These sisters heard the Lord call to them
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Summary
The Sisters of Life were founded by John Cardinal O'Connor in the late 1980s in order to respond to the growing pro-life movement in the Archdiocese of New York. Their mission was to care for the poor, pregnant, and in crisis, and to bring the word of God to the young, the old, and the unborn.
Transcript
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As long as they desire accompaniment, we are with them.
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We will never abandon them because we are wed to Jesus who himself promises to never leave us.
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Hello, my friends, and welcome once again to March for Life here in Washington, D.C.
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LifeFest is a thing put on by the Sisters of Life.
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If you haven't heard about them, well, you should have, but we're going to get you up to speed on all that.
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But LifeFest, an incredible event for thousands of young people coming to celebrate life,
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but also get a taste of the truth of the whole culture of life from the Sisters of Life.
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You're going to want to stay tuned for this episode.
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So, we are here with two sisters from the Sisters of Life,
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And what I'd like to first ask, if there's probably a lot of them know about the Sisters of Life,
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because at every pro-life event, of which most of our viewers go to all the time,
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you're around this very unique habit with the blue and the white.
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And perhaps some of them still don't know how you guys actually got started,
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but who are the Sisters of Life and where they get started from?
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Well, the Sisters of Life were founded by John Cardinal O'Connor,
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and we were started, we're babies in the life of the church,
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because we were started in 1991, so almost 35 years ago.
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And we were founded to proclaim the dignity of the human person.
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And we know that it's hard in this culture to hear that truth.
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And so, we desire for each person to know and to believe deep within their heart
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that they are unrepeatable, unique, blessed, given purpose, and that their life has meaning.
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And so, we are very blessed to be able to do that in our works with women who are pregnant and in crisis,
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with women who have suffered after an abortion,
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college ministry, where we go on college campuses,
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and to bring the news to places like this, to LifeFest, to the March for Life,
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So, that's really interesting, because, if I'm not mistaken,
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Cardinal O'Connor was in New York, of all places.
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So, how did he start this in New York, of all places?
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God gave him the pulpit of really far-reaching.
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So, he would make a promise that anyone who would find themselves pregnant and in need
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could find a resource, could find healing, could find help with the Archdiocese of New York.
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And that promise went far and wide, and he knew he had to make good on that promise
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and respond to the promise of the Sisters of Life are that response.
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And so, right there, in the heart of, really, in the heart of the world, in many ways,
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the heart of America, of what can be culture of death surrounding,
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where there's many abortion clinics, many, you know...
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and then the Sisters of Life were a response from the Holy Spirit.
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And so, we do that, and we've been blessed to be able to receive
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really 10,000 more women to serve and to walk with and to accompany and to seek courage.
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And just to see that, you know, in the darkness, there is a grit,
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I think for John Q. Public out there, they're going to think,
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here's this young woman, and she's smiling a lot,
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but they are traditional nuns that are sisters,
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so that means they give up having their own families and being with a husband.
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Because that's an uncommon calling, you might say.
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When there's, you know, nuns, when we think of nuns,
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it's like, there's a few old ladies, they're really not in habits anymore.
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They're in a pantsuit-y thing with a little cross somewhere.
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So, what is it that's bringing out this life among you guys?
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And it's a response to a call on our lives of love.
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And the only response to love is joy, is yes, is more, thank you.
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So, the gift of an invitation to religious life is really a gift to live in great love
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with our Lord Jesus, who then asks us to receive and then to go out and to share that.
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And so, we're very blessed as sisters of life to take the traditional vows of poverty,
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chastity, and obedience, and also a special fourth vow to protect and enhance the sacredness
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And so, all of our prayer is sort of like a thrust to bring to the world the joy that we
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receive first in our Eucharistic Lord, on our knees, in prayer.
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And then, to be His hands and His feet, it goes on.
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So, a lot of young ladies are going to be thinking, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
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Because I would love it if our Lord would just tell me, I want you to do this now.
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In the silence and in prayer and in front of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
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For me, that's how it all began in Eucharistic adoration, where the invitation was really to
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And I tell you that it's a very, it could be a very scary thing at first to think, like,
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But that where He is, He promises where I am is where you will be fulfilled.
