Sr. Veronica died peacefully last night.
Month: April 2009
Travels in Beech Grove, Ind.
This week I am in Beech Grove, Indiana at Our Lady of Grace Monastery and Retreat Center, attending the American Benedictine Formation Conference Symposium. There are Vocation and Formation SIsters from all across the country. Our theme “Telling the Stories, Embracing the Challenge’ is very fine. Continue Reading
The Spirituality – and Financial Workings – of Community
In Christianity’s earliest community, if someone received money from their work or selling something they owned, then the money went into the community collection to be used for the needs of the whole. Special care was given to the widowed and orphans because they had no means to get money. Likewise, the community cared for the elderly and sick. Each person had what they needed. We live similarly today. Continue Reading
New Growth, New Hope
The week after Easter brings out the best in Spring. I love these days when the morning has a chill and the days warm up slowly. Tips of green plants poke their heads up in my garden. Slow process this transition to Springtime. Continue Reading
Still thinking about Holy Week
Each year, on Holy Thursday, our Prioress and the priest share in the washing of the feet at our Holy Thursday service. First, they wash each other’s feet and then they wash the feet of others. This demonstrates the role of a Prioress in Benedictine life. Continue Reading
Triduum at the Monastery
Good Friday is the most depressing day of the Liturgical Year. I always consider Good Friday lasting until the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. At the Monastery we have Lauds on Friday and Saturday morning with readings from the Book of Lamentation and many of the suffering, cursing Psalms. This part of the Triduum is filled with the sadness of Christ’s passion and death as depicted in the Good Friday Scriptures. It is an experience that often leads me to meditate on those people who are really suffering in our world. Continue Reading
Practicing the Resurrection by Sr. Catherine Cleary, OSB
I was in a discussion this week when a woman said, “It is very hard to understand the resurrection. People have a hard time understanding death, let alone someone being raised from the dead.” And she is right. The resurrection is very difficult to understand. Continue Reading
Preparing for the Resurrection
As we embark on this Holy Week, we begin a dramatic journey with Jesus that moves from celebration as he arrives in Jerusalem to unspeakable tragedy as he dies on the cross. On the way, we experience the highly emotional scene in the Garden of Gethsemane, the arrest, the trial and, finally, the condemnation of Jesus. His closest friends betray and deny him. Continue Reading
Holy Saturday* by Sr. Catherine Cleary, OSB
Sing, my tongues, the song of triumph, tell the story far and wide. Fortunatus, 6th century
For most of us who are serious about our faith life, we love Holy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies and celebrate those feasts as the major days of our faith life. It is the Saturday Easter Vigil, with its long prayers and 12 scripture readings that “gets” to us. Given half a chance, we will find something in our pre-Easter planning that prevents us from going to church on Saturday night…It is simply TOO LONG! Continue Reading
Superheroes for the Word
For the last two years Sr. Janet’s first graders have come to the Monastery for a morning and it’s always fun. During the fIrst year, Jackie and I played the part of cows! Sr. Mary Jane played music while we sang and acted the part in the small barnyard look we had created in our community room. Continue Reading
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