Update - on the Franciscan Sisters Minor

Prayer Request for Franciscan Sisters Minor

This update comes from my friend Shana:

Esther,

I spoke to Diane, the daughter of Sr Mary Clare of the Franciscan
Sisters Minor and was updated on the new convent for the sisters.

The Diocese of Worcester has finally located a suitable house and is
now working out arrangements with the sisters. A good amount of money was raised, but not enough for the house to be purchased outright. Mother
Clement is working with the diocese to form an agreement that will
comply with their Rule and still allow the sisters to move in --maybe
'rent-to-own' -- but since the sisters have vows of absolute poverty,
there are some pretty big obstacles that have to be worked out first.

It is not too late to send donations to the Diocese for the new
convent! Donations, marked "St Paul Cathedral/convent", with "Franciscan Sisters Minor" in the memo line, can still be sent to:

Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester
49 Elm Street
Worcester, MA 01609

The Sisters are all very grateful to all who have given generously to
the cause of their new house! They were astonished to see how many people from all over the country (and I think a few from out of the country)
sent donations and could not imagine how so many found out about their
need so quickly. Diane can only speak with her mother by phone once a
month or so, and had no time to write to her, so none of the sisters
knew about my asking on their behalf through the blogs! If you have prayed for them or sent money, consider yourself thanked into Eternity by the Sisters!

In the Sacred & Immaculate Hearts - shana

Update: Dominican Nuns in Union City, NJ

My thanks to Melanie for keeping us updated on the nuns. They are in continued need of our prayers.

Dear Esther, you may post this in your blog if choose to do so.

Occasional updates have come to you from me, about the community of five Dominican Nuns enclosed in the Monastery of the Perpetual Rosary, in Union City, New Jersey. When my first attempt at contact happened a couple of months ago, I
found that of the five surviving nuns, the Mother Prioress was confined to bed in a nursing care facility outside of the monastery; one sister needed to be hospitalized for inpatient chemotherapy; and the oldest of the nuns was confined to her cell and had to have even her meals carried to her.

Only two Dominican nuns, including the sub-prioress, reported to the monastery refectory for meals every day. In May (last month), my decision to stop in at the monastery during weekday hours proved successful. With only a handful of women, none of the nuns can act as the portress during office hours; instead, when the monastery opens its gift shop, which helps the community to support itself, Sonia, the genial layperson who staffs the shop, does what a monastery portress would
do, answering the doorbell. So Sonia answered my ring, spoke to me at some
length, and then went to the enclosure to tell the nuns that they had an unplanned visitor. The Sub-Prioress, working in the laundry room, stopped what she was doing, and met me in the small parlor which has no grill, for a few minutes, while I asked after the health and well-being of the nuns and after the future of their endangered community.

I must tell you that the Union City Monastery, familiarly known as the Blue Chapel, left an extraordinary impression on me, even though I was there for less than two hours. This is not a dying house. Perhaps its community must be uprooted, transplanted in another location, and absorbed into another Second Order cloister. Nevertheless, over seventy-five years of perpetual prayer in this building, have built up a sort of invisible architecture, a structure of prayer, and this place has got power. The combination of force with deep serenity and peace is nearly unique in my experience.

So, in early June, here is the latest:
Mother Prioress remains in nursing care, in stable condition.

The oldest of her nuns, her health improved, now uses a walker to go from her cell to prayer and worship -- and to meals in the refectory, no more trays to her room.

The sub-prioress and the youngest of the women had a very happy experience
in the last two weeks. They welcomed back to the enclosure, Sister Charlotte who spent a good four weeks in hospital, and was discharged at the conclusion of her inpatient treatment.

In fact it is Sr. Charlotte who took my phone call early this evening -- you would never know from the sound of her deep, steady, musical, vibrant voice that she has been through a major health crisis. Now that there are once again a grand total of four Dominican nuns in the same enclosure, the Sub-Prioress can get away from the telephone and out of the laundry room, and go to prayer more often than before. And now they are four at table for meals every day.

God is merciful!

Please keep the future of this community as a prayer intention. Yours in Christ, Melanie T. on the East Coast US

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