BL. CELESTE AND NATURE

 

This year begins the 330 anniversary of Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa’s birth.   Born on October 31, 1696, on All Hallows Eve. She as baptized on All Saints Day, and given the name Julia. 

From an early age Julia delighted in God’s creation.   Seeing Mount Vesuvius towering over the city and port of her home in Naples must have inspired awe in the young girl.  At a tender age Julia heard the voice of her Beloved in her heart.  But, “He is like a hart which leaps rapidly over mountains...” 1st Dialogue   And so, “her soul began to run after Him to seek the face of her Beloved.” 

Reflecting years later on her younger self, Celeste recalls her warm young love which in mature years became almost volcanic as she cries out in her poetry, “Come, Come because You love me so!   Come, Come because I love You so!”

In Scala above the Amalfi Coast, where she becomes a nun, Celeste declares, “In the sun, I see your splendors. In the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth and the sea, in the variety of plants, of grasses, of trees and of fruits, in the animals, the birds and the fish, in the air and all the elements, it is You I see, I love, You in whom I take great pleasure. It is You whom I possess in a complete joy. 9th Dialogue

When Celeste experiences of trials, the Lord warns, “It will be like an ocean washing over you. You will be slandered, abandoned by her dearest friends...” But, in union with Jesus, the Suffering Servant, she is, “...a drop of water that falls into this vast ocean of perfect and infinite Good and is transformed” to be like her Redeemer.

Celeste taught her community, “Those who are pure of heart know the Father because they gaze fixedly with affection and love on the eternal Sun of Justice; as an eagle gazes on the sun.”  She also instructed her Sisters to be living images of Jesus, saying, “He also placed the stars in the night sky, and these are all the virtues of Jesus Christ, our Savior.   And these virtues (are to also) adorn your soul like jewels which shine like stars in the heavens."     7th Degree of Prayer

As the beauty of Autumn fills our eyes as we contemplate the beauty of the earth and skies, let us join Blessed Celeste in celebrating the wonders of God about us and within us.

The Feast of Bl. M. Celeste Crostarosa, September 11, 2024

 Reflection given on the Feast of Bl. M. Celeste Crostarosa, September 11, 2024

A woman of conscience, a woman of liberty of spirit: poor in spirit, pure of heart; persecuted with false claims made against her because of she followed her beloved, Jesus.   Blessed is she, Maria Celeste Crostarosa. 

Her humility came from following in the footsteps of Jesus, the Redeemer when he walked as God-Man for thirty-three years here on earth. 

She began the journey when she was baptized Julia on the Feast of All Saints, a day after her birth on October 31, 1696 in Naples, Italy.  Her devout parents were thrilled to welcome their tenth, of what would be twelve children.

From the early age, Julia began to hear Jesus speaking to her heart, promising to be her sweetest Friend and Guide. 

Young Julia was a vivacious, intelligent child who loved to play games but was more and more drawn to hide away somewhere to listen more closely to Jesus and to pray.

At 11, when Julia received her First Communion, her joy was boundless because Jesus invited her into His Divine Heart saying, "Enter into this wound; leave all creatures and love me alone.”

By the time she was 21, Jesus told her, “I have chosen you to be My spouse.”  Julia first tried her vocation with the Carmelites. At the age of 23 and newly professed, she was made Novice Mistress.  But 4 years later, that monastery was closed due to a meddling benefactor.

Not long afterwards, Julia and two siblings enter a monastery in Scala, high above the Amalfi coast.  A novice again, she is given the name Maria Celeste.    Now the time had come for the Holy Redeemer to reveal the Father’s Plan of Pure Love through Sr. Maria Celeste.

On April 25, 1725, when Celeste received the Host, she fell into extasy for the Lord Jesus had united His whole being to hers and engraved on her heart a New Rule of life for the nuns of the monastery to be in the Church and in the world a Living Memory of Christ’s work of salvation. 

He also appeared dressed in red, white and blue, holding the world in his hand. Jesus said, “The Sisters are to clothe themselves in the red robe of charity: to follow Me who died on the cross as a sign of the Father’s immense, never-ending love and mercy. White for purity of heart and the blue mantel as a sign of My humility and My work of salvation uniting heaven to earth.”

