March - SSpS Bulletin

March 2010, Vol. XXX, No. 3

Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters Convent of the Holy Spirit – Techny, Illinois 60082-6026

M

ary Magdalene saw the Lord and her whole being was alive as a witness to the Risen Lord, a bearer of the Good News of Resurrection.

Resurrection is the ultimate victory of Life, Life to the full for Jesus and the whole human family. Resurrection is a triumph over all that separated us from God and from one another. It marks the outpouring of Jesus’ Spirit of Life on all of creation. Resurrection is the source and assurance for all Hope and Life. What our world needs is witnesses, like Mary Magdalene, to this hope and life gifted us in Jesus’ Resurrection.

We have seen the Risen Lord….and? What is our Mary Magdalene shouted witness? Do our hearts, our words, our lives sparkle with her Life and words, and glow with a witness of Life for all, to Commun"I have seen the Lord". ion and Hope? If we really meet the Lord, we like Mary Magdalene will be filled with his presence and Blessed Easter to all! the certainty of his love and our lives will be a sharing May our Lives witness of this presence and love. We will be women “who the Life and Hope bring forth and nurture life in joy and in pain.” (13th of Resurrection!

General Chapter) Sharing the love we receive, we will see that whatever and whoever is loved grows, blooms and bears fruit. Life comes from Love. Jesus’ Resurrection is a victory of Life and as his witnesses this victory glows in our hearts and flows through our thoughts and actions. Jesus is Risen from the dead and so are we!!

Sr. Carol Welp

Building Bridges My name is Eva Weisser. I am a lay missionary from Germany who desires to carry out my baptismal commitment in ministry here in the U.S. with the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters.

It has already been two months since I came to live and share my life with the great and loving community in Waukegan. Every day I am more impressed by the fact that four different nationalities and three generations live in such peaceful and joyful harmony under one roof. It is amazing to experience the wonderful welcome that I received when I arrived in the Waukegan Community. I can really feel the Holy Spirit working in my new home. I work in very different ministries, such as a food pantry, soup kitchen and in the Academy of Our Lady elementary school. These different workplaces give me the opportunity to understand and to share the needs, problems, hopes, and social issues of the people in Waukegan. The challenge to build a bridge from our comfortable way of living to people in need can often be accomplished just by a smile, a little attention that shows you recognize them as fellow human beings.

I am grateful for every moment in school when I can teach the seventh grade teenagers religion. I feel they understand a little bit better the meaning of being loved and carried by God and those concerned about them. To be able to help the second graders in reading, to encourage them in their abilities and skills and to see their progress every week, makes me feel that I am in the right place. The food pantry is kind of a melting pot where you can really feel the Spirit working to bring people together who would normally stay in their own small corner.

Volunteers and clients are a good mix of people and to deal with this diversity and the different needs presents a great oppurtunity to grow. It is not only important to meet the needs of the

people coming to our food pantry, but it is also important to develop good and honest relationships with them.

All in all, since I have arrived in the U.S., my thinking has been broadened and I have had many opportunities for spiritual growth.

From left: Sr. Stela Maris Martins, Sr. Yuliana Meno, Eva Weisser (MaZ volunteer), Sr. Helen Marie Yockel, Sr. Xaveriena Ngene.

Vocation News From March 4-7, Sr. Elwira Dziuk was in St. Charles, Illinois for the “Here I Am Lord” Youth Conference. She was able to meet about 2,000 young people.

Middle school and high school students were in attendance from St. Patrick’s Parish in St. Charles. Talks on social justice were presented and a comment heard afterward from one attendee was that she now has a better understanding of why Religious work for social justice.

Sr. Dinah Marie Aguirre traveled to the Lafayette, Louisiana area where she was welcomed at three SVD parishes.

She spent her time there speaking to students and parishioners about various aspects of religious life and allowed time for a question and answer period.

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U.S. Province Welcomes Sisters

Sr. Gladys Mabel Smith has returned from Argentina to the U.S. Province this month to begin her new mission assignment. Welcome back, Sr. Gladys!

Sr. Margaret Kissani joins us from Papua New Guinea. She will visit in Techny for awhile and meet the other U.S. Province Sisters before going on to her mission in St. Kitts. Welcome, Sr. Margaret!

