On February 1, 2020 Sr. Martha Lopez, MSC and Sr. Lucy Panettieri, MSC participated in the blessing of Candles and the *Akathist of Jesus, Light to Those in Darkness. This ceremony took place in the Cathedral of Denver. It was an Ecumenical Liturgy of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches of Denver. Celebrants were: Archbishop Samuel Aquila (Denver), Bishop Jorge Rodriguez, Auxiliary Bishop, with priests representing the Ruthenian and Ukrainian Catholic Church. A magnificent choir from Sr. Cyril and Methodius Russian Catholic Community.
sang the entire liturgy.
NRVC Delaware Valley Member Area Holds Winter Meeting
The Delaware Valley Member Area of the National Religious Vocations Conference (NRVC) met on Tuesday, January 14th at the Motherhouse of the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary located in Immaculata, PA.
Sr. Debbie Borneman, SSCM, the Director of Mission Integration of the NRVC, joined the members and gave a presentation on “Risking Hope: Countering the Narrative of Completion”. Additionally, there was a panel presentation of discerners and new members who shared their stories of vocational call and discernment.
A business meeting followed the morning session. Plans are in process for a Life Awareness Retreat for young adults ages 18 – 45, for those women and men who are contemplating a major decision in their lives such as job opportunities; post-baccalaureate volunteer service; graduate school and/or life vocation – single, married, vowed religious and priesthood. (Please see the flyer on the next page. ) The Delaware Valley Member Area will also hold three Gift of Mission days for high school juniors on February 4th and 13th and March 5th. The MSCs will have representation at each of these vocational outreaches.
A Vocational Accompaniment Course
This summer, Sr. Martha Lopez, MSC attended a Vocational Accompaniment Course at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She shares her experience with the Cabrinian Community…
“Hope is the dream of the waking man…”
… And we awake, we await the dawn and the flowering of new vocations in the Church and in our Institute. I want to share with you that I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an interesting Vocational Accompaniment Course, taught by the Vocation Animation Services of the Diocesan Operative priests, whose charism is to promote vocations today.
The Workshop was held at the facilities of the University of the Incarnate Word, in San Antonio, Tx., led by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who gave us a beautiful and generous welcome. We were around 35 participants who, aware of the urgent task of promoting Hispanic female vocations, arrived from different parts of the southwest of the country, with the conviction that we need formation to “accompany” our candidates. It’s about knowing how to walk with them, of being true companions. Many young people are hungry for spiritual life, for faith (they need to believe in “something”) and also hungry for vocational accompaniment.
It is motivating for all of us to verify that there is a resurgence of the religious vocation today. Today this concern has re-emerged strongly in youth and there is more sensitivity to this approach. Perhaps because we have heard the voice of Pope Francis who constantly invites us to go out to meet others.
The experiences of service, of the mission, of being touched by reality, are spaces in which young people discover their vocation because they question and uninstall them. That is why sisters and brothers, let us continue to be in the middle of town, in the middle of people, in parishes, with immigrants, with those who suffer. Young people want to see in the face of the religious today, the joy of Consecration, the joy of service, the joy of living the Gospel. They thus realize that their lives make sense and that it is worth playing their whole lives in response to Jesus. Let’s continue to show the beautiful face of our vocation!
Gift of Mission Vocation Workshop for High School Juniors
With a cheerful “heart” theme for the day, eighty high school junior girls participated in a Gift of Mission vocation awareness program held in Immaculata, PA, sponsored by an intercongregational team of vocation directors – including the Missionary Sisters – from the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC). Young ladies from Bishop Shanahan H.S., West Chester, PA; Mount St. Joseph Academy, Chestnut Hill, PA; York Catholic H.S., York, PA; and Glouscester Catholic H.S., Glouscester City, NJ entered into a fun and interactive day learning about vowed religious life, prayer, and ministry. [Read more…]
World Day for Consecrated Life
In 1997, Pope Saint John Paul II instituted a day of prayer for women and men in consecrated life. This celebration is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd. This Feast is also known as Candlemas Day; the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world. So too, those in consecrated life are called to reflect the light of Jesus Christ to all peoples. The celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life is transferred to the following Sunday in order to highlight the gift of consecrated persons for the whole Church.
World Day for Consecrated Life is celebrated on February 2nd. In 2019, this day is celebrated in parishes on February 2-3. Let us keep the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and all those in consecrated life to celebrate the gift they bring to the Church and to the world. [Read more…]
Roots and Wings…An inter-congregational exchange

Ayantu Bishaka, an MSC candidate gets to know a novice from another religious congregation at the gathering.
