Pro-life Dinner

Our community was invited to a pro-life dinner about two weeks ago by Mrs. Usselmann, founder of Our Lady of Guadalupe for Life (http://www.ourladyforlife.org/). Her daughter is a Daughter of St. Paul! The group focuses on putting billboards on major highways in our area with a pro-life message and picture of Our Blessed Mother - Our Lady of Guadalupe. Auxiliary Bishop Hermann celebrated mass and attended the dinner too. He has been an important part of the ministry and has blessed many of the billboards. At the dinner, Mrs. Usselmann shared how many peoples' lives have been transformed after reading the billboards on the highways! It sure was amazing to see how this great work which began from a simple pilgrimage experience she made to Mexico about 20 years ago, has made such a difference in many peoples' lives today. What a powerful way to reach out to people in our time with the saving message of Jesus Christ...and of course, you can never go wrong with Our Blessed Mother!

That's a first!

We planned our first Seniors' day event (not only for seniors !) - and all went well :-)...thanks be to God! We had about 30 people in attendance. The topic this Fall will be on "Understanding the Mass". Our main speaker, Fr. Thomas Hinni, a Vincentian priest will be guiding us into a deeper understanding of the Mass while addressing some of the changes that will take place next year. Lots of people raised some pretty good questions, which was great! After the talk, we had some time in Eucharistic Adoration with music prepared by Laura and Erin and supported by our "postulant choir" of Cheryl and Theresa. Jackie guided us in the Eucharistic Visit. After our time with Jesus, we had a little social time with those who attended in our book center where we enjoyed some treats made by our volunteers. It was a good day overall...exhausted, but satisfied :-) Looking forward to next month!

Introducing Theresa

My name is Theresa. I am one of the new postulants this year, along with Erin and Cheryl. I am really excited to introduce myself to everyone who reads this blog. Thanks to those of you who have been keeping me and the other postulants in their prayers.

I am the eldest of three sisters and one brother. I love to write on my blog, read books, goof around and bake cupcakes.

My family is one of the most important things in my life. My parents lives in Oklahoma now but I was born in Steubenville, OH. My father, Chris Noble, was a teacher of Evangelism at the University of Steubenville. I remember having a great desire even at a young age to join him in his efforts to bring others to the faith. My father let me join him in one of his evangelism classes and I filled out the workbook right along with the other adults there, (quite possibly along with some Daughters of St. Paul, because my father told me there were some FSPs in his class!).

For a variety of reasons, I rejected the faith of my childhood when I was fourteen and I spent twelve or so years as an atheist, agnostic, and finally a seeker who eventually found her way back to the Catholic faith of my family. A few years after my “reversion,” I began to hear God’s call to discern religious life. At first I totally ignored it; I really loved God but I wanted to get married and becoming a religious was just not in my plans. But thanks to a great spiritual director, I began to listen to God and realized that He was inviting me on this beautiful adventure.

I found out about the Daughters of St. Paul while I was watching this YouTube video from Father Stan Fortuna. I had first seen him speak in Oakland, CA and I really identified with his vocational story. In this YouTube video, Fr. Stan mentions "his girls" at the Daughters of St. Paul and I thought to myself, "If this priest likes this order, I might like it too." Sure enough, after a retreat and heartfelt prayer I felt myself called to enter postulancy with the Daughters.

I left a great job as a Systems Analyst in San Francisco, fabulous friends and a wonderful family in Oklahoma to come to St. Louis and I am excited to get to know a new place and follow God on this adventure He has planned for me.

Please pray for me as I begin this journey of further discernment; I definitely could use your prayers. Be assured I keep you in mine as well, God bless!

Fr Lockwood's Church History Presentation

Our bookcenter events have begun again for the fall. Our first one was the first of three lectures on Church history. They'll all be given by Rev. Gregory Lockwood from St. Elizabeth of Hungary parish here in St. Louis (www.psichurch.com/churches/016stelizabeth). We had a wonderful turn out for the event! Our conference room was packed and every single chair was taken. We had to hunt up more chairs as more and more people came through the doors. For the second lecture he'll be giving in October, we've decided to move the lecture out into our bookcenter so there'll be more space. Hopefully we have enough chairs though! Father did a great job. He's a very engaging speaker. He REALLY knows his church history and he adds a little humor too when he speaks! We're looking forward to next month already!

The New and Revised...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010:

Well, here we are...the new and revised postulant group :-) We thank God for sending us Erin, Theresa, and Cheryl. Please keep us in your prayers - you are in ours too. We look forward to sharing our exciting formation journey experiences with you. Stay tuned to learn more about Erin, Theresa, and Cheryl....info coming soon!

Community Sunday

Sunday, September 12, 2010:

After a long week, it was nice to sleep in and have a relaxing day of rest. We attended noon mass at Assumption Catholic Church (www.assumptionstl.org) and then spent our day at The Butterfly House (http://www.butterflyhouse.org/). It was thrilling to see all the beautiful butterflies flying around inside the conservatory. We took lots of pictures. They were such a pretty sight...all sorts of colors, sizes, species...you name it! Afterwards we went to another part of the Butterfly house complex and had some fun riding on a carousel...something some of us had not done since we were kids!! It was great :-) We then went out for an early dinner to Blueberry Hill (http://www.blueberryhill.com/) located in University City. The cafe is famous for its burgers - which by the way were pretty amazing! Anyway, we had dinner at one of the tables on their sidewalk while enjoying the city which was teeming with life - lots of young people, people in costumes (not sure why...), people playing drums, and music of all sorts. We truly had a fun-filled day :-) Thank God for Sundays, now we are rejuvenated for the week!

Labor Day Celebrations!

Monday, September 6, 2010:

Today we celebrated Labor day in style here at the convent. We all chipped in to prepare different cuisine for our fiesta. Needless to say, we had some very fine foods including some great BBQ by one of our sisters :-) Lunch was our big meal of the day where we truly enjoyed each others' company at table. To top it up, we went to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard (http://www.teddrewes.com/) in the evening. It was THE St. Louis experience of the day...especially for our new ones!

Vocation Day!

Just a reminder of our monthly Vocation Day coming up on Saturday, September 11, 2010 from 1-4pm. All young women ages 18-30 are welcome to join us. Our topic this month is Discernment 101, Daughters of St. Paul: Our Beginnings. The event is being held here at Pauline Books and Media 9804 Watson Rd. St. Louis, MO. See the flyer for more information and please gives us a call or send us a message if you have any questions!

Good News...New Postulants!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010:

Today, the Lord blessed our community with three new postulants! Finally, the day has come and we are SO happy to have Erin Nolan, Theresa Noble and Cheryl Galema with us :-) We had a simple and grace-filled entrance ceremony during Morning Prayer where we invoked our co-foundress Sr. Thecla Merlo to intercede for them as they begin their new journey. Our formator, Sr. Rebecca then presented Theresa, Erin and Cheryl with an image of Jesus our Divine Master as a reminder that they are to be drawn closer into Him so that He may be formed in them. At the conclusion of Morning Prayer, we all welcomed our new members with an embrace. Immediately following was the celebration of mass for our three new postulants, Erin, Theresa, and Cheryl and for their families in our convent chapel. Please join us in thanking God for His goodness and for sending us laborers for His abundant harvest. Pray for us that we may be faithful to the work of the Divine Master in us!