THE JEWELS OF ADVENT: The Great O Antiphons

 

Advent is the most beautiful of liturgical seasons.  It is a time of watching and preparing, of hopeful expectation and joyful anticipation.  Advent is the season where we ponder the comings of Christ. The Mass readings of Advent begin with the Second Coming of Christ to earth, the Parousia. The word Parousia means ‘to be present.’  Isn’t that what Advent is about?  To be present to the mystery of God: past, present and future. We remember with our ancestors of the past their longing for the coming of the Messiah. We rejoice and celebrate Jesus’ incarnation, his coming in the flesh 2000 years ago.  In the present, we recognize Jesus, our Messiah, in our midst in the here and now, where he is gracing us in every facet of our lives as we look to our reward at his ‘Second Coming.’

 

Some of you may be scratching your head and saying, ‘The Great what?’ You know at least one of them by heart, ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel… ’   It is probably the most beloved of all Advent hymns.   In the monastery, as a final preparation for Christmas, we sing these ‘Jewels of Advent,’ the last 7 nights before Christmas Eve just before the Magnificat beginning December 17 until December 23.   It is also sung during those days at daily Mass with the Gospel Alleluia.

 

Whoever put together all the Latin Antiphons was having a good time because if you take the first letter of each invocation, then read it backwards; it forms an acrostic in Latin:  ERO CRAS.  This can be understood as Christ response to his people's plea, “Tomorrow I will come."

 

You may say, ‘Wait a minute.  Christmas begins with the Vigil on the 24^th.  Why end on the 23^rd ?’   True enough. Thanks to the tradition handed down to us by our Jewish ancestors in faith, we begin the liturgical day at sundown. So, the evening of the 23^rd is Christmas Eve, and as a result, therefore, the Christmas liturgy begins at Evening Prayer on the 24^th.   I know it sounds confusing but that is the way it is.

 

To add to the mix, an optional alternative English medieval practice came of adding a day and antiphon to involve Mary to the end on the 24^rd.   They took the ‘V’ from O Virgo and added it to the acrostic so it became Vero Cras, "Truly, tomorrow."

 

Let us celebrate this Advent and Christmas as we await that great day when JESUS’ COMES!

DAYS F0R GIRLS

Living with the Dominicans of Sparkill has offered us many opportunities to reach out to those in need without leaving the convent. For instance, Days for Girls is an international program that makes feminine supplies for Third World girls and women so they will not have to miss school or work during their monthlies because they have no supplies. 

Using patterns in assembly line fashion, the sisters and students from nearby Dominican schools cut out waterproof shields, soft colorful washable material to make liners and pads.  Then those at sewing machines assemble them, as well as making water proof pouches and draw string bags.  Finally, the assembly line fills the draw string bags with a pouch, a bar of soap, a washcloth, 3 pair of panties, and pads.  These are then packed up and sent down to NYC or Florida where they will be shipped around the world.

Since 2008 over 3 million girls in more than 145 countries have been helped so they can continue their education and become productive women with a bright future.  Another plus is these supplies are free to the girls who are also given feminine hygiene information.  (These girls often carry their flashy bags every day to protect themselves from rape.)  Everything is washable, and with proper care, can be used for up to three years.  Consider also that the land-fills, streams and water ways are not being clogged up used feminine hygiene items.   It’s a win/win for the girls, their communities and the earth.

We Red Nuns also donate to pajama and food drives hosted by the Dominicans for 
babies, youngsters and local families during the holiday season.

Our life of prayer is enriched as we joyfully participate in showing the love of Christ to those in need by our simple ways of giving.

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.