Category Archives: Cloistered life

Cloistered life, News

An Irremovable Part of the Church

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sts europe iiLast week, the Holy See issued its proposed plans for the upcoming Year for Consecrated Life as announced by Pope Francis last November during a gathering with superior generals of men’s institutes. “Make no little plans” as the saying goes and this certainly holds true for this year that is so important to the IRL and its member communities.

The Year will kick off in October to coincide with the anniversary date of the issuance of the conciliar constitution Lumen Gentium as well as the 50th anniversary of the publication of the conciliar decree on the renewal of consecrated life Perfectae Caritatis.

The Year for Consecrated Life will have three objectives.

  1. Gratefully remembering the past.
  2. Embracing the future with hope.
  3. Living the present passionately.

The 50 years since Vatican Council II is an opportunity to reflect on God’s love and mercy. Though the consecrated life has experienced severe strain in the ensuing decades, it is not an “antechamber of death.”

We have hope because the consecrated life will never disappear from the Church since “it was desired by Jesus Himself as an irremovable part of His Church,” said Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. This is a moment “for bearing witness to the beauty of the sequela Christi (following Christ).”

A few of the Events planned for the year will include:

  • A kick off on November 21, 2013, World Pro Orantibus Day (“For those who pray”)
  • A plenary assembly of the Congregation with the theme: “The ‘Novu’’ in Consecrated Life beginning from Vatican II”
  • A meeting of young religious and novices
  • An international conference dedicated to “Renewal of the Consecrated Life in Light of the Council and Perspectives for the Future”
  • An international exhibit on “Consecrated Life: The Gospel in Human History”
  • A world Chain of Prayer among monasteries

Two important documents related to the consecrated life are also being rewritten:

  1. Mutuae relationes: On the relations between bishops and religious
  2. Verbi Sponsa: Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns
  3. And possibly Sponsa Christi (Spouse of Christ)

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the Year for Consecrated Life is a call to religious to fully embrace and discover anew the charism and witness of the founders of the institutes as a means to awaken the world. It is a prophetic witness meant to reach those at the existential margins of poverty and thought, as Pope Francis has asked.

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

A Glimpse Behind the Walls

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The Poor Clare Colettine Nuns in Rockford are featured in a new book called: Dedicated to God: An Oral History of Cloistered Nuns. A part of the Oxford Oral History Series, the author Abbie Reese was given permission to spend time over the course of 6 years with the nuns. She wanted to get a first hand glimpse into what goes on behind the mysterious walls.

51kVMJ6PEqL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_By the looks of the chapter headings, the story of individual nuns is told. From the excerpts I read, it is a fascinating and frank glimpse into the lives, past and present, of the nuns.

The Poor Clares are an IRL Affiliate Community founded in 1916. According to an article about the book in a Rockford newspaper, there are 22 nuns in the monastery (ranging from age 20 to 81), 50 Poor Clare monasteries in the U.S., and 1,221 monasteries worldwide with a total of 14,000 Poor Clare nuns. Pope John Paul II said that their life “appears as the most radical way of living the Gospel on earth, a way which may be called divine.”

Mother Maria Dominica thought that this unprecedented access was “valuable because it gave flesh to the life.” She said, “We live a hidden life. We’re not used to publicity. But we’re human beings, like everyone else.”

Cloistered life, Vocations, Women's Communities

The Heart of the Dominican Apostolate

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sr opThe Dominican Nuns in Marbury, Alabama, have just released a video in which Sister Mary Jordan, O.P. describes her vocation journey to the cloistered convent. The video was filmed through the grill by Fr. Benedict Croell, O.P., Vocation Director for the St. Joseph Province, who first met Sister when she was in a high school youth group in a Dominican parish in Cincinnati.

What makes the story interesting is that Sister loved teaching yet she fell in love with the monastic life through reading the book A Right to Be Merry by Mother Mary Francis, PCC. Why would God put this love of teaching into her heart of she could not “use” it in a cloistered convent? Watch the video to find out about her understanding and embracing of spiritual motherhood!

