Pioneering is not for sissies

Lake Lucern from the top
of the Musenalp

Today, September 5th, our congregation celebrates Founder's Day.   As I mentioned in last week’s blog, five intrepid sisters from the Alps of Switzerland volunteered to come to America to help teach immigrant children and start perpetual adoration in Missouri.   They left a place of great beauty to come to northwest Missouri...not exactly known world wide for stunning vistas of nature.

The sisters left their mountain abode in mid August, 1874 with the Abbot of nearby Engelberg Abbey blessing them and telling them “they would need the strong heart of a missionary and they would lose heart at all the privations and dangers they would face if they were going to America for any other purpose than the love of God.”

Their route took them to Lucerne and Basel, Switzerland and then it was on to Paris.  One of the five, Sr. Beatrice who was the chronicler for the trip, said “even nuns would be guilty of negligence if they had been in Paris without having seen the important and historic areas of the famous city.”   (I would have liked Sr. Beatrice!)  So they had a hasty tour of the more illustrious churches, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe.  August 18 found them in the port city of Le Havre where they boarded their transAtlantic steamer.   They had been at sea only a few hours when everyone but Sr. Beatrice suffered from seasickness.   After 4 days, most of the passengers had recovered but dreary, foggy weather contributed to a feeling of abandonment and depression.

On August 31, 1874, they landed in Hoboken, New Jersey.  Immediately they were overwhelmed at the rush, haste, and confusion of this new land.  Nothing was calm or restful.  On September 2nd they boarded the train for St. Louis where they arrived on the 4th.  They then boarded the train that would take them to their destination in Maryville, MO where they arrived at 6pm on September 5th only to be greeted by...no one....since the Benedictine monk who was supposed to meet them had forgotten the date of their arrival!  

A German who happened to be at the station took them to the Catholic church where the astonished priest welcomed them to his rectory.  The accommodations were cozy to say the least...it was a flimsy wooden structure, housing the pastor on the first floor and the five sisters on the second, which was two rooms in an attic without windows or ventilation.  The first several years were difficult to say the least.  In a letter dated May, 1875, Mother Anselma wrote home to Switzerland:  “If Fr. Adelhelm would not take care of us and some people bring us food to eat, we would be poorly off...from these lines of mine you can guess that all kinds of trials are waiting for us.” 

original farmhouse convent at
Maria Rickenbach, Switzerland

What I learn from these pioneer tales is that one has to not be afraid to set off for ‘distant shores’ when called by God.  Or rather, one must set off anyway in spite of fears!  Discernment is very similar.  We have a final destination but it’s rather vague and the journey there will most probably not be easy.  If the five sisters could have seen into the future the deprivations and hardships, perhaps they would never have left their beautiful mountain home.  I had the privilege of visiting our founding monastery in Switzerland in 2007, I’m astonished they left that place of beauty at all.  Look at this picture to the left...would you leave that to come to Missouri, USA????  

I think that is why God keeps us in the dark about the details of our spiritual journey, we would chicken out.  However, there are ‘Paris’ moments along the way where we will ‘see’ things we never thought we would.  Sometimes we’ll just be plain ole seasick.   Sometimes, those people we expect to be there for us leave us hanging...but then someone else comes along to help us.  

Basically, anybody who enters religious life is becoming a ‘founder’ of the future.  God DOES promise to be with us...but there can be deprivations and trials along the way.  As Mother Theresa was known to say, "God does not ask us to be successful, but to be faithful."   I often pray to our pioneer sisters to help us as we continue to found our own future here in 2012.   Mother Anselma, Sr. Beatrice, Sr. Adela, Sr. Agnes, Sr. Augustine - PRAY FOR US!  I'm sure they would help you to, if you just ask...tell them I sent you...