In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi September 19th, 2012

Ah! I am back!   Perhaps you thought I forgot I even have a blog to tend to!? 

Even though some days have passed I still have the fun of sharing with you about our Gaudeamus day August 22. By the way, my little sis in Tennessee wrote asking what is a Gaudeamus Day. Gaudeamus is Latin for “Let us rejoice!”  So it is a day of rejoicing. And rejoice we did in honor of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s 50 years of Vowed Passionist life!

The following is an account written by one of our “monastery chroniclers”. I shall let her tell the story…

Our dear Jubilarian was finally relieved of the “complex” she said she was getting as a result of being banned for weeks from an ever mounting number of rooms in the work wing, as we prepared the decorations and entertainment.

“Poor Sister” was even banned from evening recreation last night as we decked the refectory and recreation room with balloons, streamers, and golden place settings!

One of those “off-limit” rooms.

After saluting the angels in the corridor outside of chapel after Mass, we congregated in the refectory for a breakfast banquet: ham, biscuits, gravy, egg casserole, cinnamon coffee cake, and more.

As I shared in the previous post  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.

We then had a play-doh sculpting competition, with five teams trying to depict scenes from Sister’s life. The results ranged from clever to hilarious, and we decided that the Holy Spirit had to determine the winning team by lot.

Sister as a young girl being greeted by a not-so-friendly goat who kept her from getting into her house one day as she arrived home from school.

“Sister cleaning Steve’s room” won the prize.
(our grounds-keeper’s room)

Then we had a word game in which each nun tried to make as many words as possible out of Sister Mary Elizabeth’s name. Next came the skit, in which the novitiate and juniorate dressed up as heavenly visitors to our Jubilarian. Sister was overwhelmed with all the gifts and celestial greetings…

Sister’s father, “Papa Sauer” was a wise man full of mischief.  He planted a garden for the nuns and had interesting ways of delivering his produce. One time he stacked up the pumpkins against the doors so that the Sister Portress would have an avalanche at her feet when she answered. Another time he threw green beans, dirty roots and all, over the cloister wall! Sr. Mary Andrea at right is dressed as Papa Sauer and Sr. Rose Marie at right center is representing Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s older sister Katherine.

What does one get a poor cloistered nun for her Golden Jubilee? Well, as you saw in an earlier post we invested in some beautiful liturgical gifts. This day brought candles, colored napkins and various “do-dads” for decorating the refectory on special occasions. This is one of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s monastery duties.

Below are some of the hand-made jubilee cards given to Sister by the nuns. Quite works of art!

Sr. Ann Miriam and Mother Catherine Marie marvel
at the home-made cards.

At our evening meal, Mother Catherine Marie had set out jubilee place-cards for each of us, with quotes from our Holy Founder on the back. All the quotes were different, culled from his letters and dealing with the themes of faith and the will of God, and we had some lively banter about how most of them seemed to be exhorting us to silence and solitude. Attempts to foster these virtues at the Gaudeamus supper proved fruitless (at least exteriorly), but we were all touched by the Holy Spirit’s knack at once again giving each nun exactly the exhortation she needed to hear.

At the end of the meal Pope Benedict paid Sister a “visit” with a special message just for her thanking her for being a faithful daughter of the Church all these years. At Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s request, we crowned the day by singing the first verse of “Now Thank We All Our God.”  We truly give thanks to God for his fidelity to his little bride of 50 years!

Sister stands near a photo of Fr. Wood who was instrumental in helping her enter the Passionist cloister in 1960.  A young Air Force photo of Sister is in the center and at right, a photo of our original monastery in 1946.

 The community (minus 2 sisters) poses for a photo at the close of a happy day.

Blessed be God!

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• Bride of Christ , Catholic Vocations for Women , Passionist Vocations for Women
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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 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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Sponsa Christi July 2nd, 2012

Wow, it has been so long since I posted I almost forgot how…I guess I shall take you on a little journey covering highlights of this past month…

When I last left off we were preparing for Mother Catherine Marie’s Gaudeamus Day.

I shall let the pictures tell the story…

These first photos are of some handmade gifts we brought to Mother for her to keep or give away…

 A beautiful Thomas Kinkade (RIP) cross stitch done by
Sr. Mary Therese

Decade and 5-decade rope rosaries plus a lovely bookmark which Sister has been working on for about 5 years! Or maybe it is 7 ??? Anyhow, she finally finished it.

yes, we got those granny squares sewn together.

A fruit of Sr. Rose Marie’s 8 day retreat. The little girl on the left is looking at Jesus as the rays of his love and mercy flow upon her.

For our “After Meal Entertainment” we enjoyed some live music.

(Also, we were sad, but accepting of God’s will, as we said “goodbye” to Anne who returned home on June 12. Please keep her in prayer as she continues to discern the Lord’s will for her life. We miss you dearly Anne! God love you!)

With delight Mother Catherine Marie opens her last gift -
a kite!

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A few days after the Gaudeamus Sr. John Mary, after receiving permission, was blessed to attend her brother Fr. Jeff’s ordination to the priesthood.

Visit the website of the Diocese of Evansville IN to read about it and see some photos of the ordination.

Congratulations to Fr. Jeff along with his parents Bill and Bernadine and his brothers and sisters.

Fr. Jeff’s Ordination card

AWESOME…

Fr. Jeff’s First Mass at St. John’s Catholic Church
in Daylight, IN

Fr. Jeff incensing the altar and the crucifix

Fr. Jeff consecrates his life as a priest to our Lady,
Mother of all Priests.

Please do pray for Fr. Jeff and all our newly ordained priests – may they be men after the heart of God…contemplatives active in the heart of the world.

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We’ve also been happily preparing for Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee celebration which will take place this Sunday, July 8th. Her actual anniversary is Monday, July 9th – the Passionist Feast of our Lady of Holy Hope.

Image of Our Lady of Holy Hope – Our Holy Founder, St. Paul of the Cross, was very devoted to our Lady under this title.

In an upcoming post I will share photos with you of Sr. Mary Elizabeth’s celebration along with a message from her heart about living vowed Passionist life for 50 years.

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We also recently printed an 8 page newsletter. We are in the midst of stuffing them with envelopes, then they will be off to the post office and in your mail box!  If you don’t receive our newsletter and live in the United States and would like to receive it please leave your name and address in the comment box below. We’ll gladly add you to our newsletter list.

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We have been very united with our nation during this Fortnight for Freedom. One point of interest – our novice Sr. Cecilia Marie created a summary of the history of our Congregation during the Napoleonic suppression of Religious Freedom in the early 1800′s. She has been reading this to us each evening during the Fortnight.  I hope to share that with you soon as well!

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I must say adieu!  (I commend you “to God” – a derivative from the Old French)

Take care of yourself in this heat – we have been in triple digits for a week now and our grass has been brown for several weeks. The lake is getting low.We are beginning to feel we live in a dust bowl – please God, mercifully send us rain!

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