Perfect Timing: Part 1 of 3

Usually, our entrance day is September 8th - Our Blessed Mother's birthday. This year, our postulants entered on three different days. It's good to be reminded that God's ways are not our ways and His timing is always perfect.

So, let's meet our postulants!

Peace and blessings! My name is Brianna Donahue and I am 22 years old. I was born and raised on Long Island, New York, until 2005 when my family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee.

Ever since I was little, I felt drawn to the religious life and, more specifically, the Franciscan spirituality. I entered a Poor Clare Community after my first semester of college. Later I discerned that the Lord was leading me elsewhere, and returned to Tennessee. After hearing about our Veni Si Amas Vocation Retreat from one of our Sisters in Knoxville, Sister M. Clara, I came on the Fall retreat in 2017, and learned about our Community for the first time!

My heart was drawn to our Community's twofold charism immediately: "They shall look upon Him Whom they have pierced" and "Seeking to make the merciful love of Christ visible." Over the next few visits, my encounters with our Lord and our Sisters here at the convent really spoke to my heart. I finally surrendered to His invitation to follow Him and give Him my "yes!" I entered our Community on September 8, 2018.

I enjoy many activities, including camping, hiking backpacking, soccer, singing, arts and crafts, reading, and teaching! Before entering, I enjoyed participating in our annual parish Passion Play, volunteering at a local equestrian therapy facility for handicapped individuals, joining and being a junior leader in American Heritage Girls (AHG), and teaching badges for elementary through high school girls at AHG summer camps.

I praise God for His faithfulness towards me. I ask for your prayers that I may live each day, loving Jesus Christ and making His merciful love visible.

Comments

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 t...

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"!

To Gaze upon Christ

This Lent the Lord has put on my heart the awareness of gazing upon Christ. In our Franciscan congregation, our spirituality flows from John 19:37 “they will look on the one whom they have pierced.” With this spirituality, we gaze upon the pierced side of Christ and receive from His pierced heart His love and mercy. Then we may go forth to give what we have received. Throughout this Lent, this action of gazing has been foremost in both my spiritual reading and in prayer. It also brought to mind a graced trip to Assisi in 2014, by which this “gazing” became so real to me. While in Assisi, there are many things to see and let soak into one’s soul. The first place where I was moved to gaze was in the side chapel in the Basilica of St. Clare in Assisi, where the Crucifix from which Our Lord spoke to St. Francis is now housed. What an awe-filled moment it was to kneel before this Crucifix and to gaze into the e...

1 Franciscan Way

Search This Blog