Category Archives: News

Men's communities, News

New Direction for Mercedarian Friars USA – 800th Anniversary Sees Anticipated Growth

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High on a balcony of the lavish Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy in Lima, Peru, a full-size statue of the Blessed Virgin gazes down at pilgrims and tourists.

The Mercedarian friars there have served the parish for centuries, their white habits a familiar sight in the center of town. But although these priests and brothers are well-recognized in many countries of Latin America, including Mexico, they are practically unknown in the United States.

They plan to change all of that – God willing.

“We’ve done a lot of soul-searching over the last few years, and it seems that the Holy Spirit is asking us to reignite our original charism and make some needed changes,” said Fr. Daniel Bowen, OdeM., the vocation director of the Mercedarian friars in the United States.

“It’s taken years, and a lot of discussion and praying, and now we are taking on new responsibilities and doing things in ways different from the past,” Fr. Daniel said. The Order’s growth will certainly be a helpful factor here. They have expanded from five friars in 1970 to 24 today.

A Charism of Redemption

Fr. Daniel said that the Order, known more formally as the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, has looked anew at the charism of their order, which is to redeem Christians whose faith is in danger of being lost.

The order was founded in 1218 in Spain by St. Peter Nolasco, who saw the plight of his fellow Christians who were taken captive by Muslims and made into slaves.

“St. Peter Nolasco, our founder, would collect money to redeem Christians held as captives in Muslim countries,” Fr. Daniel said. “Today, we rescue Christians from modern forms of captivity, such as social, political, and psychological forms which place their faith in danger.”

New Ministries of Freedom

The Order looked at one form of captivity – that of families trapped in vicious cycles of failed marriages. So, in 2016 they started a ministry for marriage – the St. Raymond Nonnatus Foundation for Freedom, Family and Faith. The goal of the group is to promote family life according to Catholic moral principles, under the patronage of St. Raymond Nonnatus, another Mercedarian saint.

Also, the U.S. Mercedarians have been given two parishes in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The order has been in the country for at least one hundred years, with friars from a different province serving there. The order has also been to staff two small rural parishes in Jacksonville, FL. This ministry includes acting as chaplains to the nearby prisons. Prison ministry is fully in line with their charism of redemption.

Formation Program Moves Overseas

Their formation program will be changed from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia to Europe for most of the men’s formation. They will initially live in Philadelphia as postulants learning Spanish, spend their novitiate in Spain, and then study at the University of Salamanca, in Spain. Friars headed for the priesthood will study theology in Rome.

“We are becoming much more international as we should be, and more closely connected to our European and Spanish roots,” Father Daniel said. “We are excited by these new directions. We see a lot of possibilities for fulfilling our charism and helping to bring about the New Evangelization.”

Younger Faces

In recent years, the Order has seen younger faces in their U.S. contingent. “This of course allows us to grow, and we are grateful to God for this blessing,” Fr. Daniel.

Overall, there are signs of hope for men’s religious institutes in the United States, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). In 1970, there were 116 institutes, and by 2015 the new communities outstripped the folded ones by 15, so that there are 131 men’s religious communities today.

While the number of men in religious life in the U.S. has declined by 58 percent in those forty-five years, the ten smallest religious communities of men increased in number by 84%, according to CARA. The Order of Our Lady of Mercy, one of those ten, experienced the second highest gain – 380%.

“We’re riding the wave of the new growth of vocations in the United States,” Fr. Daniel said. “Although we’ve been around since the early part of the twentieth century in America, serving Italian immigrants in Ohio, we definitely have new expectations.”

A Special Fourth Vow

The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy is an international community of priests and brothers who live a life of prayer and communal fraternity. In addition to the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, members take a special fourth vow to give up their own selves for others whose faith is in danger. Their motto is “my life for your freedom.”

Today, friars of the Order of Mercy continue to rescue others from modern types of captivity, such as social, political, and psychological forms which place their faith in danger. They work in jails, marginal neighborhoods, among addicts, and in hospitals. In the United States, the Order of Mercy gives special emphasis to preserving the faith of families through education and parish work. They now serve in the dioceses of Cleveland, Buffalo, Philadelphia and St. Petersburg, FL.

