Handmaids of Jesus Eternal High Priest and of the Heart of Mary
Madrid, Spain
On November 21, 2006, Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta signed the decree of the erection of a new Congregation: The Handmaids of Jesus, Eternal High Priest and of the Heart of Mary. That same day three novices pronounced their vows in a moving and solemn ceremony marking the birth of a new religious family for Holy Mother Church.
Origins
In 1965, the Reverend Pedro Muñoz, a diocesan priest, founded a congregation near Barcelona called Oasis de Jesús Sacerdote, the purpose of which was the offering of the lives of its members for the sanctification of priests and consecrated souls, a mission all the more necessary given the vocations’ crisis that followed the Vatican Council II.
Oasis soon established friendly relations with the Society of Saint Pius X, going so far as to submit its Constitutions to Archbishop Lefebvre, who responded in February 1987 by according it his moral approbation. The life and growth of the new contemplative congregation was made known to a wider public through Father Muñoz’s book The Simplicity of a Life, the story of a young nun of Oasis who made the offering of her life to God for priests, and whose offering was accepted by the Lord.
In 2004, however, Father Muñoz began to part company from the Society in his handling of issues stemming from the crisis in the Church. Some Sisters, alarmed by the new orientation of the convent, consulted several priests and bishops of the SSPX. Bishop de Galarreta, taking the situation in hand, recommended their separation from the Oasis in September 2005. So it was that on October 3, 2005, fifteen of the nuns left the convent to continue their religious life in a new congregation.
The wisdom and timeliness of the decision were corroborated by subsequent events: in June 2007, Oasis obtained the approbation of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, after having petitioned Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos for its juridical normalization.
Transition
The Sisters were afforded temporary refuge at the Society’s house near Madrid, the Casa San José. As expected, the house in El Alamo soon became too small, but after our spending nearly nine months there, St. Joseph took compassion. The priests, after an exhaustive search for a suitable property far enough away from the hubbub of the city yet close enough to the Society’s house, found an appropriate, although provisional, property situated outside Griñon, just seven miles from Casa San José, where we could continue our religious life with regularity and facilitating enormously the task of providing us with spiritual assistance (daily Mass, etc.).
The Sisters moved in on June 21, 2006, and soon recommenced their contemplative life. Later that year, on November 21, Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bishop de Galarreta gave official recognition to the new congregation, which observes the Constitutions approved by Archbishop Lefebvre. Henceforth, they would be called the Handmaids of Jesus Eternal High Priest and the Heart of Mary.
The new convent was still too small, and room was needed for future growth. In the summer of 2007, two wooden houses were acquired, one for a chapel and the other for a parlor. The priests and faithful took care of preparing the terrain for the buildings, their transport, and final installation, working under a tight deadline. But all was in readiness by October 21, 2007, for the profession of a French novice and the taking of the habit by two postulants.
At 5 o’clock on November 3, 2007, the first Saturday of the month, the moving ceremony of the installation of the cloister took place. At the intonation of psalms, Bishop de Galarreta, followed by his ministers, the Community and the faithful, went in solemn procession blessing the exterior doors and entrances of the convent, which thereafter were closed. On arriving at the last door, before which the SubTuum Presidium was intoned, Bishop de Galarreta blessed the Community and handed over the keys to the Mother Superior, thus establishing the cloister. (To date—August, 2008—the Community numbers 15 members of whom only one is a novice. The nationalities of the Sisters include Spanish, French, Mexican, Argentinean, Chilean, and English.)
What Do Cloistered Nuns Do?
Before answering that, we have to recall a fundamental truth: the end of man. We have been created “to know, love, and serve God in this life in order to be happy forever with Him in the next.” The reigning materialism, the lack of reflection–as today everything possible is done to assure we do not think nor enter for a moment inside ourselves–uncontrolled sensuality, have drowned in souls and in consciences this duty of every Christian. And not only do we not think about sanctity, but not even that we have a soul to save! It is a grave mistake to believe that Christian perfection is the concern only of priests and religious–it also applies to all Christians from the mere fact of being baptized in Christ as He Himself tells us: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). And St. Pius X wrote: “It has not been conceded to everyone to embrace the religious life, which is the patrimony of a small number, but all men ought to strive to reach that perfection to which God calls them.”[1]
While all Christians ought to work towards this sacred summit of holiness, which consists in the perfect love of God and one’s neighbor, the religious must strive for this by vocation: it is her professional duty. It is not that she must be already perfect, but must strive to be so. She consecrates her whole life so that she may love Him alone with all her heart, and in order to do so, she freely embraces the evangelical counsels through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
To the worship of money, which hardens hearts and incites hatred and conflicts, the religious opposes, through the vow of poverty, the example of total detachment and voluntary self-deprivation.
