In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi October 31st, 2009

    We recently had a visit from 5 wonderful young gals from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. They were on a “Nun Run” and we were blessed to be included as one of their many stops during their fall visit of various monasteries.

    At one point of the visit our electricity went off. We were in the parlor and there is no natural lighting so it was pretty dark. We teased them that once the electricity goes off all our doors automatically lock and they would just have to stay here. Now that the novitiate has taken over the cloth room Sr. Mary Veronica, Sr. Rose Marie and Ane Kirstine could make new habits for these Vandy Five and their discernment woes would be over! 

    It was a joy to have them with us. They just couldn’t tear themselves away and decided to stay for a holy hour of Eucharistic Adoration after Vespers. Special thanks to Fr. John Sims Baker for encouraging them to include our monastery in their “Nun Run”!

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Sponsa Christi October 24th, 2009

   Regular readers of this blog will recognize the name of Msgr Bernard Powers. He is a retired priest of the diocese of Owensboro and resides in a nearby parish. Msgr is often here for Mass and occasionally gives spiritual direction to retreatants here and also offers days of recollection and preached retreats in our retreat house.

    Msgr has published several books of his poetic meditations and he would like to offer you the opportunity to obtain these for your spiritual enrichment. 

     The $2.00 shipping fee applies to those living in the USA. For our friends from abroad - it would be best to email Msgr and find out how much the shipping will be.

    Don’t pass up this great opportunity! God bless you

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Sponsa Christi October 20th, 2009

   The news was carried through the cloister halls today during our recreation afternoon in honor of our Founder’s Feast Day…

    “Did you hear the big news?”, one Sister said to me. She then proceeded to share about the phenomenal news released today by the Vatican regarding the Apostolic Constitution in which Pope Benedict XVI is providing a canonical structure which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church. WOW! and on the Feast of our Founder who so fervently prayed for England and her return to the Catholic Church. 

    Well, this “holy coincidence” has been noticed by at least one other in the blogosphere who wrote “St. Paul of the Cross and the Conversion of England“. I will quote it in part:

So is there any significance in the date of today’s announcement that Pope Benedict has signed an Apostolic Constitution which will allow entire Anglican communities to reenter the Catholic Church en masse? I think so.

October 20 is the feast day of Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775), the founder of the Passionists. Though Saint Paul spent his life in Italy, the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that “For fifty years he prayed for the conversion of England, and left the devotion as a legacy to his [spiritual] sons.”

Almost 65 years after his death, the Passionists were first introduced into England, and the Catholic Encyclopedia declares that “They came in the spirit of Apostles without gold or silver, without scrip or staff or shoes or two coats,” yet they “soon revived without commotion several Catholic customs and practices which had died out since the Reformation. They were the first to adopt strict community life, to wear their habit in public, to give missions and retreats to the people, and to hold public religious processions.

“Father Pius Devine, in an 1882 manuscript cited by the Catholic Encyclopedia, remarks that the Passionist in England “gloried in the disgrace of the Cross, were laughed at by Protestants, warned by timid Catholics, but encouraged always by Cardinal Wiseman. Their courage became infectious, so that in a short time almost every order now in England followed their example.”

All of this may simply be a coincidence. But considering Pope Benedict’s sensitivity to the symbolism of dates, I don’t think so. In any case, on this historic day, we can join Saint Paul of the Cross in praying for the conversion of England.

    And here is some related news from this past August regarding the 10 cloistered Episcopal Nuns and their entrance into full communion with the Catholic Church. – Praise the Lord!

    O Paul, Hunter of Souls, preacher of the Gospel…ora pro nobis!

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• Passionist History , Passionist Life , Saint Paul of the Cross
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Sponsa Christi October 19th, 2009

These beautiful blood red roses showed up
in front of this statue on the first day
of our Novena to our Holy Founder

    Well, the eve of our great Solemnity is upon us.  Perhaps you are wondering…”why do those Americans (and Canadians) celebrate the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross on October 20th? Even the universal breviary lists his feast being on October 19th.” Well, you see, here in North America we observe those holy North American Martyrs as a “Memorial” on October 19th. Therefore, our Holy Founder gets bumped. Actually, he died on October 18th but that is already celebrated as the Feast of St. Luke the Apostle.

