About
The Nuns of the Carmel of Our Lady of Divine Providence are members of the Discalced Carmelite Order. They live a contemplative life. Their apostolate is prayer and sacrifice for the needs of the Church and the world. Theirs is a life of solitude, silence, and sacrifice modeled on the life of our Blessed Mother. Its purpose is to glorify God and to draw down graces for the sanctification of priests and the salvation of souls.
The Nuns make solemn vows of Obedience, Poverty, and Chastity and observe strict enclosure in order to foster their life of prayer and contemplation. They follow the Primitive rule of Carmel according to the way of life instituted by Saint Teresa of Jesus in the sixteenth century, lived also by Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in the nineteenth, and still observed today, with slight modifications which Vatican II required of the daily schedule.
PRAYER PARTNERS FOUND!
Three years ago, the Sisters of Mercy closed our convent and the last vestige of having religious sisters living in the parish ended.
It is important I think for every parish to have an association with the Consecrated Life and so, to find a community of Sisters we could relate to in some way and set up a partnership of prayer with them, is something I thought we should do.
We found the Carmelite Sisters of Our Lady of Divine Providence. This community of Sisters are cloistered Carmelites which mean they have devoted themselves completely to communal life and the practice of the virtues of poverty, chastity, and obedience within the walls of their convent.
The prioress Mother has agreed to partner with us in prayer which is wonderful! A whole convent of nuns praying for our intentions and a whole parish praying for the sisters!
My intention is to celebrate some of the big Feast Days for Carmelites, such as the nine-day novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Triduum of Saint Theresa of Lisieux and of course our own Triduum for the Mother of Divine Providence. And then, on the Sunday commemorating the Consecrated Life, we will offer a collection for the needs of the Community.
It is my hope that this collaboration in prayer will bring many graces to our parish and for the Sisters of Carmel.”
– Father Martin T. Cioppi
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Mother of Divine Providence
The icon of Mother of Divine Providence artistically expresses a two-fold truth of our Catholic faith: that all God’s children are sustained and protected by his loving providence through the maternal mediation of Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Mother. Various details of the Icon Indicate this.
The hands of the Infant Jesus, which uphold all creation, rest entwined in the hands in his Virgin Mother, as if to show that He shares with her his saving power and has entrusted into her hands the mission of spirituality mothering all his children. She nurtures our life in God and provides for our needs.
The eyes of Jesus and Mary meet in a loving gaze: their hearts are united and their wills are in harmony; together they fulfill the merciful designs which the providence of God has decreed for man-kind. Our heavenly Father desires to draw us into an intimate communion with Himself, hi Son, and the Holy Spirit. This communion embodied here in the embrace of the Mother and her divine Son.
The white inner veil of our Lady serves also to pillow the infants head, indicating that Mary herself is a comfort and consolation to her Son. The pure and heavenly love of God has encompassed the Virgin and has encompassed the Virgin and has found a dwelling place within her heart, making her a source of goodness and peace for the world. Mary cultivates this goodness in us, her children, in order that we may put on the mind of Christ and be built up in his love. The cross is present in the gold design of the pillow to indicate that, even as a child, Christ is vividly aware of his passion. The solace he finds in His mother’s arms provides an example for us to imitate amidst the struggles and dears of this life. The recurrence of this same design in the Virgins’ veil symbolizes her solidarity with her Son. An ancient tradition relates that our Lady used her veil to cover our Lord when He was stripped of his garments on Calvary. Here we are reminded that an essential feature of a mother’s provide and care for her children is to clothe them, often in garments She herself has made. Adorned as she is with the fullness of God’s grace, Mary clothes her willing sons and daughters with God’s own grace; thus truly is she our Mother of Divine Providence.