Tolle Lege

Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Augustine. Our Sister Jacqueline is a big fan of his and she shares here her love of this great doctor of the Church:

The influence of St. Augustine could be significant in our society today because he lived in a culture that is very similar to ours: there was much affluent, people were worldly, educated, and the pursuit for power was rampant. Every piece of this brilliant young man fit well into the lavish world of the Roman Empire into which he was born. And then the love of Jesus, though his mother's enormous and continual prayer, broke through to him and St. Augustine met the Lord. With all his erudition and his expansive personality, his circle of influence was huge. The number those who were affected by his conversion was proportionate to the great number of friends whose company he enjoyed.

The story of his falling in love with Jesus Christ -- his "Confessions" -- has been vital in the faith journey of many other seekers through the ages whose lives needed to be anchored in the love of Jesus Christ. When St. Augustine was converted, it was a stunning moment, he heard a voice in the garden: "Take and Read" ... and upon taking up the Scriptures, he was seized by writings of St. Paul.

Two quotations from his "Confessions" -- are but the tip of the iceberg!

"Look on me, Lord Jesus, and love me. Let me love you with my whole being as one set on fire by you."

"I sought a way, God, to gain the strength which I needed to enjoy you but I did not find it until I embraced the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is above all God, blessed forever. He was calling me and saying, 'I am the way of truth. I am the life.'"

When a choosing a rule for our Order, it is no accident that St. Francis de Sales chose the Rule of St. Augustine. He was touched by St. Augustine's deep love of Jesus Christ and he set that intimate personal love as the fabric of our way of life as Visitandines.

"Abide steadfastly in your determination to cling simply to God trusting in His eternal love for you."

St. Francis de Sales

"G" is for Gracious

In this month's spotlight on St. Francis de Sales, Mother Philomena shares warm memories about an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales whose life and work exemplified the virtues so esteemed by Our Holy Founder.

Father Joseph F. Power, OSFS, founded the DeSales Resource Center in 1980 and served as its director until his untimely death in 2002. In 1982 the Resource Center sponsored the first annual Salesian Conference; the annual conference, having just celebrated its 25th year, now bears his name. Father Power's gracious and humble presence was an open invitation for both the scholarly and the interested to ask for his help.

At the 1985 Salesian Conference in Allentown, PA, Father Power spoke about the teachings of St. Francis de Sales. We share here a few spiritual nuggets from Father's presentation:

"Follow your heart in prayer."

"Present and represent your poverty to God."

"Pray as you can, not as you can't."

"When you lack time, call on Him in your heart."

Queenship of Mary

Today, as we mark the Octave day of the Assumption, we commemorate Mary's coronation as Queen of Heaven. In doing so, we share a few thoughts from our late (and great) Pope John Paul II:

"In Mary shines forth God's sublime and surprising tenderness for the entire human race; in her, humanity regains its former beauty and the divine plan is revealed to be stronger than evil, capable of offering ever new possibilities of life and salvation. What great horizons are opened by this mystery! To the women of our time, who search -- sometimes intensely -- for their authentic dignity, she who is 'all beautiful' shows the great possibilities of the feminine genius when it is imbued with grace."

Stay tuned for updated pictures of the "Mary make-over." Coming soon!

The Journey of a Solemnity

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of our Holy Mother Saint Jane de Chantal. Poor St. Jane has had her feast transferred more times than one might imagine. She was originally celebrated on 21 August (her death date and the birthday of St. Francis de Sales). When Pope St. Pius X was canonized, she was moved to 12 December. Most of the rest of the Church outside of North America currently celebrates her feast in December. In dioceses of North America, when Our Lady of Guadalupe was elevated to a Feast, St. Jane de Chantal was suppressed. Our sisters in the United States petitioned the bishops to reinstate the feast. After a few different dates were discussed, 18 August was selected for its proximity to her death anniversary.

In addition to a Solemnity for our community, we mark the birthday of Mother Philomena and the Feastday of Sister Maureen de Chantal. The "feasting" began with pancakes for breakfast (thanks to the early birds who were rattling around in the kitchen before dawn) and will continue throughout the day.

"In all your good works you should unite yourself to the will of God's good pleasure, and in your faults and imperfections, you should unite yourself to His permissive will gently, quietly, and with peace of mind."
St. Jane de Chantal

Mary Make-over

The statue of Our Lady that resides in our refectory is receiving a custom make-over. Our sacristan, Sister Leonie Therese, sporting her green floral apron, and our postulant, Catherine, wearing a more demure ensemble, are shown applying a second coat of white paint. Rumor has it that there will be some new finishing touches applied to her crown. Stay tuned for more pictures!

