Seek 21 was this year’s FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) conference. With the pandemic, it had to be done virtually, with youth taking part from where they lived, around the country. Our Pennsylvania Sisters were able to join the group of participants at Cathedral parish in Philadelphia. May God grant that much fruit comes from this conference!
Besides the pandemic, we also have a famine!
“There is a famine in the land—not for bread, not for water, but for the Word of the Lord.” (see Amos 8:11)
We are now in the holy season of Lent, a special time of grace. Jesus died for everyone, but so many people don’t know this!
So many souls are famished, are starving. They need to turn to Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but many don’t know how, or don’t care.
To give some examples, Mike stopped going to church years ago. Now he says God would never take him back after so long and after so much sinful behavior.
Jen goes to get ashes as a custom, as something she’s always done, but then she goes on living her immoral lifestyle.
Anna is old enough for First Communion, but never even heard of Jesus, except hearing His name taken in vain.
Meg can’t be bothered getting her children to Mass and religious instructions. She doesn’t see the point of it and has other priorities, anyway.
Dave says his mom tells him Lent is important, but he says, “I don’t believe in God now, so why bother with Church?”
This list could go on and on.
All this must hurt the loving heart of Jesus.
These are the ones Parish Visitors were founded to help! We have been helping starving souls since we began, and this charism which our foundress, Mother Mary Teresa Tallon, handed down to us is more needed than ever!
“The Sisters are to have cloistered hearts, to be contemplatives for the street. They are to seek out, after the example of the Good Shepherd, those in need of spiritual and material assistance, the poorest and most neglected, those not practicing their Catholic faith. The union of contemplation and missionary activity is the essence of the Parish Visitor vocation.”
Yes, “There is a famine in the land….” Pope Francis has said, “Evangelization is the most important work of charity.” Combining evangelization with contemplative prayer, according to our charism, gives it its power! And, the more technology there is these days, the more powerful and needed our person-to person contact is!
Evangelization, of course, involves religious instructions–on the spot instructions as well as classroom instruction–as so many people know so little about God! Youth ministry, too, is a part of this apostolate.
Parish Visitors strive to instill in the children a deeper love of Jesus, to inspire the youth to love Him, to encourage the careless Catholics to come back to the heart of Jesus.
Those who are spiritually starving need Parish Visitors. Maybe they need YOU! Is the Good Shepherd calling you to help people like this, along with us?
Pray that everywhere we serve, our apostolate will be very fruitful for the Lord, in this Lenten time of grace and always.
We pray, too, that all of us will live this Lent the best we can for Our Lord, Who has done so much for us and loves us so much! God bless you all!
In Jesus,
Sister Dolores Marie
Our 100th anniversary! That’s quite a milestone! When Mother Mary Teresa Tallon began our community in New York City on August 15, 1920, she began with only three members. The seed grew and spread, and besides our “community in heaven” rejoicing there with our foundress, we now have convents in New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, the Philippines and Nigeria. Only God knows how many thousands and thousands and thousands of persons have been brought back to Him, and learned to love Him, by Parish Visitors over the years!
One of the Sisters recently made a cutout of our foundress. Our centenary celebrations originally planned for August 15 and 16 have been postponed for now because of the pandemic, but our anniversary will be very special nevertheless!
During the pandemic we have continued to reach out to people in whatever way we could, as our last few newsletters told—phone, email, May devotions, zoom, and so on. Our Pentecost novena is now on our website; you can access it there. We also had a livestreamed Holy Hour for Corpus Christi, praying for all the continents of the world. Hopefully before long everything will be more normal. First Communions, though delayed, took place recently, and more will be held in the fall. Here are a few photos.
What a privilege to instruct others in the faith, and especially to prepare children for First Communion!
Two of our junior professed Sisters, Sr. Alina Marie and Sr. Marie Meaghan, moved to our Bronx convent to begin their new apostolates.
Here they are pictured with Sr. Mylene Rosemarie at the convent.
Our annual eight-day retreat was in early July. Retreat is always a beautiful time of many graces from the Lord, as well as a preparation for the year ahead. I’ll share with you this quote from our retreat master:
We are brides of Christ.
