Sisters of St. Francis Vocation Blog

Mother Marianne Contributions Honored

2010-02-08T19:56:00.007-05:00

A Hawaiian news station has highlighted the dedication and work of Blessed Mother Marianne. In this video, look for the new bronze statue of Mother Marianne that was recently dedicated in Kewalo Basin Park, Hawaii. It is beautiful!
Please click here to view this inspiring news clip!

With Praise and Gratitude!

2010-01-27T21:01:00.018-05:00

With praise and gratitude we opened our yearlong celebration of 150 years of the presence of our sisters in the Diocese of Syracuse on Saturday, Jan. 9.

The celebration began with a 4 p.m. Mass at St. Anthony's chapel. Attended by about 140 sisters and 40 associates, our worship was enhanced by exultant music that came forth from the voices of a choir and congregation fired with excitement from the first note of "Be Exalted, O God" to the last note of "O Sing a Hymn To Francis." In addition to the voices was the glorious accompaniment by trumpets, organ, piano, guitars and drums. All were under the direction of S. Terri Laureta who brought forth magnificent musical praise! Terri had written a special song for the anniversary entitled, "God, Gracious Friend," in which we celebrated "all our hopes and all our dreams, God's faithfulness through the years and our trust for the future."

Bishop Thomas Costello, who has been a long time friend of the sisters in Syracuse, was the principal celebrant and homilist. He characteristically gave a memorable reflection on the many "divergences and convergences" over these 150 years which have shaped us and our ministries.

After Mass we gathered at the Franciscan Center where we were treated to a turkey dinner (appropriate for a time of "thanksgiving"), attractively and tastefully prepared by the men and women of our food service department.

Dessert was followed by a skit, "150 Years Revisited," in which the "mothers general" of our history gathered - nine in their heavenly conference room and four on earth to share memories of our past history. Each player well represented her character in telling some of the stories of her time in office, missions she helped establish and support and some humorous anecdotes from her time. It was an entertaining way to "tell the stories" and celebrate our graced history.

As we continue to celebrate throughout 2010, we look forward to events which will remind us of how our God has indeed blessed us!

Sisters Profess Vows

2009-08-30T16:17:00.018-04:00

Happy Profession Day!

On Sunday, August 9, 2009 Sister Chris professed perpetual vows at St. Mary of the Angels in Williamsville, NY.
On Saturday, August 15, 2009, Sister Sylvia professed perpetual vows and Sisters Laura and Amy professed temporary vows at Mt. Alvernia in Millvale, Pa. It was a wonderful day celebrated with sisters, family members, associates and friends.

We give THANKS for God's merciful love and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us!

"Today, O God, your house echoes with joy for Sisters Chris, Sylvia, Laura and Amy hear your voice in their hearts and offers themselves to you in service."

To view more photos of the Profession, please click here:
http://sosf.org/photo-gallery/

Sisters Sylvia, Pat, Laura and Amy

Sisters Ann and Chris

Service Camp for High-School Women

2009-05-21T11:03:00.015-04:00

S. Kathy Adamski, Vocation Minister, shares a reflection she wrote last year following the “Nun” Camp 2008” experience. This was the 7th Annual Service Camp for High-School Women in the Franciscan Tradition

Our Seventh Annual Service Camp for High-School Women was a huge success, and John and Joan Spaulding once again permitted 24 women to invade their home in Prosperity, Pennsylvania for a five-day service experience for teen-age women. Seventeen teenagers came from various parts of the country for this week of service. We had a young lady from San Diego, one from Michigan, one from College Park, PA, six from the Ashtabula, Ohio area and the rest from the greater Pittsburgh area. It was our most diversified group, since we began offering this summer camp.

Many of the young women were “repeaters” in that they had made the camp before and were excited to return. We had four college-age women as counselors, one graduate student and several adults were on our team this year. I especially want to thank Sister Genny Kovalesky for giving an entire week to vocation ministry. Also, I would like to thank Sister Suzanne Suzanny for taking a break from her law studies to visit the young women. Sister Suzie was a full-time staffer on previous camps, but her duties for law school prevented her from spending the entire week with us

The camp is quite structured to provide the girls with ample opportunity to pray, reflect, serve and have fun with their friends. Each day has a particular Franciscan theme—conversion, prayer, service and humility. We try to integrate the theme throughout the day. After seven years, I believe we have a good mix of work and play so that the women enjoy themselves as they serve. We pray three times a day—morning prayer, the Gospel before supper, and we integrate the particular day’s theme with faith sharing in the evening. It is amazing how much the girls share; one gal sent me an e-mail and stated, “ I just wanted to send a little thank you for letting me be part of camp again this year. I really had a great time. The service activities I went to this year really helped me grow in my faith and as a person as well. Seeing some of the things I saw this year made me feel so blessed to have such loving family and friends; and it really makes me want to continue to do so much service throughout the year.”

