What’s Three Days like With the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr Saint George in Alton Illinois?
Let’s begin our story…wonderfully to say it begins in a convent, and ends at a convent, the in between is pure joy that no one could ever imagine to feel in everyday life, and sadly to say, some don’t even know if this joy of God exists. Let’s start on Sunday, a day of obligation in the church…let’s start in a city called LaCrosse Wisconsin.
Overwhelmed with joy and anticipation to be back in LaCrosse Wisconsin at the House of Formation, Tracy and I pulled up into the parking lot of Mater Redemptoris Convent and House of Formation, we would be staying overnight ready to hit the road in the early morning with a few more girls to begin a life changing adventure. The altitude only read medium, I felt that it would eventually sky rocket at our destination. We had a wonderful dinner with Sisters’ Stephania, and Christine Marie, and eventually we would hit that hay sack in the next couple hours. Sleep was to be a necessity on this trip, as I recall Sister Stephania saying to us before we went to bed that we needed to be awake, and alert, - but traveling long distances, for many hours would definitely make you tired…
We arose early in the morning, me with only about four or five hours of sleep. Which wasn’t good, but I was happy and ready to go, I prayed the little Morning Prayer, “O God come to my assistance, Lord make haste to help me.” Made my way down the stairs, the day was here, we just had to wait about seven hours before we actually got there. We hopped into our two vans, one religious sister per van, and made our way to the Cathedral for mass while eating donuts for breakfast. Mass was the source and summit, and I dare say our fuel to keep us going throughout the day. Mass was always beautiful, to be silent, vocal, to praise the Lord, and to receive Him in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist – Holy Communion. From then on our journey officially started, onward to our intention.
For the at least seven hour drive which felt like twelve to me, we entertained ourselves through conversation, and laughter, but when there is a religious about two feet away from you behind the driver, there is no escaping the glorious “entertainment” of prayer, and scripture. We prayed the rosary, a substitution for Mid-Day-Prayer, listened to scripture, and listened to a talk on “The Truth of Mary.” Twas indeed a very embracing time, the power of prayer being channeled through Christ our Lord. What would a trip be if we all did not stop and eat...I recall sitting on the grass on Monday with a ham and turkey sandwich looking at the massive amounts of food for at least twenty people, my theory was, we all wanted to make sure the sisters had plenty of food leftover, and indeed they did…our journey continued through the miles and miles of straight roads, cornfields, soybeans, and semi trucks as we passed farther down south through Wisconsin to Illinois. The weather was really cold in Wisconsin, but dramatically increased to about eight-five degrees when we reached Illinois. We passed through the cities of Rockford, Bloomington, and Springfield, feeling tired as could ever be, and finally around 4:30 p.m. we were there…there is a massive difference in sentences, and to talk about God and know that He is there calls for a substitution of words, we shall replace there with convent or I say, “The Franciscan Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr Saint George.”
It was fascinating how God was working, I felt like I could have freaked out when we pulled up into the driveway. The place was huge, and beautiful, Sister Stephania was our “case manager” and kept tabs on us – she led us to the port building where we would be sleeping for two nights, on the doors there were names of “Brother’s” we all thought that priests lived there, it turns out during the power point presentation that the brothers are followers of Saint Francis, I had Brother Leo. We were given a set of keys, one for our room and one to “get into the convent”, and another one. We got settled in, and it was time for dinner. Later in the evening we were introduced to Sister Beata the vocation director of the community. We took a tour around the convent, and watched a power point presentation on the community. For the rest of the night until morning it was “technically” free time, I ended up going to bed right away, with the Word of God systematic inside of me…
At 5:30 I was wide awake, ready to sing God’s praises, the girls and I were grateful that Sister Beata made Morning Prayer optional for the slumbering people, except some of us did get up at 4:20. I read a scripture for a few minutes and went to mass, it was beautiful and receiving Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity was all the fuel I needed. Eventually it was time for breakfast which took place in the Novitiate Recreation Room, I made my way to see if the sisters or any of the girls needed help for setting up chairs in the chapel for the ceremony about two and half hours away, I stuck my key in the door and it unlocked fine, but…it wouldn’t come out of the key hole, it took about twenty minutes, six sisters, oil, and a janitor to get my key out, but it finally gave up to the fact that God wasn’t going to let a key take over the convent door before His children were to be, betrothed and married to His son! I helped with the chairs, advising the “directional office” to Sister Philomena, Karen and Sarah. It was apparent to God that He wanted to really interest everyone in my morning when I dropped a chair in the chapel; Sister Philomena came to my aid by placing a hand on my arm and asking. “Are you okay?” I was indeed, I couldn’t help but laugh, and that wasn’t all, after the elevator experience I decided to set a side my klutz-ing and half functional mind and pray. Finally it was 9 o’ clock time for the ceremony. Tracy’s friend was a to be novice – I unfortunately, -but fortunate enough- didn’t know any of the candidates, I was okay with that as tears dropped in blobs down my eyes – pleading in my mind that these are, “My Sisters in Christ.” My version of my extended family. We were all blessed with 7 bishops and a lot of priests to celebrate and co-celebrate the glorious new “transformation” – it was also in God that one child of His would receive a gold crown and a gold flower for celebration of her golden jubilee of fifty years as a religious in the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr Saint George. To know Christ was rejoicing was a glorious emotion. The ceremony concluded shortly thereafter, my eyes still drenched in blissful tears, I was so happy. The reception to follow after had its own array of streamers, it was magnificent to see the “to-be’s” already the “be’s” united with their families and friends…
[Earlier on Sister Beata told us that their Provincial Superior (Mother Margaretha Maria) And her Vicaress (Sister M. Engratia) would be coming for the ceremony from their Motherhouse in Germany, and the only difference in habit was that the two had a “vow cord” that represented the vows that the sisters take, poverty, chastity, and obedience.]
