Saint Monica

St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine. While Augustine was involved with the Manichees and making a general mess of his life, Monica prayed for him day and night, weeping copiously, so that the bishop of her home town reportedly told her, \”The son of so many tears will never be lost!\” Remember that no one who knew Augustine as a young man would ever have expected him to do such a dramatic 360 turn, ending up as bishop of Hippo, a saint, and a doctor of the Church. The prayers of a mother are certainly powerful! Let us never give up on those we love, but continue praying for them with confidence. Let us ask St. Monica to intercede today for all our friends, relatives, and people we love who have turned away from God and the faith. She is sure to help them–and us, too!

Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

\”On your right stands the queen in gold of Ophir…\” (Psalm 45)
Today we celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The title \”Queen\” is given to her for at least two reasons: first, she is the mother of our King, Jesus Christ, and second, she is Queen by virtue of the dignity given to her by her Son. This memorial was celebrated for many years \”unofficially\” and was given official recognition in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. It ties in beautifully with the solemnity last week, when we celebrated Mary\’s Assumption into Heaven, body and soul. Having been assumed into Heaven, she is crowned Queen. This is recalled in the fifth glorious mystery of the Rosary. Mary is Queen of everything, in a sense: in the Litany of Loreto, she is extolled as \”Queen of angels, Queen of patriarchs…Queen of martyrs, Queen of confessors,\” and so on. Those of us who live in countries without royalty may find the concept of Mary as Queen a difficult one to grasp–you can\’t call Mary the \”First Lady\” to Christ\’s \”President\”! But if we follow the promptings of grace, we will be drawn to understand this concept, and we will acclaim Mary as our heavenly Queen, a sure refuge, a help for all Christians.

Last Look at MTS Program, 2013

This year brought us to the conclusion of a four-year trial of the Monastic Theological Studies Program. We are so happy to say the trial was a success and the program will be repeated starting next year with a new group of nun-students! Stay tuned to find out when and where!
And now, a few last images from this year\’s program!
As if bananas weren\’t enough…some of the intrepid students used a rare bit of free time to shell kidney beans that Sr. Marie Augustine grew in her garden! They listened to some fun African music while they worked…a true \”bean party\”!
Sr. Joseph Maria (Summit), Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) and Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) relaxing and checking out the blog! 
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) caught a lizard in the Gate Parlor (where we had classes)! She released him alive after this picture!
One night we called Summit monastery using Skype–a technology never used before in Lufkin. The computer was still connected to the projector so we had quite a view of the sisters in Summit\’s community room.
Each MTS sister received a small diploma and other neat items from Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin), the coordinator of the program, and Sr. Mary of Jesus (Elmira), who graciously served as a tutor for the students two years running. 
And the students had a little surprise for Sr. Mary Jeremiah, too!
Sister received many cute gifts, including a beautiful candle from Summit (they make them at the monastery in addition to their awesome soap line), a Texas potholder, a rosary, and other good things. She is holding the card from all the students, which everyone signed. We are so grateful to Sr. Mary Jeremiah and the Association Formation Committee for making this a wonderful program these past four years! Thank you for everything!

MTS Moral Theology Presentations

It\’s been busy around here, but we wanted to bring you the MTS presentations! Each sister discussed a controversial moral topic, presenting it in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas\’ Summa theologiae.

Sr. Mary Rose (Lufkin) considers the morality of birth control vs. natural family planning
 Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) spoke on whether abortion can be morally acceptable
Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin) discussed whether same-sex marriages can be recognized by the Church
 Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) gave an eye-opening presentation on gender identity disorder, with a great PowerPoint presentation.
Sr. Mary Gabriel (Lufkin) was happy to finish her presentation on the morality of the death penalty
Sr. Mary Dominic (Lufkin) talked about assisted suicide and euthanasia
And Sr. Mary Giuse (Lufkin) ended on a positive note by discussing the possibility of friendship with God.
We had some of the best discussions we\’ve ever had in our years of the MTS program on these topics, and it was a beneficial learning experience for all the sisters.  We have all grown so much in our communication skills as we tried to present the fruits of our study over these past four years. Wea re deeply grateful for all these opportunities, and we know the next edition of MTS will be just as good–if not even better!

