Ordination and profession of vows in 2018

What follows is a general listing of various religious orders who admitted new members, professed vows and/or ordained. The purpose is to show how the Lord is working (or not) in many of the communities. Some communities are clearly alive and living the charism of their religious group; and it is equally clear that some groups are dying.

Alexian Brothers
3 clothed in the habit
6 renew temporary vows

Basilian Salvatorian Order, Methuen, MA
1 professed temporary vows

New Skete Monks, Cambridge, NY
1 clothed in the habit

New Skete Nuns, Cambridge, NY
1 clothed in the habit

Christ the Bridegroom Monastery, Burton, OH (Byzantine Catholic nuns)
1 professed life vows

Missionaries of the Holy Apostles, Cromwell, CT
1 admitted to postulancy
2 ordained deacon

Franciscan Handmaids of Mary
1 professed temporary

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal
8 admitted to postulancy
8 clothed in the habit
4 profess temporary vows
2 profess perpetual vows
1 ordained deacon
4 ordained priest

Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal
3 clothed with the habit

Capuchin Friars, St Mary Province, NY
6 men renew temporary vows

Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Dallas
2 clothed in the habit
1 professed temporary vows
1 solemn vows
1 ordained deacon

Holy Cross Abbey —OCSO, Berryville, VA
1 admitted postulancy

Christ in the Desert Abbey, Abiquiu, NM
7 clothed in the habit
2 professed simple vows
3 renewed vows
12 solemn vows
1 ordained deacon

Our Lady of the Desert, Blanco, NM
2 professed final vows
1 professed simple vows
1 admitted to postulancy

Mount Saviour Monastery, Pine City, NY
2 admitted to postulancy
1 clothed in the habit
1 professed simple vows

St Scholastica Priory, Petersham, MA
3 clothed in the habit

Monastery of the Holy Cross, Chicago
1 ordained to diaconate

St Meinrad Archabbey, St Meinrad, IN
1 clothed in the habit 
2 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows
1 ordained priest

Subiaco Abbey, Subiaco, AR
2 ordained priests

Marmion Abbey, Aurora, IL
1 clothed in the habit
2 professed simple vows
1 ordained priest

Mount Angel Abbey, Mt Angel, OR
2 clothed in the habit
4 professed simple vows
3 professed solemn vows

St Joseph Abbey, Covington, LA
2 clothed in the habit

Conception Abbey, Conception, MO
3 clothed in the habit

St Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, PA
4 clothed in the habit
4 professed simple vows
2 professed solemn vows
2 ordained priest

St Bernard Abbey, Cullman, AL
3 clothed in the habit
3 professed solemn vows
1 ordained priest

Mary, Help of Christians Abbey, Belmont, NC
1 admitted to postulancy
1 clothed in the habit
1 professed solemn vows

Mary, Mother of the Church Abbey, Richmond, VA
1 admitted to postulancy

Assumption Abbey, Richardton, ND
1 professed simple vows

St Mary’s Abbey, Morristown, NJ
1 clothed in the habit 
1 professed simple vows

St Gregory’s Abbey, Shawnee, OK
1 admitted to postulancy

St Anselm Abbey, Manchester, NH
1 admitted to postulancy
3 clothed in the habit
1 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows

St Leo Abbey, St Leo, FL
1 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows

St Procopius Abbey, Lisle, IL
1 professed simple vows

St John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN
1 professed simple vows
1 clothed in the habit

St Andrew Abbey, Cleveland, OH
1 clothed in the habit
1 ordained deacon
1 ordained priest

St Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, KS
2 admitted to postulancy
2 clothed in the habit
2 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows
2 ordained deacon

Newark Abbey, Newark, NJ
1 admitted to postulancy
1 professed simple vows

St Martin’s Abbey, Lacey, WA
1 admitted to postulancy

St Anselm Abbey, Washington, DC
1 ordained deacon

St Gregory the Great Abbey, Portsmouth, RI
1 professed simple vows

Abbey of Regina Laudis, Bethlehem, CT
1 clothed in the habit
others in formation
3 given the Consecration of Virgins

Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus, Gower, MO
10 in the novitiate
8 admitted to postulancy
5 junior professed

Immaculate Heart of Mary Monastery, Westfield, VT
1 professed simple vows (an extern sister)

Glencairn Abbey, Ireland (Trappistines)
2 postulants admitted
2 professed solemn vows

Tautra Mariakloster, Norway (Trappistines)
2 professed simple vows

Mount Saint Mary Abbey, Wrentham, MA (Trappistines)
3 admitted to postulancy
2 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows

Order of Preachers —Province of St. Joseph
16 clothed with the habit
9 professed simple vows
11 professed solemn vows
9 ordained priest
6 ordained deacon

Order of Preachers —Province of St. Albert the Great
1 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows

Our Lady of Grace Monastery —Order of Preachers, North Guilford, CT
1 admitted to postulancy, then novitiate
1 professed simple vows

Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Hawthorne, NY
2 clothed in the habit
2 renewed their vows

Dominicans of the Immaculate Conception, Chicago, IL
1 admitted to postulancy

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Ann Arbor, MI
12 clothed in the habit
6 professed simple vows
7 professed perpetual vows

Dominican Missionaries for the Deaf Apostolate, New Britain, CT
3 admitted to postulancy
4 clothed in the habit
1 final profession
1 ordained priest

Society of Jesus
40 entered the Provinces in the USA, Canada, and Haiti
27 ordained priests for the States, Canada and Haiti
26 professed simple perpetual vows for the USA & Canada

Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Hamden, CT
4 admitted to postulancy
1 clothed in the habit
3 professed simple vows
5 renew vows
1 professed perpetual vows

Sisters of Life
6 clothed in the habit
4 renewed vows
7 professed simple vows
8 professed perpetual vows

Maryknoll Sisters
4 professed perpetual vows

Congregation of Norbertine Sisters, California
2 admitted to postulancy
2 professed simple vows

Abbey of Santa Maria de la Vid –Norbertines
1 clothed in the habit

St Norbert Abbey, Norbertines, DePere, WI
1 clothed in the habit
2 professed simple vows
1 professed solemn vows
1 ordained deacon
1 ordained priest

Abbey of Saint Michael, Norbertines, CA
1 ordained priest
? enter the novitiate

Legion of Christ
7 professed simple vows
11 clothed with the habit
9 to be ordained to priesthood scheduled for May 4, 2019

Order of Virgins
several made their consecration as Virgins in particular dioceses in the USA

Holy Innocents

Today is the feast of Innocent Martyrs, the children who in Bethlehem of Judas were killed by the unholy King Herod. Their shed blood was for the Son of God and Savior, and for us.

The Holy Innocents have been honored by the Church as martyrs since the first centuries. Today, their import keeps us vigilant on threats to human life, from conception to natural death. The Innocents are the witnesses to the Pro-Life work we are engaged in. They bring us into relationship with Christ and humanity at a deeper level.

Let the final word be just as Saint Thérèse would have it: Nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli  (Unless you become like unto little children. Mt 18:3)

NB: The Byzantine Church (UGCC) this feast on December 29.

Christmas

Today we celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Son of God, Son of Mary. The Prince of Peace.

In an era of great confusion and unrest due to natural disasters, presence of refugees, political and religious distractions, our celebration of the birth of the Lord hopefully will re-focus our attention on the desire that God has for us: that His Divine Presence will change our lives. This is my hope.

Blessed Christmas!

Living in order to be happy

How must we live in order to be, or to become, capable of happiness? The question is one which ought to occupy us nowadays more than ever before. Man should take his happiness as seriously as takes himself. And he ought to believe God and his own heart when, even in distress and trouble, he has an intuitive feeling that he was created for happiness.

But this entails certain clear convictions. For a full and satisfying life man must know what it is all about. He must have no doubts about being on the right road with all the saints to back him up, and divine strength to support him. Such a life is a dedicated one, conscious of being blessed and touched by God himself.

