Thanksgiving and Black Friday at the Convent

Usually the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is full of hustle and bustle in our convent kitchen.   Different sisters sign up to make some particular item for the meal itself.   In years past I have volunteered to make the turkeys.  We used to do four  twenty-four pounders back when we had 50 – 60 sisters here.   Have you ever tried to stick 24 pounds of fowl into an oven bag?  

It is extremely hard to do by yourself.  I would holler at whoever happened to be passing by to help out.  This year, however, a  friend of the community donated smoked turkeys for our meal.   We also had the usual traditional meal:  mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing and of course pumpkin or pecan pie. I am grateful that God has called so many women who are good cooks to our monastery!

Some of the sisters watch the Macy’s parade in the morning and football in the afternoon.   Probably a good many of us took a nap sometime between doing dishes and Vespers.  You  may have heard that eating turkey makes you sleepy because it contains the amino acid L-Tryptophan.   I must admit it’s very handy in our cyber age to be able to ‘google’ things to see if they are accurate or not.   I’m not sure I would have sauntered over to the local library to check into that.  My query produced an article that says turkey has no more tryptophan than other foul and slightly less than chicken.   When was the last time you ate a chicken breast and felt sluggish?   So, another myth bites the dust.

Sisters on Black Friday hurrying into
chapel instead of the stores!

Do we go shopping on Black Friday?  Are you kidding?  One would have to be nuts to go shopping on Black Friday!  Every Friday (and for that matter, every day) is black for us, it’s the color of our ‘habits!’  

I just read on nbcnews.com where a record 247 million shoppers opened their wallets this weekend.  Online shopping on Black Friday topped 1 billion dollars.  Sadly, stores are now opting to be open on Thanksgiving instead of waiting for Friday for their sales.    It’s when I read this stuff that I am especially glad I live in a monastery or I might be caught up in that same nonsense.  In the future is Thanksgiving dinner just going to be what you drop in for between your shopping trips to the stores?

The Friday after Thanksgiving is always a leisure day at our place.  So my black Friday consisted of a nice relaxing morning after Lauds and Mass and then I watched my Nebraska football team beat Iowa.  (It would have been a black Friday indeed if they had lost!)  I followed that with a walk in the brisk air (the wind chill was around 15 degrees) that afternoon with one of my sisters.  Now I tell you, does that not beat getting up before the crack of dawn to go stand in line with other people at your local Wal-Mart?   Lest I forget, one of the best things about the Friday after Thanksgiving is the left-overs!  

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is that it means Advent is just around the corner.  Advent has become my favorite liturgical season.  I especially love the readings from Isaiah in the liturgies.  They are full of hope which is something our world needs these days! 

Gambling and a widow's mite

As a good Benedictine I’m trained in lectio divina.  The danger of doing lectio every day with scripture is that over the years, the stories become very familiar.  So familiar in fact, that while I may read them and listen to them as they are read, I can often tune them out.  So as I settled into my ‘lectio chair’ early this morning, I had to consciously tell myself to “pay attention!”

I spent time with the 1st and 2nd reading from the Sunday liturgy and then turned my attention to the Gospel reading from Mark.  It’s the familiar story of the widow’s mite:

And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

I was struck with that last phrase, “her whole livelihood”.  As a vocation director, I often think it terms of discernment - it’s a job hazard.   I thought to myself that in a sense, 19 years ago I had given up my whole livelihood and tossed it into the ‘treasury’, a.k.a. religious life in my case.   My livelihood at that time was my job, a car, (luckily I didn’t own a house) and I moved away from dear friends and family.   I didn’t know when I entered that I would make it.  I would have to start over again if I didn’t.  I wasn’t a destitute widow as in our Gospel but I was stepping into a great big unknown.   In my more dramatic moments it was like stepping into the great abyss.

Entering religious life is a gamble.  I have gambled with my life instead of playing the ponies or heading to the nearest Riverboat Casino.  (which for us is 45 miles away on the Missouri River near St. Joseph, not that I’ve ever stopped, but I have passed the sign!)  Who knows what I may have done, the places I would have traveled to or who I may have married had I not followed those whisperings I heard in my heart from God.  

I have put my whole life down on the bet that God is worth my walking this monastic journey.  A whole lot of people would say that wasn’t a very good wager.  I suppose I won’t know for sure until I’m dead, but I’d rather put my trust in God than in anyone else...especially in politicians!

So if you are discerning religious life, a question I have for you is:  are you willing to hand over your whole livelihood and put it in the 'treasury'.  Are you willing to gamble and bet on God?  He is PROBABLY holding a Royal Flush in his hand so he WILL win in the end!