Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia

LAUDARE, BENEDICERE, PRAEDICARE “TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH”

Christmas 2014

Dear Friends,

The liturgies of this Christmas season turn our gaze so often toward the members of the Holy Family. In imitation of their example and through their intercession, may all of our daily activities of work and play, rest and prayer be centered on God, Who came to dwell among us.

In Christ, The Dominican Sisters

of St. Cecilia

Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228

www.nashvilledominican.org vocation@op-tn.org

“Today our gaze on

the Holy Family lets us

also be drawn into the

simplicity of the life

they led in Nazareth.

It is an example that

does our families great

good, helping them

increasingly to become

communities of love

and reconciliation,

in which tenderness,

mutual help, and

mutual forgiveness

is experienced.”

Pope Francis

Feast of the Holy Family 2013

Holiness Highlight

SAINT BASIL the GREAT

Born: 330 in Cappadocia Died: January 1, 379 Feast Day: January 2 (shared with St.

Gregory Nazianzus) Known for: his upbringing in a family

of saints; his friendship with St. Gregory of Nazianzus; his founding of Eastern monasticism; his opposition to the Arian heresy and defense of the Trinitarian doctrine

How to imitate the saint: pray with members of your family; include Jesus in your conversations with friends; take time in the day to be silent and contemplate God’s goodness; read the section on the Creed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“If you see your neighbor in sin, don’t look only at this, but also think about what he has done or

does that is good, and … you will find that he is better than you.”

– St. Basil the Great, Conversations, 20

This year, as the Church is celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life, she is also placing an emphasis on the family. While we prepare for the World Meeting of Families to be held in Philadelphia in September 2015, an Extraordinary Synod of Bishops was convened this past fall to discuss the family with an Ordinary Synod on the same theme to continue in the fall of 2015. The convergence of these celebrations prompts us to thank God for the diverse vocations in the one Body of the Church and to reflect upon how they mutually support and enrich each other.

My family played a key role in my discernment and continues to influence the living of my vocation. Even though a religious vocation was not explicitly mentioned or encouraged while I was growing up, my parents raised us to trust in God’s providential guidance of our lives. This atmosphere of trust made me open to hear God’s call and gave me the courage to respond with a whole-hearted “yes”.

Now as I strive to live out my consecration as a bride of Christ and a spiritual mother, I find myself looking to my parents’ example. Their commitment to spending time together and their evident enjoyment of each other’s company helped me to approach prayer with greater fidelity and simplicity, open to receiving the joy that comes from being with the Divine Bridegroom. Their self-forgetfulness in serving us their children reminds me of the paradoxical law of love: we only find ourselves in giving ourselves away. As I seek to spend myself for souls, I know one of my responsibilities and privileges is to pray for my family and for the families of the students I teach. I must also witness to them of the surpassing value of the Kingdom of Heaven that, amidst the fleeting pleasures of this world, they may keep their eyes fixed on the happiness that never ends.

Strong and faithful family life has always been a great support to vocations to the religious life. St. Basil the Great, who is known as the father of Eastern monasticism, was born in the fourth century into a family deeply devoted to the faith and committed to practicing its precepts of charity. In one of his letters, he acknowledges how this influenced him: “The idea of God which I had from my blessed mother, and her mother Macrina, …has ever grown within me. I did not change about, as reason unfolded, but perfected the rudiments of faith by them delivered to me” (Epistle 223). Further, the example of his brother Naucratius, who had lived as a hermit but died young, and the advice of his sister St. Macrina, who had also embraced an ascetical life, to prize spiritual goods above worldy success prompted him to leave his promising position as an orator.

As members of the Pilgrim Church, we are all on the journey to our heavenly homeland. The domestic church of the family has a primary role in developing in children the moral and spiritual compass that will guide them along the vocational path God has marked out for them. Consecrated religious in turn provide eschatological signposts along that path, reminding each baptized Christian that our true home is in heaven.

Professed Sister’s

Reflection

PRAYING AS A FAMILY

Events on the Family

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS FORUM:

Proclaiming and Living the

Gospel of the Family

Feb. 13-14, 2015

Speakers include…

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain Helen Alvaré John Garvey

Sister Terese Auer, O.P. Richard Bulzacchelli

Katrina Zeno sponsored by

Aquinas College, Nashville, TN

WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES

Love is Our Mission:

The family fully alive

September 22-27, 2015

Philadelphia, PA

The World Meeting of Families is a gathering of Catholic families from around the world for days

of prayer, catechesis, and celebration of the gift of family.

Click here for more information.

Click here for more information.

A Short Guide to

GROWING TOGETHER IN FAITH AND LOVE

EACH DAY

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$11.95

Click above for a sneak preview of the book!

for a sneak peak of the book!

As a token of gratitude to our benefactors, the

novices prepared boxes with “A Taste of The

Motherhouse” in the first weeks of December.

Novitiate sisters made illustrations of the “O Antiphons,”

which began at Vespers on December 17 and ushered in

the final days before Christmas. The sisters also visited

local displays of Christmas lights, sang Christmas carols,

and rehearsed “A Christmas Pageant”—a play written by

the late Sister Mary David Harlow, O.P.

The packages included candied pecans,

molasses cookies, pear butter made from

pears on the Motherhouse grounds, and

shortbread cookies embossed with the

Congregation’s shield.

On the weekend before Advent, Father Joseph

Henchey, C.S.S., gave a series of conferences

entitled “A Sacrifice of Praise: The Liturgy of

Religious Consecration.” Father Henchey has

been a friend of the community since his first

visit to the Motherhouse nearly 40 years ago. For the opening of the Year of Consecrated Life, the sisters

prayed Solemn Vespers and renewed their vows at Mass.

As a prelude to

Midnight Mass,

a concert of

sacred music

prepared the

sisters to

celebrate the

Jesus’ birth.

After Midnight Mass and

throughout the Christmas

Octave, sisters and guests make

frequent visits to the manger

scene to marvel at God’s tender

love manifest in the frail

humanity of the newborn Savior.

Colorado State University

University of Colorado

Wyoming Catholic College

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Dominican Blitz

Lafayette Day of Recollection

Grangeville, Idaho

Fall Vocation Travels

Golden Gate

Canyon State Park

Louisiana

Anchorage

Ala

ska

Christopher Newport

Old Dominion University

College of William and Mary

of Steubenville

St. Fr

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cis

Univ

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Spring Vocation Travels

January 18-23 March for Life, Washington, DC January 23-February 2 Virginia & Maryland January 31 Day of Recollection, Catonsville, MD January 27-February 5 San Diego & Los Angeles, CA February 19-28 Vancouver, BC, Canada February 21 Day of Recollection, Vancouver, BC March 26-28 Benedictine College

TBA: Rhode Island; Texas; Mississippi

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Univ

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Day of Recollection

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