Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

Celebrating the life of Sr. M. Gabriela Necrology received from the General House of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master. Available also on www.pddm.org Dear Sisters, As today’s liturgy presents to us the following verse of the Gospel: “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it” (Mk 8:34), we received the news that the Divine Master has found, prepared for heaven, our young sister Sr. M. Gabriela Aneta Justina Kubecka, born in Lublin (Poland) on February 27, 1980. This encounter with the Bridegroom took place at 4:30 this morning, February 21, 2014, in the hospital of Lublin, Poland. Despite the suffering and with great faith, her parents, who are still living, received the news of the death of their beloved daughter whom they had visited and greeted yesterday. Before entering the Congregation, Aneta was active in the youth group of the Light-Life Movement. Her pastor introduced her in

Sr. M. Gabriela, pddm. It has taken me a few days to write this blog because every time I sit down to do it, it is hard to believe what I am writing. On Friday, Heaven gained another one of our sisters, Sr. M. Gabriela Kubecka, a young 33 year old Polish sister Disciple of the Divine Master. I was blessed to share the religious journey with her in Poland and then together in Rome as we prepared together as companions for Perpetual Profession with the other sisters who together composed the “fantastic 8”, named after the first group of sisters whom our Founder called to compose our new Congregation! Gabri, I cherish great memories from the time we spent as a group in Casa Betania in Italy and road-tripping around Piedmonte for the Pauline Family pilgrimage. It was an adventure! We drew attention wherever we went, an international bunch of young sisters, joyful, smiling and at times loud! People were curious to know who we were, what we were doing. You were always willing to shar

Sr. M. Louise and Fr. Dean Valentine’s Day can be an awkward feastday for many. Single people often feel isolated. People in relationships feel obliged to show their affection for their significant others in a way that may seem totally manufactured. Valentine’s Day is considered one of the most polarizing holidays in the year. You are either a complete believer in what Valentine’s Day has come to mean, a celebration of love, or else you are sick and tired of the marketing frenzy that surrounds the event.However, love makes life beautiful, at any age. Whether it’s for the first time or the 100th, expressing your love is the best way to light up someone’s day, especially when they don’t expect it! And that’s exactly what we did last week on campus at Saint Paul University! Saint Paul Students for Life group decided to mark Valentine’s Day and celebrate the gift of life and love on campus on Thursday last. Bopping along to classic love songs and handing out delicious home-made coo

Today as Disciples of the Divine Master we celebrate 90 years of life as a religious Congregation! It is our Foundation Day! The name given by the Founder to the new group of sisters contains the term 'disciples' and to the first young person chosen, Orsola Rivata, to whom is entrusted the responsibility over the new religious family, was given the name Scolastica, that is, disciple. Fr. Alberione’s own profound experience of living God’s project with docility was itself an experience of discipleship. "Everything was school to him," he himself affirmed. As Disciples of the Divine Master, our life has been expressed since the beginning along the line of the Eucharistic mystery and with a style of life that is characterized by humility, silence, hiddenness, the spirit of sacrifice, and by unconditional giving of self. Speaking about the name of our Congregation, the Founder also wrote: "The name of Pious Disciples comes from their office: they ought to accom

The Sunday liturgy invites us to be salt and light. It might seem like a strange thing. However looking at the readings, we are even given concrete ways in how we can be salt and light to the world. Does this not seem a contradiction? Is it not considered ‘pride’ to shout to the world about the ‘good deeds’ that we do? I have to say that this has been on my mind over the past few days.Let me explain why! Recently there has been a social phenomenon sweeping the Internet, in particular on Facebook. It is an online drinking game called Neknomination and involves drinking alcohol  and engaging in dangerous activities either during or immediately after consuming the drink. The participants video the challenge, upload it and nominate other people to do the same within 24 hours. It is getting out of hand and as of today, four young men have died by participating in this game, two in Ireland and two in Britain. Even tonight on the news here in Ottawa, Canada, they were highlighting the ri