The Foundress
Mother Grace of the Eucharist, OCD
Looking for something on the subject of the celebration of the posada in Carmel, I happened upon this photo of of the Carmel of Bettendorf from 1936.
Mother Grace of the Eucharist is in this photo, she is the young nun standing in the back row on the end at the left.
Mother Grace died a few years ago at the Lake Elmo Carmel. She entered at Bettendorf, Iowa, and became the foundress of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Carmel, before coming to St. Paul in the early ’50’s to found our Carmel of Our Lady of Divine Providence, now in Lake Elmo, MN.
Another photo of Helen Meade, Mother Grace of the Eucharist, as a postulant.
Pictured in the group photo above, is Sr. Miriam of the Will of God, seated in the center, with Sr. Magdalen seated to her left. I know our Carmel had a Sr. Mary of the Will of God, who is now deceased, but I doubt she would have changed from Miriam to Mary. I also expect Magadalen is a different Magdalen than ours. Anyway - I see where some of our sisters got their names. My sister Paula of the Eucharist is from the Bettendorf Carmel as well as one of the foundresses of the Lake Elmo Carmel, she is still alive, though suffering greatly. Please pray for her.
Photo of M. Grace as a novice in Bettendorf.
Mother Grace was always very kind to me. I would have met her as a little boy of about 5 years old at their first foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Maria Ave. not far from where my family lived. I would like to add that I owe my entire spiritual life to Mother Grace and her little flock of Carmelite nuns.
When Mother died, I did not recite the Office Of The Dead, rather, the Office For A Virgin Martyr - so convinced was I that a saint had died. Her spirituality and Teresian charism exists today; her blessed legacy being that the Carmel of Our Lady of Divine Providence is one of the most fervent and observant Carmels in the world, flourishing with vocations.
