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Dominican Sisters of Mary

Mother of the Eucharist

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Can You Believe What God Can Do in 25 Years?!

Twenty-five years ago, our four foundresses freely placed their entire earthly security on the line to follow the call of the Holy Spirit to start a new foundation–the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

We’ve gathered some photo highlights for a delightful look back in time! Journey with us through our first 25 years as we “remember the wonders the Lord has done.” – Psalm 105

Entering just two years after our community’s
founding, Sr. Annunciata shares her own story of
God’s marvelous deeds throughout our 25-year history.

The first novena ever began on this day!!

PRAY THE NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS

The Holy Spirit descended, that first Pentecost, “like the blowing of a violent wind” (Acts 2:2) upon Mary and the Apostles. They had seen the Risen Jesus just nine days before as He was taken up to Heaven before their eyes. His parting words commanded them to “stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). 

And that, they did. Together in prayer with Mary, they waited nine days in the city. Christ Himself requested this of them, and in response to their obedience, He poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the newborn Church. This is the origin of the “novena” (novem, nine), a prayer repeated consecutively for nine days in petition for a particular intention.

But this gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Church is not locked in the past 2,000 years ago! At Baptism we each receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He is present today in you and me! 

If God is that close, why are we, then, not as holy as we could be? He waits upon us. The Holy Spirit will never override our freedom to choose. Sometimes we ignore His presence or give Him half-heartedness. He can do in us only what we allow. 

How do we allow Him to act in us? Through prayer! Prayer, this “turning our hearts to God,” can be done in as many ways as there are individual hearts. It can be as simple as bringing ourselves into stillness for a moment as we think of Him, or as profound as the Holy Mass. The smallest moment shared with God is an opening of our hearts by which He draws us closer to Himself with earnest love!  

Today, the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, is exactly nine days from the Feast of Pentecost and is a perfect time to begin a novena to the Holy Spirit. Let us fervently ask God to increase His gifts in us that we may desire deeper communion with Him and may be made more like Jesus who possessed in full each Gift of the Holy Spirit.

O Lord Jesus Christ Who, before ascending into heaven did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love.

Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear of the Lord that I may be filled with a loving reverence toward God and may dread in any way to displease Him.

Mark me, dear Lord with the sign of Your true disciples, and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.

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What is the Triduum?

Enter into the Triduum
with this beautiful instrumental Stations of the Cross

Even with the establishment of the everlasting Covenant, God knew His people had not suddenly become worthy or capable of fidelity. In the very act of renewing the Covenant, Jesus endured the disciples’ dullness and lack of understanding. As He knelt to wash their feet at the Last Supper to demonstrate His love, Peter cried out, “You will never wash my feet!” But Jesus was not surprised by Peter’s lack of understanding, and His love was undaunted.

Jesus allowed Himself to be betrayed, scourged, mocked, crowned with thorns, crucified, and pierced with a spear. He held nothing back, but surrendered all for us, even life itself. He inserted His divine, unending love where ours was wanting and repaired the breached relationship, reestablishing us as His beloved children.

Such unstoppable love healed the broken relationship. Can we doubt the strength of love that expresses itself thus? Can we doubt the gravity of the Covenant that was ratified in such a way?

Why not skip Lent this year?

Ash Wednesday is this week. In the busyness of life, we can be tempted to dismiss Lent as unimportant: “Things are going fine, I’ll skip it this year.” Or someone bogged down with suffering might think: “It isn’t going to do any good anyway.” Though understandable, such perspectives are incomplete.

These forty days are vital to the growth of our relationship with Jesus.
 The Church seeks to guide our minds to a healthy perspective and to promote our spiritual growth. 

The season of Lent is the time to renew your desire to be a disciple of Christ. The three forms of penance are a means for you to hear, look upon, and touch Him. Read more

In today’s world, it is all too easy to forget that we have a genuine need for God. The constant fulfillment of our every inclination for food, pleasure and power lulls to sleep our longing for God. But inside every individual is an actual hunger for God that cannot be instantly satisfied or avoided indefinitely. That’s why food, power, and pleasure never satisfy the human heart for long. We are not meant to have lasting happiness through these temporary things.

Stirring awake the primordial need for God is the Church’s purpose in asking us to observe the season of Lent. Denying ourselves a legitimate good for a time, forgoing a meal, or sacrificing something for someone else helps to reawaken our deepest need. Hearing our bellies grumble is an important opportunity to acknowledge to ourselves that our hearts desire lasting, fulfilling joy which a meal will not ultimately fulfill.

We offer this reflection from Sr. Mary Martha Bechnel, OP: Do we really need more sacrifices this Lent? Yes, and here’s why.

During Lent’s forty days, we offer the grumblings of the belly or other sacrifices to God as a concrete act of trust and fervent petition that He may keep our hearts awake, hungering for Him as our only true fulfillment.  We ask Him to root His love so deeply into our being that even when our bellies are full again, we do not fail to remember our deepest hunger.

Our Lenten devotionals (The Paschal Mystery of Christ, Walking in the Footsteps of the Lord, and Stand Faithfully) are written and produced by our Sisters. Available here

Throughout the season of Lent, we will be bringing attention to the remedies for vice in our lives with our new video series, Vice to Virtue. These videos were created in collaboration with Fr. Nick Monco, O.P. to help high school students and adults understand the capital sins and how virtue helps us to cooperate with God’s grace to overcome them. Learn more here

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Where does the dignity of life come from?

Human life, created by God to be a composite of body and soul, is spectacularly wonderful – a thing only God can accomplish. In His tremendous foreknowledge, God endowed man with a dignity fit for His future condescension in the Incarnation when He deemed it fitting to take on human flesh. Each human soul is created by God at the moment of conception. It is instantaneous. But we can watch the body develop over time in the mother’s womb. The stages of development are profound: 

Listen to Mother Assumpta’s conversation with
Mother Agnes Donovan from the Sisters of Life.

We can only stand in awe as we study the stages of development of a child in the mother’s womb. The dignity of the human person was radically endorsed by God when He Himself took on human flesh, and so we must respect and honor it. The Sisters of Mary take seriously their responsibility to teach the dignity of human life created by God in His image. Rallies for life around the country often find our Sisters and their students present! 

Hear the Sisters talk about sharing our pro-life views with clarity and charity.

What else can be done to uphold the dignity of human life? Let us daily ask God in prayer to protect and bring to birth all the little ones in the womb who may be in danger. Let us pray for their mothers confused in the struggle to know what is right within a society often bent on lies and profit. May they be given the strength and courage to choose love and uphold the dignity of human life.

BECOME A PRAYER WARRIOR
Pray daily for the protection of the unborn or spiritually adopt an unborn baby as suggested by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, praying these words for 9 months:

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I Love you very much. I beg you to save the life of the unborn baby I have spiritually adopted and is danger of abortion. Mary, our Mother in Heaven, pray for us, and especially for your little ones in danger of abortion!

We honor God’s complete plan for life. Listen to Nick Thomm’s acceptance story of God’s end of life plan.