He's Almost Here! Prepare the Way!

Only a couple more days! We’re busily preparing to welcome and celebrate the coming of our Infant King! As we countdown, we are remembering you in our Christmas novena. We joyfully invite you to join us for Vigil Office and Midnight Mass.

A Day For Those Who Pray

Today we remember an event passed down to us through tradition – the presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple. The stories passed down through tradition reflect the earliest years of Mary’s life were much like Samuel’s of the Old Testament. Anne and Joachim were childless, which was a sign of disgrace in that culture. They prayed to God and He answered their prayer by giving them Mary. At the age of three, Mary’s parents, Anne and Joachim, took Mary and presented her to God at the Temple, where she remained until (or shortly before) her betrothal to Joseph.

Artists have long painted this scene with a joyful Mary climbing the fifteen steps to the temple, where the high priest waits in astonishment at her mature demeanor for such a little child – her footsteps are graceful and sure and she doesn’t look back. It is also said she danced with joy in God’s presence once she reached the top. Her parents see her off at the bottom of the steps, faces full of joy and gratitude for their child, yet laced with sorrow at the parting.

Today is also the day dedicated by the Church to celebrate World Day of Cloistered Life, an ecclesial event for all Catholics to commemorate the hidden lives of cloistered and monastic religious. Like Mary, cloistered religious have left all to dwell in the house of God and seek His face on behalf of His people. Some wonderful ways to honor the event include prayer (participating in a novena, offering up Masses, etc.), encouragement (writing letters to contemplative communities, visiting them, calling to thank them, etc.), and giving material support (financial and in-kind donations).

A few years ago at a general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis reminded the Church, “Let us give thanks to the Lord for the powerful testimony of cloistered life.” He also urged the faithful to lend their spiritual and material support to these brothers and sisters of ours “so that they can carry out their important mission.” Our community is grateful for all of you who have so generously supported us with the generous giving of prayers, time, talents, and treasure. We humbly ask for your continued support, as you help make possible the life we live for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Deo gratias!

Prayer in Support of the Cloistered Life

Eternal Father, We praise and thank you for those sisters and brothers who have embraced the gift of the cloistered and monastic life. Their prayerful presence is indispensable to the Church’s life and mission, and is the foundation of the New Evangelization. As we celebrate World day of Cloistered life, let us honor the holiness and glory of the Blessed Virgin. May she, who was presented in the Temple, intercede so that many young people might dedicate themselves entirely to Your divine service by hidden lives of contemplative prayer and selfless sacrifice. May all of us be mindful of the spiritual and material needs of those who commit their lives to seeking God by fixing their gaze on those things which are eternal. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Seeking Happiness...Did You Miss It?

Father Pius Pietrzyk, O.P. of the Province of Saint Joseph.

On Saturday, October 13th, a group of young women from around the Bay Area (and beyond) gathered here at the monastery for our second Janua Caeli Retreat Day. Father Pius Pietrzyk, OP of the Province of Saint Joseph spoke on our quest for happiness and how we can truly find happiness as we live a life of prayer and virtue, and how to go about it with the demands of life today.

Mass, praying the Divine Office with the nuns and times for silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament filled out the day, as well as opportunities for confession and short one-on-one conferences.

Sister Joseph Marie, O.P. welcoming the Janua Caeli retreatants and introducing Father Pius Pietrzyk, O.P.

As a fun break after lunch, some of the novitiate sisters spent recreation with the retreatants creating a little art and talking.

A big thank you to Father Pius and for our retreatants, and for those that prayed for these young women and all involved in providing the retreat day. May God richly bless you with abundant graces!

If you missed this retreat day, don’t miss the next one! Visit our Retreats at the Monastery page to learn more about our next Janua Caeli and Come-and-See Days, or contact Sister Joseph Marie, O.P.

Celebrating the vocation of Saint Francis...

Take a coffee break with Sister Joseph Marie! Happy feast of Saint Francis!

Before the rush of the holidays, take a retreat day!

It’s already October and the holiday season is right around the corner - what better way to prepare than by taking a day of retreat! Janua Caeli are days of retreat for single Catholic women between the ages of 18-38 who desire to live more faithfully as Catholic women in today’s culture. Our next Janua Caeli Retreat Day is Saturday, October 13th and our retreat master is Father Pius Pietrzyk, OP. The day of retreat will include talks, Eucharistic Adoration, Mass and the Divine Office prayed with the Dominican nuns, and more!

Father Pius is a friar of the Eastern Dominican Province and serves as Chair of the Pastoral Studies Department and Assistant Professor of Pastoral Studies of Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. He holds a BA in English and Philosophy from the University of Arizona and a JD from The Law School at the University of Chicago. In 2002, Father Pius entered the Dominican Order and his studies eventually led him to the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. In 2016, Fr. Pius was appointed a missionary of mercy by His Holiness, Pope Francis.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join other like-minded young women and grow in your relationship with Jesus through Mary! For more information and to register, visit our website.

