2014 christmas enewsletter

Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia LAUDARE, BENEDICERE, PRAEDICARE “TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH” Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia 801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228 www.nashvilledominican.org vocation@op-tn.org

“Today our gaze on the Holy Family lets us also be drawn into the simplicity of the life they led in Nazareth.

It is an example that does our families great good, helping them increasingly to become communities of love and reconciliation, in which tenderness, mutual help, and mutual forgiveness is experienced.”

Pope Francis Feast of the Holy Family 2013

Christmas 2014 Dear Friends, The liturgies of this Christmas season turn our gaze so often toward the members of the Holy Family. In imitation of their example and through their intercession, may all of our daily activities of work and play, rest and prayer be centered on God, Who came to dwell among us.

In Christ, The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

Holiness Highlight

SAINT BASIL the GREAT Born: 330 in Cappadocia Died: January 1, 379 Feast Day: January 2 (shared with St. Gregory Nazianzus) Known for: his upbringing in a family of saints; his friendship with St. Gregory of Nazianzus; his founding of Eastern monasticism; his opposition to the Arian heresy and defense of the Trinitarian doctrine How to imitate the saint: pray with members of your family; include Jesus in your conversations with friends; take time in the day to be silent and contemplate God’s goodness; read the section on the Creed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“If you see your neighbor in sin, don’t look only at this, but also think about what he has done or does that is good, and … you will find that he is better than you.”

– St. Basil the Great, Conversations, 20

Professed Sister’s Reflection This year, as the Church is celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life, she is also placing an emphasis on the family. While we prepare for the World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia in September 2015, an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops was convened this past fall to discuss the family with an Ordinary Synod on the same theme to continue in the fall of 2015. The convergence of these celebrations prompts us to thank God for the diverse vocations in the one Body of the Church and to reflect upon how they mutually support and enrich each other.

My family played a key role in my discernment and continues to influence the living of my vocation. Even though a religious vocation was not explicitly mentioned or encouraged while I was growing up, my parents raised us to trust in God’s providential guidance of our lives. This atmosphere of trust made me open to hear God’s call and gave me the courage to respond with a whole-hearted “yes”.

Now as I strive to live out my consecration as a bride of Christ and a spiritual mother, I find myself looking to my parents’ example. Their commitment to spending time together and their evident enjoyment of each other’s company helped me to approach prayer with greater fidelity and simplicity, open to receiving the joy that comes from being with the Divine Bridegroom. Their self-forgetfulness in serving us their children reminds me of the paradoxical law of love: we only find ourselves in giving ourselves away. As I seek to spend myself for souls, I know one of my responsibilities and privileges is to pray for my family and for the families of the students I teach. I must also witness to them of the surpassing value of the Kingdom of Heaven that, amidst the fleeting pleasures of this world, they may keep their eyes fixed on the happiness that never ends.

Strong and faithful family life has always been a great support to vocations to the religious life. St. Basil the Great, who is known as the father of Eastern monasticism, was born in the fourth century into a family deeply devoted to the faith and committed to practicing its precepts of charity. In one of his letters, he acknowledges how this influenced him: “The idea of God which I had from my blessed mother, and her mother Macrina, …has ever grown within me. I did not change about, as reason unfolded, but perfected the rudiments of faith by them delivered to me” (Epistle 223).

Further, the example of his brother Naucratius, who had lived as a hermit but died young, and the advice of his sister St. Macrina, who had also embraced an ascetical life, to prize spiritual goods above worldy success prompted him to leave his promising position as an orator.

As members of the Pilgrim Church, we are all on the journey to our heavenly homeland. The domestic church of the family has a primary role in developing in children the moral and spiritual compass that will guide them along the vocational path God has marked out for them. Consecrated religious in turn provide eschatological signposts along that path, reminding each baptized Christian that our true home is in heaven.

Events on the Family

A Short Guide to

PRAYING AS A FAMILY GROWING TOGETHER IN FAITH AND LOVE EACH DAY

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ST. THOMAS AQUINAS FORUM: Proclaiming and Living the Gospel of the Family Feb. 13-14, 2015 Speakers include…

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain Helen Alvaré John Garvey Sister Terese Auer, O.P. Richard Bulzacchelli Katrina Zeno sponsored by Aquinas College, Nashville, TN

$19.95 $11.95

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WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES Love is Our Mission: The family fully alive September 22-27, 2015 Philadelphia, PA The World Meeting of Families is a gathering of Catholic families from around the world for days of prayer, catechesis, and celebration of the gift of family.

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As a token of gratitude to our benefactors, the novices prepared boxes with “A Taste of The Motherhouse” in the first weeks of December.

The packages included candied pecans, molasses cookies, pear butter made from pears on the Motherhouse grounds, and shortbread cookies embossed with the Congregation’s shield.

Novitiate sisters made illustrations of the “O Antiphons,” which began at Vespers on December 17 and ushered in the final days before Christmas. The sisters also visited local displays of Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols, and rehearsed “A Christmas Pageant”—a play written by the late Sister Mary David Harlow, O.P.

On the weekend before Advent, Father Joseph Henchey, C.S.S., gave a series of conferences entitled “A Sacrifice of Praise: The Liturgy of Religious Consecration.” Father Henchey has been a friend of the community since his first visit to the Motherhouse nearly 40 years ago.

For the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life, the sisters prayed Solemn Vespers and renewed their vows at Mass.

After Midnight Mass and throughout the Christmas Octave, sisters and guests make frequent visits to the manger scene to marvel at God’s tender love manifest in the frail humanity of the newborn Savior.

As a prelude to Midnight Mass, a concert of sacred music prepared the sisters to celebrate the Jesus’ birth.

Fall Vocation Travels

University of Colorado

Wyoming Catholic College

Colorado State University

Grangeville, Idaho Golden Gate Canyon State Park

University of

Louisiana

Dominican Blitz

Alaska

Anchorage

Lafayette Day of Recollection

College of William and Mary

Old Dominion University

Indiana University

St. Francis University

Franciscan University of

of Steubenville

University

Christopher Newport

Day of Recollection

Carmel, Indiana

Spring Vocation Travels January 18-23 March for Life, Washington, DC January 23-February 2 Virginia & Maryland January 31 Day of Recollection, Catonsville, MD January 27-February 5 San Diego & Los Angeles, CA February 19-28 Vancouver, BC, Canada February 21 Day of Recollection, Vancouver, BC March 26-28 Benedictine College TBA: Rhode Island; Texas; Mississippi