October, Month of the Holy Rosary

Yesterday we began October, the month of the Holy Rosary! It is a special month for us because of our great devotion to Our Lady and her Rosary. In each room, we make a shrine by decorating the statue of Our Lady, and we sing a special invocation to the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary every day after Holy Mass.  Of course, we pray the Rosary as a community each day as we always do, and each Sister keeps her Hour of Guard praying the Rosary at the foot of Our Lady’s statue and before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, entrusting all the needs of the world to Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.

We encourage you also to pray the Rosary each day, especially during this month of October.  Many Popes have especially commended this devotion during this month.  In response to the grave needs of his time, Pope Leo XIII recommended praying the following prayer to St. Joseph after the Rosary during this month:

To thee, O blessed Joseph, we have recourse in our affliction, and having implored the help of thy thrice holy Spouse, we now, with hearts filled with confidence, earnestly beg thee also to take us under thy protection. By that charity wherewith thou wert united to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by that fatherly love with which thou didst cherish the Child Jesus, we beseech thee and we humbly pray that thou wilt look down with gracious eye upon that inheritance which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood, and wilt succor us in our need by thy power and strength.

Defend, O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen off-spring of Jesus Christ. Keep from us, O most loving Father, all blight of error and corruption. Aid us from on high, most valiant defender, in this conflict with the powers of darkness. And even as of old thou didst rescue the Child Jesus from the peril of His life, so now defend God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Shield us ever under thy patronage, that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting bliss in Heaven. Amen.

In response to the grave needs of our own time, our current Holy Father, Pope Francis, has urged the faithful to recite the Rosary daily with the addition of Pope Leo XIII’s prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, and the ancient prayer to Our Lady, the Sub Tuum:

Sancte Míchael Archángele, defénde nos in próelio;
contra nequítiam et insídias diáboli esto praesídium.
Imperet illi Deus, súpplices deprecámur,
tuque, Prínceps milítiae caeléstis,
Sátanam aliósque spíritus malígnos,
qui ad perditiónem animárum pervagántur in mundo,
divína virtúte, in inférnum detrúde. Amen.

Saint Michael Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Sub tuum praesídium confúgimus,
sancta Dei Génetrix;
nostras deprecatiónes ne despícias in necessitátibus,
sed a perículis cunctis líbera nos semper,
Virgo gloriósa et benedícta.

We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

Here are some Rosary Resources on our own website.  These Dominican Rosary Confraternity websites (East, West) offer more resources as well as the opportunity to be spiritually united to others in prayer.

During these days leading up to the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7, we are also joining our daily Rosaries and Masses with the powerful Spirit of Truth Novena for our Church.

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Padre Pio Relics visit on October 1

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

On Monday, October 1st, from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm, relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina on tour from San Giovanni Rotondo will be displayed for veneration in our monastery chapel.  You are welcome to join us in the special opportunity.

We do not usually have this many events to post, but what an opportunity to share with you our devotion to this great saint whose intercession was so powerful on earth and now also in heaven.  Padre Pio suffered much; and he offered his suffering for the Church.  We implore his powerful intercession for our Church today.

Padre Pio stories from our Mothers and Sisters

Our founding Mother and Sisters had a great devotion to Padre Pio during his lifetime.  Our Mother Foundress wrote him to ask if he would accept us as his spiritual daughters.  We still have the card in our archives with his response.

Another Sister was very concerned about her ailing mother, who had converted to the Catholic Faith but did not know or practice the Faith as much as Sister had hoped.  In fact, her mother did not truly appreciate the great sacrament of Confession and how beneficial regular confession is to our spiritual life.  Now, with her mother in the hospital back home in Chicago, Sister wrote to Padre Pio, the famous and saintly confessor, to ask him for his prayers.

Some time later, when her mother had recovered, Sister spoke with her about her time in the hospital, and asked about confession.  “Yes, I did go to Confession,” said her mother.  “A Franciscan friar came in and asked me if I would like to make my confession, and I replied that I would.”  When Sister happily repeated this to the community, the other Sisters from Chicago exclaimed, “Why, Sister, that must have been Padre Pio!  There are no Franciscan houses near that hospital.”  We know that Padre Pio was documented to bilocate in similar cases, and we praise God for His marvelous works.

