Hello from Casa Maria!

It’s looking pretty empty here without you!  We are just beginning to have our first in-person events since March and we look forward to gradually re-introducing our normal apostolic works in the upcoming months.

While you may smile at how we’re behind the times, COVID19 has been a great opportunity for us to learn “new” ways of using technology to engage in our Apostolate of Evangelization through Retreats and Catechesis.  We’ve been blessed to participate in and host various online Conferences, small groups, catechetical meetings, vocations panels and our very own Virtual Retreats.

As exciting as this is, we cannot wait to see you in person!

Here are a few snapshots from some of our recent projects.  We send a big thank you to all who have supported our Community during this time- your prayers and generosity have made our apostolic life possible in this unusual time!  Please know of our prayers for all of you.

Dear Family & Friends,

Our foundress Mother Mary Gabriel always emphasized, echoing St. Paul, that in all of our community’s apostolic work, “we teach spiritual things spiritually.” As many of you know, for years we have been teaching about the meaning and importance of the First Saturday devotions and the Rosary at parishes, youth conferences, schools, and college campuses.

Why? Well, because as St. Thomas Aquinas would say, how can you love what you don’t know? How can you freely pick up a devotion when you don’t have a deep knowledge of it so that it can take root in your heart? How can it help shape your life into Christ’s likeness?

We are all distressed seeing the sad circumstances in which we are living both here in the United States and throughout the world. The pandemic and the violence in the streets have both, in many ways, changed our way of living, but if you look at the history of Portugal around the time of the apparition at Fatima, you will see that history repeats itself. When Our Lady appeared in Fatima in 1917, the world was dealing with war, widespread anarchy and violence, a pandemic, and the rise of communism.

Our Lord has entrusted the peace of the world to His Mother’s Immaculate Heart. All of these problems can be averted by Our Lady of Fatima’s peace plan from Heaven: the First Saturdays.

Many Churches have been closed because of this pandemic–no Mass, no sacraments, and no First Saturdays. What are we to do? Shall we sit back, shrug our shoulders and wait until everything gets back to normal?

Our country was built by courageous pilgrims united in a noble cause. Our ancestors knew what it meant to sacrifice themselves for God and country. Above all, we have the witness of the martyrs who shed their blood for Christ, and our faith is the fruit of their sacrificial love.

In Japan, the Catholic Church was outlawed in 1632. The priests were expelled or martyred and the Churches were destroyed, but the Catholic faith was kept alive through the faithful who prayed the Rosary. When the ban was lifted and the missionaries returned to Japan, they were surprised to see how the people kept and passed on the Faith from generation to generation through the Rosary.

Let us courageously do all it takes to effectively practice this devotion. If First Saturday devotions are not held publicly in your parish, you can easily do them on your own. You can attend Mass or a Communion service at a local parish, pray the Rosary as a family, keep Our Lady company by meditating on one of the mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes, and go to Confession within 8 days before or after the First Saturday.

We have joyfully reopened our First Saturday devotions at Casa Maria, with Mass currently celebrated outdoors due to the pandemic recommendations. We invite you to visit this page on our website with resources for making the First Saturdays and encourage you to be creative in making this a part of your family’s spiritual life.

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Sr. Ave Maria, SsEW

We are so glad for our dear friends, the Leaven of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters, a community founded in the Philippines in 1991, who just celebrated the Profession of Vows of nine Sisters who are assigned in the United States. They have been patient through many years of waiting and delays!

The Sisters honored us by requesting that we sing for their Profession Mass, which we were so happy to do! Over the course of the summer, we worked to prepare the music for the beautiful occasion, practicing both at home and at Sacred Heart Church in Cullman, AL. We enjoyed every visit to the beautiful church, with its magnificent pipe organ and acoustics. The practices gave a special opportunity to get to know the delightful parish community there.

You may enjoy watching the video of the profession Mass, hearing the music, and seeing the LIHM Sisters’ radiating joy!

Congratulations, LIHM Sisters, and thank you for inviting us to celebrate this wonderful day with you!

