A Hermit in Maryland?

Who could resist wanting to know someone with such a joyful face? That's Sr. Mary Veronica of the Holy Face--one of two canonical hermits in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Margaret Canabiss of Inside Catholic recently interviewed Sr. Mary Veronica:

t's a very contemplative lifestyle. It's not an easy life -- you give up the world. We're still in the world but not of the world. There's a lot of self-discipline involved: Other religious are in community, so they'd go to prayer together, while I go to prayer by myself. You have to touch base with someone to make sure you're staying on target and not going off the deep end in the woods by yourself -- a spiritual director, a confessor. I touch base with my pastor occasionally. So you're a loner, although you're not really a lone ranger.

The funny thing is, you don't realize that there are hermits out there until you become one, and then this whole world opens up. You find out that there are hermits everywhere, all over the world. They're not all canonical, they're not all Roman Catholic, but they're out there.

...

My husband John used to say, "If anything happens to me, Mary's probably going in the convent," so I think some people were expecting it more than I was. But it's still been hard for them. My son and his wife have been very supportive from the very beginning, but they just had a baby, and they live five minutes away. . . It would be so easy if I packed my bag and went to the train station and kissed everybody goodbye, but that didn't happen -- I'm still in the neighborhood. I can see them occasionally, if they come for a visit, but they can't stay for the whole day.

I gave up all of that to pray -- to live in silence and solitude and simplicity. However, I can be in contact with people: I have an e-mail address and I'm in contact with other hermits and with my son. I have a phone, but after my family and friends came to my profession Mass, it stopped ringing. I think then people really understood a lot more.

What a remarkable witness. Read the whole interview.

"Lord, Increase Our Faith"

Today's Gospel shows us the apostles asking the Lord to "increase their faith." I can just see them, imploring Jesus to work this miracle in their hearts. Perhaps it is because it the prayer, or aspiration, that is most on my lips these days. Lord, increase my faith. Increase my faith in this time of waiting. Increase my faith in the uncertainty surrounding my vocation, my state of life, my job, my relationships, and my trust in your faithfulness and fidelity to me.

I found the reflection by Catherine de Hueck Doherty in today's Magnificat particularly helpful:

"Faith is to believe without understanding, without seeing. God has blessed us with the gift of our intellect, and up to a point we understand many things about ourselves and the world around us. However, when you begin to move deeper into faith, something strange happens.

You have been walking in the sunshine of your intellect. God has helped you and encouraged you to use it. Then, just like in the tropics where there is no twilight and the day becomes night within minutes, so God plunges you into the night. He says, 'Put your head in your heart and believe! For now there is no answer. I am the answer. You won't see me in the dark. You will have to follow me in faith, without knowing. Arise and believe.'

There is a tremendous secret in God's ways of doing things if we do follow him across that dark night of the tropics, of the soul. There will be a moment, maybe just before death, or in the midst of life, or maybe when we are at a very tender age. At this moment he will appear. He will just be there. What you knew by your own intellect has blended together with what was added to you because you believed and walked in the darkness of night. You have entered into the fullness of the kingdom of God even before your death. The kingdom of God is in your midst now. "

The Habit

"One cold January I was at our sister monastery in the Bronx and had accompanied another nun who had business in NYC. My first trip to the Big Apple! The prioress had insisted that we have a little treat so we stopped in a café, anxious to get warm with a cup of coffee.

Imagine the scene: a little café full of people, either bustling about or chatting at tables while warming their frozen hands around steaming cups of java. Two nuns walk through the door and it seems like all eyes turn their way. One patron calls out, 'Sisters, you have made a lot of people happy today!'

We smiled our biggest smiles, the words warming our frozen cheeks. But what does one say to that?

I felt so small, so human, and so humbled that I just wanted to drop down on the floor and say, 'I'll try harder, I promise!'"

--From a wonderful, lovely article about wearing the habit, by Sr. Mary Catherine of Jesus, a cloistered Dominican nun (in Summit New Jersey). By the way, you can purchase a lot of lovely gifts from these sisters for Christmas presents. (HT)

Woman Warrior: St. Mary MacKillop

This weekend Pope Benedict XVI canonized six saints, including the great Br. André (of Montreal), and St. Mary MacKillop, the first Australian born saint. According to reports, Australia had quite a party celebrating Sr. Mary of the Cross.

The first nun, and mother superior of the Josephite Sisters, Mary MacKillop is also somewhat of a rarity in the canon of saints--she was excommunicated for "insubordination" by a bishop. (Her excommunication lasted less than a year.)

