News, Resources

He Speaks To You

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Sr. Helena Burns, FSP, has written a book that is the perfect gift for any young woman starting out in life. But while geared to women in particular, it is a wonderful exercise in spiritual formation for anyone seeking to grow in God’s grace. The goal of everyone should be to become the person God created us to be and with the help of this gem of a book, Sr. Helena invites us to open our hearts “to let the Word Himself love you and become incarnate in you.”

The book has a series of reflections, to-do’s, suggestions and scriptures for each day of the year (even a leap year day is included!). Timeless thoughts from saints, reflections by sisters from other congregations,  recommendations for book reading both old and new, websites to visit, Church documents to pray over are just a few of the items in this content-rich book.

Each month has a theme: God’s love, His life, His Cross, His Will, His family, His majesty, His ways, In His image, In His service, His Mother, His Kingdom and In His arms (last things). Here is one sample of a day.

May 28

Do you know where you came from? From Me! But your existence is the culmination of a long chain of history!

God’s Word: Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord” (Psalm 102:18) .

Words of Wisdom: It is commonly said that whoever doesn’t know history is bound to repeat it. Get to know your roots: your family history, ethnic history, and world history, but most of all get to know your spiritual history by reading and studying salvation history: the Bible and Church history.

To Do:  Read the Acts of the Apostles and watch A.D. or Peter and Paul. Read Church history like A Compact History of the Catholic Church by Alan Schreck. Get a good Bible commentary to help you verse by verse like The New Jerome Biblical Commentary or Collegeville Bible Commentary.

To Journal: How would you describe your little place in the universe? Read Max Ehrmann’s famous poem, “Desiderata” for inspiration.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, no one is an outsider, unplanned, or an accident. Each of us was loved by You from all eternity. I rejoice in my little place in Your creation and kingdom!

I plan to give this book to a young women who is considering religious life. But it is a book that will speak to everyone. I have made a New Year’s resolution (a little early) to faithfully read this book every day starting January 1.

News

The Tyburn Tree of Life

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A thriving community of cloistered Benedictine women religious in London, England, is situated near the site where 100 Catholic  men and women were executed during the Protestant Reformation. Located just yards from the site of the infamous Tyburn Tree or King’s Gallows, their crypt honors the more than 350  Catholics who died for their Faith. As their website says, the martyr’s blood turned a tree of death into a Tree of Life.

The first Tyburn martyr was a Carthusian who refused to accept the  supremacy of King Henry VIII over the Church of England. The last martyr was St. Oliver Plunkett,  Archbishop and Primate of Ireland, who was drawn to  the gallows on a hurdle (sled) in his pontifical robes. Margaret Ward was hung by her hands and flogged for smuggling a rope to a priest in prison and ultimately hanged. Relics to be seen include straw and linens stained with the blood of 5 Jesuit martyrs and a bone from the finger of St. John Roberts, OSB, who was hanged, drawn and quartered for being a Catholic priest.

The community at Tyburn, The Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre, was founded by Marie-Adele Garnier, OSB, in 1898 who desired to offer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus a continual homage of love and reparation. Forced to flee France because of religious persecution, they came to London in 1901 and were encouraged by a Cardinal to set up a “shrine at the English field of martyrs.” In 1585, a priest told the court who had sentenced St. Edmund Campion to death, “One day there, where you have put him to death, a religious house will arise, thanks to an important offering.”

After the convent was established, Catholics came forward with the relics that they had kept hidden away for generations. But God’s light is not kept under a bushel basket. From the London convent, that light has resulted in new foundations in New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Australia. In 2005, at the invitation of Pope John Paul II, they established a house in Rome.

A DVD on their life can be purchased on their website. Their apostolate is to pray for the Holy Father, the Church, their country and the world. As the article in Contact magazine (which is published by the Confraternity of Christ the Priest) says, “The Tyburn nuns are called to serve God and Holy Church by the hidden ministry of prayer. A deep prayer union with God is the beginning of Heaven; death merely opens the door.”

News

Five Women Lay Their Lives Down for Christ

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On June 2, 2012, 5 Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal pronounced final vows in the presence of Timothy Cardinal Dolan and their founder, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR.

