In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi May 7th, 2012

“Where is everyone?” That was my thought Saturday morning when I came into chapel and saw that we had no guests for Mass, which is unusual. As I sat there praying and preparing to enter into the “Holy of holies” a number of people came in to chapel all at once.

During the announcements after the noon meal Sr. Mary Agnes explained to us what had happened. She had gotten a call before Mass stating that the gates were not open and there was a line of cars waiting to get through!

She drove down and discovered that the gate hinges had actually broken!  You can see here that the gate is being held to the post by a chain.  Our faithful grounds-keeper came over and with the tractor managed to move the gate so that our guests could come on in.

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On my walk down to take the photo of the gate I came upon the goose nest and it was empty…that could only mean one thing…the goslings were hatched and sure enough I snapped a photo of them here with mom and dad.

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Last week Anne and Chuck Hagan graciously delivered and spread some good “barn yard dirt” in the garden. God bless you!

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And Dave and Carol Niehaus (Sr. Mary Andrea’s parents) spent a day cutting down trees to provide more sunlight on the veggie garden. May God reward you for your labor!  Here a couple Sisters load up some of the cut wood.

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Today we had the great excitement of a shipment of compost arrive!  Good and rich compost – a whole dump truck full! Thank you Lord! and Jane & Tim Wynn! (Sr. Cecilia Maria’s parents)

Wow…who is going to spread all that?

Who said monastery life was dull? Everyone has monotonous days but each moment of monotony is filled with graces that will not be given again.  May each of us respond to the Lord’s love and grace each moment of our days!

Tags: Family, Nature & Weather

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life
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Sponsa Christi April 23rd, 2012

Three blog posts in 3 days! I am on a roll…or actually, I am on retreat and have time to type up some posts that have been rolling around in my head…

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Have you checked your humor lately?

How is it doing?

Two things my spiritual director persistently (!) speaks about is my need to grow in humility and my need to develop a sense of humor.

This past Christmas we received a delightful gift from Sr. Cecilia Maria’s grandmother that is helping me with the latter point, a book called Between Heaven and Mirth by Fr. James Martin, SJ. In this book Father assures us that God wants us to experience joy, to cultivate a sense of holy humor, and to laugh at life’s absurdities – not to mention our own humanity.  I invite you to rediscover the importance of humor and laughter in your daily life…and so does Pope Benedict!

I believe [God] has a great sense of humor. Sometimes he gives you something like a nudge and says, ‘Don’t take yourself so seriously!’ Humor is in fact an essential element in the mirth of creation. We can see how, in many matters in our lives, God wants to prod us into taking things a bit more lightly; to see the funny side of it; to get down off our pedestal and not to forget our sense of fun.

~Pope Benedict XVI – In God and the World

By the way, Anita (Grandmother!) recently came with Sr. Cecilia Maria’s parents for a visit. They kept speaking of the physical resemblance between her and Sr. Mary Magdalen. You decide…

Do you like Anita’s amber necklace? This “petrified tree sap” washes up on the shores of Denmark where Anita is from.

Tags: Family, Humor, Pope Benedict XVI

• Catholic Vocations for Women
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Sponsa Christi April 3rd, 2012

I thought this Holy Week a good time to bring you the story of our outdoor Stations of the Cross…

About 15 years ago we received a set of bronze (?) Stations of the Cross from one of our Passionist mens’ retreat houses out in California. They had some pot marks and had lost their luster but they were still meaningful.  Over the years the pot marks got much worse.

Last fall two of Sr. Mary Therese’s brothers, a nephew and cousin came and helped beautify our Stations of the Cross trail by constructing and installing a cover over each Station.

When Lawrence (above left) saw the shape that the stations themselves were in he was determined to do something about it. He did some research and found a way to clean them.

The contrast is just amazing!

God bless Lawrence and Robert for installing all the Stations!

 We (or rather professionals we hired) continue to remove dangerous trees from this area. This trail has been hit badly by tornado-type winds on about 3 occasions over the years and had a lot of damage.

We have a number of guests and retreatants who come and walk this trail and now we feel they can have a much more prayerful and safer walk!

Tags: Family

• Catholic Vocations for Women , Holy Week
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Sponsa Christi September 19th, 2011

Recently we enjoyed a few evenings of bowling – monastery style. The photos turned out dark and blurry – except this one of Mother Catherine Marie. Yes, we were bowling UP the ramp. Did you know that plastic bowling balls have a mind of their own???

