Praying for Souls in the Prison of Purgatory

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace. Amen.

During the month of November, we are reminded once again of the privilege to assist our loved ones and all our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in Christ.

These are days filled with faith in believing that the souls of our beloved, who are still being deprived of the vision of God, may speedily attain the joy of Eternal Life through our prayers and sacrifices. We hold the keys to help open the gate of heaven for them since they can no longer help themselves. To the apostle of Mercy, Saint Maria Faustina, Jesus has revealed this mystery…

Today bring to Me the souls who are in the prison of Purgatory and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. Let the torrents of My Blood cool down their scorching flames.

All these souls are greatly loved by Me. They are making retribution to My justice. It is in your power to bring them relief. Draw all the indulgences from the treasury of My Church and offer them on their behalf.

Oh, if you only knew the torments they suffer, you would continually offer for them the alms of the spirit and pay off their debt to My justice.

The treasury of the Church that Christ speaks about is the spiritual goods of the communion of saints: “the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God.” And, the Church, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Jesus Christ, has the authority to open this treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints so that we may obtain from the Father the remission of the temporal punishments due to sins (CCC 1474-1479). We have the power to bring relief to the Holy Souls who are being purified by gaining indulgence for them. Here are the different ways we can do that:

During the month of November: Each day, we can receive plenary indulgence to apply to a particular soul by visiting a cemetery and pray (even mentally if one is unable to so physically) for the departed. This is an exceptional decree that is being granted to us by the Apostolic Penitentiary due to COVID.

 Throughout the year we can also gain plenary indulgence for souls by:

• Eucharistic Adoration. “Visit the Blessed Sacrament for adoration lasting at least a half hour.”

• Praying the Rosary. “Devoutly recite the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, or in a family, or at gatherings of baptized Christians

• Reading or listening to Sacred Scriptures for at least a half an hour; if the time is less, the indulgence will be partial.

• Pray the Stations of the Cross.

We may choose who the indulgence applies to: either ourselves or to a holy soul in purgatory.

 Fulfill all these three conditions:

• Go to confessions.

• Receive Holy Communion.

• Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father. One Our Father and one Hail Mary fully satisfies this.

Over all, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most efficacious means of alleviating the suffering of our deceased loved ones.

A novena of masses will be offered at 8:00 a.m. in our Monastery Chapel for all our beloved departed from November 13, 2021 to November 21, 2021.

Please join us in offering prayers and sacrifices for all the Holy Souls by mailing us the form at the end of this blog with the names of your loved ones whom you wish for us to especially remember during the month.

In remembering our deceased loved ones, we are filled with hope that we too may join them one day and together we shall know the goodness of Our Father as we encounter His deep love and mercy for us.

Deo Gratias!

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ALL SOULS DAY
November 2, 2021

Please remember my dear loved ones during the month of November.

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Requested By:

Name: ---------------------------------------------------------------

Address: -------------------------------------------------------------

E-mail: ---------------------------------------------------------------

Mail to: Dominican Nuns | Corpus Christi Monastery | 215 Oak Grove Ave. | Menlo Park, CA 94025

Lesson in Contrasts: A Reflection by our Sister Postulant

As part of our Christmas preparations, our community holds a Joyous Chapter on December 23rd. Included in the Chapter is the reading of one of the Christmas Gospels and a reflection is given by the youngest member of the community. This year’s reflection was given by our postulant sister and we joyfully share it with you.

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Just last week during our Free Day, the novitiate had a mini art lesson with Sister Marie Dominic. One of the things I learned was that in a piece of art, your eyes will automatically focus on the area where the colors contrast the most. So for example in this piece of art, our eyes will eventually focus here, on Mary’s crown, because it is the area where the colors greatly contrast.

What does this have to do with our Gospel reading tonight? I ask you to please stay with me.

Jesus is our God, our King, our Savior, but at his birth, he was laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. A king born not in a palace nor in a hospital with doctors, but in a stable with animals. How great is the contrast in that scenario? But, if we remember our art lesson, the focal point of a piece of art is the area where the colors contrast the most. Perhaps in the deeply contrasting situation of Jesus’s birth, God is inviting us to see, to take a deeper look.

To see that amidst the Poverty of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Richness.

To see that amidst the Humility of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Power.

To see that amidst the Silence of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Glory.

To see that amidst the Solitude of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Intimacy.

To see that amidst the Vulnerability of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Strength.

To see that amidst the Darkness of Jesus’s birth, He is proclaiming that He is our True Light.

To see that amidst the Rejection at the Inn, He is proclaiming that He is our True Savior.

This made me reflect further on the contrasts of this monastic way of life, which I have been blessed to live for the past four months, thanks to the generosity of the community. Life is meaningful in the monastery precisely because of these contrasts.

Amidst the silence of the monastery, there is, in truth, a myriad of activities going on, all of which aim to serve and give glory to God. This myriad of activities, in turn foster the silence of our hearts, leading us to a more intimate union with God.

Amidst the solitude of the life, deeper bonds are actually formed within the community, allowing us to love and forgive one another even with minimal contact and with less words being spoken out loud. In turn, to nourish these bonds, a deeper solitude is yearned for, in order for us to learn how to love our neighbor even more.

Amidst the emptiness of the life - the emptiness of being away from our dearest loved ones, the emptiness of not having some physical comforts, the emptiness of surrendering our wills, time and preferences even in the littlest situations - these all contribute to making the life fuller, fuller in the awareness of God’s deep love for us. A moment with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament makes us forget the host of things we have had to give up. And in experiencing the fullness of God’s love for us, it moves us to empty ourselves even more of those little things which in the grander scale are unimportant, to make more room in our hearts for God.