The young women served at the Waynesburg Soup Kitchen in St. Ann’s Parish, the Humane Society, Western Waynesburg Jesus Development, McDaniel’s Personal Care Home, several individual homes and the farm where we stayed. We stressed the need for each young person to try and visit various places to serve so that each would gain from a variety of experiences.

A special thank you is in order to the Spauldings and the Shelter Farm. I also would like to thank the Portiuncula Foundation and Sister Ann Bremmer for their grant monies which allows us to offer this camp each year for a reasonable amount so that poorer families can be offered scholarships.

While on his deathbed and in summation and in St. Francis’ own words he challenged his followers and he challenges each of us today, “Let us begin, for up to now, we have done nothing”.

2008 Group Picture of our Seventh Annual Service Camp for High-School Women

We would love to have you join us, please click here!http://www.sosfvocations.org/Pages/OtherRetreats.html

Peace and All Good,
Sister Kathy Adamski, OSF

Remain in me, as I remain in you

2009-05-13T14:09:00.006-04:00

A Reflection by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997),
Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of Charity

Something Beautiful for God

It is not possible to engage in the direct apostolate without being a soul of prayer. We must be aware of oneness with Christ as he was aware of oneness with the Father. Our activity is truly apostolic only in so far as we permit him to work in us and through us, with his power, with his desire, with his love. We must become holy, not because we want to feel holy, but because Christ must be able to live his life fully in us. We are to be all love, all faith, all purity, for the sake of the poor we serve. And once we have learned to seek God and his will, our contacts with the poor will become the means of great sanctity to ourselves and to others.

Love to pray - feel often during the day the need for prayer, and take trouble to pray, Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive him and keep him as your own.

Let us become genuine branches on Jesus' vine, branches that bear fruit. For this, let us welcome Jesus into our lives in the way it pleases him to come:
as Truth to be spoken,
as Life to be lived,
as Light to be lit,
as Love to be loved,
as Way to be followed,
as Joy to be given,
as Peace to be spread abroad,
as Sacrifice to be offered
amongst our families, friends, neighbors.

(copyright The Mother Teresa Committee, 1971)
From DGO

Four single women participate in mission trip to Hawaii

2009-05-01T15:09:00.009-04:00

The following was written by S. Kathy Adamski, Vocation Minister

“Mahalo, mahalo, mahalo” are the only words that come to mind when I think of our first Franciscans in Action (FIA) trip to Hawaii. From the moment I walked off the plane until the moment I returned to Pittsburgh, the sisters and lay staff were so kind and generous to
me.

Four single women participated in the mission trip. They came from Pittsburgh, Pa., San Diego, Calif., St. Mary of the Woods, Ind. and Honolulu, Hawaii. Since they all arrived by Friday, we had Saturday and part of the day Sunday to tour the island.

We toured Pearl Harbor, had lunch at Duke’s Restaurant in Waikiki and spent the afternoon snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We stayed at St. Clare Convent, Ewa Beach, before and after our FIA experience. S. Marie Jose Romano took the lead role in making sure our every need was fulfilled. S. Norise Kaiser patiently listened to the young women and seemed to enjoy them tremendously, and S. Davilyn Ah Chick came home to participate in the Emmaus Walk during the Come and See Retreat. I am most grateful to these sisters for their kindnesses to us.

After the swap meet on Sunday morning, we drove to Our Lady of Kea’au for our five-day experience of working with God’s poor. The women were very impressed with the retreat center. S. Beatrice Tom, S. Stephanie Ward and the staff welcomed us and served us pizza for supper. Stephanie was in charge of us during our stay, and she could not have been nicer.

