Meeting YHOPE

While we were in Boston, we also met with a group called YHOPE which stands for "Young Heralds of the Pauline Evangelization" led by Fr. Mike Harrington. Fr. Mike belongs to the Institute of Jesus the Priest, which is part of the Pauline Family. We joined them on a Saturday morning for some time of fellowship, Eucharistic Adoration, and faith sharing. We were very impressed of how Fr. Mike led the "visit" following the Jesus, Way, Truth, and Life method. After our visit with Jesus, we got acquainted with everyone and Jackie, Theresa and I shared with them our vocation stories.

Once in a while the YHOPErs also get together to lend a helping hand to those in need, like cooking for a group of Sisters. ;-) Recently, about 13 of them went to Madrid, Spain to attend the World Youth Day. You can read about it on their blog. How we wished we could join them. Now, we are praying we are able to go to WYD 2013 in Brazil!

Summer Highlights Part II

Moving on. Summer is a time of transition for most of us. For students and those who work in a school setting, summer marks the end of the school year and the beginning of another. The rest of the world experience this transition too in their own way.

Laura

For us, much has changed and will continue to change. Part of our trip to Boston as a postulant group is saying goodbye to Laura and Jackie as they move on to the next stage of formation as Novices.

Jackie

Hopefully, they will have time to be our guest bloggers so you all can be updated on their life at the Novitiate. This invitation goes to Sr. Emily and Sr. Sylwia as well (and Sr. Carmen too). It would be nice to hear from you all from time to time.

Scripture class. We also had Scripture class with Celia Sirois. Our focus was on the four Gospels and one of the objectives of our class is "to discover the theological/pastoral message of each of the four gospel writers and discern their meaning for today".  Celia Sirois has been teaching for the Daughters of St. Paul for many years. If you wish to hear her speak, you can watch one of her talks on Catholic TV.


Alright, it's time to study. Sr. Rebecca gave us our first reading assignment today!

Thanks for your continued prayers and know that we are praying for you too!

in Jesus,
Cheryl

P.S. Fill in the blank.
Our founder always emphasized that we, the Pauline Family, should have an attitude of _________. Which means we are to learn from everything. Throughout the day, like students in a classroom, we "sit" at the feet of Jesus, our Teacher, our Divine Master.

Summer Highlights Part I

As Theresa was saying last week, we are sooooo happy to be back in St. Louis! I arrived from my family visit on Saturday night and Sr. Rebecca arrived from Boston on Sunday afternoon. Our summer was packed! I was going through our pictures and I couldn't believe we did all that in the month that we were away.

We arrived in our motherhouse in Boston on June 29 and throughout our stay we met many of the Sisters stationed in Boston and those visiting from our communities around the US, Canada (Toronto), Argentina, Brazil, and Korea. (And I could be forgetting some more!)

We spent our first week getting to know the different departments where our Sisters work in our Boston community. It is so inspiring to listen to the Sisters talk about their "job" with a lot of passion and share with us their love for our mission and the people they hope to touch. There is so much love, prayer and help from above that goes into our apostolate, you can smell it in the air.

It was also my first time to celebrate the 4th of July. A bunch of us walked to Lars Anderson Park to watch the fireworks. We were there early to save a spot and played some games while waiting. If you ever played Pit, you know that part of it is yelling out the number of cards you want to trade with another player so we were learning how to count from 1 to 4 in many different languages: Polish, Italian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Swahili. It was fun! I really appreciate the multiculturalism of our community. 

This was just the beginning of our visit to Boston. I will be posting again soon so stay tuned!

Peace,
Cheryl

Home Alone II

Well, here I am again - home with Sr. Noel and Sr. Assumpta for a couple days with no other postulants around. Cheryl is in NJ visiting family for a couple days. Laura is in Virginia helping out at the bookcenter until she begins novitiate and Jackie is in Kenya on a long overdue visit home. And Sr. Rebecca is in Boston for a couple more days. God willing, we will have three new postulants in the middle of September, but for now I am enjoying this down time after a busy time in Boston.

You may remember the trouble I got into while home alone last time. This time I am happy to report that I refrained from going on Mormon.org and trying to chat with a missionary about the Trinity. I have been helping out in the bookcenter, praying, (of course), ironing my laundry and catching up with friends.

