Helen’s Last Words
“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
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
Helen Weier Celebration of Life
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.”
Hope For a Tree
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
Christmas 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.
“Forever Aflame” – Vincent Petersen
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.
October – the month of getting down to our work
October: the month when we get serious about school, work, elections, and the place of God in our lives.
At the same time, we are also called to celebrate Francis of Assisi on October 4th his special day with all of his brothers and especially Clare and her sisters.
However due to the Covid virus which found its way into the monastery at this time, we were unable to have the festive Mass with the celebratory meal and entertainment. On the 5th of October, on third floor the sister’s care wing, the usual entertainment system was out of order. Just like the young lad who presented the loaves and fishes to the Lord, someone had a DVD we could play, “Francesco, the Musical” in Italian with subtitles was brought forth. We all became mesmerized by this wonderful celebration of the story of Franciscan life and love. What a better way to celebrate the feast.
The film was 2 plus hours and nobody was ready to get up and leave.
Labor Day Picnic
Labor day was coming soon. The Sisters from Pro Ecclesia Sancta who reside at and minister from our former monastery in Bloomington wanted to come down to the Franciscan Sisters’ Motherhouse in Rochester, where we live, with a picnic lunch for all of us together. Because of restrictions due to the “virus,” we were not allowed to have a large gathering at the Motherhouse. The Franciscan friars, our dear friends in Prior Lake, responded generously to our need and offered us their extraordinarily beautiful retreat center, this being the only weekend during the year when they were not engaged with retreatants.
The Pro Ecclesia Sancta sisters arrived early to prepare and welcome us.
The grounds are exquisitely beautiful, and the site was perfect for bringing together our communities.
The picnic food was truly delicious and creative with these lovely Sisters presenting the best of their culinary skills.
Sister Lucie is picking the name of a saint for this day of sharing.
Sister Caroline taught the Sisters how to work creatively with paper.
After our picnic lunch we set out to find the lake.
Find we did.
We celebrated a day full of joy celebrating the deep love and friendship among us.
Reflections by Robert Ellsberg on Hildegard of Bingen, in “Give Us This Day” www.litpress.org.
With extraordinary symbolic illustrations, Hildegard presents a picture of human beings and the cosmos as emanations of God’s love, ‘living sparks’, or ‘rays of his splendor.’ Just as the rays of the sun proceed from the sun itself, Hildegard wrote that human beings are thinking hearts called to be co-creators with God in shaping the world.
Let Us listen to the Voice of Creation
This is the season of creation 2022.
Cardinal Robert McElroy, current Bishop San Diego, California
Two men of God, standing face to face, shaking hands. The elder is the current Pope. The younger will help to select the Pope’s successor. This is not the marvelous movie, “The Two Popes.” This is for real. Cardinal Robert McElroy, bishop of San Diego, California, has been elevated in the Catholic Church to the service of a Cardinal, that is one who will elect the next Pope, not necessarily be the next pope but maybe… For an excellent article on our new Cardinal’s work in caring for planet earth and all God’s people in the face of climate change see National Catholic Reporter, September 2-15, 2022.
Life among the plants
Violets can be a metaphor for life. They have their own cycle, and it is usually not according to our expectations or desires. Violets seem to have an inner sense when they want to leaf out and when they want to flower. They teach us patience, hope, and offer a conversation piece with others equally enamored with the violets. At times we think nothing will happen, they will never bloom. But we bear with them, water them and give them their full measure of 12 hours of sun a day. And then one day they begin to express their flowers. Every pot has a different shade of purple or pink and they are exquisitely beautiful. They are very simple and represent all phases and facets of life, these very gentle but enticing violets. And you can’t help but think how beautiful is our world that has within it the sweet and lovely violets.
Equally beautiful is finding a loving home for 5 large leafing plants that are taking over a room which is needed for other purposes. I strike out with 3 of the plants on my cart headed from 3rd floor to ground floor. I had heard about a place off of ground floor where you can leave plants for others to take. On my way, I came to an open office door and met 3 of my women friends who work here, and I asked them where I might leave the plants. They came alive with joy saying things like “I always wanted a plant just like that.” After each woman selected the plant that caught her attention. My cart was empty. I left smiling to return to the third floor. Two more plants to go, I headed again to ground floor. I next encountered one of the drivers for the motherhouse. He saw my plant and said his wife would love it. One more plant gone to a happy husband for his wife, and I turned around and headed in the other direction where I met another kindly woman who works at the motherhouse. She thought the plant was so beautiful and I said “You must have this plant”. End of the story of the five plants that left our employ to give happiness and joy to other households.
