As the red carpet filled with motion picture personalities dressed so awesomely beautiful revealing shapely bodies and gleaming teeth, one stood out dressed in penguiny black and white (gleaming teeth, yes), and that was Mother Dolores Hart from the Benedictine monastery in Bethlehem, CT. She left a promising career in Hollywood to join the monastery.
That’s not very far from here, and I had the good fortune of meeting Mother Dolores in the late 1960s at the monastery. A friend and I would make an annual retreat to the abbey, participate in the Latin office, have simple meals in the guest house, and have a spiritual conference with Sister Dolores Hart. She was on one side of the grille, and we were on the other. I think we were allowed to shake hands. I can’t remember what our conversations were about. One may have touched on marriage. I ignored that tidbit and got married within a year or two after that encounter.
Mother Dolores had a singleness of purpose, with her vision solely on her Maker. Nothing was to deter her from that, not even her former fiance who remained her friend and visited her often at the monastery. (That had to be awkward.) The short documentary, “God is Greater than Elvis”, about daily life in the monastery was nominated for an Oscar.
I am glad I met her, happy that she has emerged on the red carpet (she is the only person whom I can say I know who did that) and happy that she is happy doing what she does. In the end, that’s what life is about. And most of all, I am happy because at the time I met her, I was a man of singleness of purpose, deeply in love with the woman I was soon to marry, heedless of advice, and spend forty, still counting, or so blissful years.
Someday, I will return to Bethlehem, pray in Latin, shake hands, and be thankful for the red carpet of life, that allows us all to stand tall and smile every day.
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