Come Celebrate with Us!Sunday, May 17, 2:00 pm at the Boston Motherhouse Chapel of the Daughters of St. Paul You’ve heard of the Red Mass for lawyers, right? And the Blue Mass for police officers? These are usually celebrated annually by a diocese for all Catholics in that profession. We Daughters of St. Paul think there should be an equivalent for media professionals, but since most U.S. dioceses don’t have one (as far as we know), we decided to take matters into our own hands. We can pick a ...

I'm from Louisiana—born, bred and raised Cajun.  Since I joined the convent in 1977, I've ventured far from the bayous and seen quite a bit of the world.  And even though I speak "y'all", which doesn't always translate perfectly, there are other things that do, most powerfully Take, for instance, blessings.  I remember working with Sr. Irene for two days straight in the bowels of a New York skyscraper taking apart and extracting about 60 units of metal shelving that were donated to the convent....

Blessed James Alberione is definitely someone whose story you want to know. Why?Because he's the first priest to so clearly see how the media are tremendous gifts for bringing the world to Christ and Christ to the world that he actually did something about it: he founded two religious congregations dedicated exclusively to communicating Christ.Because his spirituality is not abstract or esoteric, but for real people living real lives today.And because this is how three recent Popes have talked a...

There are three things uppermost in my mind as I write to you and all of these are precious gifts, not to be taken for granted: God’s mercy, the sun, and books. You might think that a strange combination, but they are all very much worth celebrating and all quite connected. Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. That naturally has me thinking of the reality of God’s mercy, especially since the liturgy from Holy Thursday through Divine Mercy Sunday has us contemplating the great love and mercy of Jesus...

Holy Week is an extraordinary week in the life of the Church, and it’s meant to be an extraordinary week in our personal and spiritual lives, too. But from waving our palms on Palm Sunday, to being splashed with holy water on Easter Sunday, sometimes it’s hard to get into the rich liturgies of Holy Week. We may get restless during the longer services or find it hard just to get to church an extra time during the week. Sometimes, we may find it uncomfortable or depressing to focus on Jesus’ su...

So, I’m a Novice, and the Sister who is our formator is notorious for assigning us “special missions.” I’ve learned in the last two years that anything that’s not on our regular schedule is considered a “special mission,” and these “special missions” range anywhere from putting books away, to picking up a Sister from the airport, to cleaning something out of the ordinary. (Actually, that’s USUALLY what it means.) But last week, Sister told us that we had an “extra-special mission.”As...

The night can be a scary time. As kids we might have been afraid of monsters under our bed or of sleeping in our own room. Even now as adults the “dark night”—whether it slips into our life as depression, breaks our heart with unexpected ruptures of relationships and futures, or quietly takes from us what we had most cherished—still holds hands with its sister anxiety. Just as individuals live through darkness, cultures and periods of history also can be overshadowed by fear and chaos and de...

What shall I do for Lent? Maybe I’ll give up chocolate…, or maybe not. Maybe I’ll try to improve my posture or lose some weight. Probably not. Really what I should aim for is to cut the complaining. But, there is no end of things worthy of what I’ve come to call “social commentary.” Most of the time I vent with God. But, is complaining a sincere form of prayer? Maybe not a real form of prayer, but a kind of sub-form. It isn’t adoration, contrition, or thanksgiving, but definitely a part o...

Ok, so I've been a Postulant (a.k.a. "nun-in-training") for almost two years, so maybe it doesn’t come as a big surprise that I’m a bit smitten with Jesus. To clarify, though, I mean “awesome” not in the way it's used to describe a good pizza, but in the literal sense: “inspiring wonder, awe or fear.” I have so many reasons for being in awe of Jesus, but one big reason I've been praying with lately is just how patient he is with me. Think about it. Nine times out of ten, when someone is as...

February 2 is the World Day of Consecrated Life, in 2015, the Year of Consecrated Life. It's an important year for the whole Church, not just members of religious institutes, to reflect on what the consecrated life means for the Church. Pope John Paul II's document "Consecrated Life" is an important resource for this. Sister Marianne Lorraine explains why.