Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Bringing Christ's love to the world
Last fall, the Washington Heights Community Choir began to rehearse at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine. This non-audition choir of 80 locals bri ngs joy, and a true neighborhood feel to the
chapel. As we’ve gotten to know them, we’ve discovered new areas of common interest and a new pool of volunteers.
The choir’s repertoire ranges from sacred music to art songs to folksongs. They present four free concerts each year. Pictured here is their spring concert held on Tuesday, May 12.
Sixth, seventh and eighth graders from a public school in Harlem provided. St. Frances Cabrini Shrine’s first outdoor concert of 2026 on May 7.
The Mott Hall Symphonic Orchestra, composed of about 26 youth, played a mix of jazz, classical music, and adaptations of popular songs. The weather cooperated, and proud parents and curious
neighbors enjoyed an evening al fresco.
Tuba, trumpets, drums, clarinets, and mountains of flowers accompanied the faithful in a celebration in honor of St. Michael the Archangel at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York on the morning of May 8. The procession and Mass were organized by a group of men who attend the Shrine’s regular Spanish Mass.
The music began in the park down the street, prompting curious neighbors to emerge from their buildings, and children to race to the windows of the adjacent school.
The festive Mass was followed by a feast on the Shrine’s lawn of homemade tamales, pozole, and other Mexican specialties.
Cabrini Health, Australia
Holy Thursday
Each year, [on Holy Thursday] we have a Ritual of Washing at Cabrini. It is a mark of thanksgiving for each person in our community and the service they carry out daily in the healing ministry of Jesus.
We invite everyone to come forward and allow their hands to be washed by a senior colleague and dried tenderly by another. I’m incredibly humbled and moved by it each year – as are the people who attend.
Although it’s almost 50 years old, we still use the beautiful Servant Song to frame the liturgy. ~ submitted by Margaret Stewart, Group Director, Identity and Mission, Cabrini Health
Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine, New York City
Good Friday
On Good Friday, St. Frances Cabrini Shrine held stations of the cross especially tailored to children.
The gentle, Montessori-style devotion included stories at each station, kid-appropriate questions, a prayer, and an activity or hands-on item. When Jesus fell the first time, each child received a BandAid.
After learning about Simon of Cyrene, the kids traced their own hands to remind them they could be helpers, too.
Veronica wiped Jesus’ face, so the children got to tenderly wipe the face of a bust of Jesus.
It was an enthusiastic crowd, and a beautiful way to introduce kids to this important part of salvation history. ~ submitted by Julia Attaway, Executive Director, St. F.X. Cabrini Shrine, NYC
Mother Cabrini Shrine, Golden, Colorado
The Triduum and Easter Sunday
Holy Week and Easter was a grace-filled and joyful time at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado, as we welcomed many pilgrims, visitors, and friends to celebrate these sacred days.
Fr. John Lager, O.F.M., Cap., along with fellow Capuchins and student friars, led the liturgies throughout the Triduum. Holy Thursday began with a Seder Meal for staff and weekly volunteers, followed by the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the washing of feet. On Good Friday, many pilgrims carried crosses up the road to the Shrine, and the day included reflections on the Seven Last Words, the Liturgy of the Passion. The Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday Masses were beautifully celebrated, with overflowing crowds.
During Lent, our Shrine community continued a long-standing outreach project tradition and prepared and delivered 200 Easter baskets to students at Annunciation Catholic School in Denver, sharing the joy of the Resurrection through this act of generosity.
On Saturday, February 21 a group of about 30 people from five parishes and the surrounding neighborhood gathered at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City for the first Cabrini Cares Day. The topic was helping the homeless. Pietro Bartoli of the Community of Sant’Egidio spoke about the scope of the housing problem in New York, its causes, and how everyday people can engage those who are, in his words, “Having the worst day of their life almost every day.”
Questions flew almost as fast as practical tips and ideas. Pietro noted that the most important thing we can do is to live up to our Christian calling to look at each person as a human being. “Yours may be the only smile that person receives all day,” he said. Tips offered by other participants included:
• If you offer someone a granola bar and they refuse, don’t be offended. You wouldn’t take it personally if you offered a friend food and they said no. And you don’t know if the person has already eaten ten granola bars in the past two days.
