In the Shadow of His Wings

Sponsa Christi December 19th, 2010

    Woe is me…lots of ideas but no time to post articles as the Christmas Mystery draws near! 

    But here is something of great interest.  The Passionist Nuns were featured in the September/October issue of the Institute on Religious Life‘s magazine Religious Life.  Here is a link to the PDF file. I hope you enjoy the articles. Special thanks to IRL for permitting us to link to this issue.

    Blessings upon you as we enter into the sacred mysteries about to be renewed.  We are keeping each of you in our prayers.

Tags: Mother Mary Crucified

• Bride of Christ , Life as a Passionist , Passionist History , Passionist Saints , Passionist Spirituality , Saint Paul of the Cross
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Sponsa Christi September 28th, 2010

    Today I shall conclude my sharings about our celebration of 100th anniversary of the presence of the Passionist Nuns in the United States. I’m starting where I left off last time.

    On Monday, the day following our Anniversary Mass, we honored the Queen of the PassionistCongregation by having the votive Office and Mass of Our Mother of Sorrows. Holy Mass began with a tremendous surprise, as Fr. John Harvey presented to us the mission crucifix used in 1738 by our Holy Founder, St. Paul of the Cross, during his first retreat to our Venerable Mother Mary Crucified’s Benedictine community, 33 years before she became the co-foundress of the Passionist Nuns. This moment took us back in time to a sacred meeting between our Holy Founder and Foundress.

    After receiving the apostolic blessing, each Nun came forward and venerated this most precious relic loaned to us by our Nuns in Tarquinia, Italy, the motherhouse of all Passionist Nuns’ monasteries. Being in the presence of the crucifix was like being in the presence of our Founder and Mother Mary Crucified – a very powerful and inexpressible moment.

The Mission Crucifix of Saint Paul of the Cross

    Mother Mary Crucified of Jesus (1713-1787) wrote of her first encounter with our Holy Founder: “A few years after my profession in St. Lucy’s convent of the Benedictine Order, almost 41 years ago, I became acquainted with Father Paul of the Cross on the occasion of his coming to preach the retreat to the Sisters of that community; and seeing that he was full of zeal and of the knowledge of God, and therefore perfectly qualified to be an able director, I commenced a correspondence with him.”

    During 33 years of trials and disappointments, Mother Mary Crucified (who has been called the co-foundress of the PassionistNuns together withSt. Paul of the Cross) exercised heroic faith and trust that one day she would indeed become a Passionist. Not until May 3, 1771—at nearly 58 years of age—did her great dream come true. She and 10 other companions, all prepared by the founder himself over many years, entered the newly built monastery in Corneto (now Tarquinia) to begin the life and mission of the Passionist Nuns.

    Of the many letters of St. Paul of the Cross to Mother Mary Crucified only 31 remain. They are filled with the wisdom of the cross and the spirituality of profound abandonment to the will of God, and are included in the 3-volume collection of the letters of St. Paul of the Crossavailable from Passionist Publications. 

    Now on with our story…

     Later Fr. Jerome Vereb, CP moved our hearts by taking us, with Our Lady, into a deeper appreciation of our Passionist charism. He challenged us to embrace generously our lives of silence, solitude, communal and contemplative prayer, spiritual reading and self-forgetfulness, so that we, like Our Lady of Sorrows, may bring people to the sacred side of Christ, to encounter love. This is what we are here for! To bring everyone to this Sacred Font of Mercy and Love.

Fr. Jerome Vereb with two of our Nuns from the Passionist Nuns monastery in Erlanger, Kentucky.

    A high point during our stay was the visit we paid to the Church and Monastery of St. Paul of the Cross where we were warmly welcomed by the Rector, Fr. Gerald Laba, C.P., and his community. St. Paul’s Monastery, founded in Pittsburgh in 1852, was the first monastery of Passionist men in the New World. 

    The Passionist men of the Eastern Province were instrumental in bringing the Passionist Nuns to Pittsburgh in 1910. For these one hundred years the Passionistshave supported our Nuns both spiritually and temporally. Our visit to St. Paul’s Monastery reminded us of this deep familial bond and awakened the gratitude we owe them for our Passionist presence in this country…

Fr. Gerald Laba, Rector of Saint Paul of the Cross Monastery, Church and Retreat Center with Mother Joyce, Superior of Our Lady of Sorrows Monastery of Passionist Nuns in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Upon our arrival Fr. Gerald led us through a prayer service before the tomb of the
Servant of God, Father Theodore Foley, C.P.

We then partook of a delicious banquet

followed by an historical tour during which we enjoyed the breathtaking view of the Pittsburgh skyline

Some photos from the gardens

    The next morning we took our leave with hearts full of gratitude to God, to the Pittsburgh community, and to Mother Catherine Marie for making this experience possible. This once-in-a-lifetime experience was an amazing, grace-filled opportunity to meet and share our joy in the Passion of Christ with our Sisters from throughout the world. Yet, the parting was bittersweet as we knew we might not see one another again in this life.

