Emmaberry's Pcc Countdown

[PhuturePriest]

I feel bad posting this here (it's not really religious) but I saw the Nutcracker yesterday and was inspired. My mom forces lovingly invites me to go with her every year. She was a very experienced and beautiful ballerina in her day and has a profound appreciation for the art. Anyway, this was the best Sugar Plum Fairy solo I had ever seen (for the 'goods', skip to 2:20. I think it is all great though!):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_f9B4pPtg

 

 

 

 

Well then it is indeed good that you waited! I'd love to hear how that conversation goes, when it happens!

 

Definitely! I'll message you and tell you how it goes.

[Totally Franciscan]

Emmaberry, just wondering if you were able to see St. Clare at her Monastery and your impressions.  Glad you had such a wonderful trip.  Sounds absolutely amazing!

[ChristinaTherese]

Now that you're back, are you going to get back to daily poems? I'd completely understand if you don't have time, though. You're entering in a mere 34 days, soon to be 33....

[emmaberry101]

Now that you're back, are you going to get back to daily poems? I'd completely understand if you don't have time, though. You're entering in a mere 34 days, soon to be 33....

Yes, Christina Therese, I am planning on doing the daily poems! Sorry they have been lacking since I got back.. I don't really have an excuse! Here is one for Advent (I will also try to post a general poem, since there are so many good ones and my time is running out!):
 
Advent Poem of the Day
 
Fulfilment: An Isaian Apostrophe
 
Isaias, stir!
Heavy-lidded watcher in the anteroom of bliss,
Lift up your crag of head
And summon all your prophecies around you!
Call your eagled words home to your lips.
 
Gabriel goes, Isaias,
Goes like a singing
More poignant than pause between heartbeats.
Gabriel goes along the way you marked.
 
Isaias, rise!
Rise like a thunderclap
In the abode of silent longing!
Bring all the watchers to their knees.
Then weep, Isais,
Weep like rain after a timeless drouth.
Weep like little songs of children
Playing among the flowers.
Weep like the red torrents of martyrs.
 
For back,
Back from the cliffed wall of the ages
Comes finally
Th expected echo of your incredible word:
Behold! a virgin shall conceive a Son!
 
Hold out your arms, Isaias,
And let the thunderous echo
Roll on your breast!
Laugh like all the bells of innocence ringing together!
Laugh like a severing of skies,
Laugh like a burst of blossoms.
 
For Gabriel goes, Isaias,
Gabirel goes
Swift as heartbreak, sure as hope.
And Gabriel's lips teem with your word:
Emmanuel! Emmanuel!
 
Isaias, sing!
For now is the awful moment
Ultimate and initial!
Isaias, sing like an end of song,
Sing like a lifting of clouds,
Like the face of morning.
 
For Gabriel goes
As brightly as love,
As sweetly as air.
And to us a Child is given,
Isaias, as you sad.
 


EDIT:

Emmaberry, just wondering if you were able to see St. Clare at her Monastery and your impressions.  Glad you had such a wonderful trip.  Sounds absolutely amazing!

 
Yes, Franciscan, it was wonderful to see San Damiano and feel so connected to St Clare and her first Poor Ladies. I have to admit, seeing her at her Monastery (in a figure case-her bones are incorrupt) was strange, only because I have grown so close to her in these months, and she has been so present to me. It was strange seeing her just laying there.. Inside I was like, "She is alive!" I have never felt this way at a Saint's tomb or on seeing an incorrupt Saint. I did kind of feel this at St Francis' tomb but not as much-at St Clare's tomb it overwhelmed me and I almost had to turn away.

Edited December 11, 2012 by emmaberry101

[AnneLine]

Hey, Emma... did you notice that the Dec 11 Advent Novena (in open Mic) is a 'franciscan christmas' - a bit of homage to your trip to Assisi.   The 'fun' Video of Assisi will 1) make you cold; and 2) take you back to your trip....

 

I LOVED Assisi... it was truly the height of my trip to Italy, both times.....  San Damiano is just... indescribable.

 

So excited for you!!!!!!!  Just days now.. .but we will miss you  

 

(And I will always think of you as God's bride dwelling among the aliens!)  ;) ! 

 

:cloud9: :alien: :alien: :alien:        :alien: :alien: :alien: :alien:

 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2012 by AnneLine

[emmaberry101]

Poem of the Day

 

Ritual for the Dedication of a Monastic Choir

 

Feast of our Holy Mother Saint Clare, 1954

 

 

Bring blossoms, for this is a place of romance.

Let flowers rise up like martyrs on this altar

And shout God's testimony out in color.

Petal by falling petal, spell the oldest

Tale of romance, the youngest tenderness.

 

Set candles, then, for witness of the haven

Fugitive light will find here. Darkness holds us

Apart like arms, divides our destinies

Like strapped and swaying strangers in a subway.

But here, let light unmask us all for children

Of one bright womb. Small stars on candlewicks

Shall swear our shining bond with their brilliant dying.

 

Let water be smiling rivers (call it, holy!)

On the dry beds of little, nameless sorrows.

