10/02/2014
9/30/2014
Surprise Dinner for Senior Novices!
A flurry of activities descended upon our main kitchen one afternoon when Sr. Pia Ignatius, Sr. Julie Michael, with the help of their Novice Director Sr. Cyril Methodius, and Vocation Director, Sr. Maria Therese- planned, executed and delivered- a surprise dinner for the Senior Novices who will be professing First Vows on October 4th and will henceforth be on their way to their respective Missions. As the line goes, a photo is worth a thousand words!
Sr. Cyril surprised by the camera!
Sr. Maria Therese busy at the wheel.
Sr. Julie Michael
Sr. Pia Ignatius
Sr. Ambrose making sure everything is just right!
A job well done!
Our soon to be Newly Professed Sisters!
9/19/2014
What's Hidden In An Empty Box?
by Sr. Hope Therese, O.Carm.
Shortly
before I left for my last mission as a novice in Davenport, Iowa the sisters
had a Chinese food night. This of course
involved fortune cookies. I received the
strangest fortune cookie I have ever received in my life. It said “What’s hidden in an empty box?” I have never had a fortune that was a
question before. My first thought was
how stupid it was. How can anything be
hidden in a box, if the box is indeed empty?
Yet, the question continued to drive me crazy.
I
received many varied answers from Sisters when I asked them the question. Some said rice, Schrodinger’s cat, secrets,
dreams, peace, love, faith, and hope as in the story of Pandora’s Box. Perhaps
the box only appeared to be empty because what was in it was hidden. Perhaps the box was really being looked at by
a pessimist and was not empty, but full of potential. With all the answers I received I had to come
up with my own after much frustration.
The
empty box is my future. Part of my
annoyance with the empty box comes from not being able to see what lies in my
future. I am the sort of person that
sometimes, okay most of the time, reads the ends of books and watches the ends
of movies first. When it comes to
finding out what will happen next I am not patient.
I have
heard it said that the past is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a
gift. That is why we call it the present. We need to
appreciate every moment. Every moment of
our lives is a precious gift from God that we need to experience as it
comes. Once it comes it is gone and we
will never have it back again. When we
are present to the present we are really living. It is so important to really live. The future is what we make of it.
However, God is
in control and helping everything to work according to his plan and the greater
good. Have faith and trust that God’s
grace will impel you to make the right decisions in and for your future. The same God that helped you through any
problem you had in the past is still beside you here and now in the
present. He will be there in the future. In fact He has seen your future and He is
already there. Nothing will interfere
with His plan for those who trust in Him.
Today I can look
back on my past and see how the Lord was there all along even when I couldn’t
sense how he was working. That reminds
me that He is here with me today even though I can’t see now how He is
working. When the future of a situation
is out of your control knowing what will happen in the end will change
nothing. Learning from the past is good,
but dwelling on the changeless past is pointless and a waste of time. All you can do is surrender the past or the
future of the situation into God’s hands and pray that his will be done. If we
waste time dwelling on the past or dreaming about the future, then we are
forgetting to live.
In the
Bible Mathew 6:34 says “Do not worry
about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.” The children of an almighty and ever loving
God were never meant to be anxious.
Anxiety was brought into the world with sin when man damaged his
relationship with God. Our best friend
Jesus Christ repaired that relationship by giving up his life for us. With a friend like that on our side is there
any need to be anxious? Patience is a
virtue and a gift of the Holy Spirit. If
we pray to God for patience he will help us to live as life happens without
focusing on the past or future. That is
the way life is meant to be lived.
When we wait for
something it feels like forever, but when it’s over it seems that time has
flown so fast. Life is a series of journeys
and destinations. It is in the
journeying that life really happens. Humans
are naturally anxious and impatient and peace and patience usually do not come
easy to us. That is why peace and
patience are such precious and powerful gifts of God’s grace. Peace and patience help us to live. I recently received the joyful news of my
sister’s second pregnancy. This was
something I was waiting for not so patiently, but the waiting helped me to
appreciate the moment more. Waiting for
the special moments in your life is what sometimes makes them more worthwhile. I have been trying to resist looking into,
and even trying to ignore the empty box of my future. There is nothing to see and only God knows
what is there. At present I have been
filling up empty suitcases in happy anticipation of my first mission as a
professed sister. I will not know where
I am going until Profession day on October 4th. I am starting to learn to be okay with that
and everything else out of my control.
The last fortune
cookie I opened said; “Make your life a mission, not an intermission.” I think that advice speaks for itself. I refuse to make my life an intermission by
peering into an empty box.
8/28/2014
A Farewell Party!
by Sr. Lois Ann Wetzel, O.Carm.
The Carmelite sisters held a farewell "card party
tournament" for Sr. Serafino who is moving to Mother Angeline
McCrory Manor in Columbus Ohio. Sr.
Serafino always enjoyed card games with the Sisters including our Novices. The Sisters had a great time playing two
playoff rounds. Sr. Serafino was on the
winning team! The "non-card"
players put together lovely refreshments and decorated our coffee shop with
card and game theme. A grand time was
had by all!
"Cookie Checkers"
Sr. Serafino enjoying her treats!
Serious business going on here!
Sr. Lois with Novices
Oh nice!
6/29/2014
A Joyful Meeting!
On June 9, 2014, Sr. Julie, Sr. Cyril and I attended the Ceremony
of Simple Profession at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in
Middletown, NY. The Brothers who were professed were Brother JosephThinh Tran, O.Carm. and Brother Francis X. Hai Pham, O.Carm. from the Saint Elias Province; Father Cyril Farmer, O.Carm., Brother Kenneth Ketterlin, O.Carm., Brother Felipe Navarette-Diaz, O.Carm., from the Most Pure Heart of Mary
Province; and last but certainly not least, Brother Matthew Tonini who was later to be professed in Melbourne,
Australia on June 22nd. It
was a true privilege and honor to be able to witness our brothers in Carmel
pronounce their First Vows of Obedience, Poverty and Chastity to God according
to the Rule and Constitutions of the Order of Carmelites. You could feel
the joy and love that radiated from everyone who attended. These celebrations are constant reminders of
our love for Christ and our fellowman.
Standing in solidarity with our brothers in formation helps to inspire
us to persevere in our growth in Carmel.
As luck would have it, Fr. Greg Houck, O. Carm. was in
attendance as well. He and I have a long
history together. It was under his
teaching and guidance that I became an altar server prior to my entrance to
Carmel, and later a Eucharistic minister, at my home parish of St. John the
Evangelist in Leonia, NJ. He used to
refer to me as a “career altar server” and it was with great delight that I was
able to embrace him as a fellow Carmelite. I do remember him as being a bit
taller and not having so much gray hair in his goatee! It truly is amazing how the Holy Spirit
works. Who knew that 20 years down the
line we would meet up again and that his influence on my spiritual growth would
have made such an impact on my life? He
is no longer just “Father Greg” but now he is my brother in Carmel.
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