Please pray for me as the hardest things for me to have to give up where I am in nowhere-land are daily Mass and several times of Adoration a week. As I am living far away from a Catholic Church, this denial of the Sacrament and of Adoration is a real penance.
I offer up this denial of graces to me for D, R. E, Z, G, B, J and other who have asked for my prayers.
However, what I am experiencing in grief will be the experience of the majority of Catholic in the not-so-far future.
The remnant may not have Mass and Adoration. I have wanted for a long time to live in a house with the Holy Eucharist, and being in Tyburn last year was such a gift.
I could see my Lord frequently.
Tyburn opened in France last Autumn. Wonderful. And, this is another sign of the holiness of the foundress.
http://www.catholicsentinel.org/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=34&ArticleID=22539
As you know, the nuns are already in Nigeria.
http://www.cam.org.au/News-and-Events/Features/Vocations/Article/15224/Tyburn-Sisters-invited-to-Nigeria#.U2PKZ4FdXlM
Here is a play I wrote for the nuns last year.
This play is written as a half-hour voice-over
for a DVD format. Quotations marks are
on the exact words of Mother Marie Adele.
The voice is that of Mother Marie Adele
Garnier, Mother Mary of St. Peter. One must have a French accent for this play.
Title: Mother Marie Adele Garnier,
Mother Mary of St. Peter, Foundress of Tyburn
All in One Act with Ten Scenes: Scene One
First Act: Scene One, London overlooking Hyde
Park
Mother Adele as a very old nun is saying
goodbye to the world and waiting for the Bridegroom
She has asked her nuns to come around her but
they are not there yet. The room is grey but peaceful, like a black and white dream.
She is sitting in a half bed, half chair. She is old but peaceful. It is
1924.
Mother Marie Adele is thinking these thoughts:
Voice-over
Mother Marie Adele: The
day is dark for June. But, the day mirrors the darkness of Calvary, when the
storms blew across Golgotha at the death of My Lord. I have left notes and
letters, like clues for my dear daughters, hoping they will understand the path
I had to follow all these years. My dear daughters have been called to come to
me for a blessing.
I hope my life has
taught my children here that Love is All.
I hope the Love of my Savior and King has led them to accept the Cross.
What does this mean to them? What does this mean to the hundreds of people who
pass by Tyburn on this street daily in London? What do they understand of
sacrificial love?
But, I have prayed and
suffered for each one of them, and for my confreres in France. Ah, France, you
have left your throne to false gods, to the silly pursuits of these modern
times. I shall never see your blue skies and roses again.
Mother picks up a book and a rosary…she is
pensive.
The day is gloomy and
reminds me of a day long ago in France, when I wrote a letter to dear Father
Lemius, I was in Villeneuve-sure-Yonne.
How can I share with
all these in my care the necessity of perseverance? I wrote to Father on that day? I pray I have
been an example of the way of penance, all for the Bridegroom, Who I await.
Scene Two, younger Adele in French room at a
writing desk. She is in a simple habit,
not the Benedictine one of her first scene. She is very animated and eager in
her face and demeanor.
Mother Marie Adele Voice-over reads letter, and
she writes and stops, and writes again.
“But, I think of
heaven-I think of the work and the suffering which is absolutely necessary for
us. That night I felt this call, always more forcible, more pressing, to a
total renunciation, to a complete
abnegation, to the acceptance, loving, eager, without regret or bitterness, of
all possible sacrifices for the glory and the consolation of His divine
heart…..
They must know that
they themselves count for nothing. And, that if they wish to work perseveringly
and seriously for the sanctification of their souls, they must sacrifice
themselves in everything and always for the glory of God, immolate themselves
absolutely for the Sacred Heart, in order to win souls for Him. For our dear France, so guilty, but above all
so deeply to be pitied; for England, whither the Sacred Heart calls us; for the
Church, the beloved Bride of Christ; for His vicar, our beloved Father. For the
honour and the cult of Mary Immaculate….to live a life of suffering out of
love…”
We are at the mercy of
the French Government with the Associations Law, an infamous attempt to stop
new orders and seize land…we had to wait to declare ourselves a religious
community and all I had worked for under the guidance of my excellent spiritual
advisors, all, seemed to be coming to naught.
I thought perhaps we would go to 40 rue de la Barre, or Belgium, but to
England, land of martyrs.
