Pink Sisters Offer Novena to Sacred Heart June 7-15

by Jean M. Schildz, Review Staff Writer

The Pink Sisters will offer a Sacred Heart Novena particularly for families Thursday-Friday, June 7-15, at Mount Grace Convent Chapel in North St. Louis.

The novena will include daily consecration of families to the Sacred Heart during 7:30 p.m. Mass in the chapel, 1438 E. Warne Ave. in the College Hill neighborhood. The chapel is wheelchair accessible, and a security guard will be on duty.

The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, as the cloistered contemplative community is more formally known, have resided at Mount Grace Convent for 79 years.

The congregation recently announced a $3 million renovation and expansion project at the site. Work began earlier this spring. Mount Grace Convent Chapel will remain open throughout the expected one-year reconstruction period.

This will be the 49th year the Pink Sisters have hosted the Sacred Heart Novena, noted religious superior Sister Mary Gemma Robinson, SSPSAP.

The decision was made to focus on families during the novena, she said, because "our whole Catholic religious development begins with the family, so the families are very important. That’s why the emphasis is put on the sanctification of the family."

The nine days of prayer will culminate in 24 consecutive hours of eucharistic prayer for all people, and in particular for families. The novena will end with two Masses June 15 on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

The chapel will continue to open to the public at 5:30 a.m. daily during the novena. Daily Mass also will be offered at 7 a.m. Vespers and Benediction during the novena will take place at 4 p.m. June 15. All are welcome to join the sisters in praying the Liturgy of the Hours at 5:45, 8:30 and 11:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. daily.

Masses during the novena will be celebrated at 7:30 p.m., with the exception of June 15, when a noon Mass also will be celebrated.

The novena Mass schedule of celebrants is as follows:

* Thursday, June 7, Father Lawrence A. Herzog, pastor, Little Flower;

* Friday, June 8, Father Mark C. Ullrich, pastor, Our Lady of the Holy Cross;

* Saturday, June 9, Father Edward M. Rice, pastor, St. John the Baptist;

* Sunday, June 10, Msgr. Richard F. Stika, pastor, Annunziata;

* Monday, June 11, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke;

* Tuesday, June 12, Father Andrew J. O’Connor, chaplain, Nazareth Living Center;

* Wednesday, June 13, Msgr. Henry J. Breier, secretary to the archbishop;

• Thursday, June 14, Msgr. Robert J. Gettinger, pastor, St. Augustine;

* Friday, June 15, noon Mass, Father Thomas J. Santen, pastor, St. Joseph (Manchester); and 7:30 p.m. closing Mass, Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. Hermann.

For more information, call the Pink Sisters’ prayer intention line at (314) 381-5686.

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