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So then God allowed me to find, I mean, I was in New York, working in New York, and to
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find the Sisters of Life in Manhattan, you know, that our gift is that we are, we're there
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in Manhattan, where everybody's working, you know, busy in their lives.
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And my heart said, that's what I've been waiting for.
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Well, Sister Juliana, you're not going to get away on this one.
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So what was for you, your sort of, how did you hear our Lord calling you?
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And it's so hard to hear the voice of the Lord.
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There's always one thing or another vying for your attention.
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And for me, it was really, like Sister said, going into that place of silence.
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I remember discovering the gift of a Eucharistic Adoration Chapel and realizing, wow, right here,
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Jesus Christ, waiting for me, gazing upon me with love, holding onto my heart.
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And it was this experience of realizing that every desire I had for meaning, for fulfillment,
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And it was in that place of silence where I could begin to let my heart ask deeper questions
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and not just tell God my plans for my life, but ask him, okay, Lord, what did you make
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Because you know me and you love me and you want my heart to flourish.
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And in that space, gazing upon Jesus, I could discover who he made me to be and begin to
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hear those gentle, soft tugs in my heart revealing to me, okay, Lord, you made my heart to be your
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Something you said that's very interesting because you knew Jesus loved you.
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I can remember actually the first time I was invited to pray outside of an abortion clinic.
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I wasn't practicing my faith, but someone handed me a rosary.
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And I remember being in that place and watching a woman walk in and you could see in her eyes
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was this look of heartache and despair already.
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And that day I learned who Jesus was because as I looked at the crucifix on the rosary, I
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He came so that this is not the end of the story.
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He came so that this child could live for all eternity.
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He came so that this woman's heart could be brought back to new life.
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And I discovered that is the vastness of the love of our God, that this is a God who loves
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us in our darkest places and our moments of deepest despair and our moments of deepest pain.
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He is right there offering us life, offering us love, offering us hope and mercy.
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A lot of people, not only young women or women of any age, are going to think to themselves,
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And I'm not only not proud of, I know are wrong.
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We have a God who can bring new life anywhere, new hope anywhere.
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When God sees our broken hearts, he looks upon us as a father looking upon a child saying,
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I think I always think of a beautiful part of scripture, you know, in the little girl,
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12 year old Talitha dies and her father goes to find Jesus to bring him back to her.
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And the words the father says to Jesus, he says, come lay your hands on her that she may
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And I think that just reveals to us the heart of our father in heaven, that she may be made
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If you are someone who has suffered from the regret, from the shame of past sins, if you
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are someone who feels the weight of guilt upon you, know that the heart of your father
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is looking on you in that same world, longing for you to be made well and to live, not just
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live life here on this earth, but to live abundant, beautiful life in his grace.
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You specifically work dealing with women who have gone through probably one of the darkest
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things, at least in their own consciences that they feel.
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I've talked to many women who, I mean, the worst thing, you know, everybody talks about
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And I've talked to women who have gone through that and they tell me I could heal from the
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rape, what was done to me, but it's so hard for me to heal from what I then did to my child.
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So even with that, how do you, how do you bring people out of that kind of despair, that
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kind of doubt that God could ever love me again?
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As Sisters of Life, we do have a beautiful privilege of walking with women who are on the
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journey of healing after abortion, and they come from every different circumstance, every
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And it's incredible to see that when a woman begins to receive love, she might have many
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And yet by providing a space for her where she is free to voice these stars, to voice her
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regrets, and to be responded to with love, with listening ears, with compassion, with the
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knowledge that we do have a God who can forgive every sin, including the sin of abortion, she
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And our women to us, they are witnesses of resurrection.
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They are witnesses to us that even a heart that carries the deepest pain can be reborn into
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It's full of the pain of life and of all of the sometimes really nasty stuff.
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When you see a woman who's been abused and feeling used, the call for Catholics is more
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And if either of you have a reflection on that, have you seen this kind of healing in a woman
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to a point where she is forgiving the perpetrators and in love with them, in a way in love with
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Our church is so good and wise and has given us this year of hope.
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Pope Pius XI said men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
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And he urged that the faithful give public honour to Christ the King so that individuals and
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states would submit once more to the rule of their saviour.
