Suscipe me secundum eloquium tuum, et vivam, et non confundas me ab exspectatione mea. (Psalm 118)
Each year at about this time I have published a list of those who have risked everything to follow Jesus Christ more closely as a priest, deacon, monk, friars, nun, or sister. I think it is a good thing to keep this information in front of us, especially as it concerns how each of prays, fasts and financially support vocations in the Church. Our Christian life helps us to see the need for such witnesses and each of us participates through our good example, by inviting others (even ourselves?) to consider serving the Lord and the Church in this “more excellent” way and by assisting by of the good works.
Let us pray with the psalmist, “The just grow tall like palm trees, majestic like the cedars of Lebanon. They flourish in God’s house, green and heavy with fruit” (Ps 92).
“What counts is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life,” the Lord’s cross, Pope Francis said on July 7.
What follows is an imperfect collection of information; if there are updates, please zap me an email.
PAX!
Monastic life
monks
English Congregation
- St Anselm’s Abbey (Washington, DC): 2 novices profess vows
- St Louis Abbey: 2 monks ordained priest; 4 novices clothed
- Portsmouth Abbey: 2 postulants entered
- St Meinrad Archabbey: 2 professed simple vows; 1 novice entered
- Here is a video of the St Meinrad professions for 2013.
- Conception Abbey: 1 solemn vows; 2 ordained priests, 1 postulant entered
- Marmion Abbey: 3 profess simple vows; 1 professed solemn vows
- Mount Angel Abbey: 6 postulants entered; 1 ordained deacon
- St Joseph Abbey (LA): 1 professed simple vows; 2 novices entered
- Abbey of Christ in the Desert: 3 simple vows; 1 claustral oblate made final promises; 2 novices; 5 postulants
- Monastery of the Holy Cross (Chicago): 1 professed simple vows; 1 entered postulancy
- St Vincent’s Archabbey: 1 ordained priest, 2 ordained deacons; 2 professed solemn vows; 1 professed simple vows; 4 novices
- St John’s Abbey: 3 profess solemn vows
- St Benedict’s Abbey (Atchinson, KS): 2 professed simple vows; 3 entered the novitiate.
- Belmont Abbey (Charlotte, NC): 1 ordained deacon; 1 professed simple vows; 4 entered the novitiate
- St Bernard’s Abbey (Cullman, AL): 2 professed solemn vows and 1 professed simple vows; 2 postulants entered
- St Gregory’s Abbey (Shawnee, OK): 1 professed simple vows
- Mount Saviour Monatery: 1 renewed vows, 1 professed vows; 2 entered the novitiate; 1 postulant
- St Procopius Abbey: 1 postulant entered
- St Anselm’s Abbey (Manchester, NH): 1 solemn vows; 1 monk ordained deacon; 3 novices entered
- Monastero di San Benedetto (Norcia, Italy): 1 professed simple vows; 1 entered the postulancy
- Christ the King Priory: 1 entered the novitiate
- Daylesford Abbey (Norbertines): 3 novices (6 in formation)
- Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas: 2 ordained priests;
- Monastery of the Holy Spirit (Conyers, GA): 1 professed solemn vows, 3 began the novitiate
- Charterhouse of the Transfiguration (Carthusians in Vermont):
nuns
Abbey of Regina Laudis: 1 entered the novitiate, joining several others in initial formation- St Walburga Abbey (Virginia Dale, CO): 5 novitiate
- Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles: 2 sisters profess simple vows, 1 sister received the postulant medal
- Monastery of Our Lady of the Desert (Blanco, NM): 1 postulant and 1 novice
- Monastery of the Visitation, Mont Deux Coeurs (Tyringham, MA): 4 novices
- Bethlehem Priory of St Joseph (Norbertine Nuns): 8 novices
- Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary (Summit, NJ): 2 professed temporary vows, 1 solemn vows; 5 juniors
- Christ the Bridegroom Monastery (Burton, OH): 2 novices tonsured and received the habit (a new Byzantine monastery of women)
The active life
men
- Daylesford Abbey (the Norbertines): 1 professed simple vows, 1 entered the novitiate;
- Dominican friars, Province of St Joseph: 6 friars ordained priests; 9 friars profess solemn vows; 8 professed simple vows and 18 entered the novitiate
- Capuchin friars, Province of St Mary: 2 professed final vows, 4 professed simple vows, 4 invested as novices; 1 ordained to the Order of Deacon and 2 ordained for the Order of Priest
- Opus Dei: ordained 31 to the priesthood
- Fraternity of St Charles Borromeo: 1 ordained deacon, 8 ordained priests; -in Chile: 3 received the cassock at entrance
- Conventual Franciscan friars (of several provinces): 7 professed simple vows; 5 entered the novitiate
- Friars of the Atonement: 1 entered the novitiate
- Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word: 2 professed simple vows, 1 entered the novitiate.
- Order of Friars Minor, Immaculate Conception Province: 2 friars profess simple vows; 1 professed solemn vows; 2 ordained priests; 5 postulants entered
- Franciscans of the Holy Name Province: 4 profess first vows; 1 novice entered; 1 ordained to the priesthood
- The Society of Jesuit ordained 16 men to the priesthood for service in the whole USA; the NY-NEN-MD provinces professed 5 in simple perpetual vows; 5 men entered the novitiate.
Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Hamden, CT): 2 professed final vows; 2 professed simple vows; 3 enter the novitiate- Daughters of Mary of Nazareth: 3 entered the novitiate
- Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist: 2 entered novitiate, joining 4 other novices
- Hawthorne Dominicans: 1 novice entered; first profession; 1 in the novitiate; 2 juniors
- Missionaries of St Charles Borromeo: 2 profess solemn vows
- Dominican Sisters of Nashville: 11 professed final vows, 12 professed first vows, 11 renewed vows, 16 entered as novices and 28 became postulants
- Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist: 8 professed perpetual vows; 9 professed simple vows, 16 entered the novitiate
