News, Saints, Women's Communities

New Book on St. John Henry Newman by Sr. Mary Catherine Blanding, IHM

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Sr. Mary Catherine Blanding, IHM, of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Wichita, has a written a compelling and deeply pastoral introduction to one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of the modern era—St. John Henry Newman. Entitled: St. John Henry Newman: A Doctor of the Church for Our Time, Sister Mary Catherine draws from the saint’s sermons, spiritual writings, and personal journey of conversion.  She reveals why he continues to speak powerfully to contemporary believers confronting doubt, secularism, loneliness, and the search for holiness. Both intellectually rich and spiritually accessible, the work serves as a guide to prayer, conscience, divine providence, and authentic Christian transformation.

I am deeply devoted to the Doctor,” wrote author Mike Aquilina in his endorsement of the book, ” and so it has pained me that Americans often find him remote or antiquated. But he comes alive in Sr. Mary Catherine’s telling of his story and her distillation of his work. She has done this not only on paper, but by founding Newman discussion groups whose impressive numbers meet regularly for years. By every means at her disposal, she has built a fan base in the United States, and she has only just begun. This makes me happy.”

Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was the 19th-century’s most important English-speaking Catholic theologian.  Born in England, he spent the first half of his life as an Anglican and the second half as a Roman Catholic. He was a priest, popular preacher, writer, and eminent theologian in both churches. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in England in 2010 and canonized by Pope Francis in  2019.  Pope Leo XIV officially declared St. John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church in 2025, making him the 38th person to receive this recognition and title. Because the date of his death took place on the obligatory Memorial of St. Clare of Assisi (August 11th) , the date chosen for his feast day is October 9th, the date of his conversion to Catholicism.

Sister Mary Catherine is an alumna of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA. She holds both a Masters in Religious Education from the Angelicum in Rome as well as a Masters in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. For more than fifteen years, she has introduced St. John Henry Newman to participants in her discussion group, Lovers of Newman, fostering a heart-to-heart encounter with his writings and spirituality.

To order: enroutebooksandmedia.com

 

 

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

Iron Mountain Carmelites Celebrate 75th Anniversary

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The Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Cross
Celebrates 75 Years in the Heart of the Church

The “Holy Cross” has always been more than a mere title for the Monastery of Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Iron Mountain, Michigan. Together with the accompanying presence of Mary, it has in many ways shaped the life and history of the monastery’s seventy-five years of existence in the Diocese of Marquette.

The roots of this Carmel can be traced back to the twelfth foundation made by Holy Mother St. Teresa of Jesus in Caravaca, Spain, leading up to the Queretaro Carmel in Mexico. It was this community which in 1916, due to the persecution of the Church there, eventually found a warm welcome in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Vocations flourished and soon they began making several foundations of which the monastery in Iron Mountain was the seventh.

After a difficult eighteen-month search for a suitable site for the proposed foundation, Most Rev. Thomas L. Noa was able to report his success to the Carmel of Grand Rapids on November 1, 1950. It was the very day on which the dogma of the Assumption was formally defined in Rome. Shortly after this, on November 21, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, the first group of nuns went to Iron Mountain to oversee the renovations which would be necessary to transform the small Horton Hotel on East B Street into a cloistered monastery.

Under the paternal eye of Msgr. A.C. Pelissier, the beloved “Cardinal Protector” of the community, the remodeling was completed in four months. This made it possible for the monastery to be canonically erected on Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951, with the Solemn Mass of Dedication and establishment of Enclosure on April 11, Solemnity of St. Joseph.

Despite additions made to the house on “B” Street, the blessing of many vocations made it necessary to plan for the building of a new Monastery. With the help of Saint Joseph, Carmel’s special protector and provider, and the generous support of so many good people, the new monastery, built in the form of a Cross, became a reality. The dedication was held on July 16, 1966, Solemnity of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.

This year, March 25, 2026, the Monastery of the Holy Cross reached the milestone of its 75th Jubilee. Today seventeen nuns, including four Sisters in formation, gratefully and joyfully continue their daily efforts to live the charism of Carmel handed on to them. Praised be Jesus Christ!

