Abbey-Roads2

The Hawthorne Dominicans… leaving St. Paul, Minnesota…

What a group!  The most generous women I have ever met.  They live what once was referred to as a semi-cloistered life, devoted to the Eucharist, living the Dominican charism of prayer, study, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the most Holy Rosary, with unequaled dedication to caring for the terminally ill cancer patient. 

Beyond hospice.

Their Cancer Homes are free - totally free - no charge to patients or their families, pride of place is given to those guests who cannot afford care in any other nursing situation.  The nuns do not accept State or Federal funding, nothing from the United Way, and have operated their homes completely dependent upon Divine Providence and the generosity of donors.  They will not even accept gifts of gratitude from patients or their families.  The Sisters homes are all state of the art medical facilities and comfortable homelike living environments for those whose lives are ending.

Total life care.

The nuns literally serve their patient-guests, treating them with dignity and love, without concern for religious affiliation, race or lifestyle.  They were doing the work of the Missionaries of Charity before Mother Teresa established her order.  They work seven days a week, sometimes working double shifts, to personally care for their patient-guests.  It is a generous life, founded by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, in NYC.  Rose took the religious name of Mother Alphonsus, and her cause for canonization is currently underway.

Our Lady of Good Counsel Free Cancer Home, St. Paul, Minnesota.

I heard from a social worker a few weeks ago that the Cancer Home in St. Paul is closing.  The Home was founded by Mother Alphonsus’ protege, Mother Rose Huber in 1941 on Pearl harbor day, December 7.  Today a lady from my parish confirmed  for me the Home may not be closing entirely, although the Dominican Sisters will indeed be leaving.  Supposedly the Archdiocese is working on a plan to keep it open, although it may not remain a nursing facility exclusively for cancer patients.  Nothing is decided as to its future, and they continue to accept patients.

Leaving St. Paul.

What is certain is that the Sisters will be leaving.  Such sad news.  It is the third Home the Order has closed in the last decade.  Five more Homes remain open.  (I do not know the dates for closing OLGC Home.)  Obviously there are not enough vocations to replace  the Sisters who are aging, incapacitated, or dying.  Please pray.  Pray for vocations, and pray especially for the good Sisters of the Hawthorne Dominicans.  Young women - drop out of college, quit your career, stop serving in a 9-5 job at your parish and really minister to the poor - forget dating and travel, even leave your boyfriends - for Christ.  If you are widowed and your children are grown, enter the Hawthorne Dominicans.  The sick and the poor need you.

The Church needs you… we need you.

With the loss of Catholic hospitals founded and operated by religious congregations, along with the closing of health care facilities such as the Cancer Home in St. Paul, we are experiencing first hand the terrible effects the decline in religious vocations has upon the Church, often resulting in the subsequent elimination of spiritual solace and Christian charity millions of Catholics once took for granted - many even considering it a right.  Pray for vocations.

Links:

Rosary Hill Home and Motherhouse.

Rose Hawthorne

Our Lady of Good Councel Home

About religious life.

That would be my advice to anyone seriously considering entering a convent or monastery.

A silly news story out of Italy (from the pazzi Neapolitan area no less), concerns a priest who is sponsoring a beauty pageant for nuns.  He claims the group of sisters he works with suggested the idea - to demonstrate that the vocation is not just for ugly women.  WTF?  I know!   Stupid nun’s story here.  (I’m sure the story is an internet hoax:  Despite that, the story dimishes the true, supernatural beauty of the religious vocation and mocks women religious.) 

Martyrdom.

Such a frivolous gesture, especially contrasted with continuing horror stories out of India about Hindu extremists going forward with their persecution of Christians.  Shouting, “Kill the Christians, and destroy their institutions!”  They are attacking Catholic nuns.  One nun was just burned alive, and another gang raped, while their priest was beaten unconscious in the district of Bargarth (Orissa).  Elsewhere, the Missionaries of Charity have been attacked as well.  Read the story here.  (These people will protect a cow yet butcher Christians.) 

