Monthly Archives: March 2012

News, Women's Communities

A Mission of Mercy and the Misery of Mankind

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The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma welcomed Raymond Cardinal Burke to their Motherhouse on March 12, 2012, where he led a ceremony of enthronement and consecration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Cardinal had had a long-standing personal invitation to visit the motherhouse in Central Michigan.

The sisters devote themselves primarily to medical care, including hospital-based care and care for the elderly. Continuing the charism of their foundress, Venerable Catherine McAuley, each Sister of Mercy is called by her vows to be a point of convergence between the Mercy of God and the misery of mankind. What a beautiful and vital image for our time.

Men's communities, News

Vietnam Musings – Vocations and a Cardinal

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Vietnam might be the last place where you would expect vocations to be flourishing but that is just what the Conventual Franciscans are experiencing at the Orders’ mission in that country.

May God bless these young men on their journey of faith, especially in light of the sacrifices of the many Catholics who defended their Faith in that country and even gave up their lives rather than renounce the Truth. I am reminded of one of my heroes, Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, who was imprisoned in Vietnam for thirteen years, nine of them in solitary confinement. His books are spiritual classics.

Also, read the story of Joseph Nguyen, a young seminarian who was in a coma and pronounced dead and has the death certificate marked VOID to prove it. While Joseph was in his coma, the Cardinal appeared to him while his parents were praying for the Cardinal’s intercession.  The Diocesan inquiry into the life of Servant of God Francis Xavier Nguyen Cardinal Van Thuan opened in 2010.

 

 

Men's communities, News

Benedictine Video: Quaerere Deum – “To Seek God”

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On April 14, 2012, Fr. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., will receive the 2012 Pro Fidelitate et Virtute award at the 2012 IRL National Meeting banquet. Fr Folsom founded a new monastery in a small apartment in Rome in 1998 and in 2000 moved the community to Norcia, the birthplace of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica. The Vatican II document Perfectae Caritatis urges religious to rediscover to their roots which Fr. Folsom surely did!

A 40-minute video, “Quaerere Deum,” showing what life is like for the monks has recently been released and is available to all for viewing. The title comes from the first task of all monks, “To Seek God,” as described by the Rule of St Benedict.

In 2009, the monks were given a new apostolate by the Holy See: to make both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman rite available. “This practice of offering both forms (in utroque usu) allows us the possibility to drink deeply from the riches of the tradition and, at the same time, to open our doors wide to the Church as she is today.”

For registration information for the IRL National Meeting and/or banquet (April 13-25, 2012), please visit our website or give us a call at (847)573-8975. The theme of the meeting is “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts: The Liturgy as a Foretaste of Heaven.”

News, Women's Communities

If You Re-Build It They Will Come!

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Mr. John Tipperman of The Mary Cross Foundation believed that “if you rebuild it they will come again.” And come again they did as the newly renovated St. Felix Oratory in Huntington, Indiana, becomes a new home for the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

On March 3, 2012, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese said mass and blessed the newly renovated building where twenty of the sisters, who will soon be teaching in area Catholic schools, will reside.

Built in 1928, the monastery was a Capuchin novitiate named after St. Felix of Cantalice, Italy, who lived from 1515 to 1587. It’s most amazing treasure is the room where Ven. Solanus Casey lived from 1946 to 1956. The former friary was sold almost 30 years ago but even though the building left Catholic hands, the former owners kept Solanus’ room padlocked with his brown habit lying across his bed.

There are several interesting stories and a video to watch on this amazing series of coincidences that brought a man with a vision and a sister with a mission together.

Men's communities

Dominican Vocation Boom

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Last year, the Dominican Province of St. Joseph made a vocation Video called “Leaving All Things Behind.”  The YouTube version has just exceeded 10,000 views!

In 2010, the Province accepted its largest class of Novices in 44 years. This year they have 50 friars in formation! The Province of St. Albert the Great also had its largest class of novices in many years.

The Province of St. Joseph has a two hundred year legacy of service to the Church. Friars serve as pastors and parochial vicars in parishes in New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Ohio, and Kentucky; as teachers, campus ministers, and administrators in colleges, universities, and seminaries; as itinerant preachers, traveling to parishes and schools throughout the country; and as chaplains to monasteries and convents.

