Gloriosa Virginum

Sharing the Joy of Christmas

2011-12-30T23:04:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends, Merry Christmas to each and all of you from the SOLI Community! We pray that you and your families all enjoyed a blessed and grace-filled celebration of Our Savior's birth and that this coming New Year draws you all ever closer to the Lord who loves each of you, His children, so deeply.

Christmas is always a beautiful experience here in the house of the King. All the little special events we have, as we move closer to the great day, add to the anticipation in our hearts to greet the Divine Infant at His coming among us. During the last week leading up to the Solemnity, the sisters prepared the children from our Family Catechism Program, Blessed Sacrament Parish Saturday Morning Catechism program, as well as the seniors in our Retirement Home, to present Christmas Pageants for their families and friends. The faces of the young and not so young were radiant as they took part in sharing the joyous story of Our Divine Savior's birth.

The Sisters were also given a surprise gift from some dear friends who are members of the Kitchener-Waterloo Grand Philharmonic Choir ~ twelve free tickets to attend their performance of Handel's Messiah! Later that week, about twelve of the choir members came to Marian Residence to sing for our dear seniors. The little choir proudly calls itself the "Granny Group" and have been coming to sing here for about ten years. It is always an evening enjoyed by residents and sisters alike. This year we also had a little surprise for them! ~ the sisters joined them in singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus for the residents! Look out! Nun flash-mob!!

Through the kindness of the Galt Kiltie Band here in Cambridge, the Sisters were able to borrow some wind instruments to form for Christmas the SOLI Sisters Ensemble...tuba, french horn, clarinet, flute, violin and yes, even a saxophone! The sisters shared their gift of music at our volunteer appreciation party as well as the Marian Residence staff dinner, and Christmas dinner for our Seniors.

With all the waiting now over, the Holy Season began with the celebration of early evening Mass for Christmas in the Marian Residence chapel at seven in the evening with our Seniors.Our dear and faithful friend, Father Tim Higgins came to offer the Mass and the seniors joined the sisters to sing the Missa de Angelis that night. Shelby, our youngest postulant, had the privilege to carry the Infant Jesus statue in the entrance procession and place him in the wooden manger of our nativity scene in the front of the chapel. After Mass, the young sisters all gathered around our Newborn King to welcome him once again and to express their love for Him in the silence of their hearts.

Following Mass a little Christmas party was had with the seniors. More excitement began to build as the sisters prepared to attend Midnight Mass ...Gloria in Excelsis Deo!!! He is born!! The King of Kings and Lord of Lords! At Blessed Sacrament Parish, where some of the sisters went that night, His Excellency Bishop Ustrzycki celebrated the Holy Mass together with Fathers Lobsinger and Raj. When the sisters returned home the community had their own Christmas celebration together into the wee hours of the night sharing the joy of the Savior's birth together. Merry Christmas!!

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

2011-12-12T01:07:00.000-05:00

SOLI Patronal Feast Day Celebration

2011-12-08T23:59:00.001-05:00

A blessed Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to you all! Today we joyously celebrated our Community's Patronal Feast. It is always wonderful to spend this day meditating on the tremendous gifts of grace bestowed upon Our Lady, especially her Immaculate Conception, being preserved from Original Sin from the very moment of her existence in the womb of her mother St. Anne, through the merits of the redemption her Divine Son would gain for us all through His life, death and resurrection.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!

We began our Feast with the chanting of Lauds in praise of Our Blessed Lady. The Formation Household traveled over to Cambridge from Glen Morris to join the rest of the Community for the celebration of Holy Mass offered by Father Tim Higgins, at the end of which the sisters all renewed their Total Consecration to Our Lady together, according to the method of St. Louis Marie De Montfort. In the evening we enjoyed a meal together and some lovely singing in honor of our Lady with our dear friends Bishop Matthew Ustrzycki and Father Wayne Lobsinger. May Our Blessed Mother bless each of you with her motherly love and obtain for you and your loved ones the choicest of graces from her Son. Ave Maria!

November: Month for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

2011-11-10T20:35:00.007-05:00

As November is upon we are reminded to think and pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, who are traditionally remembered during this month. Those countless souls await our prayers and good works and any little pain and suffering that we can offer for them throughout the day. Let us make a valiant effort this month to offer up many acts of love for these dear souls who will not forget our goodness to them. Here is a prayer below that you may wish to pray during this month or even make a part of your regular devotions.

Our Lord revealed to St. Gertrude that 1000 souls would be released from Purgatory each time it is said devoutly:

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.

Know that we are remembering all the deceased in our prayers in a special way during this month. If there are special people that you would like us to remember during this month, please send us their names and we can pray for them.

All Saints Celebrations!

2011-11-10T20:29:00.001-05:00

As usual, each year, we host All Saints Parties for our Catechism students. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy from our celebrations of our heavenly Friends!

October Vocation Retreat Highlights

2011-11-10T20:07:00.009-05:00

We thank God for all the graces received during our vocation retreat two weekends ago. In the quiet atmosphere of our Formation House, the retreatants had an opportunity to spend quality time with Our Lord in Adoration and silent prayer, following some of the meditations of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

As well they had the opportunity to learn about the theology of religious life, about the charism of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate and enjoy a Q & A session with the Novices and Postulants about discernment and religious life.

"It was quite relaxing, informative and beneficial to me personally in discerning what faith-based direction I will take in life." - Retreatant

"It was a very peaceful and enlightening experience for me. The Mass was beautiful and the Chapel was very wonderful. The retreat was different from any other retreat that I've been to. Very peaceful and quiet so I could think and pray to God and Mary and other Saints. I felt as if I was right at home with the Sisters. People understood me there better that in the outside world. The talks were fabulous! It is a very balanced life style. Thank you for the weekend! " - Retreatant

Our next vocation retreat is:

Sat. March 3- Sun. March 4, 2012.

You can sign up on our website or read more information about it!

The Best Marriage

2011-11-10T19:58:00.004-05:00

Read the excerpt below from:

on The Best Marriage from the page "Discerning Religious Life"at the website www.religious-vocation.com . Please post your comments and questions!

"It is therefore necessary during one's discernment to understand that religious life is not a "giving up" of marriage. Rather, it is an elevation of marriage, beyond this world, towards its ultimate fulfillment - it is to live, here on earth, a more intimate union with heavenly reality. Instead of marrying a fallible man, religious in a mystical sense marry Our Lord Himself, wed to the Church. Instead of raising children, religious adopt every soul as their spiritual child. Instead of devoting one's life towards the salvation of immediate family, religious devote their lives to the salvation of the world. In this way, the consecrated life is everything that marriage is, but elevated to a higher dignity and perfection. It redirects man's natural desire for marriage towards a higher and more perfect end; towards the mystical marriage between Christ and His Church. It is thus that the Church considers the consecrated life an act of supererogation, that is; for those who want to become perfect (Matt. 5:48, "be therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" ), for it is first by becoming perfect, that one is able to sanctify others to the highest degree possible. When a mother explained this in simplified terms to her six year old daughter, the child responded; "Why would anyone want to marry a man when they could marry God?" Although her answer may be somewhat simplistic (Our Lord may call certain souls specifically to marriage, to fulfill a certain work in the world), nonetheless it does speak a certain truth. Jesus Christ is the perfect spouse of our soul; it is only He who can fill the natural void in our hearts perfectly. The better life, according to Our Lord, is to simply sit at His feet like the Magdalene, rather than become divided over temporal matters (Luke 10:42)."

The SOLI Charism

2011-11-10T19:54:00.002-05:00

As well as being devoted to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and Our Blessed Mother, the special charism, or spiritual identity of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate is one of offering our lives, that others, especially lapsed and ignorant Catholics, will come to know and live their Catholic faith once again. Every day, in our convent, we offer a special prayer of oblation, asking God to accept the gift of our prayers, works, and our whole lives for this purpose. There are so many people today, Catholics, baptized Catholics, and yet they do not know almost anything about their Catholic faith and are even indifferent towards God and their own salvation, both children and adults. It is for these that we offer ourselves to God.

Our Father Founder, Father William Lloyd Ryan, a priest of the Diocese of Hamilton and who passed away in 2003, proposed a group of Sisters in France, the sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne, France, as models for us to imitate in this self-offering.

These sixteen Carmelites lived during the reign of terror in the French Revolution. People were being killed by the thousands every day. And the Sisters, privately in their convent were offering their lives as a sacrifice, that the reign of terror would come to an end, which offering they made daily. Eventually the Sisters themselves had the supreme privilege of offering their own lives at the guillotine - they all climbed the scaffold one by one, asking their Superior permission to die, with the Superior being the last one to climb the steps to her eternal reward. Now, ten days after the Sisters' martyrdom, the reign of terror came to an end, beginning with the death of Robespierre. Father Ryan said on this point:

"Now it is not for us to say what brought about this happy ending, but it certainly would seem that God accepted the prayers and the sacrifices of these Nuns. At any rate, I've got that as an example for us. We don't live in a reign of terror today, but we have a reign of ignorance, a great indifference to salvation, I would say in many a great many people almost a complete indifference. I think this is a tremendous tragedy. This is a situation that could only be overcome by a special gift from God, a special grace. And it would be a wonderful blessing to us to have even a small way to merit, to help to merit this special grace from God."

So, as Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate, we strive to live the religious life faithfully and teach the Faith correctly and courageously. We do this as an offering that all will come to know and practice their Catholic Faith once again and achieve their salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Discernment Advice from St. Ignatius: The Spiritual Exercises

2011-11-10T19:42:00.009-05:00

As Father Thomas Nelson, O.Praem. told the Sisters in classes at the Vita Consecrata Institute, when you are selecting books to read, don't look for the initial after the person's name (M.A., Ph.D etc) but rather the initials before the name... St. (Saint)!

For this reason, we would like to share a summary of advice for vocation discernment according to St. Ignatius Loyola, who used this manner in discerning his own vocation. Apparently, it worked so well that he standardized it into a format for others to use, which, with other spiritual meditations added, came to be known as "The Spiritual Exercises."

1. MAIN PRINCIPLE:

"Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created."

This is the criterion upon which we must make our life choices - really to meditate on these points: "Why am I here on this earth?" "What are the best means I can use to achieve my goal of praising, reverencing and serving God and saving my soul?"

2. WARNING:

"And so I ought to choose whatever I do, that it may help me for the end for which I am created, not ordering or bringing the end to the means, but the means to the end."

What does this mean? St. Ignatius says that many people first choose the means (i.e. their state in life e.g. marriage) and then think about how they might be able to achieve their end through that means (glory of God and salvation of their souls). However, the Saint says that this is backwards thinking! First we must think of the end, the goal to which we are heading - and then select the best means to that goal, and not the other way around. So practically, I should ask the Lord in earnest prayer, "Lord, by what state in life may I (me personally, not someone else) best love and serve You in this brief life, save my soul and help others save their souls?"

3: THE TWO WAYS OF DISCERNMENT OF ST. IGNATIUS

St. Ignatius knows how difficult it is to be honest with ourselves, so he proposes two "ways" of discernment. The first one is more structred and methodical and the second one is more personal and a person can use either one, or both! They are summarized below:

First Way - 6 Steps

1.Define: Define clearly what you are deciding about (e.g. whether to embrace marriage or religious life as a state in life).

2. Dispose: Think of the end (see main principle) and dispose yourself to be indifferent, to have no inclination towards one or the other, so that you can be open to God's will for you.

3. Ask - Pray! : "To ask of God our Lord to be pleased to move my will and put in my soul what I ought to do regarding the thing proposed, so as to promote more His praise and glory; discussing well and faithfully with my intellect, and choosing agreeably to His most holy pleasure and will."

4. Consider: "To consider, reckoning up, how many advantages and utilities follow for me from holding the proposed state of life for only the praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my soul, and, to consider likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers which there are in having it. Doing the same in the second part, that is, looking at the advantages and utilities there are in not having it, and likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers in not having the same."

