In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi April 17th, 2013

Greetings blog friends!  We still haven’t gotten the comment box situation fixed yet. We are very busy and so haven’t been able to give much time to fixing the problem. We’ve tried to no avail (!) several different things listed in troubleshooting for this problem with the comment spam blocker.

If you are interested in writing us to receive some brochures as I mentioned in an earlier post email us at vocations(at)passionistnuns(dot)org.  Thanks!

In case you haven’t noticed our latest newsletter is posted at our website. This newsletter featured Sr. Cecilia Maria’s First Profession of Vows.  Enjoy!

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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women
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Sponsa Christi February 5th, 2013

I don’t have time to give you much text but here are the photos of the divine wedding day!

Beautiful bouquet of flowers from our Passionist Nuns in Erlanger, KY!

Bishop Medley incenses the altar and crucifix.

Fr. Rodger Hunter-Hall gives the homily

Sister makes her profession of Vows. Her mother looks on in the distance.

Master of Ceremonies seminarian Will Thompson watches the masterful switching of the veils…

Giving her dad the sign of peace

A number of gals from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY joined us for the great occasion…perhaps a future Passionist candidate is somewhere in their midst???

Sr. Cecilia Maria’s dear sister did a most excellent job playing during the Profession Mass. Here she is practicing the day before.

The newly professed nun with her parents and dear grandmother. Really they aren’t wearing purple…

Hats off to our wonderful photographer Larena who provided most of the pictures in this post! Shown here with our diocesan seminarian Michael Charles.

Another post will come giving credit to our dear Bishop, priests, deacons, seminarians, Passionist Oblates, photographers and videographers…special thanks also to the friends of Sr. Cecilia Maria who traveled so far to be with her on this very special day. It was a true joy to meet you all!

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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastic Life , Novitiate news , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women
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Sponsa Christi February 2nd, 2013

O what a most glorious day!  Words cannot express it…Blessed be God! Alleluia!

I must share with you the moving homily preached by our Fr. Rodger Hunter-Hall.  I will leave you in suspense regarding a photo…I’m terrible aren’t I?  Also, I don’t have a photo yet but I do have a homily…

Presented to the Lord and Consecrated by the Spirit

Your Excellency

Dear Brothers in the Sacrament of Holy Orders

Mother Prioress

Dear Sisters

Dear friends in Christ:

In the life of a monastery like Saint Joseph’s, today’s event is truly a milestone, an event for the history book. Professions happen just infrequently enough that, each time one occurs, it truly grasps the fullness of our attention. It calls each of us to reflection; it lifts our eyes and focuses them, for these all too brief moments, on a distant horizon…a horizon where time and eternity come together.

Continue Reading »

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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women , Redemptive Suffering , Saint Paul of the Cross , Scripture Reflections
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Sponsa Christi February 2nd, 2013

Here is that marvelous reflection I mentioned in my last post. This is found in the worship booklet for the Mass of Religious Profession which will take place in 4 hours…

~  Reflection by Sr. Cecilia Maria of the Body of Christ  ~

As we come to this feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, upon which I also will be presented at the altar of the Lord as His bride, my thoughts turn to Joseph and Mary as they brought their newborn Son into the courts of the Lord for the first time. How their hearts must have been overflowing with unspeakable emotion! Their footfalls upon the Temple steps were both a culmination and a beginning: a culmination of the long, often difficult, often uncertain journey which had begun for them with an angel’s announcement in Nazareth; and the beginning of a new journey towards the world’s redemption. Today I, too, mark a culmination and a beginning as I profess my first vows as a Passionist Nun.

As Mary came to the Temple to consecrate her firstborn to the Lord according to the Law of Moses, the joy must have been palpable! Having conceived the Son of the Most High and nurtured Him in her womb by faith, and having endured both physical and emotional difficulties, she now brings the Son back to His Father. “Behold, O God, the Long-Expected One! I consecrate to you your Christ!”

In a similar way, my profession today is a culmination of the grace which was poured into me at baptism and which has grown and blossomed with the years. My journey, like Mary’s, has been difficult at times and has required me to leave behind many familiar and beloved things for the sake of God’s work. My journey, like Mary’s, has arrived at a day resplendent with joy, a day when I shall be consecrated entirely to the Lord and His love.

