AT LAST. . .READY OR NOT
HERE WE COME!
Finally. . .
. . . the Church is ready enough for use. A number of small details remain to be completed, e.g. new candle holder, sanctuary light stand, permanent base for floor mounted crucifix which was graciously donated by Bishop Matano and the Diocese of Rochester, return of Salve icon but these can be done in due course. Most likely there will be some ‘tweaking’ here and there that will need doing as we adjust to the new setting. In many ways it will be quite an adjustment from the original arrangement and the temporary refectory/church we’ve been using for the past ten months and will take some getting used to.
The plan is to give the floor a final scrubbing Monday and Tuesday and to have a few choir practices. On Wednesday, Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, we will re-open the Church with the mid-day office of Sext at 11:15. A formal opening day will probably be published in the local papers before long.
With much gratitude for all the effort so many people, architects, contractors, employees, monastic community and especially our donors and the support of friends & neighbors put into the project we return after an absence of ten months and prepare for Holy Week in our new setting. That in all things God may be glorified! (Rule of St. Benedict 57:19)
Lectio Notebook
The beauty of Christ is visible most of all at what is seemingly the ugliest moment of all: Jesus’ tortured death on the cross. The beauty that shines in the form of Christ at that moment is the beauty of infinite love.
It is Christ’s self-surrender to the Father in identification with sinners. This beauty seeks to touch people and to transform them, to awaken and to draw them.
The response it elicits is not sensual and momentary but all-encompassing, one that embraces the individual’s entire existence. This beauty is a light that pierces the heart, issuing a moral summons. . .”you must change your life”.
The summons enjoined upon the beholder of this crucified beauty is nothing less than the invitation to re-shape and mold anew an entire life so that it may conform to this new standard of beauty.
Life and Soul
Thomas G. Casey, SJ
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