Holiday Month!

The weather here is beautiful,  the sun is shining,  a slight breeze is rippling the trees, everyone out on the streets are smiling, dressed in their Summer finery, the flowers are breathtaking everywhere;  all they need is a pleasant drink in the evening and they are content, that is until the slugs come along!  Oh, and Andy Murray won at Wimbledon on Sunday, so all is well!

But our God is always there for us, no matter what the weather, no matter how we feel, no matter whether the flowers bloom or not. As a friend of mine from the USA used to say: “that is awesome!”  So it is.

 

What a God – in a changing world, we can always think of him and there he is!  We can always put out our hand, so to speak, and it is held securely, lovingly, protectively. We have only to call out his name, as the Carpenters, I think, used to sing, and he is there. Always on our side, always ready to lift us up when we fall,  always THERE.  And that, surely, is eternal Summer or Spring or Autumn or even, perhaps Winter – it depends what your favourite season is.



St. Paul summed it up perfectly, as he seemed to have a habit of doing:

“In him we live, and move, and have our being!”

For this month, I suggest that you take the lyrics of  The Deer’s Cry by Shaun Davey from The Pilgrim which is, of course, the Lorica of St. Patrick – his breastplate.  Think about  the wisdom they contain as you listen to the words on the DVD.

I arise today through the strength of Heaven....
I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me,
God’s eye to look before me, God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me....

 

What more can you ask? Only the last verse:  Christ before me .... but I’ll leave that one for you to reflect on at your leisure!

If you really want a crie du coeur or a cry from the heart, the last two lines make  one of the best prayers I know:

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me;

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me!   I arise today...

Oh yes, that, if lived, would make our world perfect inside and outside.  So let’s during this holiday time, do what the Celts always did so well in times gone by: live happily in the atmosphere of the God who is always on our side.

That’s better than a soak in the sun even with 30 factor sunscreen on, or even a pina colada under a gently waving palm beside a turquoise strip of water surrounded by gleaming white sand.  You don’t believe me?   Try it!

P.S . It’s a whole lot cheaper too!

REPEAT OF THE EVER-POPULAR SCHOOL HYMN TO OUR LADY AT THE START OF A HOLIDAY.

O Causa Nostrae Laetitiae     (Cause of our joy)

Mother of all that is pure and glad, all that is bright and blest,
As we have taken our toil to thee, so we will take our rest.
Take thou and bless our holiday, O causa nostrae laetitiae!

Airs that are soft, and a cloudless sky, we would owe all to thee
Speak to thy Son as thou did of old, that feast day in Galilee.
Tell him our needs in thine own sweet way, O causa nostrae laetitiae!

Be with us Mother, from morn till eve, thou and thy blessed Son;
Keep us from all that is grief to you, till the weeks and the months are run
Thine be we still, from day to day, O causa nostrae laetitiae!

Keep us in all that is blest of God,  give us the joys that endure,
Lips that have smiles and words for all, hearts that are kind and pure;
so will thou be by night and day, O causa nostrae laetitiae!

Come when earth’s tears and smiles are o’er, mother of peace and love
Show to us He who is joy to earth, and joy to the Hosts above;
So shall we laugh in the latter day, o causa nostrae laetitiae!

 

Have a good holiday!

 

Listen to the Holiday Hymn O Causa Nostrae Laetitiae in Latin

One card

When I worked in the Clifton diocese, I had many wonderful experiences, some scary ones and many that, to this day, have made me think, especially at this time of year.

It was a week before Christmas, and of course we were very busy in school with plays, carol concerts, Advent  services,  the usual occurrences just before finishing the term for the Christmas holidays.  In the middle of it all, my parish priest telephoned and asked me to visit an old man, newly-arrived in the parish, who had broken his leg and therefore was housebound.

When my companion and I got to the house, we found that it was a two-roomed apartment in an area which was very run-down.  To our surprise, the man himself opened the door to us after some time of shuffling about and fumbling with locks.  I thought that he might have had a friend or a carer with him to help him, but he was completely alone.

