Thanks! As I was saying I am interested in the SLVM, but the Directress has been very busy and so have I, so communication has halted. Hopefully soon we can begin talking again. Here are some of the past emails she sent me. I sure can ask questions, huh?
You want to know a secret desire - probably selfish on my part - but I hope and pray that these Sisters can establish themselves here in MI. I love MI and hope to help out these people here through the Consecrated Life.
Here are the emails:
Dear Bernadette:
In 1988 the Institute of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara was founded in Argentina by Father Carlos Buela. We make up the female branch of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word which includes the priests who were founded in 1984.
We are a missionary community who seek to bring Christ to all people through “evangelization of the culture.” The variety of our missionary work is as wide as the different cultures we encounter. We work in parishes providing catechises for children and adults as well as teaching in schools. Our works of mercy include homes for the elderly, residences for the handicapped, and homes for abandoned children. This variety of apostolate reflects the requests of the bishops and the particular conditions of the places.
Currently our community has houses throughout South America, along the East Coast of the United States, in Europe, in North Africa and the Middle East, in the former Soviet Union (Russia and Ukraine), in South East Asia and Ocenia’s Papua New Guinea.
Besides the three traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience we profess a fourth vow of total consecration to Mary according to the method of St Louis of Montfort.
We have daily Mass and adoration to the Blessed Sacrament for an hour every day. We pray the liturgy of the hours, the Holy Rosary and the Angelus, as well.
We also have contemplative sisters, they are cloistered nuns who dedicate their lives to pray and do penance for the salvation of souls.
Our formation includes postulancy (several months according to the needs of each candidate) and a year of novitiate followed by a three year period of study after first vows. Remaining close to the Church, we study theology, philosophy, liturgy, and spirituality in the light of St. Thomas Aquinas.
We are missionaries and therefore our facilities (buildings) depend on the places we are, we do not have individual rooms in many of the convents (consider this fact as part of living the vow of poverty). I don’t know if you checked out both of our websites for our Religious Family: www.servidoras.org and www.iveamerica.org . I’ll be sending you more information via mail as well.
If you have any other questions please feel free to e-mail at usasacred@aol.com or call me at the number above.
May Our Lord show you His will and grant you the grace to follow unreservedly.
In Christ and His Blessed Mother,
Mother Mary of the Sacred Heart, SSVM
Mistress of Novices
Dear Bernadette:
Great to hear from you. Just to answer your question about our apostolate. We are not tied to any one work. Our charism is evengelization of the culture. Our aim is to bring Christ to every person. When a bishop invites us to his diocese, we do whatever needed in that particular place. Thus we help with works of mercy like homes for abandoned children, hospitals, nursing homes. We teach in schools and chatechism classes, we work in universitiies and in publication as well. Our apostolate is very broad. In addition we have contempletive monestaries.
Many of us did get to go to Germany. Unfortunately I did not, but the sisters who went had an amazing time!!!
You are in my prayers!
In Christ
M. Sacred Heart
Dear Beradette:
It was great to hear back from you. Hope you are enjoying the summer. I was so happy to hear that you and your sister have a magazine. There is a girl from Kentuckey entering who started a magazine with her brother as well, it is called the "Frassati" in honor of Blessed Pierre Georgio.
Regarding the spiritual exercises, it is not a retreat, per say, geared only to entering our order particularly. This retreat is for all, that they may find the will of God, whatever that might be for each particular person.
Here are some ansers to your questions.
Question One:
Could you tell me about the stages of formation to a fully professed sister?
When a sister enters she is a postulant for a varied amount of time. THere is no set time for postulancy. After postulancy the sister enters the novitiate. There is one full year of novitiate. From the novitiate the sister goes to study at the Juniorate House of Studies a more in depth formation in philosophy and theology, based on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Many of the sisters spend there third year of juniorate stuyding in our new university in Rome. After three years of study, the sisters are sent on mission. Sometimes sisters are sent before the three years is over if there is an urgent need in the missions.
Question Two:
Could you explain your habit? Every habit symbolizes something of the
vows or spirituality of the community. Do you always wear it?
Our habbit symbolizes the Incarnation of the Word, or the Word Made Flesh. The grey represents the humanity of Christ, while the Blue represents the Divinity of Christ. We always wear our habbit, it helps us to remember our consecration as well as helps others to be reminded of it.
Question Three:
What are the qualifications for becoming a sister? What does your
Institute prefer?
The qualification to become a sister in our order is that a person have a vocation. Girls can enter from 18 years of age and up. In other countries girls can even enter our aspirancy at an earlier age than 18. We do not have any prior schooling requirements.
Question Four:
Could you tell me the sister's daily schedule, especially concerning prayer?
In the active branch of our order, each day we have one hour of adoration, morning and eveinging prayer in community, the mass each day, rosary each day in community, confessions once a week. In our houses of studies, much of the day is focused on classes and study, as well as common work, sports and workshops to learn how to play the organ or the guitar.
Question Five:
How is your community usually sustain itself? (With prayer of course!)
But from generous donors or selling things maybe? Or do you sometimes
grow your own food? That would be awesome since I'm a farmer and I
really can't picture myself not working the ground.
We rely on divine providence. There are many generous people who donate food and money to our order. We do not grow too much food in this country. People are so generous and God always takes care of us.
Question Six:
You said the second thing to happen in order for Father Buela to found
a female branch was to find someone experienced in the religious life?
