Sister Mary Baruch , livre ebook

TAN Books - Jacob Restrick

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

163 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Becky Feinstein is well-acquainted with unexpected tragedy. Growing up in New York City during the turbulent 1960s, she has already experienced her brother's death in Vietnam and her family's gradual drifting apart. So when her closest friend suddenly becomes gravely ill, this nice Jewish girl decides to give her an unconventional gift by lighting a candle in a big gothic church on Lexington Avenue. Little does she realize, as she passes through the heavy wooden doors of Saint Vincent Ferrer's, that after this afternoon nothing will ever be the same. For there, lighting a candle for a friend, she discovers someone waiting for her in the "still, quiet place" of her heart . . .

Informations

Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	16 décembre 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781505114898
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.

Extrait

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 4
Compline
Fr. Jacob Restrick, O.P.
TAN Books Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2019 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: 978-1-5051-1487-4
Published in the United States by TAN Books PO Box 410487 Charlotte, NC 28241 www.TANBooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
In memory of Br. Saúl Antonio Soriano Rodriguez, OFM Capuchin
August 18, 1986 – May 7, 2018
Te Lucis Ante Terminum

To you before the close of day
Creator of the world we pray
That with accustomed kindness you
Would guard and keep us ever true.
May no ill dreams disturb our ease
No nightly fears or fantasies;
Tread under foot our ghostly foe
That no defilement we may know
Almighty Father, this accord
Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
Who with the Holy Spirit true
Forever reigns in bliss with you. Amen
Trans. John M. Neale (1818-1866)
C ONTENTS
P REFACE
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
P REFACE
C OMPLINE IS THE Night Prayer of the Church. Prayed by monks, nuns, religious, and devout Christians since the fourth century, it brings to completion the Divine Office or what we commonly call today The Liturgy of the Hours . It is the last hour of prayer.
There is a transition from Vespers, the Evening Prayer of the Church, to Compline, the Night Prayer. After the opening verse, Compline begins on one’s knees, with a small penitential rite asking forgiveness for the sins of the day. A hymn is sung, traditionally the Te Lucis Ante Terminum , and then a Psalm, often calling on protection from the Evil One who roams about the world, like a lion, looking for someone to devour. The Devil and his minions are defeated in the prayers and blessings of Compline, which ends with the prayer of commending our spirits into the hands of the Lord and entrusting ourselves to the Mother of God… Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy .
Sister Mary Baruch loves the Office of Compline and relishes its ushering in the Great Silence of the night, and a time to reflect on the events of the day, or the week, or the year, or even one’s whole life.
Those who know her can reflect with her on her Jewish childhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; her coming to know the Lord, and her becoming a Catholic, and five years later, becoming a cloistered Dominican nun in Brooklyn Heights, New York. We’ve met her family, her friends, her sisters in community, and we’ve met her fears, her compulsions, her struggles to live a life of faith, hope, and love. Her life is not over, but there is a transition from the ambitions and work of her early years and mid-life crisis to a “completion”, a compline of sorts, which continues her pilgrimage into Great Silence. The spiritual battle continues, for the forces of Evil confront her in herself, in those whom she loves, in the sins of others for whom she prays and offers penance, within and outside the monastery itself. The years are 2005 to 2007. She likes to end her day after Compline, sitting in her rocker in her cell, praying and writing and telling the Lord all about everything.
Our Lady, Queen of Hope Monastery is completely fictitious; the Sisters in community, her friends, and family are all fictitious. There are some extraordinary events that happen which contemporary monasteries of cloistered nuns may not experience in quite the same way as do Sr. Mary Baruch and the nuns of Our Lady, Queen of Hope. But beneath it all, we find ourselves in the transition times of our lives, confronting sin in ourselves and others, reflecting on God’s presence and mercy in our lives, and surrendering to the redemptive love of Christ with whom we move into the peace that comes with Compline at the close of the day.
Fr. Jacob Restrick, O.P. Province of St. Joseph