His smile of welcome was heart-warming.  He had not seen either of us before, but it was obvious that we were an unexpected Christmas treat for him.  He sat us down with old-world courtesy, and offered us tea which he gave us in the manner of a butler in a large house serving refreshments to honoured guests, even though the tea was poured out in chipped mugs.

 I looked around the room.  It was sparsely furnished, but very clean and tidy.  His few possessions were lovingly cherished: he had two pictures which must have come from better days hung on the walls, and they brightened up the room, giving it a character it wouldn’t have otherwise possessed.  Then I saw a string tied around the mantelpiece.  On it was hung a large Christmas card.  This was displayed in the most eye-catching part of the room so that he could look at it often.  One card.  For something to say I said:”You’re putting up your cards, I see!”  His face broke into a smile. “Yes” he answered. “Isn’t this a wonderful time of the year? I love it!”  He then went on to tell us that this card had come from the St. Vincent de Paul Society in his last parish.  “They are so good!” he said.  They always came to see me, and gave me a present at Christmas!”  He got the card down and showed me.  It was thumbed, worn, often read.  I turned it over.  It was last year’s card.  With a smile I handed it back, making a resolution that he’d get a load more if I could help it.

One card.  Last year’s card.  Not chucked in the bin, not given to a charity for recycling, but loved, cherished, precious.  He talked with pride about his children.  His wife had died some years earlier, but he had three children, one a barrister, another a high-profile business man, and a third living abroad in a taxpayer’s haven.  All able to reach him.  All with the means to make his life more comfortable.  All too busy, or too involved with other concerns.  Yet he loved them and prayed for each of them at night.

I left that room a very changed person.  So did my companion.  We talked about it on the way home.  We had no idea how he came to be so poor when he obviously had seen better days, but the amazing thing was that he wasn’t bitter.  He was lovely.  I’ve always remembered him.  When I told a group of women who came to the Convent a little about him, without revealing who he was, they all said ”Oh can he come to my family for Christmas? We’d love to have him!”  Good, loving people.  I think he made friends, and received help.  But it would have been good if his family had remembered him. Loneliness is the disease of our times.  There are so many, and at Christmas it seems more poignant, doesn’t  it?

So let’s remember Jim – we’ll call him that. There are many Jim’s and Joan’s around us. Jesus came to offer love and friendship. He didn’t have much either, but he shared what he had.  In these days of recession, let’s do that too.  Have a lovely third week of Advent, and, like Jim, rejoice  because “Christmas is a wonderful time.”    So it is, for the generous of heart.

 

 

Love was her reason

We have opened June with an explosion of love and respect for the Queen who has just celebrated 60 years on the throne. Sixty years of fidelity, hard work and steadfast devotion to the Christian principles which have guided her all her life.  What a witness!

This month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart: it is wrapped up in love.  Perhaps the weather lets us down a bit, but through the rain and the mist we can sense the bright, warming light of love that is the ongoing Incarnation in our world. 

Our Founder, Mother Magdalen Taylor, loved this month because it is all about love.  The love of God for us, the love we have for one another. The sort of love that makes us smile, that helps us to reach out  to those who lack it, so that they can feel better about themselves.

She didn’t believe in some of the pious practices which were popular in her time.  She had a very real and trenchant attitude to prayer.

“Love of the Sacred Heart does not consist in pious practices, but in a real practical love for the Sacred Heart and a realisation of his love for us!” she said.  She added that it must lead to a devotion to those in need.  If it doesn’t it remains merely a pious practice.  There you are.

She  believed that the Sacred Heart always pleads for us. In fact she commissioned a statue of it.

She died on the 9^th June 1900. “Invoke the Sacred Heart” were her last words to us.

So let’s remember that love grows as we exercise it.   Sometime this month, remember Victor Hugo’s words :

To love another is to touch the face of God.

What a wonderful thought for the month of the Sacred Heart: and it is realisable.  Happy loving! 

 

Follow Me!

Yesterday we were asked to put a special emphasis on what it means to be called by Christ to live fully.  That doesn’t mean what many people think it does, for example, what we sometimes call ‘living it up’ – having a good time while the money lasts, having as much fun as we can.  At least what we call fun until the headache kicks in! 