We could share any number of other stories with you, of physical healing, spiritual conversion, and other smaller but no less welcome blessings, from our own lives and those of our friends.  If you would like to read more Padre Pio stories we suggest you learn more about him online, and join us in venerating his relics and asking for his intercession with Our Lord on October 1.

 

Infant Mary image

Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady

Blessed feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary!  As we celebrate our Blessed Mother’s coronation and heavenly honor at the side of Jesus, her Son, we also look forward to our celebration of her Nativity on September 8.  Birthdays are always special; and Our Lady’s Birthday is extra special, for it presages the coming of the Messiah. On August 30, we begin a novena to the Infant Mary to thank God for all the gifts and privileges with which He endowed her.

Image of Novena for Our Lady's Birthday
Click to open two-page PDF of holy card. Print front and back on one sheet of paper; fold in thirds; cut in half to make two novena cards.

Have you considered . . .

as we approach Our Lady’s Birthday, could she be inviting you to give yourself to her as a Dominican Nun dedicated to the Perpetual Rosary?  Learn more about our vocation here on our website, or consider coming for a vocation retreat.

If our Blessed Mother is not calling you to our way of life, perhaps she is inviting you to renew your love for her and Jesus in a special way through this novena.  May God bless and Our Lady keep you!  Please keep those young women whom God is calling to this life in your prayers.

Angelic Warfare Enrollment Advertisement

Angelic Warfare Confraternity Enrollment – Sunday, August 12, 2018

Angelic Warfare Enrollment Advertisement

This summer you have a chance to enroll in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity.

Join married and single men and women dedicated to pursuing chastity under the powerful patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Experience healing, liberation, and growth in chastity.

Join us in a special enrollment ceremony in Marbury AL by Dominican priest Father James Brent on August 12th at 1:30pm.

If you are interested, please contact the Dominican nuns so we can make sure to have enough membership packets.

For more information about the Confraternity, visit www.angelicwarfareconfraternity.org.

Vocation Discernment Retreat Flyer

Vocation Retreat – October 19-21, 2018 – Please Share!

We are holding a Vocation Retreat in October for young women, high school juniors through age 27, who are interested in a Dominican monastic vocation.  If this is you, click the flyer below to learn more!  If this is NOT you, please share with someone else who might be interested!  Help young women find out about our retreat by sharing on social media, or with your local parish, campus ministry, or young adult group (printable PDF flyer here). Thank you and God bless you.

Vocation Discernment Retreat Flyer

Past Vocation Retreats:

Painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Margaret Mary--located in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome

Act of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Margaret Mary--located in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome

The early Church Fathers often saw the opening of Our Lord’s side on the Cross as opening up the Heart of God and His love for us. St. Justin Martyr, writing between AD 135 and 150, says: “We Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as out of a rock.” Actual devotion to the Sacred Heart however did not arise in the Church until around the 10th century. St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, and St. Mechtilde all spoke often of the Sacred Heart. The Dominicans had a special Office in honor of the Wound in the Side of Christ which was celebrated on the same day that the feast of the Sacred Heart is now. In fact three Dominicans were instrumental in fostering devotion to the Sacred Heart, as Pope Pius XII tells us: St. Albert the Great (whom some call the Doctor of the Heart of Jesus), Blessed Henry Suso, and St. Catherine of Siena.

When Pope Piux XI decreed that this Feast of the Most Sacred Heart was to be kept as a feast of the highest liturgical rank by the Universal Church, he asked that a special act of Reparation also be said. The Sacred Heart is an image or sign of the burning LOVE of Our Lord for all mankind; acts of reparation, whether prayers or other loving actions, attempt to console Our Lord for the rejection of that love by so many, and to win graces for their conversion. When Our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary He asked specifically for reparation to His Sacred Heart. As Our Lady explained to the little children at Fatima, the sacrifices of doing our daily duty according to our particular state of life if offered with love will become great acts of reparation. Making this intention with our Morning Offering will suffice, though constantly referring to it during the day is even better.

Act of Reparation to the Sacred Heart

Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject. Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints.

We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Thy Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.  Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood.

We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the Cross and which Thou continuest to renew daily on our Altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.

