The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey From Hollywood to Holy Vows (82 page)

Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, a close friend and former client of Mother Angèle, sang a beautiful concert for the Community before the ceremony marking the final profession of Mother in April 2012
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Vanessa Redgrave had asked if she might visit the abbey one day and perhaps read a little poetry for the Community. When she came she was even more generous. She brought her sister, Lynn, and brother, Corin, who read with her
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In 2011, Home Box Office produced a documentary on my life that was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary, Short Subject category. I was invited to attend the Oscar presentations with the director and the producer of the film, Rebecca Cammissa and Julie Anderson. It was my third time on the red carpet but the first time I didn’t worry about what to wear
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I wanted so much to share Granny’s startling silk tie jacket, but the old photos had long since faded too badly to use. The Community set up a Hollywood-style photo op with novices Sister Judith, Sister Maria Evangelista and Sister John Mary so that Granny’s gift can be seen in all its glory. (Maybe I should have worn it to the Oscars.)

In 2012, Mother Abbess celebrated her Golden Jubilee (fifty years since her First Vows). Archbishop Mansell was among the guests
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Hatsume Sato is a devoted Catholic woman who for many years has been helping people in need in the house she built in Aomori, Japan. She dreamed of hanging a bell in that place of refuge, and we gave her one that hung above our carpentry shop
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With my friend Toby in Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is known as a “grandmother room”—a place where everything lost is found. And that’s mostly true. I have a reputation for keeping everything. If something is misplaced, it usually turns up in Corpus Christi. It is a place that holds much of the history of Regina Laudis and many treasured memories for me
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With Dick working on the memoir

With Father Iain Highet at his Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, CT, on Saturday, May 14, 2011. Now that’s Benedictine continuity
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Mother Placid, my mentor and first friend at Regina Laudis, died on September 27, 2012. Her great gift was one of enabling a young person to make the leap from familial home to monastic home and hearth. She did this for every member of the clothed Community. People from far and wide, in their requests to visit, would ask to see Mother Placid. I knew why. She offered
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After years of projecting to build a new monastic complex on the hill, we have shifted our attention to renovating the original factory building where Mother Benedict and Mother Mary Aline had established the foundation in 1948. (Above, Mother Anselm with the contractor, Mr. Walter Duda.)