Kentucky Bourbon fudge anyone? Artisan cheeses. Homemade afghan. Jams. Caramels. Fudge from Italy! Note cards, CDs. Soap.
And a Nook! Loaded with Ignatius Press book titles!!!!!
OK, I wrote a blog entry last week about twin brothers who were priests. Now, Our Sunday Visitor has an article about siblings who are priests and/or religious. It seems to be the tip of the iceberg of interesting family vocation stories.
Father Bill Wack and Father Neil Wack, Congregation of Holy Cross. Their great-uncle was a Holy Cross priest at the University of Notre Dame.
Sister Mary Catherine Titus, Sister Martha Ann Titus, and Sister Mary Rita Titus are all members of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. Their mother thought that their older brother Mark would be a priest, but he married and has 11 children.
Father Terrence Coonan and Father Matthew Coonan, from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. A priest once told them that a family of 4 brothers should have one vocation. Each brother said, ” My brother will do it.”
In the Hopkins family, there is one religious sister and three priests. Father John said, “Our parents taught us at a very young age that the only important thing was to do God’s will. “They didn’t talk a lot about vocations, but they did talk about how we had to use our gifts not selfishly, but for others.”
For the complete story, visit the OSV website.
On March 25, 2012, the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Sioux City, IA celebrated the 50th anniversary of the founding of their monastery of Our Lady of the Incarnation. Mother Joseph said the seven sisters “pray for priests. We’re here for the world and for people. There are so many people needing prayers for various hardships, whether it’s unemployment or sickness, addictions, all sorts of things. We’re just here for God’s children and we offer our lives in prayer and sacrifice, but mainly it’s a thing of love.”
She also explained the significance of the religious habit: “We think this is Our Lady’s scapular. It’s a witness to the world set apart for God, I believe. We’re not following the fashions. We’re the people that are chosen as the brides of Christ.”
The cause of Rev. Walter Ciszek, S.J. has taken a “major step forward,” with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints issuing a declaration that the investigation is valid, the National Catholic Register reports.
Father Ciszek was born in 1904 in Shenandoah, PA, entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1928 and was ordained in 1937. Since he had a burning desire to serve the people in Communist Russia he was trained to say the Mass in the Russian Rite. After 2 years in Poland, he entered the Soviet Union so that he could minister to Christians who lived under communist persecution but was arrested as a “spy” in 1941. He endured torture, months and months of solitary confinement and years of hard labor near the Arctic Circle. His prayer to serve Catholics in Russia was answered but not in the way he expected. He found peace in knowing that he was serving where God wanted him, in his weakness and imprisonment and desolation. His parishioners became his fellow prisoners and fellow exiles in Siberia.
I highly recommend his two books: He Leadeth Me and With God in Russia. The first book is a classic that I have read many times. Two gentlemen I gave it to last year both independently said: I raced through it the first time to find out what happened and read it through the second time to savor it.
Father Ciszek died at Fordham University in New York on Dec. 8, 1984.
On March 20, 2012, Archbishop William E. Lori was appointed to be the next archbishop of Baltimore. Since 2001, he has been the bishop of Bridgeport, CT.
In a CNS News Service story Archbishop Lori said that he expects that religious vocations will be one of his priorities in Baltimore. Vocations was certainly was one of his priorities in his last assignment. During his tenure in Bridgeport from 2001 to the present, 35 priests were ordained and 39 seminarians are currently in formation. Eight orders of women religious and a new religious institute were welcomed into the Diocese including the Missionaries of Charity; the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; the Institute of the Servants of the Lord and Virgin of Matára; and a new religious institute, the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of the Springs of Bridgeport.
May God bless the new Archbishop and may vocations continue to flourish under his guiding hand with the help of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the faithful.
The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, will visit Mexico and Cuba from March 23-29, 2012. In an interesting article in the National Catholic Register, Mary Hansen describes some of the lesser known but incredibly beautiful Catholic images that the Holy Father will see in Mexico.