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation, Part 5: The Labor Day Week Finale!

Each year around Labor Day, we have the privilege and joy of extending hospitality to one of our Dominican friars, Father Luke Buckles, O.P., before he returns to the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome, where he is a professor of theology. This year, as part of his visit, we were treated to a two-session seminar on Dominican and Carmelite mystics. Father wove together insights from St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Teresa of Avila, and St. John of the Cross. One common thread that emerged was the unity of life bestowed by grace in the lives of the mystics. Each of these Doctors of the Church experienced a profound sense of God’s presence at every moment and in every circumstance, whether sacred or mundane.

While we make think that mysticism is too lofty for everyday life, Father reminded us of a few lessons from these great saints: St. Teresa of Avila taught her sisters that prayer is never interrupted by charity. If one is called out of choir to help a sister in need, there is no break in one’s prayerful union with the Lord. St. Therese of Lisieux found heaven in doing little, mundane tasks, such as picking up a pen from the floor, with great love for God and neighbor. St. Catherine of Siena is famous for her discovery of the “interior cell,” in which she constantly dwelt with God even in the midst of a crowd.

And to quote another Dominican, Meister Eckhart, we are challenged: “Don’t go around doing holy things. Make everything you do holy!”

How We Spent Our Summer, Part 4: A Nun Run!

“So, um, how old do you have to be before you can enter your monastery?” asked a wide-eyed thirteen year-old girl from the other side of the parlor. She gave voice to the query of many a young girl during the annual “nun run” from the Archdiocese of Portland, most of whom were between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.

Nuns in every stage of their monastic journey participated in answering questions, and contributing their own stories and insights during this exchange. By the end of the weekend, the girls will have met Carmelites, Benedictines, Dominicans both active and contemplative, and other consecrated religious in the greater Northwest region. We were happy to be able to host such a lovely group of possible vocations in the Church.

Preparing for a Houseful...

of novice mistresses! This weekend, novice mistresses from across North America will be arriving at our monastery for the 2018 Annual Meeting of Novice Mistresses organized by the North American Association of Dominican Monasteries. Each year, a different monastery hosts the meeting and this year we have the privilege. So, our sisters have been eagerly preparing for the arrival of our guests!

One of the responsibilities of the Association is to provide means of collaboration, formation and support to the member monasteries. The annual meeting of novice mistresses is aimed at providing a forum for the novice mistresses to have a time of renewal, opportunities to learn new tools to meet the challenges of initial formation, and to build relationships between the formators.

Please keep our novices mistresses in your prayers this week as the gather together and then return to their home monasteries.

A House of Prayer: The Consecration of Our Chapel

Early this morning before Lauds, the twelve chapel consecration candles were lit. They will burn all day in celebration of the anniversary of the consecration of our chapel.

Today our community gratefully and joyfully celebrates the 65th year of the Consecration of our Chapel! We give praise to God for his goodness and remembered at our morning Mass all our dear Sisters who have gone before us and our family, friends and benefactors who have supported our life of prayer throughout the years.

Below is the story taken from our history archives (with comments given in italics) of the glorious celebration of the Consecration of our Chapel on September 12, 1953.  We have posted the story before but in case you haven’t seen it, here it is again…

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About 9 a.m. the ceremony of the Consecration of the Chapel began. Bishop Guilfoyle, attended by Father Bowe and Father Cahil started the august ceremony. Bishop Guilfoyle had prepared for it by a day of fasting, as he was to represent the Eternal Pontiff who opened heaven to us by fasting and suffering.

The sacred relics that were to be placed in the sepulcher had been retained in the sacristy overnight, and were so placed in the little grille opening into our Chapel hall, that we were privileged to venerate them there during the night hours. Two candles burned before them constantly and flowers adorned the aperture.

The ceremony began promptly in the morning. The Bishop, wearing a white cope, and accompanied by the clergy, remaining outside the Chapel, approaches the relics, to implore near them the mercy of God. For this purpose he recites the seven Penitential Psalms. Meanwhile the door of the Chapel is closed. There was no one inside except the Deacon, who was our Chaplain, Father Clark, wearing an alb, girdle and white stole.

(The Chapel had been prepared before the day by removing every movable thing – chairs, tables, flowers, vases, etc. No persons may be inside the Chapel during the first part of the ceremony. All, even the clergy, are outside the door.)

The Bishop, struck by the greatness of the undertaking, cries out, “O Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be in the midst of us.” To implore this help, the Litany of the Saints is recited.

After this, the Bishop blesses salt and water, with the usual exorcisms and prayers. Having made an aspersion on himself and clergy, he goes around the Monastery walls, sprinkling the exterior with holy water, and saying continually, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy ghost.” During this time, the antiphon is intoned, “The House of the Lord is built upon a mountain, etc.”

