About the Sisters News
Our Arizona Associates celebrated their Commitment Ceremony on Saturday, May 20th, as did other Ohio Associates at Mount Notre Dame Chapel in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to those gatherings, fifty-two Associates live-streamed the Mass and Commitment Ceremony that was held at MND.
On this Laudato Si' week, we are happy to share this book with anyone who would like to read "Angel in the Forest" Book, written by Sister Janet Mullen, SNDdeN.
Laudato Si’ Week starts this Sunday, May 21. Many suggestions are coming from the Holy See as to how we can celebrate. This week is meant for us to connect to the Spirituality of Creation, which is one of the seven goals of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
I was seven years old and staring at the clock, willing the hands to move forward when they seemed to have stopped entirely. My grandparents had come to town and brought with them the practice of saying the rosary every night before bed. Their fingers lingered patiently on each bead as they recited one “Hail Mary” after another. My little fingers haphazardly danced around my rosary while I wished they would speed it up. Judging from the looks on the faces of my five older brothers and sisters, they seemed to agree.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” No truer words… This YLBG is a response to one of the informational items on our Earth Day table: false solutions to the plastics problem. This is the last in this YLBG series! This week let’s talk about the so-called solution of downcycling.
Elena Telemante is a second-year member of NDMVA in Lumberton, New Mexico. Learn her connection to NDMVA through Sister Rose Marie Deilbel, SNDdeN, who also served in St. Francis of Assisi school.
Last year, Sister Rita Sturwold, SNDdeN recorded a reflection for Heart to Heart, a Catholic Media Ministry. Her reflection is featured as part of "Season of Joy: Reflections for 50 Days of Easter.
Saturday is Earth Day! I invite you to include a part of the prayer from Catholic Climate Covenant: Creator God, As we feast our eyes on autumn reds and yellows, we sense your creative power. As we marvel at the uniqueness of each snowflake, we rejoice that you know us by name. As we hear the songs of birds of spring, we yearn to sing your praises. As we breathe the delicious scents of summer flowers, our souls rest in your love.
“Keep rowing upstream” is one of Sister Dorothy Stang’s saying that resonates with me as a community organizer. I believe that each one of us can make a difference, through our small choices. On April 24, 2013, the world was rattled by the Rana Plaza disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed five factories. 1,132 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured.
As NDMVA members continue to bask in the glow of the MidYear Conference and are celebrated for their service and achievements during AmeriCorps Week, members have officially passed the halfway mark of their service journey.
If in any of the last 44 years along the jungled rivers of the Brazil-French Guiana frontier, you were to see an open, outboard, aluminum-bottomed boat making way, you would more than likely notice on the boat’s nicked and worn benches, among the many brown faces set against the wind, one fair one, and it would be Sister Rebeca Spires, SNDdeN.
Blessed Holy Week to all. May we all continue our journey for justice in peace.
Make connections! Connection is so important when we are engaged in the work of justice and caring for the earth. We cannot do this work alone. And we can find inspiration in the work of those sisters who have gone before. Earth Day is coming up on April 22. Catholic Climate Covenant’s theme this year is God’s Abundant Vision for Life. Engage with their activities. Connect with Just Earth – Cincinnati, a new organization Sr. Judy Tensing helped create as her ministry at Venice on Vine was coming to an end. heir mission statement: “Just Earth educates and facilitates action among residents of the Cincinnati region to address the intersecting crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental injustice.”
The most significant project that is taking place at Pelende, Democratic Republic of Congo is the refurbishment of the water system.
Post from Catholic Services of the Miami Valley facebook page: The sisters provide education to the poor and needy throughout the United States, “making known God’s goodness”, and “educating for life.” With “hearts as wide as the world”, the sisters’ presence also extends to twenty countries on five continents, many of which have a critical need for pure, safe drinking water. This Lent, a presentation and demonstration of the sisters’ Clean Water for Life Project was given to multiple Catholic Schools, including Our Lady Of The Rosary School, and presented by OLR alumnus Marsha J. Loges! Thank you, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, for your example of Love in Action!
Prayer, Advocacy and Action, and Education. The Office of Justice, Peace and Care for Creation has it all for you this week. Check out invitations to take action at the policy level, awareness of International Day of Zero Waste (today!), to local advocacy opportunities.
Before finishing her internship at the Congregational Mission Office in Ipswich, MA, Sister Kumiko Azuma, SNDdeN spent a week in Ohio. In Japan, Sister Kumiko teaches at Notre Dame Seishin Schools in Okayama.
All too often in life, we die before we die. We give up. We stop growing and loving. We bury our giftedness. How sad this is. The Lazarus Gospel and the whole Lenten season invites us to look within, to notice how we have been entombed. As winter melts into spring, may we too experience a metanoia… allowing life, love, and new growth to COME FORTH.
“But whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Almighty and ever living God, you invite us deeper into your world, your people, your Lent. May this time be one of outward focus; seeking you in those we often ignore. Help us live a Lent focused on freedom, generosity, and encounter. Give us hearts hungry to serve you and those who need what we have to give.
Provincial Sister Kathleen Harmon, SNDdeN brings good news: "I am happy to announce that Associate Barbara Markus has accepted the position of Director of Associate. Barb brings both leadership and administrative skills to this role, as well as her years of experience as an Associate. Welcome aboard, Barb. God is good."
God who created humans from the dust of the ground, we pray flights immorally sending families away would stay grounded. Remove policies that hold communities in fear, and instead may we fast in repentance for ways we have been complicit in feeding such fears. Hold us accountable as a nation for cruel separations of families and racist practices, and Strengthen us to grow your Force of Love until the oppressed truly become free. Amen