July 30 - Flora, fauna and firstfruits

It was 42 degrees Celsius in the shade by the monastery's kiln shed today, and while some nuns may be pondering Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in their fiery furnace, the garden appears to be loving it. We recently spotted two fauns in our north field, the hay in the south field was valiantly baled by a local farmer (prior to the heat wave, we had on and off rain for most of the month), and a small frog was found seeking refuge near the fragment of Notre-Dame-de-Prouilhe stone in our chapel. And, finally, the place where all our labour begins and ends (and the final destination of our dahlias too). God is good!

 
As the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilizing it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat, [says the Lord], so it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do. 
—  (Isaiah 55:11)
 
June 15 - Solemn Profession of Sr. Florentina Marie of the Heart of Jesus

On Sunday, June 20, we celebrated the Solemn Profession of Sr. Florentina Marie of the Heart of Jesus. Sr. Florentina Marie was born in Moshi District, Tanzania, and was a sister of Our Lady of Mt. Kilimanjaro for over three decades before discerning a further call to the contemplative life.  The ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Michael Miller CSB of Vancouver, and many friend and family were able to witness this beautiful consecration—the first for Queen of Peace Monastery since our foundation. 

 
 

"I, Sister Florentina Marie, make profession
and promise obedience to God
and to blessed Mary and to blessed Dominic,
and to the Master of the Order of Friars Preachers,
and to you Sister Marie Tersidis,
prioress of Queen of Peace Monastery, and to your successors,
according to the Rule of blessed Augustine
and the Constitutions of the Nuns of the Order of Preachers,
that I will be obedient to you, and to your successors,
until death."

 
 

During this same Mass, we also celebrated the blessing of our new tabernacle, generously donated by a group of generous benefactors and handbuilt by a local craftsman. The panels were designed by Sr. Claire Marie, and feature the four living creatures from Ezekiel 1:5, representing the four evangelists. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who made this new creation possible, and pray that it will give glory to God and beauty to our chapel for generations to come!

 
 
May 21 - Happy Pentecost

We wish you a very happy Pentecost and, today, memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church! For the past three days, we've been blessed with the presence among us of Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, Apostolic Nuncio to Canada. It has been an absolute joy and honour to welcome him and celebrate these beautiful feasts of the Church together in communion with our Holy Father Pope Francis and the Church throughout the world. Come, Holy Spirit!

 
 

We had other, less expected guests earlier this week, during the middle of our Pentecost retreat. After Matins and Lauds one morning, a sister noticed a dark shape high up in a tree in our middle field. It turned out to be a bear! What this picture doesn't show is that there was another bear, of a similar size, hanging out just a few trees over! The monastery's binoculars were passed around, and as best we could tell, our ursine arborists were cheerfully munching breakfast. They had climbed down by Mass, which was perhaps fortunate, as readings for the day included Psalm 68—and "Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up" suddenly took on a new and unexpected meaning!

 
 

Finally, this week we were delighted to receive our first copy of Sr. Jean Marie's new book, The Quest for the Divine: Philosopher, Prophet and Mystic, which explores the "essential connection between contemplation and daily life" through the writings of Etty Hillesum, Meister Eckhart and Eric Voegelin. It is available on Amazon, and will be available in the monastery's gift shop shortly!

41bgI3+WQqL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

And finally, just in case you haven't seen it yet, our spring newsletter is now posted here in English et en Français.

God bless!

 
fullsizeoutput_19f3.jpeg