Friends of Saint Marie-Leonie
Dear Friends of Saint Marie-Leonie,
With the Jubilee Year of 2025, we have become aware that we are still pilgrims of hope journeying toward the house of God, our Father. During this Lent of 2026, the theme reassures us by saying: Have confidence! Jesus is leading us.
It's necessary to contemplate Jesus, to entrust ourselves to him, and to walk in his footsteps. He himself traveled the paths of loneliness, anguish, fear, and hunger. That is why he alone can rekindle in us the flame of trust, faithfulness, and hope.
The entire life of Saint Marie-Leonie was a constant search for God's will, following the example of Christ Jesus, the loving servant of the Father's will. He always allowed himself to be guided by God's love for humanity. Mother Marie-Leonie, a woman who was all heart, understood this unwavering love for his creation and personified it through her life.
During this season of Lent, may we learn that He is alive among us.
Have a blessed Easter journey and let us always have faith.
Rachel Lemieux, p.s.s.f. February 2026
N.B. Price increase for Mass fees with intentions
Read Mass $10 Announced Mass $25
As well as for lamp offerings with intentions:
Large lamp $7 (6 days) Small lamp $2 (24 hours)
For those who would like to make a donation, Mass offering or lamp, you can now do so in 3 ways.
- Online: with a credit card
- By Interact transfer
- In person: at the reception desk of the Centre Marie-Leonie Paradis in cash, debit or credit card.
ONLINE:
Go to our website on this page:
https://www.centremarie-leonieparadis.com/fr/dons-et-services-en-ligne/index.php
INTERACT TRANSFER:
- For mass fees and lamp offerings:
It is essential to e-mail us the details of your order and your intentions. Send to: centre.marie-leonie@videotron.ca
- For donations with tax receipt:
It is essential to e-mail us your full postal address, as for all donations received during the current year, we issue an annual tax receipt in February of the following year.
Send to: centre.marie-leonie@videotron.ca
Once you've sent us your e-mail with your requests, we'll send you the information you need to make the Interac transfer.
SERVICES OFFERED
(no tax receipt, as the money does not stay at the Centre Marie-Leonie Paradis).
- Masses announced with their intention: $25 (new price)
- Masses read with intention: $10 (new price)
- Large lamp offering with intention: $7 (new price)
- Small lamp offering with intention: $2 (new price)
*The Centre Marie-Leonie Paradis sends the money for the Masses and the intention to missionary priests. It is impossible to have a mass celebrated on a fixed date.
*The Centre Marie-Leonie Paradis will light your lamp for you, along with your intention, at Saint-Michel’s Cathedral in Sherbrooke. The lamp will burn for 6 days or for one day (depending on the size) with Mother Marie-Leonie.
Woman of great faith and action April 2026
Matthew 25:34-40
Then the King will say to those on his right: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, saying: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?”
And the King will answer them: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
A providential event
The “Marie‑de‑la‑Rédemption” affair, then, had been for her a providential event, a triggering event. It was the opportunity for her to take stock of her life, to listen once again to the call still alive in her heart. And she was able to dare take the step of passing from the Marianites to the Sisters of Holy Cross in order to realize the ideal she had always cherished and which, in the heart of Father Basile Moreau, had been at the very origin of his Marianites!
In 1874, Father Sorin asked her to go to Memramcook, New Brunswick, to be the directress of four young Sisters who would serve at the College of Saint Joseph founded a few years earlier by Father Camille Lefebvre. She went out of pure obedience!
Mother Leonie very reluctantly left Notre Dame, Indiana. She was greeted by Father Camille Lefebvre, the same one who, in 1852, had gone with Mrs. Paradis on the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Sainte‑Anne de Varennes, where he had found his vocation to the Congregation of Holy Cross, later giving rise to the vocation of Élodie Paradis to the Marianites! Yes, “God does write straight on crooked lines!”
Sister Marie‑de‑la‑Rédemption, her former superior of New York, who had returned to the fold, and Sister Marie‑de‑Sainte‑ Philomène continued until their death to share the life of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family. From 1892 onward, Sister Leonie alone was left... the only one of Holy Cross among the Little Sisters.
Book: A Mother who was “All Heart”, pages 37, 43, 47, 70
How did your faith lead you to make difficult choices in order to fulfill the call within you?
“Friends of Mother Marie-Leonie”?