Growing up, many of my family’s summer vacations took place at the ocean. Whenever we could afford it we would head for Cape Cod, New Hampshire or Maine. As we kids splashed around in the saltwater or searched for shells, my mother loved to just sit and watch the waves crashing against the rocks. “I could stay here all day,” she’d often muse. We’d cringe at these words as we quickly grew bored and looked for the next great adventure!

The beginning of our institute marvelously highlights God’s infinite wisdom and love shown through His Divine Providence. To reflect on this divine call, it is imperative that we ponder the rich legacy, passed on to us by our predecessors, for their heroic lives laid the foundation of what we are today.

It was the Dominican sister’s joyful disposition of spreading the Word of God through good examples that inspired Sister Flaviana Macasling, OP to discern a vocation with the Religious Missionaries of St. Dominic. This year she celebrates her 45th anniversary of religious profession.

On July 14, during the seventh General Chapter of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, I professed my perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. In preparation for this long-awaited day, I have been blessed to look back and see how God’s guiding hand has placed this desire to belong totally to Him so carefully in my heart. It has truly been a gift from our heavenly Father that has grown and deepened over time.

Raymond Pendleton believed he could fulfill his Catholic obligation by only attending Sunday Mass and working at the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center and Chapel as a student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Then something unexpected happened that changed his life: He fell in love with the Church.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is making available a new book titled, Pope Francis, Deacons: Servants of Charity.  

Before I became a sister with the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration, I felt I needed a super-power within me–the Holy Spirit to heed God’s call. I learned to pray to the Holy Spirit at every turn of event, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Father Joseph Kentenich (1885-1968) founded the Secular Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary in 1926. The Schoenstatt Sisters, with its motherhouse in Germany, provide inspiration and leadership for the Schoenstatt Movement. Their charism is to be Mary and to work like Mary, in the world so that people may encounter Christ in and through them.

Seminarian Raymond Pendleton was accepted into the Rite of Candidacy at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Mulvey, Bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish on June 20.

On June 10 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Portland Msgr. Mark Chamberlin celebrated the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination with many of his beloved friends and parishioners from throughout the diocese.

Bishop Michael Mulvey ordained Richard Gutierrez, Ramiro “RJ” Regalado, Jr. and Santos Ruben Jones III to the diaconate at Corpus Christi Cathedral on June 3. For Gutierrez and Regalado this will be a transitional period. The next step in their formation will be ordination to the priesthood, whereas Jones is ordained to the permanent diaconate.

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Ann was founded in 1834 in the city of Turin, Italy. They are guided by the experience of the spirit of their founders, Carlo Tancredi Falletti, his wife Giulia Colbert and Mother Maria Enrichetta Dominici, S.S.A.

Sister Barbara Marie Netek, St. Pius X Pastoral Minister and Leadership Team Member of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Corpus Christi, is celebrating her fiftieth anniversary of religious profession this year.

A Catholic thinker once wrote, “God is charity, and hence the mere enunciation of the most holy name of Jesus recalls the idea of love.” It is this all-encompassing love that led our Lord to become a man.

Bishop Michael Mulvey by the imposition of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit will ordain three young men to the sacred order of the diaconate on June 2 at 10 a.m. at Corpus Christi Cathedral. Seminarians Richard Gutierrez and Ramiro “RJ” Regalado, Jr. will become transitional deacons and campus minister Santos Ruben Jones III will be ordained to the permanent diaconate. The young men have faithfully been serving the church for many years.

Father Charles Doherty, who served as pastor at Our Lady of Assumption parish in Ingleside and in the Diocese of Corpus Christi for many years, died May 9. He had recently celebrated his 90th birthday at Our Lady of Assumption Parish on Oct. 15, 2017.

In his Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus Christ Through Mary, St. Louis de Montfort states quite eloquently that "the spirit of the world is self-centered, self-seeking, self-serving, self-aggrandizing…. it is selfish, self-absorbed, and self-interested.

Sisters Denise Cassidy and Brenda Thompson, both Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Corpus Christi, are celebrating their sixtieth anniversary of religious profession this year.

Father Alberto Cusco Mir, SJ and the Venerable Mother Julia Navarrete Guerrero founded the religious congregation, Missionary Daughters of the Most Pure Virgin Mary in 1903.

Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament celebrated the Anniversary of Religious Profession on April 14 at St. Patrick Church. Bishop Michael Mulvey concelebrated Mass with many priests throughout the diocese.