Homily for profession of Sr. Maria Edith
http://www.rcdai.org.uk/articles/193/1/Homily-for-profession-of-Sr-Maria-Edith/Page1.html
By Website Editor
Published on 26/10/2009
Sr. Maria Edith
(Anne Renfrew)
In the first few weeks after I became Bishop a number of people spoke to me about the vocation of being a hermit, one of them being our sister Anne, who as well as telling me of her life in Germany as a hermit and of her desire to follow a similar path here in Scotland, presented me with her own rule and explained in detail what the vocation of a hermit entails. This was good for me because it helped me to get a better idea of what the vocation of being a hermit entails.
The first sentence in her rule says that she is requesting to be admitted as a canonical hermit responding in love to the invitation and love of God, who has guided her thus far and who will continue to do so. The hermit then is a person who has had a deep and long-standing experience of walking in the Lord’s company – something like the prophet Elijah, who was sustained on the great journey he was called to undertake by the food provided by the Lord – there was in his life a total dependence on God and an awareness that it is God who gives the strength and courage for the journey towards and up the mountain.
This God at different stages in life reveals himself in varying forms or situations – the elements mentioned in the Elijah story indicate such moments when God would be present, namely the mighty wind, the earthquake, the fire. Perhaps there are turbulent moments in most people’s lives when God does and will speak in dramatic awe-inspiring ways, but for the prophet at this stage, obviously already a man of some maturity and experience of walking in God’s ways, the presence, the love, the awareness of God’s power comes in the gentle breeze, which he feels blowing on his face.
One senses that Anne perhaps feels this consoling, gentle presence of God at this stage in her life and wishes to respond by consecrating her life completely to his love and service in following the eremitic life by which the Christian faithful devote their life to the praise of God and the salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.
These last words are taken from the description of Anne’s way of life given in the Church’s Canon Law, and it goes on to say that a hermit is publicly recognised as one dedicated to God when she professes the three evangelical counsels, of poverty, chastity and obedience, taken as vows before God at the hands of the diocesan bishop. In witnessing tonight Anne’s taking of these vows we celebrate with her the generosity of her giving her life to God, recognising the Lord’s generosity first of all to us in calling us to faith and giving us the knowledge of his loving presence deep in our own souls. With Anne our hearts and souls resonate with the joy of being in the Lord’s presence and knowing the depths of his love for us:
“My soul is longing and yearning for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my soul ring out their joy to God the living God”.
Of course whatever our calling, our vocation in life, our focus on God is in and through Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ – he is the fullness of God and through his Spirit he shares that fullness with us. The Catechism describing the vocation of the hermit says – “they manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men and women the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he or she has surrendered their whole life simply because he is everything to them. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in prayer and solitude, the glory of the Crucified One.”
In Jesus we see the one who gave his life for others - out of love for his bride the Church he died on the Cross, and in drawing closer to Christ in this life of solitude and prayer the hermit gives herself to Christ the bridegroom and in doing so gives her whole life also to his spouse the Church. It is an offering of her life for the benefit of the whole Church in imitation of and in union with Christ who offered himself for all mankind as he died on the cross – “it is in the moment of utmost isolation and complete apparent uselessness, in the desolation of the Cross, that the Lord is able to bring about atonement and reconciliation of mankind with God. In her own apparent isolation and uselessness the hermit joins all her prayer, thought and actions to those of Christ in order to join him in his saving work of redemption”. It is then a life of self-offering, united completely to Christ, holding the needs of humanity, especially those who are suffering, before God in prayer.
All living of the Christian vocation, in whatever form, needs to last, it needs to be sustained – the gospel tonight tells of Peter responding to the Lord’s call, “Come”, and he leaves the boat and strides out across the waters, and then his confidence goes and he takes fright and begins to sink, drown. We can all have moments of crisis when faith seems to go and we sink beneath the waves, and the Lord warns us not to doubt, not to turn back, but rather to continue trusting in him, he is still there beckoning us onwards, reassuring us that we can go forward even in the heaviest of seas. He is with us always and he invites us to believe in him as The Son of God in whom we put our complete trust and turn to when we need hope and courage to continue the journey.
