In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi March 16th, 2009

Two Texas A&M Alumnae give the thumbs up “gig’em Aggies” sign

    Yes, that is a small “s” in son, as this son is not our Lord Jesus Christ but our friend and mariologist Richard May with whom we had a delightful and informative visit this past weekend. Rich is a former Air Force pilot and currently works at NASA in Houston as an aerospace engineer. He has an outstanding devotion to our Blessed Mother and travels around the country sharing about her apparitions, her role as co-redemptrix, mediatrix and advocate, and so forth. He also has been on EWTN TV and radio and has a weekly live call-in show on Radio Maria. Well, I just cannot do him justice in this small blog post; visit his site to learn more about him.

Our Lady of La Salette was weeping over the sins of mankind when she appeared to 2 shepherd children in France.

    During his brief visit he shared with us about Our Blessed Mother’s appearances in La Salette, France, Garabandal, Spain and in Akita, Japan. During his talks he also gave us a slide program. I was very struck by the messages and in particular the image of our Lady of La Salette wearing the large crucifix. On one side of the crucifix is a pliers and on the other side a hammer. Through this image our Lady is telling us that by the way we live our lives we either crucify her Son again or by our prayer, penance and love of God and neighbor relieve our Lord in His suffering. I was also struck by her great sorrow over the breaking of the Third Commandment – not keeping the Lord’s Day holy. This causes her great grief. How many of us keep the Lord’s Day holy? 

    Rich, thanks for making our Lady’s apparitions more known and loved. Your words have increased our zeal to make a more fervent Lent, bringing to our minds the necessity of our Passionist vocation of reparation and love in the heart of the Church.  Let us dry the tears of our dear Mother, Our Lady of La Salette.

 The cross above the shrine of Our Lady of La Salette

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Sponsa Christi March 10th, 2009

     Today we begin our blessed novena to St. Joseph. Our monastery was placed under his patronage from its conception.

    “I said to him, ‘What am I to do? They want me to make a new foundation and I don’t know where to go or what to do. But, dear Saint Joseph, if you take over, I’ll follow the counsel of those who have a right to advise me.’” So prayed Mother Mary Agnes Roche, founding superior of our monastery.

     On the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, Oct. 7, 1946, five nuns from our Scranton (now Clarks Summit), PA monastery, made the new foundation. “St. Joseph manifested his care by donations sent in his honor. This happened so frequently that we decided on dedicating the new monastery to his patronage.”

     When we relocated to this rural area 13 years ago we placed this statue front of our monastery. He continues to welcome and intercede for all who come to visit, pray, attend our Liturgy and make retreats.

     Please join us in offering this novena prayer these next 9 days. Be assured that you and your intentions will be remembered in a special way. We count on your prayers for us…especially for 2 women who are seriously discerning joining our monastic family and also for a very important intention.

    God love you! We sure do.

Powerful Prayer to St. Joseph

O Glorious St. Joseph,
you who have power to render possible
things that are for us impossible,
come to our aid in our present trouble and distress.
Take this important and difficult affair
under your particular protection that it may end happily.

O dear St. Joseph, all our confidence is in you;
let it not be said that we have invoked you in vain!
And since you are so powerful with Jesus and Mary,
show that your goodness equals your power.
Amen.

Verse: O good St. Joseph, through your love for Jesus, and for the glory of His name,

Response: Hear our prayers and obtain our requests.

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• Monastery traditions , Passionist History , Passionist Life
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Sponsa Christi March 8th, 2009

     Sr. Mary Andrea recently left our holy enclosure to attend her Grandmother’s funeral. Read this article to learn more about our cloistered life.

So Many Graces, So Many Blessings

     After 81+ years of serving our Lord, raising 17 children, and working the family farm, my grandmother (Mom’s Mom) was called Home by God. Being that the Monastery here is only about a 1-hour’s drive from Grandma and Grandpa’s parish and through Mother Catherine Marie’s gracious permission, I was allowed to join what seemed like nearly 350 or 400 people for the visitation and funeral. Considering that all of Grandma and Grandpa’s 17 children, most of Grandma and Grandpa’s 93 grandchildren, many of their 40+ great-grandchildren, and numerous other relatives and friends came, including many spouses of the above, the family decided to have the visitation in the parish church in order to accommodate us all. The funeral visitation, Mass, and burial were truly a beautiful experience, indeed a celebration of life, allowing the family’s strong Catholic faith to shine through.

     Since my uncle (Mom’s brother) is a priest for their diocese, there were at least 12 priests, 2 deacons, and the Bishop there for the Mass, plus other priests were there for the visitation the day before. My priest-uncle did not give the homily, but at the end of Mass he reminded us that at the end of a Wedding Mass the priest introduces the newly married couple as they begin their new life, at which point the congregation will applaud the new couple. He then proceeded to invite all present at Grandma’s funeral to applaud her as she begins her new life. Of course this brought tears to many eyes. Yet, even amidst the tears, so often during the visitation time, I kept hearing different ones of my relatives speak about how happy they are that Grandma is now with God, or about how they cannot imagine what Grandma’s life is like now, referring to the fact that when we die, “life is changed, not ended”. Strange as it might seem, I think I left Grandma’s funeral even happier than when I arrived there because the family’s faith in eternal life truly lifted my spirits. I thank God that He has blessed me with such deep roots in the Catholic Church!

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