The Marian Heart of the Apostolic Life

Image of Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost by Fra Angelico

The Dominican Friars live an apostolic life inspired by the common life and preaching of the first Apostles.  As cloistered Dominican Nuns, we look to Mary, Queen of Apostles, to exemplify for us a life of prayer and contemplation at the heart of the Holy Preaching of both the Order and the Church.

It was through Our Lady’s fiat that the Word became flesh, and through her prayer in the midst of the Apostles that He sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church.  In a similar way, our fidelity to God’s call and attentiveness to His Word enables Him to become present in the world, and our life of prayer and penance calls down many graces for the salvation of souls.

This contemplative way of life is all the more difficult today, in a world increasingly materialistic and media-saturated, yet all the more necessary.  Who will dedicate her life exclusively to praise and glorify God?  Who will spend herself completely in union with Christ for the salvation of souls?  This is our life; this is at the heart of the Church.

The image to the left is the tall, thin side panel of a triptych by our Dominican painter, Blessed John of Fiesole, known as Fra Angelico.  Mary and the Apostles gather in prayer on the porch of an octagonal building representing the Church.  As the Holy Spirit descends on them in power, Mary remains in prayer while the Apostles begin to preach to the men below, who represent the Jews and Greeks outside the Church.  The intersection of the door with the outstretched hands of the men shows the nearness of their entry into that union with God to be found, with Mary, at the heart of the Church.

Jesus releasing holy souls from hades

Haec Dies: Dominican Chant for the Easter Octave

Joyful Easter greetings on this Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday!  After the somber, purple-shrouded statues and solemn chants of Holy Week, our Paschal joy at the Lord’s Resurrection breaks forth in a resplendent array of candles, Easter lilies, flowering bouquets, and glorious organ accompaniment to our triumphant Easter hymns.  At the Divine Office, the joy cannot be contained and breaks out in every hour during the Octave with the chant of the Haec Dies: This is the day which the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it!

On this last day of the Octave, we continue to rejoice in the Lord’s great mercy that moved Him to take flesh, suffer death, and rise again to bring us with Him to eternal life with the Father through the Holy Spirit.  We hope this short chant video helps you enter into this joy during the rest of the Easter Season.

Why Pray the Stations of the Cross

Why pray the Stations of the Cross during Lent? Why pray them anytime?

Saint Dominic at the foot of the CrossAs Dominicans, we inherit the intense devotion to Jesus’ Passion that burned in the heart of our Holy Father, St. Dominic. One seemingly small yet powerful way we commemorate this is by making the Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross are often held on Fridays of Lent in parishes–we make them together in the monastery on Good Friday–but on other days each Sister sets aside some time to join Our Lord on His sorrowful journey to Calvary. Although this is deeply rooted in our Dominican charism, it is to a Benedictine, Blessed Columba Marmion, that we look today for some insights into the value of this ancient Christian devotion.

Holy Week, the Liturgy, and the Stations of the Cross

Dom Marmion writes:

The Passion constitutes the “Holy of holies” of the mystery of Jesus. It is the crowning point of His public life, the summit of His mission here below, the work to which all the others converge, or from which they draw their value.

Every year, during Holy Week, the Church commemorates its different phases, in detail. Every day, in the Sacrifice of the Mass, she renews for us the memory of it and the reality of it, in order to apply its fruits to us.

To this central act of the liturgy there is added a pious practice [the Stations of the Cross] which, though not part of the official publish worship organized by the Spouse of Christ, has become very dear to souls because of the abundant graces of which it is the source. . . .

The Virgin Mary and the first Christians must, more than once, have devoutly retaken that road He took, watering with their tears the places sanctified by the sorrows of the God-man.

How beautiful to think that Our Lady was the first one to pray this devotion!  Even at the holy house at Ephesus, where Mary lived with St. John before her Assumption, they found a Way of the Cross nearby.

Three reasons the Stations of the Cross are especially fruitful spiritually

Image of the Crucifixion highlighting the Precious Blood of JesusDom Marmion continues:

This contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus is very fruitful. I am convinced that outside the Sacraments and liturgical acts, there is no practice more useful for our souls than the Way of the Cross made with devotion. [As Dominicans we have to add: “Along with the Rosary, of course!”]  It is of sovereign super-natural efficacy. Why is that?

