Spring 2010 - SSpS Mission Magazine

Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters SSpS Mission Spring 2010

Called by the Spirit ~ Embracing the World IN THIS ISSUE: Experience of a lay missionary in the USA Our jubilarians Story from Mozambique News Notes

IF E L E IS TH ION! S U IO SS PREC FOR MI N G IV E

See pages 4 and 5

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IT WAS GOOD TO BE TOGETHER Experience of a “Missionary for a Time” (MaZ) in the USA Translated by Sr. Maria Fischer from Geist und Auftrag newspaper.

Teresa Braum from Markdorf, Germany, spent nearly a year as a Missionary for a Time in Waukegan, a suburb of Chicago. As a volunteer she worked in the hospital and in the youth movement of two parishes. Sr. Gabriele interviewed her after she returned to her home country.

After Holy Mass we meet again for breakfast in community and then depart for our individual work. Only at night we come together again for Vespers and Dinner (evening meal), for which we take turns to prepare. Living together with different cultures and generations I found very enriching.

Sr. G.: What kind of work were you given?

Sr. G.: Teresa, how did this happen that you went to the USA? T.: The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters founded, many T.: Already during the last years of High School I de- years ago, a hospital in Waukegan which however, cided to go to a foreign country for a year. My great was transferred to other owners. There I worked in aunt, a Dominican Sister mentioned to me the Maz- the morning as a volunteer. In most of the hospitals Program of the Missionary Sisters in Steyl. (Missionary here there is a group of volunteers who are supposed for a time). It was exactly what I had in mind and for to make the health system more humane. Right at the what I was looking: A year in another country and at beginning I was to help in the cardiac department, the same time I could be involved in a social- which meant that I was on call for any patient or visicharitable ministry. When I was again in Steyl during tor who needed something. I distributed food and the Easter Week of 2007, Sr. Bettina asked me what I drinks, took visitors to the patients and supported would think about going for a year to the USA. First I the nurses at their duties. After two months I was was surprised because I had been thinking about a changed to the ambulance and emergency admission, less developed country. Besides, my picture of the where I stayed till the end. My duties were to help USA was somewhat negative, like a fixed idea of “Fast the patients to orientate them at the nurses stations, Food”, Hollywood etc. But the more I thought about it to help them in changing their clothing before an opthat “Missionary for a time” meant to go where one eration and during the time of waiting just to be was sent, it became clear to me that this might be a there for them. During the time at the hospital it seemed that most of all I was asked to listen to the great chance for me.

Sr. G.: What did the community in which you lived look like?

T.: My place was in Waukegan, a suburb of Chicago on Lake Michigan. In this community there were three Sisters. All of them were new in Waukegan. The leader of this community was Sr. Xaveriana Ngene, who is from Indonesia and had been in the Caribbean. Sister Helen Marie, in her 80’s, takes care of “Meals on Wheels” for the needy. She had spent many years as a nurse in Ghana, West Africa. Sister Gladys Smith is from Argentina. She is active in the Spanishspeaking parish where she is responsible for the religion classes. Our day begins at 6:30 a.m. with Morning Prayer, followed by the celebration of the Eucharist in a parish.

Teresa playing with neighborhood children.

In the background Sr. Helen Marie Yockel.

SSpS Mission Magazine needs and troubles of the patients and visitors. In the hospital we dealt with many difficult situations. It was a daily occurrence that victims of shootings and fights were admitted. Admitted also were the Police they were fighting with. During the winter months many homeless people were admitted with frozen toes that needed amputations. Ambulances came with people who had died already. I had to get used to those things.

Sr G.: You mentioned that you had changed your prejudices.

T.: In the USA everybody calls everyone “YOU” and by the first name. And yet, everyone knows who you are and with whom you are speaking. This creates a different atmosphere. I have experienced that people show real interest in each other. Doctors greet even the cleaning women with “How are you?” and wait for the answer. They are not simply passing each other, as if they didn’t see you. People are regarded as persons, more than by what they do. Likewise the teamwork here impressed me.

Sr. G.: What else did you do?

T.: The house where the Sisters live is close to two parishes which could not be more different. Holy Family is mostly for the Latin-American parishioners who speak mainly Spanish, therefore 2/3 of the services were not in English. In this parish I assisted in the Youth Group, with their home work and free time programs. About 2 pm the children were picked up and taken by bus to the parish complex where a small Sr. Helen Marie Yockel and Teresa with children.

