In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi September 30th, 2008

On this feast of St. Therese I thought you would enjoy reading the vocation story of our Sister Mary Therese of Jesus Crucified.  Saint Therese is very well-loved and studied in our community. In fact, we have not only one but two sisters named after her!

    The power of our prayer is a dynamic response to the call of our God to join in proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Our prayer is not static but rather goes out from us, unites with the prayers of our brothers and sisters and produces the fruit of the harvest.

   Hello! I’m Sister Mary Thérese from the Passionist Monastery in Whitesville, KY. Today, my friends, I would like to share a little of my life with you and how God became number one in my life. Or better still, how God captured me and how I responded to His gift of love.

   I was born Betty Dale Seitz in Paducah, KY and I grew up in the country where the beauty of nature was everywhere. There was a lot of natural, God-given solitude. And so by nature solitude was weaved through and through in my earlier life.

   I mention solitude because I really believe it is one of the foundational requisites by which one can hear God’s call. God’s language sometimes is not all that easy to decipher, especially if there is a lot of noise going on within and without. The exterior solitude that I was gifted with was a real help to me in learning how to listen. Many times I could not understand what I seemed to be hearing, but God in His goodness sent interpreters, as you will see as I tell my vocation story.

   I had wonderful parents and they worked hard to raise the eight children they had, I being the sixth child in the family. What they did and said affected me deeply.

   They taught us what sacrifice was mainly by their own example. Even though we were poor we never lacked the necessities of life.

   When I started school and made new friends I realized I had a lot more than some of my little friends did by way of material things. I remember feeling very happy when I was able to share some of what I had with them. At a very early age I felt an attraction for people who did not have it so good.

   This attraction grew as I read about the foreign missionaries and it was during this time, around the ages of 11 and 12, that I felt drawn to be a Sister. The pictures of so many poor and destitute people tore at my heart and I wanted to do something to relieve their sufferings. I remember thinking of myself as being like one of those Sisters some day who cared for the poor.

   I did not know very many Sisters except the Sisters of Mercy who taught me in school. I observed the Sisters very closely and they were always a source of admiration for me and made me aware of the sacred. Being a quiet and a rather shy person I didn’t ask questions or share my thoughts and feelings. I did not like school, but I found myself going to school to be with the Sisters, so greatly was I attracted to them. They were the ones who exposed me to the literature on the foreign missions. I was especially happy one year when I and some of my friends saved enough money to adopt what was referred to at that time as a ”pagan baby”. I got to name her and received a picture of the baby later when she was baptized. I remember how thrilled I was and my desire to be a missionary grew.

Sr. Mary Therese with aspirant Teresa (now Sr. John Mary) 

   God’s call to me at the different stages in my life was not like the Hound of Heaven as much as it was God’s presence –pursuing and calling me in ways I could not dream of. I never found myself running away from the dream I had. It was something that was with me all the time. I did not understand what this presence was, but I did recognize something drawing me to be a Religious Sister.

   I remember a cousin of mine looking at me in great wonderment and asking, (this was after I had made my decision to enter religious life), “How did you know you wanted to be a Sister?” Well, not being too experienced in God’s ways, I said, after thinking about it for awhile, “its something inside that makes me want to be a Sister.” It was as simple as that.

   It was precisely this strong something inside me which I had felt at different times during my early adolescence that I finally responded to one Saturday morning as I sat alone at the breakfast table. I was midway in my senior year and had been to one of those senior class parties that was filled with a lot of fun and laughter the night before. It was late when I arrived home that night, so I was late in getting up the next morning, which was the reason for my being alone at the breakfast table – or perhaps this was the way God had planned things for His “annunciation” to me.

   As I sat there going over in my mind the things that happened the night before, I suddenly had a strange, empty feeling within. It was something I had never experienced before. It wasn’t a physical thing, like a lack of food, for I had just eaten. I found myself wondering about the future, wondering like I had never done before. Parties and everything life had to offer were indeed exciting for me, but what about this sudden empty feeling that just came over me? These things were not satisfying me. Then, the question came out from this deep empty feeling — “Betty, what are you going to do with your life?” Somehow, the question demanded an answer. The religious life was before me again – that presence. The good feeling returned so strongly that the following Monday I went to my teacher who was a Sister of Mercy and told her I would like to be a Sister. What do I do? She did not seem surprised as I thought she would be. After talking together, Sister arranged that I would enter the Sisters of Mercy the following September in Cincinnati, Ohio.

