Prayer Town Emmanuel—Mother John Marie Stewart, DLJC, foundress of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, passed away May 26. She was 91 years old.
Mass was celebrated May 30, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Bishop Patrick J. Zurek, presiding, with Bishop Samuel Jacobs, Bishop Emeritus of Houma, La.; Father Mieczyslaw “Mitch” Przepiora, pastor, Immaculate Conception Church, Vega; and, priests of the Diocese of Amarillo concelebrating. Burial was private.
Born Dorothy Nelle Stewart on Dec. 5, 1926 in Stamps, Ark., she was the daughter of Frank and Justine Stewart. She was born into a family of Methodist ministers, elders and missionaries. Stewart graduated from the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt University with the intention of being a missionary. With the advent of World War II, doubts and spiritual confusion came into her life. A friend took her to a Catholic priest and through his guidance, Stewart’s Faith was renewed. She later entered the Catholic Church. Well-meaning friends and family opposition eroded her Faith and she would become a secular humanist.
By this time, Stewart was working on a Ph.D. in English Literature at Columbia University in New York City, editing textbooks for a leading publisher. A Catholic Sister in her Dante class was instrumental, by her quiet evangelization, to bring Stewart back to the Catholic Church after a lengthy absence.
In February 1969, two years after the Duquesne weekend—the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States—Stewart received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. In the ensuing years she participated in street evangelization in New York City, became a part of the ‘Jesus People Army’ in Washington and attended numerous Charismatic Conferences.
The Lord began showing Stewart what a Prayer Town might look like in 1969. On Jan. 22, 1972, while on retreat at a Poor Clare Monastery in Memphis, Tenn., the Lord presented her the Founding Document for the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. This document along with the Franciscan Third Order Regular Rule and the Constitutions are the framework of the Order’s way of life. Mother John Marie’s hard work and prayers culminated in the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ being erected as an Institute of Diocesan Rite on April 7, 1991 in the Diocese of Amarillo.
According to her fellow Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ Sisters, Mother John Marie was a woman of tremendous Faith. She never ceased evangelizing. Mother John Marie brought the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to the English-speaking missionaries in Japan, Mexico City and Monterrey. She traveled to India, Poland and Russia and was never afraid to sneak in a few Bibles and openly declare that ‘Jesus is Lord’ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Mother John Marie would even ask the bagger at the grocery store, “How is the Lord treating you?” The responses varied but each person was reminded that “Jesus loved them.”
By her untiring love for souls, Mother John Marie taught her spiritual daughters to “go after the lost sheep,” bringing them into the knowledge of Jesus’s love and mercy—and then helping them receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Mother John Marie’s life was undergird by prayer, both personal and liturgical. It was in communion with her Beloved Jesus and by the leading of the Holy Spirit that the vision the Lord gave her for the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ has sprouted and continues to grow under the guidance of the Lord and the Church.
The legacy left behind includes Prayer Town Emmanuel, the Mother House 40 miles northwest of Amarillo and local houses in Amarillo, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Pennsylvania and Monterrey.
Mother John Marie has left behind 38 grieving spiritual daughters; 30 sisters in Perpetual Profession; three in Temporarily Profession; one Novice; and three Postulants.
Mother John Marie was preceded in death by her parents; and two brothers, Clay and Frank Stewart, whose children are deceased. She is survived by great nieces and their families.