Before the spirit of independence and emancipation–which dreams of destroying all authority and refuses to recognize any obstacles–the religious, by the vow of obedience, offers the example of submission, which, far from degrading her, ennobles her since she obeys God Himself.
In this way the religious, with their vows, overcome materialism, save the world, and at the same time save souls. They draw men towards the practice of Christian virtues: they do more than what is necessary so that others are encouraged to do the indispensable, and, moreover, they expiate for the sins of nations. How mistaken is the world in its judgment when it believes that in religious houses, particularly in convents of the contemplative life, so many lives are buried without utility for the common good![2]
This is the general end of the religious life, but God has given each Congregation a specific mission inside the Church.
“Handmaids of Jesus, Eternal High Priest”
Ours is a cloistered contemplative Congregation and, as our name indicates, an eminently priestly one obliging us–in addition to the three common vows–to a fourth vow called “vocationist.” By this vow we bind ourselves to offering up our entire life–total immolation–for the sanctification of priests and consecrated souls, and in order that these may increase.
A few paragraphs extracted from the writings of the great Spanish saint, Teresa of Jesus, explain perfectly the object of our vocation:
There came to my notice the devastation in France and the ravages that those Lutherans had done, and how this unfortunate sect was spreading. [Today we can say the same of the ravages caused by Modernism, not in one nation only, but in the whole Church!]
It caused me great sorrow, and, as if I could do something or was someone, I cried to the Lord supplicating Him to remedy so great an evil....And, seeing myself a lowly woman and unable to do as much as I would like to in the service of the Lord, all my anxiety was, and is, that as He has so many enemies and so few friends, at least these [she refers particularly to priests] were good, I thus determined to the little good that I could, which is to follow the Gospel counsels with all the perfection I could, and to procure that these few who are here, do the same, confident in the great goodness of God, Who never fails to help those who for Him, determine to leave everything; ...and that all [of us] occupied in prayer for those who are defenders of the Church, for preachers and learned men who defend Her, we may help this my Lord Who is so afflicted by those traitors that it seems they want to crucify Him again.
Oh! my Sisters in Christ, help me to implore this of the Lord which is the reason I have gathered you here; this is your calling: those must be your concerns, these your desires, here your tears, those your petitions.
...It may be that you say why do I insist so much on this [to pray for priests] saying [how is it] that we have to help those who are better than ourselves. I will tell you...it is because it is they who have to assist weak people and encourage the little ones. They have to live amongst men and deal with men....do you think little is required in order to deal with the world and things of the world, and to be in their interior foreigners and enemies of the world, to be like someone who is in exile and, in the end, not to be men, but angels.[3]
“To be apostles of the Apostles,” as St. Theresa of the Child Jesus used to say, that is our mission!
“...And of the Heart of Mary”
The second part of our name indicates the means we must take to accomplish our mission—the Heart of Mary, as it reads in the motto of the Congregation: “Pro eis in Corde Matris“–For them (i.e. for priests) in the Heart of Mary.” St. Ambrose says that “the most holy Virgin conceived Jesus in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb.” In that Heart of the virgin and Mother, was anointed by the Holy Ghost, the first, unique, and eternal Priest, from Whom derives the Catholic priesthood. Everything, then, comes to us and is given to us through the Heart of Mary. God has thus disposed it and has thus wished to show it, particularly at Fatima (even though the devotion to the Heart of Mary has existed for centuries), revealing to us the importance of this devotion for these last times, the last means of salvation and sanctification. “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart....My Heart will be your refuge and the way to lead you to God.” And little Jacinta said to her cousin: “Tell them that God wishes to grant all graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that they ask for them through her.” To ask for the sanctification of priests is the grace of all graces.
