In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi September 29th, 2011

Tags: Feast Days

• Passionist History , Passionist Life , Saint Paul of the Cross
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Sponsa Christi September 24th, 2011

Today is the feast of our Passionist Bishop – Saint Vincent Strambi. Saint Vincent entered the newly founded Passionist Congregation in 1768. He knew our Founder Paul of the Cross personally.

This hymn from our Passionist breviary is a lovely summation of his long life devoted to the Church.

This man whom joyfully we revere as blessed,
was a faithful servant of Christ,
so he merited to bear the name,
a sign of his future fame,
of Vincent, the one who conquers.

Rejecting the alluring call of the world,
he preferred to be near Jesus crucified;
and as a fellow-citizen of Golgotha,
to proclaim Mary as the bride of his life.

Afterwards, when in holy orders
he went forth as Vincent, the one who conquers;
he himself, as it were, crucified,
through the Word of the Cross.

His travels brought him through foreign cities
as the herald of salvation.
Then called to rule over the flock of Christ,
he increased in every virtue.
He brought a shepherd’s love to all

He stood firmly against the decree
of a demanding emperor.
He was a noble hero, patiently suffering many rebuffs.
He was banished as an exile and had to leave his native land.

Already blessed in the great joy of heaven,
he himself reigns constantly mindful of us.
May he kindly grant the prayers
of a suppliant people.

Let us give glory in song to the mighty Triune God,
who governs all creatures of the world.
and who desires to bestow salvation upon mankind
through his saints.  Amen.

Well, the translation from the Italian doesn’t rhyme. But it is a far better job than I could do!

St. Vincent Strambi and St. Paul of the Cross, ora pro nobis!

Tags: Poetry

• Passionist Saints
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Sponsa Christi September 21st, 2011

The following reflection, written by our Sr. Rose Marie of the Merciful Heart of Jesus, was in the front of the booklet for her Mass of Profession.  I have been wanting to share it with you for some time.

Be blessed…

A God Who Wills to Need Our Love:
“I Thirst”

Mary’s love and ‘yes’ to God at the Annunciation came to an apex in her being with Jesus during His Passion. Standing by His cross, she offered Jesus in union with His offering of Himself for the praise and glory of God and for our salvation.

Like Mary, a Passionist Nun is called to be so united to Jesus’ ‘yes’ to God the Father that, in her own heart throughout the day, she also offers Jesus’ Passion in union with Him. She gives her own ‘yes’ to God by offering Him her fidelity to her vows, her everyday works, prayers, joys, sacrifices and sufferings. She has faith that God uses this gift of herself in consecrated life to bring His life, love and grace to others. She strives to become a living prayer.

In the Crucified Body of Jesus, she sees God who has loved so much and is loved so little in return. She sees God in need of comfort, love and compassion.  “My heart is filled with sorrow to the point of death.  Remain here and stay awake” (Mark 14:34).  “I thirst” (John 19:28).

Blessed John Paul II wrote in Rich in Mercy, that “It is in the Cross that the revelation of merciful love attains its culmination.” And again he says that the Father invites us “to ‘have mercy’ on His only Son, the crucified one.”  Our contemplation of the Passion of Jesus brings us to a love which is “not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of ‘mercy’ shown to the Son of the Eternal Father.”

It is a Passionist Nun’s special honor to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus by being faithfully present to Him in the mystery of His suffering, death, and resurrection through her vows, her life of faith, community and contemplative prayer.

Having received His merciful love, I want to spend my life as a Passionist Nun returning His love and bringing others to do the same.

Tags: Martyrdom, Sacred Heart of Jesus

• Blessed Mother , Bride of Christ , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Life , Passionist Spirituality , Prayer , Redemptive Suffering
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Sponsa Christi September 19th, 2011

Recently we enjoyed a few evenings of bowling – monastery style. The photos turned out dark and blurry – except this one of Mother Catherine Marie. Yes, we were bowling UP the ramp. Did you know that plastic bowling balls have a mind of their own???

Last week brought us a lovely visit from Sr. Cecilia Maria’s family. Here she is with her sister Whitney playing us some traditional northwest American music. The Wynns reside in Washington State!

Now…Sponsa Christi is off to the dentist – 3 cavities!  How does this happen when good nuns brush and floss regularly???