Page 3 Lunch was offered, followed by supervised home work. Beside this there were other free time activities offered, either in sport or other creative work, as also classes in cooking and healthy nourishment.

About 6:00 pm the children are picked up by their parents. These youth groups are for the parents an important arrangement because mostly both of the parents are working to support the family. The children are clearly well taken care of with the Sisters.

During the summer vacation, which is three months long in the USA, we had a ten-week camp for the youth, which likewise was arranged by the parish.

Besides excursions to a farm for instance, there were other options, like a Fairy-tale group that I helped to prepare. During the whole year there were meeting places for the youth with varying projects.

Sr. G.: How did those meetings turn out?

T.: About 80 of the youth between 13-18 years belong partly to several gangs who fight each other outside the parish. The Church is for them a secure and violence-free place. Those meeting are orientated toward these realities. Because many of them were already in trouble with the law, we organized a talk by a States-attorney who let them know the consequences. One experience described this quite vividly to me. When I came back from a drive to the soup kitchen where we had delivered some supplies, I asked the young man in the car if he knew this area.

He answered, “Certainly, at this corner I was once cut down, up there my brother was shot and then again over there shortly before the church…” It became clear to me how dangerous the every day life is for the youth. Our meetings had therefore always the theme of how to mange conflicts in addition to religious themes. Besides this we also had other projects, for instance carwashing to earn some money or prepare some Christmas packages for families still more in need.

Sr. G.: What did you learn during this time?

T.: Foremost for me were the practical experiences in the hospital and in the two parishes; personal meetings with the people; living with the Sisters. Especially impressed was I of the fact how alive the Church is in the USA. My time in the USA inspired me in the election of my further studies of teaching English and Religion.

Thank you for your conversation.

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GOLDEN JUBILARIANS 50 years of missionary service Judith Vallimont, SSpS came to join the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters from Erie, Pennsylvania where she was a faithful member of St. Boniface Parish. She taught school in many states, was a grade school principal and eventually became a teacher at Loyola Marymount University in California. An accomplished organist, through the years, she also served in that capacity in schools and parishes where she was living. Upon returning to the Archdiocese of Chicago, she worked at the Center for Development in Ministry. In 2008, while holding the office of U. S. Provincial, she was elected to the Congregational Leadership Team in Rome, Italy where she now resides.

“We are missionary sisters, and the vocation of

a missionary sister is to sacrifice herself for the greater glory of God and the salvation of immortal souls” - Blessed Maria Helena Stollenwerk, SSpS

Priscilla Burke, SSpS was born and raised in Franklin Park, Illinois and was a member of St. Gertrude Parish.

After attending college for three years, she joined the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters. For a number of years, she served as a teacher, high school counselor and principal in several states, and also served in various leadership positions within the community, including Local Leader, Province Council Member, Assistant Provincial and Provincial. She currently resides in the Techny convent and is serving as Provincial Treasurer, a post she has held for fifteen years.

“I desire nothing more than with the grace of

God to be the least and to sacrifice myself for the work of evangelization” - Blessed Josepha Stennmans, SSpS

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DIAMOND JUBILARIANS

60

years of missionary service

Maria Elisabeth Klodt, SSpS grew up in Recklinghausen, Westfalen, Germany. She joined the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters at our Motherhouse in Steyl, Holland. After professing her vows she received an appointment to join the Paraclete Province of the United States. While here she worked on completing her education and also taught school in Greenville, Mississippi. Upon completing her education she became supervisor of pharmacy at St. Therese Hospital in Waukegan. She is now in New York where she has been missioned to serve the community and is in pastoral and social ministries.

Mary Pardy, SSpS joined the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters from Madison, South Dakota where she attended St. Thomas Aquinas Church. Through the years she has taught school in many places in Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Illinois. She taught from primary school right through university level and served as local leader and province council member at the convent in Techny. Currently, she is semiretired, but also teaches ESL (English as a Second Language) students, helping them especially with pronunciation.

BLUE SAPPHIRE ANNIVERSARY 65 years of missionary service Mary Jane Lusson, SSpS originally from St. Paul, Minnesota was raised in Blue Island, Illinois. She entered the community in 1942.

