CHAPTER 22
The Prioress held Chapter, a meeting of the community. In accord with custom, a chapter from the Rule of the Salesian Monastic Community was read at the beginning of the gathering. It was Brother Mathew’s turn to read.
Chapter III Evangelical Counsels (Vows)
The Vow of Charity
Statue 92: Our Salesian heritage provides us with the opportunity of taking a private vow of charity with the consent of the Abbot/Abbess and one's spiritual director. This vow is never binding under serious sin, and the formula is as follows:
Lord Jesus Christ, out of love of you and in the embrace of your cross, I vow (for a week, for a month, or longer) that I will do nothing contrary to brotherly/sisterly charity in thought, word, or deed.
Help me, O Lord, through the Blessed Virgin, your mother. Glory to you, Source of all Being, Eternal Word, and Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Everyone spent a few moments in prayerful silence, pondering the depths of the reading. The Rule of a monastery is a very sacred thing to the members of the community. Through it in large part, the will of God is manifested to the nuns and monks. It was struggle enough for them to understand what God might be asking of them at a given time. Having the Rule eliminated much of that, especially on a day to day basis of living what in some ways was a rather ordinary life.
When the bell rings, it’s the will of God to stop what one is doing and head to the Oratory for the Liturgy of the Hours. During recreation time, one is expected to recreate, and so goes the day, the month, and year—and the years. Salesian spiritually is eminently practical. If necessity or charity dictates otherwise, the monastic is dispensed from the usual response to the bell and finds the will of God in the emergency or charitable deed.
The Rule was to be a help along the way, not a burden. Now it called them to this Chapter meeting. God’s will came through the Prioress in this instance, who convoked the gathering.
“My sisters and brothers, you may have seen two unknown men on our property in recent weeks. You may even have been questioned by them. Sister Scholastica, known in the world as Agent Leone Striker, would like to share some things with you from her past which may help you to understand recent events.”
Sister Scholastica had shed her usual reserved persona and was now all business, like in her old days perhaps.
“Dear friends” she began. “You are all truly my dear friends as well as my sisters and brothers in monastic life. My vocation here has been one filled with great joy and much peace. There was, however, a missing piece in a sense. I have been very quiet about my background in the world. Certainly our Abbot knows all about it, and to some degree Sister Jane, but the rest of you know nothing.
“You may remember that in the Chapter we held prior to Abbot Francis’ going to Hawaii I started running on about various aspects of Hawaiian life. I spoke about the Garden Island of Kauai and about Mother Marianne and Father Damian’s great work with lepers there. All of a sudden I caught myself saying too much and stopped talking.”
Brother Matthew smiled and nodded silently. Clare looked at the nun quizzically. She was starting to wonder about the appropriateness of joining the community. Secrets were manifesting themselves and Clare did not like secrets. Perhaps some of her sensitivity was a byproduct of being hearing-impaired.
When people laugh or react in other ways, hearing-impaired people do not always know why. The can wonder if the joke is about them. Fully-hearing people can do the same, but the hearing-impaired are more at risk for this.
Silvery clouds floated in the bright blue winter sky. The window in the great room where they sat looked out on to the Pocono Mountains, now a mix of huge green pine trees and rugged brown branches.
“I stopped talking because I was about to ‘blow my cover’ as we used to say in the Central Intelligence Agency where I worked for about ten years. It was for that reason that I studied martial arts—to protect myself. I didn’t want to use the gun I carried if I could help it.
“Perhaps it is a gift of God, but I’m rather good at blending in and even assuming various personae as needed. Sometimes my cases would take me to or through Hawaii, but I often found myself in Asia as well, not much in Europe. I would be a little old lady, royalty, a nun, I even pretended to be mute once or twice.”
Clare was not sure what she thought of that just yet.
“Throughout most of my life I was drawn to Religious Life. Over time my vocation clarified itself and I realized that it was monastic life that I sought. I struggled to be released from the CIA, both internally and with my superiors. As an aside, let me tell you that they are not nearly as easy to get along with as monastic superiors.”
Sister Jane de Chantal laughed out loud.
“The CIA wants me back, and so does my former boss. He has mixed motives. He’s probably in love with me. He and his associate are the two men who have appeared here from time to time recently and who questioned Clare on the road yesterday.”
Part of this information was lost on some of the members. Others knew something about the event. Even monasteries have grape vines—hopefully charitable ones.
“I think that I convinced my former boss, Calvin, that I truly belong here and that I’m not simply running away from responsibilities or shapeshifting, as he calls my ability to perform various roles when I investigate things. Now he wants me to come up with a replacement. If I find someone who will work for the CIA and who has some sort of skills or gifts in that direction, he may let go of this semi-obsession he has about me.”
“Where would people like us come in contact with the sort of person you describe,” asked Clare.
“We usually don’t Clare. By the way, I would like to apologize publically to you for what you had to go through on what was supposed to be a peaceful walk yesterday. In the old days monastics used to kiss the ground before apologizing. Would you like me to resurrect that old custom?”
Clare looked alarmed. “Please don’t Sister. Everything is fine, believe me.”
“Thank you my sister in the Lord.”
“There you have it, my dear ones. I’m your sister and there are no more secrets. Please forgive me one and all. I needed to handle this in my own fashion and thanks to your charity I have. I’m free.”
The community burst into spontaneous applause. With that the Chapter ended and the members walked in reflective silence to the Oratory to chant Compline, the night prayer of the Church.