Greetings to dearest Sisters in Christ as Lent arrives to stir our hearts to radical newness. This is no time for the faint of heart!  Let us embrace the course!

Women are specialists at both gift-giving and gift-wrapping.  We are masters at selecting the right gift at the right time and the right details for every perfectly placed ribbon and scrunch of tissue paper.  The wrapping itself can prove quite an adventure for the recipient to work through. Who hasn’t given a gift to another and happily prodded, “Oh, there’s something else in the box!”

We likely learn from Our Lord Himself whose gifts to us are bottomless treasure troves. He is always encouraging us to keeping looking.  There is ever more.  Seven Sisters are beneficiaries of the divine gift of the desire to pray.  Alongside come the gifts to initiate the prayer, discern its ways, quell distractions and at times welcome sweet silence.  In the multi-faceted gift of prayer perhaps for some there is an undiscovered aspect at the “bottom of the box” – the gift of fasting.  This Lenten season is an ideal time to unfold the gift.  Grace upon grace will help embrace it.  Fasting is not merely will power.  Grace is necessary.  It is worth the asking, for fasting enlivens prayer and prayer invigorates fasting.  Team work at its best!

From her beginning, Mother Church has encouraged self-denial, oft times taking the form of fasting. It serves us well to accept the encouragement as more gift than gruel.  As Catholics, we partake in an intentional Eucharistic fast not just as a point of obedience but in it recognizing the Church is emphasizing that our Eucharistic experience is set to be enhanced by it. Would it be that this daily or weekly practice launch us into greater lengths and depths of the practice of fasting!  Tempering or even mortifying (putting to death) our passions for a time brings gifts to the soul.  Listen to St Basil the Great: “Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise. Fasting is a good safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the valiant, and a gymnasium for athletes. Fasting repels temptations, anoints unto piety; it is the comrade of watchfulness and the artificer of chastity. In war it fights bravely, in peace it teaches stillness.”

This intentional bodily fasting is enhanced with a dovetail into an intentional spiritual fasting from sin. St Basil helps here too: “Let us fast an acceptable and very pleasing fast to the Lord.  True fast is the estrangement from evil, temperance of tongue, abstinence from anger, separation from desires, slander, falsehood and perjury.  Privation of these is true fasting.”

Our Apostolate Chaplain, Fr Joseph Johnson, concurs.  At the November 2019 St Paul- Minneapolis Seven Sisters annual time of Reflection and Renewal, he encouraged us to consider adding fasting to our prayer efforts.  “The benefits will be beyond what you today imagine.  Your prayer will be clearer.” This invitation is extended to all Seven Sisters.  Standing at the threshold of this richly grace-laden Lenten season is the perfect occasion.  May we unite our hearts to the mystery of Jesus in the desert and learn and live the liberty and clarity and strength brought about through fasting.  Our prayers for our priests and bishops will profit!  Made clear like a mountain stream!

On March 26 (Thurs), feast of one of our patrons, St Margaret Clitherow, an invitation is extended to all Seven Sisters to anticipate and plan a Day of Fasting for strengthening and sanctity of all priests.  St Margaret Clitherow will help us!  She is a stellar model of the Eucharistic life and staunch defender and supporter of the priesthood. And she loves Seven Sisters! Plan now how you will participate – and mark your calendars!

The gift of fasting is so fitting to our Apostolate, hidden from the eye of most.  In quietness and trust is our strength… (Isaiah 30:15).  We appear to do nothing at all, yet much is accomplished.  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds, “The ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us to make a complete gift of self to God.”  And so you do and so you do…  St Jane Frances de Chantal speaks right to our hearts, as well: “God hides the prize of eternal glory in our mortifications and in the victory of ourselves, which we always strive for with great gentleness.”  Afterall, dear Sisters in Christ, we are specialists at gift-giving and especially love the hidden gifts!

 United in prayer and mission…that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…

 … eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day….  “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’  (St Teresa of Calcutta)

… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate.  THANK YOU!  The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! What glory is given to God through your writing! Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU! Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.

