In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi February 19th, 2013

Yes, it’s that time of the year again…The patronal feast of our novitiate is just around the corner…that is the feast of St. Gabriel of our Lady of Sorrows on February 27th.

A statue of St. Gabriel graces the entrance of our novitiate. The novitiate is the place in the monastery set aside for the use of the new members. It includes their private cells, recreation/class room/library and computer area. It also includes the office of the novice directress who is the little superior of these new lambs of Jesus and Mary.  It is the place of the “making of a nun”.

We began our novena to St. Gabriel and would like you to join us during these 8 days of prayer for an increase of members in our community.

Many women just need a bit more courage to give a greater “yes” to Jesus and try out Passionist life. Others feel they must be absolutely certain this is God’s will for their life before they will try it out. But that is almost an impossible frame of mind to achieve.

In my own journey all I was sure of was that God wanted me to try out Passionist life. It was a time of discernment. That is why one does not make vows within her first week of entry!  It takes time to get acclimated to monastic life and see if it is God’s call for her.  Rarely does God speak in an audible voice: Yes, enter here!  No, generally he inclines a woman’s heart toward or away from the life.  With the help of the novice directress, through fidelity to prayer and a getting a taste of monastic life, God’s will is made manifest.

Please pray for those women whom Jesus is calling to be his Passionist brides to give a generous YES. Your prayer might obtain the final grace they need to respond to God’s plan for their lives!  Your prayer might just make a nun!

   O good St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, you were taught by God to love the Passion of Jesus and to remember the Sorrows of Mary His Mother. By her side, you stood by the Cross of Jesus and shared her compassion. Following her, you grew in love for God and all His people. O St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, we humbly ask you to intercede before God on our behalf, especially for the intentions we now present before you.

• For all the women whom God is calling to join our monastic family
• For the spiritual and temporal needs of our novitiate members and the novice directress
• For all who pass through this novitiate - this holy training ground – that they will respond generously to God’s graces poured out in their hearts during this time of intense formation

We place our trust in your prayers St. Gabriel and wish to follow your example. Remember us, and especially our youth, with compassion. Support us all our days by your holy prayers. And when this life is done, may we join you in heaven in the company of Jesus and Mary.  Amen.

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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life , Novitiate news , Passionist Saints , Passionist Vocations for Women , Prayer , Vocation Discernment
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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 January 9th, 2013

“Can we keep the Christmas tree up a bit longer…?  Perhaps we can put it on wheels and bring it out at certain times of the year…”

So went the conversation last night during our evening recreation. We LOVE the Christmas Season!  We hate to see it end.

Below are some snapshots of our Christmas-Epiphanytide…

Singing Christmas Carols and wearing those zany hats loaned by our sweet Oblate Veda!

One Sister enjoys Christmas music on a subdued Sunday afternoon while working on a Jane Wooster Scott puzzle – a snow scene of course!

Blessed be God this year we have Epiphanytide – that week between Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord in which to continue to partake of the rich liturgical readings and hymns.

And to continue to make many visits to the holy crib…to meditate on the Word made Flesh – the whole “reason for the season”. We have several nativity scenes throughout the monastery. Today we took this one down…until next year!

We also enjoyed a visit with some of our seminarians of the Diocese of Owensboro, KY

My…them Texan boys sure know how to make a snowman…out of 1/2 inch of snow fall! Sr. Rose Marie’s brothers had to run those balls of snow up and down the hill many times to pack in that much snow!
There are those zany hats again…

The nativity scene in our library…a beautiful gift from
another of our Passionist Oblates!
Nice photo from Sr. Rose Marie’s dad!

Our Lord Jesus Christ…truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. How full of wonderment we have been as we revisit His great love for us in assuming flesh and becoming a little child and then remaining with us in the
Sacrament of His Holy Love!

O Sacrament Most Holy
O Sacrament Divine
All praise, all thanksgiving
be every moment Thine

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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Christmas , Cloistered Life , Monastery traditions , The Holy Eucharist
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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.

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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?

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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!

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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.

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..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!

