SSpS USA Mission Magazine Spring 2015

Called by the Spirit ~ Embracing the World Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters Paraclete Province — USA and Caribbean 2015 Volume II

In This Issue Focus on Mission ‘Come and See’ (School in Ghana) Interconnected Across Continents Antigua’s Jubilee Year Prison Project Our Greatest Gift (HSMA) Happy 100th Sr. Adelmara

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Focus on Mission Dear Readers, As we approach the Church Feast of Pentecost which marks “the consummation of Paschal Mystery” (SSpS Con.405) and the gift of the Spirit to the Christian Community, Church, we, Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters hold our mission helpers and benefactors in special prayers. This feast gives us the opportunity to “Focus on Mission” in the light of Spirit’s love and guidance as we widen the circle of “communion” with God, with marginalized and excluded, with creation, and with one another.

The stained-glass windows of our chapel are constant reminders of the abundant blessings and gifts of grace lavished on us and the world by the Holy Spirit. Gifts which bear fruit in love, peace, joy, kindness, simplicity, patience, gentleness, fidelity, and single-heartedness, as we work together to build communion in the daily encounters of our lives.

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God’s love is meant to shine through all that we do and say! I invite you to take time during this Season of Easter and Pentecost to look into yourself and see! See what the stained-glass window of your life looks like.

As we journey in these days, let us grow in a deeper awareness of God’s abundant blessings and grace. Let us join hands with all those who are inspired by the same Spirit to promote a universal communion of friendship. Let us grow in a deeper awareness of our call to discipleship, to be a missionary, whose self-giving love shines forth an image of God in every breath of our spirit!

God graces us! God empowers us (you and me) to be life-givers, to be people of service, to be missionaries who proclaim God’s love to all we meet. We do this when we care for one another and bring love and compassion to a neighbor.

We are missionaries when we accept the reality of our daily life with patience and when we share life with joy. We are missionaries when we open our eyes and ears of understanding and listen to another; when we extend a healing touch to the elderly, the lonely, the sick and infirmed. We are missionaries when we sit quietly and pray for those imprisoned with anxieties and addictions; when we offer mercy and forgiveness to those who hurt us. We are missionaries when we daily witness, in word and action, God’s love for all of us!

All this reminds me of the story of a little boy who, when looking at the stained-glass windows in his church, explained to his mother: “Saints are those who let God’s light shine through them!”

My dear friends, may God’s love shine through you! May each of you, your families and friends be graced with the Spirit of God this Pentecost!

Sr. Mary Miller, SSpS 2

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‘Come and See’ n the Gospel of John 1:39, some of the most inviting and warming words of Jesus are “come and see!” See where I live, see the work that I am offering you to share in. Come and be a part of my life! This is what Jesus wanted to share with his disciples.

On January 7th, 2014, we began our ministry in Kukuom with a Nursery and Kindergarten, named School of the Holy Spirit. In listening to the needs of the people, we opened our “welcome doors” to 95 children, ages two, three, and four. It is a great help to the parents to accept children at such a young age. The people in our area are mostly farmers – cocoa and small cash crops.

In 2012, these same words were expressed to me by a man who wanted to help his rural town in Kukuom, Brong Ahafo. He said that his family was willing to offer us, the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, the use of their family house for a school for girls. This was our first invitation to an area of Ghana where we did not have any convent or ministry. Since, at that time, I was the Provincial Leader, I became interested in his offer.

We visited the town and saw the family home and listened to the story of how the Catholic Church was first brought to the area by his late father. As young boys, the sons had to walk through the bush paths for a long distance to meet the priest who was coming to stay and visit with the people for some days. This was the town where the Church grew, stretched its branches to other towns. Today, the Church has fourteen outstations cared for by two priests.

After a period of discernment, we went to the Bishop of the Diocese, Bishop Peter The Omanhene (The Chief of this area) and all K. Atuahene. He had heard his elders came to officially welcome us. of our preliminary visit to the town and was very open and welcoming. One of his remarks to us was: The children would either accompany their “Sisters, I have land, but I have no money to build parents to the farm for the whole day or be in the anything. If you can help me to build up the house under the care of an old grandmother or a Diocese, I would be most grateful.” I returned a young girl. Sending them to school is also few days later and he showed me two plots of beneficial to the children because it is a place land that he was willing to give us. We chose where they learn, receive love and care, and eat one which was closer to the town and that is one good meal each day. where we started our School of the Holy Spirit.

On completion of my term as Provincial Leader in Ghana, I accepted the challenge of administering this new school.