A Life of Love, Prayer and Sacrifice

The Carmel of the Holy Cross is located in the vast wooded territory known as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Here lives a community of seventeen Discalced Carmelite nuns ranging in age from 27 to 101. Our Lord called these women together from many different backgrounds and from varied States as California, New Jersey, Texas and as near as Michigan and Wisconsin.

The Carmelite life is a balance between the eremitical spirit and a life in community. Silence and solitude are sought as pre-eminent means for fostering a life of prayer. Observing papal enclosure and wearing the traditional habit of the Order, they follow the life given them by their Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus. Their goal is union with God – “to love Jesus and to win souls for Him so that He may be loved,” as St. Therese of Lisieux put it. The Carmelites use the same means Jesus Himself used in His hidden life at Nazareth and in His death on the Cross: prayer and sacrifice. They strive to give their all for the Church, particularly for priests and seminarians.

The monastery bell summons the nuns to various community exercises: daily Mass, the Hours of Divine Office, and mental prayer, the characteristic “work” of this Order of prayer. Devotion to Our Lady permeates the life of Carmel, for “Carmel is All Mary’s.” This devotion is expressed by some cherished traditions such as the daily Rosary and Litany of Our Lady, the Salve Regina solemnly chanted every Saturday evening, and the appointment of one sister each week to be “chaplainess of the Blessed Virgin Mary” —honoring Our Lady as each one feels inspired.

Even during work the Carmelites strive to observe silence. Besides ordinary tasks such as cooking, sewing habits, laundry and cleaning, the nuns bake and cut altar breads. The sisters also make articles to be sold in their gift shop at the entrance to the monastery. These include rosaries, scapulars, crocheted items, note cards and others. Within the spacious grounds of the enclosure are two large vegetable gardens cultivated by the sisters.

Saint Teresa incorporated two hours of recreation into the Carmelite’s day to provide healthful relaxation at which time the silence is dispensed. Ordinarily, the sisters bring handwork, but on occasion they go out to the garden or do some other outdoor activity. Sometimes they simply walk together on the grounds visiting one of the shrines, including their own cemetery surrounded by beautiful woods and fields. Tradition calls for a “play” on certain occasions which often includes a good bit of comedy. Thus, the Carmelite nuns live a life of love, prayer and sacrifice in simplicity and joy and, as Saint Teresa wrote centuries ago, “each one feels herself unworthy to have deserved to come to such a place…the Lord has so multiplied their satisfaction that they clearly understand the Lord has given them a hundredfold for the one they left; and they are never tired of thanking His Majesty.”

https://holycrosscarmel.com
vocation@holycrosscarmel.com

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

Consecration and Dedication of Cistercian Nuns Oratory

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“Now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever; My eyes and My Heart also shall be there always.”   Chronicles 7:16

In March of 2024, the Cistercian nuns of Valley of Our Lady Monastery, twenty-one in all, moved into a newly-built monastery in Hollandale, Wisconsin, about one hour south of their old location.  The new monastery is situated in a place of greater solitude and space, enabling the sisters to better live out their particular charism in the Church—that of cloistered monastic life according to the Rule of St Benedict.  The final phase of building was completed some months after moving in, and August 24th, 2025, witnessed the final crowning of the project: the consecration and dedication of the monastery’s Oratory.  The rite was performed by Bishop Donald Hying, with several others concelebrating.  The guest nave of the oratory was full to overflowing with friends new and old of the community.

The Rite of Dedication of a Church is one of the Church’s most solemn liturgical acts and follows an ancient custom. It is the means of consecrating a church exclusively to God, making it a fitting place of prayer, praise, the celebration of the sacraments, and the reservation of the Eucharist. The church building is a visible sign of the Church, that is, the People of God who are the Temple of God made of living stones, a spiritual house built upon Christ, the cornerstone (see 1 Peter 2:4-6). Central to this rite is the consecration of the altar, which stands as a sign of Christ, who is the priest, the victim, and the altar of His own sacrifice.