Included on the itinerary is a visit to site of the huge statue, Cristo Rey (Christ the King), described by their former President as a “rebuke to the repressors of religious freedom.” Another one of his stops will be the city of Guanajuato where he will see a statue of Our Lady that is believed to date from the 7th century.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Mexico, Archbishop Christophe Pierre said, “I think the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in Mexico is seen by the great majority of people in this country as a profound sign of hope,” he told Vatican Radio. “The Mexican people are a very religious people, with a deep experience of God, a deep experience of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, a deep experience also of what it means to be members of the Church.”
Let us pray for a safe journey for our Holy Father and for all who will pray with him, in person and in spirit. May he strengthen the faith of the people and encourage young men and women to heed the call of the Lord to: “Follow me!”
The Institute on Religious Life will hold its 2012 National Meeting on April 13-15, 2012, at The University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois. The theme of the meeting is: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts: The Sacred Liturgy as a Foretaste of Heaven.
The banquet honoree is Very Rev. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B. who established a new Benedictine Community (founded in 1998) at the birthplace of St. Benedict and his twin sister, Saint Scholastica. As of the Autumn of 2011, the community had eight monks in Solemn Vows, four in Simple Vows, four novices, one postulant and one observer.
Other speakers are: Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. James Kubicki, S.J., Msgr. R. Michael Schmitz, Rt. Rev. Marcel Rooney, O.S.B., Rev. Douglas Martis, Dr. Denis McNamara, and Sr. Maria Stella Whittier, C.J.D.
Details on registration can be found at our website or call 847-573-8975. The IRL 2012 National Meeting is open to all clergy, religious and laity! Check out the free Saturday program for young people ages 13-25. Advance registration required. Hope to meet you there!
Revolutions come and go, and today’s social milieu will change with the wind, but for four hundred years a group of nuns have born witness to the merciful heart of Jesus through their lives of gentleness and humility.
The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, founded in 1610 in France, has grown to a worldwide congregation of active and cloistered sisters, and today they can be found in nearly every country. The cloistered Visitation nuns from Toledo, Ohio, recently made a pilgrimage to Annecy, France, where the congregation was founded, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of their founding.
A new video made for the occasion captures the spirit of the Visitation and chronicles the happy excursions of the sisters in the areas once walked by their founders, St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. The video opens with a beautiful panorama of the valley surrounding Annecy.
Delighted to See the Nuns
“We walked everywhere,” the sisters said. “Going to the basilica was always ‘up’ and a steep climb. It allowed us to meet the people who seem delighted to see this large group of nuns, and were all smiles.”
Join the sisters as they journey the next 400 years as they walk in the footsteps of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. The video capturing the spirit of the pilgrimage was released on January 2, 2012, and has received more than 2,500 views.
The fight to maintain religious liberty in our country is not something a Polish immigrant sister takes for granted. On February 10, 2012, Sr. Joachim Celinska, OP, became a US citizen. Born in Communist Poland, her parents nonetheless raised their children in the Catholic faith. Not surprisingly, Sister loved Pope John Paul II and prayed his vocation prayer every day not realizing that God was personally calling her to a life dedicated in His service.
She entered the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in 1987 and came to America in 2000. Not knowing the language made it difficult for her at first but she found the people friendly and the land beautiful. She and another sister care for the sick, teach religion classes and help families in Mountain Home, Arkansas, which by Sister’s description sounds like a little bit of heaven on earth.
In the Arkansas Catholic newspaper, Sister Joachim said, “This year, I’m going to vote for the first time. America is a beautiful country. God really loves this country because he’s given freedom. We know what it’s like to live under oppression. I wish and pray for all American people to take advantage of that freedom and thank God for freedom of religion, so they can express their faith freely.”
The Order to which she belongs, the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, is an IRL Affiliate founded in by Mother Maria Kolumba in 19th century Poland. They engage in various ministries in three major areas: evangelization, education, and health care. In the last two years, 15 novices made their first profession in their congregation worldwide. Two of them were received here in the U.S., for the American Province. Besides Mountain Home, the sisters have convents in Illinois and Wisconsin.
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.