An Act of Hope

O my God, relying on Thy almighty power and infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of the sins with the help of the grace, and life everlasting through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

An Act of Faith

O my God, I firmly believe all the sacred truths which Thy holy Catholic Church believes and teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who neither can deceive nor be deceived. Amen.

We Have Been Blessed!

After our triduum of united prayer to Our Lady of Victory of Constantinople (Feast Day Feb 25th, yesterday)the cause for the beautification of Sr. Marie has received a beautiful gift today about which you will soon learn! Offer many prayers of thanksgiving with us to Our Lady of Victory through the intercession of Sr. Marie. We will update as prudence directs, but know that your prayers are so powerful and are working little miracles! Praise God!

User Friendly Petition and Cover Letter

Scroll down the left of this web page to find two new additions. The new Petition contains a brief description of Mary's House and Sr. Marie's central role in it's re-discovery, procurement, restoration, and preservation and includes instructions for where to send the petition once filled. This added information will help you explain and teach as you gather signatures and work for the cause of Sr. Marie to be officially opened. Also find a ready made Cover Letter to accompany your printed petitions so that you may send them out to other apostles of peace. Please use these tools freely! Sr. Marie, pray for us.

Our Lady of Victory!

So happy to be corrected and share with you that February 25th is the Feast of Our Lady of Victory! It's Our Lady's Victory in Constantinople. Thank you to everyone who is praying the Triduum along with us. May Our Lady be victorious once again in obtaining the official opening of the cause for the beautification of Sr. Marie de Mandat-Grancey. Praying with you for this...especially Paulette :)

Triduum of Prayer

Let us unite in prayer to Our Lady of Victory asking for the victory of Sr. Marie's cause for beatification to be opened! It would be fitting to pray the Rosary along with the Sr. Marie prayer card. All friends of Sr. Marie please join us in 3 days of prayer!

ps....there is no specific feast day for Our Lady of Victory upcoming (fyi...it is Oct 7th), this is just a call to pray!

Mary Page - U Dayton

The University of Dayton Library has added a special addendum to their Mary Page regarding Mary's House at Ephesus that includes the acknowledgement of our dear Sr. Marie's essential role in it's finding, restoration, and preservation. All praise and glory be to God! Sr. Marie, please continue to pray for us. (link to article included in the title above)

Instruction on the Diocesan Inquiry of Causes of Saints

Read the above article to learn more about how the Vatican is adjusting it's process of Causes of Saints. Of particular note is this part:

Turning to the last reason for which the document was published, Cardinal
Saraiva noted how, "in the move from the earlier legislation to that in force
today, it was unclear to some people that a serious and rigorous verification of
the fame of sanctity or martyrdom, undertaken in dioceses, is a prior
requirement of absolute importance. Hence, a procedure must not be begin without
irrefutable proof that the Servant of God ... is held to be a saint or martyr by
a considerable number of faithful, who invoke him or her in their prayers and
attribute graces and favours to his or her intercession".

This is why we must diligently work to teach about Sr. Marie, her mission, pass out prayer cards, gather signatures on petitions, and write letters of testimony and to the Bishops! Please join in and help Sr. Marie be raised to the Altar of Saints! Your contributions are crucial to the cause. Let the Vox Populi (voice of the people) be heard!

Seen and Heard!

All praise and glory be to God! It appears that Sr. Marie desires to be seen and heard! Recently an artist has taken on the holy task of putting Sr. Marie's image to canvas. No small task! The pastel is still in the working stage, although very close to being finished. It's breathtaking. After the pastel is finished an oil painting will be completed.

Also, a very special Catholic musician who writes and performs especially for the youth has taken Sr. Marie's life story and mission to heart and has written us to say she will soon be composing a song for Sr. Marie! We all know that one who sings prays twice and so how beautiful that we will soon have a song to sing as we join voices to ask God's will be done through the intercession of Sr. Marie and celebrate her heroic virtue in responding to God's mysterious call...a call to find Mary's House where all God's children unite in peaceful prayer and in solidarity honor Mary, Mother of Jesus.

As these projects progress I will update with more details but I write today to ask you to keep these intentions in your prayers. Sr. Marie, pray for us.

The Assumption of Mary and Her House in Ephesus

Enjoy this homily (link in title above) by Father Tommy Lane that includes reference to Sr. Marie.

Mary, Spiritual Mother of All Humanity!

Cardinals Hoping for a 5th Marian Dogma To Declare Mary as Mother of Humanity

ROME, FEB. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Five cardinals have sent a letter inviting prelates worldwide to join them in petitioning Benedict XVI to declare a fifth Marian dogma they said would "proclaim the full Christian truth about Mary."
The text, released last week, includes the petition that asks the Pope to proclaim Mary as "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix with Jesus the redeemer, mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one mediator, and advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race."

...click on link title above for full article

The Mother of all Humanity once lived in a little house at Ephesus, and thanks to Sr. Marie we have this little place where peace reigns between Mary's children of all humanity!

Our Lady of Lourdes

Happy Feast Day!

Print a beautiful Prayer Card of Our Lady of Lourdes.

May Our Lady obtain healing and peace for you along with all those you love and for whom you pray.

St. Bernadette, pray for us.

fyi...Did you know? Sr. Marie Took her Veil (May 21, 1858) in the same year that Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes. What a blessed year! Sr. Marie, pray for us.

A little French History...

I've spent the afternoon reading about French history in an effort to help myself place Sr. Marie in that context. In particular, I reviewed the French Revolution 1789-1799 (including the Reign of Terror 9/5/1793-7/28/1794), and the reign of Napoleon or the Napoleonic Era 1800-1815. These are the historical traumas that precede her entry into the world.

Recall that Sr. Marie was born in 1837, one of six children to the Count and Countess of Grancey; a family of nobility. The family has been noted in French and Ecclesiastical history as both noble and holy.

Adele Louise, as she was named, began life in a very unsettled historical time. The ruling powers in France were fluctuating between Kings and Republics not without excruciating struggle and strife for the French people who had yet made any strides towards recovery after the horrors of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror only forty years before! The country was in very sad repair politically and Paris was a truly desperate and poverty stricken city.

Even as French nobility, the Granceys were greatly affected by the desperation of these times but they did manage to keep their faith and their family unity. They lost almost all their homes which were burned or confiscated. The only noble home remaining is the Grancey Castle were Sr. Marie was born. Her grandparents and other relatives were certainly first hand witnesses of the horrors of the very recent past. The murmured bits and pieces of stories that Sr. Marie may have gleaned as a child from memories recounted in overheard adult conversations were undoubtedly vivid and sorrow filled. Although born in the grand castle in Dijon, France in an atmosphere of privilege and comfort, she spent half of each year in Paris as she grew. There is where she saw a very different world; one of poverty and deprivation.

Just forty years before Adele Louise’s birth, Paris was completely unaccustomed to the sight of any religious in the city due to the Reign of Terror in 1793. However, in 1800, for the purpose of caring for his troops, Napoleon reorganized the Sisters of Charity in Paris. In 1815, they finally settled in the rue de Bac where they still live today. For the longest while, throughout this bitter and tumultuous nineteenth century in France, the Sisters of Charity were certainly in as dire straights and probably looked as poor as, or poorer, than the poor they were helping.

The Grancey's spent from January to June each year in a Parisian house. This is where Adele Louise spent many moments peering through her window during these first two decades of her life watching the streets below where the Sisters in their tattered blue habits with their white cornettes helped the poor Parisians struggle to their feet after enduring a very cruel century.

Sr. Marie's vocation was born in these moments. Even though her childhood was very sweet and comfortable, she wanted to be like those sisters she saw from her window. What is so amazing, and indeed edifying, is that she understood the dichotomy of her situation so clearly at such a tender age. Even as a little girl, she would often compose prayers and write them down in her Catechism notebook. One day she wrote, "I pray God that He gives me a religious vocation because, otherwise, I'm not sure to be able to resist all the temptations of the world around me."

to be continued...

Newsletter

Would you like to receive a brief email when new posts are added to this blog? Drop me a line at sr.marie@yahoo.com.

While you're here, take a moment to check out all the new links in the side bar. These are your tools to help Sr. Marie's cause be made known. Print freely, distribute, collect signatures, write and send in your notorized testimonies, but most of all pray, pray, pray! Sr. Marie needs your prayers and works. Ora et labora!

Write to me and tell me of your efforts. I'd be so happy to hear from you! Don't forget to write those letters to the Archbishops of Izmir and Dijon, along with the Superior General of the Vincentians and the Mother General of the Daughters of Charity. (printable instructions here) Now is the time.

Make your letter simple, to the point, and from your heart. Also, please send us copies of your letters to the Foundation address above. Just please write!

Sr. Marie, pray for us!

Sr. Marie Presentation!

PLACE: Our Lady's Chapel (St. Brigid Church)
ADDRESS: 101 Maple Ave. Westbury , NY 11590
DATE: Monday, 2/04/08 .

TIME: 7:30 pm
Printable flyer here!

WWW News!

Sister Marie's blog is now directly linked to through www.sistermarie.com, www.sistergrancey.com, and www.sistermariedemandat-grancey.com. These are very easy addresses to remember and share with others as you try to spread the word. The Sr. Marie Blog page has now been updated to include direct links, in new windows, for the Prayer Card, the Flyer, Sr. Marie's Bio, and my article. More coming soon! Print freely and spread the word!

After getting your Pastor's permission, place the flyers in your church's vestibule along with the printed prayer cards, biography and my article.

To receive beautiful original Prayer Cards please send your tax deductible donation, along with a self addressed stamped envelope, to Sr. Marie de Mandat-Grandat Foundation, P.O. Box 275, Cold Spring Harbor, NY11724.

I thank St. Paul for his help. May St. Paul, in this year dedicated to him, help to bring the good news of Sr. Marie all around the world with this new set-up just as he brought the Good News of Our Lord all over the world of his time.

PLEASE WRITE THOSE LETTERS TO THE ARCHBISHOPS, GENERAL SUPERIOR, AND MOTHER GENERAL!!!! (see the post below for details and addresses)

Sr. Marie, pray for us!