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As the world gets ready to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, exchanging sweet notes of love and kindness, we naturally turn to the topic of love, considering once again this great mystery.  Saint John boldly states in his letter, “God is love.”  He doesn’t say God is loving, lovable, or even that He is a great lover- although He is all of these.   He writes, “God is love.”  The very essence of God is LOVE.  But what is LOVE?  St. Thomas Aquinas says, “To love is to will the good of another.” (Deus Caritas Est)

Our faith teaches that the Holy Trinity is a communion of love– the Father pours Himself out to the Son; the Son receives everything from the Father and, in turn, pours Himself out to the Father. The Holy Spirit is the love outpoured between the Father and the Son.  Mankind is created in this image of Divine Love and brought into communion with God through baptism and the other sacraments.  Because of this, the human person comes to know himself most fully when he/she is loved and in turn, loves others.   St. John Paul II says, “Man cannot live without love.  He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him.”  (Redemptor Hominis, 10)   

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, God’s love is renewed in a personal way for each person! It’s as if God says to each person in Holy Communion, “This is my Body given for you.  This is how much I love you!”  The Greeks had different words for different kinds of love, but the highest, agape, was a self-sacrificial love.  Pope Benedict said, “We can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist: there God’s own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us.”  (Deus Caritas Est, 14)

May each one of us on this Valentine’s Day be renewed in the awareness of God’s love for us, echoing with gratitude the words of the Psalmist, “How can I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has given to me?  The cup of Salvation I will take up, and call upon the name of the Lord!”  ~Psalm 116: 12 

The faith and adoration you offer matters personally to Him and adds to the cosmic homage He receives throughout time. Your faith stems from the chosen people of the Old Testament who steadfastly awaited the Messiah’s coming for generations. It is in one accord, too, with the blessed people of Christ’s time, including the Magi who gazed firsthand on His star in the night sky, and others who later witnessed His miracles, sacrificial love, suffering and Resurrection from the dead. Since then, countless additional souls have conformed their hearts to Him, and your faith, 2000 years later, joins the never-ending cascade of faith progressing through the ages.

Regardless of whether your faith seems to you firm or blown about by storms of struggle, it is a marvelous participation in the vast loyalty and submission of heart offered continuously to the King of Kings!

How precious is the faith you offer now in your own time and place. May your heart swell with joy as you participate with the Magi in the cosmic flow of worship destined for Christ until the end of time.

While the world plunges headlong into Santa Claus, Christmas music, presents, and candy, the Sisters in stark contrast, hold out…waiting…without festivity until midnight Mass on Christmas Eve!

The chapel is draped in Advent purple – the color of penitence – and is bare of flowers and decorations for four entire weeks leading up to Christ’s birth. The Advent Wreath keeps its place in the sanctuary, and we wait in silent expectation as each new purple and pink candle is lit, counting down week by week, to the birth of the Savior Child. The Mass and our daily chapel prayers anticipate Christmas with words from the Prophet Isaiah: “Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come” (Is 56:1-3).

Just three days before Christmas, preparations begin in earnest with the hustle and bustle of excitement: up go the undecorated evergreen trees brought home by mendicant Sisters, and out come the nativity set pieces. Donated poinsettias arrive from local nurseries to clutter the hallways as they wait to be expertly placed in just the right spot. Strings of lights and ornaments are carefully pulled from the box. There is precious little time now for many preparations!

The night of December 24, about an hour before midnight Mass, all has fallen silent in the chapel. Amidst the deep red poinsettias enshrining the tabernacle, there waits a Presence. Drawn to Him, the Sisters slowly trickle into the peaceful, candle-lit chapel to rest awhile before the Blessed Sacrament. Here is a place of rest which the world knows nothing about. The Heart of Christ, truly present in all the tabernacles of the world, came to dwell 2000 years ago as a baby boy in the hay, so that you would cease to fear Him. Like any newborn babe, He desires to be embraced and loved deeply.

Suddenly in the distance, soft and joyful singing is heard. Angels? Sisters! The choir of Sisters’ voices blend together gloriously as they process through the halls of the motherhouse making their way to the chapel. And as they enter, the holy space is filled to the brim with delightful chords of “silent night, holy night…”