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

THE WATER BEARER

This graceful picture of a woman carrying her jug put me in mind of the Samaritan woman after her conversation with Jesus at the well. (John 4:1-29, 39-40)   They had a long exchange which began with Jesus asking her for a drink of water and ending with her going out to ‘refresh’ her entire village. 

With the Redemptoristine election of new leadership for the next three years, and the Associates being invited to envision a new way of participation for themselves, we are all called to be open to what Jesus is saying to us and to honestly look at our lives.   Only then can we gracefully move forward with faith and courage to go out to spread the good news: to refresh those in our communities, our families, our workplace and the church.

May we all be Water Bearers, overflowing with the refreshing word of Christ our Lord to all we meet.  

New Beginnings, New Year

Wondrous Epiphany!   The Magi brought gifts to the infant Jesus: Incense is the symbol of Christ’s priesthood, gold is the symbol of his kingship on earth and myrrh the symbol of his death. 

We often come before Jesus hesitant, not knowing what gifts we can offer him.  The empty bowl pictured here is a symbol of that.  Yet the emptiness holds all kinds of potential.  This empty bowl beckons a new way of seeing, a new way of understanding, which will fill it to the brim with new possibilities.  Together, we can fill this bowl with the gifts and ideas of how we envision new beginnings for the Redemptoristine Associates moving into the New Year.  

The Associates were asked to reflect on their desire to continue as an Association of the Redemptoristine Nuns.  Envisioning the future is necessary because the Sisters will no longer be living in Esopus come the end of May, but in another monastery, where it would make travel to attend the monthly meetings difficult for all concerned. 

This is how they envision the future:  The Associates expressed their heartfelt desire to remain connected to the Redemptoristines, and stay together to be a support to one another as they grow in prayer as they strive to follow the way of Jesus: making the redeeming love of God present in their daily living.

The Associates realized that over the years the Sisters have provided so much spiritual enrichment. The time has now come to make more of an effort to take on some of the responsibility for their continuance.

Suggestions:

Associates could take turns facilitating the meetings.

One or two Associates would work with a Sister to organize the monthly meeting.
          Skype could be used to participate at the meetings from different locations.

The Associates could deepen their understanding of prayer, or the spirituality of the Order, by a book study: reading chapters of agreed upon books and then sharing on them together.

          Suggested books:

              “Why Not be a Mystic” by Frank X. Tuoti

              “A Pool in a Deep Forest” by Sr. Mary Catherine Parks, OSsR
                          “Florilegium” ‘A Bouquet of Words’ excerpts of the writing of
                                                   Ven. Mother Maria Celeste Crostarosa

 Books by William Johnston, sj

 “A Pool in a Deep Forest” is readily available from the Sisters and may be a good book to begin with.

Basic questions for reflection and sharing:  What resonated with me in these readings?   What challenged me?  How can I apply this to my life today?

The first meeting would be April 15, the third Sunday in April (Easter is on the second Sunday of the month).

It is advantageous to hold the meeting in a centrally located place.  There are three options for meeting places:  St. Peter’s rectory in Kingston, St. Augustine’s in Highland, and Sacred Heart in Esopus.  

It was suggested to keep the outline of the meeting simple: open it with a prayer, facilitate the discussion and then close with Evening Prayer.  (A Sister said she could make an Evening Prayer booklet based on the Liturgy of the Hours which the Associates could always use.)  Whoever was responsible for that meeting could be as creative as they wished. Refreshments could follow.

It is desirous to meet at least twice a year at the new Redemptoristine monastery.  The Associates could car pool.   The Associate morning reflection and Commitment Mass on September 9, 2012, would be hosted at the new monastery.

This discussion of envisioning New Beginnings for a New Year will continue at the February 12 meeting.