Fire in their Hearts is not a history, as Sr. Janet explains in her prologue. It’s also not a trip down memory lane, since few who read it will have any memory of those they’ll read about. It is more of a loving chronicle of relationships. The relationship of an extraordinarily ordinary priest from Canada, sisters from France who crossed the sea to join him in the woods of Northern Maine, the townspeople and lumber camp workers who welcomed and joined with them, and what God brought about through them and countless others that ended up stretching all the way to you.

These relationships set the foundation for the presence and action of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Maine, and their many friends, partners and collaborators, that continues today.

Sr. Janet's book is also the story of the relationship she forged with the characters you’ll read about, who came to life off the pages of a long-forgotten community journal and into her heart, imagination, prayer, and through her pen to be in this final form.

We are grateful to God for all of it, including for putting the desire in Sr. Janet’s heart to find and write this story, and to all who worked with her: Sr. Maria Saravia, CSJ (now with God) whose biography of Mother St. John Fontbonne inspired this journey, the archivist in Lyon who painstakingly photocopied and scanned the pages of the old journal, and Sr. Janet’s editors Dolly Pomerleau and Sr. Marcelle Roy, CSJ who painstakingly nudged Janet’s passion into prose.

After you read this story, you too will be part of this relationship, which continues in and through all of us drawn to do extraordinarily ordinary things in response to God’s great love.

Be inspired and enjoy!