Photos from Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a family day for us. Sr. Grace at recreation.

Some Photos from Thanksgiving

Sr. Mary Paula during community recreation.

Some Photos from Thanksgiving

Sr. Carmen and the postulants at Dinner.

Books of Comfort

We began the Books of Comfort Program after Hurricane Katrina in order to send books to those who were displaced by the Hurricane and needed a word of comfort--a word of the God of comfort. Donors gave over $10,000 in order to send these books down into the Gulf Region. We have begun to receive letters of gratitude from the recipients of these books: kids in schools which were wiped out and who now had story books and coloring books to give them some sense of the Good Shepherd's care for them, sisters who are counselling people who have lost everything but who are finding some light in books such as Surviving Depression, and God is Here When Bad Things Happen.

Our Founder told us that there is a certain anonymity to our apostolate. Behind the scenes we write and print, sing and record, create radio programs and make web sites, which then are able to reach people that we may never see ourselves, but who found God's love because of our mission. He often told us that we would know only very little of the good that we do on this earth, but when we arrive in heaven, then so many will come up to us to thank us for the book that we wrote, or the recommendation we made in our Pauline Center, or the music we arranged and recorded--all channels of God's grace and mercy in their lives.

We hold all the people who have suffered so much from Katrina and Rita and all the other national disasters of this year in our hearts. All we can do is believe--believe that God is present and will somehow bring good from all the pain and suffering of this year. We can only believe and praise him.

Six Christmas Concerts

Advent is for us as busy as it was for the Blessed Mother as she prepared to go to Bethlehem for the census, knowing that the birth of her son was imminent. We carry this same expectancy within us as we reach out to a waiting world during the Christmas season--a world that will find its meaning only in Jesus and its hope only in his love.

This weekend twelve of us are gathering in New York for a week of practicing before our Christmas concerts. The concerts will be held on Staten Island, in Manhattan, and in Princeton, New Jersey. The following week-end we will be doing three Christmas concerts in the Boston area: two in our convent chapel and one in Billerica at St. Theresa's Parish.

Concerts are a lot of work and a lot of fun, but we have discovered that the power of music to instill faith and courage and to comfort and console is irreplaceable. For the hundreds of people who will be at our concerts we have already begun to pray that Jesus will work through our voices to reach the hearts of the people he loves so much.

The Wake for our dear Sr. Aparaceda

The day before Sr. Aparaceda died, she went into the little chapel with Sr. Grace. She said aloud, in her typical way, "Hello, Jesus, my love, my everything!" We believe in faith that now Sr. Aparaceda is looking on the face of her love, that her waiting is now over and the Bridegroom has come to take her eternally into the banquet of his love. We will miss you, Sr. Aparaceda. We know that you will keep your promise to pray for us.

Faxes and e-mails from sisters around the world who knew Sr. Aparaceda

Funeral Mass for Sr. Aparaceda

Funeral Mass for Sr. Aparaceda

Gathered in the Burial Chapel

Yesterday our dearest Sr. Aparaceda died

Sr. Aparaceda, who brought much joy to our community here in Boston, died yesterday. Her mischievous ways will be missed. She will no longer be forgetting her cane all over the house since she certainly no longer needs it in the Pauline mansion where she now is with Bl. James Alberione and Mother Thecla and Mother Paula and all the other sisters who have gone before us into eternity. Her sisters who also are Daughters of St. Paul are in Brazil (she herself is Brazilian but came to America at a young age). They spoke with each other just a day before she died. We will miss her dearly.