In October 2024, the American Province launched Graced Moments, where every month, a Holy Child Sister shares a “grace-filled” experience that has influenced her life. The project flows from the Society’s mission “to help others to believe that God lives and acts in them and in our world.”
We thank Mary Popit, a Sister of the Holy Child Jesus for 67 years, for offering her “graced moment.”
Feel free to leave a comment for Sister Mary at the bottom of this page. Thank you!
Click the audio player to listen to Sister Mary read her
reflection or see the text below. Enjoy!
“Coincidences are God’s way of working miracles anonymously.”
November is the month when we take time to celebrate all good people who have passed away but are not forgotten.
I recently experienced a graced moment when visiting Rosemont for a Province-wide Gathering, which included several meetings and events throughout a four-day weekend.
One of these events was Holy Child Center’s “Walk to End Alzheimer’s.”
I joined the event and was moved by the sight of nearly every sister on campus — including several in wheelchairs who were graciously guided by staff — coming together to support the cause.
Before the walk, Linda Cusano, Holy Child Center’s Director of Life Enrichment, opened with the prayer of the day. It was titled “The Power of Gathering.”
Was it a coincidence that the day’s prayer was called “The Power of Gathering?”
After the prayer, Linda explained that the walk would begin on a path of imprinted footprints, a reminder of all the people who walked the halls before us, including Sisters with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
This reminder elicited an emotional response – my graced moment – stirring memories of the Sisters I have visited at Holy Child Center over the years, some who suffered by Alzheimer’s or memory loss, and those who are there now, being wheeled over the footprints.
On the walk, we made our way around the campus and returned by the side door. Near the door, we learned that a patch of pumpkins had mysteriously grown this year. Another coincidence?
Whenever I encounter coincidences in my life, I am reminded of a saying shared by a friend: “Coincidences are God’s way of working miracles anonymously.”
The entire walk was a graced moment for me. It was overflowing with memories, surprises, and heartfelt conversations—reminders that God’s quiet miracles are always at work in our lives and in the world.
“It is not presumption to have hope and joy
and confidence in God’s grace.”
-Venerable Cornelia Connelly
What in Sister Mary’s graced moment resonated with you? Please share below.
Dear Mary,
It is wonderful to hear your voice. What a coincidence and blessing to discover you being featured on the SHCJ FB page.
Thank you for being a mentor to me in my college years at Rosemont. I hold you in my heart.
Lovingly,
Anne
.
Thank you Mary. Your voice is still the same from the time I met and knew you studying and living in Washington, DC.
Your graced moments reconfirms and firmly strengthened for me that there’s no coincidence, only God at work in everything. An invitation to see God at work in everything, good and what we call bad. When, by God’s Spirit, we see and understand clearly, we realise how graced the moment of “bad” experience has been, and we did not know it. Indeed, God’s ways are not our ways! He mysteriously works miracles in our lives and in our world. Let us hold firm in faith, trust, and hope in God as daily we face what is called life.
Beautiful reflection! I too follow those SHCJ footprints as I recall visits to my beloved cousin, Dorothy Wilson SHCJ at Holy Child Center. I call coincidences , God moments, or loved ones reaching through that sacred veil. Thank you, Mary, Debbie, SHCJ Associate
Mary, I loved your “anonymous miracles.” Thanks.
Dear Mary, Thank you for your graced moment . Your reminder of the blessings of coincidences are miracles that nurture are inner beings. Shalom, Mary
Mary, thank you so much for your recent “graced moment”! I loved your quote from a friend about God working miracles anonymously in “coincidences”.
Thanks so much for sharing, Mary – and for taking part. Great day, wasn’t it?
Happy Thanksgiving and a blessed Advent! Love and prayers, Ro Tedesco
Thanks Mary. This year was my first walk as well and full of graced moments similar to those you beautifully expressed. My partner was one of the aids in Midhill who is noted for her kindness, smile and care of all of us. These moments with her were grace-full for me. Thanks for your thoughts that opened the grace of this moment for me too.