News from the Monastero di Santa Gemma
Mother Catherine Marie with some members of the Monastero di Santa Gemma in Lucca, Italy. Also pictured are Sr. Joan Mary Topor, CP (an active Passionist and Mother Catherine Marie's translator) and Mother Fernanda Barbiero, smsd, General Delegate of the Holy See for the Passionist Nuns.
Outside the Monastery and Shrine in Lucca
Almost three months have flown by since Mother Catherine Marie was welcomed as the superior of the Monastero/Santuario di Santa Gemma in Lucca, Italy! She is staying very busy, along with all the nuns in the community there, as they keep up with the daily needs of life and the many duties associated with housing a major shrine and pilgrimage site.
For about 6 weeks during July and August, our Sr. Mary Agnes sojourned in Lucca, too! She, along with Jane Wynn (mother of our Sr. Cecilia Maria) made the trek "across the pond" to help out in various ways, especially in matters technological. Jane and Sr. Mary Agnes are computer whizzes, and they found plenty of tech troubles to keep them on their toes; thankfully, they were able to sort out many problems with all manner of devices - routers, desktops, laptops, phones...you name it, they found and fixed a glitch! After two weeks, Jane headed home, while Sr. Mary Agnes stayed on to assist a while longer.
Sr. Mary Agnes & Jane hard at work!
Mother Catherine Marie remains deeply grateful for all the support, spiritual and temporal, which she and the community in Lucca have received. Please keep up the prayers that God's Holy Will be accomplished!