Sister took the name “Mary Jordan” in honor of Bl. Jordan of Saxony, the second Minister General of the Dominican Order. It is probably not well known that St. Dominic founded the women’s branch of the Order before the men’s branch, demonstrating how much the preaching of the Dominicans is and was dependent upon the prayers of the nuns. A shining example of the complimentary relationship between the friars and the nuns is seen in the correspondence between Bl. Jordan and Bl. Diana, who professed her vow of virginity at the hands of St. Dominic himself!

sr op2Sister Mary Jordan discovered that her prayerful way of life was in no way incompatible with her desire to teach. For what is teaching but imparting true knowledge to the world? The nuns are the heart of the Dominican preaching apostolate and their prayers, penances, sacrifices, joy and total availability to God are inexhaustible sources of fruitfulness for the Dominican friars, active sisters and third order members. A Dominican friar told the nuns that their presence was a deciding factor in his decision to become a Dominican.

One of the mottoes of the Dominicans is to “give to others the fruits of contemplation.” The silent contemplation of the Nuns bears fruit as their lives become more conformed to Christ, who gave Himself completely for the salvation of souls.

Click here to go to website and watch the video.

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

Keeping Their Eyes on Christ

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Who knew that nuns roller bladed?
Who knew that nuns rollerbladed?

During our December Executive Committee Board Meeting, the IRL unanimously approved the  nomination of the Cloistered Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas, to be an IRL Affiliate Community.

As contemplative Dominican Nuns, their mission is to witness to the Gospel by a hidden life of prayer and sacrifice on behalf of all God’s people. They adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day and evening.

Their monastery is located in the piney woods of East Texas on almost 100 acres of land that includes a small lake. The chapel at the monastery is open to the public to come to for prayer or to attend daily Mass.

The Dominican nuns were founded of course by St. Dominic in Prouilhe, France, in 1206. However, this monastery was founded from Detroit (now Farmington Hills), Michigan, in 1945. There are presently 23 nuns in their monastery who hail from the USA, Cuba, Mexico, Tanzania and Vietnam. They sing the entire Liturgy of the Hours as a community every day.

For more information, visit their website!

oplufkinAnd for a glimpse into their life, watch this YouTube video!

The nuns should keep before their eyes by day and night Christ the Lord who, during his life on earth, offered up prayers and supplications to God with loud cries and tears, and now sits at the right hand of the divine majesty, always living to make intercession for us. (LCM 74:I)

Cloistered life, News, Women's Communities

The Carmelite Family Grows

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alex sdIn their Christmas 2013 newsletter, the Discalced Carmelites of Alexandria, South Dakota, mention that they are beginning a new foundation in Hague, North Dakota, at the invitation of Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck. Forty acres of land including a farmhouse, outbuildings and a pond make up the property that was purchased by the Diocese. After suitable repairs are completed, the Carmel of the Holy Face will come into existence. They were blessed to receive donations from another Carmel of an altar, tabernacle, grating for the Choir, choir benches, Carmelite statues and books, and much more.

The Monastery of Our Mother of Mercy and St. Joseph in Alexandria was founded 17 years ago as a foundation from Buffalo, NY. It has been led with motherly wisdom by Mother Marie Therese of the Child Jesus during all those years. She has taught “us little ones to follow Jesus and Mary and to treasure and persevere in Our Carmelite vocations.”

The Carmelite Monastery in Alexandria has at least 19 members, including one novice, one postulant and five who made their first profession. They obviously are doing well enough to expand and bring blessings upon another Diocese!

The new foundation has not been without its challenges. Yet they quote St. Raymond of Penyafort who said, “May you never be numbered among those whose house is peaceful, quiet and free from care….Your purity of life must be made purer still, by frequent buffetings, until you attain perfect sincerity of heart.”

They also quote Tertullian who explains that while the old way of prayer “was able to rescue from fire and beasts and hunger even before it reached its perfection,” Christian prayer “gives the armor of patience to those who suffer, who feel pain, who are distressed. It strengthens the power of grace, so that faith may know what it is gaining from the Lord, and understand what it is suffering for the name of God.”

How happy it is to dwell in His house, in imitation of and with Mary in
Nazareth, as well as at the foot of the Cross, comforting Him through our
sacrifices, collecting and disseminating by prayer the grace won by Him through
the shedding of His Blood – under her gaze, to leave all to find All and to
spend one’s life in His Presence!

 

 

Cloistered life, Men's communities

Get Your Fruitcakes Here!

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fruitcake2There is a charming article in the Kansas City Star about the Trappist (Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance) monks at Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri, who make a popular fruitcake. One could expect that these men, who live in silence most of the time, to be somber and introspective with one foot in heaven. One foot in heaven they may have and if so, heaven will be a lively place once they get there, God willing!