And yet, if the story is true, an Italian priest has nothing better to do than host a beauty pageant for nuns.

UPDATE:  The nun beauty pareant was true! - but now it is canceled - story here.  The priest is a Passionist!

Basilica Santa Chiara, Assisi.

While I lived in Assisi I attended Mass here every morning.  One of the nuns taught me how to pray the rosary in Italian at the grille, hidden by her enclosure veil.  It was cool.  Despite the fact the Saint’s body is enshrined here, I felt closest to St. Clare at San Damiano, where she lived with her “Poor Ladies”.  The first nuns slept in dormitories.  The only religious I know of today who live such poverty and austerity are the Missionaries of Charity.

Not quite the rock group.

California Daily reports the religious women of the Sisters of Mercy will consolidate communities in an effort to reorganize their Congregation, which was founded in Dublin in 1831.  Today the average age of the sisters is 73 and the order has not been attracting vocations, mainly because they have long lost a truly Roman Catholic identity.

The Institute’s six California communities will merge with communities in the West and Midwest into an Omaha, Nebraska-based organization called the West Midwest Community. The restructuring was approved at a meeting in Chicago, March 24-30, and will take effect July 1.The new organization will bring together 861 Sisters of Mercy and 525 associates. The Institute itself, covering the Americas, Guam, and the Philippines, numbers 4,194 sisters and 2,800 associates. The average age of sisters in the institute is 73. - California Daily

I’m sure other orders of like-minded women religious will follow suit.  Throughout the ages, religious communities and monasteries of monks and nuns have dissolved when the original charism is either lost or the religious observance has grown decadent.

Of course, the Holy Spirit seems to raise up new communities in every age, and will occasionally renew existing communities that appear to have lost their original charism.

NOTE:  This group is not to be confused with the thriving Religious Sisters of Mercy, a separate institute sharing the same foundress.  (Thanks to S.B. for the heads up.)

[Photo: Mother Catherine McAuley, foundress of the RSM.  The remaining members of her Congregation promote the beatification of their foundress who had been declared venerable by John Paul II.  Interestingly, the Congregation often uses an image of the foundress dressed in secular clothes, much like the contemporary sisters dress.] 

It’s a rite.

Not very many people are aquainted with Carthusian nuns, much less the sacramental they receive after years of monastic life, the rite of Virginal Consecration.  I also understand that they receive the right to wear a deacon’s stole at liturgical offices and holy Mass, although they do not receive orders.

“After solemn profession or perpetual donation, the nuns may receive virginal consecration. It is a solemn rite by which the Church establishes the virgin in a special state of belonging to God. The Carthusian nuns have kept this rite as a concrete sign of the call which the Lord addresses to the Carthusian Order, to lead a life totally consecrated to Him. The offering that the nun makes to God of her virginity within this consecration opens her to a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” - Carthusian Nuns

The lay Consecrated Virgin is also a  rite.

One of the many things the Second Vatican Council did was to revive the sacramental of the rite of Consecrated Virgins for lay women living in the world.  (The Council also opened the way for men and women to individually embrace the hermitical life.)

“The Consecration of a Virgin is one of the oldest sacramentals in the Church, and one of the fruits of Vatican II was the restoration of this profound blessing on virgins living in the world. The promulgation of this restored Rite for laywomen was on 31 May 1970. Through this sacramental, the virgin, after renewing her promise of perpetual virginity to God, is set aside as a sacred person who belongs only to Christ.

Supporting herself by earning her own living, the consecrated virgin is not obliged to take on any particular work or apostolate. Usually, consecrated virgins in the United States volunteer their time to their local parish, diocese, or Church-sponsored association. Some volunteer their time also in civic responsibilities.

A woman living in the world who has never married or lived in open violation of chastity, and who by age, prudence, and good character is deemed suitable for dedicating herself to a life of chastity in the service of the Church and of her neighbor may petition her bishop to receive the Consecration. She must be admitted to this Consecration by her local Bishop; it is he who determines the conditions under which the candidate is to undertake a life of perpetual virginity lived in the world. Usually, a woman who aspires to the consecration works with a spiritual director and has lived a private promise of perpetual virginity for some years before seeking the Consecration of a Virgin.” - What is a Consecrated Virgin?