"Honor, venerate and respect with special love the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, who being the Mother of Jesus Christ our Brother, is also in truth our very mother."

St. Francis de Sales

Terrorist in the Family

No, this is not about Father Cloriviere -- who really was a terrorist -- who is buried in our crypt (we'll have to write about him sometime!) This is about our very own, sweet and innocent Sister Jacqueline. (We do not use the "labels" provided by this new version of blogger ... but if we did, this post would be in the "life-in-the-monastery-is-never-boring" category.)

It all began as a normal day. Last Thursday, Sister Jacqueline and four other sisters went to the airport to travel to Minneapolis-St. Paul for our annual Salesian conference. When she attempted to check her luggage at curb-side checking, she was informed that she was under surveillance. Inside the terminal the woman at the check-in desk printed a letter from Homeland Security informing her that she was on a "list" and that she would have to be cleared when she returned from her trip. Needless to say, she was in a state of mild shock. Sister, however, was very happy to see security measures in place (especially as a resident of Washington DC) and, although alarmed, she was not irritated by this inconvenience.

Amazingly, when she arrived in Minnesota, she learned that her very own nephew (with whom she shares her last name) had the same experience when he last traveled. Could it be that the Burke family history has a spotted past? Perhaps. William Burke of 19th century England was noted for procuring cadavers for medical students -- hence the word "burke" (in the dictionary) means to "smother someone" (the means by which this distinguished Burke created his cadavers!)

Sister Jacqueline is known for giving bone-crushing hugs but we are happy to report that we have not had any casualties at home!

Pilgrimage!

We didn't wear shells around our necks, but we might have wished we had fans around them, as the temperature hit a mid-day high of 104F. Despite yesterday's oppressive weather, our Archivist, Sister Mada-anne led a small group on her "Southern Maryland Tour" of our monastery's roots in the United States.

We began with a visit to the Carmelites at Port Tobacco. Charles Neale, brother of Leonard Neale, brought them to the Maryland in 1790. The first few months of their foundation, they spent at Neale family estate, Chandler's Hope, just a short distance from their current location in Port Tobacco. We are pictured below with some of their community in their library. Click here to learn more about this delightful community.

Our next stop was St. Ignatius Church, where we attended 12noon Mass and enjoyed our picnic lunch in the (air conditioned) dining room of their manor house. Click here to learn more about St. Thomas Manor. Manor houses were built when it was illegal for Catholic Churches to be open to the public in the state of Maryland. The "house" was private but it permitted one to gain entrance into the Church or Chapel attached to it.

Below is a view of the cemetery at St. Thomas Manor. Among the early Catholic families buried there including members of the Neale family, the Digges family, and the Matthews family, one will find a large memorial to the Jesuits who came over on the Ark and the Dove in 1641.

Our last stop -- for prayer, quiet and a history lesson -- was St. Francis Xavier Church in nearby Newtown. Below, Catherine exits the Church as we begin our journey home.

Small and Modest

Small and modest -- that's the tomato. A very humble "first fruit" of our garden. (To be accurate, the lettuce and cucumbers have been arriving for weeks, but they're fresh tomatoes which delight both the cook and the rest of the community!) At risk of abusing the patience of our readers, we share a couple more garden shots:

"Tiger Tom" is an heirloom variety. This plant was "born" in our second floor storage room (since the former room for seed-starting is now an electrical closet!) This was Tom's baby picture from our previous "Garden Babies" post.

It wouldn't be fair to say that the "Tom" is the only modest one in the picture. Mother Philomena, former biology teacher, examines Tom's unique stripes.

Support natural family planting: grow open pollinated varieties!

Hidden Treasure

Today's Gospel about the merchant in search of fine pearls and the man who finds the hidden treasure point our souls toward the Kingdom of God. They remind us of the inestimable riches awaiting those who heed carefully the Gospel message.

A short excerpt from the Exhortations of St. Jane de Chantal calls our minds and hearts to a similar posture of responding to the Lord:

"To have chosen Jesus for the only object of your love,

is to have promised that your hearts shall have no other affections

than to please Him, to love and serve Him,

and that all your desires shall be for Jesus,

all your solicitudes for Jesus,

all your thoughts for Jesus,

in a word, all your soul and all your facilities for Jesus alone,

Whom, of your pure, unrestrained and free will,

you have chosen for the only Spouse of your hearts,

and the sole object of your love."

