Question from Ed …

Hello, What is the best book on Our Lady? Something not too sweet / saccharine on the one hand, nor too dry / academic / theological on the other. I don’t that about much about Our Lady and want to learn more. Thank you.

Annunciation by He Qi, 2001

First, of course, consult Scripture! That is our primary source for what we know about Mary.

Second, I must confess that I tend to swing towards the more theological side of things but I think you’ll find some some of that very accessible and engaging.

Third, talk to Mary herself! We are blessed to live in and with the Communion of Saints meaning holy people like Mary are with us always. So spend some time in quiet and be open to Mary’s presence with you. Sometimes it is helpful to use Scripture as an entry way to prayer in this regard. Take a passage with Mary in it and imagine that you are in that scene (the Nativity, in the Temple for Jesus’ Presentation, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, at the Cross, etc.). Allow your imagination to wander and interact with the people and things in the scene. Praying with your imagination is a great form of prayer!

And finally, BOOKS and articles!

The best book I know on Mary by far is Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson. Now it does have that word “theology” in it, but I have to say, you just might want to give it a whirl. As a first step, perhaps, read this review by Nancy Hawkins in America magazine: Spirit-Filled Companion (June 9, 2003). I love this book because it gives us a real-life sense of Mary that takes account of her real-life circumstances and tries to free Mary from some of the unfortunate accretions of her story over time. Another way to see if you’ll like this book is to read Sister Elizabeth’s article for Catholic Update in 2001: In Search of the Real Mary.

The next place I’d go for resources on Mary is over to my friends at Loyola Press. Loyola Press is a Jesuit ministry and have a fantastic collection of writers and resources on all things Catholic. I used to work there and can say from personal experience that they have a great grounding in theology and the faith. Their materials are top notch. Here’s a few on Mary I’d recommend (en español tambien):

• Mary: Jesus’ Mother–And Ours: Six Weeks with the Bible (Catholic Perspectives) by Kevin Perrotta
• Mary and the Saints: Companions on the Journey in the “Catholic Basics” series
• Mary, The Compassionate Mother: A Part of the Somos católicos Series by Virgilio Elizondo

Ed, I’m sure the A Nun’s Life Community has a bunch of suggestions too so check back here to see the comments folks leave on the blog post here! Blessings to you!

AS096 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 29, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: run-ins with the Blessed Virgin Mary, hanging on to pre-Vatican II stuff, adopt-a-nun, how to know and respond when God is calling, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I’m not Catholic but have had a few run-ins with the Blessed Virgin Mary. What could this possibly mean?
• Is it wrong to hang onto pre-Vatican II understandings and expressions of the faith? Of religious life?
• I’d love to spiritually adopt a nun. How to I go about doing so?
• How do you know if God is calling you to something, and what can you do about it?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from which you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 15 :: Mary written by Sister Maxine

Artwork by He Qi

With Christmas just around the corner, ‘tis the season for Nativity sets. They seem to be everywhere – at churches, the grocery store, schools, my neighbors’ front lawns. Inside each of them is the familiar figure of Mary, about to give birth to Jesus.

In some of the Nativity sets, Mary wears a blue and white flowing gown and is surrounded by dramatic lighting. In others, she looks like a travel-weary young woman in threadbare clothing. In one very unusual Nativity set Mary is wearing a 1960s style peasant blouse and a long brown skirt probably made of organic material (Joseph was wearing sunglasses).

The various images of Mary make me think about the various Marys in my life, and the ways they symbolically give birth to something new. There are the two Marys who received me into the IHM congregation, certainly a life-changing moment for me. There is the good friend Mary whose death at an early age awakened in me a profound sense of the beauty of life. There is the Mary who was my first encounter with Vatican II theology and, to my astonishment, talked about an imminent, loving, caring God and a Church known as the People of God.

So as I go by the Nativity sets this year, I say a prayer for all the Marys in my life, the Marys who are the source of new life not only for me but in all the relationships around them. Thank you, Marys!

Who are the Marys that you know who bring forth new life? How have they affected you?

Mary, be with us as we seek to be a source of new life and hope in the world, to be the bearer of Christ to all we encounter in our life

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

Join the nuns and community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

We offer this Saints Novena in gratitude for the ways God lives and moves and has being in the lives of all the saints who are part of this online community. We give thanks for you and for the gift of God that you are to us and to the world. It is because of people like you that there is this awesome place of hospitality and gospel community. This novena is written by the A Nun’s Life Community.

1Saints Novena – Mary our Sister – by “Bcoop”

Reflection: With an elevated title like “Mother of God”, we might forget that Mary was a young Jewish girl from Palestine. She lived in a Country dominated by a foreign power, knew the violence of occupation, of fear, of anger at injustice, and probably joined in lamenting the slowness of Israel’s God in rescuing the people. Mary spent her days doing the routine stuff of life, like going to the village well to draw water for her family or learning to cook as her mother did. She went to the Temple as the Law of Moses prescribed. She learned to listen to what was in her heart. One day, she became pregnant with new life and we all know where that led. We might think that because she was Jesus’ mother she is elevated beyond anything we might aspire to. But when Jesus praises her, it is because she had open ears and a responsive heart to God’s Word.

Like Mary we are pregnant with God’s own life. We are called to give birth to that life in our world and our circumstances. Mary shows us the way in her example of hearing God’s Word and acting with it.

Prayer: Be our companion on this journey dear sister Mary. Teach us the ways of wisdom as you taught your son Torah. Encourage us by your strength, inspire us by your attentiveness, and be our midwife in witnessing to Christ in our life.

Suggested Reading:

• Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Elizabeth A. Johnson
• Dangerous Memories: A Mosaic of Mary in Scripture by Elizabeth A Johnson
• Miryam of Judah: Witness in Truth and Tradition by Ann Johnson

Join A Nun’s Life Community for a day of events in honor of All Saints! See the schedule for the day’s events in the sidebar to the right. And please consider participating in A Nun’s Life fundraiser going on now through November 9. We need to raise $10,000 for much needed equipment and supplies. See our fundraiser page for more information. You may be eligible to win a brand-new iPad 2!

Happy Feast of the Assumption! A Nun’s Life community member Marla Thurman wrote today’s blog post in honor of the feast day.

Assumption of Mary (14th c.) housed in Ávila Cathedral museum; photo by Lawrence OP on Flickr

I was directing a retreat for 22 college students when Pope John Paul II died. The theme of our retreat was “I Hope You Dance,” and suddenly everyone stopped rejoicing and became somber. I allowed a couple of hours for sadness, but then I pushed on with the joyful tone of the retreat.

“Should we be having a good time?” a student asked.