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring. ~ Bern Williams

Ongoing Formation On March 8, Sr. Agathe Bramkamp attended a talk give by Prof. Diane Bergant, CSA of CTU entitled Mission in a Global Context. Sr. Agathe comments: From the title one would think this is a talk about mission across all borders, in a world of globalized and globalizing culture and commerce, information and technology, etc., but the lecturer took another view: Mission in the context of the new cosmology. All things belong and are interconnected. There are no actions, no events, no decisions that are isolated, unrelated or in a vacuum. Mission for all those who believe in God as the source of all creation is to take responsibility in all matters and always for life around us. It might be in social action, in planting a garden, in simplifying our life (paring down our so called needs), in living counter-culturally, as our culture promotes consuming, using and throwing away, seeking power and happiness in possessions and money. As believers and as religious, we must be a prophetic sign, pointing toward God, the creator and sanctifier.

Not adapting to the culture and blending into it, but living counter-culturally, liminally, is a prophetic sign, and that is the mission.

On Saturday, February 27, Srs. Anita Marie Gutierrez, Uloma Akpa and Agathe Bramkamp attended an all day workshop entitled Tools for the Journey, presented by Transformations: The Institute for Psychological and Spiritual Development. The day offered a selection of 3 of 12 available presentations, such as: Listening a Healthy Balm, What Is Your Spiritual IQ?, Recovering Your Intuitive Genius, Life In Motion, The Biology of Spirituality. The 150+ women participants were offered some very practical processes/tools that enable a healthy and nurturing approach to the body, mind and spirit.

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June 12 - Archdiocesan Celebration for the Jubilarians June 26 - Feast of Mother Leonarda Sr. Rose Martin Glenn on Saturday March July 2-12 - Second Summer Bible program 13 attended a workshop at St. Joseph in Fort Wayne. Indiana Parish for parish leaders from the three SVD par- July 17 - Joint Jubilee celebrated at the ishes in Memphis. This 2010 National WorkConvent shop Series was entitled "Connecting Catholic July 18-24 - Retreat in Techny Families with the Bible." It was sponsored by the July 25 - Heavenly Gathering with Fox Meadow neighbors Chicago SVD Province and led by, Mr. Leif Kehrwald, from the Center for Ministry Devel- August 8-13 - COW program in Techny opment in Oregon. This pilot project was well Towers. received with exhibited enthusiasm by the leaders of the three parishes, St. Joseph (African For your prayerful remembrance American and Hispanic), Sacred Heart (Vietnamese-, Anglo-, African- and HispanicDorothy Sheehy, sister of Sr. Marie Americans) and St. John (African-American, Sheehy, who died on March 5 at 94 years. She suffered a stroke on February 27 with Polish and Korean parish leaders), truly and did not regain consciousness. representing the world community.

News from Memphis

During lent Sr. Monica Darrichon and Fr. Carlos Paniagua-Monroy, SVD, co–chaired “Reflections on the Exodus” on Sunday evenings at St. Joseph’s Parish in Memphis. The parishioners found this very positive and asked them to continue during the year with reflections on other topics.

Important Dates April 25 - Golden Jubilee celebrated in Techny for Srs. Priscilla Burke and Judy Vallimont May 21 and 22 - Province Days with a recollection given by Fr. Michael Crosby May 23 - Pentecost May 24 - Local Leaders Seminar (We would like as many as possible to be present for the Province Days and all Local Leaders are asked to be present. Part of the Local Leader's Seminar will be based on the recollection of Fr. Crosby.)

May 30 - Trinity Sunday and Diamond Jubilee celebrated in Techny for Sr. Maria Elisabeth Klodt, Sr. Mary Jane Lusson and Sr. Mary Pardy June 4-14 - First Summer Bible project in Greenville and Indianola, Mississippi

Bernie Kuhl, brother of Sr. Dolores Marie Kuhl, who died on March 5. He had been suffering from skin cancer when his heart gave out.

Sr. Sienna Ressel, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is having nuclear imaging testing. She will have an operation for her breast cancer on April 15.

Sr. Maria Burke, who is home from the hospital and doing much better. She has moved to the second floor in the Convent.

Sr. Pat Snider, who is not able to return to Antigua as expected this month. Her bones have healed, but are slightly displaced. This causes rubbing against her tendons and muscles resulting in swelling. She will be having surgery on April 8.

Sr. Maria Antonia Rademacher, who is back home from Abington, but receives continuous oxygen.

Sr. Agathilda Fahrland, who has been admitted to the hospital.

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Public Policy Training Sr. Rose Therese Nolta participated in the Interfaith Worker Justice public policy training workshop March 14-16 in Chicago. Three main issues were taken up: jobs, wage theft and immigration. Monday focused on skills training in advocacy and Tuesday dealt with areas of public policy, with topics such as Building Strong Religion-Labor Partnerships, Multi-Racial Alliance Building and Effective Public Policy Tactics.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days This year the Ecumenical Advocacy Days took place on March 19-22 in Washington, DC and had the theme, “A Place to Call Home: Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Peoples.” Jesus had no place to lay his head. Neither do tens of millions of migrants, refugees and displaced persons. Sr. Dinah Marie and Sr. Rose Therese took part in this historic weekend addressing this global injustice.

event was one of the largest gatherings of immigrant rights supporters in United States history. In advance of the march, President Obama pledged to do everything in his power to forge a bipartisan consensus on immigration reform this year.