We made our way down to the day care where everyone was, and stopped in a couple rooms to see the children, whose nap time was just starting - we ran into a couple sisters, and a couple priests, and a bishop, and were introduced, and maintained our course. Concluding our flight to initiate our congratulations and hugs to the new novices and new professed, half of us were left to wander in our minds of amazement, throwing questions out like, “did you enjoy the ceremony?” and receiving nods. I decided to step ahead, and introduce myself to a few of the new sisters, that I did. After meeting up with Sister Eucharia and talking for a few minutes and obtaining the stunned look of “wow” about what part so and so I am – I wandered over back to the crowd and talked to Mary our chaperone. Soon thereafter I noticed two interesting Franciscans came into the reception, I observed them, and nearly freak out. “Do you know who those two are!?!?!” Mother Margaretha Maria, and her vicaress Sister M. Engratia, stood by the door. Sister Stephania took to haste to have us introduced to Reverend Mother, and Sister Engratia. I shook hands with Mother Margaretha and her vicaress, but was snapped in a picture with Mother. At this point all of it was a little too overwhelming, the graces and blessings of God being poured constantly. The reception ended as it began with hearts full of joy and love, and their spouse Christ – and betrothed, the girls and I helped massively in the gym with the chairs and cleaning tables off, and at one point pretty much well laughed ourselves to death with a clutter of chairs, God was very humorous to His new betrothed. In time we originated ourselves in the cafeteria for dinner, which for me was spent eating pizza, and from then on we had quite the era before we went into Evening Prayer formally known as Vespers in the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours. I had failed so many times in the exploit of the Breviary, and often found myself with aid of having the sisters flip it for me, but tonight was the best of the two…there wasn’t much of flipping around, which I was happy about. You will gradually learn that on Solemnities or Feast Days – that you’re jammed with no clue what to do, and you tend to “spin” back and forth very much, it’s always better to inform someone right away, then stay hushed. This is the point in our story that comes to the dying third part, the ending. So many times in movies or in fairy tales that take us deep within detail, tend to end unhappy or bizarre. Let us start as we started, but now end as it’s assumed. Again as before, we had a considerable time for recreating, and we did just that, it was around 10 that we all went to bed, some of us feeling happy about snoozing, some of us sad, and one of us not wanting to abscond…
Once more the alarm clock chimed at 5:30 in the morning - this time, we had a half hour to get ready before mass. I felt sad this morning, yet I was happy, God works in strange ways…we attended mass shortly after, and heard the prayers of intentions for everyone’s secure trip home. We threw our bags into the back of the two vans, took pictures and said goodbye, and stood aside in the offing to leave this superb trip. Sister Stephania was waiting for Sister Mary David one of the new professed, who jumped out of the pack, kneeled with arms open wide for a big hug. The girls and I all clapped and cheered at the theatrical performance. A jiffy later we heed the words of, “Alright LaCrosse!!!” bawling over the immense group of chatting religious sisters, we got one more picture in with the new professed and novices, I stood in front of Sister Mary Gianna, who made comical remarks such as, “I’ll lean on you…haha…no.”, “Another picture….I thought this was over yesterday…haha.” To which I cracked up and laughed some more when I thought my laughing meter just about erupted. I turned to the two professed behind me, and said, “Congratulations! To the both of you…” with enthusiasm, and a pained heart of wanting to stay for at least another hour – to which Sister Mary David replied, “And you are…” And a introduction with a five second talk followed, until we were demanded one final time to leave…and launch off we did, back into the vans. We were left with a joyful “goodbye” as we were joyfully “welcomed.” The novices waved hard side to side handkerchiefs and open hands, with shouts of cheer and sheer joy, as we departed into the beautiful Godness morning from a divine “auf Wiedersehen!” from the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Francis of the Martyr Saint George in Alton, Illinois…
So…our story began just as it ended…wonderfully to say in a convent, the in between’s were God’s holy work no one could ever envision to undergo in everyday life, and sadly to say, some don’t even know this joy of God survives and continues on throughout eternity. Hence we started on a Sunday, the day of obligation in the church….and thus ended on a Wednesday – a continual path continues for all, no matter what day of the week it is, it doesn’t hurt to say “guten morgan“or “auf Wiedersehen!“ when it is truthfully only the beginning, as it is even when we enter into eternal life…
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