Cheryl and I returned from Boston this last Tuesday full of new information from taking a class on the gospels over the summer. We also helped out in the apostolate. We both were in the Digital Department, where all the newest cutting edge work is done. This is where Sr. Kathryn pulls her hair out making our iPhone and android apps and where the digital artists in residence, Sr. Ann and Sr. Sylwia, work on many of the banners for our web site, videos and signs for our bookcenters. Cheryl and I helped out with the web site, giving our invaluable advice (hehe) and doing various other things to help the sisters get the web site up and running. Check it out, it just went up! It is majorly improved, but the sisters are still working out some kinks so don't be surprised if some of the links don't work yet.

We also went to Vermont, Laura's home state, for some exhibits and lots of fun (i.e. tour of Ben and Jerry's, tour of a cheese farm, hanging out with Fr. Yvonne and Laura's wonderful mom). It was fabulous. Did you know Vermont is gorgeous? Now I understand why Laura has a superiority complex about Vermont. Now I do too. I think I will start telling people I am from Vermont. Hopefully, when Cheryl gets back she will share with you more about that trip because I am running out of time. Gotta run to the bookcenter to give the sisters their break!

Oh by the way, we are super happy to be back in St. Louis and not just because we have air conditioning in our rooms here :) We love the people here and are so happy to spend another year here in formation.

Lots of love to everyone,

Theresa

A Chance Meeting in the Holy Land

View of Jerusalem from Mount Scopes

I never really considered going to the Holy Land. It was always a far away place that I figured I would make it to sometime - maybe.


Before my conversion I did not consider going because it just was not the place to travel if you do not have sufficient motivation. And after my conversion, it just seemed like too much, like something that I should put off as much as possible in much the same way that early Christians put off their baptism until their death bed. It was just not something that I felt I was ready for or deserved.

But thankfully, despite my misgivings and doubts, I made it to the Holy Land. This summer, during my vacation home, I went with my parents and my parish to a land that St. Jerome calls the "Fourth Gospel."

I had many adventures on my trip and learned so much during this life-changing journey. I am sharing my experiences on my blog, if you are interested in learning more about the places that I visited and the teachings that Tim Gray, our tour guide gave, (I cannot speak more highly of Tim, he was so amazing). So far, I have written about Capernaum, The Sea of Galilee, Gethsemane, and several other places. You can visit my blog and check out my posts for June and July for all of the places I have blogged about.

But I wanted to share specifically with the readers of this blog about a particular surprise on the trip. When I was at Ein Karem, the place of the Visitation, I walked up the stairs of the church with my group and noticed a group of sisters with Italian flags. It crossed my mind that I may see some Daughters of St. Paul but I thought it would be unlikely.

As my group prepared to leave, I noticed a sister with a habit that looked like the Daughters of St. Paul's habit. I crept closer and noticed that the sister was wearing the emblem of the Daughters of St. Paul, seen below.

I immediately got the attention of the sister and told her that I was a postulant with the Daughters of St. Paul in the United States. The sister, Sr. Auxiliadora, was so thrilled to meet me. She immediately rushed over to two other sisters from Pakistan and the Philippines and introduced me to them.

She held my hands in excitement and told me that it was very special that we met at Ein Karen, the place of the Visitation because our founder, James Alberione, always told us that we are like Mary bringing Jesus to Elizabeth, because the Daughters of St. Paul travel to bring Jesus to the world.


As I walked away with my group after taking some picture with the sisters and my parents, I was in utter disbelief that I would have happened to see the sisters so far from home. I knew in my heart that it was a gift from God, a wave from heaven, letting me know that He was blessing this trip and would continue to bless me through the Daughters of St. Paul.

Daughters of St. Paul with me at Ein Karem.
Sr. Auxiliadora is the sister to the left,
(I did not catch the other sisters' names)

Discerning is always a tough process but the Lord showers blessings upon those who try their best to follow Him. As I get further in this process, and close to beginning my second year of postulancy, I thank the Lord for all of the blessings He has showered on me. 


He is so generous and full of love!