It’s time once again to catch you up on our adventures in Boston! This past week has been full of St. Paul, Italian class, and sunshine! The weather has been beautiful, which we appreciated when we went to the North End of Boston on Sunday. Sr. Margaret Joseph, Sr. Mary Frances, and I went to Mass in Italian at St. Leonard’s Church, and then we went to a “ristorante” for “il pranzo italiano” (an Italian lunch). I had ravioli – it was delicious! It was a great way to get a taste of the culture of Italy.
Classes are in full swing! Italian class finished yesterday, but as one sister told me at breakfast, my study of the Italian language has only just begun! One of the reasons that we study Italian is to be able to read the Founder and Co-foundress in their original language. Since Fr. Alberione and Mother Thecla are no longer alive, a primary way that we receive and pass on the charism now is through their writings. So it’s very important to be able to read what they really wrote! I’m looking forward to being able to do that.
Another way that we come to understand the charism is by studying St. Paul. In the class on St. Paul that Celia is teaching, we have been looking at the “Good News” that Paul so passionately proclaimed. What strikes me about this is how convinced Paul was of God’s tremendous love for us, shown in His sending His Son to be one of us. “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Paul was also convinced that because Jesus lived and died for us, everything is changed. We are now living in “a new creation,” and Christ is living in us. It's incredible, isn't it?
So now you have a little taste of what we’ve been living and learning this week. Sr. Carmen Christi is on retreat at our St. Thecla’s Retreat House until today, so keep her in prayer. I will go on retreat at St. Thecla’s next week. If you have any prayer requests for us, don’t hesitate to send them our way!
Here’s a little St. Paul trivia for you. Complete this quotation of St. Paul: “It is no longer I who live....” For bonus points: what letter of St. Paul is this from?
God bless you,
Emily
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
First Profession, St. Paul Summer Program Pictures
Sr. Lynette Constance, Sr. Karen Marie (novice formator), Sr. Emi Magnificat, Sr. Margaret Christopher (provincial superior), Sr. Ana Maria
Sr. Emi Magnificat pronounces her vows.
Sr. Lynette Constance professes the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a Daughter of St. Paul for one year.
Sr. Carmen Christi and Emily with the St. Paul Summer Program "team": Sr. Margaret Michael (seated) and Sr. Christine Virginia (right)
Sr. Margaret Michael, national vocation director. Sr. Michael accompanies the young women who are in discernment with the Daughters of St. Paul.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Blogging from Boston
We have been in Boston for a little more than a week now, and we are soaking in all the beautiful experiences of prayers, study, and community. When we arrived, we found the Sisters in the middle of the St. Paul Summer Program. This is a program for high school women to come and stay at the convent in Boston to experience the life and mission of the Sisters. The young women who come live with the Sisters, experiencing the prayer life, attending classes on the spirituality and charism, and joining in experiences of mission. I myself am a graduate of the St. Paul Summer Program, having come for three years in a row! It’s a great opportunity for young women interested in learning more about religious life. You can read more about it on our website: http://www.daughtersofstpaul.com/daughters/vocations/events.html#events.
We were able to join the Summer Program participants for some of their prayer times, classes, and recreation. Sr. Carmen and I taught a class on Mother Thecla.
The next big happening was First Profession! Sr. Lynette Constance and Sr. Emi Magnificat made their first profession as Daughters of St. Paul on Saturday, June 28. The Mass was beautiful, the two newly professed Sisters were radiant, and the whole day was a celebration of God’s love, grace, and mercy. The next day, we joined Srs. Lynette and Emi and their families at our retreat house for an afternoon meal and games. Sr. Lynette left for Singapore on Thursday; Sr. Emi will leave for St. Louis at the end of July; and Sr. Ana Maria (who did her postulancy and novitiate here but will make her first profession in her native country of Romania) will depart in a couple weeks.
On Monday, classes began! The class on St. Paul has been amazing so far. Celia provides so many insights into the character and theology of Paul. It really makes me want to get to know Paul better. I hope to take this year as an opportunity to “make friends” with this great saint who is the true Father and Founder of our Congregation! Sr. Raymond has been joining us for the St. Paul class, and Sr. Frances is one of our classmates for Italian class!