All five of us stayed in Cabin One, and our major task for the week was painting Labyrinth stones on the property. Bea teamed us with Molly, the sister of our late S. Gretchen Gilroy; and, believe me, Molly was a God-send to me. She had so much patience with the women who are not professional painters and who like to talk even more than they like to paint! At any rate, we completed most of the Labyrinth, and it looked much nicer with a fresh coat of paint.

Each Wednesday, the staff of Our Lady of Kea’au brings lunch to the poor in a nearby park and at the bushes. S. Patricia Rapozo organized the distribution of food and was very patient with us. Two of the young women went to the bushes and three of us went to the park to distribute food. The people place as many orders as they need for their families. The menu for the day was stew, Jell-O, cake and water. Every person receiving the food was most grateful. Many parents had young children with them; each person managed to give us a little smile, and when I told the
young girls how pretty they were, dads and moms just beamed with joy. I will never forget those little children.

Each afternoon, the FIA participants had some quiet time to reflect and integrate the experiences of the day so that faith sharing could be done that evening. Each of us grew in our own way and the sharing was quite thought provoking.

In order to get to know the staff better, we decided to host two evening events. The first was a movie and popcorn night and the second was a sundae night. It was our small way of telling them how much we appreciated their hospitality.

It was hard to leave on Friday, but a stop to the Ko Olina resort on the way to St. Clare Convent was a perfect way to integrate the week! Marie had supper for us, and we enjoyed watching a DVD of the 125th anniversary of our sisters in Hawaii. On Saturday, Norise cooked a delicious chicken stew, and we went to Manoa to celebrate liturgy and have supper with the sisters at our regional house. The women loved our sisters and the sisters were so happy to have guests.

On Sunday, our final day on the island, we toured the North Shore, Dole Pineapple and
I think the entire East Coast. Monday came quickly, and the three women from the mainland traveled to the airport to return home.

I began this article with “mahalo, mahalo, mahalo,” and I end with “thank you, thank
you, thank you” to our sisters at Manoa and S. Francis Regis Hadano who always takes care of me, our sisters at St. Clare Convent and Sisters Bea, Pat and Stephanie as well as the staff at Our Lady of Kea’au. May our loving God continue to grace you with Easter joy!

Kathleen prepares for painting Labyrinth rocks

S. Kathy and Erin pause for a pic

Alice plays piano for Mass...such a talented woman!

Molakai'i from the air, we went to see where
Mother Marianne ministered for 3o years

En memoria de mí

2009-04-14T09:35:00.008-04:00

In remembrance of me

I attended a very special and wonderful celebration of the Lord’s Supper this past Holy Week. Sisters Eileen, Jean and I went to St. Margaret Mary Parish in South Bronx, New York. Some of our Associates in the Eastern Region belong to this parish and we wanted to come and celebrate the Eucharist with them. This is the former church of S. Eileen

We arrived at the church with many parishioners warmly greeting us and smiling to us, some of them speaking Spanish. We received many hugs! I was deeply touched by their gracious welcome and enthusiasm for welcoming all people to their place of worship.

Before going to the Mass, I was expecting your average Holy Thursday celebration of the Eucharist, but I felt a certain energy in the air, almost as if we going to celebrate Palm Sunday. With the sun just beginning to disappear into the horizon, we could hear the choir warming up, friends chatting before Mass outside of the sanctuary, and a wonderful energy about the whole church.

Mass began and our hymns were bilingual and trilingual, the congregation sang and spoke in English, Spanish and in an African language-Akan. Each of the three languages was spoken and interwoven throughout the entire Mass.
Enthusiastic drummers were drumming, keyboard was playing and guitar was sounding! A joyful noise was made to the Lord! To a packed church the twenty-member choir was jubilant in praise-their zeal was contagious.
It was wonderful to see many people from their various backgrounds and cultures come together and praise their God!

Scripture was proclaimed in all three languages. To me this was so beautiful-to see how God’s word is read and heard in each one’s native tongue. Following the homily, the presider washed the feet of twelve persons. The choir sang, “danos un corazón, grande para amar. Lord give us hearts that are great for loving.” We follow the example Jesus gave to us to wash the feet of one another.

When we all prayed the Our Father, Padre Nuestro, we joined and raised our hands and all simultaneously said the prayer in our native tongue and language. How beautiful was this! How we could feel the Spirit’s presence with us!

When it was time for the Eucharistic procession, the Akan-speaking choir lifted their voice once again in song inviting us to adore Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. The fragrance of incense filled the entire church.

