All Saints Day

Happy All Saints Day! I really haven't posted anything in quite some time, so I thought that today was a wonderful day to share something new. So, in the spirit of honoring the Saints, this post will explore the Saints who started religious Orders, and what those Orders look like today.

We'll start off with St. Benedict, who was born in Italy, in 480. He founded an order of monks, the Benedictines, in 529, and they've grown to include women religious as well.

Some six hundred years after St. Benedict came another holy founder, St. Norbert.

He, obviously, founded the Norbertines, of which I have already posted on. He's a very fascinating Saint, with a "St. Paul-esque" conversion, complete with lightning and falling off of his horse. Very dramatic, indeed. Here are the Norbertines today, Priests and Sisters:

Then, of course, there is St. Francis, a very splendid little saint. 

He founded the Franciscans the 1200's. While many of the Franciscans have become a little liberal, there are quite a few that still adhere to St. Francis' beautiful rule of extreme poverty and simply living the Gospel.

St. Francis' first female follower (say that five times fast...), was St. Clare who founded, in conjunction with St. Francis, the Poor Clares. 

St. Clare has such a beautiful love story; Stealing away from her family's castle in the middle of the night so as to escape, for a time, their wrath at the thought of this gorgeous, lively girl becoming a Bride of Christ. Ahh, the romance...

 

 

 

When St. Francis was establishing his Order in Italy, St. Dominic, a former Norbertine, was establishing his new Order in Spain. 

 

The Dominicans (like the Norbertines, Franciscans, and Benedictines), have Priests, and Contemplative and Active Sisters.

St. Jane de Chantal founded the Visitation Sisters in about 1610.

And, as this post is getting rather long, I will end with Blessed Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity:

I know these are only the very few, and generally more well known, Saints and Orders that exist, so if you have a favorite, or one I forgot to add, please let me know. 

Have a happy feast day!

Pax Christi,

Lindsay Frances

 

Catholic Warriors

On a hot, dry, California summer day a few weeks ago, I found a few little wooden pegs. I absolutely love miniature things, so I immediately set about trying to decide what I would tranform these into. I soon discovered, to my shock and joy, a whole yard and a half of white jersey fabric. Not only that, it was coupled with a smaller portion of black fabric. Now, I of course knew that I was destined, then and there, to help these simple, wooden pegs find their calling. Thus the birth of Catholic Warriors came about.

Yes, Catholic Warriors are little wooden Nun Dolls.

We have dolls of Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, Barbies, Twilight characters, and almost any kind of TV character, but does any one ever give their kids little dolls of our true heros? The people who daily uphold the world in prayer? The people who pray for those who do not pray themselves? The people who corageously throw themselves into the battle that is the spiritual life? Not usually. My dream is that parents will realize the importance of fostering religious vocations and holy bravery at an early age, and perhaps replace the Polly Pocket their child is holding with a little Nun doll.

Novice (White Veil) and Professed Sister (Black Veil)

The dolls pictured here are wearing the habit of the Norbertine Canonesses of The Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph. After I made the first two (One a Norbertine and the other a Dominican) I sent the little Norbertine to my sister who is a Novice in that Order. In her last letter she requested more, so I happily brewed up 12 little Sisters.

If you are interested in perhaps buying some Catholic Warriorsto give to your loved ones, distribute at a vocation fair, or simply using them to promote religious life, please leave a comment. Please be assured that I can make them wearing different habits, as long as they are relatively simple. They are $4, no matter what Order requested.

Thank you very much!

Pax Christi,
A Catholic doll-maker









Fun in the Apostolate!

Here's a collection of pictures of different Religious havin' fun doin' what they do. Enjoy. :)

Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

(These are actually Nashville Dominicans... But yeah...)

Daughters of St. Francis of Assisi

Fransican Sisters of the Renewal

Fathers of Mercy

Hermits of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael's Abbey 





Cistercians

Intense. Order. From their website:

3:30 A.M. Rise

3:50 A.M Matins

Interval

Lauds

Breakfast

Lectio Divina

7:45 A.M. Terce

Mass

Chapter

Work

12:00 P.M. Sext

Dinner

Work

1:30 P.M. Prayer

2:15 P.M. None

Recreation

3:00 P.M. Work

 5:00 P.M. Vespers

Supper

Free recreation

6:30 P.M. Compline

8:30 P.M. Retire

    The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as proper to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.”

