Winter 2010

Merry Christmas from your

Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration

Front row from left to right: Sr. Edith Marie, Sr. Mary Lucia, Sr. Mary John Paul, Sr. Chiara Marie.

Middle row left to right: Sr. Mary Regina, Sr. Mary Francis Sharbel, Sr. Mary Bernadette, Sr. Mary Michael, Sr. Mary Gabriel.

Back row left to right: Sr. Maria Isabella, Sr. Marie Emmanuel, Sr. Mary Jacinta, Sr. Marie St. John, Sr. Mary Agnes, Sr. Judith Marie, Sr. Maria Maris Stella, Sr. Mary Veronica, and Sr. Mary Paschal.

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he Christmas season is a time of fulfilled expectations! It is a season in which our fragile faith grows in the peace and joy of celebrating a loving God Who chose to be with us! Our Savior was born during Israel's oppressive Roman captivity, and it was at this epic moment, when hopelessness and uncertainty invaded the heart of Israel, that God did something new and surprising! The Messiah envisioned by many in Israel was not the Messiah who arrived in their midst. "A person in love who is waiting for the beloved knows who is coming, and yet the actual arrival of the beloved brings a fulfillment greater than the expectation" (Adrienne Von Speyr). The night is darkest before the advent of dawn.

It is our heartfelt prayer that during this season all will receive a deep renewal of their faith in Jesus, Our Emmanuel, Who continues in His Real Presence to be with us, saving us in the silent, hidden Sacrament of His Love.

This awesome reality calls forth a perpetual song of gratitude from us. Merry Christmas!

Saint Joseph's Boxes

"Love usually makes husband and wife one; in the case of Mary and Joseph it was not their combined loves, but Jesus that made them one. No deeper love ever beat under the roof of the world since the beginning, nor will it ever beat even unto the end." -Fulton Sheen

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n the centuries before plastic, the stuff of daily life was stored in wood or pottery or, more rarely, in stone or metal. An artisan in wood, St. Joseph surely made boxes for the family’s extra goods or small treasures when he was not making yokes or benches or tables.

Surely he made them well, for Joseph was a righteous man and would have given good value for his customers’ coins.

When life presented him with a dilemma, he made a box for that too.

Mary, his betrothed wife, was found to be with child. St. Matthew adds “by the Holy Spirit,” but Joseph obviously did not know that (Matthew 1:18-19).

He was faced with a serious decision.

Infidelity after betrothal was classed as adultery, even though the man had not yet taken the woman into his house as his wedded wife (cf. Deuteronomy 22:23-24). Scholars warn modern readers not to assume that the more severe of the laws were always enforced in first-century Palestine, but we do have a New Testament example of a woman threatened with stoning when taken in the act of adultery (John 8:1-11).

Even if she were not stoned, a betrothed woman found to be pregnant by another man and publicly repudiated by her betrothed would obviously have been subjected to merciless shame. As in times much nearer our own, such shame, once known, would no doubt have destroyed all further hopes of marriage and might have caused her family to reject her. Because a woman alone had

very few honorable ways of supporting herself, she would have faced a lifetime of destitution. The Gospel does not say that St. Joseph turned to God in prayer to ask what he should do in this tragic situation. Instead, he gathered up the materials of law and of custom that he had at hand and made a box for Mary.

She was pregnant out of wedlock and was therefore unmarriageable. He lined the box with mercy. Rather than repudiate her publicly and subject her to life-destroying shame, he resolved to “divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19).

It took an angel in the night to make Joseph see that the box he had built from the materials of righteousness, even merciful righteousness, was too small. Long ago, in Psalm 95:8 had warned against hardening the heart as Israel had done at Meribah and Massah in the desert. There, faced with a slow death by thirst, the Israelites saw no alternatives to rock and sand. They did not believe God could surprise them with the unexpected, although He had already salted the morning desert with manna when they were starving.

Their hearts, or what we might call their imaginations, had hardened into caskets far too narrow for Providence.

Breaking open those little boxes of the mind, God gave them streams of water from bare rock.

St. Joseph learned his lesson, no doubt happily. He put his faith in the angel’s incredible message: Mary’s child had been conceived by the Spirit of God. Unheard of! Impossible!

True! He refused the box made of law and custom and made instead a home for her as his wife. It was a new box built of love and respect, strong enough to shelter her from shame. It was not the last one. When all the inn doors of Bethlehem were closed against them, he found instead a stable, an unlikely box to hold an unimaginable event, the birth of God’s Son. When the King’s fury sent swords against the Child, St. Joseph made a new home for them all

in Egypt, a sturdy box to keep them safe in an alien land. When the danger was over, he made one final home in Nazareth, a box walled in grace, roomy enough for the Boy to grow beyond the confines of His family into the wide demands of the Kingdom of God. This last box built, the carpenter laid down his tools and disappeared from history.

Boxes of all kinds are still a necessity of life. However, we can learn from St. Joseph to make with care the boxes in which we store our dreams and expectations, our relationships and purposes, all that we value. They must be constructed of materials flexible enough to expand and hold the unexpected works of God but strong enough not to break when God is forced to tear them open to give us room to grow into the life He intends for us. Faith, hope and love have proven to be worthy of the task. Ask St. Joseph.

