First Sunday of Advent 2025

 

This is what Isaiah, son of Amoz,

saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come,

the mountain of the LORD's house

shall be established as the highest mountain

and raised above the hills.

All nations shall stream toward it;

many peoples shall come and say:

"Come, let us climb the LORD's mountain,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may instruct us in his ways,

and we may walk in his paths."

For from Zion shall go forth instruction,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

and impose terms on many peoples.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks;

one nation shall not raise the sword against another,

nor shall they train for war again.

O house of Jacob, come,

let us walk in the light of the Lord!

   

Psalm 122

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 I rejoiced with those who said to me,

    “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

2 Our feet are standing

    in your gates, Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem is built like a city

    that is closely compacted together.

4 That is where the tribes go up—

    the tribes of the Lord—

to praise the name of the Lord

    according to the statute given to Israel.

5 There stand the thrones for judgment,

    the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

    “May those who love you be secure.

7 May there be peace within your walls

    and security within your citadels.”

8 For the sake of my family and friends,

    I will say, “Peace be within you.”

9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

    I will seek your prosperity.

Brothers and sisters:

You know the time;

it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.

For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;

the night is advanced, the day is at hand.

Let us then throw off the works of darkness

and put on the armor of light;

let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day,

not in orgies and drunkenness,

not in promiscuity and lust,

not in rivalry and jealousy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

Jesus said to his disciples:

"As it was in the days of Noah,

so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

In those days before the flood,

they were eating and drinking,

marrying and giving in marriage,

up to the day that Noah entered the ark.

They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away.

So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.

Two men will be out in the field;

one will be taken, and one will be left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill;

one will be taken, and one will be left.

Therefore, stay awake!

For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.

Be sure of this: if the master of the house

had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake

and not let his house be broken into.

So too, you also must be prepared,

for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

Matthew 24:42

 

Jesus of Nazareth

 

(I watched this movie to kick off lent during the weekend of Thanksgiving 2025)

My Visit to Saint Mary in the Woods in 2022

My journey with The Sisters of Providence began when My Dad and I took a trip to visit his Aunt and Uncle in Terree Haute Indiana. While there I decided to drive out and see Saint Mary in the Woods as my Mother's Aunt had attended college there graduating with a degree in Journalism in 1949. I got to the church of the Immaculate Conception in time to attend a mass with the Sisters. After Mass I started walking around the building taking pictures of the architecture and antiques the place held. I had gotten to the shrine of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin 

I had just come out of the Shrine of Saint Theodora Guérin. and walked up to a window that looked over the main entrance of The Church of the Immaculate Conception 

I was taking these pictures and turned and looked down the hall and this little lady on a walker was making her way toward me. 

When I took this picture the Lady said It looks like you got a good angle on that one. I responded with it will be nice if it turns out well. 

Sister Barbara Bluntzer

The Lady and I started visiting she asked me why I was there, and I said I had an Aunt and Cousin that attended this college, and I was visiting family in the area and felt compelled to come see the school they were always talking about. The Lady said come this way, and began guiding me up this very LONG hall. We got up to the front of the building as we progressed people came up and kept hugging the lady and asking her questions. I finally asked her if she worked there. and she said she was retired but lived there. I said are you a sister? and she then told me a bit about herself. It turned out we were both from Texas. She was from Corpus Christi. She knew where Nacogdoches was, and had actually stayed there. I ended up spending an hour and a half with her as she explained the history of Mother Thedora, and the college.  

Sister Barbara took me all the way to the front where the visitor center now stands and said "This is a part of the college both your relatives will remember this used to be where Foley Hall was located and most of the girls that came through in the mid-last century including myself would have known this building. She pointed out pictures of pictures for me to take. 

Inside Foley Hall 

Corridor in Foley Hall 

Girls Dining Room in Foley Hall 

Staircase in Foley Hall 

An actual stained glass window left from Foley Hall located in the modern Visitor Ctr. 

Sister Barbara recommended that I spend some time in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Providence praying. 

When I got home I started studying Divine Providence. 

Divine providence is the belief that a higher power, or God, is actively involved in guiding and sustaining the universe and all events within it. This concept suggests that God's wisdom and will are at work, directing all things to their ultimate purpose. It is a core doctrine in many religions, asserting that God is in control and cares for all of creation, from the smallest details to the grandest events. 

Several Months after returning home I was diagnosed with a meriad of issues. By August of 2022. I had to stop working as a Licensed Massage Therapist as I was unable to help others because of my body. I was formally declared disabled in 2025. I went through some dark times in the Summer of 2022 because of my disabilty. These times were made a bit lighter by the tools that Sister Barbara had introduced me to in my visit to Saint Mary in the Woods. 

