In today's mail ...

We received a letter today from Abbey, a lovely young lady in our parish who has discerned a vocation to religious life. The part I want to share with you is the accompanying letter from the Laboure Society whose mission is to foster "priestly and religious vocations through student loan resolution."

It is said that 1 out of every 2 Aspirants is prevented from entering formation because of student loans. Without assistance, these vocations of whole-hearted and free love and service are delayed for many years - even abandoned. Can our world afford to lose the goodness of these modern day saints?

The Laboure Society has assisted over 200 men and women into formation as a result of the generosity of God's Holy people: 45 to the priesthood, 141 as religious sisters and 23 as religious brothers. There are currently 60 qualified Aspirants in our portfolio and we need your help! [...]

Please join this important work through your prayers and financially.

If you're interested in learning more, go to their site (still under construction, but there is contact information) or watch the video interview with their founder below.

Dominican Sisters, Mary Mother of the Eucharist on Oprah...again!

I just received this reminder via facebook and wanted to pass it on --

The Dominican Sisters of Mary will be featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday, November 23rd.

This is a new show that includes interviews with Mother Assumpta, Sr. Joseph Andrew, Sr. Mary Samuel, Sr. John Dominic and other Sisters; as well as on-site filming of the First and Final Profession Masses and this year’s Entrance Day, during which we welcomed 22 Aspirants.

The show will feature the experience of a Sister entering religious life and the meaning of religious profession as being ‘married’ to Christ.

You may recall that Oprah first reached out to our community on February 9th of this year due an interest in the hidden aspects of religious life.

The response from the first show was so positive that the Sisters were asked if we would be open to another opportunity to share our life. We have accepted this invitation in the hopes of reaching an audience we might not otherwise reach with the witness of our life and the Gospel. Please join us in praying that the show will be for the good of souls and the honor of God.

If you will be work, then set your DVR to record to this episode. Pass the word!

St Teresa

Let nothing trouble you,
let nothing make you afraid.
All things pass away.
God never changes.
Patience obtains everything.
God alone is enough.
[St Teresa of Avila]

Image: Sacred Heart Church, Boston's North End

For today's to-do list

Mother Teresa stamps go on sale today. I plan to buy a ridiculous quantity.

Women and Spirit: Coming to a museum near you!

From the time the Ursulines arrived in New Orleans in 1727 up to today, women religious have made an incalculable contribution to this nation. Running schools, hospitals and orphanages from America's earliest days, these women helped foster a culture of social service that has permeated our society. Over the centuries these courageous women overcame many obstacles--both physical and cultural--to bring their civilizing and caring influence to every corner of the country. Understanding and celebrating the history of women religious is essential to understanding and celebrating the history of America.
(Cokie Roberts, news analyst and author)

If you haven't already visited, I strongly recommend a trip to see Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America, sponsored by the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious). I saw the exhibit on a recent trip to Cleveland, and can't recommend it highly enough.

The exhibit pays tribute to the extraordinary legacy that Catholic sisters played in the development of America, from building strong institutions in the cities to ministering to God's people on the frontiers and the edges of society. It does an excellent job of putting the sisters' accomplishments into historical perspective, and answering questions about issues faced by the Church in America throughout the years. For example, one part of the exhibit addresses the significance of the Catholic school system. The exhibit explains how many things we might take for granted as American Catholics were quite counter-cultural.

The exhibit will take you about 90 minutes to view, and is very accessible for all ages, although the educator's guide is helpful as well. The exhibit contains a nice variety of tributes to history, historical objects (such as possessions of St Elizabeth Ann Seton and Mother Cabrini), and multimedia.

Another aspect I find truly Catholic is that at the end of the exhibit are brochures for local congregations of women religious, recognizing that this exhibit may be the first time many young women think about a vocation.

As we celebrated the Year for Priests, we gave thanks for their ministry to the Church. "Women and Spirit" is an opportunity to pay tribute to the sisters who have done so much for our country.

Hopefully you can see "Women and Spirit" somewhere near you. Ellis Island is a very appropriate host site; I am also thrilled it is coming to the environs of Our Lady's University.

