Chapter 4
Hester delighted in spending time at the Salesian Monastery in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania. Her life was changing rapidly and the wisdom and stability the little monastery provided her with was deeply treasured by this evolving woman. During her present stay, the nocturnal Office of Vigils had just ended with the usual mantra of “Come, Lord Jesus,” and the morning star and daybreak would follow soon behind.
The life of this monastery, like any other monastic community large or small, flows around the rhythm of prayer called “The Divine Office” which is also known by a more contemporary title as “The Liturgy of the Hours.” The various liturgical prayer services that make up the Office consecrate all of the phases of the day and night to God. Monastic tradition holds that Vigils is to be celebrated by the community in the dark, the night before, in the middle of the night, or sometime before dawn. Since some of the monastics at the Salesian Monastery go out to minister part-time in the area, and a middle of the night wake-up call might leave them fatigued as their day progresses, the pre-dawn option is the tradition at the Salesian Monastery.
The still, cold, and quiet mid-December morning exhilarated Hester. She left the oratory (the monastic term for chapel, from the Latin ora or prayer) and headed up the small brown / green rock laden path, planning to do a walking meditation around the five acre field dominating the white monastic buildings. Such a meditation was good for her body as well as her soul, she reasoned. Besides, walking meditation is a venerated tradition in Eastern spirituality.
Westerners think primarily of sitting still or, worse yet, configuring the physical body into the shape of a pretzel, as the proper postures for meditation. This woman had read the great Spanish Carmelite mystic, Saint Theresa of Avila, who suggests that the meditator exercise great freedom in his or her meditation position, including sitting comfortably if that is helpful in prayer. Hester understood that if one lies down to meditate, there is a chance that the person could simply fall asleep. This is not a bad thing, but not the purpose of mental prayer, which really is uniting oneself with God.
Dry and frosted weeds, about knee high, crunched under her prayerful feet and sturdy shoes. Time was suspended as the tall, angular woman in her mid-forties walked the perimeter of the field praying “Come Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus” over and over again. An almost imperceptible glint from the ground beneath her attracted her half-closed eyes and, even more powerfully, her inner spirit. This woman missed nothing. This was not by her choice so much as by her neurological wiring. In general, Hester had the reputation of being very close-mouthed and prudent, someone who minded her own business. The sun was barely rising, but the angle of the sunrays gave just enough light for something to gleam in response to the stream of sunlight splashing down at her feet.
Without even consciously thinking about it, Hester stooped down and began to poke around in the half-frozen mud. Something that bright and shiny has got to be a diamond. Sure enough, she was right, which even surprised her, given the scanty amount of data to draw upon to reach her hypothesis. The only disconcerting thing is that it was on a ring, and the ring was on what appeared to be a young, feminine hand—a very dead hand.
No scream left Hester’s slim pale lips, only an inner burst of anger at only God knew who, and the thought that this finding bodies stuff has got to stop! When the chilling reality finally made its way through her circuitry and into her consciousness it was like someone throwing back the curtains on a bright day while someone else is still sleeping in bed after getting there late. Hester opened her eyes and darted back down the hill she had so tranquilly climbed not long before, to the main monastery building, conscious that it was still the “Grand Silence” during which no one was supposed to talk unless there was an emergency. She knew that this constituted a grave enough emergency to break the Grand Silence.