Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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The Second Week in Lent

The Second Sunday in Lent
Lenten prayers?… Check. Fasting?…Check.  Giving?…Check.

We’re now one full week into Lent, and everyone is busy checking those three major boxes for the season. List-users love this little way to get ourselves complete for Lent. It’s a useful tool, but a tool has never been held responsible for art.

The season of Lent, as the banners in church remind us, is meant to be a reconciliation – a coming back to our God. That doesn’t have to be a scary word, or even as dramatic as potentially sacrificing your own child. It is an invitation to ask ourselves how much we walk with God in our everyday lives. Do we know who goes before us? Do we know who stands behind us? The second reading this week reminds us that all is well when we go through life allowing God to be our guide and companion. This week, let’s focus on simply being aware of grace within the little moments and be thankful for the spirit of God among us. ~ submitted by Melanie Paccillo, CLM

A Reflection for the Third Sunday in Lent

The Third Sunday in Lent

Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Sister, author and a woman of inspiration shares this Lenten reflection:

Lent is a call to weep for what we could have been and are not. Lent is the grace to grieve for what we should have done and have not. Lent is an opportunity to change what we ought to change, but have not.

Lent is not about penance. Lent is about becoming, doing and changing whatever it is that is blocking the fullness of life in us right now.

Reflection: What are those things that keep us from living a fully Christian life?

Let us pray for guidance. Let us pray for the courage to make those life changes that will bring us more fully into the life of our Christian community.  ~ by Marianne McGowan, CLM

VIRTUAL 2021 Human Trafficking Conference – March 8 and 9, 2021

VIRTUAL 2021 Human Trafficking Conference
March 8th & 9th, 2021

The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd (NAC) invites you to its VIRTUAL 2021 Shine the Light Human Trafficking Conference: Root Causes and Intersections on Human Trafficking.

The conference, which is free of charge, will be held over two afternoons, March 8 (12 noon to 3:00 pm EST), and March 9 (12 noon to 1:30 pm EST). We also are organizing a Call-to-Action Day on Trafficking for March 9.

Register at http://bit.ly/2021traffickingconference

Building on the success of our previous in-person Human Trafficking Conferences in 2018 and 2019, this year’s participants will hear from survivors, service providers and other experts. An additional advocacy panel will share easy and ongoing actions that can be taken to combat trafficking.

In the spirit of bi-partisanship, we welcome our Congressional Honorary Co-chairs, Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO-02) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA-02).

Day 1: will feature an overview of human trafficking that speaks to the various root causes. Panel presentations on both sex and labor trafficking with domestic and international components will follow.
Day 2: will focus on advocacy campaigns and how all of us can make a difference. Additional details are available on our Conference webpage.

*Dates of Conference: Monday, March 8, 12:00 – 3:00 pm EST & Tuesday, March 9, 12:00 – 1:30 pm EST. *Advance registration is required. *There is no fee for the conference.
Congregation/Community:
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd
Website:
https://www.gsadvocacy.org/human-trafficking-conference.html
Contact Information:
Patricia Kelly, Good Shepherd Volunteer: gsv@gsadvocacy.org
National Advocacy Center: 301-622-6838

Mission-Driven Finance – People on the Move Impact Investing

Mission Driven Finance – People on the Move Impact Investing

You may recall that through our impact investing program we’ve invested in the Freedom 100 Fund run by Mission Driven Finance and Freedom for Immigrants that posts bond for immigrants held in detention. We’ve expanded that partnership with Mission Driven Finance to launch a program to provide flexible loans to organizations serving people on the move—immigrants, refugees, asylees, low-income economic migrants, and survivors of trafficking—across the United States. You can learn more about the program here.

Feel free to share this link with any organizations you may know that are in need of flexible loan funding, or to circulate it in any relevant newsletters. Mission Driven Finance put together a communication kit with some language for social media (English & Spanish) or newsletters.

As always, happy to answer any questions about the program!
Kayoko Lyons klyons@cabriniimpact.org

Yearning Eyes: The Plight of Migrants in India

~ by Sr. Lavina D’Souza, Global Sisters Report; photo credit: Arturo Madrid-unsplas

The blank look on his face… a look of hopelessness…helplessness…perplexed…it wasn’t a silent face at all. The look on his wrinkled, aged face spoke aloud, as he stood passively before the vehicle that was about to leave the slum. He had remained absolutely silent all through our interactions with the people and now his look was disturbing. It yearned for something!

We had organized a food distribution for stranded migrants in one of the slums of Mumbai due to the lockdown. This slum area of migrants is not unlike other migrant living areas elsewhere in India. They live in subhuman, pathetic conditions, lacking decent housing facilities, potable water, sanitation facilities and other amenities, and are exposed to inclement weather and a hazardous atmosphere. They work for long hours, sometimes risking their health and lives, and yet, are paid less than they are entitled to. As they lack financial and health security and have little or no social support from a caste-and class-ridden society, they are unsure of what they can or cannot control in their lives. This leads to a certain passivity; resigned to their “fate”.

