Mother Catharine Muth, the
nun in question, was a Dominican who had reluctantly led a group of her
sisters from their beloved monastery in Brooklyn to Jersey City to establish
a community there to help educate the children of the German immigrants.
As
she witnessed the poverty and poor health of the children and her sisters
living in 19th-century city squalor, she courageously moved her frail
sisters and eventually the novices to Caldwell, “the Denver of the East.”
She dreamed of Caldwell becoming a place to care for the orphans and a place
where Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament could be a part of the
nuns’ community prayer life. Soon the nuns had a school there in Caldwell,
while continuing their work in Jersey City. In time, Mother Catharine led a
congregation with 15 missions, 150 sisters, and 23 postulants (women
desiring to be sisters).
As
the Motherhouse, designed to resemble the original monastery in Regensberg,
Germany, began to take shape, the sisters hauled stones and brick up the
hill from the railroad station below. The original building had porches on
the first and second floors, so that infirm sisters could enjoy the fresh
air. The Chapel, on the second floor, offered the sisters prayer space in a
cloistered setting.
Their austere
life of prayer included familiar monastic practices: rising to chant the
Office in the middle of the night, abstaining from meat several days a week,
and observing the months-long “Dominican Lent.” Their new response to
Mission added new apostolic responsibilities: they farmed the land and fed
themselves and their students with the fruits of their labor, taught
children from elementary through high school and gave them lessons in
painting, sewing, and music before and after school.
When it became apparent that
their rigorous lifestyle in America – a combination of both cloistered and
apostolic ministries and responsibilities - was detrimental to their
spiritual and physical well-being, the sisters became “Third Order
Dominicans,” that is, not cloistered nuns, but apostolic sisters. The needs
of the Mission (being Good News or the Holy Preaching to others) demanded
that some of the cloister rules and practices be sacrificed so that the
sisters could teach and care for the people to whom they were sent. Mother
Catharine would not have chosen to do this if it was not demanded by the
evolving congregational life and mission, but she wisely
counseled
her sisters to
“build a cell within
your heart
where you can converse continually
with the Beloved of your soul.”
Life’s demands, the needs of
God’s people, and the health of the sisters were paramount to her. After the
pattern of Jesus who lived the Paschal Mystery perfectly, she died to her
own desires and lived in ways new to her.
This
courageous woman, our foundress,
had a vision for her congregation:
to be contemplative women in the service of God’s People,
especially recent immigrants.
She
realized the restorative power of Earth’s resources and the ill effects of
our misusing them. Mother Catharine’s vision and dream was of contemplative
sisters serving the immigrants and recognizing the importance of the Earth’s
own resources for the health and well-being of all lives - sisters in our
congregation and all people with whom we share life on our home planet. In 1995 we
expressed her vision in our
Vision Statements, the words that guide our endeavors as
Preachers of Good News:
-
We
will reclaim our passion for contemplation, and choose
this as our lens through which we make decisions, live our lives,
minister, and perceive our world.
-
We
will hold the promotion
of justice
as top priority
in every area
of our Congregation.
-
We
will commit ourselves to deepen our studying, living, and teaching the
mysteries of the universe and the sacredness of creation.
We resist the ongoing devastation of our planet by a contemplative
scrutiny of our use/abuse of Earth’s gifts.
Mother Catharine,
we remain eternally grateful
for your courage and vision.
We pray to continue reflecting your dream in our daily lives.
Our Foundress: