For the past several months I've been reading the Facebook posts that show up on my Timeline. Various people in my family with a variety of political opinions post there frequently. As I've thought about the different statements that have been made I felt that somehow I've lost my voice. I'm not good at debate. I don't think well on my feet. I didn't feel inclined to come up with the magisterial statement that would clarify everything (as if that were possible!). By ...

This week we’ll be celebrating Vocations Sunday, so we asked the novice director of the Daughters of St. Paul, Sister Carmen Christi Pompeii, FSP, about her thoughts on vocations.  What does "vocation" mean to you?Vocation is a call from Love and a call to love. It is a way of living out our relationship with God that brings meaning and joy to our life, that allows us to live our Christian identity to the fullest and allows us to bear abundant fruit in loving servi...

This is part 7 of a nine part series of meditations on the Word of God with reflections from the writings of Venerable Mother Thecla Merlo and Blessed James Alberione.Mother Thecla lived her apostolic Pauline vocation in a spirit of exultation: “I am extremely happy in my vocation. I wish I had a thousand lives so that I could dedicate them all to this noble apostolate, in spite of the many vexations and difficulties” (Letter to her brother, in 1947). She lived her voc...

This is part 6 of a nine part series of meditations on the Word of God with reflections from the writings of Venerable Mother Thecla Merlo and Blessed James Alberione.Mother Thecla’s constant concern was to guide the Daughters of St. Paul and its individual communities to communion, mutual understanding, and a deep sense of belonging. Her pedagogy was enlightened by the Pauline texts concerning love, summarized in the phrase from the Acts of the Apostles: “united, hear...

"Jesus is our prayer, because in His own Person, in His humanity,He supplicates the Father.Jesus is a living prayer, and His prayer is absolutely efficacious.Jesus continuously offers to the Father his merits and prayers.He adores, thanks, satisfies, implores mercy for sinners,grace for children, for the weak, for the suffering, for all mankind.It is prayer of infinite value, efficacious through the merits of Jesus,who is "heard for his godly fear" (Hebrews 5:7).All those who go t...

We are pleased to bring you the Easter letter of our Mother General, Sr. Anna Maria Parenzan. May her thoughts and best wishes be extended to you also in this most beautiful Easter Season and throughout the remaining year.    Rome, Easter 2017Dearest Sisters,Easter is an event of overwhelming power. It is a proclamation of beauty, the forecast of a luminous life that irradiates grace: Jesus is risen–he is alive!–and we can meet the Living One as he was met by the women...

This is part 5 of a nine part series of meditations on the Word of God with reflections from the writings of Venerable Mother Thecla Merlo and Blessed James Alberione.It is evident that Mother Thecla was aware of her call to union with God, that is, to holiness. The key here is her constant use of the phrase “to make progress.” She worked toward this fervently-desired goal by making the best possible use of two basic elements” prayer and interior work.She constantly r...