What Jesus meant was to live a meaningful Christian life, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our choices in life, being in touch with ourselves through prayer and the sacraments, reaching out to the poor and the disenfranchised, taking each day as a gift rather than a burden to be endured.  That was how he himself lived.

Remember the Gospel passages when the first disciples met Jesus?  They are so simple, and yet so inspiring.  Let’s look at John Chapter 1 v. 29 - -34

The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said: ”Look, there is the lamb of God.”  Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus.  Jesus turned round, saw them following, and said “What do you want?”  They answered “Rabbi” – which means teacher – “ where do you live?” “Come and see”! he replied.  So they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day.

So begins the story of the calling of the first two apostles. What did they do?  They spent time with Jesus, got to know him a little, loved it and immediately told their friends about it.  One of them was called Andrew and we know that he rushed out and told his brother Simon Peter, not in words we might have expected him to use like “We stayed with that preacher called Jesus – you remember him – he comes from Nazareth – and it was great. He really has something!”  but simply “we have found the Messiah”.  Then he took his big brother to meet Jesus.  The rest of the story is history....

See yourself watching that scene – the early morning sun shining down on the sea of Galilee, the fishing nets drying on the shore nearby, the small fishing boats dotted around, John the Baptist pointing out Jesus as he passed and the two disciples following him to where he was living at the time...   See Jesus turn and smile at you, including you in that invitation, “Come and see!” You follow him, perhaps a little hesitatingly, and he encourages you, asking you to tell him about yourself.  He seems so interested as if you were the only one in the world, not just a number but a person whom he loves and who matters to him.  Feel your own eagerness to talk to him and to tell him what you have been doing with your life and what your hopes and dreams are, and see his smile of encouragement.  Receive his blessing before you part company, and then realise that he is with you on the way back home, he is with you always even though you can no longer see him.

Ask yourself: “What does Jesus really want me to do with my life?”  After all you only have one life, so it is a serious matter how you spend it. Perhaps he wants you to marry and bring up a family – perhaps he wants you to find him in your work, by staying unmarried so that you can witness through your single status to what St. Paul  calls “ an undivided attention to the Lord’s affairs.”

Perhaps Jesus is calling you to be a priest or a Sister – that could be as he always calls us  in different ways to serve the Church and to build it up in love.  Pray earnestly that you find out your particular path and then, when you have an idea of what it might be, follow it up by asking the right people about it, by “coming and seeing” as Jesus put it.  It may turn out to be what he wants of you, or it may not.  You’ll never know if you ignore it, or try to follow what you want and not what he wants for you.  They are two different things!!

Let’s resolve to pray not only for ourselves but for others that the Church may be “one whole Christ loving the Father.”   That was Jesus’ dream.  It comes at a cost. 

Meditate on this wonderful hymn and see if you can answer the questions he asks.

Here are the words of The Summons (Will You Come and Follow Me) :

WILL YOU COME AND FOLLOW ME

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known
Will you let my life be grown in you, and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you, and you in me?

 Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen

and admit to what I mean in you, and you in me?

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside, and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to re-shape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound in you, and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you, and you in me!
John Bell and Graham Maule.

God bless each of you. We will remember you in our prayers.

The Call of Christ - Vocations Sunday

"Thank God for the blessings of your callling, and let it become more and more precious to you each day."

Mother Magdalen

We are all called by Christ to follow him.  Let us ponder on the way that Christ is leading us even though we each have a unique path they all have the same destination - to Christ.

God will lead us. Pray that we will respond to God's call in our own lives.  Lord, wherever you go I am willing to follow. 

"God is calling all of us to follow him, and to do our best in his service.  The kingdom of God is so close, it is within us. Let us give him a heart wholly his."

Mother Magdalen

For today Pope Benedict XVI has written a letter on vocations:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/vocations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111018_xlix-vocations_en.html

"Every specific vocation is in fact born of the initiative of God; it is a gift of the Love of God! He is the One who takes the “first step”, and not because he has found something good in us, but because of the presence of his own love “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5)."

PP Benedict XVI

Take a leap of faith. Dive in! Let us allow ourselves to be swept away by the grace of God.

