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151 pages

English

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Sr. Mary Baruch is not a "millennial." But like all of us she passed through the doors of the new millennium. Unlike most of us, her passage was in a cloistered monastery in Brooklyn Heights, New York. We first met her in "The Early Years" and accompanied her through her "Middle Ages." In this third volume, we enter with her into the evening years, the "Vespers," of her cloistered life. From her Jewish childhood, the Passover, fulfilled in Christ, becomes her way of life.

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	16 décembre 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505114867
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Sister Mary Baruch
Read All of the Sister Mary Baruch novels from TAN Books
Volume 1: The Early Years
Volume 2: The Middle Ages
Volume 3: Vespers
Volume 4: Compline
Volume 5: Wintertime
S ISTER M ARY B ARUCH
Volume 3
Vespers
Fr. Jacob Restrick, O.P.
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina
© 2017 by Jacob Restrick
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by Caroline K. Green
ISBN: 978-1-5051-1484-3
Published in the United States by TAN Books PO Box 410487 Charlotte, NC 28241 www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
To Sr. Maria Slein of the Holy Eucharist, O.P., in thanks- giving for her 75th Jubilee as a Dominican cloistered nun on the Solemnity of the Assumption, 2017
C ONTENTS
P REFACE
P ART O NE
Overture
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
P ART T WO
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
P REFACE
L OVE SONGS, BOTH contemporary and classic, are usually not addressed to Roman Catholic nuns, especially ones living within the silence and mystique of a cloistered monastery. But Sr. Mary Baruch has struck a chord with many people, and on her sixtieth birthday she received a musical card which featured a recording of this love song first recorded by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra in New York City in 1941, but here sung to her:
In this world of ordinary people Extraordinary people
I’m glad there is you
In our world and the popular culture of our day, the life of a cloistered nun is indeed extraordinary. Most people never get to visit a monastery of nuns or get to know a cloistered nun in person. And then they met Sr. Mary Baruch.
Sr. Mary Baruch was known as Rebecca Feinstein in the world. She grew up in a close Jewish family in New York City’s Upper West Side. Becky came out of the turbulent years of the 1960s not like most people did, but to the surprise and chagrin of her family, she became a Roman Catholic. We met her in these “early years” and followed her through the circumstances of her conversion and entrance into a Dominican cloistered monastery in Brooklyn Heights, New York.
Becky became Sr. Mary Baruch of the Advent Heart in 1970. In the early years and later in the middle years of her daily cloistered life, we see in her an abundance of grace given in times of crisis, death, and reconciliation with her family.
Her community at Mary, Queen of Hope Monastery is ordinary in many regards, living the spiritual life in its daily repetitious round of prayer, work, study, and community life. Because she and her monastic community are totally fictitious, they experience together some unusual happenings within and outside the regular common life of a contemporary monastic community. One meets the panoply of Sisters in her community, many of whom are quite extraordinary women!
The joys and sorrows, emotions and exuberances of these Sisters are the same human struggles we all experience. But, because of the unique circumstances of the cloistered life, perhaps they are lived more intensely.
Many thanks to the fine editors of this new volume: Sr. Mary Dominic, O.P., of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Buffalo, New York, and my two Dominican Brothers, Reginald Hoefer, O.P., and Nicolas Schneider, O.P. Their untiring help and expertise make it all possible! Special thanks to all who have contributed their support, suggestions, and fondness for the “life and times” of Sr. Mary Baruch and the Sisters at Mary, Queen of Hope Monastery.
In this third volume Sr. Mary Baruch finds herself again in the heart of her Jewish experience of Passover as a fulfillment of her union with Christ. The trials we all experience become something “blessed” because it is all God’s doing—His Paschal Mystery being lived out in our lives. In your living the life of faith, may you find a companion in Sr. Mary Baruch and hear God say to you : “In this world of ordinary people, extraordinary people, I’m glad there is you.”
Fr. Jacob Restrick, O.P.
Solemnity of All Saints, 2017 Dominican House of Studies
P ART O NE
In the cloister the nuns devote themselves totally to God and perpetuate that singular gift which the blessed Father [St. Dominic] had of bearing sinners, the downtrodden and the afflicted in the inmost sanctuary of his compassion . (Constitutions of the Nuns, 35)
O VERTURE
