Redemptoristine Contemplative Nuns Rejoice in the Coming of Our Redeemer

Creche in the public gathering space of Mother of Perpetual Help Monastery

May every blessing of the

Great Feast be yours.

Tonight began the feast with First Vespers of Christmas at 6pm. At 8pm we began celebration of the Mass at Midnight. How kind the Church is to allow us this flexibility. About thirty guests joined us. We began with the Vigil Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours and then began the Mass with the Martyrology intoned by our prioress, Sr. Paula Schmidt. Father Thomas Travers, CSsR presided at the mass and offered a wonderful homily. He spoke of this feast, the celebration of God's breaking directly into the human experience in a harsh world, as one filled with invitation and opportunity for transformation. He read a poem, Rhythms of Awakening, by Christopher Frey.

“The human heart can go to the lengths of God.
Dark and cold we may be, but this

Is no winter now.

The frozen misery

Of centuries breaks, cracks begins to move;

The thunder is the thunder of the floes,

The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
“Thank God our time is now when wrong

Comes up to face us everywhere,

Never to leave us ‘till we take

The longest stride of soul we ever took.
“Affairs are now soul size

The enterprise
Is exploration into God.

“Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity’s sake?”

To read the entire homily and more here is the link to Father Travers' blog:

http://journals.aol.com/tjtrower/Reflections