For those who have changed their lives after encountering the Lord, He, indeed, is the pearl of great price.

Feline Feature!

There have been two "purrfectly" amazing stories about cats in the media recently. If you have not already seen them, do follow the links; they are wonderful stories.

1. A man accidentally locked his cat in a room with two ducklings and when he realized this, he opened the door to find that his cat had adopted the ducklings. Click here for the story.


2. Oscar the cat has been more accurate than doctors and nurses in "sensing" when patients in "his" hospice care unit are about to die. Click here for the story.

F is for Father

This month's spotlight on St. Francis de Sales features our Sister Jacqueline who writes about three important men in her life ... and the "man in the middle" is St. Francis de Sales.

Sister's introduction to St. Francis de Sales came through her father, the late John Burke, Sr. who is the "first man" she credits with nourishing her spiritual life. Her father began attending daily Mass at the Visitation Monastery in St. Paul, Minnesota following the untimely death of her four-year-old brother James. Mr. Burke's attendance at daily Mass both inspired his daughter and led others -- mostly neighbors -- to follow his example. Several people returned to the Church and the sacraments thanks to Mr. Burke's witness. Little did he realize it, but his seat in the Monastery chapel found him right under a window of St. Francis de Sales. Just as St. Francis de Sales watched over Mr. Burke so the Sisters of the Visitation watched over his four daughters who were their students.

Our dear Sister Jacqueline began school at the Visitation at age five. Sister describes her life prior to the convent as one teeming with social events, parties and boys. From her bedroom window she could see the bell tower of the monastery and she reports that the tower was a meaningful -- if not "nagging" -- presence during those years. In the summer after her junior year after a visiting to a missionary community, Sister suspected that the Lord was calling her to what was in her front yard. So, she promptly went to the convent to meet with the superior Mother Jane Margaret Cullinan and confided her vocation to her. Mother told her to come back in a year and she enjoyed a carefree last year of high school: dances, parties and boyfriends galore. (Not altogether unlike her namesake, Sister Jacqueline Favre, one of St. Jane de Chantal's two companions in the foundation of our order.)

St. Francis de Sales, whom she came to know more intimately after entering the monastery was the first saint she "met" who really spoke to her. The miracle and grace of that relationship, Sister adds, is that he continues to be the saint of her life. He is the "man in the middle" as he was introduced to her by her Father and his devotion to daily Mass at the Monastery. The "third man" who has been an important companion for Sister joined the journey during her last years of novitiate: St. Augustine. She was first introduced to him in a reading of his Confessions and he has been a welcome companion ever since.

We share here one of Sister's favorite quotation from each of these three men.

"To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement."

St. Augustine

----
"Abide steadfastly in your determination to cling simply to God trusting in his eternal love for you."

St. Francis de Sales
----
"Stick with him (Jesus), kid and you'll wear diamonds."

John Burke, Sr.

Those of us who are privileged to live with Sister Jacqueline all know how closely she clings to the Lord and we're sure that her father is right ... the Lord will have a crown of diamonds awaiting her and their luster will be out of this world!

On the Virtue of Gentleness

In Thursday's Gospel we heard Jesus invite us to imitate him who is "meek and humble of heart." And in today's Gospel we hear the words of prophet Isaiah describe the promised Messiah as one who will carry out his mission in gentleness: "He will not contend or cry out, / nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. / A bruised reed he will not break, / a smoldering wick he will not quench . . ."

It is quite possible to be generous and self-sacrificing without being kind and gentle. St. Francis de Sales had a great deal to say about even-tempered gentleness and the importance of practicing all virtues in a spirit of gentleness and kindness. In a letter to one of our early Mothers, he wrote the following, which serves as a "gentle reminder" to all of us!

"Almost everyone finds some virtues easy to practice and others harder, and everyone extols the virtue which they find easy and tried to exaggerate the difficulty of the others. . . . An even temper, gentleness and sweetness are more rare than perfect chastity but no less desirable for that. I command these virtues to you, my very dear daughter, because the flame of good example depends on them as on oil in lamp; nothing edifies others more than a loving good temper."

