In the Shadow of His Wings

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 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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• Catholic Vocations for Women , Cloistered Life , Monastic Life , Priesthood
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Sponsa Christi September 17th, 2011

Today we had a WONDERFUL group of young gals visit us to learn about Passionist life. They are from Bowling Green, Kentucky. I am so bummed I forgot to take a photo of them for the blog! God bless you dear Kentucky gals!  Come again… 

Now some photos from summer days in the monastery…

Earlier this summer we had two dear friends with us – Brother Brad Smith who was here on retreat and a visit from Fr. Thomas Petri, OP.

We’ve also had daily visits from our raccoon family – this is only one of the crew – and do they LOVE cat food!

The cats don’t know what to think of them ‘coons eating their food.

This has also been a summer of rabbits taking up residence in our cloister courtyard.

This butterfly took up residence in this flower and never left. “Butterfly Heaven”?

Friends Chuck and Anne Hagan have been a tremendous help in our garden. God bless you!

While we sweltered in the Kentucky heat, our white veiled novice gets a bit animated (NEVER!) while telling about the deep summer snow in the mountains near her home in Washington State.

Our annual corn party – we had a number of them this year thanks to our generous benefactors!

Don’t miss our vocation visitor standing by Mother Catherine Marie. Please keep Anne in your prayers. And join us in asking good St. Joseph to sell her home so she can seriously discern becoming a Passionist Nun!

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Sponsa Christi September 10th, 2011

Yay!  The blog is updated now – thanks to our new friend Joshua at Vianney Vocations and to Sam Alzheimer, the founder. Check out their great ministry in the Church to promote vocations to the priesthood.

Hopefully the ostrich will not be putting its head in the sand anymore.

And hopefully, Sponsa Christi will be back to blogging on a regular basis!

Until we meet again…

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

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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! 

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• Bride of Christ , Novitiate news , Passionist Life
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Sponsa Christi May 26th, 2011

Greetings to each of you!  Wow. Where to begin. So much has been going these past couple of months. Perhaps I can use the photos to tell the story…

The story begins at Holy Week…

Sisters prepare Hot Cross buns

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Even the holy water channel is prepared for the great Paschal celebration!

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Two of Sr. Mary Andrea’s brothers (Mike and Rob) come to build a new closet for us in the Eucharistic chapel

Rob shows off the “blueprint” on a paper plate!

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Preparing Easter Eggs

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Friends Chuck, Ethan and Mark build us pantry shelves on Holy Saturday!

All in a day’s work!

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Beautiful Spring

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Easter visiting our Sisters

Last known photo taken of Sr. Margaret Mary on Easter 2 weeks and 2 days before her death on May10th. Dear Sister, faithful Daughter of the Passion and Bride of Christ, rest in the eternal embrace of your God.

Our dear Bishop William Medley made time in his busy schedule to offer the Funeral Mass for Sr. Margaret Mary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

May her soul, and the souls of all our dearly departed, rest in God’s eternal Love

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In the midst of all this the walk-in refrigerator broke down – a perfect opportunity to do some much needed spring cleaning!

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Last week brought us some of the Fathers of Mercy on a mission of mercy.

Fr. Tony, CPM points out a tree that will come down

Working hard in the woods…

Back at the generalate and all cleaned up. God bless and reward you our dear brothers in Christ!

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This week brought us the “Goretti Girls” on a vocation retreat.

    This group was formed out of the heart’s of mothers desiring further Catholic teaching and fellowship for their daughters after the reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation. We had 10 14-18 year old gals here from the Toledo, OH area. “The Goretti Girls” take their name from St. Maria Goretti. They seem to have had a wonderful time here. And they loved learning about our charism and our saints. Yesterday we had a grand 4 innings of baseball (without gloves!). It has been a long time since I ran bases or fielded balls. I am sore today but it was so much fun! Last night they had a thrilling adventure of joining all the nuns in the basement, along with our chaplain, because of tornado warnings. They never thought they would get to come into the cloister…much less with all the nuns.

Deadly spring tornadoes – this picture was taken on the other side of our county. Let us be united in praying for the victims of these natural disasters.

May the Lord show us His mercy!

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    I hope you have enjoyed this update. As I put this together half of us Sisters have begun our annual 8-day solitude retreat. We are referred to as the “Marys”. The other half of the Sisters are keeping the monastery up and running. They are the ”Marthas”. We would certainly appreciate your prayers for us! We have been so busy and need time to slow down and hear the voice of the Beloved on a deeper level.

   Please know that your needs and intentions and those of our entire world are remembered in our daily prayers, works, joys and sufferings. And please pray for us.

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

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Sponsa Christi June 28th, 2010

 Many hands make light work!

     Here’s a special thanks to so many friends for sharing their garden produce with us. God bless and reward you a thousand times!

