April 18, 2023 // Diocese

Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration Host Event for Newly Written Book

Erin Lynch

On Saturday, April 15, the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration hosted a book launch event at Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore at the University of Notre Dame to promote their new book “An Adoration Treasury for Young Catholics.” This event was co-hosted with Grace Jagla, Author of “Jesus and the Miracle of the Mass.”

Sister M. Listetta, one of the coauthors of the book, was present to speak a bit about how the book came to be and to read a portion to the children who had gathered to hear her. Three of her fellow sisters joined her for the event. When asked what inspired the book, Sister Lisetta said, “Our charism is perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, which we’ve been doing since 1863. Recently, over the past several years, we’ve had the opportunity to visit schools and lead classes in adoration. These visits have been incredibly fruitful. We’ve been so touched by the hunger and receptivity of these young ones in prayer.” When Our Sunday Visitor reached out about the possibility of writing a book, the answer was an easy yes for Sister Lisetta and Sister Mary Bosco.

Sister Lisetta said she hopes that through the book, young children grow in, “relationship with Jesus Christ and learning how to spend time with Him. Recognizing the peace, joy, and love that is offered to them in that silence. And hope. Life is hard. Adoration is a place to come and be safe, to recognize that we are unconditionally loved and that we are never alone. We can talk to Jesus just as we talk to our friends and we can trust Him. Hopefully, this is a friendship that the children can return to again and again as they grow up.” She continued on saying, “Oh, Jesus, I love you; help me to love you more. It’s really that simple. Sometimes Jesus can share big things with us in our thoughts or feelings. Sometimes there is nothing that we can sense, but coming into His presence we can simply say, ‘Jesus, I’m content to be in your presence.’ When we learn to be silent before our good God, something beautiful, little by little, grows within us: it’s grace, His life within us, and the reality of His great love and that He is always with us.”

Sister Lisetta also shared that “An Adoration Treasury for Young Catholics” is geared towards 2nd or 3rd graders, but that one huge blessing of the book is that it helps to give parents and teachers the confidence to teach children about adoration. She said, “For me, this has been the greatest benefit of the book — to hear parents and teachers say, ‘Oh, I can do this!’”

Grace Jagla introduced the event, talking about how she first met the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration at the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore when she was a young girl. She said that she was then invited to visit them at the convent and this is where she truly began to learn to love adoration in a way. This love has been carried with her throughout her life and she said it feels like a full circle moment that now she had the opportunity to be able to read her book about the Eucharist with Sister Lisetta at this event.

After both authors read from their books, Sister Lisetta led the group gathered in making a spiritual communion. She asked everyone present to put their hands on their hearts and prayed a spiritual communion written by St. Thérese of Lisieux. Afterwards, the participants gathered around to enjoy homemade cookies and spent some time with both the authors and the other sisters in attendance.

One attendee of the event, Grace Anne Breckler, had traveled from Fort Wayne to attend with her daughter. She said, “It was such a great event for everyone! The kids loved the stories and it was so nice to see the sisters out and about and interacting with the kids.” Another local mother, Emily Brumbaugh agreed, saying, “The author event was so welcoming and engaging. I appreciated how the audience and authors so graciously responded with love, to the kids most filled with the Holy Spirit. It especially warmed my heart to see so many of the sisters in attendance. I grew up with the sisters teaching in my school and was thankful my son would interact with them. We are so blessed to have these authors and events in our diocese.”