Traddy Tuesday: Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

Another beautiful day in Minnesota, another beautiful order to look at!

Today's community is the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.

These sisters are absolutely beautiful!  I haven't met any of them, but I think you can tell just by reading their website and looking at their pictures.

They are a Cloistered community with constitutional enclosure--this means that they are able to leave the cloister to run important errands as well as attend special Masses and ordinations.  Other than that, cloistered means that they remain in within the walls of the cloister.  Yes, they can still go outside, as the cloister is usually a gate around hermitages or the convent.

This community is a fairly new one--started in 1995 with the FSSP, and transferring to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in 2006.  I'm not sure exactly how many sisters are in their community, but it doesn't look very large.

One of their apostolates is vestment making. They sew vestments for priests. Awesome. A priest that celebrates the TLM in my area said he buys all of his vestments from these sisters and they are amazing.  I got a close-up look at some of them and they are beautiful. From their schedule, it appears they do a lot of manual labor and prayer as well--both good things!

One of my favorite lines on their website is "We do not go on 'home visits' as the convent is our home, but families are allowed to visit ..." A tough reality, but it is so true.

Their website has a lot of information and is really beautiful.  I recommend taking a look at it! And...if you have a soon-to-be-ordained priest who needs a gift, look at their shop!  They use really quality materials, so it's on the spendy side, but it's for Mass, it should be nice!

Check out this picture. Nice!

Turning our Gaze to Christ: New Evangelization Event

+LDM

I love the DOW.  This summer, instead of Ministry Days, the Diocese of Winona will hold "Turning our Gaze to Christ"--an evangelization event in Rochester, MN.  The Event is featuring speakers Janet Smith, Leah Darrow, Martha Fernandez-Sardina and Fr. Leo Patalinghug--pretty big names for a Diocese in Southern Minnesota.  Even better is the even will take place around the same time as RochesterFest (their version of "Watermelon Days" or "Waterski Days") so there should be a lot of things to see and do downtown!  And cheese curds. Delicious, greasy, wonderful, artery-clogging cheese curds.

For more information on the event or to register visit the DOW's Website.

Pray, listen to good music, be inspired with speeches, eat cheese curds, be happy.

Young People want Tradition!

Fr. Z posted an excellent video from CNS on "Tradition and the Future":

Noteworthy is Fr. Kramer's comment about young people wanting substance.  In a time where so many of us live in the culture of death and lies, there is a growing minority of people who desire  truth, no matter how difficult it may be to swallow.

Last summer when I went to St. John Cantius in Chicago, I was amazed at how young the parish was.  It wasn't full of just little old ladies and old men, but young families as well.  Big, young, Catholic families. We are 50 years out from Vatican II, and now is the time everything is going to settle.  How blessed we are to be able to see (hopefully) the settling of things in a traditional manner rather than the destruction of churches and the liturgy.

Pope Benedict XVI has recommended we read the documents of Vatican II.  I think that is a pretty good idea.