On Saturday, September 15,
Tigist Loja, Ayantu Bishaka, MSC candidates, and Sr. Lucy Panettieri, MSC, participated in an Intercultural Day titled “Roots and Wings” sponsored by the Brooklyn Diocese with Sr. Annmarie Seton LoPiccolo SC, Vicar for Religious.
A Suprising Look at Vocations
The overwhelming majority of those pursuing vocations in religious life in the church were born into the faith. But a small, steady stream of men and women choose first to become Catholic and then, in what is perhaps an even larger leap of faith, choose religious life itself. Twelve percent of brothers and sisters making perpetual vows weren’t born Catholic, according to a 2017 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate report. Nine out of 10 entering religious life were raised Catholic, CARA reports.

Sr. Deborah Borneman, CCSM, of the National Religious Vocations Conference (NRVC) giving an address on vocation promotion.
Whereas once a change of denominations would have been called a conversion (and still is often popularly referred to that way), since Vatican II it has been called entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. Sometimes discerning a call to the religious life can take decades.
In some cases, the journey from changing denominations to taking vows as a member of a religious community seems linear, according to accounts from the women Global Sisters Report interviewed. In others, there is a close connection between a wish to become Catholic and enter the religious life.
“There is no canonical law concerning the time to start the application process in regards to a discerner who was not born and raised Catholic yet became fully initiated into the Catholic faith,” says Sr. Deborah Marie Borneman, a member of the Sisters of Saint Cyril and Methodius; she is director of member relations and services for the National Religious Vocation Conference. Canon law requires that candidates show proof of baptism, confirmation and “free status” before they are admitted to the novitiate, she said in an email. The vocation conference, however, highly recommends a new Catholic wait at least two years, preferably three years, before application to any religious institute. ~ from the Global Sisters Report
To read the full article: http://globalsistersreport.org/news/trends/path-religious-life-varies-especially-when-sisters-start-out-non-catholic-54971
March Madness Highlights Contributions of Women Religious
Yes, Sr. Jean Dolores Schmidt is everywhere.
The 98-year-old chaplain of the Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball team is a media darling, capturing – national – and indeed, international – attention in the Ramblers’ improbably run to a coveted slot in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Her image is on socks, T-shirts and now is the best-selling bobblehead in history. National stories have also focused on her community, the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque, Iowa, and the accomplishments of their members as they cheer on and marvel at the media frenzy around their beloved sister.
Her grace, wit and wisdom are rightly spotlighted in the media, along with her basketball smarts.
The media affection for Sr. Jean is welcome, but there are some points that the Global Sisters Report would like to share.
Sisters across the globe do amazing work, most often out of the media spotlight.
At the same time that so much of the nation’s attention [has been] on college basketball, women religious at the U.N. were among the speakers at the annual Commission on the Status of Women which focused on the scourge of the trafficking of women and girls.
Get beyond “cute and stereotypical images. Some of the many media reports about Sr. Jean have taken the time to dig deeper into who she is and have portrayed her as more than a team cheerleader. She is an accomplished woman on many levels, having taught as a college professor for many years. Members of her [religious] community include a former mayor and several former college presidents.
Aging doesn’t have to be scary or negative. A key focus in the Sr. Jean story is her age: 98 and still active, witty and fully engaged. However, that is no surprise to the readers of the Global Sisters Report. We often write of women religious who remain involved in their ministries well into their 80s, 90s or past 100. Even “retired” sisters often are rarely retired in the common definition of that life state. Having a sense of purpose, a greater mission, is a big part of the reason.
We hope that the affection for Sr. Jean spills over into bolstering broad appreciation for Catholic women religious. Yet, long after the swish of the last basket of the 2018 NCAA Tournament, there will be religious women calming the fears of refugees torn from their country by war, drying the tears of a young woman recovering from a life of exploitation and helping disaster victims to start anew. Because that’s what sisters do.
To read the full account: http://globalsistersreport.org/blog/gsr-today/trends/flurry-over-sr-jean-dolores-schmidt-can-open-clearer-more-complete-look-women?utm_source=GSR%20digest%203-29-18&utm_campaign=cc&utm_medium=email
To read about the U.N. Conference on empowering rural women and girls: http://globalsistersreport.org/news/trends-trafficking/un-womens-commission-agrees-measures-empower-rural-women-and-girls-52856?utm_source=GSR%20digest%203-29-18&utm_campaign=cc&utm_medium=email
National Vocation Awareness Week Set for November 5 -11
The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocations Awareness Week, November 5-11, 2017. This annual event is a special time in the United States to actively foster and pray for a culture of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the Chair of the US Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, reminds us that each of us in the Church has a key role to play in the witness of our vocation in ordinary circumstances, “As we go about our everyday life and most especially this week, we must keep vocations in our prayers, while, at the same time, being a mindful witness with our own vocation. We may never know how our lives may have an impact on someone else’s story. Simply living out our call as disciples of Jesus Christ fully and joyfully in the world bears witness to the love of Christ as He generously bestows on each of us our own personal call.”
