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.

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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"!

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

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

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