Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas 2014

“Today, indeed, He was born after the manner of men, of a Virgin, but was begotten of the Father before all things, resembling His mother in body, His Father in power. 

Only-begotten on earth, and Only-begotten in heaven. 

God of God, born of a Virgin, Righteousness from the Father, Power from the Mighty One, Light of Light, not unequal to His Father; nor separated in power, not confused by extension of the Word or enlargement as though mingled with the Father, but distinguished from the Father by virtue of His generation. 

He is your Brother, (Song of Songs 5:1) without Whom neither things in heaven, nor things in the sea, nor things on earth consist.” 

–St. Ambrose, in De Virginibus

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Back to Blogging

In honor of the Year of Consecrated Life, I’ll be making a more conscious effort to resurrect the blog!

A few updates on my life since I last posted…in Rome this past June, I successfully completed my license degree in canon law along with my classmates.

This photo was taken at a little graduation ceremony we had right after our comprehensive exams. 
I had been officially a canonist for about three hours at this point!

I returned to the Unites States over the summer, and have since been serving once again as Director of Religious Education for a mid-size parish in New York state. That is, I am now responsible for the catechetical formation and sacramental preparation of about 500 schoolchildren ranging in age from five to fourteen years old. I’m very happy to have the chance to “labor in the vineyard” again, though I will admit to getting nostalgic for Rome every now and then!

While I was in Rome studying, I didn’t have much time or mental energy to blog, since my coursework was very demanding. For a while, I even thought of discontinuing the blog altogether. But after being blessed to be in touch over the past few years with a surprising number of young consecrated virgins and young women discerning this vocation, I realized that there is still a great need for accessible resources to help consecrated virgins and aspiring consecrated virgins to support each other and reflect more deeply on our vocation.

On that note, a few housekeeping considerations:

First, I am going to be much stricter about enforcing my “respectful comments only” policy. Honest questions and even friendly debates are still welcome, but snide remarks or outright nastiness are not. Readers should feel free to share their thoughts without having to worry about being torn down, as “Sponsa Christi” is meant to be a friendly and encouraging corner of the internet.

Also, in the interest of sharing resources and perhaps building a sense of community more effectively, I’m going to experiment with having a facebook page for this blog. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/sponsachristiblog