Adorers Of The Sacred Heart Of Montmartre / Tyburn Nuns

[BarbTherese]

I haven't been able to confirm what appears below on any Vatican website, which doesn't mean that it does not exist somewhere.  Mother Peter Garnier's spirituality was centred on the Blessed Eucharist and also Divine Providence.

 

 

http://www.dioceseofshrewsbury.org/news/latest-news/first-spiritual-biography-of-mystic-foundress-of-tyburn-nuns-launched-in-london

 

First spiritual biography of mystic foundress of Tyburn Nuns launched in London

The first spiritual biography of Mother Adele Garnier, the foundress of the Tyburn Nuns, has been launched in London, with the author hailing her new insights into Eucharistic theology as “very, very important” for the Church.

Don Gianmario Piga (pictured below), a Sardinian military chaplain and author of The Path of Mother Adele Garnier, said that the French nun presents an “original message” for Catholics today to “dwell” in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.

 

 

The biography has from the outset attracted considerable interest from the Vatican, which offered to publish the book free of charge, because many of Mother Adele’s reflections on the Eucharist correspond with the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI in such documents as Sacramentum Caritatis, his Apostolic Exhortation of 2007 on the Blessed Sacrament as the “source and summit of the Church’s life and mission”, as well as the writings of other esteemed modern theologians of the 20th century.

 

Click on this link to listen to the presentation of The Path of Mother Adele Garnier by Don Gianmario Piga in Tyburn Convent.

 

It is worth noting that in the actual lifetime of some of our saints, the religious orders they had founded fell under adverse circumstances and the foundress called into disrepute.  Certainly this happened with St Mary of The Cross MacKillop.  Other religious orders have needed and have undergone reform.  If a work is of The Holy Spirit, it will stand and nothing whatsoever will defeat it - nothing.

Edited June 24, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

If a work is of The Holy Spirit nothing whatsoever can or will defeat it - nothing whatsoever, and no matter how grim and dreadful any circumstances may appear to we finite minded creatures.  Certainly, satan is not going to sit by idly and let a great good be accomplished, though it has not even yet learnt that it cannot defeat the works of The Holy Spirit.

[Lil'Nun]

Hi again,

 

I just wanted to state that I heard things that worried me about Tyburn (via PM) from several different, unconnected, people. My current decision was not, and is not, down to information received from just one person - and not all the people who contacted me have posted on this thread.

That, of itself, worried me. That many different people seem to have heard about difficulties at a convent makes me realise that belief is widespread.

Someone at my Parish even mentioned as much to me on Sunday - and trust me, she is not even on the internet.

I just wanted to say this so that nobody feels their opinion was responsible for my decision - it was an accumulation of information.

I'm not going to post on this thread again but I have not totally ruled Tyburn out. I have just moved away from it for the time being and am looking elsewhere.

Thanks to you all for your messages and prayers.

 

LN

 

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

While I cannot quite agree with your manner of posting, you have clarified some perplexities for me with your posts nonetheless.  And my initial information came from a diocesan priest, not ex sisters etc.  Apparently what I was told by Father was general knowledge insofar as his level in The Church was concerned.  I am in Australia incidentally.

 

 Adele Garnier (Mother Mary Peter) was a most unusual person.

 

Leaving a religious order (and one usually has good reasons) is never fun, for sure! :)

 

Hi BarbaraTherese -

 

I can't do much about the manner of posting. The alternative is to hint at awful problems but refuse to divulge anything, which of course makes it much worse, and then people's imaginations run riot and before you know it, it's the Devils of Loudon all over again.

 

I'd rather just lay out what I know, in as clear and unemotional manner as I can manage.

 

I was warned off in 2001 by more than one diocesan priest as well, but in the UK, and warned specifically about the Superior General, being told that she was a 'control freak', and that it was a 'hothouse'. Sad but true, in both cases.

 

It's a shame because the Riverstone community of Tyburn appears to be very functional and happy. I went on a retreat there a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it - peaceful, restful and I could hear the sisters laughing in the enclosure from time to time, which really took me back.

 

The behaviour in choir at Riverstone was also completely different from what I'd learned to dread in the Mother House - much more relaxed and much happier, and when mistakes were made, there was no glaring!

 

Anyway, I am just glad people are discerning religious life, and there will be new vocations at Tyburn and someone will help to sort them out. (I have thought about going back at some point in the future, but on the whole I don't think they'd have me, not while the current Superior General is alive.)

[BarbTherese]

Interesting and shows how the same experience can be viewed differently.  I was in Riverstone for a while and my experience was not so positive - but wrote it off as just my experience, coupled with the fact that I came to the awareness that I did not have a vocation to religious life and admitted the truth to myself that I was really running away from a very busy life indeed back here in Bethany - and often a frustrating life.  This revelation for me was a sort of agony and ecstasy.  I love enclosed contemplative life and this is as an outsider looking in - actually living the life, I found I did not have a religious vocation and my experience became traumatic since I desperately wanted to have the vocation and strived desperately to find a reason to be running towards - I did find a genuine reason and that was because so often my efforts in Bethany seemed fruitless and only prayer could rescue many situations.  But my 'running towards' just would not work FOR ME - i.e. I was not called to religious life I had to admit and my personal problems within the community I could not surmount it seemed.  When I did return back here to Bethany I was absolutely confused for a while and miserable -  but eventually took up my way of life again and have never looked back and now over 20 years in the past.  I learnt to cope with the often fruitlessness SEEMINGLY of my efforts in many situations and found absolute and total rest, Peace and Joy, and rich haven in the Permissive Will of God and Divine Providence.