St. Anne Shell Chapel

 

In November 1843, Mother Theodore and Sister Mary Cecilia Bailly were on their way back from France, where they had been asking for money to help run the Congregation. They were traveling on a ship called the Nashville across the Atlantic Ocean, and the journey was wrought with extreme storms and giant waves. The passengers and crew were all terrified that the ship would sink!

In their fear the sisters prayed, asking Mary (the mother of Jesus) and St. Anne to protect them. When they arrived back home in Indiana safely, Mother Theodore directed that a chapel be built to honor St. Anne. The first chapel that they built was a small log structure, but in 1875 they built a more permanent stone structure that still stands today.

Nearly all of the shells that decorate the walls and altar of the chapel were collected by sisters from the local Wabash River. The shell mosaics were designed by Sister Mary Joseph Le Fer de la Motte, who spent many days placing all of the shells by hand.

Phil McCord

2nd. Miracle.: The second of the miracles attributed to Guérin involves Phil McCord of Terre Haute, Indiana, and occurred in January 2001. McCord, who had worked in facilities management for the Sisters of Providence, stopped by the Church of the Immaculate Conception and was drawn in by music from the pipe organ. After entering the church, McCord felt compelled to pray to Guérin, asking for strength to undergo surgery, a cornea transplant for his right eye to improve his failing eyesight (Previous eye surgeries did not fully restore his eyesight, which had deteriorated to a legally-blind status of 20–800 in one eye and 20–1000 in the other.) McCord returned to his home, and when he awoke the next morning, his vision, although still blurry, had improved. A follow-up visit with his eye doctor confirmed that McCord no longer needed the cornea transplant. With subsequent laser treatment, McCord's eyesight returned perfect, 20-20 vision. Ophthalmologists and others investigating the case could find no medical explanation for the change in his condition. In 2006 the Catholic cardinals at the Vatican reviewed and approved the findings in the case and declared the event a miracle, paving the way for the final step in Guérin's canonization process.

 

Sister Mary Theodosia Mug

 1st. Miracle. : Portrait of Sister Mary Theodosia Mug (1860-1943), author and poet. Mug was a member of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. The first miracle attributed to Guérin is said to have occurred in 1908. Before going to bed on 30 October, Sister of Providence Mary Theodosia Mug prayed at Guérin's crypt in the Church of the Immaculate Conception on the motherhouse grounds at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods for another sister who was ill. However, Mug herself suffered from damaged nerves in both arms and her right hand, breast cancer, and an abdominal tumor. When she awoke the next day, Sister Mary Theodosia was able to move her arms without pain, and the lump in her abdomen had disappeared. The cancer never returned. Sister Mary Theodosia died of old age in 1943 at the age of eighty-two.

Artifacts of Saint Mary in the Woods

 

Maria Amalia Teresa of Naples and Sicily

 Maria Amalia Teresa of Naples and Sicily (26 April 1782 – 24 March 1866) was Queen of the French by marriage to Louis Philippe I, King of the French. She was the last queen in France.

In one instance, she responded to a request from French missionary sister Saint Mother Theodore Guerin of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods by saying, "Ah, yes, sisters, let us save souls!" She gave Guerin and her fellow Sister of Providence Mary Cecilia Bailly funds for their schools in the United States, as well as covered their travel expenses. 

Bishop de la Hailandière

 Célestin René Laurent Guynemer de la Hailandière (May 3, 1798 – May 1, 1882) was a French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Vincennes (now the Archdiocese of Indianapolis) from 1839 to 1847. He is perhaps best known for donating the land for the establishment of the University of Notre Dame.

 In 1836 Simon Bruté de Rémur, Bishop of Vincennes came to Rennes looking for an assistant who could serve as his vicar-general. The Bishop of Rennes recommended the curate of St. Germain, and Célestin left for the United States with Bruté de Rémur.

The diocese, which included the state of Indiana and the eastern part of Illinois, was sparsely populated with only a few small towns and widely scattered farms. The Potawatomi and Miami lived in the northern part of Indiana. There were few Catholics. As La Hailandière knew little English, he was assigned to attend the French Catholics living in and around Vincennes.

On May 17, 1839, La Hailandière was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Vincennes and Titular Bishop of Axieri by Pope Gregory XVI. At the time, he was the youngest bishop in the United States. Bishop Bruté de Rémur sent La Hailandière as a representative to their native France to raise funds, recruit priests, and invite religious congregations to come to the diocese and teach, provide religious instruction, and assist the sick. The Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir agreed to send some sisters, among whom was Théodore Guérin. Bishop Bruté died on June 26, 1839, while La Hailandière was in France. La Hailandière succeeded Bishop Bruté de Rémur as the second Bishop of Vincennes on the following June 26, and received his episcopal consecration in the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in Paris.