The Presentation in the Temple is also the beginning of the road to Calvary for both Jesus and Mary. It is the hinge between the seasons of Christmas and Lent, between the joyful and the sorrowful mysteries. After Simeon gives thanks to God for the salvation this Child represents, he turns to Mary and prophesies His passion and her share in it. As He is presented to His Father, Jesus’ life is definitively given over to the work of redemption in all its suffering and all its glory.

This consecration is at the very heart of the Passionist Nun’s life. As I profess my vows today, my life becomes knit together with Jesus’ own life, my mission with His mission. From now on, my whole existence will be caught up in Jesus’ work of redemption, “filling up in my own body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body the Church” (Col 1:24), and becoming a channel of the grace, the glory, and the joy of His resurrected life into our world.

The Passionist Nun is called to be a sign of the love of God, who “so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son … not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17). By her union with Jesus Crucified and Risen, she shows to the world both the depths of God’s suffering love, and the height and breadth of the life and joy which flow from it. Please pray for me, that I may be faithful to the vocation to which God has called me!

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• Blessed Mother , Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women , Redemptive Suffering
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Sponsa Christi February 1st, 2013

Ahhh…I have wanted to post all week but we have been busy little nuns getting ready for the divine espousals of the King of kings to his little handmaiden on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord – February 2nd (tomorrow!). What exactly does all this mean?  Well, after 3 years of monastic formation (1 year as a postulant, 2 years as a novice) Sister will make her First Profession of Vows during Holy Mass on Saturday. These are the 5 vows Passionist Nuns make: To Promote Devotion to and Grateful Remembrance of the Passion of Jesus, Chastity, Poverty, Obedience and Enclosure.

Although it is 6 years before Sister will make her profession of vows perpetual her first profession of vows must be made from a heart that is giving her entire self as gift forever.

As I mentioned above we have been busy preparing for the wedding day. Invitations to her family and friends, preparing for the reception, decorations, music practice, many details of the sacred liturgy, contact with the Bishop who will preside, arranging servers, etc.

The Lord has also seen fit to give us opportunities for “offering it up”. Imagine flashing lights, horns and the MOST painful whistle you’ve ever heard. That was the communal penance the Lord gave us the other night when the fire alarm system went off at 1:40 a.m. No fire – thank God! But a smoke detector needed to be changed. Ahh…the blessed life of “modern conveniences…”

Sister Cecilia Maria has also been busy making new black veils, writing “thank you” notes and preparing her new cell that will be in the area where the professed sisters dwell. It is always bittersweet to move out of the novitiate (where a young woman lives during those initial years of formation) – moving from the comforting surroundings of where one’s Passionist vocation was born and nurtured to maturing in Passionist life and getting to join her “older sisters” but it is worth it!

Sister is someone who has spent her life moving, in her early years as an “army brat”, as she puts it, and then during her undergraduate and grad school years.  As she was putting her books on her shelf she made the remark, “It is so nice being a nun, you don’t have much to move.”

Please keep Sister, her dear family and friends and all of us in your prayers as we celebrate this glorious moment in the Church – another young woman giving the total gift of self to God and His people.

I hope to have photos of the celebration and a beautiful meditation written by Sister posted this coming week…Notice, I wrote that I “hope” to do so…time will tell.

Come Divine Bridegroom to your Temple, you who are the light to the nations and the glory of your people Israel!

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Sponsa Christi December 11th, 2012

Perhaps you are wondering what us nuns have been doing here in the monastery lately…well, I actually have some fantastic super-duper neat wonderful news to share with you but I shall save the best for last…now no rushing to the bottom of the post!

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That’s a LOT of leaves! and thanks to Anne Hagan and Joe Bland who rallied the troops we have lots of leaves to use for mulch in the garden, these will decay a bit during the winter and get plowed into the earth next spring. God bless you all for your generous help!

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Fall time also means that the days are shorter and it seems a bit harder to get up and get going in the morning…at least for some of the Sisters.

Can you believe this REALLY happened to one of the Sisters last week (minus the mouse! – please Lord – keep the mice outside!) Yes, her cup was upside down when she began to pour. She couldn’t quite grasp how her cup could be over-flowing so quickly!