Janette
+JMJ+
[email protected]

Blessed Christmastide into Epiphany to dearest Sisters in Christ.  Happy and prosperous New Decade of the Lord 2020.  Truly, the best is yet to be!  He makes all things new (Rev 21:5).

Our noble and good work as Seven Sisters does not shield us from the shared experience of anyone who prays: distraction.  And how utterly distracting to be distracted when we are so earnestly offering that prayer for another’s benefit!  While such disturbances can appear as a huge hindrance in our prayer efforts like Hokusai’s looming Great Wave, they can also serve as an opportunity for growth in humility, trust and perseverance.

The Catechism devotes one of its four parts entirely to prayer. It brims with information and inspiration alike, reminding that prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part … that always presupposes effort (2725).  It is a work of heart, and often a battle of heart.

Following is an abridged version of a talk I recently presented in Bismarck, ND, of Seven Strategies for Harnessing Distractions in Prayer.  May it serve to deepen and direct our prayers.

#1 & #2.  Pray with and from a place – outside and in.  Sources of distraction are exterior (dog barking, whirring fan) and interior (to-do list, wandering thoughts, worries).  The Catechism encourages the use of a prayer corner or “little oratory” in one’s home.  Seven Sisters practice the discipline of going to a public oratory:  an Adoration Chapel or to a sanctuary before the Tabernacle.  This sacred space lessens, albeit does not eliminate, distractions.  An interior preparation fortifies one’s resolve against distraction.  St Teresa of Avila, entitled the Doctor of Prayer, taught it essential to call to mind one’s relationship as beloved in Christ whenever initiating a prayer time.  She believed this strengthened an interior focus that in turn affected the whole of the prayer time.  St Ignatius of Loyola, likewise reminded for similar results, to pause before prayer and remember that God is already waiting for us and beholding us: “Consider how the Lord my God looks upon me.”

#3.  Pray with a Pen.  Two ways: (a) writing thoughts that are wandering through your mind (to-do lists, competing images/ideas), and (b) intentional journaling of thoughts/prayers.  Both can convert the distraction into opportunity.  Jotting down drifting thoughts helps curb temptations to linger in them and ‘records them’ so one could return to them later (grocery item, remembering to attend to something at home, etc.).  In intentional journaling, the concentration required to write generates a mindset less likely to succumb to distraction.  An added benefit is returning to notes, even years later, to gain perspective/insight on how God is working in one’s life.

#4.  Pray with Fasting.  An empty stomach can remind one to earnestly pray, “Lord, fill my soul!” Fasting sharpens an interior vision and listening. Scripture reminds that some things come about by prayer and fasting only.  A fruit of the Apostolate is the initiative of Fasting Brothers where groups of six men have risen up alongside various Seven Sister groups.  Each man chooses a day to fast (excepting Sunday, a day of feasting) and offers this alongside a Seven Sister who is offering a Holy Hour that day.  Intentionally refraining from social media, radio, conversations or the like, in preparation for a Seven Sister Adoration Hour is another aspect of fasting.  Too much information can clutter one’s consciousness and reduce an ability for the disciplines of meditation, reflection and interior quietness.  Being scattered and distracted in prayer may find its genesis in being scattered and distracted outside of prayer.  A form of fasting may serve as remedy.

#5.  Pray with the company of Saints.  Gaining wisdom from Saintly examples of resolute prayer practices is invaluable.  Soliciting their help (especially in moments of distraction) always meets with reward.  Our Lady’s model and active assistance in your Holy Hour is sure.

#6.  Pray with Purpose.  Let us pray with the heart of Nathaniel, one without duplicity.  Distraction flourishes with ambiguity and a divided heart.  The primary purpose of praying for the highest good for the priests (sanctity) both fortifies and forms the Holy Hours.  Many Seven Sister intercessors share that they are not “fitting this Holy Hour into their day’s schedule”, but rather a distinction of “allotting this time within their life of prayer” for this purpose.  One Seven Sister shared that after her first weekly Hour was offered, she was able to claim this as the first Holy Hour she ever finished… “I had a mission, a purpose – and it was accomplished!”

