We talk a great deal, and rightly so, about praying for vocations among men. We must also pray both that women will answer a call and also have a place to go to realize that vocation.
Traditional communities of women are growing and happy.
One of my favorite groups of Benedictines, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles near Kansas City, MO, had an investiture of postulants.
They are a wonderful and growing community.
Here are a few photos of the investiture. You can find more at the site Kansas Catholic.
Here is Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City doing the honors.
Cutting hair.
There are some great photos on that site. I encourage you to take a look.
Just one more…
Suscipe me Domine, secundum eloquium Tuum, et vivam, et non confundas me in expectatione mea.
May their number increase!
The Vatican should take a really good look and this group during its up-coming “Visitation”!
This is so refreshing and encouraging to see! It is also Reason #897,456 for the Apostolic Visitation. I’m sure the LCWR-friendly communities would react with both anger and sadness. The anger would come from the leadership of these communities who are the ones who continue the brainwashing of their members. The sadness would come from those very elderly, faithful sisters who remember well their first professions with great pride and joy, bemoan what has happened in their communities, and remain silent and quietly try to live out what’s left of their vocations.
So beautiful !!!
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Young women won’t even consider the call to religious life without exposure to faithful women like these!
@Genevieve — While it is indeed true that exposure to religious communities like these is of utmost importance, I also want to add that exposure to good, solid priests can also lead one to consider religious life. I grew up Episcopalian, went to Catholic schools for 8 years (5th grade thru 12th grade — for the education, not for their Catholicity), was exposed to Erie Benedictines and the SSJs in Erie who ran my high school. I was received into the Church in the Jubilee Year 2000, my second year in college. Given the rather pitiful formation in Catholic theology I received in school and exposure to said religious communities, I have joked with some that it is remarkable that I’m discerning religious life! But, I attribute it to good, solid, faithful priests that I have known here in Pittsburgh. Sure, ready access to communities like this is wonderful, but until such time as faithful communities of women religious are in every diocese, priests can also provide a powerful witness of living a vocation to consecrated life.
This is my favorite.If I ever get married, that’s almost exactly what I want my dress to look like! Think she could send that dress and veil on to me now that she’s done with it?
And by the way, click on that last link for more photos. Check out the cappa magna they made for Bp. Finn!
This is wonderful — so encouraging!
For keen eyes, note the Diocese of Arlington, Va. clerical representation here. I see at least two men from that diocese with major orders (Father Paul Scalia and Deacon Jason Weber) and am thrilled they assisted with this magnificent event. (Fr. Scalia is a longtime supporter of the sisters.) What an Epiphany!
Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Unity will always be with us, even if they are sometimes obscured or hidden in “little pockets”, so to speak.
The symbols and signification of the Clothing of a Novice and the Profession of a Consecrated Woman Religious in the bridal and spousal aspects will re-appear (As it is here so beautifully depicted). Slowly. But definitely.
Bishop Finn is to be lauded for this. The Benedictines pictured here are to be encouraged and supported in their consecrated contemplative monastic life. This is a great grace for the Church and the world. May it prosper and be imitated in many places by many new communities (and maybe those communities that are in real trouble now might reconsider their feminist, dissenting break from the tradition of consecrated life in the Church…but then, again. Sr. Schneiders is busy doing a who-knows-how-many-parts “apologia” of the new wave…we’ll see about that one!)
The sisters are selling two cds as part of a drive to build their first convent (in the future it will be the guest house, once their permanent convent is built).
Both cds are wonderful. One is a collection of chanted pieces (“Echoes of Ephesus”) and the other is a Christmas collection (“Christmas at Ephesus”).
– Fr Maurer
The ceremonies took place at Old St. Patrick’s Oratory of the Institute of Christ the King.
To purchase their cds:
http://www.benedictinesofmary.org/page-musicalrecordings.html
This is very beautiful. About a year and a half ago I went to a renewal of vows and investiture for The Sisters in Jesus the Lord who used to live in the St. Agnes convent. They’ve since moved to Kansas City. I wonder if they were in attendance!
Bp. Finn & his new cappa magna:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gQoa_atqs-E/S0Z9YGAydOI/AAAAAAAACX4/0JYc0Xqg61A/s1600-h/DSC04591.JPG
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gQoa_atqs-E/S0Z9XglkJXI/AAAAAAAACXw/sz4-MuERRDg/s1600-h/DSC04612.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gQoa_atqs-E/S0Z6evWKZ_I/AAAAAAAACWQ/GMkR4YkdZRU/s1600-h/DSC04824.JPG
“The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles made the cappa magna for Bishop Finn for Christmas. “
May they be furnished with every gift of grace as they fulfill their consecration with perseverance and joy.
