VOLUME XIII, NO. 2
NOVEMBER 2007
Prayer, action carry on spirit of Saint Angela LEFT: Associates John and Bernadette Howard of Owensboro attend a virtual poverty immersion August 17-18 at Maple Mount. Associate Judy Gray and Sister Maureen Griner led the workshop. Associate Louise Leasor of Henderson also came.
World’s need for justice takes many forms
T
By Marian Bennett, OSUA
he Ursuline Sisters’ goal of “addressing poverty of body, mind and spirit, especially in women and children,” assumed human faces this summer through a series of three immersion experiences in Memphis, Louisville and Maple Mount. These were designed to graphically illustrate the breadth and reality of poverty. At Mount Saint Joseph, Associate Judy Gray presented facts and ideas, including: • There are about 1.2 million children who are homeless on any given night in the U.S. • Poverty is the biggest political blind spot and moral failure in the United States. • So many have too little, while many have too much. Associates Sisters Ann Middlebrooks and Ann Touchet, SEC, attended the Memphis event. Attendees toured both Hope House, a preschool for HIV positive children, and Dorothy Day House, an emergency lodging facility for homeless families. Participants said: • Hope House is a ministry living the gospel. • Dorothy Day House is breaking the homeless cycle, one family at a time. • Educational and emotionally moving experience... enabled me to see how my work can sensitize others to a part of the real world we often simply overlook. • This experience changed my life. In Louisville, Sister Grace Simpson accompanied a group to several locations, including Sister Visitor Center and the Healing Place. Attendee Sister Maureen O’Neill said, “This upsets my comfort zone, but in a good way, because it moves me to action.”
LEFT: Sister Ann Middlebrooks, SEC, with Jakeylah at the Dorothy Day House in Memphis. An associate from Shreveport, Louisiana, Sister Ann attended the poverty immersion in Memphis. RIGHT: Associate Sister Jeannette Touchet, SEC, and Sister Carol Shively, both from Shreveport, tour the Hope House Daycare Center during the Memphis poverty immersion August 31-September 1.
ABOVE: Associate Judy Gray holds Jakeylah at the immersion. Judy is co-director of the Dorothy Day House.
RIGHT: Training facilitator Martha Crabtree, right, hands paperwork to Associate Mary Hartz at the St. Benedict homeless shelter in Owensboro October 20. Mary signed up to be a shelter companion and to help with food preparation.
Sister Maureen Griner, who initiated the immersions, said, “This is just the beginning of an exploration to see what isn’t happening, especially in the places where we serve.” Additional immersion experiences are planned for rural Grayson County and other areas in 2008-2009. Immersions are just one way Ursuline sisters and associates serve through empowerment and contemplative presence to bring justice in the spirit of Saint Angela. Other places where Ursuline associates minister include: • St. Benedict Joseph Emergency Homeless Shelter in Owensboro, open during the winter • St. Joseph Church in Central City food pantry • Holy Name Church in Henderson baby closet • Associate Father Tony Shonis’ ministry for Hispanic families at Ellis Park racetrack during the summer • Sister Visitor Center, an emergency assistance and advocacy office in Louisville • The world’s poorest diocese: Mandeville, Jamaica Continued on page 5