Angels and Imps - Hope and Courage in North Minneapolis

Fall has come to North Minneapolis - no question about it now. The trees are almost stripped, it's cold (29 degrees F. Saturday morning. Sister Mary Virginia and I couldn't thaw the windshield, so had to walk to Fremont for morning prayer! And just as cold today. There are patches of blue sky, but more that's sort of a leaden grey.

Grass is yellow-brown, the skies are mostly grey or white. The thermometer's dropping. Most of the leaves are off the trees - a lacy pattern left, but every breeze sends down another cascade of yellow and brown leaves.

On the "cloister walk" from Fremont (1/2 block), across the street,
turn the corner,
 and another half block down to Gerard House.

Kids are wearing sweaters, puffy jackets, and woolen hats. The young men now have jackets or hoodies over their white T-shirts, and tend not to just hang out in the alley for hours at a time. Everybody is busy going somewhere to get warm and dry.

The garden at Fremont has been put to bed for the winter.
A whole group of friends from Edina came with yards of potting
soil, rotillers, and expertise to help with it.

Angels in North Minneapolis 

I heard a story yesterday from the "Chronicles of Visitation Monastery." (The Sisters have so many wonderful stories! I love hearing them!)


One time, early on in their life here in N. Minneapolis a workman was coming regularly to the house to accomplish some bit of restoration on their house.He was living at a half-way house in the neighborhood. The Sisters were asked by those running the agency  (which is called Turning Point) to pray for their clients, and, in exchange, they were told, they'd come and do whatever they could do to help. So this workman was a Turning Point guy.

As he worked, he listened to the sounds of chant coming from the chapel where the Sisters were praying the Divine Office. He went home to Turning Point and told his friends there, "There are ANGELS living in that house! I HEARD them." They pooh-poohed his claims.

The next day as he was leaving the property, he saw a curled white feather on the sidewalk! He picked it up and ran all the way back home! He burst through the door, saying, "I told you there are angels living there! And now I have PROOF!"

I think he was right - they don't look like the angels on Christmas cards, but there are lots of people in the neighborhood who think they are angels.


So much happens here: I watch and listen and pay attention. In the living room, I hear one sister with a woman who is weeping over the death of her mother. In the kitchen someone is telling a sister there about her husband who fell at work and broke his wrist. He has no insurance, and he was working under the table, because he's undocumented. They didn't come to ask for money. They came to ask for prayer. And they came to ask one of the sisters to go with their daughter to apply for the new "deportation deferment" that has been offered to young people who were brought here illegally when they were young.

I sat out on the front porch with two men who had come hoping for a grocery store card. They are staying at night at a shelter, but they had no food for the day. We were out of cards, but they were hungry. So I raided the refrigerator and pantry. I found four slices of rather stale bread left from the day before, and made a couple ham sandwiches with mayo and mustard and a piece of lettuce. I poured a couple cups of coffee left from breakfast and warmed them up in the microwave. I copied down the address and times when meals are served for the homeless at Loaves and Fishes, a ministry run out of a local protestant church. Then I grabbed a couple prayer cards that we keep on the shelf by the door. The card has a saying of St. Francis de Sales, one of the two founders of The Visitation of Holy Mary. 

It says,

• "Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it"

Then I took the sandwiches and prayer cards out onto the sunporch where the men were waiting. We sat and talked. I gave them the prayer cards, and we prayed the prayer. 

I told them,

• Your needs are huge. We can't do very much to help you. But we do what we can. These Sisters have nothing of their own. Other people support them with their donations - and we share what we are given. We get so many grocery cards a month, and when they are gone, they're gone. 

• But think about it. You were hungry. Now you are eating your sandwich, and you know where you can get a hot meal later today. I can't promise you that you won't be hungry tomorrow. I hope you won't, but maybe you'll just have to rely on that gift of unfailing strength. When you are down and discouraged, read that card and pray that prayer - and know that you'll either find help or you will find strength to go on.

We held hands and prayed together that they would not lose hope, that they would find the answers to their needs.

They were very quiet for a few moments - then they both said, Thank you, Sister! (I gave up trying to explain that I'm not really a Sister. It's not important.) 

One man put the card carefully into his jacket pocket and said, I'm going to take this and read it to someone I know who needs to hear this.