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Come and See cont’d It was always the Omanhene’s dream to have the Church build a school so that the girls, especially, can be educated and be able to advance in the academic world. He bemoaned the fact that young ladies in the area failed to go on for higher studies due to their poor academic records. He was happy to see the first beginnings of our school. In the future, our young girls will have a solid foundation and can then compete in higher levels of learning.

The parents spent a joyful day watching their children dance, recite rhymes, sing and play after only a few weeks in school.

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This is our land of “Come and See!” ...a place where we can experience the joy of beginning. Watching the children learn the alphabets and numerals; listening as their practice of English grows is such a pleasure! But, the greatest joy for the missionary is knowing that we are touching the lives of the children, the parents, and the community in which we live.

We are the only Sisters in the area and we share in the work of helping the Church grow!

We welcome you to join us in our ministry. Come as a volunteer, even if it is only for a short time.

Next year, we will add another class, First Grade! Each year we will add a grade until we have a complete Basic School, which includes Junior High School. We have a design for a new classroom block, but need help in funding the construction. Your generous assistance can help to build block by block.

In that way, you are a co-missionary in our land of Kukuom.

Sr. Mary Laureen Lahnan, SSpS from Girard, Pennsylvania and Missionary in Ghana for 44 years

The cactus is like the life of a missionary. We grow, extending our branches of life out to many people.

There is a time when the flowers will open and bloom, showing the greatness of our Creator to the world. It is not our work, but the work of the Lord.

We are only God’s branches and God makes the flowers grow!

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the religious Sisters or the name of the facility.

Only when the arrangements were settled did they ask for the name of the payee to be written on the check. What a surprising discovery –

n the past few years, our Congregation, Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, focused on “interconnectedness”, I frequently thought in terms of our spiritual connectedness, common goals, projects, and the exchange of members between countries and provinces of the Congregation.

However, one early afternoon phone call expanded my understanding of the concept.

Kathleen, from California, whose mother-in-law died recently in India, called wishing to send a money donation to India in memory of her mother-in-law. From this initial comment, a longer conversation developed which I would like to share with you.

When Kathleen’s mother-in-law (a Hindu by religion) became ill, far from her immediate family, Kathleen prayed to the Holy Spirit for guidance as to how she and her husband could assist their mother in India.

Initially, they purchased an apartment in Bangalore and frequently flew there to spend time with her.

Soon, they realized that their mother’s needs were growing more serious and the prayers to the Holy Spirit intensified!

Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit!

Only then did they realize that their prayers were answered in a tangible way!

As the conversation continued, Kathleen expressed her deep appreciation for the quality of care her mother-in-law received in Holy Spirit Home for the Aged, Bangalore, over the few years she lived there. She was most grateful, however, that at the death bed of her Hindu mother, a Holy Spirit Missionary Sister prayed and led her through the passage to new Life!

The Sister’s presence and prayer gave Kathleen much comfort and a sense of being close by means of prayer to the Holy Spirit.

Looking into the situation, they learned about and received high recommendations on a home for the aged administered by an order of Catholic religious Sisters. They visited the home and were impressed with the facility and the quality of care given the residents. Also, the Sisters were willing to make an exception and accept their mother immediately upon being discharged from the hospital. They never asked for the name of Photo top left courtesy icermediation.com 6

During her visits to the Home, Kathleen also learned about the other ministries of the Sisters in the Bangalore Community. She was amazed by the witness of goodness, compassion, empowerment, and transformation that flowed from the place and spilled out into the neighborhood; touching many children and teenagers in the school, the outcasts and street children -all, regardless of their religious faith tradition. Kathleen and her husband desired to participate in that stream of goodness! They invited their family members to memorialize their mother by supporting the charitable SSpS Sisters provide shelter and education for the “street” children. outreach of the Holy Spirit Missionaries in Bangalore, India. Their experience was transforming! They Laura is an alumna of the College of the Holy were inspired by the selfless outpouring of love Spirit in Manila. Laura’s good memories, and compassion witnessed by the Sisters’ gratitude for the education she received, and the dedication to the people among whom they lived faithful friendship with Sr. Pilar, a classmate, and and ministered! other SSpS Sisters were the underlying reasons for the decision to renounce a birthday party for Our phone conversation filled me with pride in my herself, and to benefit instead the Sisters in the fellow Sisters in India, for their dedicated service Philippines. In her words, “Let them have a good to the neediest people; for their witness of love, time!” I am sure Laura received many prayers of the gift of the Spirit and the presence of the Holy gratitude in return and may she have many more Spirit in their lives! Interconnectedness simply opportunities to celebrate! happens in such situations. How I desire that my life and activities, and those of all our Sisters in These, and similar instances of daily life, are the Techny Community, initiate similar conpriceless connecting blocks among different nections through the witness of our lives! generations and different nationalities of the Missionary Sisters, as well as among the people …The telephone rang! “Sister, this is a long the Sisters encounter in their ministries and each distance call. I am Laura. You don’t know me.” – of us as we continue to carry out the mission a determined voice resounded in the receiver. charism of our Congregation. We know we can The lady on the other end declared, to my stand tall on the shoulders of our predecessors disbelief given the strength of her voice, “I will who have shown us the way, and we are have my 90th birthday soon and instead of challenged to leave similar legacies to the next generations! throwing a big party for this occasion, I wish to donate some money for the retired Sisters in Sr. Dorota Maria Piechaczek, SSpS Quezon City, the Philippines.”

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Antigua’s Jubilee Year Prison Project

ur SSpS outreach to the inmates in Her Majesty’s Prison, St. Johns, Antigua was established in 2003 by Sr. Patricia Snider, SSpS. Since then, our programs evolved from weekly Bible Sharing to the ALPHA Program, a Christian Evangelization Program, and sessions on Lectio Divina. In 2013, I (Sr. AnnIta Walsh) offered the very well received “Houses of Healing Program”.

The aim of this Program, which is widely used in the USA, is to enable prisoners to grow in greater self-knowledge and to recognize their basic goodness, which in turn promotes inner healing.

Members of the Prison Ministry Team are (back) Pershing Waldron, Francis De Abreu; (front) Cecilia Davis, Mary Scotland and Sr. AnnIta Walsh, SSpS.

One very important aspect of the “Houses of Healing Program” is daily meditation, which the founder of this program calls the “backbone” of the course.

Taking time for prayer and silent meditation enables the person to become rooted in God and come to the inner calm and peace they need to process the wounds and hurts from the past. For this reason, the Prison Ministry Team -- Mary Scotland, Cecilia Davis, Frank De Abreu, Pershing Waldron, and me -- decided to invite Sr. Carol Welp, SSpS, an experienced instructor

of this method of prayer, to come to Antigua to conduct a course on Centering Prayer with the inmates. The course was very well attended and greatly appreciated by both the inmates and the Prison Ministry Team. Thank you Sr. Carol! We hope that you will come again.

Sr. AnnIta Walsh, SSpS

Centering Prayer in Her Majesty’s Prison in Antigua Twenty seven prisoners took part in a seminar on Centering Prayer in Her Majesty’s Prison in Antigua from January 7 through 13. The prisoners learned how to center themselves with God, who loves them and is always with them. In prayer, they surrendered to God’s presence and action within them.

They found that centering themselves helps them grow in relationship not only with their God, but also with themselves and others. It teaches them to respond to other people and life situations from a place of peace and wisdom within themselves.

The sessions were held in the prison chapel, which is a wooden building in the main yard of the prison courtyard, where there is always so much going on: eating, conversing, gatherings, washing, and so forth. So there was the challenge of becoming interiorly silent, while letting the sounds be just background music which they (the inmates) had let go of and pay no attention to. I (Sr. Carol) was amazed at the participants’ desire for God and their willingness to learn to let go of their thoughts and feelings to create an inner space just to be in God’s presence.

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Even in the short time of the seminar, some of them experienced that when they become quiet, raw feelings can emerge. They learned as they let these feelings go and returned to God’s presence and action within them, that the feelings no longer had such power over them.

The seminar also included an introduction to the “Welcome Prayer” which helps the participants to deal with their feelings as they arise in their daily life situations. They learned to focus on the feelings in the sense of really feeling what they are experiencing. For instance, if they are angry, how is it showing itself in their bodies? Is their heart beating faster, is their jaw tightening, and so forth? Then they are gentle with themselves and welcome the feeling. Paradoxically, this creates an atmosphere of hospitality which kind of disarms the feeling and removes its power over us. Then we can let the feeling go.

Some of the prisoners found this practice very helpful and healing. This is a true sign of their desire for integrity and a fuller life.

Some of the feedback given by the prisoners…  Meditating in this way helps me to relax and feel at peace. I believe this will help me with self-control.  Meditating opened up many feelings that were closed. This course brought me closer to God.  The sacred word which I chose for my meditation helps to bring me closer to myself.  I felt this method of prayer helps you to go to a place of refuge in times of trouble.  I recognized my feelings and could recognize myself as a being.  Learning that I am basically good helps me not to react to others because I could recognize that they too are basically good.  I realize that patience is important as it takes patience to stay in silence. The silence created a oneness among us.  I recognize that meditation can help to improve the quality of my life. It brings healing.

I am so grateful for this experience especially for the prayerfulness of the men who participated in this course.

Sr. Carol Welp, SSpS

Sr. Carol (far right) with members of the Prison Ministry Team.