In poverty, they accept the loving care of the Father Who will provide for them for the rest of their lives. In chastity, they will possess Jesus as Spouse. In obedience, their will and the will of God become one.

Cardinal Dolan received the vows and said, “If you observe them, I promise you everlasting life.”

Sr. Lucille Cutrone, Community Servant and founding member, was a New York City Public School teacher who had as her spiritual director the Servant of God, Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ. From the wilderness of Siberia to the soup kitchens of East Harlem, nothing is beyond the reach of God and no meeting is impossible to orchestrate!

Congratulations to Sr. Francesca, Sr. Monica, Sr. Mary Pieta, Sr. Joseph, and Sr. Maria Teresa.

Women's Communities

I Meet Him Every Day

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Sr. Mary Mercedes, PVMI, of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate tells a beautiful story in this month’s The Parish Visitor about meeting Christ (She says she meets Him every day in His children, old and young) in an elderly man she saw hobbling down the street. From his shabby clothes and thin face, she could see that he had not had a good meal in a long time. She came to find out that he had been evicted from his apartment and was sleeping in a hallway where a kind neighbor gave him a little food.

The man was not Catholic but when asked if he would like to live with the Little Sisters of the Poor, he said, “I’d be glad to go and live with them!” That very day, they went to the Little Sisters who fussed over him, gave him a warm coat and hat and invited him to their home. He went back to collect his meager belongings but said to Sr. Mary Mercedes, “You know I still have my pride. I never lost it.”

A year later, Sister Mary Mercedes visited the Little Sisters and was told that the man was still with them, was happy and was going to daily Mass.

What wonderful ministries these 2 communities have. One seeks out the lost and forsaken and the other gives them a home.

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

Monastic Stillness and Life

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Our website, www.cloisteredlife.com, has a beautiful description of a “Day in the Life” of a cloistered Carmelite nun. The nun is from the Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Cross in Iron Mountain, MI, which has a community of 17 nuns, including externs.

How beautiful to hear first thing every morning: “Praised be Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, His Mother. Come to prayer, Sisters, come to praise the Lord!” As Sister says, “These few words capture the essence of what a Carmelite’s whole life is all about; namely, prayer and praise of God.”

One handy feature of our website is a glossary of terms for the cloistered life. I have to admit that Sister’s use of the term Hebdomadary threw me for a loop. A hebdomadary I come to find out is the sister (or monk) whose duty it is to begin and end the Hours of the Divine Office and the Solemn “Salve,” and to lead the prayers at the graces before and after meals. A hebdomadarian is the one who carries out this task.

Also, please say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Sr. Elizabeth Marie of the Holy Trinity, OCD, who died at the monastery on August 30th at age 70. She is survived by six brothers and seven sisters including Sister Pauline Marie, OCD, and Sister Verone, OSF. What examples the parents must have set before them to nurture these vocations to the Church!

News

New Brides of Christ

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August 15th, 2012, was a momentous day for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George located in Alton, Illinois. Thirteen women made their final profession as religious sisters, 3 pronounced first vows and 2 were received into the novitiate. And here is the other amazing sidebar to the story, 7 of the sisters who made their final vows attended or graduated from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. What a powerhouse of vocations!

Since the year 2000, 90 Benedictine Alumni have pursued vocations to the priesthood or religious life. Graduates are also serving in other ministries such as Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), LifeTeen and Christ in the City. What a model for other Catholic universities!

Benedictine College and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George are IRL Affiliates. Check out their websites for more information.

 

Women's Communities

How Altar Breads Are Made

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The Passionists in Erlanger, Kentucky, make altar breads as a means to support their apostolate of intercessory prayer for the congregations of Passionsists, for the Church and for the world.  When a 2nd grade class made a visit to the monastery ahead of their first Communion, they wanted to  know all about the process altar bread-making. Because the nuns are cloistered, the children were not allowed into the work area so this video was made to open a door into this very prayerful manufacturing “facility.”

The video is a useful educational tool for a first communion class but very interesting for adults as well. The sisters pray for all the recipients of the hosts, that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ that they receive may truly bring them more in likeness to our Savior.