The monks are getting up there in years yet they still produce the fruitcakes and run the abbey as they have been doing for the last 60 plus years. It’s getting more difficult as the monks age. Boniface is 87, Robert is 88, Thomas is 85. These are three of the monks who are the backbone of the abbey. Many of them were in the military in World War II when monastic life was viewed as a spiritual Marine Corps. Then Vatican II came, says Cyprian, and “it was no longer a favorable environment for fruitcake3spiritual life.” Cyprian says, “I’ve accomplished everything I’ve wanted except to join my brothers in the cemetery.”

Thankfully, help is on the way. Monks from Vietnam are coming in stages to fill out the ranks. They will carry on with the fruitcake tradition, and may even mail some back to Vietnam, though Father Peter from Vietnam says, “Americans like very heavy food.” The monks, in fact, used to make concrete blocks but now make fruitcakes. “We had to change the recipe slightly,” Cyprian said. “And fruitcakes are easier to stack.”

Boniface sometimes bakes over 40 loaves of bread a day. The difference between a cook and a chef, he says,  is that a cook has to do his own dishes. He also has a soup called MustGo soup. “I go through the refrigerator and say, ‘This must go.’”

Assumption Abbey is a daughter house of New Melleray in Iowa and was founded in 1950. The Abbey produces an astounding 30,000 cakes annually, their main source of income. To place an order, click here!

O GOD, CREATOR OF ALL THINGS
BLESS NOW THESE CREATIONS OF OUR HANDS.
THAT THESE CAKES MAY BE RECEIVED
AS TOKENS OF YOUR LOVE
AND SHARED WITH FRIENDS AS HINTS
OF YOUR EUCHARISTIC FEAST.
WE ASK THIS IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST
INCARNATE IN OUR MIDST.

Cloistered life

Men and Women Who Can Awaken the World

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superiorsLast week, Pope Francis announced that 2015 would be a year dedicated to consecrated life. Needless to say, we at the Institute on Religious Life are very excited!

The Holy Father made the announcement during the 82nd General Assembly of the Union of Superior Generals in Rome. Although a brief meeting with the Union was planned, the Holy Father spent an estimated three hours answering questions from the 120 participants.

According to the Holy See Press Office, the first questions to the Pope dealt with the mission and identity of consecrated life. “A radical approach is required of all Christians, but religious persons are called upon to follow the Lord in a special way: They are men and woman who can awaken the world,” the Pope said.

“Consecrated life is prophecy. God asks us to fly the nest and to be sent to the frontiers of the world, avoiding the temptation to ‘domesticate’ them. This is the most concrete way of imitating the Lord.”

The Holy Father said that the formation of religious must be founded on four fundamental pillars: spiritual, intellectual, communitarian and apostolic. The aim, he said, “is to form religious persons with a tender heart, not acid, not like vinegar. We are all sinners, but not corrupt. Sinners are to be accepted, but not the corrupt”.

The Holy Father concluded the meeting by thanked participants for their years of service to the Church and announced 2015 as a Year dedicated to consecrated life. “Thank you for what you do and for your spirit of faith and your service. Thank you for your witness and also for the humiliations through which you have had to pass.”

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

The Lord Giveth, The Lord Taketh Away

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Sr. Veronica
Sr. Veronica

On November 23, 2013, the Capuchin Poor Clares of Wilmington, DE, as well as family and friends had the joy of witnessing Sr. Veronica de Jesus Amaya’s First Religious Profession. Sr. Veronica’s reception of the black veil, which replaced her white one, symbolized her total consecration to Jesus Christ and her death from the world.

Posted on the internet a day later, was the recording of the death of Sr. Maria Imelda Valencia, OSC Cap., a sister in the same monastery who died on November 4 at age 81.

Sr. Imelda entered the Capuchin Poor Clares in Mexico at the young age of thirteen and learned how to make hosts, sew vestments, play the organ, cook for the community and do laundry. Sr. Leticia writes that, 800 years after St. Clare:

Sr. Maria Imelda
Sr. Maria Imelda

Maria Imelda followed the dream of Clare to live her life totally and exclusively for God.  She wanted to embrace in her arms the God made flesh, and wanted His crucified body to be comforted by her friendship and love.  In her prayer, she was more in touch with humanity than most of us.  God let her hear the cry of the poor and the suffering.  They became loud in her silence.  Their pain became real for her.  Jesus was continuing His Passion in the sufferings of humanity, especially the least among us.  She comforted Jesus in His sorrow by raising up to the Father all those who needed grace in their lives.

