It’s not every day that you see a cloistered Benedictine nun on a city street. But this week the community of St. Scholastica Priory had a leisurely educational “outing”, something that happens generally once a year. This year the sisters hit the road and found themselves in and around New Haven, Connecticut.

Where do nuns go, if not to church? Well, the next best thing is to go to another monastery, of course, and that’s just what these women did. The Benedictine Sisters of Jesus Crucified in Branford hosted the little flock of twelve for the afternoon, giving tours and sharing a sisterly meal. Then the Petersham bunch headed on to the Knights of Columbus museum in New Haven, where the sisters enjoyed the feature exhibit on World War I—and even sported some uniforms!

So if you ever see a group of black and white-habited sisters on the streets of your city with smiles on their faces and twinkles in their eyes, you never know—it just might be their next community outing!

Benedictine nuns live in an enclosure and take vows of stability which root them in a particular monastery, but there are times when even they have to travel! Doctor appointments, shopping for groceries, visiting sick family members or the occasional community outing can lead sisters to attend Mass at various places outside the monastery.

“The body is one, but has many members,” says St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. One of the marvelous aspects of travel is experiencing the universal church in its many members! Wherever we go, whatever church we step into or religious community we visit, we are always home wherever the body of Christ is. This means both the Eucharist or the people of God, of course!

Together we support one another, be it in prayer or in charitable service. How beautiful to know that we are truly knit together as one in Christ!

As Benedictine nuns, we live by the Latin phrase ora et labora, which is translated as “pray and work”. These two occupations are our daily bread. But what does that mean exactly?

On the temporal level, Benedictines follow a horarium (or schedule) of this interweaving work and prayer. We begin each day with the first hour of the Liturgy of the Hours, Matins, and continue to return to the church six more times throughout the morning, afternoon and evening. Between these defining hours of public prayer, we occupy ourselves with either private prayer, lectio divina or the common activities of life in a monastery.

In print, prayer and work seem distinctively divided. We do one, then the other. But in reality, the two are simultaneous throughout our religious lives, praying as we work and working interiorly as we pray. The humility of labor is constant, yet the joy of Christ’s abiding presence is our rest and relief!

 

Americans celebrated Independence Day this week, a day to sport our “stars and stripes” anywhere and everywhere. It is a day of gratitude for our founding fathers who established our country in the loving fear of God.

We also reflect on the faith of these founders, whose reliance on the Almighty was all-pervasive—both privately and publicly. Here, in a portion of the Declaration of Independence, we see as much a declaration of spiritual dependence as political independence! How beautiful a statement on which to build a nation!

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do … declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States…. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

If there’s anyone who knows what it’s like to be called by God, it’s Peter. And Paul! Their lives were turned upside down when Jesus first summoned them to follow him; they left everything and never looked back. On this upcoming feast of Saints Peter and Paul, we give thanks for the larger-than-life vocations of these two pillars of the universal church.

It can safely be said that without Peter or Paul, there would be no church, no Pauline or Petrine epistles, no apostolic tradition. How much was built on the frailty of mere men! And yet, these men knew full well that it is “not I, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20), and “by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor 15:10).

“My power is made perfect in weakness,” said Christ to St. Paul (2 Cor 12:9), and he says it to each of us as well! These first apostles accepted the call of God in spite of their shortcomings and sins, and the church has reaped the benefit for nearly two thousand years. Perhaps that will give us courage to accept our vocations as well, whatever they may be!

It’s not quite “officially” summer according to our calendars, but nobody experiencing the heat wave here in Massachusetts would object to calling it that. Even with all the beauties and joys of the season, sometimes it’s just plain hot. Sticky. Summer.

So what do you do when your brain’s a little muddled and your body feels like it’s in slow motion? Here at the monastery we keep a daily Benedictine routine, a rhythm of “ora et labora”, prayer and work. It’s the good habitual practices and support of our schedule that keep us moving, even when we may just feel like putting up our feet and eating a popsicle!

But more accurately, it’s God himself who helps us to persevere, whether it be in the heat of the day or the “noonday” of life. His fidelity to us is the source of our fidelity to him, as we try to respond to his incessant calls to keep going! For in the end, love and suffering are intertwined. And it always helps to remember that “this brief momentary affliction is preparing an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison” (2 Cor 4:17)!

It was a quiet evening at the monastery, and the sisters were drifting up to bed. Our “door-locking” sister was doing her nightly rounds when she caught a glimpse of something thrashing about in our backyard pond. Calling everyone over, she grabbed the binoculars only to find… not the Loch Ness monster, but a moose!

Four hours and an emergency rescue crew later, the moose was still there. They had tried everything: calling it, coaxing it with ropes and sticks, draining the water from the pond and placing a carpet on the edge to encourage its departure. Even with all their diligence and dedication, that burly creature just couldn’t, or wouldn’t, find its way out.

Finally, we all decided to thank the committed men for their service and head to bed. Perhaps the moose would, in the still of the night, make its own escape.

Then, in the early hours of the morning, we peered out with our sleepy eyes into the pond—now definitively moose-less! The only remains were a carpet, a half-drained reservoir, a few empty bags of popcorn and pictures, of course, to help tell the story for years to come.

 

How much do you know about the Sacred Heart of Jesus? Well, many of us are probably aware of the basics. It is a heart belonging to Christ, who is fully God and fully man. It is a heart which was pierced on the cross, and is the source of the Church and its sacraments, the source of salvation. So, what else is there?

St. Gertrude the Great, a German nun of Helfta in the 13th century, was blessed with revelations from our Lord about his Sacred Heart. A few of her writings remain today which continue to stir up much-needed devotion, including the more famous Herald of Divine Love. In it, she records the very words of Christ describing the qualities and desires of his heart, one of which follows below:

If thou hast a beautiful and melodious voice, and takest much pleasure in chanting, wilt thou not feel displeased if another person whose voice is harsh, wishes to sing in thy stead, and insists on doing so? Thus My Divine Heart, understanding human inconstancy, desires with incredible ardor to be continually invited, either by words or signs, to operate and accomplish in thee what thou art unable to accomplish thyself. Its omnipotence enables My Heart to act without trouble. Its impenetrable wisdom enables It to act in the most perfect manner. And Its joyous and loving charity makes It ardently desire to accomplish this end.

Most perfect Heart of Jesus, transform us!

Imagine: the Mother of God—and the unborn Son of God—appear at your door one spring day. Well, if you’re St. Elizabeth, that’s precisely what happened! What a beautiful response she gave, saying, “Who am I, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

This biblical scene begs the question: Do I respond with equal receptivity and humility when God “visits” me? Perhaps he visits when we’re reading the Bible, or when a friend asks for a favor; the timing may be convenient or inconvenient!

St. John Paul II in his message for the 41st World Day of Prayer for Vocations writes: “The vocation to serve Christ alone in his Church is an inestimable gift of the divine goodness, a gift to implore with insistence and trusting humility. The Christian must be always more open to this gift, careful not to waste ‘the time of grace’ and ‘the time of visitation’ (cf. Lk 19: 44).”

Let’s throw open our hearts, then, and receive the gift of God, responding whenever he calls. For even if it costs us our earthly life with all its comfort and convenience, his visitation is truly beyond price!