It was right next to me; the cure for all my ills. At least the license plate was, in bold capitals. PANACEA. I did a double take as I was loading groceries into my trunk, noting the sleek, black, luxury car parked next to my grimy mocha flavored VW with its latte interior. There I was, in an ordinary neighborhood doing the very ordinary chore of grocery shopping at an ordinary supermarket in ordinary time. PANACEA. An interesting choice for what we call “vanity plates”. I wondered what cure the car was granted that afforded such a notable license plate.
I wondered some more as I unloaded my lettuce and bread and apples and tidied up the kitchen before our dinner guests arrived. Good food with good friends, late into the Saturday night, was most certainly the cure for the January blues that tend to hover after the holidays.
I wondered again as I crawled, tired but contented, into bed, seeking a long winter’s night rest for my weary bones after a flurry of entertaining activity. Surely, a good sleep was panacea for fatigue, was it not?
I stopped wondering mid-morning Sunday after Jennifer and I took a short ride into the City. We were a few minutes late. The Mass Ordinary had already begun. We quietly slipped into a pew. I bowed my head, listening to the chants of the Benedictine monks and immediately felt the sensation of being at home as the familiar smell of incense entered my sphere of worship. Food for the soul; exactly what my inner doctor might have ordered. Gregorian chants, incense, and the peaceful stillness of monastic life was a pure panacea, a universal remedy indeed.
The Monastery of the Holy Cross is a contemplative house of worship nestled quietly into the Bridgeport neighborhood in the bustling city of Chicago. Bridgeport is what is often termed a working class neighborhood. It is also known as the neighborhood that bred many of Chicago’s mayors, including the Daleys. The monastery is housed in one of the many Chicago Catholic churches whose doors were closed in the 1980’s. The church eventually became the home of Benedictine monks.
An urban monastery that offers Silence in the City, Holy Cross bestows “Peace to all who visit here” to all who pass through its doors; a contemplative life in a busy and noisy city.
There were no musical instruments played during the mass, only the voices of the monks and parishioners, as sweet and pure as the incense wafting upwards to the stained glass windows and heavenly angels that floated overhead in this gothic structure. I closed my eyes and breathed it all in, as if in a collected breath. The voices of the monks were strongest in their Gregorian chants, but a distinct soprano could be heard of angelic beauty and an alto, clear and precise in his ancient Latin as he held a toddler in his arm. A baby cried and the bells chimed, and I thought again of the word that comes from Greek mythology, panacea. It is interesting, is it not, all the meanings and thoughts a word on a license plate can conjure?
Thank you, dear Jennifer, for my Sunday cure, our visit to the monastery and time of worship there, not to mention the treats in the nearby coffee shop, and an interesting ride through the City as we took the time for a “slowing down” of our hectic lives and found that peace offered in our visit to the Holy Cross Monastery.
Information about the Monastery of the Holy Cross, including the Bed and Breakfast and the guesthouse they have available, and be found at their website: chicagomonk.org/ The image is from the monastery’s website.
That sounds like a beautiful way to spend a Sunday. I have a CD of Gregorian chants by the Benedictines, and find it so relaxing. I love how we get food for thought in interesting ways and places.
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Listening to Gregorian chants is a most delightful way to relax and reflect. It is interesting, isn’t it, how thoughts come our way? I need to be more mindful of these moments. I always have my camera with me, Teresa, but didn’t on Sunday. I wish I had as the windows, the architecture, the columns were all so beautiful, but, then, had it been with me, I wouldn’t have found the stillness I so needed, so, I guess it was all as it should be.
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Good to know of more options for accommodation when visiting Chicago, Penny. It sounds like a panacea of a place. I love services that are stripped down and simple.
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I think MTM might enjoy seeing this church and the B&B looks pretty accommodating with a full monkish breakfast that sounds pretty hearty. Plenty of good eats in the neighborhood and it close to other Chicago attractions, Andra.
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Ah, Gregorian chants: I love listening to them and when I’m at the bach I have a couple of records that I put on. I sit back, watching the sun go down over the hill, and bathe myself in this beautiful, soothing sound. How lucky you are to have a place to go and hear it live. A panacea indeed.
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Juliet, you paint such an idyllic, peaceful, sacred mood with your words. Beautiful. Yes, I am lucky this is so near and must go again.
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I love your writing.
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Thank you so much!
