Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “HISTORY”
A Diamond Jubilee can refer to either a 75 year anniversary or a 60 year anniversary. And we’ve got a 60th to rejoice in. Sister Mary Genevieve of the Will of God marks her Diamond Jubilee this year, still joyfully serving God as his Handmaid of the Precious Blood. She received her name and habit from Father Gerald himself in …
Father Gerald reunites with his brother after Guadalcanal. We share a snapshot of a page from the archives of an article in The Cambridge Chronicle-Sun from World War II telling the story of Chaplain Captain Gerald Fitzgerald reuniting with his brother Staff Sergeant Edward (Ned) Fitzgerald after three years apart.
As the Catholic Church in America gets its Eucharistic Revival underway, there are plans for a National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024. (For more information visit: https://www.eucharisticrevival.org) As cloistered contemplatives we will only be attending in spirit. But in 1976 we were still a Diocesan Community with a semi-active rule and not yet, enclosed. So we had the honor and …
This 1966 letter from the Bishop of Burlington is a happy memory from our time in Vermont. It was the first convent set up outside of New Mexico when the Handmaids from the desert mountain canyon traveled to the colder climate of Vermont. Bishop Robert Joyce was letting the Mother General, Mother Dolorosa, know what he thought of her Sisters. …
Mother Dolorosa and Sister Bernadette (who would become the next Mother) greet Pope Paul VI during a visit to Rome. They were delighted to meet the successor to Peter and the Vicar of Christ on Earth but might not have guessed how soon he would be canonized.
Among our treasures in the archives is a papal blessing parchment for our community from early in Saint John Paul II’s pontificate.
Of the first women who came to join the Handmaids of the Precious Blood in May 1947 only one, Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, persevered. Yet she was paralyzed below the waist from polio. Perhaps, like the late Cardinal George who contracted polio at 13 and was thus rejected by a Chicago preparatory seminary, Sister Elizabeth also experienced rejection and …
God blessed us with very fine weather during the last weeks of October and, on a warm and windy day, we took advantage of the conditions to pray the Stations of the Cross together in the Mary, Mother of Priests Tribute Garden. The perimeter of this first phase of the garden is ringed with 14 traditional Stations of the Cross …
“Behold, I come, O Lord, that I may do your will. I have vowed it, and your law lies deep within me.” – Entrance Antiphon for the Mass of Religious Profession Several Handmaids of the Precious Blood mark the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as their vow day, but this year it was very special for Sister Mary Theresa as …
Father Resen retires to Texas.
In addition to Jesus’ Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, the week of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi brought us many other blessings as well, large and small, from resuming the use of holy water fonts in Chapel, to beautiful flower blossoms, and last, but not least, to the joyful arrival of our Aspirant Renae. The Lord never ceases his …
We recently shared a post on what a typical monastery Christmas is like. But what was it really like this year? It was a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!!! That’s a shout-able event. Why? Because it was a rare event experienced maybe only once every 10-15 years or more…a White Christmas of 5 to 7 inches of snow that meant no Midnight Mass, …