The novice mistress stood smiling
as she read the white board in the
novitiate hall. The tally had changed.
After the much needed winter rains
the sun had reappeared, bringing the
blessing of light and warmth. The spring
planting was responding and one of
the novitiate sisters had happily noted
the progress. The number of sweet peas
and beets sprouts had each markedly
increased with this little urging from
the sun. The cabbage flat, on the other
hand, was holding steady with a single
stalwart showing.
Spring! The word
and season bring a variety
of meanings and images
to different people. In
the monastery it is associated
primarily with the liturgical seasons
of Lent and Easter. “Lent,”
actually, means “spring”; Easter, on
the other hand, was originally
the name of a pagan goddess,
in ancient times worshipped
in festival at the spring
equinox. The early Christians “baptized” this
festival. We now know Easter
as the Christian celebration
of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, which follows
immediately after Lent. “Easter” is
closely related to the
Latin word “aurora”,
meaning “dawn.”
Jesus rose from the dead “early in
the morning on the first
day of the week.” The word association
is easy to see. Many Christians
also refer to Easter as
the celebration of the
Paschal Mystery, that is,
the suffering and death
of Jesus as well as His resurrection;
the Mystery of Redemption.
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In his Gospel, St. John places the
opening words of this newsletter on
the lips of Jesus on Palm Sunday, the
beginning of Holy Week. Jesus is the
grain of wheat which will soon die,
producing the abundant harvest of eternal
life for all who come to believe. Followers
of Jesus learn that their lives too
bear fruit for the Kingdom of God by
the daily dying to sin and living for
Christ that is the mark of discipleship.
Lent is a special time in the monastery.
One aspect the novitiate sisters enjoy
is the increasingly warmer days. As
the winter rains cease and the sun
begins to make its appearance more
frequently, the novitiate comes alive
with anticipation of garden days and
spring planting. Every seed flat she
starts can lead a Poor Clare into deep
reflections on this liturgical season.
As she pours a packet of seeds into
the palm of her hand she notes the
potential of each one. But in order
to come to fruition they must be planted,
they must lose the life they now have
to bring forth the increase. Is this
not also an image of her hidden life
of prayer at the heart of the Church?
As she sows the seeds there is hope
of new life, but all is hidden from
sight until the first tiny sprouts
push through the soil. What an image
of resurrection!
Jesus said, “The kingdom
of God is within you.” The Poor Clare
receives insight to this
mystery contemplating those tiny
seeds in the palm of her
hand. Yes, life is there, hidden away
within the seed that must be buried
in the earth to bring forth that life.
One of the tiniest of seeds, that of
the Iceland Poppy which frequents the
garden, is as small as the period that
ends this sentence. Yet each plant
has the potential to produce fifty
flowers, and each flower, if left to
go to seed, could reproduce itself
thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. Her
own consecrated life, hidden in the
heart of the Church, united to the
Heart of Christ, has life giving power.
In his Apostolic Exhortation, Redemptionis
Donum, addressed to men and women
religious, John Paul II
wrote: “May
this knowledge of belonging
to Christ open your hearts,
thoughts and deeds – with
the key of the mystery
of the Redemption – to
all sufferings, needs and
hopes of individuals and
of all the world, in the
midst of which your evangelical consecration
has been planted as
a particular sign of the
presence of God for whom
all live, embraced by the
invisible dimension of His kingdom.”
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Conversation
during recreation during
the early days of Lent
frequently revolves around
garden space – what to plant
and where. The flowers
that grace the summer garden create
beauty; they change the appearance
of the area in which they are planted.
One might say they shape a new creation.
The Poor Clare reflecting on her
own vocation is reminded once again
of late Pope's words, “You
take part in the most complete
and radical way possible, in shaping
that ‘new
creation' which must emerge
from the Redemption of the world
by means of the power of the Spirit
of Truth operating from the abundance
of the Paschal Mystery of Christ.” (Redemptionis
Donum)
Gardening
seems such a simple task; basically
it is. But for the Poor Clare contemplative,
the simple work, the silence, the
liturgical season and prayer, make
of this simple task a means of tremendous
spiritual growth that radiates out,
beyond the cloister walls. It radiates
into homes and hearts with
a fruitfulness for God's Kingdom
that she will only fully know when
her Bridegroom brings her into the
bridal chamber of heaven; when she
herself will also reap forever the
benefits of His redemptive love.
“To
use the words of the Apostle
himself in their proper
sense, I judge you to be
a co-worker of God Himself
and a support for the weak
members of His ineffable
Body. What you do now,
may you always do and not
stop. But with swift pace,
light step and feet that
do not stumble, go forward
securely, joyfully and
swiftly, on the path to
which the Spirit of the
Lord has called you.” (Letter
of St. Clare to St.
Agnes of Prague) |
