Christmas Wishes
#thanksconvent
As the end of the year draws near and we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, Advent is a beautiful time to reflect upon the blessings that God has given us.
This year, Leonie’s Longing invites you to join our #thanksconvent movement, and tell us what you gained from your time in the convent. It could be something as simple as a skill that you picked up in religious life, or as profound as a new way of drawing closer to God that you experienced there.
You can share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Twitter, or comment on this blog post, as many times as you like. At the end of December, the #thanksconvent comments will be gathered into a single post in celebration of the gifts that God has given us from our time in religious life!
Happy Birthday, Leonie!
The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive. – GK Chesterton.
As we celebrate the birthday of our patroness (born June 3rd, 1863), please offer a prayer for those who are bringing the cause of her beatification before Rome, and also for women who are struggling now, as she did, to find their vocation in life. Servant of God Lenie Martin, pray for us!
ANZAC Day 2015
Today, we honour all those who gave their lives in the First World War, and keep the memory of their heroism alive.
April 25th, 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) military landing in Gallipoli, Turkey. They were joining an Allied campaign intended to capture the Dardanelles and Constantinople, forcing Turkey to surrender – a campaign which claimed the lives of over 44,150 Allies (21,255 from the United Kingdom alone), and 86,692 soldiers from the Ottoman Empire.
Dug into trenches at the base of steep cliffs and bombarded from above by the Turks, more than eight thousand Australians and almost three thousand New Zealand soldiers lost their lives on this single stretch of beach before a retreat was ordered in December 1915. This retreat was achieved with no casualties, and the ANZAC story has become a vital part of the national identity of Australia and New Zealand.
References: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/interactive/gallipoli-casualties-country
https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/
Opening of the Cause for Leonie Martin
We’re pleased to bring you a short clip from the Mass on the 22nd of January at which Leonie Martin was declared a Servant of God, and the Cause for her beatification opened. The announcement is in French, so we’ve provided a translation below.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2fiyqr
The speech by Monsignor Jean-Claude Boulanger of the Diocese of Bayeux-Lisieux begins:
I have the power to announce to you that on the 18th of December I accepted the request of our 
Visitation Sisters to open the cause of beatification and of canonisation for Sister Francoise-Therese, known in the world under the name of Leonie Martin, born in 1863, and who entered into life in 1941, to use the expression of her sister Saint Therese.
As of this date, the 18th of December, Sister Francoise-Therese will be known as a Servant of God.
He then states the the bishops of the province of Normandy have given a favourable response to the introduction of this Cause, which will now be taken to Rome in the hope of a declaration of canonization in approximately seven years.
Rejoice With Us!
Blessed be God!
We’re excited to inform you that on the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales, co-founder of the Visitation Order, our patroness Leonie Martin will receive the title Servant of God at a Mass celebrated by Monsignor Jean-Claude Boulanger of the Diocese of Bayeux-Lisieux.
Mgr Boulanger will formally open the process for her beatification on Saturday the 24th of January in the Monastery of the Visitation in Caen, in which Leonie – Sister Francoise-Therese – lived from 1899 until her death in 1941.
According to the French news website www.ouest-france.fr, it is also a possibility that Blesseds Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of Saint Therese, will be canonized this year at the conclusion of the Synod on the Family in October. We’ll bring you any further updates on this as we find them!
Here at Leonie’s Longing, we are under the special patronage of the Martin family, particularly its “black sheep” Leonie, and the Church’s recognition of her holiness is a sign of hope for all of us as we overcome the same struggles in discernment that she faced over a hundred years ago. The patron of the awkward, the naturally contrary, those whose personalities didn’t quite “fit” in the convent, those who didn’t get it right the first time (or the second, or the third) but somehow keep crashing their way up the narrow path that leads to heaven – she is the one who is being honoured today with the title Servant of God.
Having struggled her entire adult life to keep an explosive temper under control, making retreat resolutions year after year to become more gentle and humble, Leonie would have been amused and deeply embarrassed had anyone suggested in her lifetime that others might one day pray to her for help – and she would, beyond doubt, only have accepted a title from the Church for the sake of those who would embrace her as a patroness, and not for her own prestige.
Let us pray that the process begun today may reach its fullness in the declaration that Leonie Martin is numbered among the Saints in Heaven, and let us ask her intercession as we, too, search for the vocations to which God has called us as His beloved children.
Servant of God, Sister Francoise-Therese Martin, pray for us!
Saint Therese, pray for us!
Blesseds Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us!
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