But, leave we must,
and Monsieur Audollent is sent from our dear Cardinal de la Vergne, the Father
of this order, to Cardinal Vaughan. I must be ever patient, resting in the
Sacred Heart. Ah, poor Archbishop Guibert, buried in the Basilica, we must
leave him and all our memories. Such is
the Dark Night of the Soul, when God strips all. And yet, my Beloved knows I
belong to Him and all my daughters belong to Him. And, I recall the day the Cardinal said “This
is from God”, ratifying my vision of permanent Adoration, and unity two great
devotions, that of the Eucharist and that of the Sacred Heart. “This if from
God.”
(A monstrance on an altar appears in the French
room and the sun begins to shine everywhere.)
Over and over again, I
faced this anxiety and pain. But, few knew why. The call of the nun is the call
of the Bridegroom and yes, I am a Bride, but unlike so many called before, the
Teresas, the Catherines, I had ecstasy
and then pain. Most are called to
the unitive state of being one with God after the Dark Night. But, for me,
there was another dimension, another working of God’s grace in the world. I
shall try and explain.
Scene Three:
The room in Tyburn with the dying Mother Marie Adele.
Mother Marie
Adele: Montmarte, how we loved the hill
of the martyrs, and yet, God called us, through His Eucharistic Heart to this
country, this place of martyrs, this Tyburn.
Montmarte, now filled with the beautiful Basilica, which I perhaps will
never see again.
That perhaps was the
second lowest time in the growth of our dear community. I cannot speak of the worst, the attacks of
the evil one directly on my young nuns.
We endured and would have stayed in the shadow of Montmarte. We, like the children of the Diaspora, were
forced out. But, I did not want us to be separated. Remember, Dear Lord, how my
heart ached. How I did not want to leave my beloved France, where in secret we
had our little clothing ceremony, at Levallois-Perret, with dear Father Balme,
who called us the la graine de moutarde. We were so small, so small.
But, God sent me good
advisors, as He always did, to guide us across the Sleeve to this place.
A few nuns with suitcases appear in the
background at a port like Dover. They are greeted by other nuns.
But, I trusted,
trusted in the darkness that this monstrous law would not touch us. Cardinal
Vaughan responded to our request to come here…so long ago it seems…to adore The
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in the heart of London.
I shall never forget
my Alice Andrade…soon to be my Mother Mary Agnes, as God will make her superior
for a while… la graine de moutarde.
Scene Four:
Again, at Vllenueve-sur-Yonne, they are in a rose garden by the house-but
earlier and Marie Adele is in French 19th century middle-class civilian
clothes. Alice is much younger. They meet and embrace, soul sisters for life.
She was with me from
1896, and when we saw each other, she cried out to me “My Mother”. And I cried “My
Daughter.” So we were bound in the love
of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. She
was 23 and I was 58. How odd that I thought I was old. Now, I am old. But, the
journey of my life of perfection seems so short, so short.
Would we have started
out knowing all the hardships? Does a married couple in love and happy think of
the cruelties of life to come? No, we only think and feel love. Mother Agnes and I wrote almost daily when
apart, and she has kept all of those letters.
Someday, my daughters will read and wonder at the boldness of our
undertaking in such a hostile environment as the Eldest Daughter of France had
become…so sad, so melancholy. But, we
are the mustard seed in England, in this soil made fertile with the blood of
Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, Anne Line Oliver Plunkett and so many others.
Scene Five:
The room in Tyburn again.
The Tyburn Gallows, the Tyburn Tree, appears
behind her and stays until all the nuns are gone.
She is interrupted by the nuns coming in and
she blesses them. They all bow their heads in prayer but leave again, each
bowing to her as they leave.
Mother Marie Adele
continues: What I could not tell Mother Agnes for a long time was that the
Bridal Love ended in a call to become a Victim Soul. How does one explain a call to be a victim
for others, for England, for France, for the clergy, even for my nuns? Can they
see the love through the willing suffering of a soul which gives up all comfort
for the sake of others?
I have another memory,
one of my times of trying so hard to listen to the Will of God in my life, as
that is all I ever wanted was His Will. How many long years, when I was a
governess, did I beg my Bridegroom that only His Perfect Will would be done in
my life? All for love.
I was in the Convent
of Marie Reparatrice, in Paris, and I was in torment. I think it was 1876, so long ago. Staying in the community for eight days, in a
little Nazareth, I was trying to understand how I could fulfill the Will of my
Beloved. How could I, no one in the world, show the world His love in the
Eucharistic Heart?
Scene Six: The room fades away and it is a
little, simple nun’s cell in France, with one wooden chair, one bed, a crucifix.
On the way, I had seen
close by, a house, and my heart started to pump wildly. It stood out from the rest and I had the
great sensation that I would be returning to Montmarte. And, I remember the
number, 42.
