Dear Friends,
Another year has passed and it was a wonderful year! As most of you know the replica of the Blessed Mother's Home was finished last summer. On October 7, 2006 Archbishop Guiseppe Bernardini, Archbishop Emeritus of Izmir, Turkey was the main celebrant for dedication and blessing. On the next day, Sunday the 8th, Archbishop Bernardini celebrated the first Mass in the replica since its completion. The whole day was beautiful! Our Lord Blessed us with beautiful weather and the most beautiful blue sky you have ever seen! The Blessed Mother must have been smiling from ear to ear!! Eight priests concelebrated the Mass for the dedication. One Deacon, eleven Sisters from five different communities and over 300 guests were here for the celebration. The Replica is open from 7:00 am-7:00 pm daily. Please feel free to come in for a visit; even if the door is closed.
A new change also for this year is our new dining area. It is where the 'weigh room' was on the first floor. It was a last minute decision, but it was completed on April 14, 2007, just in time for the Feast of Divine Mercy. As it turned out New England had a North Eastern snowstorm on the feast day so the roads were terrible. That was the bad news, the good news was our guest speaker, Deacon Billrose and his friend, Fr. Michael Kmiotek,CFR and three of the Sisters of CFR got to Vermont before the storm. Fr. Scully came the day before, Fr. Frank Connors from Brattleboro and Fr. Vincent Onunkwo from Wilmington weathered the storm along with twenty-five or so other brave souls. We had one of the most beautiful Mercy Sunday celebrations you could imagine! The new kitchen area seats 15 to 20 people comfortably so now visitors who are staying overnight have a comfortable place for their meals.
Another special event happened this past November. Father Tarcy and Br. Palo, from Mary's house in Turkey invited us to join them for the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI. Sr. Rafka, Bill Luceno, (Who made the video "Mary's House, All Are Welcome"), Erin von Uffel, (Our guest speaker last year for the Feast of the Assumption), our friend Frances and three members of the Quatman family joined us. Don and I invited the owners of the Kalehan Hotel to join us also. It was such a pleasure to have them come with us. We ended up having two cars full. One person in each car was invited to receive communion from the Pope.
Sr. Rafka had the honor from our car and Anthony Quatman from the other car. It was so exciting to be there at such a historic time. Little did I know there were only 250 people invited to the Mass. The most exciting part for Don and me was when we went up to communion and Br. Palo came up to us and said, "The Pope would like to receive Don. Please follow me". You all know there was no way Don was going without me!!!!! What a Blessing!
