“This word of the Lord came to me:
... I remember the devotion of your youth,
how you loved me as a bride,
following me in the desert,
in a land unsown.”
Jeremiah 2:1-2

by Hermit Sister Mary Beverly

Like the People of God in the Sinai wilderness, this was a time of closeness, of intimacy with God, like a spiritual honeymoon even though, or perhaps because, it was also a time of great poverty, austerity and insecurity. Physically, emotionally and spiritually, it was a time of great trial and suffering. Yet the closeness of the Lord to me through it all more than compensated and gave me a taste for the great words articulated by the Desert Fathers, those great heroes in the Lord in the early days of the Church. The lives and sayings of the earliest hermits sustained me, along with Scripture itself, the Word of Life. Thus my life, as a hermit in the heart of the Church, was born and took deep roots here at Marymount Hermitage in the high desert of Mesa, Idaho.

A jubilee is a time to think back and remember all that the Lord has done. As Hermit Sisters of Mary, we are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the founding of Marymount Hermitage under the direction of our beloved Bishop Sylvester W. Treinen.

That November 19, 1984, it was so muddy that we had to use our 4-wheel drive vehicle to ferry in our guests from the highway a mile away. Some of the intrepid young priests walked in.

Our first chapel, which ordinarily accommodated only 8, was packed with 60 people. The common house could not hold this many people for the reception, so our land donor and neighbor, Jim Ball, brought hay so people had a place to sit. I’m sure everyone wondered if these two Sisters and their Trappist chaplain would survive, but here we are, after all these years, not only surviving, but flourishing! The old chapel was moved and converted into our library and a large, permanent chapel was built over 15 years ago.

We hope, over the next two years, to share some of our memories and old photos with you. Sister Rebecca Mary and I are celebrating spiritually in preparation for our Silver Jubilee by meditating and studying together weekly on the Scriptural theme of God the Father. We ask you to join us prayerfully in thanksgiving to God the Father for all the graces we have received in our lives with a request that God’s loving Providence will sustain us to the end of our lives into eternity.

As a material focus of our jubilee, we are planning necessary upgrades for the chapel. The chapel is named “Our Father’s House” and we trust that all will feel welcomed and loved as God’s beloved children.

The only maintenance to the chapel since it was built was painting the exterior trim once. It is a tribute to the quality of the Hardie Board siding that it has not needed painting yet! In contrast, the large, clear-paned windows in the front of chapel need to be replaced. The seals are broken and there is leakage around the windows, which has damaged the plaster board and paint around the casements. The walls of the chapel have some cracks that need caulking and the entire interior will need painting.

As mentioned in our post card mailed to you in early April, we replaced the worn rug in the sanctuary and center aisle and installed multi-colored slate tile in these areas, as well as in the foyer of chapel. Bill Schallhorn, a local craftsman, has done a great job and, from the donations we received towards the chapel, we have been able to pay the approximately $6,000 we owed for the work and $1,000 for the post card purchase, printing and mailing. We thank all those who were so generous.

Since “Our Father’s House” (chapel) is so essential to our life, we plan to spread the work of renovation over the next two years, so that it does not unnecessarily disrupt our prayer life and that of our neighbors and retreatants, who join us for Lauds, Vespers, Mass or Communion service, and evening holy hours of Eucharistic adoration.

We actually rather dread all this work and much prefer our usual silence, solitude and peace. However, we feel we need to be good stewards of the gifts God has given us in the past which means maintaining the chapel, which is so necessary for us and all who come to pray at Marymount. We are able to support ourselves by the daily labor of our hands, as our founding Bishop desired, but the cost of construction and maintenance is beyond our means and for which we appreciate your charitable assistance. We have Mass offered each month for all our benefactors both living and deceased.

As if to highlight this year dedicated to God the Father, we discovered that the slate tile has fossil ferns and leaves in it. It was a delight to have more evidence of the love of our God and Creator enhancing the beauty of our desert environment. It is a mystery where this tile was quarried and which we will probably only know in heaven.

Our Jubilee Year, 2009, we are dedicating to God the Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The centerpiece of the celebration will be a Mass offered by Bishop Michael Driscoll, Bishop of Boise. Our year of thanksgiving in 2010 will be dedicated to the Holy Spirit. Please know that at Mass and during our times of prayer both individually and communally, we thank God profusely and ask fervently for blessings on you, our generous and faith-filled friends and benefactors.

