Thursday, August 30, 2012

On Entrances

OPcross

Earlier this week another follower of this blog entered religious life. The first was Jairus, now Brother Jairus, a postulant with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, who entered May of last year. He is doing well and is on his way towards the novitiate. Now it's Sister Lisa, who is now a postulant with the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist.

This fall I will lose another follower to the convent. I need to recruit more followers. I need to fix my computer. Bah, enough about me.

God bless you Sister Lisa.

Monday, August 27, 2012

The Reality of Entering





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Hi there! Yeah I'm still here. I've been preparing for entrance by being as aggressive as I can with paying down my loans as well as being persistent in my fundraising efforts. I was working on a dinner in which one of the sisters would give a talk but it looks like the dinner won't be happening anytime soon. Initially I had planned on a dinner for October 22nd but with the need to get everything ready to enter as soon as possible, it does not look like I will be able to have a dinner any time soon. I am hopeful though that I can fundraise enough to be ready for entrance.

In other news, my discernment is going as can be expected. I went through a good week of anxiety and fear of the unknown shortly after I gave my boss official notice that I was leaving. We both knew that I was leaving but giving her my letter of resignation made it all too real and I got the gist of what I was doing. I didn't have any regrets or second thoughts but I didn't realize how much I needed to trust in the Lord as I continued to make steps to enter Religious Life.

So these last few weeks have been a wave of emotions for me as I prepare to face the unknown. I have experienced true happiness and joy at the anticipation of my entrance and the beginning of a life lived in Community. I have experienced anxiety when I think of the fact that I not only need to get additional items for my trousseau but also must be just about debt-free by the time I enter.

Last night in Adoration, I told the Lord that I was going to spend the next hour with him in silence and I barely made it. After about half an hour I wanted to pull out my rosary to pray the rosary and I just about did and I was reminded gently of my promise. Fifteen minutes after that I wanted to pull out my book to do some spiritual reading; it wasn't until the last ten minutes of Adoration that I finally decided to stop and silence my heart and mind and hear the Lord.

I have been soo looking forward to my entrance that I haven't been thinking too much about what it would be like. Now that's it's approaching, I think about it more and more and I realize that I won't be visiting anymore and I keep thinking and worrying about that. While I am exited on one hand, I can't help but be worried about "messing" up.

I wonder if this is how a new bride feels after the wedding, when she and her groom are finally under one roof and she suddenly feels as though she is under a microscope. I will never know since I have never been a new bride, but I do know that when I think of life in the convent I do feel as though it will be like living under a microscope; I don't want to "mess up" nor do I want to be unnatural. I guess I need to continue to remind myself to just be myself, just as I was on my previous visits.

I need your prayers now more than ever as I prepare for this very exciting and radical move especially as I work on eliminating my loans. Please consider making a donation or inviting someone to donate to support my vocation.

May God Bless you always,
Hopeful


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Clip Art XXVII

A variation of Discalced Carmelite coat of arms. The motto reads "With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts." The shield represents Mt. Carmel and the Carmelites, the cross is a distinct to the Discalced order, the common observance Carmelites don't utilize it. The flaming sword represents Elijah, who serves as inspiration of the Carmelite life, the crown represents the Kingdom of God, and the 12 stars the Blessed Virgin Mary.

OCDblazonNEWerone.png  

Monday, August 20, 2012

Technical Difficulties

My computer is in a coma, thus trapping all my files and denying me the autonomy to create new illustrations and graphics. I am relegated to borrowing a computer and other apparatus to get online, and none of those methods can handle my art rendering programs. So for an unknown amount of time this blog will be sparse in posts. I try to find other avenues to create images for the time being and will do some recycling and scrounging of older images I have around. Prayers that all this will e resolved sooner than later would be appreciated.

Pax

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Dormition of the Mother of God




...
*Assumption of Mary
All-powerful and ever-living God,you raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as our final goaland come to share her glory.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,one God, for ever and ever.– Amen. - From the Liturgy of the Hours 

*Originally posted Aug. 15, 2011

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Which Crown?

[CM1.png]


Part of the idea behind the cross I created, which is my current profile pic, is based on a vision St. Maximilian Kolbe had. In his vision the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Maximilian holding two crowns, one white the other red. The white crown represented purity, the red one martyrdom. He said he would accept both.

