Abbey of Regina Laudis: Final Profession of Mother Maria Evangelista Ceremonies & Celebrations

On the Feast of the Holy Trinity, Sunday, June 16, 2019, Mother Maria Evangelista Fernandez made her Final Profession of Vows to God through the Community of Regina Laudis. Robert Tucker, Pastor of St. Louis de Montfort Parish, Litchfield, Connecticut, was the main celebrant and homilist at the Mass which was concelebrated by Father Douglas Mosey, C. S. B. Her parents and family, close friends, and mentors joined the monastic community in celebrating this joyful day.

Mother Maria Evangelista, a native of Queens, New York, received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, majoring in Women’s and Religious Studies. She studied abroad in India during her Junior year, focusing on women-led NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and midwifery. Before entering Regina Laudis as a postulant in 2006, Mother Maria Evangelista worked at the Wellspring Foundation in Bethlehem, Connecticut. As a milieu counselor she worked with the therapeutic treatment team, assisting in group therapy and creating a safe and healthy therapeutic home environment in the residential treatment facility.

Mother Maria Evangelista's main work in her monastic life has been as Assistant Cellarer. Since 2013 she has assisted Mother Abbess Lucia, the Cellarer, in the oversight and management of the Abbey’s many buildings including maintenance and utilities, recycling, distribution of supplies, daily housecleaning and assistance to any other monastic area in need. In his Holy Rule St. Benedict says of the Cellarer

Let him have charge of everything; let him do nothing without the abbot's orders, but keep to his instructions.

In the strength and grace of her Perpetual Vows, Mother Maria Evangelista has been asked to take on the task of being the main Cellarer of the community. In her own words:

As I move forward now into more fully living out the demands of the Cellarer, I pray that I may be strengthened by the Vow of Conversatio Morum, Conversion of my Ways, and of Obedience, so that I may always see the sacredness of each person and of all matter as I continue to learn to care for our common home of the monastery and our planet.

Another important work of Mother Maria Evangelista is the supervision of the vegetable gardens in relationship to Mother Subprioress. She finds that her work in cultivating the earth puts her in touch with her genealogical roots in the Dominican Republic, especially with her beloved grandfather and gardener, Elpidio. In Mother Maria Evangelista's words:

The garden is a place where the Vow of Stability comes alive for me. My hope is that through the Vow of Stability I have just taken, I will be strengthened in my resolve to sustain monastic life here and now so that we may ensure that there will be a place for all those people who need to touch the land and the fruits of monastic stability in order to touch Christ into the future.

Her work with creation is complemented by her continuing studies in Theology.

Mother Maria Evangelista has a great love for monastic liturgy and brings her natural sense of movement and training as a yoga dance instructor to our monastic ceremonies. At the Profession ceremony she was clothed by Mother Abbess in the full monastic cowl, a pleated garment with flowing sleeves, reserved for praying in Choir and a sign that the newly-professed is taking on the mantle of obligation for the Work of God. With arms outstretched she sang:

Ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum/Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.

Having chosen Trinity Sunday as her Final Profession Day, Mother Maria Evangelista reflected on her favorite passage from Gaudium and Spes that expresses the Trinity in a way that is comprehensible to her and makes this great mystery accessible to all of us:

Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, 'that all may be one. . . as we are one' (John 17:21-22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.

Gaudium and Spes, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Paragraph 24

In light of the gift of being made in God’s image and likeness, in her own words Mother Maria Evangelista captured the essence of the step she was taking in professing her Final Vows:

That is what I am doing now. I’m offering my life as a gift to God and to this community. I can only offer it because it has also been given to me by God, my family, and the community. As St. Paul said to the Corinthians, I want to say that by the grace of God I am who I am and His grace to me is not in vain.

Gallery of Final Profession Mass

Mother Abbess' Prayers of the Faithful at the Profession Mass

In gratitude for the life and monastic vocation of Mother Maria Evangelista Fernandez, who endured many afflictions and challenges on the winding path that brought her to this joyous day of her Solemn Profession of Vows. She stands before us now, proven in character and full of the hope, speranza, the hope that does not disappoint. As she perseveres in monastic life, may she never be confounded in her expectations, but drawn ever more deeply in her love and desire for Trinitarian relationship with God, with the earth, with her community, and all those people God sends to her, finding herself as she gives herself more and more in the likeness of the love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Let us pray to the Lord

May Wisdom, who was present to God the Father at the creation of the world and played over the surface of the earth as his craftsman, be with Mother Maria Evangelista as she cultivates the Abbey vegetable gardens in relationship to Mother Subprioress. May Wisdom, who orders all things well from beginning to end, and who became incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ, assist Mother Maria Evangelista in her growing obligation as the Regina Laudis cellarer. May Wisdom, that is the consummate gift of the Holy Spirit, guide Mother Maria Evangelista in her study of Theology, centered in the truth of Christ and grounded in the love of her monastic vocation.
Let us pray to the Lord

For blessings on Mr. and Mrs. Fernandez and each member of their family, in gratitude for all the ways they have formed and fostered the vocation of Mother Maria Evangelista.
Let us pray to the Lord

In special gratitude for the many gifts of the Fernandez genealogy, stretching back to the beloved patriarch Elpidio, and beyond him to the ancient indigenous people of the Dominican Republic, may Mother Maria Evangelista never forget Elpidio’s words: “Work your land, love God and your neighbor, continue how you are going,” that she may strive day by day to be a bridge for many to cross from their country of origin to a new land, and from one generation to the next, and perhaps most difficult of all, to cross from the radical secular world of America today to a deeply rooted faith in the Triune God embodied in the Benedictine Monastic Tradition.
Let us pray to the Lord