Sisters of Charity

Making Sacrifices

Sisters of Charity — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:38:44 +0000

There’s a lot that can be said about making sacrifices. We know from Scripture and the lives of the saints how crucial it is and how the more we love God the more we will want to make sacrifices. We should be in the habit of offering everything to Jesus, both the good and the bad. One time Mother Teresa offered me some grapes and I said, “No, thank you.” She looked at me and said, “Sister, take whatever He gives and give whatever He takes.” So I took some grapes.

There’s something to be said for accepting the good things in life, but I still have to make sacrifices and I want to for the love of God. If I approach life with the idea that my sufferings are redemptive (if offered in union with Jesus’ suffering on the Cross) then I see the value in suffering. Simple things like putting up with someone grouchy, waiting for someone, smiling —–these are sacrifices that are saving souls because I am offering them in union with Jesus’s suffering.

Convent Life

Sisters of Charity — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:04:57 +0000

You might be more or less ready for the convent depending on your home life. My mother ran our home very much like a convent. We had fixed times for rising, working, eating and praying. Let’s look at some aspects of daily life.

Food

Are you allowed to eat whatever you want whenever you want? In the convent, we eat what is served whether we like it or not. If some condiment is not served, instead of asking for it, we take it as an opportunity to make a sacrifice for Jesus.

Work

Do you offer all your work to Jesus to save souls? In the convent, our work is a prayer. We offer our love to Jesus while we work.

Prayer

Are you faithful to daily prayers? In the convent we attend daily Mass and have a set schedule of prayers that we follow every day.

Pentecost

Sisters of Charity — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:42:47 +0000

The Feast of Pentecost fills our souls with God if we have prepared for it and God is longing so much to fill us. Which gift of the Holy Spirit do you need the most?

College Women’s Retreat

Sisters of Charity — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:19:58 +0000

Register now for this great opportunity!

Take some time this Spring for reflexion in a quiet, prayerful atmosphere. This retreat starting May 31, 2013 will give you time to pray, reflect, enjoy the company of other young women and the Sisters, receive the Sacraments and join us for our Corpus Christi procession.

In order to join us for prayers in chapel, please arrive by 4:30 pm Friday and bring some skirts or dresses for chapel.

We will be happy to pick you up at GreenAirport in Providence, RI or at the train station in New London, CT. Just let us know! Please plan your departure after 11:30 am if you would like a ride back to the airport or train station.

May God guide you during this exciting time of your life and may His Church benefit from the gift of your life whatever His Holy Will is for you. Let us rejoice in our love for God and His Holy Church and pray that God’s Will be done in each of us every day. God bless you and I hope to hear from you very soon!

Taking Time for God

Sisters of Charity — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:30:35 +0000

Probably everyone wants to do good in their lifetime. Some might put more effort into it than others, but everyone wants to do good in some way. How can we make the best use of our lives? The only way is to unite ourselves to the Will of God which can only be accomplished through prayer. Many people think prayer is saying words, but real prayer is loving God. Do we take time to be with God in prayer? To listen to Him in our hearts? He wants so much for us to think of Him, to love Him.

Loving God

Sisters of Charity — Sat, 11 May 2013 17:38:48 +0000

We know that our love is from God if it increases our desire for God. We often ask ourselves if we are growing more patient in tribulation, more generous in our responses to God who is asking for our love in many ways each day. What is God asking of you today?

Follow Me

Sisters of Charity — Sat, 11 May 2013 17:31:28 +0000

When you fall in love with God it’s easy to give up everything and follow Him. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?

Holy Thursday

Admin — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:20:25 +0000

This is what I know:

I know that today is Love’s Great Day.

I know that today Jesus found a way, with a little bit of bread and a little bit of wine, to love us intimately and incredibly.

I know that today He knelt to wash the feet of His friends, and His enemy, and that He hopes we will find a way to do the same.

I know that He gave us the incomparable gift of the Priesthood so that we could always be assured that our sins are forgiven.

