Archive for the tag 'Sacred Heart of Jesus'

Veni Sponsa Christi – “I Thirst!”

September 21st, 2011

The following reflection, written by our Sr. Rose Marie of the Merciful Heart of Jesus, was in the front of the booklet for her Mass of Profession.  I have been wanting to share it with you for some time.

Be blessed…

A God Who Wills to Need Our Love:
“I Thirst”

Mary’s love and ‘yes’ to God at the Annunciation came to an apex in her being with Jesus during His Passion. Standing by His cross, she offered Jesus in union with His offering of Himself for the praise and glory of God and for our salvation.

Like Mary, a Passionist Nun is called to be so united to Jesus’ ‘yes’ to God the Father that, in her own heart throughout the day, she also offers Jesus’ Passion in union with Him. She gives her own ‘yes’ to God by offering Him her fidelity to her vows, her everyday works, prayers, joys, sacrifices and sufferings. She has faith that God uses this gift of herself in consecrated life to bring His life, love and grace to others. She strives to become a living prayer.

In the Crucified Body of Jesus, she sees God who has loved so much and is loved so little in return. She sees God in need of comfort, love and compassion.  “My heart is filled with sorrow to the point of death.  Remain here and stay awake” (Mark 14:34).  “I thirst” (John 19:28).

Blessed John Paul II wrote in Rich in Mercy, that “It is in the Cross that the revelation of merciful love attains its culmination.” And again he says that the Father invites us “to ‘have mercy’ on His only Son, the crucified one.”  Our contemplation of the Passion of Jesus brings us to a love which is “not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of ‘mercy’ shown to the Son of the Eternal Father.”

It is a Passionist Nun’s special honor to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus by being faithfully present to Him in the mystery of His suffering, death, and resurrection through her vows, her life of faith, community and contemplative prayer.

Having received His merciful love, I want to spend my life as a Passionist Nun returning His love and bringing others to do the same.

 

Submit to StumbleUponShare via email

Tags: ,

“A Suffering Soul is Closest to My Heart”

June 22nd, 2011

    Annually on the Feast of the Sacred Heart each Sister receives a message from the Sacred Heart of Jesus typed out on a slip of paper. In 2010 the messages were taken from the diary of Saint Faustina. Currently, one of our Sisters is going through the belongings of our dear departed Sr. Margaret Mary.  She recently came across the message Sr. Margaret Mary was given last June. Immediately I thought of you all and wanted to share it with you.

    Our Sister Margaret Mary suffered immensely the last 18 months of her life due to Fourth stage Multiple Myeloma cancer and a multitude of other complications. It was so difficult to see her go through this. We couldn’t remove her suffering but we tried to journey with her through it. Although, ultimately, it became an intimate dance of surrender to Jesus, her Divine Bridegroom. We praise God that during her last weeks on earth she was alleviated of much pain.

    Here is the message Sr. Margaret Mary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus received from the Sacred Heart in 2010:

My daughter, know that if I allow you to feel and have a more profound knowledge of My sufferings, that is a grace from Me. But when your mind is dimmed and your sufferings are great, it is then that you take an active part in My Passion, and I am conforming you more fully to Myself. It is your task to submit yourself to My will at such times, more than at others. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone. I am giving you a share in My sufferings because of My special love for you and in view of the high degree of holiness I am intending for you in heaven. A suffering soul is closest to My Heart.”

    I hope you will receive this message as personally transmitted to YOU.  He has loved you with an everlasting Love.

    And may Sister experience the full embrace of that special love from her Crucified Spouse and may she intercede for us!

     Above image found here.

Submit to StumbleUponShare via email

Tags: , ,

A Mysterious Divine Thirst

June 5th, 2010

   Wow, it is incredible to fathom that this God of the universe thirsts for my love…for your love.  Incredible…awe inspiring…what a gift of love…what a God! Truly, there is no other god like our God!

Special thanks to friend Jill who touched up this holy picture

   Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary and revealed to her his unfathomable love for the men and women whom he created with such tender thoughtfulness and mercy.

On one occasion, being before the Blessed Sacrament…He showed me His Divine Heart, saying: ‘Behold this Heart, which has so loved men that It has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to give them proof of Its love, and in return I receive from the greater number of them nothing but ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrileges, by the coldness and contempt they show me in this Sacrament of Love.’

What causes me the greatest sufferings are the words He told me once as He showed me His Divine Heart: ‘I thirst with so burning a thirst, to be loved by men in the Blessed Sacrament, that this thirst consumes me, and I find nobody who tries, according to my desire, to quench my thirst by making some return for my love.’

     Can we try to quench some of his divine thirst? Let us spend some time adoring and loving him in the most Blessed Sacrament.  For those of you who live nearby we have the perfect opportunity to do just this over the next several days.

