Contemplative Nuns Celebrate Solemnity

Our Mother of Perpetual Help

For our Order and for the Redemptorist Congregation today is celebrated as a solemnity in honor of Mary, the mother of Jesus our Redeemer, under the  title of Perpetual Help. We have already participated in Mass concelebrated by two Redemptorist priests. Father Thomas Travers requested that our prioress, Sister Moira Quinn, offer a reflection on the significance this title of Mary, our mother, has for us as Redemptoristine Nuns. Here are her words, words which inspired us to trust in these difficult times, not only for ourselves but for many who entrusted their petitions to us during this annual novena.

We Place Our Hands Within Hers

        St.  Alphonsus and Ven. Mother Maria Celeste Crostarosa both had great devotion to our Lady and placed all their cares and concerns within the hands of our Lady though neither mention the icon of our Mother of Perpetual Help.

        Alphonsus wrote the classic book on Mariology, ‘The Glories of Mary;’ and had his Redemptorists defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception years before it became dogma.  He always had a painting of the Madonna of Our Lady of Good Counsel on his desk.  Alphonsus even painted depictions of Mary himself such as his La Divina Pastora, the Divine Shepherdess: a woman dressed in humble attire, not as a distant queen of heaven, with the child Jesus on her lap reaching to play with the sheep. The painting represents Alphonsus' Marian theology: "Jesus and Mary are not distant supernatural figures but ever close to the poor, in their midst, and involved in the struggles of their lives." 

       Alphonsus may have known of the icon of Perpetual Help because it hung, at the time, in St Matthew’s in Rome between the basilicas of St Mary Major and St John Lateran.  Twelve years after St Alphonsus’ death it went into hiding and was lost for some sixty years until it was reinstated in the church that had been rebuilt after Napoleon’s army destroyed St Matthew’s and named it in honor of a new saint, Alphonsus, where his brother Redemptorists functioned then and continue to do so today.

       In 1865 Pope Pius IX commissioned the Redemptorists to use the miraculous image of Perpetual Help to ‘Make Her Known’ throughout the world.  They have done so with weekly prayers and novenas held across the earth in her honor.

       I doubt Ven. Mother Maria Celeste ever saw or even heard of Our Mother of Perpetual Help but she also had a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin.  She writes in her ‘Exercise of love for every day:’ 

       “O my Lady and Mother, well can you say that all generations in heaven and on earth will call you blessed.  You are our only Hope, all nations will call you blessed; the angels and all the heavenly spirits look on you as their Queen, since you are the Mother of the great King; the just have recourse to you as to a Rock of strength and the Teacher of Virtues, safe Guide in this vale of tears, Gate of salvation; under your patronage sinners hurry to you to obtain pardon and protection… and all generations recognize you as Mediatrix and instrument of our Redemption.”   Florilegium 10.

       Both Alphonsus and Celeste turned to Mary in their times of need, as we turn to Mary in ours. We have as our model, Jesus, who ran into his mother’s arms for help and comfort. We see in the icon of Mother of Perpetual Help Jesus looking over his shoulder at the vision of his crucifixion while holding on to his Mother’s strong, steady hands.   Mary’s gaze invites us to take hold of her hands in our times of distress and to be of hope.

        Our community has been standing at the foot of the cross with Mary these last few months as we planned a move, canceled the move, sought temporary accommodations here at Mother Cabrini’s, actually moved and settled in only to have Sr. Lydia break her leg and Sr. Mary Anne come down with shingles.
 

        All the while I picture us, and all those who have mailed us their intentions which are in the bowl under the icon standing in a circle holding on to Mary’s hands and one another.  Her calm, sympathetic, steady gaze assures us of God’s tender care.

        I really am not attracted to the icon style as art.  In Perpetual Help Mary looks stern to me. But once, when I was young in religious life and looking at our large icon I thought I saw her smile.  How reassuring, encouraging to be aware of her presence to me personally.  But what really draw me are her hands:  they are at the center of the icon and large enough for us all to place our hands in hers. 

         So today, aware that we can turn to our Mother of Perpetual Help in any need we thank her for her past favors and continue with confidence and hope to place all our cares in her strong hands to bring whatever lies heavy on our hearts to her Son, our Most Holy Redeemer. 

Amen.                                                                 Sr. Moira Quinn, OSsR

Finding a New Home

"Home"
by Matthew Pleva
pencil 3-1/2' x 5"

"HOME!" What a loaded word that is! It is the place where we grew up; the place we raised a family; the place in which we feel safe and loved and comfortable. It conjures images, sensations, aromas and memories. The memories will run from the sublime to the unspeakable - always so powerful by virtue of that loaded word, "home".

This community of contemplative nuns has called the Monastery of Our Mother of Perpetual Help on the grounds of Mount St. Alphonsus their home since 1957. Talk about a place loaded with memories! As the Mount changes hands at the close of this year we continue to walk the path away from this beloved place toward a new home. It has been a varied path to many places and many disappointments. But now we think we have found a place in which we can establish our contemplative monastic household of God, provide comfort and safety for our sisters, provide space to continue our business making ceremonial capes for the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre and allow us to be a praying presence in the local Church. It may surprise you to learn that it is an urban location. But that is where we have been led by God.