• May 9, 2010 - August 28, 2010
  Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage (Cleveland, Ohio)
  
  
• September 24, 2010 – January 22, 2011
  Statue of Liberty National Monument / Ellis Island Immigration Museum (Liberty Island, New York)
  
  
• February 2011 - April 2011
  The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (Dubuque, Iowa)
  
  
• June 17, 2011 - August 14, 2011
  Mount St. Mary's College (Los Angeles, California)
  
  
• September 2, 2011 - December 31, 2011
  Center for History in association with the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary's College (South Bend, Indiana)

A rare treat

Originally, there were three Church Ladies, Rosaleen, Therese, and Lucy. Rosaleen graduated early and joined the Missionaries of Charity. I've spoken to her once since then... and today I received this email, which reflects Rosaleen's beautiful soul.

LDM

my dear ones,

Pax Christi! This email brings you much love and prayer. Please rejoice and thank God with me - on May 24, I had my first profession in San Francisco! Deo gratias! Novitiate was a beautiful and grace-filled time - a real piece of heaven...and a holy preparation for life in the mission house. I count on your prayers as I go to Cairo, Egypt! Jesus is waiting for me in Egypt region (in the MC world, Egypt region includes Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and part of Sudan---a vast geographical area). I will go to our regional house in Cairo and spend anywhere from a few days to a couple months, and then receive my official assignment somewhere in the region. Right now, I am at home for a little visit and will fly out of Chicago on June 11, stopping in Jordan before reaching Cairo.

Please pray for me! I pray for all of you, entrusting you all to Our Lady's beautiful heart.

If you have a chance, please let me know how you are, where you are.

with much love and prayer,

Sr. M. Grace Theresa MC

(image: St Catherine's Monastery, Egypt)

A peaceful break in your day...

This is too nice not to share. And if you can recommend a convent like this where she can spend a couple peaceful days, Cat would appreciate the tip.

Nuns Go Places Where Few Dare to Go

Have any of our dear readers seen the Women and Spirit exhibition yet?

Nuns Go Places Where Few Dare to Go
by Father Eugene Hemrick
written for The Tablet

Inspiring and admirable best describe the exhibit “Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America” at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. A more awesome collage of the work, devotion and enormous impact women religious have had on our church and nation cannot be found!

I was amazed to learn that four Holy Cross sisters were among the U.S. Navy’s first nurses. During the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, there were more than 20,000 casualties. Sister Anthony O'Connell of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati lobbied and won to have nuns nurse the wounded. For her efforts, she was dubbed “the angel of the battlefield.”

The monument “Nuns of the Battlefield,” which is situated across the street from St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, commemorates 600 nuns who were nurses during the Civil War. Stories of nuns fighting poverty, racism and illiteracy in squalid conditions dominate the exhibit. We are reminded that they not only served the downtrodden but marched side by side with them for equality and rights.

We seldom think of nuns as lawyers lobbying Congress, but there they are in the exhibit, doing just that.

The history of nuns who braved the rigors of travel and difficult living situations to teach and evangelize fills the exhibit. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, came from Italy and founded hospitals, schools and orphanages throughout this country.

Mother Joseph of the Sisters of Providence, who was born in Canada, ended up in the state of Washington. Not only did she establish the same kind of institutions as Mother Cabrini, being a carpenter she built them with her own hands!

What particularly touched me was the promotion one religious order used to attract other members:
“We offer you no salary, no recompense, no holidays, no pensions. But much hard work, a poor dwelling, few consolations, many disappointments, frequent sickness, a violent or lonely death, an unknown grave.”

It was a call for complete commitment!

A video presentation shows one nun saying that suffering has the power to make us one with humanity.

As I exited the exhibit, I felt a deep sense of pride in the spirit of our nuns, which affirmed my belief that nuns are not only praying communities, but also down-to-earth, devoted women who bring God to places where few dare to venture.

Image Source:
Sr. Dolores Bundy (pictured) listens intently at a 1970’s religious vocation conference, showing support for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolent movement for change. (Photo courtesy of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.)

A Mother Superior remembers her Father

In Italy, Fathers' Day is celebrated on March 19, the feast of St Joseph. Hence, this lovely article from Sister Mary Denise Villaume, originally published in The New York Times blog.