Forty Hours of Eucharistic adoration in our monastery chapel

   As we begin this month of June dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we are preparing for our annual outdoor Corpus Christi procession and Forty Hours of Eucharistic adoration Sunday, June 6 – Tuesday, June 8. We hope you will join us during these special days of prayer.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

  • 7:15 a.m. – Morning Prayer
  • 8 a.m. – Mass followed by Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament all day
  • 12 noon – Midday prayer
  • 6 p.m. – Evening Prayer
  • 7 p.m. – Evening Holy Hour including outdoor Eucharistic procession and Solemn Benediction, presided by Fr. Ray Clark.

Monday, June 7 & Tuesday June 8

  • 6:15 a.m. – Morning Prayer
  • 7 a.m. – Mass followed by Solemn Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament all day
  • 12 noon – Midday prayer
  • 6 p.m. – Evening Prayer
  • 7 p.m. – Evening Holy Hour and Solemn Benediction presided by Fr. Joe Mills (Monday) and Msgr Bernard Powers (Tuesday)

   What a wonderful way to end the Year for the Priest. Let us spend some time in adoration interceding for the spiritual and temporal needs of our beloved priests. What a gift they are to us!  Without the priest there would be no Eucharist and without the Eucharist, no priest.

Submit to StumbleUponShare via email

Tags:

Monastery happenings…

June 10th, 2009

Our annual Corpus Christi procession is drawing near. 
All are invited to attend! 

   For those of you who live in the area please tell your family and friends. This Sunday, June 14th will begin our Forty Hours devotions with Holy Mass at 8 a.m. followed by Eucharistic adoration throughout the day, culminating in an outdoor Eucharistic Procession within a Holy Hour beginning at 7 p.m.  We will also have Eucharistic adoration all day following our 7 a.m. Mass on Monday and Tuesday.  These days also will end with a Holy Hour at 7 p.m.  Msgr. Powers will preach a rousing sermon each evening. 

    This would be a wonderful way to prepare for the Year for Priests which will begin the following Friday, June 19th – the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

    Speaking of priests, a dear friend of ours has started a blog entitled Journey of a Young Priest. I know you will like it. He tells of daily life as a missionary in Jamaica and how his community lives out the Passionist charism. Tell your friends about it…especially any young men who are discerning a vocation to live the Consecrated Life.

   More great news…Loving congratulations to the two newly ordained priests of our Owensboro, KY diocese – Fr. Daniel Dillard and Fr. Josh McCarty. Their ordination is a great consolation and joy to our community as we have known them for many years and have been praying for them while they were in the seminary. Congratulations to their family and friends as well. Let us give praise and thanks to God and pray for their happy perseverance. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    On a more humorous note, last evening Sister Therese Marie was showing off the head of our new scarecrow.  We hope it will keep the deer away too!

    Sisters playing Liverpool Rummy last evening at recreation…thought you’d like to see one more photo of postulant Shannon.  Come Friday, June 26th she will be vested in the power of Christ’s passion through the holy habit. It has been about 20 months since we had a “white-veil” around here. It will be a wonderful sight!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Here is a bit more information on the Passionist Affiliate program that I promised you: 

    Affiliates are Catholic laywomen who, while not becoming professed religious, live within the monastery, sharing our spirituality and assisting us through works of service both within and outside of the cloister.  Our monastery may have only two Affiliates.  Christie’s first commitment was made after successfully completing an initial 3-month period of life within our cloistered community. 

    After participating in the Passionist Oblate formation program since 2003, Christie made her Act of Oblation in 2005.  During her time as a Passionist Oblate, she received the call to become even more closely associated with our monastery.  When she made her formal request, we decided to make use of an indult granted by the Holy See in the1980′s and communicated to us by Fr. Fabiano Giorgini, C.P. to have “Oblates” who live within the cloister in service of the monastery.  Father Fabiano (R.I.P.)  is lovingly called by our community, “our second founder” because of his leadership in the Vatican II revision of our Rule and Constitutions.  Most Rev. Paul M. Boyle, C.P. (R.I.P.) assisted us in drawing up the guidelines for the Affiliate program.

   One more “news item”…I hope you enjoy this lengthy post as Sponsa Christi will be out of the office until the end of June. Please God, the next post will be about the Vestition of our postulant and I will reveal to you her new name…

   Until then…may the Passion of Christ and the Sorrows of Mary be ever in our hearts!

 

Submit to StumbleUponShare via email

Tags: , , ,

Another Postulant ~ Deo Gratias!

July 27th, 2008

    Shannon and family arrrived safely last Saturday after being on the road for about 30 hours! It was an absolute joy to meet her parents and brothers.

Shannon had some time to walk the trails with her family before entering the cloister.

 

Brother Wesley & Brother Bryan ~ two future Passionists??

     I knew you would want to read Mother’s inspiring talk given at Second Vespers on Shannon’s entrance day:

     To enter the postulancy of a Passionist community is to enter deeply into the mystery of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the mystery of His Church. The Church teaches that the cloister represents the praying Heart of the Church. For us Passionists, the cloister also represents the praying Heart of our Beloved Lord Jesus. We enter the “cloister” of His Heart through His open wound. The “cloister” of His Heart is where we abide in His love and offer our entire lives to bring the fruit of His Sacred Passion to souls. The “cloister” of His Heart is where we strive in the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of each day to enter more and more into His great love and into His work of saving souls from eternal death.

