Consolations by Sally Wolfe

Author:Sally Wolfe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luminis Books, Inc.
Published: 2014-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

FATHER BONIFACE ARRIVED just before Compline, with Father Gregory, the regional secretary. I was anxious for Mother’s sake, but I was also excited. Something new was happening.

The following morning they presided at Lauds and celebrated Mass. Father Boniface wasn’t as I had imagined him from the tone of his letters: starched, excessively formal. On the contrary, he was effusive. His voice was deep and resonant, and the way he carried himself was impressive, sweeping in and out of rooms, cocking his head in sharp, exaggerated interest at things around him. Father Gregory, by contrast, was pale, slightly bent, with eyes cast down.

The first day, at midday meal, Father Boniface sat at Mother’s right hand and Gregory at her left. She rung the bell for grace and started to rise as usual, but before she came to her feet, Father Boniface stood with a flourish and said the Benedicite. Without missing a beat, Mother joined in the Ad Dominum along with the rest of us. He smiled and smoothed his scapula, striking a royal pose with the silver cross shining on his chest and the prominent glint of the abbatial ring.

“We are delighted to be here. As always, many thanks for your wonderful hospitality and cooperation. This is a standard visitation. We will attend all offices. During the morning and afternoon, I will conduct interviews with every resident member. Father Gregory will observe selected work periods.”

Mother’s face froze momentarily. It was not customary to interview novices and postulants during a visitation, Cyprian told me later.

The solemnly professed were interviewed first, then the juniors. Most dreaded it, but I was eager for the opportunity: it was my chance to repay Mother, and to defend her.

“The Reverend Father is performing his duties as he thinks they ought to be done. and we will show our utmost respect,” Mother said that morning in chapter.

But to me he was the arch enemy with whom I was going to do battle. The day of my interview I worked in Mother’s office, and all morning her head was buried in papers. As I was leaving I paused at her desk, hoping for a word of encouragement, but she said nothing. She didn’t even look up.

In the hall outside the parlor, where the interviews were taking place, I nearly ran into Clare. She had Mother’s tea tray, no doubt for Boniface, and I offered to take it from her. She nodded and tapped on the door.

Most of what I came to know about Boniface Mother had told me; the rest I picked up in the sewing room. His was a late vocation. He had been a prosecutor with the District Attorney’s office in Chicago. In 1940, he entered Gethsemani at age 38, a year before Merton. Because of his brilliance, he studied in Rome at the American College. He had a special devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. He was the order’s foremost expert in canon law and had a well-deserved reputation for running a tight ship. Not somebody you wanted to go up against particularly.

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