Another Postulant ~ Deo Gratias!
Shannon and family arrrived safely last Saturday after being on the road for about 30 hours! It was an absolute joy to meet her parents and brothers.
Shannon had some time to walk the trails with her family before entering the cloister.
Brother Wesley & Brother Bryan ~ two future Passionists??
I knew you would want to read Mother's inspiring talk given at Second Vespers on Shannon's entrance day:
To enter the postulancy of a Passionist community is to enter deeply into the mystery of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the mystery of His Church. The Church teaches that the cloister represents the praying Heart of the Church. For us Passionists, the cloister also represents the praying Heart of our Beloved Lord Jesus. We enter the “cloister” of His Heart through His open wound. The “cloister” of His Heart is where we abide in His love and offer our entire lives to bring the fruit of His Sacred Passion to souls. The “cloister” of His Heart is where we strive in the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of each day to enter more and more into His great love and into His work of saving souls from eternal death.
The Church teaches that cloistered Nuns are very present in the Heart of Christ to our contemporaries. Each day we can walk close to our Holy Father, to bishops, priests, religious, laity, to our young people, to missionaries. When Sharon entered the Passionist cloister, missionaries were present. Today, again, a missionary is present as you, Shannon, enter the Passionist cloister. This happy providence is a reminder to all of us of how far reaching are the prayers and sacrifices of a cloistered Nun.
Today, Shannon, you have come and knocked at the door of the Passionist cloister. Like all of us, you have heard a call deep in your heart—“Come to Me, follow Me.” This is a call of love, a call of being singled out to become the Bride of Christ who alone can satisfy the deepest longings of your womanly heart.
Our Blessed Mother has a school of divine love here at the foot of the cross, where she teaches souls how to devote themselves entirely to the Heart of Christ and to His work of saving souls. Our Blessed Mother will nurture the call planted in your heart. It is from her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart that we learn to be generous in cooperating with the Holy Spirit’s action day by day, moment by moment.
In this time when countless souls–many of them from your own age group–are running recklessly along the wide and easy road leading to eternal ruin, Jesus is looking for helpmates in the work of redemption. He says: “Come and follow Me, you my chosen one. Be My faithful companion, faithful like my Mother at the foot of the cross. Gratefully receive each day from My hands. Receive the joy of a total belonging to Me, and don’t lose heart when My cross weighs upon you. For then, I am using you all the more to bring the fruits of My Passion to souls, so that My Precious Blood will not have been shed in vain for them.”
Shannon, we offer you our prayers for yourself as well as for your parents and brothers, and all those dear to your heart, as you begin this great adventure in the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May you and Sharon, and hopefully many other young women who will come after you, always be a faithful companion of the Suffering and Risen Lord Jesus who has set His Heart on you and called you to Himself. Through you, may many, many souls come to know, love and serve God.
We will all come forward now, as we bestow upon you the postulant’s crucifix, and give you the Sign of Peace. God bless you and your whole family, Shannon.
Shannon is glowing with the Joy of the Holy Spirit! Please keep her and Sharon in your prayers as they "put out into the deep" and "seek to follow the Lamb" wherever He leads. And please pray for their faith-filled generous families. They too will experience the joy of the hundred-fold of leaving all things to follow Christ.
Please join us in thanking and praising God for the gift of two postulants!