Listen to Steven Curtis Chapman song "Dive" on letting go and jumping in with a leap of faith.

Let us conclude with a prayer:

God created me to do Him some definite service.

He has committed some work to me,

which He has not committed to another.

I have a mission.

I am a link in a chain,

a bond of connection between persons.

Therefore I will trust Him.

Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;

if I am perplexed, my perplexity may serve Him;

if I am in joy, my joy may serve Him;

if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

Amen.

 (Prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman on Life's Vocations)

Lord Jesus, we entrust to you the young women and men of the world, with all their hopes and aspirations.  Fill them with a love and desire to follow you with a generosity and readiness to respond to the call.

Jesus is beckoning... will you go?  Will you leave "the nets" and follow him?

Lord, give us the courage to say Yes to follow you

and to renew that Yes every day!

Lady Day

In Medieval England the 25^th March was called “Lady Day”. It was a special day when the people celebrated the happiness of Mary on saying ‘yes’ to becoming the Mother of God.  It was kept as a special holiday, because, of course, this was the England that was called the Dowry of Mary.  Her special place.  Children brought nosegays of flowers and placed them before her statue on wayside shrines; there were special Masses and afterwards games and dancing in her honour. 

It is no coincidence that today we keep Mother’s Day very close to what used to be called Lady Day.  It too is a celebration of motherhood, a day of thanksgiving, fun and laughter.  A day when we remember with a smile all that our mothers and grandmothers did for us.   A day of happiness and a celebration of the gift of life.

The feast that we call the Annunciation is the greatest feast of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.  Mother Magdalen always celebrated it as the moment when the hearts of Jesus and Mary became one.  From her earliest years she was captivated by the wonder of the moment when the young Mary of Nazareth was left alone after the visit of the Angel Gabriel. This was the moment which has changed our world for ever – the moment when our little planet received into its fold the God who had made the heavens and the earth and all they contained, as a tiny, pulsating embryo in the womb of a young teenage girl.  The moment when time and eternity became one – “the still point of the turning world” as later theologians were to call it.

Mother Magdalen wanted us to reach out to that stillness of eternity as we contemplate this special moment, and try to think about what was happening – God himself breaking into our world to share our pain and loneliness and vulnerability, but also to be part of our joys and laughter.  She wanted us to see it as the greatest act of love this world of ours has ever seen, or will see. The Incarnation is all about love.  This stupendous act of love brought with it light and life and beauty to a world grown dark and despairing and sinful.  She wanted us to experience the wrapping round of the Holy Spirit on Mary after her ‘yes’.  In the Old Testament, if you remember, the Holy Spirit journeyed with those weary pilgrims of Moses and Aaron in the form of a cloud by day and a flame of fire by night.  In the daytime, the Israelites wandering in the desert, were also enveloped or wrapped around by the presence of the Holy Spirit to comfort them and to give them new life and hope.  This time, the enveloping literally brought new life as the unawakened womb of Mary received the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity into its depths.

Mary, at the age of fifteen or so, was the first woman ever to be totally overshadowed by the “power of the Most High” as the Angel Gabriel put it.  She allowed the Holy Spirit to come close to her when she said “Be it done to me according to your word” – words that we say often in the Angelus. But we forget that they were uttered first by a young girl from a despised Jewish village, a girl who was to face the censure of the people of Nazareth for what they judged to be a scandalous happening – a well-brought up girl becoming pregnant when she was unmarried, and as a result, facing the public humiliation of being sent away in disgrace or worse.  

Mother Magdalen always talked of the Incarnation in terms of love, and of course that is what it is. She loved to think of the hearts of Jesus and Mary joined together in the womb: “Let us ponder what it means” she would say. 

So we ask the Holy Spirit at this special time to help us to understand this mystery and to experience its warming, comforting love for each of us. We pray that we will make a response to “that love which first loved us” in the way we treat one another.

Have a happy feast on Monday – Lady’s Day.  We will pray for each of you on our special day.

Just for Love - In Thanksgiving

This is belated, for which I apologise – but, like wine, thanksgiving keeps, warms and enriches! 