As I looked at the yearning eyes of the aged man, it seemed to me that he gazed not at the vehicle, but at the complacency of those who were more privileged than he. Are we so mired in our complacency that we have become blind to their reality?

The recent low point of this societal complacency has been the passivity of a few privileged people in India as they watch the unending trail of desperate migrants trying to reach home to be with their loved ones. The migrants take any means – even treacherous journeys on foot, sometimes walking hundreds of miles. In such foot journeys, a few of them lost their lives before reaching home, all due to exhaustion, because they wanted to escape dying of hunger as they tried to save themselves from the coronavirus. These are India’s nameless, faceless migrants who were denied time and transport to return home due to the sudden lockdown which was, ironically to save lives.

But who cares for the lives of the poor? To read the complete article click here

Getting to Know You!

What a beautiful meeting we had on February 20th. The current Cabrini Lay Missionaries (CLMs) and Sr. Catherine Garry, MSC met several of the people who are interested in becoming CLMs.

Thanks to the gift of Zoom, we were able to connect from different areas. We had people from California, Colorado, Guatemala, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington State! We introduced ourselves to one another so that we can learn more about each other and the wonderful works that are being done in the name of St. Cabrini.

The meeting was in English and Spanish. Thank you to Adela Jarquin and Digna Merchan for helping with the translating. As we listened to each other and heard the beautiful works that everyone is involved in, you couldn’t help but see Mother Cabrini smiling down on all of us. Everyone is involved in a ‘helping ministry.’ In addition, many are enrolled in different scripture classes, etc. as well as reading and learning about being a CLM. We look forward to many more meetings where we can share our love of Jesus, the Sacred Heart and Mother Cabrini.
~ submitted by Lorraine Campanelli, Director of the CLMs

Get Ready for Catholic Sisters Week

March 8-14 is Catholic Sisters Week!

Catholic Sisters Week
Celebrating Traditions, Changing the World

Fifty-two weeks a year women religious stand with the poor and immigrants, teach children, fight injustice, heal the sick, share spirituality, empower women, defend the planet, promote peace, create community, offer hope …

But for one week, March 8-14, we shine the spotlight on women religious and encourage a wide range of campaigns and events that invite all who follow Jesus to
• expand and support their gospel witness
• grow the service networks they have seeded
• share their spirituality, charisms, and community
• encourage young women to consider a vocation to religious life
• support their pastoral, teaching and prophetic works
• and focus on the new world they call into being.

During this week we celebrate and give thanks for the lives of faith and service of our Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May God continue to shower his blessings upon the Institute of the MSCs.

To learn more about Catholic Sisters Week click here

There are so many ways in which women religious can shine a spotlight on their congregations during this special week.

Sisters are encouraged to get creative with virtual delivery of events: Zoom conversations and conferences; livestream events; Facebook encounters; virtual tours of mission sites and ministries; book discussions, interviews, Q and A sessions with vocation directors; photo galleries.

And, this year in light of increased food insecurity, religious congregations are invited to join the LCWR Region 4 challenge and plan a FOOD DRIVE for your neighboring area. On site or virtual, collect funds and food for those in need. Celebrate Catholic Sisters Week by doing what sisters have always done: respond to the need of others, especially the most vulnerable.

To watch a video by Fr. James Martin, SJ, about National Catholic Sisters Week, click here

“Oh Mercy”

“Oh Mercy”- A Documentary on Migration
Highlighting the Refugees and Migrants Entangled in the Crisis at the U.S. – Mexico Border
~ by Soli Salgado, Global Sisters Report

A face familiar to most North American sisters takes center stage in the upcoming film “Oh Mercy,” a 10-minute documentary that highlights the refugees and migrants entangled in the crisis in the U.S. – Mexico border.

The filmmakers chose Missionary of Jesus Sr. Norma Pimentel to be the lens through which they view the issue of migration, focusing on the refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico, where she regularly ministers.

With Pimentel as the film’s “heroine,” the audience can witness the realities on the border in a “highly compassionate, not preachy way,” Robert Bilheimer, the director of the documentary, said in an interview with Global Sisters Report. Bilheimer thought Pimentel was a “compelling figure” to tell the story at the border.
(Bilheimer’s previous films covered South African apartheid, human trafficking and the AIDs epidemic.)”Oh“If you can help people see and believe that basic goodness and humanity in people, and if they see, unvarnished, their suffering – our experience is that people respond to it,” he said.

Seeing [migration] as the “defining geopolitical, cultural, humanitarian issue of our time,” Bilheimer said the series was an effort to “deconstruct” the many forces behind the involuntary migration seen around the world, whether it is due to climate change, gang violence or government failure.

The documentary depicts just a few of the thousands of violent and desperate situations that have driven families to flee their homes in Central America. Bilheimer said it’s up to the viewers to determine what the film is about, but for him, it’s a demonstration of the capacity for “deliberate evil – and I use the word carefully and advisably” – in the form of exclusionary U.S. immigration policies. “It’s a scar on our nation’s history.”