Love is the great active and moving power in the world. ~Mother Leonarda Lentrup, Foundress of the SSpS American Province 9

Our Greatest Gift

W

ith Lent and Easter behind us, we are fast approaching the exciting season in which Jesus leaves us and gives us the most beautiful gift that we could receive, the Holy Spirit.

I think Pope Francis helps us to understand the concept a little better with a quote from his book, “Open Mind. Faithful Heart” (p. 259): The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son, promised and sent to the community that constantly devotes itself to prayer. To sin against the Holy Spirit means to sin against the gift of the Father and the Son…It means sinning against the infinite generosity of God’s love, revealed as a person. It means rejecting the need for the very love that enables us to exist; it means believing that we can obtain what we need by ourselves… .

Have you ever heard something that struck you so deeply you couldn’t completely grasp its meaning? That is the way I feel when I read the first part of our Mission Statement: We, Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters are an international, multi-cultural religious community rooted in Trinitarian Spirituality.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit we live and proclaim the gospel of God’s love, justice and peace.

When I read this, I realized that our mission statement isn’t about a sign or symbolism… It is about being a person who loves.

That is Trinitarian Spirituality. We need to show our love to all and for all of God’s people. When we watch the TV news, we often see anger, hatred, and a real lack of love in many people’s lives. Can we ask God to change those people’s hearts? Jesus was constantly working miracles, healing and forgiving. Maybe He can use us for that. Can we all accept this mission and try to change the world by our love?

I love the words, but somehow I could never completely grasp the concept of Trinitarian Spirituality.

We are familiar with the Trinity from the most common of rituals — the Sign of the Cross. We are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. With holy water at the doors of the church, we Sign ourselves. We begin most of our prayers with the Sign. So is this what Trinitarian Spirituality means?

Trinitarian Spirituality is about being loving and giving love to others. It is in giving that we receive. Now I understand more fully what Jesus was saying when he said, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 34-36) As Holy Spirit Missionary Associates, let us live out this Trinitarian Spirituality and become those loving disciples that Jesus talked about. We have to believe that He will use us, if only in one person’s life.

We hope to see those of you who live closeby at our Pentecost Day of Prayer on Saturday May 16th at 9:00 a.m.! Those at a distance, join us in prayer.

Sr. Patricia Snider, SSpS

Art by Sr. Agnes Paul, SSpS 10

Happy 100th Sr. Adelmara In late February, Sr. Adelmara Eisenmenger celebrated her 100th birthday with fellow Sisters, family and friends at the Convent of the Holy Spirit in Techny, IL. Born in Essen, Germany, Sr. Adelmara joined the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters when she was 20 years old. She began her ministry as an educator in Mississippi and Arkansas in 1944 – a ministry that would span nearly 40 years. She retired in 1991 and lives at the Convent.

Sr. Adelmara recently reflected on her fourdecade teaching ministry and centenarian status: I was very grateful for the opportunity to minister in the South. I wished for it while I was in training and wanted to work in the South with children who did not have the opportunities that other children in the country had. In those early years in the South, the education of African-American children was so neglected. They were ‘black’ children and ‘black’ people were put aside.

loved it. I just bounced to school every morning, happily. The school was a happy day every day! There were no ‘rainy days’, so to say, for me.

It was not uncommon for the ‘white’ people of the area to wonder why we were teaching the ‘black’ people. We were Missionary Sisters… for that reason, we came to give the children the education they needed to succeed in life.

The local ‘white’ teachers, who were not Religious Sisters, would not go to ‘black’ schools. There was no money and no prestige… ‘black’ people were not important! It was very sad at that time.

At the end of the school year, I asked the children to write down what they remembered most and many of them said, ‘You were strict but you loved us and we learned.’ I was so grateful because I always wondered what they really learned from what I was teaching. In later years, they came back to thank me.

On turning 100, Sr. Adelmara comments, “I am grateful to God for the gift He gave me, since I’m still well and can enjoy old age.” Looking back, would Sr. Adelmara change anything about her life? “No. Indeed not,” Sister says. “Everything is just right.”

Our ‘black’ Catholic schools in Mississippi and Arkansas had excellent reputations.

The parents wanted to send their children to our schools. We didn’t have enough teachers and often the class size was more than 50 children to a classroom. That was a challenge, but I

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The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters are an international community of 3,200 Catholic religious women serving in 49 countries. Missionary activities include pastoral work and catechesis, education, nursing and health care, social work, adult education, and many other services to promote human dignity.

SSpS Mission Magazine is published quarterly by: Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters ~ 319 Waukegan Road, Northfield, IL 60093 www.ssps-usa.org ~ (847) 441-0126 Editorial Staff: Sr. Mary Miller, SSpS ~ Colette Healey, Communications Specialist 12