My first exposure to St. Maximilian was in a book about Freemasonry. He had first hand experience of the Masonic dangers to the Church and wrote about it. From there I learned about this Conventual Franciscan's vision, his devotion to the Holy Mother, his use of media to evangelize and defend the Faith and his martyrdom in a Nazi concentration camp, in which he gave his life for another.

Sanctus Maximilianus, ora pro nobis.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Clip Art XXVI


The Coat of Arms of the Order of Friars Preachers, commonly known as the Dominicans.
This is based on a decorative work I saw in a pic of a church or building somewhere.


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Santa Clara de Asís



14 hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and one of those ships that was on the voyage  (La Niña) was named Santa Clara, after a monastery of Poor Clare nuns.

Saint Clare was of nobility but gave up that life to serve God, inspired by the preaching and example of fellow Assisian and eventual saint Francesco Bernadone.  In fact Clare and Francis became close friends. She established the Order of Poor Clares, who went wherever St. Francis's Friars Minors went.
It is said she turned away an attack of Saracens by holding the Blessed Sacrament in a vessel and praying.

Sancta Clara, ora pro nobis

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Domingo de Guzmán and the Curé of Ars

The 4th of August is St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney's feast day on the new calender of the Ordinary Form and St. Dominic de Guzmán's feast day on the old calendar of the Extra Ordinary Form. On  August 8 it is vice versa.






Santo Domingo! No, not the capital of the Dominican Republic, but the man that the country and capital is named after, the highly regarded preacher Saint Dominic de Guzmán. It's his feast day!
St. Dominic was born in Caraluega, Burgos, Castile. Was a canon out of the Cathedral of Osma and had a life long apostolate combating heresies, especially the Albigensian. He worked with the Cistercian Blessed Peter of Castelnau and was a friend to the Poor Clare Saint Amata of Assisi.



He founded the Order of Friars Preachers, who are most commonly referred to by their nickname, the Dominicans.  He had two brothers, Antonio and Blessed Manés de Guzmán. Antonio became a secular priest and Blessed Manés joined Dominic as a Friar Preacher, not bad for Blessed Mamá  Joan, her sons did well.  He died 1221 in Bologna, Italy.

It is said that Blessed Joan had a vision while she was pregnant with St. Dominic, that her unborn child was a dog that would set the world on fire with the torch it carried in his mouth.


Sanctus Dominicus de Guzmán, ora pro nobis


...



St. John Baptist Mary Vianney has become the priests of priests. He was not the most scholarly of the sacerdotal ranks, but was a superhero among priests in his time and after.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. John Vianney

But the chief labour of the Curé d'Ars was the direction of souls. He had not been long at Ars when people began coming to him from other parishes, then from distant places, then from all parts of France, and finally from other countries. As early as 1835, his bishop forbade him to attend the annual retreats of the diocesan clergy because of "the souls awaiting him yonder". During the last ten years of his life, he spent from sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional.
His advice was sought by bishops, priests, religious, young men and women in doubt as to their vocation, sinners, persons in all sorts of difficulties and the sick. In 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached twenty thousand a year. The most distinguished persons visited Ars for the purpose of seeing the holy curé and hearing his daily instruction. The Venerable Father Colin was ordained deacon at the same time, and was his life-long friend, while Mother Marie de la Providence founded the Helpers of the Holy Souls on his advice and with his constant encouragement.
His direction was characterized by common sense, remarkable insight, and supernatural knowledge. He would sometimes divine sins withheld in an imperfect confession. His instructions were simple in language, full of imagery drawn from daily life and country scenes, but breathing faith and that love of God which was his life principle and which he infused into his audience as much by his manner and appearance as by his words, for, at the last, his voice was almost inaudible.
The miracles recorded by his biographers are of three classes:
first, the obtaining of money for his charities and food for his orphans;
secondly, supernatural knowledge of the past and future;
thirdly, healing the sick, especially children.
The greatest miracle of all was his life. He practised mortification from his early youth. and for forty years his food and sleep were insufficient, humanly speaking, to sustain life. And yet he laboured incessantly, with unfailing humility, gentleness, patience, and cheerfulness, until he was more than seventy-three years old.

Sanctus Ioannes Vianney, ora pro nobis







See what I did there? 