Mercoledi, abbiamo preghato preghiere serale in italiano e poi abbiamo mangiato una cena italiana. Abbiamo parlato soltanto italiano alla tavola. Molto difficile! On Wednesday, we prayed Evening Prayer in Italian and then we ate an Italian supper. We spoke only Italian at table. It was very difficult!
A big gift this week has been the presence of Sr. Filippa. Sr. Filippa is a Daughter of St. Paul from Italy who is here in the States to guide the annual retreats for our Sisters. This past week she has been guiding five of the senior Sisters in reflecting on their life and vocation in the light of St. Paul’s life and vocation. Sr. Carmen and I have been blessed to attend her conferences. Sr. Filippa is truly filled with the spirit of St. Paul, and she communicates that every time she speaks about him. She has helped me to see how rooted Paul’s life was in his experience of the love of God, and how everything in Paul’s life pointed not to himself but to Jesus.
I’m sure that there’s more, but this post is long enough! To conclude: can anyone tell us the meaning of this Italian sentence? Gesu Maestro, Via, Verita, e Vita, abbi pieta di noi. God bless you!
- Emily
We were able to join the Summer Program participants for some of their prayer times, classes, and recreation. Sr. Carmen and I taught a class on Mother Thecla.
The next big happening was First Profession! Sr. Lynette Constance and Sr. Emi Magnificat made their first profession as Daughters of St. Paul on Saturday, June 28. The Mass was beautiful, the two newly professed Sisters were radiant, and the whole day was a celebration of God’s love, grace, and mercy. The next day, we joined Srs. Lynette and Emi and their families at our retreat house for an afternoon meal and games. Sr. Lynette left for Singapore on Thursday; Sr. Emi will leave for St. Louis at the end of July; and Sr. Ana Maria (who did her postulancy and novitiate here but will make her first profession in her native country of Romania) will depart in a couple weeks.
On Monday, classes began! The class on St. Paul has been amazing so far. Celia provides so many insights into the character and theology of Paul. It really makes me want to get to know Paul better. I hope to take this year as an opportunity to “make friends” with this great saint who is the true Father and Founder of our Congregation! Sr. Raymond has been joining us for the St. Paul class, and Sr. Frances is one of our classmates for Italian class!
Mercoledi, abbiamo preghato preghiere serale in italiano e poi abbiamo mangiato una cena italiana. Abbiamo parlato soltanto italiano alla tavola. Molto difficile! On Wednesday, we prayed Evening Prayer in Italian and then we ate an Italian supper. We spoke only Italian at table. It was very difficult!
A big gift this week has been the presence of Sr. Filippa. Sr. Filippa is a Daughter of St. Paul from Italy who is here in the States to guide the annual retreats for our Sisters. This past week she has been guiding five of the senior Sisters in reflecting on their life and vocation in the light of St. Paul’s life and vocation. Sr. Carmen and I have been blessed to attend her conferences. Sr. Filippa is truly filled with the spirit of St. Paul, and she communicates that every time she speaks about him. She has helped me to see how rooted Paul’s life was in his experience of the love of God, and how everything in Paul’s life pointed not to himself but to Jesus.
I’m sure that there’s more, but this post is long enough! To conclude: can anyone tell us the meaning of this Italian sentence? Gesu Maestro, Via, Verita, e Vita, abbi pieta di noi. God bless you!
- Emily
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sr. Mary Joane Caritas and Sr. Jennifer Tecla rejoice after having pronounced their "yes" to the Lord as Daughters of St. Paul forever!
Sr. Mary Joane Caritas pronounces her final vows while Sr. Ana Maria, Sr. Antonieta and Sr. Margaret Christopher stand as witnesses.We're Back!
Thanks for your patience in waiting for us to be up and posting again. Since our last entry,
much has happened. Our Mother General, Sr. Maria Antonieta and her General Councilors, have returned to Italy after having spent almost a month and a half visiting the sisters of our US/English Speaking Canada Province.
Emily went on vacation to visit her family in Buffalo and Sr. Carmen went on vacation to visit her family in Virginia. This is always a special time to reconnect and spend time with our loved ones.
