Carols 7:10PM
Mass 7:30PM
Christmas Day
Mass 9:00AM
Celebrant: Rev. Frank Jones, CssR
At any time in your life, have you been stirred by the message of St. Francis de Sales or St. Jane de Chantal?
Fascinated by their lives?
Drawn to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or interested in the apparitions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque?
Does an explicit or secret desire within your heart keep prodding you toward religious life? Monastic life? Contemplative life?
Ever think the Visitation Order of Holy Mary might be for you?
If Yes is the answer to any of these questions, we’d like to hear from you!
The Lord works many miracles during the season of His Holy Birth.
He will work one for you!
Please contact Sr Susan Marie through e mail at
We will be pleased to write to or speak with you about our spirituality, or even a possible vocation to the VISITATION MONASTERY in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Come for a Day of Recollection or retreat!
Blessings to each of you whom Our Lord is tapping to share the treasures of His Heart and the Visitation Order!
We wait in expectation with our Blessed Mother for the arrival of Our Lord, in Memory, as a Babe in Bethlehem, in Presence, in our lives from minute to minute, and in Glory, when His Father chooses to send Him again to our world.
Our liturgies at dawn, midday, twilight and night all breathe the sense of waiting, anticipation and great, delicate beauty. Our chants are full and melodious, reflecting our hearts’ gentle stance toward His coming.
Our environment evidences the Advent season with wreath and candle but not much more until we approach the great day of Christmas, when all tasteful decorations of the season flash their greens and reds among us.
Our hearts, each individual Sister’s secret preparation most intimately occurs within them, laying out with care her interior and personal manger of Love for our Lord Jesus.
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If you would like to discuss topics about monastic life or the Visitation Monastery with a Sister, you are welcome to join our Yahoo Groups at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VisitationMonastery/info
and
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/VisitationMonastery/conversations/messages
Share the spirituality of the Visitation Order and the writings of St Francis de Sales, St Jane de Chantal and St Margaret Mary by living Jesus in your daily life. Through the grace of the Sacred Heart, we will form a circle of prayer for both laity and those discerning religious life. Spread the spirit of the Visitation’s monastic life in your area, parish or Diocese, even if no physical Monastery is present yet!
Annual Lighting of the Visitation Nativity Scene
The celebration of the Annual Lighting of the Visitation Monastery/Academy Nativity Scene, followed by the Advent Mass, took place on Sunday, December 1st, at 6:30 pm. The Visitation Academy Father’s Club presented the St Francis De Sales award to Mr. John Perez and the Distinguished Faculty Award to Mrs. Lorraine Marciano. Join us as we begin our Advent season together as a Visitation family.
Here is the current story in the Tablet, followed by a video from a former year:
http://thetablet.org/the-lights-are-on-in-brooklyn/
http://netny.net/currents/video/bay-ridge-school%e2%80%99s-seasonal-celebration-120912/
Today we remember the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
We share the response of our Visitation community as it reflected upon this tragedy in 1963, a few weeks after the event, from our monastic annals:
On the Feast of the Presentation, November 21st, Visitandines around the world renew their sacred vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The Sisters in Brooklyn prepared for this holy event by a three day preparatory retreat given by a Salesian of Don Bosco.
The Holy Father Pope Francis will join monastics in this special day for Contemplative Life as well.
Day for the Contemplative Life
In prayer with Pope Francis and Communities of Contemplative Life
Thursday, November 21 at 16.45 (Rome time)
Pope Francis will visit the Camaldolese Monastery of Sant’Antonio Abate on the Aventine in Rome for Vespers and Eucharistic Adoration.
Our Founder, St. Francis de Sales often preached on this Feast of the Presentation. He also established it as the day that we renew our vows. He said, “It is fitting that every year religious should have a special feast on the day of their dedication to God and of their entrance into religion. In our Order we have selected this most appropriate feast of the Presentation of Our Lady on which to renew our resolutions,to present and offer ourselves to the Divine Majesty under her protection,uniting our own offering she made of herself to God.
This commemoration of our vows is made principally to strengthen our fervor, to renew our promises and to reaffirm our good resolutions.
We come with our glorious Lady and under her protection to place all our affections on the altar of the Temple of the Divine Goodness in order that, without reserve, they may be burned and consumed by the fire of His burning charity.”
Source: St Francis de Sales, Sermon, 1617
Pray for us as we prepare to give our lives once again to Our Lord by this prayerful vow formula:
New York City is an ethnically diverse city. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world as well.
Our Monastery in Brooklyn tends to reflect the diversity of our city in its Sisters.
Our 16 Sisters either descend from, or are immigrants from, the cultures of the nations of : Armenia, Austria, Colombia, England, French Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and Trinidad.
So far!
Currently we are giving hospitality to two Vietnamese Sisters from another congregation.
We invite young women of Vietnamese ancestry as well to make a retreat with us! Chúng tôi mời các phụ nữ di sản Việt Nam để cầu nguyện với chúng tôi tại tu viện.
All are welcome to pray or discern their vocation in the oasis of prayer that is the Brooklyn Visitation Monastery.
The First Friday Mass of November 2013, celebrated at 7PM in the Sacred Heart Chapel also included the enrollment of new members into the Association of the Hour of Presence/Guard of Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
If you are interested in devoting one designated hour of your day in reparation to Jesus’ Heart, please use the form below to enroll.
Then come to the First Friday Mass at 7PM, Friday December 6, 2013 at 7PM, at Visitation Monastery’s Sacred Heart Chapel, where Father Peter Gillen will explain the enthronement of the Sacred Heart in your home and consecration of your family to Jesus’ Heart.
Pray with the Visitation Sisters and learn about joining the Guard of Honor/Hour of Presence of the Sacred Heart.
Literature will also be provided so you can learn more about the Love of Jesus’ Heart for YOU!