 

My info from the diocesan priest 'in the know' did perplex me until I read some of your posts.  Best not to identify religious orders concerned (for one only) I think since The Lord and His Grace with time can change the whole situation and one's own perspective at the time might have been skewed for some reason leading to conflict in the community for one, whether one can identify one's actual skewed perspective or not.  It does remain a potential and possibility.  In every single situation in life there can always be "X The Unknown Factor" that is in play.   It does take two to tango - i.e. me AND you if we are going to be involved in a negative type of 'tango' (tangle).  One can either get right into that negative and fruitless 'dance' - or one can change oneself.  Because I can indeed change myself, I cannot change others nor have the right unless they ask me to help them change identifying their own problems in the situation.  Of great interest to me from experience is that if I work to change myself, it does change the actual situation that was creating conflict in the first place.  If one refuses change, then one either has to stay in the negative situation and dance - or get out of the whole situation, abandon it.

 

Certainly the focus of the Tyburn Order of nuns is vitally important in the life of The Church and that is perpetual adoration (BOTH before the Blessed Eucharist exposed - or not before Him exposed, yet forever present and closer to us than our own selfhood) and also Divine Providence continually present in our lives as The Lord's Directing Hand, whether one is aware or not.  I took much with me from Riverstone and later came to understand that I needed the entirely negative experience to continue in Bethany.  Negative that is to my understanding at that time.  Hindsight is a great gift indeed - it can also be a tremendous burden if one tries to apply the lights present with hindsight to a situation in the past when those lights were not present.

 

God bless..........Barb

[BarbTherese]

I wish I could remember the saint's name, but can't.  She founded a religious order and later was demoted from leadership completely eventually and the community were quite 'skewed' as it were.  She continued in her Order as a simple nun in community doing the most ordinary of things as a humble and simple religious and for quite a number of years until her death.  Later, of course, she was canonized - but how dreadful her life must have been for many years and gigantic the change she effected in herself to go from foundress and leadership to a humble nun in the community.  I'll have to make a note to research and see if I can find her name and biography. 

Quite a few of our female saints for one have continued in a community that was a literal persecution for them.  And of course, Jesus Himself, was persecuted, derided, calumniated and finally cruelly executed and "No man is greater than His Master" - "Take up your cross and follow Me" and these sets the bar for us.  And I fall far far short of it, which cannot shift that bar down one iota of course.  I simply have to admit that I do indeed fall far short of it.

Edited June 25, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

 2.27pm here on Tues 25.6.13 and the day is running away from me, although a fair bit still accomplished thankfully!

 

With quick research only.    A case of a saint who appeared in her own lifetime to fail but not that saints I was seeking, which were saints who suffered in community life and due to their community. Hence I am a little or a lot of track. :lame:

 

 

 Once a saint is canonized and we hear all the wonderful things about them, it is easy to loose empathy and any attempt to put oneself in their shoes during their own lifetime and especially with those of our saints who suffered dreadfully in life - contrasted with outstanding sanctity heralded in the canonization process.  Sanctity is almost always hand in hand with much suffering in life - no Jesus without His Cross - and no life at all is going to pass without suffering of some kind or other to a larger or lesser degree.  Many life sufferings can go completely 'unheralded' and are interior sufferings hidden from view to all and sundry.

I believe that many will be the outstanding saints in Heaven who were never canonized - The Spirit blows where He will and as He May and for His own sound reasons.

 

St Bridget of Sweden http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=264

 

Quote:  "Although she had longed to become a nun, she never even saw the monastery in Vadstena. In fact, nothing she set out to do was ever realised. She never had the pope return to Rome permanently, she never managed to make peace between France and England, she never saw any nun in the habit that Christ had shown her, and she never returned to Sweden but died, worn out old lady far from home in July 1373. She can be called the Patroness of Failures. In this she was like her Lord. He was also classed as failure as He hung on the Cross. Birgitta was a successful failure as she was canonized in 1391."

 

 

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

Jeanne Jugan had the same experience.

[BarbTherese]

Jeanne Jugan had the same experience.

 

Thank you and how very remarkable.  Jeanne Jugan (foundress, Little Sisters of The Poor) chose Sr Mary of The Cross and had a consuming love of the poor.  Our Aussie St Mary of The Cross MacKillop also had a consuming love of the poor and like Jeanne experienced problems in her own community.

 

The story of Jeanne Jugan is worth noting:

 

 

For herself Jeanne chose the religious name Sister Mary of the Cross. She would live it in its fullness.

