Sun Chat Dec 21: On the Report of the Apostolic Visitation to Religious
SrSusan (guest): http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/12/16/0963/02078.html In our Living Jesus Chat Room this Sunday, we will discuss these points: Previously we discussed the importance of going beyond Scripture reflection by living out the Gospel. How does Our Lady’s “visitation” to Elizabeth teach us a lesson in this regard? In other words: How is our faith more than just we ourselves receiving the Word? What can the Church learn today about the importance (as exemplified by Mar
SrSusan (guest): What can the Church learn today about the importance (as exemplified by Mary and Elizabeth) of a stronger relationship between the religious and the laity?
How might we receive Jesus in a way that causes us to go out (outside of ourselves) with the joy that Our Lady did when she went out to visit her cousin Elizabeth?
SrSusan (guest): And any comments on the content of the report might be great to discuss
Anne M: Great. We had a reparation Mass this week and then a O Antiphons talk this week. Both very nice.
Dec 21 2014, 7:10 PM
Anne M: And Yours?
Dec 21 2014, 7:10 PM
Carol Ann: I miss the O antiphons, no one does them here
Dec 21 2014, 7:10 PM
Anne M: Do you do evening prayer?
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Dec 21 2014, 7:11 PM
Anne M: There is also O antiphon prayer in the Magnificat Advent companion
Dec 21 2014, 7:11 PM
Carol Ann: Yes, love it. Bet I’m doing O antiphons already, aren’t I?
Dec 21 2014, 7:11 PM
Carol Ann: Is it in LOH?
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Anne M: We were talking about the O antiphons during evening prayer
Dec 21 2014, 7:14 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I wish I could share our melodies for the O antiphons- written by an
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Anne M: ooh wish I could hear. I have some music here, but I can’t carry a tune
Dec 21 2014, 7:15 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Not published anywhere tho. If my scanner gets fixed I could scan them I guess
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Sister Susan Marie: Sr M Roberta mite have a solution- she is very musical
Carol Ann: I thought the Vatican went out of their way to be sensitive to LCWR.
Dec 21 2014, 7:18 PM
Anne M: I was a little, as I recall hearing originally some conflict over a System Perspective type book
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Sister Susan Marie: If you follow the CARA reports or surveys there was similarity I fel
Dec 21 2014, 7:16 PM
Anne M: I didn’t read the whole report though
Dec 21 2014, 7:20 PM
Carol Ann: Yes, I hear a general call to all religious to follow the Gospel and keep Christ as the center
Dec 21 2014, 7:20 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Encouraging and supportive for the most
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Carol Ann: Yes, and just a couple of points to “work on”. I would find it odder if there were no points the Vatican wanted improved
Dec 21 2014, 7:21 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I of couse was delighted with the reference to the Visitation Scripture passage!
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Sister Susan Marie: I was struck by te reference to the amount of “vocation work” that communities are doing and I suspected maybe the same does not take place as much in Europe
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I am looking for the reference
Dec 21 2014, 7:24 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Currently, a significant number of religious institutes are expending considerable spiritual and material energies in the area of vocation promotion. While some of these have since shown an increase in the number of candidates entering and remaining, for many other institutes the results are not commensurate with the expectations and efforts. Some institutes reported that they have suspended vocation efforts for a variety of reasons, the most common being the declining membership and the ever-widening age g
Dec 21 2014, 7:24 PM
Sister Susan Marie: gap between their current members and potential candidates
Dec 21 2014, 7:24 PM
Guest7818 (guest): Hi All. It’s Judy. My password did not work tonight.
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Guest7818 (guest): I feel that vocation work is extremely important since the former primary source of vocations, schools, are far and away not staffed by Sisters. Seeds of a vocation are frequently planted in the early years. If young people have no contact with Sisters, how will they be attracted to this life~
Carol Ann: Do you think it is a bigger problem now though? Because it seems from my somewhat limited experience, that many more older women than younger want to be in monasteries
Dec 21 2014, 7:29 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I agree Carol Ann- but that diminishes the problem because mature candidates are closer in age to the “diminishing” members’ ages
Dec 21 2014, 7:29 PM
Guest7818 (guest): Perhaps older are seeking monastic life because they have lived in the world and have come to see the futility of much that the world has to offer and seek more.