Last week brought us a lovely visit from Sr. Cecilia Maria’s family. Here she is with her sister Whitney playing us some traditional northwest American music. The Wynns reside in Washington State!

Now…Sponsa Christi is off to the dentist – 3 cavities!  How does this happen when good nuns brush and floss regularly???

Such is life on planet earth…

Till next time, when I will have something a bit more spiritual for you…

May the Passion of Jesus and the Sorrows of Mary be ever in our hearts!

Tags: Family, Humor

• Life as a Passionist
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Sponsa Christi July 19th, 2011

Since Sister Rose Marie’s Mass of Religious Profession a spirit of consecration continues to linger like incense here in the monastery. This prayerful spirit of consecration, this attitude of offertory, brought to my mind the section in our Constitutions under our Vow to Promote Devotion to and Grateful Remembrance of the Passion and Death of Jesus.

By this vow, they will dedicate themselves in a special way…to offer to God their life of prayer, of community, of self-denial, of work, continually carrying about in their bodies the dying of Jesus. They do this so that the Church may be able to proclaim effectively and everywhere “the cross of Christ as the sign of God’s universal love and the source of all grace.

When we live our Passionist life faithfully we help the Church proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God’s universal love and source of all grace! How humbling and awe-inspiring.

Recently, two siblings of our Sisters have made a commitment to proclaim the cross of Christ to the world.

Sr. Mary Andrea seen with her dear sister Theresa Niehaus. Theresa has recently committed to proclaiming the Gospel to college students by her work with FOCUS. You may have read my blog post featuring a talk Theresa wrote for a TEC retreat in 2008 about Sr. Mary Andrea’s vocation to the cloister. Don’t miss it!

On June 18th Sr. John Mary’s brother Jeff Read was ordained to the Transitional Diaconate for the Diocese of Evansville, IN.

Actual moment of consecration

Deacon Jeff assisting Bishop Emeritus Gettelfinger during the Liturgy of the Eucharist at the Mass of Diaconate Ordination.

What a joy! Siblings united in their consecration to Christ!

May we all be united fulfilling our personal call to holiness. YOU are called to be a saint! Let us lift high the Cross – the universal sign of God’s love and the source of all grace!

Tags: Family, Rule & Constitutions

• Bride of Christ , Life as a Passionist , Passionist Spirituality
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Sponsa Christi June 12th, 2011

    Well, I though I shouldn’t leave the blog for long with the subject of chiggers ending the last post! So, I shall seek to speak of more sublime things in this post.

    With great joy we welcomed one of the Church’s newest priests – long-time friend from our diocese – Fr. Austin Dominic (Jared) Litke, OP (Dominican Friar of St. Joseph Province). Offering Mass for us was one of his top priorities upon his arrival home last week. What a blessing that was for us!

Pictured here with the fabulous cake made by our dear friend Larena Lawson

This is the holy image Fr. Austin used for his ordination card. Father was delighted to be able to use this picture as it is a perfect summation of his priestly ordination.

    Found at the Boston Public Library. . . This Crucifix is a small model for a part of a wall showing ‘The Dogma of Redemption’. Figures of Adam and Eve at either side of the cross collect Christ’s blood, and below his feet is a traditional symbol of the resurrection, a pelican feeding its young with its blood. Notice also the serpent wrapped around Adam’s feet and those of Jesus and that the nail going through Jesus’ feet also goes through the serpent…a very meaningful meditation.

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    Speaking of new ordinands…Sr. John Mary’s brother Jeff Read is preparing to be ordained to the Transitional Diaconate for the Diocese of Evansville (Indiana) this Saturday, June 18th at 10 a.m.  Please do keep him and his co-seminarian Brian Emmick in your prayers.

Prayer for Seminarians and Priests

    O Jesus, You are the Eternal High Priest. You are the only Mediator between God and man. You have established priests as Your collaborators to perpetuate in the Holy Mass, the saving Sacrifice of Your death on the Cross and to sanctify souls through their ministry. You have chosen Your priests from among us. For so great a gift to Your Church, we give you praise and thanksgiving.

   We ask You to fill Jeff Read and Brian Emmick with the fire of Your love, that his ministry may reveal Your presence in the world. Since he is an earthen vessel, we pray that Your power shine out through his human weakness. In his afflictions let him never be crushed; in his doubts, never despair; in temptation, never be destroyed; in persecution, never abandoned. Inspire him to live each day the mystery of Your dying and rising. By the power of the Holy Spirit put Your word on his lips, Your humility in his heart, Your love in his actions, to bring good news to the poor and healing to the broken-hearted. 

