Promoting vocations to traditional Catholic societies, institutes, and religious orders using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for men and for women.
The Benedictines of the Immaculate are a new traditional community of Benedictines of strict observance in Liguria, Italy. They were founded on July 2nd 2008, in Villatalla, a small Italian village located in Liguria on the height of Imperia, very near to Vintimmille and on French border.
L'Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault is a Benedictine monastery of the Solesmes Congregation, founded in 1091, and located at Fontgombault in the département of Indre, France. Their liturgical rites follow the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and they are also the most populous of Solesmes' 23 foundations. It has made three foundations in France (Randol Abbey, Triors Abbey, Gaussan Priory), one foundation in the USA (Clear Creek Abbey), and has recently received the care of the Benedictine Abbey of St Paul of Wisques in France.
A video (in French) "Fons Amoris" was made on the Abbey of Fontgombault, and you can find extracts of this film on YouTube.
Vespers are celebrated:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday at 6pm
Thursday at 3:45pm (from 3 May to 14 September) and 6:00pm (through the rest of the year)
Sundays and public holidays at 5:00pm
For spiritual retreats, contact retraites-fgt[at]orange[dot]fr
The abbey church is open to visitors from 8:30am to 1:00pm and 2:15pm to 7:15pm. Religious items are sold in a souvenir shop adjacent to the Abbey. There you can find icons, rosaries, medallions, books, reproductions of paintings or photographs, tapes and CDs of religious songs, among other items,
The pottery shop is open daily from 9am to 12:45pm and 2:00pm to 7:00pm, except Sunday from 10:00am to 12:00pm. Sandstones, icons and enamels are made by the monks of Fontgombault themselves.
The monastic products store is open from 11am to 12:30pm and from 3:00pm to 5:30pm except on Sundays and holidays. You can find craft products from various monasteries. You can buy fresh produce such as cheese, eggs, fruits and vegetables, but also wines, liqueurs, honey, jams, pastries, sweets and even cosmetic and dietary products.
Randol Abbey (or L'Abbaye Notre-Dame de Randol) is a Benedictine monastery situated at Randol near the village of Saint-Saturnin, Puy-de-Dôme department, in the Auvergne mountains of France.
It was founded in 1971 as a priory of Fontgombault Abbey and was raised to the status of an independent abbey on 21 March 1981. The monastery building was constructed at the time of foundation in a striking contemporary style in a spectacular mountainside location.
It is part of the Solesmes Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation and as such focuses on Gregorian chant and the Tridentine Mass.
The abbey's webpage (in French) can be found at www.randol.org
Sisters Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest
To support the work of the Institute of Christ the King, Divine Providence has brought about the formation of a community of contemplative nuns dedicated to reparation and adoration of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest. Leading a non-cloistered contemplative life, the sisters offer their daily prayers and sacrifices particularly for the priests of the Institute and the souls entrusted to them.
In June 2004, Ennio Cardinal Antonelli, Archbishop of Florence, vested the first three sisters with their habit. In Spring 2007, they already number nine sisters and four postulants, from France and the United States.
As with the priests and oblates of the Institute, the Adorers of the Royal Heart hold three co-patrons as guiding lights of their spirituality: St. Francis de Sales, St. Benedict, and St. Thomas Aquinas. From St. Francis de Sales' doctrine of Divine Love, the sisters draw the pattern of their vocation, in constant pursuit of growth in Love, always grounded in Truth.
The Benedictine aspect of their charism is reflected in the centrality of the Church's Liturgy, Holy Mass and the Divine Office, carried out in the Classical Roman Rite, around which revolves the rhythm of their daily life. In St. Thomas Aquinas, the sisters find the clarity and structure of thought necessary for their formation and ever deepening understanding of the mysteries of our Catholic Faith. Finally, it is through their principal patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary under Her title of the Immaculate Conception, that they seek to conform their beings and their lives to the Royal Heart of Her Divine Son; thus their motto -- "In Corde Regis."
Their day is centered around prayer -- Holy Mass and the Divine Office in the Classical Latin Rite, one hour of mental prayer and one hour of adoration in the evening, Rosary, etc. Punctuating this rich life of prayer are periods of manual labor and intellectual training, including instruction in Gregorian Chant, Latin, Spirituality, Philosophy, Theology, as well as the learning of crafts such as sewing, lace-making, and the care of liturgical ornaments and altar linens. As the community expands, it is foreseen that foundations will be made alongside the apostolates of the Institute of Christ the King, where the Sisters will support the apostolic work of our priests. Counting already with three American sisters, it is foreseeable that the Sisters will eventually make a foundation in the United States.
The bishop and priests of the Apostolic Administration of St John Mary Vianney in Campos, Brazil
The Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney was established on 18 January 2002 by Pope John Paul II for traditionalist Catholic clergy and laity within the Diocese of Campos in Brazil. It is the only Personal Apostolic Administration in existence, and the only Catholic Church jurisdiction devoted exclusively to celebrating the pre-1970 form of the Roman Rite. Its current Apostolic Administrator is Bishop Fernando Arêas Rifan. It consists of over 30,000 Catholics, 32 priests, 7 seminarians, 38 religious sisters, and 24 schools.
An Apostolic Administration is not a group or a religious society or congregation, but is a normal and official ecclesiastical circumscription of the Catholic Church, the same as a Diocese or a Prelature or an Ordinariate, that is, a particular church, part of the Universal and unique Catholic Church. Because of that, the Bishop of the Apostolic Administration has the same power as a diocesan bishop in his jurisdiction.
