In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi December 24th, 2012

Sr. Cecilia Maria has been treating us to some of her artwork during this Advent Season. The Advent hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter” written by Christina Rossetti in 1872 contains a wealth of meaning for Sister. Last year she drew these chalk drawings. Each week of Advent she has posted one of these images in our main hallway along with verses from Scripture, Saints and the Catechism of the Catholic Church for our Advent reflection.

Adam and Eve meet the New Adam and the New Eve…

This reminds me of the stunning phrase from the Easter Exultet… “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us to great a Redeemer.” And we might add… O happy fault, o necessary sin of Eve, which gained for us so great a Co-redeemer!

May you all have the most glorious Christmas ever!

Tweet

Tags: Monastic Art

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Christmas
• Comments(4)

Sponsa Christi December 22nd, 2012

That’s right – it is one of the most wonderful times of the year! As we prepare for to celebrate the birth of our Messiah we have been baking goodies, having visits, wrapping gifts, decorating, answering letters, writing Christmas cards, even rushing a sister to Urgent Care and chasing a bat out of chapel…not a dull moment in the cloister.

+++

Often at this time of the year we receive many a donated banana…which means it is time to make banana bread, banana muffins, banana fruit bowls, etc.

A quick way to mash about 20 bananas

Sister mixing the dry ingredients with the wet for the banana bread

Efficient way to fill the bread pans and get them into the ovens

Making banana bran muffins

Christmas Banana Bread – isn’t it pretty?

+++

This week we enjoyed a visit with a group of the Fathers of Mercy and four of their guests, plus our 2 dear parish priests. Please pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life!

+++

Yes, you read correctly, one of our sisters had a fall out back on the gravel. Thank God it didn’t turn out to be anything serious. As we returned with Sister from Urgent Care we found out that the rest of the Sisters had come upon an unwelcome guest as they were preparing for exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Vespers.  Somehow a bat had made its way into chapel!  We called our trusty friend & fire fighter Ronny and his wife – dubbed “Batman” and  “Robin” – who came with a type of wand light which he used to lure the bat to the door and to the great outdoors where he/she belongs.

+++

..and this is only some of the “temporal” things happening in the cloister…the “spiritual” side of things is much more exciting but that is between each Sister and her Beloved.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel!

Advent waiting…with the prophets…for our Great High Priest
to come and save us

He is coming soon…Maranatha!  Come Lord Jesus!

Tweet

Tags: Friends, Monastery cooking, Weather Flora & Fauna

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life
• Comments(4)

Sponsa Christi December 5th, 2012

Superior General’s Advent-Christmas Message
to the Passionist Family 2012

My dear Passionist Brothers & Sisters and Friends in the Passionist Family,

We have just begun a new year in our faith life and are living the journey of Advent in preparation for the feast of Christmas. This is a significant time to be lived with great seriousness, as it helps us once again to renew ourselves and prepare ‘room’ in our lives for welcoming the Saviour of the world: Emmanuel = GOD-WITH-US. Often, in this time of Advent, we will be calling out: “O come, O come, Emmanuel!” – as we wait in joyful hope.

How easy it is in our world today to lose focus, with the commercialization of this sacred time! As Christians – those who love Jesus and choose to follow his way – we are not immune to, but can so easily be seduced by, this commercialization. Yes, Christmas is an occasion and a significant event to celebrate; but what is it that we are celebrating and rejoicing in?

Advent allows us the time, supported by the Scriptures and the liturgy, to reflect on this question and to re-focus. Like Mary who “treasured these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk.2:19), we are called to adopt a contemplative stance – wondering and seeing deeper into the things that are happening in our world and in our lives, and pondering it’s meaning in light of the Christ: our Saviour, God-with-us, the Light of the world. Of course, this contemplative stance will no doubt also challenge us to a personal and communal conversion, which is a continual call to a genuine living of the values of God’s kingdom.

For us, Passionists, the Christmas event is reflected upon from a specific standpoint. Like Mary and Joseph, we gaze upon the Christ-Child, wondering and with perhaps the same question in our minds as that of the parents of John the Baptist: “What will this Child turn out to be?” (Lk.1:66).

I am brought to recall the image which St Paul of the Cross treasured – the Infant Christ lying not on a manger of straw (as is often depicted), but on a cross. We know that this Child will grow up, and be supported by his parents, to assume his mission in this world as our Saviour, but only through the way of the Cross, i.e. his Passion, Death and Resurrection – the Paschal Mystery. For us, Passionists, as is intrinsic in the seed of nature, this mystery is a journey of hope and life…and Emmanuel, our God-with-us has traversed it.

We will all be engaged busily in these weeks before Christmas preparing to make our celebration meaningful and successful in our parishes, communities and families, as we must. However, let us be encouraged to adopt a contemplative stance, the stance of the true disciple. From this platform, we are certain to be enriched both in our personal, spiritual, and pastoral lives.

As we journey together in this time of Advent, let us do so with the attitude of “waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ”, who is the human face of God: Emmanuel = GOD-WITH-US. This is the greatest gift that we will receive and give at Christmas.

