What are the signs that it might be time for a contemplative community to pick up roots and move to another location? How about having a witches coven, nudist colony and New Age B&B as neighbors? Or maybe a gunshot through the chapel window on Holy Saturday? A mountain lion gazing in through the window? A storm that has demolished your greenhouse? All this happened to the Handmaids of the Precious Blood in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.

Last month, the Sisters were pleased to announce their move to a new home in the Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee. It is rather ironic that they have moved from traditionally Catholic land to the Protestant Bible Belt which is seeing an increasing number of Catholics. How wonderful that the people of east Tennessee will be able to see sisters in habits. This contemplative monastery is a first for the diocese. There are 18 professed sisters with several in formation.

I am happy to say that the IRL played a part in this happy marriage between the diocese and the sisters. It was at an IRL event that Mother Marietta met Bishop Richard Stika, the Bishop of Knoxville. Cardinal Raymond Burke and our Executive Director, Mike Wick, spread the word among the bishops that the sisters were contemplating a new home. At one point, they were communicating with 9 dioceses. After much discernment and prayer, the sisters were delighted to hear from Bishop Sticka who said that the diocese had been given a great gift and he was able to offer the sisters a home.

The Handmaids of the Precious Blood were founded in 1947 by Father Gerald M.C. Fitzgerald, sP, who opened his door one day to a homeless person only to discover that the man was a priest who had left the Church because of personal problems. This inspired him to found a religious order whose mission is to pray for the sanctification of all priests. Mother Marietta said, “These Sisters don’t just pray for priests, they live for them.” Their beautiful habits reflect their life of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. The wine red color symbolizes the Precious Blood and the white veil symbolizes the Eucharist.

Bishop Sticka said, “Their prayers and many sacrifices as a silent proclamation of the Gospel are the very “soul and leaven” of the Church’s evangelization efforts and works of mercy. Indeed, cloistered religious are truly indispensable co-workers in the mystery of redemption.”

See the complete story in the East Tennessee Catholic.

Tags: Bishop Richard Sticka, Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald sP, Handmaids of the Precious Blood, Jemez Springs, Knoxville

The Archdiocese of Washington has posted an altar server tutorial/video on their website which is must-see viewing for any prospective altar server. I am always happy when the altar servers in our parish are invisible to me because this means they are aware of and doing their jobs without any paralysis or confusion. This video, however, says the altar servers should be doing and can be doing much more. Their demeanor, their clothes, their actions should all point to the reality taking place, namely “that what takes place on the altar is the making present of the most important moment in all of human history.”

As one of the comments pointed out, the actions and dress of the altar servers should also be a reflection of the attire and aspirations of the people in the congregation, a supreme awareness of the “Presence of God.” Remember when people dressed up for Mass? Like they were going to a wedding? The wedding feast of the Lamb.

The video makes the important point that young boys like dressing up like the priests do. The altar boy, rightly formed and trained, is having implanted in his heart a love for the priesthood and the nurturing of a possible vocation.

Tags: altar servers

Tags: Thanksgiving

We have been surrounded by feast days of the angels lately and as today is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, I thought I would link to an article on the Ignatius Press blog written by Peter Kreeft. He lists the 12 top things you should know about angels.

“Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2).

By the way, Peter Kreeft will be speaking at an IRL event called A “Day of Faith” for the Year of Faith to be held on October 13 at Marytown, Libertyville, IL. The title of his talk is: “Defending the Faith: Catholicism is Reasonable.”

Tags: Angels, Guardian Angels, Peter Kreeft

The National Catholic Reporter recently had an article about a group of “old-fashioned nuns,” actually what I could call a timeless group of sisters carrying on the traditions of the ages. The LCWR was meeting nearby and the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus were carrying on with their work of caring for the aged and pre-schoolers.

These sisters belong to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR), a group that comprises about 10,000 sisters and according to the article, they are young and growing. About 15 years ago, these Carmelites were “stagnant,” not attracting vocations. But then they emphasized their traditional life and vocations started coming in. Many young women are attracted to the wearing of the habit for as Sr. Mary Michael Reiss, 27, says: “I thought if I’m going to do this with my life, to give everything, I want people to know about it, darn it! I wanted the whole church.”

The spirit of the Carmel DCJ comes from the faith experience of Mother Mary Teresa of St. Joseph. Meditating upon and contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded and bleeding, yet burning with love for mankind, a desire was born in her to love the Sacred Heart with her whole being and make Him loved in every heart He had created.

For more information about this IRL Affiliate Community, see their website.

Tags: Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, CMSWR, LCWR

I saw on the internet a list of the Top 10 Hermits in Church history. One might come to the conclusion that this way of life is part of ancient history.

But Canon 603 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law says:

Besides institutes of consecrated life, the Church recognizes the life of hermits or anchorites, in which Christ’s faithful withdraw further from the world and devote their lives to the praise of God and the salvation of the world through the silence of solitude and through constant prayer and penance. Hermits are recognized by law as dedicated to God in consecrated life if, in the hands of the diocesan Bishop, they publicly profess, by a vow or some other sacred bond, the three evangelical counsels, and then lead their particular form of life under the guidance of the diocesan Bishop.

There are several hermits that are members of the IRL. There is also a community of Carmelite Hermits in Houston, MN. The live in separate hermitages and come together for sunday/holy day meals, one hour of daily prayer and the mass. “Our life is a vocation to prayer,” says Sister Miriam, one of the hermits. “This total union with God is how we are called to serve the Church.”

