63 Years in the Diocese of Owensboro!
Greetings from the cloister! Sorry it has been so long since we posted. Although, we may not post often, you, our families, friends and visitors, are never far from our thoughts and prayers. This Wednesday our community will be celebrating the 63rd anniversary of our foundation in this diocese and next year in April the Passionist Nuns will be celebrating our 100th anniversary of foundation in the United States of America! I hope to bring you more information on our USA foundation over the next months.
I thought you might be interested in seeing how we celebrate special anniversaries. On October 7, 1946 the first Mass was offered on the site and Saint Joseph's Monastery was officially established. Since that day, October 7th, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, has been a special day for us. Here is how we will be celebrating our anniversary this year.
- We will be having a "Gaudeamus Day" - a day of rejoicing! This means it will be a day where silence is dispensed and also any unnecessary work and we can talk and recreate all day
- All as usual until after midmorning prayer (which is recited 5 minutes after Holy Mass) when we will "salute the Holy Angels". *see the prayer below
- We will then proceed to the refectory for a special breakfast
- Then all the Sisters who are available "roll up their sleeves" and help in cleanup and doing whatever can be done to prepare for the noon meal.
- 10:30 a.m. we will gather in our large parlor for a rousing game of charades. The theme will be memories from the "old days"
- Our dear Sister Ann Miriam from Carmel Home will be coming to join us for the noon meal. We always try to get her out here to the monastery for visits on special occasions.
- Midday prayer at noon in chapel (sext)
- Very festive noon meal. All the tables will have been decorated and moved into a circle so we can all see one another and talk more easily with each other
- the afternoon will be free for rest, biking, hiking, reading, praying, working on hobbies. Basically a free afternoon to be spent as each Sister desires and of course some have duties that cannot be foregone (such as some preparations for supper)
- 4:30 p.m. - we will have an outdoor rosary procession which is a much loved devotion of our community. The procession is usually led by a novitiate member carrying a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and Mother Superior leading us in the recitation of the Rosary.
- 5:30 p.m. - Evening prayer (vespers)
- Eucharistic adoration
- supper - perhaps followed by a little AME? (after meal entertainment)! of jokes or music
- 7:55 recreation ends followed by the chanting of Night Prayer in Chapel and the resummation of Holy Silence.
- also, at some point this day we will sing the Te Deum in thanksgiving to God for the gift of the foundation of our Monastery in the Diocese of Owensboro, KY and that God has specially called each one of us to dwell under this holy roof and pass on the Passionist charism to future Sisters just as our Holy Mother Foundresses did for us.
May they rest in peace and may the intercede for us!
*Our Holy Founder gave us the custom of always calling on the Angels to be with us during our times of recreation - when silence is dispensed and we can chat, go for walks, etc. We refer to the prayer we pray as "Saluting the Angels" - we generally have recreation twice a day.
Mother Superior: May St. Michael and all the Holy Angels
Sisters: guard us in all our ways.
Mother Superior: The presence of God
pause
Mother Superior: Jesus, Mary and Joseph be praised
Sisters: Forever and Ever!