I want to say a fervent ‘thank you’ for your support, interest and prayers for our 140^th year, and particularly for its culmination in the Mass celebrated in Soho on the 11^th February 2012.  Let me tell you a little about it.

St. Patrick’s Church, as you know, is a very special place. It is situated beautifully in Soho Square, and seems to nestle comfortably into the corner of a bustling, lively London Piazza, if there is such a thing – but it has an Italian air about it – a little imposing, but also very welcoming, warm and well-used as most Italian churches seem to be.  Of course its congregation is wide-reaching and international; that gives it a gracious, open feeling, and a sense of the universality of the Church. 

We felt very privileged to celebrate our special anniversary there, particularly as our Foundress and the early Sisters in the Congregation worshipped there.  They walked the wide squares and narrow streets of the area way back in the late nineteenth century, visiting the tenements and crumbling houses which were the places where the poor lived then. Perhaps ‘existed’ might be a better word, for the great facades of the time hid the dirty, fetid, unhealthy rooms where they huddled around a few sticks in a grate – if they were lucky – to warm themselves.

Soho was then a violent, corrupt place, where pimps operated ruthlessly to extort money from the poor women who plied their trade as prostitutes to provide bread and other necessities for their children.  It was to these that Frances Taylor – Mother Magdalen – reached out.  She understood their sense of hopelessness and their fears.  Because she believed passionately in the dignity of each human being, she fought to give back to these young women the self-worth and confidence they had lost.  She gave them a listening ear, a smile, a respect they very much appreciated.  She taught her sisters to do the same, and never to judge them as many others did.

So for us, Soho is a special place.  One of the Convents they lived in is now occupied by the Fox Film Company.  It is right opposite the Church.  I went in there the day after the Mass, and the people who worked there were very interested in our history and in what the early Sisters had done in that building and in the surrounding districts.

St. Patrick’s Church has now been restored and is very beautiful. As we went in, we were greeted by a sense of love, unity and shared celebration which was lovely.  Every pew of course was packed with people of all ages who had come to share in our special day.  We began by taking up the flags of the countries in which we work throughout the world which set the scene for a very colourful and meaningful day.

L to R: Cardinal Murphy O'Connor,
Bishop Kieran Conry,and Fr. Alex Sherbrooke,
 Parish Priest of St. Patrick's Soho

The chief celebrant at the Mass was Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton.  He has known us all his life, as his Aunt was an SMG for over sixty years.  We were privileged to have the Cardinal Emeritus of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor with us, and also many priests who work with SMG’s in different parishes throughout the country.  It was a striking picture of the Church in miniature, which our Foundress would have loved. 

Sr. Mary Whelan, SMG
and Kenneth Campbell

It was moving and enriching to see the symbols of our past and present SMG life placed on the altar at the beginning of Mass and we felt that those who had started the SMG tradition here approved.  The liturgy was a mixture of past and present as we held hands with those who had gone before us in spirit, and embraced all that is happening to us today. 

Painting of the Sacred Heart pleading
by Gagliardi

Sr. M. Whelan, our Superior General, gave us her usual warm, loving and eloquent welcome, and she also put words on the symbols as they were brought up. Chief of these of course was the painting by Gagliardi of the Sacred Heart pleading which Mother Magdalen commissioned. It was the centre of our celebration as it showed so clearly what she wanted of us – to be friends of the poor.  “True devotion to the Sacred Heart”, she always said “means a real, practical love of Our Lord, and an actual realisation of his love for us.”  By that she wanted us to understand that devotion to the Sacred Heart was not about pious practices, but is an acceptance of his wonderful, all-embracing love for us, which invites a response of love in return.  The response she wanted was to show that love through reaching out to the poor, the lonely, the bewildered, and the lost.  That is why this special picture was at the heart of our celebration. Everything that followed reflected this, and the place we were in reminded us of the love of those first sisters, who, to quote St. Therese of Lisieux, “put love at the heart of the Church” -  and the world of their time: thus challenging us to do the same today.