Garden Party

The last few rainstorms we've had brought about a growth spurt for many of our flowering (and fruiting friends) in the garden -- to say nothing of the weeds! Sister Mada-anne visits the vegetable patch snips a few herbs in the process.

Sister checks out the growth of the watermelon -- called "termelon" for short. Click here to see its baby picture.

Some of the tomato plants are growing so vigorously that they needed extra support. (If there are a few 'stop signs' around campus missing their poles, they can be found in the garden!)

Last but not least, Sister snips some lavender and anise for a window arrangement in the Archive Office.

Homespun Humor

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Henry, an 11th Century king (duke, then emperor) of Bavaria. While we do not have a particular devotion to St. Henry, his wife happens to be a household name in our monastery. ??!!

St. Henry was married to St. Cunegunda. There are several different accounts associated with the name "St. Cunegunda" -- sometimes spelled with a "K" and sometimes with a double "n." The wife of St. Henry is also sometimes confused with St. Kinga, the patroness of Poland whose name, in English is sometimes represented as "Cunegunda." For some reason, however, the name "Cunegunda" is used in our community when we anticipate a sister's first vows and the giving of her religious name. Although we do not have any "Sister Mary Cunegundas" in our cemetery, we often tease the soon-to-be-professed that "Sister Mary Cunegunda" would make a nice name -- second only, perhaps to Sister Mary Quodvultdeus.

Little is known about the saintly wife of "Good King Henry" but sources indicate that both she and her husband were devout and prayerful people who showed generosity to the poor -- a worthy reason to be remembered (and to be a household name!)

Daily Diversions

In our community we have a rule of thumb regarding unplanned and unassigned works - for lack of a better explanation: "An act of charity is anything that takes less than 5 minutes." Note: the "five minute" time frame varies between three minutes and fifteen minutes, depending upon who is asked! If we are asked to do something that would take longer than "an act of charity" or which might preclude one of our daily responsibilities, it is appropriate for us to get permission. This rule of thumb is not to limit our generosity in responding to the needs of our sisters, but to protect, in a sense, the time needed for the chores or works assigned to each of us.

In today's Gospel, Jesus is "interrupted" by a man whose daughter has just died. Jesus responds promtly and immediately follows the official to his home -- while pausing along the way to encourage the woman who was healed by the touch of his cloak (a drive-by miracle?). In the exchange between Jesus and the official we see an example of Jesus' willingess to be interrupted and to respond to the needs of those around him.

Perhaps for us a big challenge is not only responding to the needs of those around us -- and especially the unforeseen requests that may come our way -- but responding in a way that does not betray our inconvenience. Sometimes we genuinely want to help someone who asks us but other times, perhaps, we want to help someone only becuase we know it is the right thing to do. In the case of the latter we can be tempted to communicate our frustration at being interrupted. If this pitfall seems familiar, we might take heart and listen to the timeless advice of St. Francis de Sales in his conference on obedience which he gave to our early sisters. His words speak not only to the one who is asked to do an act of charity but to the one who has asked:

"Supposing, however, that a sister should ask us to do something, and that we, being taken by surprise, should show some repugnance to doing it, the sister must not take umbrage, nor even seem to notice it; neither must she beg us not to do what she had asked, for it is not in our power to prevent our color, our eyes, our behavior, from betraying the struggle going on within us, even while our reason consents to do the thing; for these are messengers who come unsummoned, and who, even when we bid them to depart, seldom do anything of the sort. Why, then, should this sister be unwilling to let me do what she had asked, simply because I show some repugnance to doing it? She ought to be glad that I should gain this profit for my soul."

One Year Later

"Come, let us worship the Lord, all things live for him."

Invitatory from the Office of the Dead

Today we commemorate the fist anniversary of death of our dear Sister Anne Marie. When a sister dies, we celebrate the Office of the Dead in her honor -- usually the day after she has died. We again celebrate the Office of the Dead for a sister on the first anniversary of her death. In addition to marking the death of a sister, a pope or our local archbishop, the Office of the Dead is sung on All Souls' Day, 2 November, every year.

Every year after her first anniversary, sister will be remembered as part of our necrology. We commemorate the deaths of the sisters who have lived and died in our community at Morning Prayer (or sometimes Evening Prayer).

Our local readers will all be familiar with these remarks, but for the benefit of others, we share here a few of Sister Anne Marie's ten famous words of wisdom. They are featured on the poster which helped her to raise money when the Chapel needed to be restored after the fire of 1993:

"Never tell your age, or they'll put you on a shelf; besides, a woman who will tell her age can't keep a secret."