A dedication is particularly significant for a monastic community, as the Oratory forms the heart of the monastery where they gather seven times a day to pray the Divine Office, daily to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass, and throughout the day to seek Our Lord’s Eucharistic Presence. The rite also recalls each nun’s consecration to God when she became a bride of Christ, enfleshing the bridal identity of the entire Church, a living temple of God’s presence in the world.  It also a place of vigil, waiting for the complete fulfillment of all our hope, trusting that He who began the work of building this place will fulfill it further in the New Jerusalem.

This is the culmination of years of listening to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and trusting Him to bring His work to completion. Our Lord has multiplied His mercies allowing so many to participate in His plan to be praised, adored, and glorified in this place. Please join your prayers to theirs as they give praise and thanks to God.

valleyofourlady.org

For information about their building project: build.valleyofourlady.org/contact

Valley of Our Lady Monastery
7320 Urness Road
Hollandale, WI 53544

News, Women's Communities

Triennial Federal Assembly of the Poor Clare Federation of Mary Immaculate

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Los Altos Cloister Garden

The triennial federal assembly of the Poor Clare Federation of Mary Immaculate in the United States of America was held October 8 – 15, 2025, at the beautiful Monastery of the Poor Clares in Los Altos Hills, California. Each of the twelve member monasteries (Alexandria, VA: Barhamsville, VA; Belleville, IL; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Kokomo, IN; Los Altos Hills, CA; Rockford, IL; Roswell, NM; St. Louis, MO; Santa Barbara, CA; Sauk Rapids, MN) was represented by its abbess and a delegate elected by that community’s solemnly professed nuns.It was like a foretaste of heaven to greet sisters from all over the country and to experience a joyous unity of spirit throughout the assembly.

Sr. Immaculata (Roswell) & Mother Dolores (Cleveland)

Mother Mary Angela, P.C.C., of Roswell, federal president since 2023, presided over the chapter, and was re-elected to serve a second term. Assisting her will be: Mother Mary Giovanna (Belleville, IL) as first federal councilor; Sister Miriam (Kokomo, IN) as second federal councilor; and Mother Marie Colette (Los Altos Hills, CA), as third federal councilor. This was the first assembly in which three councilors were elected, a change made to accord with the directives in Cor Orans.

The sessions of this assembly focused mainly on the revision of our federation’s Constitutions, and this blessed work will continue as the new triennium unfolds. The presence of Father Larry Webber, O.F.M. Cap., our religious assistant, enriched our discussions greatly, as he added his own perspective and vast experience to each session’s subject of focus.

One very special joy of the federation assembly is the sharing which occurs one-on-one among the capitulars before, after and in between sessions, and in every other possible free moment that can be found! These sharings, often taking place outdoor in the beauty of the monastery garden, deepen our sisterly unity in our shared ideal, and enrich us with a greater knowledge of each federated community.

Rainbow

During an afternoon session on the day of the federation elections, one of the delegates politely interrupted the discussion in process to exclaim with true Franciscan joy and simplicity, “Pardon me, but if you look out that window, you’ll see that there’s a rainbow!” And again, in true Franciscan style, the capitulars immediately jumped up to see the glorious reminder of God’s undying love and everlasting covenant, wrought in the sky by the Divine Artist himself. It was an unforgettably beautiful sign of hope in this assembly specifically themed after the Jubilee Year of Hope.

Another hallmark of this assembly was the 150th anniversary on Sunday, October 12, of Mother Mary Maddalena Bentivoglio’s arrival in the United States. Our sisters from Sauk Rapids and Saint Louis brought relics and memorabilia from Mother Maddalena, presenting an outline of the history of our Order from its beginnings in Assisi to the present day. Among the relics on display was Mother Maddalena’s own tunic, carefully kept these many years by our Sauk Rapids community. The St. Louis delegation regaled us during one of our recreation hours with the story of how, on their train trip from Missouri to California, they had carried the large bulletin board bearing photographs which told the pictorial story of the history of our Order – along with their regular luggage, and a big box of homemade bread for the capitulars! All agreed it was a story worthy of the Fioretti and should be written up in full for posterity, and they themselves felt they had been granted a share in Mother Maddalena’s own difficulties encountered along her pilgrim way as she ventured across the ocean to bring Poor Clare life to the United States.