I thank you all for the witness you give as Passionists in your life and ministry as you prepare to welcome Christ and give him ‘room’ in your lives. May Christ reign in your hearts and may you know his Peace.

I send you my sincere greetings and wish each one of you a blessed and peace-filled Christmas. I beg your prayer for me and the General Council as we begin our ministry of leadership in the Congregation.

Fraternally,

(Most Rev) Joachim Rego, CP
Superior General

Tweet

Tags: Most Reverend Joachim Rego CP

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Christmas
• Comments(2)

Sponsa Christi December 24th, 2011

What a glorious day of waiting!  God, the All Holy One, come from heaven to be born for us…given for us…this Holy Night.

He Who is Almighty sets the bar very high for us – total self-giving love!  THIS is the grace He desires to give us on this Holy Night and all throughout the Christmas Octave. Let us give a generous “Yes” like Mary and Joseph did.

YES…come Lord Jesus! Be born in me, in my community, in our world!

Getting ready for the Christmas Carols

Sr. Marie Michael takes loving care of the poinsettias.

The cave-dwelling is awaiting the arrival of the Holy Family…

Come Lord Jesus!

In the name of Mother Catherine Marie I wish you and yours a very Blessed Christmas and grace-filled 2012. You all are in our prayers in a special way during the Mass on this Holy Night.

And please do pray for us!

Tweet

Tags: Liturgy

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Christmas , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life
• Comments(3)

Sponsa Christi December 23rd, 2011

Wow!? Have I some catching up to do! I have only posted once since Advent began!

Several months ago, our Bishop shared with the diocese the directive of not displaying the nativity scene under the altar. Thus ours will now be off to the cloistered side. Our figures were small to begin with and we realized that having them off to the cloister side would make it difficult for the guests to see them. Therefore, thanks to a donor, larger crib figures were ordered. We were told they would be 6-8 months for delivery. They arrived in less than a month!

Well, you might guess what happened next, larger statuary requires a larger crèche. Soooo we (mainly Mother Catherine Marie, Sr. Rose Marie and maintenance man Steve—with the entire community cutting loads and loads of newspaper!) have been crafting a new larger cave-dwelling for the Holy Family.

It is made of wood and insulation and covered with papier mâché.  The papier mâché of the crèche is completed and we’ve added snow and glitter and tube lighting. It looks like a cave in the side of a hill.  We hope this crèche will be a precious offering of love to our Savior at a time when in many places in our nation, all mention of the true meaning of Christmas is being removed. Our previous nativity statuary is from when our foundresses made the foundation in 1946. We hope this nativity set will last at least twice as long!

As I am writing this post some Sisters are in chapel putting the final touches on the crib. More pictures to come!

Until then I leave you with these words of our Founder…

With Christmas coming, I will ask the Lord to make you a saint, but with the secret sanctity of the Cross. You will see that you must become more childlike, otherwise you would not be pleasing to a Spouse who became a little child for you.

Concerning the Most Holy Night of Christmas Eve, I do not give you any practices of devotion. But often caress the Holy Babe. Be little and humble, so that Mary Most Holy, when she sees your heart so little and childlike through humility, will let you embrace the Divine Infant.

Tweet

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life , Passionist Vocations for Women , Saint Paul of the Cross
• Comments(2)

Sponsa Christi December 2nd, 2011

Are you making a good retreat?  I hope so. We pray that you are.  Our Holy Founder wrote some beautiful things about this holy Season of Advent…

The blessing of our Advent wreath
and the lighting of its first candle

The sacred time of Advent is approaching. In it Holy Mother Church celebrates the memory of that Divine Espousal which the Eternal Word entered into with human nature in his Most Holy Incarnation. Contemplate this mystery of infinite love and give your soul the freedom to plunge into its Sea of Good. Desire and pray for that same Espousal of love between Jesus and your soul.

Tweet

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastery traditions , Monastic Life , Passionist Spirituality , Prayer , Saint Paul of the Cross
• Comments(2)

Sponsa Christi December 31st, 2010

   Merry Christmas Octave!

Blessed Feast of the Theotokos!

Happy New Year!

Holy Epiphany Eve!

    I hope you don’t mind – this blog post is going to be kind of all over the place. Perhaps that is how some of you are feeling on this last day of 2010!  

    Tonight we will have exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 11:30 and “ring in the New Year” by chanting Matins. All of you, our readers, have a special share in our poor prayers. May the Lord forgive all our sins and faults of 2010 and may we respond more generously to the promptings of His radical Love in 2011.

   Now for sundry photos and thoughts…

Our Jesse Tree in our refectory a few days before Christmas

    During the Advent liturgy we heard many Old Testament readings telling of the coming of the long-awaited Messiah. They waited thousands of years for Him to come! 

“Joy to the world!
The Lord has come!
Let earth receive her King!”

    Even from the confines of His cradle, Redeeming Love begins the restoration of the universe.

*****

Christmas brought us a little humor too…

    It’s hard to believe it has been almost two years since the big ice storm of 2009. Mother Catherine Marie, always the generous one, making sure her spiritual daughters are a little better prepared for “next time”, found a good deal on these bonnet scarves and so bought each of us one for Christmas!