Dec 21 2014, 7:29 PM
Sister Susan Marie: I think that they don’t want to perpetuate “older” communities- but actually it can be a stable force
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Carol Ann: True, but where I was I heard that they were too tired or ill to help form someone and they were calledPM
Carol Ann: Also, the generational gap is very great. 20 years olds live in a whole ‘nother world than the one we grew up in
Dec 21 2014, 7:31 PM
Sister Susan Marie: That is also true Carol Ann. Weare facing that here in a way- I think the older candidate has to have less expectation of a formation program perhaps as they are formed somewhat anyway
Dec 21 2014, 7:31 PM
Guest7818 (guest): I am sure that many orders have enough Sisters who are still young enough to take on the formation of younger women.
Dec 21 2014, 7:31 PM
Anne M: Sister, didn’t older Visitation sisters move to Georgetown from another monastery?
Dec 21 2014, 7:32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: FRom Wheeling, yes
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Anne M: Sister, didn’t older Visitation sisters move to Georgetown from another monastery?
Anne M: I read that the school remained opened but the sisters moved
Dec 21 2014, 7:32 PM
Sister Susan Marie: No Wheeling closed the school but St Louis moved and kept the school open
Dec 21 2014, 7:32 PM
Anne M: Awww
Carol Ann: Yes, formation for older women can’t be the same as it is for younger. Too many life lessons already learned and ususally a basic spirituality type that might be hard to unteach
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Guest7818 (guest): I wonder if this could be heralding the demise of religious life as we know it. Younger people are not entering and the elderly are dying off. Secular Institutes are having a good influx. Perhaps they are the way of the future.
Dec 21 2014, 7:34 PM
Sister Susan Marie: It is a great mystery which I hope will be given some light this Year of Consecrated Life
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Carol Ann: But there are also new orders like Little Portion that are growing rapidly. And aren’t some of the apostolic orders also growing, like the Dominicans?
Dec 21 2014, 7:36 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes the Dominicans of nashville7:36 PM
Guest7818 (guest): And the Dominicans of Mary Mother of the Eucharist and the Sisters of Life and the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal.
Dec 21 2014, 7:37 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Mostly new congregations
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Anne M: Yes, the Dominicans of Mary Mother of the Eucharist here in Michigan are getting very large
Dec 21 2014, 7:37 PM
Sister Susan Marie: and average age is in mid 20’s
Dec 21 2014, 7:37 PM
Carol Ann: What will happen to the “older” orders” Won’t there always be Carmelites and Visitation, etc?
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Carol Ann, I sure hope so. We so need the witness of the cloistered congregations. They are powerhouses of prayer.
Dec 21 2014, 7:38 PM
Dawn L: Hi Anne! came into interesting disscussion
Dec 21 2014, 7:39 PM
Anne M: Very
Dec 21 2014, 7:39 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Good question! hink all will survive somewhere but not everywhere
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) And there will probably be fewer of them. 40 PM
Anne M: My pastor was on EWTN a while back and talked about a smaller but stronger Church…
Dec 21 2014, 7:40 PM
Sister Susan Marie: What can the laity do in this regard?
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Carol Ann: I wonder why that is. I think that there is always call for monastic life. But are we being taken out to the desert again, like the early days, when people went out alone?
Dec 21 2014, 7:41 PM
Anne M: Doesn’t St Francis de Sales say that one does not have to be consecrated religious to be holy
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) I think that we need to become more vocation oriented. We should be keeping our eyes open for people who show some promising characteristics and ask them if they have thought about the consecrated life.
Guest7818 (guest): One does not need to be a consecrated religious to be holy. There is a holiness specific to each state in life and one will become holy in the state to which the Lord is calling her.
