Franciscan Sisters Of The Immaculate

[petitpèlerin]

Salut, Rosa immaculata! Je suis étudiante américaine en France et j’essaye d’apprendre votre très belle langue. Et j’essaye de faire pas trop d’attention at vos très beaus frères (de St Jean) qui habitent à côté. Vraiment, vous écrivez très, très bien l’anglais: beaucoup mieux que les américains parlent français. Vous êtes sûr que vous voulez entrer dans une communauté française? Avec votre bon usage de l’anglais, vous n’êtes pas limitée.

Have you considered la Communauté St Jean? They are profoundly Marian and I’ve been learning lately that, while they were founded by a Dominican, their spirituality is in many ways very Franciscan. I have friends in the community who are Franciscans at heart, and the more I get to know the community, the more time I spend with them and see what they're really all about, the more I see Franciscanism in it. I’m Franciscan myself and I could only ever consider a Franciscan spirituality, and as of recently I am considering the Community of St John.

Also, they take care that all their masses are celebrated reverently, and they occasionally celebrate it in Latin. (There was a Latin mass here last week.)

Edited November 23, 2012 by petitpèlerin

[Chiquitunga]

Ave Maria!

That's wonderful Rosa Immaculata how you're going to write both and will go on retreat somewhere with them soon...... very exciting indeed!

[quote name='Chiquitunga' timestamp='1353604543' post='2514786']Whatever is God's will though! Prayers for your vocation! All branches of this Order are[color=#add8e6][i] [font=times new roman,times,serif][size=5][b]so beautiful [/b][/size][/font][/i][/color]wherever you're called... I love them very much too! (sometimes even more than Carmel I think, lol ) .. aaahhhhh!!! they are tied!
[/quote]

I'm being technical[color=#282828][font=Open Sans', sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=Open Sans', sans-serif][img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/blush.gif[/img] (<-- had to search to find this old emoticon again :j) but I wanted to correct myself here ... the Franciscans of the Immaculate are a Religious Institute of Pontifical Right within the Order of St. Francis/First Order .. the Poor Clares are of course in the Second Order. So the FI are not an "Order" in themselves, which it sounds like I'm saying above .. they are [i]part[/i] of the Order and profess Solemn Vows (including the apostolic Sisters I[i] think[/i]) [/font][/color]

[Rosa immaculata]

Thank you Chiquitunga for your support, and your precisions! You are totally right!! At the Slemn Vows, the Franciscans Sisters of the Immaculate (as Poor Clares) wear a crown of thorns, I really love this total identification with the Crucified Love!

Petitpèlerin, your French is very good too, courage, I know it is very difficult to learn our language, but you are doing well and you will continue to improve! Thank you for your encouragements, I hope the Sisters will understand my letter in english; the real problem is when I SPEAK (or try to do it with the accent ) and when I listen to people speaking: sometimes I don't understand them at all because I haven't got used to listen to English people often yet ; how it will be with Italian?
I know the Community of St Jean, and I hope you will enter it if it is God's Will! But I am not attracted to it (at least now, I don't know the future...); but I really like the accent on contemplation in their charism, as the FSI; I am in absolute love with the total identification to the Immaculate... Thank you for the info about the EF and their Franciscan spirituality: very good point for them!
I suppose you will enter in the USA since they just have a new novitiate there... Prayers for you and all the discerners!!

[emmaberry101]

[quote name='Rosa immaculata' timestamp='1353710164' post='2515408']
Thank you Chiquitunga for your support, and your precisions! You are totally right!! [b]At the Solemn Vows, the Franciscans Sisters of the Immaculate (as Poor Clares) wear a crown of thorns, I really love this total identification with the Crucified Love! [/b]
[/quote]

Sorry, Rosa, I know I am not really a participant in this conversation (since when has that ever stopped me? ), but I wanted to take this (edit:) opportunity to post some favorite Solemn Profession crown-of-thorns pictures! You are so right, it is a beautiful show of intimacy with the Crucified Christ:

[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gybQLLi-EJ8/TXi_XSqictI/AAAAAAAAFuw/NYVIP0lLu7c/s320/fran-nuns.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.passionistnuns.org/blog/wp-content/themes/fallseason/images/SRMfpcrownblog.jpg[/img]
[img]http://poorclaresroswell.com/Nunwithcrownofthorns.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.poorclarestmd.org/archives/page177/files/thorns.jpg[/img]
[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jSxR9QXRUq0/UD7DW0RtEZI/AAAAAAAAAQg/TteTi1eVzyk/s1600/Mother+M+Francis,+nun.jpg[/img]

As Pope John Paul the Great said:

[indent=1]"If Catherine of Siena is the saint full of passion for the Blood of Christ, the great St. Teresa is the woman who goes from "mansion" to "mansion" to the threshold of the great King in the interior castle and Therese of the Child Jesus is the one who, in Gospel simplicity, travels the little way, [i][b]Clare is the passionate lover of the Crucified Christ, with whom she wants to identify absolutely...[/b][/i]"[/indent]

[center] [/center]

Edited November 24, 2012 by emmaberry101

[Rosa immaculata]

