Upcoming Vocation Day!

Saturday, May 1st, 2010:

Who: The Daughters of St. Paul

What: You're invited to join us for our Vocation Day!

When: This Saturday, May 1st from 1-4pm

Where: Pauline Books and Media

Why: To learn more about the Daughters of St. Paul, our history and our Founder


We hope to see you this weekend, please contact us if you have any questions!

Zacchaeus and the Little Ones

Saturday, April 17, 2010:

One of our new activities here at the book center has been our "Bible Stories for Children". Today, Jackie helped out with the last session this Spring. The children listened to the story of Zacchaeus. One of our volunteers for this program began by gathering all the kids around her at the "Children's Corner" in our book center. She then read the story to them and asked them questions. The children listened attentively and enthusiastically answered all her questions. Our volunteer also helped the children see how the story of Zacchaeus applied in their own lives. Zacchaeus' life was changed by his encounter with Christ. To help the children understand this transformation in their daily life, the children created butterflies from paper plates using many color crayons. After some refreshments, the kids also had a chance to perform in a skit about the call of Zacchaeus from the sycamore tree. At the end of our time together, everyone drew a picture of the story of Zacchaeus on puzzle paper, cut out the puzzle and took the pieces home along with the butterfly paper plates. We had a lot of fun!

P.S. Thank you Jesus for the great love you show us through Zacchaeus' story!

Vocation Dinner at UMSL

Tuesday, April 13, 2010:

Jackie and Laura visited the Catholic Newman Center (http://www.cncumsl.org/) at UMSL (University of Missouri St. Louis http://www.umsl.edu/) to talk with the college students about vocations. The evening started with Mass at the Newman Center celebrated by Fr. Bill Kempf, the Director of the Center. During the Mass, one Sister from the Daughters of Charity (www.daughters-of-charity.org) and a Sister from another community shared their vocational journey. After Mass we all had a wonderful dinner together and Jackie and Laura shared their vocation stories. We answered some of the students' questions about religious life and we left some of our vocation materials for them to read as well. It was so nice to be with this great group of college students. We stayed on after dinner to hang out with some of them to get to know them and what's going on in their lives. A big thank you to the Newman Center for inviting us and welcoming us into their "home!"

May God watch over, bless, and protect all our young people!

How do you know God is calling you?

Saturday, April 10, 2010:

Well...how do you know? Today, we had our Pauline vocation day here at the convent. We had two young women visiting us. Our guest speaker was Sr. Emi Magnificat. We began our program at about 1:00pm after the arrival of the women. After a brief visit in our chapel and some social time, Laura, Jackie, Sr. Emi and the young women proceeded to the Postulants' study room for our sharing. Sr. Emi shared her vocation story and thereafter we engaged in a discussion of various "religious life as a vocation" questions. It was enlightening for all of us present. Laura and Jackie also had a chance to share a bit about their vocational discernment journey. At the conclusion of the presentation, we provided a handout about vocation resources that one could use. Key pointers to the vocation search included: Pray, Learn, Search, Visit and Act (www.scribd.com/doc/30131997). After our session, we took a "coffee break" where we enjoyed visiting with the young women as they got a chance to learn more about us. We concluded our vocation day with a time of adoration of Jesus in our convent chapel. Sr. Emi guided our time of adoration by sharing with us the Pauline way of making a Holy Hour following our spirituality of Jesus Master, Our Way, Truth and Life. We thank God for the opportunity we had to share our life with the young women who came to visit us...so when are you coming?

P.S. O Jesus Eternal Shepherd of our souls, send good laborers into your harvest!

Love Conquers All...Evil Devours Itself!

Friday, April 9, 2010:

Have you watched this movie? It's a must see! Today, we had our St. Paul movie night where we served popcorn and pizza to about 40 people who came to our bookcenter. At the end of our evening together, we enjoyed a lively discussion of people's insights from the movie. We were amazed at how much suffering John Paul II endured in his personal life - from bearing the death of his loved ones to the discernment of his vocation to the priesthood - all of which formed him to become the person he was in his papacy. We also saw how greatly the Polish people suffered in the communist regime and yet how their faith remained strong in the midst of so many trials. Truly from JP II's life, we saw that God carefully designs all our life experiences to mold us into the people He created us to be. Also, no matter what we go through in life, our motivation must be LOVE, for as St. Paul says "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). Now Venerable JP II (http://www.vicariatusurbis.org/Beatificazione/English/HomePage.htm), let us ask for his intercession to choose love above all the things that we may be going through in our lives...because love conquers all. Venerable John Paul II, intercede for us!