Two years ago, I was in [our two current aspirants’] position - I was an aspirant in this monastery during the Christmas Season. I distinctly remember that after that year’s Joyous Chapter, I hurriedly went up to the novitiate library. Externally I was scanning the books on the shelves, but internally I was deeply distressed, asking God, “Lord, are you really calling me to this life? Because I really don’t want to do a sermon in front of the community when I enter.” And yet by the grace of God, here I am two years later, almost done with what distressed me so much back then. In keeping with the theme of contrasts in this reflection, kindly allow me to share that what distressed me so much back then has actually given me much peace right now, the peace of doing the will of God, no matter how distressing a situation may be.

“What distressed me so much back then has actually given me much peace right now, the peace of doing the will of God, no matter how distressing a situation may be.”

— Sister Postulant

Mary must have felt the deepest joy and peace as she gave birth to Jesus, even though she had to travel while pregnant and give birth in the most uncomfortable of situations. Mary’s full-hearted “yes” to God has given us the greatest contrast our world needs, the contrast of Jesus. In reflecting on the birth of Jesus, let us remember our art lesson: that the area where the colors contrast the most is the focal point of that piece of art. Perhaps what God wants to tell us is that amidst the poverty, humility, solitude, silence, vulnerability, darkness and rejection of our lives, we need only to keep our eyes and hearts on Jesus, our God, our King, our Savior.

Claimed by Mary: Under the Patronage of Mary in Her Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe

This week in the United States, we celebrate two great Marian feasts: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, our country’s patronal feast day, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who has been repeatedly declared the empress of – not just Latin America – all America. How did it come to be that America would fall so clearly under the patronage of our Lady? And what do these two aspects of our Lady mean for us today?

America is under the patronage of our Lady because, from the first, she has claimed us as her own.

This is something several bishops and popes have observed. How is this? The conception of our Lady had long been honored and celebrated in Christian Europe when Christopher Columbus made his voyage across the Atlantic to land on the shores of what would come to be called America. In fact, some historians say the full name of his lead ship was Santa Maria de la Concepcion and the second island to which he came, he named Santa Maria de la Concepcion (the first island he dubbed San Salvador). Then, with more Spanish explorers came missionaries, who brought their love and devotion of the Blessed Virgin to the native people.

Yet the missionaries had great difficulties in preaching the Gospel to the native people of America. Their religion had a deep hold on them and included dark practices, including human sacrifice. Additionally, some of the explorers were ruthless in their quest for fame and riches and at times resorted to harsh treatment, violence, and cruelty against the native people. Don Juan de Zumárraga, a Franciscan friar who was named the first bishop of Mexico, worked valiantly to defend the native peoples and preach the Gospel to them, but the situation escalated to the point he knew a miracle would be necessary to both protect the native people and to have their minds and hearts be open to the Gospel and coming to Christ. He redoubled his commitment to prayer and fasting, asking our Lady for her intercession.

It was then that our Lady appeared to a simple native man, Juan Diego, who had converted to Christianity. Beginning on December 9, 1531, she appeared to Juan Diego and asked that he go to the bishop and convey the message that she desired a Church to be built on the hill where they were standing, that the people might seek her aid and she might be of aid and comfort to the people. When Juan Diego relayed our Lady’s message to the bishop, he was cautious and skeptical. So our Lady sent Juan Diego back to the bishop with a sign – a bouquet of Castilian roses arranged by her own hands in Juan Diego’s tilma, or cloak. She gave Juan Diego instructions to not open his tilma until he was with the bishop. Now the sign of the roses was already miraculous, for it was not the season for roses and Castilian roses are not native to Mexico. But something even more remarkable was to happen – when Juan Diego opened his tilma and let the roses fall, an image of Our Lady was to be seen on the tilma, an image not made by human hands and extraordinary in every detail.

The chapel was built as our Lady had requested and, suddenly, the people gave up human sacrifice, idolatry and vices and flocked to the Christian faith in astounding numbers. This was before national boundaries were established, and our Lady made it clear that she was the mother of all in this “new land”, a claim recognized by bishops and popes throughout history since.

Fast forward about 300 years – it is May 13, 1846 and the bishops of the United States are gathered in the city of Baltimore for a council. On that day, they issued a decree announcing that they “unanimously approve and consent that [they] have chosen the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as the Patroness of the United States of America…” Subsequently, they submitted a request to the Holy See that their decision be approved by the pope, which was done by decree on July 2, 1847. Since that time, Mary’s patronage of the United States in her Immaculate Conception has been reaffirmed.

As we celebrate these two great Marian feasts, we should, especially during these times, meditate on these titles of our Lady and what we can learn through them. Both the Immaculate Conception and our Lady of Guadalupe hold for us many graces and virtues, especially faith, hope and charity particularly when facing suffering, darkness, and evil.

In her Immaculate Conception, Mary, who was to be the Mother of the only-begotten Son, is “ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent” (Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX, Dec. 8, 1854). This was a singular gift of God, in consideration of the salvation Jesus would obtain for us by his life, suffering, death and resurrection. By God’s grace, Mary has completely triumphed over Satan and the powers of evil.

On the 50th anniversary of Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius X promulgated a beautiful encyclical, On the Immaculate Conception. In it he highlights the darkness of the times and the brightness of the hope presented in the Immaculate Conception, and he highlights the great benefits of devotion to our Lady in her Immaculate Conception, particularly in combatting attitudes and ideas that remain prevalent and dangerous today.

