A Few Updates...

After spending July and August at home with my family and working at an internship in New York, I returned to Rome in the beginning of September. I spent my first month back in Europe studying Italian, and now we’re into our third week of Canon Law classes at my university.

Besides the studying, I’ve also been blessed to participate in a number of beautiful events, such as: the North American College’s diaconate Ordination at St. Peter’s basilica, the Mass for the opening of the Year of Faith, and the canonization of Sts. Kateri Tekakwitha and Marianne Cope (both of them New Yorkers!)

It’s a blessing and a privilege to be studying in Rome—but at the same time, it can be a rather demanding blessing! It’s still very challenging for me to study in a foreign language, so I truly don’t always have the time or the mental energy to update this blog as often as I would like.

But based on comments I’ve been receiving lately in real life, it seems like a lot of people still find “Sponsa Christi” to be a helpful resource, so I have every intention of keeping this blog up and running. I just ask that regular readers please be very patient with me, and that they say a prayer once in a while for the success of my studies.

Finally, even though I haven’t been able to publish a regular post in far too long a time, I did manage to create two new pages over the summer (accessible via the links running across the top of the page).

“Way of Life” outlines my own thoughts on how a vocation to consecrated virginity can be most fully expressed on a concrete level; and “Church Fathers” gives a basic working bibliography of the Church Fathers’ writings on virginity, complete with links to all the English translations of their work that I was able to find online.

I’m also slowly but surely working on typing out the Latin typical edition of the Rite of Consecrated to a Life of Virginity, so that I can post it on its own page. (Unfortunately, I don’t think the original Latin version—as important as it is!—is currently available anywhere on the internet.) Eventually, I’d also like to create a page dedicated to listing other vocational resources I’ve found helpful. So stay tuned!

Ad Multos Annos!

Heartfelt congratulations to Emily Byers, who was solemnly consecrated to a life of virginity last month in the diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana on June 16, the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Emily is now the youngest consecrated virgin in the United States. Please remember her especially in your prayers as she begins her consecrated life. (You might also head over to her blog, “By Love Alone,” to wish her well—and to ask her to post more pictures!)

Updates from My Life in Rome

(Photo: a view from my bedroom window during a February snowstorm here in Rome. )

I have not had much of a chance to blog lately, though I do miss it and hope to be able to write a real post soon. Here is some of what I have been up to in the past month or so:

First, I took my final exams for the first semester, and I actually did reasonably well, considering that all the lectures and most of the readings were in a language that I never studied before. (And for those of you who were wondering…the written exams were in Italian, but for the first year only, we’re allowed to write our answers in any major European language that our professor understands.)

It’s a huge relief to have a whole semester under my belt, and to know that I am capable of passing exams here. So I’m happy to be able to joke with the dean of my school that he doesn’t have to buy a plane ticket to send me back to New York!

Many thanks to everyone who has been praying for my academic success—though I ask that you please keep it up!

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From February 15-20, I was able to join in with the pilgrimage group from the Archdiocese of New York that was organized for the consistory where Archbishop Dolan was named a Cardinal. I had the chance to attended most of the events with the pilgrims attending most of the events. What a beautiful experience! Even though I basically live here in Rome, I felt like I was also on pilgrimage.

Aside from the consistory itself and the Papal Mass the next day, the highlights of the pilgrimage were Masses celebrated by the Cardinal-archbishop at the high altars of the four major basilicas in Rome: the first day was at St. John Lateran, the next day was St. Mary Major, the Friday before the consistory was at the altar of the chair at St. Peter’s, and the Monday after was at St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Each of these basilicas has major historical and theological significance, and each has some important relic buried beneath their high altars. For example, St. Mary Major is generally considered to be the oldest Church dedicated to Our Lady, and its high altar is built over a relic of the manger where the infant Christ was placed. St. John Lateran is the Pope’s actual cathedral Church, and St. Peter’s and St. Paul Outside the Walls are built over the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul, respectively. St. Paul Outside the Walls also has the relics of St. Timothy, a fact that our new Cardinal certainly didn’t hesitate to point out!

It was an AMAZING gift to be able to be able to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in small (or at least small-ish) groups gathered around such privileged altars, with my own Archbishop, dozens of New York priests, my “diocesan brother” seminarians also studying here in Rome, and large numbers of fellow Catholic New Yorkers.

Part of the gift was having a chance to taste—however briefly—a fuller sense of being spiritually “at home” than I’ve ever had anywhere else. I was “home” with my particular local Church in the company of a good portion of the Archdiocese of New York, while at the same time my physical presence in Rome reminded me in an especially vivid and concrete way of my “home” in the universal Church.

