V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

From November 24-28, 2024 at our Regional House at Cypress Springs Mercedarian Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the United States Immaculate Conception Region of the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament held it’s XI Regional Chapter. The Chapter Sisters elected our new Regional Council that will serve from 2024- 2027: Mother Maria Isabel Rodriguez, HMSS, Regional Superior; Mother Maria del Rosario Vega, HMSS, Vicar Regional, Economer, and Formator of Juniors; Mother Jeanette Marie Estrada, HMSS, Mistress of Novices and Vocational Ministry Advisor; Mother Rita Pinedo, HMSS, Apostolate Coordinator; and Mother Maria Guadalupe Mier y Terán, HMSS, Coordinator of Permanent Formation.

Please keep our new Regional Superiors in your prayers as they guide our region with the Holy Spirit over the next three years in spreading the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

To Evangelize with Mary in the Light of the Eucharist

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

This reflection was written by Sr. Joseph Marie Allensworth, HMSS on December 23, 2024

A few weeks ago, one of our students joyfully sang this song for Allie, our dog, as her class walked back into the school after a fire drill: I’m on my way! I’m on my way! I’m on my way! The other students were saying, “Come on Allie!”; “Where is Allie?”; “Is she okay?” All of the little ones were so attentive to making sure Allie was safely back into their classroom, even more so than attentive to where they themselves were.

As we come closer to Christmas and the coming of our Savior’s birth, the “Allie Song” keeps running in my mind and heart. Jesus is on the way. He’s coming into the world in a couple days. He wants to make His dwelling with us. Mama Mary and St. Joseph are almost to Bethlehem. The Holy Family is on the way! They are on the way!

It has struck me over and over how joyful it truly is that He is on the way. If I am honest, I spend most of my time attending to the places in my heart I feel not ready for Jesus to be with me in or the places in my heart I am desperate to encounter Jesus in. Sometimes I lose sight of the joy of the journey of this life of faith, the simplicity of being on the way. Jesus desires to be with me just as I am, not as who I want to be or think I am supposed to be. He is calling me to journey with Him and His Holy Family exactly where I am today and allow their love to transform me.

As the day draws near for Jesus to come on Christmas, I feel Him inviting me today to just enjoy the way. Enjoy the way with His Holy Family. I thank God for how He has prepared my heart this Advent season to be His dwelling and also for the places I do not see as ready for Him yet. As Blessed Solanus Casey, OFM Cap said, “Thank God ahead of time.” I  thank God He is coming to be with me just as I am right now.  What a gift that Jesus keeps coming to me each day when I receive Him in the Eucharist and adore Him in Eucharistic Adoration!

Where’s Jesus? He’s on the way with me! We are on the way! As we walk the last days of Advent, I pray Jesus gives each of us the grace to love the way. To enjoy this walk with Him on Earth until we meet Him face to face in Heaven with unveiled faces. For today, I will rejoice in the journey on this side of heaven and enjoy the simple things: Jesus in a stable, Christmas lights, being with my Sisters, and all the Christmas fun. Jesus is on the way! Let us rejoice and be glad! He is taking us on the way with Him. We are on the way!

O God, who gladden us year by year
as we wait in hope for our redemption,
grant that, just as we joyfully welcome
your Only Begotten Son as our Redeemer,
we may also merit to face him confidently
when he comes again as our Judge.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

~Collect Nativity of the Lord (Vigil Mass)

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

On this Solemnity of All Saints, we wanted to share how our Sisters follow the Saints and their examples on the path to holiness.

This reflection was written by Sr. Joseph Marie Allensworth, HMSS on November 1, 2024.

One blessing since entering Religious Life has been getting to know and become friends with so many Saints in Heaven. From reading about their lives, watching movies about them, coloring pictures of them with the kids in the school, and listening to my Sisters in community talk about their love for particular ones, I have learned about so many Saints in the last four years! In this short post, I wanted to share with you all the many Saints that our Sisters are devoted to either through their baptismal name or religious name. I pray that in these Saints, you find a new friend in Heaven this All Saints’ Day!

