Adoremus in Aeternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum!
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et us adore forever the Most Holy Sacrament." These words carry profound significance for Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration and are prayed throughout the day and night. As Mass ends and the Eucharist is once again exposed, this phrase is sung, inaugurating a new day of perpetual adoration. These words are again whispered in the small hours of the night, waking the next adorer to her nocturnal vigil with the Blessed Sacrament. They are repeated as we process into our refectory, bowing in reverence to the San Damiano Crucifix. These moments emphasize that our adoration extends beyond the chapel. “Adoremus in Aeternum…” is frequently upon our lips and perpetually in our hearts as we strive to live out our dedication to the Blessed Sacrament. This devotion towards Jesus in the Eucharist is our heritage, gifted to us from our spiritual mother, Saint Clare of Assisi. A New Beginning… ight hundred years ago, Lady Clare began her moving story of daring surrender, enduring love, and unswerving dedication to eternal realities. Clare freely forfeited a destiny of ease to follow the poor Christ, so profoundly was she inspired by Saint Francis’ radical embrace of the Gospel. Thus a new form of life was born in the Church. Clare's “little poor ladies” wished to live inside the Gospel, subsisting on uncompromising poverty and emanating joy from a life fed on God alone. This "Little Plant of Saint Francis" continues to inspire countless women to lead this life of paradox, in which poverty germinates spiritual riches and surrender is a precursor to joy. It was the Living Presence at San Damiano that made sense of these women's existence. With her community, Clare adored Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Her corporeal encounters with Christ in
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prayer allowed her to glimpse eternity in its splendor under the humble accident of bread. Her lengthy vigils with the Lord pulled her deeper into His mystery, and her letters overflow with exhortations to her sisters to gaze into the face of the
relationship between humility and grandeur, between strength and selfgiving. Christ divests Himself of the outward majesty that is rightfully His and comes in love to His creature in a form that is utterly familiar and knows no dearth of humility. What is ordinary is transformed into inestimable mystery. Bread and wine become Christ in His totality. What is outwardly food for the body becomes in deepest actuality that which nourishes the soul. he poverty of Christ, radically demonstrated in the self-gift of the Eucharist, was the inspiration behind Clare's love of poverty. She esteemed poverty, not for its own sake, but for the space it created in the soul, a vacuum to be invaded by God in the absence of superfluities. We find Clare’s imitation most perfectly in her desire, fulfilled to the end, to live poorly like her Eucharistic Lord.
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A Eucharistic
Life
Beloved as in a mirror. "...[G]aze upon [Him], consider [Him], contemplate [Him] as you desire to imitate [Him]." (from the Second Letter of St. Clare to St. Agnes of Prague)
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here are many moving episodes in the life of our Holy Mother Clare which illustrate her immense love for the Eucharist, such as the artistic depictions of her clasping the Blessed Sacrament to her heart. Yet, what speaks most profoundly is how she reflected her Eucharistic Spouse in three areas: smallness, enclosure and attentiveness, all of which culminate in a lifelong expression of love. Smallness…
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he Blessed Sacrament manifests a striking reality: the God who created all of reality chooses the path of humility and smallness, inhabiting His own creation. Under the appearance of ordinary bread and wine, Our Lord assaults our understanding of the
Attentiveness… hrist's Presence in the Blessed Sacrament is our best example of attentiveness. He is cognizant of and delights in our presence even when our thoughts stray from Him. Our very best efforts at attention in prayer, though pleasing to Our Lord, are ephemeral compared to His attention to us. The most vigilant of our prayers must be supplemented by His grace. In Christ, our feeble efforts are made athletic, accomplishing through grace what was impossible through mere effort. This sense of humility in prayer, putting forth our best while realizing that all our labors must be gilded in grace, is what paradoxically brings fecundity to our prayer. Knowing our littleness before God, allowing Him room to operate, is what makes tiny prayers accomplish herculean things. Our Lord is pure presence, availability, and listening love. In our prayer, we seek to reciprocate His availability, bringing ourselves into His presence for no other reason then to be with Him. Continued on page 4
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His Love Endures Forever
n August 11, 2011, the Solemnity of Our Holy Mother Clare, Sister Mary Paschal of the Lamb of God completed eight years of prayerful discernment with her solemn profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. This begins her life as a professed nun and represents her total gift of self to her community. Not an end but rather a wonderful new beginning, the Mass of Solemn Profession is a beautiful rite replete with imagery which invites the professed sister to a deeper entry into the mystery of her vocation and fortifies her with the grace needed to embrace her life of contemplative prayer, accepting joys and sufferings alike as she seeks holiness for herself, salvation for the world, and glory for her God. In the context of our celebration of Holy Mother Clare, Sister Paschal’s profession of her vows linked her joyful sacrifice of self with that of St. Clare, who was the first woman to follow our Holy Father Francis in the path of radical Gospel living. How fitting, too, that our sister professed her own vows during the year in which the Church celebrates the 800th