Category Archives: Women’s Communities

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!

 

 

News, Women's Communities

Pope John Paul II Eucharist Center Opens

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There are many reason to visit the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama, but now there is another reason: the opening of the John Paul II Eucharistic Center.

Sister Mary Jacinta of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration says that many of the people who visit the shrine are not Catholic. Some even come from local colleges on buses to see what a traditional European Church or art looks like. Like the name suggests, Adoration is an important part of the Order’s charism and the exhibits aim to show the purpose and meaning behind Perpetual Adoration. And unfortunately, many Catholics do not understand the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist so it is an educational encounter for them as well.

The exhibits include:

  • Multimedia displays showing how the Passover meal foreshadows the Eucharist
  • Video/depiction of the Last Supper
  • Large paintings from the Masters such as Caravaggio
  • Interactive computer stations where visitors can ask Questions
  • A description of Eucharistic miracles and Eucharistic saints
  • Activities for Children as well

The center is named after Pope John Paul II because of his deep love for the Eucharist. “The Holy Father understood the importance of true culture,” said Sr. Mary Jacinta. “The Eucharistic Center highlights the culture that has flourished from the Church’s Eucharistic life.”

See the complete story in the National Catholic Register.

jpii pics hanceville

 

 

 

 

 

Saints, Women's Communities

“He Leads, I Follow”

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Bishop Kevin Rhoades and Sisters Praying at the Casket of Mother Theresia
Bishop Kevin Rhoades and Sisters Praying at the Casket of Mother Theresia

One of the most moving events during the beatification ceremonies of Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel was the translation of her body from the Motherhouse in Olpe to a new adoration chapel in the Church of St. Martin in the same town.

I do not know if this is a normal occurrence during a beatification (I think it is) but it signifies something important. The beatified goes from “belonging” to a precious few to becoming a member of the worldwide family of God. I would imagine that the congregation feels like they are losing a little something of their own while gaining something of universal eternal value: the witness of their beatified son or daughter uplifted for the benefit of all.

Mother Maria Theresia is the foundress of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. They serve in Germany, the U.S., Brazil and the Philippines. In America, they have a thriving Province in Mishawaka, Indiana. These sisters sponsor the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, a healthcare system which upholds the moral values and teachings of the Catholic Church (how refreshing!). They also serve in schools and colleges.

Within dioceses, they care for poor, sick, elderly, and incarcerated in imitation of the preferential option for the poor as practiced by St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Theresia.

Their most important “apostolate” is Perpetual Adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. What innumerable graces flowed down during adoration, Mother Theresia believed!

If you want more information about the Sisters, please visit their website. There is also a Come & See weekend for young adult woman, January 2-5, 2014.

Mother Theresia’s motto was: “He Leads, I Follow.”

BlessedMMT

 

 

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.

News, Women's Communities

Carrying the Divine Message

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tallonOn November 13, 2013, Mother Mary Teresa Tallon’s cause for sainthood was approved by the US bishops during their assembly in Baltimore. Mother Mary Teresa is the foundress of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate who conduct door-to-door, person-to-person ministry in New York, New Jersey, Phoenix, Nigeria and the Philippines.

This kind of evangelization is just the sort that Pope Francis loves. It is a face-to-face meeting with suffering humanity. As one person in England said on the internet: “In all my years, I never knew of a person to person ministry. Let alone an order of nuns, dedicated to this cause….Truly, she is a beacon of light to behold in this universe. Deo gratias.”

pvmiAn example of the kind of work they do can be found in their latest newsletter. Sr. Mary Vivian had corralled a large group of children, ages fourth grade through eight, whose parents had been lax in instructing them in the Faith. Amongst the group who would be receiving their first Holy Communion was Emmy. When the big day came, she came alone; no family bothered to come with her and she was in her every day clothes. If the sisters had known, they would have bought her a special dress to wear. But Emmy didn’t mind. She thanked Sister Mary Vivian for introducing her to God and gave her a little pin that she had bought at a dollar store that said: “Mary.”

As the Sisters said, “Such a touching gift of thanks, from a child who had so little!”

Pray for vocations to this important ministry and for the cause of Mother Tallon whose witness is so needed in our isolated and fractured world. Mother Tallon is buried in Monroe, New York, at the Motherhouse of the Parish Visitors. She is a powerful intercessor, especially for spiritual healings.

“There is another class, so estranged, as to live beyond hearing the message of the Church unless it is carried to them….  Such a mission is the special privilege of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate….  Carry the divine message of the Gospel to neglectful families.” —Mother Mary Teresa Tallon

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.

