Archive for the ‘Celebrations’ Category

With Christmas on the horizon and the Christmas tree peeking over our heads, we celebrated the birthday of our Commissary, Sister Ramona Miller.

Sister Catherine provided one of her special Korean/Mexican meals.

UNTIL HE COMES TO RAIN

Sow with a view
to righteousness,

Reap in accordance
with kindness;

Break up 
your fallow ground,

For it is time 
to seek the Lord

Until He comes to rain
righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12

As shadows deepen and the old year comes to a close,

she hands off the promise of life to the new year

as we celebrate that our God is with us. 

THIS (MASSIVE) POOL

Love is the pool you swim in.

Grace is the air you breathe.

Hold
your
breath

dive
deep

and
swim.

Grace is the pool you swim in.

Love is the air you breathe.

djw (Doug Westendorp) 8/22

Father John presided at the mausoleum service, Sister Jo was one of the readers.

“Bless the Lord My Soul who leads me into life.” 

This was our theme as we celebrated Sister Helen at Resurrection Cemetery with a service of memories and our loving farewell.

She was buried on December 7th, 2022, with her family, her Poor Clare Sisters and  Sr. Helen’s many friends in attendance to accompany her into eternal life.

HOLD OUT YOUR DEATH

Precious in the eyes of the Lord
are the deaths of his saints

Hold out your hands
Your hands are full

Hold out your life
Your life is full

Life is a gift
Amen
Amen
Life is gift
Amen

Death is a gift
Amen
Amen
Death is a precious gift
Amen

Life is a gift
Life is a gift

Death is a precious gift
Amen

Hold out your hands
Your hands are full

Hold out your life
Your life is full

Hold out your death
It’s full
Amen

Hold out your death
Amen

djw (Doug Westendorp) 2022

Sister Helen prepared for us a beautiful eucharistic celebration.

She chose her favorite hymns, “Christ in me Arise,” and Psalm 34, “I will bless the Lord.”

Sister Helen selected a paragraph from a letter of St. Clare of Assisi to St. Agnes of Prague: “May you feel what friends feel in tasting the hidden sweetness that, from the beginning, God Himself has reserved for His lovers.”

Preparing the gifts we sang: “Transfigure us, O God.”

Her communion song was “How lovely is your dwelling place.”

And with Psalm 122: we left the Chapel singing “Let Us Go Rejoicing.”

Job 14:7

There is
hope for
a tree:

If it is cut
down,
it will sprout
again,

and its shoots
will not
die.

2022

djw (Doug Westendorp) 2022

Dear Friends,

At Christmas time we stop to remember, to praise and give thanks so as to celebrate:

Christ has come among us in all the luxury and tragedy of our time, marked in the swaddling bands of the Child Jesus.

Jesus puts on flesh that he might share His Love and lead us into eternity.

Our Sister Helen Weier followed the Lord into that eternity of love on November 26, the beginning of the season of   Advent.  She was her warm and kindly self to the moment when she quietly slipped away.  We have tears in our eyes while in heaven she is rejoicing.

Our modern saints call us to look and to listen, our God is here.

Your Sisters of St. Clare

This beautiful icon in the Ethiopian tradition was written by Bonnie Hardwick.  Her book “Conversation: Engaging Ethiopian Iconography” Albertus Magnus Press, Oakland, California 2022.

Friar Vince titled this work “Forever Aflame…..”

In addition to his perspective, it is also possible to see the beauty of old age in this painting, life stripped down to its essence. 

The vibrant colors of orange and blue and pink and yellow bespeak God’s blessings that surround us older folks even as we move toward eternal life.

This is the season of wisdom for people full of experience and full of life, accepting what life sends with grace and gratitude, a time to experience the richness of God’s spirit in our lives.