laudare, benedicere, praedicare TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH
December 2021
D E C E M B E R 2021 1/ 2/ 3 / Saint Francis Xavier 4/ 5 / SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT 6/ 7 / Saint Ambrose 8 / THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 9/
10 / 11 / 12 / THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT 13 / Saint Lucy 14 / Saint John of the Cross 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT 20 / 21 / 22 / Anniversary of the Approval of the Dominican Order, Dec. 22,1216 23/ DEDICATION OF THE SAINT CECILIA MOTHERHOUSE CHAPEL 24 / 25 / NATIVITY OF THE LORD (Christmas) 26/ THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH 27 / Saint John 28 / The Holy Innocents 29 / Fifth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord 30/ Sixth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord 31/ Seventh Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord
Celebrations from the Dominican calendar appear in italics.
Vocation Story
What Do You Desire? by Sister Mary Gianna Klein, O.P. hat do you desire? This question, which is asked of each sister at her profession of vows, was the undercurrent running throughout my vocation journey. The response at profession is: “The mercy of God and yours.” I have truly received the merciful love of God and my community, an answer to a desire developing in my heart since childhood.
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Sister Mary Gianna made her first profession in 2008.
I grew up in a loving Catholic home in St. Louis, Missouri, as the oldest of 4 children. My parents instilled in us the value of daily prayer and Sunday Mass, but at the age of 14, my desire for God really came alive. My mom attended a retreat, in which the retreat priest urged everyone to pray the rosary with their families. So she came home and announced that we would begin praying one decade of the rosary each night. I can’t say any of us jumped with enthusiasm, but this tradition which began on February 13, 1999, became part of the rhythm of our family life. Eventually we were praying 5 decades each night. Looking back over the years, I can see how Our Lady wrapped her mantle around us to protect us and nurture our desires for her Son. I am certain that Mary nourished my religious vocation, my brother’s vocation as a priest in the Legionaries of Christ, and the married vocations of my other brother and sister. Not long after this began, my mom had another idea for me—she wanted me to stop in the Blessed Sacrament chapel
in my high school to make a daily visit to Jesus. I was embarrassed at first because it wasn’t a popular practice, and I would slink unnoticed into the dark chapel lit only by the sanctuary lamp. After a while, though, I found myself slipping in for more frequent visits without my mom’s prompting. In those quiet moments alone with the Lord, He was shaping my heart and my desires and revealing His love to me. This hunger began to grow in me, and I began attending weekday Masses with my Mom before school, accompanying her to her weekly Holy Hour, and becoming more interested in reading Scripture and getting to know the saints. I was still doing ordinary things, like studying, playing sports, and hanging out with friends, but more and more I began to feel as though my heart belonged to God. I wanted to give myself more completely to Him. It wasn’t until I went off to university that I began seriously considering the idea of religious life. I studied nursing at Truman State University, and the Newman Center there became my home away from home. And it was the first time I had friends who were also interested in religious life. It was great to know I wasn’t alone! Two other young women and I embarked on a “Nun Run” to visit convents. I was so grateful to actually be inside convents and to talk to a variety of sisters, to see that they were normal people like me but who had a deep desire for God and were called to follow Him more radically. The idea that I could be called to be a bride of Christ brought such joy to my heart. It wasn’t as if I had to reject other desires for my future; this actually was what I desired. Before my senior year, I asked the Lord that if He wanted me to be a sister, He would lead me to the community He had chosen for me. That summer I had an amazing opportunity to attend World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005 (I had attended WYD in Toronto and had my first fleeting glimpse of Nashville Dominicans, walking around in tennis shoes!), and there I met a seminarian from my home diocese. When I told him I was discerning religious life, he highly encouraged me to
look into the Nashville Dominicans, one of whom was his sister, Sr. Peter Marie. That seminarian is now Fr. Mark Chrismer, our motherhouse chaplain! I took his advice and since I had heard of (and briefly seen!) this vibrant, growing community, I gathered my courage and called the vocation director. I attended the Vocation Retreat in January 2006, and I felt peace, a sense of being alive, a sense of belonging when I was with the sisters, and a sense of something resonating deep within me that the Holy Spirit had been cultivating in me all of my life. The sisters’ strong Eucharistic life, their love for Our Lady, their community life, their balance, and their JOY all just seemed to “fit” with who I was and desired to be. Even though I had studied nursing, I also was drawn to the apostolate of preaching the truth. And little did I know then that God would use my nursing education and my experience of visiting elderly in high school and college to serve in our infirmary. I loved how St. Cecilia’s had both young sisters that I would journey with and older sisters who offered a witness of fidelity and of deep roots present in this community.
