Dear Friends and Benefactors,
We are reaching out to you with this new letter to keep you informed of the latest events that have occurred in this past year 2024, in our small but ever-growing congregation of the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In February of this year our superior, Fr. Emmanuel du Chalard, and Mother Maria Rita, Mother General, accompanied by two of our Sisters, made a short trip to Switzerland, to visit some of the country’s priories and schools.
In addition, the construction of a new church is still planned, given the continually increasing number of people embracing Catholic Tradition.
In the first place, from the bottom of our hearts we thank Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate, and Her chaste spouse St. Joseph, who always assist, guide and protect us. We are well aware that if God visits us like this, with countless undeserved graces, it is also Because of the prayers and sacrifces of many people who are close to us. Therefore we want to thank you for all the good that you do for us, for the spiritual as well as the material support. We always pray and offer for you, and we entrust you to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that they may bless you and your dear ones with a shower of graces.
May Our Lord Jesus Christ fill you with every blessing from Heaven!
Sr. Maria Rita, Mother General
October 2024
At the Motherhouse in Vigne, life and all of its activities continue in an orderly fashion. The Sisters alternate their life of prayer with the various offices and services that charity requires of them.
There is the care of the elderly, guests of the house; there is nursing help outside the house, among various families who have need of it; we have our small, but always growing “School of the Divine Teacher”; there is the teaching of catechism; and besides there are all the activities required for the good maintenance of a convent (cooking, cleaning, gardening, sewing, embroidery, etc.).
In May, Sr. Maria Cecilia arrived here from our house in India. She will stay here in Italy for a year, as did Sr. Maria Aloysia, to penetrate ever more the spirit of our Congregation. From July 17 to 27, four sisters went to direct a camp in Leonessa (Province of Rieti, Italy), with about thirty girls, three helpers and two cooks.
The chaplain was Fr. Laurence Biselx and the theme was “Holy Missionaries”. In addition, from July 29 to August 3 fve more sisters went to hold another camp in California (U.S.A.).
There were about eighty participants, with thirteen helpers, four cooks, a doctor and a nurse. The chaplain was Fr. Trevor Burftt; the theme, “Rome and the Martyrs”.
Here are some events from the past year 2023-2024:
In September, the new school year will begin at our little “School of the Divine Teacher”. This academic year 2024-2025 (the fourth since the beginning of this educational project) we will have in attendance about twenty girls and boys aged 6 to 16. About ten of the older girls will be housed in the ‘boarding school’, where, due to the increasing number of requests for admission, we had to rent
another floor in addition to the two used last year. Families approach us not only for academic solutions, but above all for spiritual support and a true educational formation.
We therefore whole-heartedly entrust ourselves to the patronage of St Joseph and of Our Lady Help of Christians, who have made us feel their powerful patronage throughout these years, for which we fervently thank the good Lord.
At St Joseph Novitiate the renovations which began in 2021 continue. Because of the continued growth of the congregation, we need to re-organise the convent.
On the roof of the church, we have placed a large cross with the symbols of the Sacred Hearts. There are plans to repair the roof of the church and to remodel the convent tower: the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage has approved the proposed plans to restore to its original use as a bell-tower. Up to four new bells may be installed, hopefully by next year.
Remodeled rooms next to the chapel now house the spacious and well-organized new sacristy. Outside the building, the Sisters charged with the garden tend daily to the flowers and lawn; here, our processions unfold on major feast-days. At the end of the garden, is the chapel of Our Lady.
The Chapel of Our Lady now houses a new altar and a splendid Pieta, entirely cleaned and restored by the novices.
A new space has had to be arranged for the laundry, because of the growing number of new vocations. We have a music room, dedicated to St. Cecilia, where we prepare Gregorian chant and
polyphonic singing. In the convent are also areas set aside for sewing and embroidery, a space for preparing floral arrangements, an infirmary, and a storeroom for gardening tools. We have also re-purposed large spaces as refectories for the postulants and novices.
We thank Our Lord for the many vocations He sends us and for the many skills with which we Sisters complement each other: intellectual, artistic, and manual talents of all kinds—even masonry and carpentry.
The Consoling Sisters have been present at the Priorato San Carlo Borromeo in Montalenghe for some years. Here they are at the service of the priests to aid the smooth internal running of the priory (cooking, cleaning, tailoring, laundry) and to care for the sacristy, helping also with the re-treats which occur several times a year).
In the past year 2023-2024, the Sisters also were occupied with supporting the priests in various works of external apostolate:
Here is the latest news:
In November 2023 our Mother General, Mother Maria Rita, came here to visit. The children welcomed her with band music and singing in Italian. Mother returned to Italy very edifed by all she saw.
In December, for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, twelve of our girls consecrated themselves to Mary. Under the guidance of a Sister, they made a 33-day preparation, which
saw a real change in their souls.
April 2024: camp for about forty girls, with the help of the older ones. Activities: art work, cooking, games, story-telling, catechism, quizzes, plays.
May 2024: 3-day trip to a hill station. Our prior, although tired after his trip to Europe, accompanied us to celebrate Holy Mass each day. The girls were able to see elephants, as they had longed and prayed for. On the last day, they went to an adventure park, where they were able to go on many adventurous and fun rides.
June 2024: the beginning of the school year. There are ten new girls, the youngest of whom, Abinaya, is 5 years old. There are about forty-fve girls under our care; forty here and fve who are studying elsewhere. In addition, we have twelve elderly or sick ladies under our care. Most of the children come from broken families. The main reason for family breakdown is alcoholism, especially of the father. Most of the other children come from single-parent families; if the father is alive, there is a 99% chance that he is an alcoholic. Poor children, they suffer a lot, but once settled here, they are happy.
It is now just over a year since we opened our frst foundation in America. The faithful of Our Lady of Sorrows Priory have welcomed us with great charity, always showing themselves ready to help, whether by prayers or by material assistance.
Four months after our arrival, we had to move temporarily into the priory’s retreat center so that major remodeling could be performed on our house. The garden was also landscaped. After another four months of effort by workers and benefactors, we returned to our little convent.
Within the community our life unfolds as in all our houses, with prayers, work and community recreation. In the school we teach religion, music and sewing, from kindergarten to high school. On Sundays after the sung Mass we teach catechism to the parish children, preparing them for First Communion and for Confrmation; there is also a group of teenage girls and several other children who need special lessons. Last year thirty-eight children received Jesus in their hearts for the first time! We started the Children of Mary sodality, for girls from seventh grade to senior high-school.
Last year there were twenty-three, all from the school, while this year access will be opened to all girls from the parish. We also organised a trip to the Benedictines in New Mexico with the sodality girls; to fund it, we made cards and cookies with them, which they then sold on Sundays after Masses.
This summer we organised a day camp for little girls, and a 10-day camp in the mountains for older girls. Our goal is to bring all these souls closer to God, through truth, beauty, and love of the liturgy and the priesthood.
We always thank the Lord who takes care of us through your support, and we ask Him to repay you with all the graces of which you stand in need. We assure you of our prayers: a Mass is offered every month for all of our benefactors, and a Holy Rosary on Wednesdays.
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Deo Gratias!
The Consoling Sister
of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus
