GOLDEN JUBILEE

 

Today Sr. Evelyn Glynn celebrated her Golden Jubilee.  We gathered as a community in the Abbess Room after Lauds to celebrate with Sr. Evelyn.  Sr. Evelyn has served as an organist in the Community since she entered, she also worked in the Sewing Room and with the poultry.  She reminisced with us about some of the practices over the 50 years.  Her aunt Mrs. Doyle from New Ross brought her here the day she entered.  Sr.Imelda blessed her with Holy Water to ensure that she would persevere in her vocation.  Sr.  Malachy was her Novice Mistress and Sr. Agnes was sub-mistress.  She was drawn to the Cistercian way of life from reading Thomas Merton’s book Elected Silence.  Sr. Evelyn was instrumental in the change of the Liturgy from Latin to English after the Second Vatican Council.  She told us how music was such a great help to her in her spiritual life and also in helping her to mature and develop as a person.  Sr. Evelyn has a great love of nature and flowers and also was very creative making flower arrangements for the church over the years.

We give thanks today for Sr. Evelyn’s loyal dedication and loving service in praising the Lord and that she may continue seeking him in the School of the Lord’s service.

CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS

 

FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN

4th Week Advent (Tuesday)

 

YOU SHALL GIVE GOD A ROBE OF FLESH

 

When the appointed time came to reveal God’s secret purpose which had been hidden for long ages, as the apostle, says,  but was now in the final age to be made known, God summoned Gabriel and said:  “Go to the Virgin Mary, and deliver the greatest message ever given: God will become man in her.”

The angel approached her and fell on his knees.  Hail, full of grace, he said; the Lord is with you, indeed with you much more than with me.  Virgin, do you see and hear this great soldier of heaven, how he does homage to you, how he greets you? What, then are you thinking?  Tell us, what is your reply to him?  What thoughts run through your mind?  He greets you:  greet him in return.

What blush colours your virginal cheek, what rosy hue?  Why are you disturbed, why hesitant and afraid?  This is an angel, not a man.  He is from heaven, not from earth.  He greets you humbly and does not seek to overwhelm you:  he carries no sword!  Why then are you disturbed, why frightened?  His greeting brings not fear but joy!

See how prudent she is:  she pondered what this greeting might mean.  Virgin, why do you reflect before answering? This, after all, is an angel, not the serpent.  Eve answered without thinking;  the Virgin ponders.  Eve was quick to consent:  Mary reflects on what her answer should be.  Oh, how different this blessed woman from the first woman of our race!

Listen, the angel speaks at length; he has now said all he wished to say, he has finished what he was sent to do;   but the Virgin has not yet spoken.  How reserves she is!  Let virgins learn from her not be too talkative.  How will this take place, since I do not know any man?  I do not doubt the mystery:  I only ask how it will be accomplished.

O Virgin, how many virgins surrender their virginity to bear a child, and yet it is but a mortal man they bring to birth.  You have heard that you will give birth to God – and yet you hesitate!  How will this take place, angel of God?  However it takes place, you shall be the Mother of God.  I could tell you, Virgin, of a way prefigured in the law.  You know the scriptures:  remember the bush that burned without being consumed; the flames roared through it but it remained intact.  So you shall be robed with the sun without loss of your virginity.  You shall give God a robe of flesh and be robed by him in beauty.  You shall set the crown of your mortality upon him:  he shall crown you with a diadem of glory.  You shall remain a virgin, yet be fruitful; you shall be a mother, yet retain your integrity.  You shall have the joys of motherhood as well as the honour of virginity.

From a sermon by Saint Thomas of Villanova, O.S.A.

3rd Week of Advent (Tuesday)

 

WHY DID JESUS COME?

  

See, the name of the Lord is coming from afar, says the prophet.  Who could doubt that something tremendous was responsible, when sublime majesty deigned to come down from such a distance to so unworthy a place?  Something tremendous it assuredly was: great mercy, abundant compassion, and overwhelming charity were the cause.

For what purpose did he come, according to our faith?  It will be no arduous task to find  out, since both this words and his deeds clearly proclaim the reason for his coming.  It was to search for the hundredth sheep which had strayed that he hastened down from the mountains; he came for our sake so that his tender mercies and his wonderful dealings with the children of Adam might  more evidently give glory to the Lord.  How astonishing the condescension on the part of God who searches; how great the value of those he sought!  If we should wish to boast of it we shall not be acting foolishly; not that we  can claim  to be anything as of ourselves, but because he who made us has made us worth so much.  All riches, all the glory of the world and whatever  in it is an object of desire pale before his glory, compared with which they are nothing.   Lord, what is man that you make so much of him and set your heart on him?

