2014 christmas enewsletter
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Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia
LAUDARE, BENEDICERE, PRAEDICARE “TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH”
Christmas 2014
Dear Friends,
The liturgies of this Christmas season turn our gaze so often toward the members of the Holy Family. In imitation of their example and through their intercession, may all of our daily activities of work and play, rest and prayer be centered on God, Who came to dwell among us.
In Christ, The Dominican Sisters
of St. Cecilia
Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228
www.nashvilledominican.org [email protected]
“Today our gaze on
the Holy Family lets us
also be drawn into the
simplicity of the life
they led in Nazareth.
It is an example that
does our families great
good, helping them
increasingly to become
communities of love
and reconciliation,
in which tenderness,
mutual help, and
mutual forgiveness
is experienced.”
Pope Francis
Feast of the Holy Family 2013
Holiness Highlight
SAINT BASIL the GREAT
Born: 330 in Cappadocia Died: January 1, 379 Feast Day: January 2 (shared with St.
Gregory Nazianzus) Known for: his upbringing in a family
of saints; his friendship with St. Gregory of Nazianzus; his founding of Eastern monasticism; his opposition to the Arian heresy and defense of the Trinitarian doctrine
How to imitate the saint: pray with members of your family; include Jesus in your conversations with friends; take time in the day to be silent and contemplate God’s goodness; read the section on the Creed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
“If you see your neighbor in sin, don’t look only at this, but also think about what he has done or
does that is good, and … you will find that he is better than you.”
– St. Basil the Great, Conversations, 20
This year, as the Church is celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life, she is also placing an emphasis on the family. While we prepare for the World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia in September 2015, an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops was convened this past fall to discuss the family with an Ordinary Synod on the same theme to continue in the fall of 2015. The convergence of these celebrations prompts us to thank God for the diverse vocations in the one Body of the Church and to reflect upon how they mutually support and enrich each other.
My family played a key role in my discernment and continues to influence the living of my vocation. Even though a religious vocation was not explicitly mentioned or encouraged while I was growing up, my parents raised us to trust in God’s providential guidance of our lives. This atmosphere of trust made me open to hear God’s call and gave me the courage to respond with a whole-hearted “yes”.
Now as I strive to live out my consecration as a bride of Christ and a spiritual mother, I find myself looking to my parents’ example. Their commitment to spending time together and their evident enjoyment of each other’s company helped me to approach prayer with greater fidelity and simplicity, open to receiving the joy that comes from being with the Divine Bridegroom. Their self-forgetfulness in serving us their children reminds me of the paradoxical law of love: we only find ourselves in giving ourselves away. As I seek to spend myself for souls, I know one of my responsibilities and privileges is to pray for my family and for the families of the students I teach. I must also witness to them of the surpassing value of the Kingdom of Heaven that, amidst the fleeting pleasures of this world, they may keep their eyes fixed on the happiness that never ends.
Strong and faithful family life has always been a great support to vocations to the religious life. St. Basil the Great, who is known as the father of Eastern monasticism, was born in the fourth century into a family deeply devoted to the faith and committed to practicing its precepts of charity. In one of his letters, he acknowledges how this influenced him: “The idea of God which I had from my blessed mother, and her mother Macrina, …has ever grown within me. I did not change about, as reason unfolded, but perfected the rudiments of faith by them delivered to me” (Epistle 223). Further, the example of his brother Naucratius, who had lived as a hermit but died young, and the advice of his sister St. Macrina, who had also embraced an ascetical life, to prize spiritual goods above worldy success prompted him to leave his promising position as an orator.
As members of the Pilgrim Church, we are all on the journey to our heavenly homeland. The domestic church of the family has a primary role in developing in children the moral and spiritual compass that will guide them along the vocational path God has marked out for them. Consecrated religious in turn provide eschatological signposts along that path, reminding each baptized Christian that our true home is in heaven.
Professed Sister’s
Reflection
PRAYING AS A FAMILY
Events on the Family
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS FORUM:
Proclaiming and Living the
Gospel of the Family
Feb. 13-14, 2015
Speakers include…
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain Helen Alvaré John Garvey
Sister Terese Auer, O.P. Richard Bulzacchelli
Katrina Zeno sponsored by
Aquinas College, Nashville, TN
WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES
Love is Our Mission:
The family fully alive
September 22-27, 2015
Philadelphia, PA
The World Meeting of Families is a gathering of Catholic families from around the world for days
of prayer, catechesis, and celebration of the gift of family.
Click here for more information.
Click here for more information.
A Short Guide to
GROWING TOGETHER IN FAITH AND LOVE
EACH DAY
$19.95
$11.95
Click above for a sneak preview of the book!
for a sneak peak of the book!
As a token of gratitude to our benefactors, the
novices prepared boxes with “A Taste of The
Motherhouse” in the first weeks of December.
Novitiate sisters made illustrations of the “O Antiphons,”
which began at Vespers on December 17 and ushered in
the final days before Christmas. The sisters also visited
local displays of Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols,
and rehearsed “A Christmas Pageant”—a play written by
the late Sister Mary David Harlow, O.P.
The packages included candied pecans,
molasses cookies, pear butter made from
pears on the Motherhouse grounds, and
shortbread cookies embossed with the
Congregation’s shield.
On the weekend before Advent, Father Joseph
Henchey, C.S.S., gave a series of conferences
entitled “A Sacrifice of Praise: The Liturgy of
Religious Consecration.” Father Henchey has
been a friend of the community since his first
visit to the Motherhouse nearly 40 years ago. For the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life, the sisters
prayed Solemn Vespers and renewed their vows at Mass.
As a prelude to
Midnight Mass,
a concert of
sacred music
prepared the
sisters to
celebrate the
Jesus’ birth.
After Midnight Mass and
throughout the Christmas
Octave, sisters and guests make
frequent visits to the manger
scene to marvel at God’s tender
love manifest in the frail
humanity of the newborn Savior.
Colorado State University
University of Colorado
Wyoming Catholic College
Univ
ersi
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f
Dominican Blitz
Lafayette Day of Recollection
Grangeville, Idaho
Fall Vocation Travels
Golden Gate
Canyon State Park
Louisiana
Anchorage
Ala
ska
Christopher Newport
Old Dominion University
College of William and Mary
of Steubenville
St. Fr
an
cis
Univ
ersit
y
Spring Vocation Travels
January 18-23 March for Life, Washington, DC January 23-February 2 Virginia & Maryland January 31 Day of Recollection, Catonsville, MD January 27-February 5 San Diego & Los Angeles, CA February 19-28 Vancouver, BC, Canada February 21 Day of Recollection, Vancouver, BC March 26-28 Benedictine College
TBA: Rhode Island; Texas; Mississippi
Univ
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Fra
nc
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an
Univ
ersi
ty
of
Day of Recollection
Ca
rm
el, In
dia
na
In
dia
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Univ
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