Our Lady of the Cenacle
Walker, Helen
70 THE COMMONWEAL May 26, 1926 OUR LADY OF THE...
...Having as yet But before the end of the nineteenth century there demonstrated little spiritual vitality, they deemed her was no order in America especially dedicated to the incapable of it for many generations, and so it was work of giving retreats to laywomen...
...Yearly, the number of Catholic women in America It was in 1892 that the first pioneers of the Cenacle seeking this spiritual solace is increasing so rapidly came to America...
...in fashion, solitude...
...She welIts purpose was the providing of laywomen's retreats comed the sisters of the Cenacle who had come to this and the teaching of Christian Doctrine...
...The inearly stages of her distinguished career with all the scription reads : "It blesseth him that gives and him qualities of gentleness and aloofness, and whose acting, that takes...
...Three courageous women, surely, that the Cenacle must, and is, making preparations May 26, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 71 to extend its scope and to train more novices to enter semi-contemplative nuns...
...It was a curious sensation to walk over tation in the chapel is made, based on a reading of one this spot which had been covered, since the memory of of the exercises of Saint Ignatius...
...It is this assurance that every retreatant, like all fine art, was ever of the spirit, was moved seeking and finding appeasement for that hunger of to give her beautiful country estate to this order of the soul at Ronkonkoma, carries away with her...
...contact with that work...
...order gives private retreats to those who wish to per- Miss Adams built her house above the shores of a form the exercises alone, under the guidance of one of charming little lake, and the new novitiate, already the sisters...
...In the general retreats, this program is supplemented It would not be fitting to close an article on the • four sermons given in the chapel throughout the Cenacle without mentioning one of its greatest prides day by the visiting priest, and based on the aspects of -the fact that the present Holy Father was, for the meditations...
...And now, what was once Miss Boston...
...and here lose themselves in leafy cloisters...
...women prepar- great oaks bend in reverent contemplation...
...At half past ten, the second medi- undergrowth...
...ing for motherhood...
...country, Cenacle convents in New York (at 140 Street They have each sought and cherished in their own and Riverside Drive) ; in Newport, Rhode Island...
...similar ceremonies...
...America was a land very different from those the order of Our Lady of the Cenacle was founded...
...that pessimism and discouragement greeted the venture In 1826, in La Louvesc, France, Mother Marie to these shores of those three pioneers of the European Victoire Therese Couderc, under the guidance of Cenacle...
...Snowy occupies from one-half to three-quarters of an hour...
...of the spirit and to minister to its needs...
...The purpose of race-perpetua- But America, up to that time, had been so occupied tion has taught care of the body through knowledge wresting a nation from a vast wilderness, and meeting of the body-but the more important perpetuation the huge economic needs of that new nation by netof the soul through knowledge of the soul, has not works of railroads, factories, and water-ways, that been as solicitously studied...
...The soul...
...A visit to the chapel and more spiritual reading, seems the less improbable, the closer one comes in if desired, precedes the time of retiring at nine-thirty...
...One chances upon will come-indeed, have come already in large num- rustic shrines on the trees sheltering statues of Our bers-women seeking to appease that hunger of the Lady where nature itself seems to be at prayer...
...After breakfast at eight, the first medi- gentle banks...
...house planned by her as shelter from the active world It is at the latter place that a new novitiate is being into which her career thrust her, bespeaks the high built which will accommodate one hundred novices, and values of solitude and peace-a fitting place of retreat...
...hour...
...but these have usually occurred not order, sees the dream of its foundress gloriously ful- more than twice a year...
...The Cenacle, country to help her in that ministry-to give her or Upper Room, where Christ gathered the Twelve daughters sanctuaries of spiritual inspiration-places about Him for the Last Supper, and where, after the of retreat from the material confusion of her big cities, Ascension, Mary and the Disciples awaited the coming where, indeed, it is difficult to hear the voice of the of the Holy Ghost, seemed most appropriately to lend soul above the deafening clangor and din of the necessiits name to Mother Couderc's order-for that first ties of daily social and business life...
...This...
...Cenacle of almost lgoo years ago, had indeed been a There have been, it is true, retreats given for Cathophace of withdrawal and spiritual preparation...
...There I picked up a glistening Indian tation is made, after which the retreatant is free for arrowhead, carved from a crystal-like stone that was more reading...
...One of the nuns at Ronkonthe third meditation takes place at half-4past two, koma is assured that the little lake disappeared at a followed by the fourth at four o'clock...
...The Cenacle offers them at filled, for its convents now offer havens of spiritual all times during the year, and of differing periods to peace to the women of France, Italy, Switzerland, suit the needs of differing circumstances-retreats of Holland, and England-and what is yet more remark- thirty days, retreats of one week, retreats of three able, America...
...At breakfast and luncheon one of many years before his Pontificate, chaplain to the the nuns reads aloud from some book of spiritual Cenacle of Milan...