We serve Jesus for those who do not.
We worship Him for those who do not.
We are pure for those who are not.
We are brides of Christ.
A few years ago Sr. Maria Leah was recorded singing “I Am Your Bride” for a youth conference. You can listen to it on this link:
Si Sr. Lea Japos ng Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate, kasama si Mr. Philippe Toda ng Youcat Phils at Kuya Roberto Bahia ng TV Maria ang mag share naman ng kanilang talento sa pagkanta. Tara! pakinggan po natin sila. 🙂
Posted by TV Maria on Wednesday, May 24, 2017
I’ll close with a quote from our foundress about her inspiration to begin our community:
“God revealed to me clearly, at Holy Mass…what it was He wanted. I must establish an Institute where women would be trained to greater spiritual perfection and, being formed in the contemplative spirit, go out in search of the lost lambs and bring them back to the fold by means of Christian instruction. I saw God’s will clearly and received strong assurances of His powerful protection.”
Please thank God along with us for Servant of God Mother Mary Teresa Tallon and for the foundation of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate! And, if God is nudging you in this direction, be not afraid! Come!
In Jesus,
Sister Dolores Marie
Our Blessed Mother, whom we all love so dearly, gets very special honor in May, with spring flowers, May crownings, and other devotions.
At our motherhouse we had a May crowning on Mothers’ Day. It was planned to be outdoors at our grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, but the very chilly weather (one inch of snow the day before!) moved the crowning indoors.
Our oldest Sister, Sr. Mary Elise, who will be 100 years old this year, was the crown bearer, while our youngest postulant, Sally, was the crowner. Each Sister placed a flower before Our Lady. We then completed the ceremony with hymns and our Parish Visitor consecration to Mary.
Our juniorate Sisters (those in temporary vows) had planned a marshmallow roast especially for the older Sisters for Mothers’ Day. Again, the chilly weather moved it indoors, and we roasted the marshmallows on the stove! Changes of plans are a standing joke with us!
We were also privileged this year to begin the month of Mary with the reconsecration to Mary of the United States and Canada, by the bishops of all the dioceses. It had to be done individually by each diocese because of the pandemic. What a beautiful tribute to Our Lady!.
During this pandemic our apostolate has to change temporarily, of course. Some of the Sisters have been able to keep in touch with the students in their religion classes by phone calls, email, postal mail, or sometimes zoom. First Communions and Confirmations are unfortunately delayed.
A number of the Sisters at Marycrest phoned all the parishioners of one of the large local parishes, asking the people how they were doing. These calls were very much appreciated.
At the same parish the Sisters in formation helped with bringing the statue of Our Lady to the homes of the delayed First Communion children. Keeping social distance, the children—many in their First Communion clothing—joined the priest and Sisters in a decade of the rosary and a hymn in front of their homes.
Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can safely resume parish visitations, in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd seeking those who need the Lord, and instructing children and others in the faith, in person. Meanwhile, we do all we can, and our prayers and sacrifices go where we cannot!
As our Parish Visitor Constitutions reminds us, Mary, especially in her Visitation to Elizabeth, is a model for our contemplative-missionary vocation. The Sisters are to walk in spirit with Mary, contemplating the greatness of the Lord and imitating her example of charity and zeal.
We have been having livestreamed Masses, and at one of the homilies the priest shared this:
God is more powerful than Wifi. Stay connected to Him!
The signal is always strong.
It’s always reliable, it’s always on, and it’s free!
The password is L O V E.
God bless you and guide you in your discernment of His will!
In Jesus,
Sr. Dolores Marie
Several Sisters went on a pilgrimage to the NYC sites of Mother Mary Teresa Tallon, our foundress (when it was still safe to travel in NYC). We saw the convent on West 71st Street where we were founded in 1920, went to Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church on West 71st Street where the early Sisters went daily, walked to the area where our foundress received, in 1908, the fullness of the inspiration to begin our community, and went to St. Paul the Apostle Church, where she would have gone many times before we were founded.