Asperge it. every beautiful, gleaming corner,

Until it trickles blessedness like laughter!

We'll drag our souls through drouth to wade here, singing,

And drown our favorite griefs in holy water!

 

Soak the brick walls with psalms till they surrender

The common lot of bricks to stand like princes

Around this Throne, and cut four lines of order

Through crowds of reckless cherubim, set limits

To danger of fire from shouting seraphim.

 

Then, bring in brown-robed virgins. Stand them, singing,

In the long rows of stalls. Set no bright metre

Upon their songs. When the last psalm is ended,

Robe them in white, and let them go on singing

Forever and ever, wherever the Lamb shall go.

 

 

The bit in italics made me cry. So cliché: the crying girl bent over her book of poetry. :P

 

Edit:

Hey, Emma... did you notice that the Dec 11 Advent Novena (in open Mic) is a 'franciscan christmas' - a bit of homage to your trip to Assisi.   The 'fun' Video of Assisi will 1) make you cold; and 2) take you back to your trip....

 

I LOVED Assisi... it was truly the height of my trip to Italy, both times.....  San Damiano is just... indescribable.

 

So excited for you!!!!!!!  Just days now.. .but we will miss you  

 

(And I will always think of you as God's bride dwelling among the aliens!)  ;) ! 

 

:cloud9: :alien: :alien: :alien:        :alien: :alien: :alien: :alien:

 

:lol: Love that AnneLine! Thanks for reminding me about the novena-I was passively waiting for it to pop up on VS-that was my first mistake!

 

Yes, Assisi was wonderful... Just saturated with the Seraphic Saints. My parents said it very much reminded them of Lourdes, which is an excellent sign.

 

Oooh, I had not thought about it as just 'days.' Thanks! I am all for expressions that make the time left seem less and less. You know what they say about watching the clock... 

Edited December 12, 2012 by emmaberry101

[AnneLine]

We have people on Phatmass who could calculate it in hours, minutes or nanoseconds.  Maybe even help you rig a count-down clock if you want one.....

 

Glad you enjoyed it.  I did do a 'hey, novena is starting' thread on the 6th & 7th... but you were probably traveling.  Such is the life of the mendicants....

 

 

[Chiquitunga]

Emmaberry, it is sooo wonderful to hear about your trip!!! and your meeting with Cardinal Burke! :o  Oh my goodness, HOW COOL (not sure how I can better express that :p)

 

Like everyone else, I'm so excited for you!!  :bounce:  And WOW these poems from Mother Mary Francis.....  :love: I think I said this before, but I had little to no idea about them... I am so behind on learning about her! I haven't even read ARTBM!! Thanks for sharing your love of her with us!

 

Oh also, that is so neat your discernment of really feeling called to follow St. Clare AND St. Colette in Assisi ... very neat insight! Also, how you felt when you saw St. Clare .. "She is alive!"  how beautiful... I'm sure she heard that from Heaven :saint:

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

 

Waow, Emmaberry, what a marvellous travel in Italy! and you are very lucky to have met the cardinal Burk! What an effusion of grace from God to you, He drowns you in his love, that is so beautiful! Tomorrow, you will enter in one month: I continue to pray for you! :pray: Keep me in your prayers!

God bless you

[emmaberry101]

Blessed Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

(Patroness of the Roswell Poor Clares' Monastery)

 
 
Isn't the cover of this month's Columbia magazine beautiful:
 

 
 

DEC 12 - Our Lady of Guadalupe: 1952

 

We have learned to laugh like cannonades

When the corners of our tears rake our faces,

Because the trees put up their arms like deprecations.

Can you not hear us, Mary, hear our songs

Trickle down death? We plunge our prayers like swords

Deep in the lifting bosom of your mercy,

And all the world's a lonely Tepeyac

Yearning to kiss your feet.

Come, tease our winter

With your Castilian roses! Where we dance

Wrong measures, come and balance on the moon.

Because we all grow frowsy with our fears,

Wear the blue sun again in casual folds.

All men's faces turn like pitiless mirrors

To show our terror. Take the screaming stars

Back to their happy places on your mantle.

Mary, all the world's a Tepeyac

Bleak for your coming. Paint our shabby prayer,

A rougher tilma, with your saving face.

-Mother Mary Francis, PCC

 
 
Thank you Rosa! Yes, tomorrow is a day I have been eagerly awaiting! Thank you for the prayers, I very much need them. There are so many feelings, temptations, and joys..if I was not experiencing it myself, I never would have believed that one person could experience so much. I suppose this happens before any "large" (lacking a better word) event in life, but it doesn't make it any less strange or overwhelming.
 

Yes, Chiquitunga, I have loved Saint Colette since I read Walled In Light (okay, honestly, it was when I found out the Roswell Poor Clares were Colettines that I then-and-there decided that Saint Colette and I were going to be close, because, well, I loved her daughters!), but there was a marked difference in the ambience (again, not the right word!) of the OSC proto-monastery and my Sisters. I need to ask my parents if they noticed a difference. I will report back here with their answer, because if they didn't notice anything, then it would be a manifestation of grace more than any natural or actual difference. Edited December 12, 2012 by emmaberry101

[emmaberry101]

Our Lady of Guadalupe's Poem #2:

 

 

DEC 12 - Lines to Our Lady of Guadalupe

 

"Am I not here who am thy Mother - 

What dost thou fear?"