anniversary of St. Clare’s departure from the world and reception of the habit from St. Francis. Though separated by a span of eight centuries, Sister Paschal’s profession and that of her spiritual mother, Clare, are linked across time and space by their mutual love for the one thing that transcends all barriers of chronology and all limits of distance: the Holy Eucharist. In the monstrance, all limits fade to imperceptibility, drowned as they are in the Presence of He who knows no impediments. In her solemn profession of vows, Sister Paschal made an oblation of herself in communion with the oblation of Christ in the Holy Mass. As an adorer of the Eucharist, her lifelong commitment to conform herself to the image of the Crucified One reaches a fitting crescendo in the Solemn Profession Mass. As the priest, icon of Christ Himself, consecrates the bread and wine to become the True Body and Blood of Our Lord, the professed sister prostrates herself in cruciform, demonstrating her utter emptying of self in the literal presence of her Savior, Creator and Spouse. This gesture, charged with symbolism, echoes the words of John the Baptist:
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“He must increase, and I must decrease.” As the Host is raised for the adoration of all present, the sister places herself in a position of oblation and insignificance, invisible in comparison to the elevated Presence of Christ. Beyond the rite of profession itself, this outward sign of inward humility is symbolic of the contemplative life in general, a life constructed entirely upon the notion of negation of self for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls. What is demonstrated in an overt and more dramatic manner in the Profession Mass is daily lived, little by little, in the ordinary life of the contemplative. Hidden from the world, her intercessions may go unnoticed by those for whom she prays. Against the grain of natural human desires, she seeks to desire anonymity and obscurity where one would naturally seek recognition and praise. The daily crosses of her life, the sacrifices small and large offered for the needs of the world, the hours of prayer, alternately consoling and dry but always fruitful, all constitute a veiled life whose lack of drama and utter ordinariness belie its underlying grandeur. In order that praise may be given to Him through whom all things are accomplished, she remains hidden, unseen that He may be seen, buried that He may be glorified. The Mass of Solemn Profession, rich with symbolism and beauty, is emblematic of the emptying of self sought by each sister who perseveres in the consecrated life. It is not however, the climax of her life. Rather than being a culmination, it is in fact a new beginning, a more profound entry into the mystery of her vocation. The grace of her solemn profession makes possible her daily fiat to the Lord, her constant consent to both the crosses and joys of daily life as a contemplative. Fortified by the reception of His Body and Blood, bathed in the grace of her vows, and strengthened by the prayers of all who love her, the professed sister is able to embrace “with her whole heart” a life of hidden sacrifice, of quiet triumphs and gentle joys. The exhilaration of Solemn Profession gives way to the mystery of ordinary joy, where the hours of daily life are played out against the backdrop of silent, steady Love.
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Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus
Sr. Mary Michael speaks of laughter, hard work and faith, and the pictures above illustrate life in the cloister, a place of enthusiastic faith and work, but with ample opportunities to laugh! The picture on the right shows Sr. Michael as an honorary member of the "jpII generation". Who inspired you to respond to your religious vocation? Father John Daum taught me the faith, and his enthusiasm, fervor and solid teaching influenced me. It was from him that I learned about the Eucharist and the Mass and began my lifelong love relationship with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I loved Saint Francis and the way he gave everything for Our Lord. After reading the autobiography of the Saint Therese, I felt drawn to contemplative life rather than the active life. Fr. Daum directed me to the Sancta Clare Monastery (Ohio), and there I found all three: the Eucharist, Franciscan spirituality, and the contemplative life. Mostly I would have to say that it was a very large dose of the grace of God working in my life in a powerful way at that time. From the moment Jesus drew me to Himself in the Eucharist, the direction of my life changed. I had been praying a prayer that I found in the diocesan paper, a prayer for the perfect partner. Jesus did answer my prayer, not in the way I expected, but in the way He knew I would really wish, giving me Himself as the perfect partner. This past August 15th we celebrated two special milestones: Mother Angelica’s sixty-seventh anniversary of entrance into religious life, and the thirtieth anniversary of EWTN’s founding. Next year (2012) is the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. Share with us a memory about those earlier years. One thing I remember was the day of the dedication of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery (Irondale, Al). We were in our cloistered chapel while all the ceremonies were being held outside in the parking lot to accommodate all the people. At the end of Mass, when the priest placed the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament on the throne, I looked over at Mother Angelica, kneeling on her priedieu, and tears were rolling down her face. After many struggles, she had fulfilled her promise to build Jesus a monastery in the South. The next day Mother appointed me the bursar and gave me an overstuffed folder holding all the outstanding invoices - $90,000 - worth, plus a huge bank debt, but no money! Well, I didn't have much faith, but I knew Mother did; so we just sort of "nickel and dimed" our way through. At the end of each month the bills were paid in full. God bless all the wonderful business people who waited patiently for their money and never bugged us.
