Sister Regina is a fictitious Handmaid who appears almost every week on this site, on our Facebook page, and in our Twitter feed. She gives those outside the cloister an idea of what life within the monastery can be like. Click any cartoon to see a larger image.
Sister Regina the cartoon is not published during the seasons of Advent, the Christmas Octave, Lent, or the Easter Octave to not only allow the Handmaids to more deeply enter into those times of more intense prayer, but also to encourage others to do so as well.
Vocations News: Coping with COVID-19 and Come and Sees Yes, 2020 has been quite a year. We managed to get in a couple visits with inquiring women before COVID became a byword and seeming harbinger of all that could go wrong with the year 2020. By lockdown in March it was hoped a few weeks would be sufficient to dispel the plague of 2020. Now, as fall approaches with lifts and more lock downs and Advent promises to arrive quickly, many wouldn’t be blamed for thinking things will never get back to ‘normal’. Even the phrase ‘new normal’ really can’t fit this strange culture of permanent distancing and sanitization. And yet...who really defines normal? Take the normal process of discerning a vocation to the religious life. Correspondence, a building relationship, an in person visit or visits (Come and See) to experience a little bit of the life, further education and learning, entrance....etc. All the predictable steps that were standard now have a virus template to adapt to. And with our limited capacity to communicate via the internet in our neck of the woods, video meetings over a computer wouldn’t be just another strange hurdle to learn, they would be cost prohibitive given our data caps. You would think with this new COVID-19 ’normal’ that, between social distancing and communications obstacles, we would have to forego welcoming inquirers, candidates, and aspirants. But who really defines normal? God. He can work around EVERYTHING. So this fall and God willing, into the new year as well, we’ve scheduled women for Come and See experiences, suitably adapted to the precautions of coronavirus. We plan on sharing lots of information and communication in both directions....just not any germs or viruses! It demands creativity, flexibility, and ingenuity. Perhaps we can add the live video stuff someday but for now, God’s providing! #sisterreginacomicstrip...
As Fall approaches people could be forgiven for looking forward to the end of 2020. Or even for anticipating 2021 a little gun shy, leery of what the next disaster might be. There has been no lack of material leaving the year 2020 not only historic but the subject of many jokes as well.
It is well to remind ourselves that the acronym A.D. is more than one system of marking time among others equally useful. It is not simply some utilitarian reflection of the use of a certain calendar. Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, shortened to “A.D.”, was usually placed before the year number to ensure the year was in reference to Jesus. Not the other way around.
Our God is outside time. He is it’s Creator and master. This mysterious thing we call time and place numbers on is neither something we manage nor control. It is not ours except in how we choose to use it. It is a gift. We can ask why A.D. 2020 has been so difficult but it might be better to thank God that we have made it to 2020 at all. This time given to us is a gift. And mercy.
This month we mark Gunther’s (a.k.a. Shadow) first anniversary of arrival. As we don’t know his birthday, we’ll consider this day the one to celebrate. The shy Russian Blue has made himself part of our religious family transitioning from his earlier life as a barn cat mouser to something of a monastic therapy cat with mousing on the side and has endeared himself to all.
We are grateful to God for gifting us with such an extraordinarily polite and gentlemanly cat. And to all the dear souls who have made it possible for us to have him at the monastery as well as those generous cat-lovers eyeing the wish lists for feline related needs.
Do you remember singing, “All God’s Creatures Got A Place In The Choir?” Yes, everything and every little thing was indeed made by God for a purpose even when we can’t know precisely why that is. In Heaven, adoring God in the Beatific vision, it’s unlikely that we will feel the need to ask, “Lord, why did you create the lady bugs that bite and stink and aren’t so lady like?” But we can practice now being grateful for them. After all, they do eat aphids and are fairly cute.
Being grateful even for things we can’t understand, or even like, is wonderful preparation. Preparation for what? Growing in holiness. Joyful gratitude is the hallmark of the Saints. So next time you want to complain about those little bugs, thank God for them instead.
ANOTHER HELPER TO SANCTIFY THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA
On Saturday October 10th the Italian teen Carlo Acutis will be beatified. Since one of his great apostolates, even as a pre-teen, was using the internet to evangelize and catechize the Church’s teachings on the Eucharist, he will be a wonderful patron for social media. His tomb depicts many scenes from his amazing, but short, life including his use of computers, the internet, and social media. In one small panel on his tomb you can even find small icons representing the most common social media platforms.
This tiny detail in the tomb of a holy youth now being held up to the world as an example of sanctity assures us that the seeming acceptance of the lack of civility in many online interactions does not have to be. It should hit us right between the eyes that Blessed Carlo maintained charity and enthusiasm as a teenager in the modern world. That is as wonderful as it is hopeful. May we all follow his lead. Because it was his wish to lead souls to Heaven.
Quotes of Blessed Carlo Acutis: “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan. I’m happy to die because I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn’t have pleased God.”
“The Infinite is our homeland. We have always been expected in Heaven.” #sisterreginacomicstrip...
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Website note: September 2020 – We switched to posting Sister Regina’s Comic Strips on Instagram, but you can still enjoy her past comics in the archive below.
Humor helps. A cartoon from the not so distant past.