On a regular basis the Little Sisters of the Poor drove their truck up to the macaroni building, and Dad filled it with food. I once heard my mom ask if it was prudent to be giving so much when they didn’t know if they’d be able to put us kids through college. It wasn’t a hostile challenge, but an earnest question. Dad’s answer was unequivocal: help neighbors today, trust God with tomorrow. [full post]

The New Springtime

Four hundred years ago the Visitation Nuns didn't have a Web site. Nor did they release a musical CD.

Many things have changed throughout the four centuries of the community's existence, yet so much has remained the same.

The habit the nuns wear is identical to that of the first women who began the order in Annecy, France, in 1610. They write their vows in a "vow book" every Nov. 21 as did the nuns who came before them. In fact, three Visitation nuns who visited France last year were able to write their names in the order's original vow book.

Their response to God's call lately has been drawing a lot of interest from outside the community.

"It goes in waves and right now we are onto a wave where a lot of people are inquiring about our life," said Mother Mary Ruth.

She noted that three applications were given out in one month recently. "There's an enormous amount of interest in religious life and somehow more in the monastic life," she added. "Who can account for that except for the working of the Holy Spirit?"

At Mont Deux Coeurs a typical day involves morning prayer, the chanting of the Divine Office, Mass, breakfast, work, more prayer, classes for those in formation, lunch, recreation, midday prayer, quiet time, work, supper, recreation and evening prayer followed by the "great silence" and bedtime.

Gesturing at her religious habit, Sister Mary Emmanuel said: "Although we dress like this, we are not in the Middle Ages. We are very relevant to today. We're interested in the events that are occurring in the world because that's what our prayers center on. We bring this to the Lord. We bring it to our prayer."

[Full CNS article]
image: Christ Adored by Two Nuns, Alessandro Magnasco, 1715

House of God, Gate of Heaven

Some of the most incredible architecture can be found among churches. I find fascinating both the actual process of building and all the theology that is literally and figuratively built into churches. [Sister Julie's full post "Church Architecture and God" at A Nun's Life]

Also, check out Sister Julie's compilation of blogs by women religious.

Image source
Article cloche tip: A Sister of Saint Joseph

Stamped with Episcopal Approval

Stamps are miniature documents of human history. They are the means by which a country gives sensible expression to its hopes and needs; its beliefs and ideals. They mirror the past and presage the future. They delineate cultural attainments, industrial works, domestic, civil, and social life. In a word, these vignettes give a vivid picture of the world, its occupants, and their multifarious endeavors. –Francis Cardinal Spellman

Last weekend, I unexpectedly toured the Cardinal Spellman Stamp Museum, featuring the collections of His Eminence and President Eisenhower. I admit, I was predisposed to like the place: as a young priest, Father Spellman was pastor of my parish and I have a connection to the women's religious order that once ran the museum. Cardinal Spellman was a great philatelist; the permanent collection features his own stamps, while the exhibitions change monthly.



This postcard was sent by one Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli (who became Pope Pius XII) to Cardinal Spellman's mother. What a great piece of history!

A modern take on Matthew 28:19

There are lots of things I've never done. I've never purchased a lottery ticket or spent money in a casino (not even for the cheap buffet), never watched American Idol (or Survivor, or the Bachelor, or any other "reality" show for that matter), or ever been in a bar fight. I've never smoked a cigar, never tried sky diving, never been arrested, never hitch-hiked, and never participated in a public event that involves less clothing than is considered decent by a reasonable moral standard (and three come to mind right off the top of my head).

One of my "nevers" may fall tomorrow though, as I'm almost tempted to watch Oprah for the first time in my life. In case you haven't heard, she will be featuring the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist on tomorrow's show. Of course, TV being what it is, she will also be featuring a "related" segment on what it's like to be a Geisha. Um, yeah.

The Anchoress shares her insights on what it is about our culture that would logically put these two topics together:

I guess Oprah’s “theme” here is that two rather “secret” lives are being looked into, but I do wonder at the mindset that puts Consecrated religious and Geisha on the same footing. Either one of these subjects could easily fill an hour’s worth of television, and by reducing them to 23 minute overviews, both features promise to be as penetrating as prop knives; superficial, shallow and sensationalistic.