After professing final vows she received a mission appointment to Papua New Guinea where she ministered for twenty three years.

Upon returning to the U.S., she was missioned to the convent in Techny, Illinois and served as a driver for the sisters, a justice and peace volunteer, worked in the communications office, was a hospice volunteer and provided social work in Hispanic ministry in Waukegan, Illinois. She now resides in Maria Hall at the convent where she visits with the retired and infirm sisters and assists the nursing staff.

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LIFE CONTINUES‌..

Laura was a woman who was taken as a hostage during the war in Mozambique when she was still a teenage girl. She was growing up in fear without any moral boundaries. She had to cook and also give her body to all those who wanted to use her. She did not have her own place to stay so she was running from place to place looking for a better future.

Laura did not forget her own native language and the place she came from and after the terrible war she came to her own family and friends and to what was familiar to her.

However, she brought with her old habits from the time she spent with the rebelious army. Just as she used to she was going from man to man this time for money and she did not see anything wrong with that. On the contrary she was proud of herself for always having someone and money that allowed her to dress up better than people around her. She was able to buy herself good food and was never living in poverty. Time was passing but Laura never married. She had four children, two sons and two daughters of whom each one had a different father. Each child knew who was his/her father and had father’s last name but they did not have much contact with their father. Like their mom, her children also thought it was something normal to have different fathers. When her youngest daughter was four years old Laura got sick for the first time. She was always going to see a sorcerer who eventually helped her to get a bit better. After a short time her sickness reappeared and she lost her strength. Thus, she began selling things from the house, even those things that she received from the sisters, to pay for her visits to the sorcerer. The children were growing up in poverty and hard work in the fields to survive.

Laura did not believe in her own sickness nor in the power of medications. For her and for the people in the area it was simply a spell that someone cast on her. In that case people have to find the one who is guilty of the spell to cure her of it.

This was not an easy task. For three years Laura was fighting with her beliefs and her sickness. Help was waiting at her door but she never opened it to let it in. The ancestors’ beliefs were much stronger than anything else. Her teenage son, seeing his sick and helpless mother, found a solution in starting his own family with a 15 year old girl. Laura had only one wish to see and take in her arms her first grandchild from her daughter Luiza. This wish was not granted to her. Her daughter Luiza was promised by her mother to her former boyfriend in exchange for his help during her sickness.That man already had his own quite large family. Laura died during the initiation ceremony of her daughter Luiza. When that

celebration ended Luiza became a woman. It was at that time the former boyfriend of her mother came to take what was promised earlier to him. Her sad eyes told the drama she had to go through to have a better life style in the arms of an old man who could be her grandfather. Luiza finished third grade at that time and instantly passed from childhood to adulthood. She took with her, her younger siblings and became mother to them and to her own child. And life continues.....

This sad story depicts the truth of the need for education especially for girls and women. We, Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, are able to help some of them in their needs. However, there is a great need for more help which requires a lot of financial support and also personnel. We need to ask the Lord to send us young people who are generous to give of themselves. Thank you all of those who share bread and faith with those who do not have enough.

May the Lord be your reward through His suffering and the power of His resurrection!

With prayer, Sr. Rozalia Paliczka SSpS, Holy Spirit Missionary Sister

Picture: Sr. Rozalia with a child in Mozambique

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News Notes On April 25, Srs. Priscilla Burke and Judith Vallimont celebrated their Golden Jubilees, 50 years of mission work for the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters.

May 21 and 22, Province Days will take place with a recollection by Fr. Michael Crosby. The theme of the Province Days is: THE WAY OF COMPASSION IN COMMUNITY AND MISSION. May 30, Sr. Mary Jane Lusson will celebrate 65 years as a Holy Spirit Missionary Sister, and Srs. Mary Pardy and Maria Elisabeth Klodt will celebrate their Diamond Jubilees, 60 years as Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters.

June 4-14, the first of two Summer Bible Projects will take place in Mississippi and July 2-12, the second will take place in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

July 17, the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters will celebrate Jubilees jointly with the Fathers and Brothers of Divine Word Missionaries. This year it will take place at the Holy Spirit Convent.

SSpS Mission Magazine is published quarterly by the

Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters Our web site: www.ssps-usa.org

Our phone: (847) 441-0126

Editor: Sr. Elwira Dziuk, SSpS

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