In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi November 26th, 2008

    Did you see the National Catholic Register Christmas Gift Guide that was in the November 9 -15 issue? Two of the handmade items from our on-line Gift shop were featured!

We have been getting lots of orders…

especially of the Infant Resting on the Cross.

 Yes, Sister Mary Therese has been very busy in the “nursery” creating these statuettes!

   We have been pleasantly surprised to find that the symbol of the Infant Resting on the Cross is quickly becoming a Pro-Life image. One woman called from Nebraska wanting to give these to the sidewalk counselors who pray in front of abortion clinics. A wheel-chair bound elderly woman from New York City wants to give these to some of the Sisters of Life for Christmas and another woman bought some to give to her children who have suffered miscarriages.

   This prayer symbol was actually “born” in the heart of our founder and 18th century mystic, St. Paul of the Cross. Having commissioned an original painting of an infant resting on a cross, Paul then gave the image to a woman under his direction who suffered from severe illness. He told her she was to learn from it how to sleep interiorly on the cross of suffering with a sweet silence of faith and patience. This image remains a powerful help today for anyone desiring to share the trustful attitude of Jesus. Trust in the Father’s love at work in the crosses and hardships of daily life, enables one to attain an interior “resting” in the will of God even when stretched on the cross.

    Happily, we are subscribers of the National Catholic Register; if you are not we hope you will be soon! Special thanks to the NCR for featuring us. May the Lord continue to bless your work of proclaiming truth!

   May all of you have a Blessed and Holy Thanksgiving Day tomorrow and may you rest in the Father’s love as you encounter the crosses of your daily life. May the passion of Christ and the Sorrows of Mary be ever in our hearts!

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Sponsa Christi November 21st, 2008

Pro Orantibus Day:
Monasteries for the life of the Church and the world

    May the Lord reward all those who kept us in prayer these last 4 days in preparation for our devotional renewal of vows this morning at Mass. These were days full of grace! In keeping with the spirituality of the feast of this day we Sisters remembered that it is also our “presentation in the Temple” – by the renewal of our vows we recall the commitment we have made in giving our lives to the Most Blessed Trinity. 

     Now, in keeping with our charism, we go to Calvary and ask our Lady to present us to her Son, Jesus Crucified. That we may surrender our lives with greater fidelity to the Holy Spirit, receiving the fruits of Jesus’ saving passion that flow from His pierced Heart…for the glory of God and the life of the world. God bless you for your support of our contemplative vocation – it means more than words can express! Be assured that you have a special share in our life of prayer and joyful penance.

    For 55 years, the Church has dedicated November 21 to the value of contemplative life, in support of the life of all of the baptized, of missionaries, and of society, which becomes less and less human without God. The pope asks that the material needs of monasteries be taken to heart.

    Vatican City (AsiaNews) – “Seeking God and seeking him through Jesus Christ who has revealed him (cf. John 1:18), seeking him by fixing one’s gaze on the invisible realities that are eternal (cf. 2 Cor. 4:18), in expectation of the glorious manifestation of the Savior”: for Benedict XVI, this is the vocation of monks and nuns who for millennia have abandoned – in appearance only – the world in order to live in the monasteries.

    The pope met today with members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which is celebrating its hundredth anniversary. In “seeking God,” the pope clarified, monks and nuns realize their vocation “for the good of the entire Church.” Monasticism, in fact, constitutes “for all forms of religious life and consecration a memory of that which is essential and has primacy in every baptismal life: seeking Christ, and putting nothing before his love.” 

    There is an “exemplarity” in monastic life, which upholds every Christian. For this reason, it is worthwhile for every believer to establish familiarity and friendship with a cloistered monastery.

    Missionary vocations are also assisted by monastic vocations, especially contemplative vocations. In the PIME, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, many missionaries, including some of the youngest, cultivate relationships of correspondence and prayer with a brother or sister in a contemplative order. This helps the missionaries to remember the One who has sent them, and to keep alive the heart of all works and activities, which is the love of Christ.

    “The monastery,” the pope said, is where people learn “to live as true disciples of Jesus, in serene and persevering fraternal communion, welcoming any guests as Christ himself,” and this makes the monastic experience a model for all Christians. The appeal of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, celebrated recently in Rome, also sees in monks and nuns the primary protagonists in “making the Word of God their daily food, in particular through the practice of lectio divina.”

    Monastic vocations, especially contemplative ones, are of special relevance in today’s world, which is often tempted to build a society without God, where man believes himself to be the only protagonist. But frenzy and presumption are poor teachers, and the wounds of contemporary society – marginalization, violence, the manipulation of life, war, desperation – bear witness to the fact that without “seeking God,” we build a world against man.

    This respect for contemplative vocations led to the institution of the Pro Orantibus Day, in 1953. Since 1955, it has been celebrated on November 21, the liturgical commemoration of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. Last Sunday, on November 16, Benedict XVI asked all the faithful to thank “the Lord for the brothers and sisters who have embraced this mission by dedicating themselves entirely to prayer, and who live on what they receive from Providence . . . Dear sisters and dear brothers, your presence in the Church and in the world is indispensable. I am close to you, and I bless you with great affection!” And he added: “Let us pray in our turn for them and for new vocations, and let us commit ourselves to supporting monasteries in their material necessities.”