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Sister Susan Marie: Exactly- and so we should strive for holiness first and then let the Lord do the directing!
Dec 21 2014, 7:45 PM
Carol Ann: Yes, the trick is to find out where your spot is!
Guest7818 (guest): Well, yes that can be difficult.
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Carol Ann: Sorry, I can never seem to resist saying that, but I was smiling when I said it
Dec 21 2014, 7:46 PM
Dawn L: Ive considered, for now, my spot is where I am
Dec 21 2014, 7:46 PM
Sister Susan Marie: But that is truly the most important
Dec 21 2014, 7:46 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Bloom where you are planted as St Francis says
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7:47 PM
Carol Ann: And then get transplanted
Dec 21 2014, 7:47 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Ha that is a great comment!
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) I would like to “attack”question 1 for tonight. How is our faith more than just we ourselves receiving the Word? The Word, the Gospel, is love. It should prompt us to service, as the presence of the Word in her womb moved Mary to serve Elizabeth. Letter of James reminds us that faith without works is dead.
Dec 21 2014, 7:48 PM
Carol Ann: Well, He does seem to like to move me around alot.
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Guest7818 (guest): Maybe He feels that you need richer soil.
Dec 21 2014, 7:50 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Receiving the Word is the first step- but like any gift needs to be shared
Dawn L: Saying yes to the Holy Spirit meant more than just receiving the Lord….it was a continual yes to the Holy SPirit
Dec 21 2014, 7:50 PM
Carol Ann: Could be, Judy. I’m starting to feel like a commando going in and right back out of a place again
Dec 21 2014, 7:51 PM
Guest7818 (guest): It is a good time to think about this with the approach of
Dec 21 2014, 7:51 PM
Sister Susan Marie: As the Holy Father further insists, only by working together to create a new mind-set of solidarity will we make those concrete decisions which will lead to the elimination of the structural causes of poverty and “would allow all peoples to become the artisans of their destiny
Sister Susan Marie: that is from the report
Dec 21 2014, 7:53 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Only the older I get I feel that we miss one of the essential realities ofr life- continula spiritual battle
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Guest7818 (guest): Christmas. The Word became flesh and “pitched His tent among us” but many of His day did not receive Him. Are we any better than they. I like to think that those of us on this site are in the process of accepting the Word and making it come alive in our lives. (Judy)
Dec 21 2014, 7:54 PM
Dawn L: Sr Can you comment further on “a new mind set of solidarity?
Dec 21 2014, 7:55 PM
Carol Ann: I agree with you, Sr. I rarely hear anyone refer to life as the continual battle to do good, to attain holiness. The world has gone to “I’m ok, you’re ok, no on really sins, we just make mistatkes.
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Sister Susan Marie: Only the older I get I feel that we miss one of the essential realities ofr life- continula spiritual battle
Sister Susan Marie: Well right now our society has seen protests etc- a mind set of solidarity would look first to commonalities and then to the differences, not the oter way around
Dec 21 2014, 7:56 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Sister, could you mean that we need to sense a greater degree of closeness to those in need and to do whatever to help to meet their needs. That is to live in solidarity wit them. To feel their needs and help.
Dec 21 2014, 7:57 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes that is expressing it better!
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Carol Ann: Maybe we can’t help everyone, but we can help one person
Dec 21 2014, 7:57 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Right
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Yes, there are a lot of protests. But I wonder if there is any real concrete action behind those protests. Or are they sound and fury signifying nothing.
Dec 21 2014, 7:59 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Every generation has its battles, challenges- each soul has to choose the side its soul will take. I don’t think we can eliminate these challenges- one is solved- another crops up. It is necessary for our souls I think
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) You climb one mountain only to find another on the other side.