"Moderation in all things . . . including moderation."

"Never volunteer dearie, you'll get the job for life."

(Actually, Sister Anne Marie would qualify this even further, telling our sisters in formation that an act of charity done three times becomes an obligation!)

"The answer is no. Now, what's the question, Sister?"

Comic Relief

This is not a joke. This really happened.

This past weekend, two of our sisters took our postulants to rural West Virginia for a weekend in our retreat cabin. They report having had good weather and having seen lots of beautiful wildlife including a deer family who came very close to the cabin to graze providing quite a show for the group during supper (this was cleverly named "dinner theater" by one of the postulants). In addition, there were a number of birds who snacked on dill pickle flavored sunflower seeds and chirped songs of gratitude after eating.

Despite their accounts of these lovely sightings, upon returning they had only the following two pictures to share. The first one is of the back of a truck that was (apparently) four cars in front of them on I-70 during their trip home. (Click on the picture if you can't read the name on the truck.) This picture raises a question which is perhaps best left unanswered: who was driving the car? ... or, who was steering the car while the driver was taking pictures?

This second picture was taken in the closest pocket of civilization to the retreat cabin: a metropolis called Great Cacapon: population 1,379 according to the 2000 census. The United Methodist Church that posted the sign in the second picture is about 35 minutes closer to our retreat cabin than the nearest Catholic Church. We are relived to learn, however, that our sisters stopped only long enough to take a picture of the sign!

Garden Babies

For several weeks now, we've been enjoying fresh lettuce and string beans -- and the squirrels have been nice enough to limit their taste-testing to a finite number of plants so that we, too, may enjoy the harvest. Just this week, three of our fruiting plants put forth their "first fruits" ... and at risk of boring our readers with plant photos, we have some baby pictures to share. (Click on an image to enlarge it.)

This is a baby watermelon. The markings on its skin are delicate and exquisite!

This is a baby cucumber, a distant cousin of the watermelon.

This is a baby tomato, most likely a "Tiger Tom" variety. When mature, it will be slightly smaller than a tennis ball, quite round for a homegrown heirloom tomato and it will have yellow stripes on its reddish orange skin. Almost too attractive to eat!

"E" is for Everlasting

"E" is for everlasting, like the down-to-earth wisdom that one finds in the "Spiritual Conferences of St. Francis de Sales." As part of our monthly spotlight on St. Francis de Sales, we feature Sister Mary de Sales and her favorite work by her namesake: the "Spiritual Conferences."

The "Spiritual Conferences of St. Francis de Sales" (commonly referred to in Salesian circles as "The Conferences") are, perhaps, one of the least well-known works of the patron saint of journalism. The 21 conferences were talks that St. Francis de Sales gave to the early sisters of the Visitation; they were not composed for publication. In fact, the conferences were all delivered orally and recorded by our early sisters. Many parts of the conferences seem to be in response to questions which the sisters asked; other parts appear to be spiritual talks which were delivered on a special occasion. The sources for the conferences are from two of our early sisters, Sister Claude-Agnes Joly de la Roche and Sister Marie-Marguerite Michel who, despite little time for leisure, recorded the conferences as faithfully as their memories allowed. Each sister had a different style of writing, the former had a knack for preserving the theological points and organizational structure of a conference and the latter, a preference for anecdotes and practical examples.

Pictured above, Sister Mary de Sales poses with a well-used copy of the conferences. Sister loves the practical day-to-day examples that illustrate the gentle spirit which which St. Francis de Sales encouraged us to live. With good reason, they are her favorite works by Our Holy Founder.

"You must not, then, be astonished or discouraged when you commit some fault or imperfection before your sisters . . . . You may have been guilty of some fault of silliness, it is true; but it was before your sisters, who love you dearly, who can very well bear with you in your faults, and who will feel more compassion for you than indignation against you."

St. Francis de Sales

Conference IV (On Cordiality)

Belated Fathers' Day

Today's Gospel has the Lord teaching us the "Our Father".... and we're seizing the opportunity to post a belated Fathers' Day tribute. One of our faculty members shared this video with us and we thought it was too good not to share with our readers. There are many videos about this amazing father-son team; this one is from the NBC "Today's Heroes" series. It is a remarkable story about a father's devotion to his son. It is a little over five minutes (but it may require more than five tissues!)