Friends of Saint Marie-Leonie
Dear Friends of Saint Marie-Leonie,
We continue our reflection on the life of Saint Marie-Leonie Paradis, whose faith continues to inspire us and guide us on our own journey.
The summer holidays are approaching, and they are essential for disconnecting from our daily routine, recharging our batteries, and promoting physical rest. We sometimes impose obligations on ourselves that are unnecessary for our well-being and that of those around us.
Let’s take the time to explore, create, invent, and simply take the time to live and be!
Living in the present moment allows us to enjoy time with family and create pleasant memories, rather than following a packed schedule. Since life moves so quickly, the brain needs breaks to regenerate and develop properly.
Taking the time to contemplate God in the creation that surrounds us is a source of great inner joy and comfort. Nature is a place of prayer and renewal, where we can feel loved because it is a sanctuary that whispers of God’s love and calls us to take responsibility for protecting it.
Sometimes, due to their physical condition, some people can only see the sun or the stars through their window. No matter how small the part of nature they can contemplate, God reaches them deeply.
God has left traces of His beauty in His creation to draw us to Him. It invites us to return to our hearts and teaches us to dwell there, so that we may remain in solidarity with those around us. In fact, the joy of vacation is being with Him and our loved ones. So, happy summer holidays to everyone, without exception.
Saint Marie-Leonie Paradis is on vacation with us, she who loved people, nature, flowers, animals, and even insects. Everything spoke to her of God.
Rachel Lemieux, p.s.s.f. May 2026
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 July 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.”
No human support
She went through the heartbreak of several deaths. First, she lost six members of her young community, then her first two companions of Memramcook: Sister Marie‑de‑la‑Rédemption and Sister Marie‑de‑ Sainte‑Philomène. After this her good mother followed by her spiritual father, Father Édouard Sorin. And, in 1895, Father Camille Lefebvre, who was found dead in his sleep. He had gone without her little community having had the chance to be canonically approved. But this was not the end of the Little Sisters' project.
On his way to attend the funeral of his confrere, Father B. Lecavalier, C.S.C., of Farnham met the procurator of the Seminary of Sherbrooke, Father E.-C. Tanguay. In the course of the conversation, Father Tanguay felt the need to confide to Father Lecavalier a great concern that obsessed him at the time: his Bishop and he were looking for “Little Sisters” who would accept to take on domestic service at the Bishop's residence and at the Seminary. But all their searching had been in vain, even that of the Bishop of Sherbrooke.
Knowing that Sherbrooke was an episcopal city, Mother Leonie could not help seeing in this the obvious protection of Father Lefebvre, whose death she was mourning.
Mother Leonie exclaimed: “Our Father Lefebvre has more power in the next life than he did in life here below...”
Book: A Mother who was “All Heart”, p. 71, 73-75
How has your faith seen God's action in such circumstances?
“Friends of Mother Marie-Leonie”?