Christmas 2013 Dear Friends,

As you gaze on the face of the new-born Savior, Jesus Christ, may you be transformed into his own glorious image and be filled with the joy of being saved. Many blessings to you in this Christmas season and throughout the New Year.

In Christ, The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia

801 Dominican Drive Nashville, TN 37228

www.nashvilledominican.org vocation@op-tn.org

“Glory to God! Above all else, this is

what Christmas bids us to do: give glory to God,

for he is good, he is faithful, he is merciful. Today I voice my hope

that everyone will come to know the true face of

God, the Father who has given us Jesus.

My hope is that everyone will feel God's closeness, live in his presence, love

him and adore him. May each of us give

glory to God above all by our lives, by lives spent

for love of him and of all our brothers and sisters.

Pope Francis Christmas Day, 2013

Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia

LAUDARE, BENEDICERE, PRAEDICARE “TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH”

Recommended Reading

Click above to order

On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius

In this treatise, St. Athanasius expounds on the Incarnation as the divine answer to the dilemma of a race fashioned in God’s Image but corrupted by sin, made for life but condemned to death.

“…it is not right that those who had once shared his

Image should be destroyed. What, then, was God to do? … The Word of God came in

his own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father Who could recreate man made after the Image. In order to effect this

re-creation, however … He assumed a human body,

in order that in it death might once for all be destroyed, and that men might be renewed

according to the Image. As He says Himself, ‘I came

to seek and to save that which was lost.’”

A Young Professed

Sister’s Reflection

But even as we stare in awe at the Baby in the manger, we must not

forget the reason for his coming among us. “O, Holy Night,” my favorite

hymn of the season, reminds us why He came: “Long lay the world in sin

and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” Now, as

then, we recognize the fallen state of the world around us and our own

weakness. We experience deeply the need for a Savior, and this opens us

up to the joy of being saved. Our amazement that God would become

man is intensified when we realize that God became man to save us…to

save me!

The “worth” that we had vainly tried to earn ourselves through so many

empty achievements comes to us as a free

gift of merciful forgiveness and divinizing

grace. This indeed inspires the “thrill of

hope” in all those who labor under the

burden of their own sinfulness, trapped in

it by either denial or despair. This “weary

world” longs to rejoice, and joy comes to

the world when it welcomes the new-born Christ as its Savior.

May the knowledge of our own sinfulness draw us irresistibly to the

manger scene where we will encounter the Savior of the world who

longs to complete in us the Redemption ushered in by his birth. There,

let us “fall on our knees” and “hear the angel voices” knowing that He

came to seek and to save the lost and that our repentance is a cause of

rejoicing in Heaven.

The celebration of Christmas is filled with such

warmth and tenderness as well as such majesty and

splendor. From the soft opening notes of “Silent Night”

to the triumphant refrain of “Angels We Have Heard on High,” the

hymns of the season reflect this richness of joyful sentiments.

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining Till he appear'd and the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!"

“We experience deeply our need for a Savior,

and this opens us up to the joy of being saved.”

…and Celebrations

Christmas Preparations

Other seasonal celebrations included visiting local Christmas lights displays and performing a convent adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

With the help of local producers, the Sisters

recorded a collection of Christmas hymns as a gift

to all. Click on the CD cover to the right to

download the music.

Sisters came to the Motherhouse from mission convents around the country, from Australia, and from Canada, and joined in the holiday baking, tree decorating, and music practicing. At the end of the Midnight Mass preludes, Mother Ann Marie and the youngest postulant processed to the chapel Nativity set where Mother placed the figurine of the Christ Child into the manger.

Blessed Mother

Teresa of Calcutta

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

Fall Motherhouse Visitors

John Carroll Catholic High School

Knoxville Catholic High School

Saint Cecilia Academy

Bir

min

gh

am

, AL

Na

shville

, TN

Knox

ville

, TN

Holy Trinity

Catholic High

School

Wh

ite

sville

, KY