“Oh Mercy” will premiere today, Thursday, February 25 at 5 p.m. EST, and a panel with Sr. Pimentel, Bilheimer and other speakers will follow the premier. To read the complete article, click here

To view a short promotional video on the documentary, click here

To register for the premier of the documentary and panel discussion, click here

Cabrini University Helps Nonprofit Notch Milestone Donation

Cabrini University’s annual Give Love, Give Socks, Give Hope drive helped The Joy of Sox reach a notable milestone: With its delivery on Saturday, Feb. 13 to Prevention Point Philadelphia in Kensington, PA, the Radnor-based nonprofit has donated a half million pairs of socks since 2010. In the past four years, Cabrini has contributed 6,000 pairs of socks to The Joy of Sox’s donation efforts in the Philadelphia area.

Cabrini’s Give Love, Give Socks, Give Hope campaign, held in early February to align with Socks for the Homeless Day on Feb. 14, raises funds for not only The Joy of Sox’s many sock donations in Pennsylvania and around the United States, but also for the University’s Wolfington Center, which fosters community-based learning through Catholic social teaching in the spirit of Mother Cabrini. Since 2017, Cabrini students, alumni, staff and Missionary Sisters have been among those who have volunteered to package and deliver socks on behalf of The Joy of Sox.

“The Cabrini community’s commitment to service is integral to the University’s Education of the Heart and we are proud to support the impactful work of organizations within our community like The Joy of Sox,” said Ray Ward, PhD, Director of the Wolfington Center. “It is an honor to have played a part in this milestone of 500,000 pairs of socks donated to those experiencing homelessness. I am also grateful to the donors whose contributions to the Give Love, Socks, Hope
fundraiser will support further service opportunities for Cabrini students through the Wolfington Center.”

 

 

Founded by Cabrini College alumna Nancy Gorevin Costello (ʼ71) and her husband Tom Costello Jr. (HONʼ11), The Joy of Sox receives donations of new socks and raises funds to purchase new socks which are then delivered to homeless shelters and clinics throughout the United States and as far away as Uganda and Afghanistan. The organization has succeeded in making ‘Socks for the Homeless Day’ a recognized observance in five states, including Pennsylvania.

“We observe Socks for the Homeless Day in mid-February as a way to increase winter-time charitable giving, which traditionally drops off after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays,” said Tom Costello, Chief Sock Person at The Joy of Sox. “As we reflect on our 10th anniversary and this milestone of 500,000 pairs of socks donated, we express sincere gratitude for the continued service of countless volunteers and key partners like Cabrini and its mission-driven community.”

Prevention Point Director of Community Engagement and Volunteer Services, Clayton Ruley, said Saturday’s milestone donation comes at an ideal time for the city’s unhoused population. “We take for granted that we’re able to change our socks on a daily basis, but that’s just not the case for a lot of people we work with,” Ruley said. “In the cold months, if homeless people can’t change their socks, it leads to illness and disease that the cold and wetness brings.”

~ with abundant thanks to Steve Highsmith, Jackie Marciano, Matt Nestor, Emily Rowan and John Verdi
for their help in initiating, orchestrating and publicizing the Give Love, Give Socks, Give Hope campaign.

 

A Reflection for the Third Sunday in Lent

Sometimes I hear people say, “I don’t know how you could miss it, it’s so obvious.” Well, I think very often, we can miss the obvious. For example, in the readings for Mass on the First Sunday of Lent, three times we are told how we can attain Heaven and be with God. But, do we always get it?

In Genesis 9:8-9, God said to Noah and his sons, “See I am now establishing my covenant with you and yourdescendants after you. We ARE those descendants!! We are the people to whom God was referring. The covenant with Noah, which is often depicted as the rainbow, was not only meant for him, his family and friends, but for generations to come. The same God has made a covenant with you and me.

In 1 Peter 3:18, we are again reminded that God is there for us and gives us a pathway to follow. All we have to do is respond. In 1 Peter, we are called ‘Beloved’, a term of endearment, a term of relationship. We are told that Christ suffered for sins once so that we might be led to God.

In the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 1 verse 15, we are told how to reach the Kingdom of God: “The Kingdom of God is at hand, REPENT and BELIEVE in the Gospel”. The Kingdom is here and now, not after I die and go to Heaven.
As we begin our Lenten journey, we know straight from God that God wants us, we have a covenant with God, we are God’s beloved and if we repent and believe in the Word of God, we will be with God not only in this life but in the life to come.

Reflection: – What touched my heart in this reflection?
 -Do I really believe that I am God’s beloved?
 -What can I do this Lent do repent and believe even more deeply on the Word of God?

~by: Lorraine Campanelli, CLM Director

610 King of Prussia Road, Radnor, PA 19087
Phone: 610-902-1039
Fax: 610-971-0396
info@mothercabrini.org