Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A Sword of Sorrow



"O my small one, beloved of my Son's Heart, prepare yourself by prayer, penance, and suffering for what is to come."

These words of Our Lady spoken to Sister Mary Ephrem in 1958 foretold of the pain, she would endure for the most part by her own community. Archbishop Leibold saw the coming storm and warned the sisters to pray for the church, and in a special way for their order.

In a series of messages to Sr. Mary Ephrem Our Lord and Our Lady reveal the spiritual darkness overtaking consecrated souls.

"Oh, the pride of souls! How they resist my grace! O my priests, My religious, what would I not do for you if you would only let me! I come daily laden with graces, which you daily refuse..." The holy cloister of New Regal would not be spared from the attacks inflicted upon it.

What would be the purpose of this suffering for Sister Neuzil? Surely the words spoken by Our Lady in 1958, would be of comfort to the sister's during their exile. "My child nothing is accomplished without pain. Prepare to suffer much. You see the sword in the heart of your Mother. Suffering completed the work of divine grace in my soul. He who refuses to suffer will never abide in the Spirit of Christ, will never be formed into His image.."

Sister Neuzil herself became a victim of the rampant psychology, liberalism, and modernism that all but stripped the Catholic Church in America of its supernatural nature. In the end a move by her order toward secularism and away from "old-fashioned" traditions -- including cloister living -- sent her and several other nuns into a tailspin that ended with her death in a lonely house-turned-tiny-cloister in Fostoria, Ohio.

Such is obvious in Sister Neuzil's personal letters, starting in the late 1970s. It was during this time that the order to which Sister Neuzil belonged headed in a direction that put nuns in apartments, replaced habits with modern dress, and began to make life difficult for Sister Neuzil and six others who were living in a cloister within the order.

Suddenly, that cloister, home to the American apparitions, faced extinction.

"For the past 21 years we, the Contemplative Sisters, have attempted to live our monastic, contemplative way of life within the Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood," said a letter signed by the seven cloister nuns, led by Sister M. Florecita. "Through the years it has become progressively more difficult for us to live out our way of life from within the framework of policies and norms intended for the entire Congregation. The difficulties we have encountered along the way have brought us to question whether or not we are trying to do an impossible thing: namely, to live one way of life from within another way of life."

Tensions between the cloister and the "active" community burst forth in the late-1970s to the point where the cloister was forced to leave a monastery they had spent years renovating and move into the lonely, spare quarters in Fostoria, Ohio, where Sister Neuzil lived until her death on January 10, 2000. "There is no way we can recover the monastery, as it has been sold to a lay person," lamented Sister Neuzil in a letter dated March 3, 1982, describing the situation in a previous letter as "the darkness of my exile."

It was all in the atmosphere of changes that swept the entire Church. The underlying disease, indicated the Blessed Mother, was pride, a pride that in many cases caused priests to resist her grace. This the Virgin had warned about as far back as 1959. Years later in 1981, Our Lady of America, speaking to the now-isolated Sister Neuzil, warned that a "web of evil" had therefore ensnared the priesthood.

Indeed the words spoken by Our Lady to Sr. Mary Ephrem are intended for us as well,

"Tell the bishops of the United States, my loyal sons, of my desires and how I wish them to be carried out....make known the longings of my Immaculate Heart to establish the reign of my Divine Son in the hearts of men and thus save them from the scourge of heaven, both now and hereafter."

Because Sister Mary Ephrem suffered greatly, she was graced with the perpetual presence of Our Lady. The words spoken to her were often warnings for America, but also hope.

"My Immaculate Heart will win in the end, and the Spirit of Christ will dwell in the hearts of men.."

The Convent of Our Lady of The Nativity was sold to a lay person in the early 80's. Shortly after the sale, the convent was destroyed by fire. If you ever pass by the village of New Regal Ohio , stop by the ruins and pick up a brick or two. Say a prayer in honor of Our Lady.Take a good look around and you will see what happened to the church in America. A reminder of a place where Heaven touched earth.

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Our Lady Of The Nativity Convent 1950

Our Lady Of The Nativity Convent 1950
This Storm Spared The Convent, But Other Forces Proved Fatal