Handmaids +JMJ

July 2010 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus…

handmaid — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:06:33 +0000

+JMJ July 2010 is already coming to an end! Sister Mary Rose has been out of California for vocation outreach in Beavernton, Oregon with the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows (www.olpretreat.org) where she gave presentations on Jesus’ Way of Life and Weighing in for the Lord, at Our Lady of Peace 38th Annual Institute on Catholic Teaching. She then went to spend time with the lay Servant/Handmaids in Gig Harbor, Washington and then to assist in Our Lady Star of the Sea, Bremerton, Washington Vacation Bible School (www.starofthesea.net). Seeds of encouragement have been planted for others to respond to the Jesus’ call to Consecrated Life as well as to marriage or single life or for boys and young men to the priesthood. Sister Mary Rose will return to California on July 31st and to San Buenaventura Mission, Ventura, to begin the 25th year in our apostolate of catechesis with evangelization. Sister Mary Joseph has also been traveling for vocation outreach to San Diego, California and across the border to Mexico as she has assisted a young adult in discerning Jesus’ call in her life. She has also overseen the construction project as it nears the end. The contractor’s goal is to have everything completed so that we can move back into our convent some time in September. We praise the Lord for all He continues to do within our hearts and life as we seek to bring to fruition Jesus’ Prayer for Unity.

The following photo was taken today of our convent construction:

June 2010 Month of the Sacred Heart!

handmaid — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:02:49 +0000

+JMJ Our May pilgrimage in prayer for vocation outreach and mission to Chile turned out to be surprising! Instead of doing the physical hands to help after the spring earthquake, the Lord gave us the opportunity to give support in another way… We joined the cloistered Discalced Carmelites in their annual silent retreat in preparation for Pentecost. So we joined the nuns in prayer for Chile and her earthquake victims. Do you believe in prayer? We do! The Lord does listen and answer if we are willing to make the time to pray and entrust our lives to Him… He is calling us to Himself.

We are forming a new team for the Rite of Christian Initiation process in our parish this month in preparation for the RCIA process to resume in August after our summer pause. We are excited to have others join us in this continual process of conversion!

Upon our return to Ventura from Chile we found the roof on our convent had been installed, thanks be to God! We have had different meetings to make decisions about the interior details of our re-constructed home such as lighting and plumbing fixtures to complete the infra-structure. We do not have any new photos to show since little changes have been made to the exterior and the interior changes seem minute. Now we wait for the day of one of several inspections on the house that needs to be passed before the exterior stucco work can begin. Truly all is in the hands of the Lord, who is the Master Designer!

The final week of June gave us the opportunity to travel to Northern California for Sister Mary Joseph to visit family in Madera, CA and Dunsmuir, CA and for Sister Mary Rose to reunite with nursing school roommates since graduating from California State University, Chico in 1976! Both of us continue to praise and thank the Lord for how He has sustained us with His grace to persevere in the gift of our Consecrated Life! May we all continue to trust in Jesus, His Most Sacred Heart of Love and Mercy!

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May 2010 Happy Month of Mother Mary!

handmaid — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:54:43 +0000

+JMJ The month of May calls us to celebrate Mother’s Day the 2nd Sunday of May and always on May 10th in Mexico and among our Mexican immigrants! Yet in our Catholic Church May is the month in which we also remember that at the foot of His Cross our Lord Jesus Christ gave His mother Mary to be our spiritual Mother, who continues to pray for the Church, for us and for all people. Let us unite in prayer as we pray and meditate on the life of Jesus and Mary in the mysteries of the Rosary. For myself, the meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary has led me to a deeper, more intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus especially in His suffering love.

One of our summer visitations outside of Ventura in May was to the Sanctuario of Santa Teresita of the Andes, outside of Santiago, Chile! We were able to travel there with frequent flyer miles we accumulated during our years of summer studies we had to travel to the Midwest and East coast. The Lord provided abundantly even to being received as guests for 12 days at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit of the cloistered Discalced Carmelites, the actual Community of Saint Teresa of the Andes!

The re-construction of our convent has been proceeding. The work has been the interior plumbing and electrical work, which is the most important work, just as the interior renewal of our invisible souls. Besides laying a good foundation, the infra-structure has to be correctly done in a building, so we must take the time to properly develop our intimate personal relationship with our Lord and Savior… may we all keep this in mind especially in this summer!

April 2010 Happy Easter!

handmaid — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:02:59 +0000

+JMJ Christ is risen, alleluia, alleluia! We are in Easter Season, having celebrated the Easter Vigil with our Elect and now continuing with them as Neophytes and receiving new inquirers into our Catholic Faith as well! We celebrated with 86 high school youth and adults of our parish who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on the Fourth Sunday of Easter! We are also in the midst of celebrating First Communion with 160 children of our parish! All of our catechetical efforts with evangelization are coming to an end for this year as we enter into times of summer visitations outside of Ventura. The re-construction of our convent is proceeding quickly as you can see by the photos. We have been blessed with good weather for such a project with only a few days of light rain. Now that our home is taking on a new form, a new look, may we continue to be transformed in Christ our Lord during the remainder of this Season of His Resurrection and our new life!