All you holy men and women of God, pray for us. Venerable Maria del Refugio, intercede for us.

To Evangelize with Mary in the Light of the Eucharist

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! As we continue to thank God for the completion of the St. Michael the Archangel Novitiate House, we ask you to continue to pray for our Sisters in Formation.

Download our official 2024-2025 Vocation Poster here.

This year’s Vocation Poster also includes all our convents in our Immaculate Conception Region!

To help us raise the remaining $1 million of our Novitiate House Building Fund Goal, visit: www.mercedariansisters.org/Novitiate-House-Building-Fund/

Prayer for Mercedarian Vocations: O Mary, Mother of Christ the Eternal High Priest, and Mother of the Church, we come to you and humbly ask you to awaken new religious vocations for the service of the people of God, especially to the Mercedarian family. Strengthen our Catholic homes in faith which bears fruit; so that disciples and witnesses of your Son may be harvested from them. Touch the hearts of our young people, invite and bring them to the Heart of Jesus. May they grow in his warmth and in the mystery of total self-giving in service of the Gospel. Mother of Mercy, our Mother, bless us with holy vocations to the religious life and priesthood. Amen.

To Evangelize with Mary in the Light of the Eucharist

V.J.E.

Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!

On this Feast of St. Teresa of Avila, the Foundress of the Discalced Carmelite Religious family, we wanted to share how we, Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, share in the gift from God given to St. Teresa of Avila.

This reflection was written by Sr. Joseph Marie Allensworth, HMSS on October 15, 2024.

In my almost four years of Religious Life, many people have told me at different times, “you all pray a lot!” As I sit today thinking about St. Teresa of Avila, I realize that is probably one of the highest compliments any religious community could receive. This comment recognizes that there is something ordered directly to God and that our desire is to be with Him in prayer even if what that looks like is a mystery to some people.

On this day when the Church celebrates St. Teresa of Avila, I was reflecting on how our life as religious sisters is a call to friendship with Jesus. As Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, we strive each day with God’s grace to be transformed by our Eucharistic Lord, which means that our primary duty is to respond to the call to a deep friendship with Jesus. However, the call to friendship with Jesus is for all who follow Him, not just us as religious sisters. When we are living our entire lives centered around Jesus, and our relationship with Him, everything is transformed in His love.

The witness of St. Teresa of Avila is one that calls us all to reflect on how we cultivate our friendship with Our Lord. Friendship with Jesus, which St. Teresa of Avila preached to her Sisters, is grown through prayer, silence, spiritual reading, Eucharistic Adoration, reading Sacred Scripture, loving those around us, living a sacramental life, and above all, by seeking Jesus in all things. All of these are ways of growing in relationship with Jesus and learning to be fully loved by Him. As Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, our life is full of all these practices which St. Teresa of Avila showed would lead us to perfection in our state of life when we do them with a heart set on loving Jesus.

As I continue to get to know Jesus and His friends in heaven like St. Teresa of Avila and her spiritual daughters: St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Teresa of the Andes, and many others, I am inspired to walk on this side of heaven in preserving prayer and seeking Jesus in all things each day.  Our Mother Foundress, Venerable Maria del Refugio, knew that for her daughters to become one with Jesus in the Eucharist and to become the friends of Jesus, they must spend time cultivating that great love for Him above all else. That is why we spend many hours in prayer each day striving to grow more in love with Our Spouse and love Him with our entire life!

As we celebrate the life of a saint deeply devoted to Our Lord, who desired to sit at His feet in Adoration, may we all encourage each other to walk in friendship with Jesus on the journey of faith.

Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.

~St. Teresa of Avila

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us. Venerable Maria del Refugio, intercede for us.

To Evangelize with Mary in the Light of the Eucharist