Having returned to the front of the monastery, the Bishop recites a prayer, asking God to bless this dwelling and make it a house of holiness and prayer.

Then with his pastoral staff, he strikes the door once, saying, “O princes open your gates; and the King of Glory shall enter in.”

The Deacon, who is inside, asks, “Who is the King of Glory?” The Bishop answers, “He is the strong and mighty God.” During all this time, the outer door of the Chapel has remained closed. There is no one inside, except the Deacon. (He was Father Clark, our Chaplain.)

The Deacon does not open the door. The Bishop now goes around the Monastery a second time, saying the same words.

Having returned to the front of the Chapel and asking God’s blessing on all who were assembled, he strikes the door a second time, saying the same prayers as was said the first time. The door of the Chapel is not opened yet. The Bishop goes around the building the third time, sprinkling the walls and blessing them. Meanwhile, the anthem, “O Master of the universe” is intoned.

Returning to the front of the Chapel, the Bishop offers a prayer and strikes the door the third time, making the same invocation. The deacon responds and then opens the door.

“Peace to this house” the Bishop says, as he enters the Chapel. All kneel down in the middle of the Chapel, and the Bishop intones the “Veni Creator.” The Litany of the Saints is again said. Whereupon the Bishop traces, on the floor, with his crosier, on two lines of ashes, the Greek and Latin alphabet.

(The evening before the ceremony, Msgr. Kennedy had come to see that all was in order. But he found that the wax on the Chapel floor did not permit the laying down of the ashes. So he rolled up his sleeves and scrubbed all the wax off the floor and laid down the ashes in the form of an X from one corner of the Chapel to the other.)

After blessing the walls on the inside, he mixes new water putting into it salt, ashes and wine. This is called Gregorian Water.

(And is used for the consecration of the Altar.)

And now, after more prayers, the Bishop goes around the Altar seven times, wearing cope and mitre, sprinkling the Altar and reciting the Miserere.  The moment has now come to place the sacred relics in the sepulcher.

(This is a rectangular hole which has been hollowed out of the center of the Altar which is made of one large slab of stone.)

The Bishop recites a prayer, after which he consecrates the sepulcher with holy chrism and immediately lays the holy relics in it, together with three grains of incense. The relics were as follows: one of St. Fortunatus, one of St. Felicitus, and that of our holy father St. Dominic in which the last one was allowed at the community’s request.

(The relics placed in an Altar must be those of a martyr of the early Church. We also requested from the Vatican a relic of Our Holy Father Dominic and our request was granted.)

Our Altar with the sepulcher containing the relics inside

The Bishop now consecrates the stone that is to close the sepulcher which now contains the relics. He fixes it on the sepulcher with the cement he has made and blessed. Then anointing it again with the holy chrism, he says, “Let this Altar be sealed and sanctified in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and let peace always surround it.”

After this, the Bishop incenses the Altar and its pillars; while all this time, a Dominican student continued, without ceasing, to swing the thurible, perfuming the Altar with its fragrant incense.

Twelve crosses had been impressed on twelve pillars of the Chapel, one at each Station. From the beginning of this great ceremony, lighted candles burned before these crosses.

(It is good that the Bishop was young and athletic because he had to go up a stepladder at each station to anoint the cross.)

While the candles and incense are burning on the Altar, the Bishop and clergy prostrate and sing the anthem, “God be praised,” etc.

During the progress of this long ceremony, besides the Seven Penitential Psalms, seven various Psalms were recited outside the Chapel and sixteen on the inside.

Archbishop Guilfoyle was assisted, throughout, by Father Raymond Cahil and Father Thomas Bowe. Father Meyer and Father Quinn were Masters of Ceremonies.

After further prayers and ceremonies, the Altar was furnished with flowers and candles were lighted, and the august ceremony concluded with Solemn High Mass at the newly consecrated Altar, at which our Provincial, Very Reverend Father Fulton, O.P. was Celebrant, Reverend Father Kelly, O.P. was Deacon, and Reverend Father Ward, O.P. was Subdeacon.

This great ceremony was a foretaste of the joys that await us in the blessed city of Heaven!

How We Spent Our Summer Vacation, Part 3: Fifty Years and Counting!

Our diminutive and energetic Mexican hermana, Sister Maria Carmela of the Heart of Jesus, O.P., celebrated her 50th Jubilee Anniversary of profession on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Father Mark Padrez, O.P., our vicar and Prior Provincial of the Western Dominican Province, celebrated the Solemnity Mass to a full chapel of Lara family and friends in honor of their Jubilarian, and received abundant graces during their visit with her. The schola led the choir in the Dominican Kyriale V Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary with great gusto. Congratulations, Sister!