  And may the gift of Mary, Your Mother, to the disciple whom You loved (cf. John 19), be Your gift to Jeff. Grant that she who formed You in her human image may form Jeff in Your Divine Image, by the power of your Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

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   More good news…one of Sr. Mary Andrea’s sisters, Theresa, was recently accepted to work with FOCUS, a wonderful Catholic college ministry. Please pray for her. She has just graduated from college and is heading off for FOCUS training. Thank you Theresa for saying “yes” to Jesus’ call in your life!

   This Thursday will bring us a belated Gaudeamus celebration of Mother Catherine Marie’s feastday (St. Catherine of Siena – April 29th). We hope it will be a day of joy and grace for Mother!

    And the news many of you have been waiting to hear… drum roll please… YES! Our novice, Sister Rose Marie of the Merciful Heart of Jesus, has been accepted to make her First Profession of the five Passionist Vows!  Praise the Lord!!!  Please keep her and us in your prayers. Lots of preparations must take place between now and the big day - July 1st. And most importantly…pray for Sister as Jesus prepares her to be His bride.

   Today is Pentecost!  Veni Sancte Spiritus!  Veni Per Miriam! 

Tags: Family, Friends, Stages in Formation

• Bride of Christ , Life as a Passionist , Novitiate news
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Sponsa Christi March 3rd, 2011

    The last few weeks here have been very full. So much to post and so little time to do so! The following are some random things going on around here.

    There was a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat held in our Guest House. This retreat is for Post-Abortive men and women. Please do keep them in your prayers. Fr. Ben Cameron is the site leader for the Rachel’s Vineyard retreats in our area and recently founded a Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy for post-abortive persons seeking healing and holiness. The confraternity also includes persons who have not undergone abortions but wish to join themselves spiritually to a beautiful work of healing such as this.

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    Sr. Cecilia Maria’s family was here for the traditional visit after a vestition.

Sr. Cecilia Maria with her beloved family.

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“Strike up the instruments!”

Whitney on violin treats us to Mozart’s Concerto No. 4

Sr. Cecilia Maria experimenting with the dulcimer and her family sings along – of course, it is a folk song of “The Brothers Four” entitled “Michael Row the Boat to Shore”.
This one’s for you Tim!

Sr. Rose Marie on the banjolin!

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    Our nine days of prayer to St. Gabriel of our Lady of Sorrows, patron of our novitiate brought many graces and some visitors discerning Passionist life.

    Fours special gals and their devoted chaperones from Smyrna, Georgia made us a part of their Spring Break Nun Run - Do come again! Plus another young woman and her mother were able to join us for several days of Passionist living. Please keep these young women in your prayers as they seek to find and follow God’s plan for their beautiful lives.

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Lastly, I thought I would bring you some highlights from this year’s feast day party for the Novice Directress
Sr. Mary Veronica.

Real china for this year’s tea party!

Tea leaves without a tea ball???

The novitiate (Liz – “Much-Afraid”, Sr. Cecilia Maria – “The Shepherd”, Sr. Rose Marie – Narrator) acts out a scene from Hinds’ Feet on High Places. For you Hannah Hurnard fans this is from page 127 of her book. The theme? “Doing the impossible is the funnest thing ever!”
(Sr. Rose Marie’s paraphrase) 

Sr. Cecilia Maria introduced us to “Here is My Light”
by Ed Conlin of Ann Arbor

Sr. John Mary had to get in a favorite from her NET days
- “Song of the Beloved” by Laure Krupp

Tags: Family, Feast Days, Pro-Life

• Life as a Passionist , Novitiate news
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Sponsa Christi September 21st, 2009

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

    This is certainly the praise to God that continues to flow from Sr. Rose Marie’s and my heart after our pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and EWTN in Alabama. Yes, this is Sr. John Mary writing and I am finally getting around to giving you all (or “y’all” as they say in Alabama) some of the “inside scoop” of our experience September 1 – 4, 2009. 

    Thanks again to all of you who spread the word about our show and who prayed for us, for without your prayers, including our family and friends and Mother Catherine Marie and our Sisters here it certainly would not have been so anointed.

