2022 Summer Reading Recommendations:
Sister Mary Baruch: Compline by Father Jacob Restrick, O.P.
God exacts his plan for our redemption and salvation through our everyday experiences, both the ordinary and extraordinary. His marvelous plan for each of us is unique, tailored to every person individually, from the child learning to ride a bicycle to the aged nun enclosed behind the walls of a monastery striving to achieve deep, contemplative prayer. “Oy, such a life we should have?”
Those are the oft-repeated words of the witty Sister Mary Baruch, a fictional character created by the Province of Saint Joseph’s own Fr. Jacob Restrick. Sister Mary Baruch resides in the monastery of Our Lady, Queen of Hope in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Now in its fourth volume, the Sister Mary Baruch series chronicles the life of cloistered Dominican nun and Jewish convert, Rebecca Feinstein, along with her family, friends, and fellow Dominican nuns pursuing their eternal reward in the cloister of the monastery. Volume IV covers the years 2005 to 2007.
The fourth volume of Fr. Restrick’s series takes on a markedly different tone from its predecessors, relating Sister’s story through short journal entries rather than a narrative. Whereas earlier volumes tell of her day-to-day activities as they unfold one after another, this alternate way of telling Sister Mary Baruch’s story enables Fr. Restrick to share, through his protagonist, profound spiritual insights from his many years as a chaplain to contemplative nuns. He tackles perennial topics like man’s hylomorphic nature, the problem of evil, and especially spiritual warfare, which, along with the sisters’ perseverance and faithfulness, plays an important role in this volume.
Throughout Sister’s tale, her humanity shines through. Yes, she is very different from most of her readers. She is a cloistered nun, we are not. She is a Jewish convert to the faith; many of us are cradle Catholics. And yet, she is so relatable. For example, she struggles with her family relationships. She also frequently succumbs to the same jealousy, detraction, and hardheadedness that anyone who lives in a community or family might. She explains to her friend, Rhonda, “We’re not meringue, but we’re not devil’s food cake either.” Behind the veil, Sister Mary Baruch is a faithful but flawed woman striving for holiness like everybody else.
Why does Sister bother with the constant struggle in prayer or the troublesome sisters whom she has vowed to live with for the rest of her life? Sister Mary Baruch makes this sacrifice “to give ‘it’ all up” for God. She shows how a broken woman can give up the world in pursuit of God through her own very special vocation. How we can give up everything for God in our own vocations is a worthy meditation for any serious Christian.
In a life marked by separation, it is striking that the way she interacts with those outside the cloister greatly influences her life inside the cloister. It is a reminder that the cloistered nun is not completely immune to the world beyond the grille. Sister is greatly impacted by September 11 (which took her mother and brother’s lives), her relationships with her family members, the postulants and novices that cycle through the monastery, attending to the monastery’s correspondence, and on and on. One can see how this could produce spiritual discord, but properly guided by her spiritual director and lifelong friend, Fr. Ezra, as well as her trusted sisters, these events become fonts of grace.
Ultimately her whole life, warts and all, finds meaning only in Jesus Christ. Anima Christi sanctifica me. Corpus Christi salva me. During the night watch, Sister Mary Baruch reflects on this simple prayer: “The Divine Word had/has a body . . . alive at this very moment. And He has given us His body and blood, soul, and Divinity.” Sister Mary Baruch is an invitation to let Christ nourish you so that, amid the tumults of life, we might recall that God is using every moment according to his plan. By remaining open to the will of God, we too can become closer to him in this life and attain intimate union with him in the next.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