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• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life
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Sponsa Christi November 29th, 2012

This past Sunday we celebrated the liturgical Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. This coming Sunday leads us into the joyful, penitential season of Advent.  May Christ take up His throne in our hearts!

Ta-da!  Our Autumn Newsletter has been posted on our website.

This issue features

• Jubilarian Sr. Mary Elizabeth giving advice to women discerning a religious vocation
• She also shares her vocation story, including a few good photos from her Air Force days
• Admittance of 16 members into the Oblate Formation program. In monastic vocabulary one might say they have finished their postulancy and are now novices!
• Various photos of friends and nuns
• Closing message from Mother Catherine Marie, CP

If you live in the continental USA and would like to receive our newsletter in your mailbox please send me your name and address (in the comment box below) and I will gladly add it to our newsletter address database.

May Jesus take up His throne in all hearts!

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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 November 15th, 2012

Next Thursday is devoted to praying for “Those Who Pray” – that is – a day devoted to praying for the prayer warriors. Yes, we need prayers too! It is called “Pro Orantibus Day” and was instituted by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1997 to be celebrated each year on November 21st – the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. You can learn more about Pro Orantibus Day here.

The following is part of a reflection by Most Rev. Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R.   Archbishop-elect for the Indianapolis diocese.

Contemplative monks and nuns pursue a manner of living in which the faith they profess and celebrate gradually becomes life itself. In this way, they strive to heal the terrible schizophrenia that happens to Christians when faith is separated from life. This manner of living is held together by some important forces, such as the wisdom of the liturgical year, offered by the Church as a way of re-living the great events of our salvation. The liturgy invites the contemplatives to immerse their lives in the life of Christ, so that He might transform them to ever more resemble Him. In union with the entire People of God, the community drinks each day from the fountain of the liturgy, as the members continue their pilgrimage towards the “promised land” that is the glorified body of their Risen Lord.

Find the rest of that reflection here.

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Sponsa Christi November 14th, 2012

…this post is a little late…but better late than never!

Read our summer newsletter at our website. It features the ordination to the priesthood of Sr. John Mary’s brother and lots of news from the monastery. Enjoy!

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Sponsa Christi October 16th, 2012

No Greater Liberty…

What is true liberty? I propose to you that true liberty is found in giving a complete gift of self to God.  True liberty is being a saint. There is a Universal Call to Holiness, as the documents of Vatican II state.

I am currently reading the autobiography of one of our valiant Passionist Nuns – Mother Maria Magdalena, CP. She is of Lucca, Italy and died in 1960 in Madrid, Spain after having founded a monastery of Passionist Nuns there.  She was, or rather I should say, IS quite a remarkable woman!  For she is very much alive and interceding powerfully for us!

Here is what she wrote about the day she entered the monastery after many difficulties.  Perhaps this will give courage and hope to those of you who are on this same journey she was on in 1906.  For those of you who are not discerning a religious vocation you too are called to this liberation from the world…of being “in the world but not of the world.”  Mother Maria Magdalena, ora pro nobis!

The Cloister at Last

It was almost seven o’clock in the evening when we arrived at the convent. The nuns had delayed their dinner one hour to wait for us. So, when they knew we were there, they wanted us to come in immediately. We stopped at the door of the cloister, which was opened at once. On our knees we asked for a last blessing from our confessor and from mother, while the nuns formed two rows on the inside…They were as eager to receive us as we were impatient to enter. As soon as they opened the door I ran, as if I were a bird, to the garden to enjoy, at last, the longed-for freedom.

People of the world call the convent a prison; but, for me, the world was a prison; it is now and it always will be, although those who live as slaves of its maxims, do not recognize it. There is no greater liberty than that of a soul within the sacred walls of the cloister…far from the illusions and deceptions the world offers to those who love it. The soul that dedicates itself entirely to the service of the Lord can repeat with the Prophet: ‘Lord, you have broken my bonds, I offer you in sacrifice a host of praise.’ This is the sentiment of my poor heart, which will be a holocaust consumed in the fire of your love all the days of my life.