Imagine having to tell your Novice Mistress about this new development.  Yet, the Novice Mistress was overjoyed because she knew the community needed a new rule of life.  She directed Celeste to write out the new rule.  Celeste obeyed, but when the Spiritual Father of the monastery heard about this vision he called Celeste delusional, a troublemaker, a witch.

For five years there is much confusion in the monastery until the Spiritual Father asked a young priest, Alphonsus Liguori, who was a civil and canon lawyer, to interview the community in Scala, particularly the so-called visionary, Celeste.

Alphonsus, after hearing from Celeste, deemed her revelations to be truly from God and recommended the New Rule be adopted by the Sisters for the glory of God.  On the feast of Pentecost, 1731, the Nuns adopted the New Rule and, on the Transfiguration, donned their red, white and blue habits.

These hopeful beginnings did not end Celeste’s troubles: the Spiritual Father continued to misjudge her soul.  Because of liberty of conscience, Sr. Celeste decided to abandon that Spiritual Father.    Ultimately, that led to Celeste, with her 2 siblings, to be expelled from the primo Redemptoristine monastery in Scala.

In all these trials, Celeste’s Beloved Jesus, reassured her with these words, “In everything that happens, in trials and crosses, they are really happening to me.  Love me alone.  Make of yourself an echo of My Pure Love.”   

While searching for a monastery to put into action God’s Plan of Love, Celeste was asked to reform a Dominican monastery and orphanage that had grown lax.  They thought she was an angel sent from heaven to help.  Yet, troubles followed her as old rumors of her life in Scala still circulated.    At one point, she was brought before the Inquisition.  Thankfully, nothing came of it. 

In a couple of years, the Dominicans had reformed and Celeste was finally able establish her own monastery in Foggia in 1738 with the Rule given to her by the Holy Redeemer.  There she lived her life of prayer as Mother Prioress Maria Celeste of the Holy Savior.

Celeste finished her journey on earth when she died on the Exaltation of the Cross, at the age of 59.  How apropos for her to die on that feast day for she followed her Beloved so closely in life, and Him crucified. 

Blessed Celeste was a mystic, a founder, a prodigious writer, a strong woman of faith and liberty of conscience, who had all sorts of things said falsely about her.  And yet, her message of the Lord’s mercy and plentiful redemption has spread throughout the world.  In 39 monasteries, in 27 countries, women and men of faith have joined the Redemptoristine Nuns in following this humble instrument of God.  In 2016, Sister M. Paz and I had the privilege to be in Foggia, Italy for her beatification.

So, today, we rejoice and are glad to have before us in Bl. Celeste an example of humility and strength, purity of love, deep faith and trust in following the Redeemer.  May we be like her and say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” and so come to be blessed in the kingdom of heaven. 

 

I AM

 John Lennon’s famous nonsense song I Am the Walrus begins with, “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”  Substitute the word Christ for ‘he’ and you get, “I am Christ as you are Christ as you are me and we are all together.”  Together we are Christians.  See that in Lennon’s own trippy way he is saying something similar to what Jesus said in John the Evangelist’s  Gospel, “I revealed your name to those you gave me… they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.”  Jesus revealed his name, ‘I AM,’ to those who are his own.  We are God’s own.  Christ is God’s.    We are Christ’s own and God’s own.  And we are all together!   

Together when we love freely, live simply and listen intently, we glorify God by being Christ to one another.  We open our hearts to share our hopes and dreams; we reach out. Yet, how can we glorify God with our imperfect loving?  We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and ages, backgrounds, foibles, capabilities.  Together we share in common God’s unconditional love.    Despite our lack of (fill in the blank), we are called to be Christ’s love. St. Peter encourages us, “Rejoice to share in the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ.”  Jesus loved all of us from the cross that we may have eternal life.   Whatever our sufferings may be, we too can offer love for the salvation of our sisters and brothers in Christ.   Together we are called to share this Christ-love with one another for the glory of the name.  Rejoice! Together we are I Am.   

