As Passionist Nuns, our spiritual home is the “cloister” of Calvary, where we dwell in the shadow of His wings – the outstretched arms of Jesus Christ upon the Cross.
There, in union with Our Sorrowful Mother, we keep Him company in His Passion, we offer our lives with His in a loving sacrifice to the Eternal Father, and we strive to become channels of His grace, life, and love into our world.
Today, as in the time of Paul, human beings find their own personal happiness when they search for their identity in the light of God, when, to use the words of the saint, they allow their "nothingness to sink into God". Only in the acceptance of this basic religious attitude can we truly find ourselves.
Since in Paul's time as in our own, there was a great danger for people to become lost in external activities, one of his great goals was to lead others to a life of interior prayer and union with God. Because the preconditions for this are quiet, silence and a return to the center of a person's being or soul, Paul exhorted his directees to turn inward.
The goodness and mercy of God became manifest in the Incarnate Word, our Saviour, and in every facet of his life. But nowhere was it more effectively revealed than in the passion and death of Christ who died for us and for our salvation. The sufferings of Christ are the most convincing witness of God's love for us. Paul of the Cross was completely imbued with this mystery of faith.
On a human level, deep and authentic love yields not only true peace and contentment but also a desire to share the pain of the beloved. Immersion in the sufferings of Jesus and deep, interior intimacy with God were springs from which Paul's words flowed and which, to this day, contain a power that moves the hearts of people. This power is love.
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was a nun of the Visitation, and from her first Holy Communion at the age of seven, she had always manifested an intense love of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Our Lord appeared to her often, usually as the Crucified Christ. He revealed to her His Sacred Heart's burning desire to be loved by all men.
When, through inner struggles, a person succeeds in accepting concrete, unavoidable suffering as the will of God and sees in it the possibility of participating in the passion of Jesus, it does not mean that pain and sorrow are taken away. Although the pain must be borne, it is no longer senseless, and God's grace can work to transform the suffering so that the sufferer "rejoices in sorrow and exults in grieving love".
Bishop Thomas Struzzieri, the first Passionist bishop, said to Paul just before he breathed his last, "Father Paul, when you are in paradise, remember the poor Congregation for which you have toiled so hard, and all of us, your poor sons." With great fervor Paul made a gesture signifying Yes. Then he quietly closed his eyes and went to sleep in the Lord.
“The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God. We must arouse the world from its slumber.” And so Paul did through thousands of letters he wrote and sermons he preached. Traveling even to marshlands infested with malaria, Paul taught people how to pray and meditate upon the suffering and death of Jesus.
Blessed Pius of Saint Aloysius, born Luigi Campidelli, was a religious and clerical student of the Passionist Congregation. He received Minor Orders but was struck down with tuberculosis before he could be ordained priest. He died at 21 years of age on November 2, 1889, offering his life for his troubled home region of Romagna.
Elizabeth’s spirituality of the Indwelling Trinity can be expressed by her words, “There is a being who is Love and who wants us to live in communion with Him.” She saw her life as an intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; heaven on earth, but in the darkness of faith.
The Passionist Bishop and Martyr Eugene Bossilkov was born November 16, 1900 in Belene (Bulgaria), a village in the Danube Valley. He was executed in the prison (left) at Sophia on the night of November 11, 1952 at 11:30 P.M. His body was thrown into a common grave for criminals; the precise location of his burial place and his body is unknown.
Mother Mary Crucified was the superior of the first convent of Passionist Nuns. Through this role and because of her profound sharing in St. Paul's charism she is also called "co-foundress" of the Passionists. In 1982 Pope John Paul II approved the document declaring that she had practiced heroic virtue and should be called "Venerable." We await the day of her beatification!
Blessed Grimoaldo of the Purification, born Ferdinando Santamaria, a religious and clerical student of the Passionist Congregation, born on May 4, 1883 in Pontecorvo, Frosinone, Italy; died November 18, 1902 at Ceccano, Italy. Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Some among the Jews offered them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the temple, to be lodged in apartments belonging to the temple, and brought up in attending the priests and Levites in the sacred ministry. It is an ancient tradition, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was thus solemnly offered to God in the temple in her infancy.