As a group of traditionalist Catholics thus fully within the Roman Catholic Church, they recognize the authority of the Pope as Vicar of Christ and Shepherd of the Church, the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council, and the validity of the Mass approved by Pope Paul VI. The Priests of the Apostolic Administration have the faculty to celebrate in Latin the Mass and all the other sacramental rites in the form codified by Pope Pius V and modified by his successors down to Pope John XXIII.
More information can be found at the Apostolic Administration's website, here (Portuguese language).
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is a Clerical Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical right, that is, a community of Roman Catholic priests who do not take religious vows, but who work together for a common mission in the world. The Fraternity was founded in response to the Holy Father’s call to ecclesial unity and the new evangelization. The mission of the Fraternity is three-fold: the sanctification of the clergy, forming and leading stable parishes and communities by offering the Catholic liturgy according to the liturgical books of 1962, and to participate in the New Evangelization through the living tradition of the Church, which is ever ancient and ever new.
The Fraternity was founded on July 18, 1988 at the Abbey of Hauterive (Switzerland) by a dozen priests and a score of seminarians. Shortly after the Fraternity's foundation and following upon a request by Cardinal Ratzinger, Bishop Joseph Stimpfle of Augsburg, Germany granted the Fraternity a home in Wigratzbad, a Marian shrine in Bavaria that now lodges the Fraternity's European seminary. In the same month of October there arrived a handful of priests and some thirty seminarians ready to start "from scratch". As of October 2014, there are 253 priests and 144 seminarians in the Fraternity.
Do you want to help out this blog in promoting and spreading traditional Catholic vocations? Here are some things that you can do to help out this blog:
Spread the word!
Can you feature this site on your blog? Or ask your friends to do the same?
Would your oratory, chapel, parish, or diocese feature this in a newsletter or on a website? Would you ask them?
Are there other websites we should be featured on or linked from?
Let us know! After all, this blog is designed to encourage vocations, so people need to see it!
Translation
Can you translate materials about the societies, institutes, and communities listed here out of their original languages and into English?
Be our eyes and ears
Is there content we ought to feature? If so, tell us!
Do you have information on courses of studies in various seminaries, entrance requirements, website links?
Do you have personal experience of or with one of the communities featured here? Share your experiences with us!
And, if you know of any others discerning their vocations, point them to this blog!
Use the Contact Form in the sidebar to submit information or contact us.
May the Lord send us many holy priests, monks, and religious sisters and nuns!
Lord Jesus, High Priest and universal Shepherd, Thou hast taught us to pray, saying: "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest" [Matt. 9: 38]. Therefore we beseech Thee graciously to hear our supplications and raise up many generous souls who, inspired by Thy example and supported by Thy grace, may conceive the ardent desire to enter the ranks of Thy sacred ministers in order to continue the office of Thy one true priesthood.
Although Thy priests live in the world as dispensers of the mysteries of God, yet their mission demands that they be not men of this world. Grant, then, that the insidious lies and vicious slanders directed against the priesthood by the malignant enemy and abetted by the world through its spirit of indifference and materialism may not dim the brilliance of the light with which they shine before men, nor lessen the profound and reverent esteem due to them. Grant that the continual promotion of religious instruction, true piety, purity of life and devotion to the highest ideals may prepare the groundwork for good vocations among youth. May the Christian family, as a nursery of pure and pious souls, become the unfailing source of good vocations, ever firmly convinced of the great honor that can redound to our Lord through some of its numerous offspring. Come to the aid of Thy Church, that always and in every place she may have at her disposal the means necessary for the reception, promotion, formation and mature development of all the good vocations that may arise. For the full realization of all these things, O Jesus, Who art most zealous for the welfare and salvation of all, may Thy graces continually descend from heaven to move many hearts by their irresistible force; first, the silent invitation; then generous cooperation; and finally perseverance in Thy holy service.
Art Thou not moved to compassion, O Lord, seeing the crowds like sheep without a shepherd, without anyone to break for them the bread of Thy word, or to lead them to drink at the fountains of Thy grace, so that they are continually in danger of becoming a prey to ravening wolves? Does it not grieve Thee to behold so many unplowed fields where thorns and thistles are allowed to grow in undisputed possession? Art Thou not saddened that many of Thy gardens, once so green and productive, are now on the verge of becoming fallow and barren through neglect?
O Mary, Mother most pure, through whose compassion we have received the holiest of priests; O glorious Patriarch St. Joseph, perfect model of cooperation with the Divine call; O holy priests, who in Heaven compose a choir about the Lamb of God: obtain for us many good vocations in order that the Lord's flock, through the support and government of vigilant shepherds, may attain to the enjoyment of the most delightful pastures of eternal happiness.
After a three year period of dormancy, this blog is being revived under "new management!"
Over the next few weeks and months, this blog will feature new and updated information for most of the communities previously featured, along with fixing and replacing any broken media links where relevant (images, videos, etc). Once that task is completed, we intend to regularly post information relating to traditional Catholic vocations and the discernment thereof.
The blog will continue to focus primarily on communities using exclusively the traditional Catholic liturgy (in general, the rites and rituals in effect in 1962). The blog will also try to provide information on retreats and pilgrimages with traditional communities around the world. However, this blog will also post about communities that are either discovering or re-discovering their traditional Catholic heritage by (re-)implementing traditional forms of Catholic liturgy.
Please pray that this endeavor grows and helps lead souls to their proper vocation.
Please also pray for the original blog creator, Mark. Last I heard, he entered the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter's seminary. If you might, please offer a prayer for his vocation, wherever he is.
A blog to promote vocations to Traditional societies and religious orders using the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, including religious communities for women.
