Archive for July, 2010

Passionist Nuns 100 Years in USA! Part I

Sponsa Christi July 29th, 2010

    Greetings!  I began this account two weeks ago! If you are still interested in hearing about the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Passionist Nuns in the USA do read on. Christie and I (Sr. John Mary) began our pilgrimage at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday, July 8th and drove through hours of construction and heavy rains, arriving at Our Lady of Sorrows Monastery in Pittsburgh a bit later than we had anticipated - 5:30 p.m.!

Looking out the cloister gate

View inside the courtyard

    As we drove into the cloistered courtyard they were waiting for us at the open door waving and calling out after us with their greetings and joy. So many Sisters whose names I had only read or heard spoken. Now I had a face and personality to go with that name. What joy! It took some days but their names came to life and I learned who each Sister was and from which community she came. 

The Five Flowers of Tarquinia

    The first place I wanted to go was to visit the earthly remains of those five holy and valiant nuns who had traversed the mighty Atlantic, bore with seasickness and then disembarkment syndrome. Once they were on land they had to undergo interrogation at the immigration office. “We’re here to pray”. Yea, right! Perhaps they were Rosa Luxemburgs in disguise…here to join those who wanted to liberate America from the oppression of capitalism through socialist emancipation and radical feminism. (Sounds familiar) Communism was on the rise in America, modernism too.

    Pope Saint Pius X (above at left)  manifested great interest and pleasure in this foundation. He blessed all who would contribute to its success.

    Fr. Stanislaus Grennan, CP (above at right) - Provincial at the time of the foundation - took the initiative to bring the Nuns to the USA and looked after their spiritual and temporal interests until his death in 1941.

    Mother Victoria (above at left) - Mother Superior of the Monastery of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Tarquinia, Italy (First monastery of Passionist Nuns founded by St. Paul of the Cross in 1771) gave her consent for the new foundation in Pittsburgh by sacrificing the “five flowers” of her community.

    These were the Five Flowers of Tarquinia. Mother Hyacinth was their Superior (above at right). They didn’t want to come but were invited and said, “Yes”. They were leaving everything behind - their family, their language, their culture - for us. Fiat. Mary went through the Passion to bring souls to the side of Christ, so did these foundresses, so have all the Passionist Nuns who have stood on Calvary. The Sacra Crostato…the open Side.

The above are photos of the Tarquinia monastery founded by St. Paul of the Cross and Mother Mary Crucified.

    We continue this saving mission of dramatic love. We lift up people to the side of Christ by living the Mass through vowed life, silence leading to union, self-denial leading to liberation, spiritual reading to communion, hours of prayer with the Beloved, Divine Office for our people and God’s praise, wearing the holy habit, loving one another in community and making this monastery a joyful place in which to live.

 

Sister Gemma Maria (Pittsburgh) and Sister Gemma (Japan)

    The words below came to Sr. Gemma Maria in a torrent. She wrote them just days before our 100th anniversary celebration…words from the hearts of our foundresses.

“Fiat”

I waited and prayed
as quietly my homeland
slipped away

With every breath I drew
Hislife now more intimately
entered into
my mind and heart

And gently His Words
echoed within
at each beat of my heart

“I choose you…and
will remain with you…”

Beyond these ocean waters
awaited us
a new seedground

Wherein our spousal hearts
- so full of love for Him! –
would be planted
and harvested

And so, with every ocean wave
that steadfastly pulled out lives
toward another distant shore

Together
our hearts sang out
“Fiat!”
A “Yes” that would last forever
because His Love
was carrying us
His Will
was guiding us
His presence living in us
and our hearts sang out
“Fiat!”

    The theme of the anniversary was “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” The Most Holy Trinity gives us a share in this tremendous love in the Holy Mass. One hundred years of Masses offered on this holy ground on Mount Oliver in Pennsylvania.

   Although the nuns moved into their monastery on July 9th 1910, Passionist Feast of Our Mother of Holy Hope, it was only July 10th when Holy Mass was offered and Jesus came to dwell among them Sacramentally, that the foundation was truly made. Such was the import of the day the Sacramental Spouse came to dwell in their midst.

    To be continued…

*Some of the above thoughts are from a spiritual conference given by Fr. Jerome Vereb, CP to the Nuns present for the anniversary.