Marie Adele is sitting in a plain chair when a
nun bursts in and the scene continues in these words….nun does all the things
Mother Adele describes in this passage from one of her letters.
But, on the way back,
I stopped at LeMans and stayed again with the Reparatrices. The nuns gave me a little room in which to
rest, when suddenly, an old nun came into the room. Then, she surprised me greatly. She came over
to me and embraced me, saying, “Oh, it is you! I had begged Our Lord so much to
let me see you again. I have something to tell you, but I could not have
suspected that you were here! I mistook the door, I ought to have visited the
retreatant who is in the next room. But, since it is Jesus who has led me here,
I must speak to you on his behalf.”
“Taken aback, I made
her sit down. Then I could not contain myself any longer. I threw myself into
her arms, sobbing, and said to her, My Mother, oh my Mother, I beg you, tell me
if it is Jesus who is calling. Yes, she replied, it is Jesus who will you to be
a victim of His Eucharistic Heart. He wishes me to tell you this. Bewildered,
overwhelmed, I no longer knew what was to become of me. The kind Mother said to
me, Be happy, calm yourself, Jesus is calling you, have no doubt about
this….Some time ago, a holy Religious from the south of France…wrote to me that
Jesus was asking for victims consecrated to His Eucharistic Heart, that He
thirsted for them, that He marked them out in the world and that they must be
brought to Him…On reading her letter, your image then rose before me with such
clarity and with so great an assurance of the Will of Jesus for you, that no
doubt remained in my mind. From that moment, I have been begging Jesus day and
night to make us meet again. It is He who allowed me to come to the wrong
door.”
Her words created a
brilliant light in my heart and mind. No longer could I doubt. I knew I was
destined to return to Montmarte. Amazingly,
for my timidity was gone completely, I had no fear, no fear of the future to
which God was calling me.
Scene Seven: Back in the room at Tyburn. Mother Adele is in bed, with a nun beside
her. Mother is very ill.
Her thoughts continue:
But, I did not know, when the Dear Lord of my heart called me that day to be,
first His fiancé and then, His bride, what suffering this would mean.
How could I understand
the Passion of Christ without experiencing it and how could I be joined in love
to Him unless He led me to Calvary.
My way has not been
easy, as I have had an independent spirit.
This is a gift from God which must be crushed by love and love alone,
but when Christ asked me to join Him in suffering, how could I say no.
As a younger person, I
had ecstasies of love and contemplation, His gifts to His Bride, but now, I
must rest in “grace that comes from the torture of Christ”.
The young nun wipes the head of Mother Adele
and lifts her up to give her water. Mother Adele looks at her deeply and
blesses her. A large crucifix, like the one at Tyburn on the stairs going up in
the enclosure, appears behind her bed. Then, she sees all the nuns going about
their work, cleaning, cooking, gardening, keeping watch in front of the
Monstrance.
Her thoughts continue: When the
torture of the Cross passes, I am calm again, but how can I explain all this
love to these young ones? I have told
them that if they follow the Rule of St. Benedict and allow themselves to be
perfected, they will be led by Christ, through His Eucharistic Heart into the
Unitive State. Now, on my death bed, I
await this last movement into unity. I
offered myself by the Vow of Victim in 1893 on March 31st, Good
Friday, at three, with my spiritual director l’Abbe Courtois’ approval, and
now, 31 years later, I am finally coming to the consummation of that love.
“Jesus….showed me that
for this I had to attain very great purity of heart, soul, mind and body, so
that the victim—who would also be priest with Jesus, would be not
defiled”.
Such abandonment is
barely understood, but our Father Benedict knew this and his Rule shows us the
way.
Jesus finally told me
that He was calling me to the interior
priesthood, offering up daily, constantly all for and in and through Him.
There is a mystery here I cannot explain. Do they know? Can they see? How can I
explain suffering for others? How can anyone explain what happened on Calvary?
Some think kneeling in
front of the Eucharist in the Monstrance must be a peaceful experience. It is
not. It is joining with the moment of the death of God.
Mother puts her hand on the arm of the young
nun and looks at her intensely.
So like the martyrs of
Montmarte and Tyburn, I agreed so long ago to martyrdom. But, I did not know it
would last so long. Such sanctification is in the daily, little things, as well
as the great suffering of illness. How
long, oh Lord, how long? “Pray for me so that I might be faithful to love the
Cross always and not desire to be freed from it.”
I have one more, dear,
dear memory.
Scene Eight: Mother Adele is in full habit and
writing to her new spiritual director. She is very happy, and serene. The day
is bright, as it is August, and she is sitting in a garden with a writing desk
on her lap. She looks at the ring on her
finger. She is smiling and looks beautiful in her face.