Documents of Vatican II,

Constitution on the Sacred VI, Sacred Music, paragraph 116.

Daily Mass the center of our monastic life is the source and summit of all graces.

Reservation of the Holy Eucharistic in the tabernacle allows worship of the Real Presence of Christ to continue outside of the Sacrifice of the Mass

"In the meditative reading of Sacred Scripture, known as Lectio Divina,

we listen to the Word of God and take it into ourselves .”

We support ourselves primarily by baking altar breads

Recreations are an essential means to becoming a monastic family; true sisters in the Body of Christ



Community is a sharing in the simple joys of life

Faithful perseverance

in our vocation

produces the fruit of unconditional love

The Cistercian monastery forms an environment of silence and solitude within a community. In this atmosphere of quiet and separation from the noise of the world one is able to enter into the stillness of the spirit and encounter God dwelling within.

http://www.nunocist.org/index.html

Boo ya. Catholics are awesome.

Pax Christi!

The Norbertines



The Norbertines! One of my favorite orders. They've basically changed my life.

The Priests:

Abbey draws people from distances who wish to assist at the community’s liturgy.

St. Michael’s Abbey is an autonomous abbey of the Norbertine Order. The canonry currently has 48 priests, and 23 seminarians studying for the priesthood. All members of the abbey live a full priestly and monastic common life; with daily attendance at the choral Office in the abbey church and life in community.

The abbey’s principal apostolate is its school, St. Michael’s Preparatory School. Confreres also provide Sunday ministry at over thirty parishes and institutions in the diocese of Orange and other dioceses in Southern California. They teach at schools – from elementary to college level – throughout the Orange and Los Angeles dioceses.

Because of its ever growing number of young priests and its liturgical apostolate, St. Michael’s  Priests from St. Michael’s Abbey give spiritual direction and retreats to many different religious communities, both in California and internationally.
The seminarians conduct an annual day and night summer camp for boys on the abbey grounds for five weeks each summer, and teach in the community’s schools before their final vows and ordination. The time of formation before ordination is at least ten years for those who enter the community with a bachelor’s degree, and proportionately longer for younger men.

http://www.stmichaelsabbey.com/abbey/

Great, right? Well, there's also Norbertine Sisters; Contemplative and Active.


Contemplative: The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph

http://norbertinesisters.org/



(See the Postulant [in black] behind the last Novice [in white] on

the right? That's my sister ^.^)

(Oh, and the Postulant on the farthest right? Yeah, my sister. She's awesome.)

Active:



The Congregation of the Norbertine sisters is one of the branches of the Norbertine spiritual family which lives according to the Rule of St. Augustine in the spirit of St. Norbert. According to the teaching of Saint Augustine, the unity in mind and heart within our communities should overflow into love embracing all peoples.

The Norbertine way of life for sisters in the region of Czechoslovakia was suppressed by the closure of cloistered contemplative convents during the government of emperor Josef II. Our Congregation was founded in 1902 in Svatý Kopeček, Czech republic by Fr. Vojtech Frejka, O. Praem., from the Abbey of Strahov, to renew the Norbertine way of life in the region. The new congregation was started to perform external works while maintaining and preserving contemplative elements. Our Congregation continues to have a contemplative active character.

Our Charism is not expressed with a specific external ministry. Our main mission is to reply in the spirit of St. Norbert and the traditions of the Norbertine Order to the challenges of our times and needs of the church. As St. Norbert, we bring the values of the Gospel into today´s world, give witness through our common life, bring people to God through our liturgy, and invoke God’s blessings for all people.

The Norbertine sister is a woman with deep relationship with God sustained by daily adoration of the Eucharistic Christ, contemplation of the Gospel, and liturgical prayer. Norbertine sisters are called by God in the spirit of Saint Norbert to be real and to remain balanced in witnessing of values that are eternal and transcendental. All this is performed in a life of community with a permanent effort to be one in heart and soul in God. We allow the Virgin Mary to teach us to be completely devoted to God and to serve his people..

Like St Norbert, we want to bring the Gospel into today’s world. Here in Wilmington, we live our mission through ministering to the poor, teaching religious education, working in the book store, and in the parish office.

http://www.sppc.us/norbertine_sisters.html

So there you have it. A growing family, a deeply rooted tradition.

Pax Christi,

A Crazy Norbertine Fan Girl