Here is Veni Jesu, Amor Mi, a Communion Hymn:

You may watch the entirety of the Mass here:

(Or Watch on the Parish Facebook Page)

 

 

On the feast of the Nativity of Mary, we celebrated with great joy as Sister Laura received the religious habit and her new religious name! She is now:

Sister Marie Isabel, of the Infant of Prague

Our community has the custom that each postulant submits to the superior three names that they are drawn to, and Mother may choose one of these to give them, or may choose something else if so inspired by the Holy Spirit! Sister Marie Isabel was named for St. Elizabeth of Portugal (Isabel is the Portuguese form of Elizabeth). After the ceremony, Sister Marie Isabel shared with us that during her postulancy, she was much drawn to St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s reflections on the name Elizabeth, meaning “House of God”, and then specifically to St. Elizabeth of Portugal, due to her being known as the peacemaker.

As you see, this was also the day our new little Marian shrine, which has been nicknamed the “Portiuncula” (after the tiny chapel St. Francis loved so dearly in Assisi, naming it the ‘little portion’ for his friars). The last few details of the project came together in a miraculous way, with each piece fitting the others seamlessly, even down to the donation of slate shingles for the roof, and just the right lantern to hang over Our Lady, along with other lights for the nighttime. Father Anthony came to bless the statue and the shrine, after which we finished the day with a picnic!

“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.”

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio

As part of our program of continuing formation, we were blessed to welcome Fr. Anselm Rodriguez, O.Praem, from St. Michael’s Abbey in California, to Casa Maria during the week of August 10-15 to teach us a course entitled “Introduction to Philosophy: Themes in Aquinas.”

Just as a bird needs two wings to fly, man needs both faith and reason to soar to the truth.  As Christians, we are blessed with God’s Revelation, the contents of our Faith to which we adhere by the gift of faith.  But faith does not exclude man’s reason; rather, since grace builds upon nature, the two work in harmony to provide an accurate understanding of reality; therefore, each is indispensable in our flight to heaven.

The teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, called by the Church the “Common Doctor” (meaning, a master teacher in every respect: prayer, doctrine, morality, etc..), presents a most perfect balance and harmonization of both faith and reason.  In the three-fold division of all things knowable, Theology studies the order which God has revealed to reason, the speculative sciences study the order discovered by reason, and the practical sciences study the order produced by reason. While we regularly study Theology, this week was an immersion in St. Thomas’s philosophy (the speculative and practical sciences) which builds upon the wisdom of Aristotle to examine reality according to reason alone.

Philosophy is defined as an account of the ultimate causes of things according to reason, and seeks to give explanations for our common experiences, answering the question “why?”  The study of philosophy is not something reserved to the elite few. Instead, it is accessible to all, perfective of our human nature, and good in itself.

We spent much of our time on the speculative science called natural philosophy, examining knowledge gained through the senses.  This included the principles and causes (explanations) of nature, coming to know God’s existence through reason, and the philosophy of man with a special emphasis on the powers of the soul.

After discovering the nature of man, we examined the practical science called ethics, which seeks both to identify man’s ultimate end (or purpose), and to determine the best means to reach that end.  After arriving at the conclusion that man is made for happiness, which is the activity of contemplating God by means of virtue, we took a brief survey of the different kind of virtues and the best means of acquiring them.

Why should Religious Sisters study philosophy?  Philosophy, in addition to being good in itself, and perfective of our human nature, is known as the “handmaid of Theology,” for Theological truths are better apprehended when built upon the solid foundation of philosophy. The Church values the philosophy of St. Thomas so much that priestly candidates study it for several years before diving into Theology.  Additionally, philosophy is useful for apologetics, for in a world so confused about the nature and purpose of man, it equips one to defend basic truths by reason alone to those without faith.

We are immensely grateful for this week and pray that it may bear abundant fruit in our lives and in the lives of those we serve.

For an accessible introduction to the Theological and philosophical thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, we recommend “My Way of Life” by Fr. Walter Farrell, OP, and Fr. Martin Healy, available from our bookstore.