   After exposing my desire to Sister, I felt drawn to spend extra time at Church and found myself going to Mass more frequently. I don’t recall any specific prayers I said, other than the rosary, but I felt comfortable in that special presence of our Lord. Perhaps the Sisters did the praying and I just listened to the deep longing, for the call was strong. My classmates did not believe I was serious, but gradually they all told me they were happy for me, and not one tried to discourage me.

   On entering the Sisters of Mercy I was very happy except for one thing. I wanted to be a missionary Sister and there wasn’t any indication that this was going to happen. My time with the Sisters of Mercy was valuable because it was a period of discovering God’s will for me.

   I was neither to be a Sister of Mercy nor a missionary Sister as I had dreamed of for so long, but a contemplative of which I knew absolutely nothing at that time. For me Cod’s will was unfolding gradually and I needed much patience, but most of all trust for things were looking rather bleak at this moment.

   The Provincial asked to see me one cold day in January. She was very kind and asked me, after a short conversation, if I had ever thought about the contemplative life? She mentioned a few Orders to me. I said no, not really. I didn’t even know they existed, much less think of any of them as a way of life. She smiled and said she thought God was calling me to the cloistered life. The cloistered life! I thought. What was that? This was a hard blow for me because I had my heart set on helping the poor, and besides it meant starting all over again.

    It was only later in life that I realized this was God’s gentle way of telling me that He really did not want me to be a missionary Sister. A Sister, yes, but not an active Sister out on the front lines as it were. That was all good and indeed heroic, but it was not where God wanted me.

Sister displays some of her artwork

   My two years and 4 months with the Sisters of Mercy stimulated a real drawing to prayer and revealed other gifts that made the directress there think that God was calling me to the contemplative life.

   Leaving the Sisters of Mercy was very hard and it was the beginning of a call into suffering. It was detachment from what I wanted and attachment to what God wanted. God’s mysterious plan was hard to understand and I struggled.

   On returning home my parents were understanding, especially my Dad, who embraced me and said: “God has another place for you.” Yes, God did indeed have another place for me, but at that time it was complete darkness.

   This trial was hard, but since I had done everything in my power to answer the call of the good God I must admit that despite my tears in leaving the Sisters, I felt great peace in the depth of my heart. All the same this peace dwelt only in the depths, and my soul was full to overflowing with bitterness. Jesus seemed to be absent and there was nothing to reveal His presence. The result of my own efforts seemed to be a plain failure.

   While with the Sisters of Mercy I had learned how to speak to our Lord in a personal way. I learned this on my own. Methods seemed all too complicated and impersonal for my poor mind and heart. I was drawn at this time to reflect on the Passion of Jesus and my choice of books at that time centered on the Passion.

   Leaving the Sisters, I remember saying in my heart, “I will be a Sister some day.” My choice now was to mature in the darkness of waiting for nine months and let God form me in the womb of His Holy Will. Never did I doubt God’s call in this struggle. It was the struggle of not knowing where He was calling me and when. How little did I know then that God writes straight with crooked lines. My dream of being a missionary Sister in some foreign land was not God’s dream of me. His dream of me was much more profound, so profound that it confused me — “I have chosen you. You have not chosen me.”

   During these months of waiting I became acquainted with the life of St. Therese of Lisieux who was a great inspiration for me and whose name I was later given as a Passionist Sister. I could relate to her own great desire and dream of being a missionary. It was not God’s dream for her either. She taught me how to accept the vocation God wanted to give me. It was at this time I began to let go of what had been and to put my whole heart into searching for what the Provincial had opened up to me and that my Dad had confirmed in a kind of prophetic way.

   I now went to my pastor for his advice. I was completely open to him about my vocation. He encouraged me, prayed for me, told me about the Passionist Nuns in Owensboro, and finally arranged that I make a weekend retreat with them. God indeed was revealing to me His will through others. And so, I made the retreat and it was during this retreat that I truly said yes to the past and yes to God’s will for me at the present. So quickly did it all happen that I could hardly control the exalted feeling within me. Six weeks later I was accepted as a postulant in the Passionist Congregation.

