V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Alleluia! As we continue to celebrate the Easter season, we would like to share with you a reflection written by Sr. Katherine Joseph Marie Allensworth, HMSS, about why we decorate our chapels with great solemnity in order to celebrate the liturgical feasts throughout the year. 

Every year, one of the most exciting parts of the Easter celebrations in our communities is the unveiling of the chapel after we return home from the Easter Vigil Mass. The Sisters serving as sacristans in each of our convents spend a large portion of Holy Saturday making the chapel beautiful for Easter. Having been on both sides-caring for the chapel decor and simply witnessing the beauty of the chapel- I can say it is one of my favorite parts of the Easter celebration. It is always special to see how the grandeur and beauty of the Easter celebration is brought to life through our chapels after the simplicity of Lent. 

As I reflect on my experiences over the last six Easters in the convent, and on the way our communities bring to life each liturgical feast, it is highlighted for me how symbols and signs draw out the unique theological experience the Church highlights in each season and celebration of the liturgical year. The document Built on Living Stones, from the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops’ Liturgical Committee, points this out well: “Gestures, language, and actions are the physical, visible, and public expressions by which human beings understand and manifest their inner life. Since human beings on this earth are always made of flesh and blood, they not only will and think, but also speak and sing, move and celebrate. These human actions as well as physical objects are also the signs by which Christians express and deepen their relationship to God.” As I experience our chapels and help create beautiful spaces for our community to pray, I have experienced how grandeur- such as during the Easter season- and simplicity-such as during Lent and Advent- draw me into the readings and themes of each season. 

We have been talking a lot recently in our formation classless with all the Temporary Professed Sisters in our Region about how the way we pray- the ways we sit, stand, genuflect, go into the chapel, sing, speak, proclaim the Word of God, our punctuality in prayer, and our preparedness to pray with the Church-all matter immensely. These things are important because we are doing them for our Lord, and we are called to give the best of all that we have and all that we are to Him, especially when we go to pray with Him, who is always there waiting to encounter us. As I reflect on the care and time that go into making our chapels beautiful for Easter, it solidifies for me that caring for the chapel well is also part being prepared to pray well. The environment in which we pray highlights Whom we are praying with and to. The space is meant to draw us into the prayers we are saying or singing, or that are welling up out of our hearts to God in the silence. The chapel draws us into encounter with the living God, who became Man and is present in every tabernacle of the world today. 

During the rest of this Easter season, I pray that you can find ways to make the space where you pray in your home special for this time in the liturgical year. Maybe it is by placing flowers at a prayer altar, adding an extra set of candles, or displaying a Scripture verse that draws out the message of Easter. As you go to Mass this week, I invite you to take an extra minute to look around your parish church and simply take in the decorations that have been arranged to draw you into the Paschal Mystery. I pray that you can be present to the encounter God desires to draw you into through the setting of your Church building, the community of the Body of Christ, the Word proclaimed, and in sharing in His True Presence in the Eucharist. May the Risen Christ always dwell richly in your heart. 

(Above: San Antonio de Padua Community Chapel)

(Above: St. Augustine Community Chapel)

(Above: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Community Chapel)

(Above: Chapel of Divine Providence)

(Above: St. Joseph Community Chapel)

(Above: Our Lady of Mercy Community Chapel)

“Churches are never “simply gathering spaces but signify and make visible the Church living in [a particular] place, the dwelling of God” among us, now “reconciled and united in Christ.” As such, the building itself becomes “a sign of the pilgrim Church on earth and reflects the Church dwelling in heaven.” Every church building is a gathering place for the assembly, a resting place, a place of encounter with God, as well as a point of departure on the Church’s unfinished journey toward the reign of God. Churches, therefore, must be places “suited to sacred celebrations,” “dignified,” and beautiful.” (Built on Living Stones, United States Catholic Conference of Bishops Committee on Liturgy).

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

From March 13-15 we welcomed young women to our community in Baton Rouge, LA for a weekend discernment retreat. We thank God for their desire to discern His will for their lives. Let us all continue to pray for those discerning religious vocations and that the Lord may continue to bless our community, the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, with many women desiring to spread the love of the Blessed Sacrament!

To see photos from the weekend please click here.

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

This Lent, we have been sharing reflections by our Sisters on Ash Wednesday and each of the Sundays of Lent. In our final post this Lent, one of our Sisters would like to share a reflection on the Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Our hope is that the fruit of our Sisters’ prayer may bless you as we journey through Lent seeking greater intimacy with Jesus each of the forty days.