5. Deliberate and Decide: St. Ignatius recommends now, after having in Step 4 carefully looked at the pros and cons prayerfully, in the presence of God, to decide "according to the greater inclination of reason, and not according to any inclination of sense". This seems like a very hard-line approach! But God gave us the gift of reason to aid us in prudently making decisions. Furthermore, St. Ignatius is recommending this method to souls who have not received any extraordinary grace to know their vocation, nor any inclination, rather than to those who already have a sense that God wishes them to enter a particular vocation.

6. Offer: "Such election, or deliberation, made, the person who has made it ought to go with much diligence to prayer before God our Lord and offer Him such election, that His Divine Majesty may be pleased to receive and confirm it, if it is to His greater service and praise."

The Second Way - 4 Rules

This way is more personal and less structured, but can be just as effective:

1. That you be moved in your decision by the love of God.

2. To imagine a stranger comes before you to lay open his vocational struggles and tells you everything (all the details of your own situation in fact!) Now, you, desiring the good of their soul, recommend to them what is for their greater good. Whatever you would recommend to that person - accept that advice yourself.

3. Choose that which you will wish to have chosen when you come to the moment of death.

4. Choose that you will wish to have chosen at the Day of Judgment.

Some may be drawn more to one method than another. Whatever method most appeals to you, we recommend that you take time to pray sincerely and ask Jesus to direct you according to His holy will. May St. Ignatius pray for you all as you continue to pray about God's will for your state in life!

Upcoming Retreat Oct 22-23rd !

2011-10-05T15:14:00.014-04:00

Retreat for Young Women
Ages 16-30
Date: Sat. Oct 22- Sun. Oct 23
3pm - 3pm

We extend an invitation to join our 24 hour retreat that will take place soon! We invite you will take this opportunity to grow in the spiritual life and think about God's plan for your life. Hope to see you there!

Why you will not want to miss this retreat!

· Get away from your busy life for a day
· A chance to talk to God about His plans for your life
· Adoration and quiet time with Jesus
· Meet and have fun with the Sisters
· Have a sneak peek at religious life

Click here for more information or to register: http://www.solisisters.ca/retreats.html

Location: Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate Formation House, Glen Morris (just outside of Cambridge) We can pick you up at the bus or train terminal in Cambridge or Kitchener, or if you need driving directions coming from Toronto or London direction, we are happy to mail those to you.

Serra Clubs - Promoting Vocations to the Religious Life and Priesthood!

2011-10-04T10:11:00.032-04:00

One organization in the Church that is doing much to promote vocations to the priesthood and the religious life for the glory of God and the salvation of souls is Serra. They describe themselves as "a Catholic lay organization for the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, and the affirmation of vocations, and the spiritual development of its members.

For many years now, the Kitchener-Waterloo Serra Club has been praying for our Sisters in Formation by name and has annually invited our community to a special Christmas dinner for the religious in our area, where we sense the great support and appreciation of the People of God for the consecrated life and for us in particular. The Hamilton Serra Club has also been such a great support to us in this Diocese of Hamilton. We have been welcomed to speak at their meetings and they have supported our Sisters as they reach their Perpetual Vows at the Hamilton Diocese Ordinandi Dinner.

Recently, we have been invited by the Toronto Downtown Serra Club to help them encourage and foster vocations to the religious life by participation in their vocation fairs held at the Youth Conference in Midland in August, and also their annual vocation fair held this year at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Scarborough Sept 24-25. It was such a wonderful time to share our faith and vocation with so many people and receive such a warm welcome at the Parish! A special thanks to Zinna Milburn, VP Vocations, and the President of the Toronto Downtown Serra Club, Anne MacCarthy for their invitation to participate. You can see pictures from the recent Vocation Fair below!

We would like to thank all the Serrans who have supported us in our religious life. May God abundantly bless and reward all of you as you labour for an increase in the labourers in the vineyard of the Lord for a rich harvest!

Monthly Discernment Discussion. Topic: Prayer - Thoughts from St. Jose Maria Escriva

2011-09-26T23:43:00.003-04:00

You write, "To pray is to talk with God. But about what?" About what? About Him, about yourself—joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions—and Love and reparation. In a word, to get to know him and to get to know yourself—"to get acquainted!" The Way, 91

You don't know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, "Lord, I don't know how to pray!" you can be sure you've already begun. The Way, 90

Look at the set of senseless reasons the enemy gives you for abandoning your prayer. "I have no time"—when you are constantly wasting it. "This is not for me." "My heart is dry..." Prayer is not a question of what you say or feel, but of love. And you love when you try hard to say something to the Lord, even though you might not actually say anything. Furrow, 464

Persevere in prayer. Persevere, even when your efforts seem barren. Prayer is always fruitful. The Way, 101

You don't know what to say to our Lord in your prayer. You can't think of anything, and yet you would like to consult him on many things. Look: make some notes during the day of whatever you want to consider in the presence of God. And then take these notes with you to pray. The Way, 97

Please join our discussion by leaving comments or asking questions. What are your struggles in prayers? How can they be overcome? What helps you to pray and to persevere in prayer? In vocation discernment, how can a young woman give ample time to prayer amidst her many committments? What is the essence of prayer?

SOLI Summer Celebrations!!

2011-09-13T00:53:00.000-04:00

Hello friends! This has certainly been a busy, blessed, and joyous summer!

This past July, Sister Maria Faustina and Sister Mary Augustine attended the summer Vita Consecrata Institute (VCI) four week program of theological studies and spiritual renewal for religious offered at Christendom College, as a final preparation before Perpetual Vows . The sisters were blessed to have had the opportunity to meet His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, who was a guest lecturer for the class on Liturgy and the Consecrated Life.

On August 15th, Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the SOLI community celebrated together the Final Profession of our two sisters with great joy! The ceremony was most beautiful and the glowing faces of the two sisters reflected their immense excitement and gratitude in being called to give themselves completely to Our Lord Jesus as His spouses forever. We were grateful to have our dear friend, Bishop Matthew Ustrzycki, as the main celebrant for the Mass, and to see all the priests, seminarians, friends and family who came to share this wonderful day with our Community. A special thank you to Mr. Steven Strauss for his work in conducting the Schola made up of some of our own sisters and talented friends, whose Chants also added to the beauty of the ceremony.

So wonderful to have so many of our friend priests at the celebration!

The community sings "Be wise: make ready your lamps; behold the Bridegroom comes! Go out to meet Him!" and the sisters respond, "Now with all our hearts we follow you, we reverence you and seek your presence. Lord, fulfill our hope: show us your loving kindness, the greatness of your mercy."

The ceremony was held in beautiful St. Clement's Church.

Bishop Ustrzycki with M.C. Father Wayne Lobsinger

Sister Mary Augustine receives her wedding ring!

Sister Maria Faustina receiving the Liturgy of the Hours in the ceremony.

Sister Mary Augustine signs her Vows.

Bishop Ustrzycki giving the homily.

The joyous brides as they make their way down the aisle after the Mass

Cut the cake!

We also had the joy this summer of receiving Shelby Glofcheski as a new postulant and Sister Margaret Mary (Rochelle) MacGrath as our newest Novice. Congratulations to everyone!

"Shelby, what do you desire?" "I desire to become a candidate in the Community of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate, in order to prepare myself for religious consecration."

"Rochelle, as a sign of your dying to the world and entering into a new way of life in Christ as a Novice with the Sisters of

Our Lady Immaculate, from now on you will be called Sister Margaret Mary."

Congratulations Shelby!

Congratulations Sister Margaret Mary!

Some of the SOLI Community together with Father Tim Higgins, who is so kind in offering Mass for us each week

Corpus Christi Sunday at Marian Residence

2011-06-27T22:47:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday, together with the residents of our retirement home here in Cambridge, the Community celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi beginning with a beautiful Mass offered by Father Tim Higgins followed by an outside Procession with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It is always moving to hear the thoughts of our dear seniors on these special occasions. One elderly woman began to cry after the Mass and procession saying that she hadn't had the privilege of attending a Eucharistic Procession in so many years and was so grateful to God for having allowed her to experience it once again...may we too always experience that gratitude of heart for such love shown to us in His constant and abiding presence among us on the altar.

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You;

I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore,

do not hope and do not love You.

Youth Leading a Spiritual Battle for Life and Family

2011-06-23T00:25:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we held our annual Junior Retreats for youth in both Barry's Bay and Hamilton, Ontario. This year the theme was Devotions to Christ, drawing the young people to a greater love for the person of Jesus Christ through the knowledge of His love for them and His desire to be loved in return through Eucharistic Adoration. The weekend Challenge, which the girls were encouraged to participate in throughout the three days, was to make as many visits as possible to the Blessed Sacrament, spending time alone with Our Lord in Prayer; to offer up prayers to Our Blessed Mother, and perform some small sacrifices each day for the good work of Life Site News. How beautiful and edifying it was to see these young ladies asking permission to visit Jesus in the wee hours of the night so they could "help save more babies" by helping those in the forefront of the spiritual battle for Life in our Country. On Sunday, the retreatants and Sisters accompanied Father Jiri Macenauer in a Eucharistic Procession for Life around the city block, singing hymns and the divine mercy chaplet as they went, followed by Holy Mass at St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Hamilton. In Barry's Bay, the Sisters led a Procession with the retreatants for the same intention. There was also plenty of fun and laughter overflowing throughout the weekend with skits, games, group cheers, a visit to a farm with overly friendly lamas, sheep, goats, cows, tiny frogs, ending with a bonfire and talent show performed by the girls! At the end of the Retreats, the prayers, visits and sacrifices were tallied and a spiritual "Cheque" was presented to Mr. John Henry Weston, Lifesitenews Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief to the amount of one thousand , two-hundred and ninety-two! May we all continue to do our part in the battle for Life!! Here are a few highlights from the retreats!

Barry's Bay Junior Retreat girls with John Henry Weston

Sisters Maria Faustina and Mary Augustine together with two retreatants present Mr. Weston with the girls' Spiritual "Cheque"

Evening Adoration at St. Lawrence's Parish


Sister Mary Catherine talking to the youth in Hamilton


Keeping track of prayers and sacrifices with baby feet! The challenge was to get from one side of Canada to the other with their offerings...They made it from the West to the East and half-way back again!

Enjoying the Bonfire!

Under the watchful eye of St. Lawrence!

Such beautiful smiles!


Sister Elizabeth Marie with the Good Shepherd group


Postulant Megan and some retreatants watching one of the games

Postulant Rochelle having dinner with the Infant Jesus group

Sister Teresa Joseph with the Divine Mercy group

March for Life 2011

2011-05-17T22:50:00.001-04:00

This year, the March was attended by an estimated 15,000 zealous souls including ten from our little Community! May the Lord continue to inflame the hearts of Canadian brothers and sisters with a love for life at all its precious moments. Let us never cease praying!

Some of our young courageous friends who are unafraid in the defense of Life!

Don't get lost in the crowd sister!

Sister Mary Benedicta Chatting with Matthew Granic while little Clara Marie has her own little conversation with Jesus while contemplating Sister's Crucifix

Wonderful to see our newly ordained priests coming out to stand up for life

Seminarians for Life!!

An unexpected surprise for Sister Mary Benedicta when she met up with some old friends, Sisters Laura and Julie of the Sisters of St. Mary of Nemur, Canadian Province.

Sisters meet and chat with Most Reverend Paul-André Duroche, Bishop of the Alexandria-Cornwall Diocese

New friends abound!...The sisters greatly enjoyed meeting and spending time with Bishop Carl Reid, one of the Canadian Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) Bishops who petitioned for unity with the Bishops of Rome.

Always nice to see our friends Father Taras (Terry) Kraychuk , Priest/Monk of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Canada and Father Paul Burchat of Madonna House and Priests for Life Canada.

How precious is your life little Peter John Paul Joseph!

Home from Rome!!

2011-05-08T23:47:00.000-04:00

We thank the Good Lord for the safe return of Sisters Anne, Aracely and Maria Francis this evening from their pilgrimage to Rome for the Beatification of Blessed Pope John Paul II! Here are a few pictures! More will be posted later!

The Sisters together with Bishop Matthew Ustrzycki , emeritus Auxillary Bishop of Our Diocese of Hamilton, and his newly ordained cousin, Father Sebastian from Poland who is a member of The Camboni Missionary Fathers.