The whole life of the nuns is harmoniously ordered to preserving the continual remembrance of God. By the celebration of the Eucharist and the Divine Office, by reading and meditating on the Sacred Scripture, by private prayer, vigils and intercessions they should strive to have the same mind as Christ Jesus. In silence and stillness, let them earnestly seek the face of the Lord and never cease making intercession with the God of our salvation; that all men and women might be saved. They should give thanks to God the Father who has called them out of darkness into his wonderful light. Let Christ, who was fastened to the cross for all, be fast-knit to their hearts. In fulfilling all these things, they are truly nuns of the Order of Preachers . ( Constitution of the Nuns , Chapter II, IV)
One
Thanksgiving 2005
O come, bless the Lord, all you who serve the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God . (Psalm134, Sunday after First Vespers)
R OCKING CHAIRS DON’T have birthdays, silly goose; they’re just rocking chairs. I’m sitting in mine on this Thanksgiving night, and it’s dawned on me that Squeak was forty years old this year. I don’t remember the exact day that I found “her” on the curb on Amsterdam Avenue and 75th Street. She was waiting for the garbage truck to pick her up and throw her in the back to be hauled away and dumped, crushed, or worse, burned.
Some people have furnished their apartments with furniture left on the curbs of New York. I don’t know how old Squeak was when I rescued her; she still looked young enough to be redeemed. So I dragged her home to my apartment on West 79th Street. Papa had adopted pieces of furniture over the years; he would know what to do. And sure enough, he was delighted with my learning how to strip off the old varnish, sand her down in spots, and re-varnish her with a lighter shade that gave her a brand new look. I liked this style of rocker with a high broad back and wide arm rests.
While her varnish was drying and I was walking home from Barnard College, I passed a store on Lexington Avenue like Pier One, but not as elegant. They had stacks of cushions in the furniture accessories area, and I bought a bright orange seat and back cushion with a brown edge trim, and brought it home for my rocker. I moved the chest of drawers out of the corner and moved my rocker in there with a floor lamp which had a round table built in, perfect for a book and a glass or mug of something. Papa came in to see the finished product and said it “looked spiffy.”
I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, thanked him for all his help, and said that maybe I would name her “Spiffy.” He laughed and said, “Rockers don’t have names, silly-goose.” And off he went to dive into his evening paper.
I remember closing the door quietly, and from out of my book bag, I took a black leather bound copy of the New Testament , which I had taken out at the library. I had never read the Christian Bible, and I remember that the first time was when I turned on the light and sat in my rocker. Squeak… squeak.
Oh my , I thought, this isn’t spiffy at all, the stupid thing squeaks . But it was comfortable. I opened the New Testament at random, and my eyes fell on the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . Squeak…squeak.
And indeed, that was the beginning. I came to know the Word that was made flesh and dwelled among us. I met Him in my squeaky rocker, and although she looked rather spiffy, I named her “Squeak.”
Its forty years since that happened. Little did I realize forty years ago rocking back and forth in that castaway chair that I would still be sitting in it forty years later in a cloistered monastery in Brooklyn Heights. But here I am, Lord, squeaks and all.
I like writing in my journals in Squeak. It’s like being with an old friend. Thanksgiving 2005 is over. It was a sad Thanksgiving in many ways; the first since our dear Sr. Gertrude died, not even a month ago. And close to seven months ago that the Holy Father Pope John Paul died. But we also have lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, especially the election of Pope Benedict XVI whom they already say is drawing great crowds to the Papal Audiences. One commentator said the crowds used to come to Rome to see Pope John Paul, now they come to Rome to listen to Pope Benedict. We are grateful for our new Holy Father and pray for him every day.
Being the novice mistress, I am especially grateful for all the Sisters who live in the novitiate.
Sr. Elijah Rose was one of the first two postulants to enter since I’ve been Novice Mistress. She is our first African American Sister, although I’m told there was a Sr. Naomi who died sometime in the early 1950s. Sr. Benedict remembers her when she (Sr. Benedict) entered in 1954. Sr. Naomi was a lay sister who was not an extern sister, but lived inside, and did a lot of the menial jobs. She was from Philadelphia originally and used to work for the Hawthorne Dominicans at Sacred Heart Home. It was from them that she saw how work and prayer blended together. She called it “Hawthorne love.” She and her brother, Tyrone, shared an apartment off of Huntington Park. He worked as a welder for the Camden shipyards in New Jersey. In 1941, just a year after the Camden shipyards were founded, he was offered a better job i