   It is in being a Spouse of Jesus Crucified that I can always be a missionary Sister at heart, for Jesus was the greatest missionary that ever came into this world. And so my dream is being fulfilled at every moment through prayer, penance and sacrifice and by having Jesus’ sufferings and death always in my heart. This is God’s loving gift to me and it is this gift that I share daily with the whole world through faith. God love and bless you.

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Sponsa Christi September 30th, 2008

    After much prayer and hard work our vocation DVD is being shown on EWTN – Rejoice!  Special thanks to the staff and crew of EWTN for approving our DVD and showing it before a world-wide audience.  May this make Jesus more known and loved and may the hearts of some holy and healthy young women be prompted to respond to the grace of a Passionist vocation.

   Thus far the only times we have for its showing are from today’s listing - Tuesday, September 30th at 2:30 p.m. and again at 5:30 p.m. central time.  I will let you know further times as I become aware of them.

    Please join us in praying the same prayer we offer daily for vocations – see the praying hands in the right sidebar.

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Sponsa Christi September 25th, 2008

Check out the updated subpages under “Passionist Nuns”. Two more excellent articles by Mother Catherine Marie, C.P. regarding our devotions to the Most Holy Eucharist and Our Blessed Mother.

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Sponsa Christi September 23rd, 2008

     Saint Vincent was born in Civitavecchia (Italy) in 1745. A short time after his ordination to the priesthood, he entered the recently founded Passionist Congregation. Travelling throughout most of Italy, he endeavoured to promote the Christian life among the people by preaching on the Passion. He wrote hagiographical and devotional books, the most significant of which was that on the Precious Blood. Being an outstanding spiritual director, he directed among others, Saint Gaspar del Bufalo and Blessed Anna Maria Taigi.

     Appointed Bishop of Macerata and Tolentino (Italy), he showed himself to be a true shepherd of his flock and promoted the reform of the clergy and the people with apostolic zeal.

     In the political upheavals of the time, he was a fearless advocate of the freedoms of the Church and chose exile in preference to an unlawful oath of loyalty to Napoleon. When he returned to his see after exile, he once again manifested his deep pastoral concern and extraordinary charity for the poor.

     Called by Pope Leo XII to become his personal advisor, he died in the Quirinal Palace on 1st January 1824, after having offered himself to God in place of the Pope, who was seriously ill.

Let us pray

     All powerful and ever living God, you made your bishop Saint Vincent Mary Strambi a devoted shepherd of your flock and a faithful servant of your Church. Strengthen us by his example to love our neighbour and work for justice as members of your Church. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

      Offer a prayer for our Passionist Missionaries at St. Vincent Strambi School

High School in Jamaica, West Indies named after St. Vincent Strambi

Photos of the Passionist Missionaries and the students at St. Vincent Strambi High School.

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Sponsa Christi September 18th, 2008

   Greetings from the cloister!  Due to a freak “tropical depression – wind storm” from Hurricane Ike we were without power for a couple days including the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. It was a day of prayer and festive joy here in the monastery.  As Passionists we have a special Liturgy of the Hours for Our Sorrowful Mother feast and it is in itself a mystical banquet. Our prayers go out to all those who are still suffering from the hurricanes.  Our Lady of Prompt Succor, ora pro nobis!

   Recently Sr. Mary Andrea’s sister Theresa was here to make a solitude retreat. She shared with us a copy of a talk entitled Growth and Ideals, which I believe she gave at a TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) Retreat last spring. I knew you would enjoy this segment of it!

    “I come from what some may call a bit of a large family. I have four sisters. Oh, and also five brothers. And 14 nieces and nephews, 42 aunts and uncles, and over 100 first cousins. Most people go to their grandmother’s or an aunt’s house for Christmas. We rent out a gym.

Melanie, Theresa, Sister Mary Andrea, Bridget and Emily

    In the middle of all the madness that is my huge family, there is me. I’m the 8^th child, with two little sisters. Its just the three of us and our parents at home now because everyone else is moved out or married. I’m also partially moved out since I started going to IUPUI in Indianapolis last fall. I still stay close with my family, however. They always have been and always will be a huge part of my life. We had to be close, considering there were 10 kids and 2 parents living under one roof. I just laugh when I hear people complaining about having to share a bedroom or bathroom with a sister or brother. When I was younger, there were four girls in my bedroom, and all 12 of us shared 2 bathrooms. It definitely made getting ready in the morning an adventure.

