Nunc Coepi: Now I Begin
Thank you if you have already responded to our Winter Christmas Appeal! Know that it was sent to you in the midst of Erie Blizzard ’24 the week after Thanksgiving. Your generous response has certainly warmed our hearts in spite of the ongoing lake effect snow that is keeping us blanketed in white. If you haven’t had a chance to respond and would like to consider a year-end gift, please continue reading.
Every year at the Vigil of Christmas liturgy we hear Jesus’ genealogy from Matthew’s gospel. It starts with “Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.” The reading continues through forty-two generations to the birth of Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph.
That’s a lot of history, a lot of wisdom passed down, a lot of mistakes made, and lessons learned. And yet each year with our celebration of Jesus’ birth, we begin again.
A story in the recent issue of our magazine, The Mount, was titled, “Nunc Coepi: Now I Begin.” It was written by a young woman who spent a year living in the monastery before resettling in Erie. She shares her experience of an 850-mile solo bike trip last summer. She writes, “Every day, every mile, every rotation of the pedals, each breath was a chance to recommit to the world I want to build. With the turning of my pedals over those many miles, I hoped and prayed that we can all experience and build that world. ‘Now I begin’ is the invitation we can each take to renew our lives—if not on a solo bike-packing adventure, then with each new day, and with each rotation of the pedals past what you thought you could do.”
Christmas is the celebration of “Now I begin.” The genealogy we listen to on Christmas Eve reminds us that we, too, come from a long line of ancestors, each generation given the chance to begin again.
Christmas in the monastery chapel.
“Each breath is a chance to recommit to the world we want to build,” to paraphrase our young cyclist. We go on each day in hope because we know that Jesus came into this world to show us the way to a better world by loving those who aren’t like us, by giving to those who have less than we do, by standing up for what is right even when it hurts.
Even more, Jesus came into the world as a sign of God’s love for us. In the verses that follow the genealogy we read, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”
No matter how dark the day, how cold the winter, how long the hardship, we know that God is with us, which means we can say, “now I begin.”
And this is the promise the Benedictine Sisters of Erie make to you, our friends and benefactors. Each day we begin again. We connect in new ways, we respond in our ministries in new ways, we welcome you to our monastery in new ways, we invite people to walk with us in new ways. Now we begin.
We count on you to begin with us. In fact, it is only with your help that we can say, “now we begin.” We are grateful.
Prioress Sister Stephanie Schmidt, left, and the sisters witness the commitment of Laurie Smith as she begins her six months of living Benedictine life at the monastery through the Benedicta Riepp monastic experience program.
Bethany Jaeger of KEB, at podium, leads sisters and oblates through conversation about living Benedictine values into the future.
Sister Linda Romey introduces the premiere of Where Hope Is: Stories of Benedictine Influence to a packed house at the Hirt Auditorium. The play was the culmination of more than sixty interviews with St. Benedict Academy alum and others and it highlighted the tradition on which we continue to build Benedictine life today.
We welcomed about 300 guests to view the total solar eclipse with us earlier this year at Glinodo. It was a powerful reminder that “Now I Begin” is nature’s way.