This image of Crucified Love is in the garden of the Saint Paul of the Cross Monastery

    May God be praised for 100 years of Passionist cloistered living in the United States. And may He send us many holy and healthy candidates to continue our contemplative Passionist mission with Mary at the foot of the cross for the next 100 years!

Tags: Mother Mary Crucified

• Passionist History , Passionist Saints , Saint Paul of the Cross
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Sponsa Christi July 29th, 2010

    Greetings!  I began this account two weeks ago! If you are still interested in hearing about the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Passionist Nuns in the USA do read on. Christie and I (Sr. John Mary) began our pilgrimage at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday, July 8th and drove through hours of construction and heavy rains, arriving at Our Lady of Sorrows Monastery in Pittsburgh a bit later than we had anticipated – 5:30 p.m.!

Looking out the cloister gate

View inside the courtyard

    As we drove into the cloistered courtyard they were waiting for us at the open door waving and calling out after us with their greetings and joy. So many Sisters whose names I had only read or heard spoken. Now I had a face and personality to go with that name. What joy! It took some days but their names came to life and I learned who each Sister was and from which community she came. 

The Five Flowers of Tarquinia

    The first place I wanted to go was to visit the earthly remains of those five holy and valiant nuns who had traversed the mighty Atlantic, bore with seasickness and then disembarkment syndrome. Once they were on land they had to undergo interrogation at the immigration office. “We’re here to pray”. Yea, right! Perhaps they were Rosa Luxemburgs in disguise…here to join those who wanted to liberate America from the oppression of capitalism through socialist emancipation and radical feminism. (Sounds familiar) Communism was on the rise in America, modernism too.

    Pope Saint Pius X (above at left)  manifested great interest and pleasure in this foundation. He blessed all who would contribute to its success.

    Fr. Stanislaus Grennan, CP (above at right) – Provincial at the time of the foundation – took the initiative to bring the Nuns to the USA and looked after their spiritual and temporal interests until his death in 1941.

    Mother Victoria (above at left) - Mother Superior of the Monastery of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Tarquinia, Italy (First monastery of Passionist Nuns founded by St. Paul of the Cross in 1771) gave her consent for the new foundation in Pittsburgh by sacrificing the “five flowers” of her community.

    These were the Five Flowers of Tarquinia. Mother Hyacinth was their Superior (above at right). They didn’t want to come but were invited and said, “Yes”. They were leaving everything behind – their family, their language, their culture – for us. Fiat. Mary went through the Passion to bring souls to the side of Christ, so did these foundresses, so have all the Passionist Nuns who have stood on Calvary. The Sacra Crostato…the open Side.

The above are photos of the Tarquinia monastery founded by St. Paul of the Cross and Mother Mary Crucified.

    We continue this saving mission of dramatic love. We lift up people to the side of Christ by living the Mass through vowed life, silence leading to union, self-denial leading to liberation, spiritual reading to communion, hours of prayer with the Beloved, Divine Office for our people and God’s praise, wearing the holy habit, loving one another in community and making this monastery a joyful place in which to live.

Sister Gemma Maria (Pittsburgh) and Sister Gemma (Japan)

    The words below came to Sr. Gemma Maria in a torrent. She wrote them just days before our 100th anniversary celebration…words from the hearts of our foundresses.

“Fiat”

I waited and prayed
as quietly my homeland
slipped away

With every breath I drew
Hislife now more intimately
entered into
my mind and heart

And gently His Words
echoed within
at each beat of my heart

“I choose you…and
will remain with you…”

Beyond these ocean waters
awaited us
a new seedground

Wherein our spousal hearts
- so full of love for Him! –
would be planted
and harvested

And so, with every ocean wave
that steadfastly pulled out lives
toward another distant shore

Together
our hearts sang out
“Fiat!”
A “Yes” that would last forever
because His Love
was carrying us
His Will
was guiding us
His presence living in us
and our hearts sang out
“Fiat!”

    The theme of the anniversary was “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” The Most Holy Trinity gives us a share in this tremendous love in the Holy Mass. One hundred years of Masses offered on this holy ground on Mount Oliver in Pennsylvania.

   Although the nuns moved into their monastery on July 9th 1910, Passionist Feast of Our Mother of Holy Hope, it was only July 10th when Holy Mass was offered and Jesus came to dwell among them Sacramentally, that the foundation was truly made. Such was the import of the day the Sacramental Spouse came to dwell in their midst.

    To be continued…

*Some of the above thoughts are from a spiritual conference given by Fr. Jerome Vereb, CP to the Nuns present for the anniversary.

Tags: Mother Mary Crucified

• Blessed Mother , Bride of Christ , Passionist History , The Holy Eucharist
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