I know that tonight He will struggle so hard to surrender to His Father’s Will that He will bleed.

I know that someone will betray Him with a kiss.

I know that He will be arrested, tortured, and, before dawn, found guilty of telling the truth, and that this will cost Him His Life.

That’s what I know.

What I don’t know is how I would live without Him,

so I yearn for the Easter that will bring Him back to me.

May you find, in these holy days, all the Love you need to find your way in the darkness, and all the Grace you need to stand in the Easter Light.

As always, stunned by such love,

Mother Marie Julie

The Temptations of Jesus in the Desert

Admin — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:22:38 +0000

On Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, many of us heard the Gospel about the the temptations of Jesus in the desert. We’ve heard it so many times that the reality of the story can be lost on us. In the missalette we use at our Motherhouse, there is a drawing, quite modern, of Jesus curled up against an outcropping of rock, with His Hands raised against the wiles of the deviI. I saw that picture and felt ice at the bone, because it seems filled with terror–the terror some of us may have felt when we were suddenly face to face with an evil that threatened to destroy us. Clearly the artist wanted us to get a sense of the power of evil as Jesus faced it in the desert that day, and, heartbreakingly, would later encounter it in His Passion.

There is a small volume you may have seen entitled Give Us This Day published by the Benedictines out of Collegeville, MN. It carries the daily Mass readings for each month, with reflections, prayers and biographies of the Saints. Yesterday’s reflection on the Gospel, by Sister Jeremy Hall, noted that this temptation took place in the desert at the dawn of Jesus’ public ministry, and that it might seem surprising that He so often during that ministry returned to the desert to pray. Most of us would avoid like the plague places that carry negative memories for us–the restaurant where we received a phone message about the death of a loved one, a park where we felt threatened by a stranger, a road where we had a serious car accident. Yet here is Jesus in a close encounter with absolute evil, and later this site becomes the very place where He goes to meet His Father in prayer–not once, but often!

Sister Jeremy suggests that there is something to be learned from this (isn’t there always something to be learned from the Gospel?) that we might miss. Here in this desert, Jesus in His humanity experienced something that must have been too awful for words. But instead of being destroyed by the sheer dread of it all, He found in it (again, humanly speaking) the means to a closer union with His Father. He returned to that place not in terror, but to find peace, strength and inspiration for His Mission. What comfort there is to be found in that realization.

In all the places of my fears, there God waits for me. In the remembered pain of my life, there will be peace, strength and inspiration if I seek God there. Along the fractured paths of my own existence, I can reach out and find the Heart of God waiting to show me how much He loves me, to hold me close and tell me that He was with me there through it all. Then I can begin to heal. I don’t have to carry those burdens any longer, because I will come to know that in the darkest night He shines His Light.

Not my usual meditation on the temptations of Jesus in the desert, for sure. But it’s one that I needed to share with you because it was so powerful for me. This is one more proof that God did indeed send “Someone with skin on” to show me in real life how deep is the Father’s Love. I pray You find the same conviction….

As always, in that deep Love.

Mother Marie Julie

Join the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of The Church at the IRL National Meeting

Admin — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 02:55:20 +0000

Each year, the Institute on Religious Life holds its national meeting for Priests and Religious in Mundelein, IL. They generously include special presentations for youth and young adults ages 13-25 at no cost to the participant! This year’s theme is: “Celebrating the Year of Faith: Rediscovering a Faith Professed, Celebrated, Lived & Prayed.”

This is a one day event for the youth/young adults (both male and female) that includes plenty of food, faith, and fellowship as well as the opportunity to meet many Priests and Religious from all over the country! The Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of the Church are organizing a group to attend this event.

If you are interested in attending please contact Sister Faustina, SCMC:
by phone at: (608) 752-6709 or by e-mail: sistermfaustina@sistersofcharity.com

Please R.S.V.P. by Friday, March 8, 2013.