Just before Bishop Ustrzycki and Father Sebastian offered Mass in St. Peter's Basilica

Just outside the Colosseum!

The Sisters were blessed to have Frater John Berchmans, CRNJ, a very good friend of our Community and fellow Canadian, be their tour guide for a few days of their pilgrimage . Frater John is studying in Rome in preparation for the priesthood. Here they are standing before a great statue of the the Great St. Paul!

First Mass of Father Bradley Markus

2011-05-08T23:11:00.000-04:00

Some of our Sisters were able to attend the First Holy Mass of Father Brad at Blessed Sacrament Church in Kitchener and receive his blessing. Know Father that you will continue to be in our daily prayers!

Our Spiritual Brothers and Fathers

2011-05-08T00:44:00.001-04:00

The sisters extend their congratulations and prayers to Fathers Paul Hrynczyszyn and Bradley Markus who were newly ordained to the Priesthood yesterday in Hamilton by Bishop Douglas Crosby at Christ the King Cathedral. May the Lord continue to bless these two young priests with an abundance of graces and blessings in their beautiful vocations.

Sisters Maria Faustina and Mary Augustine, who will be making their Final vows this August, were honored together with Deacons Paul and Bradley at the Annual Serra Club Dinner in Hamilton, ON, just days before the Ordination. Here they are with His Excellency Bishop Douglas Crosby.

Sisters with newly ordained Father Bradley Markus

and with newly ordained Father Paul Hrynczyszyn

After the ordination the sisters were so happy to chat with Bishop Matthew Ustrzycki who had just returned from Rome after the Beatification of Blessed John Paul II! Three of our sisters also attended the Beatification (and will return home tomorrow!) and were blessed to spend the day visiting some holy sites with His Excellency after he offered a morning Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

NEW St. Joseph's House of Studies, Barry's Bay, ON

2011-05-08T00:07:00.000-04:00

Still filled with the joy and blessings of Easter, the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate would like to announce the establishment of our New St. Joseph's House of Studies in Barry's Bay, ON. We thank His Excellency, Bishop Michael Mulhull for his kind welcome and support as we make this new foundation in the beautiful Pembroke Diocese and we thank as well Father Christopher Shalla and Father Brian Christie, pastors of St. Hedwigs Parish in Barry's Bay who blessed our new convent and offered the first Holy Mass in our new chapel. The Community looks forward in joy and gratitude to serving the dear people of the diocese through our prayers, and apostolic works. Our Student sisters will be attending Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy. Here are a few pictures of our new convent/House of Studies. Deo Gratias!

Our new chapel in waiting...

...and now ready for its blessing!

Father Brian Christie blesses the new convent and chapel

Venturing outside into the rain to bless the new study hall.

Father Christopher Shalla offers the First Holy Mass in our new chapel.

Sister Maria Faustina, Mother Dorothy, Father Shalla, Sister Bernadette and our postulant Denise.

Ice and Snow, bless the Lord!!

2011-03-23T20:12:00.000-04:00

So here we are...the first days of spring in Canada!!!
So how's the weather where you are??

The SOLI Formation Household

A Blessed Feast of St. Joseph!

2011-03-19T22:46:00.001-04:00

On this wonderful Feast of the Great St. Joseph, the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate were very happy to receive Shelby Glofcheskie from Barry's Bay, Ontario as the newest member of our religious family. We also congratulate Sisters Denise Arnold and Megan Crowley who have moved forward to become postulants with the Community. Please continue to keep these young women in your prayers. A Blessed Feast to you all!!

Dear St. Joseph, Patron of Holy Mother Church and of interior souls, pray for these daughters of yours who seek to give themselves entirely to Christ as His future spouses. Amen.

Sister Marie Therese, Candidate Shelby, Postulants Rochelle, Denise and Megan

Some of the SOLI Community with Father Paul Casullo and Father Tim Higgins

Shelby Glofcheskie with the Fathers and her family

Postulant Denise Arnold


Postulant Megan Crowley

A Few Easy Ways to Include the the Study of Scripture in Your 2011

2011-01-05T08:51:00.028-05:00

As we find ourselves several days into the new year, there are probably many people who are struggling to keep a New Year’s Resolution or two. Perhaps some haven’t begun. In any case, the new year is a wonderful time for each person to set new goals and map out new territory for themselves, especially for their growth in union with God. One wonderful way to do this is to resolve not only to take some time to pray with the Scriptures of the Liturgy as we discussed in our last spiritual reflection, but to even spend some time studying the Scriptures in general, for our spiritual profit. The rest of this reflection will give a couple of reasons and some simple “hows” for prayerful study of Sacred Scripture, with encouragement to include this in your New Year’s resolutions for your spiritual growth in 2011.

Why should I study Sacred Scripture?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraphs 101 - 141 and the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church questions 18 - 24 clearly expound the Church's teaching on Sacred Scripture. The first criterion given by the Church for reading Sacred Scripture is that "it must be read with attention to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture" (CCCC 19). Without a knowledge of the "content...of the whole of Scripture" then, we are unable to understand particular passages of Scripture in the context of the unity of the whole. Therefore, in order to reap the richest spiritual fruits from our prayer with the Bible, we ought to invest some time in sacred study of the Old and New Testament.

Get the "Big Picture"

In order to get the "big picture" of salvation history, one needs to read the 14 books of the Bible that contain the chronological narratives which give the entire story of salvation history in sequence:

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Numbers

4. Deuteronomy

5. Joshua

6. Judges

7. 1 Samuel

8. 2 Samuel

9. 1 Kings

10. 2 Kings

11. Ezra

12. Nehemiah

13. Luke

14. Acts

How to Start

In our time, there are many excellent resources available for Scripture study in the form of books, DVDs, CDs and online formats to accompany our reading of the Scriptures themselves. I am going to list a few excellent way to obtain a general knowledge of the "content...of the whole of Scripture" which are not exhaustive, but hopefully point you in the right direction if you have been at a loss for a good Scriptural companion for a more comprehensive knowledge:

1. A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn (Book) A person could read this along with the 14 historical books, simultaneously. It is an excellent guide, highly readable, and gives you the big picture. Put this outline of the books and this covenant theology outline into your Bible (complements of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Kokomo, Indiana) to refer to as you study. You will see its great importance as you move along. Even if you use one of the other resources below, you should use these outlines and attach them or write them into your Bible.

2. A Quick Journey Through the Bible by Jeff Cavins (DVDs or CDs plus student pack and leader's guide) An eight part series, whereby, in the course of four hours, you will obtain a great overview and comprehensive understanding of the "big picture" of salvation history. You can do the series with the DVDs or CDs with or without the student pack, but the student pack is very useful.

3. Our Father's Plan by Jeff Cavins and Scott Hahn free audio files from EWTN or DVD (3 disc set - 13 hours in total) This excellent series gives the chronological narrative plus deeper theological mining in each session. This is an excellent follow up for the two above suggestions, or it can also stand alone, incorporating an introduction with greater depth of learning.

Handy Tips

Professor Sebastian Carnazzo, M.A., Ph.D Cand., offered some very useful advice in his course on the Old Testament given at Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College that is worth sharing:

1. Don't be afraid to write in your Bible. Make notes in your Bible; highlight theme words. Many of the ancient manuscripts were plastered with notes all over the margins. It is not disrespectful to the Word of God. If there is important information that you want to remember, or a chart or list to which you wish to refer - put it in your Bible in some permanent fashion. If you write it or attach it into your Bible, it will be near you when you want to refer to it. If your left and right margins are very narrow, use a footnote system, and put the actual notes in the top or bottom margin.

2. Get a good translation in hard cover or leatherbound. You don't want the precious notes that you make to be lost in 10 years' time, when your paperback version begins to fall apart!

3. He had us all order the Bible Map Insert from Son Light Publishers, that has excellent Bible maps, can attach permanently inside the cover of your Bible, and also has great lists. I certainly use mine a great deal and recommend it highly!

How to Continue Studying Scripture

Once you have a grasp on the overall content and unity of Scripture by one of the above resources or some other excellent course or resource, you can continue to prayerfully grow in your knowledge of Scripture in several ways.

1. First of all, you can prayerful re-read the chronological books, that now contain your notes and cross references. As we mentioned before, always remember to pray before reading or studying the Scriptures! This will help you to absorb and begin to interiorize your knowledge. Most people find, on a second reading, that they are noticing details they never noticed before, and also (happily!) realize that they have learned so much and are getting quite familiar with the "big picture."

2. Another excellent idea, which, I believe is from Jeff Cavins or Scott Hahn, is to read the 14 chronological books again, but also begin to read some of the other books from the same time period, in order to understand the context. The outline of the books linked to above will show you where all the books belong.

3. Then, after such a firm grounding, you are ready to launch out into other Scripture studies on particular sections of the Scriptures, to which you may be particularly drawn. Again, there are many excellent resources for such studies. Singing in the Reign: The Psalms and the Liturgy of God's Kingdom by Michael Barber and The Lamb's Supper: The Mass as Heaven on Earth by Scott Hahn (regarding the Book of Revelation) are just two examples of many fine Scripture studies that a person can use. One can also use excellent Scripture commentaries and dictionaries. There are some great study Bibles from Ignatius Press with notes by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch already inside as well. So, indeed, there is no lack of resources and we have not yet mentioned the commentaries of the Fathers of the Church available online!

What If I Don't Have Time?

Yes, it takes time to study Scripture. But you can fit it into your schedule if you really hold that it is important. Here are several different ideas; hopefully one of them will work for you!

1. Set aside an hour on Sundays.

2. Pick a month (or time period of the year) where you will prayerfully study Scripture for a period of time each day. Lent is an excellent time for such an endeavour, or some month when your duties are not so intense.

3. Devote one Saturday morning of each month to studying Scripture!

4. Set aside a small amount of time each day to study Scripture (e.g. 10 minutes or even 5 if that is all you have).

5. Plan a Scripture Study at your College/University and invite your friends!

6. If you do a lot of driving, get an audio Scripture study you can listen to in your car.

We hope that you feel inspired to make the study of Sacred Scripture part of your 2011. May it bring you to a greater knowledge of the Father's loving plan through His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit and thus to a greater love of the Trinity. May Our Lady, who pondered everything in her heart, teach you how to lovingly ponder God's Word and respond as wholeheartedly, with your "fiat." Happy New Year to you all!

Happy Epiphany and A Blessed New Year!

2011-01-03T22:22:00.033-05:00

Dear Friends,

Here we are in 2011!! How fast this past year has gone by! We pray that each of you had a very blessed Christmas with your loved ones and that the Joy of the great Feast of the Epiphany is still aglow in your hearts. Thank you to all who sent us cards, gifts, and greetings to the Community throughout the holy season. All of you, our friends, family and benefactors were remembered by the sisters in our community’s Christmas Novena of Masses.

This year was very special for us as the entire community was together for the great Solemnities of Christmas and Epiphany! We were blessed to have Father Tim Higgins offer the Holy Vigil Mass of Christmas here at the Marian Residence in the evening for our dear seniors. The Manger, the flowers, and the Gregorian Chant sung by the sisters all added to the peaceful beauty of the anticipated coming of the Divine Infant of Bethlehem into our longing hearts. Father also offered the Christmas Morning Mass here in our Residence Chapel…standing room only!! Our chapel was filled to overflowing with residents and sisters and the heartfelt singing of both the young and the old to welcome our new-born King poured out into the hallways greeting all who came to visit!

On Saturday, January 1st, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, we were delighted and honored to host our newly consecrated Bishop, Most Rev. Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I. for Lunch with all the sisters. Mother Dorothy brought His Excellency on a tour of the Marian Residence and our convent and as he , Mother, and Father House (who kindly brought the bishop up from Hamilton) returned to the dining room the Community greeted the Bishop with a glorious rendition of the Latin Hymn Ecce Sacerdos, (Behold the Great Priest). His Excellency was most kind in his words to the community, greeted each sister individually and imparted his blessing upon us all before departing for Hamilton. May the Lord bless our new shepherd and all he does for the up-building of the Faith here in the Diocese.