    We were also close in everything else we did, whether it be camping, working in our garden, or just doing dishes together. My mom believed in the power of hard work over the power of technology, so we often abandoned the dishwasher in favor of doing the dishes by hand, with everyone helping. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, in fact I hated it, but I think it was simple moments like talking and laughing with dishtowels in our hands that helped make us so close.

    Any time I introduce myself to someone new, and they find out how many siblings I have, they invariably ask if I’m Catholic. I just don’t know what gives them this impression! But yes, I sometimes wondered when I was younger if my mom was going for “Catholic mother of the year”. As well as going to Mass together at least once a week and praying night prayers, we would pray the rosary every day when we got home from school. This was another ritual I did not always appreciate as it was happening. I remember being asked what I wanted to pray for and replying huffily “Everybody and Everything!” in an effort to get prayers over with faster. Now that I’m in college and away from them, I find myself missing that group of supporters to pray with…

    This talk is called Growth and Ideals. I’m sure you guys know what growth is, at least physically speaking…you get bigger! But growth also means becoming a bigger person emotionally. And when I talk about an ideal, I mean something that is close to my heart, something that really matters. My ideal self is my best self, the best Theresa…that I can possibly become. My ideal is how I envision life, how I find meaning in life.

    As we grow and change with age, so do our ideals. As children, we had simple ideals. The things that were important to us were easily attainable; games, dolls, baseball mitts, the latest Barbie dream house. We idealize people like athletes, astronauts, and ballerinas. I remember when I was in elementary and middle school, I idealized the people in my story books and novels. I spent so much time reading that, when I was punished, instead of getting grounded, my mom would take away my books for the evening. I read those stories over and over because the characters in them had everything I wanted. If only I had the magical powers of Matilda, the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, or the humor of Junie B. Jones, life could be just about perfect.

    A few years later, however, Jr. High and High School were ushered in, and along with them came my social awareness. Suddenly books were collecting dust as I learned how to wear makeup and made giggly phone calls to my best friends to discuss their latest boyfriends and our next trip to the mall. My ideals and the way I viewed life were changing. Suddenly, clothes, boys, friends, and my social calendar were top on my list of priorities. I went to a private elementary school where we had to wear uniforms, so when I got to high school, my clothes became especially important to me. I would wake up as early as 5 o’clock in the morning so that I would have a full 2 hours to do my hair and makeup and get ready. I even started keeping a ridiculous log of what I wore everyday so that I wouldn’t wear any one outfit too often. Even after all this effort, I still look back at my early high school photos and laugh at how goofy I look. Anyway, my point is that my ideals were obviously of a superficial nature.

    Then, in the beginning of my junior year, something happened to make me question my ideals and the things I had built my life around. My older sister Andrea and I have always been close. She is four years older than me, and the closest older sibling to me. However, just because she is close to me in the family order does not mean that we were similar. She was always much more of an individual and never afraid to do what made her happy. She had a deep love for Christ, and wasn’t afraid to show it, even in high school, where most kids are way too cool to show a deep passion for anything, much less their religion.

    So I shouldn’t have been surprised when she sat me down one day to tell me that she had decided to join the cloistered Passionist Monastery in Whitesville, KY. I say I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I most certainly was! For those of you who don’t know, living in a cloistered monastery means you don’t come home. Ever. Needless to say, this came as an absolute shock to me. I had shared a bedroom with Andrea for my entire life. We told each other everything. I remember lying in bed some nights talking for hours about whatever was on our minds until one of us would finally drift off to sleep. Now she was telling me that she was leaving to go live with this group of crazy old nuns for the rest of her life, and she wouldn’t be home. Not for my first prom, not for my graduation, not even for my wedding. That was a lot to take from my sister who had become one of my biggest confidants. At first I felt only skepticism and even a bit of anger at her decision. I mean, how could she just leave me, leave our family like this? And who does that? Who becomes a nun, and a cloistered nun with a big black habit and everything? It was so weird, and definitely did not fall under any definition of cool that I had come to know in my high school career.

    I tried to be as supportive as my emotions would let me be, but it was hard. She told me she still had several years before she took her vows and she was only going as a postulant to discern whether this was right for her or not. Secretly, I wished and hoped that she would hate it and come home. Finally, the time came for her to leave. Even more when she left, I wondered why she would choose this weird, weird way of life. Over the next few months, we got to go and visit her a few times in her new home. I got to meet some of the other nuns that lived there, and they weren’t so bad. The monastery was also very pretty. It still just seemed strange, however. I mean, how dare Andrea call all those old nuns her sisters. She was my sister. Mine!