The story goes as follows:

But the full story is that Mary MacKillop was excommunicated out of "revenge," in the words of one priest familiar with her life, for uncovering a case of sex abuse by a Father Keating, in a nearby parish. Paul Gardiner, S.J., the former postulator of MacKillop's canonization process, told an Australian television documentary a few days ago, "Priests being annoyed that somebody had uncovered it--that would probably be the way of describing it--and being so angry that the destruction of the Josephites was decided on." A statement from the Sisters of St. Joseph has confirmed that the documentary's reports are "consistent with" studies of the event.

--James Martin, S.J. in America Magazine via The Deacon's Bench. Read the whole story here.

She was clearly a remarkable woman, and a wonderful reminder to us that not only is there a role for women in the Church, but that we have something powerful to fight for: the protection of innocence in all its forms through our witness to the faith.

Dominican Nuns in Iraq

I'd like to encourage you all to pray for the remarkable Dominican Nuns in Iraq. They have recently been sending word about their situation to different Catholic media outlets. The Prioress of the Adrian Dominicans writes:

As of now, the five elderly sisters who have been holding down the Motherhouse are choosing to remain there because they do not want to lose their Motherhouse to the terrorists. She said most Christians are making plans to evacuate from Iraq and, as a consequence, she does not know what will happen with her Congregation. She said they will follow the Christian people where they go, but where that will be is uncertain.

She asks for help in getting the word out to the media, and members of congress, etc. because this is not being reported on at all. She also asks, most importantly, for prayers.

With passage of the Health Care Bill imminent, and plenty of our own daily concerns, it is easy to forget that there are real Christian Martyrs today, in our time. We cannot forget about these brave women, who stand as witnesses to the truth of our Faith.

Read more about other desert nuns, here (HT/photo: Monales O.P.)

Radically Open

I was at a wedding over Christmas break. The bride, a friend from highschool, and the groom (who I did not meet until after the vows were said), were set up by a young Jesuit deacon. The celebrant gave a homily which detailed the long list of connections and coincidences that brought these two people together (over 40 years worth). It was a wonderful witness (to all present--some of whom weren't believers) to the way God works through our lives.

But one phrase of the homily really struck me. This Jesuit deacon said: "They will have a blessed life and a happy marriage. Why can I say this with such assurance? Because they were both radically open to the religious life." That openness, and willingness to dedicate their entire lives to Christ, to put their desires second to Christ's, will help them, in marriage, to live for each other, and seek out the others good above all else.

His words struck me. I'm often asked if I have ever considered the religious life. My standard line is "Well, I've never felt the call, so I don't think about it much." And that is true: I never have looked and nuns and desired the life they life. I admire them so much; I am overjoyed for every friend who enters the religious life, and marvel at their courage and fortitude. But I don't ever feel the slightest inclination towards that life.

But the single life is characterized by an openness to Christ. We don't have the sacramental bonds of marriage or the priesthood; but we do have the bonds of the Spirit, though Confirmation. We ought to always put our needs aside and Christ's first. Does that mean we should all drop everything and try to join a convent?

I think not. Our desires are from God, and God uses them. This bride and groom are a perfect example of the fact that lives radically open to Christ will take very different paths, and ultimately find peace in the One we seek.

Lessons from Mother Teresa

Day after day, hour after hour, He asks the same question: "Will thou refuse to do this for Me?" -- Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light

My spiritual book of the month is the now-famous book of the letters of Mother Teresa which were published in 2007. Though I bought it when it was first made available, I am not really getting around to it until now. I like to think that the Holy Spirit directs me to read certain books that I have on my shelf when I need them the most. (Maybe I'm just justifying the fact that I buy too many to read right away.) For some reason, I picked this off the shelf and am making my way through it and hopefully finishing before the new year begins. So far, three things have stood out to me:

1) I am so struck by the difficulty Mother Teresa faced in starting the Missionaries of Charity. It is incredible how many letters she wrote to get it off the ground with Rome. She was completely faithful to the process and to her superiors, but she refused to quit her pleading. I can see her digging her heels into the ground in Loreto, foregoing despair and holding onto her conviction. It's a beautiful image I have in my mind, and an example to us all. She had every confidence that Jesus would work through the process of obeying authority (a good reminder for me at work!).

2) She describes the imperative from Jesus to start the Missionaries of Charity as a "call within a call." I think this is perhaps the most important contribution to the theology of vocations that we've had in a long time. It's easy to break down the vocations into single, religious, or married, and to leave them at that. But every vocation, whether single, married, or religious, or the vocation to work or to serve...all have little "calls within the larger call." How many times does God shatter the image of our own vocation by introducing something new into it and calling us to something unexpected?