Among other things, this helped remind me of the reason why I’m doing everything I do here, and why I strive and struggle to live as much of a truly consecrated life as I can. As wonderful as Rome is, living and studying here can still seem frustrating and overwhelming at times—with the culture shock, language barriers, and challenging coursework, visible “results” come slowly, sometimes it’s tempting to feel like you’re not getting anywhere despite your best efforts. (Similarly, three years after my solemn consecration as a virgin, I have to say that often the best way to describe my consecrated life in general is as a mystery of trust and unseen grace. )

And so it was a real consolation to be with people from the archdiocese where I will one day be serving—or rather, serve even here and now, if you count my prayers and sacrifices. It helps me to keep in mind that my life is offered for real people, in the visible institution of the Church which Christ Himself founded.

Speaking for myself personally, I’m always so grateful for times like this, when God reminds me that my vocation isn’t just some sort of abstract theory, poetic phrasing, or nebulous “spirituality” independent of my every-day life, but is rather a concrete reality with real—even if not always readily apparent—consequences for myself and for the wider Church.

(A photo of me greeting our new Cardinal at the closing dinner of the consistory pilgrimage.)

***

On a much lighter note, I (along with all the Sisters in the house where I live here) did enjoy the remarkable snowfalls that we had in Rome in the beginning of February. We were told that it was the first significant snowfall that Rome had had in twenty-six years.

We had so much snow (about eight inches on the ground at one point), that I was joking that it almost seemed like I was in Rome, New York. Although as a New Yorker, I was alternately amused and disconcerted at the Romans’ apparent inability to deal with snow…e.g., I was wondering why the sidewalk on Corso Vittorio Emanuele was so slick, until one of the NAC seminarians told me that some people were trying to clear away the snow on walkways by pouring water on it. Not exactly the best idea in below-freezing temperatures!

Anyway, it was beautiful while it lasted! Here is another view of the snowfall taken from my bedroom window:

Where I Will Be Studying

While I was searching for something else online, I found this video about the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, where I will be studying for the next three years:

And yes, I am totally excited for this amazing opportunity! :)

(But please pray that the Holy Spirit will help me learn Italian.)

Some Updates: Yes, I Am Still Alive!

Despite the long silence, yes, I am still alive! I’m just coming towards the end of one of the busiest summers I have ever had.

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing a high school level Religion textbook on Vocations (which will probably reach classrooms in September 2013). I have had about four and a half months to write a full-length book, so needless to say this didn’t leave me with much time or mental energy to do much other writing. (Even when I writing my Master’s thesis, that was shorter in length and I had twice as much time to do it!) Happily, I’m starting to a light at the end of the tunnel; at this point, the core writing is more or less done and now I’m working on the rewrites. And it’s by far worth all the work to know that my writing may—God willing!—help to plant the seeds of future vocations in the Church.

I was also able to get away for a few days, albeit with my laptop in tow, to attend the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins’ annual convocation. This is the first one I have ever been able to attend, and overall it was a good experience. I’m very glad that I was able to go. (I was even pleasantly surprised to meet a few blog readers in person for the first time!)

Since the convocation was help at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, (a.k.a. Mundelein, the seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago) I was able to stay with and visit my mentor, Sr. Sara Butler, MSBT, who is on the theological faculty there. I met Sister Sara when she was teaching at St. Joseph’s Seminary here in New York, and she was a great help to me in my discernment, first few years of consecrated life, and in my graduate theological studies. (She was also one of my “bridesmaids” when I was consecrated.)

Sister Sara is Missionary Servant of the Blessed Trinity, a community founded in the early twentieth century for the preservation of the faith—basically, their charism is what we would now call “the new evangelization.” (I told Sister that her community’s vocation promotion tag line should be: “The New Evangelization: We did it before it was cool!” Sister said she would think about it.)

Also this summer, I received some rather life-changing news—the Archdiocese of New York is going to send me to Rome for three years to study for a license in Canon Law (a J.C.L. degree) so that I can serve on our Metropolitan Tribunal. God willing, I am planning to start classes at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross this coming Fall.

As you might imagine, I’m overjoyed to be given such a wonderful opportunity! I’m excited to have the change to live for a few years in the heart of the Church, and amidst so many cultural riches. But in all honesty, I think I’m even happier to know that, once I come back home for good, I’ll be able to serve the Church in New York in such a much-needed capacity.

And actually, I’m kind of having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that this is really happening! Things are coming along, but there is still a lot I need to do to get ready to go to Rome. So please, everyone, do keep me in your prayers!

Closing of the Year of St. Paul

Today, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, marks the closing of “The Year of St. Paul.” And I have to say that this was a wonderful year in which to be consecrated! Over the course of the last year, and in light of my consecration, many of St. Paul’s words took on a new and more vivid meaning for me.