Thank you so much Emmaberry for these amesome pictures!!! These nuns are all marvellous with the same crown as Christ Himself!! I really love the Cross of the Passionists nuns too! The last picture is (after the FSI, but I am totally biased, aha!) my favourite, it is on my computer, and it reflects the beauty and the joy of this moment which is eternal in reality...
You also reassured me: the crown is pinned to the veil: very good news, because if I will enter and profess vows, I will fear my crown fall down during the ceremony! but I don't know if the FSI do that...glups!
[i][b]Clare is the passionate lover of the Crucified Christ, with whom she wants to identify absolutely...[/b][/i]"
=> what a marvellous thought about St Clare; it is precisely what I love in her and St Francis: they are burning of love which becomes a total identification with the Beloved ... Some persons said to me that these saints are completly mad and silly!! It is horrible, I was really hurt, and I said to them that they were mystics consumed by the Love of Christ and His Holy Passion... but these persons continue to despise the Franciscan Order, that is so sad; and it happened to me several times that when I said that it is my favourite order, some persons didn't understand at all why I liked and admired this order...st Francis and St Clare had the same problem, and it is the case for other orders I think...

[Chiquitunga]

the Religieuses Victimes du Sacré Coeur do this too...........

[img]http://images.onesite.com/mycatholicvillage.com/user/catholique_apostolique/france/aame001008.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa138/kjk76_91/NunsPraying.jpg?t=1182349494[/img]

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/topic/81559-victim-nuns-of-the-sacred-heart"]http://www.phatmass....he-sacred-heart[/url]

[Rosa immaculata]

Oh yes Chiquitunga!! Total success in identification with Christ with the Religieuses Victimes du Sacré-Coeur ; I really like the thorns up with the white flowers, and the Cross... I think I saw on another picture, that they wear a cord, as the Franciscans do...

[Rosa immaculata]

Hum, I can't keep adding one more! ; sorry; two, I clicked on another picture for the first but very beautiful too!

[OnlySunshine]

The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal use the crown of thorns during the ceremony of Perpetual Profession.

[img]http://franciscansisterscfr.com/photos/final_vows/3d.jpg[/img]

[Rosa immaculata]

Ave Maria!

Very beautiful order too: The Franciscans of the Renewal... Thank you Mater for the picture! I really love the gradation in the Franciscan order: crown of flowers to the vesture, and the First vows, and crown of thorns for the Perpetual/Solemn Vows... so bridal and Christic. I hope to see one day a profession of vows... and I know I'll cry!

[emmaberry101]

[quote name='Rosa immaculata' timestamp='1353884386' post='2516453']
Ave Maria!

Very beautiful order too: The Franciscans of the Renewal... Thank you Mater for the picture! I really love the gradation in the Franciscan order: crown of flowers to the vesture, and the First vows, and crown of thorns for the Perpetual/Solemn Vows... so bridal and Christic. I hope to see one day a profession of vows... and I know I'll cry!
[/quote]

Go if you are able! It is so beautiful to see the passion and joy of the one who is professing. I was not expecting to be so moved and found myself very emotional watching the ceremony-same thing with my mom. The first profession acclamation "Christ has set a seal upon my face" is just amazing. It's like the veil between heaven and Earth is lifted for just a moment, much like Holy Mass!

Edit: Without meaning to, I came across a quote pertaining to the Crown of Thorns (It is speaking of Poor Clares, but applies to any solemn profession using the crown):

[indent=1]“At the ceremony of a Poor Clare’s solemn profession, when a young nun tosses her life like a song into the Heart of Christ as alms for all in his kingdom, a ring is placed upon her finger. And then a crown of thorns upon her head. That is the proper order of things for it is only love that makes bearing the reality of thorns possible. The newly ringed and crowned young nun who has pronounced her vows with her hands placed in those of the abbess while the bishop looks on in witness lifts her gaze to the eyes of her abbess. It is a moment that never fades.”[/indent]

Edited November 26, 2012 by emmaberry101

[nikita92]

Rosa- is THIS your community? 0;)

[JMJ/M&M]

Solemn Vows are taken only by enclosed Nuns. All apostolic or active/contemplatives take Simple Vows. There are a few Contemplative/Clostered communities of more recent origin that also take Simple Vows. Both types of vows can be transferred if a Nun or a Sister enters another community.

[Chiquitunga]

[quote name='JMJ/M&M' timestamp='1353957803' post='2517018']
[b]Solemn Vows are taken only by enclosed Nuns. All apostolic or active/contemplatives take Simple Vows.[/b] There are a few Contemplative/Clostered communities of more recent origin that also take Simple Vows. Both types of vows can be transferred if a Nun or a Sister enters another community.
[/quote]

That's what I thought too. If that is true, then the FI Sisters, including the Contemplative ones, would not take Solemn Vows then .. only the Poor Clares of the Immaculate. I will see about asking an FI priest about this .. hmm

[Egidio]

That's what I thought too. If that is true, then the FI Sisters, including the Contemplative ones, would not take Solemn Vows then .. only the Poor Clares of the Immaculate. I will see about asking an FI priest about this .. hmm

 

AVE MARIA!

 

Canonically speaking, this is correct, although they are often referred to as solemn vows out of custom/tradition/ habit.