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?

Strong Sisters: Bl. Diana and Cecilia

If you want inspiration for living feminine genius as a holy woman of strength, fortitude with gentleness, today’s Dominican saints give plenty to ponder. Blessed Diana and Cecilia were two of the first nuns of the Order of Preachers in Italy, and both of them faced difficult challenges in pursuing their vocation to give themselves completely to God as His bride.

Bl. Cecilia was a nun in Rome when she and her community first met Saint Dominic. Our Holy Father Dominic had been asked by the pope to reform the women religious of Rome, as most of them had grown lax in their observances. Dominic’s proposal to the nuns was to essentially come together and refound themselves under his direction as nuns of the Order of Preachers. His words and the workings of the Holy Spirit persuaded them. But before they could complete the arrangements, their families protested. They had gotten used to the lax practices, to being able to enter and leave the monastery enclosure and visit their female relatives in the monastery. The nuns began to waiver. Dominic came again and strengthened them in their resolve and they didn’t look back. When the way was made for a monastery of nuns to be founded in Bologna, made possible in large part because of Bl. Diana, Bl. Cecilia was asked to go to Bologna and teach the new nuns there the ways of the Dominican life.

To read the story of Bl. Diana is to meet a dynamic, passionate woman. From a noble background, she loved fashion and parties, and was considered beautiful and charming. Her parents had high hopes for a good marriage for her. Then, one day, a couple Dominican friars came into Bologna where they lived and began preaching. Diana was captivated…and experienced a turning point in her life. She began to engage in long periods of prayer and undertook acts of greater penance and sacrifice. When the friars needed a place to build a priory, Diana convinced her father to give them the land they needed. But when she decided to build a monastery for Dominican nuns and enter herself, her family forbid it.

Not to be outdone, she came up with a plan to have her way. She visited an Augustinian monastery and, to the surprise of her party visiting with her, she suddenly slipped inside and donned the habit! Stunned, they immediately reported her actions to her family. Her brothers were sent to fetch her, forcibly if necessary. And in the struggle, Diana suffered a broken rib that left her convalescing, imprisoned in her family home. Her family forbid that she have contact with the friars, but Dominic, and after his death his successor, Blessed Jordan of Saxony, slipped to her notes and words of encouragement. Eventually, due to the influence of Bl. Jordan and the workings of the Holy Spirit, Divine Providence cleared the way for Diana’s vocation - her family relented and she happily joined the ranks of Dominican nuns at the new monastery in Bologna.

We are indebted to these women in many ways: it is because of Bl. Cecilia that we know the appearance of Our Holy Father Dominic; her description of his physical appearance is the only one we have. And we are grateful for Bl. Diana and her community; they have preserved letters from Bl. Jordan to Diana which reveal much about the second Master of our Order and some of the happenings at the time, as well as provide a beautiful description of spiritual friendship. And they each model for us feminine genius lived with ingenuity, fortitude and grace under fire.

Blessed Diana and Blessed Cecilia, pray for us!

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!

The Bride’s Love of God: The Response, Uniquely Dominican

Part Three of the Portrait of a Cloistered Dominican Nun Series.

A Dominican nun lives a contemplative life at the heart of the Church – something in common with all cloistered contemplative religious. But the full flowering of her contemplative vocation is uniquely Dominican: the liturgy and sacraments form the foundation of her prayer; her mind is renewed and enlightened through study, which guides her will and disciplines her heart; through Dominican common life, she becomes one in heart and mind with her sisters in God; and by living her vows as a cloistered nun, she preaches to others that God alone suffices.

Her life is liturgical and sacramental, that is, a life founded on liturgical prayer and the sacraments. As a cloistered religious, the Church entrusts to her the mission of praying for and on behalf of the Church and the world. Seven times a day, she is called to the choir by her Beloved, to make an offering of sacrifice and praise and call down His graces for His people and the world. This grace, like blood in a body, is sent out to all the Church’s members for their needs. She also cherishes the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. As the sacrament of unity, it is the sacrament of contemplation, the sacrament of eternal life. It is Christ Jesus Himself.

The life of a Dominican nun is doctrinal. Her love for her Beloved is nourished through her study. If we do not know our faith, we run a grave risk of falling into error or even heresy. Study submits us to Truth and the teaching authority of the Church. Study is also absolutely indispensable for apostles. For we cannot love what (or who) we do not know – a Dominican nun studies so as to know her Beloved all the more and to be able to express her affective knowledge of Him to others. God grants us knowledge of Him in our heart through love; but study gives us the words and concepts to share the fruits of our contemplation with others, and so to lead them into the mysteries of the faith.

