DOMINICAN SISTERS OF MARY, MOTHER OF THE EUCHARIST. Dear Friends and Supporters,

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1 DOMINICAN SISTERS OF MARY, MOTHER OF THE EUCHARIST 4597 WARREN ROAD ANN ARBOR, MI TEL: (734) FAX: (734) Dear Friends and Supporters, On February 9, 1997, in the private chapel of St. Patrick s Cathedral in New York, I and three other Foundresses of our community, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, professed our vows in the name of Holy Mother Church in the presence of His Eminence John Cardinal O Connor. Soon thereafter, the Lord led us to the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, where we built our Motherhouse and staffed our own Spiritus Sanctus Academy schools. Since that time, we have been blessed abundantly by the robust growth of our community and the continued expansion of our educational apostolate. In reflecting upon the upcoming 20 th anniversary of that joyful day in New York, I recall His Eminence telling the story of Abraham, a man called by God to give up everything for the sake of a promise. As we listened to those words, we knew we were setting out in faith, as Abraham did, into an unknown and veiled future. Yet, we were confident that the Lord would provide for us. Little did we know how abundant His promise was to be! From the beginning, we have been truly blessed by God s mercy and generosity in sending us so many outstanding young women pledging their lives to serve others: Our community has grown rapidly to over 125 Sisters (with an average age of only 30 years old). Of that total, currently 65 are Perpetually Professed, 37 are Temporarily Professed, and 27 Sisters are in the Novitiate (including our newest group of Postulants who entered at the end of August). We have gone from serving approximately 400 students at our two Ann Arbor schools to teaching in 20 schools in seven states (with a total student population of approximately 8,500). Our summer apostolic activities have expanded from one mission ten years ago to this past summer having 61 Sisters serving over 1,000 children at 30 missions in 14 different states. We continue to have large attendances at our discernment retreats and estimate that over 4,000 young women have participated in such retreats in the last ten years. In addition to engaging our culture through our musical CDs, EWTN series and other means, we have experienced a tremendous response to our Disciple of Christ, Education in Virtue program, which is now being used in over 400 schools in 40 states. I invite you to review the attached Annual Fund brochure, the theme of which is the beautiful mosaic of evangelization to which God, the Master Artist, is calling His Church. Each of our Sisters, through her own unique talents and gifts, seeks to contribute to this effort. Our community not only embraces this call, but also recognizes it as a precious gift from God. As our Holy Father states: Proclaiming Christ means showing that to believe in and to follow him is not only something right and true, but also something beautiful (Evangelii Gaudium). As in prior years, I ask you to prayerfully consider helping to form and educate our many young Sisters - the cost of which is over $30,000 annually per Sister. Through your continued sacrificial generosity, we hope to build upon our first 20 years of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to all whom we meet. Thank you for your friendship and kind consideration, and please be assured of our continued prayers for you and your intentions. God bless you! In Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, Mother Mary Assumpta Long, O.P. Prioress General

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