 

Deep in the tangled brushwood of my hours,

You are a sudden clearing, Madre mia,

Amid the choke of thorn,

Incredible rose.

 

And where my fears sit huddled in their trembling,

You are a soft word spoken, O Maria,

In heart's cacophony, a splendid chord!

 

Brave alabaster out of hope-shards builded,

What need I dream of beauty, I who know

Curve of your cheek, the raven hair low-winging,

Soft swell of lip, the delicate flight of brow!

 

Exuberance, be hedged in Christ oh! sweetly

By this rumors smile's so wistful bands;

And sorrow, find your meaning, find your haven

In this gentle fold of olive hands.

 

Authentic glimpse of heaven, Madre mia,

Your image my supernal dividend

On sorrow, and my pledge past all devising

 

Of paradisal day. What shall I fear

Of pain, of death, of diverse ignominy

When you are here, Maria, when you are here.

 

-Mother Mary Francis, PCC

Edited December 12, 2012 by emmaberry101

[nikita92]

Thanks for the photo. Question...in the stainless bowl, it appears to have cheerios with some thing else in it. Near as I can tell. Also what is to the right of the whole wheat bread slice?? Are those nuts?? Are "Seconds" allowed... or is it what you see, is what you get?Just one of those pesky questions. Lol

[emmaberry101]

Thanks for the photo. Question...in the stainless bowl, it appears to have cheerios with some thing else in it. Near as I can tell. Also what is to the right of the whole wheat bread slice?? Are those nuts?? Are "Seconds" allowed... or is it what you see, is what you get?Just one of those pesky questions. Lol

Hi Nikita, no its not a pesky question, i know i was so curious regarding what a community who always fasted ate! Collation consists of milk with a small bowl of cereal, a slice of bread, nuts (pecans for the Roswell PCs), cheese/butter, (edit: fpund some saltines in the picture too!) and an orange or apple. They perpetually observe the Lenten fast so what is at their place is what they eat, though Sister did tell me that at dinner (the full meal of the day) you can ask for the rice bowl to come around again. The food is intentionally plain but adequate to give them strength to live the Poor Clare life. Edited December 13, 2012 by emmaberry101

[emmaberry101]

Poem of the Day

 

Responsory for a Renewal of Life

 

(After Saint Francis)

 

I walk in a wasteland

Of grasses withered

With long unwatering.

 

What tending now

Can wake the dead?

The time's past planting. Better

Only to weep a fountain of brine

On the dead.

 

V. But, Lord, I would like to love You.

 

Before me I summon 

All years green-gathered

In unripe harvesting.

 

No plucking now

Can grace Your board.

The season's spent and squandered.

Nothing to do save mourn misspend

Forever.

 

V. But, Lord, I would like to love You.

 

Go, gather the ghosts now,

Sad conscience well-formed,

To dirge my sentencing.

 

They groan it dark,

The moan it dank,

They tell it true as somber.

I stand accused, there's no defense

For my case.

 

V. But, Lord, I would like to love You.

 

No bright crop to take in

From so long sowing.

What can You say of my

 

All-empty hands

And errant heart

Save that my name is: wastrel.

Sinner am I, of poor account.

 

V. But, Lord, I would like to love You.

Edited December 13, 2012 by emmaberry101

[emmaberry101]

ONE MONTH!

 

ONE MONTH!

 

ONE MONTH!

 

I probably should have said that only once in honor of:

 

ONE MONTH BEING LEFT UNTIL ENTRANCE!!!

 

 

 (brown being for my Franciscan Sisters of course)

  

YAHOO!!!!!

 

 

I just realized how blessed my family and I are to have Advent+Christmas immediately precede my entrance.

It's hard not to feel consolation from our dear Lord in this wonderful season,

and such a blessing (taken largely for granted by me) to have all the warmth of Advent surround my family and I before the "grit" of entrance arrives.

Mother may be even smarter than I thought in her wise planning of girl's entrance days.. Though I already believe her to be inestimably wise! 

 

Now for the Advent poem-and may the blessings of Advent surround you and your own family as we approach the 3rd Sunday (hard to believe!):

 

 

Advent Poem of the Day

 

 

Of Newness

 

Pale green satin folds of leaves

Were never new as He,

No blind, soft fledgling

Quite so young as God.

The dawn's first timid song

Was older than this Child,

All joys stood hoary at His bed of straw.

 

And yet, I wonder, gazing down

At His effulgent newness,

Whether a sudden claw of pain

Rent Mary's singing heart . . .

Knowing Him older than the star,

Knowing the ageless will,

Feeling that here, before the loss,

Before the tomb, before ascension's mount,

Here was first parting.

 

(edit:) -Mother Mary Francis, PCC

Edited December 14, 2012 by emmaberry101