Ed. This article appeared in The Hebrew Catholic, #85. All Rights Reserved.

The Making of a Jewish Nun
Rosalind Moss

That’s the title of a new book, if ever I get to write it. Oh the ways of God! How can I possibly tell you all that has transpired in the blessed providence of our Divine Redeemer? I’ll tell you by way of the opening and closing paragraphs of my story in Honey from the Rock, edited by Roy Schoeman, published last year by Ignatius Press.

The opening paragraphs read:

It was in the 1960s. I was young, single, Jewish, and on my own in New York. The headline shot through me like an arrow aimed straight at my heart: “Nuns have received permission to shorten their habits to knee length.” ... (T)he news item wasn’t limited to newspapers alone. It aired over local radio. And it went through me as if it were my news, and my loss.

What had nuns’ habits to do with me? Nothing. I was Jewish. I had been taught from childhood that there were basically two kinds of people in this world: Jewish and non-Jewish. So what had these ladies in long black habits to do with me? They were foreign to my world. Yet I knew that, whoever they were, they were in the world to affect the world for God. But, alas, I thought, the world has affected them.

What a deep sadness came over me. It was right at the start of the miniskirt era, and I supposed the shortened hemlines were a religious accommodation to the fashion, or, at least, to the increasingly self-focused leanings of the day. Somehow I felt robbed of what was never mine to begin with.

I was born in 1943 to Jewish parents of Russian and Hungarian descent . . .

I wrote of my upbringing in our Jewish home, of the life-changing moment when the grace of God made known to my fearful heart that the unapproachable God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob took on flesh and became Man—for us—and that the millions of lambs slain throughout the Mosaic sacrificial system could not take away sin, nor had they power to change the heart, but that every lamb, and all of them together, pointed to the One of whom the Jewish prophets wrote: the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world, and mine.

I wrote of my embrace of Evangelical Protestantism, the only form of Christianity to which I had been introduced, and the yet unfathomable moment when, eighteen years later, I received that very Lamb—the God of Israel—on my tongue, in Holy Communion, the night I was received into the Catholic Church, the completion of all that was promised the Jewish people, and the full measure of Christianity on earth.

Several thousand words later, I ended the story with these:

I began this story with my initial response as a Jewish girl to a news item in the 1960s about nuns’ habits being shortened. Now I’ll come full circle and tell you that forty years later (forty seems to be God’s favorite figure in the preparation of His people!)—if Messiah grants the desires which He, I believe, has planted in this Hebrew-Catholic heart—I long to restore the years the locusts have eaten with an order of Sisters that will not only return their hemline to the floor, but the habit—as the glorious sign to God that it is—to the world!

It seems that our Blessed Lord has done just that: granted the desires which He has planted in this Hebrew-Catholic heart. Blessed be His Name forever. A thousand eternities will not be enough to thank Him.

The name of the order? What else? Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope! And, yes, our habits will be to the floor. We will walk through the streets among the rich and the poor, among every tribe, tongue and people, to let the world know that God — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who loved them and gave Himself for them—still exists, that the prophet Isaiah had it right: He is Emmanuel, “God with us”, named Jesus at His birth (Hebrew: Yeshua, meaning “salvation”) because “He would save His people from their sins.” And not “His people (Israel)” only, but every soul who has ever lived, every soul, that is, who would call upon His Name. Salvation, in the words of our Blessed Lord is from the Jews (John 4:22) and for the Jews, but not for them only. He came for the whole world and He waits—no, He longs — to give life to all who will come to Him, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Just so, Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope, by God’s grace, will strive to be a channel of His love, bringing the message of salvation to the whole world, starting in Saint Louis, then in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth! Is there any greater message to bring to a lost and hurting world? Is there any greater thievery than keeping such knowledge and love to ourselves?! J

A number of kind friends have asked what they might do to help. What happiness that is to me. As I write this, I am yet in San Diego and hope to make my first trip to Saint Louis to look for a convent/house/facility in the next few weeks.* Though I’ve not yet made a list of what we may need, I’ve been dreaming! Here are a few things that come immediately to mind: Prayer (always and above all else), finances, facilities, furniture—especially a few beds for the Sisters who will be starting with me!—a popcorn machine for movies (that do the heart good) at the convent, a gardener, a carpenter/handyman, folks to build bookcases, to set up a library of 2,000+ books, to sew habits, to find a beautiful Angelus bell that can be heard for miles around (unless, of course, the bells of the parish in which we settle already are in place, and ring!), and talented men and women to teach the children art and music and all that invites them to explore and experience the beauty of God’s world.

My heart is flooded with endless dreams for building the community and reaching out to every corner and nook of the city and to every soul who longs to know the depth of God’s love and the treasures of our glorious faith. All for Him. All for the world our blessed Lord came to save.

How can those, who may wish, jump in and help or even find us at this point? As of this writing, I am yet on the staff of Catholic Answers in San Diego with whom I have been privileged to work for the past almost-nine years. As soon as the new community finds a location in Saint Louis, I will make the transition from Catholic Answers.* [Ed. Sentence with contact info was removed because everything has changed since Rosalind wrote this article.]

I pray that our Blessed Lord will lead us to our new home in Saint Louis within the next few months,* after which we’ll work quickly to establish a website, a new e-mail and mailing address, a non-profit status, and begin work on a 501(c)3 so that financial and other gifts can be tax deductible.

My beloved brother, David, President of the Association of Hebrew Catholics (as you who receive this newsletter know), has asked me to write this article to give somewhat of a description of the new religious community, a sense of our charism and of our beginning life and plans. As you may have surmised by now, we will be a contemplative-active evangelistic and teaching community whose daytime activities will, in part, take place in the streets of Saint Louis and whose evening activities will take place both in homes and in the convent: teaching classes, inviting individuals and families over for some chicken soup, answering questions about the faith, and sharing life in the Messiah who came that we might have life!

It is a tremendous joy for me to be coming to Saint Louis, the very headquarters of the AHC. To think that the God of Israel, the God who sent His Son, has brought two Jewish siblings from Brooklyn into His glorious Church, and now to work for Him in the same city, is more than I could have hoped for. I am deeply grateful, too, for such a shepherd as Archbishop Raymond L. Burke. How very happy I am to be becoming a member of the flock of God entrusted to his care.

As soon as our community is somewhat settled in Saint Louis, I will write an update on our status, location, and on all that God has done. Please know that I will cherish your prayers for all that lies ahead. What happiness, what freedom, what joy it is to live lives fully dependant on the One who gave His all for us!

God bless you, my dear Mishpochah (that’s Hebrew for Family)! We, the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope, will pray also for you, that, together, we will strive to hold nothing back from God and that all whose lives we touch will come to know the love of our Savior for every soul, and the life—the blessed abundant life—He waits to give to all who call upon His Name. One of my favorite verses shines more brightly now than ever:

“Eye has not seen, neither has ear heard,
neither has it entered into the heart of man,
the things that are in store for those who love Him!”

One more:

“O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?
Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be glory for ever. Amen.”

My love to you all, in our Lord and His Mother, the Mother of our Messiah, the Mother of Israel’s Hope!

Rosalind Moss
(Soon to be: Sister Miriam of the Lamb of God!)
March 5, 2008

* [Ed. Since Rosalind wrote this article, she has found a convent at St. George’s Parish. See “On Wings of Prayer”, page 27.]

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