Thinking about LIFE

Last week over 500 teenagers gathered for mass on Friday evening at Incarnate Word, a parish that we attend from time to time. Most of the postulants attended the mass because Erin was playing the viola with the other musicians. It was so moving to see so many teenagers gathered for a beautiful cause.

As I looked around the mass and saw each person, individual, unique and wanted, I really felt the presence of Jesus rejoicing. He was filled with joy that we were gathering to pray for the lives of all human beings, including those living the womb.

Please join with all of the postulants in praying for all mothers who are contemplating abortion. Help them to understand the beauty of the child growing in their womb and the miracles that God can work if only we can trust in Him. Please also pray for all of the women who have had abortions, that they may realize the hurt that the abortion has caused them and begin the healing process that will bring them peace.

Peace,

Theresa

Jan 13: We have a new Bishop!!

This was one unique occasion we had - to attend a bishop's ordination. We were blessed to know Bishop Rice while he was Monsignor because he celebrated mass for our community at our convent. What a wonderful and holy man of God! The ordination was just beautiful and the music...heavenly! We were among hundreds of Catholic folk gathered at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica (www.cathedralstl.org) where Archbishop Carlson ordained now Bishop Rice to be an auxillary bishop of St. Louis. Bishop Rice is known for his work in promoting vocations in the St. Louis area. In his role as the vocation director for the diocese, I think he visited almost all the Catholic schools and spoke about vocations! What a heart on fire for God...amazing. Go bishop! You have our prayers :-)

Peace,
Jackie.

Jan 8: Happy Birthday Laura!

Today we celebrated Laura's birthday! It was her first in the convent and so we really wanted to make it special - and it was! We had a beautiful time of prayer in the evening called "sharing of graces" which Laura loves!! It's basically a time when we review how the Lord has granted us graces to live the week. We were particularly thankful today for the gift of Laura in our community :-) For dinner we enjoyed one of Laura's favorite dishes - PIZZA and yellow cake with white frosting!! She also enjoyed a couple of gifts too from the community (can you guess what?) and then we spent the evening playing a game (one of Laura's hobbies). Can you tell we had a Laura-ful day???

Peace,

Jackie.

Jan 3, 2011: Vocation Talk at St. Simons

We were invited to speak to the Parish School of Religion (PSR) children from St. Simon the Apostle parish (www.stsimonchurch.org) on vocations. Sr. Rebecca and Fr. Anthony Yates, one of the priests of the parish, gave an introductory talk to all the boys and girls. Afterwards, Sr. Rebecca gave a presentation to the girls on our community, life and mission. Fr. Anthony gave a presentation to the boys. During our time with the girls, Theresa, Cheryl and Jackie also had an opportunity to share their vocation stories and journey. It was a wonderful opportunity to be present to them and share some of our experiences in our life :-)

Jan 1, 2011: Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! We hope your year has began well! After our retreat, we went out to a Vietnamese restaurant, a treat from one of our sister's family. In the evening, we enjoyed the Way of Lights at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL (http://www.snows.org/). Theresa and Jackie enjoyed the camel rides at the grounds. It was a glorious day!

Dec 31: Tornado and 10-min Storm!

We were grateful to the Lord for his protection on the last day of the year when a tornado and storm came through our area. The tornado touched down and destroyed houses in Sunset Hills, the area bordering our neighborhood! Our area was out of power for most of Dec 31. We were on retreat however, which made for a very peaceful night and intimate time of community adoration of Jesus at our convent in the candle light :-) The postulants also spent an hour of adoration (11pm-12midnight) and midnight mass with Bishop Hermann at Incarnate Word parish (www.incarnate-word.org). It was great! Power returned as we concluded our retreat on Jan 1. Thanks be to God who gives us everything that is good!

Christmas Blessings!

We had a lovely Christmas together as a community. We attended mass at the Cathedral Basilica and thereafter enjoyed a Christmas dinner. We had fun opening gifts from our advent angels and enjoyed discovering who they were on Christmas day!