St. Mary’s • Our Lady Of Lourdes • Holy Family
The Seven Sisters
FAITHFULLY
One of our two Seven Sisters Apostolate groups prays for Fr. Ben Kociemba — (from left) Missy Anez, Peg Winkelman, Bev Welle, Fr. Ben, Anne Roach, Linda Scepurek, Anita Miller and Maria Heimenz-Becker.
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group of 14 women has answered the call to join the Seven Sisters Apostolate in which the members pray for one hour each day of the week for the sole intention of Fr. Ben Kociemba and Fr. Mark Botzet. The Seven Sisters mission was begun in the Diocese of St. Cloud in 2010 to form a Seven Sisters group for each priest in the diocese. Laura Koski brought the Seven Sisters Apostolate to our Little Falls community. Each Seven Sister commits to prayer for a particular priest during one Holy Hour on a distinct day of the week, so each day of the week is covered. She may pray at any time during that day. Each Seven Sister group has an anchoress. Linda Scepurek is anchoress for Fr. Ben and Julie Laflamme is anchoress for Fr. Mark. As part of their devotions, all Seven Sisters 4
in the diocese attended a retreat in June at St. Mary’s Cathedral in St. Cloud, when commitments are made for the next 12 months. When a woman joins the Apostolate, she commits to serving for one year, but she can recommit. June is the commitment time as the month is devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “I pray on Thursday for one hour for Fr. Mark,” Julie says. “Each woman has a different day and we have substitutes if we can’t make that hour. It can be any hour in the 24 hours. It is preferred that we pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament, but with COVID we haven’t been able to. A lot of us tried to do it in church, however.” When the women pray, there are recommended prayers in the Seven Sisters
