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Chicago
The time spanned by this issue of Sharinqs enshrines the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist almost to its closing. While our gaze could be turned in many directions and on various facets of this time of grace, we scarcely could have anticipated the extraordinary events of the past Easter season, when our beloved Pope John Paul II departed for his Father's House, and Holy Mother Church was gifted with yet another worthy and holy successor of St. Peter in Pope Bene­dict XVI. We experienced with new depth the ecclesial dimension of our Poor Clare vocation, situated at the heart of the Church, as we kept watch in prayer with Pope John Paul; and we entered the "upper room" to invoke the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the successors of the apostles as the cardinals selected the new Vicar of Christ.
The words and writings of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, open before us a wealth of spiritual ponderings, and we have received with particular eagerness those spoken during the initial days of his pontificate. With what sincere humili­ty has he accepted God's will. "Surprising every prevision I had. Divine Provi­dence, through the will of the venerable cardinal-fathers, called me to succeed this great Pope."
These words were particularly moving, coming from one whom many people had envisioned, and even hoped and prayed would take up the task of Peter as Christ's Vicar on earth. Yet his eloquently humble expression also struck a responsive chord in the hearts of each of us, for who has not experienced the marvelous unfolding of God's will, and realized there could have been no prevision to match it.
Surely not one of us, upon entering upon our blessed way of life, could have envisioned one day setting out on foundation to set up a new tabernacle for our Eucharistic Jesus. Already in August of 2000, when we were celebrating the first feast of our Mother St. Clare in Chicago, a young college graduate, also recently arrived in the Windy City, was reading an article in The Catholic New World, the Archdiocesan newspaper, about a small pioneer band of Poor Clares founding a monastery here. It was not many weeks before she had contacted us. Soon she was coming to visit in the parlor of our temporary monastery on Chicago's southwest side. God's vision for her as his very own soon became clear to her, and after entering and receiving her novitiate formation in our Roswell mother house, she made her first Profession last September 8. Shortly after, she accompa­nied our mother foundress. Mother Mary Francis, to her community and home, and we continue to pray that more young women will open their hearts to the vision, and respond as generously and eagerly.
This totality of response can be seen in full fruition in our beloved Mo­ther Mary Francis, and we were overjoyed to be able to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee of Profession with her in our midst. His Eminence, Francis Cardinal George, gave eloquent testimony to the breadth of her vision, and his high esteem for Mother flowed into his homily, as he praised the influence she has had in our day, as St. Francis had in his. "The Franciscan life owes very much to Mother Mary Francis. She has renewed the charism." A more personal impact came during his seminarian days upon reading A Right to be Merry: "When you sacrifice much, you can be merry in the Lord." Corresponding with the days of visitation was the invitation by the Real Presence Association to Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis to be the keynote speaker at a gathering to inaugurate the Year of the Eucharist. Making time in his schedule, Archbishop Burke again blessed our home with his fatherly and inspiring presence.
Pope John Paul's love for Our Lady overflowed in his calling her the Woman of the Eucharist. This vision of his was expanded in the coinciding of the year dedicated to the Most Holy Sacrament and the 150th anniversary of the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Having this as the title of our monas­tery added to the significance of the commemoration for us, and we were again privileged to have our Cardinal Archbishop celebrate the Holy Sacrifice in our chapel with a votive Mass of the Immaculate Conception on November 27. At the end of the anniversary celebration, His Eminence led us, the thirteen concele-brants and the large congregation in a renewed consecration to our Immaculate Mother.
The vision set out for us by our Mother St. Clare, handed down through successive generations, and brought to this land by our founding mothers, continues to inspire and guide us. We join our Poor Clare sisters in celebrating the life and one-hundredth anniversary of death of Mother Magdalen Bentivoglio. Bonded in life in their common ideal, she and our own Mother Veronica von Elmendorff were closely united in reaching their eternal goal. We look forward to a special remembrance of the centenary of Mother Veronica's heavenly homegoing on November 9 of this year. Past and present were also blended into one for us, when we received the cornerstone and cross from the original Poor Clare Monastery of the Immaculate Conception. These were sent to us by our sisters in Rockford who had been keeping them, and waiting on the day when our Lord would reveal his plan and future vision for them. Our sisters also sent us an exquisite hand-carved wooden reliquary and one of the refectory tables which had been a part of our Poor Clare home on Laflin Street.
Our lives of adoration, prayer and praise could scarcely be possible were it not for the dedicated priests who serve as our chaplains, at present a different priest for each day of the week. We have remained close to those who assisted us in this way during our beginning years in Chicago at our temporary monastery. Four of our past and present chaplains recently observed an anniversary, and it has been our joy, and our small way of repaying our debt of gratitude, to cele­brate a jubilee Mass with them. Bishop Joseph Perry, auxiliary bishop of Chicago, who was placed in charge of the archdiocesan programs for the Year of the Eucharist, has also been instrumental in helping to arrange priest celebrants for our Sunday Mass, himself celebrating the Eucharistic Sacrifice with us on the Baptism of the Lord.
In his homily at the Protomonastery on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the death of our Holy Mother St. Clare, the then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger spoke of the sisters in their hidden cloistered life as the collaborators with bishops and priests, and yes, the pope. Prophetic words seen now in retrospect,
yet certainly included in Divine Providence's prevision. Many suffering and tragic events around the world have called forth a response of prayer. We bring these aching needs to our Eucharistic Lord in adoration, knowing that it is he who gives a vision of hope in the midst of tragedy. We cannot help but recall the spiritual wisdom of our beloved former Religious Assistant, Father Ronald Lawler, O.F.M.Cap., when he was asked why God would allow such things: "My God is greater than that. He can bring good out of evil; love out of suffering!"
Our increased Eucharistic focus has not only been interior, but has also set our sights on preparing for our first Eucharistic Procession on August 2. When we first moved into our new monastery in March, 2003, it was challenging for even the most fertile imagination to envision how we could transform the vast field of yellow clay into a cloister garden. Yet, we did have a prevision of an image of our Crucified Lord at the canter. All pathways would lead to him, and this is how it came to be. Planks leftover from construction were col­lected and staked in; loads of woodchips and dirt were hauled, and soon we had created a pattern of paths and beds, all converging upon a heart-shaped garden with a large crucifix and a beautiful image of our Crucified Jesus. Gifts of plants from our mother abbey and other monasteries of our federation came to us, as also from the Carmelites on Chicago's northside. As our vision and our cultivated areas have expanded outward, so has our garden fencing to keep out our numerous population of deer, whose interest in our garden has been almost as keen as ours, though for a different reason.
The wide gravel path running behind the monastery, of which we stood in awe when it was first made, soon showed it was not going to stand up wall to wear and tear and water erosion. Now we raise up grateful hearts and prayers to God for the kindness of our friends which has made possible a paved road. In spirit and prayer we carry our Eucharistic King through the highways and byways of the world. In our enclosed garden our Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller carried him along our new road.
Our Seraphic Father Francis had en­visioned the Portiuncula Indulgence of this feast of Our Lady of the Angels reach­ing out to everyone in the world, and his prevision seemed to become reality as the many friends and priest concelebrants filled our chapel. At the conclusion of Holy Mass, Bishop, priests and Poor Claras became the entourage of our Eucharistic Jesus, as we wended our way through our cloister garden to our large enclosure gates, where we were met by the congregation, who in their turn formed a procession to escort our Lord on the extern grounds back to the chapel for the con­cluding Benediction service.
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■This highlight of the Year of the Eucharist was preceded by the visit of Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis. He had just completed a retreat given to the Marian Catechists, and he shared with us the inspi­ration of his own broad vision of apostolic zeal. As these prelates, along with thousands of young people, converge on Cologne for World Youth Day, we join them in a pilgrimage in spirit. Perhaps the Lord envisions many of these young men and women as closer followers of him as priests and religious, and we pray
that they will catch this vision and bring it to its fulfillment.
Our uniquely graced inauguration of the novena to our Mother St. Clare led us to her Solemnity, with retired Bishop John Gorman celebrating Holy Mass with us. Our Holy Mother's prevision of "those who would come after" reaches down through the centuries to include ourselves. Like her, may our gaze, steadily fixed on our Eucharistic Lord, open out to include the plan of Divine Providence, leading us to the full vision of our eternal goal.
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