Chapel of the Sisters of the Redeemer

For decades I treasured a signed copy of a small booklet titled There Is a Season: A Countryman’s Almanac of an Orderly World, illustrated by my friend, the late Constantine Kermes. Inspired by Ecclesiastes 3:18, it was published and printed in 1968 at Landis Valley, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I occasionally visited Mr. Kermes and his wife at their rural home there, which was within walking distance from the Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum where, as a high school student, I attended the annual Institute of Pennsylvania Life and Culture. In retrospect, 1968 was a tumultuous time in my adolescence. I, maybe like many others, was looking for a more orderly world. When the time finally came to downsize my life before taking Solemn Vows forty years later, I gave Cousin Sue that booklet, along with other artworks by Mr. Kermes, since she and her partner live only five miles from Landis Valley where the artist and his wife are buried in the Mennonite Cemetery, in the heart of Lancaster County.

All of this came to mind last weekend, the first weekend of November, as I drove through that part of the Keystone State. I made the trip to attend the “Fall Back” Retreat Day for Young Adults in Huntingdon Valley PA, organized by the Delaware Valley Member Area of the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC), and held at the Redeemer Valley Farm and Transformation Center. It was the weekend of the time change, to gain an hour, to ‘fall back’ and, despite the tree colors being past their peak, a time to enjoy a gorgeous autumn day and to make some new vocations friends on retreat. As a member of NRVC, Portsmouth is also part of the New England Member Area which doubles our opportunities for learning new outreach methods, for networking among other Directors of Vocation, and for offering hospitality to men still discerning ways in which they might respond to the call of a life as a consecrated religious.

Three participants discuss vocations
(Dr. Eric Hollander on the far left)

As one translation of Ecclesiastes puts it, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” The matter at hand was vocations. As we monks are often reminded, although there may be only one Director of Vocations, every single monk in the community must be mindful of working to foster vocations. The “Fall Back” retreat marked National Vocation Awareness Week, celebrated since 2014 during the first full week of November as mandated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The USCCB website explains: “National Vocation Awareness Week is an annual week-long celebration of the Catholic Church in the United States dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations.” The NRVC explains that the USCCB’s Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations moved National Vocation Awareness Week to November to engage Catholic schools and colleges more effectively in the effort. It is fitting too, that it falls in this month of Thanksgiving, and we were especially thankful for the college and high school folks who spent their day with us.

The site generously hosting the retreat is home to the Sisters of the Redeemer and their various ministries, including the Redeemer Village, the Redeemer Valley Garden, the Sisters’ Memorial Garden and the Holy Redeemer Healthcare System’s Transformation Center which includes the Redeemer Sisters’ Chapel. I was joined at the retreat by Michele Rentschler, Oblate of Portsmouth Abbey, and between us we were able to interact and converse with eight Participating Vocation Ministers representing some of the sponsoring religious orders (of which Portsmouth was one), as well as with retreatants from Villanova University, Holy Family University in Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Engineering, and the Upper Darby School District. The day was organized with a good balance of group activities and personal time, allowing for private talks with the vocation directors. Sr. Michele Fisher CSFN, principal organizer, led the morning off with an ice-breaker activity, though it soon became apparent that this was not a gathering in need of ice-breaking! Activities were split between inside and out which gave us a chance to walk around the Redeemer Valley Garden with its carefully tended plots which had provided the vegetables for the fresh salad to accompany our luncheon. Goats, chickens, a pig, and the two burly guard dogs also joined us, providing a shared source of amusement.

After Eucharistic Adoration in the Sisters’ Chapel, Dr. Eric Hollander, a first-year candidate with the Augustinians at St. Thomas Monastery at Villanova, gave a talk on, “Nurturing the Life Within.” His careful and inspiring delineation of his vocational journey moved many in the room to tears, though masterfully leavened with a bit of humor involving, of all things, a story of an accordion. An accomplished violinist, Dr. Hollander accompanied the liturgical music at the closing Mass, celebrated by Fr. Joseph L. Narog, O.S.A., Director of Vocations and Initial Formation for the Augustinians.

My Sunday drive back to New England included a stop at St. Mary’s Abbey and their beautiful Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey. There I met with another young man who, over a midday lunch of “Benedict Korean” (a riff on Eggs Benedict!), shared with me his own inspiring vocational journey. I pondered again on Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven,” as it was now time to circumnavigate my way around New York City at the first dusk after we had changed our clocks. Weaving in and out of what may have been residual traffic from that day’s New York Marathon, my own weekend marathon was winding down. It had been an inspiring and, as time will tell, fruitful opportunity to explore and discern vocations.
 

Included amongst the varied duties of Br. Sixtus Roslevich is that of Director of Vocations for the monastery.