First, there is a great temptation and trap to deny or minimize sin and to not admit we have fallen from grace, we cannot lift ourselves up by our bootstraps, that we truly need a Savior. Devotion to the Immaculate Conception demands we acknowledge the reality of sin and our need for a savior, and it gives us hope, because in Mary and the Immaculate Conception we see God’s superabundant grace, mercy and love for us, as well as a model of what it is to live without sin. As Saint Ambrose pointed out, “Such was Mary that her life is an example for all. Have then before your eyes, as an image, the virginity and life of Mary from whom as from a mirror shines forth the brightness of chastity and the form of virtue.”

Devotion to the Immaculate Conception also leads us to greater docility and submission to Christ and His Church. While Mary does not have productive power of grace – that belong to God alone – she has been deemed by God as the conduit of grace, by virtue of her being the mother of the Source of grace. “Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her breast, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.” (On the Immaculate Conception, 6). And as Christ is our head, Saint Bernardine of Siena observes, “she is the neck of Our Head, by which He communicates to His mystical body all spiritual gifts.”

In his encyclical, Pope Pius X goes on to quote a passage from Revelation, “a great sign appeared – a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head,” which brings us back to Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the miraculous image, we see a pregnant woman, clothed with the sun, standing on the moon with a cloak of stars. When Juan Diego had tried to evade meeting our Lady because he was worried about his uncle and was fetching a priest to give him last rites, Mary appeared to him on his detour and reassured him with these words: “Am I not your Mother?” Yes, “is not Mary the Mother of Christ? Then she is our Mother also.” (On the Immaculate Conception, 10). As we continue to meditate on the Immaculate Conception of Mary and on her appearances to us as our Lady of Guadalupe, we vividly see tender concern for all human life and the ultimate triumph of God’s grace and mercy in the face of seemingly overwhelming suffering and evil. Our hearts and minds are warmed and we can experience true freedom, peace, and reconciliation with all creation, and all people, in Christ, through Mary.

Advent is the perfect time to rekindle and renew our devotion to our Lady. As we prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas, let us seek Mary to journey with her and learn from her. It was she who shared intimately in the life and work of her Son, Jesus. If we want to know Jesus, who better to guide and instruct us than Mary? After all, it was

“with her alone of all others Jesus was for thirty years united, as a son is usually united with a mother, in the closest ties of intimacy and domestic life. Who better than His mother could have an open knowledge of the admirable mysteries of the birth and childhood of Christ, and above all the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the beginning and the foundation of faith?” (On the Immaculate Conception, 7).

Mary kept all these mysteries and pondered them in her heart. Let us ponder them too, especially in praying the Joyful Mysteries of our Lady’s Rosary.

Mary is also ever present to us with her maternal care, if we only will turn to her as her children. But we must turn with our whole heart and will. If our honor and devotion to our Lady does not keep us from committing sin, if it does not move our will to amend our lives, to turn from evil and vices and to learn to do good, to cultivate a life of goodness, truth and beauty and to shine forth the mercy of Christ to others, then we are deceiving ourselves and our devotion is false. Mary is there when we fall, when we lose our way in the darkness, when we “run out of wine” and don’t know where else to turn – we only need to ask with softened hearts and open minds. And if we cannot, then may we ask for the grace to do so. May the “Yes” of Mary’s fiat to God be the first and ever ready word on our own lips and may we learn from her the true meaning of life and love, freedom and victory.

Mary, Immaculate Virgin and our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Refectory Reading Review: Lectio Mary

Our community has been the blessed beneficiary of recorded content produced by The Augustine Institute.  Most recently, we listened to Lectio Mary: The Bible and the Mother of God as part of our meal reading.  There was so much engaging material presented in this series, that listening to it once was not enough; a group of us met weekly to go through the series again as a group lectio exercise, following the accompanying workbook.  If you want to know why Mary is so important to Catholics or want to deepen your relationship with Jesus and Mary, this series is for you.

The presenter in the series is Dr. Brant Pitre, Distinguished Research Professor of Scripture at The Augustine Institute.  He received his Ph.D. in New Testament and ancient Judaism from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana and focuses his teaching and writing on the Bible and on the Jewish roots of Scripture and Christianity.  Over the course of eight sessions, averaging 30 – 40 minutes each, Dr. Pitre explores seven different aspects of Mary by examining the Old and New Testaments, as well as teachings by the Church Fathers.  He clears up many misconceptions about Mary and explains what the Catholic Church believes and teaches; his approach to these issues is clear and understandable while remaining very engaging.

The accompanying workbook gave the lectio group great questions to help facilitate study, meditation, and discussions on the material presented in the sessions.  There were many things presented through the sessions and questions asked in the workbook that were new to some of us, or the topics were approached in a unique way, which made them all the more richer in application to our spiritual lives. 

As Catholics, what we believe about Mary is rooted in Jesus, and as we deepen our relationship with Mary, she always leads us to her Son, Jesus.  This is even more vital during these times in which we live.  We need to cultivate our relationship with our Mother Mary, who is the new Eve, the Mother of the Messiah, our Queen, and the Mother of Sorrows.  This Saturday is the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, a day we can imitate her example in presenting ourselves to God.  Next month, with Advent and Christmas, is the perfect season to grow closer to Jesus through Mary.  We cannot recommend this series enough for those looking to deepen their love for Mary and gain a clearer understanding of her proper role in our lives as Christians.

