Journey - Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate ...

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Journey
Fall 2012
Enter with Courage into the Dance:
Celeste Speaks to Her 21 st Century Sisters
by Terrence Moran, CSsR
I
am Julia Crostarosa, known
in religion as Sister Maria
Celeste. I am so happy to be
among you. Even though some of
you may not even know my name,
I had a profound influence on
your life. My spiritual intuitions
about living the life of the Gospel
were what compelled Don
Alfonso de Liguori to found the
Redemptorists. I loved him and
he was a saint, but he was also,
if I may say, overly cautious—
and without a push from me,
who knows what would have
happened? And so what I called
“Gospel seeds” were planted in
the heart of Alphonsus; they took
root in different soil in the heart
of Father Louis Florent Gillet;
watered by the River Raisin, they
flowered in the heart of Mother
Theresa Maxis—and here you are
today!
Do you know the famous
Italian song O Sole Mio? This
song was written many years after
my death, but it communicates so
well the environment of my native
city, Naples, and the temperament
of its people. Under the bright
Southern Italian sun I was born
and grew up. I was born in the
same year as Alphonsus,1696,
but his family was—how do you
people say?—dysfunctional,
compared to my warm
and loving family. All
my life the sun would
be a favorite image
of God’s love for me.
Listen to what I wrote in
my Autobiography: One
day the Lord called her
by an interior voice, and
said to her:
“Look at the material
sun, how it illumines
the plants of the earth,
warms them and makes
them grow, so that they
may give back flowers
and fruits, and it makes
the whole world happy
with its brightness. So
whenever you look at
this material sun, you
will remember
everything I have told you, and
this shall be your continual
prayer.”
At the age of 21, with my two
sisters, Ursula and Giovanna,
I entered a Carmelite Convent
which soon closed because of
conflicts with a noblewoman
benefactor. My sisters and I
ended up in a convent in Scala,
with a breathtaking view of the
Amalfi coast. From my youth
I had enjoyed what I called my
“secret companionship” with
Jesus, which became more and
more intense. I became convinced
that God wished to use me for
the foundation of a new religious
institute in the Church, an institute
that would take its inspiration
from the Gospels, and one in
which the members would be a
“viva memoria,” a living memory
of the life of Jesus. Under the
inspiration of the Spirit, I wrote
for the institute a rule which has
nine chapters for the nine months
a child spends in its mother womb,
for are we not all children in the
womb of our Mother God? Do
you think I was bold to put these
words on the lips of God?
God says, I am your Mother. You
are the little child, who in the
womb of its mother lives more
by her life than by its own. I am
your Mother. I engendered you in
my womb, and I sustain you in the
womb of my eternal love.
The habit of the new institute
was brilliant red, the color of
the earthen clay from which we
are made, the color of blood by
which we were redeemed, the
color of the fire of the Spirit which
empowers us, the color of the
rising and setting of the sun, my
dear image for God.
Father Thomas Falcoia,
the spiritual director of our
monastery, called in a priest with
a great reputation for holiness,
Father Alphonsus Liguori, to
examine me and my visions.
To Father Falcoia’s surprise,
Father Alphonsus recognized
the true spirit of God in me and
recommended that the monastery
begin living under my rule. And
in 1731 the monastery of Scala
became the first house of the
Order of the Most Holy Redeemer.
But the God of surprises was
not finished. I was inspired to
suggest to Father Alphonsus
that God also wanted the Order
to include missionary men who
would preach the abundance
of God’s love to those most in
need of God’s Mercy. When
I suggested this to Father
Alphonsus, people outside said
they could hear his yelling in the
streets! But finally the heart of
Alphonsus saw in my visions the
fulfillment of his own dreams.
And so, on November 9, 1732, the
Congregation of the Most Holy
Redeemer, the Redemptorists, was
founded in Scala.
These exciting days of new
beginnings were soon to be
followed by a dark night of the
soul. Father Falcoia had by now
become a bishop and was jealous
of my influence over the nuns, and
he wanted to change our Rule to
something more according to his
spirituality. He demanded that
I take a vow of absolute blind
obedience to him for life and he
had me locked in the convent attic
until I would agree. This is not
the way of freedom I had learned
from God’s spirit. So I escaped
with my two sisters to the town
of Foggia where we established
a monastery where we could live
our original rule. Alphonsus was
pained by this rift between Falcoia
and me, but he always stayed a
faithful friend, visiting the convent
in Foggia and sending the man
you know as St. Gerard Majella
to be our spiritual friend and
guide. Conflicts between women
religious and bishops! That’s
a story that women religious
know well. Be sure that in your
current experience of a Vatican
investigation, I am with you in
prayer and solidarity.
On September 14, 1755, I was
called home to God. I asked that
the Passion of John be read at
my death bed—as I had wished
my life to be a living memory of
Jesus, so I wished my death to be.
Because of my separation
from the officially approved
Redemptoristines, my name
became a distant memory for my
sisters and my true spirituality and
my writings were unknown even
by those who wore my red habit.
The Redemptorists had no idea of
my role in their foundation. My
friend Alphonsus became a saint
and a doctor of the church—and I
became an embarrassment and a
faint memory.
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