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And that is why LifeSite News is raising up the image of Christ the King across the United
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Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is
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And it's so beautiful to be at this March for Life in this year of hope, where that's
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Like, um, that mercy can bring us to a point where we will be grateful in some way, like
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a gratitude for even the hard, even the difficult, even the dark.
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Um, that God is such a redeeming God, that the light that comes from those very places
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It's like the light that came out of his wounds at the resurrection.
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We will look on that light as witness, as testimony.
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And we even have here at LifeFest, um, you know, women who will get on a stage in front
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of thousands and tell them their deepest, darkest shame and say, not only did I receive mercy,
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I forgive in my past through all of the abuse, through all of the pain, through all, through
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all of the no's that got me to a place that I said the ultimate no, I am now able to give
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And in this year of hope, that's for every one of us.
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Like Pope Francis is telling us this year, believe it.
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Cause that's, that's the extra grace that wants to blood the church this year, um, to
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give us that grace to, to say, no, it's for me, you know, it's for me too.
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If you can tell us about what you've witnessed in your ministry already for many years, it's
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It's hard to believe for some people, but tell us what you've seen.
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Well, one thing I've seen is what you're, what you were saying before, just the miracle
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of forgiveness, that when someone receives forgiveness, they also become able to forgive
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others that forgiveness really is what transform a wound into a source of life.
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And we see so many of the women we walk with teach us that every day.
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And you mentioned it too, sister, it's from the pain that healing comes.
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I mean, that of course sounds like Jesus, but you don't often think of that in our own
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lives, that it's from the pain that healing in a way that you're able to sort of give
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Well, I think it's just so beautiful because there was just like, you know, thousands of
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people on their knees singing, Lord, I need you, Lord, I need you.
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It's like this song has like captured hearts, right?
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Like it's been now around for years and it doesn't get old, Lord, I need you.
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Because it's from that place of need, that place of pain, that place of desperation that
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you call out and it says, I'm available, Lord, I need you.
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He's like, finally, finally, I have access, right?
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That place of pain is actually a place of invitation, right?
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Like, and so from the fall, we're hiding ourselves from that place where we're running from
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And he's like, no, that's the very place I'm waiting for.
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I mean, we just have thousands of witnesses right now calling that out and the Lord's
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You look like someone who is so happy you almost have chills.
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You're doing this beautiful music, this compelling music in front of adoration.
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So the Eucharistic Lord is sitting right there and they're, you know, on their knees begging.
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And, but what a great grace you've been given to, to bring them and to have them.
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My, I have to confess, I have two daughters who are both affected by the Sisters of Life.
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I have seven, excuse me, six boys, but it's not the same.
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Our founder, Cardinal O'Connor, he really gave our sisters the invitation, not just to do something,
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to serve women who are in crisis or to walk with women and accompany women, but to be spiritual
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And oftentimes, as you're saying, we walk with women who are in very complex situations where there's deep grief,
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deep pain, deep complexity to their situations.
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And so we're here to accompany them as prayer guardians, as spiritual mothers, so that as they journey forth to new life,
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as they take that hard and difficult road to the new life that Jesus came to give them,
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that we can be spiritual mothers by their side and that they're not alone for any moment of their journey there.
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Even if it takes more than, like, counseling sessions, like more than a year?
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Have you ever been with somebody for that long?
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There are women who we journey with that we've known for a short amount of time,
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and then there are women who become part of our families, and we see them for years, even for decades.
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So they become part of our family, truly, when they get to know us.
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As long as they desire accompaniment, we are with them.
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We will never abandon them because we are wed to Jesus who himself promises to never leave us.
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It is their witness that causes us to yell out more,
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Lord, I need you, because, you know, we too, we also have those parts of our hearts that are broken and in need and in pain.
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And so it is a great witness and a great gift to serve all the people that God gives us to serve.
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And our experience is that we receive much, much more than we give.
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So we thank each of you that are present here at LifeFest, because you come, we are able to be filled with the joy to give.
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This is John Hinder Weston for LifeSite News with the Sisters of Life at LifeFest.
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And since we didn't do it at the beginning, let's conclude the way we should have started with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
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Hi, everyone. This is Fr. James Altman for LifeSite News.
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For more content like this, check the links in the description.
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You can also connect with us on social media to stay up to date with the latest news on life, faith, family, and freedom.
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Thank you for watching, and may God bless you all.