1) First, because the Passion of Jesus is His work par excellence; almost all its details were prophesied; there is no other mystery of Jesus of which the circumstances were foretold so carefully by psalmist and prophets. . . . The Father is well-pleased by all these things done by Jesus. . . . And what is the reason for this? That Jesus during His Passion honors and glorifies His Father in an infinite measure, not only because He is the Son of God but also because He abandons Himself to all that justice and love of His Father asks of Him.

2) We also ought to love to meditate on the Passion because it is there too that Christ makes His virtues shine out. He possesses all the virtues in His soul, but the occasion for manifesting them came especially at His Passion. . . . When we contemplate Jesus in His Passion, we see the Exemplar of our life, the model–admirable and at the same time accessible–of those virtues of compunction, abnegation, gentleness, that we ought to practice in order to become like our divine head: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

A Dominican nun at the foot of the Crucifix

3) There is a third aspect which too often we forget, but which nevertheless is of extreme importance.  When we contemplate the sufferings of Jesus He grants us, according to the measure of our faith, the grace to practice the virtues He revealed during those sacred hours.  How so?

When Christ lived on earth, there emanated from His divine person an all-powerful strength which cured bodies, enlightened minds and gave life to souls: “Power went forth from Him and healed all.”

Something analagous happens when we put ourselves into contact with Jesus by faith.  Christ surely bestowed special graces on those who, with love, followed Him on the road to Golgotha or were present at His immolation.  He still maintains that power now.  And when, in a spirit of faith, so as to feel for Him in His sufferings and to imitate Him, we follow Him from the Praetorium to Calvary and take our place at the foot of the cross, He gives us those same graces, He makes us partakers of the same favors.  Never forget that Christ Jesus is not a model who is dead and inert.  Ever living, He produces super-naturally, in those who draw near to Him with the required dispositions, the perfection they behold in His person.

Praying the Stations regularly

Finally, Blessed Columba Marmion emphasizes how spiritually enriching it is to pray the Stations of the Cross personally throughout the year, not limited to the Fridays of Lent:

That is why, if for several moments each day, suspending your work, abandoning your preoccupations, silencing in your heart the noise of all things created, you accompany the God-man on the road to Calvary with faith, humility and love, with a real desire to imitate the virtues He manifests in His Passion, then be assured that your souls will receive choice graces that will transform them little by little into a resemblance of Jesus, and of Jesus crucified.  Now, is it not in such a resemblance that St. Paul places the whole of sanctity?

It is enough, in order to gather the precious fruits of this practice, as it is for gaining the numerous indulgences with which the Church enriches it, that you pause at each Station of the cross and there meditate on the Passion of the Savior.  No formula of prayer is prescribed, no form of meditation is imposed–not even meditation on the subject to which the specific “station” alludes.  Full liberty is left to the taste of each person and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

These excerpts from Christ in His Mysteries by Blessed Columba Marmion are taken from the new edition translated by Alan Bancroft and published by Zaccheus Press in 2008.

Photo of Simple Profession of Sister Mary Rose

Sister Mary Rose’s First Profession

The Dominican Nuns joyfully announce the First Profession of Sister Mary Rose of the Pure Heart, O.P., which took place on January 13.

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Fr. James Brent, O.P., celebrated the Mass of First Profession.  In his homily, commenting on the Gospel reading of the Annunciation, Father spoke of how God chose, called, and accomplished His work in the Blessed Virgin Mary so that she could respond to His Word.  In a similar though lesser way, God chose, called, and accomplishes His work in Sister Mary Rose and each Sister called to the cloistered contemplative life, so that they too may respond to God with their “Fiat” and may contemplate the Word breathing love.

Sister Mary Rose entered the monastery in 2015 and spent one year as a postulant and two years as a novice before this important step in her journey to total consecration to God.  By making First Profession, Sister promised obedience to God and her superiors in the Dominican monastic life for a period of three years.  This is meant to strengthen her vocation and root her more solidly in her calling as a Dominican nun in preparation for lifelong Solemn Profession.

Sister’s  family was able to come from California and Wyoming join us for the ceremony; her two brothers, one in seminary for the diocese of Monterey, served the Mass.  Please keep Sister Mary Rose in your prayers as she continues to grow in her contemplative Dominican vocation.

For more information: