The convent marathon

The end is in sight for our convent marathon which is what some of the sisters are mistakenly (but accurately) calling our fund-raising webathon novena. This year's nine days of prayer and passing the hat is in view of the unexpected and urgent need to replace the motherhouse generator. Just over

My view of the Webathon novena.

halfway through the nine days, we are about halfway to the admittedly ambitious goal of $89,000. And I am ready to collapse. (It really is a marathon!)

Since I had done much of the preparation back in July, I thought actually doing the twice daily live video stream would be fairly easy, even though it would require a extra daily sacrifice on my part. I had no idea that a ten-to-twelve minute video stream would take so much mental energy! We have been, as our Founder recommended, learning a little something new every day and trying to implement those improvements as we go along, so I suppose that is part of the package. We are also getting prayer requests from all over the world, sometimes accompanied by a true "widow's mite" toward the generator. It is enough to keep me on my knees until the next webathon.

Noon and 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) a group of sisters (and sometimes our publishing house staff) come to the video studio in the basement here to lead the prayers, inspired by Pope Francis' special devotion to Mary, Undoer of Knots. (Truth to tell, the devotion was inspired by 2nd century bishop and martyr St Irenaeus of Lyons, who wrote that Mary's obedience to God untied the knot of Eve's disobedience.) There is a prayer handout you can download from the webathon site (http://www.pauline.org/webathon2016) as well as links to send your prayer intentions (and donations!!!). The novena itself consists of prayer, a reading and meditation on scripture (contemplated through art), intercessions and the great prayer of Pope Francis to Our Lady. The meditations have all been different, created by the sister who is leading that prayer session. In all, I think about twenty sisters will have taken part in the novena, so this is a way for you to meet the community as well.

This evening we will stream the prayers for the 7th day of the novena, so if you haven't had a chance to join us yet, you can start today and make a Triduum to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots along with us. You can also take advantage of the archived videos from the first 6 days and make the novena on your own schedule.

See you at the finish line!!!