May St. Dominic continue to bless the Dominicans with vocations and may Our Lady of the Rosary inspire them with a deep love for God and His Church.

Resources

Truth & Life New Testament – FREE APP

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For those of you hoping to find something special to listen to during Lent, here it is! The Truth & Life New Testament (Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition) on CD! It is a dramatization of the entire New Testament voiced by internationally-renowned actors including: Sean Astin, Michael York, Julia Ormond, Stacey Keach, Malcolm McDowell and many more.

To get a sampling of this beautiful work, a FREE app is available! It includes the entire written text of the RSV-CE New Testament along with the fully-dramatized two hour audio presentation of the Gospel of Mark. This free app is available in formats for a variety of mobile devices at www.truthandlifeapp.com.

I played the Gospel of Matthew at home, intending to listen to a few minutes of it and found myself still glued to my seat 90 minutes later. It was amazing how the Gospel leaped to life in a new and riveting way.

The entire set is available for purchase. It includes a forward by Pope Benedict XVI and an Imprimatur from the Vatican. It is the perfect Confirmation or RCIA gift or something wonderful to listen to during Holy Week.

 

General interest

The Role of the Church in Society

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Anna Williams writes an amazingly wonderful article which appears in the Tucson Citizen about the positive role of the Catholic Church in society.  While it seems that many people believe that taking care of the poor is someone else’s responsibility, Ms. Williams says that there is one group of people who  strive “to live out St. Paul’s ‘more excellent way’ of love. They don’t argue about poverty; they try to alleviate it.” This group of people are Catholic religious and priests whose “primary inspiration for both living in poverty and serving the poor is, of course, Jesus Christ.”

Well worth a read.

Anna Williams is an editorial page intern at USA TODAY . Her older sister is a novice in the Sisters of Life.

 

 

Cloistered life, Liturgical Year, Women's Communities

Perpetual Fasting and Lent: The Poor Clares “Extra-ordinariness”

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The following is a letter from a fictional novice of the Poor Clare Colettine Nuns in Rockford, IL.

Dear Family,

Praised be Jesus Christ and His Holy Mother! I’m looking forward to my second Lent in the monastery. What a wonderful surprise was in store for me before Ash Wednesday — three days of more solemn and lengthy Eucharistic Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. You remember from our brochures that we do have Exposition every day, but this was special with a capital “S.” So many hours of prayer and adoration.

You may wonder what Lent is like in an Order that already keeps a perpetual Lenten fast and abstinence even outside of the liturgical season. Believe it or not, we do make a few changes that reflect even more the austerity of this season. Beginning with Ash Wednesday, the organ is silent. The Liturgy of the Hours and Holy Mass are sung a capella except on Laetare Sunday and Solemnities. You remember that there is no correspondence or visiting until Easter. The community prays an offering of the Precious Blood together nine times a day and on Saturdays we pray the chaplet of Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows, just to mention a couple of Lenten practices. Meals are simple without many condiments but, I assure you, healthy and quite sufficient. Oh, and so much more to tell you, but I’ll have to do that some other time!

Until next time, I am off to the Lenten desert!

Sincerely,

Sister Mary Neophilus

News, Saints, Women's Communities

St. Clare Relic Goes On Pilgrimage

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For the first time in 800 years, the relic of St. Clare has gone on pilgrimage from Italy, coinciding with the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Order of St. Clare. The fortunate recipient is the country of the Philippines where the relic, a bone from St. Clare’s cranium, will travel to 29 monasteries and other Catholic locations.

The Clarian year began on April 16, 2011, the vigil of Palm Sunday, and will reach its climax on March 18, 2012 , the 800th anniversary of Saint Clare’s Profession. It will conclude on August 12, 2012.

It was on the night of Palm Sunday, March 20, 1212, that Saint Clare left her home and traded her elegant dress for a simple brown tunic. Saint Francis cut off her hair, preserved to this day in a reliquary in Assisi, as she made a pledge to serve Christ. She died in 1253.