A Handmaid of Jesus, Eternal High Priest, has to be formed and let herself be formed in the Heart of Mary, Model of all virtues; she has to unite herself to that Sorrowful Heart which was at the foot of the Cross offering the Divine Victim, and offering itself with Him to His heavenly Father, thus obtaining graces for His chosen ones, the Apostles, and through them, for the Church and for souls. Our vocation is, then, spiritually speaking, a participation of the priestly Heart of Mary.
And in Practice?
Guided by the spirit of St. Francis de Sales, the life we lead is humble and simple like that of our Lady at Nazareth. Work in the kitchen, sacristy, garden, laundry, and so on is interwoven with assistance at Holy Mass, mental prayer (one hour in the morning and another in the evening), the recitation of the Divine Office (Prime, Sext, Compline, and sung Vespers on Sundays and feast days), the rosary, spiritual reading and reading of Holy Scriptures, without forgetting chant practice and moments of joyful expansion during recreation (twice daily).
Emphasis is placed on the practice of interior virtues: obedience, humility, silence, mortification of one’s own will, meekness, and charity. Fundamental elements of this spirit of St. Francis de Sales are peace and joy. “Servite Domino in laetitia,” says St. Paul, and St. Francis de Sales insists further: “Yes, my daughter, I tell you in writing and verbally: While you can, rejoice doing good because good work has a double grace when it is well done and done with joy....Live in a spirit of holy joy that, modestly extended over your actions and words, gives consolation to those who see you so that they may glorify God, which is our only objective.”[4]
A Handmaid of Jesus strives in a special way to imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary—the first Religious of God and the contemplative par excellence—in order to unite herself to God, seeking only His greatest glory, and seeing Him and pleasing Him in all things.
Formation
The aspirant has to complete a period of postulancy which is normally six months. She then receives the holy habit and begins her novitiate of (normally) two years’ duration. During these two stages of formation, she attends classes of Catechism (Christian life, the interior life, the virtues, prayer, etc.), Religious life (the spirit of the Congregation and the Constitutions), Liturgy (the Divine Office), Gregorian chant, sewing, and so on. On completion of her novitiate, the novice makes her temporary vows (poverty, chastity, obedience, and vocationist) for three years, after which period she normally makes her perpetual vows.
Any young lady with normal health can lead this life, which is simple and balanced. The minimum age of entrance is 18 years and the maximum, 35 years. It is essential to have a docile and joyful character, with an ardent desire for holiness. Persons of a melancholic or neurotic character are unsuited to this life. Also required is completion of basic educational studies.
The Handmaids’ Cooperators
The congregation invites the faithful to unite themselves in their mission to obtain from God many holy priests and many holy religious vocations by prayer and sacrifices pro eis. For those who would like to make this participation official, they should send a letter requesting admission as a “co-operator of Jesus Eternal High Priest,” promising (1) to recite a prayer for the sanctification of priests every Thursday; (2) to offer one Communion monthly for this purpose, if possible the first Thursday of the month; (3) to unite oneself spiritually to the convent (by prayers and sacrifices) and to help with its maintenance and development; and (4) to make this work known to family and friends and others likely to share the congregation’s goal.
This is, in broad outlines, our life. We hope that Our Lord will raise up many vocations of souls wishing to offer themselves for this ideal and in this way to contribute to the restoration of the Church through the Catholic priesthood:
All the Sacred Scriptures look towards the Cross, to the Redeeming Victim, radiant in glory. The whole life of the Church is directed towards the Altar of Sacrifice, and for this reason its principal concern is the holiness of the priesthood.[5]
We thank most sincerely all those who so generously help us both spiritually and materially. We have no other means to repay you than with our poor prayers. May God bless you all!
1 Letter Inter Gravissimas, April 18, 1910, to the Society of the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales.
2 Fr. Royo Marin, O.P., The Religious Life.
3 St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Chaps. I and III.
4 “Letters to Mme Bourgeois, April 1609; Mme de la Fléchère, August 1608, quoted from Sources of Joy, Chap.VIII, No.5, “Be Joyful.”
5 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Letter to the SSPX, June 4, 1981.
Siervas de Jesús Sacerdote y del Corazón de Maria
Ap. Correos 3
28979–Serranillos del Valle
(Madrid) Spain
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