“We think that these new ministries are fulfilling the needs of modern life, as well as carrying out our original charism” Fr. Daniel said.

Contact the Mercedarian Friars

Read more about the Order of Mercy’s charism on their website, or visit their Facebook page. See the YouTube video of their history, “Redeeming Medieval Captives.”

Think you might have a Mercedarian vocation? Find out about the friars’ next Come and See Discernment Retreat, by emailing Fr. Daniel at vocations@orderofmercy.org. Click also to sign up for the friars’ Vocations Newsletter.

News, Women's Communities

First Federation of the Order of the Visitation Launches New Website

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On November 9, 2018 the First Federation of Visitation nuns launched a new website. Designed by Vocation Promotion, the website, VisitationSistersFirstFederation.org, provides links to the six monasteries in the Federation, which include: Mobile, AL; Rockville, VA; Philadelphia, PA; Snellville, GA; Toledo, OH; and Tyringham, MA.

This was one of the steps taken to comply with the requirements of the recent Vatican document Vultum Dei Quaerere and its implementing instruction Cor Orans.  They will also, said Sr. Sharon Gworek, Federation President, be revising the “Constitutions and related documents to bring them in line with those two documents. A committee has been formed to undertake this task and it is being accompanied by the prayer of all the sisters.”

The First Federation is one of two federations of Visitation nuns in the United States. The federations serve as a source of communion and mutual support for the monasteries especially since each monastery is autonomous. The federations help them to strengthen the bond of love that unites them to one another.

The question is often asked: is contemplative life still relevant today?

 The answer can be found in Vultum Dei Quaerere, No. 6:

 “Dear contemplative sisters, without you what would the Church be like, or without all those others living on the fringes of humanity and ministering in the outposts of evangelization?

 The Church greatly esteems your life of complete self-giving. The Church counts on your prayers and on your self-sacrifice to bring today’s men and women to the good news of the Gospel.

 The Church needs you! It is not easy for the world, or at least that large part of it dominated by the mindset of power, wealth and consumerism, to understand your particular vocation and your hidden mission; and yet it needs them immensely.  

The world needs you every bit as much as a sailor on the high seas needs a beacon to guide him to a safe haven. Be beacons to those near to you and, above all, to those far away. 

 Be torches to guide men and women along their journey through the dark night of time. Be sentinels of the morning (cf. Is 21:11-12), heralding the dawn (cf. Lk 1:78).  

By your transfigured life, and with simple words pondered in silence, shows us the One who is the way, and the truth and the life (cf. Jn 14:6)….”

 

News

Hawaii Carmel to be Re-Founded

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Sister Mary Elizabeth de Jesus with fellow Carmelites after her temporary profession in 2013.

In 1973, seven Carmelites from Hong Kong came to Hawaii to found the Carmel of the Holy Trinity. Now only three remain.  But on September 10th, Sr. Mary Bernard, a sister from the Carmelite monastery in Quezon City, Philippines, sent an email to Bishop Larry Silva, Diocese of Honolulu,  with good news: “Peace! Your dream for Hawaii Carmel is slowly coming true by the grace of God.”

The remaining sisters, Sr. Agnella Iu, Sr. Elizabeth de Jesus (temporary vows) and Sr. Veronica Wilson (novice) were faced with closing their monastery and moving to another Carmel. But soon 5 nuns from the Philippines will be joining them so full-fledged Carmelite life can resume in the “re-founded” monastery.

Pioneer Sisters

A delegate of the Carmelite superior general in Rome recommended closing the monastery but said Bishop Silva: “This was not a recommendation the sisters or I wanted to accept, because we know the great value of the Carmel as a quiet source of prayer support to the people of this diocese.”  So, the delegate suggested another option – refounding the monastery with sisters recruited from elsewhere.

Since there are many Filipinos in Hawaii, it was natural to look at their homeland because there are 22 active monasteries there and one monastery had already sent sisters to Wales, the United Kingdom, Palestine, Belgium and Mississippi.

After a careful selection and discernment process, the chosen sisters visited other Carmels to become familiar with how other autonomous monasteries function and attended an orientation seminar run by the Society of the Divine Word Missionaries. The sisters will be accompanied on their journey to Hawaii by Sister Mary Bernard and a Carmelite father to ease the transition.  As with all families, they are seeking to minimize the sisters’ culture shock like any loving mother and father would do.

