February 2017
Supernatural Charity In This Issue: Reflection on Supernatural Charity Quotes on Love by Bl. Jordan of Saxony, OP University Visits March for Life 2017
Love at a Divine Level Oil Painting of St. Elizabeth of Hungary by Mother Frances Walsh, OP, one of the four foundresses of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
True Love? Many have championed love as the only way of true happiness, as THE greatest good we human beings seek. In making this claim, of course, they have discovered an essential truth about our nature. St. John Paul II once wrote, “Man cannot live without love.” 1 To understand this truth about our nature, however, we must, in turn, understand the true nature of love. "God is love," St. John writes (1 John 4:8), and His inner life is an eternal exchange of love within the Blessed Trinity. God revealed his love in the creation of the world; and even more deeply when he became man. In the Mystery of the Incarnation, Love comes in Person to a fallen world that so often misunderstands love because it has lost its sense of God. True love can be learned only from Love-made-visible, Jesus Christ. It is very easy for us to have a love muddied with self-interest: If we are content at the superficial level, the fact that someone "makes me feel good" can be the extent of my “love.” Jesus showed us that true love goes out of itself to the other, even to the point of forgetting self for the good of the other. It is a total giving of oneself. He translates the ways of divine love into practical day-to-day life, spending Himself in his ministry of teaching and healing others, sensitive to their needs, their joys and sorrows. The pinnacle of his life of total, self-giving love was the sacrifice of himself on the cross. Praying before the crucifix we see the image of true love. True love involves self-giving and sacrifice. Selfsacrifice, even in little matters, is the proof of love and the means to grow in love. The main way parents show their love is by the sacrifices they make for their children and for one another. Such is the love for which we were made, and for which we long. It is the love we learn from God, in Jesus Christ. Christ not only revealed to us the true nature of love, but he has also has given us, in our Baptism, the grace to love in a God-like way. In the grace of Baptism, the God of Love Father, Son and Holy Spirit - come to dwell in us, and we receive a share in the divine nature. St. Paul writes that we become “a new creation,” filled with the supernatural virtue of charity. 2 In the strength of this virtue, and with God’s grace, we are able to give ourselves to God and others with unselfish love, after the example of Jesus Christ. This is the love that is the only way of true happiness, the THE greatest Good in this world and the next--the only way of true happiness. 1 Redemptor Hominis n. 10 2 Corinthians 5:17
Blessed Jordan of Saxony on Love
Blessed Jordan of Saxony, whose feast day we celebrate this month, wrote about supernatural charity in his letters to Blessed Diana and others. Here are a few powerful excerpts: To Bl. Diana: Why, beloved daughter, do I write these poor little letters to you to comfort your heart when you can find a far sweeter and more precious consolation simply by taking up and reading that book which you have daily before the eyes of your mind, the book of life, the book of the Lord's perfect law which brings life back to souls? This law, which is called immaculate because it takes away all stains, is charity: you see it writ with wonderful beauty when you gaze on your Saviour Jesus stretched out on the cross, as though a parchment, his wounds the writing, his blood the illuminations.... You know very well that no letter can move the reader so vehemently to love as this.... for certainly you must love above all else him who willed that you should be a partaker in joys so great... Letter 45. To the Prioress of another monastery: Beloved and ever to be loved is this love, in which he [Christ] enfolds not only the angels but also the sons of Abraham. Let us then love one another in him and through him and for him; and in that same love for one another let us so run, led by him who is the way and who is the truth, that in the end we may by his bounty come to him who is also the life and who lives and reigns in the life and kingdom of glory. "Other Letters" 3. Both passages are taken from To Heaven With Diana!: A Study of Jordan of Saxony and Diana d'Andalò with a Translation of the Letters of Jordan by Gerald Vann, OP.
Blessed Jordan of Saxony: Feast Day February 13
Left: Bl. Diana d'Andalo (circa. 1201-1236) and Bl. Jordan (circa. 1190-1237) with St. Dominic. Bl. Diana sought to found a community of Dominican nuns with the assistance of St. Dominic. After Dominic's death, Jordan succeeded Dominic as Master General of the Order and became Diana's spiritual director. He is the patron of Dominican vocations because of the thousands of vocations to the Order that he inspired by his preaching.
