Books ignited a sacred passion

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

Hearing as a teen at the Pauline Books and Media store in Metairie that the Daughters of St. Paul printed and bound books piqued an interest in a vocation in communications as a religious sister for now Daughter of St. Paul Anne Flanagan.

“I wanted to help the church in the world of media,” said Sister Anne, a childhood booklover.

Sister Anne said once she heard that the order’s mission was to put the media “at the service of the church,” she knew she had found a calling custom made for her.

“I have never forgotten those words,” said the 1974 Archbishop Chapelle High School graduate. “I remember thinking that I am not the only person on the planet who thinks this.”

Now, 48 years after entering the Daughters of St. Paul and serving as a speaker and retreat leader, Sister Anne has written a book, “Come to Me: Living the Nine First Fridays.” The 272-page book is published by Pauline Books and Media and highlights devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Eucharist and the Sacred Heart
It was an idea stirring in her heart for a long time and one she researched herself. Sister Anne recognized the connection between the Eucharist and the heart of Christ that Jesus imparted to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in appearances, beginning in 1673. 

St. Margaret Mary was asked to spread the message to attend Mass and receive Communion for nine consecutive first Fridays. By doing this, 12 special graces – including peace in the home, comfort in affliction, strength during life and at death, abundant blessings (especially to the houses displaying the image of the Sacred Heart), mercy for sinners, reawakening of souls and the ability of priests to reach hardened hearts – would be received.

The book’s title comes from Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Sister Anne’s own crosses materialized after a bout of shingles left her temporarily deaf and without her sense of taste. She still cannot close her left eye completely. During the worst of the virus, all she could do was offer it up to God and unite her sufferings to those of Christ.

“We are all full of wounds, but if we let our wounds become the wounds of Jesus, and let Jesus clean them and make them his own, they can all be transformed into the wounds of Jesus,” she said. “That’s what can happen in us. Our wounds become fonts of light, and the world needs that. Our wounds become sources of grace. John Paul II talked of suffering that was offered up as apostolic cooperation in the salvation of the world. When you give it up to the Lord, it becomes a super power.”

Catholic faith background
Sister Anne’s family has a strong devotion to the Catholic faith. Her grandparents attended daily Mass. Her father, attorney James Thomas Flanagan, was in the Holy Name Society, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the international Nocturnal Adoration Society and among the first group of local Catholics to receive the St. Louis Medallion from the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Sister Anne said. 

Her mother, Winifred Stiegler Flanagan, also grew up in an active Catholic family that attended Holy Name of Jesus Church, including her grandmother, Irma Stiegler, who worked for many years at WDSU-TV.  Her uncle, Hilliard Stiegler, became a Jesuit brother.

“I saw the faith lived as something that was an everyday thing,” said Sister Anne, the eldest of seven. 

Her family even had a prayer card with the morning offering on it attached to the bathroom mirror. 

“You’d be brushing your teeth, and that prayer would be there,” she said.

Sister Anne remembered how her grandparents and parents made a special point to acknowledge the First Fridays, and she dedicated the book to her godmother, Irma Marie Stiegler, “who first taught me the secret of the Nine First Fridays.”

Sister Anne said the Sacred Heart of Jesus is “the most vivid, possible symbol of God’s passionate love for humanity.” 

The Sacred Heart devotion honors Jesus and acknowledges his immense love for us and shows our response of love to him. It also includes a “dimension of reparation” of the hearts that are awakened by the love of Jesus through this devotion. “An awakened heart is a disciple’s heart, because the heart remains open, docile, available and flexible.”

 How to use the book
“Come to Me” is divided into sections that make it easy to learn about and practice the First Fridays tradition. 

Sister Anne likens the devotion to an ongoing, extended retreat or a spiritual journey that prepares readers to be receptive to the heart of Jesus. She suggests starting or ending the devotion in a month that is meaningful to the devotee. Nine different themes are given, with a saint who reflects each theme. Each section offers a Scripture reading, reflections, how to put on the mind of Jesus, walking in his footsteps and dwelling in his heart, a closing blessing and many other Sacred Heart prayers.

Readers may stay on one theme indefinitely if it bears fruit or can go to the next one, she said. Guides for an hour of eucharistic adoration on the First Friday or the day before are also given to establish meaningful visits with Jesus. 

“Jesus says, ‘Give me your nine First Fridays and see what I can do,’” she said. “I’m praying that people will allow themselves to enter into the kind of relationship with Jesus that will soften their hearts to allow him to make their wounds his.”

It’s the first time as a nun that Sister Anne is stationed in her hometown. She has worked in New York City, St. Louis, Miami, Chicago and Boston, where she spent a few years in the St. Paul’s publishing house. 

She served in Rome for the Vatican’s Central Committee for the Great Jubilee Year of 2000 and was invited to cantor at a Mass for journalists. She also cantored in Italian for Pope John Paul II at his Pentecost Mass in 2000 in St. Peter Square. She’s been a Daughters of St. Paul Choir member for 25 years and will sing at the local Christmas concert Dec. 20 at Jesuit High School.

The book, her first written for adults, is sold for $24.95 at Pauline Books and Media, 4403 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie. She has previously published a children’s Way of the Cross and written for other media. Find her online @nunblogger.

[email protected]