Many of you have seen the pictures of the Infant Jesus statues we have been selling in the bookstore for the past few years. It’s not even Advent yet, but preparing these statues for Christmas has become a year-round process, and we thought you would enjoy seeing how they began.

Mother Louise Marie’s mother and father often traveled in Europe, and especially loved Spain and Austria. After her parents’ deaths, a little treasure of theirs surfaced, a baby Jesus clearly of European origin, which charmed us all with its beautiful simplicity.

Sister Ave Maria immediately had hopes of reproducing the statue. With the help of a friend, she was able to cast a mold and begin making plaster copies, which she then painted individually. Over the years, various Sisters and volunteers have helped making cushions and building small mangers, but always under Sister Ave Maria’s direction.

Sister works each year to make a small number of these precious statues available at Christmas time, often with small variations from year to year. If you too are captured by their sweetness, contact the bookstore to check availability, and place an order here.

Life is meant to be lived in as a gift of oneself in love, whether in marriage, religious life, or the single life lived in dedication to service. In the last two years, our community has been blessed to work with Fiat Ministries, which provides retreats that help women grow in the necessary freedom to embrace that call to love.

Fiat Ministries, founded by Emily Savage, is based out of Wichita, Kansas and works to ‘cultivate an authentic culture of discernment for young women’. They organize retreats around the country, structured to help prepare women say their own “yes” to God, just as Our Lady did at the Annunciation.

Our Sisters have participated in several retreats hosted by Fiat Ministries, including Mother/Daughter retreats, Middle School retreats, and discernment retreats. They are unique opportunities for prayer, the Sacraments, fellowship, and fun with religious Sisters from a variety of congregations. The retreats follow a deliberate structure to help build a foundation, from which women can go on to discern God’s call for them. Sisters who assist with the retreats walk alongside the young women as they learn more about who God is, who they are, and for what they are made. It is privilege to accompany them and to get to know them during the short time that we are together.

We have been delighted to participate in these beautiful events. Please join your prayers with ours, that this ministry continues to grow, helping women of all ages respond to God’s plan for their lives – to respond always to God’s invitation to live for Love.

If you are interested in seeing the locations of upcoming Fiat retreats, inquire about arranging a retreat in your diocese, or wish to support the ministry in any way, please take a look at their website!

A word of thanks to all of you, who faithfully keep our community in your prayers!

This summer has been tremendously packed, with helping with VBS programs, giving presentations at parishes, making family visits, and hosting some special events at Casa Maria.

August, however, has been a strongly community-oriented time. We were blessed to make our yearly eight-day retreat with Fr. John Lager, OFM. Shortly after, we entered into our first Chapter of Affairs – a cannonically required event for religious communities, which generally coincides with the regular election of superiors.

A Chapter of Affairs is a blessed opportunity for professed members to raise questions that concern the life and apostolate, and evaluate the best ways to respond as a community. Within all the questions raised, its particular focus is to ensure fidelity to the founding charism. We were all a little nervous about our first Chapter of Affairs, but experienced the grace of the Holy Spirit in a truly blessed week of meetings together!

This past week, our community welcomed a group of Sisters for a nine-day formation course called Esposas de Cristo. The theme for this year was The Eucharist and Consecrated Life. The CMSWR (Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious) has offered this event, with different themes, every few years since 2015. It is an excellent opportunity for deep ongoing intellectual and spiritual formation in Spanish. We appreciate the blessing this event is to these Sisters, and pray that it continues to grow!

A few of our Sisters participated in the lectures and discussion, focused on drawing key themes out of Pope St. John Paul II’s monumental Vita Consecrata. Others helped behind the scenes as we always do for retreats. As a providential bonus of the classes being hosted at Casa Maria, we were able to record the classes for future availability and create a promotional video to thank benefactors and encourage greater attendance.

As we all stretched our language skills, whether in English or Spanish, new songs were learned, recipes shared, and long-lasting friendships formed. Sisters always know how to make the most of these rare opportunities to visit between congregations!

Here at Casa Maria, we have been enjoying the lovely spring and early summer weather – as a community and with visiting friends.

We have enjoyed the fun that comes with having extra young visitors during summertime:

Some Sisters traveled to Florida to be present at FOCUS’ summer training, so some of the outdoor fun has also been of a tropical kind:

Hope you are also enjoying the beauty of God’s creation this summer!