     The Church teaches that cloistered Nuns are very present in the Heart of Christ to our contemporaries. Each day we can walk close to our Holy Father, to bishops, priests, religious, laity, to our young people, to missionaries. When Sharon entered the Passionist cloister, missionaries were present. Today, again, a missionary is present as you, Shannon, enter the Passionist cloister. This happy providence is a reminder to all of us of how far reaching are the prayers and sacrifices of a cloistered Nun.

     Today, Shannon, you have come and knocked at the door of the Passionist cloister. Like all of us, you have heard a call deep in your heart—“Come to Me, follow Me.” This is a call of love, a call of being singled out to become the Bride of Christ who alone can satisfy the deepest longings of your womanly heart.

     Our Blessed Mother has a school of divine love here at the foot of the cross, where she teaches souls how to devote themselves entirely to the Heart of Christ and to His work of saving souls. Our Blessed Mother will nurture the call planted in your heart. It is from her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart that we learn to be generous in cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s action day by day, moment by moment.

     In this time when countless souls–many of them from your own age group–are running recklessly along the wide and easy road leading to eternal ruin, Jesus is looking for helpmates in the work of redemption. He says: “Come and follow Me, you my chosen one. Be My faithful companion, faithful like my Mother at the foot of the cross. Gratefully receive each day from My hands. Receive the joy of a total belonging to Me, and don’t lose heart when My cross weighs upon you. For then, I am using you all the more to bring the fruits of My Passion to souls, so that My Precious Blood will not have been shed in vain for them.”

     Shannon, we offer you our prayers for yourself as well as for your parents and brothers, and all those dear to your heart, as you begin this great adventure in the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May you and Sharon, and hopefully many other young women who will come after you, always be a faithful companion of the Suffering and Risen Lord Jesus who has set His Heart on you and called you to Himself. Through you, may many, many souls come to know, love and serve God.

     We will all come forward now, as we bestow upon you the postulant’s crucifix, and give you the Sign of Peace. God bless you and your whole family, Shannon.

     Shannon is glowing with the Joy of the Holy Spirit! Please keep her and Sharon in your prayers as they “put out into the deep” and “seek to follow the Lamb” wherever He leads. And please pray for their faith-filled generous families. They too will experience the joy of the hundred-fold of leaving all things to follow Christ.

Please join us in thanking and praising God for the gift of two postulants!

 

Submit to StumbleUponShare via email

Tags: ,

Enter into the Heart of Jesus

June 1st, 2008

June is the month devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

     I actually began this post on the eve of the great Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus last Friday but, you might be surprised at this…time for writing posts can be tight when one is following a monastic rhythm of prayer, work and other observances. But, gratefully we have the whole month of June to celebrate the love of Jesus expressed through devotion to His Sacred Heart.

     Throughout our community’s history (we were founded from a monastery in the Scranton, PA diocese to this diocese of Owensboro, KY in 1946) this solemnity has held a special place in our hearts. Our dear Mother Mary Agnes Roche (founding Superior) started the tradition of each Sister receiving a “virtue” on this special day from the Heart of Jesus. A beautifully decorated slip of paper with a scripture passage and quote from a saint is created for each Sister. These are then placed near the monstrance and each Sister goes forward to receive her word of love from her Divine Spouse.

     Our Founder considered devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as primarily a debt of grateful love and also as a means of reparation for the humiliation and insults suffered by Our Lord in His Sacred Passion and in the Holy Eucharist. I will share below an example of his thoughts written in a letter of spiritual direction.

     I thought each of you would also enjoy receiving a “virtue”. This can be your special meditation during this month of June devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

~ Matthew 11:28-30 RSV Catholic Edition

Never cease to abide in the most holy and most pure Heart of Jesus. Love Him through His own Heart. Be penetrated with sorrow as you reflect on the insults He receives in the Blessed Eucharist and make atonement for them by acts of humility, adoration, love, praise, thanksgiving, etc. …Realize your own nothingness more and more and let yourself be guided increasingly by the breath of love, according to the good pleasure of the Divine Majesty. Whoever shall make himself little shall be exalted. The more we annihilate ourselves, the more we shall be lifted up and ennobled. Such a soul will be brought more surely into this cenacle, this wine-cellar of the Beloved, this royal vestibule leading in the nuptial chamber where the spouse has loving converse with the Divine Bridegroom. All this, and infinitely more, is what it means to enter into the most amiable Heart of Jesus, in which the soul finds itself transformed and made divine and absorbed into the ocean of the Infinite Perfections of God.

~ Saint Paul of the Cross

 

 

Submit to StumbleUponShare via email

Tags: ,