Recommended Reading When seeking to understand Christian love with some precision, we inevitably come to speak about order in loving. The title of this book, Love's Sacred Order, is intended to address the problem of the need for clarification in the matter of love, above all the question of the relationship among the different kinds of love, all of which make their legitimate claim on us. A central concern of these reflections is the fact that we can do as much harm to ourselves by being too restrictive as by being too permissive in what we allow to come under the heading of Christian love. The main intent of these meditations is to explore what the hierarchy might be that God established among all our human loves, on the one hand, and between these and the gratuitously revealed love of God that uncreated mystery, "kept secret for long ages", to which we could not have had access if God himself had not taken the initiative to manifest it in Christ Jesus. The author approaches this subject pondering and responding to issues raised in the widely known work of C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Available through Ignatius Press)
University Visits January 23 - February 1, 2017 During the last two weeks of January, our sisters had the privilege of travelling to Washington, DC and Virginia where they met wonderful young Catholic men and women in the area. They also had the excitement of seeing all that God is doing in the Catholic Centers at the Universities nearby. Enjoy a few snapshots of our experiences.
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA January 23, 2017
The first university stop was in Fairfax, Virginia. Sister Peter Marie and Sister Mary Esther joined the students and FOCUS missionaries for Mass and lunch at the Catholic Center. The sisters enjoyed spending time with them, an opportunity to get to know our community.
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA January 29-30, 2017 The sisters arrived in Blacksburg on a snowy afternoon and were made to feel at home immediately by all the staff and students at the Newman Center.
They had the priviledge of reading at Mass and then speaking at the Newman Center's Sunday Supper about the universal call to holiness and the call of a particular vocation.
The next day, they enjoyed lunch at the campus dining hall with a large group of students. That night, the Theology of Women Group invited the sisters to join them for their evening meal together. Sister Peter Marie spoke about what to do in the here and now if one is not yet certain about her vocation. The sisters enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people and seeing such a vibrant Catholic community at Virginia Tech.
Christopher Newport University, Newport News,VA January 31, 2017
The Catholic Campus Ministry at Christopher Newport University hosted an evening for students and young adults in the area.Â
Catholic Campus Ministry at the College of William and Mary February 1, 2017 Father James Glass, chaplain of the Catholic Campus Ministries at the College of William and Mary, invited the sisters to speak at their women's group.
Day of Recollection
Aquinas Convent, Woodbridge, VA January 21, 2017
The sisters spent the last day of the Dominican Order's 800th Jubilee introducing others to our life. The sisters in Woodbridge provided a Day of Recollection so that young women interested in religious life might have the opportunity to get to know our sisters, get a taste of our life, and have time to speak with the Lord.
Father John Sica, OP gave a talk on St. Dominic, followed by an opportunity for adoration and confession. All joined the sisters for the praying of Vespers and then for dinner. Finally, some of the sisters shared their vocation stories, followed by a time for questions and discussion of religious life and discerning one's vocation.
Father John Sica, OP
March for Life
l i g i V
January 26, 2017 After the Vigil Mass at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the Dominican Friars of the Eastern Province invited several university groups and all of our sisters to walk across the street to the Dominican House of Studies to pray Compline together.Â
After prayers, the Friars graciously offered a pizza supper and time for fellowship.
Dominican House of Studies Chapel
e f i L January 27, 2017 r o f h c r a M It was a great day for the March for Life, beginning with a large crowd at the Verizon Center for Mass and youth rally, and then marching with hundreds of thousands of joyous marchers of all ages.
Many of our sisters were able to participate, bringing groups from our high schools and the junior high sections of our grade schools. Our postulants also enjoyed being part of this great event.
Upcoming Travels March 22-24 - Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA March 25 - Abbey Youth Fest, Saint Benedict, LA March 26-27 - University of Louisiana in Lafayette, LA March 28-29 - Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS March 30-April 2 - Benedictine College Vocation Fair and Symposium on the New Evangelization, Atchison, KS