Category Archives: Women’s Communities

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

Cistercian Nuns Plan New Monastery

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The Cistercian nuns of the Valley of  Our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, are making plans for a new monastery.

According to a member of the architecutural firm of Cram and Ferguson Architects, it is “the first new traditional ecclesiastical project to draw on the simplicity and balance of Cistercian monastic architecture, and the first ever undertaken in the United States.” The principal of the firm traveled to Le Thoronet, Sénanque, and Silvacane in France to absorb and understand the ancient Cistercian traditions and architecture, and how to make it practical for today.

The sisters have the fortunate problem of outgrowing the space of their present monastery. Plus the noise of the world has grown around them and they are seeking a more contemplative site suitable to their way of life. The site for the proposed monastery is 229 acres in rural Iowa County southwest of Madison, Wisconsin. The new monastery will be able to house 35 sisters, in order to handle the anticipated future growth of the community. They currently number 17.

The Valley of Our Lady Monastery is an IRL Affiliate community. They were  founded in 1957 by the nuns of Frauenthal Abbey in Switzerland whose own foundation dates to the 13th century. They are the Cistercian Order’s first and only community of nuns in the English-speaking world. They receive their inspiration from the Sacred Scriptures, desert monastic tradition, the Rule of St. Benedict and the documents of the Church’s magisterium. And of course the Cistercian Fathers of the 12th century, most notably, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. They pray the Divine Office in Latin with Gregorian Chant. 

If you would like to donate to the building project, please visit their website.

The nuns also invite us to join them in praying the Sub Tuum, the oldest known prayer to the Mother of God which daily ends their office of Lauds.

We fly to thy patronage,
O holy Mother of God;

despise not our petitions
in our necessities,

but deliver us always
from all dangers,

O glorious and blessed Virgin.

 

 

News, Women's Communities

Little Sisters of the Poor and the HHS Mandate

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The Little Sisters of the Poor have 30 homes in the US serving 2500 residents. Here are some quotes from Sister Constance Veit about the potential impact of the HHS mandate on the poor and elderly that the sisters care for so lovingly.

If we chose to offer insurance without the objectionable services, we would honor our consciences, but we’d have to pay $100 per day per employee. As the cardinal (Timothy Cardinal Dolan) figures it, for an organization with 50 employees, that would mean almost $2 million per year. So if the mandate is still standing in 2014, all of our U.S. homes will be facing serious financial difficulties.

We stand with the U.S. bishops and so many others in advocating that the mandate be struck down, or that, in the very least, there be a viable exemption for freedom of conscience.

I have been a Little Sister for 25 years, and I have never seen our congregation so active on a public issue. So that is an indication of its importance. The only other time I have seen a response like this from our congregation was in the early 1990s, when euthanasia and assisted suicide were being debated in the European Parliament, and our superior general at that time took a public stand. Normally, our lives are very hidden.

What we fear is that, if the federal government succeeds in this case, there are other areas where they could exert pressure or enact measures that could endanger our apostolate — particularly in end-of-life care and in the possible rationing of care to the elderly as a cost-saving measure.

Women's Communities

Passionist Open House

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For all those near the Passionist Monastery in Erlanger, KY, an open house is scheduled for October 14, 2012, from 1:00 – 4:30pm. Erlanger is about 10 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio. The nuns will be in the parlor to greet visitors and to answer questions.

The address: 1151 Donaldson Highway, Erlanger, KY, (859)371-8568

The Passionists were founded by St. Paul of the Cross who died in 1775.  The nuns are a beautiful, cloistered order who pray for the needs of the world. Please ask God to send many holy vocations to the many communities of Passionsts throughout the world, especially to our Member Communities in Erlanger, KY, Whitesville, KY,: Pittsburgh, PA; and Ellisville, MO.

Their mission is to live with Mary at the foot of the cross, and by their compassion for her sorrows and the sufferings of her Son, to win the grace of salvation for countless souls.

