Last night I was in the Bronx for Halloween. I did see some wholesome families trick-or-treating outside as I left, but I was there for a humble and yet mystically majestic Mass on the vigil of All Saints Day.
You can go through K–12 in Catholic schools there and never meet a spiritual mother, Fr. Vincent Druding said during his homily. While ministering to children at the parish school, and noticing the absence of mothers who practice the faith, he was inspired to contemplate a new community of women — religious sisters, more popularly known as “nuns” — who would be teachers and help fill that gap. Last year, with encouragement from the appropriate authorities in the Archdiocese of New York, he opened a discernment house where women can begin to familiarize themselves with a religious sister’s schedule and remove themselves from some of the luxuries of the world. Women have come and gone and one has stayed. And last night, two others joined her in giving up colorful and unique clothes for a new, simple uniform of white blouses and long blue skirts.
The budding community (it’s a long ways away canonically and not yet established) is called the Franciscan Sisters of the Pure Heart. Their symbolism includes the three hearts of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph — sacred and pure. Their charism seeks to implore young people to know what God has made them for — greatness and exalted dignity. So many young people have no chance in knowing their own beauty and power if everything around them teaches them to use or be used, sexually and otherwise. One of the young women I’ve known now for two years exudes a coolness that only the radiance of Christ can explain.
There are good people in the world trying to be heroic in their sacrifices and witnesses. Please pray for them and pray for more of them; that we sinners might be saints.]
The Mass was at the retreat center at Holy Cross Church on Soundview Avenue in the Bronx. Before Mass ended, a Franciscan Sister of Allegheny Pennsylvania — who were not too long ago missioned to the parish — joined Fr. Druding and auxiliary Bishop Peter Byrne in presenting the three young women blessed Benedictine crosses as they discern something new and beautiful for God. It had the undeniable feeling of renewal, as a chapel of mostly young people prayed.
There are scandals and synods, parish closings and heresy, and yet there remain people who actually believe in God and the Beatitudes, doing the things that they are called to do — love people and help them see God’s tremendous love and plan for their lives and eternity.
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