Our Lady's Message: Prayer and Penance

Since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, pain and suffering have been part of every person’s earthly life. Yet there are certain moments in human history that seem darker than the rest, as if all of humanity were racing toward the edge of a cliff. While history will tell whether we are experiencing one of those times now, there is no question that the pain and suffering of our day is, in many ways, unprecedented. During the month of October, it is good to once again remember what we have been told repeatedly by our Lady when she has appeared in our troubled past – as followers of Christ, we are called to undertake penance and prayer.

The specific prayer recommended time and again by Our Lady is the Holy Rosary. We have written before about praying the Rosary, this most beautiful prayer of our Lady that guides us to meditate on the Gospel and leads us to her Son and our Savior Jesus. It is a prayer that changes hearts and lives as it calls down God’s grace and transforms us as it keeps us under the protective mantle of our Blessed Mother. During October, the month devoted to the Holy Rosary, we invite you to join us in renewing a commitment to this prayer.

But what about penance, the other side of this coin? If all is mercy and we are forgiven, why does God require penance?

Most of us approach penance from the wrong direction. We hear “penance” and we immediately equate it with a disagreeable hardship, something we endure for a time, like giving up chocolate Lent, or something we are told to do by the priest in confession. So, we add “penance” to a to-do list and… Check! Done! Now we can move on to something more pleasurable. But that’s not exactly what God meant when He said “take up your cross”, and it’s not how the Church and saints understand penance. As Dom Hubert van Zeller points out in his book, “Approach to Penance”, these may be acts of penance, and are indeed often a good place to start, but true penance goes much deeper than that.

True penance demands a complete surrender of self to the will of God. Penance that is worth anything is not simply a turning from something, but it is a turning to Someone.

Often our acts of penance are inspired by feelings of remorse. We recognize we did something wrong or are overly attached to something (or someone) and we are remorseful. Yet, true penance does not stop at remorse – it must go forward to trust. It is this confusion of remorse and penance that leads to seeing penance as only external acts to be performed instead of a habitual disposition of the soul – a virtue – to be cultivated. Penance as a virtue begins in humility - in acknowledging that God is all and compared to God we are nothing - AND it goes further to have complete confidence and trust in God’s loving mercy.

Why does this matter? Because everyone is called to penance, but not everyone is called to perform the heroic acts of penance we often read about in the lives of the saints. Dom Hubert van Zeller warns us that if we approach penance as only acts to be performed, then we risk falling into one of two errors.

First, we may avoid true penance all together. We say to God, “I’ll give this, but not that”, which means we haven’t really given our whole selves to Him. We can also fall into pride by going down our list of sacrifices and congratulating ourselves at how much we’ve given God. In both cases, the emphasis is on the “I”. It is much better to say, “God, here I am. Take whatever, whenever, however You want.” And then trust that He will give you the grace and strength you will need when He takes you at your word.

The second error we can fall into is to have the desire to deny ourselves, but to be disillusioned because we can’t do as much as the saints, or even perhaps other individuals we know – we aren’t strong enough, or our vocations don’t allow us to perform such heroic acts of penance. Yet penance as a virtue means that the merit of the act is based on the intention of the will. It is the denial of self that is the substance of true penance.

Remember what Jesus said about the poor woman who gave two coins in the collection - she gave more than all the others who came before her because she gave from her poverty; she gave all she had to give. That is all Jesus asks of us - to willingly give all, whether that means two coins or 20 coins doesn’t matter to Him, as long as it is everything.

If we have the desire to give ourselves to God through penance - whether to atone for our own sins or in reparation for the sins of others - it is because God has first instilled in us that desire. This should give us greater faith and hope in Him, because along with the desire, He will give us the grace - Jesus Himself will help us - to complete the gift. Yet we must keep in mind that penance is the way of the cross. It is the way of love, to be sure, but it is also that way of faith and it is a work. In picking up the cross - in developing the virtue of penance - our sole motive should be to please God. We must also realize that we will be called to bear the cross in a shape we didn’t bargain for and that the really effective part is not what we do by way of self-denial but what God does in us by way of reproducing Jesus’ Passion in our everyday lives.

This is why humility and trust is so important - because when Jesus gives us a small part of His cross, or a thorn from His crown, or a share in the wounds He received under the lash, or the humiliation of being despised and ridiculed by others, He is asking us to join Him in His supreme gift of love. We cannot love Jesus completely if we do not also love what He loves, and He loved the cross. Not because he loves pain and suffering itself, but because He loves the Father’s will and He loves us and it is the cross that bridges the way between Him and us.

So how do we put all this into practice? How do we know what specific acts of penance God may be asking us to undertake to cultivate the virtue of penance in our souls?

Only grace will reveal what specifically we are to do, how we are to do it, and when or for how long. God speaks to us in many ways; here are some tips for discerning God’s voice:

• Read the Scriptures and the Catechism to learn more about what God and the Church teaches us about prayer and penance.

• Find out what the Pope and our bishops are asking us to do (i.e., are they asking the faithful to engage in specific prayers or acts of penance, such as fast days?).

• Seek counsel from a wise confessor or spiritual director. This is especially important before taking on more rigorous acts of penance. Remember, God prefers obedience to sacrifice.

• Consider your current disposition (i.e., temperament, health, etc.), vocation, and circumstances. God will not call us to take on crosses that are truly beyond our strength or in conflict with fulfilling our vocations (though, admittedly at first, it may feel like it!).

• Spend time in prayer and ask God for direction, then listen to what He speaks in your heart. And if you feel a nudge that doesn’t go away, take that seriously. Again, because we are approaching penance as a virtue and total gift of self, our prayer to God is not, “God what more can I give you today?” because, if we have truly given Him everything, we cannot give Him “more”. Rather, our prayer becomes, “God, I’ve given you all of me and with the help of your grace, I renew that gift of self. What would you have me do today?”