“I felt pain in seeing my dear God so offended. I could faint from seeing so many souls lost for not feeling the fruit of the Passion of Jesus. A desire to convert all sinners will not leave me.”  St. Paul of the Cross

 

Cloistered life, Pro-life, Women's Communities

Shining A Light in the Darkness

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The pro-life movement will have one less person on the front lines when Kathleen Gilbert, LifeSiteNews Bureau Chief, enters the Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Buffalo, New York, on October 14th. Kathleen joined LifeSiteNews just before President Obama was elected to office and she hopes “God willing, I’m going out with him too.”

Kathleen is devoted to giving the unborn a voice in the world. She says, “There are many businesses in our world that exploit others. The business of killing has the advantage that the victims always keep quiet. That’s why the holocaust happened, why the unborn in America suffer another 9/11 every single day, and why Planned Parenthood’s business is booming: the dead don’t speak.” She tried to shine a light where others wanted it dark. And she hopes to keep the mission to protect life going, albeit, she will be doing it in a different way.

The monastery she is entering has an amazing history. In 1914, as as Mother Elias and a companion faced a firing squad in Mexico, Mother prayed: “Little Therese, if you are a saint, as some people say you are, then deliver us, and I promise to found a Monastery in your honor.” The shots rang out, the nuns sank to the ground and when they regained consciousness, their clothes were bloodied but they were unhurt. In 1925, on the day of the canonization of St. Therese, the Little Flower, the Carmelite chapel in Buffalo, NY, was dedicated, the first in the world to have the Little Flower as its titular Saint.

As the nuns state, “Our Rule and Constitutions represent the authentic charism of our Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Avila, who desired that her daughters apply themselves zealously to prayer and manual labor for the benefit of the Church and especially for priests. We humbly and gratefully wear the full Habit of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, observe strict Papal enclosure in order to safeguard the sacredness of the cloister, and cherish many traditional monastic customs such as the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant.”

May God bless Kathleen and all the Carmelites of Buffalo.

 

 

Women's Communities

With Zeal for the Lord of Hosts

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In 1925, the Bishop of the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno happened to be in Rome for the canonization of St. Therese of Lisieux and was so moved that he asked Pope Pius XI for permission to found a Carmel in Carmel, California. Five months later on the Feast of the Archangel Raphael, 5 nuns established their home in the diocese. There are currently 9 members in the community.

The first Carmelite foundation in this country was established at Port Tobacco in Maryland in 1790, and the Carmelite Monastery in Carmel traces its origin back to this monastery. But what is interesting is that the name “Carmel” was given to the area much earlier, in 1602, by Carmelites who were chaplains aboard the Don Sebastian Vizcaino expedition. They were struck by the similarity between that area of the coastline of California to that of the coastline of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. And so, as the Patroness of the journey was Our Lady of Mount Carmel it was only fitting, and all agreed, that the area should be called Carmel.

The Carmelite motto is: “With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts.” May the Carmelites around the world be renewed with zeal for the Lord of Hosts on this feast day of the Little Flower.

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

Carmel of the Holy Family and Saint Therese

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The IRL welcomes the Carmel of the Holy Family and Saint Therese of Georgetown, California, as a new Affiliate Community. There are 12 sisters in the Carmel with one in temporary vows and 2 novices. They joined the Diocese of Sacramento in 1935.

They live the traditional Carmelite life of prayer and penance seeking union with Christ in order to participate in His salvific mission

A second Carmel is also part of the IRL family as a our last Board Meeting: the Carmel of the Assumption in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. They were established in  1961 and have 13 solemnly professed nuns. The land for the monastery was purchased because of its proximity to the Benedictine Archabbey of St. Vincent. The monks have served as chaplains, confessors and spiritual directors to the community from the very beginning.

The Carmel of the Assumption is self-supporting.  The community supplies altar breads to the parishes of the diocese, and supplement their income by rosary making, icon plaques and bee keeping.

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

A Carmel in the Desert

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I once went out of my way to go to Mount Carmel, Utah, thinking that a Carmelite Monastery might be nearby, only to discover that it hosted a three way stop sign and a motel. That was about it. It was beautiful country though.

