Recently I brought my students on a field trip to the Visitation Monastery in Toledo. It is not only a powerful experience for them but for myself as well. The questions asked revealed new teachings and insights to carry into the world...
On Prayer and Chocolate
The story of Mobile’s Visitation Monastery is one of devotion, resilience, and sweet, sweet confection. The Visitation Monastery in Mobile is one of 10 Visitation monasteries in the US. The Oblates are very connected to the Sisters of the Visitation as they were founded by Saints Francis and Jane de Chantal.
This story was published in Mobile Bay in 2021 before Sr. Theodosia passed away. Her great work lives in through her Visitation Sisters. Consider ordering some chocolate and read about this great ministry!
The bell on the front door tings, signaling my mid-afternoon arrival. I step shyly inside, joining a handful of people perusing the Visitation Shop, thoughtfully admiring artwork, christening gowns and home decor. A silver and pearl ring on display in the entryway catches my eye, momentarily distracting me of my original goal. I’ve come in search of a trifecta. Of candy, that is, specifically the milk chocolate, marshmallow and pecan treat known as Heavenly Hash.
I make a mental note to return to the ring, and I press on in search of Colleen Blackwell, the store manager. She meets me in the hall and affirms they have what I’ve come for. But as it turns out, I’ll be leaving with far more than just confection.
“A lot of people think they aren’t allowed to come back here,” Blackwell says of the store’s location, which is down a short gravel drive off Springhill Avenue, the entrance flanked by a gate and brick wall. “Or they think they have to be Catholic to come in,” says Joanie Zoghby, busy thumbing through old photographs. She looks up and smiles when I admit I had worried the same. Indeed, all denominations are welcome, and I settle in to listen to what the two women — who, combined, have 40 years’ experience at the shop — have to share about the monastery.
“There are a lot of hidden treasures over there,” Zoghby says, nodding her head to the right, as Blackwell leads me out into the spring air toward Sacred Heart Chapel, adjacent the store. Inside the silent sanctuary painted by sunlit stained glass, Blackwell points out a crucifix on the wall, whispering it’s the one Dr. Samuel Mordecai was able to save during the 1854 fire that destroyed the original chapel. From our side of the delicate mesh screen separating the cloistered nuns’ domain from the outside world, we see Sister Christiana enter the chapel, clothed in the traditional black habit. Unaware of us, she begins praying the Stations of the Cross.
Originally founded in 1833 as the Visitation Convent and Academy, the Visitation Monastery is home to about 20 Sisters, all devoted to a simple, contemplative life of prayer. Their daily schedule includes times for reflection, corporate and individual prayer, and work, such as laundry, gardening, caring for the infirm and cooking. Questions roll through my mind, such as, “Where is the candy made?” Instead, I ask how the monastery is financially sustained. Simply put, support is trifold: community donations, year-round retreats and gift shop proceeds.
Not unlike the rest of the world, the Visitation struggled in 2020, not only with the pandemic canceling retreats and closing the shop temporarily, but also with back-to-back hurricanes wiping out electricity. “I had to bring in generators to keep the Sisters’ refrigerated food from spoiling,” Blackwell says, now leading me into the retreat quarters.
In the peaceful solemnity of the parlor, my eyes lilt from one thing to another, finally landing on portraits of the McGill brothers, Felix and Arthur, two early benefactors.
On our stroll back to the shop, I ask about one nun in particular. Sister Theodosia, I’ve read, is the Polish octogenarian in charge of making Heavenly Hash, the candy many Mobilians call “addictive.” The Sister, along with the help of others, churns out about 3,000 pounds of the handmade delicacy per year. It’s grueling work involving industrial-sized mixers, heavy mixtures, and lots of cutting and weighing.
“Sister Theodosia weighs every box that leaves the kitchen,” Blackwell says of the half-pound and pound boxes they sell. “She’s confined to a wheelchair now, but she’s still very much involved in the three-day process.”
Around 1957, the Sisters began selling Heavenly Hash on a much smaller scale, but it wasn’t long before their chocolaty public relations entity exploded. Over 60 years later, and with mentions in Southern Living, Taste of the South and a Garden & Gun readers’ poll, demand is higher than ever.
“The nuns are aware of the candy’s popularity,” Blackwell explains, “but their focus is on prayer, not on production.” She goes on to say that making and giving candy is one way in which the Sisters say “thank you” to the community.
At this point, I begin to wonder if the “hidden treasures” Zoghby alluded to earlier are the religious relics found at every twist and turn or the nuns themselves.
Back in my car, I slip the new ring onto my finger before tearing into the plastic-wrapped white box encasing a half-pound of chocolate hash. “It is addictive,” I say to myself, reaching for a second piece, this time reflecting on the afternoon.
