New Beginnings 

Friends came from near and far, and gathered, smiling and with programs in hand, to take part in the celebration on April 27.  And so the groundbreaking for the new Monastery of St. Clare in Great Falls began, with song and prayer.  Bishop Anthony Milone and Mayor Randy Gray praised the venture and expressed hope that it would be completed soon.  Many who attended spoke of how grateful they were that a community dedicated to prayer was being established here in Montana, and they look forward to seeing a permanent home for the Poor Clares.  It was a day of great joy and hope, and we four sisters were filled with gratitude for God’s goodness and the loving support of so many friends.  As I looked around on that lovely sunny afternoon, it seemed that God was smiling his blessing on all of us.

Later, I reflected on other beginnings in my life: the day I entered the monastery many years ago, stepping into the large, very old building in the “inner city”; our move to a new monastery some years later, where we were surrounded by the grass and trees and flowers of the suburbs; arriving here in Great Falls at the little house that would be our temporary monastery, and feeling very much at home in my adopted city.  Each of these moves meant a major change in my life, and made me feel that I was stepping up to a level where I could see more, understand better, and be more “whole” than I had been before.

We have all experienced the exuberance of moving to a new place, or into a new phase of our life.  Even if the future is not clear, or daunting challenges lie ahead, the possibilities draw us on.  Life continually calls us to begin anew, to move ahead, to change our perspective.  If we are faithful to those challenges, we can change and grow in ways that we never before thought possible.  In the early thirteenth century, St. Clare of Assisi experienced this.  Certain that she was called to live her life in total dedication to God, she left her family castle with its wealth and privileged status, never to return.  Of far greater value to her was a life given to prayer, and lived in poverty, complete dependence on God’s providence.  Some years later, she encouraged a friend who had recently set out on the same path that Clare herself had: “With swift pace, light step, unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir up no dust, may you go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness.” 

In our journey through life, we meet opportunities and disappointments, times of great joy and times of deep grieving.  All of these change our life and make us different than we were before.  We begin again, over and over.  And in each of those moments, in all of those events, our loving God waits for us to put our hand in his, and let him lead us.

--Sister Catherine Cook, OSC