As it turns out, there is a Carmel in Utah that happens to be in Salt Lake City. This IRL Affiliate Community recently hosted a Fair which provides them with their main source of income for the year. The sisters also make altar breads, carmels, peanut brittle, fudge, toffee, note cards and Carmelite dolls. There are 11 nuns living at the Carmelite Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which was founded in 1952 as a foundation from the monastery in Alhambra, California. The purpose was to establish a Catholic presence in a state where Catholics were a distinct minority.

The reason for the Carmelite life, its prayer and austerity, its silence and enclosure, is to allow the Carmelite Sister to devote her entire energy to the worship, the contemplation, and love of God.  A Carmelite Sister is dedicated to pray for the needs of the Church, the Pope, Bishop, Priests, religious, laity, and especially for the diocese in which the Carmel is located. She prays for the return of lapsed Catholics to the spirit and practice of the Faith, for the conversion and salvation of all peoples, and recommends to God their needs in all circumstances of life.

 

God gives Himself wholly to the soul

which gives itself wholly to Him.

(St. Teresa of Jesus)

Women's Communities

Celebrating 150 Years

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On August 8, 2012, the Feast of St. Dominic, the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception concluded a year-long celebration in honor of the 150th anniversary of their founding.Earlier in the year they also celebrated the first professions of Sr. Maria Rosaria Freeland and Sr. Maria Vianney Kysely who exchanged their white veils for the black.

The community was founded in 1861 in Poland by Róża Białecka (Mother Maria Rose Kolumba) to combat illiteracy and poverty. Besides seeing to their spiritual needs, Mother provided sacramental assistance so that all the people could live and die reconciled to God.  The first Sisters came to the U.S. over eighty years ago, and for over seventy-five years they have served the elderly in Justice, IL. The Sisters also teach in St. Fabian Polish School in Burbank, IL and in the parish of St. Walter, in Blue Island, IL. The retreat house run by the Sisters opens its doors to many groups that come for one-day, weekend, or week-long retreats and formation meetings.

Outside of Illinois, the sisters have homes in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Canada, Europe and the countries of the old Soviet Union.

To read more about the foundress, please visit their website where Mother Kolumba is featured in an ongoing blog. You can also watch a short video in which singer and songwriter Sarah Bauer visits the sisters to find out about their life and to spend a day living their life.

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

Help Wanted: Long Hours, Hard Work, No Pay

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The Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Roswell, NM, put out a funny vocations brochure in 2009 which just came to my attention. Here are some tidbits from their brochure:

Hard Labor: If you have ever secretly supposed that the contemplative life to be a leisurely round of devotional exercises, punctuated by strolls in the garden and a spot of embroidery now and again, FEAR NO  MORE!….Here you will be given ample scope and freedom to pursue an ambitious career as a fully-certified, full-time lowly servant of God.

Long Hours: Imagine the joy! Each night you will leap from your sleep at the enchanting hour of 12:30 a.m.!!

No Pay: Yes, say goodbye to that jingle in your pocket for there are no salaried positions to be had in the monastery, no payroll, no wallets, not even a piggy bank.

For as there can be never be labors too hard, nor hours too long in the service and praise of God and in the life and death struggle for souls, it follow that…

THERE CAN NEVER BE TOO MANY POOR CLARES!

The Roswell Poor Clares were established in 1948  as a foundation from Chicago. Since then they have established 6 daughter-monasteries over the years including one in the Netherlands and one back in Chicago. There are currently 23 in the community.

 

Women's Communities

A Moo-ving New Vocation for the Benedictines of Mary

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The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, continue to welcome new members into their community, though one is of the four-legged variety! Sweetpea was born in June to Ephy, the Sisters’ dairy cow, who gives them up to 8 gallons of milk a day!

The sisters also rejoiced on September, 15, 2012, when three postulants received the habit: Sr. Gina, Sr. JoAnna and Sr. Margaret Mary. That same day they welcomed Regina Shannon as a new candidate.

Aspirants are welcome to visit, usually staying for a week at a time. As the sisters say, “We surely don’t mind bumping elbows at the refectory in order to help them discern their own vocations.” They also welcome priests and seminarians who want a quiet place for a retreat.

Please pray that God who has begun His work in them may bring it to fulfillment!