I felt that I could say with St. Paul, in my happiness…:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

“…I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him…” (Philippians 3:89)

“But as it is written: ‘What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.’” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

…and in my difficulties:

“…but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.’” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

“I know the one whom I have trusted and I am certain that He, the just judge, has the power to keep safe what he has entrusted to me until that Day.” (an antiphon from Morning Prayer, cf. 2 Timothy 1:12)

***

Additionally, today five American Archbishops received the pallium—a symbol of their “metropolitan” (i.e., extending over an extensive geographical territory comprising several dioceses) authority, and also of Christ’s “easy yoke”—in Rome from the Holy Father.

(Archbishop Dolan receiving the pallium as Archbishop of New York. H/t “Whispers in the Loggia.”)

I found this ceremony exciting to read about, not only because New York’s Archbishop Dolan was one to receive the pallium; but also because the pallium ceremony references consecrated virgins, albeit in a less-than-obvious way.

The pallium is a narrow band of cloth, decorated with six crosses and made out of white wool. And that wool comes, in part, from two lambs which are blessed every year on the feast of St. Agnes, who is perhaps the most emblematic of the Church’s early consecrated virgin saints. Archbishop Vigneron of Detroit, another recipient of the pallium, writes more about this here on his blog.

Even though I don’t think the Church explicitly describes this particular meaning of this aspect of the pallium ceremony anywhere, personally I like to think that the blessed wool in the pallium is symbolic of the way that consecrated virgins (and the Church’s consecrated women more generally) help support the hierarchical Church through their life of prayer, witness, and sacrificial love.

(N.b.: Our Vocation Director in New York gives a great interview about the significance of the pallium ceremony on our local news, which you can watch here.)

Archbishop Burke on Consecrated Virginity

This quote was sent to me by Judith Stegman, president of the Unites Sates Association of Consecrated Virgins (USACV).

The passage here was taken from an interview with Archbishop Burke in Washington D.C., shortly after he spoke at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast earlier this month.

Although Archbishop Burke is currently stationed at the Vatican as head of the Roman Rota (the Church’s “Supreme Court”), until recently he served as the liaison between the USACV and the bishops’ conference in the United States. (Emphases, in bold, are mine.)

***

From National Review Online:

En route from Washington to the Eternal City, Archbishop Burke took some questions from National Review Online, expanding on some of the themes of his speech Friday, and addressing a new one or two.

KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: You’ve been very supportive of “consecrated virgins.” Is this concept important in the church? Does American society — one you say is in “crisis” — need it?

ARCHBISHOP BURKE: The consecrated virgins give a strong witness to the purity and selflessness with which we all should love one another, especially our brothers and sisters who are in most need. The consecrated virgin offers her virginity to Christ for consecration, so that she may give public witness to the love of Christ for all, without boundary and to the end. A society which is growing increasingly secularized needs desperately the life and witness of consecrated virgins who call all their brothers and sisters to love as Christ loves, that is, for the lasting good of all.

A Good Talk From The Pope

…sent to me by Fr. Luke Sweeney of “NYPriest.com.”

Obviously, virgins consecrated according to canon 604 don’t live in “contemplative” or monastic communities. But I think that cloistered nuns and consecrated virgins actually have more in common spiritually than do consecrated virgins and active Sisters, since the vocation to consecrated virginity (even “in the world”) is essentially contemplative.

Unfortunately, I don’t know very much about the saint mentioned here, but I found this article helpful.

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Pontiff Says Contemplatives Give Breath to World

...Calls Communities a “Spiritual Lung”

ROME, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Contemplative communities are called to be a type of “spiritual lung” for the world, so that spiritual "respiration" is not strangled by the bustle of cities, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today when he visited the Oblate Sisters of Santa Francesca Romana. He stopped at the convent after having visited the headquarters of Rome's civil authorities, where he addressed the mayor and other civil leaders.

Today is the feast day of St. Francesca (1384-1440), whom the Holy Father referred to as “the most Roman of saints.”

After spending some time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and in veneration of the saint’s body, the Pope addressed the sisters and students that reside at the center.

Referring to his spiritual exercises last week with the members of the Curia, the Holy Father said “he had felt once again how indispensable silence and prayer are.”

He noted how the convent is located at the heart of the city, saying, “How can we not see in it the symbol of the need to return the spiritual dimension to the center of civil coexistence, to give full meaning to the multiple activities of the human being?”

The Bishop of Rome told the nuns: “Your community, together with the other communities of contemplative life, is called to be a sort of ‘spiritual lung’ of society, so that the performance, the activism of a city, is not devoid of spiritual ‘respiration,’ the reference to God and his plan of salvation. [...]

