Sister of Mercy Sr. Barb Supanich has been a doctor for 32 years, but it’s only been in the last 23 that she’s been focused on the chronically ill and dying. Supanich says it was after working as a family physician in small-town Michigan – where her patients ranged from the newborn to the very old – that she first thought about a shift in her ministry. In 1992, she joined the faculty at Michigan State University’s family medicine department, teaching and writing about hospice and palliative care.

by Margaret Galiardi

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The anticipation of the pope’s encyclical on ecology and climate change grows with every passing day. Almost everyone seems to have their issue or angle which they hope will be addressed. In parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin it’s all about the extraction of silica sand, used for concocting the fluid made of sand, water and unknown chemicals used to do hydraulic fracturing mining of natural gas from shale deposits. Silica mining causes its own pollution.

Margaret Galiardi, is a Dominican Sister from Amityville, New York, whose passion is the contemplative integration of justice and peace for people and planet. She is a “lover of the wild,” a spiritual director and workshop and retreat leader who has lectured nationally on the New Cosmology and the Christian Story. She spent a year living with the Trappistine monks in their monastery on the Lost Coast of Northern California in the Redwood Forest.

This story appears in the LCWR and Apostolic Visitation feature series.

Recently I had an opportunity to lead the discussion following the screening of the film, "Band of Sisters," which I am in. It tells the story of how we women religious became involved with various ministries following the Second Vatican Council. It focuses on the emerging works of social justice, political advocacy, the movement toward sustainability and ecological centers and the transformation of consciousness rooted in contemplation. Woven within the film is the challenge women religious faced with the investigations initiated from two different Vatican Congregations.

This story appears in the Notes from the Field feature series. View the full series.

by Mary Clare Mazzocchi

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Notes from the Field - As a Dominican Volunteer this year, I have had the chance to live in community with 14 Mission San Jose Dominican sisters in their convent in the Mission District of San Francisco. Observing and participating in their prayer, communal lifestyle, and community conversation, I have grown in ways that were unexpected but invaluable. Lately, I have been thinking especially of the way that contemplative living allows a person and a community to be more adaptable in times of change.