The big news here in St. Louis is that our community is growing again. We have been blessed to welcome Sr. Mary Joane Caritas, our newly perpetually professed Sister. She and Sr. Jennifer Tecla have been in Rome for 9 months together with Sisters from all over the world who were taking special courses in preparation for their final vows. Both Sr. Joane and Sr. Jennifer pronounced their final vows at our Motherhouse in Boston on June 15th. We hope you enjoy some of the pictures that capture the joy and the beauty of this wonderful celebration. Sr. Jennifer Tecla has been stationed in our community in Philadelphia, PA.
We hope you all have been informed about the PAULINE YEAR declared by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. Yes, on the evening of June 28 of this year, the vigil of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the Great Apostle Paul's birth begins. It will continue through June 29, 2009.We will keep you up to date with the many activities underway to help us celebrate this year.
Like Paul, we will be traveling this week to Boston where we will be until the end of July. What, you might say, will you do in Boston for a month? Let us fill you in!
First, we will have the joy of being present for the first profession of our novices on June 28th. Among them is Sr. Emi Bratt, who has already been assigned to our community here in St. Louis.
We are so excited to have her join us! Then a dear friend of our community and well-known Scripture teacher, Celia Sirois, will be teaching us classes on St. Paul to prepare us to offer animation to parishes on Paul during this great year. We will also be immersing ourselves in the beautiful Italian language under the direction of Sr. Margaret Joseph and spending time with our Senior Sisters who will share with us some aspects of the history of our congregation and their own vocational journeys.
And last but not least we will spend several days on retreat at our Mother Thecla retreat house. In those days, we will have the privilege to be "alone with God alone"--reflecting on His love and action in our lives and being renewed to serve Him and His people. You can count on our prayers for you and your intentions. Please feel free to send them to us if you would like.
Stay tuned for our weekly blog updates!
God bless you,
Emily and Sr. Carmen Christi
much has happened. Our Mother General, Sr. Maria Antonieta and her General Councilors, have returned to Italy after having spent almost a month and a half visiting the sisters of our US/English Speaking Canada Province.
Emily went on vacation to visit her family in Buffalo and Sr. Carmen went on vacation to visit her family in Virginia. This is always a special time to reconnect and spend time with our loved ones.
The big news here in St. Louis is that our community is growing again. We have been blessed to welcome Sr. Mary Joane Caritas, our newly perpetually professed Sister. She and Sr. Jennifer Tecla have been in Rome for 9 months together with Sisters from all over the world who were taking special courses in preparation for their final vows. Both Sr. Joane and Sr. Jennifer pronounced their final vows at our Motherhouse in Boston on June 15th. We hope you enjoy some of the pictures that capture the joy and the beauty of this wonderful celebration. Sr. Jennifer Tecla has been stationed in our community in Philadelphia, PA.
We hope you all have been informed about the PAULINE YEAR declared by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. Yes, on the evening of June 28 of this year, the vigil of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the Great Apostle Paul's birth begins. It will continue through June 29, 2009.We will keep you up to date with the many activities underway to help us celebrate this year.
Like Paul, we will be traveling this week to Boston where we will be until the end of July. What, you might say, will you do in Boston for a month? Let us fill you in!
First, we will have the joy of being present for the first profession of our novices on June 28th. Among them is Sr. Emi Bratt, who has already been assigned to our community here in St. Louis.
We are so excited to have her join us! Then a dear friend of our community and well-known Scripture teacher, Celia Sirois, will be teaching us classes on St. Paul to prepare us to offer animation to parishes on Paul during this great year. We will also be immersing ourselves in the beautiful Italian language under the direction of Sr. Margaret Joseph and spending time with our Senior Sisters who will share with us some aspects of the history of our congregation and their own vocational journeys.
And last but not least we will spend several days on retreat at our Mother Thecla retreat house. In those days, we will have the privilege to be "alone with God alone"--reflecting on His love and action in our lives and being renewed to serve Him and His people. You can count on our prayers for you and your intentions. Please feel free to send them to us if you would like.
Stay tuned for our weekly blog updates!
God bless you,
Emily and Sr. Carmen Christi
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Radio, Cleaning, and Other Apostolic Adventures
This week our preparations for Mother General's visit have escalated! Everyone pitched in to clean and organize the house. I must say, it looks great! We've also been preparing reports for Mother General on the apostolic reality of St. Louis -- what kind of a place it is, demographics, statistics, etc., as well as what our response has been in the area of the bookcenter and outreach. We're all looking forward to seeing Mother General, some of us for the first time! She will arrive on Tuesday, so please pray for safe travel for her and her councilors, and for our community as we live this time with them.