Finally, because penance is a virtue to be cultivated, it will take time and practice to grow strong in it. So, when we stumble, remember Jesus also fell under the weight of the cross - offer your weakness to Him with confidence, ask for the help of our Blessed Mother, rise and press forward once more. For the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

One Hour That Can Change Everything

This past Sunday we celebrated our monastic community’s feast day: Corpus Christi Sunday. And while it was an unprecedented celebration due to COVID-19 – no friends and family and Dominican brothers and sisters filling our chapel for Mass and Benediction, no reception after – one thing, the most important thing, did not change in the day’s liturgy and our keeping of holy hours – the remembrance and adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist.

One of our monastery’s practices that we inherited from one of our “grandmother” monasteries in France was a devotion to our Eucharistic Lord. The practice of perpetual adoration was first introduced to a Dominican monastery at Oullins, France, and every monastery that can trace its roots to Oullins inherited the privilege and practice of perpetual adoration, including the first Dominican monastery founded in the United States. Our monastery is also part of this line of perpetual adoration monasteries and it is one of the reasons why we were asked to found in San Francisco – to bring perpetual adoration to the Bay Area. How beautiful it is to see perpetual adoration chapels and holy hour devotions in so many parishes and kept by so many people in our area and beyond!

In his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, Venerable Fulton Sheen outlines some of the reasons why he began the practice of keeping a daily holy hour and why he encouraged everyone to make the same commitment.

1. The practice of keeping a holy hour is actually not a devotion – it is a sharing in the work of redemption. On the night Jesus experienced His agony in the garden, the night he was to be betrayed by one of his own and arrested and convicted to death, the night evil seemed to be let loose and it looked like it might win after all, Jesus asked his disciples to wait and pray with him. He was asking for an hour of redemption to combat the hour of evil in the world.

2. The night of his agony was the only time Jesus asked anything of his disciples, and he did not ask for activity – he asked for companionship. In particular, he singled out his three closest disciples, Peter James and John, to be particularly vigilant with him, as he was “sorrowful unto death”. He also advised them it was to their benefit that they keep watch and pray because he didn’t want his disciples to be caught off-guard, which they were as they gave into sleep. The same holds true for us – when we allow ourselves to spiritually slumber, we too are caught off-guard by temptation and evil.

3. The third reason Archbishop Sheen gives for keeping a holy hour is so that we may be made more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

“Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain. Something happens to us similar to that which happened to the disciples at Emmaus. On Easter Sunday afternoon when the Lord met them, He asked why they were so gloomy. After spending some time in His presence, and hearing again the secret of spirituality – ‘the Son of Man must suffer to enter into His Glory’ – their time with Him ended, and their ‘hearts were on fire.’”

To be sure, keeping a daily or even weekly holy hour is not always easy. Sacrifices of time and energy must be made. Archbishop Sheen describes a few of his experiences – missing social engagements in order to keep his Holy Hour commitment, having to rise extra-early to spend a holy hour before a day of travel, getting locked in churches at night because the pastor forgot to let him out at the end of the hour, falling asleep during a holy hour because he was so tired, and hours spent in dry, distracted prayer. We can relate to many of these.

Nonetheless, “the purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage deep personal encounter with Christ” and he considered his holy hour the “hour that makes the day”. Jesus is always there in the Eucharist, waiting for us. To gaze upon Him is to be reminded of how much He loves us NOW. Not just at Calvary – He comes to us today in the Eucharist. And He desires to transform us, to set us free. But He cannot do this unless we do our part and welcome the encounter.

But what if we can’t make it to a church or chapel for a holy hour with our Eucharistic Lord? In the days of COVID-19, access to churches and the Blessed Sacrament has been rare or simply not possible for most of us. Should we just forget the idea of keeping a holy hour with Jesus? Archbishop Sheen has a suggestion for that as well.

In speaking to Protestant pastors, he encouraged them to also keep a continuous Holy Hour of prayer to combat the forces of evil in the world:

“You are not blessed with the same Divine Presence in your churches that I believe we possess. But you do have another presence that we do also, and that is the Scripture. At the [Second] Vatican Council we had a solemn procession of the Scriptures into the Council every morning as a form of the Presence of God. You could make the Hour before the Scripture.”

So, if you are unable to keep a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, keep one with the Holy Scriptures, which is truly a form of Christ’s presence. We need these hours of prayer to combat the evil in our world, to allow Jesus to transform us and make us truly free. And Jesus thirsts for our companionship. One hour, that’s all it takes. The length of time of a primetime drama. But it can change the course of history – how shall we spend this hour?

Music Release for Pentecost

Chant is an integral part of our liturgical prayer and as a nun learns how to chant with the community, it becomes like breathing - it is the sacred music of the Holy Spirit. We simply become His instruments. Yet over the years, we’ve had many requests for us to record some of the chants we sing and make them available to the public.

This is the year! In celebration of Pentecost, we've recorded three singles under the album title “Veni Creator Spiritus” and arranged to have them released on Sunday, May 31st. Check your favorite music provider (iTunes, Spotify, etc.); on or after May 31st, where these three songs will be available for download. You can also click here to “Presave and Follow” via Spotify.

Deo gratias!

Sheltering-in-Place? Join Mary in the Upper Room

No doubt about it, we are living in painful and surreal times. As sheltering-in-place has become the “new normal”, some things in life have been forgone, others put on hold. But one thing that can and should grow and flourish is our faith and spiritual life. You are invited to join Mary in the upper room for a day of retreat, right where you are, as you are!