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How wonderful your weekend was. You entertained friends, spent time with Jennifer, went to a monastery, a nice coffee shop, and ran across a license plate that sent your mind a-wandering. Any place that wishes “peace to all who visit here” would entice me to enter.
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I think you would find peace there, Janet. Isn’t that a wonderful wish? Amazing where a license plate can lead, isn’t it? It was a good weekend and I am grateful to have had it.
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Penny, I feel your peace. I live within an hour or so of the Abbey of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery where Thomas Merton lived and wrote. I have spent many days and nights on retreat there. Years ago, when I first began going, women were only allowed to stay in the guesthouse one week of the month, then it became every other week. Now I think one can get in just about any time. Things change!
I haven’t been for a year or two. Oddly enough, I got to know so many of the returning retreatants and some of the monks, that it became too social and I wasn’t getting any quiet time. A strange thing to think of – no quiet time in a quiet place.
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I read your comment, then found the Abbey of Gethsemani online, Belle. It does seem like a sanctuary of peace. How interesting that it was home of Thomas Merton. I hope you find that peace again upon returning there on retreat some day.
Things certainly do change, don’t they, yet, the peacefulness and the comfort of the Gregorian chants still remain the same after so, so long.
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The Abbey has nine prayer services. Eventually, the chanting of the monks becomes part of your breathing and your heartbeat.
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What a distinctive way of describing how chanting enters one’s soul, Belle. I grew up in the Greek Orthodox Church and that is exactly how I felt, still feel, when I hear certain hymns that are chanted. Thank you.
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The description of the feelings the word ‘panacea’ evoked in you is, in itself, a panacea. Ruminations on a theme, perfect to end my day.
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What lovely things to say, Friko. Thank you so much – a gift to now end my own day.
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How lovely! I think I would have been affected in the very same way. We never know where inspiration will come from!
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That is so true, Sunday. Who would have thought a license plate could lead me through such wanderings? Thank you.
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Hello my Greek friend, In Greek mythology Panacea if the Goddess of Universal remedy, daughter of Asclepius and Epione. So I’ll bet the car belonged to a doctor. And the Greek in you was drawn to it…..
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. . . and hello to you, Sharon. Now, that is a thought, isn’t it? Of course; the car must have belonged to a doctor! Or, maybe the pharmacist that had just filled my prescription. What a clever friend you are.
I think you would appreciate this monastery and the coffee shop we went to.
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I read this from my phone yesterday, Penny, but I never comment from the phone. Who knows what I’d end up typing! This is such a wonderful time to share with your daughter! I do understand that feeling that can come when you find a place of solace and can just quietly tuck in and be still. We need that more often than we consciously recognize, I think. There is a local monastery that has beautiful grounds and a view looking down on the city that just invites contemplation. I used to go and just sit up there sometimes. It’s been a while, but you have me remembering how meaningful it was. I hope that the feeling of spiritual refreshment lasts a long time, Penny. And when it is again low, perhaps you can visit this special place again! oxo
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I know what you mean, Debra. I often read blogs from my smarter-than-me phone and mean to comment as soon as I’m home, then forget, which is what happens more often than I should allow. What busy lives we lead. No matter, however, when there are monasteries to sit in and parks to walk in. I hope you can wander to those monastery grounds sometime soon – and I know I will visit Holy Cross again. Spiritual refreshment. I like that. Thank you.
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Penny, I cannot think of anything more wonderful. Maybe I’ll look up a local monastery and pop along for a little silence…
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Oh, you should, Kate, at least for a service. You have such old structures there, I’m sure there is one nearby.
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I rather feel sorry for anyone whose panacea is a car! I too think of it as a spiritual word (nature, church, whatever)….I’m glad you found yours.
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A beautifully reflective, indeed contemplative post, Penny. I too love Gregorian chant, both on CD, or when chanted in monastic houses. It has such ancient roots in Hebrew chant and links us with the long centuries of Christian history as well as calming our busy thoughts and minds.
The car number-plate made me smile, as it isn’t possible to have vanity plates like this in the UK. We have to have a mixture of letters and numbers and it is pure chance if they can be made to mean anything.
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Thank you, Perpetua. How well you know the stillness that these chants evoke. They always bring me “home”.
There are some interesting vanity plates that show up in these parts. Some are interesting, others are, well, simply vanity. This one certainly gave me fodder for much thought. Hope you are still enjoying the snow.
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