Sister Mary Andrea with “those Nuns”!

    Then one Sunday, my mom decided that we should go to Sunday Mass at the monastery. We got there, and had to sit on the visitors side. Part of the cloister is that the nuns even sit on a different side of the church from everyone else. Mass started, and the sisters all filed in. There was Andrea, sitting with the rest of them. As Mass went on, I kept watching her. She seemed so peaceful, so fully in her element. I began to think about my definition of normal and how Andrea would fit into it. Then I realized, she wouldn’t. This was truly her home, the place where she really belonged. Just watching her and realizing how truly happy she was, I started bawling, right there in the middle of Mass. Afterward, I went and gave her a giant hug.

    I’d like to say everything was perfect after that, and I never had to be sad about her being gone ever again, but that wouldn’t be true. I still miss her now, but it’s gotten a lot easier. I’ve actually made friends with some of those women I thought were crazy old nuns and their advice and prayers have been amazingly beneficial in my life. Realizing that Andrea is doing what makes her truly happy, what she was meant to do, really helped me accept her decision to join the monastery. It also helped me in my life. It encouraged me to stop constantly thinking about what all of my peers wanted me to do and to focus more on what I wanted from life. This also was not an overnight transformation. However, it too got easier with time. The more I realized that my friends would still accept me, no matter what I was wearing, or whether or not my makeup was perfect, the easier it got to be true to myself. And with that, once again my ideals began to evolve. I began to idealize my own true fulfillment in life, rather than the fulfillment of other’s expectations…”

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Sponsa Christi September 13th, 2008

      On this vigil of our principal Marian feast, the feast of Our Mother of Sorrows, we will consider Mary as the directress of the mission of the Passionist Congregation.

     The Mariological principle of consortium cannot be overemphasized. St. Albert the Great wrote:

    The Blessed Virgin was drawn by Our Lord not into ministry, but into consortium as a helpmate. Her role is not vicarious. She is a co-worker and companion, a sharer in the kingdom as she was sharer in the sufferings for the human race….

    Here on Calvary we have the principle of consortium at its climax. Towards this all the events in the lives of Jesus and Mary have led. Mary’s association with her Son in all his mysteries was directed to this supreme communion of pain and sorrow.

    In consequence of this union with Christ in the Passion, Mary in heaven is forever associated with her Son as the principal dispenser of His grace. It is from her queenly throne that she directs the distribution of grace. The saints and doctors of Mariology insist that ‘every grace is communicated to the world in three steps: for it is dispensed in the most orderly fashion from God to Christ, from Christ to the Virgin, and from the Virgin to us.’  St. Bernadine taught that ‘all the gifts, all the virtues and all the graces of the Holy Spirit are distributed through her hands, to whom she wills, when she wills, as she wills, and as much as she wills.’

   Every apostolate therefore must be exercised within this framework. The rebirth, sanctification and salvation of every soul is under the direction of Mary, Mother of Divine Grace. From the heart of the beatific vision she sees each of her children, and seeing their needs, provides for them. She watches over and protects the faith of the Church. St. Germaine once wrote this prayer to Mary: “Hail, fountain from which flow the rivers of divine wisdom in waves of the purest and clearest orthodoxy, and dispel the current of error.”

    When the Mother of Sorrows came to Paul Daneo to ask him to found the Congregation, she was calling a new religious institute into being, a group of consecrated souls with whom she would share her choicest graces. This new institute was to make a life work of contemplating and preaching the sufferings of her Son.

    Mary wanted our Congregation to be a channel of grace for dispensing the riches her Son and she had won on Calvary. It was really a co-redemptive work that Mary had in mind; co-redemptive in the sense of carrying out the work of redemption. Mary had stood by the cross of Jesus, co-redeeming in spiritual maternity, and she wants us to help her in this work. Mary is Queen of Apostles in every age, but she performs her work especially in and through those closest to her. Looking constantly to her for direction, we will be more docile instruments in her hands.