Marriage in Cana, Giotto c. 1304

We were reminded in the Word of God of the heart-warming phrase “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring Good News!"  How beautiful indeed, and the Good News on that day was the Cana event, which brought the light of hope not only to the wedding pair, but also to all those who were guests – in fact to the whole village, and later, from them to everyone they met!  So it is with us, we are, as our Foundress put it, meant to be Christ bearers who bring hope and light to all those around us.  That is what she did.

Fr. Alexander Sherbrooke, the parish priest spoke movingly of the work of the Sisters and how it is carried on today in the parish – the Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament, the outreaching to the poor, and much more.  It was very uplifting to hear him.  At the end of a wonderful celebration, Sr. Frances Ennis also spoke in her inimitable way of the life, times and continuing inspiration of Mother Magdalen in a world of darkness and division.

I do not have space to say much more, but the kaleidoscopes keep returning – the meeting for refreshment after the Mass, the delight at seeing old friends and colleagues – the noise, laughter and joy...  the enjoyment of the huge birthday cake, and so much more. 

Sr. Mary Whelan, SMG
with Kenneth Campbell
and Sr. Joseph, SMG

Kenneth Campbell and niece Julia

We were so privileged to have Kenneth Campbell, his sister Julia and his daughter Jacqueline with us. Kenneth and Julia are the great grandchildren of Charlotte Dean, Mother Magdalen’s sister, so they are very close relatives of Mother herself.  Charlotte became a Catholic two years after leaving the Crimea.  She was very close always in thought and in affection to her youngest sister, and having experienced the horrors of the Crimea together, the bond was strengthened.  To talk to Kenneth, Julia and Jacqueline brought the whole story of the SMG’s to life – this was part of the family from which the first SMG came.  It was awesome! 

We’ll end where we began – with a fervent thanksgiving.  Thank you to all who organised the service and did the refreshments, to all those who so lovingly participated, and to all of you who faithfully prayed for us. 

Let’s remember to say together: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!” 

Thank you.

The end of our 140th year is a celebration of thanksgiving!



This is the official end of the year-long celebrations to mark the 140^th year of our foundation.  On Saturday we are celebrating a special Mass to gather together the riches of the year. 

Frances Taylor
(Mother Magdalen)

Mother Magdalen made her Vows for life on February 12^th, 1872, and so we became a recognised Religious Congregation in the Church.  Soho was one of the places that we started in.  The Sisters used to visit the poor there, especially the women, many of whom were prostitutes.  It was then a violent place, where few ventured out alone, especially after dark.  Even the police went in threes, and the doctor, frequently called out to the dens and crumbling tenements of the area, also made sure that he never went alone.  Only the Sisters were allowed the freedom of going about without escort, as they were respected for the work they did among the poor, and were generally received with friendliness. 

Every Saturday night, Mother Magdalen assembled as many of her Sisters from around London as she could to pray for the people in Soho, especially for those who were violent and abusive.  Outside, as these young women prayed, they could hear the shouts, the ribald comments, the screams and fights that were commonplace especially on Saturday nights, the effects of drunkenness and obscenity. This is what they offered to the Lord for his forgiveness and blessing.  It became a custom to have a Holy Hour there amid such scenes of hopelessness and depravity, and it is in some way,  still carried on today. 

On Saturday, we will have a special Mass in which we shall remember everyone.  As there is limited room, we cannot have an open invitation, and places are already booked. But please pray with us and for us from 2 o’clock onwards on Saturday, 11^th February.  We will tell you all about it in our next blog, so watch this space!  Thank you for taking the time to read this. Let's say a short prayer together:

Father, we thank you for the wonderful blessings you have given to us since our foundation in 1872.  Today, we ask that our prayer may reach out to all those who are lonely, unhealed, frightened, abused.  May they find friends who will help them in the same way as those who sought healing and wholeness in this place so long ago, found support, friendship and love.  May your peace come down on this celebration, to bind all of us, those present, and those who are part of our large family of friends, supporters and  co-workers, in a circle of love which no one can break.  We ask Mary, our Mother and our best friend to protect us, console us, heal us and make us better people.  We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

Bless you all, and again, thank you for the great strength of your prayers and friendship.  We appreciate it more than you can imagine.

I leave you with some inspirational words from Mother Magdalen. Click on the picture for more animations every 12 seconds.