P.S. Welcome to our next movie night on Friday May 14 at 6:00pm. We are watching...St. Rita!

Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 2- Monday, April 4, 2010:

Happy Easter! We hope you all had a good one - we certainly did :-) On Saturday night, our St. Louis community attended mass at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church in Florissant, MO (http://www.stangelam.org/). There were over 20 people being received into the Church. We even had some couples getting their marriages blessed after the mass. God is good because He makes all things new! On Sunday, we went for mass at our local parish, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The rest of the day was spent in community at home where we enjoyed an Easter dinner. We all worked on different foods and drinks for the special meal. In the evening, we enjoyed a time of relaxation by watching a movie together. Monday was a particularly fun day where we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens (http://www.mobot.org/). It was so beautiful to see the signs of spring in the air - the tulips were absolutely amazing! This gorgeous outing was very much a wonderful reminder that Christ is risen...He is risen indeed! Thanks be to God our Father for giving us His Son Jesus, Our Lord and Savior!

P.S. How did you celebrate (or still celebrating...) Easter this year?

Wonderful Retreat!

Thursday April 1 - Saturday, April 3, 2010:

To accompany Our Lord during these most sacred moments of our liturgical year, our postulant community went on retreat to Il Ritiro Franciscan retreat center (http://www.il-ritiro.org/) in Dittmer, Missouri. The retreat grounds were very beautiful and serene. It was such a grace-filled opportunity to spend time with Jesus, experience His Love for us, and show our love for Him. We began our silent retreat after dinner and thereafter went to one of the local parishes for Holy Thursday Mass. On Friday, Sr. Rebecca set up a cross in a prominent place in our living room to help us venerate Our Lord - a tradition that is practiced in our community. Throughout the day, we had the opportunity to kiss the cross, bow, kneel, or say a prayer as a sign of our desire to be with Jesus on this most holy day of fasting and penance. On Friday afternoon, we left for St. Louis Abbey (http://www.stlouisabbey.org/) for the Good Friday service which was solemnly celebrated by the monks. Afterwards, we prayed Stations of the Cross together at our retreat house in the evening. Our retreat concluded on Saturday morning as we waited for Our Lord's resurrection with recollection and thanksgiving. Thank you Lord for calling us to spend time with you!

P.S. How did you prepare for Easter this year?

Pauline Vocation Day this April!

"How do you know God is calling you??" Come and see at our Pauline Vocation Day this April. We will share some vocation stories and provide some resources for your vocation search.

Date: Saturday, April 10, 2010

Time: 1:00pm to 4:00pm

Location: Pauline Books and Media, 9804 Watson Road, St. Louis, MO, 63126

Contact Info: 314-965-6935 or fsppost@aol.com or fsppostulants@gmail.com

See you there!

PS. You are in our prayers :-)

Holy Week and Easter Preparations...

Sunday, March 28, 2010:

This weekend we began our preparations for Holy Week on a contemplative note. All of us in our St. Louis community went up to the Carmelite Monastery on Clayton road to participate in a Tenebrae service. The service was open to the public and consisted mainly of praying the psalms. The mood was solemn and one of mourning the passion and death of Our Lord. There was a large candlestick holder in the sanctuary holding 15 candles. A candle was extinguished after each of the psalms and prayers. When the last psalm was read, the last candle was held behind the altar signifying the death of Christ. The room was in darkness. It was such a great reminder of how desolate and lifeless we would be if Christ died and did not rise from the dead! As St. Paul, said, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all" (1 Cor 15: 17-19). Thanks be to God that Christ was raised from the dead symbolically shown through the bringing forth the 15th candle from behind the altar at the end of the Tenebrae service. What a grace-filled evening! To continue our Triduum journey with the Lord, our postulant community will be on retreat from Thursday until Saturday. Please know that you are in our prayers - thanks for yours.

P.S. Let us who have lived with Him, die with Him who has loved us to the end...Have a blessed Triduum!