"...I had found at St. Cecilia’s what I desired in the
depths of my heart, a desire placed there and nurtured by Jesus and Mary."
I returned home from that retreat with energy and excitement. I felt like I had found at St. Cecilia’s what I desired in the depths of my heart, a desire placed there and nurtured by Jesus and Mary. I entered that August, and for over fourteen years of religious life, those desires continue to be fulfilled and aligned even more closely with God’s desires. I have become even more convinced that, in His great mercy, He wants our truest and deepest happiness, and now I have the privilege of witnessing to and proclaiming that truth to others.
xpectant
E W aiting Receiving God's Action
Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation. The concept of waiting with expectation can be exciting and build anticipation. However, in practice, waiting for something can build anxiety and fear. What if it is not what I am expecting? What if I am not happy? In discernment of God's will, especially in regards to one's vocation, waiting is key. Why? Because it is God who is the primary Mover, the One who brings us to His will. There are ways we can and should open ourselves to receive his action, but ultimately, it is his action. St. Thomas Aquinas affirms that it is God Himself who disposes us to receive his action: "He [God] directs righteous men to Himself as to a special end, which they seek, and to which they wish to cling, according to Psalm 72:28, 'it is good for Me to adhere to my God.' And that they are 'turned' to God can only spring from God's having 'turned' them" (ST, I-II, 106, a. 6).
"...it is God Himself who disposes us..."
So, what is our role in discernment of God's will? How do we wait upon him to move us and yet move forward? Saint Thomas Aquinas outlines some principles of how we can prepare and dispose ourselves to receive grace.
Receiving
Grace Prayer
Jesus says, "Ask and you shall receive." When we ask for grace, for God's will, we dispose ourselves to receive it.
Virtue
When we choose the true good in any circumstance, we are more disposed to the good. Virtuous acts are occasions for growth in openness to God.
Fidelity By being faithful to the inspirations of God, we are more disposed to receive further inspirations.
Photo: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.
Fall Events
TOP / Photos from the November vocation retreat. MIDDLE LEFT / Sisters in Oak Ridge hosted a rosary making event on the feast of St. John Paul II. ABOVE RIGHT / Sisters missioned in Greenville, SC hosted a night in honor of St. Therese. LEFT / Photos from the pumpkin carving contest this year.
DAY OF RECOLLECTION ENDER'S ISLAND, CT Sister Mara Grace and Sister Ann Thomas were joined by the sisters missioned in Providence, RI in hosting a Day of Recollection for young women that included the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, a conference by one of the sisters as well as time for prayer and fellowship.
SCHOOL VISITS TOP / Sister Mara Grace and Sister Ann Thomas with students from Thomas Aquinas College (New England Campus) during an evening for young women which featured talks on prayer and discernment by the sisters. MIDDLE / Sisters visit Sister Ann Thomas' alma mater Kellenberg Memorial High School on Long Island, NY. RIGHT / Photos from an early December trip to Benedictine College .
The final days of Advent are marked in the Liturgy of the Hours with the singing of the "O Antiphons" during Vespers. From December 17th-23rd the antiphons for the Magnificat reflect titles of the Messiah as prophesied in the Book of Isaiah.
Click the links below for short video reflections on the "O Antiphons" from our sisters.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light
Isaiah
9:1
nashvilledominican.org