Wherever you are in life, whatever you’ve got going on, take a pause on Saturday May 30th to recenter and refuel. Bring your stresses, your worries, your shelter-in-place hair. Come as you are to live more authentically and fully.

Mary’s Retreat is a free one-day Catholic virtual retreat for young women (but all ages and men are welcome to register for the talks), taking place on Saturday, May 30th from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

We are created with beauty and potential, yet our world pressures us to fit a mold of perfection. Let’s set aside a Saturday to do something different, allow ourselves to be unfinished, and walk with each other towards greater wholeness as women.

The speakers include Sister Joseph Marie, O.P. of our community. Her talk is “Living Your Fiat” - “we all want to joyfully say YES to God. But how do we know His plan when we are faced with an overwhelming number of seemingly good choices in life? Sister Joseph Marie will share with you some principles to help you know God’s will and give you a few tools and examples for making wise decisions.” Other talks include: Mary, A Model for Discovering Our Feminine Identity; Superpowers from the Holy Spirit; God’s Plan for Healing; and What Women Saints Can Teach Us.

Plan to spend the day before Pentecost with Mary in the upper room in prayer and fellowship with other young women, right where you are, as you are. Visit Mary’s Retreat for more details and register today!

Our Only Hope

For most of us, the beginning of Lent was like any other. We chose which Lenten practices we wanted to do, if possible, we made a point to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday, and we settled in for another 40-day season of purple. But we did not count on this: ending Lent and spending the Holy Triduum sheltering at home, social distancing, with sickness, death, economic difficulties and stress looming over us. We did not choose this cross. And yet, because of it, God is using it to give us a tremendous opportunity to more deeply enter into the sacred mysteries of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. What we need, now more than ever, is hope.

Hope is an overused and often little-understood word. Hope, as a theological virtue, is a gift from God infused in our souls at baptism, which enables us to “move and stretch forth toward the arduous good”, that is by hope we reach toward the goodness of God even when it isn’t easy. Hope enables us to desire God above all things and to trust Him for our salvation. Hope anchors us in God, no matter what storms or difficulties may arise. “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf…” (Hebrews 6:19-20).

While it is a gift from God, we must cooperate with God’s grace by exercising the virtue of hope given to us. Right now, we are in a unique place of human history. Nearly the entire world has been knocked off balance – our universal human frailty has been laid bare to us - where will we turn? To whom will we go? What do we really desire? These are questions each of us must answer for ourselves, and, because we change over time (even from moment to moment), we must answer them repeatedly.

Over the next three days as we walk with Jesus through his final days and hours before His death, consider the disciples of Jesus. Two of the most prominent are Peter and Judas. Both were intimate companions of Jesus for three years: they traveled with him, ate with him, shared in his ministry. When given the opportunity to leave, they didn’t, and Peter even professed him the long-awaited Messiah. But what happened that fateful Passover? Why did Judas betray Jesus? Why did Peter deny him?

We are told in the Gospel of John that Judas was a thief – he placed his hope in material goods. He must have had some abilities with money, for he was entrusted with the group’s finances and embezzled from them. We tend to think our weaknesses as our trouble areas, but Judas shows us that it is often our strengths and gifts that can be our downfall. Some commentators have also theorized that Judas was a Zealot and was hoping in a political Messiah that would free the Jews from the power of the Romans; if that is true, then he also desired worldly power. Whatever his motivation, and as with most of us it was likely mixed, Judas sinned against hope in his ultimate despair – he gave up on the goodness of Jesus, on the goodness of God and His mercy.

Peter also sinned against hope in his pride and presumption. He did not trust in God, but rather trusted in himself to stand firm by Jesus, and he failed bitterly. There is another way we can sin through presumption – by taking for granted God’s almighty power or His mercy. Many slip into some kind of presumption all too easily – we give lip service to God, but trust in our own abilities, our wealth, our power or our influence. We think we meant well, we wanted God’s glory, but we wanted it on our terms, in our way, and in our time.

Or perhaps we just didn’t take time for God. We were too busy with our life activities and told ourselves, “I’ll go to Mass / prayer / confession, etc. next week, when things slow down, etc.” Or we put off discerning our vocation or taking a particular action we feel God calling us to do. But the problem with this presumption is that eventually, for all of us, there will be no next week. By not making a decision or taking action, the door will eventually close for good. The result of these presumptions is that, at best, we become lukewarm in our faith, and, at worst, we because haughty and prideful, despising God. Yet, before we console ourselves by thinking lukewarm is better than prideful after all, we should remember Jesus told Saint Faustina that lukewarm souls caused Him His greatest suffering in the garden of his agony.

So what are we to do? Stand firm, take heart, and hope in God.

• If we want hope, we need to humbly ask God for it. Make frequent acts of hope.

O my God, relying on your infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of your grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

• Avoid complaining, murmuring and making negative or critical comments. Avoid media, television and movies that have negative messages or dialogue. This does not mean living in a false optimism or denying the truth of something truly sad or evil; but it does mean we put things in proper perspective and keep our eyes on Jesus, His Kingdom and trust He has a much bigger plan for our supreme good.

• Hope is closely linked to the virtues of humility and magnanimity. We need to acknowledge our wretched sinfulness AND acknowledge that we are beloved children of God. The cross tells us both these things - it was the price of our sins, and Jesus embraced it out of infinite love.