On January 2nd, continuing the celebrations, our six junior professed Sisters and their formator performed for the community the late 15th Century English morality play Everyman. Many surprises were in store for the audience! A gentle reminder of the importance of charitable good deeds done for the love of God. What a wonderful way to begin this New Year!

Fellowship forsakes Everyman in his journey to eternity, as do Kindred, Cousin and Goods

Everyman's Good Deeds lie cold in the ground through sin!

Beauty, Discretion, Five Wits, Strength, Knowledge and Good Deeds agree to accompany Everyman in his eternal pilgrimage after he repents, goes to Confession and does penance

Good Deeds and Knowledge assist Everyman in his last moments before death

The Angel comes to take Everyman to Paradise, followed by his Good Deeds

May this year be a time of abundant grace and blessings for you and all your families!

The Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate

Praying With Sacred Scripture

2010-12-14T11:24:00.013-05:00

Thank you for joining us in our second spiritual reflection! As I mentioned, these reflections are being offered especially for young women discerning a possible vocation to the religious life, as a way of assisting them in their spiritual growth.

Last week, we reflected on Our Blessed Lady’s spirit of interior prayer in Luke 1-2. We hope that you had the opportunity to prayerfully read and ponder those two chapters of St. Luke’s Gospel. If not, it is still a perfect time to do so, as we approach the fourth week of Advent.

This week we will look at the importance of praying with Scripture and propose a simple method. Paragraph 133 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, referencing St. Jerome, Dei Verbum and Philippians 3:8 states that “the Church ‘forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful . . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.’’ Mother Church would like us to pray with Scripture. Anyone discerning a vocation would do well to carve a little time into her day, perhaps a good fifteen minutes, for this sacred activity.

Here is a simple method of praying with Sacred Scripture:

1. Invoke the Holy Spirit. It is important to invoke the Holy Spirit before reading the Scriptures, so that He may teach you interiorly and open your heart to receive the Word. One could start with the prayer Come Holy Spirit or some similar prayer.

2. Read prayerfully, slowly, not out of curiosity, stopping to reflect and meditate when something strikes you.

3. Speak and Listen. Speak with the Lord about it, applying it to your relationship with Him. Listen to what the Lord may be saying to you. Express your affections of love, thanksgiving, repentance, and adoration to Him. Rest in His presence.

4. What is He asking of you today through His Word? Is He calling you to greater generosity in some area of your life – to the practice of charity or some other virtue, to the overcoming of some fault, or to a deepening of your prayer life? Resolve to put your love for God into action in a specific way this day.

5. Thank God for the graces received during your time of prayer. Ask Him for the grace you need, so that your time of prayer will bear the fruit He desires. Ask Our Lady to help you to be ever more faithful to her Son this day.

What Scriptures should I meditate upon? The liturgical Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday, and those of the weekdays are highly recommended for all. An excellent companion for your meditation and prayer with the Solemnity and Sunday Scriptures are Dr. Scott Hahn’s Sunday Bible Reflections and the Bibles Studies of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Picayune, Mississippi, both of which are available online, at no cost, and are linked at Dr. Hahn's St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology . There are many insights into the connection between the readings and a deeper understanding of the readings, all in accordance with the teaching of the Magisterium. Next week we will also discuss the importance of growing in our overall knowledge of Scripture, translations, interpretation and resources, together with a very simple way you can get started.

Our prayer for you is that this Advent you will grow in your love for Sacred Scripture and make it a part of your daily prayer. “Speak Lord, for thy servant hears.” (1 Sam 3:9).

If anyone would like to be added to the group who receive these weekly reflections directly to their email, please contact us with your email address and we will be happy to include you in our group. Gaudete!

Advent with Our Lady

2010-12-06T21:46:00.006-05:00

This is the first in a series of reflections on growing in the spiritual life, especially for young women who are discerning a vocation to the religious life. We hope to cover a variety of spiritual topics as well as answer questions about vocations to the religious life in general or specifically to the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate, as they come to us. Thank you for joining us!

Blessings on the Feast of All Saints!

2010-11-02T00:07:00.000-04:00

The beautiful Solemnity of All Saints was extra special this year for our Community. Today we received into our Candidacy program another young lady, Megan Crowley from our own Diocese of Hamilton. Megan is a beautiful soul with a very unique blessing...her father, who after a number of years as a permanent deacon in the Church, and after the death of her mother, has just this year been ordained as a priest for our Diocese. Father Crowly, together with Father Irek Koziak SAC, Father Tim Higgins, Father Bill Trusz, and Father Michael Downey con-celebrated the Mass of entrance for his oldest daughter Megan to our Community.

Please do keep Megan and our other young sisters in Formation in your prayers.

Welcome to our family Megan!

Monks and Miters among us!

2010-10-07T20:03:00.000-04:00

Last week the SOLI community was privileged to share in the joy of a young monk's initial steps towards ordination. frater John Berchmans of the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem is a native Canadian, and friend of our sisters, who has been studying these last three years in Rome in preparation for Priestly Ordination. Since returning to Canada, he, like many other young Canadian religious whose communities are located in the United States, has been running into difficulties re-entering the U.S. The Canons had been preparing for frater John and frater Alban to both receive their minor orders of Clerical Tonsure, Porter and Lector together at Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery in Clear Creek, OK but the present situation made it impossible. Dom Daniel Augustine, Founder and Superior of the CRNJs, who directed our annual retreat a couple of years ago, contacted Mother Dorothy to ask if we would be willing to allow frater's ceremony to take place here in our chapel in Cambridge. We were delighted! Mass was offered in the Extraordinary Form and the sung Chant by the Canons was most beautiful. His Excellency, Bishop Edward James Slattery traveled up from Tulsa, OK to confer the ordination . Being able to witness frater's ceremony and meeting Bishop Slattery were both great blessings to our Community. Below are some pictures from frater John's ordination.

Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem

frater Alban, Dom Daniel Augustine, Bishop Slattery, and frater John Berchmans

Birthday Blessings!

2010-09-09T00:04:00.000-04:00

On the most blessed Feast of the Birth of Mary, our little community rejoiced to see three young women express their great desire to draw closer to Christ and His Mother as sisters of Our Lady Immaculate . We share our joy with you in the reception of Melani Slade as a Novice (now Sister Marie Therese), Rochelle MacGrath as Postulant and Denise Arnold of Atlanta, Georgia, USA as our newest Candidate. Our friend, Father Jeff Oehring, a newly ordained priest for the Hamilton Diocese, kindly offered the Mass in our residence chapel and the Gregorian chant throughout provided by the sisters was most beautiful. Please do keep our young sisters in your prayers as we do all of you.

Rochelle, Sister Marie Therese and Denise

"Denise, what do you desire?"

"I desire to become a Candidate in the community of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate in order to prepare myself for religious consecration"

Mrs. Arnold, Catherine Arnold, Denise, Mr. Arnold, and Father Jeff Oehring

Rochelle is received as a postulant and invested in the Miraculous Medal of Our Lady.

"Melani, as a sign of your dying to the world and entering into a new way of life in Christ as a Novice with the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate, from now on you will be called Sister Marie Therese."

Congratulations Sister Marie Therese!

A Holocaust of Love

2010-09-02T17:21:00.000-04:00

Annual Retreat 2010

This year, our Community was again blessed to have one of the Norbertines of St. Michael's Abbey located in Silverado, CA, direct our annual eight-day silent retreat. Thank you Father Chrysostom! We thoroughly enjoyed your conferences and were edified by your own love and commitment to the religious life. May Our Lord Jesus and Our Lady Immaculate bless you and all your confreres.

This year's theme you ask?
Religious Life: A Holocaust of love.

The sisters show Father Chrysostom a few Canadian sights as this is his first visit to Canada. Here they are at Niagara Falls...Father is that Canadian coffee in your hands??

Father Chrysostom and Sisters visit with Father Robinson of the Toronto Oratory before Father's journey back to the Abbey in California. Some of the Norbertine seminarians will be studying at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto this coming year.

A Music Divine

2010-06-20T00:31:00.000-04:00

God bless you Uwe!

Our Community was blessed to have Maestro Uwe Lieflander ( Founder of the Sacred Music Society here in Canada) stay with us for this past week, sharing his love and passion for the beauty of Sacred Music. Uwe may be more known to some of you as the conductor of the 500 voice World Youth Day choir that sang for the Papal Mass in Toronto back in 2002. Uwe also runs The Sparrows Choir Schools in Toronto, Peterborough, Ottawa, Pembroke, Chapeau and Barry's Bay.

From Monday to Friday the sisters thoroughly enjoyed their daily five hours of lectures, sight reading and singing classes which focused on Gregorian Chant, and some of the most beautiful pieces of sacred music by Mozart, J.S. Bach, and Dubois, Franck and more! Here are a few highlights from our week!

March for Life 2010

2010-05-19T13:31:00.001-04:00

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.
I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.

(written by priests for Life)

Here are a few photos from our trip up to Ottawa for the National March for Life!

Meeting up with some friends from N.E.T. Ministries after Mass at the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral.

SOLI Sisters meet up with the Servants of the Cross Community

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

2010 IRL National Meeting, "For the Greater Glory of God "

2010-04-12T23:36:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Mother Dorothy, and Sisters Maria Francis, Bridgid, and Elizabeth Marie attended the 2010 Institute on Religious Life National Meeting held at the Mundelein Seminary, in Mundelein, Illinois. This year the meeting focused on the life and legacy of the saintly Father John A. Hardon, S.J., the Founder of the IRL. Throughout his life, Father Hardon worked tirelessly to help bring about a real renewal in Religious Life, Catechetics, Catholic family life, and greater devotion to Our Lord in the Eucharist and His Mother Mary.

Father Hardon passed to eternal life on December 30th, 2000 and his cause for canonization was opened at the request of Archbishop Raymond Burke, who was the recipient of the 2010 Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award at the National Meeting this year. The Archbishop was recognized for all he has done to support and promote the consecrated life, his strong and constant defense of the Catholic Faith, and his work to promote and further the work and vision of the servant of God. Archbishop Burke's Friday Keynote address focused on the theological, spiritual, and apostolic legacy of Father Hardon.

Archbishop Raymond Burke giving the Keynote address

Among the Speakers at the National Meeting were, Father Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., Father Louis Guardiola of the Fathers of Mercy, Msgr. Charles Mangan, Mother Assumpta Long, and Father Robert McDermott (Postulator for the cause of Father Hardon).

Father Thomas Nelson, O. Praem. introducing Father Groeschel

Our Friday morning schedule began at the Marytown Retreat and Conference Center with talks given by Father Groeschel and Mother Assumpta on Father Hardon's work for renewal of religious Life and His own religious and Priestly life. . Marytown is run by the Conventual Franciscan Friars and we were happy to see again some friends we made among them at past VCI summer sessions!

Mother Dorothy praying before Our Lord in the Eucharistic at the Chapel in Marytown

Mundelein Seminary Church

In the afternoon, the opening Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Burke and con-celebrated by the numerous priests attending the Meeting ; Father Benedict, CFR, was the homilist. In the evening the Arch bishop gave his Keynote address in the beautiful Seminary Chapel followed by exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the holy rosary and benediction. On Saturday we heard a biographical sketch of Father Hardon by Mr Jay McNally called Black Robe, White Martyr and another talk by Father Louis Guardiola, C.P.M., on the Servant of God's Eucharistic spirituality. Saturday afternoon offered six choices of talks to attend with Holy Mass at 4 pm leading up to the evening Banquet with Archbishop Burke receiving the 2010 Pro Fidelitate et Virtute award. From 10 pm there was all night exposition and adoration in the chapel. On Sunday the final talk was given, and the novena to the Divine Mercy novena prayed. the closing Mass was celebrated by Father Thomas Nelson, O. Praem., National Director of the IRL.

The Sisters with our good friend Sister Maria Consuela of the SMMC

Standing outside the beautiful Seminary Church.

Our friends Sisters Tuy and Yen of the Lovers of the Holy Cross

Servant of God, Father John Hardon, Pray for us!

What Must I do?

