Motherhouse Musings

Portion of Christmas novena prayed by Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, FL What is a Novena? This afternoon following Evening Prayer the Sisters of St. Joseph will begin to pray their Christmas novena, and continue praying it daily through Dec. 24th in preparation for the celebration of Christmas. If you are a Catholic of a certain age, you have probably prayed a novena in your life. However, if you are a young Catholic, or not a Catholic, you may not know what a novena is.  In the U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults (2006) published by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, a novena is defined as the following in their glossary of terms: "Nine days of prayer, usually invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary or a saint. The novena traces its development to the scriptural nine days of prayer by Mary, the Apostles, and disciples asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit after the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven." (p. 521) Nativity in Motherhouse chapel in 2018 Anot

Fratelli Tutti calls world to live Gospel values Crape Myrtle bloom in Motherhouse gardens in spring. In his recent encyclical, Fratelli Tutti , "On the Fraternity and Social Friendship," Pope Francis calls the world to meet the challenges of Gospel charity. Using the parable of the Good Samaritan and many other sources, he urges us to a change of heart, attitudes and lifestyles.  Reading this during the COVID-19 pandemic and a presidential election year in our country, it was easy to see how the world would be a much better place if we tried to live as the Holy Father suggests. In Chapter Six of the encyclical, "Dialogue and Friendship in Society," the pope brings out the need for dialogue, which he defines as "approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground." This kind of dialogue is not accomplished through social media. At the end of Chapter Six is a section entitled "Recovering K

  Why Joseph? Statue of St. Joseph and Child Jesus in front foyer of Motherhouse. During this Year of St. Joseph in the Diocese of St. Augustine, I thought a blog entry on how the Sisters of St. Joseph received their name would be fitting . S ince October 15, 1650, is recognized as the official founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, I decided to post this on October 15, 2020, 370 years later.   In researching this topic, I found a page on the Philadelphia (Chesnut Hill) Sisters of St. Joseph website that was written by Sister Dolores Clerico, SSJ, one of their members who is familiar to our Congregation since she has spoken at our Assemblies, and even led a Congregational retreat one summer at Marywood.  According to Sister Dolores, St. Joseph was in the shadows before the 16th century. St. Teresa of Avila, the discalced Carmelites, the Jesuits and Franciscans and many newly-formed confraternities of Catholic laity in Europe began to promote devotion to St. J

  Season of Creation Calls Christians to Reflect on Our Common Home A tree is the symbol for Season of Creation If you have not heard about the Season of Creation, do not feel bad. The Catholic Church did not officially join in until 2015, the same year that Pope Francis released his papal encyclical, Laudato Si , on Care for Our Common Home. It was back in 1989 that Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed September 1 as a day of prayer for the Orthodox. The Orthodox church year starts on that day with a commemoration of how God created the world. The World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a season, extending the celebration from September 1 until October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations. Throughout the month-long celebration, the world’s 2.2 billion Christians come together to care for the earth, our common home. With a worldwide pandemic this year, most local events are vi

Year of St. Joseph during Pandemic   In 1870, the same year that the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida was established, Pope Pius IX named St. Joseph as patron of the Universal Church. Here we are, 150 years later in 2020, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, so celebrations of any kind are limited due to social distancing restrictions because of the chance of spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus.  However, when Bishop Felipe Estevez asked our Congregation, the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida, to take the lead in planning whatever we could for the Year of St. Joseph in the Diocese of St. Augustine, we said yes. Sister Kathleen Carr, our General Superior, formed a committee and we came up with a plan. The theme chosen for the year was "Go to Joseph."  Prayer Cards sent to Catholic Schools The first activity was writing, designing, and having printed prayer cards with prayers to St. Joseph on them to be distributed to all Catholic school students in the

What is the significance of our Congregational seal? Since we use our Congregational seal on our website, letterhead stationery, and other public places such as our social media postings, it seemed fitting that I write a blog entry on the meaning of the various parts of the seal, along with an enlarged graphic of the seal so you could see the smaller parts more easily. The name along the outer edges of the seal is Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Augustine, Florida. We are a small diocesan congregation of Catholic women consecrated to God through the evangelical, or Gospel, counsels/vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who was poor, chaste and obedient. We became the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida in 1899 when Bishop John Moore of St. Augustine made us diocesan, cutting us off from the Motherhouse in Le Puy, France, where we came from in 1866. To our knowledge, we are the only Motherhouse of Catholic women religious in Northeast Florida.