In the Face of Darkness, by Sr. Timothy Marie Kennedy, O.C.D., # 5764

In 1927, during the murderous anti-Catholic reign of Mexican president Plutarco Elias Calles, Mother Luisita and two members of her Carmelite community cast off their religious habits, donned secular clothes, trembling all the while, started out on a perilous flight from the brutal, atheistic government intent on killing them.

Neither their forced exile nor those death squads broke these brave nuns, suddenly thrust into the barren American Southwest. For in addition to the meager possessions they carried with them, they bore deep within their hearts a confident love of Jesus as well as a devotion to that principle by which Mother Luisita had directed their steps: "Adelante! Onward! God will Provide!”

Strangers in a strange land they were now… but not for long!

Mother Luisita’s beautiful, prayerful presence soon won these nuns friends and patrons in America, where she and her companions continued their mission. In the decades since then, Mother Luisita’s communities have brought comfort and hope to countless sick and suffering, lost and downtrodden souls who have discovered the liberating truth in Mother Luisita’s words: “For greater things you were born!”

In these pages, you’ll read the moving story of Mother Luisita’s heroic adventures and learn her secrets of holiness. It’s a story that will renew your confidence in the loving protection of God, strengthen your spirit, and – as Mother Luisita’s secrets of holiness did for her and her spirit, and – shield you from temptation and deliver you from evil.