different from our own designs. This, indeed, is where courage is important. Jesus invites us to tell him our needs; do we have the courage to approach him?

Like the blind man, let us approach the Lord with unreserved courage. Let us call out to him. And when he draws us near -- when we draw near to him in prayer -- and he asks us what we want him to do for us, let us be honest and courageous in how we approach him. Perhaps it is a worthy prayer that we, like the blind man, may be blessed with the Lord's graces on account of our faith. And, like the blind man, let us follow the Lord who has done wonderful things for us.

"It is not sufficient to accept God's will generally.
We must accept it in every detail and circumstance."
St. Francis de Sales

Pure Gift

This is not an error. You have reached the Monastery blog of the Visitation Sisters of Georgetown. If you think that this "new face" looks too good to be our own work, you are absolutely right. This is the inspiration and the handiwork of our "guardian angel" Rick Lugari. Rick did the lion's share of the work on the templates for our new webpage and now he's blessed us with a "matching gift" for our blog. Rick is the author of the award-winning blog, De Civitate Dei and a founding member of the prodigiously growing blog, Amateur Catholic. We are as grateful as we are excited about our "matching look." Benefactors come in many different forms, sometimes they even come as angels!

**If you are a regular reader and you've got us listed among your favorites, do add us again and overwrite the listing. The nifty "V" that appears next to our name is a further reminder of Rick's creativity and thoughtfulness. **

Coming Soon to a College Near You!

On Thursday our Sister Anne Francis and Sister Anne Elizabeth will be heading to Wheeling, West Virginia for a short stay with our Sisters at Mount de Chantal while they attend the annual vocations fair at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Contrary to the very convincing illustration, they will not be taking the Visitation school bus, they will not be traveling with two stick figures (and Sister Anne Francis probably won't look so carefree if Sister Anne E does most of the driving.) True to the illustration, however, you will see their smiling faces at our table on Friday, 27 October. So, if any of our faithful readers are local to Steubenville, do stop by to meet us -- at least two of us -- in person.

Don't Mess with the Holy Spirit

Today's Gospel issues a stern warning about blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It is a curious point that a similar offence against the Son of Man can be forgiven when we acknowledge the inherent unity of the Trinity. We can offer no concise explanation delineating the doctrine of the Trinity. We can, however, share one of the more beautiful images which inspired a phrase in our Creed.

Lumen de lumine: light from light, true God from true God, one in being with the Father. . .

It seems, that this very familiar phase in our Nicene Creed came from an early attempt to explain the Trinity by Qunitus Septimus Florens Tertullianus -- known to most of us as "Tertullian." Although his later years as a theologian led him away from the fledgling flock of the early Church into the dangers of Montanism, many of his earlier works are an excellent source of spiritual reading. In an attempt to describe the three distinct persons of the Trinity, Tertullian suggested that the Father is like the sun, the source of Light; the Son can be likened to the rays, and the Holy Spirit is the visible effect of the sun and its rays, though itself not visible: a shadow, perhaps. Light from Light. True God from true God.

An insight such as Tertullian's analogy is surely the fruit of prayer. May we, too, ponder the mystery of the Trinity, a mystery ever ancient, ever new.

"By the Holy Spirit, He has come to us and has come beforehand to us, has come into us and has assisted us, has come with us and led us on, this finishing what He had begun."
St. Francis de Sales

Meet Sister Mary Roberta!

On Monday afternoon our Sister Earlene made her first religious profession and received the name Sister Mary Roberta.

The blue veil, constitutions and pectoral cross are placed on the altar at the beginning of Mass.

"Sister Earlene" stands with Mother Philomena prior to the entrance procession.

Mother Philomena and Sister Mary de Sales replace the white veil with the blue veil.

Both Sister Mary Roberta and our "brother" David sport their new crosses!

Many thanks to all whose kindness and generosity made Monday's celebration such a joyous one!

Feast of Our Holy Sister

Today is the feast of our Holy Sister, Saint Margaret Mary. Though only a "commemoration" on the Roman calendar, we have the privilege of celebrating the day as a Feast. For a short biography, click here; for a longer biographical article, click here.

