In the middle of a webathon novena (we need your help!)

We're doing our autumn online fundraiser this week, in the form of a webathon novena for media. Each day we are offering a prayer for a different aspect of media or media evangelization and introduce the area of our own ministry that relates to that form of media (for example, today we focus on the medium of photography). The prayer can be downloaded as a pdf so you can share it with friends you know in that field, or post it on a bulletin board.

The particular "focus" (if you'll forgive the photography pun) of the fundraiser is to renovate a building we call the "Promised Land" (seriously: it's even in the documentation we give the fire department and insurance company). When I entered the Daughters of St Paul, the Promised Land didn't have a name; it was just the stockroom with rows and rows of high shelves neatly stacked with books. I was assigned to the order department, so to this day I could tell you which aisle to go to for encyclicals and where the children's books and catechetical resources could be found. About 20 years

Sweater, scarf and gloves: Sister Mary Joseph is ready to work!

ago, we moved the books to a new warehouse space, put up a few walls and divided the area with cubicles to give the sisters who worked in graphic design a bit more elbow room. That is when the area got named the "Promised Land." I suppose that the intention was to complete the work in a proper manner bit by bit (providing things like heating), but it never happened. The sisters just learned to make do. For twenty years.

In her eighties (believe it or not), Sister Mary
Agnes is one of our rosary-makers.

Our senior sisters, too, have been "making do" with a workshop space where they spend several hours each day making rosaries and missal ribbons or putting CDs in their cases (no, it's not done by machine!). We're hoping to expand their room, but that depends on the outcome of the fundraiser. (So far we are at 19% of the $40,000 goal.)

So now we are sharing the sisters' work and their prayers, and hoping to find people who are able to share with us in a way that will allow the Promised Land to finally be equipped for human habitation. If you can contribute, we will all be most grateful. (Plus, you will be included in the Novena of Remembrance, nine days of Masses
offered for our benefactors and their deceased loved ones.) There are some thank-you gifts of a more material nature, as well, including a small-size replica of Pope Francis' pectoral cross (blessed by the Holy Father when our superior went to Rome in June).

It may not be possible for you to contribute financially toward our goal, but you can surely join us in the daily media prayer (some written by our Founder, others by our sisters in the specific field) and you can probably share our posts on social media. (For starters, go to the Daughters of St Paul Choir page on Facebook and share one of the webathon posts there.)

http://pauline.org/webathon2015

Here are some of the earlier days of the webathon, along with their prayers. Feel free to share these links, too!
Heading for the Promised Land (day 1)
Called to be Saints and Apostles (All of Us!) (day 2)
The Artist without a Studio (day 3)