A Reflection for the Eve of the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne
I created my own procession in honor of Saint Anne the other day. I visited Durkee’s Ferry. In all my years reading the account we just heard about the novices collecting shells at Durkee’s Ferry, I had never searched out that site.
But Thursday afternoon was one of those beautiful non-humid days we enjoyed this week, and I was tired of being inside in front of my computer.
Besides, I had learned earlier in the week via the Terre Haute Tribune-Star that our Saint Anne’s Shell Chapel was celebrating its 150th anniversary. Who knew!??? Obviously, not me. Wake up, Dawn, and get thee to Durkee’s Ferry.
I arrived at the public access site that I believe is at least in the vicinity of where the Ferry would have been located. But I must admit that I could not get close enough to the Wabash River to see if I might snatch an iridescent shell or two to bring back to the Woods.
The Power of Promise
I secretly wanted to add a Wabash original to the collection of shells that are being reattached to the 150-year-old walls of our dear Saint Anne Shell Chapel.
What I did come to recognize in that moment, however, is the power of a promise. For 150 years, this community has helped keep our Mother Theodore’s promise to give Saint Anne credit for saving the Nashville. And in the process, we have continued to tell the story of what becomes of those who trust in Providence. We are saved.
In her third journal of travel, here is how Mother Theodore described the crisis moment of the storm:
“The ship had, in fact, been thrown upon the beam end, and was now under water. The keel was above the surface and the tops of the masts below. The water was rushing in through every opening. … We had all been thrown to the floor by the same hock, but kept clinging to one another, that we might die together. ‘O Jesus! O Mary! O Saint Anne, have pity on us!’ They heard our cry.”
I have been imagining how different our community would be today if Mother Theodore, Sister Mary Cecelia Bailey and the two postulants had not survived that winter crossing.
And as I stood at the Wabash River on Thursday, a very formidable body of water, I wondered how many times our sisters had crossed there in order to get to Terre Haute for supplies or to come home from one of their missions.
It took me nine minutes by car to reach the site from the Woods. How long by horse and wagon?
Keeping Promises
All of these thoughts have given me pause. Oh my, what they endured because of the promises they made to be God’s Providence in the world.
We have just made some promises ourselves as the result of our General Chapter. We said, “We will co-create a world where every person’s dignity is honored and the sacredness of all creation is upheld.
We may need to endure some storms in the process of keeping this promise, but we walk in the footsteps of promise keepers. Let all of us gathered here pray often to Jesus and Mary and O Saint Anne for the resilience and the courage to honor this new promise of ours.
The world needs us for this.
Thank you, Sister Dawn! I really enjoyed reading your article and was amazed that the Holy Spirit led you on this adventure. When Sister Vincent Ferrer (Sister Barbara Doherty RIP) was the Mistress of Postulants, she led all fifty postulants in the Band of 1964 on the ultimate hike to the Wabash River, recounting the legend of the Shell Chapel. I have no idea how we made it from the Woods, through the backwoods, and arrived at the river’s edge. SVF was like Mother Theodore leading us through the wilderness (in more ways than one). There were forty-nine other women who could verify this account. Also, during this same time in Community history, if your religious name included Anne/Ann, you had the privilege of cleaning the votive candles in the St. Anne Chapel during your canonical year. (No one told you about this “privilege” when you received your religious name in your postulant year.) My love for St. Anne has always been fostered by the Sisters of Providence.
What a wonderful reflection! Thank you, Dawn. You piqued my curiosity. A carriage would take an hour on a good day to get to the ferry. On foot? Two hours. These brave women understood and endured so we could be a part of their legacy. Mother Theodore knew if they were in town so many things would be easier; yet her beloved Indiana forests would not surround her in town. She persevered.
I really relate to the image of “we walk in the footsteps of promise keepers”. Glad for the good company!