“If we believe what we say we believe, yes,” I told her. “If we truly believe that Heaven is the reward for those that do good, and if we believe that Heaven is amazing and beautiful, of course we should be having a good time! The pope is in Heaven experiencing more joy than he ever did on this earth. We should be celebrating!”

The feast of the Assumption of Mary is about just that. Sometimes referred to as “Mary’s Heavenly Birthday,” the Assumption is when we celebrate that Mary’s body and soul were taken up into heaven. Most Church discussion on the Assumption, which was not official Church doctrine until 1950, says that Mary actually died here on earth before being assumed, but it is “okay” with the Church to believe she never died. The issue isn’t forced because Church leaders know it is more important for us to understand where she ended up. To celebrate Mary’s entrance into Heaven is only right. No other person deserved Heaven more.

The custom of celebrating that transition from earthly life to everlasting life is what makes sense for Catholics as a hopeful people. When my best friend died of inflammatory breast cancer in 2001, a prayer card at her funeral read:

Marianne Tillman
Born September 30, 1949
Born to Eternal Life August 1, 2001

I see these announcements at most funerals now. As Catholics, we do hope for a life after this one, we do hope in Heaven. And if we believe that Heaven is joy, how could we not celebrate going there? When we lose those we love and are filled with grief, can we not also rejoice in the belief that they truly are in a happier, more beautiful place?

The Assumption of Mary has many theological implications, most far beyond my ken, but I acknowledge the feast with thanksgiving that there is, indeed, something more for all of us after this life, and it is a wonderful thing to hope for. While no one wants to rush, a “heavenly birthday” can only be awesome.

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Martha and invite you to enter into her story with our guest blogger and friend Marguerite ….

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Jan Vermeeer Van Delft, 1654-5

Among other things, Saint Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, is the patroness of single laywomen, butlers, cooks, dietitians, servers, homemakers, innkeepers, travelers, and of the village of Villajoyosa, Spain, which annually celebrates a 250-year old festival commemorating Martha’s resucing the village from an attack by Berber pirates in 1538. According to legend, Martha came to the rescue of the townsfolk by causing a flash flood that wiped out the enemy fleet, thus preventing the corsairs from reaching the coast.

I’ve always admired Martha’s spunk in the Gospel stories found in Luke and John, even though I think that Martha often got the short end of the bargain, as when she asked Jesus to tell Mary to give her a hand in the kitchen, and Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part. Here’s Martha with a houseful of company, and who’s going to feed and take care of them if she doesn’t? On the other hand, what good Jewish woman who keeps a kosher house is going to let all those big fishermen muck about in her kitchen?

She wasn’t shy about making her feelings known, even to Jesus. When their brother Lazarus died, both Martha and her sister Mary were grief-stricken. But while Mary wept, Martha went out to meet Jesus when He arrived at their house, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, God will give you what you ask.” (John 11:21,32)

And when Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus and commands that it be opened, the ever practical Martha says, “Lord, he’s been in there for four days. There will be a stench!”
(John 11:39-40)

But have you ever wondered what happened to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus after the Resurrection?

Orthodox tradition says that Martha’s brother Lazarus was cast out of Jerusalem in the persecution against the Jerusalem Church following the martyrdom of St. Stephen. His sisters Mary and Martha fled Judea with him, assisting him in the proclaiming of the Gospel in various lands. The three later moved to Cyprus, where Lazarus became the first Bishop of Kition (modern Larnaca). According to this tradition, all three died in Cyprus.

Saint Martha and the Dragon

But there’s another story, this one from Provence. According to the 13^th century “Golden Legend,” around 48 A.D., Martha, Mary, and Lazarus left Judea and went to what is now France, and there they converted the people to the faith. Martha preached to the people, and she was “courteous and gracious to them.” Now, keep in mind that this is a legend, but one with an interesting lesson to it. According to Provençal tradition, after the ascension of our Lord, when the disciples were departed, Martha with her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary and many others, were put into a ship without sail, oars, or rudder, which by the conduct of our Lord they came all to Marseilles, and after came to the territory of Aix, in Provence.

Saint Martha and the Tarasque, from a 15th century manuscript

The legend relates that Martha went to Tarascon on the Rhone River, where a terrible dragon, the Tarasque, lay hiding in the woods and lurking in the river, “perishing those that passed by and drowning ships.

At the behest of the people in the region, Martha went into the wood, and found Tarasque eating a man. She cast holy water on the dragon and showed to him the cross. Tarasque was overcome, and while he was standing “still as a sheep,” she bound him with her own girdle, and then he was slain with spears of the people.

According to the story, Martha and Mary lived out the rest of their days in Tarascon, and were daily occupied in daily prayers and in fasting, and thereafter gathered together a great convent of sisters and built a fair church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Martha’s tomb is located in the crypt of the local Collegiate Church in Tarascon.

I’m intrigued by the legend of Saint Martha and the Dragon. She did not slay the dragon, but rather incapacitated it by the sprinkling with holy water. My mother, my great-aunts, and my cousin Martha tamed many of their own personal dragons (and those of the family, too) by means of prayer and sprinkling with holy water and by the power of faith—and never missed serving up a good meal! I think that the Marthas of this world are still out there, taking care of people, facing down a variety of dragons, speaking their minds, and continuing the work of Jesus in a host of practical ways.

Who are the Marthas in your life, and how do they influence you?

Credits: Wikipedia: Saint Martha

* * *

The Sisters are attending congregational meetings and will be podcasting from the IHM Mothership in Monroe, Michigan. Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your timezone)

We are honored to welcome again guest blogger and friend, Lisa Burke …

July 26th is, liturgically speaking, the feast of St. Ann and St. Joachim. Growing up it was a popular day to celebrate St. Ann with parish festivals and fireworks (the St. Ann feast in Hoboken, NJ is legendary). With a grandmother named Anne, it was also a day to give special thanks for her and to remember the ways in which she mirrored St. Ann(e).

Ten years ago when I relocated to the central part of New Jersey, I found myself at the Church of Saint Ann, the parish where I have since been a member. Each year the parish holds a preparatory novena for the feast that is a combination of the traditional novena and a parish renewal wherein a guest preacher – often a priest, not always – leads us in a series of reflections. When my work scheduled allowed me greater involvement in the nuts and bolts of parish life, the Novena Committee was the first activity I officially joined. Since then, I have had the standing privilege of “authoring” the daily general intercessions for the nine days of the novena. Having the opportunity to pre-pray the readings and themes of the novena has provided an additional layer of engagement with the feast that we celebrate today.

