A New Blessed for the Dominican Family!
Asia News reports:
Sr. Marie-Alphonsine, says the Pope, was "born in Jerusalem in 1843 into a Christian family, which included nineteen children. She discovered her vocation to religious life early on, and passionately pursued it despite initial difficulties raised by her family. To her goes the credit of founding a congregation formed only of local women, with the aim of religious education, to overcome illiteracy and raise the conditions of women of that time in the land where Jesus exalts his dignity. Central point of this new spirituality and intense devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the beacon of life wholly consecrated to God, the Holy Rosary was his constant prayer, his lifeline, his source of grace. The beatification of this most significant figure of woman is of particular comfort to the Catholic community in the Holy Land and is an invitation to trust always, with firm hope, to Divine Providence and the maternal protection of Mary. "
The Congregation of the Rosary have clips up on their website (already!) of the Beatification ceremony.
With our Dominican Sisters of Jerusalem and with the whole Dominican Family we give thanks to God for another Blessed and ask Bl. Marie-Alphonsine's interecession and through the power of the Rosary for peace in the Holy Land.
From Asia News:
Before concluding with greetings in different languages, Benedict XVI recalled the pro Orantibus Day, dedicated to cloistered religious communities, celebrated yesterday, the day of memory of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple. "I welcome the chance - added the pontiff – to extend my cordial greetings to them and renew my invitation to all to support them in their needs. I am also glad, on this occasion to publicly thank the nuns who have in turn occupied the small monastery here in the Vatican: the Poor Clares, Carmelites, Benedictines and, recently, the Visitation sisters. Your prayer, dear sisters, is most valuable to my ministry. "