MIRRORS OF LOVE

It all began when Ven. Maria Celeste Crostarosa received a revelation while she was still a novice to, “Stamp on your spirit the features of his life and the resemblance of him that comes from imitation.   Be on earth living and inspired portraits of my beloved Son.  Carry him about as the life of your heart and as the goal of your existence and as the Master of your spirit.”   Intent of the Father   “This instruction was for her soul like a polished mirror into which, she remained gazing continually at the dazzling light of the sun (Son) and found herself at once drawn into the divine splendor of her Well-Beloved.” Autobiography    Celeste, and the Order which she was to found, was called from the beginning to be for the world a Mirror of God’s Love.

Likewise, we are called to fix our gaze on the Son and, as if gazing in a mirror, see not only the splendor of His Being but in our own being a living reflection of God’s eternal love.   “It is in this that the Redeemer is able today to accomplish His work of salvation in us and through us.”  Const. 5    For, “The more we strive to live the love of Christ, the more the thoughts and feelings of Christ will fill our spirit and our heart, the more we will become His faithful images.”  Const.6  

Like a double exposure of a photograph, one superimposed on the other, we endeavor to be Christ to one another:  “To be a living copy and faithful portrait of Jesus so that he might find himself in you, and you recognize yourself in him, your God through faith.”  Florilegium 6. Spiritual Exercises for December, med. 3 paraphrased

Jesus continued to instruct Celeste with these words, “In my wisdom, goodness, and infinity I call you, dear soul, because I want you to be clothed with all the virtues that make me beautiful, thus you will be the image of me and I shall live a life of love in the world by dwelling in your heart.”   Florilegium 4. Colloquies, III, 18 (28)

Ven. Celeste had a creative spirit.  Just reading her works gives us insight into the richness of her inner life by the way she uses imagery in her writings.  She was also pliable in the hand of God by opening her heart and allowing God to shape and mold her, transform her into the image of the Son.

This brought to my mind a wise saying by an anonymous author:  “It is not you that shapes God.  It is God that shapes you.  If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the Artist who does all things in due season.  Offer God your heart, soft and tractable, and keep the form in which the Artist has fashioned you.  Let your clay be moist lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of God’s fingers.”

Today, you are gathered to reflect on your commitment to become Christ’s perfect image.   A tall order.  Nevertheless, that is why you make your commitment so you can remain moist so that the Hand of the Artist can continually form your heart in every season into the image of Christ.    And this transformation into the image of Christ is a life-long process.  How is this done?

Jesus said to Celeste then, and says to us now, “Enter into my divine heart and live there every day of your life so as to be able to achieve a true imitation of me in love and in activity through a new life witnessed by the whole world, because you are, from among many others, my only and dearly beloved.”  Florilegium 5. Colloquies, III, 23 (35)

How can we achieve this entering into Jesus’ divine heart?  By entering into our own hearts in quiet prayer and taking time each day to commune with the Beloved.   Only through prayer do we come to know in ourselves the love God has for us in Christ.  Occasionally, when I am beginning a retreat or feeling down, I pick up my Chotki, Eastern orthodox prayer knots, or a rosary, and inhale the Breath of Life hearing the Word of God say to me, “You are my beloved.”  And on the exhale I let it deepen in my heart.  There are fifty knots on this circle of prayer.  If you wanted to go around again, you could reverse the prayer and inhale the name of Jesus and on the exhale say to him, “You are my Beloved.”

From this kind of prayer flows openness of heart and the strength “to live the love of Christ, (and) be true witnesses of the love of Him who is our beginning and our End, our Way and our Life.”    Const.5

The Beloved told Celeste, “My Spirit which rests in the just soul, as on its own throne, is never quiet.  Since your soul is an image of my substance, what then are you in your spirit, in your being, if not a living image, a living reprint of me, yet dependent on my Being?”       86. Colloquies VI, 47 (63)   Jesus’ breath is our breath.  God is as close to us as the air flowing in and out of our lungs.  We are dependent on God and God is never quiet in reaching out to all humankind through us.  We are the hands, the feet, the words, the prayer of Jesus.

