{"id":4949,"date":"2012-12-05T00:11:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T00:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/12\/05\/busy-like-a-bee-thou-did-serve-the-lord\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T02:42:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T02:42:36","slug":"busy-like-a-bee-thou-did-serve-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/12\/05\/busy-like-a-bee-thou-did-serve-the-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"Busy like a bee, thou did serve the Lord."},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cIt was like the work which keep bees hard at their task
\nabout the flowering countryside as the sun shines in the calm of early
\nsummer…All is a ferment of activity, and the scent of honey rises with the
\nperfume of thyme.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>How aptly these words
\nof Virgil the poet describe the scene at Rosary Convent over the last two weeks.
\n<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Like \u201cbees in a meadow on a fine summer day settling on
\nflowers of every kind\u201d the sisters were busy writing assignments, compiling
\nexamination papers, writing report comments, teaching, \u00a0<\/span>attending classes, with frequent intervals of returning
\nto their little chapel for prayers, spiritual reading and meditation.\u00a0 <\/span>But in fact they would not return to their familiar
\nand well loved little chapel for long…<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
…for like Shakespeare\u2019s \u201csinging masons building roofs of
\ngold\u201d they have in very fact been busy with the help of many others in the
\nparish to prepare a new and much bigger chapel, which will be able to house growing
\nnumbers in the hive. \u00a0<\/span>The work involved
\nclearing out the \u201cold barn\u201d which served as an area for storage, carpentry,
\nlibrary, lecture, and music room. Once cleared, working like bees with order
\nand peace, serious cleaning could start, and then the all important tasks of
\ncladding walls, installing lights, painting, carrying our new choir stalls and
\nfurnishings back in and arranging them in just the right fashion to fit maximum
\nnumbers.\u00a0 <\/span>The Blessed Sacrament had to be
\nremoved for the moving of the altar, which proved hard work for the men and
\nboys who assisted, and happy the moment when all was ready and Father could return
\nOur Lord to complete the new Chapel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/a>
\nTired but thankful voices filled the new Chapel for Vespers
\non the Feast of St Cecilia of whom we sang \u201cBusy like a bee, thou did serve the
\nLord\u201d (Versicle of Matins for her feast). <\/span><\/p>\n

St Ambrose compares holy virgins to the bee. For \u201cthe bee
\nfeeds on dew, knows no marriage couch and makes honey. ..[So] the virgin\u2019s dew
\nis the divine word; for the word of God descends like the dew, her modesty is
\nunstained nature and her produce is the fruit of the lips, without bitterness, abounding
\nin sweetness… How I wish you, my daughter, to be an imitator of these bees,
\nwhose food is flowers, whose offspring is collected and brought together by the
\nmouth. Do imitate her, my daughter. Let no veil of deceit be spread over your
\nwords; let them have no covering of guile, that they may be pure, and full of
\ngravity.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>We pray that all in the
\nNovitiate have drawn the honey of wisdom from their study and contemplation and
\nas generous as the bee have given that sweetness to others, especially the
\nchildren we taught in school. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It is the
\nspirit of wisdom and understanding which, like a bee bearing both wax and
\nhoney, is able to kindle the light of knowledge and to pour in the savour of
\ngrace…What would be the good of learning without love? It would puff up. And
\nlove without learning? It would go astray.\u201d Pope Pius XII.\u00a0 <\/span>We pray to do our work faithfully in order to
\nproduce not only the wax of knowledge but also the honey by which the children
\nwill acquire the taste and desire for that which is good. <\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Sisters, while working and praying in the new Chapel,\u201clet
\nyour spirits rise in mystic flight to experience the kindness of God, to taste
\nthe sweetness of His word and His law” (Ps. 18:11; 118: 103), to contemplate the
\ndivine light symbolized by the burning flame of the candle, product of the
\nmother bee, as the Church sings in her admirable liturgy of Holy Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt was like the work which keep bees hard at their task about the flowering countryside as the sun shines in the calm of early summer…All is a ferment of activity, and the scent of honey rises with the perfume of thyme.\u201d\u00a0 How aptly these words of Virgil the poet describe the scene at Rosary … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convent-life","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5240,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions\/5240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}