Franciscan of the Eucharist

Franciscan of the Eucharist  –  Sister Maria Pio of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus, F.E.                                                                        “Pax et Bonum”  –  “Peace and the Good”

Founder:  Reverend Bob Lombardo, C.F.R.

Place:  Chicago, Illinois

Year:  2010 A.D.

Her Charism:  This Franciscan Sister is a loving Catholic presence in one of Chicago’s poorest, desperate, and most needy neighborhoods (West Humboldt Park) with a tragic history – everything from school fires to gang violence, poverty and drug trafficking.  Her life, which is lived among the poor she is called to serve, centers on her relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist.  With a Franciscan spirituality, she lives the Gospel in a radical way with particular attentiveness to ongoing conversion, Gospel poverty, and care for the poor.  To deepen her relationship with God, she embraces the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience and enters the “school of prayer and penance.”  Out of her life of prayer flows the apostolates of Eucharistic Adoration, service to the poor, evangelization, and teaching.  She believes that if you cannot see Jesus in the Eucharist, you cannot see Him in the forgotten poor.  Her goal is not only to provide for the bodily needs of others, but also for their souls.