“A singular balance is lived here between religious and secular life, between the life of the world and outside of the world. A model that was not born in a laboratory, but in the concrete experience of a young Roman woman: written—it could be said—by God himself in Francesca's extraordinary existence.”

“It is no accident that the walls of this environment are decorated with images of her life, demonstrating that the real building that God wishes to construct is the life of the saints.”

In this context, the Pope stressed that also today “Rome needs women who are all for God and for their neighbor; women able to recollect themselves and give generous and discreet service; women who are able to obey their pastors, but also able to support and motivate them with their suggestions.”

This vocation “is the gift of a maternity that is made one with religious oblation, modeled after Mary,” the Pontiff reflected. “Mary’s heart is the cloister where the Word continues to speak in silence, and at the same time is the furnace of a charity that leads to courageous gestures, and also to a persevering and hidden generosity.”

Habemus Episcopum!

Yesterday it was announced that Archbishop Dolan is to succeed Cardinal Egan as the Archbishop of my home diocese, the Archdiocese of New York. It’s been very exciting to read about this online and to talk to people back home, even while it is tough to be away studying in another region of the country when all this is going on.

It’s very convenient that the announcement was made just before Lent. Now I definitely know for whom I’ll be offering up a majority of my prayers and sacrifices for the next forty days! (Though I will of course still be praying for Cardinal Egan daily; I’m sure I will be—quite literally—eternally grateful to him for approving my consecration.)

From NYPriest.com:


“His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed His Excellency, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of Milwaukee, to the Archdiocese of New York. Archbishop Dolan has served as the Archbishop of Milwaukee since 2002. He will be the 13th Bishop and 10th Archbishop of the See of New York. He succeeds His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan, who submitted his letter of retirement upon reaching the age of 75 on April 2, 2007.”

“In a statement, Archbishop Dolan addressed New Yorkers, saying, ‘My brother bishops, priests, religious women and men, seminarians, committed Catholics of this wonderful Church, I pledge to you my love, my life, my heart, and I can tell you already that I love you, I need so much your prayers and support, I am so honored, humbled, and happy to serve as your pastor.’”

Feast of the Presentation and World Day of Consecrated Life

February 2, forty days after Christmas, is the feast of Jesus’ presentation in the temple. This is when the Church remembers the events described in Luke 2:22-38, where the prophets Simeon and Anna recognize the infant Jesus as the long-awaited savior.

Yesterday had also been designated by Pope John Paul II as “World Day of Consecrated Life”—my first as an official consecrated person! I believe this is in commemoration of Anna, who “...never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.”

“Roman Catholic Vocations” reprinted this article about the Pope Benedict XVI's address to consecrated people around the world, in this “Year of St. Paul”:

(emphases, in bold, are mine)

VATICAN CITY, 3 FEB 2009 (Vatican Information Service)

-- Yesterday afternoon in the Vatican Basilica Benedict XVI met with members of religious congregations, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, at the end of a Mass marking the thirteenth Day of Consecrated Life, an annual celebration established by John Paul II.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, presided by Cardinal Franc Rode C.M., prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Holy Father greeted those present.

In this year dedicated to St. Paul the Pope focused his remarks on the Apostle “who,” he said, “has always been recognized as father and master of those who, called by the Lord, have chosen to dedicate themselves unconditionally to Him and His Gospel. ... Imitating him by following Jesus is the best way to respond fully to your vocation of special consecration in the Church,” he said.

St. Paul's lifestyle “expresses the substance of a consecrated life inspired by the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. In the life of poverty he saw a guarantee that the Gospel would be announced gratuitously. At the same time, such a life is an expression of real solidarity towards brothers and sisters in need.”

“Accepting God's call to chastity,” noted the Holy Father, the Apostle of the Gentiles “gave his heart entirely to the Lord in order to be able to serve his brethren with greater freedom and dedication. Moreover, in a world in which the values of Christian chastity enjoyed little popularity, he offered secure guidelines of behavior.”

On the subject of obedience, Benedict XVI recalled how St. Paul was “under daily pressure because of his anxiety for all the churches” and how this “inspired, shaped and consumed his life, making it a sacrifice agreeable to God.”

“Another fundamental aspect of Paul's consecrated life was that of mission. He was entirely for Jesus in order to be, like Jesus, for everyone. ... In him, so closely bound to the person of Christ, we recognize a profound capacity to unite spiritual life and missionary activity. In him, these two dimensions support one another.”

The Pope told the consecrated people of his hope that the Pauline Year may “give you further encouragement to welcome the witness of St. Paul, meditating daily upon the Word of God through the faithful practice of ‘lectio divina,’ and singing ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts.’ May the Apostle help you to accomplish your apostolic service in and with the Church, with an unreserved spirit of communion, making a gift of your charisms to others and bearing witness to the greatest charism of all, which is charity.”