Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,
The Gospel clearly shows the Blessed Virgin Mary to be one of the greatest contemplatives of all time — in fact the greatest, if we exclude her son from the contest. Her exterior actions are few and far between, but they are decisive. She speaks little, but each word is a gem preciously kept from generation to generation. Throughout her life — from her Immaculate Conception to the Annunciation and the virgin birth; from her presence on Calvary to the Upper Room at Pentecost — all these events are of an intensely spiritual nature, or at least tending toward the more spiritual and contemplative dimension of human existence. In Mary we find nothing trivial, nothing petty. No doubt this relates to the fact that her heart became, as we pray in the proper collect (monastic) of the feast of the Immaculate Heart, “the throne of Eternal Wisdom.”
Twice, St. Luke tells us that the Blessed Virgin “pondered” or “stored up” words or events in her heart. Those who frequent Holy Scripture can understand that, in the given context, this is no coincidence or passing mention. It is quite true that most human beings ponder things in their hearts. We are all contemplatives in this sense. But Our Lady, not because of any merits of her own but by the pure grace of God, became a leading actor in the greatest drama of the history of the world. The things she pondered in her heart were the most meaning-laden occurrences ever to take place in this world. But there is more.
There is another reason why the contemplation of the Virgin of Nazareth was most elevated; there is another reason why her pondering of things in her heart had a special meaning. It is because that heart of hers was truly, as the Church teaches us, the “mirror of justice.” Precisely because of her Immaculate Conception, Mary’s heart was a most pure mirror reflecting the light of grace, the light of God. The things that passed through her Immaculate Heart were thus shown in their true light, in the spotless light of Divine Wisdom and Divine Justice.
Perhaps this is why, on the threshold of modern times, at the outset of the dramatic changes that were to shake the foundations of the world in the twentieth century, God sent the Blessed Virgin to Fatima, requesting the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. The rest of the story is now history. The threat of the entire world falling under the tyranny of Communism is a thing of the past. Following the consecration performed by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1984 in Rome, the Berlin wall came tumbling down like a sand castle. While other threats loom ominously on the horizon of our contemporary world, that of worldwide Marxism is no longer the worst.
But, as our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has clearly stated, the mission of Fatima is far from being over. We have a greater need than ever to see the complete triumph of the Immaculate Heart! No Catholic could reasonably doubt this.
As monks devoted to Our Lady we felt a special need to renew the consecration of our monastery to the Immaculate Heart that was done already in 2002, while we were still a Priory. We accomplished this new consecration at the end of a solemn Mass on July 2nd. We would prayerfully ask you to make this same consecration.
May we all learn to live inside that virginal sanctuary of Divine Wisdom, that sanctuary of purity and gentle strength. Only God knows with absolute certainty what the years to come will bring, but in consideration of our consecration, we are confident that we can meet this future with the joy of belonging entirely to God, through the intercession of the Mother of God, Mediatrix of all graces. May she ever lead us to her Son, teaching us to prefer nothing to the love of Christ and to understand better every day the meaning of her Ecce and of her Fiat.
We ask her to intercede for you and your family.
+ br. Philip Anderson, abbot
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Dear Friend of Clear Creek Abbey,
The Gospel clearly shows the Blessed Virgin Mary to be one of the greatest contemplatives of all time — in fact the greatest, if we exclude her son from the contest. Her exterior actions are few and far between, but they are decisive. She speaks little, but each word is a gem preciously kept from generation to generation. Throughout her life — from her Immaculate Conception to the Annunciation and the virgin birth; from her presence on Calvary to the Upper Room at Pentecost — all these events are of an intensely spiritual nature, or at least tending toward the more spiritual and contemplative dimension of human existence. In Mary we find nothing trivial, nothing petty. No doubt this relates to the fact that her heart became, as we pray in the proper collect (monastic) of the feast of the Immaculate Heart, “the throne of Eternal Wisdom.”
Twice, St. Luke tells us that the Blessed Virgin “pondered” or “stored up” words or events in her heart. Those who frequent Holy Scripture can understand that, in the given context, this is no coincidence or passing mention. It is quite true that most human beings ponder things in their hearts. We are all contemplatives in this sense. But Our Lady, not because of any merits of her own but by the pure grace of God, became a leading actor in the greatest drama of the history of the world. The things she pondered in her heart were the most meaning-laden occurrences ever to take place in this world. But there is more.
There is another reason why the contemplation of the Virgin of Nazareth was most elevated; there is another reason why her pondering of things in her heart had a special meaning. It is because that heart of hers was truly, as the Church teaches us, the “mirror of justice.” Precisely because of her Immaculate Conception, Mary’s heart was a most pure mirror reflecting the light of grace, the light of God. The things that passed through her Immaculate Heart were thus shown in their true light, in the spotless light of Divine Wisdom and Divine Justice.
Perhaps this is why, on the threshold of modern times, at the outset of the dramatic changes that were to shake the foundations of the world in the twentieth century, God sent the Blessed Virgin to Fatima, requesting the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. The rest of the story is now history. The threat of the entire world falling under the tyranny of Communism is a thing of the past. Following the consecration performed by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1984 in Rome, the Berlin wall came tumbling down like a sand castle. While other threats loom ominously on the horizon of our contemporary world, that of worldwide Marxism is no longer the worst.
But, as our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has clearly stated, the mission of Fatima is far from being over. We have a greater need than ever to see the complete triumph of the Immaculate Heart! No Catholic could reasonably doubt this.
As monks devoted to Our Lady we felt a special need to renew the consecration of our monastery to the Immaculate Heart that was done already in 2002, while we were still a Priory. We accomplished this new consecration at the end of a solemn Mass on July 2nd. We would prayerfully ask you to make this same consecration.
May we all learn to live inside that virginal sanctuary of Divine Wisdom, that sanctuary of purity and gentle strength. Only God knows with absolute certainty what the years to come will bring, but in consideration of our consecration, we are confident that we can meet this future with the joy of belonging entirely to God, through the intercession of the Mother of God, Mediatrix of all graces. May she ever lead us to her Son, teaching us to prefer nothing to the love of Christ and to understand better every day the meaning of her Ecce and of her Fiat.
We ask her to intercede for you and your family.
+ br. Philip Anderson, abbot
