BAY RIDGE — For one last time, the Nativity on the grounds of Visitation Monastery was dedicated to the Christmas season, and the trees surrounding the life-sized depiction of Jesus Christ’s birth were illuminated by hundreds of twinkling lights. 

On Sunday, Dec. 8, Father Christopher Heanue, rector of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights, celebrated Mass at the Bay Ridge monastery, after which Mother Susan Marie Kasprzak, VHM, of the Sisters of the Visitation, led the countdown to the moment the lights were turned on.

The ceremony, while joyful, was also bittersweet. The monastery — where the Sisters of the Visitation have lived and worshiped for more than 100 years — announced in February that it will be closing, although a final date has not yet been disclosed. 

Donna and Peter Bredholt, parishioners of St. Anselm in Bay Ridge, attended the Nativity Dedication at Visitation Monastery, an event they participate in every year.

“I just love the celebration, seeing everything lit up, and the tradition of it all,” Donna said. “I feel sad it’s not going to happen here again.”

“This was always a special place to come,” her husband added. 

The two sisters who still live at the monastery, Mother Susan and Sister Mary Cecilia Cho, VHM, will move to other convents once Visitation closes.

“Yes, this is the last time, but we always have memories, and the light is going to be in each one of you,” she told the faithful at the ceremony. “You are going to continue the tradition within yourselves.” 

Father Heanue, who was paying his first visit to the monastery, noted that 2024 marked the 30th year of the tree lighting. Not only that, but he reminded the faithful that Visitation Monastery was also the first site in what eventually became the Celebration of Light sponsored by Maimonides Medical Center.

Back in 1995, the Sisters of the Visitation reached out to Marty Golden, a city council member at the time, and Larry Morrish, a Bay Ridge community activist, and requested their assistance paying for a Nativity. Golden and Morrish contacted Maimonides Medical Center, which agreed to fund it. 

Soon after, the medical center began making similar donations to other churches, and the Celebration of Light program was born.

While the ceremony was bittersweet, Father Heanue pointed out that even in sorrow, there is comfort and strength to be found in faith.

“We place our hope in one person,” he said. “We place our hope in Jesus Christ.”