Dec 21 2014, 8:00 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Lets say we did structurally eliminate poverty- there will be an earthquake, tsunami, fire and someone or a whole region will be poor again
Dec 21 2014, 8:00 PM
Carol Ann: It makes me yearn for the reign of God
Dec 21 2014, 8:01 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Yes- that good! that may be part of thereason it happens
Dec 21 2014, 8:01 PM
Dawn L: I have thought not so much to pray that these conflicts here or there go away, but to pray for the conversion of souls in the midst ( of the conflicts)
Dec 21 2014, 8:01 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Perhaps that is the voice of God calling us to service again.
Sister Susan Marie: Yes- we have to do what Christ did- total self emptying- He needed a “situation” to do that for, which of course existed, But we need such situations too to grow in our soul
Dec 21 2014, 8:02 PM
Sister Susan Marie: This is speculation on my part
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) I sometimes feel guilty about not being able to do as much as I feel I should. My finances are limited and my physical state impedes my getting around with any kind of reasonable ease. I do try to do what I can, though.
Dec 21 2014, 8:04 PM
Carol Ann: Hi Amy
Dec 21 2014, 8:04 PM
Sister Susan Marie: •How might we receive Jesus in a way that causes us to go out (outside of ourselves) with the joy that Our Lady did when she went out to visit her cousin Elizabeth?
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Dawn L: Sr you said self emptying and when we can lose or become bored with our own thoughts,Jesus can then move into us ?
Dec 21 2014, 8:06 PM
Carol Ann: Hi Sr Mary Roberta
Dec 21 2014, 8:06 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) We need to receive Jesus with open arms and hands and keep them open to give what we have received to others, whether it is material goods, or spiritual aid.
Dec 21 2014, 8:06 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Hello! Blessed
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Amy Cochran: Mary was the epitome of humility, forgetting everything about her needs and desires to go and serve Elizabeth
Dec 21 2014, 8:08 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Fr. Ed Ogden, our celebrant at Mass this morning, told us to think about responding to our own Mary Moments – that is, saying YES to what Our Lord wants from us each moment.
Dec 21 2014, 8:08 PM
Anne M: Mary just received the Word made flesh and instead of thinking of herself, went far (I read 90 miles!) to serve Elizabeth.
Dec 21 2014, 8:09 PM
Carol Ann: Elizabeth must have been able to comfort and instruct Mary too, since her child to come was part of the same plan
Dec 21 2014, 8:10 PM
Dawn L: right, and that has nothing to do with being bored!
Mary Roberta Viano: So, instead of immediately saying: You want me to do WHAT?!, I say YES, LORD, with your help I can do it.
Dec 21 2014, 8:10 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) In the early stage of pregnancy and probably on foot or donkey
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Amy Cochran: I think false pride, or false humility, and letting go of ego is a way to empty yourself to Jesus
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Anne M: Not to mention the She did none of the worrying and things that would probably be on my mind: What am I going to tell Joseph, what will the neighbors say. 11 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) She took the angel at his word and trusted that the Lord’s plan for her would be fulfilled.
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) She took the angel at his word and trusted that the Lord’s plan for her would be fulfilled.
Dec 21 2014, 8:11 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: If you worry, don’t pray. If you pray, don’t worry! – we keep being told.
Dec 21 2014, 8:12 PM
Amy Cochran: it always seems to return to not what we want, but what Our Lord wants
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Per St. Padre Pio–“Pray, hope and don’t worryPM
Anne M: Sr Mary Roberts, please explain If you worry, don’t pray. I always pray when I’m worried. Is that wrong?
Dec 21 2014, 8:13 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (judy) Yes Amy, that’s the bottom line. We are here to do the will of God. We may have dreams and desires, but our chief task is to do His will.
Dec 21 2014, 8:13 PM
Sister Susan Marie: How often we don’t trust God’s plan because we have our own!
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) That’s where we need those open hands again–to throw away our plans and yield to those of God.
Dec 21 2014, 8:15 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS says (TLG) there are 5 things that keep us from responding like Mary: sin, affection for riches, sensual pleasures, pride and vanity, and self-love.