#7.  Pray with Confidence.  Responding to Our Lord’s call to this type of prayer, assures His help. His grace is sufficient… His strength made perfect in weakness (II Cor 12:9). Reality dictates that some Hours offered may meet distractions the likes of Hokusai’s wave.  Even the wave has its course. It dissipates.  While another may rise, it too will pass. Scripture firmly reminds, “Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.” St Teresa of Avila helps us: “Prayer is an act of love… even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.”  Indeed, the strength of His love compels our hearts (II Cor 5:14). With all said, a Seven Sister can offer the suffering of distractions for the benefit of the priest.  Only in the marvelous perfection of Divine economy can there be such dividends!  St Alphonsus Ligouri offers a word of support, “If you have many distractions at prayer, that prayer of yours may well be upsetting the devil a great deal.” Let us remain of good heart, dear Sisters in Christ, and persist, united, with great confidence, in that to which we are called!

SAVE the DATE:  National Seven Sisters Pilgrimage – Washington, DC.  18-20 Sept 2020.  Check Website for details and registration info.  Our prayerful presence here is significant!

United in prayer and mission…that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…

… eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day….  “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’  (St Teresa of Calcutta)

… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate.  THANK YOU!  The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! What glory is given to God through your writing! Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU! Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.

 Janette
+JMJ+
[email protected]

Advent season into Christmas season greetings to dearest Sisters in Christ,

It is said that more people return to their Christian faith, or open the door to it for the first time, during the Advent and Christmas seasons.  Yes, even more than at Easter.  What heart doesn’t soften with the tenderness and sweet love of a newborn?  One can perhaps approach the Babe with greater ease than He Who is bearing the vulgar cruelty of wounds and death.

God’s plan is a masterful marvel.  As GK Chesterton, prolific writer and Catholic convert, muses, “Bethlehem is emphatically a place where extremes meet… where heaven meets earth. … God comes to make a home in the world and finds himself homeless. … the hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle.”

The King of kings arrived in the lowliest form – an echo of every creature’s beginning.  In this detail of LeNain’s painting, Nativity with a Torch, it is striking how Mary’s hands grasp the swaddling cloth.  The artist has captured a seemingly deliberate pause, a uniquely profound suspended moment.  In it, perhaps Mary is aligned with St Mother Teresa’s thoughts expressed centuries later: “I can understand the greatness of God, but I cannot understand His humility.”

Each priest is bestowed innumerable graces for an ever-deepening identity with Jesus. That identity includes every aspect of Christ’s life – even that of the Christ Child.  Vulnerability. Trust. Tenderness. Dependence. Conduit of love. Recipient of love. Needing silence.  Needing rest.  A reassuring ordinariness.  An evident uniqueness.  Bearer of pain, joy, truth, peace. Humility.

As Seven Sisters we have the opportunity in this Advent season of perhaps praying for a more heightened awareness for the priest/bishop for whom we are committed to pray, of a recognition of this aspect of his priestly identity.  Christ came, and comes now, that we may have life and life to the fullest (John 10:10).  The priest exists for the same. He grows too, in wisdom and stature.

The priest is ever-connected to Calvary.  Caryll Houselander in The Passion of the Infant Christ (1949), reminds that Bethlehem holds the imprint of Calvary:  On Calvary Jesus was naked, stripped of His garments and all He had. In Bethlehem the same was true.   On Calvary He was lifted up, helpless, and held up for men to look upon.  In Bethlehem, likewise. “Lo, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me!” On Calvary Christ was laid upon a wooden cross.  In Bethlehem, within a wooden manger.  By the Cross stood Mary, by the crib knelt Mary. Jesus was mocked at His birth by Herod.  At His death, by the crowds and the Roman soldiers.  Angels were near at His birth and so too stood beside the empty tomb. In Bethlehem Christ slept His first sleep in His Mother’s arms; on Calvary He slept His last sleep in the same arms.  Through a deepened understanding of his identity with the Infant Christ, the priest understands that here too he is indisputably linked with the passion of Christ.

Houselander continues: “Christ came out of the darkness of the womb… (and the tomb).  He is the Light of the World.  He came to give the world life. … At Bethlehem, Love and Death met in the body of Christ, and Love prevailed.”  His Resurrection perpetuates the mission. The priest is called into the immortalization of this mission!  Over and again he is called afresh and anew to both the altar and to crossroads of life to be the Light bearer, the conduit of Love, the one who reminds that Love prevails.  Through the conference of the sacraments, through prayers and blessings, through wise counsel, through presence and silence … the priest is sent to remind of Love.  He is the ambassador of love.  The aspects of the Infant Child assist:  tenderness, vulnerability, dependence on God for all.  We are privileged to pray for this fullness of identity in Christ in each priest/bishop.

Our God does not disparage smallness.  He put Himself there.  He entered the world as a baby. Later his arms were stretched on the wood of the cross which, against the expanse of the sky, appeared miniscule.  In the most seemingly absurd move, He makes Himself smaller still, more vulnerable, lowlier – as our Bread of eternal Life.  Oh, sublime condescension! He fore-ordained that He would call simple men to humbly follow His Way and in turn they would shepherd others to embrace the Way.

The seeming smallness of our weekly hidden-to-the-world prayers likely impart substantial delight to Our Lord and are fated to great merit in His economy.  He has a Way of making small things colossal!  Let us continue in our committed prayers and sacrifices in this Season where many hearts will return to life through the Faith and where many priests are needed to be the conduit.  Our prayers significantly support the extra labors of the priests in these days of additional Liturgies, confessions, counsel, home visits, hospital calls and in the crossroads of both life and death.

St Therese of Lisieux articulates our eternal way of love as a Seven Sister in united partnership of prayer for our priests: “I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places…in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it…My vocation is Love!”

A most heartfelt Blessed and Joy-filled Advent and Christmas season to you – as we together embrace Love beyond all telling – both now and forever!

SAVE the DATE:  National Seven Sisters Pilgrimage – Washington, DC.  18-20 Sept 2020.  Check Website for details and registration info.  Our prayerful presence here is significant!

United in prayer and mission…

that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…

… eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day….  “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’  (St Teresa of Calcutta)

… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate.  THANK YOU!  The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! What glory is given to God through your writing! Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU! Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.

Janette
+JMJ+
[email protected]

November greetings to dearest Sisters in Christ,

Each day, the Church sets Saints before our eyes and hearts to esteem and emulate, but we are launched into November on day one with a colossal Solemnity that represents them all to us!  The number of saints who reign with Christ is vast.  “I saw so large a number,” reports St John, “that nobody could count them.”  The Solemnity of All Saints brims with so much wonder and love that the Church affords us an entire octave to ponder, live out the graces, and, in the end, bolster our resolve to join the saints, known and unknown, that unceasingly cheer us on.  Surely His Majesty does not discount the pleas of so many of His friends for us!

St Teresa of Calcutta reminds that all are called to holiness and that holiness is assuredly linked to following God’s Will.  Each has a plan that is heaven-sent and heaven-destined.  Each has a place in that great cloud of witnesses.  Our cooperation is essential.  Despite our family of origin, geographic location, vocational call and work, St Teresa reminds that in our hearts, our authentic selves are known in an unreserved relationship with Jesus. Simply put, we belong to Him.

As pilgrims in progress it is challenging to avoid dividing our allegiance to other things or relationships versus allowing Christ to be the nucleus.  As Catholics, the sacramental life comes to the rescue.  The Holy Eucharist is, after all, the Sacrament of Unity.  Both our interior lives and external relationships can benefit. We learn first-hand from Our Lord Himself in the Blessed Sacrament.  He is the Way to rightly-ordered love and relationship with Him and others.  Yet we are dull of mind and compromised in vision. Holy Church offers more help through the closely-related sacrament of Reconciliation.  (Consider reviewing Oct 2016 Communique regarding Confession.)

A way of life through the graces of the Eucharist and Reconciliation fosters our spiritual vigor in our rootedness in Christ.  St John Paul II reveals, “The Eucharist is the secret of my day.  It gives strength and meaning to all my activities of service to the Church and to the whole world.”  St Bridget affirms the benefits of Confession: “Just as an animal becomes a stronger beast of burden and more beautiful to behold the more often and better it is fed, so too confession – the more often it is used… conveys the soul increasingly forward and is so pleasing to God that it leads the soul to God’s very heart.” St John Bosco concurs, “You can fly to heaven on the wings of Confession and Communion,” and “There are two things the devil is deadly afraid of: frequent Communion and frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament.”