This reflection is written by Sr. Yvelyne Marie Bernard, HMSS.

The Triduum is most likely my favorite liturgical season—three days of intense participation in the Paschal Mystery of our redemption in Christ Jesus our Lord!

We begin by eating with Him a meal that He, with so much desire, has desired to eat with us. Then we stay with Him, remain with Him, watching and praying, at the Altars of Repose of our parishes, beautifully decorated to resemble a garden—maybe Gethsemane, maybe Eden. Then we walk the road of sorrow and weep over Him who tells us that we should rather weep for ourselves and our children. And finally…we wait, in the most eerie silence, filled with overwhelming grief…for something to happen.

And then…something does happen—something beyond our wildest imaginings!

But the Church in her wisdom does not allow us to jump from the sorrow of Good Friday immediately into the joy of Easter Sunday. No, she has us linger in the stillness of Holy Saturday.

Of all the days of the Triduum, Holy Saturday is the most daunting to endure because we are invited to be like the first disciples who did not know the end of the story. We know the end of the story so it is hard for us to accept this invitation. We would rather skip to the joy of Easter. But if we do not accept this invitation, we miss out on a profoundly life shaping, life deepening, life changing experience.

Place yourself in the sandals of the first disciples and experience how gut wrenching and truly excruciating it is to be someone who believed that the man you thought was God… is now dead. Imagine yourself reliving memories and playing them over and over again in your mind as a way to try and figure things out, make sense of what is happening. But the more you try to find a footing, or solid ground, the more you feel yourself sinking deeper and drowning faster. You remember hearing Him say “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” You remember Him asking His friend if she believed this and she had said yes to Him. You can imagine Him looking at you in the eyes and asking the same question: “Do you believe this?” And with all honesty, can you really hope against hope and say yes, or do you succumb to doubt and despair? No, Holy Saturday is an eternity long for a grieving heart. The wait is tumultuous and painful for in the wait there exists a trial of faith so deep and purifying that it reveals who we are in the face of truth and what matters most. It exposes what lies beneath and asks us not what we know, but what we trust.
And all the while—Christ is at work.

Though the tomb is sealed and heaven seems silent, He is not absent. He is moving in hidden ways, descending like water into the deepest places, reaching even into the darkness we cannot name. What appears to us as stillness is, in truth, the quiet unfolding of victory.

There is a line in the song “Way Maker” that echoes this mystery: “Even when I don’t see it, You’re working.”

That is Holy Saturday.

Christ is not giving us the silent treatment—He is giving us space. Space to confront ourselves. Space to wrestle with doubt. Space to discover what we truly believe when nothing seems to be happening.

Like water, His grace moves quietly, seeping into the lowest and most forgotten places within us. And there, in the depths, it begins to rise—not with noise or spectacle, but with steady, life-giving power—until it lifts us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

And so we wait.

Not in despair, but in hope stretched to its limits. Not in certainty, but in trust that is being refined.

Because soon—and very soon—something will happen.

V.J.E.

This Lent, we will be sharing reflections by our Sisters on Ash Wednesday and each of the Sundays of Lent. Our hope is that the fruit of our Sisters’ prayer may bless you as we journey through Lent seeking greater intimacy with Jesus each of the forty days.

This reflection, on the readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, is written by Sr. Katelyn Marie Amata Krantz, HMSS.

This poem was inspired on the evening of Palm Sunday last year in front of the tabernacle and hastily scribbled onto the back cover of a hymnal. It was such an unexpected grace. It is a fruit of my reflection on the overwhelming love Jesus showed as He entered into His Passiontide and into my broken humanity. I’d like to share it with you and invite you deeper into the Paschal Mystery:

Hosanna in the Highest

What was it like for you, Sweet Lord,

When you endured of your own accord

That bittersweet entrance into Jerusalem?

When every shout of “Hosanna!” rang,

Did it echo in your heart like a pang

Of the coming cry, “Crucify Him!”?

You hunger and you thirst for me,

And so consolation may my life be

For every revilement which your heart bore.

“King of David!” the crowd shouted with delight,

Not knowing that the Lord of Might

This King would don a crown of thorns.

What sorrow did your Blessed Mother feel,

Knowing that soon God must reveal

The sword which she would share with you?

The Greatest Wedding Feast draws near,

The groomsmen flee in dread and fear

For asleep are their weary and grieving souls.

But Lord, your Mother remains ever true,

And courageously stands close by you

Who hangs for me upon the cross.

It is finished.

“King of the Jews” a sign reads now,

And as your subject below, I bow

Desiring the courage to love you in the highest.