March 2010 Lent

handmaid — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:19:09 +0000

+JMJ We are half way through Lent and have begun our three scrutinies with the “Elect” of our parish in their immediate preparation for the Sacraments of Initiation of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist! Time is passing quickly and the Easter Vigil will be April 3, 2010! Construction or de-construction is quickly happening as photos in our last blog indicate. We are posting further photos of our convent-home with the roof removed. Parishioners in our neighborhood have begun to ask what is happening to our home and where are we presently living as the construction work is very obvious now! Truly a time of stripping away as reflective of this time of Lent in which we are to strip away bad habits, vices that impede our growth in love for the Lord and others. May this Lent continue to be a time of spiritual renewal as we watch the demolition of our physical home and await the new construction…united in prayer for all of you…[[Show as slideshow]]01-kyrie-de-angelis-john-michael-talbot-chant-from-the-hermitage-religious-128kbps

Lent has begun!

handmaid — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:40:56 +0000

+JMJ Ash Wednesday February 17, 2010 We have settled into our new temporary home. Sister Mary Joseph had time to settle in before flying to Front Royal, Virginia to Christendom College for vocation outreach and visitation to our friends there. Her flight was cancelled due to the snow storm back there, but she was able to fly out and land safely 2 days later on February 12th.

Lent is meant to be a time of reflection on our life to see areas where we still need to be converted to the Lord and to turn away from impurity, possessiveness and egoism. Lent is an opportunity to begin with God’s help to die to such self-centeredness, selfishness and self-absorption!

What a perfect time to begin demolition and re-construction of our home! Construction is progressing rapidly as you can see in the photos.

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February 2, Construction has begun!

handmaid — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:46:07 +0000

+JMJ FEBRUARY 2, 2010 Feast of the Presentation of our Lord was the World Day of Consecrated Life. Our pastor from San Buenaventura Mission came to our convent home to celebrate Mass, witness our renewal of vows and bless the beginnings of the construction of the 2nd floor to our convent! The contractor, Michael of Donnelly Development, his wife and his work crew as well as our construction advisor Michael Viola, my brother Paul Chinn, Sister Mary Joseph’s godson Brother John Shearer, an Oblate of St. Joseph and a representative of the Lay Handmaids, our lay associates joined in the Mass!

We had coffee and brownies after Mass followed by the actual beginning of the demolition for the re-construction of our convent!

God truly provides! Just the night before we went to dinner with Casey and Shannon Culp. They were not aware of the impending construction, our moving out of the convent and need for a place to live until November 2010. Once they found out, they immediately and graciously offered us a place to live as did several other parishioners and friends! We accepted their offer and moved in following the final Mass at our convent! Now we have a home away from home!

Updating construction

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:00:20 +0000

Plans submitteed, then re-submitted and approved by the city in November! Final fees and permits pulled on January 14, 2010! Construction (or demolition & re-construction) will begin February 2nd, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord…all for the Glory of God!

Here is a photo of the meeting with our contractor Michael Donnelly of Donnelly Development and our construction advisor Michael Viola of Viola Construction.

January 2010! Construction Update…

handmaid — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:00:01 +0000

January 17…+JMJ Another year has begun and already so much has happened…we are joining in praying for Haiti as the world watches and listens to the news of the destruction, death and suffering of so many.

In the midst of what is happening in the world, we continue to serve our Lord while going forth in vocation outreach as well as preparing for those whom the Lord will bring to join us. Our CONSTRUCTION architectural plan took longer than we were first told, so construction did not begin in September, nor in October, nor in November. Truly all is in the Lord’s plans and timing! Plans were re-submitted and finally approved by the City in November just before Thanksgiving weekend. Meetings with different contractors began in December and a decision to postpone building until May due to the predicted El Nino weather pattern of a lot of rain! We went on our annual 9 day silent retreat December 26th-January 3rd with bids from contractors in order to pray and come to a final decision of selecting the contractor. Thus, our new year of 2010 has begun with discernment and selection of a contractor!

We have had further meetings with our contractor. His recommendation was that we proceed with construction so we can complete the addition by the end of the summer. Final fees were paid to the City of Ventura and permits were pulled January 14, 2010 and construction will begin February 2nd, Feast of the Presentation of our Lord…Truly we will join in presenting all to our Lord. We will also need to find temporary housing for the next 6-9 months while construction begins on that day. Please join us through prayer in this new year in this endeavor for the honor and glory of God. We will keep you posted! United in love and prayers…

Christmas 2009

handmaid — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:11:13 +0000

+JMJ Click here to read our Christmas card-letter_2009.