    Presently we are enjoying the delightful and holy presence of our Dominican friar and friend Fr. Tom McGonigle, OP. This year he is giving us conferences on the spirituality of our cloistered Carmelite sister Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. A true renewal in our contemplative life!  Thank you Fr. McGonigle!

P.S.  While we are giving thanks – a special thanks to Dame Agnes for so frequently linking to us on Phatmass. Yesterday we had 500 views!  Pretty good for a little cloistered monastery in the hills of Kentucky. 

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Sponsa Christi June 19th, 2010

 Happy Father’s Day to all our fathers both biological and spiritual!

    March 25th brought us a wonderful visit with our new Bishop William Medley. He is a big Kentucky basketball fan and had to hurry off after this photo to watch the game!

     We recently had a visit with our retired Bishop John McRaith who celebrated his 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood earlier this year. Thank you dear Bishop for your “yes” and your generous years of service to the diocese of Owensboro.

     Here Bishop McRaith shows us his pectoral cross.  Bishop grew up on the farm and has a great appreciation for God’s creation and being a good steward of that creation. He has several pockets of soil in his pectoral cross from various parts of the world.

     We finally had an opportunity for our brother in the Lord, Fr. Josh McCarty, to offer Mass for us. Fr. Josh made several retreats in our retreat house while he was in seminary and was ordained one year ago. Blessed be God!  We still await Fr. Daniel Dillard’s visit!

   Our diocese was fortunate to have 3 men ordained to the priesthood this year. Fr. Uwem Enoh (above) and Fr. Steve Hohman (below) were recently here to offer Mass for us. We look forward to Fr. Brandon Williams’ visit as well. What a blessing these young men are to our diocese and to the Church at large!

    On this Father’s Day let us remember our earthly fathers and our spiritual fathers, let’s encourage them and let them know how much they mean to us.  A new website is being launched on Father’s Day to aid us in showing our love and gratitude for our priests.  Thank you God our Father for the gift of the priesthood!

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Sponsa Christi November 21st, 2009

We just finished our annual 4 day retreat in preparation for our communal devotional renewal of vows this morning during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  I had wanted to write you all before retreat but time was limited…need I say more?

    Our 4 day retreat each fall is a time to focus on a renewal of our “yes” to Jesus’ call to bridal union. We do this in union with Mary and her ”yes” at the Annunciation which she renewed throughout her life.  I read some chapters from The Foundations of Religious Life – Revisiting the Vision a collection of articles from the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.  There is a most beautiful article on our Spousal Union with Christ and how this gift of self is lived out in community…now I must live out what I have pondered during retreat!  Veni Sancte Spiritus!

    Today is Pro Orantibus Day! I so wanted to get a post up earlier this week for you all about this very special day for cloistered religious.  In 2006 Pope Benedict gave us a moving Angelus message explaining this special day. God reward all of you who support us in our cloistered contemplative life as we seek to imitate Jesus in His mission of adoration of the Father and supplication for the salvation of the world. We are all so interconnected in the Mystical Body of our Divine Bridegroom. You NEED us and we NEED you!

Last week brought us a retreatant from the Rockford, IL diocese – Fr. Paul Fasano. One of our Sisters had been asked to pray for Fr. Paul in 2004 when he began his seminary studies in Rome. After corresponding all these years it was so nice to finally meet him and be joined in the Sacred Liturgy. It was exciting to learn that he and our aspirant Ane Kirstine had actually had a class together in Rome at the Angelicum on St. John of the Cross by Fr. Paul Murray, OP and that she was present at Fr. Paul’s diaconate ordination in 2008.

Fr. Bernie Weber, CP (a visiting Passionist Priest),
Fr. Ray Clark (our chaplain), Fr. John and Fr. Paul
(both here on retreat)

Fr. Paul and Sr. John Mary found out they are both reading a copy of Abbe Francis Trochu’s 1927 biography “The Cure D’Ars (St. John Vianney)” in order to get to know our Holy Cure better during this Year for the Priest! Small world.

    Well, I must be signing off so as to be able to go for a rosary walk, spending some time with our Mother and intimate confidante – the mother of my Divine Spouse! She has much to teach me.

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• Blessed Mother , Bride of Christ , Monastery traditions , Passionist Life , Pro Orantibus Day
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Sponsa Christi October 24th, 2009

   Regular readers of this blog will recognize the name of Msgr Bernard Powers. He is a retired priest of the diocese of Owensboro and resides in a nearby parish. Msgr is often here for Mass and occasionally gives spiritual direction to retreatants here and also offers days of recollection and preached retreats in our retreat house.

    Msgr has published several books of his poetic meditations and he would like to offer you the opportunity to obtain these for your spiritual enrichment. 

     The $2.00 shipping fee applies to those living in the USA. For our friends from abroad - it would be best to email Msgr and find out how much the shipping will be.

    Don’t pass up this great opportunity! God bless you

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