The great food we have to sustain us on this journey, to give us the reassurance of his continuing and real presence, is the Eucharist, and in receiving Jesus the person who dedicates their life to Christ knows and cherishes this great sign of God’s love for us and then lives that love continuously in an act of self-giving. She lives the Eucharist in every aspect of her life because Christ is alive in her and she gives herself completely and lovingly to him, and in her offering of herself for the good of the world.
Anne has chosen St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as one of her special patrons and intercessors with the Lord – this great lady, better known by many through her own name Edith Stein, whose feast is in a couple of days, searched for truth, through her Jewish background and her philosophical knowledge and eventually was brought to see in Christ Jesus the fullness of truth, helped greatly by the writings of St Teresa of Avila, one of the great Carmelite saints. When she found the truth she gave herself entirely to Christ and eventually chose to serve Him by entering the Carmelite monastery – here she lived the mystery of the Cross in her daily commitment to prayer and community life, and as her own people began to suffer the terror of the Nazi persecution, she suffered with them and was eventually taken like millions of others to die in Auschwitz. There is in her life a strong sense of sacrifice, of offering herself in Christ for the world, and in a sense her horrible death confirmed this sacrificial element of human life and experience.
The hermit’s life which Anne commits herself to this evening, although apparently simple and unassuming, has within it this closeness to Christ, the one who gives himself in sacrifice for the benefit of others. There is a goodness growing from this intimate union with Christ which shows itself in the willingness to give of one’s life completely to him in loving and complete self-offering – perhaps not ultimately in martyrdom as endured by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, but certainly in that spirit of giving oneself entirely to the Lord and accepting whatever comes as a consequence of that.
We unite in praying to the Lord that he will guard and watch over Anne always, that she may be safe, and that we and the whole Church may benefit from her life of self-offering given over to God in solitude and prayer. May Mary Our Mother and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross accompany her and watch over her through the day and night hours, so that the gentle touch of God’s presence may enfold her and give her courage to walk with the Lord the way of the Cross.
In the
first few weeks after I became Bishop a number of people spoke to me about the
vocation of being a hermit, one of them being our sister Anne, who as well as
telling me of her life in Germany as a hermit and of her desire to follow a
similar path here in Scotland, presented me with her own rule and explained in
detail what the vocation of a hermit entails....
7 August 2009
Sr. Maria Edith
(Anne Renfrew)
In the first few weeks after I became Bishop a number of people spoke to me about the vocation of being a hermit, one of them being our sister Anne, who as well as telling me of her life in Germany as a hermit and of her desire to follow a similar path here in Scotland, presented me with her own rule and explained in detail what the vocation of a hermit entails. This was good for me because it helped me to get a better idea of what the vocation of being a hermit entails.
The first sentence in her rule says that she is requesting to be admitted as a canonical hermit responding in love to the invitation and love of God, who has guided her thus far and who will continue to do so. The hermit then is a person who has had a deep and long-standing experience of walking in the Lord’s company – something like the prophet Elijah, who was sustained on the great journey he was called to undertake by the food provided by the Lord – there was in his life a total dependence on God and an awareness that it is God who gives the strength and courage for the journey towards and up the mountain.
This God at different stages in life reveals himself in varying forms or situations – the elements mentioned in the Elijah story indicate such moments when God would be present, namely the mighty wind, the earthquake, the fire. Perhaps there are turbulent moments in most people’s lives when God does and will speak in dramatic awe-inspiring ways, but for the prophet at this stage, obviously already a man of some maturity and experience of walking in God’s ways, the presence, the love, the awareness of God’s power comes in the gentle breeze, which he feels blowing on his face.
One senses that Anne perhaps feels this consoling, gentle presence of God at this stage in her life and wishes to respond by consecrating her life completely to his love and service in following the eremitic life by which the Christian faithful devote their life to the praise of God and the salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.