2010-03-26T13:13:00.001-04:00

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH WORLD YOUTH DAY
(MARCH 28, 2010)

"If we look at the young man in the Gospel, we can see that he is much like each of you. You too are rich in talents, energy, dreams and hopes. These are resources which you have in abundance! Your age itself is a great treasure, not only for yourselves but for others too, for the Church and for the world".

"The rich young man asks Jesus: “What must I do?” The time of life which you are going through is one of discovery: discovery of the gifts which God has bestowed upon you and your own responsibilities. It is also a time when you are making crucial choices about how you will live your lives. So it is a time to think about the real meaning of life and to ask yourselves: “Am I satisfied with my life? Is there something missing?”

Like the young man in the Gospel story, perhaps you too are experiencing situations of uncertainty, anxiety or suffering, and are yearning for something more than a life of mediocrity. It makes you ask yourselves: “What makes a life successful? What do I need to do? How should I plan my life? “What must I do for my life to have full value and full meaning?” (ibid., No. 3).

"Do not be afraid to ask yourselves these questions! Far from troubling you, they are giving voice to the great aspirations that you hold in your hearts. That is why you should listen to them. The answers you give to them must not be superficial, but capable of satisfying the longing you truly feel for life and happiness.

In order to discover the life-project that will make you completely happy, listen to God. He has a loving plan for each one of you. You can confidently ask him: “Lord, what is your plan, as Creator and Father, for my life? What is your will? I want to carry it out”. You can be certain that he will answer you. Do not be afraid of his answer! “For God is greater than our hearts and knows everything” (1 Jn 3:20).

"Jesus invites the rich young man to do much more than merely satisfy his aspirations and personal plans. He says to him: “Come and follow me! . . . Following the example of so many of Christ’s disciples, may you too, dear friends, joyfully welcome his invitation to follow him, and so live your lives intensely and fruitfully".

Solemnity of St. Joseph with the Daughters of St. Joseph, Port Hood

2010-03-20T14:28:00.007-04:00

The Daughters of St. Joseph at St. Peter's Parish, Port Hood held a special celebration in honour of St. Joseph for his feast day yesterday! A traditional St. Joseph's Altar was prepared and the girls provided some lovely entertainment for their families and guests including step-dancing, singing in english and gaelic, as well as jokes. We thank St. Joseph for his continued intercession and for his blessings upon these girls and their families!

2010-03-20T12:32:00.005-04:00

Happy Feast of St. Joseph!!!

The Sisters in Barry's Bay celebrated this beautiful Feast with the Daughters of St. Joseph and Fr. Shalla of St. Hedwig's Parish. They began the evening with a spaghetti supper in the rectory and then proceeded to the Church for The Stations of the Cross with the parish and Holy Mass.

During the Mass, three girls became members of the Daughters of St. Joseph, with beaming faces and joyful hearts. May Good St. Joseph protect us all and obtain all the graces we need to become saints. Good St. Joseph, pray for us!

The three new members are (from left to right)

Susanna Ridout, Maria Helena Casta, and Sarah Ridout.

Happy Feast of St. Patrick!

2010-03-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

St. Patrick, Pray for us!

St. Patrick's Breastplate

I arise today through

God's strength to pilot me,

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to see before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's host to secure me--

against snares of devils,

against temptations and vices,

against inclinations of nature,

against everyone who shall wish me

ill, afar and anear,

alone and in a crowd...

Christ be with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right ,Christ on my left,

Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit,

Christ where I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man that thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every man that speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me

Salvation if of the Lord,

Salvation is of the Lord,

Salvation is of the Christ.

May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.

New Website.... to Come

2010-02-26T00:15:00.005-05:00

Are you looking for our website?!? If you are, we would like to let you know that it will be down for a couple of weeks while we finish construction. Thank you for your understanding and patience!

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

2010-02-11T22:29:00.001-05:00

O Mary conceived without sin,

Pray for us who have recourse to Thee.

Ancilla Domini and the Holy Mass

2010-01-22T23:53:00.002-05:00

Hello Friends,

Our Winter 2010 Newsletter Ancilla Domini is in!! If you would like to be added to our mailing list just email us your address and we will send it off to you as soon as possible!

Also, I thought some of you might be interested in some videos by a wonderful priest here in the Hamilton Diocese, Father Ian Duffy, that explain that beautiful gift, the Holy Mass. You will find here the link to the videos.

Happy Feast of St. Vincent , Deacon and Martyr!

Solemnity of Mary , Mother of God

2010-01-01T18:10:00.005-05:00

We wish you all a very Blessed Feast of Mary, Mother of God

and a happy and holy New Year!

We also received into our community today our newest candidate, Rochelle MacGrath.

May Our Lady grant her holy perseverance!

Please keep Rochelle in your prayers!

God bless!

Christmas at Marian Residence!

2009-12-23T11:30:00.002-05:00

This evening at Marian Residence, the retirement home that the sisters run in Cambridge, we had a wonderful group of actors, our own seniors, perform for us and their families The Story of the First Christmas! It was a lovely play and everyone looked splendid...even the camels ! Sister Maria Faustina, always ready with an artistic idea, created some awesome camels from the wisemen's walkers! Sisters Mary Catherine and Maria Faustina worked backstage to see that everyone looked their best and Sister Michael Daniel was this years Christmas Pageant coordinator. Sisters Mary Benedicta , Teresa Joseph and Melani accompanied the play with thier lovely singing voices. This is the seventh year now that our dear residents have been performing the Christmas Play for us and it is always very exciting for them! Here are some highlights!

News from Rome...Venerable JP II and another saint for Canada !!

2009-12-20T00:58:00.004-05:00

Some exciting news today from Rome!!

Decrees of Miracles for Blesseds

-- a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed André Bessette (born Alfred), religious of the Congregation of the Holy Cross; born in Saint-Grégoire d'Iberville, Canada, Aug. 9, 1845, and died in Montreal, Canada, Jan. 6, 1937.

Saint Andre Bessette
Ora Pro Nobis!!

-- a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Mary MacKillop (born Mary Helen), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart; born Jan. 15, 1842 in Fitzroy, Australia, and died Aug. 8, 1909, in Sydney, Australia.

Saint Mary MacKillop Ora Pro Nobis!

Decrees Recognizing Heroic Virtue for Servants of God

-- the heroic virtues of Servant of God Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), supreme pontiff; born in Rome on March 2, 1876, and died in Castel Gandolfo on Oct. 9, 1958.

Venerable Pope Pius XII Ora Pro Nobis!

-- the heroic virtues of Servant of God John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), supreme pontiff; born May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, and died in April 2, 2005, in Rome.

Venerable Pope John Paul II Ora Pro Nobis!

A Stable Influence

2009-12-19T23:29:00.000-05:00

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

2009-12-12T00:24:00.002-05:00

Happy Feast Day !

"Listen, my son, to what I tell you now: do not be troubled nor disturbed by anything; do not fear illness nor any other distressing occurrence, nor pain. Am I not your mother? Am I not life and health? Have I not placed you on my lap and made you my responsibility? Do you need anything else?"

Words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego...and to us.

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

2009-12-09T00:12:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the patronal feast of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate. We wish for each of you the Blessing of Almighty God through the intercession of His Most Holy Mother Mary! We had a beautiful Mass this morning with Father Higgins and at the end of Mass our entire Community renewed its total consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the spirit of St Louis de Montfort. We place ourselves in the loving hands of Our Lady Immaculate and ask her to draw both you, our friends, and our little community ever deeper into the heart of her Son and that we may love Him with her own Immaculate Heart.

"I believe that in spite of the many evils of our present day, one of the many reasons for us to feel fortunate to be living in the present century is that we have such a great help through this emphasis on devotion to Mary, and by making our spiritual life based on devotion to Mary, we will find a wonderful means to grow in our love for our Lord." - Father Ryan

O Mary Conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.

Days of Discernment - Peterborough ON

2009-12-01T16:16:00.005-05:00

The Church and the world need courageous, competent, committed religious women for a new era of evangelization.This past weekend, Sister Elizabeth Marie and Sister Teresa Joseph were invited by Father Norbert Glasmacher, director of the Vocations, Evangelization and Youth Office (VEYO) in the Diocese of Peterborough, ON, to participate in their first Days of Discernment weekend held for young women at the VEYO Center in Peterborough. The young women listened to talks on what a vocation is, the different forms of consecrated life within the Church, the three evangelical counsels by Father Norbert, discernment (given by Father Tom Lynch of the diocese), and heard from the sisters about their own vocations and Religious Community with ample opportunity for questions and answers concerning the consecrated life.

A Vocation Vacation

2009-11-22T00:15:00.007-05:00

SOLI welcomes the York University's Catholic Chaplaincy

Vocation Vacationers!

This past weekend the SOLI Community enjoyed hosting of a number of young women from the Catholic Chaplaincy of York University in Toronto who had bravely ventured out on a "Vocation Vacation"! Together with their chaplain Father Daren Bryk , of the Companions of the Cross, and Mrs. Sam Cummings, assistant chaplain, the seven university students came to Cambridge to check out what a day in the life of a SOLI sister might be like! This was actually our third hosting of vocation vacationers!

From Friday evening until Sunday morning the group joined the sisters in their daily prayers and duties, listened to a number of talks by individaul sisters on our Community's charism, foundation, history, spirituality / prayer life, and on vocations in general with emphesis on religious life and the three Evangelical Counsels. We also had a question and answer session where the sisters shared with the young women their own journey to religious life. In the evening on Saturday, the girls shared their beautiful gift of music with all of our seniors in Marian Residence Retirement Home. Be assured, vocation vacationers, of our continued prayers for you as the Lord leads you toward discernment of His Holy Will in your lives. Open your hearts wide and you will see the Lord fill it with love for His holy will...and the courage to follow it. God bless you!

Mother Dorothy shares about our Foundation

as Sisters of Our Lady Immacuate

and introduces the young women to our Community's founders

Sharing the gift of Music together

Sister Teresa Joseph enjoyed singing again

with some of her old friends from York University

One of our happy seniors who thoroughly enjoyed the evening of singing!

Tu Rex Gloriae, Christe!

2009-11-21T23:27:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is the Thirty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the last Sunday in the Church's liturgical calendar. The Church closes her liturgical year with the celebration of Feast of Christ the King. The Feast was instituted by Pope Pius XI on Dec. 11, 1925 and it is the most recent of the feasts in honor of our Lord. Let us celebrate this feast day with the Church in a tone of triumph. Let us rejoice because Jesus our Spouse is the King of the world and the Prince of Peace. May He reign in our hearts and in our minds with His reign of peace, justice and love. May Christ Our King blesse us all in a special way today and grant us peace in our hearts as we move towards the Advent that will usher in the great feast of His birth.

A most blessed Feast of Christ the King to each and everyone of you!
In Our Lady Immaculate,
Mother Dorothy, SOLI

More Thoughts from Father Ryan for the Year of the Priest

2009-11-17T15:19:00.006-05:00

Father Lloyd Ryan, Co-Founder of SOLI
Priesthood: No man goes to heaven alone

These are just a few of the spiritual notes Father Ryan wrote for himself while still a seminarian. Father was a priest whose everyday life was a passing from prayer to charity towards his neighbour and back to prayer again. For me, reading over his little notebook is always like seeing Father again...everything that he wrote in that little black book so long ago was truly reflected in his priestly life, as many who knew him would agree. His love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, His devotedness to Our Blessed Mother, his love and fidelity to the Church and his vocation to the priesthood, together with his zeal for souls could be said to be his very person. May the Lord grant the Church more holy priests like that of our Beloved Father Ryan.

"The time has passed when a priest can sit back and not take part in civil affairs which concern him. He must get out there and speak and act when cause arises. He must not take a back seat, and let someone else do the talking when he should be doing it. He is a leader, and as such has the obligation to lead his flock well and look after their needs and their rights. He is their shepherd.

"Get out among the people. Show them you care for their good, that you wish to help them and are willing to make sacrifices for them. This will win more souls than words from the pulpit. Time, energy, sacrifice of self, though sometimes seemingly in vain, will all have their reward in saving souls.