LIFE FOR ME IS CHRIST

 

“It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  Gal 2:20

It has been fifty days since we have celebrated Easter. And within that those days we have celebrated ‘Little Christmas’ on the 25^th of April and May, and will do so again on the 25^th of June.  We commemorate those days by renewing our vows in homage of the Incarnation of Jesus.  Actually, we celebrate Christ's entire life, not just his conception and birth, not just his life of ministry and death, but also his resurrection and ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.    We recognize we are called to ‘live in the flesh’ by our very lives the life of Jesus here and now in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

We are contemplatives whether we are inside the monastery or living among the Dominicans of Sparkill, or outdoors in nature or running errands around town or going to the doctor.  Each of us can speak from experience how God’s grace has touched and somehow transformed us into incarnating Christ in our very beings, or as a community, though we have no idea how it happens, and most often, with no awareness that our presence is affecting anything or anyone at that time. 

This is a mystery and the beauty of hidden grace.  Jesus appeared to be an ordinary man called by the Father to follow God’s plan of love no matter where it took him.  We are ordinary women called by the Father to fulfill God plan of love: to strive to live fully the Gospel of Christ in every aspect of our human and religious life. C&S 1

We have been called by the mysterious and utterly gratuitous love [God has] for us, [as] God wishes to call us to live in communion with Him, to give us His Spirit of love so that He might constantly live with us and in us.  C&S 3   

LIVING THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN OUR CHANGING TIMES

 

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.  Therefore, be imitators of God, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Eph 4:32-5:2 

This month marks our 8^th month anniversary of living with the Dominicans of Sparkill, NY.   We all realize what great changes have taken place in our community since we left our Carmelite Sisters in Beacon, NY and our own monastery in Beacon, 2012.   In our own way, we have been living the Paschal Mystery.

In the Introduction to our Constitutions we read that Redemptoristines, “By faith in the living Christ and by the prayer of praise and intercession which through Him rises up to the Father, (we) live out at a deep level the Paschal Mystery of Christ, dead and risen.” Const. 3

Sounds beautiful in the abstract but when faced with the reality of what that means it’s not that attractive. It involves dying.  For us, in our present situation, it means dying to self; dying to the traditions we hold dear; letting go of all that was familiar… We’ve had a lot of practice in humility lately, as well as learning and sharing customs and styles of prayer. But what is the purpose of all this dying?

Our Constitutions say it is “to be united to Christ and to be transformed by Him into a new creation.” Const. 55  “…both personally and as a community, a living Memorial of the Paschal Mystery of Christ the Redeemer.” Const. 14

But, we have not forgotten the other side of the Paschal Mystery: the rising, the new creation!  We are being given an opportunity to new life.  True, not the life we envisioned when we entered long ago but life lived in a new way, living with fidelity to prayer while responding to the call of the Gospel in our changing times by our joyful participation in various outreach projects the Dominican Sisters champion, much to the enrichment of both communities.  We are in a new phase of Christ’s life. Indeed, we have been transformed into a new creation. We are an Easter people!

We’ve moved into a larger community.  They offer us peace of mind for our bodies and minds.  What can we offer them?  As Redemptoristines we’ve added Devotions to Our Mother of perpetual Help to Wednesday Evening Prayer and serve as lectors or cantors at Mass. 

Our Constitutions encourage us to “... bring their own contribution…  At one and the same time (to) show a healthy openness to new situations in the Church and the world and a confident fidelity to the Gospel...”  Const. 112

We are being called to a new “conversion (which) is the normal attitude of all the baptized.  It is continual purification of the soul, a firm will to follow humbly the teaching of the Gospel and the invitations of the Spirit through the circumstances of life; in other words, it is an ardent desire to have that ‘new heart’ of which the Bible speaks.” Const. 51

Jesus came to set us free.  In following our Redeemer in his Paschal Mystery we are being called to death and a new rising; a life lived to its fullest in the light of the groundings, gifts and graces that have been given to us. So, let us then be imitators of Christ and offer our lives as a fragrant offering of love to God for the salvation of the world.

MARCH ~ THE SAINTS AND FLOWERS OF LENT

 

On March 7 we celebrate the feast of Perpetua, a Third Century North African noblewoman and her slave Felicity.  Together, with their shared faith in Christ, they courageously stepped into the arena to be attacked by wild animals and then felled by a gladiator.  Most sorrowing to them, was that both women were nursing mothers while anticipating their death. Yet, on the day of their martyrdom, they, with calm and rejoicing hearts, shone forth the glory of God in word and example by their love of Christ and their persecutors.   On their day of victory, their blood watered the seeds of the new faith sprouting throughout the Roman Empire. 