This year on (August 15) you celebrated your own sixtieth anniversary of entrance into religious life. What is necessary for perseverance? I believe in praying every day for the grace of perseverance in my Catholic faith and vocation. Without God's grace we couldn't do it. Also, we need to be so in love with Jesus that we are willing to prove that love by accepting all the crosses and suffering that come. There needs to be a total commitment. Years ago, a Capuchin retreat master told us, "Become saints even if it kills you, and if it does that's alright!" You are our expert on Blessed John Paul II, considering how many books you’ve read about him. Is it your Polish heritage that makes you love him? I probably do have an extra special love for him because he is Polish, but I would love him even if he wasn't since I love all the popes. At the time of his election, I was overjoyed because it seemed God was blessing the country of Poland for all their suffering. I never realized what a blessing he would be for the whole world, and I'm thrilled about his beatification. I love him because he is holy but also because he is very human. He was an intellectual giant, but his love and devotion were the simple kind to which we can all relate. When you observed him at prayer or at a Fatima procession, you could see that union with God and Our Lady beaming from him. He spoke not only to the mind but to the heart--really to the whole person. Laughter, hard work, and down-to-earth common sense – you value these human components. Why? Because they are a part of our human life and I don't think you can separate holiness from the ordinary things we do. I'm attracted to the down-to-earth, ordinary saints--more so than the mystics. I love jobs and a good story, and I admire all the good humble, hard working people who love God. I work cheerfully without looking for praise. Our workman in Irondale and here are great, and it is a joy to chat with them. I love it when they keep me posted on how my favorite baseball team is doing. I can think of so many faithful housewives and husbands who will never be canonized, but I can't imagine them not getting a grand welcome by Our Lord when they enter the Heavenly Kingdom.
We translate this desire to be present for Him into our daily life, bringing Christ to others in love. Our Holy Mother Saint Clare was a tender mother and very solicitous toward her sisters, especially those who were sick or weary from work. When extern sisters returned from their begging, she cleaned their feet. Clare, who had cultivated a feminine awareness of the needs of others, willingly took up this lowly task. Our Lady, for Clare, was the template of true femininity in her quiet but emphatic care for others, illustrated perhaps most strikingly at the wedding feast at Cana, where she persistently interceded for the couple in need. Like Our Lady, the loving heart of the contemplative remains vigilant and present to the One she loves through her prayer and through her service to others. Enclosure... ne of the great mysteries of the Eucharist is the fact that the God Who is omnipotent is willing to surrender Himself to the confines of the monstrance. The contemplation of this mystery can
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form the substance of an entire life, and, indeed, it is the emulation of this action on the part of God that constitutes the life of the enclosed contemplative. We are asked to look deeper than the surface of what seems a mundane life, past what seems to be static and stale, thus perceiving a profound, active and dynamic love. Far from stunting the natural vibrancy that is inherent to women, the cloistered life channels this energy in a unique way, giving it the chance to germinate life in the spiritual rather than the physical realm. This focusing of feminine energy is the direct result of a life lived solely in and for the Lord, a life not closed off from the world, but fully open to it in love by virtue of being enclosed within the Presence. The special calling to live like the Eucharistic Lord, foregoing liberty of space and freedom, is made possible through the profound silence of a love fixed in place, anchored in the Real Presence to which we return throughout the day.
life as deeply embedded in love for our Eucharistic Lord. "Separation from the world thus gives a Eucharistic quality to the whole of cloistered life, since 'besides its elements of sacrifice and expiation, [it assumes] the aspect of thanksgiving to the Father, by sharing in the thanksgiving of the beloved Son.'' He further makes the point that Clare herself was essentially a woman of the Eucharist. This special anniversary year offers us a chance to look with reflection at the life of this woman of powerful faith. By her life, St. Clare proffered an example of how adoration of the Holy Eucharist can be the impetus and inspiration for an entire existence. Nourished by her hours of contemplation before the Presence, strengthened in her practice of humility in service of her sisters, her life made dynamic within the walls of the cloister, Clare found herself the inhabitant of a life no longer her own. Joyfully, she surrendered herself to her Savior and found an infinitely larger identity than she could have created on her own.
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n Verbi Sponsa, Blessed John Paul II is cited addressing the beauty of cloistered
On July 22nd, the feast of Saint Mary Magdelene, Genevieve Rose from Jacksonville, FL entered our community as a postulant. Please pray for our newest sister as she begins her initial formation as a PCPA. "Men and women were created for something great, for infinity. Nothing else will ever be enough. Saint Augustine was right when he said [that] “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in [Y]ou”. The desire for a more meaningful life is a sign that God created us and that we bear his “imprint”. God is life, and that is why every creature reaches out towards life." -Pope Benedict XVI
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The Word of God and the Eucharist accompany us in this pilgrimage towards
the heavenly Jerusalem, of which shrines are a visible and living sign. When we will reach it, the gates of the Kingdom will open, we will abandon the traveling attire and the staff of the pilgrim and we shall enter our house definitively “to stay with the Lord for ever”. There he will be in our midst as “the one who serves”and he will share our meal, side by side with us. -Blessed John Paul II
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