• We practice magnanimity by seeking to do great things for God. And we need to see “great things” as God sees them. By the world’s standards, Mary, Jesus, the disciples and most of the saints were failures. But God sees and works differently – we need to be unreserved and generous, surrendering to God and let Him work through us as He wills. Begin with small acts of kindness for others. Write a friend or loved one a note or letter expressing your gratitude for that person. Keep gratitude and hope lists - the gratitude list for all the things and people for which your are grateful; the hope list for those you encounter who need encouragement or a boost of hope - commit to pray for them and check in with them periodically.

• Hope is also closely linked with the beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” By hope, we desire God’s goodness, we desire to see Him face to face, we desire heaven for all eternity. And we desire it above all things. To strengthen this desire, we must detach our hearts from anything that keeps us from moving toward God, the “Earthly P’s”: pleasures, possessions, power and prestige. The fifth “P”, pride, underlies all of them as self-centered love. For some of us, this means God will call us to renounce them completely. For others, he asks us to discipline our use of them, holding them with open hands. Begin by giving away items that are burdening you with clutter or which are little used. Give someone a little extra time and attention. Volunteer to help someone who needs an extra hand. Deny yourself little comforts and pleasures and offer your sacrifice to Jesus. If you are used to being in control and making decisions, let someone else take the wheel - this is a great way to practice surrendering: when we do this, we must realize it won’t go all our own way and probably won’t be done as we would do it, but the more we let go of control, the freer we become and the happier we will be.

Over the course of the Triduum, let’s enter into the Gospel passages we hear and read. As our chaplain is fond of saying, it is not a distant tale about someone else. This is our story. How have we failed in the past? How have we betrayed or denied Jesus? How have we run away in fear? Whatever it is, let us bring it to the cross. Let us stand with Mary and Mary Magdalene and John. Let us join our sorrows with theirs, and let us hope for our resurrection day and the eternal joy of seeing God face to face, to know Him as we are known. Hail holy cross, our only hope!

Light Shines in the Darkness

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

-Gospel of John, chapter 1, vs. 1-5

Since March 17th, when San Mateo County’s “Shelter-in-Place” order went into effect, our monastery has become quieter than usual. We used to be surrounded by sounds of suburbia - kids playing, the Nativity school bell ringing across the street, the white noise of traffic passing by, the buzzing of power tools from the neighbors’ gardening and home improvement projects and most recently, road construction. But now, few sounds of suburbia are drifting over the walls. To comply with the directives we’ve been given and to protect our visitors, our chapel is closed, so there are also no sounds of people coming, going, praying with us and we acutely feel the emptiness. Yet there is also a much greater intensity about our life. The fear, anger, and suffering of those affected by the coronavirus pandemic pierces our hearts with compassion. If we seem more silent and have fewer our posts, it is not because we have nothing to share, but rather because our first priority is to respond to this time in fidelity to our vocation - gathering hurting souls all the more closely to our hearts and bringing them before God with our increased prayers and sacrifices.

But all is not darkness - evil does not have the last word. Today, we celebrate the Annunciation of our Lord Jesus Christ - the Word becomes flesh! Today the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a humble, poor Jewish girl, and told her she was to be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah - God-with-Us! We have tremendous reason to hope and there is evidence of this reason for hope springing forth all around us - people volunteering to serve those most in need during this time, priests and religious using innovative ways to reach out and minister to the faithful, families and communities coming together and taking advantage of opportunities for renewal. God is certainly still with us and we rejoice at all these beautiful signs of life amidst the darkness.

Yet as we enter into the second week of “shelter-in-place”, there are also very practical human issues that people sheltering at home are facing or will face: boredom, increased emotional responses, and more. This is not new - every woman who enters the cloister has to navigate through the waters of transitioning from a life of free movement, activity, noise and distraction in the world to one lived in a smaller physical environment with the same group of women. So how do we help one another stay healthy and thrive, whether in a cloister or sheltering at home? Here are some common challenges we face and ways to look at them as opportunities for growth.

First Challenge: Admitting we are not in control. Many young women entering our cloister are capable, independent women used to charting their own course in big and small ways. But eventually in life, something happens - we get married or enter religious life, we encounter a life-changing event or a crisis - and we are faced with the reality that, ultimately, we are not, and never really were, in control.

Opportunity: Make an act of surrender to God and grow in trust of Him. To do this, we need to personally encounter God again and again and let Him love us. Then ask Him to direct our steps. It takes great humility to admit we are not in control, yet there is also tremendous freedom when we do acknowledge that truth and surrender to God with trust. Trusting prayer is foundational to everything else in our day. Each morning and each night, make a simple act of surrender: “Jesus, I trust in You.” Then listen for Him, for He invites each of us: “Rest in Me and in My love for you. Be still and know that I am God.”

Second Challenge: Losing the security of the “usual.” Even the most spontaneous people have some routine for parts of their day - it’s human. And for most people, life revolves around school, work, social activities and so on. In fact, we are often exhausted with all that we have crammed into our schedules as “must do’s”. With most, if not all, of that gone or drastically altered during this time, it can be hard to gain a foothold and we can start spinning our wheels, wasting time and energy.

Opportunity: Rediscover what’s really important in life and create a daily plan (and the physical space) that reflects those priorities. Our time and our energy are our two most precious commodities in life - gifts from God - and it is important that we invest them well. In the monastery, the day is generally broken into one and two-hour blocks of time, which are dedicated to specific activities, all of which are directed to supporting our vocation as cloistered nuns: prayer, work, meals, recreation, study, and so on. When a period ends, then the activity of that period stops. For example, when a sister is to be in the chapel for her holy hour, she sets aside her work until the next work period. When the sisters are called to prayer at the end of recreation, socializing ceases and we move into our time before God. Of course, the daily plan of a cloistered nun will be different from that of a mother of three or a young professional because our vocations are different. And even within vocations, specific circumstances will affect the daily plans of individuals. Nonetheless, when we put a time limit on an activity, it’s amazing what we can get done in that time; we also realize many of the things that were on our “must do” list can actually get done in a simpler way or can be deferred, delegated, or scratched off the list completely.