“Hopefully, the Lord will give them the grace to persevere to the end, giving their lives to God for the church and the diocese,” said Sr. Mary Bernard. “Let us re-introduce Carmel once again in the diocese for prayer and more vocations. A fire has been enkindled once again.”

Excerpted from the Hawaii Catholic Herald -please see article for the complete story.

News, Women's Communities

Sisters of the Holy Cross in Opus Angelorum Elevated to Pontifical Status

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The Sisters of the Holy Cross in Opus Angelorum, an IRL affiliate community since 2004, was elevated this year from an Institute of Diocesan Right to an Institute of Pontifical Right. With the authorization of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Congregation for Religious promulgated the decree of pontifical recognition on the Feast of St. Mark, April 25, 2018, which was communicated to the Mother General on June 1, 2018. With this step, the governance of the Sisters no longer stands under the Bishop of Innsbruck, Austria but reports directly to Rome and the Congregation for Religious. It is a confirmation of their way of life and mission in the Church, and more firmly anchors them to the rock of Peter, to whom they pledge their fidelity.

History of the Sisters

The first Sisters were lay women who joined priests and other lay persons in a group gathered around Mother Gabriel already in the 1950’s in order to live a closer bond with the Holy Angels in their role in the economy of salvation, and to spiritually assist priests, both spiritually and materially, in their vocation. This was the beginning of the spiritual movement, Opus Angelorum. The first canonical institution of Opus Angelorum to be erected in the Church was the Confraternity of the Holy Guardian Angels in 1961 in the diocese of Innsbruck, Austria, which also has a branch in the US today. The Sisters received a house in the diocese of Salzburg, which they named the “House of Adoration”. There they held their first novitiate for a newly formed “pious union,” which was erected in 1964. Along with the Opus Angelorum and the brother community of priests, the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, the community of the Sisters quickly spread to other countries, including Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands. Today, they are present and active in 10 countries with 170 perpetually professed Sisters. They were erected in the Diocese of Innsbruck as a Diocesan Institute in 2002.

The Sisters first came to the US in 1998 and lived for over 10 years at an inner-city parish in Detroit. In 2015, they moved to a residential home in Ohio, as they wait for the completion (hopefully this fall!) of their first convent in the United States.

Spirituality of the Sisters

Beginning from their own total surrender to God, seeking the glorification of the Triune God through a life in imitation of Christ and of sharing in His salvific mission, the Sisters devote themselves by prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, sacrifice and service, to the sanctification of the priesthood and religious state. They are particularly devoted to the Passion of Christ, which they commemorate weekly. They live their life in communion with the Holy Angels, consecrating themselves to them and collaborating with them in the spiritual battle for souls. The Sisters are aggregated to the Order of Canons Regular of the Holy Cross, share the same spirituality and assist the priests in the apostolate, Opus Angelorum.

News, Women's Communities

Mother John Marie Stewart (1926-2018), Foundress of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ

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On May 26, 2018, Mother John Marie Stewart, DLJC, the foundress of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Franciscan charismatic religious community, passed into eternal life. Her funeral Mass was celebrated by Most Reverend Patrick J. Zurek, Bishop of Amarillo. He was joined by Most Rev. Samuel Jacobs, Bishop Emeritus of Houma, LA, as well as other priests.

Mother John Marie was born in Arkansas in 1926 to a family of Methodist ministers, elders and missionaries. She graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in nursing. While working towards a Ph.D. in English Literature at Columbia University, Mother John Marie, a Catholic convert who gradually became a secular humanist, was brought back to the Catholic faith after a long absence by the quiet evangelization of a Catholic sister.

In February 1969, two years after the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States, Mother received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In the ensuing years she participated in street evangelization and attended many Charismatic Conferences.

On January 22, 1972, while on retreat at a Poor Clare Monastery, the Lord gave her the community’s Founding Document which along with the Franciscan Third Order Regular Rule and Constitutions are the framework of their way of life. The Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were erected as an Institute of Diocesan Rite on April 7, 1991 in the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas

By her untiring love for souls, Mother John Marie taught her spiritual daughters to “go after the lost sheep” and then help them receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit through the Charismatic Renewal. She traveled the world where she was never afraid to openly declare that “Jesus is Lord” and to remind people that Jesus loved them.