Such is life on planet earth…

Till next time, when I will have something a bit more spiritual for you…

May the Passion of Jesus and the Sorrows of Mary be ever in our hearts!

Tags: Family, Humor

• Passionist Life
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Sponsa Christi September 17th, 2011

Today we had a WONDERFUL group of young gals visit us to learn about Passionist life. They are from Bowling Green, Kentucky. I am so bummed I forgot to take a photo of them for the blog! God bless you dear Kentucky gals!  Come again… 

Now some photos from summer days in the monastery…

Earlier this summer we had two dear friends with us – Brother Brad Smith who was here on retreat and a visit from Fr. Thomas Petri, OP.

We’ve also had daily visits from our raccoon family – this is only one of the crew – and do they LOVE cat food!

The cats don’t know what to think of them ‘coons eating their food.

This has also been a summer of rabbits taking up residence in our cloister courtyard.

This butterfly took up residence in this flower and never left. “Butterfly Heaven”?

Friends Chuck and Anne Hagan have been a tremendous help in our garden. God bless you!

While we sweltered in the Kentucky heat, our white veiled novice gets a bit animated (NEVER!) while telling about the deep summer snow in the mountains near her home in Washington State.

Our annual corn party – we had a number of them this year thanks to our generous benefactors!

Don’t miss our vocation visitor standing by Mother Catherine Marie. Please keep Anne in your prayers. And join us in asking good St. Joseph to sell her home so she can seriously discern becoming a Passionist Nun!

Tags: Friends

• Monastic Life , Passionist Life , Vocation Discernment
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Sponsa Christi September 11th, 2011

“Where were you on September 11, 2001?”  That is a common question today as we lovingly and prayerfully remember the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Another question we can ask is, “Where are you today? on September 11, 2011?” Where are you in your relationship with the Lord? In your awareness of His radical love for you? And that you are never alone in your trials, your personal “ground zeros”.

…the steel cross found in the ruins of the World Trade Center leads to the cross of Jesus, which stands at the center of all pain, all suffering, indeed all history. He did not come to take away suffering. He came to sanctify suffering by His presence. He was at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center. He will be with you in your own personal Ground Zero, whether it is the death of a child, a cancer diagnosis or the loss of a job.

~ From the back cover of the book The Cross at Ground Zero
by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R.

Tags: History

• Redemptive Suffering
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Sponsa Christi September 10th, 2011

Yay!  The blog is updated now – thanks to our new friend Joshua at Vianney Vocations and to Sam Alzheimer, the founder. Check out their great ministry in the Church to promote vocations to the priesthood.

Hopefully the ostrich will not be putting its head in the sand anymore.

And hopefully, Sponsa Christi will be back to blogging on a regular basis!

Until we meet again…

May the Passion of Jesus and the Sorrows of Mary be ever in our hearts!

Tags: Friends, Humor

• Passionist Life
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Sponsa Christi September 5th, 2011

Greetings to my monastic friends…wondering why nothing new has been posted here for awhile?  Well…kitchen work has kept Sponsa Christi busy… and prayer, Lectio Divina and monastic observances come first… And alas, I need to do some updating of this WordPress version…

You see, I had troubles 3 years ago when I updated my WordPress and I have had my “head in the sand” since! Hoping that if I just didn’t update there wouldn’t be any problems.  You know where that kind of thinking leads don’t you…

So, now I have bigger problems…but nothing unsolvable!  So Sister Website Keeper and I made a new friend today who helped us with updating the blog – and I’m now using Mozilla Firefox which took care of some of the problems. But now we need to update the MySQL.

Anyway, we’re going to continue working on updating this blog and the version of WordPress. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Our Blog Guru friend told me that I might lose the changes I have made to this blog theme. Soooo…if you see some odd things on the blog know that it might be “under construction”.  And now I can’t get the photo above to be aligned in the center…oh, woe…

This blog belongs to our Sorrowful Mother anyway. I hope she will continue to use it to make her crucified and risen Son more known and loved…and also make our way of life more understood so that women out there know we are a holy and happy option in religious life!

Till next time…I must sign off…

May the Passion of Jesus and the Sorrows of Mary be ever in our Hearts!

Tags: Humor

• Passionist Life
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