On September 14^th we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.    The Entrance Antiphon we pray at Mass that day sums up the whole reason for the feast: “We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, our life and resurrection, through which we are saved.”  

This day is an important feast for Redemptoristines because the fourteenth is also the anniversary of the Ven. Maria Celeste Crostarosa’s death in 1755.  All her life Celeste made of “her will an echo of Christ’s will,”  Florilugium 64. Colloquies II, 7 (11)  and lived united with him on the cross due to the many trails she endured throughout her life.  She willingly did this because she experienced “also in glory   at the same time by reason of her participation,   the joy and union of the Divine Work.” Florilegium 129. Degrees of Prayer XI, 90 (36)     Therefore, it was apropos that she should die on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and be united with her Beloved in heaven as she was on earth.

Jesus invited his disciples, Celeste, and us, with these words,      "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross each day and follow me." (Luke 9:23)  Celeste’s response was, “Oh with what love I embraced the cross, loved it, desired it and took pleasure in it -- all for your love.”  She continues, “Likewise those who love bind themselves to the cross…savor the true and solid sweetness of God and the true peace found therein.”  Florilegium 118. Rules. Love of the Cross, 9r-9v (188-189)

Yesterday, September 8^th, we celebrated the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Ven. Celeste extolled “the divine resemblance of Jesus in Mary,” in these words, “Stamped by sacred and divine love on her heart  Jesus wished to remain over her heart like a seal imprinted on her will… in a way that the will of Mary became so faithful a resemblance of the divine that a genuine portrait of the Divinity seemed to be carved on the heart of Mary....”   12. Exercise of love for every day, 31 December.

Celeste bore witness to this in these words, “Yes, my Lady, You are a true image of the Original, a Portrait of Jesus. O my Mother, you are a pure crystal which sparkles most clearly.”   Florilegium 11. Exercise of love for every day, 30 December       “This is what I see in myself, and therefore I have recourse to you, Mother of Love, so that through your intercession the LIVE IMAGE OF JESUS might be engraved on me so that my heavenly Father might look on me with the same infinite love with which he contemplates, in himself, his beloved and divine Son; with the same love may he love us who are in the image of his Humanity.  We pray that this be granted to us.”   12. Exercise of love for every day, 31 December.

Celeste describes Jesus, the only Begotten Son of the Father, as the Sun, reflecting the Father … as the mirror of the Father.   She invites us to look into this mirror of the Son saying, “Those who are pure of heart know My Father because they look upon Him fixedly with a gaze of love.” and adds: “They are children of the light because with the vision of right intention, they gaze into the mirror of the divine perfections of their God.”   ‘The Mystic Who Remembered’ by Joseph Opptiz, CSsR

This is the call to transformation, to be imprinted by God’s fingers with the divine perfections of Jesus.  Thus, with our gaze fixed on the Son we reflect as in a mirror Jesus to the world.  We are called to be the hands, feet, voice and prayer of the Beloved for the life of the world.  We are mirrors of God’s love. 

I will end this reflection with liturgical dance.  I did this dance at my solemn profession in 1994.    It is called the Prayer of Commitment.  The words are very fitting for our gathering today.  The words are:

Lord Jesus, I give you my hands to do your work.

I give you my feet to go your way.
I give you my tongue to speak your words.
I give you my mind that you may think in me.
I give you my spirit that you may pray in me.
Above all, I give you my heart that you may love in me your people,
all humankind.
And I give you my whole self that you may grow in me;
So it is you, Lord Jesus, who live and work and pray in me.

 

After the liturgical dance a mirror was given to each Associate with the words,  ‘You are an image of Jesus.’   On the mirror side the name of Jesus was written and on the back a quote from Celeste,  “I no longer saw myself, but I saw You in my very self and myself transformed into You, my Most Pure Love.”

 

Questions:

How am I a ‘Mirror of Love’ witnessing to the world God’s love?

In times of trials /crosses do I ever experience joy and union with Christ, the sweetness of God and inner peace?

          How is the Blessed Virgin Mary an image of Jesus?  How can I be transformed into the likeness of her Son?

