On the glorious Feast of All Saints, our community welcomed a new postulant with these words:

Live + Jesus

Welcome Kim  to the Postulancy

St. Francis de Sales said in one of his letters, “ Conduct and hold your spirit fast to the glorious paths of the heavenly Jerusalem, where from every side you hear the praises of God resounding.

Look at the variety of saints and find out how they arrived in heaven. You will learn that the apostles got there especially through love, the martyrs through their constancy, the doctors through meditation, the confessors through mortification, the virgins through purity of heart, but all of them through humility.”

As you begin your postulancy with all of us in the Brooklyn Visitation Monastery, Kim, you will recognize that as St Francis also said, “ the opportunity to do great things does not come very often, but at every moment we can do little acts with great love.”

You will receive grace to bear patiently the small trials of everyday life, those inconveniences that give us the chance to show God that we really love Him.

A prayer for this great Solemnity of All Saints says in part, “We celebrate the festival of this city, the heavenly Jerusalem…towards her we eagerly hasten as pilgrims advancing by faith..”

As “pilgrims advancing by faith” we look to the saints today to guide you, especially our Founders-Saints Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal and St. Margaret Mary.

It is providential that members of our community first met you when we were literally pilgrims, with you, on a pilgrimage to Annecy in France, our Holy Source, where our Saintly Founders are laid to rest. That pilgrimage anticipated this current one.

Now you continue your religious pilgrimage here in Brooklyn, leaving behind your native region of the USA to come to be within an oasis of prayer in this large city.

As you begin your postulancy, may the Sacred Heart of Jesus enfold you, as all of our hearts intercede for your vocational fidelity and growth. Know that you have the support of your Novice Directress, Sr Mary Pauline, each of your novitiate companions, all the Professed Sisters and myself.

May your heart be blessed and may you rejoice with the Saints today, as they accompany you in new beginnings.

May God be praised!

Her journey took her from the South.. to the Midwest.. to Manhattan and finally to the shores of Brooklyn, where our Monastery is located not far from New York Harbor and the Verrazano Bridge.

On this glorious Feast of our Saint-Sister, St. Margaret Mary, the Lord’s Sacred Heart opens to receive Kim as a hope-filled candidate to the Visitation here.

Tonight as we celebrate Mass, process with the Blessed Sacrament and venerate a relic of the Saint, we ask blessings on each of those present and especially Kim who has left all that is familiar to follow Jesus.

Please pray for her as she begins her journey.

More to come!