St. Alphonsus Ligouri

In her closing address on the final day of the assembly, Mother Angela quoted a circular letter written by St. Alphonsus Liguori to his novices: “It is only by lifelong sacrifice on the part of all concerned that a religious order can be founded, and it is only by the self-same sacrifice that its fervor can be maintained. The members of a religious family at any given moment have in their hands the making or the marring of their institute. The fact that it has a great name, was founded by a saint, or produced saints in the past, will not save it or them if their lives are tepid. If every novice, even, would remember that the honor of his order is committed to his charge, individuals and institutes would not fall into relaxation as they do.”

She exhorted the capitulars to go forth from this Assembly in an attitude of gratitude and wonder, which are prerequisites for a life of contemplation. Echoing Our Lady of Guadalupe’s words to St. Juan Diego, she encouraged each one to “Go now, and do your part.” As we go forward in our joyful observance of the Gospel as pilgrims of hope, each Poor Clare in our Federation of Mary Immaculate desires to hold high the light of hope for our world, so in need of the radiant light which Francis and Clare have bequeathed to their spiritual daughters.

For more information: cloisteredcontemplativepoorclares.org

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

Mother Foundress of the Alexandria Carmel Passes Away

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On October 9, 2025, Mother Marie Therese of the Child Jesus, OCD, died at her monastery in Alexandria, South Dakota.  Born Theodora Elizabeth Cycyk in Tonawanda, NY, in 1946, to Ukranian immigrants, she was fascinated by nuns but never saw herself as one of them.  That is, until the day when she randomly opened The Guide to Catholic Sisterhoods in the United States, and happened upon the Discalced Carmelite communities, featuring a picture of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. So taken was she by this picture that she was happy to discover that there was a Carmelite monastery in nearby Buffalo! She entered Carmel on November 9, 1965.  This year she just missed celebrating her 60th Jubilee.

Mother Veronica had a name picked out for her on her clothing day but when she saw Theodora dressed up in her wedding dress, her hair in a bun atop her head looking like St. Therese, she changed her mind and gave her the name, Sr. Marie Therese of the Child Jesus.

Mother Marie Therese became Novice Mistress and then Prioress.  In 1996, she agreed to a request by Bishop Robert Carlson to make a new foundation in the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  They revamped a property offered by Fr. Robert Fox (the Fatima Priest) located across from the Fatima Family Shrine, the first monastery of contemplative nuns in South Dakota. “Here I will leave her bones!” she said.

On the day of her death, the sisters were alerted to her condition and finished their daily rosary at her bedside.  A priest administered the Apostolic Pardon just before she died. Her funeral took place on October 13th, the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima.

From her sisters:  Please join us now as we earnestly pray that if Mother Marie Therese is not there already, Our Lord will soon welcome her into His loving embrace in an “Eternal Face to Face” (St. Therese). Know that we (and she) are most grateful for your prayers, and that Mother will be most anxious to recommend you, your loved ones, and your concerns to Jesus.

Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy & St. Joseph
PO Box 67
Alexandria, SD 57311

You can go to their website to support their building campaign to build a new chapel dedicated to the Holy Face of Jesus!

HolyFaceChapel.org

Eremitic Life

First Diocesan Hermit for the Diocese of Des Moines

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For two years, Victoria Carver attended the IRL’s National Meeting as a lay woman.  As of October 16, 2025, the Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, she is officially the first Diocesan Hermit in the Diocese of Des Moines in Iowa.  Now known as Sr. Teresa Charbel, Er.D., she was consecrated at the Basilica of St. John by her bishop, Most Rev. William Joensen.

The following are excerpts of her story as written on the Diocese of Des Moines website:

She’s taken a circuitous path to consecrated life. At age 79, she’s a mother of four, grandma to 11 and great-grandma to five. She was divorced in 1980, and her marriage was annulled by the Church in 1984. She’s a recovering alcoholic who converted to Catholicism in 2000.

“Recovery is rooted in regular prayer and other daily practices that build virtue and foster humility,” she said. “As I surrendered to God in desperation and continued in faith, His power enabled me to do what I could not, and I began to experience miracles in my life.”

