Why-We-Give Wednesday

Enjoy this week of fun activities on our Facebook page leading up to our Virtual Bridegroom's Banquet this Sat. Nov. 7! Earlier today, for "Why-We-Give Wednesday," we read messages from three of our biggest benefactors on a live-streamed video. We also share them with you below. We are so grateful to these benefactors for their beautiful words, which will encourage us to persevere. And we are so grateful to all of our benefactors, and to those who cannot give in a material way but who pray with and for us.

The Virtual Bridegroom's Banquet is our online benefit event that includes live-streamed Vespers, the premier of our new video: "Bethany: Supporting Spiritual Fatherhood," and a chance for your donation to be doubled! Please visit the event page for more information.

#1

We support Christ the Bridegroom Monastery because we all need this community of faithful prayer to continue and grow. The world needs to see that not all nuns are stern and forbidding, or solemn and sorrowful. These brides of Christ are joyful, loving and full of fun. They make it clear that, like Christ, they love you with all your faults and failings. You know this for sure when they hug you. Their poustinias provide a refuge for people to be alone and encounter God. Their hospitality is unbounded. They have nothing but what they are given, but they take that gift, bless it, and multiply it for a starving world.

#2

There are very few places in this busy world where we can go find silence.  And even in those places of silence, fewer still are those that are specifically created to bring the silence of listening to the voice of God.  Christ the Bridegroom Monastery is one of those places.  I suspect that each person who has had the wonderful opportunity of spending time at the Monastery will have a story of meeting God in silence.  And finding that same peace in some way reflected in the nuns of Christ the Bridegroom Monastery.  My story is simply one of many. 

 I believe that God is working here, at the monastery, in ways that are distinct.  And powerful.  I believe that God has created this place of silence as a refuge from the world of distractions that we have created around us.  This monastery is not a “nice to have” – it is critically imperative for the sustainment of the Christianity that has been passed down to us by our Holy Fathers.  I believe that it was for this reason the Desert Fathers left the comforts of the cities to enter the desert.  To secure the Christianity that flourishes in quiet and sacrifice.  To experience God’s grace rather than just our personal comfort.

 It is a privilege for me to support Christ the Bridegroom Monastery.  I am thankful to God for the role that the nuns play in my life.  I am hopeful that we will have a long and Christ-filled relationship for many years to come!

#3

It is no coincidence that God has given us a beautiful gift to increase and enrich our spirituality, but one that is also dependent on us to sustain it.  Christ the Bridegroom Monastery has had an enormous impact on the spiritual development of many parishioners, priests, seminarians and religious, both in the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Byzantine Church, throughout the United States and Canada.  To sustain themselves they are totally dependent on the gracious financial contributions of those around them.

There is another reason we support the Monastery.  It is impossible not to fall in love with these nuns.  There is something about them, their pure hearts, their kindness, their joy, their selflessness, and their love for God and His people.  We can’t get them to say an unkind remark about anyone, even a politician, even after drinking a bit of scotch (and the Lord knows I’ve tried).  They see the goodness in people, that part of us that is made in the image and likeness of God.  They are patient with our failings and faults, like a mother with her child.

Finally, there is one more thing we should notice about this Monastery.  Haven’t you wondered how someone could pray for 5 or 6 hours a day or more.  Recently a missionary priest explained to me that prayer is a grace we receive from God.  We need to pray for this, and God will give us the grace to pray as we should.  Christ the Bridegroom Monastery is a powerful witness to that spirituality and the impact it can have on a world in desperate need of the graces extending from it.  Bishop Robert Barron in his Catholicism series, points out how Hur and Aaron supporting Moses’ arms as he prays over the battle between the Israelites and Amalekites, is a beautiful depiction of the Church.  Like Hur and Aaron, we laity play an essential part in God’s plan by supporting these nuns so they are able to pray for our salvation.