Rosalind Moss Becomes Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God

This morning, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the humble Oratory of our monastery was the setting of a momentous event. His Excellency, Bishop Edward J. Slattery was with us for the the canonical establishment of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel's Hope as a Public Association of the Faithful, in view of their becoming an Institute of Consecrated Life.

Read more of what Father Mark Daniel Kirby's blog post In the Sight of Angels and Saints here

Praise God! I have long been an admirer of Rosalind Moss.  Her journey to the Catholic Church was indeed inspiring.

H/T Fountain of Elias

My New Favorite Soaps....and Nuns!

I had been meaning to buy from the Dominican Nuns in New Jersey for a long time now. I finally did place an order the other day. In the interim time it took my order to arrive I was emailing chatting with one of the nuns.

Well to make a long story short, I love the soaps (Basil Citrus), love the room freshener (Lavender), love the service and love these nuns!!

Thanks so much Sister D! It was a pleasure.

I am placing their site banner on the side bar.

Accurate Information on Union City Cloistered Nuns

Regarding my post Update on Cloistered Nuns in NJ and Prayer Request. I received the following information via an email from a sister who wishes to remain anonymous.

Pax Christi!

I just saw your entry about Union City . Let me give you some accurate information.

Sr. Gemma and Sr. Carol Marie are at the Infirmary at the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell. So, with Mother Mary Jordan there along with 2 of our nuns there are 5 nuns being beautifully cared for by our Dominican Sisters! A little mini-monastery, you might say!

Sr. Mary Aquinas transferred to the Bronx monastery and is very happy there. She looks great!

The monastery will be used by several religious congregations in NJ as a place for single moms with children to live. The building is in a lot of disrepair and will need renovations.

When a monastery begins the process of closure the Master of the Order appoints a friars as vicar to over see everything. For union City Fr. Izzo, the provincial has been appointed and he has been amazingly tender and concerned for them.

Sr. Mary of the Compassion’s artwork is going to the Provincial archives.

That’s about all I can tell you for now!

Update - Dominican Nuns in Jersey City

From time to time I get updates reading this post. The following is the most recent update that was left in the combox by an anonymous commenter.

"The Union City, NJ monastery of cloistered Dominican nuns has ended as a community. Of the six nuns reported on in the Order of Preachers' Monialibus, two nuns have died, one is in a nursing home, one has transfiliated to the Corpus Christi Monastery of Dominican nuns in the Bronx, and the other two have moved out of the Blue Chapel. Of these last two nuns, they answer now to the Provincial Prior in New York City who is partnered with the New Jersey bishop to find the nuns a home".

The Nun

I watched The Nun on EWTN last evening. I really did not know what to expect but the previews from the documentary looked very good.

If someone had asked me to guess which country the subject of this documentary was about, Sweden would not have been in my top 10 guesses. Yet this young nun was indeed from a Swedish family living in Sweden.

Surprisingly, the woman who documented "Marta's" life just prior to her entry into the very strict Carmelite order, and who followed her story for over 10 years, was not even religious. Yet, she did a very decent job as one can see by the results of this documentary.

Marta comes from a very devout and large Catholic family. They live on a farm with their own chapel and lots of love. Their father is a Church deacon. The mother is full of life and very loving and motherly. It is no wonder that this type of environment helped to nurture a vocation in their daughter.

To contrast the story, one of Marta's two brothers is spotlighted. He professes to not know whether or not there is a God. Yet, as far as I could tell, he seems to spiritual in his own way.

For those who missed it you still have a chance:

THE NUN 1 hr.
Get an inside look at a religious vocation taking shape in the rich environment of European Catholic family life in this unique documentary look at a Swedish Catholic family and their daughter Marta who has decided to become a Carmelite Nun.
Sat 8/23/08 8:00 PM ET & 5 PM Pt
Sun 8/24/08 2:00 AM ET & Sat 11 PM PT
Thu 8/28/08 1:00 PM ET & 10 AM PT

Update and Prayer Request for the Dominican Sisters of Union City, NJ

Melanie was kind enough to post the last update in the comments section. Today she emailed me another update. Please continue to pray for these nuns!

Today I followed up my contact with another phone call to Sr. Carol Marie OP, their sub-prioress. And it seems appropriate to report to you what I learned.

There are five women left. Sr. Carol keeps things going as the sub-prioress. Her prioress, Sr. Mary Jordan, remains in a nursing home. Sr. Carol assures me that Sr. Jordan receives an inperson visit at least once a week from Sr. Carol, and she phones her prioress every day. In this way, Sr. Jordan continues to direct and decide for the community of nuns, although she is outside the monastery itself.

I got things a little mixed up I think about the sisters who needed medical
attention. Here is the latest version. Sr. Mary Gemma OP can actually get up and walk now. For a period of time, Sr. Carol had to carry meals to Sr. Gemma's cell because she could not get up and walk to the refectory. Professional caregivers have been visiting the monastery to nurse Sr. Gemma and do some kind of physiotheraphy with her. The attention has paid off. Sr. Gemma has a walker, and with the walker she can go from her cell to the refectory and back, joining Sr. Carol and Sr. Maria Aquinas OP for meals.

Soon the caregivers will be discharged from their monastery visits, and Sr. Carol tells me that Sr. Gemma -- frail physically, but very spirited and lively on the psychological/mental level -- gives thanks to God Almighty that those therapists aren't coming in her room anymore because now she can actually have some peace and quiet for a change.

That leaves the fifth nun, Sr. Mary Charlotte OP. More serious than I
realized. She has a cancer diagnosis and will shortly begin chemotherapy.
That course of treatment will go a month, God willing. Sr. Charlotte
has been admitted to a Union City nursing home in order to undergo
treatment for her cancer. Sr. Carol remarked to me, that until her illness and hospitalization, Sr. Charlotte had been extremely active and the
community depended very much on her efforts; without her, it is particularly hard to keep everything going.

The closing of the Union City monastery is not formal and official at
the moment. There is still all the formal communicating to do. Sr.
Jordan, the prioress, is leaning toward leaving as it is so hard to keep the big old monastery going with no new vocations. However, it is some time, Sr. Carol says, since the last visitation by the Eastern US Dominican Provincial prior who is the vicar who reports back to the Promoter and the Master of the Order in Europe. So Father is expected at the monastery again in the near future, and he will be the go-between for the nuns and the European curia.

It is all proceeding very slowly.

Well that is all my news. You know, I have never met the nuns. Reading
about them in MONIALIBUS (online at www.op.org/ to find it click onto
English-language and then Nuns) touched me so deeply that I wanted to
help.

But when I ask the sub-prioress about coming to the monastery to meet
them in person, she insists, Wait a month until maybe we have got Sr.
Charlotte back from chemotherapy....it's too hard for us without her. One of these days I will meet them somehow. Thanks for listening, Melanie T.,
Quincy, Massachusetts