Intense and committed intercessory prayer, when one of her children faced a health crisis, led her deeper into prayer, as she called on St. Teresa of Avila and St. Teresa of Kolkata (also known as Mother Teresa) for heavenly help.

“People began asking me to pray for their intentions, and my heart got bigger, growing in charity, as I prayed for others,” she said. Involvement in a lay religious movement led her to a spiritual director, daily adoration, and praying the Liturgy of the Hours. She committed her life to the Lord on retreat and thought she was called to found a women’s religious order in the Diocese of Des Moines.

 “Many desire to see women’s religious life flourish here again, as it once did. Our diocesan priests and parishes need it. Families and young women need it,” she said.

“Though Bishop (Richard) Pates agreed and, in 2015, supported the concept I proposed, my efforts bore little fruit. …I’ve had to learn the hard way that God doesn’t lead me by giving me the end point. If he did, I would plan my route to get there,” she said, “and I’m not a very good planner. Instead, he just leads me to the next stop. I needed to learn to follow him and his shepherds with docility and trust.”

She met regularly with priests and her spiritual director who advised her on canon law, church history, and others who could help her to discern.  Eventually her spiritual director recommended that she inquire with her bishop about becoming a diocesan hermit.

“The next year, I met with newly installed Bishop Joensen, who was open to exploring my request for eremitic consecration, helping close the door on founding a new order.”

For the next few years, Sister Teresa received rigorous formation through much solitary prayer in adoration and study.

When it came time to write a Plan of Life to present to Bishop Joensen — which she didn’t know how to do — two diocesan hermits from a Nazareth Hermitage, in Ava, Missouri, sought overnight accommodations in Des Moines. …. These were the first hermits she had ever met in person.

“Sister Maria Dara affirmed my eremitic vocation, taught me to write a Plan of Life, and I presented it to Father (PJ) McManus. Bishop Joensen read it, consulted Father and other priests, and asked me to live with some experienced hermits in formation for at least four months. One hermitage was vacant at the Nazareth Hermitage compound and I was enthusiastically welcomed there.. . . which ultimately led to my consecration this month.”

During her consecration, Sister Teresa made vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Bishop. After her name will be the letters ER.D., for “erimetic,” a descriptor of a hermit and “diocesan.” She wears a white habit that stretches from her hair down to her feet.

Pope Leo XIV said that “to be a hermit, he said, “is not an escape from the world, but a regeneration of the heart, so that it may be capable of listening, a source of the creative and fruitful action of the charity that God inspires in us.”

To read the full article, visit the Diocese of Des Moines website.

From the Code of Canon Law, here is a description of the life of a hermit or anchorite:

Canon 603. §1 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.

§2 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 .

 

 

 

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

Joy Within His House: A Cloistered Nun’s Reflections on Following Christ

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Sr. Mary Magdalene of the Immaculate Conception, OP, a member of the  Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey,  has written a book to give those who live on the outside of the cloister a glimpse into the experience of those who live within. Called Joy Within His House: A Cloistered Nun’s Reflections on Following Christ, in it she shares the joy she finds in living the life of a cloistered nun and following Christ. Several dozen captivating photographs from inside the cloister help to illustrate the prayer, study, work, and recreation that order the nuns’ days.

Sr. Mary Magdalene of the Immaculate Conception, OP

Many people may have misconceptions about monastic life, especially the cloister: what nuns do all day, what they are like, why they choose this life, and what they have given up. A life of contemplation is not something esoteric, secretive, or hidden; rather, it is a mystery.

Despite facing some different day-to-day realities, you might just find one or more facets of that mystery that will enrich your own life. This book demonstrates that laypeople can also take the principles of Dominican spirituality and monastic life and use them as tools to help them grow in holiness. to encourage others to become saints, and to try to give lay people the principles of monastic life that they can use to help them live as better Christians.  At the same time, religious can glean many helpful points from it as well.