Does that mean from a different order? Which order and who became the
General Mother?
The first sister was from a different order to found. Our present General Mother is from Holland. She met the priests first in Rome, and then joined the order, Studying first in Argentina at our houses of formation there. Her name is Mother Anima Cristi.
Question Seven:
And lastly, in Part 1: Introduction: Our Religous Family:General
Principles of Our Way. 16 [Apostolate]
Fr Buela writes, "in the search and formation of suitable ministers
of the Word; in the publication of magazines, treaties, books, etc;
and in other things." Your Institute publishes magazines and books?!
Neat!! What magazines are they? Does your Institute write the content
and publish and distribute the magazines? How does that all work? I
really would like to know since I've been frantically searching for a
publisher for my sister's and mine little magazine apostolate for
Catholic Girls, dedicated of course to the patron of girls, Saint
Maria Goretti. It's a very small circulation, only around 50, but
we've been printing it up on our little family printer since we
started (about three years ago) and 50 copies are way too many to
print ourselves! At least for this year anyway, we need to find
someone who can print up our magazine for us. Would
OUr Major publications are in Rome and Argentina. I'll have to get back to you about printing in this country. We do send out newsletters however we do not print magazines or books in this country as of yet.
May God Bless you and the Virgin Mary Guide You.
In Christ,
M. Sacred Heart
Dear Bernadette:
Great to hear from you. Here are a few answers to your questions.
Question One:
Could you tell me more about the history of the Religious Families of
the Incarnate Word, particularly your's of course?
Fr. Buela was a Diocesan priest in Buenos Aires. One day he was hearing confessions and the line was so long. In that moment he had the inspirational grace to found an order of priests with a solid foundation in the teachings of the Church to be able to serve so many souls in need. He founded the priests first. There were some girls who saw the joy and zeal of the seminarians and they approached Father to ask him if he might found a female branch. A group of young women began to meet with Fr. to discuss the possibility. He gave three things that had to happen in order to found. 1 the sisters had to have a house 2. the sisters needed someone experienced in the religous life to be the General Mother 3. the sisters needed a chaplain. On the feast of St. Joseph the worker 17 years ago all three things happened and so the sisters were founded. We have the same constitutions.
Question Two:
What is its ties with Rome? Will it be raised to Pontifical Status soon?
We love the Holy Father. I'm not sure when we would be raised to pontifical status. In the history of the CHurch many orders take quite a while before they are raised to pontifical status. One year ago we were raised to an order of the dioscesan rite.
Question Three:
Could I see a close-up picture of the Cross of Matara and more about
its background?
If you look online at our website there is a close up of our cross. The cross was carved by an indigenous man of Argentina in 1594. In Argentina the cross is a symbol of Evangelizatoin of the Culture. When we were founded one of the bishops of Argentina gave us the cross. At the bottom of the cross you will see a carving of the indigenous man himself, then the fires of purgatory then, an image of the Virgin Mary dressed as a Spanish Queen, then the story of the pass, the rooster, die, spear, nails, At the top you see a symbol for creation, another for the star of Bethlehem, then a symbol of the Eucharist. At the very top the word matara is written, and a few other symbols for Mary, and finally the symbol of Alpha and Omega. We use the cross as a tool to explain the gospels. Fr. Buela says that the original cross sits on a piece of wood, but that we must imbed the cross into our hearts.
Question Four:
Could you tell me more about the spirituality and charism of your
community? Did Father Buela, your founder, write up his own set of
religious orders or did he adopt one of the great orders such as
Domincan or Franciscan?
Fr. Buela wrote our constitutions, which you can read online at www.iveamerica.org. Our constitions are not based on any one saint. However, Fr. Buela uses a lot from St. Alphonsus LIgouri, St. Louis De Montefort, St. Teresa of the Little Flower, St. John Bosco St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Thomas Aquinas, and many other saints we take as our patron the whole community of saints in heaven especially the virigin Mary
Question Five:
Could you tell me where all the sisters are set up in the United States?
The formation houses are in the DC area. The other houses of mission are in NY city, COnneticut, Philiedelphia area, California, and Canada
Question Six:
It says in the brochure that you assist in theological and
philosophical publications. What is that?
OUr first fuor years of formation are based on the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Presently we have been given the task to translate and publish the works fo Fr. Cornelius Fabro a great philospher who used the teachigns St. Thomas Aquinas to refute modern philosophy such as idealism, skepticism, empericism etc.
Question Seven:
Do you help the stop of abortion in a direct way? Looking through all
your works, protecting the unborn seems to fit in perfectly!
A group of our sisters work in Project Rachel as well as a program called Birthing and Care which provides food and medical needs to women contemplating abortion so that they will be encouraged to have their baby instead.
I will be out of town for the next three weeks or so, I am headed to NY then to Rome myself. Let me know if you have an more questions. I can't remember if you are 18 yet. If so we will host a retreat of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatious of Loyola from July 22-24. It will be in Washington DC. It is a silent retreat to help people move forward in the life of grace and it is especially helpful to those discerning.
In Christ,
M. Sacred Heart
I know of a couple communities who make this consecration a big part of their life. The Servants of Our Lord and the Virgin of Matara, the Sisters of Mary of course, The Sisters of Charity of Mary Mother of the Church. Can you think of any others? 
I did de Montfort's method last year with my consecration date of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. And reading his True Devotion changed my life. Amazing book. Still re-reading it and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. 
for LilyofSaintMaria