Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate - Catholic Youth Networking VOCATIONS

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Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate

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A Day with the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate

Each day includes Mass together, Morning, Evening and Night Prayer of the Divine Office, meditation, a Holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary, spiritual reading, and a spirit of prayer throughout the day. This combination of a life of prayer and our unique apostolate shows why we are called contemplative-missionaries.

What is it like to go from door to door, bringing the message of God's love and mercy to His "lost sheep"? Sr. Mary Laurian shares some thoughts:

"My parish may be an area irregular in extent, large or small, in city, town or country. To the Parish Visitor missioner these accidentals do not define the parish. A parish is made up of people; people make the parish what it is; to the Parish Visitor it is the people who matter.

They are the old ladies, the talkative ones who think I have come just to listen to them, the awed ones who kiss my hand and feel that their house has been blessed by God because I am there. They are the young, the old and the middle-aged - the weak ones who want to do right but lack the moral fortitude and the weak ones who hang on my every word in the hope that I will say something to excuse their carelessness.

They are the young mothers, hurried and harried, who have to rescue Junior three times while talking to you. They are the poorly-instructed, young couples who eloped and were married before a Justice of the Peace, older couples married for many years outside the Church and not knowing what to do about it, sick and elderly people unable to go to church and afraid to ask a priest to come to them, men and women away from the sacraments for many years for various reasons but always ashamed to approach a priest.

There are others like those who look you straight in the eye and say something you feel certain is not the truth, and those like the man who left the Church at the age of fifteen because of a misunderstanding with the parish priest. To all of these, I am bound to bring the Good News of Christ.

I think of the words of the poet - "They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, wise, foolish. So am I."

And, I just hope and pray that the Holy Spirit gives me the right word, pushes me in the right direction so that I can bring them all a little closer to God."

by Sister Mary Laurian, P.V.M.I.
Reprinted from The Parish Visitor Autumn 1999 issue.

About the Parish Visitors | A Day With the Parish Visitors | Contact the Sisters

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