Franciscan Sisters at St. Peter Mission Rejoice with Easter Vigil Candidates

Sister JulieAnn Sheahan

April 10, 2018

Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Martha Mary Carpenter, principal at St. Peter Mission School, Bapchule, Arizona, shares about the recent Easter Vigil celebration that welcomed 28 New Catholics.

Rejoice with us! On Holy Saturday we welcomed 28 new Catholics —twenty two are students in our school. This is the ‘breakdown’ of the newly baptized by grade: 2 2 year olds, 3 Pre-K students, 1 Kindergartener, 1 first grader, 2 second graders, 2 third graders, 3 fourth graders, 3 fifth graders, 2 sixth graders, and 5 junior high students, 4 parents (two of which are Sister Hilda Hersant’s former students!)


Interesting facts: The newly baptized are from 7 families.
One whole family, became Catholic on Holy Saturday—Mom, Dad, their 2 children, and their 5 nieces and nephews whom they are raising.
11 girls, 13 boys, 3 Moms, and 1 Dad
Of the 28 baptized, 19 were Confirmed and received their First Holy Communion. Nine were too young to receive all the Sacraments.

Sister Hannah Johnecheck started the Mission’s RCIA Program last year and we Sisters continued the classes, meeting every Wednesday night from 6:00-7:00 p.m.—some classes went much longer.

More families asked for Baptism, but we have a rule that the family must be part of the school for at least two years before being accepted into the RCIA classes. We want to make sure that they have ‘absorbed’ the Catholic culture, have positive Sunday Church attendance and a basic understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus—both in words and in good deeds.

Please PRAY with us:
We are beyond happy for our children and their families. We both cried and celebrated with the families on Holy Saturday during a Mass which seemed endless! Please join us in praying for our children and their families that their roots of faith in JESUS may grow deep and strong and produce great fruit and, hopefully VOCATIONS!

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