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And now for the excellent news: Shortly before our retreat in November the Chapter members met for a most auspicious occasion…we voted to admit our novice Sr. Cecilia Maria to make her First Profession of Passionist vows on Consecrated Life Day, February 2, 2013.  Please keep her in your prayers as she prepares for her wedding day.  Not only does she have her wedding veils to make but our Lord finds many ways to enlarge the capacity of His soon-to-be-bride to receive His love and give it away to her sisters in community AND to her spiritual children throughout the world.

LASTLY…once Sister makes her First Profession of vows we will have 3 blessed junior professed sisters (meaning they have not yet made the Perpetual Profession)…this is wonderful…BUT that also means that our novitiate (where the aspirants, postulants and novices reside) needs some news members. We must keep the novice directress plenty busy…don’t want any sister here twiddling her thumbs. So please ask the Lord to send us new members that we may continue to form young women into Passionist brides fulfilling our mandate of Love in the Heart of the Church.

God love you!

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Sponsa Christi November 16th, 2012

Each year Passionist Nuns throughout the world make a 3-day retreat (in our monastery we make a 4-day retreat!) in preparation for our annual devotional renewal of vows on the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple. This day also celebrates Pro Orantibus Day. A day set aside for people to pray for those who live a cloistered or heremetical life.

The nuns often renew their consecration to the Passion of Jesus. Each year, moreover, on the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, they make a general renewal of their vows, preparing for this renewal by a three-day retreat.

Rule & Constitutions #113

So, we humbly ask your prayers for Passionist Nuns throughout the world during these sacred days of November 17-20, that we be refreshed in body, renewed in spirit, re-energized  in fervor and love for our Divine Bridegroom. Also, that he would raise up valiant young women to join our ranks in quenching the One who thirsts to love and be loved.

The following is an excellent article written by Sr. Cecilia Maria about the relevance of our cloistered life in the Church.

Passionist Nuns, dwelling in the “cloister” of Calvary, find at the foot of the Cross not only their path to contemplative union with God, but also the means of profound interaction with their brothers and sisters on earth. Their very union with the Redeemer spurs them to share in His work of drawing all people to Himself, in practical as well as mystical ways.

Closely joined to their contemplative prayer is a life of intercession for the needs of the world; indeed, their constitutions enjoin them “to know the life of the Church and of society” in which they live, in order to hold in prayer all its varied needs. Nuns keep abreast of the world through a variety of different media and through good and reliable contacts, and can often be better informed about current events and key issues than the average American citizen!

From their very beginnings Passionist Nuns have sought to welcome others to the fountainhead of God’s mercy, flowing from the wounds of Christ Crucified. They are called to be witnesses to this merciful love not only by their prayerful presence but also by their words — regularly written and spoken to family, friends, and visitors — and by their deeds.

Many monasteries have retreat-houses where others are invited to spend time at the foot of the Cross with the nuns, whose privilege and responsibility it is to minister to these retreatants. Thus the clear waters of the “sealed fountain” of Passionist monastic life (cf. Song of Songs 4:12), protected as they are by the restrictions of the cloister, are able to reach and to refresh far more souls than merely those of the nuns who dwell there.

The vocation to be a “dove in the clefts of the rock,” the open side of Jesus, is certainly not restricted to any particular sort of personality or skill-set! Like all cloistered nuns, Passionists are as varied and variously gifted as any natural extended family. One finds among the brides of the Crucified extroverts and introverts, doctorates and high-school diplomas, seamstresses and construction workers and artists (and everything in between).

The unique personalities and gifts of each sister simply indicate how the Lord wills to bless the community with a sister’s strengths and how the other sisters can support her in her weaknesses. Thus they enable the whole community to live out more fully the life to which they are all called! United by their love of Him who calls them into the intimacy of His love, the nuns rejoice to offer their daily lives as an oblation for the sake of God and His whole world.

Photo of crucifix at the entrance to our monastery
Kindness of Mrs. Larena Lawson
The dead tree in the left of the photo is just one sorrowful reminder of the terrible drought we had in these parts this past summer.

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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastery traditions , Passionist Vocations for Women , Pro Orantibus Day
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Sponsa Christi September 19th, 2012

Ah! I am back!   Perhaps you thought I forgot I even have a blog to tend to!? 

Even though some days have passed I still have the fun of sharing with you about our Gaudeamus day August 22. By the way, my little sis in Tennessee wrote asking what is a Gaudeamus Day. Gaudeamus is Latin for “Let us rejoice!”  So it is a day of rejoicing. And rejoice we did in honor of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s 50 years of Vowed Passionist life!

