We recently heard from the mother of one of our Sisters, “I printed out all of the Vocation Letters from your website and brought them with me on vacation. I am really enjoying what feels like a decade-long visit with you and the Sisters and your lovely monastery by reading them.”
We hope that you also enjoy this glimpse into our life! This current Vocation Letter, part of a mini-series on the liturgical year in the monastery, looks at the season of Lent through the eyes of our fictional novice.
Ave + Maria
Dear Mom and Dad,
Prayerful Lenten greetings from Marbury–as it will certainly be Lent by the time you receive this! Since we don’t receive social visits during Lent, you’ve never been able to get a glimpse of how we live out this season at the monastery. I would love to share it with you—I’ve been looking forward to Lent since the end of the Christmas season.
Even though spring in Alabama is in full bloom at this time of year, for our observance of Lent we enter resolutely into the desert. No flowers on the altar, no organ accompaniment at Mass; more fasting and more abstinence from meat; more prayers of reparation and devotions to the Passion of Our Lord (such as St. Catherine de Ricci’s Passion Verses, which are so beautiful). At the liturgy, the special hymns and chants for Lent keep before our eyes both penance for our sins and the power of grace to purify our hearts and prepare us to enter into the joy of our Risen Lord.
All our external ways to observe Lent are meant to both shape and express the interior life of our hearts. Our prayer enters into the meaning of what we sing, and makes our hearts more attentive and faithful to the inspirations of God’s grace. Our bodily fasting increases our spiritual hunger: as Our Lord quotes in the Gospel, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Finally, our almsgiving is expressed not only in the loving service we daily extend to our Sisters in community, but also in a more conscious attention to the urgency of our intercessory prayer for the needs of the world and the salvation of souls–not at all difficult in these times that cry out so gravely for God’s mercy!
Finally, the long weeks of Lent culminate in Passiontide and Holy Week. If you thought Lent was stark before, just wait until the purple drapes hide the familiar statues of Our Lady and the saints from our eyes! It’s truly the desert, focusing all our energies on entering into these sacred days with Our Lord. As we go about the material preparations (ironing drapes for Passiontide, preparing the repository for Holy Thursday, cleaning candelabra and all the other preparations for the Easter fesitivities), the chants we have just practiced for these holy days echo in our hearts, and we keep company with Our Lord and Our Lady going up to Jerusalem, knowing that His “hour” is now at hand.
We live these liturgical seasons every year, but somehow they never grow old. The graces of Christ’s mysteries are there for us in a new way, as we travel this path of our life with Him.
With my prayers for a most grace-filled Lent! I look forward to writing again at Easter!
In Our Lady of Sorrows,
Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.
You May Also Like:
- Join us praying a Dominican devotion for Lent: The Canticle of the Passion. Find more posts about Lent here.
- What else do we do in the spring? Celebrate March as the month of our beloved father and provider, St. Joseph.
- Could this be your vocation? Come and see on our Vocation Retreat this May 20-22.