In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi May 10th, 2013

Isn’t that a neat word? – heterogeneous!  Meaning “different in kind, unlike, incongruous”…I thought that a good description of the photos in this post. Really, I was just wracking my brain to think of a unique name for this post and happened upon this word.

Please keep us Sisters in your prayers…the Marthas of a few weeks ago are now the Marys. That’s right – half the Sisters are beginning 8 day solitude retreat Saturday through Pentecost Vigil – while the other half keep the monastery running – hopefully the kitchen will survive – the 3 junior professed sisters have taken over…

Some monasteries news…

Nothing like putting a meal on the table for the Nuns and also baking some bread for a feastday breakfast.  Mmmm…delicious!

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Several weeks ago we celebrated Mother Catherine Marie’s feast day (St. Catherine of Siena) with a lovely Gaudeamus day.

Sr. Mary Therese surprised Mother and all of us with about 7 new oil paintings!  I think some of them might be put in our on-line gift shop so stay posted.

Sr. Cecilia Maria presents Mother Catherine Marie with the “first fruits” of her peppermint and spearmint plants. We are enjoying fresh mint tea!

One can’t outdo the Superior in generosity – Mother Catherine Marie has treats for all the Sisters, with the blessing of our Eucharistic Jesus – Lord of our House.

Sr. John Mary presents Mother with some note cards made from cartoons drawn by a recently deceased sister of our Passionist Nuns in Japan – Sr. Maria Dolores.

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Recently we were invaded by the Niehaus clan (Sr. Mary Andrea’s family) who helped move and stack wood. Sr. John Mary’s brother also joined in on the fun. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK! ! !

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Thanks to our dear Passionist brother in Christ – Fr. Giuseppe Barbieri, C.P. – we have these photos from Easter day.

Christie and Sr. Ann Miriam have a transfiguration moment.

These smiles show forth the joy of being brides of Christ and living a life of love in the heart of the Church.

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I hope you enjoyed this little highlight from the past couple of months.  God-willing and the creek don’t rise (which it is currently doing with all the rain we are getting) I will write another post with photos of our grounds during this beautiful Spring weather.  Please join us in praying for good planting weather for our farmers!

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Tags: Family, Gaudeamus Days

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Easter , Monastic Life
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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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Tags: St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Stages in Formation

• 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 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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Tags: Liturgy, Profession of Vows, Stages in Formation

• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastic Life , Novitiate news , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women
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Sponsa Christi January 21st, 2013

It all started the moment I opened the door of my cell. My olfactory perception kicked in…something was burning…

At the same time I noticed a nice post-it-note on the outside of my door – “Soup on stove was boiling & smelled burning so I turned the burner OFF!” [sic].  God bless that dear Sister who turned off the flame!

Ah…but the soup for supper was ruined. That is an unfortunate way to use up left-overs.  So, I had the humbling little challenge of offering up my mistake to the Lord.  I love my Mother – the Catholic Church – and especially her teaching of “offering it up”. We’ve heard this all our lives. But what does it mean? Is it just some pie-in-the-sky way of dealing with difficulties big and small?

As a daughter of God redeemed by the death of Jesus I can offer all my prayers, works, joys and sufferings with Jesus in his eternal self-gift to the Father through his Passion, Death and Resurrection. As a Passionist I am blessed to be steeped in this spirituality… a life of offertory…a life united with my spouse Jesus for my children.

So, even though I ruined the pot of soup I still was able to “feed” my children spiritually through making my little trial into a prayer.

You know what I offered it for? For an end to abortion…to end the taking of life of unborn children. This past weekend we were very blessed to have a Rachel Vineyard retreat take place in our retreat house. Many graces of healing and mercy flowed from the pierced Heart of Jesus upon all who attended.

Tomorrow we, as a nation, will remember the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion. Our community is having a Holy Hour of Reparation and Intercession for Life. Details below if you are interested.  Let’s offer up our trials…big and small…to end this terrible modern-day holocaust. May God have mercy on us.

Please join the Passionist Nuns for a Holy Hour of Reparation and Intercession for Life

Tuesday, January 22^nd 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

The Holy Hour will consist of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Prayers to end abortion and build a Culture of Life, a Homily and solemn Benediction.

The homilist will be Fr. Gerald Baker, pastor of St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville, KY.

Please forward this to your family and friends and help spread the word.