As Joseph guarded and provided for Jesus and Mary, we too ask for help and protection from him who is Most Faithful.

"For those who seek Him no matter the obstacles, for those who are not ashamed to ask, 'Where is the King?' for those who believe when they discover Him, He always reveals Himself."

Mother Angelica

Mother's Christmas

ishing one another a Merry Christmas in the early hours on December 25th is one of the most joyous exchanges we share during the year. In the past it was always special to ask our recently departed Sr. Mary Joseph how she was enjoying the Christmas season. Often she would respond with a big smile: “They get better every year!” For an octogenarian, that makes Christmas supremely wonderful! Mother Angelica has seen many Christmases – 87 to be exact! Mother used to remark that Christmas was her favorite celebration of the Church year. With her extraordinary devotion to the Christ Child, His Birthday is undoubtedly a day of unique joy. She keeps Him company day after day in her “place apart,” so we are always happy to bring her updates on the hard work done to adorn the Chapel in Yuletide splendor in preparation for Midnight Mass. As the anticipation for the Holy Night increases, we give thanks for Mother’s faith which has given a resting place – a Shrine – for our Eucharistic Lord!

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Yuletide Cheer!

Sr. Mary Michael adds the final touches to the pies.

The kitchen is a bustle of activity during this happy season. In gratitude for the generous support of our neighbors, we love to give edible gifts as a token of our thanks! Sr. Maria Isabella delights in a job well done.

"White Chistmas"

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ister Maria Lucia of the Holy Trinity received her new name and habit on October 25th!

She was joined by family members from across the globe (including the Philippines) for this very joyful occasion! Sister is named for the young virgin martyr, Saint Lucy. A certain newness is experienced on the day of one's investiture; it's not a difficult to imagine why since a real visible change happens! We now are blessed with five novices in the community. Please pray for Sister as she begins her Canonical Year of formation. For now Sister is looking forward to her first ever 'White Christmas' - that is her first Christmas as a novice!

Sister Nicole entered the cloister as a postulant on November 21st, the Solemnity of Christ the King!

Originally from Louisiana, our new Sister is excited to experience her 1st Monastic Christmas!

The Tree of Life

hristmas has always been dearest to my heart above any other feast or season of our Catholic inheritance.

Hailed by believers and nonbelievers alike, there is no other event in the history of humanity that has so inspired the hearts of musicians, poets and all men, especially in the Western world, as this singular day when the Church invites us to consider and ponder anew one of the greatest paradoxes of our Faith: “the Virgin shall bring forth a child.” (Is. 7:14) Over the centuries the seasons of

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mong the numerous and varied Carols that are sung at Christmastime, one of the most beloved titles is written as a question.

Although the writer of the hymn answers the question within the refrain, the wonder behind the question remains: “What Child is this?” Who is it that we are celebrating, and for Whose coming have we been preparing these weeks of Advent? Although we know the answer to the question “What Child is this,” the Answer remains so much bigger than us that we can always delve deeper and enter more fully into Him. God’s plan of salvation, climaxed in the mystery of the Incarnation, is “ever ancient, and ever new” (St. Augustine). Christ: God come in the flesh, God – with – us, for whom and through whom all things exist is this Child.

Advent and Christmas have grown rich in traditions, many of which households across the globe continue to perpetuate to the present day. Yet in spite of their Christian origins, some of these have become secularized to the point that their intended relevance and meanings have been obscured and maybe even forgotten. One such tradition, well established and widely practiced, but whose origins are not so readily recognized is that of our Christmas Tree.

The Christmas Tree goes back to the early Medieval ages from what used to be called “Paradise Plays”.

During the season of Advent, the people would put on religious plays in churches or town squares recounting “the story of the human race from the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise till the Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.” To represent the Garden of Eden and the “tree of life” (Gen. 2:9) a large tree hung with apples was placed on stage. People eventually began the custom of putting a “paradise

What Child is this?

The questions regarding who Christ is are repeated in many forms throughout the Church year.

On February 2nd when we celebrate the Presentation of Our Lord in the temple, the psalm response that is sung asks; “Who is this King of Glory?”

Again, the answer immediately follows, but allows us to contemplate

tree” in their homes at Christmas, the apple decorated boughs giving place to gifts and lighted candles. Perhaps the candles on the tree are reminiscent of the True Light Who has come upon the human scene and Who “shines upon those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death…to guide their feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:79) The tree also points to the lifegiving tree of Christ’s saving Cross.

As Our Lady held her newborn Son in her arms that first Christmas night, knowing that this Child was entrusted to her but was not hers alone, she must have pondered what His future as the Messiah held. Time would reveal the way that He would choose to “save His people from their sins”: the way of the Cross. Upon the tree of the Cross hung the greatest of all gifts: Jesus, God’s Beloved Son. Gift better than Himself God doth not know; Gift better than his God no man can see.

He who is the “light of revelation to the gentiles.” Later, as Jesus begins His public ministry, John the Baptist will send his followers to ask Our Lord; “are you really He?” These are not questions we can lightly brush aside.

Although in time and eternity the mystery of God will never be exhausted, nothing can be more fulfilling here below than considering Him. In fact, in asking these questions we will find that He has some very important questions for us.

It is a joy to send you our quarterly Newsletter!

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