Mother Theodore began to experience conflict with the bishop. Each respected the other, but both had strong personalities. Mother Theodore wrote that Bishop de la Hailandière, “has one of those temperaments which makes martyrs of their possessors and still more of those who must put up with them from time to time.… He is jealous of his authority and wishes to do everything himself.”

As struggles with the bishop continued, Mother Theodore wrote to Mother Mary in France, “What makes us suffer most is the mania of this good bishop for changing the sisters.… He wants the establishments to depend on the priest, who would furnish the sisters with whatever they need.… I have the greatest aversion to this kind of administration; it seems to me it would keep our sisters in a species of slavery; they could not even write a letter without the priests’ knowledge. Besides, it would require too frequent contacts between them, and here above all this must not be, for the Protestants are always prepared to criticize actions the most innocent in themselves.… I have to struggle against all these difficulties, hold myself firm against all that I believe would change the spirit of our institute and our dear Rules.”

Mother Theodore remained steadfast in working toward what was best for the young community. Bishop de la Hailandière and Mother Theodore agreed that she should return to France in the spring of 1843. Her mission was to seek prayers, financial assistance, and new members for her community. A decision in Rome made the trip even more necessary. In a letter to Bishop Bouvier of Le Mans, Mother Theodore wrote, “I have just learned for a certainty that the Society of the Propagation of the Faith will do nothing more for us than it has already done through his Lordship, the Bishop of Vincennes, for the Councils have made it a law not to give to Congregations of women; hence, no alternative is left to us but to solicit private contributions.”

Struggles with the bishop escalated. At one point the bishop imprisoned Saint Mother Theodore in a room for a full day. As the situation came to a head, the bishop excommunicated Mother Theodore. He removed her from the Congregation she loved and did not allow her to communicate with any of the sisters. She became very ill for several weeks. The Congregation prepared to follow Mother Theodore and move to another state.

All the struggle ended abruptly. Word came that the pope had accepted the bishop’s resignation. Mother Theodore returned to her role in leadership with the Congregation. Hailandière resigned his post on July 16, 1847, his health strained after eight years of service, and then returned to France. He was succeeded by John Stephen Bazin.

Photo and excerpts taken from: Célestin Guynemer de la Hailandière

other excerpts taken from: spsmw.org

Rev Stanislaus Buteux

 

Stanislaus Buteux

There are so many forgotten people, men and women, who either lived in Indiana or came here from other places, who served the Church and the People of God and helped to build the Church here.

Some will never be remembered, partly because we don’t know who they were and partly because of the fact that there isn’t enough information out there, but if we are to be true to our mission as Church, then we have to occasionally look back and remember.

In 1836, Servant of God Simon Brute went back to France to recruit clergy for his nascent diocese. The group that accompanied him back to Indiana included two future bishops as well as a number of people who contributed a great deal to Catholicism in Indiana, the mid-west as well as other places.

One of these was Stanislaus Buteux

Stanislaus caught the eye of Bishop Simon Gabriel Brute, a Sulpician, who had recently been installed as the first bishop of the new diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. A missionary himself, Bishop Brute recruited Stanislaus for his new diocese. He ordained Father Stanislaus on May 28, 1836, and on the next day, Father Stanislaus offered his first Mass and said goodbye to his family in Paris as he set out with his new bishop for the Vincennes Diocese as a missionary. Buteux was a member of the Eudists, a number of whom accompanied Bishop Brute to Indiana in 1836.

Bishop Brute put young Father Stanislaus in charge of Catholics in Edgar County, IL, and Vigo County, IN. From 1837 to 1839, Father Stanislaus worked untiringly in the mission field as a circuit-riding preacher, ministering mainly to the German and Irish Catholic immigrants in the area around Terre Haute. He celebrated Mass and offered the sacraments in their homes until he was able to organize the people to build churches. In 1839, for example, he built St. Joseph’s brick church in Terre Haute and a frame church at Thralls Station, five miles from Terre Haute. That church was named Ste. Marie des Bois, well known today as St. Mary of the Woods. Father Stanislaus recruited the Sisters of Providence to come from France to teach school there. On October 22, 1840, he personally met six emigrant missionary nuns as they completed a 102-day journey from northern France by merchant ship, rail, steamboat, stagecoach, and wagon. He escorted Sister Theodore Guerin and her five companions by ferry across the Wabash River and then by wagon to a remote 27-acre wooded chapel site. He then helped them establish St. Mary of the Woods College, the nation’s oldest Catholic women’s liberal arts college. Father Stanislaus worked as a day laborer to help the sisters build their first academy, and in July 1841, he blessed the school. As a missionary priest, he well knew that education was the key to any lasting work of evangelization, and he had quickly learned the value of a good Catholic school for that purpose.

