Notes from the Field - Within the Immigrant Outreach Program, parents are motivated to find ways to give their children proper assistance for school and life. Because the immigrant families we serve are so dedicated, it is easy for volunteers to become passionate about the issues they face.
"We can no longer hide in our spiritual Jacuzzis, our comfortable contemplative spas."
Indian Sr. Leema Rose heads the Catholic Health Training Institute in Wau, South Sudan. She spoke to GSR about keeping the institution going and dealing with clan division in the midst of a four-year civil war.
"I have heard great things about the sisters' community in Nazareth ... I was excited about this new mission, which is completely different than the one I had before."
When I said, "I'm Sister Angela," she let out the biggest yell. "Sister Angela! Sister Angela!" Little did I know that my trip to New Mexico would include this Spirit-led adventure.
GSR Today: As Sr. Joan Chittister told us at the recent Fourth International Oblate Congress in Rome, Oblates "are not meant to simply be consumers of the Benedictine tradition. You are meant to be carriers of the tradition. You are the future of the order."
Sr. Angela Fitzpatrick was a member of the Ursuline Sisters of Paola, Kansas, before her congregation merged with the Ursuline Sisters of Mount St. Joseph in Kentucky. In 1971, she was one of the first sisters to leave the classroom for pastoral ministry, and later ministries with hospice, the bereaved and the homebound sick. She founded "Dial-A-Ride" for transportation for the elderly, was one of the founding members of Network, and worked at the 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago.
Advent is a time of waiting. It is a time when Christians throughout the world remember that the hope Jesus brought us for a world marked by love, forgiveness, unity and equality is being fulfilled but is not yet.
The Life - New roles. Social analysis. Diversification. Growth and decline. Collaboration. Freedom. Widened horizons. The Life panelists discuss the creative ways the ministries of their congregations are evolving and how they are moving to ministries of presence, empowerment and systemic change — yet in all their ministries, they see the persistence of their charism.
"Our own grief is a gateway to grace, not only for ourselves, but for our world. The grace that will come from embracing this paschal narrative of communion will be costly, but it will not diminish us. It will take our best energy and will not consume us. It will open us to the vitality that lies deep at the heart of communion with God, with another and with the wider world."