Catholics, for the most part, are probably pretty familiar with the Feast of the Holy Family that is celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas, a day set aside to honor the Holy Family into which Jesus was born, a family that provides a model for families today, regardless of their specific composition. But in reality, there was an earlier Holy Family of Nazareth, the family into which Mary, the immaculate conceived Mother of God was born, the family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary.

While it is common to relate to Ann and Joachim as the grandparents of Jesus and the parents of Mary, I think it is beneficial today, particularly in an era where diversity in the composition of families is more prominent and (unfortunately) sometimes more contested, to consider the first Holy Family of Nazareth.

Much of what we believe about Ann and Joachim comes to us through tradition based on the Protoevangelium (or Infancy Gospel) of St. James. In our minds, we understand Ann and Joachim to be somewhat older, perhaps around the age of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who tradition holds was the first cousin of Ann (or at least that is what I recall learning). So here we have the first Holy Family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary.

To understand the family, it is important to understand Ann and Joachim as individuals, as a couple, and as parents. Faithful, prayerful, devout. These three powerful adjectives tell us a lot about them. Trusting, confident, and hopeful. These three adjectives tell us a lot as well. But let’s think, too, about what we don’t often focus on, the preoccupations, concerns, and worries they must have had as they raised Mary and as they grew older. Clearly faith and, yes, spirituality (although that would not have been a common term at that time) were essential components of their lives. I can see them in my mind’s eyes participating the rituals and worship of the Jewish tradition on a regular basis. I can see them relying on the Scriptures of the Torah, and I can hear them engaging in the psalms as their way to connect with the Most Sacred G-d. I can imagine them working daily and toiling to sustain a home where G-d was all and all lived for G-d and one another. I can see Ann and Joachim raising their daughter to be a woman who would be betrothed to a man of G-d. Could they ever have imagined that she in fact would be the Spouse of G-d and bear in her own body the Savior of the World?

In that way, Ann and Joachim are beautiful models for parents and caregivers today. They provide us with real life people who dealt with all the unknowns life has to offer and faced the uncertainties of life with trust, faith, confidence, hope, and surrender.

It’s really impossible to appreciate fully the Holy Family (of the New Covenant) who we celebrate at Christmas without getting to know better the first Holy Family of Nazareth, and it’s limited in meaning to honor the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus if we don’t recognize the Holy Family of today, the families in which we find ourselves, whether they are blood families, spirit families, religious families, or chosen families.

Today, join me in taking time to contemplate the family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary and what treasures of faith and wisdom that Holy Family offers me and you. Today, join me in considering how the Holy Family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary made possible – and in fact was essential to – the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Today, join me in thanking God for the Holy Family of Today, the many Holy Families, I have encountered in my own life. Today, join me in lifting up in prayer the rich diversity of families who comprise the one human family where all are made in the image and likeness of God and all are invited to “Love one another as I have loved you.”

* * *

The Sisters are attending congregational meetings and will be podcasting from the IHM Mothership in Monroe, Michigan. Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your timezone)

A guest blog post by friend and writer Marla H. Thurman

Has anyone else ever noticed that if Mary comes to visit, a person’s chances of becoming a saint increase exponentially?

The Blessed Mother has quite a history of seeking out the small and disenfranchised. She has appeared to children, to laborers in the fields, and to humble priests and nuns all over the world.

It should be no surprise, then, that in the thirteenth century Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of the Carmelites, appeared to an 84 year old hermit who lived in the hollow of an oak tree.

And yet, people doubt the story of Simon Stock.

The meeting of the saint and the Mother of God is one disputed by church leaders. Perhaps there never was a Simon Stock, lately a saint. Maybe the story is just a tool the Carmelites used to encourage a devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Real or legend, Simon Stock is a beautiful example of how to live out one’s vocation. He prayed without ceasing. He was unconcerned with material goods. He devoted himself to being like Mary. When he and his Carmelite friars were persecuted by government and church officials, Simon turned in complete trust to Mary to save them all. And save them she did. Not only did they survive that earthly persecution, they received a promise from Our Lady herself that if they persevered in their vocations they would absolutely go to Heaven.

The promise still stands, not just for the Carmelites, but for any and all of us who listen to God’s call and respond to the best of our abilities. We can’t all see Mary, and we can’t all be canonized, but we can sincerely strive to be all God intended. Our Lady of Mount Carmel wouldn’t ask for less.

Note: Primetime, an ABC news magazine, had a story Wednesday, June 22 about Mary appearing at a Pennsylvania tree stump! Maybe she was looking for the next Simon Stock! Check out “The Miracle Mysteries” on Hulu from ABC

A guest blog post by friend and writer Lisa Burke, New Jersey

In the journey of Discernment (yes, discernment with a capital D) to figure out the big life questions, “Who am I called to be? How I am called to live the Who that God has made me? Where and in what ways I am called to serve and consecrate myself?” we can become surrounded by many inspiring role models and attractive ways of life. As we encounter people who have expanded their baptismal consecration through the profession of the evangelical counsels, namely poverty, chastity, and obedience, through religious life, we find ourselves often times wondering if we can live up to the example of Sister A, or Sister B, or Sister C. While seeking to replicate the good examples of people who inspire and motivate us is a beautiful thing, we need not seek to be or copy another person’s life. As St. Francis of Assisi said to his young followers as he lay on his death bed, “I have done what was mine to do. May Christ now teach you what you are to do.” Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said to a woman who lived life with multiple sclerosis, “What you can do, I cannot. What I can do, you cannot. But together we can do something beautiful for God.”

Both of these statements are profoundly powerful and liberating. The realization that each of us has our own unique call, our own identity in the heart of God, is a beautiful realization. It allows us to accept the opportunities for grace, transformation, service, and love that come to us each and every day, knowing that God has given us those encounters in order to live out what is ours to do.

Today the Church honors the life and call of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. I first “encountered” Kateri when I was a child. My middle sister is named Kathy, and while she was named for a paternal aunt of ours, my mother held Kateri as a kind of patron for her. Kateri was a Mohawk-Algonguin woman who lived 24 short years from 1656-1680. A beautiful young woman, her life was scarred with crosses from a very early age. Despite the difficulties she lived, Kateri sought to live God’s love at every moment. After having converted to Catholicism, she was ostracized and outcast by the non-Christian members of her community. She eventually moved to a community of Native American Christians in Quebec. There she lived a life of prayer, sacrifice and ministry to the infirm and elderly. One year before her death, she made a vow of chastity, an expression of her consecrated virginity. On April 17, 1680, Kateri, in the words of Catherine of Siena, “closed her eyes to this world and opened them to the next.” Her final words were, “Jesus, I love you!”

