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Dominican OF OUR LADY OF THE Buffalo, New York

“The desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing…. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.” (Isaiah 35:1-2)

XODUS AND THE PROMISED LAND, and Tabor, a “Vale of Tears” and a “Jerusalem of Anticipation”: the E Dominican monastery is all of these. From the early years of the Church, men and women have withdrawn into the desert, yearning to seek God unreservedly through and , to give themselves totally to Him. Theirs is a longing rooted deep in the believing heart, and deep in the heart of the Church: the desire to be hidden, as Paul says, with Christ in God, intimately united to His redemptive love (Col 3:3). And so the invitation to the continues to echo in our Church today, drawing to set forth into the desert of the monastic life. And, in ways mysterious to our world, this call continues to bear fruit. No journey into the desert—whether Egypt of old or present-day Buffalo—is without challenges and renunciation. As cloistered Dominican nuns, we seek not only to be freed from what is corrupt and worldly, but also to let go of much that is beautiful and good. The desert, of course, has a beauty of its own, but it comes at a cost, and this cost is all the greater when our culture is laden with turmoil and prosperity. Yet in such times, is it not true that the experience of God’s love and the happiness that comes from Him alone become all the more precious? With this conviction and desire, a woman sets out to attain the pearl of great price, leaving home and nets to follow Christ. She imitates the Apostles and, still more, she imitates the Lord, who emptied Himself in humble obedience to the Father and merciful love for mankind. Unlike her priests, the Dominican does not preach in words, but her life too is consecrated to Christ and His salvific work. As Saint John Paul II observed, the cloister draws us into “Christ’s emptying of Himself by means of a radical , expressed in…renunciation not only of things but also of ‘space,’ of contacts, of so many benefits of creation” (Vita Consecrata). The nun sacrifices all these, so that she may offer more radically the gift of her heart; she embraces the hardships of the desert to live wholly for God.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

“If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word, and the Father will love him; and We will come to him and make our abode with him.” (John 14:23)

HUS SAYS THE LORD: “I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her soul” (Hosea 2:14): The prophet’s words refer not only to the T Israelites in the desert but also, attest the Fathers, to Christ’s Bride the Church. Here the Blessed Mother is the preeminent member and most radiant icon, and her consecrated daughters seek to follow in her stead. Like the Chosen People in Egypt and the of Nazareth, the nun surrenders herself to God because she has heard His voice and longs to see His face. The Lord has allured her, drawing her to Himself. Hence the image of the desert—, aridity, separation—falls short. The cloister also becomes for us a garden, a “garden enclosed,” as in the Canticle of Solomon. It is a place to savor the truth of God’s love, to love Him in return, and so to cultivate and share His spiritual fruit. As the Church has declared, the monastic enclosure is the “sign, safeguard, and form” of the nun’s Fiat—a “response to the absolute love of God for His creature, and the fulfillment of His eternal desire to welcome the creature into the mystery of intimacy with the Word, who gave Himself as Bridegroom in the and remains in the tabernacle” (Verbi Sponsa). To put it simply, Jesus never leaves us, and we never leave Him.

 “In profound communion with every other vocation in the Christian life—all of which are like so many rays of the one light of Christ, whose radiance brightens the countenance of the Church— contemplatives devote a great part of their day to imitating the Mother of God, who diligently pondered the words and deeds of her Son….Their lives, ‘hidden with Christ in God,’ become an image of the unconditional love of the Lord, Himself the first contemplative.” ()

HE DOMINICAN NUN FOLLOWS JESUS to His “lonely place” of solitude with the Father, answering His call to “come away…and T rest a while” in silence and prayer (Mark 6:31). Even as she enters the contemplative desert, however, she hears the cries of her suffering world—cries she takes into her heart and carries to the Lord: “Everyone is searching for You” (Mark 1:37). With the disciples we ask Jesus to open the eyes and ears of our neighbors, to nourish their famished souls. With Mary and Martha we cry out,

“The one whom You love is sick!” (John 11:3) With the Blessed Mother we plead, “They have no more wine” (John 2:3). And with our holy Father Dominic, grieving through the dark hours of night—“Lord, what will become of poor sinners?”—we echo the words of Christ Himself: “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). As cloistered nuns, we do not often speak to others about Christ, but, continually and intimately, we speak to Christ about them, approaching our Lord in faith-filled prayer. We pray for those we know and love well, and for those we will not meet until eternity; we pray for those who seek our intercession, and for the persons and needs placed mysteriously in our hearts. We pray for our brothers and sisters—our family in Christ—offering our sacrifice of petition and praise in the name of the whole Church: “Have mercy on me” (Luke 18:13); “Thy will be done” (Matt 6:10); “Abba, Father!” (Rom 8:15). The contemplative nun speaks to God for the world, and in that very act she speaks to the world as well. “Free for ,” our life bears silent witness to the reality of God’s presence and the truth of His love: a testimony that He forgives us, cares for us, heals us; that He is the One whom we ultimately seek. Through this double movement—bringing God to the world and the world to God—our monastic life becomes truly evangelical and distinctly apostolic. In a word, it is Dominican.

 “Just as in the Upper Room, Mary in her heart, with her prayerful presence, watched over the origins of the Church, so too now the Church’s journey is entrusted to the loving hearts and praying hands of cloistered nuns.” (Verbi Sponsa)

“In silence and stillness, let them earnestly seek the face of the Lord and never cease making intercession with the God of our that all men and women might be saved….Let Christ, who was fastened to the Cross for all, be fast-knit to their hearts…” (Constitutions of the Nuns of the Order of Preachers)

O CONTEMPLATE AND SHARE the fruits of : This is the ideal of the Order of Preachers, and Saint Thomas Aquinas, like T countless Dominicans through the ages, could find none more excellent. “It is better to give forth light,” he declares, “than merely to be full of light.” These words aptly describe the life of the preaching brethren, but they apply to the vocation of their cloistered sisters as well—the “Sister Preacheresses,” as the Dominican nuns were once called. Hidden in the cloister, we proclaim the divine Word not from pulpits and podiums but through our life of faithful prayer and continual conversion. God alone knows the full fruits of this life, where and how it accomplishes His will. This is the mystery of the Mystical Body and the folly of the Cross. But in the still and constant light of faith, we know that is God’s life within, filling our hearts and radiating far beyond our cloister walls.

“If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great…. Be completely convinced of this: Christ takes nothing that is beautiful and great, but brings everything to perfection for the glory of God, the happiness of men and women, and the salvation of the world.” ( Benedict XVI)

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 To learn more about our community and how to support and share in our life of prayer, please contact us or visit our website:

MONASTERY OF 335 Doat Street Buffalo, New York 14211-2199

716-892-0066

Email: @opnuns.org

www.opnuns.org

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