    Supporting monasteries in their “material necessities” will help the Church to be more alive, and the world to be more human.

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• Blessed Mother , Bride of Christ , Passionist Life , Pro Orantibus Day
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Sponsa Christi November 16th, 2008

    Perhaps that is what you have been wondering if you have been visiting In the Shadow of His Wings the past couple of weeks.  Yes, Sponsa Christi and the rest of the Sisters are still here – and alive and well!

    Now, to that promise I made you 2 weeks ago to share some of the “goings on” here at the monastery.

    On the Solemnity of All Saints, Saturday, November 1st, (the first day of the month devoted to the Holy Souls) we had Eucharistic adoration in the morning and then after lunch dishes and “saluting the angels” (more about that in a future post!) we gathered to process to our cemetery and pray for our deceased sisters who have gone before us, especially remembering our dear Sister Mary Bernadette. It was a beautiful day as you can see.

    We have really enjoyed the fall weather. Some of us Sisters look forward to this time of the year as it is great for hiking all over our woods…the brush has died down after a couple of hard frosts, the ticks are gone and hopefully most of the spiders and other creatures that love to slither on the ground or find a hiding place in one’s veil!

    The novitiate is doing well. They are enjoying their many classes in various areas of spirituality (Liturgy, personality, Catechism, etc.) Sister John Mary finished her monastic decorum class with the postulants and now they have begun a scripture course that will include Dr. Scott Hahn’s Bible Study “Genesis to Jesus”. All are excited about diving into all the books of the Bible and get a deeper grasp of the narrative thread of salvation history that runs through the whole Bible.  Kudos and heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Hahn and all the staff at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology for writing these wonderful Bible studies and making them available to the public without cost! It is our prayer that the Lord bless you temporally and spiritually.

    Finally, as I write this post our community is entering into a 4 day retreat (Mon – Thurs) in preparation for the devotional renewal of our vows during 6:30 a.m. Mass on Friday, November 21st. This is the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Feast ranks of that of Solemnity in our monastery (even down to eating meat, having dessert, and putting out the candy cart on a Friday!) Our Founder held this feast very dear to his heart and named the first monastery (“retreat”) for men and the first monastery for the Nuns after this great Feast of our Lady. This is also the day that the universal Church sets aside to pray for cloistered communities throughout the world. It is called Pro Orantibus Day – “for those who pray”.

   Well, I must now go now. Please do keep us in prayer during our retreat!

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• Blessed Mother , Novitiate news , Passionist Life , Saint Paul of the Cross
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Sponsa Christi November 5th, 2008

He became a man, was unjustly condemned…

He died for us that we might live for Him. 

     Let’s live our lives in an “attitude of offertory” – uniting ourselves with the self-offering of Christ for the glory of the Father and the salvation of our nation…especially working to bring an end to the silent, horrific, unseen, and forgotten holocaust of abortion.

    Today has been a sobering day for us Sisters. But we do not give up hope. We are his disciples. We must pick up our cross daily. We find our strength in the passion of Christ and place our hopes in His promise of ultimate victory.  May you too find your strength in the paschal mystery.

It is from the blood of Christ that all draw the strength to commit themselves to promoting life. It is precisely this blood that is the most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the foundation of the absolute certitude, that in God’s plan, life will be victorious.

Pope John Paul II  ~  Evangelium Vitae #25

    I hope to have a post up by the weekend of some of the recent happenings here in the monastery.

    May the passion of Christ and the sorrows of Mary be ever in our hearts!

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Sponsa Christi November 2nd, 2008

    Dear friends – let’s “seize the day” and get out and vote to bring about a culture of life!

Click here to read Fr. Frank Pavone’s blog and be energized

Click here to visit our website and read various statements teaching us how to vote in accord with the teachings of our Catholic faith.

Click hereto hear Fr. Corapi explain how we must vote pro-life

We Sisters here are having a Triduum of prayer for the upcoming presidential election with our Eucharistic adoration today, Monday and Tuesday beginning 2 hours earlier than usual. Our rosary at 4:30 will be for the elections.

St. Faustina relates in her diary an experience of seeing an angel sent by God to chastise a certain city. She began to plead God’s mercy but felt her prayers to be powerless. At this moment she saw the Holy Trinity and felt the power of Jesus’ grace within her. At the same time she found herself pleading with God for mercy with words she heard interiorly: “Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

While she prayed these words the angel became helpless and could not carry out the deserved punishment… (Diary 475)

This is how the popular Chaplet of Divine Mercy was revealed to St. Faustina. Please join us in spirit offering to the Eternal Father the passion and death of His Son begging him to have mercy on our nation and mercifully grant us a president who upholds the Christian principles upon which this nation was founded.

Our Lord told St. Faustina “I desire to grant unimaginable graces to those souls who trust in My mercy (687). Through the Chaplet you will obtain everything, if what you ask for is compatible with My will” (1731).

Our Lady of Guadalupe – Our Lady of the Americas, you who brought an end to human sacrifice in Mexico so many years ago, bring an end to abortion and the culture of death in the Americas today!

O Mary conceived without sin, ora pro nobis!

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