*****

PRAY FOR OUR ASPIRANT LIZ!!!

    I have some very EXCITING news to share with you…we have an aspirant coming this week!  She will arrive Wednesday evening. The aspirancy lasts about 3 months; it is an extended visit to further discern Passionist life.  Please keep Liz and her family in your prayers. Liz hails from Texas – so we will have another Texan in our midst!

*****

    The Epiphany of Bethlehem is a strange mingling of light and shadow. The Dayspring from on high shines upon a world darkened by sin and death and subservience to the powers of night. The great God-Man is made known to a few men but remains hidden from most. Some welcome and worship Him, while others plot His destruction.  Innocent hearts blaze with the flame of love, and yet corrupted minds fill up with the smoke of hate. Even in His infancy, in the very act of being manifested, the face of the Man of Sorrows is “as it were hidden and despised” (Isaiah 53:3).

    May the Star arise within us to pierce the darkness of our hearts, our nation, our world and lead us to the Bethlehem above.

~ Some of these ponderings are from Cradle of Redeeming Love: The Theology of the Christmas Mystery by John Saward

~ Night photos of monastery courtesy of Sr. Rose Marie’s father – Mark Schoppe

Tweet

Tags: Humor, Stages in Formation, Weather Flora & Fauna

• Advent , Christmas , Passionist Life , Vocation Discernment
• Comments(11)

Sponsa Christi December 21st, 2010

Our Magnificat

In this awe-inspiring icon we see John the Baptist 
prostrating himself before Emmanuel – “God with us”

We join the Blessed Virgin Mary on this day
and we raise our hearts in praise:
It is the prayer and the praise of Advent.

Our soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
He has filled Advent with unlimited graces.
The harvest has been abundant.

The response to John the Baptist
has been reform and conversion…
We have obeyed Paul in the call
to make greater progress in our spiritual journey.

Hope has come to a fullness:
in three days a Savior will be born…
a Redeemer will be in our midst.
We will know the presence of God.

Indeed we proclaim the greatness of the Lord.
Our spirit rejoices in God:
Our spirit knew a silence.

There was a journey into the deepest core of our being,
into sacred solitude;
God was encountered and adored.

Our spirit knew a hunger that moved us
to consume the Inspired Word of God,
Faith opened the riches of the Messiah.

Our spirit knew a desire for a Savior
that made us cry out with John:
Maranatha! Come, O Come Christ the Lord!

He has shown the strength of his arm:
The impossible has become possible:
Christ was found in suffering.
Asceticism led to riches…
Fidelity brought a joy.

He has shown the strength of his arm……
Afflictions purified the soul
Struggles made hope greater…
Self-giving made community life a glory to God…

He has cast down the mighty
and lifted the lowly:
He showed the emptiness of my prayer
yet gave the desire to pray more…

He has come to the help of his servant…
When obedience was beyond the possible
He took us to the fiat of Mary.
When loneliness tore at the human heart
He assured us of his presence.
When one was exhausted with mystery
He gave greater faith.
His help was abundant
and the heart bowed in gratitude.

Indeed He has remembered his promises
When I asked, I did receive.
When I sought, I did find.
When I knocked, He did open.

He promised a Redeemer.
In three days his promise will be fulfilled.
In longing and hope
my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

Amen

Msgr. Bernard Powers

Tweet

Tags: Msgr Bernard Powers, Poetry

• Advent , Blessed Mother , Passionist Life , Prayer
• Comments(1)

Sponsa Christi December 4th, 2010

The sacred time of Advent is approaching. In it Holy Mother Church celebrates the memory of that Divine Espousal which the Eternal Word entered into with human nature in his Most Holy Incarnation. Contemplate this mystery of infinite love and give your soul the freedom to plunge into its Sea of Good. Desire and pray for that same Espousal of love between Jesus and your soul.

~ Saint Paul of the Cross

    Prayer:  Jesus, you are God, yet you became one of us – “one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). You invited us into the closest imaginable love-union with yourself. May the season of Advent open our hearts always wider to this.

~ Living Wisdom for Every Day by Fr. Bennet Kelley C.P.

Tweet

• Advent , Passionist Spirituality , Prayer , Saint Paul of the Cross
• Comments(3)

Sponsa Christi November 27th, 2010

     Pope Benedict has initiate an historic call for prayer for all Nascent Human Life – basically a world-wide prayer movement to bring an end to abortion. We will be participating in this prayer event this evening with Eucharistic adoration, blessing of the Advent wreathe, First Vespers of Advent, Rosary and Benediction. How I love being Catholic! There are so many ways to express our solidarity with our brothers and sisters throughout the world – even our little brothers and sisters in the womb!

    We join our voices with Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula, interim president of Human Life International. “We recognize with the Holy Father that as the assaults on human life that are accelerating around the world have evil as their root cause, the most powerful response we in the Church can make is to pray in unity for an end to the assault.  Prayer grounds us in the only Power that can ultimately defeat the one behind the culture of death, so we are grateful to be united with the Holy Father in this historic event.”

Tweet

Tags: Pope Benedict XVI, Pro-Life

• Advent
• Comments(5)