At the Dominican Monastery in Summit, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the heart of their monastic life, where they unite their lives with Christ which is then offered to the Father in a holocaust of praise for the salvation of the world. The Divine Office flows out from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, extending their worship of God throughout the day. Flowing from their life of liturgical praise is private prayer and lectio divina. They also have the special privilege of both perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament joined with the prayer of the rosary. This they call the Adoring Rosary.

For those who would like to visit their monastery chapel, here is something amazing they can see — a 400 years old copy of the Shroud of Turin!  This Shroud replica was commissioned by the Most Serene Infanta, Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, wife of Cosimo de’ Medici in April, 1624. To give the copy greater value it was placed for a time on the Shroud of Turin. In gratitude for the generous help of the fledgling Monastery in Summit, New Jersey after World War I, the Dominican Nuns of St. Catherine’s Monastery gave it to the Summit Dominican Nuns on April 6, 1924.

To order:  please visit the Dominican nuns’ Cloister Shoppe or Amazon or the OSV Catholic Bookstore.  The Cloister Shoppe also has their famous Seignadou Soap products and other handcrafted goods like greeting cards, candles, and handmade wood rosaries.

The book will be released on October 13, 2025, but you can pre-order to reserve a copy!

To learn more about the community: summitdominicans.org

General interest

“Charitably and Cheerfully Challenging the Cheap Chapel Change” by Trent Beattie

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Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Lafayette, LA – Conrad Schmitt

After encountering some severely simple convent and monastery chapels, I asked friends in the architecture world to suggest material that would contradict the cheap chapel change mindset. Two of the books suggested were Stones Laid Before the Lord: Architecture and Monastic Life, by Anselme Dimier, and Religious Poverty, Visual Riches by Joanna Cannon.

One of the architect-friends, however, summed it up in two paragraphs. I had been expecting a book with quotes from artistic and saintly souls (such as Catherine of Bologna, a Poor Clare, as well as Fra Angelico and Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli, both Dominicans) who, despite their own freely-chosen personal poverty, enthusiastically emphasized the eternal value of sacred art. What I got was this eagle-eyed observation that may help to qualify my friend for the artist-saint category:

Cathedral of Christ the king – Atlanta, GA – Daprato Rigali

The history of the architecture of religious orders until the emergence of modernism is replete with counter-examples to this [cheap chapel] attitude, whether for mendicant orders or otherwise. What examples we have of stark religious architecture are often the result of being unfinished or a prior finish later destroyed.

Even where noble simplicity was the stated aim of a religious community, the minimalism extolled today as its purported heir stands as much in contrast to that humble aesthetic as the machine does to nature. Even “Cistercian simplicity” before modernism ranges from the dressed and hand-carved stone of the Romanesque to the ecstatic flights of the Rococo in ways that render the term “simple” anachronistic when used today to refer to those earlier eras as somehow identical or even analogous to the “simplicity” now championed.

Some communities appear to be laboring under the assumption that, not only personal property, but even sacred art is an impediment to union with God. This might seem like a supremely noble pursuit of perfection, but it is actually an anti-Incarnational misconception. Even one of the top mystics of the Church fell prey to it before being set free.

 How Great Thy Art

In The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, Saint Alphonsus Liguori recounts a story about Saint Teresa of Avila, saying that she “complained of certain books which had taught her to leave off meditating on the Passion of Jesus Christ, because this might be an impediment to the contemplation of his divinity.” He continued, writing that Saint Teresa exclaimed:

O Lord of my soul! O my Jesus crucified, my treasure! I never remember this [iconoclastic] opinion without thinking that I have been guilty of great treachery. And is it possible that You, my Lord, could be an obstacle to me in the way of a greater good? Whence, then, do all good things come to me, but from You?

San Joselito Chapel – Before & After – Norwalk, CT – Canning Liturgical Arts

How can this be remembered and lived out when Crucifixes or the Stations of the Cross are so small, colorless, or vague that they are nearly or totally unidentifiable? The purpose of sacred art is not to satisfy a bare-minimum church checklist, but to help us enter into the reality of the Incarnation via the Sacred Humanity of the Lord.

