This Religious Sister Has Got Kicks!

In my continual love of Catholic nuns and religious sisters... enter: Sister Linda Sim.

From The Straits Times:

When Sister Linda Sim was growing up, all she wanted to do was serve the nation. In the 1970's, she applied to the Singapore Armed Forces to be a front-line soldier, but was told women could take up only clerical positions. The Singapore Police Force also turned her down as she was too petite. Undeterred, the gutsy woman took up taekwondo and eventually earned a black belt. Then she heard her religious calling.

Read more and watch a 48 Singporean second video here. Especially note how she puts those TKD skillz to use!

It becomes fascinating the types of skills and gifts people bring to their religious vocations...and how they're able to use those skills and gifts in the service of others and the Church. Perhaps pursuing the religious life is not a renunciation of one's past life, but a fuller expression of it.

I like this because A) Catholic religious sister and B) we share that commonality of having a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Dat's what's kickin',
- JD

Sister Linda Kim // Desmond Lim, The Straits Times

Addendum: Angels and Saints at Ephesus

Allow me to quote a blog quoting a blog regarding the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles' latest album, Angels and Saints at Ephesus in addendum to my previous blog post.

From The Back of the World Blog (quoted in Fr. Z's blog):

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at the computer while my two-year-old son noisily played with some tupperware behind me. I clicked on a link to listen to a song from “Angels and Saints at Ephesus”, a new CD by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles (which, incidentally, has been tearing up the Classical music charts). The beautiful, a capella voices of the Sisters came softly over the computer speakers as they began a Gregorian chant in Latin. 

Suddenly, I noticed that the banging of tupperware behind me had stopped.
I turned to see my two-year-old, standing, staring at the computer, eyes wide open and mouth slightly agape. He took a few steps forward, and then said, breathlessly: “Dada…that’s Jesus music.” 

I was stunned. How on earth did he know that? (Our parish certainly doesn’t do any chanting at the N.O. Mass we attend…).He crawled up into my lap, and we listened to the rest of the chant together. And then we listened to it again. And then again. And then again. My boy was totally captivated, totally transfixed, totally enraptured…each time the chant would come to an end, he would look up at me and plead “again, Dada?”
I bought the album, and now every night my son asks to listen to the “Jesus music” as he falls asleep… 

***

Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said: “Beauty will save the world.”
Cardinal Ratzinger once said: “The encounter with beauty can become the wound of the arrow that strikes the soul and thus makes it see clearly, so that henceforth it has criteria, based on what it has experienced, and can now weigh the arguments correctly.”
Mother Theresa once said: “You have to learn from the Heart of Jesus. That is why Jesus said ‘learn of me’–not from books.” 

And somehow, in ways I will never understand, my two-year-old boy is listening to the beat of the Sacred Heart. He is encountering beauty, and listening to it with childlike ears of faith. He’s learning lessons that only the gentle notes and chords of Heaven can teach him. And all I can do is sit back and treasure up all of these things in my heart…

Wow, that's pretty cool.  Do I recognize beauty not only with my eyes, but also with my ears? It doesn't take a band nerd or Catholic nerd to appreciate the sisters' music because it is, in fact, beautiful.  When I encounter beauty, am I "totally captivated, totally transfixed, totally enraptured"?

Hmm...if not, at the very least I can at least begin to allow myself to be captured by beauty and listening to this album points me towards that direction.

Maybe it helps to know why the cloistered nun sings:

- JD

Angels and Saints at Ephesus

I suppose one of the fruits of listening to Catholic radio in the morning is learning about all sorts of different things.  One day recently, I overheard them talking about a new CD by cloistered nuns.

Basically, the background is...this husband and wife, after years of working in the recording industry, decided to start their own record company with the idea of recording the music of religious communities and all other sorts of Sacred Music.  They really try to capture the authenticity and genuineness of their recordings by recording the music in the religious community's natural habitat (ie. in their church/chapel, etc) doing their normal singing/chants.

They were on Catholic radio promoting this new CD with recordings of the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of Apostles.  This community of cloistered nuns follows the rule of St. Benedict for monastic life and they chant in Latin.  

From the CD insert...

The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles is a monastic community located in rural Missouri.  Consecrated to the Queen of Apostles, their lives are dedicated to contemplative prayer, especially for priests.  They support themselves primarily by making priestly vestments. Professing full obedience to the Church's teaching, the community upholds a loving commitment to preserving the liturgical heritage of the Church in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and traditional monastic Office.  This is their second recording with De Montfort Music and Decca Records.

Because they are cloistered, it's difficult to get a hold of them and they don't go out in public, but I'm grateful that De Montfort Music reached out to them and recorded their beautiful music.

And my primary motivations for even getting the CD in the first place was that my iTunes library is lacking sacred music, and I figured I could use this for future Catholic reasons, whatever they may be.  I was sold after listening to a sample of a song on their website.

The music is absolutely beautiful! Yes, I'll admit I'm a fan of mainstream radio music and I often tire of its simplistic melodies and repetitive noise, and the band nerd in me appreciated the complex melodies and harmonies found within Angels and Saints at Ephesus. I don't recognize most of the tracks mostly because I've never heard the melodies and...a majority of the tracks are in Latin. Truly...their voices are quite angelic and saintly...though not for their own sake...

The Sisters say this about their CD (again, from the insert, emphasis mine):

Called to embrace a liturgical spirituality, our lives literally revolve around Christ as a many-faceted jewel, manifesting His majesty through the mysteries of His own life, that of His Mother, and by extension through His holy ones, the angels and saints.  The feasts of the angels and saints reflect the Light of the World in their own way, reminding us to follow them, shining forth only insofar as we reflect Christ.  At the Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus, these interspersed feasts are especially commemorated in song.  The saints and angels are honored either in hymns written for them or, in many cases, hymns written by the saints themselves.  In this way, we can take up their own words to share in the eternal hymn they now continually raise to God.  It is our hope that this music raises your hearts likewise to Him, that at the end of our life here, our souls may be prepared to share the company of the angels and saints when we behold God face to face.