Our young ladies Sodality spent a day with these sisters last spring. Our girls got to see how the sisters make vestments and the sisters shared about their life in the convent. It was a beautiful experience. We are now raising funds to attend the solemn profession in May.
The real focus of the Benedictines of Mary is to support priests. Vestments are just a part of it. They have several rooms set aside for priests to come and stay. As they say, “…we aspire to be, to the successors of the Apostles in our times, what she was to them in the beginning: behind-the-scenes encouragement, assistance and support.” This is truly a community worthy of our support.
So cool.
I don’t know what’s more refreshing to see…the (YOUNG) nuns in habits or the (AWESOME, yet underappreciated) Bp. Finn in cappa magna. I am really excited about where things are going in the Church in America.
R.I.P. AmChurch.
Amazing.
Any ideas where to get a wedding dress like that? I’ve been searching for a
conservative dress and the closest I’ve been able to find is from LDS stores,
which I would prefer to not to shop from.
Maybe these dresses are hand-made?
Elly: Contact the Benedictines of Mary. They would be very happy (I am sure) to help you out!
Both the CDs are beautiful. I kept the Christmas one in my car and played it all during the season. These are the sisters who lovingly make the most gorgeous vestments and altar linens. Each vestment is made with prayers for the priest who will wear it. God bless them all.
I believe many of these wedding dresses have been donated to the Sisters, I know one member of the Oratory of Old St. Patrick gave them his late wife’s wedding dress.
The Sisters visited my KoC council last year, to tell about their plans for the convent and other happenings, as well their view of the Church. I can tell you my less than traditional minded brothers were left speechless when they saw just how joyful the sisters were, even in their “oppressive” habits and lifestyle. God love these ladies.
Ralph writes: “2. Sad that my two little girls don’t have the opportunity to see traditional sisters very often. There is, to my knowledge, one traditional order operating in our diocese in a town several hours away.”
My daughter, now a Carmelite, never laid eyes on a contemplative nun or a traditional nun until she began looking at contemplative and traditional orders with a view to entering.
However, we did read her the lives of the saints when she was young. Especially I remember a life of St. Therese that we listened to when she was 8. That is when her vocation happened, I am convinced.
The baptism of the imagination is EVERYTHING. Many, many lives of the saints begin, “When Johnny was a little boy, his mother used to read to him from the gospels and the lives of the saints.”
When she was grown up and looking at these orders I asked her, “Stephanie, do you even know what a nun is?” She said, “Dad, how could we have read all those lives of the saints without my knowing what a nun is?”
Wow! they dare go back,,,,,to tradition, I thought I was told we cannot go back. But we can go back, back to what was truth, beauty, reverence, symbolism, devotions, yes! and even to the rigorous. God bless each of his beautiful brides, and may their tribes increase.
Lee: I could not agree more. The Lives of the Saints, regular prayer, the Sacraments, and good example are the foundation of a vocation to consecrated life. Good for you. And bless your family and your daughter, now a Carmelite. How wonderful!
Suburbanbanshee: You have let out “a great secret”..he,he,he…as a confirmed celibate I could never reveal that (no one would believe me,but, oh,well!), but when it comes from you, it’s “spot on”. Thanks!
I we encourage vocations to the religious life, there will be more happy, trad marriages. We need the good sisters and priests to pray for the laity.
However, looking at the times we are now in-the beginning of the end of Western Civ., do not surprised is more young people chose the convent and monastery. During the worst days after the fall of the Roman Empire, it was the monks who kept the scraps of civilization from destruction.
God bless these beautiful nuns.
I think this occasion was a great confirmation of God’s continuing call to young women to dedicate themselves to Him in a religious vocation.
It is great that we have these wonderful photos of their wonderful day.
Comment by Elly
Any ideas where to get a wedding dress like that?
Maybe these dresses are hand-made?
Elly,
I also wanted a gown similar to the one in the picture. After months of searching, I ended up having my gown made by a costume designer who specialized in Victorian clothing. I live in NC, she lives in TX. I emailed her several pictures of what I had in mind and she made the gown for me (a good portion of it hand-sewn) for $300. I supplied the fabric, which I purchased from a discount wedding fabric store online. My gown was beautiful. I had the final fitting with a local seamstress and she oohed and ahhed over the “perfect tiny stitches” and said you just don’t see sewing like that anymore. The only thing I had the local seamstress change was the row of tiny buttons down the back of the gown. I had her put in a hidden zipper behind the buttons, which worked out great.
Ahhhh.
Wonderful pictures-God bless the Benedictines of Mary, and Bishop Finn, too!
I wish there was a traditional Order for us ‘oldie women’ [35 and up]. But there doesn’t seem to be any around anywhere….sigh….
So what do sisters do these days? I’m serious.