Dear friends and benefactors,
First of all, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the help you have given us throughout this year, both with your prayers and with your donations.
In this year of 2023, thanks be to God, we have had great consolations with the ordination of priests, a perpetual profession, several takings of the habit and new vocations arriving from different states of Brazil for the monastery of the brothers, the monastery of the sisters and the seminary, not to mention the new families who are arriving and filling our little school with their children.
Two priests were ordained in our monastery: Fr Elias Guiao, MCSPX, from the Philippines, who helped us in the missions for a while before returning to his country, and Fr João da Cruz, OSB, who has been of great help in the formation of religious, seminarians and the faithful, as well as bringing the sacraments and good doctrine to the Catholics scattered throughout our immense country.
Our Brother Geraldo Maria made his perpetual profession before returning to France to continue his studies in Avrillé. He still has about three years of formation left before he can receive the priesthood.
Our Benedictine sisters have been receiving girls interested in consecrated life from various parts of Brazil and even from outside Brazil. This year they welcomed an American.
Our seminary also receive vocations and potential vocations from all over Brazil.
The missions of Rev. Fr. André, OSB, R.P. Dom João da Cruz, OSB and Rev. Fr. David Nass, SAJM bear good fruit in terms of conversions and the strengthening of souls who live far from our chapels and spend a lot of time without the sacraments. They serve a large number of the faithful, mainly in Brazil and Paraguay, but sometimes also in other neighbouring countries.
Two religious from the Monastery of Our Lady of Faith and the Rosary (of Rev. Fr. Jahir Britto, FBMV), in Candeias - BA, received the diaconate in our monastery. With God's grace, they will receive the priesthood from the hands of our Prior in January, on the feast of the Epiphany.
We are currently organising the long journey of more than 1500 km from Nova Friburgo-RJ to Candeias-BA, so that the ordination ceremony can take place in their own monastery. More than half of our community will have to travel there because of the number of ministers the ceremony requires.
These two new priests will certainly bring some relief to our priests, who have been working more intensively since the death of our dear Fr. Joaquim, FBMV.
HELP US MAINTAIN THIS WORK OF THE CHURCH FOR THE GOOD OF SOULS (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=ea46e653a0&e=e24f9b6e1b)
"Et respondens rex, dicet illis: Amen dico vobis, quamdiu fecistis uni ex his fratribus meis minimis, mihi fecistis." (St Matthew 25:40)
As usual, we can only ask for your generosity, without which our work could not endure. We ask for your prayers and your material help to maintain our monastic life and our work. Here are some of them at the moment:
1) The trip for ordinations to Father Jahir's monastery, mentioned above, which will require a considerable sum of money from us, which we will have to pay for with some difficulty;
2) The structure of our monastery, which is more than 30 years old and has never undergone a major renovation, and therefore has several repairs to be made, but we were unable to do so due to a lack of resources;
3) Our little chapel has become too small for the growing number of families around the monastery, and Masses on Sundays and feasts are being celebrated in our shed, where we had improvised our "cathedral" for the big ordination ceremonies, etc.
This led us to launch a campaign to build our new church. Check it out here: Nossa igreja - Mosteiro da Santa Cruz (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=340464aa83&e=e24f9b6e1b). So far we've only reached 30% of the first stage, which is only the preliminary stage.
4) The considerable costs of electricity and the constant power cuts in the region have led us to launch a campaign to install solar panels in our monastery, our sisters' convent, the seminary and the school. Thanks be to God, this campaign has already raised more than half of the funds needed. See the campaign page here: Energia Solar - Mosteiro da Santa Cruz (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=690c463901&e=e24f9b6e1b)
Here are some of our works, which are by no means the most important in our life. The most important thing is contemplation, and in order to maintain the contemplative life, the monks have to rely on the help of Providence, which manifests itself through the charity of generous souls, without whom the religious would not have the minimum to survive.
"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I tell you, as often as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me'". (St. Matthew 25:40)
CLICK HERE TO HELP US (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=61a9445393&e=e24f9b6e1b)
Assuring you of our prayers,
We wish you a holy Christmas season and a happy New Year 2024.
Monastery of the Holy Cross
Nova Friburgo-RJ, Brazil
https://www.mosteirodasantacruz.org/ (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=3579b5a4e7&e=e24f9b6e1b)
Photos:
Profissão Solene do Irmão Geraldo Maria, O.S.B. (mosteirodasantacruz.org) (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=e89865e0c5&e=e24f9b6e1b)
ordenação - Mosteiro da Sta Cruz (mosteirodasantacruz.org) (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=87c6cd8ba6&e=e24f9b6e1b)
fotos - Mosteiro da Sta Cruz (mosteirodasantacruz.org) (https://mosteirodasantacruz.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=18dd94ad09e280477bdd38ea8&id=1eef10cda1&e=e24f9b6e1b)