A Dominican nun lives a fraternal life; she takes active part in her monastic community and in the Dominican Order. As love is at the heart of the Church, so too is love at the heart of the Dominican Order. All members of the Order are called to live a common life together, as the early Church lived, calling nothing one’s own, but sharing everything in common. A Dominican nun gladly gives up not only her possessions, but she puts her knowledge, talents, and skills, to common use of the community, as God, through the superiors, see fit. A Dominican nun also shares freely her spiritual riches of soul and mind. All she has, all she is, is put at the service of the Order. Through her community, she is exercised in the virtues, which leads her to greater contemplation. Her life of fraternal charity manifests the Holy Trinity.

And finally, through her religious profession and living of the vows, the life of a Dominican nun is sacrificial. At baptism, every Christian dies to self and the world and is reborn as a new creation in Christ Jesus. At profession, that death and rebirth is renewed in a profound way - she is consecrated to Almighty God. She has become a “house of prayer”, set aside as sacred for God alone. Her sacrifice is herself and she gives herself daily by living according to the Rule, Constitutions and laws of the Order. The religious observances and rubrics of the Order, such as silence, fasting, abstinence, wearing of the habit, prayers, and so forth, stand as one of the means to achieve the ends of the Order. When a Dominican nun fulfills her vows and lives the observances with fidelity, they daily immolate her – through them she joins her Beloved on Calvary as she dies to self and the world for love.

Suffering, Grace and Love: Catherine of Siena

Saint Catherine of Siena. There’s no earthly reason we should know who this woman is. Born in Siena, she dedicated herself to God and a life of secluded prayer. For many years, she was happy to remain hidden in a room of her family’s home – her and God alone. Then, God gave her a commission. In a time when women did not venture too far from either home or cloister, God told her, she had work to do – work that would take traveling and advising governors and powerful men…even the pope himself.

Illiterate, yet now a doctor of the Church, her treatise, The Dialogue, and her letters and other writings are some of the most widely read and studied around the world. Most of her writings were dictated to scribes, though she reportedly learned to read and write, being miraculously taught by Christ Jesus Himself. She possessed in a high degree the spirit of St. Dominic and spent herself tirelessly for the salvation of souls, doing good for her country and the Church, including urging the pope to return to Rome after the papacy had spent 70 years in France.

At one point in her life, when the devil was particularly vicious in his attacks against her, she responded, “I have chosen sufferings for my consolation; not only will it not be difficult for me, but delightful, to undergo similar afflictions, and even greater ones, for the love of my Jesus, and as long as His Majesty wills!” Immediately the devil fled and Jesus appeared to her as when He hung on the Cross and consoled her with loving words. “Lord, where were You when my heart was so tormented?” “Daughter,” came the reply, “I was in the midst of your heart!”

At the age of thirty-three, having utterly spent herself, she died.

St. Catherine of Siena’s feast is also very special to our community for another reason. On June 23, 1923, the Holy See published an Indult allowing nuns of those religious orders originally possessing the privilege of solemn vows to re-assume that sacred obligation. As soon as the indult came to the notice of Mother Mary of the Rosary, prioress of our community at that time, she took prompt measures to have the nuns of the community possess their age-old inheritance.

All the necessary communications and arrangements made, the decree received from the Sacred Congregation of the Religious, and the nuns having made a preparatory retreat, on the feast of St. Catherine of Siena in 1929, His Excellency, Archbishop Hanna , D.D. of San Francisco, arrived at Corpus Christi Monastery and read the official papers to the nuns at the grille. Then, Mother Mary of the Rosary made solemn profession into the hands of the Archbishop and each nun then made solemn profession into the hands of their prioress. The eventful ceremony closed with a full-hearted Te Deum.

The nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery, Menlo Park, have the unique honor of being the first in the United States to avail themselves of this indult and bind themselves under solemn vows.

St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us!

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!

A Response to the Coronavirus

It’s something that we like to think of as only happening in the history books, that with all our advancements in technology and medicine, it certainly can’t happen to us here and now - that a disease could sweep through a community and cause such serious illness, death, isolation, economic loss and fear. But as we hear the reports about the spread of the coronavirus and feel its devastating effects in big and small ways, we are once again reminded how fragile we are.