Mother John Marie leaves behind thirty-eight spiritual daughters―thirty sisters in Perpetual Profession; three in Temporarily Profession; and one Novice and three Postulants. Their Motherhouse is in Prayer Town, Texas and they also have local houses in Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Mexico.

For more information, please visit: www.dljc.org

 

News

Apostolate For Family Consecration Founder, Jerry Coniker, RIP

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The Apostolate for Family Consecration (AFC) mourns the loss of their beloved founder Jerome Francis Coniker (b. November 2, 1938) who passed into eternal life on July 4, 2018 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Jerry and his late wife Gwen (d. 2002 and declared a Servant of God) were the 2008 recipients of the IRL’s Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award. They knew that “the future of the world and the Church passes through the family” (Familiaris Consortio, no 79) and so founded the AFC “to help families get to Heaven.”

Jerry and Gwen were the parents of 13 children and founded the AFC in 1975.  Desiring to live the message of Our Lady of Fatima, they consecrated themselves to Jesus through Mary according to the motto “Totus Tuus” and dedicated themselves to transforming families, neighborhoods, schools and parishes into evangelizing communities, nourishing them with the timeless, Eucharistic, Marian and family-centered spirituality of St. John Paul II.

The AFC is located in Bloomingdale, Ohio, where at Catholic Familyland, there are opportunities for families to participate in events on the 803-acre property (a former abandoned seminary). There are Family Fests, silent retreats, youth conferences, the Totus Tuus “Consecrate Them in Truth” Family Conference, and much more.

“My father was a man truly driven to make a difference in the world,” said their daughter, Theresa Coniker Schmitz. “The salvation of souls and the protection of families through consecration were his passion. He desired the laity to know and embrace their call to holiness, to be saints, because he was convinced that ordinary fathers, mothers, and children can help to bring about the kingdom of God on earth when they make their daily family life an offering to God.”

Discernment, News, Women's Communities

Bethany House: A New House of Discernment For Women

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Bethany House is a women’s discernment house, sponsored by the Office of Vocations in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Located in Minneapolis, it opened in September of 2017 and is a home for women ages 20-27 who live in community and discern whether they are called to consecrated life

This is a new initiative of the Office of Vocations in partnership with the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus, a religious community based in New Ulm, Minnesota. The women may work or go to school, but the objective is the same – to sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary of Bethany, listening. “This is about discerning God’s will, and that’s the goal … wherever God may lead them,” said Father David Blume, vocations director for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Father Blume was inspired to found Bethany House after a young woman told him: “Our men have a path, but for us women, we don’t have a path — we have 500 paths, and it’s kind of confusing.” The Vocations Office takes care of the house’s administration while the Handmaids oversee the formation and pastoral aspects.

Handmaid Sister Mary Joseph Evans makes it clear that this is not a Handmaid discernment house. “They have total freedom to discern any community. … Because we’re diocesan sisters, part of our role in our service of the diocese is to walk with young women in general, in helping them know and discern and embrace the Lord’s will, just like a diocesan priest would for the men.”

Residents at Bethany House commit to nine months of common living as well as a weekday schedule that includes a 5:45 a.m. Holy Hour with morning prayer in the parish’s Adoration chapel. The women then attend daily Mass before heading to classes or work. They share three evening meals each week, and pray night prayer together each night. Then they observe “grand silence” until after Mass the following day. A 2-month summer program is also an option.

One resident described the experience as a retreat. “And that’s how they really set it up to be,” she said. “We’re retreating to Jesus, and Jesus is really retreating to us more, I feel like, because He wants to be in our hearts.”

For more information, please visit: 10000vocations.org/bethany-house

Men's communities, News, Women's Communities

Contemplatives of St. Joseph Add Women’s Branch

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The Contemplatives of St. Joseph, a monastery for men founded in 2010, now have a women’s branch. Over the years, founder Fr. Vito Perrone had to turn women away seeking to join them in their contemplative yet active life. But now, there are 3 women in formation with more to surely come because they seem to be experiencing a boom of sort in vocations and interest!