A couple weeks ago we opened our door and hearts to three wonderful gals who spent a day of their fall break with us learning about Passionist life. Do come again!

We also welcomed 30 1-6 graders and their chaperones/teachers from Maximilian Montessori Academy.  Too bad we didn’t get a photo. They will have to come again so we can get a photo next time!

Prayer for the Cloistered Life

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the silent witness of cloistered and monastic communities within the life and mission of the Church. May the prayers and sacrifices of these women and men “hidden with Christ” spark the spiritual renewal of the Mystical Body of Christ. Bless this special form of consecrated life with an abundance of vocations as they embrace lives of enclosure in anticipation of Your Kingdom. Amen.

- Prayer from Institute on Religious Life

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Sponsa Christi October 2nd, 2012

Greetings on this rainy day from the Heart of the Church!  As you know we pray very much and live in a spirit of prayer that Jesus Crucified may be more known and ever loved and we also pray for the needs of our Holy Mother Church, our nation and our world. 

The Lord sends us abundant blessings in the midst of our life of union with him.  A recent blessing was the refurbishing of an old calvary scene and the creation of a “shadowbox” to protect it by Tim Wynn – Sr. Cecilia Maria’s father.

Some months back Tim refurbished and created a backdrop for a Calvary scene which was donated a year or two ago by a dear friend Charlotte Oberst. We wanted a way to protect the scene and he did a fine job!

For the crucifixion scene he replaced the cross with walnut, the backdrop is maple burl and the frame is walnut. The shadowbox itself is also walnut with slip dovetail joints and the door has mitered corners – quite a work of art!  Thank you Tim! 

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This is a familiar sight : lots of needles flying at recreation!
Crochet, darning, knitting, cross-stitch and more.

This month we also said goodbye to our dear aspirant Ruth. Her time with us came to an end after receiving special discernment graces during the Septenary prayed in preparation for the Solemn Feast of our Lady of Sorrows. Ruth returns to California and takes a bit of us with her as she seeks to follow God’s call there and beyond. We miss you Ruth and keep you in our prayers!

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Spiritual Mothers of Priests

Fr. Jeff, Sr. John Mary’s brother visited with us in August and he offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We had wonderful visit and some belly-aching laughter as he shared his journey from good job, girlfriend and nice truck to seminary, ordination and priesthood.  We continue offering the prayers and penances of our Passionist life for Fr. Jeff and all our priests!

I leave you with a quote from He is My Heaven, a life of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. Although the book is written about a Carmelite Nun it can certainly be attributed to the life of a Passionist Nun as well. This is a good insight into what Spiritual Motherhood is all about:

The Carmelite prays and strives for closest possible union with God, not simply for her own holiness and salvation; she is aware that the more she is living in Christ, the more powerful she is in her prayer for others. Just as evil can pollute and corrupt, even more so can goodness and holiness transform.  Elizabeth herself expressed this in the first letter she wrote to a seminarian for whom she was praying:

“Oh, how powerful over souls is the apostle who remains always at the Spring of living waters; then he can overflow without his soul ever becoming empty, since he lives in communion with the Infinite! I am praying fervently for you, that God may invade all the powers of your soul, that He may make you live in communion with His whole Mystery, that everything in you may be divine and marked with His seal, so that you may be another Christ working for the glory of the Father! 

“You are praying for me too, aren’t you? I want to be an apostle with you, from the depths of my dear solitude in Carmel, I want to work for the glory of God, and for that I must be wholly filled with Him; then I will be all-powerful: one look, one desire will become an irresistible prayer that can obtain everything, since it is, so to speak, God whom we are offering to God. May our souls be one in Him and, while you bring Him to souls, I will remain, like Mary Magdalene, silent and adoring, close to the Master, asking Him to make your word fruitful in souls. “Apostle, Carmelite,” (Apostle, Passionist!) it is all one! Let us be wholly His, Monsieur l’Abbe, let us be flooded with His divine essence that He may be the Life of our life, the Soul of our soul, and we may consciously remain night and day under His divine action.”

 

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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Priesthood , Vocation Discernment
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