Our Spanish Passionist Martyrs

Sponsa Christi July 24th, 2010

    Today is the memorial of our Passionist martyrs of Daimiel; they were martyred during the religious persecution in Spain just a mere 74 years ago. I read an article recently which purported that people who lived in Europe during the communist era in the 20th century did not really suffer. Let us not forget this history or we are doomed to repeat it.

    Rev. Niceforo of Jesus and Mary, the provincial superior of the Passionists of Daimiel, was martyred, along with most of his community, in 1936 during the Red Terror of the Spanish Civil War.

    On the night of July 21st, 1936 revolutionaries stormed the Passionist Monastery, which is about 92 miles south of Madrid. Father Niceforo assembled the Passionist community in the choir.

“Gethsemane”, he said to them with great emotion, “this is our Gethsemane.  Our spirit is deeply distressed as it contemplates the daunting perspective of Calvary, as was that of Jesus. And so too our human nature, in its weakness, trembles, becomes cowardly… But Jesus is with us.  I am going to give you He who is the strength of the weak… Jesus was comforted by an angel; it is Jesus himself who comforts and sustains us… Within a few moments we will be with Christ…Citizens of Calvary, take heart!  Let us die with Christ!  It is my duty to encourage you and I myself am encouraged by your example”.

    Then Fr. Niceforo gave all of them general absolution which he himself received from Fr. Germán, the superior of the community.  Then he put on a surplice and stole and gave Holy Communion to each religious. One of the survivors could not forget that moment and said years later:  “What a fervent Communion that was!” 

    The man who murdered Fr. Niceforo was haunted by the smile that was on Father’s face when he shot him and also by his words of forgiveness. This man later became the caretaker of the Shrine of the Martyrs of Damiel!

    Although the militiamen released the priests and brothers that night, they followed their movements and communicated them to other armed Popular Front revolutionaries, who captured and killed 26 Passionists in smaller groups over the next three months. Father Niceforo was one of the first to die, on July 23rd. The Martyrs of Daimiel were beatified in 1989.

Commercial airing on EWTN!

Sponsa Christi July 20th, 2010

    Yea! We just heard that our vocation commercial, filmed last November 2009, has been seen on EWTN!  Please pray that Passionist Nuns will become more known and that our Lord would send us holy and healthy vocations.

A Peek at the Celebration

Sponsa Christi July 15th, 2010

    Ahhh…where to begin!  It was a grand celebration with 6 of the 8 Passionist daughter and granddaughter houses represented at our original monastery of nuns founded in 1910 in Pittsburgh.

Most of the Sisters who were present for the occasion are seen in the above photo along with Fr. Jerome Vereb, CP and Fr. John Harvey a diocesan priest and close friend of the Sisters in Pittsburgh.

    Communities represented

  • Erlanger, Kentucky
  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • The Philippines
  • Japan
  • Whitesville, Kentucky
  • Korea
  • Scranton, Pennsylvania
  • not present - Ellisville, Missouri and our 2 nuns in England (residing in Belmont Abbey)

    I hope to write again soon. Thank you for your support of our hidden contemplative life!

    May God be praised for 100 years of hidden contemplative Passionist presence in the USA. 

    O God, grant us the grace of holy and healthy vocations as we begin the next 100 years!

One Hundred Years in North America!

Sponsa Christi July 8th, 2010

     Christie and Sr. John Mary are about to take off to travel to Pittsburgh to join in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Passionist Nuns in North America; this will take place in our Passionist Nuns monastery Sunday July 11th.

     In doing some research we came across this newspaper clipping from the New York Times in January 1910!

    A photo of our holy mothers who landed in New York April 27th, 1910. At that time this day was the eve of the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross. These courageous women were from the first monastery founded by St. Paul of the Cross in Tarquinia, Italy (later the town was named Corneto).  They suffered acute sea sickness but other than that fared well in their travel to America.

    The actual foundation anniversary, when they moved into their temporary monastery, is July 9th - the Passionist feast of our Lady of Holy Hope.

    The Passionist Fathers also made their first foundation in America in the city of Pittsburgh. These fathers began planning to bring the Passionist Nuns to America as early as 1860. From this small beginning there are a total of 5 monasteries of Passionist Nuns in the United States and one in the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and England.

    Please pray for a safe journey and a grace-filled celebration.  We look forward to sharing more photos and history with you in the coming weeks.