The following is an account written by one of our “monastery chroniclers”. I shall let her tell the story…

Our dear Jubilarian was finally relieved of the “complex” she said she was getting as a result of being banned for weeks from an ever mounting number of rooms in the work wing, as we prepared the decorations and entertainment.

“Poor Sister” was even banned from evening recreation last night as we decked the refectory and recreation room with balloons, streamers, and golden place settings!

One of those “off-limit” rooms.

After saluting the angels in the corridor outside of chapel after Mass, we congregated in the refectory for a breakfast banquet: ham, biscuits, gravy, egg casserole, cinnamon coffee cake, and more.

As I shared in the previous post  Sr. Rose Marie wheeled Sr. Mary Elizabeth from her cell into the recreation room to the music of the Air Force Song, “The Wild Blue Yonder,” which we rewrote to reflect Sister’s career as a spiritual warrior.

We then had a play-doh sculpting competition, with five teams trying to depict scenes from Sister’s life. The results ranged from clever to hilarious, and we decided that the Holy Spirit had to determine the winning team by lot.

Sister as a young girl being greeted by a not-so-friendly goat who kept her from getting into her house one day as she arrived home from school.

“Sister cleaning Steve’s room” won the prize.
(our grounds-keeper’s room)

Then we had a word game in which each nun tried to make as many words as possible out of Sister Mary Elizabeth’s name. Next came the skit, in which the novitiate and juniorate dressed up as heavenly visitors to our Jubilarian. Sister was overwhelmed with all the gifts and celestial greetings…

Sister’s father, “Papa Sauer” was a wise man full of mischief.  He planted a garden for the nuns and had interesting ways of delivering his produce. One time he stacked up the pumpkins against the doors so that the Sister Portress would have an avalanche at her feet when she answered. Another time he threw green beans, dirty roots and all, over the cloister wall! Sr. Mary Andrea at right is dressed as Papa Sauer and Sr. Rose Marie at right center is representing Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s older sister Katherine.

What does one get a poor cloistered nun for her Golden Jubilee? Well, as you saw in an earlier post we invested in some beautiful liturgical gifts. This day brought candles, colored napkins and various “do-dads” for decorating the refectory on special occasions. This is one of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s monastery duties.

Below are some of the hand-made jubilee cards given to Sister by the nuns. Quite works of art!

Sr. Ann Miriam and Mother Catherine Marie marvel
at the home-made cards.

At our evening meal, Mother Catherine Marie had set out jubilee place-cards for each of us, with quotes from our Holy Founder on the back. All the quotes were different, culled from his letters and dealing with the themes of faith and the will of God, and we had some lively banter about how most of them seemed to be exhorting us to silence and solitude. Attempts to foster these virtues at the Gaudeamus supper proved fruitless (at least exteriorly), but we were all touched by the Holy Spirit’s knack at once again giving each nun exactly the exhortation she needed to hear.

At the end of the meal Pope Benedict paid Sister a “visit” with a special message just for her thanking her for being a faithful daughter of the Church all these years. At Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s request, we crowned the day by singing the first verse of “Now Thank We All Our God.”  We truly give thanks to God for his fidelity to his little bride of 50 years!

Sister stands near a photo of Fr. Wood who was instrumental in helping her enter the Passionist cloister in 1960.  A young Air Force photo of Sister is in the center and at right, a photo of our original monastery in 1946.

 The community (minus 2 sisters) poses for a photo at the close of a happy day.

Blessed be God!

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Sponsa Christi August 30th, 2012

I am still putting together a post about Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s Gaudeamus last week but thought I would give you a little taste of the celebration…here’s a little background information.

“Young Air Force Woman Rides Cargo Plane to Visit Dominican Nuns in California” 

Sounds like a good headline doesn’t it?  Our Sister Mary Elizabeth did just this while she was discerning a religious vocation and stationed in Colorado Springs, CO while serving for the United States Air Force.  And if one was riding a cargo plane, one was also wearing a parachute. (At least that is how the story goes…) This was one of the themes we used for her Gaudeamus.