“Jesus, I love you!” is what our journeys of discernment are about, figuring out how God dreams for us to express most fully our love for God and experience most fully God’s love for us as we let our lives be poured out as bread and wine for a world that is hungry and thirsty for God. As many of in our community look to religious life and seek to identify the congregation/community to which they are called, the group of women (or men) among whom they can best live out their baptismal call and religious consecration, bear in mind that even when all or many members are engaged in the same or similar ministry or way of life, each of us still our own work to do.

As all of us, regardless of where we are in life, seek to live out God’s dream for us on a daily basis, I leave you with these words of John Henry Newman (Meditations & Devotions), which have always been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me as I have endeavored to discern both the big and small questions of my life’s journey.

God has created me to do him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.
I have my mission;
I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
I have a part in a great work;
I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught.
I shall do good, I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace,
a preacher of truth in my own place,
while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.

"Elizabeth Greets Mary," part of Dark and Beautiful, An Exhibit of Paintings by Fr. Jim Hasse, SJ, at the Marian Library of the University of Dayton

Today is one of my most favorite feasts of the year: The Visitation which is proclaimed in Luke 1: 39-56.

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,
and my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior.

For you have looked with favor
upon your lowly servant,
and from this day forward
all generations will call me blessed.

For you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
and holy is your Name.

Your mercy reaches from age to age
for those who fear you.
You have shown strength with your arm;
and have scattered the proud in their conceit;

you have deposed the mighty from their thrones
and raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
while you have sent the rich away empty.

You have come to the aid of Israel your servant,
mindful of your mercy—
the promise you made to our ancestors –
to Sarah and Abraham
and their descendants forever.

And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.

What is a significant moment of “visitation” in your own life? How did this experience lead to a “magnificat” of praise to God?

AS072 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 19, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: the surfing Madonna, purgatory discovery, why Jesus was baptized, dealing with mockers and naysayers, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How to deal with people who mock your life and the choices you’ve made
• Is it a myth or legend or truth that Saint Patrick discovered Purgatory?
• Why Jesus was baptized
• An apparition of Mary that’s causing waves in one California town
• Up for discussion: “The more someone is present on the internet, the less they are present in real life.”

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS066 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 1, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: trash-talkin nuns, questions about becoming a religious after having been in prison or divorced, the vow of obedience, bathtub Marys, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is the converse of the vow of obedience? Is that a struggle for you in everyday life?
• Is a divorced person whose ex-husband dies free to become a nun?
• The sisters consider a new podcast series … Trash-Talkin’ Nuns
• Is it possible to enter a religious community after been a felon?
• What’s the deal with bathtub Marys?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from which you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS060 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: praying to Mary, missing God’s call, nuns in India, Saint Scholastica, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Do Catholics pray to Mary? What is the Church’s teaching, especially in
  light of 1 Timothy 2:5?
• Finding Catholic sisters in India — be sure to check out our interview with Sister Sabitha
• Can you become a nun if you have a child? (see also episode AS059 where Sister Hildegard talks about being a contemplative nun with grandchildren!)
• Is it possible to miss God’s call? What do I do if I did?
• Thoughts on Thursday’s feast of Saint Scholastica

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

This morning, I tried to imagine a life free from sin. It was a lot harder than I expected.

My ponderings were inspired by today’s feast day, the Immaculate Conception of Mary. According to Catholic doctrine, from the first moment of Mary’s existence, God preserved her from original sin and filled her with grace. Doctrine tells us that Mary remained sinless throughout her life.

What caused my difficulty was that I equated a sinless life with a perfect life. After all, if I never sinned, wouldn’t my life be perfect? Even if the people around me weren’t perfect, shouldn’t sinlessness protect me, so that stuff like anger or violence or greed wouldn’t impinge upon my perfect life?

Then I thought about Mary. She was sinless, yet her life was far from perfect. At one point, Mary faced the prospect of being single mom in a culture that looked down on unmarried mothers. When she was ready to give birth, she and Joseph were on the road, not with family who could help with the birth and the new baby. Her son Jesus was a great guy, but the ups and downs of his life greatly affected Mary, and she stayed with him through it all. Despite her sinlessness, Mary was one of us – a person who experienced joy and sorry, who cared for her family and neighbors, and who loved deeply.

So, maybe a sinless life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not that I have to worry about it. Sorta like water under the bridge on that one. But Mary shows me that what matters is not a sinless or a perfect life. What matters is the fullness of life—the ability to embrace my own humanity and that of others, with all its eccentricities, joys, weaknesses, and challenges.

What message does Mary have for you today? Happy Feast Day!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

AS048 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 12, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: images of God, dreaming about Jesus, priesthood and/or romance, Blessed Mary v. Mary Magdalen, becoming Catholic, serving God in blue jeans!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

This is a special Ask Sister IHM Edition which was broadcast from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, before a live studio audience of IHM Sisters. In addition hosts Sisters Maxine and Julie were joined by their IHM Sisters Theresa Koernke and Angela Hibbard, both trained in theology and in liturgy.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is it okay to be more of a “Mary Magdalen” than a “Blessed Mary,” that is, to be not quite so perfect, to serve God and still wear our blue jeans?
• What is your image of God? Can we have more than one image of God? Do our images of God ever change?
• Can you discern a calling to become a priest and have a romantic relationship simultaneously?
• What does it mean if you have dreams about Jesus? And what do nuns dream about?
• I’m on the fence about becoming Catholic. What should I do? What questions would be helpful for me to ask to help me figure out what to do?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ And Mary said,

My soul magnifies my God!
My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior
whose glance has rested on me,
a poor and humble servant.

From this day forth
all shall speak of me as blessed.

The Almighty has done wondrous deeds for me.
May the name of the Most High be praised.

God’s mercy reaches out from age to age,
touching all the faithful.

The proud have lost their thrones
while God’s hand has raised up the lowly.

The hungry are filled with all god
while the rich go away empty-handed.

Ever present to our God
are the promises made to our ancestors:
To Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants, mercy forever! (Luke 1:39-55)

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Giotto's Birth of Mary in the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, Veneto, Italy) ca 1305

Today we celebrate the birth of Mary. Although scripture says nothing about the circumstances of her birth, it is rich in stories about her adult life. The stories are the source of lots of images and titles for Mary. One of the best known is Theotokos, the God-Bearer.

I love this particular image of Mary and what it symbolizes. For Mary, “God-bearing” wasn’t a one-time event. It didn’t end when Jesus was born. Mary witnessed to God’s goodness and kindness with her whole life. Scripture tells of many times when Mary stepped in to help others, sometimes asking her son to lend a hand too, as in the wedding feast at Cana. She cared for the people in her life and was a faithful friend, mother, and wife. To me, the image of Mary as God-Bearer reminds me that we all have the capacity to be “God-bearers” through the compassion and love we extend to others. So, my birthday gift to Mary is the extra special attention I’ll give to being the best God-bearer I can today.