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Tags: Pro-Life

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastic Life , Redemptive Suffering
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Sponsa Christi January 12th, 2013

Many reasons to celebrate…

…the Incarnation of the Word
…the Baptism of the Word made Flesh
…the Feast day of the Novice Directress – the little bearer of the Word to the Novices and Postulants…

And we had a delightful tea party in her honor this week…anticipating her feast day, January 13, which this year is superseded by the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Among the goodies on the china platter are some treats from our little sister-in-the-world who is finishing up her college.
God bless you for your gifts Elizabeth!

Baptizing the tea cup?

Nothing like a home-made feast day card from novice to novice directress! This one has excerpts from the lovely poem of St. Therese “Living on Love”. We love St. Therese and all our new members are formed in her spirit of love,
surrender and confidence

Sister Mary Veronica delights in her feast day gift – new candles for the Divine Mercy Chapel! (This is the little Blessed Sacrament chapel in the 2nd floor cell wing which the novitiate has the privilege of cleaning and decorating.)

Sister Cecilia Maria sings a song in honor of her dear novice directress…many memories together these past 3 years as Sr. Mary Veronica prepared her for her First Profession of Vows.

The fulfillment of Sr. Cecilia Maria’s time in the novitiate is almost upon us

…is God perhaps calling YOU to take her place
…to discern if He is calling you to be a Passionist Bride of the Word
…to be a little bearer of the Word-Incarnate-Love for the waiting World

Pray about it…

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Tags: Poetry

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastic Life , Novitiate news , Passionist Vocations for Women
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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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Tags: Friends, Monastery cooking, Weather Flora & Fauna

• Advent , Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life
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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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Tags: Stages in Formation

• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastic Life , Novitiate news , Passionist Vocations for Women
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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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Tags: Passionist Nuns Newsletter, Passionist Oblates

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life , Passionist Vocations for Women , Vocation Discernment
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Sponsa Christi November 23rd, 2012

Sound interesting?  Indeed! 

We had a grace-filled retreat early this week and a wonderful Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple. The next day we had our annual Thanksgiving Day Gaudeamus. Christie shared the following bird-watching experience and Mother asked her to type it up for the blog. Christie, ready to make good on living the spirit of obedience, has done just that! 

I hope her story blesses you!

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I was on retreat and had just finished my spiritual reading from a book that had been suggested to me by one of the Sisters.  It was a most perfect day for a walk outside—slightly cool, not a cloud in the sky.  At the beginning of my walk, glorying in the day, I started pondering some of the words I had just read– how before original sin, all the animals were obedient to Adam and came close to him.  He knew all about their nature and named them from this knowledge.  I was thinking how beautiful the original state of man was.  Then I became aware of how active the birds were at this particular time of morning. I enjoy looking out for different kinds of birds on the monastery grounds and then looking up their pictures in our bird book. 

As I walked I spotted a blue jay.  But there was a flock of birds in the trees  that kept flying ahead of me as I neared them.   I looked hard and tried to identify what kind of birds they were, but they moved so fast that I couldn’t tell.  They wanted to stay far from me!  Thinking again about Adam and the animals, I asked Jesus if He would get them to stay still so I could get closer to them.  I told Him to let them know that I wouldn’t hurt them.  But they kept darting ahead of me, and I continued my walk down the path. What a day it was; I was so aware of God’s goodness in His beautiful creation.

I started down another path on a different area of the grounds, and as I neared a wooded area I noticed a lone bird perched on the trunk of one of the trees.  It’s pose on the tree was very striking, not like any other.  As I tried to focus in on it, the thought came into my mind, “Is that a nuthatch?” I think I had only seen a picture of a nuthatch a couple times, but I thought again, “That looks like a nuthatch.”  I was getting a little excited, because I had not seen this bird around this area. I was disappointed, though, because it was too far off to see any of its markings. 

Suddenly, this bird takes flight and is making a beeline right toward me.  I am not exaggerating—if I had not ducked the bird would have flown into my forehead.  I actually felt the air move as the bird flew over my lowered head!  I turned as the bird flew by and I saw it land on a tree just close enough that I could see the markings of its face and head which were very distinctive.  Glory to God, I just knew it was a nuthatch! (which was later confirmed by the bird book). 

After the excitement of the moment settled down, I continued my walk.  A chuckle started to well up within, though, with the thought that Jesus was playing games with me. I wanted the birds to come close, but not that close.   I jokingly said to Him, “Jesus that was not funny at all; that bird almost hit me!“, but then I quickly added, “yeah, it really was funny.”

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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastery traditions , Monastic Life
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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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Tags: Family, Friends, Passionist Nuns Newsletter, Priestly Ordination, Spiritual Motherhood

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life , Priesthood
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