By the way, their diocese is celebrating a Year of Women Religious and the Passionist Nuns will be hosting an open house on Sunday, October 14, 2012, from 1:00 to 4:30. They will be available in their parlor to greet visitors and to  answer any questions.

News

The Life That Beckons

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In his regular column in our local Catholic Newspaper the Catholic New World, Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., told us about his recurrence of cancer and his thoughts about what is to come. He reflects that people like to be in control or at least think they are in control but in actual fact, “we are never in control….Eventually, it is this immediately tangible world that becomes the ‘strange land’ and it is the next that beckons us as our true home.'”

On the Feast of the Assumption as he was undergoing tests the Cardinal read the homily preached by the Holy Father on that day. Here is an excerpt:

One thing, one hope is certain: God awaits us, He attends to us, we are not headed for a void, we are expected. God awaits us and, passing to the other world, we will find the Mother’s goodness, we will find our loved ones, we will find Eternal Love. God awaits us: this is our great joy and our great hope that is born precisely on this feast.”

The Cardinal prays that “I and all those God has given me to know and love here might live in such a way that God’s will for the salvation of the world might be realized. God bless you.”

 

 

Women's Communities

Consecrated Unto Eternal Life

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In 1944, the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Alabama, was founded to provide a place where those who aspired to the contemplative life could enter regardless of race. On August 18, 2012, the nuns had the joy of witnessing the solemn profession of Sr. Mary Jordan of the Holy Family, OP, who is now totally consecrated to God until death.

Sr. Mary Jordan is originally from Loveland, Ohio,  and graduated from her family’s home school (wow!). She got her first taste of Dominican life by the witness of the Dominican Friars at her home parish. Shortly after her graduation from college, she met the Dominican nuns in Marbury and was impressed by the peace and joy of the Sisters along with their monastic life, Latin chant, Marian consecration and devotion to Jesus, present in the Eucharist.

Rev. Walter Wagner, OP, who preached the homily during the Mass, gave a beautiful description of the meaning and symbolism of the contemplative life: “Nuns have befriended the solitary nature of the soul. Every person is essentially alone, and God wants to meet us in the solitude of our interior life where we are alone with Him. Nuns know this, embrace it, and are overflowing with joy. Their life is a promise to us—they have gone ahead of us in anticipation of Heaven.”

The Dominicans Nuns in Marbury became an IRL Affiliate Community in 2010. They currently number 8 nuns including one postulant and one novice. The Dominican nuns were founded by St. Dominic in 1206 to support the holy preaching of the friars by a life of prayer and penance.  In other words, they have totally given themselves to Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls.

“Many elements attracted me to the monastery,” said Sister Mary Jordan, “but there is one reason why I can make vows today ‘until death’: I am convinced that Jesus wants me to belong completely to Him, to seek Him constantly in purity of heart, and to give my life in union with Him for the salvation of souls.” With Sr. Mary Jordan to share in her joy were her family, friends, Dominican Friars, Nashville Dominicans and Sister Servants of the Eternal Word.
To see pictures of the Solemn Profession, click here.

General interest, Women's Communities

An “Old Fashioned Order”

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The National Catholic Reporter recently had an article about a group of “old-fashioned nuns,” actually what I could call a timeless group of sisters carrying on the traditions of the ages. The LCWR was meeting nearby and the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus were carrying on with their work of caring for the aged and pre-schoolers.

These sisters belong to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR), a group that comprises about 10,000 sisters and according to the article, they are young and growing. About 15 years ago, these Carmelites were “stagnant,” not attracting vocations. But then they emphasized their traditional life and vocations started coming in. Many young women are attracted to the wearing of the habit for as Sr. Mary Michael Reiss, 27, says: “I thought if I’m going to do this with my life, to give everything, I want people to know about it, darn it! I wanted the whole church.”

The spirit of the Carmel DCJ comes from the faith experience of Mother Mary Teresa of St. Joseph. Meditating upon and contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded and bleeding, yet burning with love for mankind, a desire was born in her to love the Sacred Heart with her whole being and make Him loved in every heart He had created.

For more information about this IRL Affiliate Community, see their website.