In the midst of all this, Sr. Carmen and I went to the Catholic radio station here in St. Louis (Covenant Network -- AM 1460 or 1080 for our St. Louis readers!) on Wednesday to record a half-hour program on vocations. We spoke about the vocation to the religious life in general, as well as the spirituality and apostolate of the Daughters of St. Paul in particular, and some of the vocational programs that we offer. It was my first experience with radio, and though I was very nervous going in, I enjoyed it very much. It made me think again about how powerful the media are and filled me with a desire to tell people about Jesus!
We've received some good questions from some of our readers, and we'll be working on responding to them this week. Feel free to ask any questions or leave any suggestions or any prayer requests.
In the meantime, does anyone know the answer to this triva question: Who was the first Daughter of St. Paul to come to the United States, and when did she come?
Aspettiamo la sua rispostas! (We await your answers!)
God bless you!
-Emily
In the midst of all this, Sr. Carmen and I went to the Catholic radio station here in St. Louis (Covenant Network -- AM 1460 or 1080 for our St. Louis readers!) on Wednesday to record a half-hour program on vocations. We spoke about the vocation to the religious life in general, as well as the spirituality and apostolate of the Daughters of St. Paul in particular, and some of the vocational programs that we offer. It was my first experience with radio, and though I was very nervous going in, I enjoyed it very much. It made me think again about how powerful the media are and filled me with a desire to tell people about Jesus!
We've received some good questions from some of our readers, and we'll be working on responding to them this week. Feel free to ask any questions or leave any suggestions or any prayer requests.
In the meantime, does anyone know the answer to this triva question: Who was the first Daughter of St. Paul to come to the United States, and when did she come?
Aspettiamo la sua rispostas! (We await your answers!)
God bless you!
-Emily
Friday, May 16, 2008
Come, Holy Spirit
This week has been blessed with many gifts of the Holy Spirit. Last Saturday we had a Mother Thecla Book Club meeting -- six girls came! We discussed a book about the Blessed Mother, had a time of Eucharistic Adoration, and concluded with a May Crowning at the grotto in our backyard. God has truly blessed our efforts to reach out to these girls and we are looking forward to continuing the book club in August.
Sunday we celebrated the great feast of Pentecost! Alina made "tongues of fire" that we hung in the dining room to remind us of the Holy Spirit's presence. We went to church we hadn't been to before (Immacolata Parish in Clayton, Missouri). On Tuesday we went to another new church, Little Flower Parish, for the first Mass of a newly ordained Dominican priest. It was a beautiful experience for me -- it made me reflect that God loves us so much, He calls us to give ourselves totally to Him.
We had forty people come for our lecture series on Wednesday. Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J., spoke on the dignity of the human person. It was both informative and inspiring.
Our preparations for Mother General's visit are continuing. We are preparing a report on the social/religious situation in our area, as well as cleaning house and learning some Italian -- poco a poco!
Before we leave you for this week, we want to ask you: for those of you who have been reading our blog regularly, as well as for those who have just started reading it, do you have any questions about our life? Is there anything you would like to ask us about our prayer, our classes, our apostolate, anything else? Please feel free to comment with your questions and we will respond to them. Thanks for reading! God bless you!
Sunday we celebrated the great feast of Pentecost! Alina made "tongues of fire" that we hung in the dining room to remind us of the Holy Spirit's presence. We went to church we hadn't been to before (Immacolata Parish in Clayton, Missouri). On Tuesday we went to another new church, Little Flower Parish, for the first Mass of a newly ordained Dominican priest. It was a beautiful experience for me -- it made me reflect that God loves us so much, He calls us to give ourselves totally to Him.
We had forty people come for our lecture series on Wednesday. Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J., spoke on the dignity of the human person. It was both informative and inspiring.
Our preparations for Mother General's visit are continuing. We are preparing a report on the social/religious situation in our area, as well as cleaning house and learning some Italian -- poco a poco!
Before we leave you for this week, we want to ask you: for those of you who have been reading our blog regularly, as well as for those who have just started reading it, do you have any questions about our life? Is there anything you would like to ask us about our prayer, our classes, our apostolate, anything else? Please feel free to comment with your questions and we will respond to them. Thanks for reading! God bless you!
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