These last words are taken from the description of Anne’s way of life given in the Church’s Canon Law, and it goes on to say that a hermit is publicly recognised as one dedicated to God when she professes the three evangelical counsels, of poverty, chastity and obedience, taken as vows before God at the hands of the diocesan bishop. In witnessing tonight Anne’s taking of these vows we celebrate with her the generosity of her giving her life to God, recognising the Lord’s generosity first of all to us in calling us to faith and giving us the knowledge of his loving presence deep in our own souls. With Anne our hearts and souls resonate with the joy of being in the Lord’s presence and knowing the depths of his love for us:
“My soul is longing and yearning for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my soul ring out their joy to God the living God”.
Of course whatever our calling, our vocation in life, our focus on God is in and through Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ – he is the fullness of God and through his Spirit he shares that fullness with us. The Catechism describing the vocation of the hermit says – “they manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men and women the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he or she has surrendered their whole life simply because he is everything to them. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in prayer and solitude, the glory of the Crucified One.”
In Jesus we see the one who gave his life for others - out of love for his bride the Church he died on the Cross, and in drawing closer to Christ in this life of solitude and prayer the hermit gives herself to Christ the bridegroom and in doing so gives her whole life also to his spouse the Church. It is an offering of her life for the benefit of the whole Church in imitation of and in union with Christ who offered himself for all mankind as he died on the cross – “it is in the moment of utmost isolation and complete apparent uselessness, in the desolation of the Cross, that the Lord is able to bring about atonement and reconciliation of mankind with God. In her own apparent isolation and uselessness the hermit joins all her prayer, thought and actions to those of Christ in order to join him in his saving work of redemption”. It is then a life of self-offering, united completely to Christ, holding the needs of humanity, especially those who are suffering, before God in prayer.
All living of the Christian vocation, in whatever form, needs to last, it needs to be sustained – the gospel tonight tells of Peter responding to the Lord’s call, “Come”, and he leaves the boat and strides out across the waters, and then his confidence goes and he takes fright and begins to sink, drown. We can all have moments of crisis when faith seems to go and we sink beneath the waves, and the Lord warns us not to doubt, not to turn back, but rather to continue trusting in him, he is still there beckoning us onwards, reassuring us that we can go forward even in the heaviest of seas. He is with us always and he invites us to believe in him as The Son of God in whom we put our complete trust and turn to when we need hope and courage to continue the journey.
The great food we have to sustain us on this journey, to give us the reassurance of his continuing and real presence, is the Eucharist, and in receiving Jesus the person who dedicates their life to Christ knows and cherishes this great sign of God’s love for us and then lives that love continuously in an act of self-giving. She lives the Eucharist in every aspect of her life because Christ is alive in her and she gives herself completely and lovingly to him, and in her offering of herself for the good of the world.
Anne has chosen St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as one of her special patrons and intercessors with the Lord – this great lady, better known by many through her own name Edith Stein, whose feast is in a couple of days, searched for truth, through her Jewish background and her philosophical knowledge and eventually was brought to see in Christ Jesus the fullness of truth, helped greatly by the writings of St Teresa of Avila, one of the great Carmelite saints. When she found the truth she gave herself entirely to Christ and eventually chose to serve Him by entering the Carmelite monastery – here she lived the mystery of the Cross in her daily commitment to prayer and community life, and as her own people began to suffer the terror of the Nazi persecution, she suffered with them and was eventually taken like millions of others to die in Auschwitz. There is in her life a strong sense of sacrifice, of offering herself in Christ for the world, and in a sense her horrible death confirmed this sacrificial element of human life and experience.
The hermit’s life which Anne commits herself to this evening, although apparently simple and unassuming, has within it this closeness to Christ, the one who gives himself in sacrifice for the benefit of others. There is a goodness growing from this intimate union with Christ which shows itself in the willingness to give of one’s life completely to him in loving and complete self-offering – perhaps not ultimately in martyrdom as endured by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, but certainly in that spirit of giving oneself entirely to the Lord and accepting whatever comes as a consequence of that.
We unite in praying to the Lord that he will guard and watch over Anne always, that she may be safe, and that we and the whole Church may benefit from her life of self-offering given over to God in solitude and prayer. May Mary Our Mother and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross accompany her and watch over her through the day and night hours, so that the gentle touch of God’s presence may enfold her and give her courage to walk with the Lord the way of the Cross.