 

 

Quote:

"Jeanne is grafted into the cross

The work of the Little Sisters continued to spread, borne by the wind of the Spirit. So did Jeanne’s renown—until one day she was mysteriously cast aside by an ambitious priest who had taken over the direction of the young community.

Jeanne was replaced as superior and sent out begging on behalf of the poor. And then one day she was placed in retirement, relegated to the shadows. At the time of her death 27 years later, the young Little Sisters didn’t even know that she was the foundress.

Jeanne had often told them, “We are grafted into the cross and we must carry it joyfully unto death.” How she lived these words! What a radiant example of holiness she gave to generations of Little Sisters!"

Edited June 25, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[AnneLine]

I thought of both of those, but also of St. Rafaela, foundress of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

http://www.acjusa.org/who_we_are/rafaela.php

 

and also Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

 

http://www.ihmimmaculata.org/history/founder.html

 

Interesting how often this seems to happen to foundresses.....

 

And we should pray for any Sisters or Superiors who are going through similar things even as we speak....

[By His Grace Alone]

Hi BarbaraTherese -

 

I can't do much about the manner of posting. The alternative is to hint at awful problems but refuse to divulge anything, which of course makes it much worse, and then people's imaginations run riot and before you know it, it's the Devils of Loudon all over again.

 

I'd rather just lay out what I know, in as clear and unemotional manner as I can manage.

 

I was warned off in 2001 by more than one diocesan priest as well, but in the UK, and warned specifically about the Superior General, being told that she was a 'control freak', and that it was a 'hothouse'. Sad but true, in both cases.

 

It's a shame because the Riverstone community of Tyburn appears to be very functional and happy. I went on a retreat there a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it - peaceful, restful and I could hear the sisters laughing in the enclosure from time to time, which really took me back.

 

The behaviour in choir at Riverstone was also completely different from what I'd learned to dread in the Mother House - much more relaxed and much happier, and when mistakes were made, there was no glaring!

 

Anyway, I am just glad people are discerning religious life, and there will be new vocations at Tyburn and someone will help to sort them out. (I have thought about going back at some point in the future, but on the whole I don't think they'd have me, not while the current Superior General is alive.)

Well, I would like to thank you for your honesty, candor and the courage it took to state the truth as you experienced it.  You may just have saved one or more people from a painful experience.  I knew someone who entered there and she described her experience as "soul shattering".  Quite a strong statement really, and one which I dared not ask her to explain as I certainly didn't want to trouble her.  Her statement said it all.  I am one of those people who strongly feel that no one is served by silence and secrecy, no matter how good intentioned one believes they are being.  Being honest may not be fashionable these days, but it definitely not uncharitable. 

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

I think entering religious life is always soul-shattering. I think it's kind of meant to be.

 

You can't really 'prepare' for it out in the world, no matter how hard you try. The actual lived experience of common life, obedience, mortification and humiliation are all soul-shattering. They can be mitigated by a sense of being loved and supported by your community and your sisters, but that's not always there either, even in the best communities.

 

The more genuine humility you have, the easier it is, I believe, but very few of us have really genuine humility on entering religious life. We think we do, but we don't know a blind thing, really, till we get there and try it.

 

That's why I always strongly encourage discerners to go and try the life, anywhere and everywhere. I do this to the point of telling people that the only time they're really 'discerning' is when they're in the place, living the life! The rest of the time, they're just 'fantasising'!! You lose nothing by trying the life, and you gain everything, and God will always give you back the 'time you spent' on trying religious life. Always. He will not be outdone in generosity.

[BarbTherese]

 telling people that the only time they're really 'discerning' is when they're in the place, living the life! The rest of the time, they're just 'fantasising'!!

 

:like2:

 

 

 

 

You lose nothing by trying the life, and you gain everything, and God will always give you back the 'time you spent' on trying religious life. Always. He will not be outdone in generosity.

:like2:

Edited June 26, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[By His Grace Alone]

I think entering religious life is always soul-shattering. I think it's kind of meant to be.

 

You can't really 'prepare' for it out in the world, no matter how hard you try. The actual lived experience of common life, obedience, mortification and humiliation are all soul-shattering. They can be mitigated by a sense of being loved and supported by your community and your sisters, but that's not always there either, even in the best communities.

 

The more genuine humility you have, the easier it is, I believe, but very few of us have really genuine humility on entering religious life. We think we do, but we don't know a blind thing, really, till we get there and try it.

 

That's why I always strongly encourage discerners to go and try the life, anywhere and everywhere. I do this to the point of telling people that the only time they're really 'discerning' is when they're in the place, living the life! The rest of the time, they're just 'fantasising'!! You lose nothing by trying the life, and you gain everything, and God will always give you back the 'time you spent' on trying religious life. Always. He will not be outdone in generosity.

Well said!  I agree completely.  I have always strongly believed that the only failure in life is not trying!  We learn from everything that we do...the good and the not so good...the successes and the not quite what we intended!

[EJames2]

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/429179039460840361/