It's Christmas! The excitement and joy is felt the whole day of December 24. In the evening, at 7:45, our Crib procession began in the Founders' room, where we all gathered together. Three SVD priests came: Fr. Herman Puhl, the main celebrant, Fr. Tony Pates and Fr. Renato Gnata, both members of the Arnold Janssen Spirituality [...]
We had today a taste of Polish Christmas tradition. After our "Agape" after the midnight Mass, while four of us were still lingering by the crib in the corridor, our Polish Sisters passed by with a wagon full of goodies. They invited us to join them. Curious to know what they were, we followed them [...]
Today, our 88 year old Dutch Sister Mary Elisabeth, was born into eternity at 1:15 in the afternoon. Just as we are all preparing for the Birthday of Christ, God has called our Sister into new life in eternity. She had been sick for quite sometime and had suffered dementia. After a few weeks of being bed ridden [...]
An empty crib! I remember when we were still young sisters, fresh from the world...Our first Advent and Christmas season in the convent was exciting - for me, especially. Everything was very solemn and surrounded by mystery. At the beginning of Advent we were introduced by our Aspirant Directress to the practice of putting a hay on [...]
Our Sisters are very busy today putting last finishing touches on our Nativity set. There are several places in the house where we put up our nativity set. Well, surely, one set could be enough, but we can't have enough of Christmas either! We celebrate our Lord's birthday only once a year and we want to [...]
Fr. Egide Muziazia, an SVD from Congo, stationed here in St.Michael's Missionhouse in Steyl, taught us today a Christmas song in French, his main language, and a "Kyrie" in the native Swahili. He wants us to sing them on the second day of Christmas when he will celebrate Holy Mass with us - and surely he will accompany us [...]
Today, December 8, 2015, Pope Francis pushes open the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, formally launching the Holy Year of Mercy, at the Vatican. During his homily, he highlighted the primacy of grace. “Were sin the only thing that mattered, we would be the most desperate of creatures,” Pope Francis said. “But the promised triumph [...]
We have beutiful Advent traditions in the cloister. One of them is singing Advent hymns and listening to touching stories read before us about Advent or anything that generally speaks of God's goodness and love, of man's trust and hopes, of faith journeys, forgiveness, etc. During Sunday recreation, we gather around the Advent wreath with lighted candles. [...]
We start today the Advent Season, the beginning of a new Liturgical Church Year. Advent means "coming," a word that connotes "waiting." It is a season of expectant waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the "flesh" - for his birth. We await his coming in the flesh, we await also his second coming in glory! [...]
We celebrated this morning the Renewal of Vows of Sr. Mary Amata for the 5th time. As always, everytime we celebrate profession of vows, whether it be a renewal, a first vow or a jubilee, it gives me a feeling of awe and wonder, and of deep gratitude to God for the gift of religious vocation [...]
