Description

Oil Dedicated to Sister Cecilia Aires

The Sister Cecilia Aires is dedicated to the Argentinian nun who died in 2016                                                                                                                     Cecelia Maria Aires lived in Saints Teresa and Joseph Monastery in Santa Fe, Argentina.  She was dedicated to prayer and the contemplative life.

She graduated as a nurse at 26 years of age.  Sister Cecilia Maria made her first vows as a Discalced Carmelite. In 2003, she made her final profession. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. The disease metastasized into her lungs.

She played the violin and was known for her sweetness and constant smile. In the final weeks of her illness, her condition worsened and she had to be hospitalized. From her bed, she never stopped praying.  Sister Cecilia offered up her sufferings with the certainty that her encounter with God was near.

She wrote her last wish on a piece of paper: “I was thinking about how I would like my funeral to be. First, some intense prayer and then a great celebration for everyone. Don’t forget to pray but don’t forget to celebrate either!”

The Discalced Carmelites announced her death as follows: “Jesus! Just two lines to let you know that our dearly beloved sister gently fell asleep in the Lord, after such a painful illness, always borne with joy and her surrender to her Divine Spouse.

Worldwide news

The Carmelites, have granted Aleteia permission to tell the inspiring story of Sister Cecilia’s joy in the face of suffering.

Photos circulating on the internet of a dying Carmelite sister are certainly, as they say, worth a thousand words. But the images that have traveled around the world are only part of the story. For those who lived her suffering beside her, the nun’s testimony of joy and peace was just as radiant as her face.

News of her failing health and her reflections spread quickly through social media. Even Pope Francis was following her situation. And Sister Cecilia Maria, a discalced Carmelite, knew about everyone’s prayer.

Despite her illness, she did not lose her joy, which was sustained by the support of her numerous family members, who remained close by.

Her joy was accompanied — or perhaps explained — by a profound state of prayer. Whenever she could, she put on her habit so as to participate at Mass in the hospital chapel. She lived these Masses with the same devotion that characterized her life behind the grille of the Carmel of Villa Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires.

Despite her illness, Sister Cecilia remained quite lucid. Though she couldn’t talk during her last months, her weak gestures at each Mass gave evidence of her attention and fervor. When the prayers of the faithful included the intention of the sick, her expression showed her gratitude.

As her death approached

Those who saw her spoke of her face as showing peace and joy — as someone awaiting the encounter with the One to whom she had given her life, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

During her last months, two religious sisters accompanied her: one, her blood sister, a nun of the Incarnate Word, and the other, a spiritual sister from her congregation. With her and like her, despite the sorrow, they were always smiling, as were the members of her family. This is a beautiful testimony to the power of the domestic Church, facing in unity difficult moments such as these.

“I am very content,” Sister Cecilia Maria wrote in May, “astonished by the work of God through suffering, and by so many people who pray for me.”

Even Pope Francis from Rome had assured her of his prayers in a voice message in which he told her that he knew of her offering and that he loved her very much.

Sister Cecilia healing oil/Pope John Paul II

It wasn’t the first time that the Vicar of Christ had his attention on Sister Cecilia. Before taking the habit, she had been able to personally tell Pope John Paul II about her vocation.

Some hours before dying, the Carmelite was able to receive Communion, wetting her lips with the Precious Blood of Our Lord. The illness had already, sometime before, taken the use of her tongue, “the most sacred paten for receiving his Body and Blood,” as she described it.

Enduring the pain and suffering from a losing battle with cancer, the nun from Argentina still showed a radiant, smiling face for days until she breathe her last on June 22. She was 43.

Sister Cecilia requested that in her funeral, in addition to prayer, there would be celebration. The beloved would at last embrace her Lover.

“Sister Cecilia has softly fallen asleep in the Lord, after an extremely painful illness.  She  always endured with joy and surrender to her Divine Spouse.” The sisters in the Carmel of Santa Fe said in announcing her death.