Brooklyn Visitation Monastery Associate John meets Mother Maria Silvia, Superior of the Monastery of the Visitation in Annecy, our Holy Source, with a friend!
Visitation Salesian group: Dr. Amelia from St Louis, Sr Brenda from Minneapolis, unknown friend, Father Kumar, OSFS, Vienna Va and John S., Brooklyn Visitation Associate
Conference Day 1 and Mass Day 1
From our Associate, John, at the scene:
Mass at Trinité des Monts (piazza di Spagna) last night. It was so wonderful. We had a bishop there.
The Conference on the Sacred Heart in Rome begins tomorrow, May 1, at the Villa Aurelia. Our rep, John Staniszewski, Associate, is there. Tonight, Mass and vigil with relics of St Margaret Mary at Trinité des Monts (piazza di Spagna)
Joining John are Sister Brenda and Sister Katherine from our Minneapolis Monastery and Ms. Amelia from St Louis, and Fr Kumar from Virginia.
Holy Father Pope Francis has declared 2024 to be a Year of Prayer in preparation for the Jubilee Year of 2025.
Our Brooklyn Visitation Monastery, in collaboration with this year, invites all to join us on Sunday afternoons for three forms of prayer, between 4PM and 5:30P, in our Sacred Heart Chapel:
ADORATION PRAYER- before the Blessed Sacrament in exposition, in silence
(4-430PM)
VOCAL PRAYER- praying the Glorious mysteries of the Holy Rosary
(430-5PM)
LITURGICAL PRAYER-praying the Liturgy of the Hours, Evening Prayer
(5-530PM)
Learn about the Year of Prayer here: ENG_Sulla-preghiera-A5-76P-SITO.pdf (iubilaeum2025.va)
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone: this is the work of the Lord, the wonder before our eyes. (Ps 117, 22-23)
[…] making himself a companion of our sufferings so that we become companions of his glory. By this abundant, superabundant, magnificent, excessive redemption he showed us the riches of his goodness. (TLG II, 4) SFDS
Christ is truly resurrected! Alleluia
“Peace be with you!”
Christ is risen! Hallelujah!
From a Sermon by St. Francis de Sales. April 12, 1594. Works VII, 167
There was no doubt great joy in Noah’s ark, when the dove, which had gone out a short time before, as if to spy on the state of the world, returned at last bearing in its beak the olive branch, a sure signal of the cessation of the waters, and that God had restored to the world the happiness of his peace. But, O God, with what joy, with what feast, with what gladness was the company of the Apostles, when they saw the holy humanity of the Redeemer return among themselves after the resurrection, bearing in his mouth the olive of a holy and agreeable peace: Pax vobis, and showing them the unmistakable marks and signs of the reconciliation of men with God: Et ostendit eis manus et pédes.
No doubt their souls were then fully drenched in consolation: Gavisi sunt discipuli viso Domino. But this joy was not the chief fruit of this holy sight; for their wavering faith was strengthened, their frightened hope was secured, and their almost extinguished charity was kindled. This is the discourse which I have undertaken, but which I cannot do well, nor can you, listen well, unless the Holy Spirit assists us. Let us, therefore, invoke Him, and in order to invoke Him better, let us employ the intermediary of the Blessed Virgin. Ave Maria.
Now these three things remain, faith, hope, and charity; but the greatest of these is charity. Cor, 13. Faith for the understanding, hope for memory, charity for the will. Faith honors the Father, because it is based on omnipotence; hope honors the Son, for it is founded on his redemption; charity honors the Holy Spirit, for it embraces and cherishes goodness. Faith shows us happiness, hope makes us aspire to it, charity puts us in possession. They are necessary, but now; for in Heaven there remains only charity. Faith does not enter into it, for it is seen in everything; hope still less, for there is everything in it; but there is only charity to love our God in everything, everywhere, and with everything.
Our Lord does nothing else than teach us these three lessons: how to believe, how to hope, and how to love; but especially in those forty days in which he conversed with his apostles after his resurrection, and more particularly in the apparition recited today.
To close a Monastery is to shred one’s soul
Incalculable pieces that will ne’er be whole
A vocation torn and chaffed away
Blown by the Spirit to find a new way.
Death would be simpler and kinder still
At least that certainty would lie in God’ Will
Discernment, decisions, whoever truly can know
Why God’s precious House must be slated to go.
O Brooklyn Visitation, why must it be?
Where in the Scripture is found the key
to this unfathomable time of deep mystery.
So much inner life left yet why must it be?
No more to see our “stained-glass” Spouse
Sun shining Heart in love aflame
No more to wander these Holy Halls
Winding in prayer His name to acclaim.
With hearts numbed by sadness and broken with pain
With words stunned to silence and protests maimed
With children confused and parents enraged
With memories burning our minds to engage.
Yet Jesus is coming and Easter is near
How many times did He say “Do not fear”?
So we lean on His strength and gather our hopes
And direct in acquiescence our wills to cope.
Mary’s Fiat becomes our very own Yes
To a veiled mystery to which we acquiesce
May Jesus guide our futures, our love and our wills
May the silence of His Rising our troubled souls still.
There will be NO Holy Triduum services, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, at Visitation.
We will have Easter Sunday Mass at 9AM, Sunday March 31