Dec 21 2014, 8:15 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: and we think our own plan must also be His…
Dec 21 2014, 8:15 PM
Amy Cochran: wow, those are five things I bet we all know about
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Amy Cochran: I think God’s Will will be done, and we can either cooperate or just dig our heels in, but it still will be done
Dec 21 2014, 8:16 PM
Dawn L: and here is where spiritual warfare comes in I think..
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Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS points out that Mary was preserved from sin, poor in spirit, pure, humble, peaceful mistress of her passionsPM
Mary Roberta Viano: so true, Amy: God’s will will be done anyway!
Dec 21 2014, 8:17 PM
Dawn L: so she was protected from assaults from the evil ione?
Dec 21 2014, 8:17 PM
Amy Cochran: can you please give a good definition of “poor in spirit”
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Oddly enough, those last 3 things are things that we need to some degree. We need a certain amount of pride to be assertive in living our lives, enough vanity to be clean and neat in appearance and enough self love to take care of ourselves as best we can. Amy, poor in spirit is recognizing our total dependence on God for all of our needs.
Dec 21 2014, 8:20 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: “God’s will is my will”, meaning I don’t push my own spirit/my will
Dec 21 2014, 8:21 PM
Carol Ann: So Judy, what this means that we take what is necessary to live a Godly life and put ourselves in the center instead of God? And mostly we don’t even know we’re doing it!
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Mary Roberta Viano: except we don’t call it pride and vanity and self-love, but rather self-respect, as a child of God
Dec 21 2014, 8:21 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) I think so
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Good point Sister.
Dec 21 2014, 8:22 PM
Carol Ann: so that’s the difference, self respect becomes self love
Dec 21 2014, 8:22 PM
Anne M: Healthy balance is what is necessary though
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Dawn L: the 3rd question…I would say by total abandonment to God’s will
Dec 21 2014, 8:24 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: I like SFdS description of Mary in Bethlehem: “she listens to the shepherds as though they were learned doctors…and in the company of the kings she does not try to make any long speeches.”
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Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) Uh oh. I read what you said wrong Carol Ann. We must take what is necessary to live a Godly life, and God MUST be in the center, not us26 PM
Dawn L: Sr Mary thank you for sharing those words
Dec 21 2014, 8:26 PM
Carol Ann: okay. I can be confusing sometimes. I’m sorry
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Mary Roberta Viano: and in her room at Nazareth she shows her modesty in all that she is afraid; her candor in wanting to be instructed and in asking a question, her submission, her humility in calling herself a handmaid
Dec 21 2014, 8:26 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) You weren’t confusing. I just read it wrong.
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Anne M: I have to go, good night all. Merry Christmas!
Dec 21 2014, 8:27 PM
Amy Cochran: Merry Christmas, Anne
Dec 21 2014, 8:27 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Blessed Christmas, Anne!
Dec 21 2014, 8:27 PM
Dawn L: Goodnight Anne, Blessings
Dec 21 2014, 8:27 PM
Carol Ann: Merry Christmas Anne
Dec 21 2014, 8:27 PM
Guest7818 (guest): (Judy) A holy and joyful Christmas Anne.
Dec 21 2014, 8:28 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Merry Christmas
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Mary Roberta Viano: We need to wish each other a “Mary” Christmas!
Dec 21 2014, 8:28 PM
Amy Cochran: That’s right, Sister
Dec 21 2014, 8:28 PM
Dawn L: Yes! A Mary Christmas
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Carol Ann: Yes, I want to pray that each of us receive a special blessing this year on Christmas
Dec 21 2014, 8:28 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: SFdS concludes that Mary “never drew any attention to herself in the exercise of her virtues!
Dec 21 2014, 8:29 PM
Dawn L: Are you reading from Devout LIfe?
Dec 21 2014, 8:29 PM
Sister Susan Marie: Thank you- yes! a gift from Heaven
Dec 21 2014, 8:29 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: no, from a letter to St. Jane de C