Chapel is a holy place of peace and prayer, where all are welcome in “Our Father’s House.

Sister M. Beverly & Sister Rebecca Mary, HSM

COMMUNITY NEWS
by Hermit Sister Rebecca Mary

“For you are our Father; though Abraham may not know us and Israel may not recognize us, you, Lord, are our Father…” (Is. 63:16) This year, Sister M. Beverly and I are studying Scripture together once a week on the theme of God the Father in preparation for the 25th Anniversary of Marymount Hermitage next year. During our Jubilee year, we will be studying Jesus Christ and in the year of thanksgiving, God the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament has many references to the Father. In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 14, Jesus speaks of the Father over 23 times and in the entire Gospel of John, over 145 times! When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus begins with “Our Father,” telling them plainly that God is their father and they are his children. It is not difficult to find numerous references to the Father in the Gospels, especially in Matthew and John, but even the Old Testament has significant passages reminding the Israelites that God is Father. See for instance, Sir. 23:1, Jer. 3:4, Jer. 3:19, Jer. 31:9, Ps. 68:6, Mal. 2:10, Wis. 2:16, Wis. 14:3.

We have begun our study of our Father in the Old Testament where God was reminding his People even in ancient times that he was their Father. In Pope Benedict XVI’s new book, Jesus of Nazareth, the Pope speaks of the difficulties our modern culture has with the concept of the word “father.” “[C]ontemporary men and women have difficulty experiencing the great consolation of the word “father” immediately, since the experience of the father is in many cases either completely absent or is obscured by the inadequate example of fatherhood.” (page 136)
Nevertheless, God is Father in the true sense of being all good. He is, as King David often recalled: “creator, protector, provider, shelter, refuge and strength.” For those who have not experienced the blessings of true fatherhood, we pray ever more insistently that they will come to know the heavenly Father who loves and cherishes their very being for all eternity.

Father Casey Bailey, OCSO, a Trappist monk of the monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lafayette, Oregon will be giving us a week long set of conferences on Lectio Divina in late September. We are gratefully looking forward to this special time of prayer and study. There is a happy coincidence which places this grace-filled week just before the time of the World Synod of Bishops, which will meet in Rome during October on the topic of Scripture as the Word of God.

The Pope has designated June 29, 2008 to June 29, 2009 as the Year of St. Paul. This celebrates the 2000 year anniversary of the birth of St. Paul. We are all invited to read, study and pray over St. Paul’s letters, making this great apostle’s spirit our own.

We have received numerous inquires about the progress of my recuperation from a broken right shoulder and right arm due to a fall last August. Thanks to your good prayers and excellent therapy, I have recovered.

This summer, I finished the third book of the trilogy I have been writing about “the Fire King.” Hopefully, this winter we will be able to publish the first book, The Midnight Rose. My stories are for children between the ages of 7 and 11, but I hope parents, grandparents and teachers will enjoy them also. If the book sells fairly well, we hope to have the resources for publishing the second book next year and the third book the following year.

Our next newsletter will reach you in the spring of 2009. Look for a Christmas greeting and promise of prayers from us via a post card.

God bless you for your love and support of us and our way of life in and for the Church.

Free Retreats for Catholic Priests

Are you a Catholic Priest looking for a quiet and peaceful retreat? Then look no further than Marymount for your spiritual haven. During this period when we have no resident Chaplain, we invite you to come visit us. See Retreats for more information and an application form.

Laity Retreats

Marymount is a beautiful place to spend a few days to recharge your spiritual battery. Come to the High Desert and spend some quiet time with God. See Retreats for more information and an application form.

Is God Calling You to the Religious Life?

Do you have a longing in your heart to do something more for God? Do you think you might have a calling to the life of a religious woman hermit? Please read our page concerning Vocations for more information.

Please write or email us to start your discernment process as to whether God is calling you to a Vocation in the Marymount community.

MARYMOUNT HERMITAGE NEWSLETTER is published by Marymount Hermitage, Inc., a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation in the State of Idaho. The Hermit Sisters of Mary are a canonically approved Catholic community of women hermits following the Rule of St. Benedict. The newsletter is normally published three times a year and is free. The newsletter is sent to our relatives, friends and benefactors so that we might share the spirituality and material progress of Marymount Hermitage. Please pray that we may be faithful to our way of life in prayer and penance, solitude and silence. Any donations to Marymount Hermitage are sincerely appreciated and are tax-deductible.