Sarah Marie says hello

The Peace of Christ be with you all! My name is Sarah Marie Schulze, I hail from Anna, Ohio. I have an older brother named James and a younger sister named Sami. I have a wonderful father and mother named Mark and Jill. We have two dogs, Daisy and Chloe and four cats: Holly, Cheetah, Honey, and my favorite Boga (Swahili for pumpkin). Together we all make up our little Schulze clan.

I have always loved to play any sport and do anything outdoors. Some of my favorite things to do are play basketball, go hiking and play my guitar. I also love to just hang out with friends and family, and of course I never get tired of being before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

This past year I spent time living and serving in St Louis, Missouri. I was part of a group called the Vincentian Service Corps. During my time there, I lived in community with three other young women and served at an inner city Catholic school as an aid to the office staff and the teachers. During my year of service I was directed to our sisters by a certain priest named Father Jay Hughes. After encountering the overflowing joy of our Sisters, I could not help but come back on another visit. On my second visit I knew that I was home. I look forward to learning more about our way of life and deepening my love for Our Lord. So far, this year as a postulant is off to a great start, and I am even getting used to waking up at 4:35 in the morning.

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Welcome to our Family, Postulants!!!

Today, on the Feast of the Birth of Mary, our new postulants entered the postulancy of our American Province of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George! We thank God for the gift of these vocations. Pictured above - on their very first full day in the convent - are (from left) Ashley Vola, Samantha Goodson, Miranda Edgar, Jennifer Clark and Erin Leis. Welcome, Postulants! We Sisters are grateful that you have accepted Christ's invitation to belong totally to Him in our Franciscan community, and we support you wholeheartedly with our prayers and help! If you would like to send a word of welcome and encouragement to these new postulants, we will pass the greetings along to them. Just leave them as a "comment"!

Journey with Mary: Sacrificial Love of Spiritual Motherhood

Recently, I found a reflection I had written during my first retreat as a postulant. The last conference that had been given was on Spiritual Motherhood. As I approached the 4 th Station where Jesus meets His Sorrowful Mother, this is what struck my heart: What is the sacrificial love of a mother? It is the self-sacrifice made to love her children. Mary’s self-sacrifice to be there with Christ, her Son, in His passion was the selfless love that united her with Him. Her heart was pierced with 7 swords in the agony of watching her beloved Son endure a cross that He did not deserve, but which He embraced for the love of the Father and mankind. Could she not have said to Jesus, “You don’t have to do this, there are other ways. Do you know how much pain You are causing me and those who love you?” She knew He could have chosen any other way to save us, but this was the Father’s will, and so in silent love Mary trusted. If the world is suffering, why do y

Looking Back with Gratitude

“Christ is calling you; the Church needs you; the Pope believes in you and he expects great things of you!” My life would never be the same as the words of John Paul II coursed through my mind and beat with fervor in my heart. Me? Could he possibly mean me? Like many others, I felt Pope John Paul II was speaking directly to me as I sat behind him in the nose-bleed section of the stadium in Saint Louis. Throughout my high school years after this encounter, the idea of having a possible vocation to the religious life shocked and bewildered me, but at the same time brought me such peace. As each year came and went, my relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church grew with greater depth, understanding, and love. Through daily mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, Scripture and God’s divine intervention through his priests and religious, I soon realized that, yes, the Pope did mean me. Christ was calling me and how could I say no? After one year of college, I soon came to the realizatio

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