In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi March 28th, 2013

Today our community and all of the you have entered into the most sacred days of the Church Year. We have many beautiful monastic customs during the sacred Triduum. One of these is a communal gathering of our intentions for our spiritual children. Earlier today our Superior shared with us the following words of encouragement…

    After making the Lenten journey with the whole Church—and ours was certainly a strenuous journey!!— we have come now to the blessed days of the Paschal Triduum.

We, the “daughters of the Passion and brides of Christ Crucified”, feel ourselves prompted from deep within to spend these days of the Sacred Triduum as Our Lord’s close companions and helpmates. We can also be a great help to one another by trying to maintain silence and recollection as much as possible, and helping out where others need our help–either in the care of the sick, or food preparation, sacristy work and so forth. As for the correspondence work, we can let that go until next week. These days are too precious to spend them on anything that is not really necessary.

We know from our community sharings on Bl. John Paul’s encyclical on the Eucharist, that the Pascal Triduum is, as it were, concentrated in the Holy Eucharist.

So the Last Supper, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday are all “concentrated” in the Holy Eucharist.  We are mysteriously and really made present to them at every Mass.  And we know and believe–also from Pope John Paul’s encyclical, that there is a mysterious “oneness in time” between that first Triduum 2000 years ago and today.  We could meditate on these truths til our dying day and never exhaust their magnificent riches.

In these sacred rites, there will be a oneness in time between the Last Supper, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday.  We will truly be there!  And we know from Church teaching that we are not play acting, we are not spectators.  We are participators, we are really and truly taking part in and reliving these events with the Church, as the liturgy makes them present in a unique way.

Jesus wants to celebrate His Passover here with us in our monastery, with us, His brides, closest companions and helpmates in the work of redemption.  We want our hearts to be like His.  His great Heart has the whole world gathered into it and embraced in saving love.  Before He offered His sacrifice on the cross, He made His intentions, and we read them in chapter 17 of John’s Gospel.

We too, before entering the Triduum, make our intentions– we gather into the embrace of our prayer, our new Holy Father, and also Benedict XVI, our bishops, priests, religious, laity, our families and their crying needs, all our Oblates and Associates and friends, all Passionists, our benefactors, all who need and ask our prayers, all who attend our services, etc. – we gather them all up and carry them in our hearts into the liturgy, into our prayers and sacrifices of these precious days, pleading the Passion of Jesus, His wounds, His Precious Blood, His own bitter sufferings for them.  Let us not forget the wonderful doctors and nursing personnel who generously care for us, our employees, etc.  Our hearts are to be as wide as the Heart of Jesus!

Just as Jesus is never possessive or stingy–keeping anything only for Himself–so we literally give our lives and prayers away for souls, for the intentions of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  Spending time with Him, gazing at Him, at His suffering Face, His Sacred Heart, His strong virtues, and uniting ourselves with Him in His humility and obedience, His love for souls—all of this not only sanctifies us, but is a saving work for the Church and the world.

So let’s be generous during these days, trying our best also to give of ourselves fully in the liturgy.

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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Holy Week , Monastery traditions , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality , The Holy Eucharist
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Sponsa Christi March 26th, 2013

Jesus loved us “to the end” – to the fullest extent possible.
What other religion can boast that their god loved them so much
he/she became a human being and died for them that
they might know Love eternal?

Our post last year entitled Meditations for Holy Week is getting a lot of views so I thought I would re-post that again this year.

Here are some EXCELLENT meditations
on the spirituality and history of Holy Week.

Holy Week

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Easter , Holy Week , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist 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 October 27th, 2012

The foliage this year has been truly breath-taking. As one Sister pointed out, it is as if the trees are on fire. They are saying to us: Love God! Love Him with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength! 

These photos were taken on different days and at different times. You really get a gorgeous display of these holy grounds. May God be loved and praised!

Enjoy your tour!

A slight tip of the camera brought the same image below
with a different filter of light.

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A small statue of our Lady sits atop a shelf attached to an old harrow (at least that is what we think it is!) that some farmer leaned against this tree many decades ago. The tree has completely grown around the top of it!

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This is our crucifix at the front of our drive that greets
all passersby…saying, “My people, what have I done to you…
answer me…give me your love in return for my love…”

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Stations of the Cross trail below our parking lot.

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I would like to tell you some important things, but a person who does not love, does not know how to speak about love. The language required is learned only from love. Listen to the divine Lover and let him teach it to you.