Monday, August 6, 2012

The Transfiguration of Christ




 Et post dies sex assumit Iesus Petrum et Iacobum et Ioan nem fratrem eius et ducit illos in montem excelsum seorsum. Et transfiguratus est ante eos; et resplenduit facies eius sicut sol, vestimenta autem eius facta sunt alba sicut lux. Et ecce apparuit illis Moyses et Elias cum eo loquentes. Respondens autem Petrus dixit ad Iesum: “ Domine, bonum est nos hic esse. Si vis, faciam hic tria tabernacula: tibi unum et Moysi unum et Eliae unum ”. Adhuc eo loquente, ecce nubes lucida obumbravit eos; et ecce vox de nube dicens: “ Hic est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi bene complacui; ipsum audite ”. Et audientes discipuli ceciderunt in faciem suam et timuerunt valde. - Mathew 17: 1-6

Friday, August 3, 2012

Curé of Ars and Domingo de Guzmán

Saturday the 4th of August is St. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney's feast day in the new calender of the Ordinary Form and St. Dominic de Guzmán's feast day in the old calendar of the Extra Ordinary Form. On Wednesday, August 8 it will be vice versa.

St. John Baptist Mary Vianney has become the priests of priests. He was not the most scholarly of the sacerdotal ranks, but was a superhero among priests in his time and after.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on St. John Vianney

But the chief labour of the Curé d'Ars was the direction of souls. He had not been long at Ars when people began coming to him from other parishes, then from distant places, then from all parts of France, and finally from other countries. As early as 1835, his bishop forbade him to attend the annual retreats of the diocesan clergy because of "the souls awaiting him yonder". During the last ten years of his life, he spent from sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional.
His advice was sought by bishops, priests, religious, young men and women in doubt as to their vocation, sinners, persons in all sorts of difficulties and the sick. In 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached twenty thousand a year. The most distinguished persons visited Ars for the purpose of seeing the holy curé and hearing his daily instruction. The Venerable Father Colin was ordained deacon at the same time, and was his life-long friend, while Mother Marie de la Providence founded the Helpers of the Holy Souls on his advice and with his constant encouragement.
His direction was characterized by common sense, remarkable insight, and supernatural knowledge. He would sometimes divine sins withheld in an imperfect confession. His instructions were simple in language, full of imagery drawn from daily life and country scenes, but breathing faith and that love of God which was his life principle and which he infused into his audience as much by his manner and appearance as by his words, for, at the last, his voice was almost inaudible.
The miracles recorded by his biographers are of three classes:
first, the obtaining of money for his charities and food for his orphans;
secondly, supernatural knowledge of the past and future;
thirdly, healing the sick, especially children.
The greatest miracle of all was his life. He practised mortification from his early youth. and for forty years his food and sleep were insufficient, humanly speaking, to sustain life. And yet he laboured incessantly, with unfailing humility, gentleness, patience, and cheerfulness, until he was more than seventy-three years old.

Sanctus Ioannes Vianney, ora pro nobis

... 


As I pointed out, August 4 is also St. Dominic's feast day in the old calendar, if you happen to be in the Columbus, Ohio area you can attend this Mass.

H/T New Liturgical Movement

As you will note from the flyer, the Mass will not be done in the Extra Ordinary form of the Roman rite, but in the Dominican rite, something that seems to be making a bit of a resurgence in the Dominican Order (eh, It seems like that, but it's probably wishful thinking on my part). If I were in Columbus I would be there. It saddens me to think that most Catholics only experience a small percentage of our rich Catholic heritage. 

From my post last year;





Santo Domingo! No, not the capital of the Dominican Republic, but the man that the country and capital is named after, the highly regarded preacher Saint Dominic de Guzmán. It's his feast day!

St. Dominic was born in Caraluega, Burgos, Castile. Was a canon out of the Cathedral of Osma and had a life long apostolate combating heresies, especially the Albigensian. He worked with the Cistercian Blessed Peter of Castelnau and was a friend to the Poor Clare Saint Amata of Assisi. He founded the Order of Friars Preachers, who are most commonly referred to by their nickname, the Dominicans.  He had two brothers, Antonio and Blessed Manés de Guzmán. Antonio became a secular priest and Blessed Manés joined Dominic as a Friar Preacher, not bad for Blessed Mamá  Joan, her sons did well.  He died 1221 in Bologna, Italy.

It is said that Blessed Joan had a vision while she was pregnant with St. Dominic, that her unborn child was a dog that would set the world on fire with the torch it carried in his mouth.


Sanctus Dominicus de Guzmán, ora pro nobis