75 Years Since Foundation Day
Postulants at the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace
Reflections from a current postulant
January 21, 2022, will mark seventy-five years since fifteen founding sisters arrived in North Guilford, Connecticut and disembarked a bus coming from the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey. Their feet hit the snowy terrain of the Connecticut countryside and, united by the bond of charity and a mutual trust in God’s providence, this courageous step marked the humble beginnings of the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace. For me, January 21 will mark almost six months since I made a similar act of trust, leaving the life I had known to walk through the enclosure door into the same community that these fifteen sisters founded. I feel blessed to have the unique opportunity to unite the beginning of my own story here at the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace with the celebration of 75 years since the community’s founding. What a beautiful and profound thing it is to be able to call all of these women, past and present, consecrated to God within the walls of this monastery, my sisters.
This November, on the commemoration of All Souls, I walked down to the monastery’s cemetery after Vespers to pray at the graves of all those sisters who have passed on to eternal life. As I walked from gravestone to gravestone, I read the names of each sister whose dedication to this life of contemplation has formed the community where I now follow in their footsteps. I felt a profound peace knowing that I was praying among many saints who were at that moment praying for me and this community. I realized then that at the moment I entered the cloister I had become a part of something beautifully so much bigger than I.
“ I realized then that at the moment I entered the cloister I had become a part of something beautifully so much bigger than I.”
In his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes: “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in love, thinking one thing” (Phil. 2:1-2). This teaching of St. Paul is an instruction on the virtue of charity; and it is precisely this kind of love for others that unites all the sisters who have lived and died in this monastery. This ‘school of charity’ has made saints of those sisters who already enjoy the vision of God. This “same mind, with the same love” will form those sisters who are saints-to-be. Through this special call to a life of contemplation, where charity abounds, I am united to all the sisters at the Monastery of Our Lady of Grace, past, present, and future. Just the thought of this fills me with such joy, a joy that overflows into excitement to be part of this Jubilee year.
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