As Seven Sisters we seem poised to make friends in heaven and enemies in hell.  Each week we return to Our Lord to seek the holiness of another, mutually opening ourselves up to holiness for ourselves.  We beckon a whole-ness of heart for the other, a total belonging to Christ that makes the heart true to its design and destiny.  Availing ourselves to frequent Confession and Communion will hasten the removal of obstacles of resistance to God’s love and His Will, and in turn strengthen our weekly Holy Hour offerings.

Hungarian-born Ferenczy’s subject in Birdsong, appears to have a tender awareness to something above and beyond.  Even in her full and expectant maternal state, she seems to give pause to listen, perhaps to even seek intently, something more that offers an even greater fullness. Does the warble of a bird solicit an attentiveness that then reaches above it?

Seven Sisters by and large exhibit an unmistakable depth of joy, living witnesses of Christ’s desire to instill His joy – and that it may be complete (John 15:11).  However, perhaps a bit like Ferenczy’s subject, Seven Sisters understand that its completion is not in this earthly life. In St Matthew’s parable of the talents (Mt 25:23), following a statement of the master, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, the master further rewards the servant by an invitation to “Enter into the joy of your master!” Another version puts it: “Come and share your master’s happiness!”

The happiness of the saints is complete. What augments the delight of the saints most may very well be the thought that the joy is eternal.  We too are destined for this.  The priest or bishop we pray for is destined for this.  Unreservedly belonging to Jesus compels us toward this. In season and out of season until all seasons converge. The sacramental life, especially frequent Communions and Confessions, offers strength and clarity.  What a joy in the journey as we seek complete joy – for ourselves, for another!

United in prayer and mission…

that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…

 … eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day….  “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’  (St Teresa of Calcutta)

… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate.  THANK YOU!  The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! What glory is given to God through your writing! Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU! Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.

 Janette
+JMJ+
[email protected]

October greetings to dearest Sisters in Christ!

When a patient is roomed at my Clinic, we offer him/her a cup of water. While encouraging hydration, there’s more. Studies show that this offering actually curbs anxieties.  Everyone needs water.  The overture brings an unsaid ‘sameness’, but also a boost in what is termed a ‘feeling cared for’ factor.  Even if the cup is declined, the person exhibits a greater sense of calm.  Love generates peace. We have long known this as Catholics.  We know something else.  The smallest act done with the greatest love has benefit for the giver too.  Sacred Scriptures indicate the reward to be immense:  Paradise can be won with such a gesture!  What is done for God, finds God.

Our Lady, especially esteemed in this month, is the quintessential model of love’s recipient and provider alike. In her fiat, her own cup runneth over in the utterance of the Magnificat.  St Augustine articulates the profound receiving and giving of our Blessed Mother: “Him Whom the heavens cannot contain, the womb of one woman bore.  She ruled our Ruler; she carried Him in Whom we are; she gave milk to our Bread.”  Her maternal milk:  ever-ready refreshment to the Infant King of Kings!

Mary’s earthly life is shrouded in silence and hiddenness, but not idleness.  The Nazareth years were likely teeming with the day- to-day activities of a maturing family. Particulars remain a mystery.  A snapshot of 12-year-old Jesus lingers for our pondering – and Scripture reminds “but his mother treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51b).  Our Lady is the woman wrapped in silence as one author entitles her, but not inactivity.  When Jesus emerges into active ministry, Mary is nigh.  She astutely offers that ‘cup of cold water’ when and how it is needed.  Her pondering engenders wise action. The Wedding at Cana.  Jesus’ days of preaching and teaching.  The Way of the Cross.  The foot of the Cross.  The welcoming of John.  The Upper Room.  The Ascension.  Mary supported and loved as St Therese (Feast Day, Oct 1) suggests “by little acts of charity practiced in the shade”.