    Talking about prayer, the eve before Sister and I left all the Sisters extended their hands in prayer over us and Mother led us in a wonderful prayer with various Sisters chiming in. I prayed that this appearance on “Life on the Rock” would not only bring vocations and potential benefactors to our community but also to our other 4 monasteries here in the States – do you know we have heard from our other monasteries that they are getting vocation inquiries?! That’s fantastic.

Mother anointed the van with exorcised oil before we took off

    Sister and I left mid-morning on Tuesday, September 1st. Spending the time in prayer, listening to talks by Fr. Corapi and eating and sharing among ourselves we had a wonderful drive to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, AL (an hour north of EWTN). This is the monastery where Mother and Angelica and the community now reside.

    As we drove into the monastery grounds and drove past the long white picket fence that first evening I felt overwhelmed at the magnitude of what one woman’s “yes” to God has accomplished. And this grand work is infinitesimal compared to Mary’s “yes”! Wow. This is truly holy ground. Of course, that is what everyone says when they enter our property. Truly, all over our nation, there are spaces set apart for the praise of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament and monastery grounds are one such place.

Does anyone know the story behind this cross?
It is just in the middle of the fields as one is driving in.
It is lit up at night.

    Hardly anyone was at the Shrine that evening and the next morning. We had lots of time to just sit inside the beautiful ”Temple” in prayer. The Lord drew us into His Presence here and prepared us for the show which would take place two nights later.

    Wednesday, September 2, began the day with Holy Mass at the Shrine. I was blessed to meet and speak briefly with Sr. Isabella Marie – one of the extern nuns. That was a delight! After more time spent in prayer Sister and I drove on into Birmingham. We timed it so as to arrive in time for the 2:45 p.m. EWTN studio tour. We also met Brother Pio Mary, MFVA for the first time. He is from our diocese and his parents are benefactors of our community. He seems to be a wonderful friar, very friendly and happy as are all the friars. They are the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word and were founded by Mother Angelica. We have made a new friend!

    We then met the wonderful producer of “Life on the Rock” – Jill Sanders – she had been setting our minds at ease for the last 2 months with her words of encouragement and overall helpfulness. God reward you Jill! After this we set off to get settled in our house before supper…or so we thought!

    We drove around back of the studio and arrived at our guest house, which we were told would be “Immaculata House”. We were through the front door with suitcases in our hands, up the stairs and ready to put our things in our rooms when I noticed that the name signs on the doors were all names of men – “Brother Simon Mary”, “Fr. Daniel Mary”. Then we noticed the sound of a man’s voice behind one of the doors. After standing for a moment in surprise and confusion Sr. Rose Marie gave the profound statement of the day: Perhaps we should go back outside and think about this. (meaning, lets get out of here and quick!) Once we were back outside someone drove up and help us figure out we had been switched to “Madonna House” next door.

    About 20 minutes later we were eating our supper when in walked two Carmelite monks. They introduced themselves as Brother Simon Mary and Fr. Daniel Mary – oops! We all had a good laugh about what happened. This certainly “broke the ice” and, after we were joined by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, provided for light banter and serious sharing the rest of the meal. These two monks of the new Carmelite monastery in Wyoming were to be the guests on Fr. Mitch’s “EWTN Live” show that evening. The three of them encouraged Sr. Rose Marie and I to attend the show and be contemplative support to these contemplative monks. I also asked a question on the live show about contemplative life in the world today. It seemed to go over well – a little practice for the show the next evening.

    Sister’s family and friends arrived at EWTN in the afternoon of Thursday, September 3 and it was a delight to greet them a couple hours before the show. We also met with Fr. Mark Mary, MFVA and Doug Barry. We all hit it off well which helped Sr. Rose Marie and I to feel at ease. Due to the grace and mercy of God I did not feel real nervous, especially after about 5 minutes of the show. Sr. Rose Marie did a great job answering their questions. She was certainly more nervous. Her mind had gone completely blank…this is when one has to totally rely on the Holy Spirit! If you are interested you can listen to the show here: Life on the Rock #626.

On stage after the show with hosts Fr. Mark Mary and Doug Barry. Thanks Fr. Mark for giving so generously
of your time that day!

New friends Brother Pio Mary and Brother Tarcisius. Brother Tarcisius is from Argentina and knows the
Passionist Nuns there.

The brothers with their “big sister”!

 It was great meeting Sr. Rose Marie’s “Aggie” friends Kimmy and Charlotte who drove in from Houston

    The next day we were blessed to attend Mass at EWTN again and Sr. Rose Marie’s family and friends joined us. After that we all drove to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and were able to spend a bit more time on these blessed grounds. 

