On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, our first two postulants in the newly founded Contemplative Novitiate in Brooklyn, New York received the Cross of Matará. Our congregation has a Contemplative branch of cloistered nuns as well as active missionary sisters. This new house of formation gives women the possibility of beginning formation directly in the contemplative branch of our Institute.
The Cross of Matará, which forms part of our habit and upon which we find our Lord and the Virgin of Matará, is “a beautiful example of evangelization of the culture, or inculturation of the Gospel, which is the specific end of our religious institutes,” since it was carved by an indigenous person as a true work of art with a clear catechetical end as a fruit of the Jesuit’s profound work of evangelization in that area of Argentina. Additionally, it is a “precious retablo (which means a piece of art that tells a story) where we find carved the central motives of our spirituality” and constitutes “a most beautiful way of life that all who glory in carrying this name should strive to achieve with the grace of God.”
The Cross of Matará is an important element of our religious habit.
By wearing the cross we are reminded of the “high ideals expressed by the Cross” and that we are called to be Spouses of Christ Crucified and faithful Servants at the foot of the Cross in imitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and first Servidoras.
We ask you to join us in giving thanks for the foundation of this new contemplative house of formation.
“Their purpose will be to live for God alone: this is the energetic synthesis that proclaims all the desire that God has placed in the heart of every contemplative nun. Not only to live in the presence of God but to live for God alone, with no other intention than God” (SSVM Monastic Rule, 9).