• Set yourself a policy on how you’re going to handle requests and stick to it. That way you’re not faced with a decision (and temptation) every time you’re asked.
• If you choose to give money, do it without strings or judgment attached.
At the close of the session participants put together 100 hygiene kits and 100 warming kits. Everyone took as many kits as they thought they could hand out. The remainder were given to the Community of Sant’Egidio, which does outreach to the homeless twice a week.
The group will meet again to do role-playing on how to engage the homeless, and to create additional kits.
The Feast of Our Lady of GuadalupeThe Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, celebrated on December 12, honors the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 on Tepeyac Hill near present-day Mexico City. According to tradition, Mary offered words of compassion and solidarity, asking that a church be built so she could share God’s love with all people, especially the poor and marginalized. As a sign of her presence, she left her image miraculously imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma, a sacred relic still venerated today in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This feast has become a powerful symbol of faith, cultural identity, and hope throughout the Americas, drawing millions of pilgrims each year who come to honor “La Morenita” and to seek her intercession.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of this province of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and includes the MSC ministries located in Australia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the United States of America.
What did the 140 students from St. Elizabeth School do on their Jubilee pilgrimage to St. Frances Cabrini Shrine? Created a giant chain of hope, made their confessions, blew on a yobel (the ram’s horn used to announce a jubilee), colored their own prayer cards, wrote postcards to refugee children, prayed on Mother Cabrini’s bench, took the Cabrini Pledge, attended Mass, and had FUN and grew in faith! It was a whirlwind day with many graces… and hope.
What a week! St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York hosted seven Feast celebrations over four days.
On November 13th we greeted youth from four Catholic schools and in the evening held the Canonization Concert, a re-creation of the Gregorian chant and other music used at Mother Cabrini’s canonization ceremony.
Saturday included Mass in Italian (with a surprise marriage proposal afterwards!) and a Mass for the Filipino community. Sunday dawned with beautiful weather and a full chapel for the English Mass. Msgr. Roger Landry, the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, celebrated. His tremendously inspiring homily can be heard here.
As the English Mass ended a busload of Ugandans arrived from Massachusetts. Warm smiles, beautiful harmonies, and huge pots of food lit up the afternoon. While they were finishing their meal in the retreat room a joyous Mass in Spanish began in the chapel, celebrated by Bishop Edmund Whalen.
All in all it was a spectacular few days.
Blessings to all!
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On Wednesday, November 12 a group gathered on the lawn at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City for the unveiling and blessing of Mother Cabrini’s newly-restored prayer bench. This bench was used by Mother Cabrini when she stayed in northern Manhattan. It features griffins as side supports, and an ornate iron top.
Originally placed in the garden outside the professed sisters’ residence, the bench was moved to a side yard when construction of the current Shrine began. Later it was moved yet again to a location overlooking a parking lot. In recent decades the bench fell into severe disrepair. Nearly 200 donors contributed toward its restoration. Now sturdy and beautiful, the bench can once again be used by visitors the way Mother Cabrini herself used it: for prayer.
The brief ceremony was led by Msgr. Robert Ritchie, with Sr. Diane Olmstead, MSC, Provincial, Sr. Patricia Dunleavy, MSC and Sr. Sharon Casey, MSC in attendance. The bench is now located at the back of the Shrine’s lawn, where it overlooks the Hudson River. Next year the Shrine intends to build a serene prayer garden to surround it.
On Saturday, October 18th, an exuberant group of kids and parents gathered at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York to celebrate a Jubilee Family Day of Hope.
Designed as a close-to-home pilgrimage families could take together, the day included talks about hope, Mass, activities (writing postcards to refugee children, making a prayer bracelet, a color-your-own holy card, and creating a saints candle), and finished up with putting together packages for the homeless with the help of the Sant’Egidio Community.
What fun! The 50-voice children’s choir from Good Shepherd School sang beautifully and lifted everyone’s hearts. This is an event we will definitely repeat, so Catholic families have the opportunity to gather and
spend time together.