Mtr Beth Clarke

Friends in Christ,

Interruptions can be annoying. We have all had the experience of sitting down to focus, only for someone to suddenly have a question or an urgent need we must attend to.

Recently, I had a conversation with our Parish Administrator, Kiki Cheney, about interruptions. I asked how she got anything done amidst the constant interruptions in the office, and she shared something that stayed with me: the interruptions were actually the best part.

They were where real ministry happened. The ministry of Holy Interruption.

Today we celebrate Mother Maria Skobtsova, an Orthodox nun, poet, and martyr—and a witness to Holy Interruption. Before becoming Mother Maria, she lived a life as dramatic as the century around her. Born in Russia in 1891, she became a celebrated poet and revolutionary, served as mayor of Anapa during the Russian Revolution, endured civil war, fled as a refugee, and settled in Paris. The death of her young daughter Anastasia brought her back to faith, eventually leading her to take religious vows and engage in radical Christian service.

After taking vows in 1932, Mother Maria rejected the traditional cloister and founded a house of hospitality in Paris for refugees, the homeless, the sick, and anyone in need. She believed that the “liturgy after the liturgy” continued beyond the service, in acts of radical Christian encounter with everyone she met.

Those who visited her house sometimes struggled to understand her unconventional approach to monastic life. One visitor asked, “Mother, when do you have time for your rule of prayer?” She replied, “My rule of prayer? Why, I’m interrupted all day long. When someone knocks, Christ is knocking.” Interruption was her rule; they were the prayer itself. Every interruption was an invitation to encounter Christ in the person before her.

During the Nazi occupation of France, that conviction led Mother Maria to shelter Jews and help people escape persecution. She was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and murdered at Ravensbrück concentration camp on Holy Saturday, March 31, 1945, only weeks before liberation.

Today, as we remember Mother Maria, let us pray for the grace to recognize Christ in our own Holy Interruptions: the colleague who needs a listening ear, the stranger seeking compassion, the person who disrupts our meticulously planned day. Perhaps the question is not how we can avoid interruptions, but whether we can learn to see the hidden grace within them.

Yours in Christ,

—Mtr Beth