This is another option for single woman in the world to discern - with the guidance of a spiritual director and the bishop of course.  In this Archdiocese I know of at least one Consecrated Virgin.

[Photo:  Carthusian nun and novice.  I like this type of habit.]    

The feast of Blessed Mother Teresa. 

Considering the deep prayer of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the various ‘nights of the spirit’ souls encounter in the spiritual life, I thought of the verses from the Song of Songs which seem to speak to that aspect of the life and vocation of Mother Teresa, as regards her state of soul.

The first phase:

“On my bed at night I ought him whom my heart loves - I sought him but did not find him.  I wil rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek him whom my heart loves.  I sought him but did not find him.” Song, 3: 1-3

The second phase:

“My lover put his hand through the opening; my heart trembled within me, and I grew faint when he spoke… I opened to my lover - but my lover had departed and gone.  I sought him but did not find him; I called to him but he did not answer me… “ Song, 5: 4-8 

It is interesting now to see Mother Teresa on video, or to hear a recording of her talks, and to read her writings, knowing what we do about her trial of faith.  What a beautiful example for everyone who suffers.

The loss of vocation.

If I remember correctly, Garrrigou-Lagrange wrote on how religious are often plunged into a purgative night of the senses soon after profession, since by their vows they have entered into the state of perfection.  (He wrote at an earlier time, so I don’t know how this works in orders that have declined or deformed in observance and formation.)

I wondered if the loss of some vocations may have been due to this phase of spiritual life that is referred to as the “dark night of the soul”.  Some souls may not have been prepared or lacked the courage to endure ‘the privations of the night’ - thus abandoning prayer, and ultimately leaving their vocation behind - like the foolish virgins who went off to find the oil of consolation elsewhere.  I think that may have happened to some people I know. 

The saint of the gutters.

Blessed Teresa has joined the ranks of St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux as my special patrons.  September 5 is the tenth anniversary of Mother’s death.

The words of St. Teresa of Avila, citing St. Clare on holy poverty, seem able to be applied to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

“St. Clare said, great walls are those of poverty.  She said it was with walls like these, and those of humility, that she wanted to enclose her monasteries.  Surely, if poverty is truly observed, recollection and all the other virtues will be much better fortified than with very sumptuous buildings.” - Way of Perfection

Mother and her Missionaries of Charity demonstrate this.  They are contemplatives amongst the poorest of the poor.  Modern examples of religious life imbued with the spirit of the saints of old.

“The walls of poverty and humility.”  I like that. 

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

[Zenit has a piece on Mother's interior life which explains the darkness of soul she experienced was commensurate with the stage of prayer known as transforming union with God.  I also suggested this in my earlier post on the subject, "Mother Teresa and the Night of Faith".] 

You say you want a revolution…

Everyone likes to blame the baby-boomers for all the liberalism we have become accustomed to in the Church today.  Few realize it all started long before the boomers were even capable of expressing a revolutionary thought.  How many young people today understand that the push for liturgical reform, modernizing the liturgy, and using the vernacular was a desire experimented with before the Council?  How many people realize that it was Pius XII who called for women religious to modify their habits to adapt to the demands of modern life, such as the nuns who drove cars or worked in medicine?  (Although later, many modified themselves out of the habit entirely.)

When I was in grade school, the nuns taught us - way back then - songs such as ”Kumbaya” - and we listened to the Congolese Missa Lubaand had to sing Negro spirituals.  (Although black kids in the class were disciplined until they spoke without an “accent”.)  I think it was probably the missionary sisters who came back to the motherhouse with stories of how fervent the African Catholics were, and how much the native people enlivened the liturgy with their exuberant participation and singing, which motivated the sisters to jump on board as regards the reform of the liturgy.  When Vatican II came along, it was a dream come true for a good share of them.