What images of Mary have special meaning for you? How will you celebrate Mary’s birthday?

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Interested in using social media and the internet for your ministry? Join us for a live broadcast of our new Digital Ministry podcast this Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Our guest is Catholic social media maven Lisa M. Hendey of CatholicMom.com.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote a great piece on attending Catholic grade school. In Mary we crown thee with blossoms today (Chicago Sun-Times, August 4, 2010) Ebert recounts his experiences at Saint Mary’s Grade School in Champaign, Illinois, including stories about the Dominican nuns who taught him.

We [were] taught by Dominican nuns who knew their subjects cold, gave us their full-time attention, were gifted teachers and commanded order and respect in the classroom. For eight years we were drilled on reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion. Periods were devoted to history, geography and science, taught from textbooks without visual aids or any other facilities. We learned how to write well, spell, and god knows we learned how to diagram a sentence. And we looped away at the Palmer Handwriting Method, neatly writing JMJ at the top of every page, for Jesus, Mary and Joseph, who would bless our lessons, but not always.

…

The school building had a basement for Sister Ambrosetta’s first grade room, the cafeteria and the gymnasium. The gym was just slightly larger than a basketball court, and had two or three rows of seats across one of the short ends. Pads under the baskets protected us from crashing into the walls. Our coach was the tomboy Sister Marie Donald, who tucked up the hems of her habit and dribbled and shot better than any of us. She taught second and third grades on the second floor, and it was there we had what passed for school band practice. She passed around triangles, tambourines, ratcheted sticks, maracas and wooden blocks, and we formed a rhythm section to pound, scrape, ding and rattle along with music on 78 rpm records. Fifth and sixth grades were taught by Sister Nathan, a fresh-faced favorite who usually seemed amused by us. We took this as a sign of favor.

…

Sister Rosanne, an immensely kind woman, very smart about current events, taught seventh and eighth grades. Sister Nathan, a great favorite with the students, taught third and fourth, and then moved right along with us to fifth and sixth. I can’t account for second grade; in my memory, Sister Ambrosetta only taught first, but maybe we were all so young we seemed the same to one another. The school was supervised by Sister Gilberta. To be sent to the principal’s office was a special damnation. We feared her, because we feared the feeling of guilt. None of these nuns were “strict” in the sense usually meant. They simply assumed we would behaved, and for the most part we did. No sister ever laid a hand on any student as far as I know. Nor did they raise their voices. It was an orderly school. We regarded the nuns with a species of awe, because they were the brides of Christ and had the entire Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church backing them up.

Read the full article, and some of the comments too! One of Ebert’s classmates who is pictured in one of the photos even comments!

Use the comment box below to offer your thoughts on Ebert’s piece. We’d love to hear from you. Let’s get the conversation going!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

You may notice that many Catholic sisters and nuns have the name “Mary” included in some form in their religious name. In a recent edition of our IHM Archives News (May 2010), our intrepid archivist Donna Westley looked at this custom in the IHM tradition. (Today we use our baptismal names as our religious names so “Mary” or its derivations are present only if it was originally part of one’s baptismal name). Here’s some of that article along with additional details I gleaned from my email conversation with Donna.

Why take on a religious name? A new name in religion signified a commitment to a new way of life. For more info, check out our earlier blog post responding to Lou’s question What is the reasoning behind a nun or sister choosing a religious name?

Why the name “Mary”? Our IHM Congregation has a special devotion to Mary which has manifest itself in various ways throughout our history up to today. Co-founder Father Louis Florent Gillet, CSsR wrote about our special relationship with Mary in the original IHM Rule of Life: “The principal Patroness of the Institute will be the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Immaculate, whose feast is celebrated the eighth of December.” The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had just been issued in 1854, just 9 years after our congregation’s founding.

The earliest commentary on the constitutions and customs that Donna found was written by Mother Gertrude Gerretsen (1864-1869). She writes:

“Devotion to the Mother of God has always been dear to religious persons. But as this congregation is immediately under her protection and as she is (under God) its principal protectress, the sisters shall always have the warmest and most affectionate devotion to her; regarding her in a special manner as their Mother and the great model they are obliged to imitate, that by her intercession and under her powerful protection they may be enabled to fulfill the obligations of this holy Institute and implant Jesus Christ in the hearts of the children they are charged to instruct.”

Mother Gertrude goes on in detail about specific devotions: rosary, novenas, celebration of feasts, the month of May, etc.

What was the Sister Mary custom with IHM Sisters? The name of Mary, although not always spoken or written at the beginning of our religious names, was always formally there until 1920.

Indeed, a page in co-founder Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin’s Notes Regarding the Foundation supports the longstanding nature of this practice. Referring to receptions and professions, she says.

“I will now give the religious names of those 12 Sisters: Igidius, Johanna, Gerard, Liguori, Agnes, Anthony, Ignatius, Xavier, Stanislas, Colette, Gertrude, Clara, it is not necessary to say that every one had the name of Mary preceding the other name as it is customary with us.”

Looking over the religious names of members in our IHM congregation from the beginnings in 1845 and up to the 1920s, it appears the majority of sisters had a single name, preceded by Mary, Maria, Marie, or just the letter “M.”

In 1920, Sister Margaret Mary (Anna) Look was the first Monroe IHM to have a name that did not have “Mary” at the beginning. In a letter written to archivist Celeste Rabaut, IHM, on November 9, 1984, Margaret Mary explained, “St. Margaret Mary was canonized in May 1920. I was received into the community July 22, 1920, and given the name Sister Margaret Mary—coveted by many previously but not given out because ‘Mary’ preceded all names up to that time.”

After Margaret Mary, others began to have Mary, Marie, or Maria as the second part of their name.  We also began to see Latin names like Cor Mariae, Beata Maria, Maria Pacis as well as titles like Marie de Lourdes and Mary de Montfort, Marie Rosary and Mary Immaculate given as religious names.

In the Marian year (1954) almost all the postulants received were given a name with Mary, Marie, or a title of Mary — not just that initial “M.

If you have a Mary naming custom in your community or personally, let us know!

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Yesterday at the gym I was doing my cardio and right across from me was a older man on the stationary bike. He was cruising along reading a magazine. I noticed that he had a rosary around his neck. I have never worn a Rosary around my neck because it was not part of my Catholic upbringing and it seemed to tread close to being disrespectful. I remember in high school going to the mall with friends and seeing a Rosary hanging with “the other jewelry” and I almost bought it just to redeem it.

