April 2015 easter newsletter

Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia LAUDARE, BENEDICERE, PRAEDICARE “TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH” Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia 801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228 www.nashvilledominican.org vocation@op-tn.org

“We cannot live Easter without entering into the mystery…

‘To enter into the mystery’ means the ability to wonder, to contemplate; the ability to listen to the silence and to hear the tiny whisper amid great silence by which God speaks to us (cf 1 Kgs 19:12)…

To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love.”

--Pope Francis Homily for Easter Vigil 2015

April 2015 Dear Friends, “Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you” (James 4:8). St. James reminds us that God is very near to us, and as we grow close to God, our desires are conformed to his. Through the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, we get a glimpse into God’s desire: oneness with us.

May the Lord bless you and your family this Easter season and make his presence known to you.

In Christ, The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

Recommended Reading

A Professed Sister’s Reflection “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

2 Corinthians 5:19

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Praying with Confidence: Aquinas on the Our Father Fr. Paul Murray, O.P.

In this book, Fr. Murray synthesizes the sources of St. Thomas Aquinas’ teachings on the “Our Father” and presents their profound and practical insights in an accessible way.

“Acquiring confidence in the love of God, and in the willingness of God to hear and answer our prayer—that, for Aquinas, is of supreme importance. He writes: ‘Prayer is offered to God not that we might make him change his mind, but that we might excite in ourselves the confidence to ask: and this confidence is particularly aroused by the consideration of his love for us …and that’s why we say Our Father’ (ST, II-II, 83, 9, 5).”

(Continuum, 2010, p. 27)

“Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:17). These words of the Risen Christ to St. Mary Magdalene on Easter morning reveal the greatest gift achieved by the Paschal Sacrifice: reconciliation with God as our Father. When this relationship was ruptured by original sin, all the other original harmonies were ruptured as well, including man’s inner harmony—his integrity of intellect, will and emotions. Thus our path toward union with the Father is also a path toward the reintegration of all these faculties within ourselves.

When I first began studying Dominican theologians and saints, I was surprised to discover the emphasis on the emotions, especially desire, and their positive role in the spiritual life. For instance, in the Dialogue, God the Father revealed to St. Catherine of Siena, “I am not a Despiser, but the Fulfiller of holy desire,” and she shared this divine insight with religious and laity, nobility and commoners alike (51). In her letters to both Pope Gregory XI and the King of France, she pleaded with them to stir up “the flame of holy desire”; she advised Monna Agnesa, the wife of a Florentine tailor, to “labor hard to increase thy holy desire”; and she urged Brother William of England, “Let’s run, run with eagerness, for the infinite Good calls for infinite desire” (T255, T235; T174, T77).1 In his book entitled Prayer: Living with God, Simon Tugwell, O.P., writes, “We must not shut our hearts against desire, but learn how to desire rightly, so that our whole wanting apparatus can be healed, so that eventually it will find its full satisfaction in him who alone can satisfy us. God is ... the great seducer, wooing us into his paradise of delights, so that his own joy may be in us, and our joy may be full” (Templegate, 1975; p. 43-44).

Such phrases as “holy desire” and “desire rightly” make clear that our desires must be properly directed in order to be fulfilled as God has designed.

We need to be taught not only what to desire, but in what order. The disciples expressed this reality when they asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us how to pray” (Luke 11:1), for indeed, “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26).

The “Our Father,” which Jesus left us as the perfect prayer, provides a kind of road map for harmonizing our emotions with God’s original plan. In the words of St. Thomas, “this prayer not only teaches us to ask, but also directs all our affections” (Summa Theologiae, II-II, 83, 9). Rather than to squelch our desires, the “Our Father” teaches us to increase our desires for the highest goods, which God so longs to give. It trains us to desire more, not less.

Because by his death and resurrection, Jesus has revealed to us the Father and reconciled us to Him, we can go to Him confidently with all the longings of our heart. But in approaching the Father in this way, we also allow Him to reveal to us the deeper desires of our hearts which remain hidden from our own eyes. He has placed them there and knows that they will lead us to greater happiness. When I begin praying, “Lord, I just want…”, I sense Him responding, “But I want to give you more!”

1

Lettere di S. Caterina da Siena, ed. Niccolo Tommaseo (Florence: Barbera, 1860)

The Holiest of Weeks

On Palm Sunday, the sisters gathered in the exonarthex to receive palms and to hear the opening Gospel before processing into the chapel while singing “Hosanna Filio David.�

A beloved devotion of the sisters, the Stations of the Cross were prayed in community each Friday of Lent and frequently throughout Lent by individual sisters.

The Mass of our Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening began the solemn and continuous three-day observance of the Paschal Mystery.

Amidst the singing of the Pange Lingua, the sisters processed with lighted candles to the Oratory where many stayed in silent adoration until 11:00pm.

Holy Thursday

Throughout the Triduum, a solemn silence reigned in the Motherhouse, enabling the sisters to enter deeply into meditation on the Lord’s Passion and the great love which prompted it.

At all meals on Good Friday, the sisters wore their mantles in the refectory.

Good Friday

On Good Friday, the sisters participated in the Solemn Adoration of the Cross. After removing their shoes, they processed toward the Cross, pausing three times along the aisle to kneel in humble veneration before reaching the Cross and reverencing with a kiss the instrument of our salvation.

Easter Vigil Mass Father Brian Mullady, O.P., Father Kevin McGoldrick, and Father John O’Neill assisted Chaplain Father Alfred Wilder, O.P., in the celebration of the Easter Vigil Mass.

After the lighting of the Paschal candle, the sisters processed into the chapel with their own candles lit by the flame which symbolized Christ our Light.

During the Vigil, the sisters renewed their Baptismal promises and were sprinkled with the newly blessed holy water.

Easter Sunday Mass

The glorious sunshine on Easter Sunday morning mirrored the overwhelming paschal joy which filled the Motherhouse chapel as the sisters and guests rejoiced in the Resurrection of our Lord. After their long silence in Lent, the instruments also joined the chorus of Alleluias.

Divine Mercy Sunday On Divine Mercy Sunday, the sisters gathered in the Oratory with members of the Dominican Laity and other guests to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Following the chaplet, Fr. Bill Casey, CPM, of the Fathers of Mercy spoke on our need for God’s mercy and his overwhelming desire to give it to us.