Group Photo Op, Week 2

Here we are with the amazing Rossi sisters, Margherita and Teodora! We certainly hope to meet you again some day for more classes! You are fantastic!

Thanks also for your wonderful PowerPoint slides (featured in our earlier post)!

By the way…we had to work on Sunday to accommodate a tight schedule for the Rossi sisters. We don\’t usually work that hard or have classes on a Sunday! (Although we do study pretty hard the rest of the week, especially during MTS Program!)

MTS 2013: A Modern Day Disputatio

The two teams debated the morality of head to body transplantation. (What a question!) We began our discussions in preparation for the disputatio on Sunday morning…

Comparing sources with the Rossis
Formulating objections
Everyone hard at work!

And on Monday morning, the fun began!
Whether it is moral to perform a head-body transplantation? It\’s actually an open question in the Church today, and the possibility of such a transplant is increasing. So our disputation was on a  current, if somewhat futuristic, topic!
 The objections came first. This team was appointed the task of defending the morality of a head-body transplantation. They had fifteen reasons why it should be moral (that is, fifteen objections):
Ready to present their objections in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Summa theologiae.
 Sr. Mary Francis (Farmington Hills) presents one of her objection
And then the sed contra  and respondeo: why head-body transplantation should be considered immoral.
Sr. Mary Thomas (Lufkin) gave the respondeo which was written by the entire team.  This work included sources ranging from theology and philosophy to medicine, law, psychology, anthropology, Christian morality, and plain old common sense. They devoted a whole day to research in order to be fully prepared to defend their position.
 
Next, they had only 20 minutes to respond to the objections given by the opposing team. 
Sr. Maria Teresa (Summit) provided the responses (formulated with the help of her team) to the objections given by the opposing team at the beginning.
The masters listen intently. Sr. Clara Marie (Farmington Hills) represents the Church in her gold stole, and Sr. Mary Jeremiah (Lufkin), Dr. Teodora, and Dr. Margherita represent the academic world in red.
Sr. Mary Jeremiah makes a point to the teams while Drs. Teodora and Margherita listen.
What was the outcome of this disputation? Well, there was no \”winner\” in the usual sense of the word, since the object of a disputation is the search for truth. The academic and theological \”masters\” who supervised our dispute agreed that both teams did a wonderful job presenting the two sides–there was no clear disparity between the two presentations, they were equally good–however, in the end, everyone agreed that a head-body transplant should not be morally acceptable!

We had a lot of fun and worked VERY hard putting this together, and learned more about the medieval disputation than we could ever learn simply from reading or hearing about it! Did you know that St. Thomas Aquinas never turned down an opportunity to engage in this kind of disputation? It gives us a greater appreciation for the amazing gifts God gave him–he was truly a genius!

MTS 2013: The Second Week

We actually started on Saturday, due to our professors\’ schedule, so it\’s been a very intense weekend! We\’ll be bringing you updates from our classes and other adventures over the next few days, as well as our presentations.
Our professors for this second week of classes were Teodora and Margherita Rossi, who teach at the Angelicum in Rome. Teodora teaches moral theology and Margherita specializes in St. Thomas Aquinas. This was perfect for us as we decided to have a disputatio, just as they did in the middle ages!
Dr. Teodora explaining why we need disputed questions and the disputatio
 Dr. Margherita details the disputed question in the middle ages. Interestingly, for her presentation she used PowerPoint, while Teodora (discussing the modern era) used the old-fashioned chalk and board!
Dr. Teodora lectures while the students take notes
The ten students were assigned to two teams by a simple method: we all wrote our names down, and Sr. Mary Jeremiah drew them at random! After we were assigned to the teams, Sister drew to see which side would take the \”pro\” position and which would take the \”con\”. We also drew to see which team would present the determinatio. 
Drawing to see who will take which side in the disputed question
As always, we had a lot of fun doing it!
More to come! Keep watching this blog!