Awesome! Yeah, I think these hymns, as performed by them, definitely has that effect.  I decided to listen to it the first time while I was at work and things got pretty stressful.  Their music helped me stay more at peace by reminding me of God by uplifting my mind (through my ears) to Him. Cliché-sounding, but true.  And really...because the recordings are done well...because they sound freakin' awesome...because the words, even though I don't know Latin, are directed at God, I cannot help but think of Beauty, Goodness, and Truth!

And fun fact!  Angels and Saints at Ephesus has been in the Top 10 of the Classical Albums Billboard chart since its release a month ago.

You can learn more about the sisters at www.benedictinesofmary.org

Ave Regina caelorum: Ave Domina Angelorum: Salve radix sancta, ex qua mundo lux est orta. Gaude gloriosa super mones speciosa: Vale valde decora, et pro nobis, semper Christum exora. (Track 12)
- JD

One of the realities of being Catholic...

...is having really Catholic friends. But not just Catholic friends...rather, Catholic friends who end up being totally radical.

Multiple Math puns

And when I say "radical," I mean that in the "rooted" AND "departing from social norms" sense of the word.

Truly, a small handful of my Catholic friends have decided to live radical Catholic lives in pursuing a religious life of some sort. It's radical because your average person (and average Catholic...average Christian) doesn't consider dropping his or her current lifestyles in order to pursue a life lacking material, wealth, and seeking self. It's also radical because they can now live a really rooted Catholic life living an expression of the Catholic faith in community with others in the service of others.

When I graduated from college, some good acquaintances and friends from my college parish....

...joined the Apostles of the Interior Life.

...became a Jesuit to further pursue becoming an ordained Jesuit priest.

...entered seminaries in various dioceses.

(but that is just a mere taste of Aggie Catholics pursuing radical Catholic lives)

And just in the past few years that I've gotten really involved with my parish and getting to know some individuals...

...one of my young adult friends joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal.

...two of my young adult friends will be joining the Franciscans of the Immaculate...the friars and sisters, respectively.

...three young men from my brother's high school class (different high schools) are going to the local seminary to further discern their call to the Catholic priesthood...though all three start(ed) at different times.

...I reconnected with a high school band alum who is several years older than me, and he was up in New York as a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal. Now he is discerning to be a diocesan priest and will be entering seminary sometime.

And these decisions to pursue such religious vocations, as we call it, do not come easily.  They all took time discerning what is God calling them to do with their lives, and they have freely and willingly answered this call after much prayer and guidance.

As Catholics, we celebrate joyfully the answering of this call to the religious life or priesthood primarily because it would be serving God in the way He intends; in the way He has called each of these individuals to live.  We share our joy in their joy.

So, why do I even care that I face the reality that my some of my Catholic friends are all like..."yo, I'mma be a brutha/sista!" or all like... "Dominus vobiscum!"? Simply because of their joy and youthful fervor in the Catholic faith. I also highly respect them for making such a life-altering decision to follow God's call in their respective ways, which go against the social norms.

And focusing on that youthful part...sometimes it is tempting to think of the Catholic Church as a bunch of old priests and greyhairs who sit in the front pew at Mass (and Daily Mass) or the angry nun with the witch-like voice and armed with a ruler, but that is simply not what I see and observe in real life.  All those individuals I mentioned above range from ages 18 to early 30's and are far from those stereotypes.  Hmm...the young Church...praise God that our 2000-year old faith comes alive through the youth of today because she is alive in Christ!

In an effort to humbly brag about some of these individuals and to convey a sense of their stories and personalities, I may highlight them further in my blog. Hopefully I can catch them before they move on towards their friaries, seminaries, and convents!

I ask for your prayers for vocations, especially for those I have mentioned above.  Thanks and God bless!

*90's voice* ...Radical!
- JD

Competitive, Joyful Nunnery

I just recently found out that Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist are competing in this round (season?) of The American Bible Challenge on Game Show Network.

A few things:

1. I didn't know there was such a show on TV!
2. Even moreso, it's hosted by Jeff Foxworthy!
3. I just really like nuns

Haha, I think this is really cool because sometimes we Catholics are stereotypically not well versed in book-chapter-verse Biblical knowledge and here we have nuns on a game show that tests Biblical knowledge with occasional quasi-Minute To Win It challenges. 

...and so far, they're doing pretty well!

This past Thursday was the semi-finals.  A sneak peak:

lol the Christian Wrestlers, Righteous Rubies, and the Sisters of Mary...and I don't know about you, but that seems rather intense stacking books alternating horizontal and vertical and having to worry about what order they're supposed to be in.  It's intense for me because I would miserably fail. -__-  I need to work on that...I mean, my OT skillz.  Not so much on book stacking. ;-)

You know what's cool about seeing them compete like this?  Their joy shines through.  Sister Maria Suso was interviewed by Brandon Vogt, Catholic writer and speaker, and she talks more about their community, her experience on the show as well as what joy is:

I wish I had known about this sooner...and I wish I had caught the semi-finals episode...but alas, this past Thursday I was in the middle of a meeting with a Knight of Columbus regarding insurance.

Anyway...maybe I can catch the next episode because THEY WON THE SEMI-FINALS!  They posted on their Facebook page... (yes, they have a Facebook page)

Awesome.  I do have a DVR...

Hey, joyful sista.
- JD