There is also a IRL men’s Affiliate Community that are hermits. They are the Hermits of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. They live a life of silence, solitude, prayer and penance for the good of the Church and the salvation of the world. The picture to the right is of Bro. Martin Mary who was ordained to the priesthood in May of 2012.

By the way, the top 10 hermits of all time are: St. Simon Stylites, St. Jerome, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Antony the Great, St. Benedict of Nursia, St. Macarius of Egypt, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Meinrad and St. Paul the Hermit. (Note to self: Need to read up on some of these hermits!)

Tags: Hermits

I am writing about Saint Benedict at the moment and am intrigued by one of the three vows professed by Benedictines:  stability. Msgr. Charles Pope has an interesting article on the subject contrasting the Benedictine vow of stability with the instability of family and societal life today. As always, the saints are way ahead of us. Especially Saint Benedict who lived 1500 years ago.

The vow of stability means that a Benedictine will live out his or her life in one monastery. There’s no looking over the fence for where the grass is greener. It means that problems have to be worked out, difficult people have to be loved, selfish desires have to give way to the common good.

Look how it is today: no one lives in their hometown, parents move to Florida, no one stays with one company for their entire life, people don’t seem to want to settle down and establish roots. This is especially true in marriage where 50% of marriages end in divorce.

Monsignor says, “Stability, though difficult to find in our times is very important to cultivate wherever possible and to the extent possible. In particular, the gift to seek is the kind of stability that is content with what God has given and is not always restlessly seeking a more ideal setting. For again, as we have noted: Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion.”

Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

Tags: Benedictine, Saint Benedict, Stability

For those of you who are not too familiar with the vocation of a Consecrated Virgin, there is an article from the Dallas Morning News that I stumbled across that does a great job of explaining this unique vocation in the Church.

“The church recognizes that vocations can take various forms,” says (then) Bishop Raymond L. Burke. “These women don’t have the call to be sisters. That’s a very distinct call to live in a community and to take up a particular (mission), or to devote oneself completely to contemplation and prayer.” According to the article, there are about 100 American Consecrated Virgins and about 1,000 worldwide. From the earliest days of the Church, men and women devoted their lives to Christ as hermits or Consecrated Virgins. With the advent of monasteries and convents, this way of life somewhat disappeared. Following Vatican II,  the Solemn Rite of the Consecration of Virgins for Women Living in the World was re-instituted. A Consecrated Virgin must be self-supporting but many serve the local parish or diocese in some capacity. They also live a devout life of prayer and wear a ring as a sign of their espousal to Jesus Christ. They live in full communion with the Church through their spiritual bond with their Bishop.

“The consecrated virgin does not wear habit or veil, nor use the title ‘Sister,’ nor write ‘OCV’ after her name. She witnesses subtly, but publicly and powerfully, by her virginal life given exclusively to Jesus Christ.” (From USACV website)

To read the very interesting journey one women traveled to this beautiful vocation, click here. For more information about Consecrated Virgins, go to  USACV website (United States Association of Consecrated Virgins).

Tags: Consecrated Virgins, USACV

This month’s issue of the Liguorian (July/August 2012) has an interesting article about bells. I never gave them much thought until our parish put bells into our belfry at the kind bequest of a parishoner.  All of our bells have names and are used regularly. When my mother-in-law died, I particularly remember them tolling mournfully which was actually very moving.

The article says that bells were used to call monks to prayer (c. 400) and people to mass (c.600). Later they were rung during consecration alerting people in the fields of the miracle taking place on the altar so they could make an act of adoration or come to receive communion. Holes sometimes cut out of the floor of the bell tower allowed the priest bell ringer to see what was going on. Bells are still used today in the form of the small Sanctus bells rung by altar servers. Church bells are not rung from the Gloria at the Mass on Holy Thursday until the Gloria sung at the Easter Vigil.

One of the most common uses of the bells was to alert people to say the Angelus (see famous picture left). Usually it was a triple stroke repeated three times. (Click here to hear a sample from Wexford, Ireland) Appropriately enough, the bells were often dedicated to St. Gabriel.

The Catholic Cathedral in Cologne Germany has the largest free standing bell in the world at 24 tons. It’s name is St. Peter. Click here if you want to hear the bells of St. Peter’s in Vatican City tolling when a new Pope is elected. We are fortunate to hear the bells of Marytown tolling  through the walls of the IRL office. They are tolling right now announcing the ten o’clock hour.

Tags: Bells, Liguorian

In Rome last week, a conference was held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross to resurrect the name and works of Jesuit Jean Cardinal Daniélou who died in 1974 in mysterious circumstances that clouded his work as a one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century. His outspokenness on the truths of the Faith made him unpopular with the intelligentsia but his views on the decline of vocations and religious orders is still right on.

In an interview given in 1972, here are the reasons he gives for crisis facing religious institutions:

• The evangelical counsels are no longer considered as consecrations to God, but are seen in a sociological and psychological perspective.
• The group dynamic replaces religious obedience.
• All regularity of the life of prayer is abandoned and the first consequence of this state of confusion is the disappearance of vocations, because young people require a serious formation.
• In the name of a false secularization, men and women are renouncing their habits, abandoning their works in order to take their places in secular institutions, substituting social and political activities for the worship of God.
• A false conception of freedom brings with it the devaluing of the constitutions and rules and exalts spontaneity and improvisation.

He concludes by saying that “experience will demonstrate if the vocations are more numerous in the houses of strict observance or in the houses of mitigated observance.”  I think we can answer that question today, at least in the Western world.

Tags: Jesuit Jean Cardinal Daniélou