I remember most of the Sisters of Mercy who taught me in my Catholic Primary School in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, and later in Mount Lourdes Grammar School, high on a hill overlooking Lough Erne, in the same country town. Some I loved dearly. Others I just liked. Occasionally, as with Sr. Eucharia our Headmistress, I tried to avoid their apparently all-seeing eyes! All of them, I respected, and thought of them as holy women who were very special.
They always smelt of lavender soap, and they never, ever ran! If we were making a noise in the classroom, we knew when our teacher was coming because you could hear the soft rattle of her Rosary beads, even if you never heard her quiet footsteps!
It never occurred to me that they were ever young, or indeed that some of them were just a few years older than myself. I remember being shocked, but delighted, when one day during the school holidays I had reason to visit the school, and happened to be walking past the tennis courts. There I discovered Sr. Rita playing tennis with Sr. Clement. What a surprise to see the long skirts of their habits hitched up very decorously to just below their knees, and the two of them laughing and hitting the ball back and forward, unhindered by the formal rules of the game. I was about 14 years of age at the time. Now, looking back, I imagine that these two young Sisters were only about 22, but to me they were ageless - beyond the normal rules of aging.
Where are they all now? The convent is closed I am told. The schools continue to function as Catholic schools but with lay teachers. A couple of years ago, I returned to Ireland and had the opportunity to revisit my old haunts. It was during the summer holidays and the school was deserted. But everything had changed. The lovely gardens were now rough and untidy and the beautiful grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, that I used to pass daily on my way to and from school, was overgrown and unkempt. The little shrine to St Anthony in the Primary school, where every morning I used to spend a few minutes having a little chat to him was long gone, though the old statue was retained and placed out in the open in a corner of the building. I was so sad to see that everything which the Nuns had so carefully tended and loved had all decayed, and the Nuns themselves were now long forgotten. I could have wept!
But nothing can bring back the past, though it can survive in our hearts and memories. The reason all these images flooded back to me is because I was reminded by a friend that there used to be a lovely old pious Catholic tradition of making a Spiritual Bouquet as a gift for people one cared about. One promises to say a number of prayers or Rosaries, hear Masses, offer up one's Holy Communions, attend Benedictions etc. for the person, or for Our Lord or Our Lady on special Feast Days. I had long forgotten it. But the Nuns in Ireland once taught this beautiful tradition to generations of children, of whom I was one of the last to hear it. But I have decided that I am going to revive it, and I shall now make one as ad Lenten offering.
As Lent proceeds, as always, I very easily slip away from my initial enthusiastic promises to use the time to make some form of Reparation. I am deliberately using the language that those dear Nuns taught me, for as a child I had no problem in believing that we are Sinners, with totally undisciplined instincts. Anyone who doesn't believe that doesn't know themselves very well - and I am sorry to say that I have never had any reason to change my opinion about myself!
But what exactly does Reparation mean in this context for Catholics?
Christ's Sacrifice was perfectly accomplished when He said, "It is finished." He paid the price of our redemption. That much is a fact. But St. Paul said, "Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the Church...."
How odd! What does he mean?
St. Alphonsus explains it thus: "Can it be that Christ's passion alone was insufficient to save us? No. It left nothing more to be done; it was more than sufficient to save all men. However, for the merits of the Passion to be applied to us, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, we need to cooperate by patiently bearing the trials God sends us, so as to become like our head, Christ."
This is called 'reparation.' It is a theological doctrine of the Catholic Church. Reparation is the foundation of many confraternities and pious associations – to make reparation for our sins and for the sins of mankind.
That infinite merit of Christ's Passion and Sacrifice on Calvary enables us to add our daily prayers, labors, trials, and sufferings to those of our Lord. Thus, we become actually co-redeemers with Christ, sharing in His suffering. Isn't that wonderful!
But what exactly are we making reparation to God for? Well, to show that, even though we know that we have been forgiven them, we are truly sorry for our own offences against Him (i.e. our Sins) and also, because we are part of that great Communion of the Saints, we can also make some reparation for the sins of others. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, n.2412, n.2487, n.2454, n. 2509 teaches that every offense committed entails the duty of reparation, even if its author has been forgiven.
The greatest offering of reparation is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But we can also offer our Holy Communions, our Rosaries, our prayers and our day to day duties and sufferings - however apparently trivial!
So the Spiritual Bouquet means that we make a little present of these for that particular intention, for ourselves or for another person. Of course we can just offer up the actions without doing anything else, but the old tradition gave us a way to make something tangible to show what we have done. The Nuns taught us how to make a little card, often with a Holy Picture on the front, listing the little offerings we have made. The pictures above show examples. To most modern minds, this can seem terribly childish and unsophisticated, but generations of pious Catholics maintained the practice, and these little cards were often made by people from every possible backgrounds. Lay people made them. Priests and Religious made them. Even Popes made them! So actually we are in good company.
Suggestions for prayer:
___ Masses heard
___ Holy Communions
___ Hours of the Divine Office
___ Hours of Adoration
___ Novenas
___ Rosaries
___ Acts of Penance
___ Stations of the Cross
___ Other
The completed card would be treasured by the recipient. After all, wouldn't it be lovely to receive a card which said "10 Rosaries are being offered for your intentions." or "4 Novenas are being prayed for you," and so on!
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