Advent Meditations
In this brief special edition of our newsletter, we give a few mediations for this holy season of Advent to help prepare us for Christmas. Read More….
Look Up, Lift Up Your Head
Throughout the important Feastdays celebrated this past month (Christ the King, All Saints Day, Commemoration of the Poor Souls), one cannot help but turn one’s thoughts to one’s own eternal destiny. The joys of Heaven, the purifications of Purgatory….all are brought before our minds just as the Liturgical Year comes to a climax. It is the intention of Holy Mother Church that we turn our meditations towards our death and judgment, and ultimately the Last Judgement, which is both the theme of the last few Sundays of the year and the focus of the penitential season of Advent.
Meditating on the Last Judgement, and even our own death, has a very specific and salutary purpose in the spiritual life: it serves as both warning and consolation.
In WEBSITE NEWS we explore some of the meaning Catholic meaning behind popular Christmas customs and give recommendations for Spiritual Reading. Read more…
“All of Life is Advent”
All too often, November finds many of us racing into the celebratory mood of Christmas, without a thought of Advent, that preparatory season of light penance and prayer. Father Delp, who wrote from his WWII cell in Nazi Germany, had many beautiful reflections on this holy season that are applicable today: "Advent is a time of being deeply shaken, so that man will wake up to himself…. Perhaps what we modern people need most is to be genuinely shaken, so that where life is grounded, we would feel its stability; and where life is unstable and uncertain, immoral and unprincipled, we would know that, also, and endure it… erhaps that is the ultimate answer to the question of why God has sent us into this time, why He permits this whirlwind to go over the earth, and why He holds us in such a state of chaos and in hopelessness and in darkness… More, and on a deeper level than before, we really know this time that all of life is Advent."
We don’t forget, during this month of November, our brethren the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Briefly meditating on their sufferings reminds us of the need to pray for them: “Purgatory, in all truth, the workshop of infinite justice. Divine severity and rigor are exercised there with an intensity that, to us on earth, is unknown... On the other hand, purgatory is the masterpiece of the heart of God, the most marvelous artifice of His love.”
In WEBSITE NEWS we touch on the history and symbolism behind the Advent wreath, a beloved Catholic custom during these days before Christmas. We also introduce our new relic badge of Our Lady of Guadalupe, briefly remember the story of this great apparition and patron of the Americas, as well as studying the intricate symbolism contained in Her image.
COMMUNITY NEWS contains the completion of our new shrine to Our Lady of Fatima. Read more…
The Law of Praying is the Law of Believing
The liturgy, as Saints and Doctors of the Church so often instruct, is the most fruitful source for individual spiritual life, personal prayer and progress in our union with God. This is vividly brought before us at this time of year, as we end the liturgical year and begin another. The liturgical texts of Advent bring before our minds and hearts the sentiments we should have as we prepare for the two-fold coming of Christ, both at Christmas and then again at the end of time: “The Lord shall come to save the nations, and the Lord shall make heard the glory of His voice in the joy of your heart.” (Isaias 30:30)
In WEBSITE NEWS we give suggestions for Christmas gifts, including many new books for children that have been added to our site.
In COMMUNITY NEWS we share our joy with you at one of our Novice’s final profession and veiling. The ceremony of receiving the black veil is both a symbolic and moving one. Read More….
Advent and the Liturgy
Beginning another liturgical year is meant to bring us all back to a vivid remembrance of God's purpose and plan of Redemption—and the call to holiness that His redemptive work has won for us. "Now during the season of Advent, our Lord knocks at the door of all men's hearts—at one time so forcibly that they must notice Him, at another, so softly that it requires attention and vigilance to know that Jesus is asking admission. He comes to ask them if they have room for Him, for He wishes to be born in their house.” – Abbot Dom Gueranger
In WEBSITE NEWS we give some good gift ideas for Christmas.
In COMMUNITY NEWS we give answers to some of the questions most frequently asked us by our readers: What do the Sister eat? What do the Sisters read? Do the Sisters use medicine and medicinal herbs like the monasteries of old? Read More….
Advent and the Angelus
"Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come to save us!" This urgent plea, taken from Psalm 79, is the constant prayer of this season of Advent and its liturgy. Although in our days, the ringing of the Angelus bell throughout each day is not as common as in past ages, what better way is there than to meditate on the coming of the Redeemer in this prayer.
In WEBSITE NEWS we give gift suggestions.
In COMMUNITY NEWS we celebrated the first profession of another of novices. Read More….
A Christian Advent and Christmas
Secular society, and its heavily commercial influence, pulls people into a worldly, month-long party with pretty much constant revelry and merry-making. Let us attend, then, to the words of our Divine Master Himself, who cautioned those He loves: “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be overburdened with self-indulgence and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly, as a snare. For come it will upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth. Watch, then, praying at all times…” (Luke 21:34-36)
In WEBSITE NEWS we give several ideas for valuable gifts of Faith.
In COMMUNITY NEWS we share details from the two sisters clothing ceremonies and we also made special banner for the feast of Christ the King. Read More….
End of the World
People are not only wondering about tomorrow, but about the last tomorrow—the end of time, the end of all things, the day when God sends His angel to announce, “Time is no more!” For in world events, do we not all hear the echo of Christ’s own words? There will be “wars and rumors of wars … nation will rise against nation…there will be pestilences and famines and earthquakes…But all these things are the beginnings of sorrows…iniquity will abound, the charity of the many will grow cold…”
In WEBSITE NEWS we give ideas for meaningful Christmas gifts.
COMMUNITY NEWS find us creating another shrine on our grounds, this one to Our Lady of Fatima, besides dealing with some critter infestations on the grounds and some stories shared from our recreations. Read More….
Death, Advent, and Hope
The thought of death is not, and must not be, a morbid thing. No. Correctly seen, this life of time, given by God, is only temporary and but the brief, passing trial that must bring us to eternity. Our Lord and His Saints teach us this incessantly. These are good thoughts to lead us into the liturgical season of Advent. For in this season of penitential, yet joyful anticipation, the Church continues these thoughts, as She presents for our reflection the coming of Christ Our Lord, not only in time, but also at the end of time.
In WEBSITE NEWS we have made available many beautiful woodcarvings of the Infant of Prague, the Guardian Angels, and some of the Saints. They are imported from Italy, and we are very pleased with the quality!
In COMMUNITY NEWS not only did we celebrate the clothing of one of our Novices, but we also celebrated the citizenship of our Sister from England. We are also improving on the Our Lady of Mount Carmel shrine in our courtyard. Read More….