ST. ALPHONSUS METHOD OF PRAYER AND T’AI CHI

Today, August 1, we celebrate St. Alphonsus Ligouri’s anniversary of death in 1787 at the age of 91.   The Founder of the Redemptorists was born in Naples on September 27, 1696, just a month earlier than our Foundress Ven. Mother Maria Celeste Crostarosa. 

 
Alphonsus was an extremely intelligent man.   Early in his life he once made a vow never to waste a moment of time so he wrote over 100 books, painted, played the organ and composed songs.   His most famous hymn is the Italian Christmas carol, Tu Scendi Delle Stelle  (From Starry Skies Descending).    

A renowned preacher and confessor, he won the hearts of the simple people by teaching them to pray to God as to a dear friend.   This may seem ironic because Alphonsus himself was a man plagued by scruples but he recognized the truth that God was pure love and that we may approach God without fear.

          When I was a Postulant, Sr. Peg gave me a pamphlet of one of Alphonsus’ teachings that described a method of prayer which I found helpful.   It had the mnemonic device of the word ACTS which stands for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, Supplication. 

You may well ask what does St. Alphonsus, the great moral theologian of the eighteenth century, who wrote uncountable treatises on prayer and the founder of the Redemptorists has in common with T’ai Chi, a philosophy that has its roots in sixth century BCE (Before the Common Era) Taoism?  Truthfully, not much; perhaps the only connection is that when Alphonsus was a young diocesan priest he desired to go on the missions to China.

           It is only because of my temperament did I find a connection between Alphonsus’ method of meditation and T’ai Chi: movement in meditation. 

I’m sure you have all seen people doing T’ai Chi on TV or maybe in the park.  I’ve taken a couple of basic courses in it.  The one you see people doing in the park in English is called ‘The Flowing River.’  Another form I learned once while on retreat is simple, gentle, repetitive movements that lend themselves to meditation.

          T’ai Chi has its roots in Taoism.  The Chinese mystic Lao Tse, a contemporary of Confucius, and India’s Buddha, in the sixth century BCE in his book, Tao te Ching, wrote, ‘All things come from the Way: it creates without owning, gives without demanding. This is harmony.’  The Way is Chi: the energy which flows in the harmony of nature and in each of us.   Lao Tse looked to nature to give examples:  ‘As spring overcomes the cold and autumn overcomes the heat, so calm and quiet overcomes the world.’ 

              Lao Tse’s contemplative eye on nature taught him that in order to be calm and quiet one needs to meditate so one may be engaged in the world in a harmonious fashion.


Moira '96

                You may be thinking where does the movement come into meditation?  Lao Tse said, ‘Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river.’  In the sixth century CE (Common Era) Bodhidharma, a Buddhist master did just that.  He visited China and noticed the monks there were in terrible shape from all their sitting about and meditating.  So, Bodhidarma began instructing them in exercises that flowed from his contemplation and appreciation of nature and gave the gentle exercises names like Stroke the Swallow’s Tail, White Crane Spreads Wings, Hands Passing like Clouds… 

          Year ago I wedded St. Alphonsus’ ACTS with the gentle repetitive movements of T’ai Chi.  Perhaps, if St. Alphonsus was alive today he would still heartily encourage this form of meditation and add, "Jesus is The Way, our Chi! (energy/lifeforce)   
      
            These prayerful movements can be done standing or sitting. All the motions and the thoughts flow from the heart and continue to do so with each letter of ACTS until you feel the natural end to each intention.

 The first letter A stands for Adoration.  With hands raised heart high I circle those palms up around in front of me conscious of the presence of God and adoring the Creator of all things.  The second letter C stands for Contrition.  My hands move out and back, pushing from the heart, all my failings that stand between me and God.  The letter T is for Thanksgiving.  This time my hands, palms up, come up from the side of my body to my heart in a circular motion recounting all the blessings I have received as gift in my life.  The final letter is S for Supplication.  Here my palms face down and circle heart high blessing and beseeching God’s mercy and love on my family, community, the world.

St. Alphonsus used all kinds of prayer in his life.   I can imagine he raised his hands and prayed from his heart as he taught the poor and abandoned to do likewise in these words, “Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.  Speak to Him often of your business, your plans, your troubles, your fears— of everything that concerns you. Converse with Him confidently and frankly; for God is not wont to speak to a soul that does not speak to Him.”

Let us then, whether still or in motion, pray confidently to our dearest friend, Jesus, The Way.

The Most Holy Redeemer, Maria Celeste and You

God so loved the world the he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

On the third Sunday in July every year we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer: the title of the Order and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Ven. Maria Celeste Crostarosa was tremendously blest to have an intimate relationship with her Redeemer throughout her life.  With being true to that relationship over the years there came the struggle of trying to implement the new Rule. All the heartache that accompanied it cost her dearly in her attempt to follow the Redeemer’s lead. Yet she experienced deep peace and grace as she surrendered her life to the One who loved her beyond all measure.  In following the Jesus, Celeste practiced the virtues of the Man-God ‘on his Pilgrim Way.’ God tells her, ‘All these virtues of his are transformed into your soul and become yours by your union with him; all your feelings and passions become sanctified by him and transformed into his feelings and your body transformed into his.’  (Florilegium #74. Spiritual Exercises for December, med. 18) 

Think of the caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly and the metamorphosis that transpires; the surrender and dying to self that takes place throughout its life cycle.

When any of us follow the Redeemer as Celeste did we surrender our very lives to be transformed into ‘new creatures in Christ.’ 2 Cor.5:17  ‘to form that perfect being who is Christ come to full stature.’  Eph 4:13   

Celeste tells us when we are at prayer it is a special time of union with the Redeemer. She was instructed by Jesus that when you pray,  ‘… join that praise of yours to the Praises which I, while I was on earth, offered to God my Father, and live as though I, not you, lived in yourself. Thus all the graces, gifts, and spiritual consolations which you receive from my Love, receive them not in yourself but in me.’ (Florilegium pg 96 The Little Garden)

Celeste spent many hours in adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament and was always amazed at how the God-Man, with patience and mercy ‘stamped on himself’… ‘the humiliations and contempt of self’ which the Redeemer displayed in not exalting his ‘divine perfections but kept them submerged’.  She continues, ‘He submerged his divine immensities beneath an admirable hidden silence while on earth as a Man, and not only that, but now while hiding – in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar beneath the accidents of bread – his divine grandeurs… to unite us with him and transform us into God, he has made himself the real food of man.’   (Florilegium pg 29) 

As followers of the Redeemer we are called likewise to accept humiliations and have contempt for self.  What does this mean?  To me it means we are to be ‘living eucharists for the Church and for the world.’ (Associate Constitutions #6)   We are to humble ourselves just as Jesus ‘humbled himself, taking on the form of a slave, becoming human like one of us’ (Phil 2:7) so we might follow his example and empty ourselves of our ego so that God can fill us with divinity that we may, by our union, can participate in Christ’s on-going redemption in the here and now.

In Celeste’s Autobiography Jesus tells her, ‘You are my friend and my delight and, therefore, I keep you in my Kingdom of the Cross and of Glory, in the Kingdom of my Peace and Rest, in sufferings and afflictions, just the way I lived on this earth.

‘Do not be troubled, you already know how much you have to destroy the self so that this Work (namely, this Work that is totally mine) may be carried out.’ (Florilegium pg 135)

‘This Work’ that Jesus was referring to is the foundation of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer – but he could well have been speaking to us about our life in him today.  We are the Works of His hands. Christ has no hands on this earth but ours, no voice on earth but ours, no heart but ours…  Therefore, we are his friends, his delight, at peace and rest in the Kingdom of the Cross and of Glory.  And in turn ‘he is the light of our faith, the strength of our charity and the source of our hope.’ (Associate Constitution #13) 

Jesus, the Most Holy Redeemer was the love of Celeste’s life!  She followed him in her own time and place. Our call as Nuns and Associates of the Most Holy Redeemer is the same.  Our constitutions say, ‘The more we strive to live the love of Christ, the more the thoughts and feelings of Christ will fill our spirit and our heart, the more we will become His faithful images and the more also we will be able to be true witnesses of the love of Him who is our Beginning and our End, our Way and our Life.’  (Associate Constitutions #5)

Like Celeste let us each be a ‘Viva Memoria:’ the living memory of Jesus the Redeemer; a participant in God’s loving plan of redemption. 

Questions for reflection:

Do you hear the Redeemer’s invitation?

How are you following Jesus, your Redeemer, today?

Have you ever felt deep peace in following the Holy Redeemer in times of humility and surrender?  

How can I be a ‘living eucharist’ for the redemption of the world?

We Place Our Hands Within Hers

Happy Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help!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. 

WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM

Reading:   Jesus went with his disciples to the villages and on the way he asked them, ‘Who do the people say that I am?’  And they answered him, ‘Some say John the Baptist and others Elijah and still others one of the prophets.’  Jesus asked them, ‘But you, who do you say that I am?’  Mk 8:27-29

Who do YOU say Jesus is?

Who do you say God is?

That is the eternal question we all ask ourselves. How can we truly know who is God.  It is a mystery, an unfolding revelation that we will never completely know or understand.

So, WHO DO we say Jesus/God is? We can only use symbols, images, words, actions, experiences to suggest the presence of a Being which is beyond our ken.

In Hebrew scriptures God has names such as Creator, Warrior, Rock, Nursing Mother. Jesus is called Shepherd, Servant, Friend.    Today we find ourselves between the feasts of John the Baptist and Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Both point to Jesus – John says, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’  Mary says with her eyes, ‘Behold my Son.’   Celeste calls him the Sun, the Wayfarer, Our Savior.  There are so many beautiful images we could use to describe God.  How do you envision God? 

GOD CALLS US through our senses.  And the words we use to describe what we experience are decidedly unearthly.  We say the smell of coffee or the taste of chocolate is heavenly, the sight of a sunset glorious, certain music enraptures us, the embrace of lovers moves them to ecstasy.  How does God speak to you?

Artists down through the ages have painted with their brushed ICONS, such as OLPH, as WINDOWS that we may glimpse the unseen God.  Poets have flourished their pens to give WORDS to the ineffable name of God. We may not be artists or poets but our lives as Redemptoristines bespeak the name of God, the name of Jesus.  Our life is a WINDOW, our life is the WORD that tells the world WHO we say Jesus/God is.  Be a WINDOW, be the WORD, proclaim the name of God.

As woman called to know, love and incarnate God as Redemptoristines and Associates in the Church and for the world, let us renew our vows on this 25th of the month.

IN MEMORY OF ME

Have you ever heard the strains of a song and been immediately transported back to the first time it moved you?   Where a certain event comes to mind or feeling envelopes you?  I wasn’t even born when Glenn Miller’s ‘Moonlight Serenade’ was written but I practically swoon when I hear those opening chords. 



EmmanuelHermitage.blogspot



In Ven. Maria Celeste’s life that ‘strain’ was being a “Viva Memoria,’ a Living Memory of Jesus.  She just didn’t remember Jesus, she experienced him in her inner most being.  And with that awareness of his intimate presence she was transformed into a living image of the Redeemer.  In all the moments of her life: the joys, the sorrows, the struggles, she strove to live by participation-union the life of the Redeemer doing all “In Memory of Me” who so loved her and the world he created. 

Being a Viva Memoria is akin to what happens in the Eucharist when we hear the words, ‘Do This in Memory of Me,’ where what is remembered becomes, in the very remembering, the actual Real Presence.   Likewise, when we live “In Memory of Me,” we carry on the loving, salvific plan of God by becoming, in our own time and place, a Christ for the world.

Remember your beginnings.  What ‘strains of song’ echo in your heart from when you first heard the call to live, “In Memory of Me?”

WE REMEMBER LITANY

We remember our first beginnings:  The 1987 Rosary Bible Group and

Sr. Mary Regina who used her gifts and talents to gather women

to the monastery to share our charism. 

Response: God in heaven be thanked.

We remember our first Associates: Loretta Murphy, Helen Walshe,

Marie Marshall, Kay Watzka, Betty Stevens, Marie Schmidt, Joan Duffy

and all the other women who shared our charism.             

Response: God in heaven be thanked.

