An evening with Mother Lillie

Last night, Mother Lillie spoke about counting our blessings and thanking God, this most wondrous God who created us and love us, who put us here for a very specific reason and do we know that reason? Or do we let ourselves be distracted from our true vocation and spend so much time grumbling and complaining… She spoke to great length about the children of Mt Tabor, of the love and healing that they receive from the Sisters and the joy and love that they give in return and of the true healing that can only be accomplished by the love of Jesus, this most deep and complete healing that will overcome any abuse or brokenness.

Mother Lillie is a very good speaker and it was such a treat to be able to hear her last night. I did not take any notes and I did not record her speech so I only have the blessed souvenir that her words aroused in my heart, the encouragement and strength that I draw from listening to her, from being around her for a few hours.

Mother Lillie and a few Sisters of the Trinitarians of Mary braved the rain and stormy weather and came up from Mount Tabor in Tecate Mexico to Saint Hilary's church in Tiburon for a fund raising dinner. It was quite a special evening of grace and warmth and generosity in the midst of a meteorological downpour!

Mother Lillie told us about the amazing ordeal of young Josephina Bakita and her devastating early years of slavery and abuse and hurt in Africa and the even more amazing story of the turnaround in her life afterwards. She ended up in Venice in a Catholic family who took care of her and introduced her to the faith and to the love of God. And she responded with her whole heart and soul, she understood the hope implied in the promise and she became a nun and spent the rest of her life sharing this good news and she is now canonized for her holiness. Isn't this amazing how a bad situation can be turned around by God and blossom into good? I am astounded by this feast accomplished again and again, all throughout the world and all throughout history, in so many little anonymous ways and in some huge famous ones. I need to admit that these are my own words, I am not quoting Mother Lillie anymore, but that is what being around her does to me, it always inspires me to love God more, to listen to him more attentively than before and to serve my neighbor with more kindness and patience than ever. And it is exciting, it is exhilarating, it's like an adventure, the biggest adventure of all because it holds so much promise and so much hope, because it makes every new day an opportunity for goodness and justice and righteousness and if that does not stir up your heart then I don't know what will. Oh, well, I do get enthusiasm and fervor from Mother Lillie's work and prayers and sacrifices and it shows and I thank God daily for her and for the Trinitarian Sisters.

I met Mother Lillie about 5 years ago and I wrote about her after I went to Mount Tabor here
(see same article in French here ).

Since then, her work is spreading, her ministry is growing, she is reaching out to more and more people, the number of young girls in her boarding school is rising, she is clothing and feeding more than 1000 people who come to Mount Tabor every month and she is ministering to 15 rehabilitation centers. The Trinitarians of Mary have dedicated their lives to pray for Priests and for the conversion of the world and to serve the poorest of the poor.

Mother Lillie, with her arms wrapped around a couple of the young girls at Mount Tabor, said that
"These children are true blessings".
See the Trinitarians web site here

Holy Mary,
Mother of Priests,
Pray for Them.