Requiescat in Pace

As we commemorate the Lord's entrance into Jerusalem on this Passion Sunday, we pray that He is escorting our Sister Mary Stanislaus into the Heavenly Jerusalem. At 3.00am this morning, the Lord came for our dear Sister, who died peacefully in our Monastery infirmary.

Born in Eunice Louisiana on 9 July 1925, baptized Madeleine Therese Andrews, Sister Stanisalus -- known affectionately as "Sister Stannie" -- came to our community on 9 April 1947. She was brought to us by the Medical Mission Sisters who determined that her health was too delicate to be a missionary. Surely the Lord's ways are not our ways because anyone who knew Sister Stannie, until very recently, could not possibly describe her physical constitution as anything less than robust.

Sister received her RN training from the Santa Rosa School of Nursing. During her 61 years in our community she served as Monastery infirmarian for close to 50 years. Anyone who visited the infirmary knew that it was the cleanest and most well-organized place in the entire monastery. Sister took very seriously the maxim: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness!" Sister Stannie, over the years, served our community in a variety of other capacities: School Infirmarian, Refectorian, Aide to Woolen Wardrobe, Book Binder, and Assistant to the Superior.

In addition to her faithful service to our school and community, Sister was eminently faithful to prayer. One could set her watch by Sister's appearance in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament for her morning and afternoon meditations. In fact, one could surmise that something was amiss in the infirmary if Sister was not in chapel at her "usual time." Please join us in prayer for our our beloved Sister Stanislaus.

The Mass of Christian Burial will be on Wednesday in our Monastery Chapel. Locals who wish to join us, please call or check the blog later today for details. We will update it as we finalize the arrangements: Mass of Christian Burial: Wednesday 2pm Chapel of the Sacred Heart. Viewing/wake: Tuesday 3-5pm and Wednesday 1-2pm Chapel of the Sacred Heart.

Click here and here for other posts about Sister Stanislaus.