I always cherish with great nostalgia the six months sabbatical I spent at St Joseph’s Abbey at Spencer, Massachusetts in 2002. The monastery was built by the monks themselves back in 1952, the year I was born – maybe that’s why I have a special affinity with that place. Among the various statues that one can see along the cloisters and corridors of the huge monastery, there were two images of Mary. The first one is a very serene image of Mary with the child Jesus on her knees, a wooden statue placed in a canopy also made of varnished wood. It was placed in a corridor where my room was situated and so I saw it several times a day. And so like all the monks I used to stop in front of it and say a Hail Mary.
The other image is of ‘Mary clothed with the Sun,’ a banner made from sheep’s wool which hung in the infirmary chapel. The sheep were from the monastery itself, always led by a llama. I used to spend my early hours after Vigils in this chapel, usually between 4 and 5 AM, praying while looking at this peaceful banner, comforted by Mary.
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