Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “News”
On Christmas Eve we received an incredibly generous gift and we are still unwrapping it and could use your help to complete the job! A generous benefactor is asking that you join them in supporting our Community with a monetary donation between now and Sunday January 7th, 2024 (the Epiphany of the Lord), and your donation will be lovingly matched …
We were blessed to have a visit from the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Knoxville, Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, KY. He took time from his busy schedule to meet all the Handmaids and learn a little about our mission of eucharistic adoration, prayer, and sacrifice for the sanctification of priests. We assured him of our prayers for him during this time of additional responsibility until a new bishop of Knoxville is appointed. We also keep all his priests, seminarians, religious and lay faithful of Louisville in our daily prayers.
As the only cloistered nuns in East Tennessee the Handmaids of the Precious Blood will remain at Cor Jesu Monastery but unite spiritually by having a special community holy hour of Eucharistic adoration at the same time as the Rorate Mass. In particular, we will remember all our fellow consecrated religious as well as the formal intention of prayers for the next Bishop appointed to lead the Church in Knoxville.
The Lord has asked us to bid farewell to three souls this last year. First, our Sister Mary Magdalen on Pentecost, then our former Chaplain Father Ron Stone on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and most recently on the Feast of Saint Lucy District Deputy John Hitt of the Knights of Columbus and parishioner at Holy Ghost parish. All …
Our Lady takes care of her priests, especially when they strive to faithfully live as other Christs and sons of Mary. Father Ron Stone, a long time confessor for our Community during our years in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe who was incarnated into the Diocese of Knoxville and became Pastor of Holy Cross in Pigeon Forge, was called home …
Aspirant Chrissy can testify to the prayer and hard work with the Labouré Society that enabled her to finally enter our formation discernment group. Not only did she work hard, attend Labouré boot camps, help fund raise for her Labouré Aspirant classes, and attend to her many responsibilities but she also worked through the various phases of Handmaid Aspirancy both …
In the world of vocational discernment you may often hear the advice, “Pray for the grace of perseverance.” Usually it’s applied to one’s entire life journey all the way to ‘final perseverance’ when we breathe our last, but the early stages of religious life particularly need this grace as well. Chrissy had a sort of introductory course, Perseverance 101, as …
While our Mary, Mother of Priests Garden is not specifically a memorial garden, there are priests enrolled who have gone on to their eternal reward. The Polish priest who professed his vows and was ordained to the priesthood in the hospital, Fr. Michal Los, was a priest on this earth for only a short time but remains a priest forever. …
If we needed any reminders that God is in charge of everything in this universe, we only needed to look at the readings from the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) for Matins. This is typically prayed in the morning and its hymns, psalms, antiphons, readings and prayers for Wednesday were selected long ago by Holy Mother Church. Yet its …
We lift up prayers of thanksgiving that we were again spared substantial tree damage during a recent windstorm. The same system that split this tree and barely missed Our Lady of Guadalupe House also caused damage throughout Tennessee, even an EF-2 tornado in Knoxville. As we continue cleaning up we are grateful for all the help we have received and …
We have been blessed with young women visiting us this summer as they seek to discern God’s will for their lives. It is always an honor and privilege to assist souls who are opening themselves to the joys and the challenges of vocational discernment. Each journey is as unique as the individual. We are just as happy to help a …
Our Novice Mistress has the novices, and any discerning guests, learning about the spiritual benefits of gardening as well as culinary should the harvest be abundant enough. But on a strictly spiritual level sunflowers are good models for us. Jeremias Drexelius wrote The Heliotropium, or Conformity of the Human Will to the Divine around 1630. The sunflower that follows the …