The
Design of God's Love
| God the Father loves men whom
He has Made in His
image. Sent into
the world by the Father, Jesus
became man for the sake of man. Christ
lives forever to unite mankind in His
Church. |
"Let Everything that has breath praise the Lord"
(Ps.150) God has called Redemptoristine Nuns
as a continuing
memorial of His Redeeming Love until the end of time.
The Aim
Is to form contemplatives who will glorify God the
Father be entering into His design for the salvation of souls with Jesus.
As Christ, Who emptied Himself even unto death (Phil.2.7-8)
rose as triumphant Redeemer and sent His Spirit to all who would receive this
plentiful redemption, - so the Redemptoristine in her generous striving, radiates
the spirit of a redemptive love.
"...the sea belongs to Him,
He made it..." |
The Path
The nuns of our Order unite themselves with
Jesus the Redeemer in His hidden life at Nazareth:
in a life of prayer, labour, poverty, obedience
and silence;
of adoration, intercession, atonement, thanksgiving
and praise of God;
- and thus they share in His mission of
continuing redemption.
|
The Challenge
Not in any extraordinary or self-chosen penances,
but in self-surrender to the Will of God
as presented in the ordinary events of daily life.
The ability to live out of the limelight,
in faith,
with God alone,
and with each other.
The covenant with His people which culminated in Mary's
"fiat"
- pronounced at the Incarnation and kept until the Cross -
is continued by the Redemptoristine.
Papal Pronouncements on the Contemplative
Life
| Pope Pius Xll
"That which has been called spirituality
of the desert, which seeks God in silence and denudation, is a profound
impulsion of the Holy Spirit which will never cease as long as there
are hearts which will respond to His call."
Pope John XXlll
"For the Church, although conscious of the
urgency of the exterior apostolate so necessary in out days, attributes
the utmost importance to contemplation - The real apostolate, in fact,
consists precisely in participation in the salvific work of Christ.
Christ redeemed the world, a slave to sin, principally by prayer and
the sacrifice of Himself."
Paul Vl
"Let those places of isolated penance and
prayer know that they are neither forgotten nor detached from the
community of the Church of God. Indeed they constitute its heart;
nourish its spiritual riches, sublimate its prayer, sustain its charity,
share its suffering and toils - and add to its merits."
|
Wide reading nourishes
the contemplative soul.
To know Him - is
to love Him.
|
Other Information
And the fruit of the vine is
the work of His hands. |
Lifestyle
There are two hours of personal prayer and
spiritual reading, as well as the liturgy of the Hours, daily. On
festive days the Hours are sung.
Each nun makes a day retreat monthly and
ten days annually, in addition to the preached retreat for the community
as a whole.
The life is not eremitical (lived as a hermit)
, but there are times of solitude for each nun in her cell or the
Hermitage as indicated, or when she is free.
There is a good family spirit, recreation
for a period each evening before Compline and at certain other times
or occasions.
|
The Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, of Pontifical
Rite, with Solemn Vows and Papal Enclosure, was founded in Scala Italy, in
1731, by St.Alphonsus Mary de Liguori and the Venerable Maria Celeste Crostarosa.
The Venerable Maria Celeste received from God the call to found a new Institute
of Religious Women in the Church.
Monasteries are located in most of the countries
of the world. The one in Australia, the Monastery of the Most Holy Redeemer,
was founded from Canada. Our Nuns first settled at Redhead near Newcastle
in an old mansion widely known as 'The Gables'. (Many of the pictures on this
page were taken at the Redhead location).
In 1982 a scare from mine subsidence occasioned
the move to a new site and building of a monastery nestled on the heights
of Bolwarra, N.S.W.
The Monastery of the Most Holy Redeemer at Bolwarra
Heights is situated in the Hunter Valley just outside the City of Maitland,
approximately 175 kms north of Sydney, within the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
The Monastery, in a beautiful bush setting, overlooks
the flats of the Paterson river and the far-distant mountain ranges.
Mother Prioress
Monastery of the Most Holy Redeemer
Bolwarra Heights Maitland NSW 2320
Australia.
A central encouragement to each and every Redemptoristine
Nun in our Rule -
'The Design of the Institute'
is :
'May you be on earth
living images of My only Begotten Son'.
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