The COSJs are a Public Clerical Association of the Christian Faithful as decreed by Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco. They take Saint Joseph as their model for his silent, contemplative witness. “He keeps his eyes on Jesus and Mary, as we do,” says Father Perrone. “He is steady, loving, is manly and has a huge influence. That is our model of the contemplative life.”

The community of priests, brothers and sisters commits to eight hours of community and individual prayer. They celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass “to enter into the deep and profound spirituality preserved by the Church and handed down from our western fathers to us today.” Their First Friday Healing Mass draws many. Those in attendance are blessed with the oil of St. Joseph that was used by St. Andre Bessette, the humble servant of St. Joseph.

They also offer retreats; spiritual direction for priests, seminarians, and nuns; parish missions; and will be offering The Catholic Spiritual Life Academy to teach families how they can live a modified contemplative life.

On May 1, Archbishop Cordileone was the principal celebrant at a Solemn High Mass on the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker where the Missa Sancti Joseph was premiered, composed by Frank La Rocca. In addition to receiving professions, investitures and bestowing blessings on candidates and postulants, the Archbishop also bestowed a special blessing for the beginning a COSJ Third Order.

“We feel the contemplative life is a very powerful witness within the life of the church,” Father Perrone said. “Basically, you have to die to yourself in order to understand the riches of life with Christ,” He adds: “Religious life, especially with the COSJ, is not for the faint of heart.”  But it is for those with a heart for Jesus and the Church in imitation of the Guardian of the Redeemer―Saint Joseph!

See article in Catholic San Francisco.

Men's communities, News

Norbertines Break Ground on New Abbey

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On March 18, 2018, the Norbertines of St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California, broke ground on a new abbey. And why do they need a new abbey?  Because the community, with 51 priests and 36 seminarians, has outgrown their space. Yes, 36 seminarians!

With the completion of a $120 million fundraising campaign St. Micheal’s Abbey can start construction on its new campus in Silverado Canyon. (Courtesy of St. Michael’s Abbey)

The instability of the land at their current site, the lack of space to house all of the priests and the lack of suitable space to expand resulted in the plans to move to the new location.  All they needed to do was raise $120,000,000 dollars. And amazingly enough, they did it.

It all started in 1950 when 7 Norbertine priests fled Communist persecution in Hungary and, at the invitation of James Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles, ended up in Orange County California. Today, they run boy’s preparatory school, teach in grade schools, serve as chaplains to the Norbetine canonesses and in hospitals, colleges and prisons, staff a parish and serve in many others. They also have a thriving Lay Order of over 300 members.

The last of the Hungarian Fathers died just before the groundbreaking, so as one generation has passed on the torch, there are many others to reach forward and carry it on into the future.  All this could not be done without strong lay support. Says the St. Michael’s  Foundation board president: “There is such a love for the Norbertines. People give to their mission. They wear a habit, they keep the Hours, they sing…they are embedded in the life of Orange County in a very special way.”

See article in the National Catholic Register.

Cloistered life, Consecrated Virgins, Discernment, General interest, News, Pro-life, Reflection, Resources, Saints, Vocations, Women's Communities

New Website Alert: Poor Clare Colettine Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, IL

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In the Fall of 2017, a seminarian for the Diocese of Rockford, Jack Reichardt began exchanging letters with Poor Clares Mother Abbess, Mother Maria Dominica, PCC, in order to obtain permission and discuss building a new website for the local monastery, home to twenty professed nuns.

Finally meeting at the Monastery in January, Reichardt and Mother Dominica decided that the site should serve two purposes:

  1. To appear to an audience of those women who may be discerning a call to the consecrated life as a Poor Clare nun, and
  2.  To appeal to the faithful who would like to visit with the Poor Clares in prayer.

Having taken a web design course while in high school, Reichardt wanted to put his hobby to use and build something worthy of the Poor Clares that reflected their “beautiful life, that is chaste and pure and prayerful” where people could find out more about their history, life, and vocation.

Click here: Poor Clare Colettine Nuns of Rockford, Illinois | JMJ+FCC

In gratitude for his hard work, one of the sisters offered the following remarks:

“[Jack’s] deliberation and prayerfulness impressed us very much, and his competence to create a site that is simple but beautiful and which effectively reflects our way of life has been crowned with success. We are grateful to him and to all those who contributed!”