"No man goes to heaven alone. He takes and must take others with him. This is true most of all, as regards a priest, for it is his work to take other souls to heaven, in order to get there himself. Therefore in all your duties, spiritual and temporal, remember our neighbour and never become individualistic. God has made us social beings and given us duties to those around us. Therefore we go to God through and along with our neighbor. Remember this especially in prayer.

In anything we do we must put all our energy into it—the results will be in proportion to the amount of energy and prayer we expend.

Remember always the teaching in “The Soul of the Apostolate”—it is the supernatural, the spiritual force which you have and which you must foster which will make your apostolate fruitful—it is God working through you."

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

2009-10-07T16:46:00.003-04:00

St. Pius V, after calling on all of Europe to pray to Our Lady for victory, miraculously witnesses from his window the destruction of the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto, on October 7, 1571, a victory won by the power of the rosary. The Battle of Lepanto was at first celebrated liturgically as "Our Lady of Victory." Later, the feast of October 7th was renamed "Our Lady of the Rosary" and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716.

Fall at The Formation House...

the view of Glen Morris from the top of our meadow.

The pond just behind the Formation House

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything - St. Catherine of Genoa

Life Chain Sunday 09

2009-10-05T00:18:00.003-04:00

Our Lady of Guadalupe,

Protectress of the Unborn, Pray for us!

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God I thank You today for the gift of my life,

And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.

I know that there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,

Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death

By the resurrection of Your Son.

I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.

Today I commit myself never to be silent,

Never to be passive, never to be forgetful of the unborn.

I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement

And never to stop defending life.

This Sunday, together with so many others across the nation, some of our sisters took part in the 2009 Life chain, praying for the end of abortion and for the conversion of those who seek to take the life of the unborn and for healing for those who have already had an abortion. As we stood on the side of the highway this afternoon, silently praying and holding our pro-life signs, I couldn't help but think of St. Francis of Assisi who feast is celebrated on this day, the 4th of October. St. Francis taught his brothers, by his own example, that one's actions can speak louder to another soul than any words one might say. We pray that the courageous witness of all those who came out today to stand up for the right to life for all our brothers and sisters spoke a powerful and loving message of God's mercy, healing and forgiveness as well as the dignity of each person He has created out of His infinite love. We encourage each of you to try to sign up to take part in the 40 Days for Life going on in your areas as well. Canadian Abortion Fact Sheet

God bless you all!

Final Profession pictures

2009-09-30T22:34:00.000-04:00

The Wedding day of the Lamb

Entrance Procession

Receiving the Liturgy of the Hours with a promise

to pray it everyday on behalf of the Church

Sister Mary Catherine receives her ring

which signifies her espousal to Our Lord forever

Sister Mary Catherine with her parents Doug and Dorothy,

brother John and sisters Mary and Kimberly

Pope Benedict's Message to Youth

2009-09-29T17:05:00.000-04:00

Address of the Holy Father to Czech Youth

September 28, 2009

Dear Young Friends,

At the conclusion of this celebration I turn to you directly and I greet you warmly. You have come here in great numbers from all over the country and from neighbouring countries; you camped here yesterday evening and you spent the night in tents, sharing an experience of faith and companionship. Thank you for your presence here, which gives me a sense of the enthusiasm and generosity so characteristic of youth. Being with you makes the Pope feel young! I extend a particular word of thanks to your representative for his words and for the wonderful gift.

Dear friends, it is not hard to see that in every young person there is an aspiration towards happiness, sometimes tinged with anxiety: an aspiration that is often exploited, however, by present-day consumerist society in false and alienating ways. Instead, that longing for happiness must be taken seriously, it demands a true and comprehensive response. At your age, the first major choices are made, choices that can set your lives on a particular course, for better or worse. Unfortunately, many of your contemporaries allow themselves to be led astray by illusory visions of spurious happiness, and then they find themselves sad and alone. Yet there are also many young men and women who seek to transform doctrine into action, as your representative said, so as to give the fullness of meaning to their lives. I invite you all to consider the experience of Saint Augustine, who said that the heart of every person is restless until it finds what it truly seeks. And he discovered that Jesus Christ alone is the answer that can satisfy his and every person’s desire for a life of happiness, filled with meaning and value (cf. Confessions, I.1.1).

As he did with Augustine, so the Lord comes to meet each one of you. He knocks at the door of your freedom and asks to be welcomed as a friend. He wants to make you happy, to fill you with humanity and dignity. The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction. And when the heart of a young person opens up to his divine plans, it is not difficult to recognize and follow his voice. The Lord calls each of us by name, and entrusts to us a specific mission in the Church and in society. Dear young people, be aware that by Baptism you have become children of God and members of his Body, the Church. Jesus constantly renews his invitation to you to be his disciples and his witnesses. Many of you he calls to marriage, and the preparation for this Sacrament constitutes a real vocational journey. Consider seriously the divine call to raise a Christian family, and let your youth be the time in which to build your future with a sense of responsibility. Society needs Christian families, saintly families!

And if the Lord is calling you to follow him in the ministerial priesthood or in the consecrated life, do not hesitate to respond to his invitation. In particular, in this Year of Priests, I appeal to you, young men: be attentive and open to Jesus’s call to offer your lives in the service of God and his people. The Church in every country, including this one, needs many holy priests and also persons fully consecrated to the service of Christ, Hope of the world.

The Pope asks you to live your faith with joy and enthusiasm; to grow in unity among yourselves and with Christ; to pray and to be diligent in frequenting the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession; to take seriously your Christian formation, remaining ever obedient to the teachings of your Pastors.

May Saint Wenceslaus guide you along this path through his example and his intercession, and may you always enjoy the protection of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother. I bless all of you with affection!

First Profession of Vows and reception to Postulancy

2009-09-09T00:54:00.000-04:00

On September 8, 2009, the beautiful Feast of the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

Sister Mary Benedicta Orawski and Sister Teresa Joseph Romero joyfully pronounced their First Vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience with The Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate while Candidate Melani Slade moved forward becoming a postulant with the Community. The Sisters were blessed to have His Excellency Matthew Ustrzycki, Emeritus Auxilliary Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton present to preside at the ceremonies. Also joining us for the celebration were Father Wayne Lobsinger (Master of Ceremonies) , Father Malcolm Katzenberger, and Father Joseph Singh, friends of the sisters.

Bishop Matthew with our new postulant Melani

Procession to the chapel

After the Homily, His Excellency, Bishop Matthew calls the sisters forward and examines them on their desire, whereby they respond:

I humbly ask to be allowed to dedicate myself to God and His Kingdom

and to make my religious profession with The Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate.

Bishop Matthew, after examining the sisters,

blesses them and they proceed to profess their vows

in the presence of Mother Dorothy, Superior General of the Community.

Sister Teresa Joseph professing her vows

The Bishop next blesses the sister's religious habit and then each

receives her crucifix and the Constitutions of the Community

Sister Mary Benedicta pronounces her vows before the Bishop and Mother Dorothy

Sister goes to the altar to sign her profession. The profession remains upon the altar during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a sign of the sister's new and deepened participation

in the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary through her religious profession of vows.

Lost in contemplation of their Divine Bridegroom

Be wise: make ready your lamps,

behold the Bridegroom comes.

Go out to meet Him.

Father Joseph Singh, Mother Dorothy, Sister Teresa Joseph, Bishop Matthew, Sister Mary Benedicta, Father Wayne Lobsinger, and Father Malcolm Katzenberger

Sister Teresa Joseph , Bishop Matthew , and Sister Mary Benedicta

Sister Mary Benedicta Orawski with her family

Sister Teresa Joseph Romero with her family

Some of the SOLI family

Perpetual Profession of Vows

2009-09-01T23:47:00.005-04:00

On the great Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, August 15, 2009, the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate joyfully celebrated the occasion of the Final Profession of Vows of Sister Mary Catherine Perdue from the Diocese of Peterborough, ON. The Community is grateful to His Excellency, Bishop Anthony F. Tonnos, of the Diocese of Hamilton, for his fatherly words of encouragement and for his presence with us on this special occasion.

The week following Sister Mary Catherine's profession ceremony, Bishop Nicola De Angelis, Ordinary of the Peterborough Diocese, celebrated a thanksgiving Mass for Sister's vocation, noting the great blessing such a vocation is for the people of his own diocese as it marks their first vocation to religious life in almost 40 years! Mother Dorothy, and Sister Aracely were present with the Perdues and their family for the grand celebration.

"Receive the ring that marks you as a bride of Christ.

Keep unstained your fidelity to your Bridegroom,

that you may one day be admitted to the wedding feast of everlasting joy."

More pics from the VCI

2009-07-31T11:24:00.019-04:00

A class on the Conferences of John Cassian with Father Thomas, O. Praem.

Father Thomas Nelson, O. Praem. ; class with Father was intense and profound!

Father Norbert Wood O. Praem taught on the Ideal of the Consecrated Life in the New Testament...Father may look serious here but his classes are both intensely intellectually stimulating and full of laughter!

Sister Elizabeth Marie and Sister Mary Catherine just outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. We just had to visit Our Lady's Shrine...especially since the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is our Patronal Feast!

Three Vietnamese Dominican Sisters together with Sister Mary Paul came with us to visit the Franciscan Monastery in D.C.! These Monks are the same as those who are working in the Holy Land. We were so excited when we heard that there are replicas of the Holy Sites and the Roman Catacombs in the crypt of the Main Church! It was so moving to see!

Just inside the outer walls of the Monastery grounds.

Sister Bernadette helped to form a Schola for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with Mass being offered in the Extraordinary Form.

We enjoyed spending a Holy Hour in Adoration of Our Lord every evening during the two week VCI sessions.

Our new friends in the Lord, The Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church.

Sister Mary Catherine and Sister Mary Paul with Our Lady of Vietnam in the National Shrine.

Why I'd love to go down the Shanendoah River in a canoe!!!

Everybody say...JESUS!!!

Vita Consecrata Institute, Christendom College 09

2009-07-30T15:13:00.001-04:00

The Community was blest to be able to resume studies at the Vita Consecrata Institute this past summer at Christendom College in Virginia, USA. We had missed the last two years because of a Community General Chapter in 2007 and our Pilgrimage to World Youth day with 100 youth to Australia in 2008. It is always a very spiritually enriching experience to share your Faith and your experiences of the religious life with so many other wonderful communities from across the Nation! We met some old friends and made many new ones this year! God bless you all !

The Sisters with with Father Thomas Nelson, O. Praem., National Director of the Institute on Religious Life, and Father Norbert Wood, O. Praem. who offered the second session courses of the VCI from July 13-24th, 2009.

Sanctity and the Priest

2009-07-05T09:15:00.001-04:00

Since it is the Year of the Priest we thought we would post a few spiritual thoughts by Father Ryan, our Founder, on the priesthood.

"It is of extreme necessity that a priest be holy and perfect. This is evident, from the high dignity of his office, his dignity as an “alter Christus”, an imitation and personification of Christ, whose place he takes and who was all-perfect. What then are his obligations as regards sanctity? Namely this, that always no matter how holy and perfect he may think he now is, he must always seek to become more holy and more perfect. For there is no standing still in the spiritual life—the minute he thinks he is holy enough and need not strive for greater sanctity then does he begin to fall back. True, he will be tempted to this—the devil will try to convince him that he is holy enough—that he is no longer obliged to strive and seek perfection—he must be on the watch for this and then act immediately—for the devil is wary and wise and knows how to work on us, little by little to drag us down—until your dying breath then always realize your unworthiness, your dependence on God and keep desiring and praying for and working for a greater degree of holiness. "

Summer Mission Trip to New Brunswick

2009-06-20T23:30:00.022-04:00

Sister Mary Augustine, Father Gilbert,
Sister Elizabeth Marie and Sister Mary Catherine

While still celebrating the year of the great missionary St. Paul, three of our sisters packed a few small bags and with hearts filled with apostolic zeal headed out on a missionary journey of their own! At the request of Father Gilbert Doddatto, priest of the diocese of Edmunston, New Brunswick, and member of the Voluntas Dei Institute, the sisters spent the week of June 10-16th between Father's four parishes in the Pastoral Unit of St. Patrick (Limestone Siding), Our Lady of Mercy (Aroostook), St. Mary of the Angels (Perth-Andover) and St. Ann (Tobique First Nation – Maliseet) sharing their Faith by working with youth, visiting local residents and seniors, speaking at the Parish Masses, providing Sacred Music for Mass and a Eucharistic Holy Hour of Adoration on the Feast of Corpus Christi. The parishioners we had the privilege to meet were such wonderful people and so generous and hospitable, going out of their way to do whatever they could to express to us their joy in having us visit them. We look forward to seeing you all again next year! Here are a few photos from the trip...