It was many years
since I had been asked by Christ to make the mystical marriage, but I had been
called to sacrifice myself and was reminded of the words of St. Paul in
Romans. I wrote to my new spiritual
father Abbot Marmion, our guide in so many things to come. In this letter, I told him of my double life,
“It is as if in me there are two persons, one who is suffering terribly, who
believes that everything is finished and that it cannot bear for long the
torment of its anxieties and responsibility. And then, another that is
sustained by God, by faith, accepting everything, who abandons herself to all,
who, seeing with certainty that she can do nothing except rely on God and pray
to Him, dwelling in peace adoring and blessing with all her heart and all her
soul with an immense love and intense joy, the Lord her God, the Master
infinitely great, powerful and wise…It is difficult to give an account of a
state so complex, as a double life, one life natural, physical and moral, also
sensitive to a certain extent, it is really pitiable, but at the same time a
supernatural life, high, living of love, of conformity and of abandonment to
divine Good Pleasure…”
A light covers Mother Adele and the entire room
is bleached with this light. Her habit turns into a wedding dress for a moment
and then back to her habit. At the end of the scene, a sun appears over a
picture on the wall of the Tridentine Mass, Mother Adele’s Mass. But, she gets
up and kisses the picture of the sun.
As I told Abbe
Courtois years ago, God approaches me as light, a penetrating, gentle light,
but that is gone now, as I am back in the darkness of Golgotha, but not for
long.
How many other souls
are there who are called to this bridal love and who may not answer? They do
not because they know not love. But, if they would only come to the Eucharist,
to Adoration, to Tyburn, these gentle souls would find love, as He is here.
I tell my daughters
that “The Mass has become like the sun of my life.” This is the Sun of the
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. But, there are many mysteries in the world, and my
acceptance of suffering for others is one.
I am sure there are many called to this type of existence. How many answer yes? Even the apostles fell asleep in Gethsemane.
I cannot fall asleep into mediocrity or complacency. For the sake of my Lord, my God, my All.
Scene 9:
All the nuns are with Mother Marie Adele as she is dying. They are
singing the Salve Regina, and the room is full of the same white light as in the
last scene.
Mother Adele thoughts
again: It is June 17th, my last day on this earth, in this place. I
have just told Mother Agnes that I am happy. On this same day, in 1887, 37
years ago, I wrote out my first complete sacrifice to the Divine Will.
Nuns sing and the room is filled with
light. The Tyburn Altar to the Martyrs
is seen and then the Eucharist at Tyburn, and finally, the Eucharist on all the
altars of Tyburn around the world, Columbia, Peru, Scotland, Ireland, Rome,
Nigeria, New Zealand, Australia,
Ecuador…. All the faces of the multicultural order are seen. And, then, the grave of Mother Marie Adele at
Tyburn with follows…with a young nun kneeling in front…fade out.
Mother Marie Adele’s
thoughts continue: There were others
before me who understood this mysterious of love-St. Teresa of Avila, whose
Spanish passion is so different yet like my own. St. Rita, St. Francis, St.
Therese, our newest flower, and more who are being called. Did I succeed in sharing love? Will they
continue in this love? Will more come?
Mother Marie Adele repeats the opening lines: The day is dark for June. But, the day
mirrors the darkness of Calvary, when the storms blew across Golgotha at the
death of My Lord. I have left notes and letters, like clues for my dear daughters,
hoping they will understand the path I had to follow all these years. My dear
daughters have been called to come to me for a blessing.
Scene Ten: Mother
Agnes is in the garden of Tyburn. The
voice of her and Mother Marie Adele are in her mind;
Mother, are you
happy? Oh, yes, I am so happy with
God!...and with my children.”
Then, Mother Agnes reads this prayer:
Father, all powerful and ever-living God, we
give you glory, praise and thanks for the life and virtue of your beloved
daughter, Marie-Adele Garnier. Filled with the riches of your grace, and
preferring nothing to the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, she devoted her
whole life to the adoration, praise and glory of your Name: she sacrificed
herself by prayer and penance for the unity and holiness of your Church; she
loved her neighbor with a charity full of humility and compassion. Above all, she found the Sun of her life in
the Holy Mass, and so was consumed with zeal for liturgical worship and Eucharistic
Adoration, and abandoned herself with all her heart to your most Holy Will is
all things.
In your mercy Lord,
hearken to our prayer: “Glorify your Servant Mother Marie-Adele Garnier, that
your Servant may glorify You.”
We ask this through
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reign with you in the unity of
the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end. Amen.
(Bibliography on
request.)
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