3) Mother Teresa's discussion of cheerfulness is one of the most beautiful that I've read. In fact, when asked why type of woman would be recruited for the M.C., she answered, "Girls from the age of16 and upwards. -- Strong in body and mind with splenty of common sense. -- They must be able to put their hands to any kind of work however repugnant to human nature. They must be of bright, cheerful disposition."

Earlier in the book, she describes what she means by cheerfulness. I think it's written for me!

"When I see someone sad," she would say, "I always think, she is refusing something to Jesus." It was in giving Jesus whatever He asked that she found her deepest and lasting joy; in giving Him joy she found her own joy. "Cheerfulness is a sign of a generous and mortified person who forgetting all things, even herself, tries to please her God in all she does for souls. Cheerfulness is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice, continual union with God, fervor and generosity. A person who has this gift of cheerfulness very often reaches a great height of perfection. For God loves a cheerful giver and He takes close to His heart the religious He loves.

A Week of Firsts

This past week was filled with several "firsts" for me, one of which was the blessing of witnessing a sister's final profession of vows. The semi-cloistered nuns who run the school that I teach at were gathered together to witness one in their community become a bride of Christ. I've spoken with this particular sister before, and her story is quite amazing. She is a widow, like her foundress St. Jane de Chantal, and her children were present at her final vows -- how cool is that? Anyway, I was struck over and over as she repeated, "I take Jesus Christ to be the sole object of my love." Sole object of my love. These words have stayed with me since I heard her say them. How I wish that I would make Jesus the only object of my adoration, attention, and love. How hard it is for the lay, modern woman to do this with so many duties and distractions. Maybe that is why the vocations to religious life and the laity are different. I can't help but ask how to transform that type of vow into my own daily mission.

I also prayed outside of an abortion clinic this weekend for the first time in my life. It was about 45 degrees, raining, and quite windy, but despite the weather it was a remarkable experience. I gathered with about 6 or 7 other young adults from a parish and we prayed to the Blessed Mother for an hour. Though there was no major traffic at the clinic (on a Saturday --- praise God), we did have one person in an SUV speed up to us, spray us a bit, and honk for a really long time). Everyone stayed really peaceful and focused in prayer. I was immediately aware of the fact that the culture of life will be ushered in with gentleness, not hostility. Perhaps these two "firsts" overlap in meaning: those who vow to remain hidden, those who are hidden -- the "little ones," the ones that the world sees no value in -- are wrapped in the gentle arms of Christ.

On Celibacy

Most of you probably know about Human Life International, and it's president, Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer. They do amazing work, and if you don't, please take a moment to check them out.

Fr. Euteneuer also writes a weekly column which he send to the HLI mailing list, and I wanted to point out to you this week's excellent commentary on Celibacy.

Number One: Celibacy is a gift to the world, not a rule imposed by the Church on a few seemingly-abnormal men. Celibacy initiates men into a life of spiritual fatherhood in a strikingly positive way for others. We are called “father” for a reason: we bring spiritual life to our people through the sacred mysteries which we handle, and they are drawn into a spiritual family thereby. A truly dedicated priest has thousands of spiritual children who sometimes make immense demands on him—I often wish I had only seven children like my father! In an age where men have massively renounced their sacred duty to generate, protect and nurture families, there are myriads of selfless, celibate men sacrificing themselves in a truly manly way for the sake of God’s family and, indeed, even for the sake of many individual families.

...Number two: Celibacy is the personal renunciation of the legitimate goods of marriage and family as a fruitful sacrifice for the kingdom of God. The astonishment of this generation that a perfectly normal, red-blooded male could make that particular sacrifice is exactly the point of celibacy. The world needs to know that there are some men walking around who are not bound either by the expectations of society or by the terms of our fleshly human nature. They are bound by only one concern; that of a kingdom that is not of this world, and they are willing to sacrifice everything for it. The presence in society of men who make this sacrifice is profoundly challenging to a culture that wants to reduce everything in life to the pleasure principle...

For the full article, click here, and to subscribe to Fr. Eutenuer's Spirit & Life newsletter, click here.

CFRs in the New York Times

On Christmas Eve the New York Times profiled the South Bronx community of CFRs who live in radical poverty, and serve the troubled neighborhoods of New York City.

"Early on, definitely it was the decision to live a life of chastity, not to get married, is the big hurdle to making a decision to enter this life," Father Rich said.  "As time goes on there's still a natural struggle that goes one with that, but also in some ways the vow of obedience becomes more difficult.  You try to surrender your plans, your time, where you are going to live...This is a radical investment in the afterlife," he added.

It's a beautiful story, and a wonderful witness.  There's also a video.