Prayer for healing at St. Agilolph's shrine

So as I watched this guy, I tried to figure out what he was all about. Was it a sign of his faith? Was it random? Did it match his other accessories? No chance I was going to figure it out. But it got me thinking about what the deal is with wearing a Rosary around one’s neck. Since I doubted this information would be in the Catechism, I turned to my next source of information: the Internet.

Here’s what I found about why people wear a Rosary around their neck:

• a fad for some younger folks who aren’t particularly religious
• people need a sign of something holy nearby (e.g., troops, prisoners)
• to  show that one is Catholic
• a cultural custom among people of Mexico
• a person with memory issues can easily find it
• a gang symbol for some gangs
• a desire to emulate singer Madonna
• to show respect for Mary

Apparently this is not a recent phenomenon. The blog Paternosters notes that wearing Rosaries is at least centuries old. Some for social status and some for religious purposes too. There’s a series of blog posts dedicated to this: If you’ve got it, flaunt it, Rosaries on belts, Tying one on, Ring around the collar, Loops, drapes and dangles, Just hanging around, and What did Margaret mean?

Bono from U2 wears and displays the Rosary given him by Pope John Paul II

To further contextualize the question of wearing a Rosary around one’s neck, keep in mind that many of us hang Rosaries or Rosary-esque items from ourselves and our cars all the time! A rosary hanging from the rear view mirror of a car (presumably a Catholic car) or a bed post, a Rosary ring or bracelet, a Rosary keychain, and I’ve even seen Rosary tattoos.

From the variety of Catholic perspectives I’ve seen on this, it seems the general consensus is that so long as it is done with respect, it is okay. And, I suppose, even if it is done without respect, is it possible that God might still take that as an opportunity to bring some good in the world? Yeah, I kinda think God is capable of that!

Have you encountered this custom of wearing a Rosary around the neck? What do you think?

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Join us for prayer this evening during our live Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/live .

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes! I wanted to post a reflection about Mary today but I’ve run out of time! Headed to the Motherhouse to visit with my IHM Sisters and to collaborate on some projects.

So I turn over the blog post to you — Who is Our Lady of Lourdes? What meaning does she have for you this day? What other names for Mary are particularly meaningful for you and why?

Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke 1:39-45. It is one of my favorite readings because it is the story of the Visitation, of Mary visiting Elizabeth to share the news that she is pregnant with Jesus. This story is an important one to us as IHM Sisters and it is the name of our spirituality center — “We take our inspiration from the visit between Mary and Elizabeth who spent time together sharing their joys and hopes, their confusion and their fears as they tried to be faithful to what God was asking of them.” (Visitation North Spirituality Center)

Mary set out and hurried to the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.

As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored, that the mother of the Messiah should come to me? The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who believed that what Our God said to her would be accomplished!”  (Luke 1:39-45)

In what way does this gospel story of the Visitation speak to you this day?

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Please join us at 6:00 p.m. CST (your time zone) for Praying with the Sisters podcast, a ministry of A Nun’s Life. Visit aNunsLife.org/LIVE. This will be our last podcast through the holidays. We’ll be back on Monday, December 28. Also, please know we are trying out new podcasting technology so last Friday we had a slightly different format but today we are using the regular one. More to come in the new year!

Today’s Scripture reading is one of my favorites. It is 17 glorious verses naming the ancestors of Jesus. The fun starts with Abraham and Sarah and goes through Judah and Tamar, Ruth and Boaz, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, up to and including Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. “Of her,” writes Matthew, “was born Jesus who is called the Christ.” (Matthew 1:1-17)

Why a lengthy genealogy of Jesus? Read Robert P. Maloney, C.M., of the Congregation of the Mission, The Genealogy of Jesus in America Magazine (December 17, 2007).

Why do I love it so? Through there are controversies around the genealogy and how it adds up, how it matches the genealogy in Luke’s gospel, and what it all really means, there is a simple truth that speaks loud and clear to me. The genealogy gives us a sense of Jesus’ people and of how anticipation of Jesus has been interwoven throughout history long before Mary first got word from the angel that she was carrying the child of God. The genealogy of Jesus also reminds my of my people, of how my life is rooted in my family, my grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth.

In my IHM congregation, there is a saying that we use often: “Everything before us brought us to this moment, standing on the threshold of a brand new day.” In light of today’s reading, we can also say “Everyone before us brought us to this moment …” Like any family “everything” and “everyone” in our history hasn’t always been that pretty, but still, it has all brought us to this moment. Even Jesus had some racy ancestors yet I’d say he turned out okay!

So today let us celebrate our people — our own ancestors and our spiritual ancestors through Jesus the Christ born of Mary.

What familial or spiritual ancestor do you celebrate today?

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Join A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). Tomorrow is the Ask Sister Podcast. If you have questions for us, please email them to us.

It is December 8 and that means it’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the high holy days for us as Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters. Here are a couple of posts about this feast day, one from my dear friend and sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, called Lily of My Heart and the other is one I wrote for the Young Women and Catholicism blog.

For today, I have chosen an icon from Jesuit Father William McNichols, SJ. Though he has one of the Immaculate Conception, I chose this icon called The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart because it is stunning and speaks to me of this Advent season — the coming of God in our midst, the dawn of a new day.

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart icon by Fr. William McNichols, SJ

How does this icon speak to you? What words of prayer or reflection or action does it inspire in you?

Happy feast day to you!

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Join A Nun’s Life community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST
(your time zone).

September 8th is the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. It caught me off guard a bit today because I’m used to seeing the feast listed as “the birth of the BVM” not “the birthday of the BVM”. A minor change of words, but enough to throw me. When I saw “birthday” I immediately had images of a young child celebrating their birthday with cake, balloons, presents, and friends. Juxtaposing that image with the great BVM, the Blessed Virgin Mary, seemed almost sacrilegious.

The Birth of the Virgin, a painting by Francisco de Zurbarán

Yet … it got me thinking. First Mary didn’t (and probably doesn’t even now) spend her days frozen in an untouchable marble pose. She was a person like you and I (albeit without sin) who had a life, daily chores, friends, field trips, and other ordinary “stuff” of life. She also had a childhood, and parents Ann and Joachim. Granted, her life — and any celebration of a birthday she might have had — would have looked very different from ours today, but I can’t help imagining a little Mary running around with her family and friends, enjoying a feast or something to celebrate her life. It gives me pause because I don’t ordinarily see Mary this way, as a child doing normal kid things. I usually only see her as a young woman growing in her relationship with God through her “Yes” to bear the Son of God all the way through the Pentecost event and her encounter with the Holy Spirit. But a child?

