Thankful for Christmas Blessings!

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Well, here it is the day after Christmas. It's rainy and it seems to have washed away most of the snow. It's amazing how fast 15 inches of snow can disappear! We had a lovely Christmas. Sr. Mary and I went to Mass Christmas Eve evening at the motherhouse--beautiful as usual. After Mass every went to the Blessing Room for refreshments and the food services staff had once again outdone themselves. My friend, Sr. Marie Therese, came home with us to spend the week at our convent. We all had morning prayer together Christmas morning and then Srs. Marcus and Anita left to visit with family. Mary cooked the turkey and I took care of potatoes, stuffing, and vegetables. Therese served as a great washer-upper. It's always helpful to have someone on hand to keep that going. We had two other sisters join us for dinner--Mary and Katie. They will be spending the weekend with us. Dinner was delicious and leisurely. We just sat and talked and told stories of some of our early experiences in the congregation--a lot funnier now than when they actually happened!

Today was a really lazy day. I slept late, watched a movie, read--and then fell asleep in the chair for about an hour this afternoon! Our offices are closed this coming week so it promises to be a relaxing week. I plan to read a lot! Two of my friends are coming up from Wilmington one day and Therese and I will be going out to lunch with them. I have a meeting at the house for trafficked women where I volunteer another day. My biggest hope, however, is that I can get into Wilmington to visit my brother and my aunt. They only live a short distance apart so if I can get there it isn't difficult to get to see both.

Emmanuel: Born of a God's Love!

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One of my memories of the novitiate—a long time ago—was that for a period of about six weeks, one of our sisters would come in each Saturday and talk to us about Franciscan spirituality and theology. I have to admit that a lot of the theology didn’t necessarily stay in my head but one point almost blew my mind! She talked about the Franciscan theologian John Dun Scotus and the concept that Jesus would have come among us anyway—regardless of sin—simply because of God’s love for what God had made. Each time I’ve heard this over the years, each time I think about it, I have that same reaction of being awe-struck. Jesus would have come anyway! Imagine—the whole concept of Incarnation, of Christmas, of Epiphany is predicated, not on sin but on love! I may not be a theologian but that I understand. Is it any wonder I so love my Franciscan roots?!

Special blessings on all of my followers and readers during these holy days of Christmas and throughout the new year!

Emmanuel

All Goodness

All Sweetness

All Light…

God living among us,

With us…

Emmanuel.

What puzzles the mind,

Eludes the grasp of reason

Is not the “How?”

But “Why?”

And the answer

So simple, so clear

As almost to be missed

Amid the thoughts and words

That seek to reason “Why?”

This God so loved

What God had made from Love

That God became

What God had made!

Heaven came to Earth—

Our God…

Emmanuel…

Lifting us beyond the

Now,

Loving us long before the days of time,

Loving us long beyond the end of days…

Emmanuel!

                                                         Ann Marie Slavin, OSF

Waiting With the Heart of a Child

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Every Wednesday during Advent (Lent, too, when it comes) any of the staff at our motherhouse who wish to do so gather in the main corridor for prayer and the lighting of the Advent wreath. We usually ask for volunteers to prepare the prayer service so we get a variety of types of prayer.

I've prepared the prayer for tomorrow and pulled material from several sources. In addition to the readings of the day, Mal 3: 1-4, 23-24 and Luke 1:57-66, I found several prayers on the internet dealing with the idea that, while we profess to wait in hope for God's promise, we sometimes give up hope and wonder when and if that promise will be fulfilled. I also found a wonderful reading from John Shea's The Hour of the Unexpected called "Sharon's Christmas Prayer." It's a retelling of the Christmas story from the mind and in the words of a child--who with the innocence of a child's heart really gets it! Add a tape of David Haas' "Carol of the Child" and it all fits together beautifully!

You can find a copy of "Sharon's Christmas Prayer" at www.1journey.net/stdavids/SW/poetry/sharonsprayer.htm.

Dreaming of a White Fourth Sunday of Advent!

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We had snow Friday night into Saturday--and all day Saturday. We're right outside Philadelphia which got 23 inches--a record. I think we got about 15 inches which is quite a lot for us. Being inside all day Saturday--unable to get out--gave us some wonderful time together. One of our sisters who lives alone came over and joined us for the weekend. We sat and chatted, listened to music. Saturday afternoon we played a game of Phase 10. We still hadn't finished when it was time for prayers but it's the kind of game you can leave and come back to with no problem. We finished after prayers--and I won!

