A new order of women religious is forming in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a branch of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph, which was originally founded as a monastery for men in 2010.
Three women have joined, with two entering as candidates Aug. 15, 2017, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother, and a third entered as an aspirant in January.
“I think there are a lot of contemplatives out there,” said Contemplatives founder Father Vito Perrone. In the years after the Contemplatives were established, 15 women inquired seriously about joining. “I had to say no because we didn’t have a women’s branch,” he said regretfully. At least five of those left the area and are now religious outside the archdiocese, he said.
“We are in a wonderful phase of the COSJ. Men and women are coming to discern. It means things are happening,” he said. The first two years, Father Perrone was the only one in the monastery. In 2012, he was joined by Byzantine rite Father Joseph Homick from Mount Tabor but it was not until 2015 that others joined.
With three priests including Father Perrone, another likely to join, and two brothers and one candidate, the former convent building on the grounds of Mater Dolorosa Church is nearly full. There are two rooms available and the monastery is constructing three more rooms.
“You have to die to yourself in order to understand the riches of life with Christ,” Father Perrone said. “Religious life, especially with the COSJ, is not for the faint of heart.”
“Often times the fruits remain hidden from everyone, even from the person who is the contemplative.”
Full story at Catholic San Francisco.
This is great news! Let’s pray for their success. May they find room for all who discern this as their vocation!
Seems like a faithful community with a valuable charism.
One question, however: I visited the community’s Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/cosj.sf
The top picture shows three concelebrating priests wearing blue chasubles. Blue is not an approved liturgical color except by way of very, very few privileged exceptions. Does anyone know whether this community has such a privilege? I tend to think those priests wouldn’t wear blue vestments just for the heck of it.
I could be wrong on this, but for some reason, I thought that blue was an alternate color for Advent.
Some separated ecclesial communities have begun the practice of using blue during Advent. The Roman Catholic Church has not. The only liturgical color for Advent in RC churches is violet. Any RC church that uses blue for Advent is committing a liturgical abuse.
The privileged exception for blue vestments is for feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and only in those regions that have a historic tradition of having used them for those occasions. It is not a universal permission.
Which is why I asked about this community. Permission for blue vestments has not been extended to the United States, so how is this community permitted to wear them?
No, it’s not.
Maybe they are celebrating the Divine Liturgy or whatever it’s called in the Byzentine rite. Perhaps blue is approved in that rite. The COSJ celebrate both Latin and Byzentine rites. (Forgive me if my terminology isn’t precise.). I know them to be very holy priests. Believe me, we need to have all bases covered in this time and place!
I thought the yellow or gold in the picture above was odd but the shocking, rocking blue on the facebook page is even stranger.
I’m wondering if it is just the pictures.
The priests are wearing Eastern Catholic vestments while celebrating the Divine Liturgy (Eastern Catholic Mass) at the monastary. From “101 Questions and Answers on Eastern Catholic Churches” by Edward Faulk, answer #72:
“The Eastern Church doesn’t have any prohibition against using blue vestments. In fact, blue is probably the most commonly used color of all the vestments in the Eastern Catholic Churches that follow the Byzantine tradition. Even in the Latin Church blue may be worn in places that have a dispensation for it. One such place was Spain, where blue was worn on feasts of the Blessed Virgin.”
Oh, thanks for that information. Are the priests in the community bi-ritual? It doesn’t seem to be an exclusively Eastern Catholic community. They celebrate Mass in the Extraordinary and Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite.
Anonymous,
The COSJ has it’s origins in the Latin Rite: not one of the Eastern Rites.
Yes they are bi-ritual. Father Homick was ordained into the Byzentine rite.
Believe me they are quietly making a difference in the archdiocese.
To expand upon Eastern Catholic liturgical colors, more from “101 Questions and Answers on Eastern Catholic Churches” by Edward Faulk, answer #73:
“For the Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Rite, there really are no “liturgical colors.” Rather, there are “light” and “dark” colors. The light colors are generally gold, white, blue, and green while the dark colors are violet/purple and red. Also, unlike the Latin Church, a priest or deacon may wear different colors at the same Liturgy.
As noted in Question 72, for the Byzantine Rite blue vestments are more common (just as green vestments are the most commonly worn in the Latin Church). Green is traditionally worn in the Byzantine Rite for Pentecost and may be worn during…
Thank you.
Blessings! My name is Andromeda Mary Regina, and I am pictured above with Fr. Vito. For those asking about the vestments and Liturgical Rites, yes, we are a bi-ritual monastic community. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is one of the rare places in the world where the Eastern and Western Church is resides under a single Bishop, in our case the Archbishop. Because of this, it was an expressed hope that a bi-ritual order would one day be established – The Contemplatives of Saint Joseph is that order. It is a great privilege and a powerful Liturgical experience for our priest, monks and now, sisters. We celebrate the Extraordinary and Ordinary (in Latin, Ad Orientem) Form of the Roman Rite, as well as the Russian Byzantine Divine…
Thank you for writing.