PERPETUA is like seeing the silvery little paws of the PUSSY WILLOW sprouting on a bush as a sure sign of faith: out of dry twigs the pussy willow suddenly bursts forth to life.  And FELICITY is like the FORSYTHIA, that blooms around the same time, as its yellow glow brings rejoicing to all hearts. Pussy willows and forsythia represent anticipation.  

This Polish legend encourages us to believe life will bloom again when all appears dead.

Jesus visited the forest of the Mount of Olives early one morning.  He found it to be barren, lifeless.  Winter had taken its toll: there were no buds, flowers or ground cover sprigs. The whole forest was gloomy and grey; the animals wistful and motionless; the birds, silent.  Jesus began to gather branches of pussy willows and forsythia.  At His touch the branches of pussy willows and forsythia began to bud.  In the warm morning sunlight, the forest was rejoicing to welcome Jesus, the Lord of all creation, as the earth began to shake off its Winter sleepiness and release its secret liveliness back up into the grasses, bushes and trees.  Little critters peeked out of their holes and birds began to chirp. Jesus smiled upon the awakening world. 

His followers arrived with the colt Jesus and festooned the docile donkey with the budding branches which Jesus had picked. And then he sat on the colt and began the journey into Jerusalem.  The crowds, upon seeing him and filled with anticipation, cut their own branches of palm and sang out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”

The Brazilian PASSION FLOWER grows on a vine and looks like something out of Carnival with its colors and frills but the Portuguese missionaries, just like St Patrick and the shamrock before, used the Passion Flower to help the native understand Christ’s Crucifixion.  The frilly filaments symbolize the Crown of Thorns, the top stigma is the Three Nails used to crucify the Lord and the five lower anthers are the wounds in Christ’s hands and feet and side. The blood of Christ is the red stain from the plant.  The fragrance of the flower represents the spices prepared by the Holy Women at the tomb.  Tea made from the dried Passion Flower induces sleep symbolizing the three days in the tomb and the sweet fruit symbolizes the resurrection and salvation of all peoples.

Brazilian SAINT DULCE died March 13, 1992. 
At the time of her death she was the most well-known women in Brazil.  Coming from an upper-class family, Dulce, her name means ‘sweet,’ entered the Franciscan sisters and began giving beggars haircuts and treating their wounds outside the convent door.  She found housing for them in abandoned houses in an area called Rat Island.  Evicted from there, she housed the sick in an abandoned fish market.  Evicted again, she convinced the mother superior to let her use the chicken coop to shelter her patients.  The Superior permitted it, as long as Dulce took care of the chickens – she did – by feeding them to the sick and poor!  That chicken coop later became San Antonio Hospital. Eighteen years after Dulce’s death her body, and clothing, were found to be incorrupt.  Canonized in 2019, St. Dulce’s passion for the salvation of souls flowered in her sweet deeds as she became known as the patron saint of the poor.   

March 15 is the feast of a humble and courageous Redemptorist, ST CLEMENT HOFBAUER. St Clement is known for bringing the Redemptorists from Italy across the Alps to Austria and into Poland.   His generosity is legendary:

In his younger years, Clement was a baker of bread who worked day and night to feed the poor.   Once, while collecting money for orphans he stopped to beg at a bar.  There he was ridiculed, spat upon and generally mistreated.  In response he said, “All Right.  That was for me.  But what can you give for my boys?”  The men were so astounded by his humility they generously opened their pockets and gave all they could. 

Because Clement was a baker of bread and harvester of souls, we could associate him with WINTER WHEAT. It symbolizes hardiness, abundance and generosity. Winter Wheat is planted in in the Autumn so it is ready to harvest late Spring.

