Vocation Ceremonies

: Preparing for the ceremony; in the foreground: the holy Habit awaits the return of the postulant after the first part of the ceremony.

: Procession to the chapter room.

: Receiving the cincture and Rosary

: Most little boys dream of becoming priests… so did the Royal Child Jesus on this occasion!

: The decorated cell

The summer of 2024 marked several milestones for our novitiate sisters: a first profession, two clothing ceremonies, and the “graduation” of our senior novice to the professed side of the monastery.

: The profession was a private ceremony in the Chapter Room.

: The newly-professed was symbolically reclothed in the holy habit, just like the new novices were.

: The Divine Bridegroom was dressed for the occasion!

: The postulants wore wedding dresses at the beginning of their Clothing ceremonies.

: The dresses were gifts to the nuns, or their own mother’s dress on loan.

: Each was led in procession from the novitiate to the chapter room.

: A lock of the postulants’ hair was symbolically cut off.

: The Sisters lay prostrate in the form of a Cross as a sign of their dedication.

: Each was sprinkled with rose petals as a sign of joy. The new novices were first covered with Mother Teresa Margaret’s own mantle!

: Each Sister’s cell was decorated with flowers on the day of the ceremony.

: A trail of rose petals led to their cells!

: The remaining rose petals were given to Our Lord by the novitiate.

: The new novices’ hair was arranged as gifts for their families.

: The novitiate recreation room decorated for our senior novice’s farewell party.

A Solemn Profession, September 8th, 2022

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In June 2022, we celebrated a Clothing Ceremony.

Wearing her mother’s bridal gown, the postulant is readied for the ceremony.

In May 2022 we celebrated a First Profession
with a Solemn High Mass in the presence of our Bishop, Most Rev. Jeffrey J. Walsh.

In the Novitiate Oratory before the ceremony.

In October 2021 we celebrated a First Profession Ceremony. Father Brian Austin, FSSP was the celebrant for the festive Mass.

calligraphic rose-bud gradient for contact page

A sister’s family visiting in the summer of 2021 led unexpectedly to the creation of a very short whimsical vocation video. You can enjoy it here. You might want to slow down the playback to .75 to enjoy it more. The speed controls are on the right of the volume control.

In the spring of 2020, during the frustrating days of the COVID-19 church closings, Our Lord let us experience the first-fruits of our journey into traditional liturgy: a Clothing Day! We were delighted to restore elements from our older ceremonial which had not been used in perhaps 50 years, including a wedding gown, a custom which has been associated with monastic investiture since the 9th Century. After a year of experiencing life in the monastery, a postulant enters the novitiate—a two-year period of spiritual training and preparation to take vows—with the reception of the holy habit and the bestowal of her new religious name.

In 2013 we celebrated a Solemn Profession