Then they went on their way.


Shortly afterward a friend of the Sisters came by to ask me to help her review her paper she was turning in the next day in her college class. She's recently returned to college to try to qualify for a better job.

Most days things are pretty ordinary -  people to come to pray or to ask for help, offer help, or to show off a new baby or introduce a new husband or wife or girlfriend.


An old friend of the Sisters came to mass yesterday. The sisters have known her for 20 years. She's a woman who has suffered much, but she is an overcomer. She has been in jail and she has been homeless. 

In mass we were discussing the gospel of the day: the theme had been Hope. She told us how she had learned to appreciate what she had. When she hits a wall and is told No, she says, she says THANK YOU! because she knows when that door shuts, another will open. That's HOPE!

She told us what it meant to her some years ago to get moved into a motel room after being homeless - the luxury of having a stove and a refrigerator!

She has managed to raise her children in that kind of life-style to be successful adults. The three oldest are in college and are doing well.

She says she tells them, "You gotta PRAY!" 

They say, "Momma, we DO pray!"

She says, "No, you got to get down on your knees! You got to fold your hands and speak right into your hands because that's GOD'S EAR!" 

When she is asked how she's doing, she always answers, "I am BLESSED and HIGHLY FAVORED!" Today she said, "I'm blessed to have a birthday!  I'm blessed to be ABOVE the GROUND!"  

There is a custom here for one of the sisters to bake her a cake on her birthday.  This year, when she called to say her birthday was coming up, she asked for just a "cracker and a candle." But Sr. Karen baked her some cupcakes and they had a little party together over at Girard, just the two of them, before time for our mass at Fremont. Then she joined us for the liturgy.

From Angels to Halloween Imps!

That's the "regular stuff" that goes on every day. Some days are even more special. Once about 20 years ago a couple brought their little girl to visit the monastery in N. Minneapolis. Afterwards, she told her parents she didn't want any more parties. She had everything she wanted. She wanted her parties to be for kids who didn't have parties. So her mother, Vicki, has been giving 4 parties a year in her honor (that little girl is long grown up!).

Vicky arrived last Saturday morning with a van loaded with party supplies, games, prizes, treats and enough Halloween costumes for about 75 children.  About 60 kids came for games, treats, and a great selection of Halloween costumes. Some of the moms were bringing their children to an event that had been an important part of their own childhoods.

HALLOWEEN PARTY AT VISITATION MONASTERY 

Folks are arriving for the Halloween party at Fremont.

A neighbor lends his paved car park area for our use. Those are 
the costumes donated for the neighborhood children.
That's Girard house in the background across the street.

Everyone needs to register and make sure
names are on the invitation list.

Games are played on the sidewalks, yards, and alleys.

Intent competitors are under supervision of teen volunteers.

Sr.Karen greets one of the moms from the neighborhood.

Here we are in the backyard of Fremont House.

And competition continues on the sidewalk below.

There's a line-up for this one - but I can't see what they are playing!

Here's a basketball game in Bob and Sherrie's backyard.

Sr. Suzanne facilitates the registration with the help of Miss Linda.

This child is telling Sr. Karen, "Oh, I hope I get that costume!" They had time to look them over during the games, but must wait for
 their names to be called to actually claim the costume.

And then you get to show your friends!

One Mom looked at her son's choice - striped suit for a jailbird, and said,
"Now that's what I always wanted to see you in!" But it was the one he had picked out, so off they went.

Sr. Karen and a dear friend of many years from the neighborhood.

Moms and Dads are appointed caretakers for those precious
costumes while their owners are picking out sodas and treats at the end of the party.

Lots and lots of kids! And the little girl on the far left
did get the coveted costume

Marcus, one of the teen volunteers, and one of my favorite
new friends, helps Sister Suzanne check off the list.

There's good fellowship going on as the party concludes.

There were 20-25 costumes left over. The children in the neighborhood who didn't get signed up in time to be part of the party were invited to come over and find a costume for themselves. Within the next two or three days they were all gone. 

Sometimes it was a parent who came. One woman walked more than a mile to ask if there were any left in her children's sizes. She didn't bring the children with her. She said she didn't want to raise their hopes and see them disappointed. I would never have guessed that providing a little girl with a princess costume or a small boy with a pirate outfit could be part of ministry, but when you are struggling to avoid eviction because you can't pay the rent and your food-stamps don't carry you through the month, a little treat like that for your children helps make life less grim.

