May 8th: Our Lady of Lujan

Mary is the Mother of all vocations and thus the special protector and guardian of every consecrated person. As Servants of the Lord, devotion to Mary is not an additional element to our spirituality, but rather an essential part of our charism and our way of life. Following the teachings of St. Louis Marie de Montfort, we "Marionize" our life through taking on religious names that are titles of Mary, the daily recitation of the rosary, celebrating Mary's feats days, praying the Angelus, and making a personal act of consecration to Mary in our novitiate year. Our founder, Fr. Carlos Buela, considered Mary so critical for our religious life that he made her part of our vows: in addition to the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, each member of our Religious Family also makes a fourth vow of "maternal slavery of love" to Mary....<more>

Mexico Siempre Fiel: A Pilgrimage Through Mexico
- From the sisters in Phoenix, Arizona
There is a special joy and consolation which arises from sharing in the same faith with others. As a Catholic, you can find yourself surrounded by thousands of strangers, people that you probably will never see again, and yet you can know that the whole crowd is united by a single baptism, united under “one and the same Standard of Christ.” And, that the union is at the deepest and most intimate part of the human person: their relationship to their Creator. This communion is just one of the many things we were able to experience in our pilgrimage to Mexico which we undertook with some parishioners on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to that country...<more>

April 13th-15th: Come and See

Over this past Divine Mercy weekend, the Juniorate House of Studies hosted our first Come and See for young women discerning their vocation. Thirteen women from across the United States and Canada participated in the event. The program included talks given by some of the sisters, hands-on experience with our apostolate in two of our parishes, and recreation time with the sisters. The topics of the talks included the religious life in general, an explanation of our charism, and a look at our missions throughout the world. Above all, there was time to share our life of prayer in the Holy Mass, our daily Eucharistic Adoration, and the divine office. The women arrived at our Juniorate House on Friday...<more>

For more information, see the website of the Incarnate Word (www.iveamerica.org)

Please follow these links to check out articles about our past Youth Festivals: [ 2011] [ 2010] [ 2009]

Happy Easter!
The sisters of the Province of the Immaculate Conception wish you a very blessed Easter Season. Please be assured of our continued prayers as all Christians celebrate together the Resurrection of our Lord.

"Alleluia! Christ is truly risen! We can make absolutely no qualification of this fact whatever. Christ has really, truly, and substantially risen, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, from the dead. The whole Christ has risen indeed for the completion of the work of our redemption.

For just as by dying He endured all evil to deliver us from evil, so was He glorified in rising to advance us to good things, according to Romans 4:25 which says that 'He was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification'"
-St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III, q. 53, a. 1, c.

To read Pope Benedict XVI's homily from the Easter Vigil Mass, please follow the link The Pope's Easter Homily [English].