On September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. As we wear the Cross of Matará as part of our habit, this day is the proper and principal feast of our Institute.
This year on the Feast of the Holy Cross, eight sisters of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará professed their final vows in Washington, DC.
- Sister Mary New Eve – missionary in Fairbanks, Alaska
- Sister María de la Gracia – missionary in New York
- Sister María Refugio de los Pecadores – missionary in Mankato, Minnesota
- Sister Mary Cause of our Joy – missionary in St. James, Minnesota
- Sister Maria Semper Virgo – missionary in Kazakhstan
- Sister Mary of the Resurrection – missionary in the Netherlands
- Sister Mary Mother of Merciful Love – missionary in Ireland
- Sister Mary Queen of the Rosary – missionary in Italy
These sisters publicly vowed to live chastity, poverty, obedience and Marian slavery forever, in order “to be a ‘tangible seal that the Trinity impresses upon history, so that people can sense with longing the attraction of divine beauty,’ so that [their lives] may be a ‘living memorial of Jesus’ way of living and acting as the Incarnate Word in relation to the Father and in relation to mankind’ ” (Formula for Perpetual Profession).
This is a great joy for our small religious family and also for the entire Church, as these women consecrate themselves completely to Jesus Christ and to the spread of His Kingdom.
On this day, M. Corredentora, our general superior exhorted all sisters united under the Cross of Matará:
We must not forget that the love and knowledge of the Cross is a grace for which we must insistently ask Jesus, convinced that it is the greatest grace to reach the perfection of our vocation. “We must vehemently desire the cross: ‘that I may die for love of your love, since for love of my love you deigned to die.’ It is a grace to ask for in prayer: ‘God has given you the grace… to suffer for Christ’ (Phil 1:29). In a special way we must ask for the grace of the knowledge of the cross and the joy of the cross, which can only be obtained in the school of Jesus Christ” (Directory of Spirituality, 136).
May these newly professed sisters, Spouses of Jesus Christ, commit themselves to this great task of obtaining a greater knowledge and joy of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Please pray for them!
Mary, Virgin of Matará, pray for us!
