When it came time for his only daughter’s wedding, Dr. John Farens told her, “Even though I can’t walk you down the aisle physically, I will walk you down the aisle spiritually.”
And he did—as she went to meet her groom, Jesus.
Sister Maria Antonia of the Holy Wounds of Jesus became a Bride of Christ on the Solemnity of All Saints, when she professed her first vows. Three years ago, she left home and the world she knew for a contemplative life at the Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Roswell, N.M.
The phrase “Bride of Christ” is more than a whimsical medieval metaphor to express the commitment of women who give their lives in service and prayer to Jesus. Yes, it’s much more than a metaphor. It’s a reality.
At first, Donna Farens couldn’t understand why her daughter Brianna, who was so popular, so talented and so beautiful in every way, would turn her back on a career in medicine and lock herself away from the world.
Instead, this young woman— who had a smile that could light up a room and was known for her contagious laughter and tender hugs, who graduated from St. Joseph High School and Providence College, who traveled to Latin America to work in mountain villages and to Denver to help the homeless—chose a cloistered contemplative life in the tradition of St. Clare of Assisi.
Many people wondered “why” when Brianna entered the monastery. They asked the same question of St. Clare more than 800 years ago.
The religious order offers the best answer: “Why did Assisi’s loveliest debutante of 1212 want to lock herself up in a cloister? Why did laughing, singing, sought-after Clare want to live in silence and prayer? Why did a girl, whose home was a castle, desire to be poor, to live by the work of her hands and the alms of the faithful? What the world calls ‘everything,’ Clare assuredly had. It was not enough. Her heart was too great to be filled with less than the whole. She simply plunged herself into the Heart of God. There she could fulfill her destiny.”
They are called Poor Clares because in the Franciscan tradition they live by their work and from alms, while spending hours each day before the Blessed Sacrament, praying for the rest of us.
Donna Farens said, “Brianna was very much looking forward to becoming a Bride of Christ and living her life for him.” And Sister Maria Antonia told her parents, “The longer I am here, the more I’m convinced this is my true calling.”
During the ceremony, she professed vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and enclosure and received a black veil and knotted cord. The bishop said, “Receive this veil, which proclaims that you belong entirely to Christ the Lord in the service of the Church. In imitation of your mother, St. Clare, may you be an image of the Church: a spouse wholly given in humility of heart to Christ, who is loved above all others.”
And she responded: “Christ has set a mark upon my face, that I should admit no other lover but him.”
As the abbess placed a wreath of flowers on her, the sisters sang in Latin: “Come, spouse of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord has prepared for you from eternity.”
Looking at the photos, you realize this is a true marriage. There’s joy and there’s love and there’s commitment.
And what of the groom? For a moment, think of Jesus, not in his divinity but in his humanity— Jesus, who must look at this sorry world with a sad heart, and who must be grieved by the evil, the anger and the indifference. Where can Jesus turn for comfort? No wonder he has called this bride to him, with her devotion, her laughter and her smile.
Jesus deserves that smile to remind him of those who truly love him for who he is and not for what he can give. May that smile offer him comfort in his suffering, may it offer him consolation to know he’s found a bride who cares more about him than herself.
And what of Dr. John Farens, the father of the bride? As they say, he didn’t lose a daughter, he gained a son, who just happens to be the King of the Universe. (To see a video of Sister Antonia’s profession, made by her friend Jillian Sharp, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4vDhuC70k.)
