Dearest Friends and Benefactors,

Praised be Jesus Christ! How deeply we are loved by Our Father, by Our King and by the Spirit of Love and Truth. I pray that this letter finds you well. Some of you I have never met and now I have a kinship with you that will last into eternity. You have helped me --- our dear Lord is very good --- brought me to this point of preparing to enter the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.

On November 3, 2001, I was accepted by the community for entry as a postulant (contingent upon the elimination of my academic debt) on March 19, 2002, the Feast of our beloved patron St. Joseph. Little by little, through the prayers and generosity of your individual gifts, my paycheck from teaching and The Labouré Foundation, the debt of $30,000 in January 2001 was paid off in full on February 4, 2002. This was a miracle made possible through you, the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and the foundress of our Carmelite Order, the Venerable Mother Maria Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

These first years of formation will include a deepening awareness of my personal consecration to Christ. The goal is to give myself totally to another person --- the person of Christ. My heart is on fire --- but I realize the reality that this is not all excitement and romance; it takes work, patience and God's grace (sound familiar married couples?). To be called to any vocation is a gift. I do not deserve it and please Lord, help me live it to the full, right now, all for you.

For three years, I will live at the Motherhouse and if the Lord wills it so, will take my first vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (a deepening and more radical way of living out my baptismal vows). Later, I will move to a hospital or school where I will have more responsibilities and practice integrating the Carmelite life of prayer and recollection, charity and zeal, into the apostolate. If Our Lord wills it so, in nine years, you are invited to come for my final profession of vows.

One of the gifts I can give to you for your generosity is my commitment to pray for you. Every day we pray the rosary and in the fourth decade, we ask Our Blessed Mother, Queen and Beauty of Mount Carmel, to bless our "parents, relatives, friends and benefactors." We also offer the Mass and have special novenas at different points throughout the year for our benefactors, living and deceased. So --- you are covered with prayer both now and forever, even after you and I leave this earth, Carmelite sisters will be praying for us.

Thank you again and again, into eternity, for your generous gifts of love and prayers and may God hold you in the palm of His hand. You remain in my heart and in my prayers, forever.

Catherine Adams

P.S. Cy, what can I say --- there are no words! Pure gift to be here
(Carmel). I am so grateful to you, for you and the Labouré Foundation.