- St. Paul of the Cross

I want to be burnt to ashes for love…I want to be all on fire with love, more and more. I want to know how to sing int he furnace of love and to magnify the great mercies which uncreated Love grants to your soul.

- St. Paul of the Cross

St. Paul writes to one of his spiritual daughters:

Truly, you dine at table while your poor father is dying of hunger. A fine thing!

(meaning his prayer is very dry and he feels very far from God – we too must be saints and persevere in prayer in the midst of dryness and spiritual aridity!)

The daughter banquets while her poor father has only a piece of hard, black bread, with nothing to drink. Remember, too that I am so parched that rivers could not quench my thirst. I must swallow the seas if that is to happen. But note that they are seas of fire that I want to drink, seas of love. Tell this to your divine Bridegroom. Stay with him, praying day and night…

How I wish that we were so aflame with love that all who came near us would catch fire. Not only our neighbors but total strangers, all tribes and tongues and nations, in a word, all creatures, so that all would know and love the supreme Good.

- St. Paul of the Cross

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Our front entrance, to the left is the Chapel,
to the right is the monastery and guest house.

O Holy Mary, intercede for us to be set on fire
with love for God as you were!

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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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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastery traditions , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women
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Sponsa Christi August 23rd, 2012

Be a Passionist Nun!

That’s the name of our 60 second vocation commercial that airs occasionally on EWTN.

Following the brilliant inspiration of our Mother Catherine Marie (and the inspiration of benefactors!) we had this commercial filmed a few years back.

You can check it out here at our website.

Do you know a young woman discerning a religious vocation? Please send her this link!

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Sponsa Christi August 16th, 2012

Summer days are almost gone…along with many of you, this summer has been unusual with the triple-digit weather and lack of rain.

This summer brought us a large track hoe to dig out the sides of our lake which was becoming quite the weed-bed. So now we have huge piles of clay in our woods where they dumped the lake mud. It was a messy job; grass seed will definitely need to be sown in the fall.

Sisters watch the track hoe at its first day on the job.

Independence Day brought us a Gaudeamus Day  – a free day with time to relax and enjoy one another’s company. With the terrible drought we skipped the fireworks. This was the final day of the Fortnight for Freedom.

Grilling out on Independence Day. Delicious! But those barbecued grills were tough to clean!

Braving the heat on Independence Day—after a water balloon toss! The Lord sent a nice cloud cover and we enjoyed a game of croquet before Vespers.

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Today we had a Passionist Renewal morning led by our Msgr Powers. He has gradually been leading us through our Holy Founder’s letters to Mother Mary Crucified. This was letter #7. Msgr likes to pull words out of the letter and go very deeply into them.  He himself is a poet and mystic and keeps busy giving retreats and days of recollection and spiritual direction.

In today’s letter St. Paul of the Cross told Mother Mary Crucified (the Superior of the first Passionist Nuns, she was a Benedictine for many years, waiting the foundation of the Passionist Nuns) that he so desired her to be clothed as he was in the Holy Passion of Jesus Christ. Ah…he waxed eloquent on the holy habit for about an hour…one point he brought out is how we are clothed in the Passion of Christ, clothed in Jesus’ greatest act of love clothed in a spousal garment. This is the reason we wear black…to symbolize the love of Jesus crucified.  Our Passionist emblem – that the Passion of Christ would be ever in our hearts…not only his physical sufferings but the love, the virtues that motivated our Lord to endure all he did for our redemption, our sanctification – that this would be ever in our hearts!  Then we had a 45 min prayer period and then discussion time.  Truly, Passionists are “robed in salvation!”

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I just read in our Holy Cross Province Newsletter of our Passionist men that tomorrow, August 17, four men will be vested in the Passionist habit and enter the novitiate! Alleluia!  I don’t have any other details but please keep them in your prayers.

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Next Wednesday will bring our Gaudeamus Day in honor of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee. Which reminds me that I only have 5 days to finish my card for her.  You see, each Sister creates some kind of card for Silver or Golden Jubilarians….recycled cards, computer cards…whatever a Sister can come up with!  I must get busy…

Next week’s post should bring to you all the goings on that have been thus far worked on in secret for Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s day!

Ta ta!

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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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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Monastery traditions , Passion of Jesus , Passionist Spirituality , Passionist Vocations for Women
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