Dear Friend,

What wonderful and consoling advice from the great Apostle Paul! He encourages us to present to God all our needs, big and small, in a spirit of hope and gratitude.

When we began our fundraising efforts ten years ago, we didn’t know what to expect. Our Congregation of Sisters was experiencing very serious financial hardship. We truly needed help! We turned to God and Our Blessed Mother in fervent prayer, in that same spirit of hope and thanksgiving, as St. Paul advised.

That prayer has been answered in ways more wondrous than we could ever have imagined. What began as a fundraising effort has become for us a wonderful and important ministry of prayer and blessings. In your generous response to our appeals, you not only share with us your financial resources, but you have opened your heart and invited us to journey with you in your prayer needs. And that, for us, has been a tremendous blessing!

Dearest Friend, my Sisters and I are humbled by the confidence you place in us. You honor
us with your prayer requests and we take every one of them to the very heart of our God. His heart is always open to our needs and to all those things that make us feel anxious or worried. God cares and He is always listening. Our Blessed Mother is listening. The Sisters are listening. Every written petition, every phone call that comes to us with a prayer request – we hear you!

We also hear the cries of those we serve in our ministries. In 1832, the Sisters of Charity were founded to minister to poor children in the small village of Tilburg, Holland and to care for the elderly. Today, in addition to forming the minds and hearts of the children in our schools and caring for the elderly in our healthcare facilities, our ministry extends to Hispanic immigrants anxious to find a place in our Church and society. To families who turn to our Food Pantry to help them put food on their table. To mothers with their small children who come to our Homeless Shelter looking for a place to stay and a hand to help them get back on their feet.

Our ministries are diverse, but they have one thing in common: love. You help us bring that love to everyone we serve as we carry out our mission quietly and faithfully every day. You help us bring hope and gratitude to the anxious hearts of so many people.

Through your goodness, you also help us care for our own dear elder and infirm Sisters, and provide for our young Sisters the spiritual and professional preparation they need to carry on the great mission of the Sisters of Charity.

We never cease to count our blessings and marvel at all that God continues to do for us through YOU and our wonderful family of benefactors. Those blessings come in various ways. Sometimes it’s a generous response to one of our appeals. Sometimes it’s a gift you send us in the mail, or a phone call telling us that you’re praying for us and those we serve. We are truly grateful that you are a part of our family and share in our ministry. We could not do it without you.

Can we count on your continued support? In each of our ministries the needs are critical. Your gift impacts the lives of our brothers and sisters in need and helps to calm their anxious hearts. Please be as generous as you can.

Our mission, as Sisters of Charity, is to proclaim Christ’s message of love and hope always and everywhere, especially to the poor, the forgotten, the lonely and the despairing. By our charity we strive to bring hope and thanksgiving to the anxious hearts of those we serve. By our deeds we say to each person: “You are good! You are loved! God cares for you and calls you by name. You are a precious child in the Kingdom of God, our Father!”

During November, the Month of All Souls, when we especially remember our dearly departed, let us pray with you for YOUR deceased loved ones. That is our gift to you. Send us their names on the form found here by November 1st and we will place them on the Altar, to be included in all the Masses celebrated in our Motherhouse Chapel throughout the month.

We give thanks to God for the blessing you are to us. You are always in our hearts and in our prayers. Please pray for us.

With profound gratitude, in Mary, Mother of the Church,