Prison Meditations of Fr. Alfred Delp
Alfred Delp, SJ

Mary, the Immaculate Conception

“Who are you, O Immaculate Conception?” asks St Maximillian Maria Kolbe, the 20th century martyr and saint who founded a Marian movement. Accordingly, he teaches us, based on his prayer and experience, that the perfect love of the Holy Trinity meets an adequate response in the perfect love of the Immaculate, which is the name St Maximilian gives to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In another place he says, “In the union of the Holy Spirit with her, not only does love bind these two beings, but the first of them [the Holy Spirit] is all the love of the Most Holy Trinity, while the second [the Blessed Virgin Mary] is all the love of creation, and thus in that union heaven is joined to earth, the whole heaven with the whole earth, the whole of Uncreated Love with the whole of created love: this is the vertex of love.”

St Maximillian gave us a mature perspective of Mary under this title.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was declared and defined by Bl. Pius IX in 1854: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.” (Ineffabilis Deus )

Since Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception let us pray for our nation today.

St Ambrose

Today is the liturgical memorial of St. Ambrose reputed to be the greatest Archbishop of Milan (at a time it was the center of the Roman Empire). Ambrose was elected bishop when he was still a catechumen who was competent in civil and ecclesial administration but he’s also known for his acumen in theology and hymnody. It is his relationship with the Holy Trinity that orients our attention, especially with regard to the Incarnation. If we don’t get the Incarnation of the Eternal Word of God correct, nothing else in our Catholic life will be correct. In this period of preparation for the Nativity of the Lord, Ambrose sets our meditation in a way no other can.

He wrote of the Son of God: “And the Word was with God. This that he said is to be understood thus: The Word was just as was the Father; since He was together with the Father, He was also in the Father, and He was always with the Father. […] It is of the Word to be with the Father; it is of the Father to be with the Word, for we read that the Word was with God. So if, according to your opinion, there was a time when He was not, then, according to your opinion, He too was not in the beginning with whom was the Word. For through the Word I hear, through the Word I understand that God was. For, if I shall believe that the Word was eternal, which I do believe, I cannot doubt about the eternity of the Father, whose Son is eternal” (The Sacrament of the Incarnation of our Lord (III, 15-18, from the Vatican web site).

And again, Ambrose says, “He lay in the crib, that you might stand at the altar. He came to earth, that you might come to the stars” (Exposition of Luke 2.41).

St Nicholas Day

 

Blessed feast day of St Nicholas!

 

Thy just works have shown Thee to thy flock as an example of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of abstinence. By humility Thou didst achieve exaltation, and by meekness, riches. O Father Bishop Nicholas, intercede with Christ our God to save our souls.

(Troparion for St. Nicholas)

St John of Damascus

Today being the feast of Saint John of Damascus, it is crucial that we think of the Trinity:

“Think of the Father as a spring of life begetting the Son like a river and the Holy Ghost like a sea, for the spring and the river and sea are all one nature. Think of the Father as a root, and of the Son as a branch, and the Spirit as a fruit, for the substance in these three is one. The Father is a sun with the Son as rays and the Holy Ghost as heat.”

Eternal Kingdom and the dignity of its King

The glory and nobility of God’s eternal Kingdom have to be estimated from the dignity of its King, since a king is not derived from a kingdom but a kingdom from a king. And he indeed is King who has on his garment and on his thigh a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords (Apoc. 19:16), whose power is everlasting power that shall  not be taken away (Dan. 7:14), whose kingdom will not be destroyed and whom all tribes ad peoples and tongues (Apoc. 7:9) will serve throughout eternity. He is truly a peaceable (1 Chron. 22:9) King, whose countenance both heaven and all the earth desire to look upon  (1 Kings 10:24).

In this eternal kingdom, all good and perfect gifts come down in plenty and abundance from the Father of Lights (James 1:17) through Jesus Christ, who is the super-essential Ray and who since he is one, can do all things, and renews all things (Wisdom 7:27).

St. Bonaventure
The Tree of Life