    What words can express the sentiments that fill our hearts, seeing Mary’s predilection for our Passionist Congregation? Tonight we end these reflections with words from our Consecration to her Immaculate Heart:

 ”With most lively gratitude, O Mary, we thank you for so many benefits; particularly for having called us to form part of this Institute. In order that we may better correspond to our vocation and grow in your love and more effectively obtain your powerful aid amid present threatening necessities and perils, we confide and consecrate to your Immaculate Heart ourselves, our houses, our ministry and our sufferings. Deign to regard us henceforth as your property. Dispose of us and of all that belongs to us as you please, according to the desires of your Divine Son, Jesus…

    I wish each of you abundant feastday graces and blessings as we celebrate tomorrow the feast of the Mother of our Passionist Congregation—Mary, Our Mother of Sorrows.

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Sponsa Christi September 12th, 2008

September 13 – Septenary in Honor of Our Lady of Sorrows

     Having considered Our Mother of Sorrows as the overflowing fountain of the wisdom who is Christ crucified, and also having considered her as the perfect Model for our contemplation of his Passion, let us this evening reflect on the manner by which she dispenses these graces to our souls and how she exercises her influence upon us.

     Mary’s instrumentality in grace is totally maternal, for she forms us to her likeness as a mother does. The reproduction of her compassion for Jesus in our hearts is imparted to Passionists who learn to hide themselves within the heart-womb of this Mother of Sorrows. In treating of Mary’s part in the Passion of her Son, St. Albert the Great wrote: ‘She received in her heart the wounds that he received in his body.’ And so we ask Mary in our Consecration to ‘Hide us in your heart.’ Why? The answer lies in the further plea: ‘Make our hearts like yours.’ In the Heart of Mary pierced and wounded by the sufferings of Christ, our hearts will be in line for a similar grace. Her Heart is, as it were, a mold in which our hearts can be formed to her likeness.

     Assuredly there is no question here of an actual presence in the Heart of Mary. These are bold symbols and the language of desire. But they are founded on the sound psychology of St. Thomas. If Mary’s causality in grace is maternal, it is because of her incomparable motherly love, of which her Heart is the best symbol. In God’s providence, this love of Mary holds within its power the determination and distribution of all graces to our souls. We beg entrance within the shelter of her love, that by the power of her intercession, she might mold our hearts to the image of her own. Hiding thus within her Heart, we admire the peerless example of our Model in her consortium with Christ. We ask of her: ‘Impress the wounds of Jesus and your own sufferings upon our hearts.’ This grace is actually that “fellowship in Christ’s sufferings”that St Paul longed for so ardently. It is that association in the Sacred Passion that the Stabat Mater sings about:

      Mary’s intercession with God is charged with divine power, acting upon us in an efficacious way to produce supernatural effects in our souls. Wisely therefore, do we Passionists seek refuge in Mary’s love symbolized by her Heart. There, as a child in the womb of its mother, we are formed to the likeness of our Mother and Model. “Make our hearts like yours. Make us love prayer, solitude, and poverty. And above all, impress the wounds of Jesus and your sorrows on our hearts so that by word and example we may be able to reawaken in our Christian people the devout remembrance of them.”

     According to our Holy Founder, devotion to the Passion of Jesus and devotion to the Sorrows of Mary go hand in hand. To his own meditation on the sufferings of Christ, Paul was accustomed to join the consideration of the Sorrows of His Mother. He begged for a share in her spirit of compassion, and exhorted others to think constantly on the Passion of Jesus and on her own sharp and unfathomable griefs. “Allow yourself to be penetrated by the sufferings of Jesus and the sorrows of Mary,”he advised. Paul looked upon the Mother’s sorrows as the atmosphere in which to contemplate the suffering of Jesus. During this Septenary, let us pray for the grace to contemplate the Passion through the eyes of Mary and within her Heart.

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Sponsa Christi September 11th, 2008

September 12 – Septenary in Honor of Our Lady of Sorrows

    Every model is a teacher, imparting knowledge by way of action if not by word. The Mother of Sorrows impresses her lessons on the souls of Passionists who contemplate her standing beside the cross of Christ. We are to be citizens of Golgotha; we make our home on Calvary in the company of Mary and John, the beloved disciple, and the holy women who remained faithful to Jesus when all others abandoned him. Here we desire to learn the wisdom of the cross, from Mary who, as St Bernard says, “penetrated beyond all belief into the deepest abyss of divine wisdom.”