The weather and the process of getting shoveled out gave us some laughs also. We live on the grounds of a large archdiocesan high school. There is a company that comes to plow the school parking lot but they also take care of a number of commercial sites so we're not really high on their priority list. A few years ago we also hired them to shovel our paths (there are quite a few of them) and none of us are particularly agile! We noticed that late Saturday afternoon they were shoveling some of the paths in front of the convent, which didn't particularly help us because our cars are parked in the back. About 11 P.M. we saw that one of the crew had shoveled a narrow path across our back patio. The problem was that this was not one of the regular crew and he didn't know that there is a cement path from the patio down to the parking area. So...the snow he shoveled from the patie was simply piled along the edge of the patio from one end to the other, blocking us from stepping down to the pavement--even if we had been able to see it. We finally were able to call out to one of the workers, explained that problem, and ask if he could clear the path to the parking area. He did--with a least a very, very narrow path. Usually the crew plows the main school parking lot and then gets us to move our cars there so they can plow our parking area. However, after the last snow storm (a much smaller one) they asked if we would move the cars up to the main lot before the snow came. That way they would plow our area first. We did--only to find out Sunday morning that we were plowed in up in the main lot! At that point all we could do was laugh! Finally one of the sisters went out and put sticks in the ground to indicate the width of our path and where our parking area began and ended! It was easy to see that storms of this kind are not the norm for us!

Franciscan Action Network--At Work in Many Areas.

Like St. Francis, Franciscan Action Network is working to bring about change and to create a more just world. I thought I'd share some of the many ways the FAN is working to bring about these changes.  Use the link to see their most recent updates. Or even better, join FAN and get your own email updates. What do you need to join? Just a Franciscan heart!

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Christmas: The Sharing of Love and Gifts

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Every year the staff here at our motherhouse, as well as some of the sisters who live here, take part in a Christmas outreach. We choose a different organization each year--usually something suggested by the staff--and inquire as to what they might need. We usually start around Thanksgiving and the gifts arrive--a few more each day. When we bring in our gift, we add a ball to the Christmas tree that stands outside our offices.

For many years the outreach was organized by our dear friend and coworker, Hilary. Some of you might remember that Hilary died very suddenly in October following surgery for a knee replacement. This year we renamed the outreach "Hilary's Christmas Outreach" and our gifts went to one of Hilary's favorite charities--House of Joseph II. This is a residential care program in Wilmington, Delaware, operated by the Ministry of Caring for women and men who have AIDS and who have no where to go and no one to care for them. 

The gifts came pouring in--socks, gloves, fleece throws, sweatshirts, and toiletries--enough to fill more than 10 large, commercial-size trash bags. Sr. Jean Rupertus, director of House of Joseph II, explained what these gifts mean to the residents--and what the residents mean to those who are privileged to care for them. Jean wrote:

I wish you could be here to see them open the gifts…..that alone, is gift. As you may know, all of the men and women who live at House of Joseph have been homeless and diagnosed with advanced stages of AIDS. With that diagnosis come others opportunistic diseases such as cancer, neuropathy, diabetes, depression, seizures, etc. . When I first meet them, they are scared, depressed and burdened with guilt. About two months after they come to live with us, they show much improvement. Along with the medicine, the acceptance and love works miracles. Although some are too sick to recover from this devastating illness, they die with dignity and we (residents and staff) vigil at their bedside when they are in the process of dying. Some are young enough to be able to live more independently but, of course, finding housing to fit their budget is impossible. Others, while doing well, are elderly and will live their life out at House of Joseph. They teach me a lot….patience, acceptance, generosity and faith. They are so very much more than their disease and it is our ministry to help unleash their gifts and talents and to help them to heal. May you be blessed for your thoughtfulness. You are a blessing to us!

Living the Legacy of Mother Francis Bachmann

The early members of our congregation struggled to provide for their own needs and those of the people they served--the immigrant population of Philadelphia, the children they taught, the sick they nursed, the orphans they mothered, the working women they housed. At times they went out and begged--for good and for money--to meet those needs! And always Mother Francis Bachmann reminded her sisters: "As long as God does not stop giving to us, we will not stop giving to the poor." Today the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia continue to live out those words. One concrete way we do that is by our social justice grant program. Yearly--for more than 25 years--we have set aside funds to help organizations world wide who are working to bring about systemic change.

Funds are limited and amounts awarded range from $1,000-5,000. But the ways in which those funds are utilized is nothing less than miraculous. Take for example the Society for Women and Education and Economic Thrust (SWEET) in Taminladu, India. In 2008 SWEET received a $4,000 grant to assist rural women who are poor and who live in a hopeless situation. SWEET conducted empowerment training programs and taught the women how to raise goats, cows, and chickens; to plant gardens; and to operate small shops and businesses. The funds were used to provide interest-free loans to 25 women on a revolving basis. With the funds the women purchased goats and cows, bought sewing machines so they could make garments to sell, grew vegetables and made items to sell in “petty” shops, and made and sold small rice cakes called idly, Still others became sellers of fish and mutton. The women learned to work in groups and to plan, implement, and evaluate their projects. One side effect was lower child labor and school drop-out rates. The photos below were sent as part of SWEET's report on how they had utilized the grant.

This woman is making "idly"--a type of rice cake. Looks like some of the children have been helping!

This woman proudly shows off the cow and calf she was able to purchase.

And for this woman, her newly acquired goats will help to stabilize her family's situation.

This woman displays some of the vegetables she raised and the other item with which she has stocked her "petty" shop.

This woman has a fish shop....

...and this one a mutton shop.

With her sewing machine, this woman is able to make and sell garments.