New Brunswick ...and new missionaries!

...the Baltimore Catechism...don't leave home without it!

Some cool youth from St. Ann's Parish...you guys were great!

...more of our new little friends from St. Mary of the Angels Parish

...praying for parishioners of the past generations

Just one of the many beautiful picturesque scenes
of this beautiful province!

...is that a new SOLI convent at the end of the rainbow Father Gilbert??

St. Patrick's Parish, Limestone Siding

Our Lady of Mercy, Aroostook

Our Lady of the Angels, Perth-Andover

St. Ann's, Tobique First Nation...
so cool to hear the Our Father prayed in the Maliseet language!

A beautiful Parish in Grand Falls, NB

SOLI with some lovely Religious
Hospitallers of St.Joseph from Perth-Andover.
So glad to meet you, Sister Ann and Sister Doucet!

Thank you to Helena McCarthy, the Francis family
and the Baker family for feeding us so well!

Our new friends Paul, Gaston, and Michael...
thanks for the tea and cookies
and for letting us pray in your chapel!

Thank you Laurentia ...and we loved the fiddleheads too!

Year of the Priest

2009-06-19T21:39:00.001-04:00

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has declared June 19th 2009, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the beginning of the Year for Priests.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, please bless all our priests and draw them closer to your heart and make them holy, and self-sacrificing for the good of your people. Amen

Memorial Mass for Father Ryan

2009-05-23T01:57:00.006-04:00

A memorial Requiem Mass for our Father Founder, Father Ryan, was celebrated today at St. Clement's Parish in Cambridge ON by Father Wayne Lobsinger in the Extraordinary Form. Father Ryan's sister, Mary Clare, was able to be with us for the occasion. Mr. David Hall and his Schola provided music for the Mass and Father Ian Duffy together with some members of his parish served the Mass. A reception was held in the Church hall following Mass. many of father Ryan's friends and past parishioners were in attendance.

Mother St. Henry, Father Lobsinger,
Mother Dorothy and Mary Clare

Canadian March for Life 2009 Ottawa

2009-05-22T23:12:00.031-04:00

OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews.com) - Under the threat of dark clouds and sometimes through pouring rain, a record-smashing crowd of 12,000 Canadians gathered May 14th on Parliament Hill for a rally and then marched through the streets of Ottawa in protest against 40 years of legalized abortion in Canada.

Rising at around 3 am, six of our sisters collected their traveling bags and headed out like thousands of others to witness to the sanctity of life at the March for life in Ottawa. Arriving close to 10 am the sisters attended Mass at Notre Dame Basilica. Archbishop Prendergast and a multitude of con-celebrating Cardinals, bishops, and priests filled the sanctuary of the beautiful church which was filled to overflowing! As the March began the rain began to fall and soon the wind began to blow fiercely...a powerful sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit with those who stand up for life. Half way through the March we were greeted by Pro-choice protesters, but were just encouraged to pray even more earnestly to Our Lady to touch the hearts and minds of our Canadian brothers and sisters, that they might realize the dignity of each and every child of God from conception to natural death. We and those with us continued praying the rosary and litany of Our Lady, at times almost being swept up by the power of the wind!! As we passed the abortion clinic of Henry Morgentaler there were large images of late term aborted babies being displayed by the organization "Show the Truth"( ...yes, let the truth be shown...for as Christ said, it will set us free). As we rounded the last turn and returned to Parliment Hill the rain stopped and the sun began to shine bringing a great feeling of hope for the future - of a Canada without abortion.
St. Joseph, Patron of Canada, pray for us!

Meeting up with some friends in Ottawa:
Father Ross Bartley from the London diocese
and The Queenship of Mary

The beautiful

Notre Dame Basilica in Ottawa

vocation vids

2009-05-20T00:36:00.002-04:00

video removed...

Thought you might like this!

Mary in the Month of May

2009-05-04T16:04:00.002-04:00

Father Ryan on Our Blessed Lady

Today I would like to talk to you about our Blessed Mother. I feel sure that during this month of May she will be occupying more time even than usual in your prayers and thoughts, and that you are trying to learn ever more and more about the wonderful graces that God gave her and trying also day by day to imitate her more perfectly. There is almost an endless source of inspiration in the life of our Blessed Mother. Someone has said that she is like the ocean with all its hidden treasures – and just as the study of the contents of the ocean, with its million forms of life, is a very fruitful one for those who are interested in such things, so also, meditating on Mary, on her life, her virtues, God’s gifts to her, is most fruitful for those who are striving after perfection in the Religious Life, (or in any walk of life for that matter). For Mary is God’s masterpiece among all his creatures. The Church in her Liturgy often applies to Mary the text from Proverbs which refers primarily to Divine Wisdom. “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity and of old before the earth was made.” It was as though God were just waiting for the time to arrive when He would bring her into existence and lavish on her His greatest graces.

In the past centuries, thousands of volumes have appeared in which Our Lady’s clients have extolled her virtues and tried to help others to understand a little better how wonderful she is. We might think that by our time everything has been said and written. But such is not the case. In fact in our time more is being written and spoken of Mary than ever before. And especially have the Popes since Pius IX’s time used every opportunity to clarify and explain the teaching of the church concerning Mary. We know how very true this is of Our Beloved Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. All their pronouncements radiate an ever greater emphasis on Mary’s part in our salvation and our sanctification. It makes you think that we have arrived at that period in the life of the church in which Mary’s place is to be fully understood by all mankind. Many of the saints, especially St. Louis Marie de Montfort, prophesied an age of Mary, when Mary would be honored and through her intercession mankind would return to honoring and loving God. Our Blessed Lady herself assured us that through devotion to her Immaculate Heart, the world would come back (that Russia would be converted) and there would be a period of peace. I think we can take this peace to mean, not just a cessation of warfare, but peace in the Faith, in the spiritual lives of men who recognize and keep God’s commandments. I believe that in spite of the many evils of our present day, one of the many reasons for us to feel fortunate to be living in the present century is that we have such a great help through this emphasis on devotion to Mary, and by making our spiritual life based on devotion to Mary, we will find a wonderful means to grow in our love for our Lord.

We don’t have to be reminded that all of the Grace God gives us comes to us through Mary, as our channel. It stands to reason then that the closer our union with Mary and the more we use the help she gives us, the more we will please God and the more we will grow in the love of God. For God has given such a high place to Mary in His plans, she was Co-Redemptrix, uniting with Him in our Redemption, and now all grace comes through her (Mediatrix). As we wish to imitate Him, we too give her this high place in our spiritual lives. Our devotion to her is not just one of our many devotions, but it is a part of all of the others. We let her influence us in our daily round of spiritual exercises, prayer, our Mass and Holy Communion, in our daily task of trying to grow in virtue, in the keeping of our Religious Rule, which is itself such a powerful means of acquiring virtue. We want her to be constantly with us, not just occasionally, but constantly, in order that she can make us Christ-like. We could borrow a phrase from St. Paul and use it to refer to our relationship with Mary, that we will always be “her little children whom she continues to bear until Christ be formed in us.” That is what her Motherhood of us means. A mother gives life to her child. Our Blessed Mother, in God’s plan has been given an important role to play in the giving to us of our vocation, and in the development of our spiritual life, and make it grow and flourish. And if it is morally impossible for anyone to be lost who has a devotion to Mary, and many of the saints have said this, then with how much more certainty can we say that a religious, whose purpose in the convent is to strive after perfection, will acquire that perfection, if she confides her spiritual life into the hands of her spiritual Mother. While on the other hand, as Leo XIII said, “he who does not run to her when in need of help, is like a person trying to fly without the aid of wings.” Mary provides the wings for our flight to God.

First Holy Communion Day!!!

2009-05-03T22:35:00.007-04:00

On Sunday, May 3rd, 22 children received their First Holy Communion at St. Hedwig's Parish in Barry's Bay. This holy day was filled with many blessings from the Lord and His Blessed Mother!

After the Mass,all the children were enrolled in the Brown Scapular, under the protection of Our Blessed Mother. This truly was a holy day to remember!
Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us!

Blessed Sacrament Parish, Kitchener

Also on Sunday, May 3rd, some of the the students in the Parish Catechectical Program at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Kitchener also made their First Holy Communion. Father Wayne Lobsinger, in his homily, reminded everyone in the Church of the awesome gift and privilege we have in being able to receive Our Lord Jesus in Holy Communion at every Holy Mass. At the end of Mass the children were each given a blessed medal, placing them under the protection of Our Lady.

Congratulations, Sisters!

2009-05-03T22:15:00.005-04:00

The two Sisters who are studying at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, Sister Mary catherine and Sister Mary Augustine received, upon completion of one year at the Academy, a Basic Certificate in Christian Humanities. The graduation was held on May 2, 2009 at St. Hedwig's Parish in Barry's Bay.

The Sisters received their certificates from the president of the Academy, Dr. David Warner.

We are very thankful to God for all his blessings this year!!!

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

Kids, Cakes, and Easter takes!

2009-05-01T00:17:00.026-04:00

The Family Catechism Program for 2009 ended with some lively entertainment and a Challenging Year-End Quiz to test the Students after all their studies!

Some smiling faces as the students receive their certificates!

Congratulations to Catherine and Elizabeth on their completion of the SOLI Catechetical Program in 2009. The twins have been attending the Program for a number of years and are now graduating and preparing for University. God Bless you both!

Over the Easter school break the sisters were glad to have Sister Mary Catherine and Sister Mary Augustine home for a few days...one day during Easter Week we all went out to the Formation House to get a few photos for our new community brochure and of course couldn't pass up the opportunity to take one or two at St. Clement's Parish where all the professed sisters fondly remember being wedded to their Heavenly Spouse!

Happy 92nd Birthday Mother St. Henry!

On the Feast of St. Luke we held a surprise party for Mother St. Henry and were so happy that so many of Mother's friends and family could join us on this momentous occasion!

2009-04-28T22:44:00.007-04:00

On April 24, 2009, St. Hedwig's Parish in Barry's Bay had a Catechism Fun Night. The night featured a play performed by the children who are preparing to receive their First Holy Communion on May 3rd. The play was in four acts and focused on Our Lord's Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, beginning with the Last Supper and ending with Benediction!

The children performed excellently and for many, the night was truly memorable. After the play, the children participated in various games prepared by the Daughters of St. Joseph, such as Silly Songs, Pin the Halo on the Saint, Fish for prizes at Noah's Ark and the Guardian Angel game!

Pope Benedict VXI and Father Stan Fortuna on the crisis in Education

2009-03-31T23:20:00.007-04:00

We were invited by Father Andrew Gillies, Associate Pastor at the Cathedral in Antigonish, to bring some of our youth to see Father Stan Fortuna CFR, who was preaching a mission at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Halifax. So Sister Marguerite and I, another chaperone and 11 youth headed down with the crew from Antigonish on the bus after teaching catechism classes on Sunday, March 29th.

Father Fortuna preached dynamically to the young and not-so-young on a variety of topics, but the revolving theme of his talk was the crisis in education, based on a letter of Pope Benedict XVI (or as Father Stan calls him, his "Beautiful Bavarian Benedict") to the Diocese of Rome on the subject of education from January 21, 2008.

Listen: Fr. Stan Fortuna "Crisis in Education" (note: we have edited out some of the sidetracking he did into other topics in order to condense it to the main topic)

Main Points (all very important):
1. There is a failure to transmit certainties and values.

2. "In reality, what is in question is ... a growing atmosphere, a mentality and a form of culture that lead to doubting the value of the human person, the significance itself of truth and of the good, in the final analysis, the goodness of life. It becomes difficult, then, to hand on from one generation to the next, something valid and certain, rules of conduct, credible objectives around which to build one's life."