Today I think I’m going to spend more time getting to know Mary through this other image, a child full of life and mischief and fun and energy! And I’m going go find my copy of Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Sister Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, in which “Johnson offers an interpretation of Mary that is theologically sound, spiritually empowering, ethically challenging, socially liberating, and ecumenically fruitful.” I’ll be interested to see what she says of Mary’s childhood.

How do you think of Mary? Is there a particular image or title of Mary that speaks to you the most? How do you relate to Mary in day to day life?

Join Sister Maxine for prayer on this feast day today at 12 noon (Central Time/UTC-5) at http://anunslife.org/live.

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 have been doing a lot of thinking on, praying with, and studying of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This image of Mary is near and dear to my own heart as it is the namesake of my own religious congregation. But recently it has been an image — and a certain kind of devotion — that has drawn me in, almost as if asking me, inviting me, to go deeper.

I didn’t really grow up with Catholic devotions though the sacredness and mystery of Catholic devotions surrounded me like incense on a high holy day. As a kid, I wondered how people could be so into their devotion, what attracted them so much. No devotion ever gave me that kind of feel so I figured I was either doing something wrong or I just wasn’t religious enough.

Things have changed since I was a child. I look at and experience Catholic devotions in a very different way, though the feeling of sacredness and mystery are still there. As Mary and the image of her immaculate heart have stayed and grown with me, I’m in a different place to consider what devotion means to me and what this image in particular means to me as well as within the Church’s tradition and the lived faith of others.

Coincidentally (in fact I remembered this just as I was writing this post) I recently discovered a book we published at Loyola Press in our company library: Awake My Soul: Contemporary Catholics on Traditional Devotions It’s got me wondering what Catholic devotions mean to other people.

How are you with devotions? What are especially meaningful to you and how does it engage you, call to you deep within your spirit?

I just saw the movie The Secret Life of Bees. I had read the book by Sue Monk Kidd a while back when it first came out. I loved the book and so I was nervous about seeing the movie because something is always different. But I figured Queen Latifah, whom I adore, was in the movie so it would at least be enjoyable to see her. Still I had some second thoughts, especially after my friends bailed on me. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a movie by myself. Seemed a little weird, but I went with it. In fact this was probably providential because the movie itself went from being a mere movie to something of a meditation for me, something which had I been surrounded by friends or people (there were only 5 or 6 other people there) might not have happened.

The movie, in a nutshell, is as follows:

Set in South Carolina in 1964, it’s the tale of Lily Owens, a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping, honey and the Black Madonna. (source: IMDb.com)

What I love about this movie as well as the book, is the imagery of Mary the Mother of God that pervades and grounds this story. Granted, Kidd did fictionalize a lot of the stuff around Mary lore, but it’s still compelling.

The imagery begins with a line from Lily at the beginning of the movie. (A lily flower, by the way, is a symbol for Mary.) Lily is fascinated by the arrival of bees and even imagines that they are swarming in her room as she lies awake in bed at night. Lily notes, “[The bees] showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary. I know it’s forward to compare my small life to hers, but I have good reason to believe she wouldn’t mind.”

This reference to the Annunciation when Gabriel announced to Mary that she would give birth to the Son of God is crucial to understanding the whole movie (from my humble perspective). The wiser-beyond-her-years Lily has an inkling that her life will forever change in the near future, a change that will bring her new life.

Mary imagery appears again in the form of a label for Black Madonna Honey. It this label that leads Lily from the tyranny of her father T. Ray to the home of May, June, and August Boatwright in Tiburon, South Carolina. It’s as if Mary herself is helping to lead Lily and guide her to new life. FYI while the Black Madonna that the Boatwright Sisters talk about is fiction, there really is a Black Madonna, and in fact, multiple ones.

Mary imagery appears yet again when Lily and Rosaleen first arrive at the Boatwright house. In the parlor is a striking statue of the Boatwright’s Black Madonna. I personally missed the original language of the book that referred to the statue as Our Lady of Chains of which August says that the reference to chains is “not because she wore them, but because she broke them.” Lots can be said about this statue. What was most meaningful to me was the focal point of the statue: Mary’s heart. It is Mary’s heart that the Boatwright sisters, and the prayer group “the Daughters of Mary”, touch for healing, for comfort, for encouragement, for connection to the Sacred. In our Catholic tradition we refer to Mary’s heart as the Immaculate Heart of Mary (something which I want to write more about soon).

One of the most profound images of Mary comes in two of the Boatwright sisters: August (Queen Latifah) and May (Sophie Okonedo). Although we don’t hear much about August’s past, her motherly presence is unmistakable. She is a living image of Mary the Mother of God. Her sister May is also an image of Mary but more so as Our Lady of Sorrows. It is May who represents the Mary who “holds all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She takes in each and every bit of suffering that she sees and feels around her, and holds it in her heart. May’s character is probably my most favorite of the whole movie. She embodies the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the heart pierced by a sword because of the suffering of her child and the suffering of the world.

These are just a few of the powerful images that remain with me from the movie. As I mentioned above, the movie became a kind of prayer for me, leading me to think a lot about Mary (the real one, not the fictionalized one) and about myself as an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister. I will be pondering these things for a while.

Tell me your thoughts about the movie, book, or these reflections …

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.

Happy feast day! Today is a major feast day for us IHMs. It is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This feast celebrates the conception of Mary (Jesus’ conception is celebrated on the feast of the Annunciation) who was born “immaculate”, that is, without sin so that she could be a pure vessel of the holy.

Though this feast day is cause for great celebration, today it is with a mixture of joy and sorrow that I celebrate with my sisters. Today was the funeral of one of my dear sister’s mom. Virginia was a wonderful woman, a loving wife and mother. I am a better person for having known her.

Though the circumstances were tough, it was so good to be with my IHM sisters, many of whom I see only once or twice a year. Though we don’t say these words in our vows, “for better or for worse” definitely describes how we are with one another. Life is real and we hang in there with one another no matter how tough it gets. And we IHMs weren’t the only nuns to come to support our sister and her family. Many sisters from a variety of religious communities came out to mourn and to remember and to celebrate her mom’s life. I am in awe at the sisterhood that exists not only among sisters of the same community but of all sisters. It’s like we are all cousins to one another and share a bond together that is as thick as blood.

On this feast day, please say a prayer for Virginia and her family. And my prayer for you and for me is that we–like Mary and Virginia–be vessels of the holy.

Commenting on Jen’s comment in my last post, I mentioned that it was hard to answer the question “who is Mary for me?” because throughout my life I’ve had different impressions of Mary. There’s the Mary I grew up with — the statue-esque Mary who is lily-white enameled, calm and serene, but also otherworldly, untouchable and frozen in her statue-esque form. I liked this Mary but I really couldn’t connect with her.