Yes, this really is a photo of Sister, formerly known as Betty Jean

At 9:45 a.m. the main festivities began as Sr. Rose Marie wheeled Sr. Mary Elizabeth from her cell into the recreation room to the music of the Air Force Song, “The Wild Blue Yonder,” which we rewrote to reflect Sister’s career as a spiritual warrior. The sisters in formation had decorated the wheelchair with red, white, and blue crepe paper and bows, American flags, heavenly-looking streamers, and – to top it all off – a parachute which billowed out behind her as she rolled in.

Here she comes out of the wild blue yonder, Sorgho’s boast—Betty Jean Sauer!
Air Force trained, ready to battle Satan, Cross in hand, “Thy Kingdom come!”
Clothed with pow’r from His Sacred Passion, with His seal over her heart;
The souls of men she’ll capture for Crucified Love, Christ Jesus, Savior!

She’ll reside in an enclosed garden, armed with pray’r and sacrifice;
Spirit-filled, flaming with love for Jesus, she’ll fly high, on wings of pray’r.
Simple days, doing the ordinary, used by God, they’ll become great!
She’ll live with Him and not turn back; Nothing’ll stop our Betty Jean Sauer!

Let us sing to Him who called her sweetly to His side, to be His bride!
Fifty years she’s given all her heart’s love faithfully, nothing held back!
Five her vows, five her unfailing weapons furthering His Kingdom on earth!
His Spouse, His Joy, for fifty years—Thanks be to God for Betty Jean Sauer!

More to come about the celebration…I am off now to stir the chili and pray a rosary!

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Sponsa Christi August 2nd, 2012

Gee…I feel as though every time I post I must first apologize for being truant or something!

Summer is a busier time for me. Hopefully, a month from now will bring regular blog posts again…

Anyhow…let’s get on with the story…

When I last left off with you it was the day after our public celebration of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee, that is, fifty years of vowed Passionist life!

In honor of Sister’s Golden Jubilee we gave her a large crucifix for our altar. This gift she got to open early along with a nice gold vase. You can see below that we used these during her Jubilee Mass.

Priests – Msgr Bernard Powers, Fr. Ray Clark, Fr. Joe Mills and Fr. John Schork CP (Passionist). Servers in back – seminarian Jarrod Kaelin and Dwayne Roby. Greg Mills also served but is not in this photo.

Her celebration was glorious in many ways…the Holy Mass, prayers, flowers, reception, photos of Sisters life, food, friends and family.

Here is Sister with her only surviving sibling Marguerite.

Two posters were made for the occasion. The one above shows pictures of Sister and her family, etc. from early childhood up to her Silver Jubilee (25 years of vowed life)

This poster includes photos of Sister during the last 25 years.

August 22 will bring us a private celebration here in the monastery…good food again, gifts, song,  joy and perhaps a skit!

The cover of Sister’s Mass program booklet.

The following message from the heart of our Jubilarian was featured in the front cover of the Mass booklet.

From Janssens’ painting of our Suffering Redeemer on the front cover, we see Jesus looking out at us and over the whole world.  From the cross, He saw all generations from beginning to end, and the loving thirst in His Heart burned to save each and every human person.  This made our Divine Savior send out from the cross His agonizing cry: “I thirst”.

The sacrifices and sufferings we embrace in union with Jesus become our language of love, to satisfy His “thirst”.

The charism of our founder, St. Paul of the Cross, was to keep alive in the hearts of God’s people the grateful memory of Christ’s redeeming love and thirst for every soul.  In solitude, silence and prayer within the life of our cloistered community, I strive to let the Holy Spirit renew the Passion within me.

Daily I strive to live our Passionist vows in the atmosphere of Christ’s sacrificial love, offering myself with Jesus to the Heavenly Father for the salvation and sanctification of all.

As I celebrate the wonder of Christ’s love to which I have committed myself by vow, I invite all of you to honor Him with me each day by offering this prayer:

Lord Jesus, by Your suffering and death, You made it possible for us to be holy and to share in the eternal joy of Your resurrection.  With trust and confidence we look upon You on Your cross and strive to unite ourselves with You in the passion of our daily lives.

Look down upon us and draw us close to You.  Give us, we beg You, a share of Your courage in times of adversity and anxiety.  Strengthen us in our struggle against physical and spiritual evil.  In our efforts to imitate You in Your Passion, help us to look upon those around us with loving care and concern. 

We pray that those who have turned away from You may be drawn back to You through the merits You gained for us on Calvary, so that all of us might live in never-ending peace with You forever.  Amen.

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