I think about the Sisters’ devotion to their calling. I think about the volunteers and staff I met — from office workers to groundskeepers — who keep the monastery running. And I think about Sister Theodosia, wheeling into the candy kitchen, meticulously packaging and metering box after box.
“I do it with a sense of love,” she once said of candy making during a Press-Register interview. And gratitude, of course. And for that, we are the thankful ones.
By Amanda Hartin
Originally published in April 2021, Mobile Bay
Republished for distribution with the permission of Mobile Bay
Feast of the Visitation
Repetition for Mastery
In an address to the early Oblates, on December 12, 1894, Oblate Founder Blessed Louis Brisson shared his dismay at the news that several seminarians from the Diocese of Troyes who had chosen to go to Paris for ordination spent more time organizing and celebrating their post-ordination dinner and visiting places of interest in the capital city than they did in properly preparing for and celebrating their ordination itself.
In light of that, Father Brisson then directed that once a year the Ritual for Ordination was to be read aloud in the refectory during the meal.
Author Samuel Rodenhizer says, “If you want to remember something permanently, you must engage in lots of repetition…If you want to become accomplished at a skill, then you must devote yourself to repeating the activity over and over until you master it…If you want to make an activity so familiar that it becomes a habit requiring little further thought - then commit yourself to the repetition that yields retention.”
Oblates and Visitation Nuns around the world rejoice on the day of their Profession of Vows by publicly, aloud, pronouncing them again on the Feast of the Presentation of Mary on November 21. The Oblates are also encouraged to renew their vows silently at Communion time on the first day of every month. Every Easter Sunday all of us are invited to renew our baptismal vows aloud after the homily.
As wonderful as the day of Profession of Vows or Ordination or Marriage is, the emotion of the moment can cover the importance of the event. My parents lived long enough to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary with a simple but loving public renewal of vows at Mass. After the Mass, my mother said to me how much she appreciated the renewal. She said, “You know the day your father and I were married I had so much going through my head I don’t even remember exactly what I said!”
While we draw up a final list of resolutions for the New Year you may want to check the dates and put on your new calendar the date of your Baptism, your First Holy Communion, your Wedding, Profession of Vows or Consecration anniversary and similar very special days in your life. And, on that day renew again for the year to come the commitment made through these very special events in your life. That way, regardless of the “external” celebrations, or lack thereof that may take place, the true nature of these special moments in your life may never be forgotten or misplaced.
Father David Whalen, OSFS
St. Pius X Parish
Toledo, OH
Live + Jesus
As the feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque approaches, our minds turn to our Sister who was entrusted with an important mission in the life of the Church: to let people in a world that had grown cold, know of the intense love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for all God’s people.
St. Margaret Mary’s life was scarred by multiple sufferings of body, mind, and heart, both in her early life and within the walls of the Visitation in Paray le Monial. After her father’s premature death, she and her mother suffered intense abuse from relatives with whom they were forced to live. A mysterious illness kept Margaret bedridden for four of her teenage years.
Upon entrance into the Visitation Order, in 1671, Margaret did not fit into the usual mold of a Visitation sister. Her motives in sharing the revelations of the Sacred Heart, which had been entrusted to her heart, were questioned by her superiors and sisters. They saw her conduct contrary to the simplicity of the Visitation. Yet these multiple sufferings were God’s way of preparing the heart of St. Margaret Mary to be the recipient of the love of His Sacred Heart. She was to be his emissary in letting a world that was detached from spiritual values know of the intense love of his Sacred Heart.
From the earliest years of the foundation of the Visitation Order, our sisters have placed the Sacred Heart at the center of our lives as followers of Jesus. Our Spiritual Directory encourages us, after receiving the Eucharist, to see our Lord as seated in the center of our hearts and to bring before him all our powers and senses, to envision his commands and to promise a faithful response to them. This prayer helps us to live in the presence of God, to accept as coming from His loving Heart the events of our day, and to strive always to live the little virtues of the Sacred Heart, especially gentleness and humility.
My favorite Scriptural passage is in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. (3: 14-21). I paraphrase it a bit.
“For this reason, I fall on my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its true name. I kneel before the Father so he may grant me, in accord with the riches of his glory, the grace to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in my inner self. Why? So that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that rooted and grounded in love, I may have the strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length, the height and depth of God’s love, and to know personally the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.” It is the love of Christ that will lead me to the very fullness of God and will help me learn anew each day how to live an ever-deeper life of faith.
What is the Sacred Heart of Jesus calling us to in light of today’s world – a world that is torn by division and turmoil on every level? Our best response is to prayerfully cast our minds and hearts into the Heart of Jesus and to pray earnestly that a quiet acceptance and living of the values of His Sacred Heart may begin to permeate areas of conflict. Prayer is our mightiest weapon.
Sister Mary Berchmans, VHM
Superior of the Georgetown Visitation Monastery
Washington, DC.
