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In a Jan. 6 welcoming ceremony, Father Vito Perrone prays with an aspirant discerning for a new order of women religious forming in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a branch of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph. COSJ was originally founded as a monastery for men in 2010. An aspirant joins the community as part of the period of discernment before taking any vows. (Photo courtesy Contemplatives of St. Joseph)
February 8, 2018
Valerie Schmalz
A new order of women religious is forming in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a branch of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph, which was originally founded as a monastery for men in 2010.
Three women have joined, with two entering as candidates Aug. 15, 2017, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother, and a third entered as an aspirant in January.
“I think there are a lot of contemplatives out there,” said Contemplatives founder Father Vito Perrone. In the years after the Contemplatives were established, 15 women inquired seriously about joining. “I had to say no because we didn’t have a women’s branch,” he said regretfully. At least five of those left the area and are now religious outside the archdiocese, he said.
“St. Joseph is our model. He is silent, attentive, present, contemplative. He keeps his eyes on Jesus and Mary, as we do,” the Contemplatives founder said, noting St. Joseph is the patron of the universal church. “He is steady, loving, is manly and has a huge influence. That is our model of the contemplative life.”
Joseph raised Jesus in Nazareth, “a quiet little town, yet he was at the heart of the salvation of the world,” Father Perrone said.
Both the men and women’s sides of the Contemplatives are suddenly burgeoning after years of quiet, Father Perrone said, and he added “on another vein, we are trying to upgrade our liturgies, ‘elevating the sacred,’” with chant in the ordinary and extraordinary form and divine liturgy. The first Friday healing Masses at Mater Dolorosa Church draw many as well.
“We are in a wonderful phase of the COSJ. Men and women are coming to discern. It means things are happening,” he said. The first two years, Father Perrone was the only one in the monastery. In 2012, he was joined by Byzantine rite Father Joseph Homick from Mount Tabor but it was not until 2015 that others joined.
With three priests including Father Perrone, another likely to join, and two brothers and one candidate, the former convent building on the grounds of Mater Dolorosa Church is nearly full. There are two rooms available and the monastery is constructing three more rooms.
The three sisters are under and will remain under the guidance of Father Perrone, but until the convent building is ready they live in their own homes, he said. Other women are also expressing serious interest in the Contemplatives, Father Perrone said.
“We feel the contemplative life is a very powerful witness within the life of the church,” Father Perrone said. The Contemplatives are an archdiocesan community, under the authority of the archbishop of San Francisco, with a ministry focused here.
“Basically, you have to die to yourself in order to understand the riches of life with Christ,” Father Perrone said. “Religious life, especially with the COSJ, is not for the faint of heart.”
The COSJ priests and brothers, and now the religious women, commit to eight hours of community and individual prayer each day, including waking at night to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, in addition to an active life of ministry within the archdiocese. “The contemplative life is the journey into the spiritual life. It is a special calling, a unique call and as Cardinal Robert Sarah points out (in his book “The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise,” Ignatius Press, 2017), it is a necessary calling within the heart of the church,” Father Perrone said.
“We need men and women who focus primarily on God and then show forth the fruits of this contemplation,” he said. “Often times the fruits remain hidden from everyone, even from the person who is the contemplative.”