    This evening we come to the end of our Solemn novena of prayer and a little extra silence and penance in preparation for this great Feast. During Vespers our Mother Superior read to us the Spiritual Testament left to us by St. Paul of the Cross. It is a very moving account. Special thanks to those early Passionist companions of our Founder who made sure it was not lost. Also, special thanks to Msgr Michael Palud for doing such an excellent job on his blog preparing our readers for St. Paul of the Cross’ Feast.

     The following are some excerpts from Fr. Bennet Kelley, CP’s book Spiritual Direction According to St. Paul of the Cross. (By the way, this is a “must read” for all serious devotees of St. Paul of the Cross and the Passionist charism.)

     “Paul thinks of the Passion, though, not merely as a past even, but as a present sign which we need to contemplate and allow to penetrate us…he wants them to see the Passion as a present sign of God’s love. Paul looked deeper than the wounds of Jesus to see the love beneath the wounds. Each event and each wound had for Paul its own particular significance. It was a sign of some love-attitude in the heart of Christ.

     “Walking in the footsteps of Jesus meant for Paul imitating the love-attitudes of the heart of Jesus which he saw in thePassion; the virtues and values of Jesus; the humility, courage, patience, confidence, compassion for others, obedience to the Father and many other virtues. Here are some examples of what the Passion meant for Paul:

‘The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God. We must arouse the world from it slumber. His Holy Spirit will teach us how.’

‘God can work in us only when we pass through the door which is Jesus Christ and his most holy Passion, which is the greatest and most stupendous work of his love.’”

    Let us live wholly immersed in God, according to our state in life, so as to arouse the world from its slumber!

Happy Feast Day!

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Sponsa Christi October 11th, 2009

    Today begins a 9-day novena in honor of our Holy Founder, St. Paul of the Cross (not to be confused with St. John of the Cross!)  I wish I had time to write you a nice article about him but I must still pray a rosary and prepare for Scripture class in the morning. Hence, I shall refer you to last year’s blog post which our dear friend just posted on his blog – Journey of a Young Priest.

     By the way, for any young man out there discerning a religious missionary vocation I highly encourage you to check out this holy and faithful community – Mission Society of the Passion and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary  Plus you would get to enjoy the beauty of Jamaica and life of total consecration to God and His Church on the “cutting edge” with the poorest of the poor.

    By the way, pray for Sr. Rose Marie. She’s going to be filming a couple vocation ads for our community tomorrow. We have the privilege of working once again with a great video production group out of Nashville – Earnhardt Pirkle Inc 

    God bless and good night!

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Sponsa Christi October 9th, 2009

….so says Pope Paul VI and Msgr Bernard Powers

    Msgr had a stirring homily during Mass this morning on the Feast of St. Inocencio - our Passionist Martyr. You are probably familiar with Msgr’s way of writing by now…his homilies are like poetry.

Feast of Saint Inocencio
Martyred October 9, 1934
Passionist priest

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Inocencio
an occasion to reflect upon martyrdom and religious life.

Pope Paul VI makes us aware of the connection
between martyrdom and religious life.

In his Apostolic Letter on Religious Life
he says that the Holy Spirit
places side by side
     the heroic confession of the martyrs
     and the consecrated life of the religious.

     Both are a manifestation of the primacy of the love of God.

     Both are a manifestation of spiritual generosity.

          Martyrdom is a proclamation of the Gospel
          in dying.
          Religious life is a proclamation of the Gospel
          in the living of the Evangelical councils.

      Martyrdom unites one in dying with the Crucified Christ.
     Religious life unites on in living with the Crucified Christ.

          The martyr is one with Christ in surrender…
          the religious is one with Christ in choice.

               Both are the readiness to do God’s will.
               Both are generous acts of love.

“Unless the grain of wheat fall to the ground and die
it remains just a grain of wheat.
But if it die, it will bear abundant fruit.”

St. Augustine says of the martyr:
     “The Church everywhere flourishes
     through the glorious deeds of the martyrs”.

