September 2019
From my heart to your heart…
I am still among the living — Life is a journey, from God back to God. With the celebration of our Holy Mother St. Clare we marked our big final public celebration. We were blessed to have some of our Franciscan Family with us: Provincial, Fr. Tom Nairn, his Vicar, Fr. John Eaton and our dear friend, Fr. Albert Haase. Also present was yet another friend Bro. Bill Herbst. Fr. Albert was the homilist.
Throughout his homily Father Albert used as a refrain the words of St. Clare, “With swift pace, light step, unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir up no dust. Go forward securely, joyfully and swiftly on the path of prudent happiness.” He showed how, from the very beginning, when Clare was at the Benedictine Monastery of San Paolo, and then at San’t Angelo de Panzo, Clare was ready to move on when she was in a place where she couldn’t live the life to which God was calling her.
And so it also was with Mother Magdalen. Her movements almost became a dance, a dance which continues. Memphis will soon be closed, yet the life we are called to live, like the dance, moves on. One of our benefactors provided a variety of mouthwatering refreshments, cakes, fruits, cheese, coffee and other soft drinks. It was a time for remembrances, stories, and yes, tears. I will be including some pictures from our celebration, Sr. Anthony took some, I took some but most of them came from a friend of ours, Karen Focht. Karen did a write up that was picked up by Crux, a newspaper in PA and our local diocesan magazine West TN Catholic 081619.
The links are as follows:
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/08/13/final-public-mass-tears-mark-closing-of-poor-claremonastery-in-memphis/
http://catholicphilly.com/2019/08/news/nationalnews/final-public-mass-tears-mark-closing-of-poorclare-monastery-in-memphis/
Peace and all good to everyone,
Sr. M. Claudia