Seven Sisters do well to ardently align themselves with the way of Mary – valuing our mission as a continual ‘offering of a cup of cold water’ through our sacrifices and prayers for the priest or bishop for whom we are committed to pray.  Zurbaran’s exquisitely detailed, graceful piece, A Cup of Water and a Rose, captures something of a reminder of that closeness to Mary.  In a real sense we journey with the priest as Mary stayed close to Jesus, in both the festive and intensely challenging moments.  Mary will assist.  Seek her ever-ready help!  “Only after the last judgement will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children” (St. John Vianney, Seven Sister patron). In imitation, while silence and hiddenness are our modus operandi, we learn from Mary that this is the height and depth of action. Every breath of prayer has merit. Every sacrifice has worth.

Fellow Seven Sisters teach us too – to freely offer that cup and those little acts of charity in the shade:

• “When asked, my answer was immediately “yes”. My adoration Hour is on Saturday after the 8:00 am Mass. It has become a joy filled Hour knowing I am lifting Father up in prayer and I feel so close to God in that Hour. As a Seven Sister I find St. Margaret Clitherow a great intercessor for the priest I pray for.  “Seeking a quietness in the day, in the midst of our usual routines, we steal away to pray for our beloved Pastor – unbeknownst by most – effecting eternal affairs.” This is a beautiful quote on our Seven Sister Apostolate booklet. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight…Heb 4:13a.  This will be my 4th year now and I will continue this ministry as long as I am able.” (Margaret K, Minnesota)

• “What a privilege it is to be in this most needed and amazing effort.  Our Priest prays for the Seven Sisters Apostolate by offering Masses – he is well on his way to 200 Masses that he has said for us!!  He has been so very touched by our prayers and it is his way of giving back and blessing our Ministry!!!  God is amazingly good!!!  (Jean G, Washington)

• “Throughout the day, I find myself praying for priests for whom I prayed as a Seven Sister. Once in a 7 Sister’s heart, always in her heart!  And that’s the truth!” (Barb S. Minnesota)

• “I totally LOVE being a Seven Sister and praying every Wednesday for our dear priest! More than likely this is his last year with us as he is a Dominican and will likely be transferred. He has bestowed many blessings on our parish in the time he has been given to serve us. … I am sure the Sisters we have now will continue with whoever God chooses for us next as our next holy priest!! I have been blessed to truly fall more in love with Jesus during this Adoration hour… Which I would never have known if it weren’t for being a Seven Sister” (Barb S, Minnesota – A different Barb S than above!).

• “The fruits of long, perseverant prayer shine forth in the Apostolate. This is one of so many quiet, but efficacious ways that the Lord is working in these dark days, raising up hidden saints and saving souls. I am so deeply glad to be a part of it. “Her priests shall be clothed in holiness/Her saints shall ring out their joy.” – Psalm 132:16. May it ever be so, and may we labor gladly to do our part in its fulfillment! (Olivia S, Wisconsin).

In parting, let us lend ear to another October saint, Pope St John XXIII (Feast Day, Oct 11), who affirms our gaze toward Mary for guidance.  In his broadcast message of 27 March 1960, he asserted: “Devotion to the most holy Virgin Mary only tends to make our faith more robust, more prompt and more effective; to make our charity more ardent, and our Christian commitment more alive and more fruitful.”  Mary, most perfect companion and mentor for Seven Sisters, stay with us and pray for us!

United in prayer and mission…

that our prayers may find the heart of every bishop and priest…

… eternal gratitude continues as you each remember to offer a wee Hail Mary for me every day….  “One Ave Maria makes hell tremble” (St John Vianney). Pray that I will not ‘spoil the beautiful work that God has entrusted…’  (St Teresa of Calcutta)

… your kind emails and notes and phone calls and generous support always arrive to my heart door at the right moment! Your financial sacrifices are for 100% furtherance of Apostolate.  THANK YOU!  The letters of testimony are so beautiful and edifying! Don’t stop writing to me. Eternal gratitude is mine for YOU! Be assured of my continued daily prayers for you at the altar.

Janette
+JMJ+
[email protected]