It was a Holy Thursday Liturgy I will never forget:
the jubilant and passionate members of the congregation
the music
the singing and chanting
the diversity of language and culture
the incense
but most importantly I will remember the-
Love and praise given to our
Generous and Self-giving God!

Artist discerns with community

2009-03-31T13:11:00.009-04:00

Sculptor Amanda Klish, a dear friend of our Franciscan community, appeared recently on a show called Mohawk Valley Living.
It is a program that highlights local people.
Amanda, 26, lives in New York.

Check out the Youtube video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2igzf7LQM

Beautiful and amazing work Amanda!

We welcome an inquirer to our community!

2009-03-01T13:26:00.022-05:00

Our community is very blessed to have Kathleen Pangan discerning religious life with us. She shares her story below of visiting our sisters in Pennsylvania and New York.
May God Bless Kathleen in her discernment!
_____________________________

“She has a heart of gold,” one sister nodded with a smile to me as she described another sister, “and she is the nicest person you’ll ever meet.” That is how every sister describes every other sister in the community. And I think they really mean it. Every time I would hear one of those descriptions of another sister (and it happens often), I would shrink a little deeper into myself because I don't feel like anyone would ever describe me that way; and it’s hard to imagine anyone ever describing me that way… Even though all the sisters in this community I’ve met so far have been so welcoming and seemed happy at the prospect of my looking into this community, I felt pretty sad, a little sick, and a little panicked about what I’ve been doing – until my vocation director told me even St. Francis felt unworthy and emphasized on how his friars were minors and all else was major; and until I read about how these kinds of feelings are normal. Whew!

I’m 24 years old, was born and raised in sunny San Diego, California, and I’ve been discerning religious life for the past nine months; looking into different communities and visiting some of them. I feel that I am perhaps most called to this Neumann community; so after flying from California to the east coast last summer for a couple weeks to visit, I came back this winter for an extended stay and am scheduled to shadow a couple sisters.

For the past week and a half, I’ve been in Buffalo, N.Y., shadowing Sister Kim at Vive, Inc., a place where refugees from all over the world can go on their way to seeking asylum in Canada and the United States. With a master's in biology, and a bachelor's of science in biology (with a law minor), I thought I was well-educated. But the time spent in Vive taught me that I am really ignorant about what happens in the world, and that there is so much that I do not know and would like to learn. There were refugees from countries I had never heard of (I remember glancing over at someone’s passport and reading République de Djibouti, and I thought, Woah… what language do they speak there…??), and from countries I definitely had heard of but didn’t even know what problems were occurring there. We’ve heard about Tibet so much in the news, but it was a real eye-opener to find out about all the other kinds of people that would need to seek asylum in a different country: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. It was so sad to see people having to leave their homes because of land wars, wars over water sources, because someone in their family was a political target… One of the refugees that stood out in my mind was a man who was a brilliant nuclear physicist who had developed a way of making clean nuclear energy for his country, but his government wanted him to work on nuclear armaments instead. It seemed like there was an endless list of reasons people were there.

While the primary focus of my stay in Buffalo was to shadow Sister Kim and learn more about her ministry, I must say that I had a blast with the sisters that live in her house. They treated me like family from the moment I stepped into their home, and thinking about that house puts an automatic smile on my face. They are so funny and fun and made me feel so at home and comfortable. I was calling one of my friends back home and telling her some of the stories about my day and she told me, “How is it that you meet all the crazy, fun nuns?? I always met nuns that are prim and proper and kind of boring and just nice and strict!” I laughed because I think a lot of my friends couldn’t understand why I’d want to look into religious life because they think of sisters as a certain stereotype, and they don’t realize that sisters are really all human beings!

This past weekend, we drove over from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, Pa. to go to a talk for people in formation (the early years of religious life) and the people in their houses. It was a really interesting talk given by a brother about the "shadow self", or the part of the unconscious mind that every person has, that is our weaknesses and shortcomings that we don’t want to admit we have. Not only was the talk really intriguing, but being in a room with dozens of young men and women who were all getting into religious life made me feel, well, normal! Some seminarians from southern California found me and we talked about how we saw snow for the first time recently and how fun and new it was for us (but not so much for anyone else from this area!), and I felt especially normal! But not normal in a mundane, boring sort of way – normal in a sort of self-affirming kind of way.

