Corpus Christi 2025 Newsletter

Habemus Papam! We Have A Pope!

We watched history unfold May 8th, 2025 as Pope Leo XIV stepped onto the central loggia of Saint Peter’s in Rome.

Habemus Sponsam! We Have A Bride!

“We have a Bride!” On May 17th, the day before Pope Leo XIV celebrated his inaugural Mass beginning his Pontificate, Sister Francis Clare of the Eternal High Priest took First Vows beginning her life as a professed Handmaid of the Precious Blood.

What the Pope and the Bride Have in Common: “Fiat!”

Pope Leo XIV does not hide his tearful emotion at his election but then, neither does the beaming Cross bearer who is happy with God’s choice.

Whether one is a new Pope or a new Bride of Christ, both share the truth expressed in the simple word, “Fiat!” Our Lady spoke this to Gabriel as she consented to God’s glorious will in the Incarnation, “May it be done to me as you have said.” Not spoken in trembling fear nor deflated resignation nor dread. But with the conviction that when one says “Yes” to the will of God, one is also strengthened with his grace to carry it out.

Holding her Baptismal candle lit from the Paschal candle and touching the Gospels, Sister Francis Clare makes her First Vows kneeling before Reverend Mother Sarah Michael.

As Sister begins her new professed life as the Holy Father begins his Pontificate, it has given us much joy and hope to witness all the accompanying ceremonies. When we think of the gift of Peter and the Papacy to the Church or remember the day each of us took our vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience it strengthens us in our walk with Christ as his disciples. In the Catholic Faith we are never alone. It has been a great gift to witness the Holy Spirit moving not just in the lives of Sister and Pope Leo but throughout the Church. Religious seek, even after 2000 years, simply to follow the pattern of Christ and his Apostles. Live as they lived. Love as they loved. That includes the Blessed Mother, the perfect disciple of the Lord and the first Handmaid.

Holy Family Expansion Capital Campaign

Visit the Capital Campaign Page

Our big news (after a new Pope and a new Bride of Christ!) in this newsletter is that, continuing our Institute’s embrace of Mary’s example in her fearless “Fiat!”, we are stepping out in bold faith as we begin the Holy Family Expansion Capital Campaign in an effort to raise the funds needed to build Holy Family, an extension to Cor Jesu Monastery, that will provide a larger chapel, more cells for our growing numbers, and the means for our elder Sisters to continue fully participating in our life of prayer without the need to be driven to and from Mass, the Divine Office, and all our devotions and holy hours as is the present case with a detached chapel (a retrofitted former two car garage without any indoor access or protection from the elements when entering or exiting).

Please join us in prayer that the ability to cover the cost of this needed construction may be achieved soon. But like the Blessed Virgin Mary we kneel and give our own, “Fiat!” to God’s will in this next phase of our history.