Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “News”
On March 24th, 2022 we welcomed with joy our Postulant Maria into the Novitiate, with Mother Sarah Michael clothing her in the wine-red habit of a Handmaid of the Precious Blood and announcing her new name in religious life: Sister Maria Crucis of Saint Joseph. Join us as we pray for her as she continues on her formation journey accompanied …
We thought that, similar to sharing images of our priests chalkboard in our refectory highlighting priests to pray for each week, we might share from time to time, not just a photo of our Mary Mother of Priests Garden, but a little about some of the priests names fixed there among the Stations of the Cross on our hilltop home. …
Rejoice! It’s Gaudete Sunday! We enter the third week of Advent lighting the rose colored candles and renewing our thanksgiving for the Incarnation. He is coming. He is coming to save us. He is coming to be one of us. This gives us all hope and joy, but not for the secular trappings of the coming holidays. It’s not about …
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of priestly ordination of our Founder This year we celebrate a special anniversary: the 100th anniversary of the priestly ordination of our Founder, Father Gerald M. C. Fitzgerald, s.P. on May 26th, 2021. Imagine this if you will. You are a young man. It’s 1921. You have spent years in seminary training to be formed to …
The Labouré Society, faith, finances, and following Christ It’s common knowledge that many young people graduating college are saddled with large debts and are hampered in their job search and getting a good start in life. But did you know it also has an impact on vocations? A discerning candidate to the seminary or religious life can face years of delay …
On the Solemnity of the Annunciation, in the Year of Saint Joseph and the Amoris Laetitia Family, we welcome Postulant Maria as she joined our religious family in residence, giving her own, “Fiat!” on this beautiful Feast. After persevering through a COVID-challenged Aspirancy, she came on March 25th to begin wearing the wine red colors of one dedicating her life …
March 2021 is full of wonderful Feasts and Solemnities during Lent that orient us best to this liturgical season while pointing ahead to the Resurrection Joys of Easter. On March 17th we recall the Saint of the Emerald Isle, Saint Patrick, and the bloodless conversion of the Irish that followed in his wake. Just two days later, the Solemnity of …
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, …
COVID-19 can’t kill Christmas 2020 COVID-19 may have radically changed 2020 but it can’t really touch what we celebrate at Christmas, or rather WHO we celebrate at Christmas. Certainly the “how” has been modified for many. So let’s remember Jesus as we share what it’s like as a typical monastery Christmas approaches. We have told you some of these customs …
Vocations News: Coping with COVID-19 and Come and Sees Yes, 2020 has been quite a year. We managed to get in a couple visits with inquiring women before COVID became a byword and seeming harbinger of all that could go wrong with the year 2020. By lockdown in March it was hoped a few weeks would be sufficient to dispel the …
Many religious, male and female, wear a side Rosary with their habit. Some can be rather large, others small. While Handmaids have had some minor variations in the wear of our side Rosary, we have always had them as a necessary part of the habit, not just as an accessory but as an essential to our spiritual life. Our Founder …
If you are a lifelong Catholic and encountered religious sisters over the years, you may have noticed that in some communities that the color of the veil can signify whether the sister has been professed or not. Not infrequently over the years, Handmaids have been asked about our white veils by others assuming they are speaking to a novice or …