I have to admit that I really miss that convent in Buffalo, and I felt a little bit sick when Sister Kathy (the vocation director) was driving me from Buffalo to Syracuse, N.Y., where I’m now shadowing Sister Caryn for the week. Maybe it was actually just car sickness, but I think it was mostly because I felt a real bond to the people I stayed with and wish I could have stayed there longer (or forever, haha!). After a week and a half, I fell in love with all the women there!

This week I’m shadowing Sister Caryn at Alverna Heights Nature Center. After getting my degrees in biology with an emphasis in ecology, I’ve been looking forward to this! Shadowing someone who worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 13 years, what more could I ask for?

Sister Caryn says she lives in a good house (which is what everyone seems to say about their house…), and everyone she lives with has been wonderful and hospitable to me. I’m looking forward to the rest of my extended stay!

-Kathleen Pangan

Photo- left to right: Sister Kimberly, Sister Pat, Sister Renee, Kathleen (me), Sister Christine enjoy one another's company at dinner!

My first retreat with the sisters...

2009-02-11T08:34:00.011-05:00

Jesus says, "Come and See!"

My very first retreat with the sisters was a “come and see” discernment retreat. I felt nervous about going and had a few anxieties wondering if I was really meant to go. I had been thinking about religious life for a few years, but never really started pursuing the options. But Jesus' formal invitation to "come and see" came in the form of a brochure advertising the retreat that was given to me from my parishes' young adult group facilitator. I thought to myself, "Well God, this must be YOUR sign to me!" So, with the Holy Spirit nudging me on, I went to the retreat.

Before I came to the retreat, I really didn’t know what a convent looked like inside and I didn’t know what to expect. But once I arrived and stepped through the door of the beautiful Mt. Alvernia Regional House in Millvale, Pennsylvania. I was greeted with many smiles. I saw several other young women who had also ‘taken the risk’ of responding to God’s call. During this retreat I had a chance to meet with S. Kathy and also the sisters living there. I was overwhelmed by their generosity and gracious spirit. The sisters made me and the other young women feel so at home. After spending some time with the sisters, I came to see that religious women are faithful members to their community, have a great love for one another, and like Francis, are advocates for the poor and marginalized and are promoters of peace and justice. The sisters bring the depth of God’s love to all that they minister to… and to me that is very inspiring. Through my continued discernment with them and getting to know the community better, I had grown in confidence that the Sisters of St. Francis was indeed a group of women that I wanted to become a part of.

After learning of their rich heritage, I so desired to work with them. Our community spans many regions within the United States, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Our sisters are also active in Africa and Peru. The sisters had inspired me to want to reach out even farther to those who seek God’s mercy and love.

“The love of God experienced through fraternity, shared prayer, daily living and service, becomes the means which enable us to continue to grow as persons and as a community.” This passage from our constitution resonates in each heart of the sisters. The sisters sincerely and joyfully strive to live the words of Francis and incarnate them in their witness to one another and to the world.
-S. Laura

As I was discerning...

2009-01-12T15:32:00.006-05:00

Reflections from S. Laura....

As I was discerning religious life with the Sisters of Saint Francis in Millvale, Pennsylvania, I was captured by the sisters’ love of all people, God and creation. Their passionate zeal in following in the footsteps of Jesus was very clear to me the first couple times I met them. Their passion and love for our brother, Jesus was an inspiration to me as they would minister to the people of God and to each other. I have been co-ministers with my sisters as we serve the poor, the lonely, the broken, and those who thought their life was hopeless. I have watched and witnessed first hand as they served those whom Francis and Christ would also serve and extend their love to. I began to the see the face of Jesus in the sisters.

I also wanted to be that person who brought hope to those who needed to see that hope does exist. The sisters in my congregation have such profound faith in God. They have deep respect for all people and I, too, so desired to help those who are in need of God’s mercy. God was working in and through these Franciscan women and I, too, wanted to offer humble service to those in need. It was a beautiful meditation for me to witness the love the sisters had for each other, and the ways that they would care for one another as a mother cares for her child. (ER 9:11)

My love for God runs so deep that I wanted to serve Him in ways that only God can enable me to do. I so desired to be an instrument of hope, peace and light to the poor in the world. I wanted to be a part of the Franciscan family. I have been so blessed to be a part of this faith-filled community!

More reflections to come...stay tuned!