Hey Mom, Dad, Robert, Elise, Clare, Brian, Sarah, Cyril, Joseph, Fran, Patrick, Stephen, Thomas, Edward, Kevin, and all my beautiful neices and nephews.

I am now back in our house in Zurita. The entrance to the novitiate was beautiful. In the end, 6 candidates entered. I forgot my camera, so I won't be able to put any photos on now, but later I can get them from the sisters and put them on here.

One of the days that I was in Valencia, where the profession of vows and where the entrance was, the sisters took all the candidates to the Cathedral. It was beautiful. We got to go in and see all the special things they have there for free because we are religious, oh the advantage of living in poverty, haha. And in the "special section" we saw what everyone and the historians say is the Holy Grail. So if it really is the Holy Grail, we saw it and a lot of other famous art of the Spanish Catholics. I took pictures, I will post them another time.

The camp also went very well. I will have to write more about it later and post some photos. Right now the sisters are doing a lot of things to prepare for World Youth Day. Some of the sisters are on the official committee in Madrid, planning and organizing all the events, creating and updating the website and I don't really know what else. But the Home of the Mother will have a site in Madrid where the youth will be able to go and attend different events. We must pray for the youth that they go with open hearts to receive whatever the Lord is ready to give them and then do whatever the Lord asks of them. And that the Pope has good health and really touches the hearts of all the young people.

Did you get my letter Mom? Happy Birthday again! I hope you had a wonderful day, I offered up my Mass and prayer for you.

I will be home soon, I love you all!

A quick one.

I don't have much time to write because I am supposed to be working, but I was writing an e-mail to Mom and Dad and I explained things I've been doing and things that I will be doing so to fill you all in also I just pasted it below. Sorry, I will try to write more when I have time.

"I loved Sarah's photo's of your visit to Peter's baptism. I am doing very well. This past weekend was Corpus Christi, it was very beautiful! We started off with Mass and a procession at our house, then afterwards we went to Santander, the closest big city, to the Mass and Eucharistic procession there. It was very beautiful. The Monstrance was very large and beautiful on top of the big I don't know what we call it but elevated above everything else, going through the city. Tons of people were lined up on the streets and knelt as He went by, it was beautiful as if for once in time, He was seen as He really is, the King of kings! We followed Him the entire time, praying and singing as we walked closely behind.

Now we are heading out tomorrow to the vows ceremony which is on the 2nd of July. It is near the Sisters house in Valencia. After the vows ceremony, we have the Summer camps here in Spain which I will be going to and then right after that there is the entrance into the novitiate in Priego, Spain. I think 7 candidates will be entering this year. So I will not be able to write for awhile. But when I get back to Zurita and we get back into normal schedule, I'll be sure to write and tell you all about everything."

Hello from Spain!

HI, 

Sorry its been awhile. I arrived into Madrid, Spain on the 13th, hung out with the sisters there for the day well I actually slept for most of the time at their house, then caught my flight up to Santander in the evening, when I arrived I found out that we were going to start Spiritual excercises that night after Mass. So we started after Mass and that was my first week here in Spain. It was very good, even though I particularly don´t like being in silence for a week, it was very good for me. 

Now we have started our regular Summer schedule. I have been working in our garden, mostly weeding and sewing habits for all the candidates who will enter this Summer, on July 16th. Beside that, I´ve just been living our life of community, praying and cleaning our house together, visiting with other sisters from other communities who came up for spiritual excercises. I will be sure to take pictures to show eveyone all the improvements done to our house since last year. 

I loved the picture of Mom and Dad and the grandchildren. Thanks Mom.

I love you all and will hopefully write again soon. 

Visit with Addy!

Yesterday I arrived at the Stong house to visit Addy, Clare and Brian for the long weekend. Today we dressed Addy in her cute polk-a-dot swimsuit and went to the beach to swim and have a BBQ. The beach was crowded but still very fun and relaxing.

Congratulations Sarah on your new baby boy!

Welcome!

Hey guys,

Since some of us have stopped using Facebook, I wanted to have a family blog so that we can all write and put pictures in one place and everyone can read it and see the pictures.

It's fairly simple to post and put pictures in your posts, you can also put videos. Please put lots of pictures up, especially of all the little ones.

Over the Summer while I am in Spain, I will be writing on here to keep you all updated. Of course I will still answer my e-mails too but I thought this would be a great way to keep everyone up to date.

God Bless,

Mary