     We hail Mary as the Seat of Wisdom, and the liturgy often applies to her texts from the wisdom books of the Old Testament. Mary, the Mother of Sorrows, is indeed an overflowing fountain of this wisdom who is Christ and him crucified. Passionists can learn this divine wisdom by listening in prayer to her instruction, by watching daily in meditation this Model whom God has given us on Calvary, and by following the ways of her example. Mary is the best teacher of the wisdom hidden in the wounds of Christ.

     Pope St. Pius X taught: “No one has known Christ more intimately than Mary….No one is better able to be our guide and teacher in this knowledge of Christ than she….Through the Virgin and chiefly through her, a way has been opened for us to acquire the knowledge of Christ.” The wisdom of the cross cannot be grasped without the help of one who has gone before us on the path of truth. Mary can point the way, because she followed Christ on the first way of the cross, mingling her tears with his blood. Therefore, we must go to the Seat of Wisdom, to penetrate the darkness of Calvary and to learn the mystery of redemption.

     This grace is very personal to Mary, flowing from within her very heart. This grace reproduces the mysteries of her life in souls, who thus become faithful copies of their Model. Few of our Lady’s mysteries were more personal to her than that of standing beside the cross in her communion of pain and sorrow with her Son. This compassion was a grace she could claim as her own by every right. This profound understanding of Jesus’ sentiments of mind and heart was so intimate and personal to his Mother that it can be said to flow from within her very Heart. When Mary dispenses graces like this to us, she is opening her Heart to us, revealing and sharing the inmost secrets of her Heart.

     Mary has called our Congregation into existence to associate us with herself in this mystery which is so personal to her. She wants to reproduce it in our souls, to share with us her union of pain and sorrow with her Divine Son. We are to become one heart and soul with her in this.

     Passionists need to contemplate the Passion. The grace by which we are given to appreciate the mystery of the cross and to know the surpassing love of Christ is one of the deepest secrets of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is undoubtedly one of her choicest graces. The vocation to receive a confidence so personal to her is a most solid reason for claiming Mary as our Queen by special right. This reproduction of her compassion in our hearts is the fulfillment of her role as the perfect Model for our contemplation of the Passion.

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Sponsa Christi September 10th, 2008

   ***Let us pause and remember all who lost their lives on this day of the terrorist attack 7 years ago. May our Sorrowful Mother escort any of those souls remaining in purgatory to the Bosom of the Trinity and may she comfort all who carry emotional and physical scars from that day.  O Sorrowful Mother, protect our military personnel and turn the hearts of our Nation back to your Son!

September 11 – Septenary in Honor of Our Lady of Sorrows 

     If we study the characteristics of our Holy Founder’s spiritual life, we see that Mary was there as his Queen and Mother. The highest graces of Paul’s interior life came as an overflow from Mary’s heart. On one occasion,

     the Mother of God appeared to Paul holding the Divine Child in her arms….He heard the Blessed Virgin ask if he were willing to celebrate the mystical marriage of his soul with the Divine Word….A golden ring, embossed with the signs of the Sacred Passion, was then placed upon his finger by the Blessed Virgin. At the same time he was given to understand that as a consequence of this espousal, he must continually recall to mind the sorrowful Passion of Jesus Christ.

     Devotion to Mary was like a sea of love and sorrow that surged in and engulfed his whole being. He himself testified to two vows: to believe and to defend Mary’s Immaculate Conception and her glorious Assumption. This devotion flooded over into his letters: “Love this infinite Good with the sweet Heart of this great Lady.” “Enter into that chamber of love, which is her sacred Heart.”

    Even in poetry he sang of Mary:

     These words of Paul give evidence of Mary’s power over his life. And he confided the Passionist Congregation into her care. He wrote: “Mary most holy, may she protect it (the least Congregation) and provide saintly workers, because she is the treasury of all graces.” And again: “Yesterday I celebrated solemn Mass for all five retreats and I placed them in the hands of Mary most holy.” In 1765, Paul wrote to Mother Mary Crucified, co-foundress of the Passionist Nuns, that he wants Mary to be the Abbess of their monasteries.

     When the evening of Paul’s life came, he would not leave his children orphans. After receiving Viaticum on Aug. 30, 1775, Paul spoke these words to the assembled community at Saints John and Paul’s:

You, O Virgin Immaculate, Queen of Martyrs, by your sorrows so vast in the Passion of your most beloved Son, give to all of us your maternal blessing, while I confide and leave all these beneath the mantle of your protection.

