Association Of Catholic Bloggers

Luca Bruno, Associated Press I came across the most wonderful online chat via the Huffington Post's Huffpost Live . I thought you might enjoy it as much as I did.  You can find the video interview here . And, you can find  here  a really wonderful piece from The New York Times online that describes the changing face of the American nun.   Wishing you and yours a wonderful Sunday, Sabrina 

Today, as I was perusing the  New York Times  online edition, I was thrilled to find an absolutely beautiful  photographic essay on life inside a cloistered monastery . I loved the piece for many reasons, not least because it gave me a glimpse of the life I might have led had I chosen to walk through that lovely door, instead of the one that led me to the very lovely life I chose, instead.  I hope you find it as enchanting as I did.   You may find the larger article  here . From  How to Live A Lovely Life  by Sabrina Booth Phillips 

©mocoo/Getty Images Only the best for God I spent most of high school and college assuming I would never marry or have children. God had set me on fire with faith, and I wanted to give him my absolute best. In Catholic terms, as far as I knew, that meant entering religious life. For a couple of years I attended campus ministry meetings for wanna-be nuns and priests, and my weekends were often scheduled with "come and see" retreats at various religious communities. And then I met a guy. . . . This guy, David, was different from others I had dated. He loved life, he loved God, and he knew God wanted him to be a father. Please join me for the rest at Praying with Grace .

A particularly tender moment in a nun's profession is when she pronounces vows with her hands in those of Mother Superior.  "My heart was full of joy," wrote one such Sister, "as I pronounced these words from the vow formula, '...I vow to God into your hands Reverend Mother to live my whole life in obedience, without property, and in chastity.'" ( Sister Mary Immaculata)  "I vow into your hands...." I read these words and immediately think of the total consecration to Mary according to St. Louis de Montfort:  "I, (name)_____, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism..." In whose hands are these baptismal vows being renewed and ratified?  Into those of the Blessed Mother.  "I vow into your hands...." (continue here)

Calling itself "the definitive biography of Elizabeth Seton,"  American Saint , by  New York Times  best-selling author Joan Barthel, was just released on March 4, 2014.  American Saint  is the first full-length biography of St. Elizabeth Seton to be written in nearly fifty years. Published by St. Martin's Press, the book includes a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Maya Angelou and has garnered advance praise from well-known novelist Mary Higgins Clark. Drawing heavily from the saint's own collected writings,  American Saint  traces Elizabeth's life from her childhood as a wealthy Episcopalian to her death as an impoverished Catholic who founded the first order of American nuns and became the first American-born canonized saint. The book does not shy away from the darkness of Elizabeth's earlier years. Her mother died when Elizabeth was just three years old, and her father remarried one scant year later. Elizabeth's father and stepmother the