Dear
Friends,
I
received a letter from a religious friend and I would like to
share a very special thought with you. She
told this story – a young man entered a monastery of hard
working monks and from the beginning he noticed a certain
heaviness in the prayer-life. The emphasis
was on getting the WORK done. For years he
was sensitive to this and when, some years later, he was
elected Abbot he was inspired to remedy this situation in this
way. He decided to have the monks pause in
their work seven times during the day and make an act of
adoration, simply to renew their awareness of God’s
Presence. In a few months the heaviness had
lifted and the community radiated a quiet joy, which soon drew
many vocations. The hours of the day in a
monastery are divided into seven segments. So
pausing seven times a day to pray is quite in keeping with
monastic tradition. I guess the real
questions has to be, “how do we pray? How do we turn our
ordinary prayers into acts of adoration?” Adoration
is the response of a child to her Father whom she knows is
bending over her with affection. When you
look up and see only kindness and a desire for your welfare in
that utterly kind face how could you help but radiate joy?
I
thought that was such a lovely story. A
return to better times perhaps but not an impossibility by any
means. It would certainly be worth a try in
this busy world to develop a habit of pausing and having a set
prayer perhaps that would really be an act of adoration and
love. It could be easily remembered and in
a short time memorized. No need to spirit
from your pocket a typed formula - just a
brief pause and remember He is beaming upon you as though you
were the only one – his pride and joy.
When
the children of Fatima were greeted by the angel, she taught
them this prayer. I find it prefect for
this occasion – “O my God, I believe, I adore, I hope and
I love you. I beg pardon for those who do
not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.”
A quick mental sweep of the last few hours could bring
that part of the day into what has been described as a burning
cauldron of love – the heart of Jesus. This
whole process is so energizing it is no wonder it brings good
results.
There
is no reason on earth why you/we could not develop this
practice. What a better world we would be
energizing. If green is the color of Hope – and it is – we
would be creating a new kind of green globe. Our lives will be
sprouting beautiful growth as unseen as the grass when watered
by rain. The world will be transformed.
On
another note: Did you see us on National
TV? No, I am not kidding. We
had special permission to participate in the Papal Mass at
National’s Stadium on April 17th. This
was an event of a lifetime. The local
Pastor invited us to travel by bus with the parishioners who
were going from Sacred Heart in La Plata. We
accepted gladly since it was well advertised that there was
literally NO Parking near this new stadium. In
fact it is so new that the Pope’s Mass was the second event
to take place there. We rose at 3 a.m. to
meet the bus at the parish parking lot by 4:30. It
was still dark and although the crowd was cheerful with
anticipation it was easy to pray while riding in the mostly
dark bus. The noise of the motor made
conversation pretty useless. As I said to
one of my sisters, “there is something to be said about
being alone in a crowd or the silence found in the midst of
noise.”
We
had wonderful seats on the field. Each
person was provided with a canvas bag with a program, a bottle
of water, an energy bar and a Magnificat Missalette.
The music was quite loud but very well practiced and
internationally varied. The huge screen
provided short video presentations of welcome - greetings to
the Holy Father from Diocese all across the United States. We
heard that 1,700 priests were present. A
good number were available for confession or consultation.
Many priests and brothers and religious women who saw
us came to exchange greetings before Mass (we were in place by
7 a.m. and the Mass started at 10). Little
by little the stadium began filling up. By 9:30 all 42
thousand seats were filled.
The
thrill of the roar of all those people when the Holy
Father’s Popemobile began entering the stadium will be
etched in our minds forever. The whole
crowd on the field literally swayed in his direction as he
went around. The red vestments were
outstanding and I heard that the Holy Father liked them so
much he asked to keep them along with two matching Dalmatic
vestments. The Mass was devout, beautifully arranged,
excellent music and as was fitting for Washington,
diverse in language. It seemed that every
race was represented as well.
How
did we come to be captured on camera? Well,
we did not have a leading part in any procession or reading at
the Mass. It all happened as we were going
to Communion. We have no idea where the
camera was located but coming back from receiving our Lord I
happened to glance up and there on the big screen were the
Carmelites in their white mantles. From
then on I kept my eyes lowered. Many of our
families and friends who were watching at home remarked about
it later. Not all were viewing the Catholic
station so it must have been on the National coverage as well.
So there we have it – proof in pictures that we
joined the Pope in Washington.
We arrived home around 3 p.m. (getting out of the
crowded stadium was not as easy as going in). We
had been up for twelve hours. Even with our
headaches it was with joyful hearts we retired that evening.
The next day we observed a Hermit Day – we needed the
quiet and prayerful atmosphere of the monastery to absorb the
events of the previous day. We enjoyed
reading about all the other welcoming events that honored the
Holy Father but this personal meeting will be our treasure
forever.
Until
we meet again I remain,