A Chain of the Thanksgiving Holy Masses
for the Gift of the Beatification of Alphonse Marie
wherever the Sisters of this Foundress live…

The festive Beatification of Mother Alphonse Marie took place on September 9, 2018, in Notre-Dame Cathedral of Strasburg. The next day, there was a Thanksgiving Holy Mass in the birthplace of the new Blessed Alphonse Marie in Niederbronn, Alsace, in the presence of the Sisters and lay people from all over the world.

After all returned to their homes, Thanksgiving Holy Masses for the beatification continues in parishes and communities of 68 dioceses and 4 continents, where the Sisters of Blessed Alphonse Marie live her charisma and spirituality faithfully and passionately. They, together with God’s people, express gratitude “for courageous and wise woman, who by suffering, silence, and prayer testified to God’s love to all, who suffered physically or spiritually.” (Cf. Pope Francis, after Angelus at the St. Peter’s Square on September 9, 2018)

On October 29, 2018, Sisters, lay people, and clergy, celebrated Thanksgiving Holy Mass in the Vatican. The solemn Holy Mass was presided by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. There were concelebrants: Archbishop Bartolucci, Secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Dean Patrick Koehler, a relative of the Eppinger family from Alsace, and twenty other priests of different nationalities, who has a narrow relationship to the new Blessed. Holy Mass was also attended by worker of Postulation.
It was a beautiful time of giving thanks to the Triune God for the beatification just in Rome, at the place where 62 years ago the process of the beatification at the “Roman” level began. Step by step it developed, accompanied by great effort, in silence, prayer, faith, and hope that one day it will end with the beatification. If the Stones at St. Peter’s Square represented the efforts of what they were witnessing during the beatification process of our Foundress, Alphonse Marie, it could be an exciting movie or novel. Maybe they will talk once more…

Anyway, the Thanksgiving Holy Mass in Vatican was a “happy ending” – a beautiful closing of the beatification.
Now, let speak Cardinal Koch, who said during the homily about the new Blessed: “Blessed Alphonse Marie deeply understood the meaning of Redemption by contemplating the cross. She understood that we, humans can be redeemed only through love, so redemption is that we are loved.

This love we can convincingly pass on only if we let Christ live in us and confess the same faith which St. Paul expressed by words, ´I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me´. This personal transmission is a deep experience especially during the Eucharistic celebration which transforms us to the men and women of the Eucharist. It also transforms our whole life to the Eucharistic prayer. All of these we can see in the life and death of Blessed Alphonse Marie Eppinger. The words of St. Paul, ´Insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me´ are perfectly reflected on her.
There is no better way to express our joy from the Beatification of Alphonse Marie Eppinger than to express our gratitude to Jesus Christ, who infinitely loves everyone and who does not consider a person as the result of blind fate. He loves us with a special love and invites us to share this love to all the people.”

We just want to add to these beautiful expressions:
Blessed Alphonse Marie
we believe to the power of your intercession
at our Heavenly Father in Heaven.
Help us!

Sr. M. Katarína Krištofová, Postulator

 Full text of Cardinal’s homily