In the 5^th century, it is said that SAINT PATRICK used a SHAMROCK as a metaphor to convert the Irish to Christianity.   But the Celtic ancients already believed in the triune nature of everything such as the three stages of womanhood: maid, mother, crone; the three elements: earth, water and fire.  The shamrock is not the only sign of the Trinity:  the Celtic knot also symbolizes the Trinity and that God is intertwined in everything. Legend has it that Patrick Christianized the pagan Sun Wheel - the symbol of the eternal cycle of life, death and rebirth when he overlay the Cross of Christ’s life, death and resurrection.  In seeing the Celtic Cross, our faith leads us to union with the risen Christ, and our hope in the life to come.  

The most common flower associated with ST JOSEPH on March 19^th and the ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD, on March 25^th , is the LILY.  It is a symbol of innocence, purity and beauty, peace.  

Joseph is depicted as holding the infant Jesus and a lily signifying his purity,

righteousness and joy. Likewise, in paintings of the Annunciation, Gabriel is featured offering a lily to Mary symbolizing the hope to be fulfilled in the new life she will carry: the Promised One, the Messiah.

When Mary visits Elizabeth, she sings her Magnificat. 
Perhaps she also sang the song from the prophet Sirach, “Listen to me, faithful ones: open up your petals; Send up the sweet odor like incense; break forth in blossoms like the lily.  Raise your voices in a chorus of praise; bless the Lord for all God’s works!” Sirach 39:13-14

Lilies represent purity of heart, love, rebirth and hope.  At funerals they symbolize restored innocence to the soul of the one who died.   By Jesus’ death and resurrection, our souls become innocent like Joseph and Mary’s, who were righteous and pure from the beginning, and gives us hope in the life to come. 

SAINT OSCAR ROMERO was just canonized in 2018. He is remembered for his humanitarian efforts in El Salvador.  

Hear how Jesus’ compassion overflows toward his people as he weeps:  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!  I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”      Matthew 23:37, 39

BLEEDING HEART FLOWER,
with its heart shaped flowersborne on arching stems, beautifully describes the arc of Romero’s life rise from being a scrupulous priest to becoming an outspoken critic of the government and champion of the poor and oppressed.  This led to his martyrdom while celebrating Mass on March 24, 1980.    

BUSY START

The month of February has a busy start.  February 1 is St. Brigid’s Day. Traditionally, it marks the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. In Ireland, it is the beginning of Spring.   Brigid is often depicted carrying an everlasting flame. It is said that in her monastery the kitchen fire perpetually burned brightly as did the love of Christ burn in her heart.  The Irish are known to plait St. Brigid crosses, just as Brigid did herself out of rushes while bringing a dying man back to the faith.  People hang these crosses in their homes petitioning her protection.    

February 2 is known by many names: Groundhog’s Day is a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of prediction of six more weeks on a cloudy day or sunny guesses of spring is on its way.

Also, on the 2^ND marks the end of the Christmas/Epiphany season.  (You can take down your decorations now.)  The day is known as the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple:  This marks the forty days after Jesus’ birth when the Light of Christ was revealed to the world as declared by the two prophets, Simeon and Anne, who longed for, welcomed and rejoiced in proclaiming the presence of the Savior of the world. This day also celebrates the Purification of Mary; a ritual of thanksgiving for the newborn and her recovery from childbirth.  

This day is also called Candlemas day because of the faithful carrying lit candles into the church to welcome Christ the Light.  At Mass, church and monasteries have their candles blessed for the coming year.  In Germany, and other countries, at the end of Evening Prayer on Candlemas Day and in anticipation of the feast of St. Blaise, they bless the faithful’s throats with lit candles.  I can only imagine the blaze that could cause if the priest were not of steady hand!   

On St. Blaise Day, Feb 3, in the monastery we celebrate this ritual, with unlit candles, thank you, for our own good health against diseases of the throat and other ailments, and for all the sick recommended to our prayer.

St. Blaise died in 317 and was a physician, bishop and martyr. The most famous legend about him was while he was in prison for refusing to renounce his faith, he miraculously cured a little boy who was choking to death on a fish bone.

Through these early days of February, may the intercession of St. Brigid, keep the fire of faith burning in our hearts; may the Light of Christ create in us a pure heart like His Mother Mary, and by the prayers of St. Blaise may we be cured of our illnesses as we joyfully sing full-throated in praise to the God who hears and answers our prayers.  Go, have your throats blessed.  And as an extra precaution, get your flu shot!