“I rejoice in the Lord that you often find yourself plunged and immersed in the Sacred Passion of Jesus and in the great furnace of His Eucharistic Presence....”
The months keep on rolling by, and this past weekend it was time once more for our fall vocation retreat! We were blessed by the company of four young women: Madeline from Nebraska, Trinity from Indiana, Mary from Ohio, and Kirsten from Washington state.
Today - October 7th, 2026 - marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of St. Joseph’s Monastery here in the Diocese of Owensboro!
John Schweska, a lay expert and author on St. Gabriel Possenti, has been a friend of the community for years. We had heard the story about an old statue of the Saint that John had rescued from a demolition site nearly a decade ago, and ideas had been floated about him possibly giving it to us …
The American Church is celebrating mightily as her native son is beatified today in St. Louis, Missouri. Although we as cloistered nuns will not be traveling to attend the beatification in person, we are certainly present in spirit - and in one other special way …
Last year, Claire, a friend of our community, reached out and asked about interviewing some Sisters for short films on some Passionist Saints...
We thought you might enjoy this little glimpse at the books some of our Sisters are reading right now, whether for spiritual or recreational purposes. And if you’re not much of a reader … perhaps this just might inspire you to give one of these books a try!
As the end of summer draws near (already??), we thought we’d share a little round-up of some miscellaneous newsworthy items - great and small - from the past few months …
This morning, our Postulant Collette received the holy habit and officially entered the novitiate!
Of course, you might be wondering: WHAT IS HER NEW RELIGIOUS NAME?? We’ve kept you in suspense long enough, we suppose, so let us introduce you to …
A four day silent retreat based on the prayer methods and exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Led by Dovehouse Ministries. A directed silent retreat is an opportunity to take time away from the noise and distraction of everyday life, to rest and listen for God. The retreatant will meet daily with a spiritual director to process times of prayer and to mutually discern the movements of the Holy Spirit.
Rachel's Vineyard is a safe place to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion. This weekend retreat offers you a supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment where women and men can express, release and reconcile painful post-abortive emotions to begin the process of restoration, renewal and healing.
This is a private group retreat for the propaedeutic-year seminarians of the Diocese of Evansville.
A four day silent retreat based on the prayer methods and exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Led by Dovehouse Ministries. A directed silent retreat is an opportunity to take time away from the noise and distraction of everyday life, to rest and listen for God. The retreatant will meet daily with a spiritual director to process times of prayer and to mutually discern the movements of the Holy Spirit.
Start out your Advent season with a Passionist discernment retreat! Dive deeply into the mystery of God’s love as we ponder the Incarnation through the eyes of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionist Congregation, and discover the Holy Infant’s invitation to YOU.
This is a private group day of recollection for married couples, organized by Danny May of the Diocese of Owensboro’s Office of Marriage and Family Life.
A silent Advent retreat based on the prayer methods and exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Led by Dovehouse Ministries. A directed silent retreat is an opportunity to take time away from the noise and distraction of everyday life, to rest and listen for God. The retreatant will meet daily with a spiritual director to process times of prayer and to mutually discern the movements of the Holy Spirit.
“Make yourself a good retreat in the interior of your soul, and in that desert treat with the Highest Good one-on-one, adoring him in spirit and truth.”
“The Passionist Nuns... are to strive for perfection in God’s love by living in His Divine Presence and by preserving indelibly written in their hearts the most holy Life, Passion, and Death of the loving Jesus who was sacrificed on Calvary for the world’s redemption.”
Our Retreat House and Chapel, located on a peaceful 170-acre site of beautiful woodlands, gives women and men of Catholic and other Christian denominations the opportunity to enter into a deeper relationship with God by sharing in our Passionist liturgical celebrations, while renewing and strengthening themselves spiritually and physically in a place of deep silence, solitude and prayer.
“From the Foot of the Cross”
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The example of Paul’s faith and the strength of his union with Christ serves as an example to us to renew our friendship with the Crucified. Paul's passion mysticism also serves to give us deep insight into the mystery of the suffering of Jesus and this supports us in bearing our own pain and suffering. The whole edifice of his spiritual life was based on complete trust in the love and providence of God.