A lot of activity going on in the monastery these days with many young helpers on the horizon. Our prayer remains the anchor which keeps all in balance so there in stability in our lives. This month I would like to dedicate to some amazing women religious who made a difference in their life time, which while perhaps hidden, ripples on today.
One of our Oblates, who was born in England, loves to visit the Benedictine Abbey of St Cecilia’s at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Founded in 1882, it belongs to the Solesmes Congregation, a family of monasteries in the spiritual tradition of Dom Prosper Guéranger, noted for his work with the Gregorian Chant. The nuns live the traditional monastic life of prayer, work and study according to the Rule of St Benedict.
I recently came across an interesting nun, who though American, joined this Abbey at the start of a promising career in academia.
SISTER MARY DAVID TOTAH was born March 26,1957 in Philadelphia to Catholic Arab parents from Ramallah,
She studied English literature at Loyola University in New Orleans and obtained an M.A. at the University of Virginia, and in 1980 she became one of the first women to study at Christ Church, Oxford, where she obtained a D.Phil. in 1985 from University of Oxford. Her thesis title being "Consciousness versus authority: a study of the critical debate between the Bloomsbury Group and the Men of 1914, 1910-1930." The term "Men of 1914" was used by Wyndham Lewis to refer to himself, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce.
She began an academic career with a tenure-track appointment in the English Department at the College of William & Mary in
After having spent some time in retreat at the Benedictine St Cecilia's Abbey , she decided to leave William and Mary and join the enclosed community there. “I was drawn to it like a magnet.” Flying into Heathrow in May 1985 she was asked at passport control: “How long do you plan to remain in
Sister Mary David was novice mistress for 22 years and the prioress for eight years. She was a loving and perceptive mistress of novices. She encouraged and sometimes challenged the young coping with doubt and darkness and difficult personal relationships. With great compassion, she shared with them a joy that was deeper than the problems they encountered. She was down to earth but with a range and clarity and breadth of reference to the great monastic writers and to Scripture.
She had the idea of starting a website to promote Benedictine ideals. “It is a way of life that is very ancient, but is made new with each generation.”
Sister Mary David died on 28 August 2017 after suffering from bowel cancer for five years.The third part of the book, "The Joy of God", tells of her five-year battle with cancer as told by the abbey’s infirmarian, who relates how sister followed the path she taught right to the end. “It’s hard. . . but it’s good. . .because it means I can be strong with His strength and not my own.”
(Photo: St. Cecilia Abbey nuns at prayer)