My name is Abbie Anne Truesdell and I am the new summer intern at Leonie’s Longing. I am currently a student (senior) at Clemson University in South Carolina. My major is in Psychology, while my minor is in Non-Profit Leadership. While I am greatly anticipating graduation from college, Clemson is actually not where I started.
I was born and raised in Aiken, South Carolina, where I spent 18 years of my life. I spent all of high school discerning a call to religious life, and immediately entered the convent the summer after high school graduation. I was extremely blessed with my time there, but I ended up leaving the community to pursue a personal issue, with the intention of returning shortly after it was resolved (though that did not end up happening). I immediately began attending Immaculata University in Pennsylvania, which was a blessing in itself because it was so close to extended family. Though the transition to lay life was a bit rocky, I ended up gaining many friendships and my personal insight grew immensely. However, after one year at Immaculata, I decided to leave and take a year off to focus on my mental health. It was after that year off that I finally decided to attend Clemson University. All of this being said, my path has been far from traditional, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way!
This summer with Leonie’s Longing, I will be focusing on mental health. I will be creating a mental health portion of the website with information and resources, as well as writing blog posts on topics related to mental health and life in/out of the convent. I pray you find the information and posts helpful. I am thrilled about getting the opportunity to meet many of you through various platforms over the summer, and please reach out to me at abbieanne [at] leonieslonging.org if you have any ideas, questions, or just want to say hi! God bless!
St. John Neumann & St. Margaret of Castello, pray for us!
A huge thank you to those who joined us in the novena during June 2019! We’ve now archived the prayers and condensed them into one page so that you can come back and pray the novena whenever you wish. This page can be found here.
Hello Everyone!
You’re invited to pray a novena with us June 20-28.
Listen to the audio invitation below for more information. Each day I’ll post a new reflection on this page.
Hi Everyone, it’s Theresa!
I’d like to invite you to be an active part of our apostolate by praying with us for two minutes per day for nine days starting on June 20 and ending on June 28, The Sacred Heart of Jesus.
June 16 is Leonie’s feast day so I thought it would be a great day to announce this exciting opportunity.
Each day I’ll post a 2 minute recording with a short prayer and a time of quiet reflection.
I’m confident that at the end of the novena, things will happen. I can’t wait to hear about what God says to you in your prayer and what comes up in your heart.
It’s been a pretty tough year for Leonie’s Longing, all told. Every time we got a tech issue fixed after the hack last October, it would come back with seven others worse than itself – the malfunctioning email system, the broken links, the corrupted text on every single page… it was dire.
That’s why our Technology Coordinator has been re-building the site from the ground up, clearing out any remnants of the hack and giving it a more sophisticated, modern look in the process. It’s taken many, many hours of hard work, but what you see before you today is the end result of that labour of love.
Please take a few moments to celebrate with us! You can watch a video about Leonie’s Longing, specially designed for the official launch of our new site…
or simply have a look around and try out the new drop-down menus; why not have a click through the archives and re-discover some of your old favourites?
As ever, you can get in touch with me for all blog-related matters at blogcontent[at]leonieslonging.org, or for anything else, please visit https://leonieslonging.org/contact-us/ and drop us a line.
Thank you for all your prayers and support – here’s to a brighter year ahead!
Our President Theresa answers questions you’ve asked (or wondered in your heart) about Leonie’s Longing.
Does Penny write all of those blogs? She’s amazing!
No, she does not. Penny runs the blog and posts everything. Thus her name ends up on each post. But yes, she is amazing. And yes, we accept submissions – please send them to blogcontent[at]leonieslonging.org!
Who pays you to do this work?
No one! We are all volunteers. We do this in our “free time” and our expenses are covered by the people who donate to us. (And we are very grateful by the way!) And we are always looking for new volunteers!
Why didn’t you write me back?
Though we can sometimes be delayed in replying, we do write everyone back (excluding people trying to sell us GENUINE ROLEX WATCHES of course). If you haven’t heard back from us, it could be the result of our tech issues. Please try again!
Yes. We didn’t think it was what the Holy Spirit wanted. #discernment
Are you all a bunch of Dominicans? What’s with all of these posts lately?
No we aren’t ALL Dominicans but I’ll admit we’re heavily reppin’ the OPs. Please help increase our diversity by volunteering to write or help out! (we will continue to accept Domincan submissions BTW for any other hounds of heaven out there).
Do you dislike Holy Mother Church? Are you a bunch of crabby old ladies?
No. Yes.
(Well, at least I am. I can’t speak for the others!)
Your site is looking a bit tired and you keep talking about some hack. What’s the deal?
We hope to unveil a new site soon (and not “at the speed of Church” – aka millennia)
I tried to ____ on your site and it didn’t work. What is going on?
Please let us know! Sometime we aren’t aware that things are broken.
Why do I see strange words and/or spellings on your site?
Because we are an international apostolate serving the Universal Church. As a result you may see words such as spanner/wrench, gobsmacked, fortnight, pear-shaped, or unusual animals like skinks mentioned. Isn’t that ace?
Back in April, we launched a survey that forms our contribution to the preparatory phase for the 2018 Synod on Youth, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.
We have been blessed to receive generous and thoughtful responses from many, many former religious, and former seminarians too, from across the United States, Australia, Canada and Europe.
Thank you for sharing your experiences!
We will continue to take responses until Thursday, June 1, 2017.
If you have been thinking about whether or not to respond, be assured that we receive responses with the greatest reverence for what you choose to share. The responses are anonymous, and each question on the survey is optional – you can answer as much or as little as you like.
Only Board Members can see the actual responses; general information about trends will be provided to the diocese of one of our Board Members for inclusion in the material given to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who will submit a national report for review in Rome.
Hi everyone! 
Our President Theresa answers questions you’ve asked (or wondered in your heart) about Leonie’s Longing.
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