January 14, 2023

The Sisters at SEEK ’23

At the beginning of January, seven Sister Servants traveled to St. Louis to attend the FOCUS SEEK conference, along with 17,000 other participants! Many attendees were college students and FOCUS missionaries from across the country, but there were also large numbers of FOCUS missionary alumni, priests and religious, as well as others who desired to share and deepen their Faith.

University students from the diocese of Birmingham gathered (with a couple Sisters) for a photo for our Bishop Steven Raica
What an experience, to participate in the Holy Mass with 17,000 people!

We had an incredible week, fruitful in prayer, sacraments and fellowship, sharing our life and apostolate with many friends – both new and those we have met on campuses already visited.

Mother Louise Marie, Sister Mary Philomena and Sister Madeleine Marie flew into St. Louis, while Sister Marie Therese, Sister Mary Faustina, Sister Mary Michael, and Sister Rose Marie trekked on the road with materials for our vocations booth and compact bookstore. Sister Madeleine Marie was also asked to share her story, as a St. Louis vocation, and tell about our community on Roadmap to Heaven. Listen below! (Sister is interviewed in the middle section)

At our booth, we offered free rosaries, medals, stickers, and coffee! We also brought a variety of bookstore items to offer for sale, including spiritual reading, Rosary booklets, Pier Giorgio T-shirts, and more. Pier Giorgio has been a great heavenly friend of our community, and always introduces us to new friends, as his story and our connection with Frassati USA bring up lots of questions, and requests for ‘selfies’ with his cutout!

Each day, the Sisters were chiefly kept occupied meeting and building connections with various groups. We enjoyed meeting new friends amongst all the different groups, or running into familiar faces in the crowd. Our experience in St Louis confirmed the fruitfulness of our campus visits over the past two years.

Highlights for the Sisters included the beautiful and carefully planned Eucharistic Liturgies – with over 400 priests and numerous bishops. What an incredible witness to Christ and His Church today!

Mother Louise Marie was moved to tears on entering the adoration chapel, seeing the number of seats provided, and knowing that it had been regularly filled to capacity during the conference. Wednesday evening included adoration in the stadium with a Eucharistic procession; during this time confessions were available late into the evening.

We have all been inspired anew at this conference to “go and bear fruit that will last,” as we work in our apostolate to evangelize through catechesis and retreats!