The Anchoress has posted this beautiful video of the Nashville Dominicans, whose postulant classes, like those of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, have been overflowing in recent years.
Meanwhile, we — our parish, that is — were visited recently by one of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who also happens to be the sister of one of our diocesan priests. After Sunday Mass, Sister Catherine Marie spent time talking to girls of the parish, ranging in age from five to nineteen, about her vocation and her life as a Sister, caring for the terminally-ill poor. She spoke with obvious and infectious joy about making her final vows, two years from now, and receiving the ring which will mark her as Christ’s bride; she spoke with equal joy about coming to her vocation after years as a pediatric nurse, and about her daily life among the dying.
It was my own five-year-old who asked her about getting her “wedding ring,” which made me swell with pride; the same five-year-old then went on to detail a movie she had seen in which nuns made bombs — don’t waste your time on the sequel to the excellent The Trouble With Angels, particularly if there’s a chance that your young children will see it, and then talk to a nun. Sister Catherine Marie only laughed and said that real nuns tended not to blow things up so much.
In consequence of this enjoyable half-hour, I will be driving a vanload of mothers and girls, ages twelve and up, to New York for a few days of retreat and discernment with the Hawthorne Dominicans in early August. Do please start praying for us now.
Finally, the twenty-year-old daughter of a friend here is a novice with the Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Discalced Carmelites in Valparaiso, Nebraska. Actually, Sister Bernadette of the Angels is one of a group of nuns from Nebraska who will be moving soon to Central Pennsylvania; these cloistered nuns also have the kind of vocations crisis which necessitates turning people away for lack of space.
What am I rating today? Let’s see . . . Traditional orders? Habits? The ambient joy of these young nuns? [Rating: 100 out of 100]
Yeah. All of the above.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