In addition to the joy of the Feast, we are also celebrating the first religious profession of our Sister Earlene. Sister "comes out" of retreat today and returns to the fold before her profession, which will take place during Mass. For locals, the Mass for Sister's profession will be held in our Chapel of the Sacred Heart at 4.30pm. Stay tuned for profession pictures.

But above all preserve peace of heart. This is more valuable than any treasure. In order to preserve it there is nothing more useful than renouncing your own will and substituting for it the will of the divine heart. In this way his will can carry out for us whatever contributes to his glory, and we will be happy to be his subjects and to trust entirely in him.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Unclean Spirits (part II)

Jesus' words, in today's Gospel, about how an unclean spirit will return to a person from whom it was expelled are rather alarming. An honest look at our spiritual lives, however, will reveal the truth of this prediction. How often have we worked at practicing a much-needed virtue or avoiding some particular temptation and not had any indication that we were making any progress. . . only to wake up one day and realize that what once challenged us is no longer a great struggle. We can't pinpoint exactly when this "unclean spirit" was expelled, but we are just aware that a burden has been lifted. As consoling as this may be, it can also be a temptation for us to think that we are above or beyond the temptation that once plagued us. And this is precisely when the unclean spirit, returning with its seven companions, can catch us off guard. True to Jesus' words, the returning spirits will find our hearts "swept clean" and, if we are not vigilant, they can gain a foothold. Let us ask the Lord for the grace to guard our hearts from all temptations -- those we have exiled and those with which we still battle.

For the first post about unclean spirits, click here.

"There is a very great difference between getting rid of a vice and acquiring its contrary virtue. It often happens that our passions slumber and become torpid, and if, while they are in this state, we do not lay in a supply of strength to enable us to fight and resist them when they wake up again, we shall be worsened in the battle."
St. Francis de Sales

Shameless Promotion

At risk of boring our locals with yet one more plug for this Saturday's retreat day, we thought we could do a little shameless promoting. Fr. Stephen Spahn, SJ, local vocation promoter for the Maryland province of the Society of Jesus, and our own Sister Anne E. have teamed up -- not for a rap concert, as it might appear -- but for a day-long retreat for young men and women who are discerning the Lord's call in their lives. The retreat day will be held from 9am-4pm at the McKenna Center at Holy Trinity Parish, concluding with Mass in our Chapel of the Sacred Heart, here at the Monastery. Interested readers may email to register: aefiore(at)gmail(dot)com. Or, click here to register by email.

Profession Approaching!

On Saturday night, our Sister Earlene entered retreat for her first profession of vows which will be on the Feast of our Holy Sister, St. Margaret Mary (16 October). We've tried to "predict" what Sister will look like after her retreat -- the wings and the halo may be a slightly different shade of celestial gold, but we thought this was a pretty good estimation. She'll recieve the navy blue veil as well as our pectoral cross (which is really silver -- the turquoise shading was a slip of the mouse!) In addition, Sister Earlene will recieve her religious name. Suggestions for her name have been fluttering around the house but only the Holy Spirit (and the superior) know for sure what Sister's new name will be. All kidding aside, we ask our faithful readers to pray with us for our Sister during this very special time of preparation.

"If we desire to know whether God wishes us to enter Religious life or not, we must not wait until He speaks to our senses or until He sends an Angel from heaven to signify His will to us . . . we must correspond to the first impulse and cultivate it."
St. Francis de Sales

Blessed and Baseball?

Today is the commemoration of Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. At great risk of scandalizing our readers with this light-hearted speculation, we would like to point out that there has been some question as to whether there is any relationship between the Blessed Marie Rose and the baseball player who shares her last name. Perhaps the timing of post-season baseball division playoffs has something to do with this speculation, but a family resemblance has been suggested between Blessed Marie Rose and Leo Durocher. See below:

Leo Durocher is reputed to have quipped the following: "Baseball is like Church. Many attend, few understand." Since it was Durocher (Leo, that is) who is credited with coining the phrase, "Nice guys finish last," we can take heart in knowing that in the kingdom of heaven the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Perhaps we can safely presume that means that heaven will be filled with "nice guys!" Saint Francis de Sales would agree that being a "nice guy" -- a gentleman -- is an important part of cultivating virtue.

"Sometimes we are too busy trying to be angels that we forget to be good men and women."
St. Francis de Sales