In the monastery, physical spaces are also dedicated to different tasks. For example, the choir is dedicated to liturgy and personal prayer and a common room is dedicated to work and recreation. Computers are not taken to the cells because the cell is a place of prayer, study and rest. The same concept can help in a home or apartment, though on a much smaller scale: a chair, a lamp a Bible, crucifix and a saint’s image makes a dedicated prayer corner. A table under a window with office supplies in drawers on on a bookcase serves as an office or study desk, and so on. By keeping clear boundaries around time and space and guarding them as much as possible, we are helped in maintaining life balance and in transitioning from one activity of the day to another.

Third Challenge: “Why am I so…?!” Our daily lives in the world are full of external stimuli and noise, things that can distract us from ourselves. When young women first enter the monastery, they are often surprised what they learn or rediscover about themselves (and we don’t always like what we learn!). This can be an additional stress unless we take the time to A.I.R.: 1) Acknowledge what we are experiencing, 2) Investigate the who, what, where, when, why and how, and 3) Respond accordingly.

Opportunity: We are fearfully and wonderfully made - we must know God, know ourselves, and balance the “four corners” of human life. There are four facets of human life that need some attention every day to keep us not just surviving but thriving: physical life, emotional life, intellectual life, and spiritual life. For ease, we separate them as categories, but in reality they are all interconnected - a problem in one area often manifests itself in another. So, it is also important to be aware of how they connect and to keep them in balance.

• Our physical life includes our biological and environmental needs: sleep/rest, nutrition/hydration, physical activity, relaxation, and our stewardship of material goods and natural resources. In a more secluded environment without as much external stimuli, we will start to notice whether we’ve chronically neglected our bodies or our environment. It may take us a while to feel caught up on sleep or the cleaning and organization projects we’ve been ignoring will start to eat at us. While we don’t want to pamper our bodies or obsess over everything around us being perfect, now more than ever, each of us should make an effort to ensure we are addressing our physical needs to the best of our ability. Go to be early. Prepare simple, nutritious meals with family or roommates. Dedicate 30 minutes or an hour each day to tackle those scrapbooks or clean out the closet. Go for walks if you can get out, or put on some music and just dance!

• Our emotional life is where our biology meets our soul. Our emotions are physical responses to things we perceive. We might assume our emotional responses would be more calm now because we don’t have to interact with those people and situations that we perceive as pushing our buttons. But actually, the exact opposite often happens - we become more emotional. Why? Because the “problem” is not outside of us. Our emotions go with us, our triggers are our own and we cannot run away from them. In a closed environment, things that were “little annoyances” become big problems because we have fewer outlets and distractions. To take care of ourselves emotionally, we need to spend some time each day nurturing our hearts. Read an inspirational story or watch a saint movie via FORMed. Connect with family and friends. Take a walk or simply sit outside and watch nature. Relax with music. Take up art or a hobby. When you feel your emotions rising, step back and A.I.R. - Acknowledge the emotion, Investigate why, and Respond accordingly.

• Our intellectual life is not about “being smart” - it’s much more than that We are rational beings and forming our intellect helps us grow in faith, make right decisions, and broaden our worldview (this is especially important right now). Without continuous effort to learn and “think outside our box”, our world becomes very narrow and we can become very small-minded, focusing only on ourselves. Make it a goal to learn something new every day, and in particular, to learn something about the faith. There are so many resources available now for people who want to feed their minds and souls. We have some of our favorites on our website here.

• The last corner is our spiritual life. This is both the beginning and the end. The beginning, because we can do nothing apart from God and need to spend time with Him and grow in our spiritual life. It is the end because we can’t grow well until we have begun to exercise discipline in the other three areas of our life. God is inviting all of us into a deeper relationship with Him, but it is up to us to respond. Now is the time to cultivate prayer and Scripture reading with your family and friends, as well as alone. Start small, take one step at a time.

Final tips:

• When you’re feeling like things are closing in, or you’re tempted to complain, do a kindness for someone else. It doesn’t have to be a big act, but by doing something kind for someone else (without any strings or expectations), it helps us get outside ourselves and the rut of negativity we can fall into.

• Be firm but gentle with yourself. Some of us are very weak in taking care of ourselves in one or more of these areas, so pick one and start small, but stick with it. It takes time and repetition to build up our soul’s “virtue muscle.”

• Every day, work AND play, spend time together AND make room for silence. Work promotes the dignity of our person, so every person in the household should be given an opportunity to take their share of responsibility. Yet, we were made for leisure, for resting in God, so make sure work comes to an end. We also were made for communion, so make time for common activities - meals, games, or chores such as baking or cooking can be great for sharing. At the same time, each of us has some need for silence, and some of us have a greater need for solitude and silence than others. If we are not used to silence, in the beginning it can be very uncomfortable to shut off all devices and media and spend time alone; in silence we have to face ourselves, our loneliness, our woundedness and we most intimately encounter God. It’s much easier to check social media, text messages, or flip on the television. Nonetheless, if we invest in spending time each day in prayerful silence, we will reap great graces and we do an act of charity to those in our households who truly need that solitude and silence for their emotional, intellectual and spiritual health.

Blessed Mother, pray for us!