Our community was first made aware of the virus through some of our sisters who have family in Vietnam and reported that the streets were deserted during the Asian New Year - people dashed out only when absolutely necessary, donning masks as they went, and then hurried home again. Then we learned through our friars that travels to and from Europe were being postponed or canceled. News and prayer requests came in as family and friends located around the country and the world were being affected in various ways - sickness, isolation, economic hardships due to disruption or loss of business, and fear of the unknown.

It is at times like this that a cloistered nun is impelled to more closely unite herself to her Divine Spouse and, like Queen Esther, intercede more ardently for the life of her people.

Some may mistakenly believe that we are isolated from all the suffering of the world, locked inside the security of cloister walls. But as Queen Esther realized, being inside a palace does not guarantee safety from affliction and distress - rather, it places us in a more unique position to intercede for the needs of others. We are deeply aware of our blessings - to continue to have the gift of daily Mass and reception of the Eucharist, to spend time in prayer and adoration before our Eucharistic Lord - these and many other graces are gifts people around the world deeply long for and cannot receive at this time, or even worse, they do not realize the infinite treasure of these things and so do not desire them.

And so, as cloistered nuns, we feel more keenly the isolation, the fear, the suffering of all, and we carry these sufferings in our heart before our Lord in prayer…

…especially during the liturgy, our reception of the Eucharist, and our time of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. We remember the sick and those most vulnerable - our young and our elderly. We remember those who care for them. We beg protection for chaplains and ministers who reach out with God’s mercy to those most in need. We also intercede for medical personnel, first responders and for their families. We ask for knowledge and wisdom on behalf of medical researchers and developers and our civil leaders. We lift up in compassion those experiencing loneliness, hardships and temptations to frustration, anxiety and fear as schools and businesses close, people are compelled to remain homebound, or are stranded away from home and loved ones as travel and movement are increasingly restricted. And we remember the souls of the departed that they might be granted eternal rest and their loved ones will be consoled.

In faith, we know that our remembrance and our prayers have powerful effects across the body of Christ - when one member suffers, all suffer, and when one member rejoices, all rejoice. Our contemplative life is wholly apostolic in that we implore God’s grace on behalf of all people. For when the hands and feet of Christ - that is, his priests, apostolic religious and laity - are shackled from service, cloistered communities, as the heart of Christ, burn more ardently with His love. And this love and grace knows no boundaries of space or time - it reaches through walls, across continents, and can pierce and warm the hearts of those most in need of consolation and mercy. This is why the contemplative life is considered the heart of the Church and its most noble part.

Saint Rocco, patron against the plague and epidemics, is pictured here with a plague sore on his leg, the angel who brought him healing and a promise from God, and the dog who brought him food every day while he was ill.

As news of the gravity of this disease and its spread reached us, one of our sisters shared with the community a saint and a prayer that her mother taught her to pray against epidemics. St. Rocco has long been venerated in the Church as the protector against the plague and all contagious diseases. Coming from a life of privilege, he forsook all to become a pilgrim. During his travels, he came in contact with a community ravaged by the plague and when no one else would serve the sick for fear of catching the deadly disease, he took up the burden. Eventually he too fell ill with the plague and went into the woods to die a hermit. But the dog of a nobleman brought him food everyday and eventually the nobleman, wondering where his dog was going, followed him and discovered Rocco. He brought him out of the woods, gave him proper lodging and Rocco miraculously recovered. His story continues, but because of his selfless mercy and miracles attributed to him, particularly after his death, he is considered a powerful intercessor against epidemic diseases. We share the prayer with you below that our sister shared with us. May our Blessed Mother and Saint Rocco intercede for us. Lord, have mercy on your people us.

Prayer to Saint Rocco

O Lord, you promised that those who run to Saint Rocco and implore his intercessions will be delivered from all epidemics, and you sent an angel to write this promise on a scroll and give it to him. We beg you to preserve our bodies from contagious diseases and our souls from the contagion of sin, by the merits and intercessions of Saint Rocco. Amen.

UPDATE:

EFFECTIVE MARCH 17, 2020:

Due to the “Shelter-in-Place” Order
issued by the Health Officer of San Mateo County
on March 16, 2020, our chapel is currently closed to the public.

During this time of social distancing, we encourage you to keep up your spiritual life by “attending” Mass online (such as the daily Mass being offered by Bishop Barron), reading and meditating on Scripture (daily readings available in print and audio at the USCCB website), making frequent spiritual communions, praying the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet and prayers, and taking advantage of other online and app faith resources - a wonderful list of linked resources may be found online at the Western Dominican Province’s website.