3. We should not be afraid! None of these difficulties are insurmountable. Especially Christians should not be without hope as we rely on God in his mercy to assist us.

4. The requirements of an authentic education, beginning with closeness and trust born of love.

5. We don't just need information, but truth. There is a super-saturation of information that makes us become dulled and dumbed to the truth.

6. The "dumbing down" of truth occurs, even in the Church, in the form of watering down difficult truths, and it is tragic.

7. Suffering is also part of the truth of our life. So seeking to shield the youngest from every difficulty and experience of suffering, we risk raising brittle and ungenerous people, despite our good intentions.

.....
We are grateful to God for the gift of Our Holy Father who correctly diagnoses the evils of our day and gives us hope. And we thank God as well for Father Stan's fearless exposition of the Pope's comments on the "emergency in education". May God give us all the grace to pray and work for the restoration of true education in truth.

The Desire for Holiness - Father Ryan, Founder

2009-03-26T21:43:00.002-04:00

The most important reason that this little religious community of The Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate exists is that it may gather into its fold, its family, young women who want to become holy, and who want to be helped to become holy by the kind of religious life that they are invited to live—everything else is secondary. The first concern of our community then is to provide the inspiration and the means to help strive after this holiness of life. Naturally we want to do good, to help as many people get to heaven as we possibly can. Naturally too, we want more and more sisters; we would like very much to see our numbers grow—but both of these things will follow—we will do wonderful work for souls, and we will grow, perhaps even rapidly if we persevere in our efforts to become more and more holy. As St. Paul wrote in one of his epistles when he spoke of Paul planting and Apollos watering, the most important point was that “God will give the increase”. Our part is to try to be worthy of God’s special intervention. The history of the Church has an abundance of examples of God’s infinite generosity in helping individuals or groups who are honestly trying to do His Will—very often working miracles in their behalf. And these extraordinary blessings of His are still going on. How else explain the wonderful success of Mother Angelica, for example. There is no way to explain it except to recognize the hand of God, the infinite power of God and so we see this wonderful result—a cloistered nun, with no money and no serious knowledge of the Television Industry, doing what the bishops of the U.S. and their dioceses could not attempt—and making a tremendous success of it—expanding her television apostolate to its present huge size and effectiveness. Or we could mention Mother Cabrini who in her life time opened 67 different institutions of mercy, orphanages, hospitality homes for the aged, day nurseries etc. She is the first canonized U.S. citizen. God’s power is infinite. He doesn’t hesitate to grant miraculous Graces. Our part is to do our best to be worthy of such special graces—and being worthy means being holy—The seeking after holiness as we mentioned before is the main purpose of Religious Life. And to encourage us in this seeking after holiness is the purpose of our short retreat.

The first, and I think the most important, step in accomplishing anything worthwhile is to have a great desire to accomplish it. If you want to be a great musician or a great teacher, or a great ball player, you must have a great desire to reach these heights of greatness—otherwise you will only be mediocre at most. The same is certainly true in the spiritual life. A person must want to be holy—have a great desire for holiness; otherwise he will be satisfied with mediocrity. This is not pride, unless of course his idea was merely to impress people, to show off—and in that case it would not be a desire for real holiness but only for foolish vain-glory, which of course is a sham. Instead of saying he or she we will just say he and it will refer to either men or women—God of course is the one who imparts this desire—without His Grace as we know we are incapable of even a holy thought. Our part is to cooperate with God’s Grace and to welcome this desire that God gives us. It is interesting in reading St. Therese’s autobiography to see that she had a very strong desire to become a saint, even though she claimed to have a great many faults and few merits (many of the saints were like her in having a low opinion of themselves) but this didn’t in any way disturb her or discourage her—it made her turn to Our Lord with even greater trust that He would give her the Graces necessary to help her to become a saint. Here are a few of St. Therese’s own words “This aspiration (to become a saint) may very well appear rash, seeing how imperfect I was and am even now, after so many years of religious life; yet I still feel the same daring confidence that one day I shall become a great saint. I am not trusting in my own merits, for I have none; but I trust in Him who is virtue and holiness itself. It is he alone who, pleased with my feeble efforts will raise me to himself, and by clothing me with His merits, make me a saint”. We know how true her words turned out to be. We can truly say a very important reason for her becoming a saint was the great desire for holiness that she had, right from her earliest years and which grew throughout her life, especially during the nine years she spent in the convent, before her death at the young age of 24. St. Teresa of Avila, the great Mother and Foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, was most anxious that her nuns would have a great desire to be holy, right from the beginning of their Religious Lives. She recognized the fact that a beginner could lack discretion and that the Spiritual Director would have to give her some counsel etc. But she warned against having a spiritual director who would counsel too much discretion and so destroy the great desires of the young nun. St. Teresa usually spoke very plainly—her words on this occasion were “See to it that he (the spiritual director) is not the kind of person to teach us to be like toads, satisfied if our souls show themselves fit only to catch lizards”. She wanted her daughters to have a real thirst for God, and to put forth real efforts to reach the goal of union with Him. Her own life showed how right she was in this matter of wanting to be holy. The story is told of how as a very young child of 7, she induced her brother, who was a little older than herself, to run away with her to the country of the Moors, in the hope that they would “have their heads cut off” (be martyred). I don’t know how far they got but they were overtaken by an uncle who brought them back home to their anxious parents. When they asked her why she had run away she said, “I went because I want to see God, and to see Him we must die”. Her words “I want to see god” are used as a title of a book written about her and her teachings by a Carmelite priest Father Marie-Eugene(one of you has read some of the book) The book contains a good explanation of many of St. Teresa’s teachings about the religious life and in particular about prayer. These words of hers “I want to see God” were spoken by her when she was very young, but I would say that she could have said the same words and probably did, at any point in her life. This could be used by any of us as a kind of slogan or battle cry—“I want to see God”. To see God to show her love for Him, to make any sacrifice for Him—this was the life of St. Teresa. Her life and her desire for holiness are most interesting, and very helpful and inspirational to us, and I might say offers reassurance to us that we are on the right track in striving for and hoping for holiness. We of course know that reading the lives of any saints is very rewarding and a very practical way to obtain help and inspiration—we should make it a daily practice to read about them. In a great many cases, in the history of the church, God raised up saints to over come the spiritual plight into which the people of a country or of many countries had fallen. Some had important posts in the Church, like popes or great apostolic teachers—some were known only to a small number of people—or perhaps became known only after their death, or by what they had written—St. Therese and Blessed Dina Belanger would be examples of the latter. Of the former of course we could all name many, from the apostles down to the great leaders of the Church including St. Teresa and St. Catherine of Siena who were named Doctors of the Church. But whether they were widely known or not, God used these saints to do great things for the Church in her work to save souls. We hear it said over and over again, and we have probably said it ourselves probably many times, that only God can correct the present day situation. Only God can bring an end to the immorality in the world, the complete rejection of God’s Commandments and the paganism into which a great many people have fallen, at least I this part of the world. This includes many in positions of influence in Government, the Media, Education, Medicine etc. Only God can bring light into the darkness which has come upon a great many Catholics who have lost the Faith to a great extent. And God will intervene I am sure –we do not know the ways He will do this, but it would seem right to speculate that whatever else His intervention might bring in, suffering, catastrophes or whatever, the one result will be that He will raise up people in the various countries of the world and in the various groups that make up our society, and in the various groups that are to be found in the Church—people who are faithful to Him; and He will use them to bring His people back to their senses—among the various groups are religious, those belonging to Religious Orders—and this is the group we are interested here and now. Religious Life has been for almost 2000 years part of Catholic Life and I am sure that God intends it to continue as such.

It is well, I think, for each one of us to have this general picture in mind—God’s plan, not only for my personal spiritual well being and growth but also for the part that God wishes me to play in His greater plan for His Church and for the salvation of souls. So there are a great many things that we have to think and pray about during these days of retreat as we strive to enter more deeply into God’s will for us, and we do want to follow it as perfectly as we can. We are and we want to be entirely in the hands of God. May we listen to Him and do our best to follow him and His Holy Will.

Annunciation Pilgrimage

2009-03-26T18:33:00.005-04:00

On the Solemnity of the Annunciation yesterday, we decided to make a little pilgrimage to celebrate this wonderful feast! Father Andrew Gillies, Associate Pastor of St. Ninian's Cathedral, Antigonish, NS, originally from Port Hood, gave us a tour of the cathedral. He also took us to meet the students from the Catholic school in Antigonish, Highland Academy. Then we visited the Monastery of the Augustinian contemplative Nuns, "Our Lady of Grace Monastery" to honour Our Lady on this great day and ask her continued presence in our lives. When we returned home, St. Peter Schola, our parish schola, sang for Holy Mass and the total consecration to Jesus through Mary renewal. When our Convent first opened in 1995 in Port Hood, Sister Aracely gave a course on the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother Dorothy began a Praesidium of the Legion of Mary. Today the fruit of their labour carries on and this is the fourteenth year of the public consecration to Jesus through Mary according to the method of St. Louis de Montfort which is held so dear to all who came, even some from other Parishes. Please enjoy the photos of our pilgrimage below.

Lenten Youth Retreat

2009-03-23T23:36:00.009-04:00

This past month, Sister Michael Daniel and Sister Teresa Joseph helped to guide a Lenten retreat for the youth of St. Jerome's Parish in Brampton, ON. The retreat was a spiritual preparation for the youth's annual production of the Passion of Our Lord to be held on Good Friday, 2009. The retreat focused on Our Lady's experience of the Passion of her Son, and on the meaning and spiritual strength we receive from the suffering that enters our lives. A special thanks to Brenda and Gil Aburto for all they do for the youth of St. Jerome's parish!

Upcoming SOLI youth retreats:
Spread the Faith
Junior Retreat

Daughters of St. Joseph

2009-03-23T22:54:00.008-04:00

Our Sisters studying at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry's Bay, Ontario, Sister Mary Catherine and Sister Mary Augustine, have been blessed to help at St. Hedwig's Church in the Parish's catechetical program and have recently introduced one of our youth apostolates, the Daughters of St. Joseph, a group for young girls ages 11 to 17 who would like to learn from the example of St. Joseph how to model their lives on those of Jesus and Mary, at the parish. On the great solemnity of St. Joseph, fourteen new young members made their commitment. The Daughters of St. Joseph also have active groups in Cambridge ON and Port Hood , NS.

New members receiving their medal of St. Joseph from Father Tomasz

2009-03-20T12:21:00.000-04:00

At Our Lady's Convent in Port Hood, Nova Scotia, we were united in spirit yesterday with all our Sisters in Ontario, especially on the happy occasion of the entrance of our two new candidates. Congratulations Erin and Melani! You are in our prayers and hearts.

The Sisters sang the gregorian proper for the Communion chant at the Parish Mass, Joseph filii David. Some of the St. Peter Schola members joined us for a little gathering after Holy Mass in honour of St. Joseph. St. Joseph, pray for us!

2009-03-19T22:31:00.000-04:00

Congratulations!

Welcome Melani and Erin!

Father James blessing the Candidates wooden crosses

The Lang Family

The Slade Family

With Mother Dorothy, our Superior General

With Sister Elizabeth Marie, Mistress of Novices

The Eve of the Solemnity of St . Joseph

2009-03-18T22:24:00.000-04:00

Praised be Jesus Christ! Welcome to Gloriosa Virginum! With the launch of our new Blog we are happy to share with you our joy on the occasion of the entrance of our two newest candidates, Melani Slade of Trenton, ON and Erin Lang of Rochester Hills, Michigan. May Good St. Joseph bless each of them with holy perseverance and an ever increasing love for Our Lord and His Holy Mother Mary as Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate. Please check back later for photos!

We hope that Gloriosa Virginum will help you to come to know a bit more about the life and apostolate of our community and that it will provide you with an opportunity to learn more about the beautiful vocation to the religious life and experience its joys through the eyes of those who have already answered God's call to an ever deepening divine intimacy.

Happy Feast of St. Joseph to you all!