Some Joyful News

profession of private vows

We wanted to share with you all the joyful news that on Friday, September 22nd, the first day of the novena to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, we professed private vows and were officially recognized as a private association by Archbishop Sample of Portland, OR. 

During this interim year, from the time we left our previous congregation until now, we have not posted online about the in-between of this process. The three of us talked about it and discerned the possibility over and over but we decided to wait. So, for those of you who followed us online previously and have been paying attention, it may seem surprising to see us in another habit. Aside from the surprise, it also may seem neat and clean.

But nothing about this process has been neat and clean. As many of you have probably experienced, when God moves in profound ways it can be difficult to articulate. There’s light; there’s darkness; there’s confusion; there’s clarity; there’s pain; there’s joy. It’s paradoxical and difficult to hold it all together in a balance and not oversimplify in either direction. 

We just wanted to provide that bit of context because it’s easy to present just the light side of our human journeys online. But life is painful and filled with trials at the same time that it’s joyful. We hope to continue to share both the pain and the joy with you as we move forward.

We also thought you might be interested in learning about the symbolism of our habit.

Here is how we describe it in our statutes, or rule of life: 

An outward sign of the beauty of our vows, our habit is foundational to our life and mission; it includes a gray tunic, a black apron-scapular, a teal veil, and a rosary. Gray, the color of ashes, poverty, and renewal, reminds us to go to Christ for healing and to live in reparation for the sins of members of the Church. The black apron-scapular, a memento mori, symbolizes our obedient service to God’s beauty unto death. The embroidered crucifix on our apron depicts the moment of anguish when Christ cries out to the Father, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” (Mt 27:46). The teal of our veil, like the blue sky meeting the green of the earth, represents the Blessed Mother’s intercession for God’s anawim. … In our struggle against principalities and powers (see Eph 6:12), we unite our prayer with Mary, Our Lady of Surrender—Protector of the Anawim by praying the Rosary in reparation for the sins of the Church’s members and for renewal.