Pope Paul VI says of the Religious:
     “The Church could not do without
     these exceptional witnesses
     of the transcendence of the love of Christ.

The reading for the Feast of St. Stephen
speaks of martyrdom as an act of love.
     Love was Stephens’ weapon…
     Love was Inocencio’s weapon.
          His love for the poor…his love for the Church…
          His love for the priesthood…
          his love for the Passionist life.

You who are the Religious
have the same gift from God…the gift of love…
     Your love for the church…
     your love for the Crucified Christ…
     Your love for all mankind in praying for salvation.

     “Love is the source of all good things…
     it is the way that leads to heaven”…
     to union with Christ…to dying with Christ.

Love led St. Inocencio to martyrdom.
Love led you to religious life….
both are union with God.

     Both are an honor to God.
     One in a brief moment of dying with Christ.
     One in a lifetime of living with Christ.

Finis

Msgr. Bernard Powers

 *Image of the Passion sign from our Passionist Nuns in Korea

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• Passionist Life , Passionist Saints
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Sponsa Christi October 5th, 2009

    Greetings from the cloister! Sorry it has been so long since we posted. Although, we may not post often, you, our families, friends and visitors, are never far from our thoughts and prayers.

    This Wednesday our community will be celebrating the 63rd anniversary of our foundation in this diocese and next year in April the Passionist Nuns will be celebrating our 100th anniversary of foundation in the United States of America! I hope to bring you more information on our USA foundation over the next months.

     I thought you might be interested in seeing how we celebrate special anniversaries. On October 7, 1946 the first Mass was offered on the site and Saint Joseph’s Monastery was officially established. Since that day, October 7th, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, has been a special day for us. Here is how we will be celebrating our anniversary this year.

• We will be having a “Gaudeamus Day” – a day of rejoicing! This means it will be a day where silence is dispensed and also any unnecessary work and we can talk and recreate all day 
• All as usual until after midmorning prayer (which is recited 5 minutes after Holy Mass) when we will “salute the Holy Angels”. *see the prayer below
• We will then proceed to the refectory for a special breakfast
• Then all the Sisters who are available “roll up their sleeves” and help in cleanup and doing whatever can be done to prepare for the noon meal.
• 10:30 a.m. we will gather in our large parlor for a rousing game of charades. The theme will be memories from the “old days”
• Our dear Sister Ann Miriam from Carmel Home will be coming to join us for the noon meal. We always try to get her out here to the monastery for visits on special occasions.
• Midday prayer at noon in chapel (sext)
• Very festive noon meal. All the tables will have been decorated and moved into a circle so we can all see one another and talk more easily with each other
• the afternoon will be free for rest, biking, hiking, reading, praying, working on hobbies. Basically a free afternoon to be spent as each Sister desires and of course some have duties that cannot be foregone (such as some preparations for supper)
• 4:30 p.m. – we will have an outdoor rosary procession which is a much loved devotion of our community. The procession is usually led by a novitiate member carrying a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and Mother Superior leading us in the recitation of the Rosary.
• 5:30 p.m. – Evening prayer (vespers)
• Eucharistic adoration
• supper – perhaps followed by a little AME? (after meal entertainment)! of jokes or music
• 7:55 recreation ends followed by the chanting of Night Prayer in Chapel and the resummation of Holy Silence.
• also, at some point this day we will sing the Te Deum in thanksgiving to God for the gift of the foundation of our Monastery in the Diocese of Owensboro, KY and that God has specially called each one of us to dwell under this holy roof and pass on the Passionist charism to future Sisters just as our Holy Mother Foundresses did for us.

May they rest in peace and may the intercede for us!

*Our Holy Founder gave us the custom of always calling on the Angels to be with us during our times of recreation - when silence is dispensed and we can chat, go for walks, etc. We refer to the prayer we pray as “Saluting the Angels” – we generally have recreation twice a day.

Mother Superior: May St. Michael and all the Holy Angels

Sisters: guard us in all our ways.

Mother Superior: The presence of God

pause

Mother Superior: Jesus, Mary and Joseph be praised

Sisters: Forever and Ever!

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