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Interview with Sr. Margaret Michael Gillis,
FSP
Transforming the world through prayer
and the media
by María Ruiz Scaperlanda
 "God knows where to get you," laughs
Sister Margaret Michael Gillis. For her, it was Christmas
shopping as a high school teenager. That's where she first met
the Daughters of St. Paul, at a kiosk in the Staten Island Mall.
"I had thought about being a veterinarian,
but I had thought about being a sister, too," remembered
the 32-year-old native of Staten Island, New York. Gillis later
attended a day of prayer with the sisters at their Staten Island
convent and, at the age of 18, entered the community's two-year
postulancy.
"The first thing that attracted me
was the joy that I experienced in their community. I thought,
what is this? What do they have? I want to find it," recalled
Sister Gillis, now the vocations' director for her community. "I
was also attracted by their prayer life: Prayer before the Blessed
Sacrament, prayer for the world of media--and for the apostolate
of evangelizing with the mass media."
As is true of most teenagers, Sister Gillis
remembers being heavily influenced by the world of mass media. "I
realized I was being formed, both negatively and positively.
At the same time, I had a great desire to share my faith in Jesus
Christ with people, with a lot of people," Sister Gillis
explained to Our Sunday Visitor, noting her attraction to the
unique charism of the Daughters of St. Paul. "I think I
simply began to put the two things together and realized, 'Wow! -- look
how the message of Jesus can be proclaimed through the mass media
to the world!' "
The Daughters spread God's Word using every
possible means of communication technology: press, radio, books,
cinema, television, Internet. The sisters transform the message
of the Gospel into color, sound and image, through their various
professions: as musicians, writers, media animators, video and
audio technicians, artists, designers, printers, and radio broadcasters.
Engage the culture
The life of a Daughter of St. Paul "is
about following Jesus Christ in a mass-media culture," emphasized
Sister Gillis, who travels throughout the country giving presentations
to teens on contemporary music and MTV videos. She has an undergraduate
degree in communications with a concentration in theology and
is currently working on a master's degree in media education.
"As one of our sisters says, we've
got to be where the conversation is," Sister Gillis smiled. "As
Daughters of St. Paul, we have to be involved in the culture.
We have to know what people are listening to. We have to know
what films they're watching, what television shows are a 'hit,' because
that reveals to us where humanity is going," she said, paraphrasing
her community's founder, Blessed James Alberione.
As Blessed Alberione once said to his community: "How
often do you ask yourself this great question: Where is humanity
heading, how is it moving, toward what goal is it aiming as it
continually renews itself on the face of the earth? Humanity
is like a great river flowing into eternity. Will it be saved?"
Eight of the 10 communities founded by Blessed
Alberione are present in North America. Three are religious congregations:
the Daughters of St. Paul, the Society of St. Paul and the Sister
Disciples of the Divine Master. There are also four secular institutes:
Mary of the Annunciation, St. Gabriel, Jesus the Priest, and
the Holy Family; and an association of lay faithful - the Pauline
Cooperators.
The spirituality of the Daughters of St.
Paul is called "Pauline," reflecting the teachings
of St. Paul, their patron saint. "Your apostolate does not
aim only at the progress of individual souls," Blessed Alberione
taught. "It aims at forming a new mentality in society,
giving it a new imprint, a new direction . . . a mentality that
will assure spiritual vitality for souls, and Christian life
for society."
Alive and vibrant
Unlike other international congregations
and religious orders, the Daughters of St. Paul are consistently
attracting vocations around the globe every year, and in high
numbers in many places like the Philippines and Korea.
"We are very grateful to the Lord that
each year he has sent us young women to follow the Pauline vocation," Sister
Gillis said. Our community is very much alive, vibrant. It's
exciting that it's attracting young women who want to follow
Jesus in the footsteps of St. Paul and who want to proclaim the
Gospel with their lives."
Because Blessed Alberione's inspiration
was birthed in his own eucharistic prayer, Pauline prayer is
characterized by a daily hour of adoration before the Blessed
Sacrament.
"Prayer first of all, prayer above
all, prayer the life of all," reminded Blessed Alberione.
There is a "very close" relationship
between Eucharistic Adoration and the community's mission of
evangelizing through the media, Sister Gillis explained.
"One cannot exist without the other," she
said. "We go to Jesus every day before the Blessed Sacrament
to remain intimately united to Him, both in the celebration
of the Eucharist and in our time of Eucharistic Adoration, to
receive His light, His guidance, to spend time with Him, and
to pray over the world.
"It's here," she pointed out, "that
we hear what's beating in the heart of humanity. And it's in
spending that time with Jesus every day that He sends us out
again!"
The community sponsors a number of "Come
and See" vocation programs each year for women ages 18 to
30. They also sponsor a summer program for young women ages 14
to 18. The high school programs, which have had up to 20 women
in one week, have resulted in several vocations, some of whom
entered the community after college graduation.
"Young women today see that our lives
as Daughters of St. Paul are totally centered on Jesus, on Jesus
in the Eucharist, and in His word--and it's an attractive life.
Young people want to follow Jesus Christ," exclaimed
Sister Gillis. "Our apostolate of proclaiming the message
of Jesus Christ in today's world through the media is also attractive
to young people who understand that we're living a media culture!"
Following St. Paul
In 1915, a year after founding the Society
of St. Paul for men, a young woman named Teresa Merlo joined
Father Alberione as the first Daughter of St. Paul. She took
the religious name Thecla, after St. Paul's first woman disciple.
Mother Thecla led the new congregation as superior general until
her death in 1964.
In 1932, Father Alberione sent Mother Paula
Cordero to begin the Daughters of St. Paul in the United States.
Today, there are 2,500 Daughters of St.
Paul in 50 countries throughout the world -- and 140 in the U.S.
province (13 U.S. states and Toronto, Canada).
Under the title of Pauline Books and Media,
the apostolic mission of the community in North America includes
a publishing house, Pauline Video, Pauline Records (the audio
and music division), the electronic publishing division (Internet
and software), Paulinas Distribuidoras (the Hispanic division),
My Friend (a children's magazine) and the Pauline Center for
Media Studies. They also run 20 Pauline Book and Media bookstores
throughout North America.
For Sister Gillis, who has been a sister
for 14 years, her reasons for following Jesus Christ as a Daughter
of St. Paul are just as important today as when she first became
a sister. "I want to tell the world, especially young people,
that no one and no thing can satisfy our heart like Jesus Christ.
He's changed my life and He's brought me to fullness of life."
To contact Sr. Margaret Michael, fsp
National Vocation Director
Daughters of St. Paul
4403 Veterans Memorial Blvd
Metairie, LA 70006
504-887-7635
vocations@paulinemedia.com
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