It's worth reading the entire article.

I have no idea when it's on - check your local listings, and then I'd recommend you set your system to record it and fast forward through all the garbage when you watch it later.

Whether you plan to watch or not, the good Sisters are asking for your prayers that "God will bring much spiritual fruit out of this experience." That's something we all can do! God bless the Sisters for their bold witness and their willingness to go out into ALL the world to preach the Gospel. May they never stop!

Actually, it looks like I live a pretty sheltered life. J

The Holy Father's Homily on the Day for Consecrated Life

The purpose of this day is threefold: first of all to praise and thank the Lord for the gift of consecrated life; in the second place, to promote the knowledge and appreciation by all the People of God; finally, to invite all those who have fully dedicated their life to the cause of the Gospel to celebrate the marvels that the Lord has operated in them.

In reality, it is properly and only from this faith, from this profession of faith in Jesus Christ, the only and definitive Mediator, that consecrated life has meaning in the Church, a life consecrated to God through Christ. It has meaning only if he is truly Mediator between God and us, otherwise it would only be a form of sublimation or evasion.

Full of trust and gratitude, let us then also renew the gesture of the total offering of ourselves, presenting ourselves in the Temple. May the Year for Priests be a further occasion, for priests religious to intensify the journey of sanctification, and for all consecrated men and women, a stimulus to support and sustain their ministry with fervent prayer.

[Full homily]

Jan 10-17: National Vocation Awareness Week

The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, January 10-16. “This week provides the opportunity for parishes across the country to promote vocations through prayer and education,” said Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. “It is our responsibility to encourage young people to be generous in their response as they discern the possibility of a call to service in the Church. We must also ask parents, families and our parish communities to assist with this work, vocations are everyone’s business. As we pray for an increased number of seminarians and candidates for religious life, we recognize the importance of safeguarding the gift of vocations.”

Several initiatives to highlight priesthood and religious life are on-going in 2010. The Vatican-sponsored Year for Priests continues through June 2010 http://www.usccb.org/yearforpriests/. Dioceses are highlighting the role of priests in diocesan newspapers, on their Web sites and with other events.

An exhibit on the contributions of women religious in the United States, Women & Spirit, opens at the Smithsonian institution in Washington, January 14. More information on this traveling exhibit can be found at www.womenandspirit.org. The Smithsonian is co-sponsoring this exhibit with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The U.S. bishops have also named promotion of vocations to priesthood and religious life as one of their current five priorities and are deciding on efforts to promote vocations, for example, through their Website, www.usccb.org.

Father David Toups, interim executive director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, added, “The church needs to help young people hear the Lord in prayer, so they can recognize him in their lives. “This week reminds us that it is our responsibility to pray for vocations and to invite young people to consider a call to ordained ministry and consecrated life.”

The observance of National Vocation Awareness Week (NVAW) began in 1976 when the National Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the year as the beginning of NVAW. In 1997, this celebration was moved to coincide with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which falls on January 10 in 2010, marks the initiation of Jesus into public ministry. At his baptism Jesus is named the beloved Son of God. With this celebration the faithful recommit themselves to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. They are also initiated through their own baptism to be the Beloved of God, commissioned to proclaim Good News with their lives.

(from the USCCB)

Movie Pick: The Trouble with Angels

When I found this movie on the $5 rack at Target, I was thrilled! Hayley Mills plays high spirited Mary Clancy forced to attend St Francis Academy boarding school in the late 60s. Between the girls' high jinks, the nostalgia, and Mary's growth, it's a cute movie for the whole family. And for those of us who feel passionately about keeping Catholic schools going, there is this chuckler:

Mother Superior: As for the social graces, I'm convinced that your school encourages barbarism and concerns itself only with free thinking, free wheeling and finger-painting.
Mr. Petrie: The finest educational minds in the country happen to be on our side!
Mother Superior: God is on ours!

My favorite line, and as applicable today as in 1966:
"I would rather have one like [her] who chose [to be a sister] rather than a hundred who yielded."