Please know our community is especially keeping you in our hearts and prayers before the Blessed Sacrament during this time.

Ashes, Dust and Love

Penance. Suffering. Ashes and dust. It’s that time of liturgical year again. It’s Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent. Many of us have a love/hate relationship with this penitential season. We enter into with different levels of commitment. Some of us get pretty creative in our fast and penitential practices to ease into it and slide through. After all, it is innate in us to avoid suffering and seek pleasure. Yet, there is something about the season of Lent that speaks to us on a deeper, more profound level. We NEED it, even if we aren’t sure exactly what to do or how to go about getting the most spiritually out of the season. So, often it stretches before us, six weeks of purple.

So what is the season of Lent about? Is it merely to inflict pain and punishment, to make us feel bad about ourselves and our sins? To bring gloom and doom down on us as we are reminded “you are dust, and to dust you shall return”? Certainly if we were a people without faith in a God of mercy and love, without hope for life with Him in heaven, then Lent would indeed be very dark. But we are ultimately an Easter people, a people of joy and hope and love. Nonetheless, to fully live Easter, we must walk through the passion and death of Christ Jesus, precisely because of sin.

In the creation of Adam and Eve, God made man unique. While we have bodies like the animals, we also have a reason and a will – we are rational creatures. And God gave humans a gift – so long as the mind of man remembered who He was (a creation of God) and remained obedient to Him, then the lower powers of man (his bodily senses and passions) would remain subject to his will and death would be foreign to us. But when Adam and Eve saw the forbidden fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for wisdom, then took the fruit and ate it, they grabbed at God’s place – they rebelled against the order of creation. Now the carnal appetite of humankind rebels against the spirit and death is the result. Our reason is darkened, our bodies and passions often seek to assert themselves against what we otherwise would will. The forbidden fruit seemed good as food – now we are prone to sins of the flesh (gluttony, lust, sloth). The forbidden fruit was pleasing to the eye – now we are prey to lust of the eyes (greed and envy). And the forbidden fruit was desirable for wisdom – now we puff ourselves up with pride and vainglory and seek to dominate others through wrath.

Fast forward to Jesus. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit drove Him into the desert for forty days and nights – a time of prayer and fasting. It was in the desert that Jesus was tempted by Satan to sin. In His responses to Satan, Jesus shows us how to respond in freedom. Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread and satisfy His fleshly hunger. He responds, “Man does not live by bread alone.” Jesus was taken to the top of the temple and told to prove He was to Son of God by jumping off – after all, God promised to catch Him (Satan even quotes Scripture in this temptation). But this was a temptation to pride. Jesus answers with humility – “you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Finally, Jesus was led to a mountaintop and shown the world – it would all be His, if He would just do homage to Satan – a temptation to grab power and possessions, so pleasing to the eye. But at what cost? Jesus says, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve.”

In the practice of prayer, we are reminded that God is “He who is” and we are those who are not. That is to say, as we grow in relationship with God through prayer, we come to see more clearly the truth about God and ourselves. We grow in humility, charity, and all the virtues as He pours His grace out upon us. But we have to open ourselves up to Him and we do this through prayer.

Through the practice of fasting, penance and mortifications, we bring the body and passions back into subjection to our reason and will. Like a spoiled child that has to be disciplined and trained, our senses, carnal desires and passions need to be purified and brought back into right order. Of course, we can only do this with God’s grace. We are also reminded how weak and helpless we are apart from God. We cannot rely on our own strength – though we work and strive as if it all depends on us, we pray for God’s help and abandon ourselves to Him as if it all depends on Him.

Finally, though almsgiving, that is, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, we become detached from the things of this world and freed from the sins of greed and envy. We stop worrying about what tomorrow will bring because we learn to trust God’s providence, while at the same time growing in charity toward our neighbors.

Lent is not about punishing ourselves. It is not God’s intent that we simply suffer, as if that were the goal in itself. In St. Catherine’s Dialogue, she repeatedly records God telling her that suffering is NOT a proper goal. Prayer, penitential acts and works of mercy are only worth anything at all because they spring from, are rooted in, and lead to love. So if our Lenten practices are not leading us deeper in relationship with God, helping us do good and avoid sin – in a nutshell, aiding us to more perfectly keep the commands to love God and neighbor – then we need to go back, reassess and adjust our practices.

So, how do your practices of prayer, penance and almsgiving help you love God and neighbor? How can we grow in holiness this Lent? How can we better prepare ourselves to welcome Jesus, like a bride greeting her beloved, on Easter morning?