     Devotion to Mary is an integral element in the spirituality of the Passionist Congregation. In the Passion narratives of the Gospel, it is impossible to pass over the part played by the Mother of the Redeemer, the new Eve. Mary, standing beneath the cross, brought to perfection her work of maternal co-redemption. Our Holy Founder, in preaching the Passion, would often give meditations on the heart to heart colloquy between Jesus and Mary before he began his Passion, when he asked her consent to go to his death, and also on the meeting between Jesus and Mary along the way of the cross. Paul very often spoke of the Sea of the Passion and at the same time of the Sea of Mary’s Dolors.

     Paul strongly repeated to all:

    Devotion to Mary must be true, solid and fruitful; true devotion consists not merely in prayers, pilgrimages, fasts and abstinences, but in the assiduous imitation of her virtues; otherwise God and his Mother would be constrained to use the words first addressed to the Jews: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’ One who wishes to please Mary must humble and empty him or herself, because Mary was the most humble of all creatures, and for this reason she pleased God more than all other creatures.

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Sponsa Christi September 9th, 2008

Day 3 – September 10

     Having considered Mary as Queen and Co-Redemptrix, we now reflect on Mary as the inspiration of our Congregation. One of the Passionist Superiors General wrote the following:

The most sweet Mother of God is the loving Custodian of every religious order….Yet there are some who are more particularly obligated to her, because she appears as the one who communicated the idea, showed the form of its habit and intervened in its foundation. This most singular favor was granted to the least Congregation of the Passion.

     We will not then be surprised to find Mary’s presence at all important and crucial moments in the founding of the Congregation. In the Consecration to her Immaculate Heart we pray:

It was you who inspired your faithful servant, Paul of the Cross, to found this humble Institute which would continually remember the Passion and Death of your Divine Son, Jesus; you who deigned to appear to him clothed in this habit of mourning and penance which we wear; you who lovingly indicated the spot where the first Retreat was to rise…

    The idea of founding a new religious community developed slowly in the mind of Paul of the Cross. Yet, from the very beginning of his life, Mary showed that she had some special plan for him. We read in the processes for canonization that Mary saved Paul and his brother from drowning in a river. When Paul entered early manhood, he remained uncertain about his vocation. Then flashes of light began to illuminate the distant horizon.

     In his preface to the primitive rule, Paul records his first strong desire for solitude. While on a journey, he saw a tiny church in the distance, “and seeing it,” Paul wrote, “I felt my heart moved with a longing for such solitude…Ever after, I kept this desire in my heart.” Was it only a coincidence that the tiny church was dedicated to the Most Holy Madonna?

     Then in the summer of 1720, when Paul was returning home after Mass and Communion, he suddenly felt himself wrapped in ecstasy. How could he possibly think of anything else when before him was the Mother of God? She was clothed in a black habit of mourning and she said to him: “You see, my son, how I am dressed. This is on account of the most sorrowful death of my beloved Son Jesus. You are to dress in the same way, and to found a Congregation which will sorrow continually with me over the Passion and death of my Beloved Son.” Mary’s words show that she longs to share with Paul and with all of us her communion of pain and sorrow with her crucified Son. She wants to give Passionists what is such an intimate part of her own life: her loving sorrow for Christ Crucified.

     On Nov. 22, 1720, Paul was vested in the black habit of the Passion, but without the Passion Sign. Then followed his 40 days’ retreat during which he wrote the primitive rule. Mary was slowly bringing into reality the great work for the Church which she had begun in Paul. On Sept. 8, 1721, Paul was sailing along the coast of Italy when in the distance he saw a mountain rising out of the sea. Only a narrow strip of land connected it with the coast. Within his heart he heard Mary’s call: “Paul, Paul, I am all alone. Come to Monte Argentario.” There on this lonely mountain, Mary indicated the spot where the first retreat was to rise. She appeared to Paul over the branches of an olive tree. When Paul built the retreat years later, the choir area occupied the place where the tree once grew.

     In the critical years ahead, Mary remained by Paul’s side, directing and guiding him. Three of the Congregation’s most important favors from the Holy Father were all granted on the vigil of the Assumption. It was to acknowledge this that the first retreats and provinces were all named after Mary. This beautiful story of Mary’s inspiration for the Passionist Congregation will be continued tomorrow.

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