 

 

 

News, Vocations, Women's Communities

Straightening the Wayward Path

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visitation e-bookWhat can you buy for 99¢? Probably not even a candy bar! So, it is a tremendous gift to find an e-book available on discerning a vocation for only ninety-nine cents!

Entitled Straightening the Wayward Path, Online Chats about Discernment, this e-book was compiled by the Visitation Sisters from conversations occurring during their weekly discernment chat room called “The Living Jesus Chat Room.” Topics include: discovering and discerning God’s will, signs of a vocation, finding a religious community and other subjects.

Every Sunday evening from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (EST), a Visitandine sister and chat room guests talk about deepening one’s relationship with Jesus Christ. St. Frances de Sales, the founder of the Visitation Order, continues to draw people to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What he had to say hundreds of years ago is extremely relevant today!

O love eternal,
my soul needs and chooses you eternally!
Ah, come Holy Spirit,
and inflame our hearts with your love!

I just went to Amazon and today at least, the e-book is 99¢ off, that is, it is FREE! Don’t wait!

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.”

 

Women's Communities

Standing With Mary at the Foot of the Cross

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toe 25thA growing order celebrating its 25th anniversary this year are the Franciscans Sisters T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother. The letters T.O.R. mean Third Order Regular which is a significant addition to their name because the founding sisters wished to live anew St. Francis’ call to the TORs to be contemplative penitents committed to prayer and works of mercy.

In a spirit of prayer, poverty and conversion as well as “Under the patronage of our Sorrowful Mother and with the Eucharist as the focal point of our daily life,” they stand with Mary at the foot of the cross, offering their lives with Christ as a holocaust of love for the salvation of souls. What a beautiful summation of their charism.

Their community’s name is a mouthful but no word is there by accident. Penance is most important for “it is penance that frees us from self-oriented preferential love and instead inclines us to give ourselves fully to love God and neighbor.” They fast on Wednesdays for the renewal of religious life and on Fridays for world peace.

They are truly taking to heart Pope Francis’ admonition to go out to the world. In addition to their more local apostolates of running a soup kitchen, engaging in campus ministry, conducting retreats, helping the poor, and visiting the sick and elderly, they also have completed recent mission trips to Ireland and Nicaragua. Their day begins with adoration at 5:30 a.m. All told, the sisters spend 3 to 5 hours in prayer each day.

tor prof crucifix
Sr. Agnes Therese kissing profession cross

Recently, they were featured in the Imagine Sisters new film, “Light of Love,” on religious life.

If you would like to see the sisters in person, come to St. Bernard’s Parish in Pittsburgh on November 16th for a 7:00 Holy Hour or St. Monica’s Parish in Beaver Falls, PA, for a December 1-3 Advent parish mission.

And on August 11th, they welcomed 5 new candidates. What a beautiful 25th anniversary gift! Check out their anniversary video as well!

News, Women's Communities

A Home on the Plains

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viet srs now
The Missionary Sisters

The third president of the IRL was Bishop Glennon P. Flavin, 7th bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska. He founded the community of the School Sisters of Christ the King amongst many other pastoral achievements. A fine biography of the bishop who died in 1995 can be found on the sister’s website.

One of the lesser known things that the bishop did was to establish the first canonical Vietnamese parish in the U.S., a haven where refugees from the Vietnam War could worship in their own language and pass on their traditions and culture to future generations.

Motherhouse in Vietnam
Motherhouse in Vietnam

It was in 1985 that the Bishop invited three sisters from the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Mercy to assist the local Vietnamese community. This community of sisters was founded in the 1950’s by Father Bernard Maria Bui Khai Hoan, CMC., in Saigon. In 1975, some of the sisters were forced to flee the country during the Communist takeover. They ended up in Australia in what they hoped would be a temporary exile. With tears they soon realized that they could not return home. God had other plans for them, far, far from home. While their Motherhouse is in Vietnam, their roots are now in U.S. soil for they were canonically established in the diocese in 1999.

Today, the sisters work in the diocese at a rehabilitation hospital, care for the bishop’s residence, teach catechism at elementary schools and provide assistance at a Vietnamese parish. They also run Little Flowers Daycare.

However, says Sr. Rosaria Hoang, “the work we are doing is not important as to whom we are. With our witnesses to the religious consecrated life, we pray and hope that the Holy Spirit will ‘tap’ on those we have a chance to interact with and draw them all closer to him.”