Reform can’t come too soon. Each day without immigration reform, families are torn apart by broken laws. Each day without reform, immigrants are detained and thrown into a system that fails to protect their due process rights. Each day without reform, greedy companies and employers exploit those struggling for work. And each day without reform, scores of U.S. citizens cannot help the partners they love become legal residents.

The March for America is a reminder that our collective heritage is a nation of immigrants.

We’ve lost that vision of America to bigotry and narrow, short-term self interest. But this year we have the chance to return to our historic roots.

On Sunday, March 21, participants took part in the March for Immigration at the National Mall.

They were old and young, Asian, AfricanAmerican, Latino and Caucasian. All were asking for immigration reform and economic justice. Called the March for America, this

The last part of our advocacy for immigration was to lobby for a comprehensive immigration reform, for the Jubilee Act and support for refugee funding for FY2011. Sr. Dinah Marie and I met the legislative assistant of Representative Mark Kirk during our lobby visit on Monday morning.

Sr. Rose Therese Nolta 5

March 2010

JPIC SSpS USA NGO Global Women’s Forum: Beijing +15 / CSW 54 Beijing +15 In 1985, an essential transformation took place in the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. It was the recognition that “women’s rights are human rights” and that the entire structure of our society and the relations between men and women had to be re-evaluated. The Beijing Conference adopted the Beijing Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) which is an agenda that covers twelve critical areas of concern and need to be considered to achieve women’s empowerment.

These areas are women and poverty, education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women in armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment and the girl child.

In 2010, fifteen years later, representatives of the Member States and NGOs gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the 54th session of the commission on Status of Women (CSW 54). The focus of this session was to review the BPfA and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly which was held in 2000. Emphasis was placed on sharing experiences and good practices, with a view to overcoming remaining obstacles and new challenges that have been an impediment to women’s empowerment, including those related to the Millennium Development Goals. At the same time, many parallel events organized by NGOs presented different realities, challenges that women have faced, as well actions that have empowered women and girls around the world.

Before the CWS 54, the NGO Committee on the Status of Women in new York organized the NGO Global Women’s Forum to discuss the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Forum took place on February 27 and 28 and more than 1400 people from different countries attended it, including those from the Middle East even though it was hard for them to get out of the country.

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The program included two full conference days beginning with an opening ceremony, and continuing with plenary sessions, panel discussions, and workshops.

Both the NGO Global Women’s Forum and the CSW 54th Session, as well as many parallel events, were opportunities that helped us to become more conscious about the rights, achievements, and expectations of women. All discussions were a call to the global community to take action and work for laws, reforms, and necessary social changes “to ensure that women and girls everywhere have the opportunities they deserve to fulfill their own Godgiven potentials and contribute fully to the progress and prosperity of the society.”

During the CSW 54, we each attended different events. We decided this was a better way to get different perspectives about reports from governments and NGOs. Sometimes, there were significant differences about the presentations.

NGOs, usually, are much more in direct contact with the struggles that women face in their daily lives.

What we have learned is that women worldwide are working hard to advance their status, and that it has been proven that transformation happens easier when people work by networking. Many good things have been done. In general, women have had more access to education; more women hold jobs and serve in public office and this has generated economic independence for them; there is more participation in positions of power, for example, the number of women in parliament has increased significantly.

On the other hand, there are many challenges that still remain and challenges that have arisen. Poverty, violence, the recent economic and financial crises, climate change, no participation in decision-making, and HIV are some realities that have had a negative impact on women’s lives. Another important point is that there are several laws that guarantee rights for women in different countries, however in many cases, these laws haven’t been implemented.

Certainly, these events opened our eyes and hearts wider to see and feel the pain and struggle that women and girls are facing every day. We learned much in how to respect the dignity of self and others and how small actions, but necessary actions, can transform the world.

We would like to conclude by sharing some words of Hillary Clinton who in her presentation on the last day of the CSW 54 gave all women a highly important invitation. It is as follows: “Let us intensify our efforts because it is both the right thing to do and it is the smart thing as well. We must declare with one voice that women’s progress is human progress, and human progress is women’s progress once and for all.”

Sr. Edel Deong and Sr. Stela Martins

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