T HE THIRD ACT of the Sister Mary Baruch story is set in late 2005. But our narrative opens years earlier, before the new millennium, when Pope John Paul II would lead the Church across the threshold of hope. In her prayers and avid journaling, Sister remembers those years in all their joy and sorrow. Like the theater masks of Comedy and Tragedy that hung on her childhood bedroom wall, they speak loudly of the tragic death of her younger sister, Ruthie, and the exalting joy of reconciliation with her mother and older sister. That leaves only her older brother, David, with whom she is still alienated and for whom she prays.
As the new millennium approaches, Sr. Mary Baruch prays to find in herself the faith, hope, and charity which will carry her into the first decade of the twenty-first century. Looking back, she realizes that despite the stability of her monastic life, there are lots of changes, new people, and new experiences that have filled these years with grace. There will continue to be lots of “pass-overs” from old to new. Is she able to hold it all together? Or does her life come crashing down like the Seder plate in the haunting dream of her childhood?
As the curtain rises, Sr. Mary Baruch is enwrapped in the Lord’s arms: in other words, she is sound asleep in her choir stall in the chapel … it is 10:30 p.m.
One
Chametz: Leaven
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed . (1 Cor 5:7)
“G OOD AFTERNOON , M ISS Rebecca,” came the polite and friendly greeting of Eli, our daytime doorman. His big white teeth spread across his round face as he opened the door and half bowed to us like Mama and I were royalty. He wore spotless white gloves, and his shoes were big and shiny.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Eli,” I returned with a likewise broad smile for a six-year-old. “Tonight’s my night,” I blurted out, as if he and the rest of the whole world knew that.
“Tonight’s your night, is it? Do you have a date?” Eli’s smile got even bigger than big. His front white tooth had a gold tip on it which sparkled when he smiled. I had never seen anyone with a gold tooth; right in front too.
“No, Mr. Eli,” I blushed three shades of red. “Tonight is Pesach, and I get to ask the questions.”
“And what questions might that be, Miss Rebecca, that has you all excited?” Eli was walking with us to the elevators being very inquisitive, Mama looking on with a kind of royal detached interest. The doorman usually didn’t accompany the residents to the elevator. But I figured he was genuinely interested in my stardom; besides, Mr. Eli always took time to talk to me, unlike some of the other doormen.
“You know. The question that begins our Seder, isn’t that right, Mama?”
“That’s right, Becky, now tell Mr. Eli what the first question is. I’m sure you have it memorized.”
“Oh, I do.” Looking up into Mr. Eli’s chocolate brown face, his bushy eyebrows arching slightly to show he was listening intently, I recited my line very professionally (so I thought): “Why is tonight different from all other nights?” The elevator doors opened with its usual ping, Mama and I stepped in very quickly, and Eli waved to me.
“Everything will be just fine, Miss Rebecca, just fine.” And he gave his usual laugh as the doors closed, and we were riding up.
“Why didn’t Mr. Eli know the question?” I said out loud, somewhat mystified as I had been practicing the questions for weeks.
“Eli isn’t Jewish, Becky; he won’t be having Pesach.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.” I was lost in my thoughts, as much as a six-year-old can be lost, I guess. I thought everybody had Pesach. I felt sorry for Mr. Eli, at least as long as the elevator was moving up to our floor where I think everybody had Pesach. I couldn’t wait till sundown tonight. All the big holy days seem to begin at sundown; I wonder why? Sundown must be a favorite time for God. Rabbi Lieberman once told us in Hebrew class that the ancient Jews marked the time of sunset when the evening star appeared; it was called the vespera .
Tonight, when the vespera star would appear, Mama would light the Passover candles. I was so excited, not because I would be wearing a new cyclamen pink dress with a Chantilly lace collar and not because I got to sit next to Papa tonight, but because it was my first time to ask the questions. It always goes to the youngest child in the family, and it was my time now. I was not the youngest; my little sister Ruthie was only three years old and although she was capable of stringing words together in a pleasantly audible way, the nonchalant formality of the setting called for a more grown-up questioner. Rebecca Abigail Feinstein could do it just right. Mama even said so when I practiced it for her. Next year I’ll sing the question in Hebrew, if I practice enough. That’s what Mama says: “Such a blessing our Rebecca who can sing the questions in Hebrew.”
My older brother, Joshua Hiram Feinstein, had done it for as long as I could remember, and now it was my time. I knew in my child’s mind that it was a question first asked in ancient times, like over a hundred years ago. It was Pesach… Passover. Poor Mr. Eli, I thought, as Mama lifted me up to touch our mezuzah, and walked into our apartment. It smelled so clean and everything looke