Do You Believe in Coincidence? I don't!

Mother Adele Garnier with
the Basilica of Sacre Coeur
in the background

We've had two deaths in our parish lately of two mothers/grandmothers and I decided to write cards today offering Masses for the repose of their souls tucking in a copy of a newsletter I get from an abbey in France, Saint-Joseph de Clairval. The inspiring little document always features a saint or blessed or holy man or woman. Many I've never heard of, but delight in being introduced to them.  The one I picked up first today spoke to me profoundly because of its focus on suffering and the encouragement to offer them in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The newsletter (dated April 12, 2015, I save them all) was dedicated to Mother Adele Garnier, a 19th century sister born in the Diocese of Dijon, France in 1838 who was deeply devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was instrumental in starting perpetual adoration at the Basilica of Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, in Paris.

During a long period of illness, she went to Lourdes and was inspired to offer the society she hoped to found to adoration in "reparation to the Heart of Jesus, under the protection of Mary Immaculate." As she wrote to Cardinal Guibert, the archbishop of Paris:

A Virtual Pilgrimage for Sunday

To Abbaye Saint-Joseph de Clairval in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain-France

The Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey publish a wonderful monthly newsletter sharing the life of a saint or holy person. I highly recommend it for spiritual reading. They will send a three-month subscription for free but I hope you will support them. Sign up here.

You can have Masses said at the abbey and they also have a shop that offers beautiful icons and statues.

The monks also offer retreats for men based on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius both in France and Ireland. I hope you enjoy browsing their website.