Sunday morning finds us back at church - Ascension for most of us this weekend. Sometimes some of the sisters like to go earlier to the Basilica.

Sister Mary Virginia and Sister Mary Mao shared the pew with me. The music is lively, the preaching is wonderful, and I know lots of people now. The gospel this Sunday had to do with the healing of blind Bartimaeus.  (Mark 10:46-52) 

There are lots of kinds of blindness. I think my eyes are being opened to a whole new way of seeing the world, a whole new way of living the gospel.


I've been here for four months now. 

It's a beautiful way to live! 

Monastic Immersion Experience suits me!!

Have you ever thought of "trying on" religious life to see if it might be right for you?
http://www.visitationmonasteryminneapolis.org/

Meeting Jesus at Visitation Monastery in North Minneapolis - in Eucharist, in scripture, and in his people

A vignette captured as we prepared for mass
in our living room the other day.             

These words from a David Hass hymn speak to me

of the life we share here.

We come to share our story,

we come to break the bread,

we come to know our rising

from the dead . . . 

We are called to heal the broken

to be hope for the poor,

we are called to feed the hungry 

at our door.

You will lead and we will follow

you will be the breath of life

living water, we are thirsting 

for your light.    

The living room at Girard
house is ready for mass.

Eucharist: the "source and summit" of our lives -
Eucharist is the very center of life at Visitation Monastery in North Minneapolis. We have mass at the house at least three times a week. On other days - and on Sundays - we go out to one of several nearby parishes.

On Saturday mornings we have a Communion Service. So every day is centered around the Eucharist.

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the chapel in each of the two houses. We pray the Divine Office in one of these chapels four times every day - and as each sister enters, she makes a profound bow to the Real Presence in the reserved Sacrament in the tabernacle. On Sundays and other major feast days, incense is burned during the office - and all present are blessed with that incense.

The slightly larger chapel
at Fremont decorated for last Easter.

The small chapel at Girard.

Holy Mass: our central act of worship as Catholics.

Father Michael O'Connell
at Ascension Church one Sunday
morning recently.

In the liturgy, we experience the Real Presence of Christ in three ways: in the Word of God (the Holy Scriptures), in the assembly present, and in the Eucharist.

The priest says the words of institution, and holds up first the consecrated host, and then the chalice.  We each acknowledge the central belief of Catholics: that bread and wine have become, in fact and faith, the body and blood of the crucified Christ." We pray, "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed."

All prayer services and liturgies are open to our neighbors and friends. Before we begin, one of the Sisters puts this sign on the front and back doors: The Sisters are at prayer now. If you would like to join us, please ring the doorbell. And they do - neighbors and people in search of help, friends and patrons - all are welcomed into the worshipping circle.

The Blessed Sacrament displayed in the Monstrance
at the Fremont Chapel.

On First Fridays we have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament - where the consecrated host is placed into a small monstrance and displayed while we pray in silence before Christ present in the Sacrament. Neighbors and friends join us here, also.

We meet Christ in our daily work and ministry as well as in the liturgy.

Neighborhood Ice Cream party
at Girard

Outside of the chapel, as the work of the day proceeds, I see a deep courtesy, mutual love and respect in the interactions of the Sisters with one another - they treat each other with the same reverence given to the Real Presence in the Eucharist. That's because they recognize and honor Christ in one another.

This young woman grew up in the
Windsock ministry - the Sisters
would hang up a windsock at a
given time in the afternoon, and
all the children would come to play
with toys and games. She stopped by
to show the Sisters her new baby.

When visitors come to the door, they also are greeted with that same reverence and respect; the Sisters - and I - go to meet Christ on the doorstep, go to be Christ to that person.  Jesus said that as we feed the hungry, clothe the naked,  meet the needs of even the least of his brothers and sisters, we do it for Him.







So at Visitation Monastery one meets Jesus in one guise or another all day long -  Christ lives in and among us. The Kingdom of Heaven is present to us.

Praying with people who came looking for some help.
Sometimes all we can do is pray together. This
was one of those times.

