Earthscapes from Friar Vincent Petersen, saving the earth one day at a time.

Breaking news: The Roman Catholic Church world wide, is called forth by Pope Francis, to engage in a Synod, 2021-2023. I can hear the Roman Catholics now. Are not Synods the work of Anglicans and Lutherans and Reformed Churches. It is true they engage in Synods much more frequently than the Romans. For myself and for you I looked at Webster’s take on “Synods.” We Catholics can definitively have one. I must say that for me I am weeping for joy.

Easter, 2021

Dear Friends ,

This has been a year like no other.  We have learned a lot about ourselves and what is deeply important to us. In first place, is the daily Eucharistic celebration called by the familiar name, “the Mass.” We were quarantined in our little third floor monastery. On first floor there were no Eucharistic celebrations in the large, elegant Lourdes Chapel. Within a few weeks of the Pandemic lockdown we found our liturgical home in Ireland.  At 7:00 a.m. we gather around the television screen in our community room and celebrate the Eucharist with the priests and a few women of the choir at Sts. Peter and Paul, Portlaoise, Ireland.  Their parish church is shut down but thanks to international television their Mass is broadcast all over the planet.  Each morning they read off the names of individuals and families who have written in for mention at the Mass.  And so we know we are praying with the whole wide world.

EVERYDAY  EASTER
We die repeatedly, they say:
despair, depression, disappointment,
every dark human helplessness
hints at death.

And yet it happens also that some unscripted word
(not our own) sets life moving in our veins again.
Strange that we cannot do this for ourselves,
and how that little spring surprises us.
Quick as heartbeat, the paralysis of death gives way;
Subtle as breath, life claims us and we rise.

Sister Kate Martin, OSC

Please know our love and prayer is for each and all of you, dear friends and family,

              your Sisters of St. Clare                                     

stclaresrochester.org

Our dear friend Kim Jaworski supplied all of the fixings for our party celebrating Sister Margaret’s birthday.

Christmas, 2020 “Deep and Lasting Peace” Mike Joncas

PEACE…it is the largest word on our Christmas Card. Peace takes the most space in our Webster Unabridged Dictionary. It takes three quarters of a column of small print to spell out all the aspects of peace. Likewise our large map of the world covers a third of the wall space in one of our office/work rooms. But peace is larger than the globe, and worthy of space on our Christmas card, peace circling the planet at this time of year, with a pandemic ragging over our world.

Peace we send to you our friends, that you might distribute it to all you know. And distribute it we can. Thanks to Zoom we can arrive at everyone’s table. And if our computer is down, we can put on a mask and knock on our neighbor’s door, keeping, of course, social distancing.

By email we received an invitation to celebrate Los Posadas with friends across the country via Zoom. This Christmas enactment of the Los Posadas is among one of the most heartfelt folk traditions in our hemisphere. It commemorates the journey of Mary and Joseph to find a safe refuge where Mary can give birth to the baby Jesus. You notice the small figures at the bottom of our Christmas card: Mary is seated on the donkey, led by Joseph searching out a place for the Child to be born.

Let the Child be born in us this Christmas,
wherever and however,
with tenderness and care, and above all in peace, gentle peace.

Your Sisters of St. Clare stclaresrochester.org

“God is a Circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”  William of Lille, 11th century

At the center of the Circle is fire, the ever burning fire,
Like the bush of Moses, that is never extinguished.

This is the fire that burns to enlighten the mind and warm the heart,
Enticing and drawing all into the orbit of God’s love.

This is “the Holy Spirit and fire” of which Jesus speaks,
Inviting us to “come here and wait with me, my hour has not yet come.”

And this is our hour, with fire at the center of our being.
This fire will burn within us until we return from where we came, from the Center of Love.

The scourge of the Coronavirus has brought us back to the hearth,  the fireplace of God’s love.

Stay at home, abide at the center,
let your heart rest in the heart of Jesus.
Never forget this moment in time, your time
when the whole planet came together on its knees.

Here on third floor of Assisi Heights, Franciscan Motherhouse, “sheltering in place”, we celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection.   It is amazing what one thinks of when locked in a small space.   To begin with, one can imagine the early followers of Jesus.  They had locked themselves in the Upper Room “for fear of the Jews.”  As followers of Jesus would they be implicated in His actions?

WE CAN ALSO THINK OF THE PERSONS THROUGHOUT OUR PLANET ENCARSERATED FOR VARIOUS CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, FOR THE MIGRANTS FROM COUNTRIES THROUGHOUT OUR WORLD, AND OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS STUCK SEEMINGLY FOREVER IN THE CAMPS. THIS CORONA PLAGUE MIGHT BE A WAKE UP CALL FOR MORE OF US TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS IN THE HUMAN FAMILY.

WE CONTINUE TO HOLD EACH OF YOU, OUR FRIENDS, IN PRAYER—OPEN TO SURPRISES THAT MIGHT COME FOR ALL OF US IN THIS MOST UNUSUAL TIME.

Easter 2020

April 1, 2020

Beauty rises from scarred branches

EASTER 2020

Easter, 2020

“I have called you friends…” John 15:15

We have taken our Easter greeting to you, whether by card, email or website, from the words of Jesus in the Gospel according to John. The setting is the Last Supper, which we celebrate on Thursday of Holy Week. “I have not called you servants, but friends.”

How will we celebrate Holy Week this year: in our homes “sheltering in place,” or in protective gear caring for others in hospitals or testing stations? We can think of ourselves as the disciples of Jesus who were hiding out because of fear from the “authorities.” We too are hiding out, not because of the authorities, but because of something so elusive that a special test is needed for identification. We are hiding out because of fear, fear for ourselves and for our loved ones. This is a righteous fear, a godly fear.

In times of fear humans find that words are a bulwark for courage. We are a planet of words. We are able to communicate with compassion throughout our world. We realize in this tragic moment that many on our little blue planet are sick and we need to be gentle and provide that necessary care for them.

To all those who are out and about caring for others, to those who are staying at home to stop the spread of the Coronavirus,to each and all of you, family and friends, we send our love and prayer. Get well, stay safe.

Your Sisters of St. Clare

     Rochester, MN

Sr. Jo, with her friend’s gift from Florida, leads us into not so ordinary times.    May we all keep smiling in these days of decision.

The Latino parishioners from St. Francis church in Rochester, Minnesota led us in the celebration of the Las Posadas.

Mary and Joseph and their supporters are locked inside Lourdes Chapel at Assisi Heights.

Mary and Joseph are gathered with the people, knocking at the door.  They need to get out and find a place for the child to be born.

Outside the Chapel we are singing back and forth until—miracle of miracles, the doors are opened wide and all of the people join together to find a good place for Christ to be born.

Father Jose, pastor of St. Francis Parish, cheers the people on as they prepare to welcome the holy Child.

May Christmas live forever in your hearts, and children continue to enter our country without roadblocks in their path.