I di’n't know nothin’ ’bout Civil Rights.

Then in the very late 1950’s, early 1960’s the nuns began to get deeply involved in politics - in and through the Civil Rights movement.  (Of course, we had a Catholic President then as well.)  The nuns marched alongside priests and ministers, protesting segregation and demanding the right to vote for black people.  Without doubt it was a good thing, except, in the mid-’60’s the revolutionary spirit suddenly crept into the convent, along with a strong feminist understanding of power, individualism, and independence.  Which happens to be another reason why we have the American Catholic Church we have today.

“Yes Sister, whatever you say Sister!”

So don’t put all the blame on boomers - blame the Sisters of St. Joseph of Margaret Sanger, and the other storm trooperorders who taught us.  (After all, many of them were from the same generation as my parents and your grandparents.)  Funny, what they subsequently failed to realize, their habits spoke louder than words.

(Disclaimer:  The religious women who taught us are to be highly praised for their sacrifice and dedication, no doubt about it.  Just as they ought to be commended and honored for their heroic work in the Civil Rights struggle.  This has been my personal reflection on what, in part,  may have contributed to the decline of religious life in the U.S., as well as an offering towards understanding why the American Catholic Church got to be so liberal.) 

[Update: 7/31/07 - I just found a post at Cafeteria is Closed on this subject; an article by Benedict Groeschl in First Things, discussing the theological and psychological dynamics at work in the decline of established religious communities in the U.S..] 

Carmel.

Today I was invited to Carmel for the Siver Jubilee of one of the nuns.   Guests may visit with Sister in the speakroom of the monastery during the time permitted for the reception.  Such events are limited to the day of a nun’s clothing and profession, only to be repeated on special occasions, such as a Jubilee - meaning the anniversary of vows.

Prior to entering monastic life, I was permitted to visit with the entire Community once or twice, and I have met with the Prioress several times in the speakroom over the years.  I prefer not to do so however.  I like it that Carmel is strictly enclosed and I don’t like to “get to know” the nuns in this way.  I respect the nun’s solitude, and even though I am invited to Jubilees and professions, I always decline the invitation.  So many other people thrill to meet with the nuns anyway, and the speakroom gets crowded, that it all becomes a distraction.

Whenever I met with the nuns, I never knew what to say anyway.  One Prioress, who has since left, often sent for me - I never liked that.  (My friend David enjoyed it more than I did.)  Successive Prioresses were much more disciplined, and I prefer that.  The hidden aspect of a Carmelite’s life is what I find so edifying.  Their anonymity, silence, and austerity of life, inspires my prayer much more than meeting or speaking with them.

“I am a pilgrim on the earth” - Ps 119

I used to spend hours and days at the Monastery, before the Hermits came along.  (Near the Monastery is a community of male Carmelite hermits, who also act as chaplains to the nuns.)  Locally, with the increase of Secular Carmelite vocations, the solitude of the extern Chapel is somewhat diminished, so I rarely go to the Monastery these days.  I miss those days when I was there, all alone - with the nuns on the other side of the grille. 

St. John of the Cross writes about specific places of prayer and how sometimes God detaches the soul from the spiritual delight the soul once used to find in these locations:

“There are different kinds of places, I find, by which God usually moves the will.  [One] kind of place in which God moves the will to devotion is more particular.  It includes those localities, whether wildernesses or not, in which God usually grants some very delightful spiritual favors to particular individuals.  He so grants His favor that the recipient will have a more natural inclination toward that place, and will sometimes experience immense desires and longings to return there.  But when he returns he discovers that the place is not to him what it was before, because these favors do not lie within his power.  God bestows these graces when and how He wills, without being bound to place, or time, or to the free will of the recipient.” - The Ascent, Bk III: 42, 3

That is not to say I never visit, but now I only do so “secretly”.  I invite you to pray with me for Sr. Ann of the Immaculate Conception, OCD, on her feat day and Jubilee.

(Photo: “Carmelite Nuns” - Courtesy of Hallowed Ground.)