We All Need a Convent

 

They are not of the world,

even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them through thy truth:

Thy word is truth.

— John 17:16-17

             

We aren't Catholic. But we're excited to be supporting a proposed monastery for the Poor Clare Sisters of Omaha, to be built out in the country past Elkhorn (see note, below). They need $5 million. I hope they get it.

 

It's so important, in these times, to have people who do nothing but pray for people and contemplate the Bible. These sisters are very special. They are out of this world sweet and loving:

 

 

 

 

The sisters are living now in a tiny facility in a noisy part of town. After 130 years of devoting their lives to praying for others in Omaha and beyond, they deserve a bigger place, where they can hear themselves think:

 

 

 

 

There's a benefit Thursday night at the Holland Performing Arts Center, with local stars Heidi Joy and Michael Dryver, and it just sounds wonderful. But what really sounds wonderful is what their brochure says will be going on at this special, peaceful place for the cloistered nuns, women deciding whether to join them, and the beautiful public chapel that any of us could come to:

 

Solitude

 

Silence

 

Light

 

Stillness and Rest

 

Comfort and Healing

 

Love and Peace

 

Someone to Listen

 

The Protection and Warmth of God's Presence

 

Don't you want a piece of that action? I sure do. In this tempestuous election season, with the beaucoup bazillion dollar bailout going on, and the price of gas, and the war, and the terrorism . . . heck! We ALL need a place like that!

 

Take the other day. I was just minding my own business, vacuuming, wondering how I was going to make our 8-year-old an Elvis costume for Halloween, and checking my email. Here came an invitation to come to AFL-CIO headquarters in South Omaha to look at the "Bush Bus." It's traveling around the country promoting criticism of the President that's in the same vein as Nazi propaganda: horrible, unfair and untrue.

 

I was distressed. How'd they get MY email address? It was from a "Lauren Weiner." So I emailed back, saying I was offended. She replied, saying she blamed the President for everything that's gone wrong in our country.

 

So I wrote back again, trying to start a dialogue.

 

No response, of course. SHE could invade MY world uninvited, but not the other way around. Hmph! So I googled her. And whoa:

 

She was either an ECOTERRORIST or an IDENTITY THIEF!!!

 

The search engine showed a Lauren Weiner who was an ecoterrorist from the Earth Liberation Front. She was out on bail awaiting sentencing after an FBI investigation which culminated in a K-Mart parking lot in California in 2006. The FBI caught her and two men with bleach, glass cleaner, rubber gloves and masks, a notebook detailing U.S. Forest Service facilities, and drawings of how to build a pipe bomb. They had allegedly targeted banks, commercial trucks and the Nimbus Dam near Sacramento. She had ratted on the ringleader, who was going to the pen for, like, a million years.

 

And now she was with the "Bus Bush," and she was going to be just a few blocks from my husband's office Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.!

 

Or wait. There was another Lauren Weiner on the search engine. This one was a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee operative. She had gotten caught by the FBI in 2005 using the Internet to fraudulently obtain the credit report of the black conservative Republican politician, Michael Steele, who was running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Columnist Michelle Malkin wrote that THIS Lauren Weiner used to work for ultra left-wing New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, and once wrote a college paper on how to use the Web to access people's personal records.

 

Ewwww! And NOW she had MY email address!!!

 

All afternoon and the next morning, I tried to track down which Lauren Weiner this was, but got the runaround or no response. My heart was in my throat. I had visions of South Omaha blowing up, my name used in a voter fraud scheme, or my credit-card account used to pay for materials to make a pipe bomb!!!

 

Should I call the police? The FBI?

 

Finally, I called the U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento. The prosecutor it couldn't be THEIR Lauren Weiner, or if it was and she came here, she'd go straight to the pen for violating her plea bargain. They said they'd check.

 

As for the OTHER Lauren Weiner, it seems HER sentence was to do 150 hours of community service. So maybe she WAS paying for her identity-theft crime . . . . by being a "community organizer" . . .  with access to countless email addresses of unsuspecting people like me! AAAIIIEEE!!!

 

There was no way to know for sure. My hair was on fire, I was so stressed out.

 

But all I could do was be still, trust God, and pray - kind of like the sweet nuns whose new home we're helping to get built.

 

So I did.

 

So far, nothing has happened. The storm has passed. I feel lots better.

 

I'm back to vacuuming and planning that Elvis costume.

 

Prayer works wonders!

 

You know, we really need that convent.

 

In fact, we need one on every block! †

 

 

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PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION

TO HELP BUILD THIS MUCH-NEEDED PLACE OF PEACE:

 

Franciscan Monastery of St. Clare
3626 North 65th Avenue
Omaha, NE 68104-3299
(402) 350-6335

www.omahapoorclare.com)