We remember those who continue to live the Viva Memoria though they

have moved onward in life:  Nancy Romano, Cecilia Arboleda, Mary Vitti,

Joann Bernardo, Doreen Campbell, Gloria McCasland, Mary Quinn and all

others who graced this monastery.

Response: God in heaven be thanked.

We remember the Associates who have gone to their heavenly reward:

Kathleen Frase, Nancy Moffet, Beverly Tobasco and all our beloved family

and friends who lived “In Memory of Me.”

Response: God in heaven be thanked.

For all of our present day Associates who carry on God’s plan of

love and strive to be “Viva Memoria,” a Christ for others.

Response: God in heaven be thanked.

For the Redemptoristines Nuns in their new location, may they

attract new vocations and Associates to share the charism of the

Most Holy Redeemer.

Response: God in heaven be thanked.

ASSOCIATES, INC.

Setting sail

from the shore

can be frightening

and exciting.

We challenge

the future,

we rely

on the past



Marguerite Violanti



We have had

direction

from the best,

spiritual, practical,

sensible.

The sisters

who devote

their lives

to being

A Living Memory.

But, as all things

in life –

change happens-

the Sisters

will be gone

They are still

with us

in Spirit

and computer.

We must now

continue

and demonstrate

their good works.

© ee jeszeck  2/18/12

NO STRANGER TO CHANGE

Ven. Maria Celeste Crostarosa was no stranger to change.  With all the changes she experienced in her life, one thing she was sure of: the constant love of the Redeemer.  Love that was planted so deep that her roots grew strong in love of God reaching out her branches embracing the sisters in her communities, the church and world even unto today.    

Baptized Giulia, she lived happily among her family for 21 years before entered a Carmelite monastery in Marigliano.  After four brief years the monastery closed because it was under the patronage of an interfering Duchess who caused havoc among the lives of the nuns.  Determined to be a religious, Celeste entered the Visitation monastery in Scala four months later. 

It was there, while still a Novice, the Lord revealed His heart to her.  His intent was that this community ‘was to be in the Church and in the world a living Memory of the Redeemer.’ The sisters’ lives were ‘to live out at a deep level the Paschal Mystery of Christ, dead and risen; and because the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, it would continue the mission of the Redeemer and so guide the world towards that which is the end and fulfillment of the world: becoming a new heaven and a new earth where God will be all in all.’  Const. #3

The new Rule came to pass but it was not without trial.  Celeste was accused of being proud, disobedient, a mad visionary.  It is true she had been blessed since her earliest memories of a profound relationship with Jesus with whom she had given her heart and conversed with as one does with their beloved. But being proud and disobedient would not characterize Celeste.  She was humble in that she looked for no glory of her own: only to follow the will of her Beloved.  And only when pushed came to shove did she choose obedience of conscience rather than submit to conditions that would lead others from glorifying God. 

Thus, Celeste was expelled from Scala monastery.  Where did she go? First, she rested her wounded spirit in a monastery by the Almafi Sea.  Then she was asked by a bishop who appreciated her gifts to reform a lax Dominican monastery.  She could have been happy there but after a while her desire to fulfill the Lord’s intent of establishing a community as revealed by Jesus drew her onward after two years.  She founded a monastery under the new Rule in Roccapimonte but she had to close it after three years because she was interrogated by the Inquisition regarding another matter and it left the foundress under a pall of suspicion.  Finally, she made a foundation in Foggia and lived out the rest of her life until her soul flew to heaven to the heart of her Beloved.  

No matter what trial befell her, or road she traveled, Celeste had faith in Jesus’ constant love and could echo the Song of Songs 6:3 and say, “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”

Today we are faced with change in our lives: we are living the Paschal Mystery. The Redemptoristines are relocating to another state and the Associates will re-organize to meet on their own and use modern technology to keep in contact with the Sisters and each other.  The ground may seem like it is full of hard lumps of earth in which to replant our roots but because they are strong, and our love for the charism given to us through Celeste is deep, we can be confident that we will flourish and our branches will embrace the Church and world revealing the love of God.  ‘It is in this way that the Redeemer is able today to accomplish His work of salvation in us and through us.’  Const. # 5