Midnight Mass

Family dinners

Presents, Stables, Shepherds,

and Angels.

Did we forget anything?

Ah, yes. We forgot the baby Jesus. We forgot, “the reason for the season.”

For the last year and a half, I have been working on the Stations of the Cross at Benet Hill; a wood carving and renovation exercise. Some sisters and I, carved 14 Stations of the Cross from wood and nailed them on trees leading to the community cemetery. This created a “prayer Path” for the stations.

The station withstood weather changes, snow, rain, hot sun, woodpeckers, bugs and  lighting. For forty years they have led contemplative souls from death to life on this prayer walk. Last summer, I took the stations down and cleaned them up, renovated the parts which had been eaten away by the birds, polished them up and rehung them on the trees.

This reminded me of what Christmas is all about-especially these past three weeks, when I returned to my roots at Mount St. Scholastica Monastery, in Atchison, KS for a retreat. That is where I spent lots of time carving the 15th Station of the Cross; The Resurrection of Jesus. Christmas is about the Resurrection.

Thank you, Sisters at the Mount, for providing me the contemplative time to recall and share the true meaning of Christmas. God bless us everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Evangeline Salazar, OSB