That is at the core of my life here in the "monastic immersion experience," at Visitation Monastery in North Minneapolis. I am living Eucharist intensely and intentionally - all day. Every day. Every day I meet Jesus in the sacrament, in the Word, and in his people.




I told the Sisters the other day, it seems to me, that this is the very threshold of Heaven.


I do love the life here! What an adventure!

Life and Death in North Minneapolis with Visitation Sisters and their Friends

I went to a funeral on a Saturday in mid-September, a funeral for a little baby who lived only one hour. His name was Xavier-Jean.

Xavi-Jean was the son of Melissa and Francois, dear friends of the Visitation Sisters. They shared their journey with us through this difficult pregnancy and the joy and sorrow of parenting a baby they knew would not live to grow up. They learned mid-way through the pregnancy that the baby had very serious challenges, only a 5% chance to be born alive, and no chance to live more than a brief time. He lived for exactly one hour.

There's a lot in the news about what it means to be pro-life or pro-choice -- all the political squabbling about the degree to which government has an interest in interfering with these things. That all became so unimportant as we shared with Melissa and Francois their process of decision-making.

They were fortunate to have found expert, wonderful counseling for parents who are faced with this sort of challenge. They decided to parent this child, love him to the fullest extent for as long as he lived. He grew and kicked and wriggled and had numerous ultra-sound pictures taken along the way. They chose a name for him. They planned his birth at the same time as they planned his funeral. Xavi's two older sisters, Gabby, 12, and Maggie, 2 patted their mother's belly and listened to what was happening within her. They knew their little brother would be here only briefly, though one can only guess what that means to a two-year old. Melissa remained radiant even in her deep grief.

It was terrible and awesome to see.

The whole community here - the sisters, the Visitation Companions (their lay associates), the parish community of Ascension Church, and Melissa's wonderful group of women friends (four of whom also functioned as doulas) gathered around them to support them.

This was the day the whole church moved out to the garden to share as Father Michael anointed Melissa, Francois, and their children as they dealt with the news that the baby she was carrying was seriously compromised.

The longer that birth could be delayed, the greater chance for him to be born alive, and that became an overriding consideration. He got to about 7 months, when it became necessary to deliver him by caesarean section.

We got the word that the surgery was set for early morning. Sister Mary Margaret and Brian Mogren (director of St. Jane House, our spirituality center) had been asked to stand by in readiness to baptize him.

Baby Xavi was born alive at 8:03 AM on Thursday, Sept. 13. He lived exactly one hour and died at 9:03 AM. In that hour, he was baptized and anointed priest, prophet, and king. He was held in tender love by his parents and sisters, godparents, and friends . . . he was loved and cherished every moment of his existence.

His funeral on Saturday was one of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had of living Eucharist. Melissa's father and brothers had constructed his tiny casket of white pine. Francois and Fabio, his godfather, carried it down the aisle to a table in front of the altar where pictures of him and special momentos including the tiny garments he had been clothed in awaited it; the tiny casket was covered in a pall which was a beautiful old crocheted shawl made by a parishioner long ago.

The service was beautiful - conducted jointly by the pastor of Ascension, Fr. Michael, and Patty, the parish administrator. At the offertory, the children present carried flowers down the aisle and placed them in a vase near the casket.

Afterward, we all went to a cemetery not far away, and he was buried in a special section for babies and small children. A monument in that section of the cemetery featured a scripture from Luke: "Let the children come to me . . . for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

And then we went back to the parish school to share a meal . . .

And I thought, truly, our days are as grass . . . and what, in the light of eternity, is the difference between a life of one hour and a life of 90 years? We are born to be loved . . . and to live forever in the presence of God. So Xavi-Jean's life was complete.

And now his parents and family are left to grieve that he was with them so briefly. But what a beautiful testimony to LIFE. What an evidence of how to live in HOLINESS.

I will never forget this day.

Melissa is part of the Centering Prayer group that gathers at St. Jane House on Tuesday mornings. This little display of pictures was up on the Tuesday following Xavi's funeral to share the story with her friends in that group.

I have asked permission of Melissa to share this story - and these pictures. I didn't take any of them. To bring my camera into this holy space seemed not appropriate to me. I have deliberately omitted last names. I'm not sure why.