Sister Regina is a fictitious Handmaid who appears almost every week on this site, on our Facebook page, and in our Twitter feed. She gives those outside the cloister an idea of what life within the monastery can be like. Click any cartoon to see a larger image.
Sister Regina the cartoon is not published during the seasons of Advent, the Christmas Octave, Lent, or the Easter Octave to not only allow the Handmaids to more deeply enter into those times of more intense prayer, but also to encourage others to do so as well.
People can often, even unconsciously, live as though their peace was relative to themselves alone. If only they got this or that, then they would be at peace. But that’s chasing after an unobtainable, worldly illusion of peace. Even if a semblance of ‘peace’ is achieved, it will be short-lived.
"Choosing" a path of life, a misnomer already, can also be fraught with this error. Too often the Self acts as master of the universe as it examines “What will make ME happy?” Vocational discernment can’t be placed in that box of Self. What it should seek to discern, to discover, and not decide arbitrarily, is what God wants for that soul. Is grace present for that call? The decision point, maybe more properly thought of as a line, a solid line through the whole of life, is “Will I decide to accept and use that grace to do exactly what God wants? To live and to do what he made me for?"
Here’s the bonus! When a person does discern that call and recognizes the grace available to live it, and cooperates with that grace so that it bears fruit, then there is God`s peace, joy, and fulfillment even amid a tempest of trials and tribulations, even if they last a lifetime. #sisterreginacomicstrip...
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...
This week the liturgical season of Ordinary Time begins on January 10th, most appropriately with "Week One", of course. But we`ve chosen to run a Nativity cartoon with Shadow eyeing the cozy crib. [He has, in fact, been an almost perfect gentleman-cat regarding the decorations and cribs save for his deadly interest in poinsettia plants. This accounts for our meal time processions of poinsettia plants to and from the refectory tables from their `lock up` where he can`t get to them.] But, back to the cartoon. Why a Nativity cartoon if Ordinary Time is upon us?
Because it`s a wonderful custom to keep the Nativity scenes up until February 2nd, the Feast of the Presentation. It not only keeps Christmas in our hearts but our eyes on the Incarnation. While the world hastily throws out trees and garlands and moves forward to the next retail spike, we can continue to live by the Church`s ancient rhythms intended to bring us only closer to God. #sisterreginacomicstrip...
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...
We recently had a treat at Cor Jesu when a doe decided to have her fawn in our backyard and took to setting it’s hiding place just off our porch. We were touched that she chose to do this near the Holy Family statues. Between the Bambi fawn in the rocks and the fledgling mourning doves on the second deck we felt the animal kingdom was a bit closer and we were delighted that they felt safe enough to raise their wee ones under our noses. Gunther had other thoughts, though. While he is an excellent watcher of lightning bugs, we don’t think he’s ever seen a fawn before and he wasn’t quite sure this beast was friendly. He also kept an eye on the doe…just in case she brought another fawn along.
Mom and Bambi have continued to stick around and the little one seems big enough now to tag along with Mom on her feedings.
Website note: September 2020 – We switched to posting Sister Regina’s Comic Strips on Instagram, but you can still enjoy her past comics in the archive below.
Humor helps. A cartoon from the not so distant past.
