This week we are praying in a special way for the priests of the Diocese of Owensboro, KY. Each week we will pray for 4 specific priests until we have prayed for all of the priests in the diocese. Please join us! #priestchalkboard ...

This week we are praying in a special way for the priests of the Diocese of Phoenix. Each week we will pray for 6 specific priests until we have prayed for all of the priests in the diocese. Please join us!
Learn more about our priest chalkboard here: https://nunsforpriests.org/our-priest-chalkboard/ #priestchalkboard ...

This week we are praying in a special way for the priests of the Diocese of Owensboro, KY. Each week we will pray for 4 specific priests until we have prayed for all of the priests in the diocese. Please join us! #priestchalkboard ...

This week we are praying in a special way for the priests of the Diocese of Phoenix. Each week we will pray for 6 specific priests until we have prayed for all of the priests in the diocese. Please join us!

Learn more about our priest chalkboard here: https://nunsforpriests.org/our-priest-chalkboard/

#priestchalkboard ...

This week we are praying in a special way for the priests of the Diocese of Owensboro, KY. Each week we will pray for 4 specific priests until we have prayed for all of the priests in the diocese. Please join us! #priestchalkboard ...

This week we are praying in a special way for the priests of the Diocese of Owensboro, KY. Each week we will pray for 4 specific priests until we have prayed for all of the priests in the diocese. Please join us! #priestchalkboard ...

What’s in a name? Everything. For our purposes, we will say that names count for everything. They tell us, among other things, precisely who we are praying for. A quick glance at the Bible indicates that God takes names very seriously. Think of Isaiah 43:1 "I have called you by name; you are mine." or Is 43:6 ff "Bring back my sons from afar...everyone who is named as mine, who I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." Apply these words to priests and see the link between naming and possessing: being called and possessed by God! We are named because we are God's. So too with priests. When we install a name plaque in the Mary, Mother of Priests, Tribute Garden we aren't so much honoring individual men; we are honoring God, who called each of them to be his special possession, his anointed ones as priests.

Each name plaque, each name, each life, each vocation, each man is unique and different yet infinitely, personally precious in God's eyes as his co-workers in his vineyard. Each name mounted is, as it were, a permanent prayer request "Remember me in your prayers, I beg you!" This "me" has a name. His name matters. Names count. The extra burdens priests carry in their lifelong imitation of Christ Crucified for the sake of others, demand our faithful and continuous prayer support.

Names count. The individual name can be unique, but his Cross is universally fashioned to follow the footsteps of the High Priest.

If you would like to pay tribute to a special priest you are grateful to God for; consider making a donation and submitting his name to the Mary, Mother of Priests, Garden. To learn more, visit this link.

PS Even if you are unable to donate, we will still pray for that priest. They all deserve our prayers!
https://nunsforpriests.org/mary-mother-of-priests-garden/
#sisterreginacomicstrip #tributegarden ...

In this cartoon, we explore the inevitable failures of devices, such as the one we make the cartoons with. Technology is no panacea. It can be a dangerous distraction from God. Using technology wisely and prudently is a demanding art of balancing the prayerful and the practical. If a duty requires some kind of computer, we aim, within our means, to obtain the most reliable we can afford because we are going to get every millisecond of its lifespan and often far beyond it. The doodling stylus literally crumbled after giving it's life (and its spare nibs) for the sake of some humorous cartoon-evangelization about our religious life and our mission in the Church to sanctify priests.

During this maintenance issue, we had the chance to muse on living a life where all mistakes were recorded and could never be fully erased. Pause and think about that. What would life be like without the Mercy of God? Life without Confession? Life with no chance of reconciliation? It would be uglier than a messy cartoon. Conversely, just as the UNDO feature returns the digital canvas to its pristine condition for fresh creativity, so also the Sacrament of Reconciliation returns the soul to fruitful and peaceful friendship with God. He is the Great Panacea...and frankly, the only one we really need.
#sisterreginacomicstrip ...

This week the secular world celebrates Valentine’s Day with lots of romance, heart shaped boxes, and chocolate, among other things. It may help instead to recall that Saint Valentine was a martyr - a witness to Christ to the point of shedding his blood and dying for this belief in the Son of God.

It’s not that the world’s celebration of human love with greeting cards, flowers, and other tokens of affection is wrong. It speaks to the innate need everyone has to love and be loved. God, who is love, also desires this of us, but rightly ordered.

The small gift, the precious offering, a treasured exchange reminds the recipient of the other’s love even when the lover is absent. Even cloistered nuns practice this heartfelt exchange on a moment by moment basis. We have our formal prayers in chapel with our Lord exposed in the monstrance. But we cannot ignore him as we leave and go about our duties “in the pots and pans”. It takes but a glance at a crucifix, a statue, a relic, a holy card, an icon, a painting, a holy water font, and we can raise our hearts to him even without seeing him in the luna.

The idea of a little keepsake to bring the beloved to mind doesn't have its origin with greeting card companies or chocolatiers. It was God's idea first when he left us Himself, his very self, body blood soul and divinity, in the Blessed Sacrament. (cf: Matthew 28:20) #sisterreginacomicstrip ...

In the monastery, liturgical changes of season can be discerned from the littlest signs: a sister rushing to get her ribbons properly placed in the lenten breviary, an organist and cantor practicing the lenten Gospel acclamation, a sacristan getting out the violet vestments.

Sometimes signs of change seem much larger: Trial, suffering, death. But there is also the "Beyond Big" Sign: God is not only still in charge, he wants us to participate in the redemption of the world! He wants us to follow his Son into the desert of Lent. He wants to train spiritual athletes (that's everyone by the way) to hone their skills. He wants to teach us basically how to fight and conquer the devil. Not by direct assault. But by humbly following the Master, Jesus Christ: imitating his fast, his solitude, his prayer, his willingness to give all of himself to save us. In the end, despite all the hardship he wants us to share in in our lives, his leading the way in undergoing his Passion remains a beautiful testimony of his love for us.
#sisterreginacomicstrip ...

Did you ever promise to pray for someone or something and then forgot? Did you feel that you somehow missed your chance to remind God about that intention? Is that how God works? Is that how we treat him or our prayers at times?

God is outside of time. He knows our every need, and the needs of all those we pray for.

And if you didn’t know to pray for the priesthood symposium? Just keep praying for priests. God can figure it out. He wants our prayers and our intentions, whatever our poor execution. Perhaps, when we feel the need to repeat prayers, we are the ones who benefit the most, as it helps us keep in mind and heart all those relying on our prayers. #sisterreginacomicstrip ...

It's our first weekend of February and time for our monthly feline cartoon, this time featuring Shadow (a.k.a. Gunther). Like many cats, he sleeps a great deal but not always when we would prefer. On the other hand, he's always happy to stick around when a sister is awake for nocturnal adoration. Perhaps it's his own little way of thanking Jesus for sending him to our monastery. He may not be killing squirrels for us, but he is a wonderful therapy cat and his sleep cycles provide a lesson for us.

Cats have a natural readiness to both sleep anywhere with little effort and also a way of lightly dozing but able to respond in a pinch to a changing situation. It's good for us also to learn to rest this easy in God's Presence as well as be alert for the next opportunity to serve Christ in our fellow sisters. Rested and ready all at once.

Enjoy the photo of Shadow snoozing.
#sisterreginacomicstrip ...