Father Buteux served as the sisters’ chaplain for four years, inspiring all of them by his courage, his simplicity of life, and his apostolic zeal. Mother Theodore Guerin, whom Pope John Paul II beatified in 2006,  was the first superior of the Sisters of Providence at St. Mary of the Woods College in the Vincennes Diocese of Indiana, the sisters’ first establishment in America. This educational missionary who answered Father Buteux’s call praised him as follows:

“This zealous priest lives in a little hut which is only ten feet wide and twelve feet long. The furniture consists of the altar and a miserable pallet at the opposite side of the room; two small tables, one covered with books, the other used as a writing desk; a trunk, and an old chair. In these environments has this Parisian dwelt for four years””he who was brought up in the comfort of the most opulent city of Europe; where, now in the flower of his manhood and with his brilliant education, he might be one of the most prominent in ecclesiastical circles. The Archbishop of Paris made him the most advantageous offers to retain him there; but he refused everything to come and work and suffer for his God, and to gain souls for His heavenly kingdom. This truly apostolic man told me laughing that he had yet to learn where the trials and privations are.”

However:  Mother Theodore experienced an early clash with Father Buteux. He served as chaplain for the Sisters of Providence. Father Buteux believed he held authority over all aspects of life for the sisters. Eventually he was removed as chaplain. He continued to communicate with an American Sister of Providence against orders. The  Congregation dismissed the sister. Still, she continued to stir up controversy against the Sisters of Providence in the nearby city of Terre Haute. As a result enrollment dropped at the Academy and shopkeepers began denying credit to the impoverished Sisters of Providence. (Taken from Sister of Providence, Saint Mary in the Woods website.) 

it wasn’t he who recruited the Sisters of Providence, but it was he who assisted them once they arrived in Indiana. As was the case with many of those early missionaries, the actions of the second Bishop, Celestine de la Hailandiere, caused many to rethink their commitment. If you read the stories from that time, it appears that many suffered from illnesses. I would venture to say that in some cases, their illness was either caused by the pressure exerted by Hailandiere, or it simply served as an excuse (albeit a valid excuse) for them to move on.

It has been pointed out before that the rules that tie a priest to a particular diocese were much less stringent back then. Names like Michael Shawe, August Martin and others found themselves at odds with the bishop. Saint Mother Theodore even considered a move to the Detroit diocese.

Father Robert Trisco wrote:

A few years later another French priest incardinated in the Diocese of Vincennes, Stanislaus Buteux, also endured rigorous treatment at the hands of Bishop de la Hailandifere* Because of his poor health Buteux wished to enter the Diocese of Natchez, for he knew from personal experience and medical advice that he could recover his strength only in a milder climate. Bishop Chanche was willing to accept him too, provided that De la Hailandiere would release him. Since the latter refused, however, to give him an exeat, he came to Rome in February, 1846, and presented his plea to Cardinal Fransoni. Although the Prefect assured him that his bishop could not be opposed to a change recruited bv his physical condition. De la Hailandifere still did not reply to his renewed request. Convinced that the severe bishop would never reply, Buteux, before leaving Paris later in the year, implored the Propaganda again to intervene on his behalf.” The Sacred Congregation would not arrogate to itself the bishop’s rights, but it consoled Buteux by announcing the acceptance of De la Hailandiere’s resignation and by promising to inform him as soon as possible of the successor’s appointment; then Buteux could handle the matter directly with the new bishop. “ Showing itself more helpful than it had indicated, nevertheless, the Propaganda in the very letter with which it notified John Bazin of his nomination to the See of Vincennes, advised him to reply kindly to Buteux and to grant his petition. Thus even if this well-intentioned missionary was lost to the Middle West, he was saved for another American diocese, for without the favor obtained through the Propa­ganda’s recommendation he would perhaps never have returned at all to the United States.

Buteux never returned to Indiana. He did, however return to the U.S. In 1847, but this time in the Diocese of Natchez, Mississippi. In 1859 he once again left the U.S. and returned to France. After another couple of years he returned to the U.S. once again. This time in the Diocese of Boston, It was there that Father Stanislaus Buteux died on June 14, 1875, at the age of 66 years, 11 months. 4

View his obituary. taken from Boston Pilot-July 10, 1875

Photo of Rev. Buteux taken from: Find a Grave

Taken from :Indiana Catholic History 

Photos of cabin by Chris McLaughlin - 11/22/2025