All the same I should like to know what it means that he came to us, rather than our going to him.  The need was ours, and it is not customary for the rich to go in search of the poor, even if they wish to make them some gift.  It would have been seemly, therefore, for us to go to him, but there was a double hindrance.  First, our eyes were dim whereas he dwells in unapproachable light.   Secondly, lying paralyzed on our pallet as we are, we lacked the strength to reach the summit of the Godhead.  So our most kingly Saviour, the physician of souls, ame down from his great height and tempered his glory to our weak eyes.  He shielded himself in a lantern when he took to himself that glorious body entirely free from all stain.  This body assuredly is that very swift and shining cloud upon which the prophet foretold that he would ride to descent into Egypt.

From a homily by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

New Website

We launched our new website today.  Please drop in and have a look. www.glencairnabbey.org  Keep an eye on it as we will be working on it over the next few weeks.

Monastic Initiation

On the feast of the Immaculate Conception Sr. Robert received the Monastic Habit. 

Sr. Robert

 

The folowing is a brief extract from M. Marie’s Chapter talk for Sr. Robert’s Clothing. 

“The Church is often described as a pilgrim church, and we can describe ourselves as a pilgrim people, on a journey.  many of the ancient Irish monks were pilgrims for Christ.  Your own life has a strong sense of pilgrimage, moving from a kind of lay religious teaching experience to the Ashram of Fr. Bede Griffits, Shantivanam, where you had the privilege, in 1993, of accompanying him on his final pilgrimage through death to resurrection.  Having him as your spiritual teacher was indeed a privilege.  From there you journeyed to Makkiyad (Cistercian monastery in India) in 1997 and on another feast of Our Lady, 15th August 1998, you received the Cistercian habit and began your novitiate.  Those 10 years in Makkiyad led you into the Cistercian charism and grace and nourished in you a love of lectio divina and liturgy.  You served the community generously and worked hard in the kitchen, making soap and on the farm.  Now your pilgrim journey has taken you to Ireland and to another novitiate, and to another beginning but with the riches and wealth of so much spiritual experience behind you.  

 As you begin your novitiate my prayer is that you will find joy and contentment in this community,  that the Holy Spirit will bring to perfection the work he has begun in you and conform you ever more fully to Christ, and that your pilgrim journey will be blessed with Mary’s abiding friendship and prayers.  The Lord takes delight in you. 

Sr. Stephen Sr. Robert Sr. Scholasticia

 

 Sr. Robert with our other two Indian sisters. 

 

2nd Sunday of Advent

 

ALL  FLESH  SHALL  SEE  THE  SALVATION  OF  GOD

 

A reading from the Sermons of St. Bernard

We must now think for a moment about the time at which our Saviour comes, for as you know it was not at the beginning, nor in the middle, but at the end of the ages that he came to us.  This was not determined without purpose; on  the contrary, God in his wisdom decided that he could bring help to men only when their need was at its greatest, for he know how prone to ingratitude were the sons of Adam.  Truly, the day was already far spend and the evening drawing near; the sun of justice was already beginning to set, and its rays now gave diminished light and warmth to the earth.  The light of the knowledge of God had grown feeble, and as sin increased, charity grew cold.  Angels no longer appeared to men, no prophet raised his voice; it seemed as though, overcome by the great hardness and obstinacy of men, they had ceased to intervene in human affairs.  Then it was that the Son of God said:  Here am I.  Eternity broke in upon the world at the moment when temporal prosperity was at its height.   For to give only one example, peace among nations was at that time so universal that at a single man’s bidding it was possible to carry out a census of the whole world.

We had considered who he is that comes, and to what place, and also the cause and time of his coming.  One thing remains: we must earnestly search out the road by which he comes, so that we may be able to go out to meet him, as is fitting.  However, as he came once upon this earth in visible flesh to work out our redemption, so he comes daily in a hidden, spiritual way to save each individual soul, as the scripture says:  The Lord’s anointed is the breath of life to us.  This spiritual coming of his is shown to be hidden in the text:  Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.  So, then, surely even if the sick man is unable to go very far to meet such a great Physician, he could at least make an effort to lift his head and raise himself up a little to greet him as he approaches.

It is not necessary for you to cross the seas, nor to pierce the clouds, not to climb mountains to meet your God.  It is not a lengthy road that is set before you;  you have only to enter into yourself to find him.  For his word is very near you;  it is on your lips and in your heart.  Encounter him in compunction of heart and in confession of your sins, so that you may at least leave behind you the dunghill of a defiled conscience, for the Author of purity could not be asked to enter such a place.

All these things are said of that Advent in which Christ comes to each one of us, to enlighten our minds by the power of his Spirit.