 Beauty Embarkment

There are many resources explaining why chapels should be beautiful—including the Bible (such as Jacob’s exclamation about the majesty of the temple Genesis 28), Saint John Damascene (a monk who strongly defended the value of sacred art), the Second Council of Nicaea (which repudiated the heresy of iconoclasm), and the Catechism of the Catholic (which stated in the explanation of the Commandment about not bearing false witness, that genuine sacred art draws us to the adoration and love of God).

These resources, along with images showing how magnificently chapels can glorify the Lord and sanctify worshipers, should be enough to ignite the spirit of the Transfiguration within religious communities. A charitable and cheerful challenge is hereby extended to our cheap chapel chums to add identifiable and colorful stations, statues, mosaics, paintings, and other decor as part of their sacred art.

St. Paul Center- University of Wisconsin – Ever Greene

Because real artists are needed for this beautification, it is worth mentioning that Daprato Rigali Studios (whose work can be seen in the image of the Ann Arbor chapel of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist), Conrad Schmitt Studios, Ever Greene Architectural Arts, and John Canning Company are four of the best-known groups that can help chapels change back to the glorious ways of the Church.

St. Catherine of Bologna, Bl. Fra Angelico, Ven. Samuel Mazzuchelli, OP,  and all artistic-saintly souls, pray for us to better understand how to employ material means to attain greater union with the goodness, truth and beauty found in the Almighty God who became a man in the Incarnation, whose beginning is celebrated on the Annunciation (March 25).

Trent Beattie has written or edited books on topics such as sports and spirituality, scrupulosity, and St. Alphonsus Liguori. He has written numerous articles for publications such as the National Catholic Register, Catholic Digest, The Latin Mass, Columbia, Sacred Music, and Religious Life.

Consecrated Virgins

NEW BOOK! Espoused to Christ: A Theology of Consecrated Virginity

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Although consecrated virginity lived in the world is the oldest form of consecrated life in the Church, it is also one of its most hidden treasures. However, since the Second Vatican Council called for the renewal of this vocation, increasing numbers of women have sought to discover whether the Lord is calling them to become His mystical bride, and the number of consecrated virgins continues to increase worldwide.

Specifically addressing consecrated virginity lived in the world, this book by Erin Kinsella, CV, is an invaluable and timeless resource for women discerning and in formation, as well as bishops, formators, and even the already consecrated. It covers topics including:  The nature of vocation and unique aspects of various vocations in the Church; the charisms of celibacy and virginity in the history of the Church and now; the Holy See’s instruction on consecrated virginity in Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago; the prophetic role in the Church of the vocation of consecrated virginity lived in the world; the Marian nature of this vocation and the call to live in imitation of Our Lady; the essence of brideship and spousal love, and the gift of spiritual maternity.

Espoused to Christ provides both a theological framework for understanding this vocation and real-life applications that illustrate how to live it, with helpful Scripture passages and reflection

You can order it here: SophiaInstitute.com

Erin Kinsella was consecrated to a life of virginity lived in the world on September 14th, 2019. One of the challenges that she faced…and that many women face…is finding helpful resources for discernment and formation that are specific to consecrated virginity. Her website (espousedtochrist.com) is meant to be a tool that can point people toward useful resources for discerning consecrated virginity.

 

 

News

Emotional Holiness: Discovering the Divine Plan for Your Human Emotions by Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB

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IRL Board Member, Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB, has written the very timely and timeless book entitled Emotional Holiness: Discovering the Divine Plan for Your Human Emotions, available from Our Sunday Visitor. To become a better Christian, you need to form your emotions aright. The traditional Catholic view—supported by giants in the Catholic tradition such as Saint Augustine, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Thomas Aquinas—is that ongoing conversion does not mean suppressing, ignoring, or eradicating the emotions, but reforming them.

In Emotional Holiness, Abbot Austin Murphy, OSB, shows how the emotions are to be shaped and trained so that they work with your pursuit of all that is good and avoidance of what is evil. Getting the emotions to work with the mind’s pursuit of God and the things of God is especially important to help you persevere in your God-given vocation.  (OrderOSV.com)

Abbot Austin Murphy was the Abbot of St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle, Illinois, from 2010 to 2024.  He earned a PhD in theology at the University of Notre Dame, focusing on the thought of St. Augustine.