Patron Saints
The five primary patron saints - St. John Paul II, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. John Vianney, and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque - guide us through their intercession and their examples in the various works we are called to do.
In 2023, our Mother Superior, Mother Philomena Maria, named St. Margaret Mary Alacoque as one of our patron saints. Following the section on St. Margaret Mary below, we have a special excerpt from the memoirs of our foundress—Mother Margaret Mary—explaining the heavenly relationship between the Children of Mary and this powerful intercessor!
St. John Paul II
As spiritual daughters of St. John Paul II, we answer his call for a new evangelization based on a deep love for Jesus, spreading the beauty of the truths He revealed when He established the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Our great love for Jesus creates within our souls a great desire that everyone love Him and quench His Thirst for love. We are missionaries in a world which has become secularized and ever more pagan. We encourage the faithful to join us in our mission and prayer through word and example and through media: prayer cards, pamphlets and other written materials, as well as use of modern technology: computer websites, videos, CDs, DVDs and other means available.
“The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this Sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet Him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease.”
– St. John Paul II
Our missionary work is patterned after our two sister-patron saints:
St. Thérèse of Lisieux and St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux
The Sisters are semi-contemplative with a strong emphasis on the contemplative aspect of our lives. We must pray for the wisdom to know that it is our love He desires. As St. John of the Cross said: “The smallest movement of pure love is worth more to the Church than all works put together.” We share our prayer life with others and perform spiritual works of mercy, but prayer comes first and foremost in importance in our lives which are dedicated to quenching the Thirst of Jesus for love. We pray for everyone on earth, especially on behalf of those who do not pray. Placing our prayers in the Heart of Mary, we trust in Her assistance to make our prayers powerful through Her intercession. When we work, we work with tranquility, knowing that the results of our work depend on God. Our work is of value only insofar as it is done according to His will.
“By our little acts of charity practiced in the shade, we convert souls far away; we help missionaries; we win for them abundant alms; and by that means we build actual dwellings spiritual and material for our Eucharistic Lord.”
– St. Thérèse of Lisieux
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Relying on Mother Teresa’s intercession, some of our Sisters will go out to the poor–those poor materially or morally or spiritually, sharing with them the love of Jesus. Mother Teresa quenched Jesus’ Thirst principally through corporeal works of mercy; we quench Jesus’ Thirst to be loved in the Most Blessed Sacrament principally through spiritual works of mercy. Although we will establish apostolic houses, we will maintain the contemplative aspect of the life of all the Children of Mary.
“The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven and will help bring about everlasting peace on earth.”
– St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
St. John Vianney
Our fourth patron saint, St. John Vianney, will accompany us as we pray and do penance for the sanctification of priests and bishops. We beg God for holy priests and bishops who will proclaim the truths of the Faith with clarity and charity, lead those who have strayed back into the fold, and–through their words and examples–incite in the faithful reverence and love for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
“If the priest knew his dignity, he would die not of fear but of love. After God, the priest is all.”
– St. John Vianney
St. Margaret Mary
It was to St. Margaret Mary that Jesus entrusted the great mission of making His Sacred, Eucharistic Heart known, loved and adored by all mankind when He appeared to her, holding His pierced, Sacred Heart in His hand, speaking these words: “Behold this Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to consuming itself to witness its love. And in return, I receive from most of them only ingratitude from their irreverences and their sacrileges and by the coldness and contempt that they have for Me in this sacrament of love….” In response to Our Lord’s plea for love, the Sisters give their lives to quench the thirst of Jesus to be loved in the Most Blessed Sacrament, invoking St. Margaret Mary to obtain for us the graces necessary to set our own hearts and the hearts of all in the world ablaze with a fire of love for Jesus Eucharistic.
“Let every knee bend before Thee, O greatness of my God, so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host. May every heart love Thee, every spirit adore Thee and every will be subject to Thee!”
– St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
Why St. Margaret Mary was Made Our Patron Saint by Mother Philomena Maria in 2023
From the memoirs of Mother Margaret Mary ~
Three persons were involved in founding the community of Children of Mary. First, Bishop Griffin, who, after I had been preparing for several years under his direction to take vows as a canonical hermit, discerned that being a hermit was not my call after all, and asked me to be open to other women coming to join me in my life of prayer. A bit saddened because I loved being alone with God but open to God’s will, I went as the Bishop had asked to spend a year in community in discernment and preparation.
While at the Visitation Monastery in Toledo, the Lord confirmed Bishop Griffin’s insight and He made clear what our charism was to be through the intercession of St. Margaret Mary. This is how that occurred. On October 13 the Sisters began a triduum of prayer to St. Margaret Mary before her feast day of October 16, 2000. We gathered as a community before her statue and prayed a litany to her. I silently prayed, ‘St. Margaret Mary, I have a devotion to the Sacred Heart, but please obtain for me the grace to understand more deeply what it means to be devoted to His Sacred Heart.’ During the next three days I read in a Catholic publication about the Boy Scouts possibly being denied funds from United Way because they would not accept homosexual count leaders! I was shocked; because in the hermitage with no TV or radio for the past eleven years, I had not realized the world had become so depraved. The next day I read that a little girl, seven years old, drowned her little three year old brother in a mud puddle. Heartbreaking! These things pierced my heart.
Then came October 16, 2000, St. Margaret Mary’s feast day. I had been looking forward to this day because on big feast days at the monastery Our Lord was enthroned on he altar and we took turns adoring Him throughout the day. I couldn’t wait! Some minutes before my assigned time to adore, I went to the chapel pondering the terrible things I had read the past two days. When my turn came to adore, something beyond my imagining happened. God communicated to me an astounding message. As I came forward and keenly down, I was saying to Him, ‘I know You overcame sin and death, but why, Lord, why is there still so much evil in the world? You are Truth Itself, so I believe You when You said You overcame sin and death…’ then a deep voice cut in saying loudly and clearly, ‘By the Blood of the Cross.’
After that, no more audible words. I was caught up in a timelessness, unaware of my surrounding and immersed in deep concentration trying to take in all that was being ‘poured’ into my brain. It was as if my mind was being stretched beyond its capacity to comprehend. When it ended, an hour had passed and the Sister who was taking my place to adore was there beside me. I returned to my place in choir with this silent prayer: ‘Lord, send me young women who love You passionately and we will form a community and adore You day and night.’
Returning home after the year at the Visitation, I shared this with Bishop Griffin, and showed him some pictures I had made trying to communicate what I had understood. After that he gave me my religious name of Margaret Mary, saying it had to be that because the prayer experience had happened on her feast day. He then held up the papers about the prayer experience and said, ‘This will be the charism of your community.’
What is the charism? To proclaim the Second Lifting. Christ said that He would draw all men to Himself when He was lifted up from the earth. The first lifting was on the Cross; the Second Lifting is in the monstrance. Adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament is not a devotion—it is an essential part of the plan of salvation. When man humbles himself to adore God-with-us, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, the head of satan will be crushed.
Beginning in 2022, Mother Philomena Maria developed a strong devotion to St. Margaret Mary. She bought a 4’ statue of her and placed it with the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the entrance to the chapel, and decided to add her to our list of patron saints.
Adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament is not a devotion--it is an essential part of the plan of salvation.