One of the only image that I connected with was of the Pieta — that beautiful sculpture by Michaelangelo of Mary holding Jesus after he had been crucified. For some reason, even as a child, I could connect with Mary because I felt so badly for her. Here in this sculpture, the woman who seemed unconnected to me and to everything was now holding her son and I could only imagine the very human emotions that were coursing through her heart. This image gave me a new insight into and love for Mary.

Then there’s the Mary I’ve gotten to know since I was in my early 20s. I began to see that all the many, many “versions” of Mary out there — e.g., Black Madonna of Częstochowa, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of the Wind, Madonna Della Strada, Our Lady of Fatima, and so on — bespoke a Mary who aligns herself with the people, whether they be fishermen sailing the Mediterranean or shepherd children in Fatima. I have always thought how cool it is that Mary has been rendered in so many different ways because she finds a way of connecting with people.

The image that has the deepest meaning for me is the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Since becoming a Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (our full title as IHMs), I’ve wrestled a bit with what this image means to me. The Immaculate Heart of Mary has a strong devotional meaning to it, one which I’ve never really been able to connect with. Yet when Sisters talk about what the Immaculate Heart of Mary means to them, they remind me that Mary was a woman of heart — it was through her heart that she cared for Jesus and for others; that she pondered the things that were happening to her, her son and the world; and that she suffered as she saw her son rejected and killed. This the Mary that I connect with, the one who is willing to have her heart pierced for the sake of God. She is the woman who continues to reach out to all those whose hearts have been pierced through suffering, war, poverty, and violence.

I’ve been reading Robert Barron’s new book, The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism (click for Amazon description). I highly recommend the book. I just got through reading the fourth chapter and in it is one of the most beautiful descriptions of Mary.

Father Barron (a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago and professor of systematic theology) examines the meaning of the biblical narrative of The Wedding at Cana. Here’s the story:

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” (And) Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it. And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

John 2:1-11.

Barron looks at the different symbols employed by John who uses the story as the first of Jesus’ public signs. I was struck by the symbolism and rich meaning of this story which Barron well articulates. Mary of course figures significantly in this story. I’ve heard, taught, prayed with, and encountered many images of Mary in my life. But something about Barron’s description of the symbolism of Mary in this story has just stayed with me. I’ll explore this a little more in future posts. For now, I must hustle to get to the Press so I’ll leave you with this question:

Who is Mary for you?

(a continuation of A Catalogue of My Favorites: Part I)

[M is for Mary, the Mother of God - your favorite term of endearment for her]: Ark of the Covenant

[N is for New Testament - your favorite passage]: “If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32

[O is for Old Testament - your favorite book here]: Isaiah and the prophets

[P is for Psalms - your favorite]: Psalm 63.

[Q is for Quote - saint quote]: “It is better to illuminate than merely to shine.” Saint Thomas Aquinas

[R is for Rosary - your favorite mysteries]: The Luminous Mysteries

[S is for Saint - the one you turn to in time of need - not including the Blessed Virgin Mary]: Saint Teresa of Avila, Mother Theresa McGivney, IHM, Saint Ignatius of Loyola

[T is for Tradition - your favorite Catholic tradition]: The Liturgy of the Hours and anything with incense

[U is for University - Which Catholic university have you attended or are currently attending?]: I’ve got my bachelor’s degree from University of Saint Michael’s College (Basilian) at University of Toronto, my masters from Regis College (Jesuit), and some miscellaneous course work at Sacred Heart Major Seminary (diocesan) and Washington Theological Union (mix of religious communities). I also taught a few semesters at the University of Detroit Mercy.

[V is for Virtue - the one you wish you had]: Prudence … as in “Be not conformed to this world, but he reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

[W is for Way of the Cross - Which station can you most relate to?]: The fourth: Jesus Meets His Mother. In the movie The Passion, when Jesus meets his mother on the road to Calgary, he says “Behold I make all things new.” (from Revelations 21:5) I was so struck by that when I saw the movie that the image continues to stay with me.

[X is for Xaverian Brothers - Do you know who they are?]: Their patron is Saint Francis Xavier.

[Y is for your favorite Catholic musician]: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) — writer, composer, musician

[Z is for Zeal for the faith]: Absolutely!

On December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we celebrate the conception of Mary the Mother of God. According to our church tradition, Mary was conceived without original sin and she remained sinless throughout her life. A popular misconception is that this feast refers to Jesus’ conception. Jesus’ conception is referred to as the Virginal Conception or the Annunciation.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a big feast day in my IHM congregation. (In fact I just got a call from one of my nuns in Monroe to wish me a happy feast … at 6:40 a.m.!) Since our foundation in 1845, our congregation has been under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. I think it was due to the influence of the Redemptorists — Louis Gillet, CSsR, and Theresa Maxis were our founders and our spirituality and way of life has a Redemptorist flavor. 

Gillet had come to the US from Belgium with Fr. Poilvache to do missionary work in 1843. They set up in Monroe, Michigan, and worked at St. Anthony Parish. Eventually they changed the name of the parish to St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. In 1844, Gillet met Theresa Maxis, a member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore. He convinced her of the great needs of the children in Michigan. In November 1845, she left the Oblates and, with Father Gillet, founded the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (see the web page on our founders by the Immaculata IHMs). For more on our founding see my post IHM Founders Day.

Towards the end of November, Theresa and Louis along with the first sisters, began preparing for the new community to receive their habit (which apparently was designed by Louis himself in the style of the Redemptorist habit). This is how the story goes:

By November 30, the first Sunday of Advent, all was in readiness. The founder had given a three-day retreat in preparation for the ceremony. The investiture of Mother Theresa and Sister Ann, held privately, was followed immediately by their profession according to the new rule. After giving each the ring, Father GIllet placed the rule and the bishop’s letter of approval in the hands of Mother Theresa. Since at the time the feast of the Immaculate Conception was not a holyday of obligation [It would become so on December 8, 1854 when it became a dogma of the Church under Pope Pius IX.] it was solemnized on the following Sunday when it fell on a weekday. On December 14, therefore, instead of December 8, the two Sisters renewed their vows in the hands of the vicar-general whom the bishop had sent to receive them. On the same SUnday, at High Mass, Theresa Renauld received the “blessed dress,” as the habit was designated, and the name, Mary Celestine. Father Gillet preached on this occasion “upon the dignity of the religious state, on which he spoke with his usual eloquence.”

The rest, as we say, is history. Check out this homily on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception by a Scranton IHM.

HAPPY FEAST DAY!