Welcome to the first ever A Nun’s Life photo caption contest. On my neighborhood walk yesterday I discovered the Blessed Virgin Mary in the front yard of an apartment building. The photo begs for a caption so I thought I’d toss it out to you to come up with the best caption for this picture.

Here’s what you do:

1. Pray and meditate on the perfect caption for this photo. (Suggestion: Befriend the BVM. She will help you with ideas and inspiration.)
2. Submit your entry by writing your name/pseudonym, real email (so A Nun’s Life can contact potential winners — enter where it says “email” — never made public), website (optional), and caption in the comment box below this post.
3. Check back often to see other divinely-inspired caption entries.

The contest will run through this Friday, March 27 midnight (CST).

Over the weekend, my nun Sister Maxine and I will go over the entries and select the finalists. Then on Tuesday, March 31 (one week from today), we will announce the finalists. You will have 24 hours to vote for your favorite one. The caption with the most votes wins! The prize? Well, that has not been decided. Far more important than the prize will be the personal pride and joy you will feel at winning this contest!

A Nun’s Life is pleased to welcome Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, as a guest blogger today. Sister Margaret is the first IHM Sister that I ever met, and it is through her that I recognized my call to religious life.

“… the lily of my heart”

The date was the eighth of December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Dressed in white uniforms, white stockings, white gloves, and a light blue chiffon shoulder sash, the whole student body processed with lilies which were placed before the altar of Mary in the Sacred Heart Convent Chapel. “Oh Mary, I give thee the lily of my heart. Be thou its guardian forever.” Each year for all my twelve years at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, I, along with my three sisters and all of our classmates knelt to place our lilies, symbols of our dedication and innocence, to Mary. Later as a student at IHM Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, vested now in academic cap and gown but still with lily in hand, I once again placed a flower at Mary’s altar.

On July 1, 1945 I entered the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters in Monroe Michigan. Once again I knelt before Mary’s altar as a postulant – but alas! with no lily in hand..

The Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary took root in 1845. It was co-founded by Louis Florent Gillet, a Redemptorist missionary, and Theresa Maxis Duchemin a former Oblate Sister of Providence. On May 12, 1846, the bishops of the United States formally decreed the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as Patroness of the United States. A year later, on December 8th, 1847, the title of the IHM Community was changed from Sisters of Providence to Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the original habit from black to “sky blue.”

Each year on this Feast of Mary, IHM Sisters, now having grown into three religious congregations, solemnly renew their vows. For many years best habits and veils were worn (the scent of the cedar closets mingled with that of the lilies!).  Today, while the blue habit for the most part has disappeared, the dedication to Mary as model and type of the Church remains strong and vibrant. Commitment to the meaning and message of her liberating song on behalf of the poor and oppressed fuels a dynamic integration of prayer and commitment.

O Mary, I give you the lily of my heart. Be thou its guardian forever.

Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, is a theologian and travels the country giving talks and retreats on a variety of topics and persons in Catholic theology and spirituality.

I recently received a couple of questions from a person who in the process of becoming Catholic. She asked about the Rosary and thought I’d share the questions and my responses with you.

Is there a good resource that can serve as a guide in learning the Rosary? And, how do the beads come into play, and why are they so important?

The Rosary is one of my favorite prayers. It means a lot to me because it connects me to the life of Christ, to Mary, and to our Catholic tradition. I’ve got a few resources I can suggest that I’ve used and found helpful.

Here are some online resources from the Loyola Press website (the Jesuit ministry where I work):

• The Rosary as a Tool for Meditation
• A list of the mysteries of the Rosary
• How to Pray the Rosary

The Rosary beads themselves are important for a couple reasons. Practically speaking, they help us keep our place as we pray all the Hail Mary’s and other prayers. Spiritually speaking, Rosary beads are considered “sacramentals” in the Catholic tradition. A sacramental can be a physical object (like beads or bread and wine or a holy medal) or a gesture (like the Sign of the Cross or laying on of hands) that reminds us of God’s presence in our everyday lives. We treat such objects or actions with respect because of their connection to God which helps us grow in our spiritual lives.

A really good way to get to know the Rosary is by actually making one and praying while you make it. Here’s another link to how to string your own Rosary and pray it.

These links should give you a good start. Each person, parish, or religious community might pray the Rosary in slightly different ways, but the basics are the same

What are other Rosary resources that you’ve found helpful? What does the Rosary mean in your life?

Following is a post from guest blogger, Jackie Walker. Visit her Web site at www.religiontranscends.com. And watch for an upcoming post on her site from Sister Julie.

On August 15, Catholics will celebrate the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast is a celebration of the Catholic dogma that Mary was “assumed into heaven body and soul.” As one of the principal Marian feasts and one of the 12 great feasts of the Catholic year, August 15 is a holy day of obligation.

Since the early days of the church, Christians have celebrated the “Memory of Mary” at both the place where Orthodox Christians believe she died (the Place of Dormition in Ephesus) and the place where she was buried (the Tomb of Mary in Israel).

In the 5th century, the Roman emperor Marcian requested Mary’s relics be enshrined in Constantinople; it was then that bishops explained that, aside from her burial shroud, there were no existing relics of Mary. Rather, when the disciples opened her tomb after she had been buried three days, they found no traces of her. This led them to believe she had been taken up (or assumed) into heaven. At that point, the celebration became less about death and more about her assumption into heaven, dead or alive.

By the 13th century, most Catholic leaders accepted that she had been assumed into heaven. But while the belief as accepted, it did not become official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church until 1950.

Around 1946, Pope Pius XII had asked the bishops whether they felt Mary’s assumption should become dogma. When they replied with a resounding yes, he issued the following summary in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus on November 1, 1950:

The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same degree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, was finally granted, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the ages. (Concord Encyclopedia of World Religions, 2006)

Such speech exemplifies the idea that God would not allow a corrupt death after a pure birth and that, since Mary was so close to Jesus in life, she must be near him (body and soul) in heaven.

Today, Catholics commemorate this event with a feast. This commemoration is not meant solely to remember the past, but is also intended as a look to the future. It is hoped that by leading a life as Mary did, with obedience and faith, will lead to the same outcome – being taken into heaven with the Blessed Virgin upon death.

Today, a church at Gethsemane sits at the site of Mary’s tomb. According to oca.org, that church holds one of the most solemn ceremonies to celebrate the Assumption. They remember her burial by lifting up what is believed to be her burial shroud, then participating in a procession to the Gethsemane church a few days later.

Links:
For more information about the Assumption of Mary, visit http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/assumption.html.

For information about other Marian feasts, visit www.wf-f.org/MarianFeast.html.

On the same day that Roman Catholics celebrate the Assumption of Mary, Orthodox Christians commemorate her death or dormition. Read about this similar (yet quite different) remembrance at religiontranscends.com/category/christianity.

Jackie Walker is a freelance religion writer in Chicago, Illinois. She is a regular contributor to Relate magazine and has worked for a number of religion publishers in the past, including Guideposts, Relevant Media Group, and World Wisdom.

Religion Transcends is a Web site devoted to providing news about world religions – without prejudice. It includes commentary, reporting, and education to eliminate misconceptions about religions and to give context and meaning to stories in the news. Visit Religion Transcends today at religiontranscends.com.