Sr. Maria Imelda thought she would live and die in her convent in Mexico. But when volunteers were asked in 1986 to travel to America to begin a new foundation near the Capuchin friars, Sister Maria Imelda, at age 54 was one of eight sisters to embark on the journey. As Sr. Leticia writes:

Sr. Imelda never had the facility to learn English; nevertheless, she found an incredible joy and peace in her new home in Delaware.  As St. Augustine says, “In His will is our peace”.  Can you imagine never understanding a word the preacher is saying, or participating in a conversation, always needing a translator?  What sacrifice!  But for Sr. Imelda, it was just another way of dying to herself so that Christ will rise.

May she rest in the peace of her Spouse whom she longed to see.

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

A Tranquil Oasis

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nazarena-6NazarenaYesterday, Pope Francis met with Camaldolese Nuns at the Monastery of Sant’Antonio Abateas (St. Anthony the Abbot) in Rome as the Church celebrated Pro Orantibus “(For Those Who Pray”) Day. The Camaldolese family is one of the ancient monastic orders in the Church, founded by St. Romuald a thousand years ago. They follow the Rule of St. Benedict (but also check out St. Romuald’s brief Rule) and most but not all of the communities existing today are part of the Benedictine Federation family.

The Holy Father greeted the 21 sisters and celebrated Vespers with them. The monastery was once noted for its resident American anchoress, Sister Nazarena of Jesus, who was born Julia Crotta in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Before entering religious life, she studied music at Yale and received a degree from Albertus Magnus College. She became an anchoress in 1945 and lived for 45 years in a tiny room attached to the chapel.

In sister’s cell was a plank for a bed, a small bathroom, a table and a chair (see old story in newspaper done while she was alive). For food, she lived on bread and water with an occasional grape or boiled carrot as a treat. She had a small window to the outside world and another opening into the chapel when she, unseen, participated in Mass ( a priest gave her daily communion).

When the abbess was asked if Sr. Nazarena was insane, she said, “Sister Nazarena is fully sane and has all her faculties. In a wild, self-seeking world, she has found an oasis that has given her tranquility and made her happy. She is the most serene person I have ever met.” Sister died in 1990 at age 82. Pope Francis went to her cell during his visit.

A book on her life by Thomas Matus is available at Amazon.com.

 

 

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

I Have Given My Angels Charge Over You

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pbwatertownToday, the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of their foundation in Watertown, New York. Bishop Terry LaValley of Ogdensburg will offer Mass in thanksgiving. Seven sisters came to Watertown from their newly built monastery in Manchester, New Hampshire in 1963 at the invitation of Msgr. R. J. McCarthy who had a deep devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus.

The sisters also rejoice today as Sister Mary Pham receives her Habit during this Jubilee Mass at St. Patrick’s Church. Sister Mary was born in Vietnam in 1966 and vividly remembers the explosions of bombs and the firing of guns as Saigon fell to the Communists. Even though her parents had only a grammar school education, they were determined to give their children a good education and a country where they could practice and openly keep their Catholic faith.

So her parents sacrificed their own family life in order to make this happen. Mary and 3 of her siblings became part of the “boat people.” They and 54 others went by river and ocean in two small fishing boats in the hope of reaching Thailand. Mary was in one boat and her 2 brothers and sister were in another. She was teary-eyed as she left her parents, siblings, friends and country for the unknown.

When the reached the ocean, the tiny craft waddled like humpty dumpty in the waves and everyone was sick. When gun shots were fired at the vessel, they became separated from the other boat. Later she learned that it had been captured by the Communist Vietnamese Coast Guard but bribes bought their freedom. After 5 days on the ocean, Mary’s boat reached Thailand and she was taken to a refugee camp. It would be five months before she was reunited with her siblings. All four of them arrived in California in 1981 to live with an aunt. It would not be until 1992 that Mary was reunited with her parents and the rest of her brothers and sisters, the year she graduated from college.

Her vocation story is a whole other story. Sr. Mary says of today, “I would not have the joy of being where I am – or being who I am, today, had I not endured the past.”