A NEW BEGINNING! 

Our Celebration of May, the Month of Mothers' Day and a Month Dedicated Honoring Mary, Queen of Apostles, Mother of Jesus Christ.

For me, it is a re-entering of Blogger world !

Welcome back to any of my readers who may have missed me!

May is a beautiful time to begin again. I apologize for any reader who was expecting news from me. I may have "fallen off the grid" but I am still firmly rooted on this earth for now! For those who may not know me, I am a Catholic religious Sister (some call us nuns, however we are an active Order founded to evangelize with all forms of communications media). I am a member of the "Daughters of St. Paul", media missionaries established back in 1915 in Alba, northern Italy. Now we Pauline Sisters are present in close to 50 nations. I live in our Boston, Massachusetts, USA, convent.  This is also where our Novitiate is. That is, before a young woman makes her final vows to become a "professed Sister"--that is, one who solemnly promises God and our Superiors to serve the Lord as a Daughter of St. Paul, she spends two years of more intense study of the rules of our particular congregation of Sisters. That is she studies what it means to vow to live chastity, poverty and obedience in our religious community. For a few years she vows to live these vows for one year at a time. Then she makes her final profession. That is, she vows to remain in the congregation for the rest of her life, living in community with fellow Sisters.  This promise seals her commitment to living in community, under the authority of our  religious Superiors. This may seem restrictive but it is a liberation from the difficulties people may face who are not promised to God and who live, sometimes many days and years lonely. There is a little prayer that our Mother Thecla Merlo, the woman who co-founded the Daughters of St. Paul, prayed very often: "By myself I can do nothing, but with God, I can do all things. To Him honor and glory, and to me the heavenly reward!"

Besides studying the religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, novice Daughters of St. Paul learn various phases of our media mission. This may include writing articles, getting familiar with working in  one of our Pauline Book & Media Centers, and, depending on the media available, posting media messages on various internet sources. When possible Sisters use TV and radio outlets. 

Who was the Founder of the Daughters of St. Paul? The priest who founded the Daughters of St. Paul is now addressed as Blessed James Alberione, SSP. These initials stand for the Society of St. Paul, consisting of vowed priests and religious brothers. The Pauline priests and brothers share the same mission as the 

Daughters of St. Paul, that is to be missionaries of the communications media. In the USA their publishing house is also known as "Alba House" referring to the city of our Pauline Family's origin.

Wow! This ended up being a much longer intro to my message than I had planned. I guess I wanted to re-acquaint my readers with my religious family 's roots! Or a better word would be: the miraculous story of how one lone priest from Italy's Piedmont area laid the foundation for an entire family of religious orders and lay institutes. 

Devotion to Jesus, especially Eucharistic devotion, is a hallmark of the Pauline Family: All the editorial, liturgical and other efforts are consecrated to the glory of God. A daily hour of Eucharistic adoration is part and parcel of the life of most members of the Pauline Family. In fact, the second feminine order which Alberione began, the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master promise two hours of Eucharistic adoration every day. In fact, these Sisters who are devoted to promoting the Sacred Liturgy, offer prayers each day for the rest of us members of the Pauline. 

If you are reading this post, I say "thank you!"  May your weekend and the days ahead be

blessed. My prayer is that during this month of a more intense devotion

to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist accompanied by the Mary, Queen of the Apostles, you may enjoy good health, plenty of sunshine, May flowers and an abundance of the graces of God.