BRIDGEPORT—When the Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Immaculate first came to Bridgeport almost 65 years ago, the first thing they looked for was a house where they could have Eucharistic adoration. And they found one on Pine Street, courtesy of then-Bishop Walter W. Curtis.
Adoration is the number one charism of their order, which was founded by Blessed Maria Emilia Riquelme y Zayas in Spain in 1896.
The Missionary Sisters have houses in Bridgeport on Wordin Avenue, as well as in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Africa, Mexico, the Philippines and soon Vietnam. And wherever they go around the world, they bring the love of the Blessed Sacrament with them.
“The Eucharist is paradise on Earth,” Blessed Maria once said. “Adoration, my hour of heaven, my recreation and my spiritual rest.”
Mother Anna Rodriguez is the superior of the Convent of Mary Immaculate. Part of her goal is to spread the practice of Eucharistic Adoration to people throughout the Diocese of Bridgeport.
“Our charism, first and foremost, is Adoration, so we try to get people to come in and visit the Lord,” she said. “We try to get people to be open to the Lord in adoration.”
She and her four sisters begin their day the same way. For them, Adoration isn’t just once a week. It’s three times a day, in the morning, afternoon and evening. It’s also fundamental to the work they do with children in the Diocese of Bridgeport.
But that’s not all. They open the doors of their Eucharistic chapel to anyone who wants to come and sit and pray before the Blessed Sacrament, of all ages—from their preschool students, who go to Adoration during the school week, to senior citizens and everyone in between.
“We try to have our chapel open for our people and will open it again after COVID,” she said. “Jesus is the fountain of all our centers.”
The Eucharist is also the cornerstone of the religious education programs for students from seventh grade to high school, Mother says, because it lets them “realize who Jesus is” and that he is present in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament.
“Twice a month, we do this with students in faith formation,” she said. “We have a little chapel in the school and have adoration with them. We like to do that so they can have an encounter with Jesus. They need to know sound doctrine, but they also need to experience the love of Jesus in their lives.”
The students in the preschool also spend time with the Eucharistic Lord. Mother Anna, who teaches the 4-year-olds, said that students have weekly Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel.
The charism of the Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Immaculate is particularly important during this time of the National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the U.S. bishops “to restore understanding and devotion to this great mystery here in the United States.”
Research shows that some 60 percent of self-described Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence, and Mother Anna says that is because they do not truly know Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and were not taught that important doctrine of our faith at an early age, which makes the role of parents and Catholic educators all the more important during these troubled times.
“When God isn’t being taught, look at what happens in families,” she said. “He has been forgotten in families. They never go to Jesus just to speak to him, and that is very important. You can’t know a person you don’t speak to.”
Mother Anna believes that much strife in families and in society could be remedied if people took the time to sit in front of Jesus in adoration in the Blessed Sacrament.
Before she entered the order, Anna Rodriguez, who grew up in Bridgeport, had a personal encounter with the Eucharistic Lord when she was a young woman, and it inspired her to leave her job at Dictaphone—and her boyfriend.
In addition to her father Virigilio, who was a devout convert to Catholicism, she says her then-boyfriend deserves credit for introducing her to Eucharistic adoration.
“He was very holy, and before we went anywhere, he would say, ‘We have to go to adoration,’” she said.
On the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, while at church, she was invited into the adoration chapel, where she felt her calling.
“I was before the Blessed Sacrament, and I wondered, ‘What am I feeling?’” she said. Her father was also there, and she remembers asking, “Dear Lord, what am I going to do?”
She has always been a lover of animals and horses, and she immediately thought of the blinders that horses wear in the mountains near cliffs, so they can stay focused and not be distracted by things around them. A voice told her, “Put the frame on just like you put on your horse. Look forward and not to the side, and I will be there.’”
“That’s when I said, ‘The Lord wants me to be a sister,'” Mother Anna said.
And these 41 years later, she remains focused on the Lord in the Eucharist to this day.
By Joe Pisani
