November 2019 Vocation E-Newsletter

laudare, benedicere, praedicare TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH

November 2019

Saints are the Splendor of God INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Dispu ation of the Sacrament by Raphael. 1509 and 1510. Located in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican

Re lection on Saint Dominic, Shining as the Sun in the Temple of God Book Recommendation: Heaven: The Heart's Deepest Longing

Recent Travels and Visitors Holiness Highlight: Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo Information regarding our Pilgrimage for Catholic Educators

Radiance of His Holiness A Reflection on Saint Dominic, Shining as the Sun in the Temple of God

In the month of November, the Church’s liturgy turns our attention to what are known as the “last things.” We begin the month celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints, followed the next day by the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day); and we conclude the month with the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. Dominicans, include additional liturgical celebrations to recognize All Dominican Saints (November 7) and All Dominican Souls (November 8). In addition, during this month, our sisters pray in community four additional rosaries for the repose of the souls of our deceased Dominican brothers and sisters, and deceased friends and benefactors of the Order. While such attention to those who have gone before us and the reality of the end of our earthly lives does have a sobering effect, it also reminds us of our call to be “joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glori ied with him” (Romans 8:17).

These celebrations bring to mind Saint Dominic’s title “shining as the sun in the temple of God.” This invocation in his litany reminds us of the radiance of his holiness, noted in his clarity in preaching and zeal for the Gospel throughout his life, and his continued testimony to the power and glory of God after death. As we celebrate the saints this month, let us meditate on these words from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, uoting the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium: “Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven ix the whole Church more irmly in holiness” (956). Remarkably, what follows afterward is one of the few extant uotes from Saint Dominic himself: “Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life.” Holy Father Dominic, pray for us that we, too, may follow your example and come to rejoice with you in the Heavenly Jerusalem, which “gleams with the splendor of God” (Revelation 21: 11).

S ained Glass Window in our Saint Cecilia Motherhouse Chapel depicting Saint Dominic's Entrance into Heaven

Saint Dominic, Shining as the Sun in the Temple of God, pray for us.

Holiness Highlight

Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo January 9, 1984 - June 13, 2012

Dying of cancer only seven years ago, Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo has been described as the "Saint Gianna of our time" because of the heroic decisions she and her husband made during their three pregnancies. Growing up in a faithful Catholic family in Italy, Chiara often went to prayer meetings with her mother where she said she learned "to pray and turn to Jesus simply as to a friend." In 2002, she met her future husband, Enrico, while on a pilgrimage with her older sister. Of her relationship with him she once wrote, "After four years our relationship began to alter to the point that we broke up... In those moments of suffering and rebellion against the Lord, because I thought He was not listening to my prayers, I participated in a vocational program at Assisi. I found, through the help of this program, the strength to trust in God... I began to unders and that the Lord was not threatening to ake anything away from me. He, in reality,wanted to give me everything and only He knew who I was meant to share my life with..."

After they were married in 2008, the couple lost their irst two children soon after they were born.

Of this experience, Chiara wrote, "[God] gave us the opportunity to embrace them, have them baptized, and then entrust them into the hands of the Father, all with a peace and joy that we had never experienced before." During her third pregnancy, Chiara discovered that she had a cancerous tumor on her tongue. She chose to delay the surgery in order to protect her unborn son, Francesco. She wrote,

Photo of the Petrillo family with Pope Benedict about a month before Chiara died. Assessed from: https://www.vaticannews.va/it/chiesa/news/2018-07/al-via-causabeatificazione-chiara-corbella-petrillo.html

"This cancer is trying to make us afraid of the future, but we continue to believe that God will do great things this time too."

After learning of her immanent death, she and her husband began to receive the Sacraments daily, living their lives in peace and joy with their newborn son. Enrico, in an interview after Chiara's death, said, "The truth is that this cross – if you embrace it with Christ – ceases to be as ugly as it looks... peace can be found in suffering and joy in death."

“The goal of our life is to love and to be loved, always ready to learn how to love the others as only God can teach you.”-Servant of God Chiara Corbella Petrillo All information, photos and uotes on this page was accessed from the o icial website for Chiara's cause for sainthood: http://www.chiaracorbellapetrillo.it/en unless otherwise noted.

Jesu Caritas Retreat

The Grace of the Present Moment | October 4-6

At the beginning of the month, we welcomed over 75 young women for our Jesu Caritas Retreat. Father Bonaventure Chapman, O.P., a Dominican Father of the Eastern Province, gave four talks on how we can know, love and live with God in the present moment.

Recent Visitors to the Motherhouse Benedictine College | October 17-18

This month we were able to welcome several groups to the Motherhouse. The irst was a group of students and a FOCUS Missionary from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. The second was a group of high school students from two of the schools where our sisters teach in Tennessee. It was a blessing to have them share in our life while they were here.

Notre Dame high School and Knoxville Catholic High School | October 26-27

During their stay, the high school girls helped bake some treats in our kitchen with a few of the sisters.

Pan y Vino Retreat Auburn University | October 18-20

Sister Peter Marie and Sister Bernadette Marie were invited to attend Pan y Vino Retreat hosted by Auburn University's Catholic Center . During the retreat, the Sisters were able to visit and get to know many of the students. They also participated in a Vocation Panel discussing the beautiful gift of all the vocations in the Church.

Mississippi State University October 29-30

Sister Peter Marie and Sister Bernadette Marie had a wonderful time visiting the students at Mississippi State University. During their time on campus, the sisters gave a talk entitled "Living the Liturgy: A Dominican Perspective on Prayer" at the weekly Tuesday Night Dinner and enjoyed meeting many new students and several former students of our sisters as they participated in the Catholic Campus Ministries Saint Paul Street Evangelization Ministry.

The Joy of Community

Recommended Reading Heaven

The Heart's Deepest Longing By: Peter Kreeft The irst major book on the subject of heaven since The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis, this expanded edition of Heaven examines the hunger for heaven that is so strong in all of us.

Fascinating and upbeat, Heaven thoroughly explores the psychological, philosophical and theological dimensions of this search for total joy and for the ultimate reality that grounds it. Drawing upon the substance of experience, Kreeft points out the centrality and signi icance of this most basic heart's-dynamic, the longing for heaven. As it probes the failure of our modern, idolatrous society to provide answers to the essential human uestions of hope and happiness, Heaven also provides a solution to the fundamental riddle of death and points the way beyond the meaninglessness of atheistic and secular philosophies.

-Taken from the back cover of the book.

“Faith in heaven's presence produces the greatest psychological revolution imaginable. If we don't observe this revolution taking place in ourselves, it can be for only one reason: Our faith is much smaller than a grain of mustard seed. Faith and faith's fruit, love, cast out fear... Faith is God's present (gift) of his present (now) presence (here)." (from page 181)

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR A LINK TO BUY THIS BOOK.