At this moment we are exploring how we might obtain this building and carry out a few adaptations for our older sisters. You can well imagine that money plays a part here.

Since networking is so important we have just created a Facebook Page for our monastery. the link is:

www.Facebook.com/RedNunsEsopus

Do consider signing up to "follow" our page to keep on top of breaking news from here.

Our old website: http://www.redemptoristinenunsofnewyork.org/

is still up and running. But we are developing a new one which will have the address http://www.rednuns.org/

In the meantime we depend on your prayers for the success of our new adventure. We hope to be able to move by the end of April. We have community elections in January and two of our sisters will attend the General Assembly of our Order in May. Much lies ahead of us.

Live Tonight

Podcast for Vocation Discerners

The Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe are doing wonderful work for the cause of religious vocations. They have mounted an interactive website, http://www.anunslife.org/, on the Internet. Beginning very gradually over two years ago, they have become more and more technologically sophisticated and are continuously reaching out to experienced folks and experts who can assist those discerning a religious vocation and the vocation directors in congregations and orders who wish to work with them. Here is a safe and informed place where those interested can have any question answered.

Tonight I will be a third voice in one of their weekly podcasts. Along with Sister Julie and Sister Maxine, I will help to field questions as they come in live, by e-mail or those that have come in during the week.

Here's a link: http://anunslife.org/2011/02/04/as059-ask-sister/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+aNunsLife+%28A+Nun%27s+Life%29

Just click on "Listen Now" and follow the prompts. Be sure to turn on your speakers.

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

"Panis Angelicus"

        Bread of Heaven

Cannot help but continue to refer to this feast as Corpus Christi, the body of Christ. However, the Church guides us to call it the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ because it is a more correct describer of the Eucharist, the gift of his very self - body and blood in the form of bread and wine - given by Jesus to this disciples and to us at his last supper.

My very frist apprehension of this mystery took place at a pre-Vatican II Holy Thursday Mass during the procession taking the Eucharist from the main altar of the church to the Altar of Repose. There it remained for the whole day surrounded by a wall of candles, banks of lilies and golden light, available for reverent adoration by the faithful who would come into the church throughout the day. I was only seven or eight years old. Yet God spoke of His mysterious presence and His love for me in a most intimate way that day. What gift!

With the years I have learned and taken into my heart the essential incorporation of People of God, the assembled congregation actively participating in and necessary in the Eucharist prayers, in the consecration of common bread and wine so that it becomes in the hands of the priest the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. So vital is this corporate aspect that priests are no longer encouraged to say 'private' masses. Jesus' inauguration of the Eucharist was not a private affair but rather a communal event. "Do this in memory of me," means the blessing, the memorial, the sharing, and all of it in community. We take part in the transformation. We also can be said to offer ourselves as gifts to be transformed into the "Body and Blood of Christ." The Redemptoristine charism is expressed as dedication to becoming the "Viva Memoria", the "Living Memory" of Jesus Christ.

A few years ago I had a beautiful dream in which I was assisting at the altar as server during a Mass in our monastery. As the priest placed a host into my hand it miraculously multiplied so that I could not contain the overflow of hosts in my two hands. This event seemed a symbol of the utterly gratuitous love of God and the generosity of Jesus in this gift to us.

May the Eucharist and it abiding presence with us in every tabernacle be the force that will unify us as Catholics and, in turn, unify all who hold sacred the name of Jesus Christ.

The Lord is Truly Risen, Alleluia

The spendor of Christ

risen from the dead

has shone on his people

redeemed by his blood,

alleluia.

Antiphon 1, Morning Prayer of Easter, Liturgy of the Hours

How beautiful is this feast! Last night at the Easter Vigil Mass we  again were blessed by the new fire and and the baptismal water. May that fire of faith remain in our hearts and the cleansing water of baptism continually wash us, making our rough ways smooth. May we truly be the Easter People we are called to be!

The post below links to a brief slide show of photos representing the Easter Vigil experience here at our monastery. We were blessed with the presence of many friends, Marist Brothers, and four Redemptorist priests.

While the theme of this day is one of great rejoicing in the triumph of Jesus Christ over sin and death, I was reminded this morning that the victory of Christ was a process, the process we call the Paschal Mystery. That process is all of his life. It ended at the moment we call Resurrection. However, that glorious moment was preceeded by the ignominy of his trial, crucifixion and suffering death. I was reminded of this by reading the Good Friday Homily given by Brother Andrew Colqhoun of Holy Cross Monastery in nearby West Park. We have a long-standing friendship with this Anglican community. Brother Andrew's brief but deeply insightful homily reminds that it is the suffering servant Christ we are called to emulate. In our humanity we resist the call. But the dual mysteries of the Incarnation and the Resurrection will provide both power and will to follow the call. Today we rejoice along with Mary Magdalen, to find ourselves in the garden of delight, knowing that the Lord is truly risen. Alleluia!