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United States Adorers rejoiced on February 4, 2008 with twin celebrations. In addition to observing the feast of St. Maria de Mattias, the Region also accepted Luz Eugenia Alvarez as a novice. The ceremony was held in the chapel of the novitiate in Belleville, Illinois.

Sister Luz brings a rich cultural and personal history to the Adorers. A native of Mexico and a former member of the Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sister Luz offers the contemplative spirit of the Sisters of the Cross as a strand of her desire for an apostolic spirituality. The tapestry of her new life will be vibrant with the colors of Mexico, her family background, her years as a Sister of the Cross, and the richness of the charism of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ.

At one point in the reception ceremony, after Sister Jan Renz, ASC, regional leader, asked Sister Luz to express her desire, Luz responded:

I ask the community to help me to continue to discern the call of God as as Adorer of the Blood of Christ, like Maria de Mattias, loving God with all my heart and the dear neighbor. I want to participate in the Paschal mystery of Jesus, offering myself to God in union with the blood of Jesus Christ, in the daily circumstances of His people.

I offer myself to the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in the United States region, taking the words of Ruth 1:17: “Your people shall be my people, your country, my country, your charism, my charism, and your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die.”

Her last statement brought tears to the eyes of all present. Sister Jan assured Sister Luz that the Adorers do not ask her to give up her country, family, and culture but to enrich her new community with their gifts.

When Sister Luz received the congregation's constitution, she promised:

As a novice, I am willing to make my best effort to hear the voice of God in this Constitution, in the daily situations, in my Sisters, the people with whom I minister and in study, in order to let Him shape me as an Adorer of the Blood of Christ.

In community, I want to give myself with my history and culture. I want to be open to all that my Sisters offer me, their faith and their personal being. I want to love them and to receive their love.

At the party after the ceremony, Sister Luz entertained the Sisters with a powerpoint presentation of her family and former congregation so that the Adorers could become better acquainted with her culture and background.