One of the main inspirations for building this great Temple in the South happened through an inspiration from the Divino Nino Jesus to Mother Angelica.

    Sister Rose Marie and I left the Shrine around 11:30 a.m. and got home by 6:45 p.m. that evening. We were practically crawling through Nashville as it was Friday of Labor Day weekend and everyone was getting on or off of I-65!

Sr. John Mary and Sr. Rose Marie
(sort of) with Mother Angelica

    It was such a wonderful and holy experience. First of all, to proclaim and make known our Passionist life and charism – making Jesus Crucified more known and loved! Secondly, it was truly an experience of “Holy Friendship” with other persons totally consecrated to God’s glory and the redemption of the world through the proclamation, re-presentation and living of the Paschal Mystery.

    Thank you so much for your prayers and continued interest in Passionist life. If you would like to obtain a copy of the show we will soon be offering the DVD from our on-line gift shop.

    Whew! This was one loooong story…making up for no blog post last week!

Special thanks to Mark Schoppe and Charlotte McNabb for sharing their photos…some of which are used in this post.

Tags: EWTN, Family, Friends

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Sponsa Christi April 30th, 2009

    I have been waiting for May 1st – the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker – to share with you this little reflection by Sr. Mary Andrea.

I come from a family of carpenters who have always highly valued working together. In building houses each person in the construction crew had his own responsibility, everything from being foreman to measuring and cutting, to picking up trash. When it came to our families’ homes, even we women and children had our own parts to play – cooking meals, sweeping up sawdust, and keeping the smallest children safe. At times, it could seem as though we were not doing much worthwhile for the completion of the house, but each part needed to be done.

Coming to live in St. Joseph’s Monastery (the patron saint of carpenters) with this background, the image of “building the kingdom of God” has come to mean so much to me. It is when my duties do not seem that important that I most need to remember that it is the Kingdom of God (not my kingdom) that I have come to “build”. I do not need to know how or why my duties are needed, but only to know that they are needed because the ‘Foreman’ (Who is also my Spouse), Jesus Christ, chooses to need them done by me.

Sister with her parents on the day of her First Profession in October 2007. Special thanks to Dave and Carol for taking their day off to come and clear our Stations of the Cross trail. Up until a few days ago it was still quite devastated from the ice storm damage.
May the Lord reward you abundantly!

Tags: Family, Feast Days

• Life as a Passionist , Monastic Life
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Sponsa Christi March 8th, 2009

     Sr. Mary Andrea recently left our holy enclosure to attend her Grandmother’s funeral. Read this article to learn more about our cloistered life.

So Many Graces, So Many Blessings

     After 81+ years of serving our Lord, raising 17 children, and working the family farm, my grandmother (Mom’s Mom) was called Home by God. Being that the Monastery here is only about a 1-hour’s drive from Grandma and Grandpa’s parish and through Mother Catherine Marie’s gracious permission, I was allowed to join what seemed like nearly 350 or 400 people for the visitation and funeral. Considering that all of Grandma and Grandpa’s 17 children, most of Grandma and Grandpa’s 93 grandchildren, many of their 40+ great-grandchildren, and numerous other relatives and friends came, including many spouses of the above, the family decided to have the visitation in the parish church in order to accommodate us all. The funeral visitation, Mass, and burial were truly a beautiful experience, indeed a celebration of life, allowing the family’s strong Catholic faith to shine through.

     Since my uncle (Mom’s brother) is a priest for their diocese, there were at least 12 priests, 2 deacons, and the Bishop there for the Mass, plus other priests were there for the visitation the day before. My priest-uncle did not give the homily, but at the end of Mass he reminded us that at the end of a Wedding Mass the priest introduces the newly married couple as they begin their new life, at which point the congregation will applaud the new couple. He then proceeded to invite all present at Grandma’s funeral to applaud her as she begins her new life. Of course this brought tears to many eyes. Yet, even amidst the tears, so often during the visitation time, I kept hearing different ones of my relatives speak about how happy they are that Grandma is now with God, or about how they cannot imagine what Grandma’s life is like now, referring to the fact that when we die, “life is changed, not ended”. Strange as it might seem, I think I left Grandma’s funeral even happier than when I arrived there because the family’s faith in eternal life truly lifted my spirits. I thank God that He has blessed me with such deep roots in the Catholic Church!

Tags: Family

• Life as a Passionist
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