...At five, Bene- Divine command, and that its bed has been laid bare diction is sung in the chapel, and six is the supper- to offer treasure to the Cenacle for its work...
...They did not realize that America had enedictines, the Passionists, and others had brought to become "industrialized," "self-sufficient," "material" early to this country their various systems of retreat -all the things aesthetic Europe condemned her for as established since the foundation of their orders...
...suggestive of that hill trod by Christ, and over them women facing a grief or bereavement...
...else she would have perished...
...stones, washed perhaps for generations by that water, It can be followed by a stroll through the grounds or lie about, and there are patches of white sand and...
...And from the old world, the Jesuits, the in the world...
...America Nevertheless, at the end of the nineteenth century, was still learning how to care for the body, and the which marked a date significant in the spiritual history older nations of Europe looked askance at what they of American womanhood, there had long existed in deemed her over-solicitude-not considering that this parts of the old world, fostered for generations in country, so recently born, had been given by God a Catholic tradition, a recognition of this soul-hunger physical formation that stretched 3,000 miles across and an established method of satisfying it-the method from ocean to ocean, out-measuring that of any nation of retreats...
...In all of these the centenary of the days, week-end retreats of two days, and even retreats order has been celebrated with appropriate ceremonies...
...Though not of the same this invaluable work...
...This meditation man in those parts, with clear, blue water...
...of one day...
...and general retreats which arc conducted well begun, was also planned to overlook it...
...The Cenacle is, in fact, a house of perThe Cenacle in New York observed it with a solemn petual retreat, offering women of the world that peace triduum which began on Ascension Thursday and was of retirement and the concurrent happiness that comes attended by hundreds, and the Chicago Cenacle held with the vision of the inner life...
...There, will house the community and the novices, will leave little paths thread their way off the main roads and the present convent free for the retreatants...
...These, truly, were the body's necessity for food-yet as little children countries possessed of sufficient spiritual history to will feel physical hunger, nor know what they need, have acquired a vivid appreciation of the necessity of adults will suffer from this soul-hunger and not recog- the soul for withdrawal...
...70 THE COMMONWEAL May 26, 1926 OUR LADY OF THE CENACLE By HELEN WALKER I T WAS in recognition of that spiritual truth that relying solely upon the guidance of the Spirit, for their a certain hunger of the soul can only be satisfied mission was one that reason could have well discourby a withdrawal apart to pray and meditate, that aged...
...in Chicago...
...At present there are, in this faith, she and they share a certain spiritual kinship...
...outlook, and for the duration of both private and . One who has been favored with making a retreat general retreats, silence is observed by the retreatants...
...old-world countries which had, for centuries, breathed The soul's necessity for support is as universal as is the very air of Catholic tradition...
...in industrial, commercial, and material effort-here The Cenacle, in its method of giving retreats, fol- in a corner of what not so long ago was condemned as lows closely that originated by Saint Ignatius...
...But lo, • a visiting priest, and which are sometimes attended last winter, the little lake, for reasons best known to • as many as sixty women...
...The spiritually bereft America...
...at this woodland sanctuary of Ronkonkoma, on passWhen one has seen the Cenade at Lake Ronkonko- ing, at departure, through the main hall, is struck with ma, one understands even yet more clearly why Maude the double significance of the simple bronze tablet to Adams, that personality so definitely marked from the Miss Adams placed over the great fireplace...
...The very Miss Maude Adams...
...Luncheon is served at one o'clock, and streaked with crimson...
...and at Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Adams's room, is the exquisite little chapel where daily Island, on the 30o acre estate given to the order by Mass is celebrated and Benediction given...
...Nous verrons...
...additional reading...
...prepare them for that spiritual assistance which Amer- That silence of undisturbed nature, which is yet not ican Catholic women are more and more steadily look- a silence, since it is broken by the whispering of great ing to the Cenacle to give...
...nise it nor its remedy...
...Haven for those who possess There is an old-world sanctity about it all-here, much, and those who possess little, will be here in scarcely a two hours' ride from that greatest city of equal measure-provided for by subscriptions toward the world, New York, a mart that typifies the utmost the building fund from the Cenacle's friends...
...In the former, the day itself, betook its nineteen feet of water elsewhere, is begun with attendance at Mass, which is said at leaving in its place only a rounded basin sloped by seven o'clock...
...The new building, which trees and the songs of wild birds, surrounds it...
...she had had little leisure to study her soul...
...Father Jean Pierre Etienne Terme, a priest whose life Nevertheless, America, having won the right to exwas one of devoted zeal in the service of the Church, ist, found it time-more than time-to turn to things had founded the order of Our Lady of the Cenacle...
...women exhausted from the demands of business Stations of the Cross go winding up a hill beautifully and social life...
...lic laywomen at many convents since their foundation This year, the centenary of the inauguration of the in this country...
...women contemplating marriage...
Vol. 4 • May 1926 • No. 3