National Vocations Awareness Week, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, is designed to help promote vocation awareness and to encourage young people to ask the question: “To what vocation in life is God calling me?” Parish and school communities across the nation are encouraged to include, during the first full week in November, prayer and special activities that focus on vocation awareness.
To learn more: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/national-vocation-awareness-week.cfm
To view a video of Sr. Thea Bowman: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/national-vocation-awareness-week.cfm
Six Ways to Thrive in Your Vocation
Six Ways to Thrive in Your Vocation
“KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” is one of those slogans that lingers and lasts because it can be applied to so many situations. The phrase originated in the spring of 1939 in Britain as the country anticipated the dark days of World War II. The [British] government designed the famous poster and printed more than two million copies but according to Brittany Fowler, author of a history of the phrase, for Business Insider magazine, “not one of them was posted, as officials had last-minute doubts about whether the content was too patronizing or obvious.”
Most of the posters were destroyed, but, more than sixty years later, one of them surfaced when a bookseller found it hidden in a book that he bought at an auction. He put it up over the cash register at his bookstore and customers began asking where they could purchase the poster. The shop owner started printing copies, and a craze was born.
The phrase has been adopted, adapted, and some might say exhausted over the last several years. But its truth is timeless because it captures an essential quality of faithfulness, steadfastness, and resolve in difficult situations. So how do we apply this to vocation ministry?
I offer six ideas to encourage thriving among vocation ministers and other wanderers, wayfarers and dreamers of God’s realm. I hope these thoughts will help us to keep the faith and carry on when the road seems treacherous and we discover more dead ends than expressways, more roadblocks than rest stops.
# 1. Live in the Now
Thomas Merton mused, “Time is given to us not to keep a faith we once had but to achieve a faith we need now.” Time passes quickly, and with so much pain and suffering in the world, we are often advised to “keep the faith.” But what faith are we keeping? Is it the faith that served us as children when we were spoon-fed without questioning? Is it the faith that leaves little room for doubt and often fails to give others the benefit of the doubt?
What kind of faith do I need now? The older I get, the more doubt crowds in. I need a faith that leaves room for doubt and gives others the benefits of my own doubt, understanding that the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. I need a faith that helps in those times when fear threatens to get the best of me.
The kind of faith we need today is one that reminds us that no matter the bitter disappointment or the beauty too stunning to describe, life goes on. Perhaps the work of faith is to simply know and believe that life goes on.
Recently, I was listening to National Public Radio’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. The guest was Norman Lear, the television producer. The host asked him about his longevity – he is almost 94 years old – and is still working, still creating. Lear said essentially that he is guided by two words, “over” and “next.” The image he suggested is a hammock between two poles marked “over” and “next.” So, how does he remain creative? When one project is finished, whether it is a success or a failure, he moves on to the next.
Then there is the image of the hammock. To some it might be a symbol of a summer’s day. But, it also speaks to the creative process. Taking the time to listen, to emerge in the gentle rocking back and forth allows one to stay focused, stay faithful, remain calm, before carrying on to the next project, the next person, the next possibility.
When we apply this to religious life and particularly to vocation ministry, if we dwell only on our losses, we’ll get stuck. We must allow time for quiet to invite the Spirit to stir our creativity. And then we move on to what or who is next.
#2 Keep your eyes on the road
Every Sunday in the New York Times is a column on leadership called “Corner Office” which carries interviews with CEOs of successful companies. In a recent column, the CEO of a software company said he learned many life lessons from his rowing coach in college who gave him this image: “When you are driving and rain is pouring down, with the windshield wipers going,” he said, “you can either watch the windshield wipers or you can watch the road. Which is going to be more successful?”
When we are going through difficult stretches on our journey, if we pay more attention to the rain, the storm, the wipers, instead of keeping our eyes on the road, we’re going to be in trouble.
Keep our eyes on the road is what spiritual writers call mindfulness. It is the ability to center oneself, to pay attention to what is most important, rather than being distracted by the worries and fears that can cause us to lose our way. We can be “attentive and compassionate toward our own fear without being paralyzed by it,” spiritual activist Robert Gass writes. Awareness of fear “while cultivating…a capacity to think and act with clarity and power” is at the heart of the matter of mindfulness.
Cultivating this inner silence is an absolute necessity when confronted with a culture that is impatient and prone to shame and blame. Thus, if we are less than enthusiastic about our mission or ministry, we need to check the pulse of our prayer life. Keeping our eyes on the road affords us the opportunity to pay attention. Time in solitude will lead us to connect with others who share a passion for our community mission.
# 3 Cultivate Community
Author and pastor Rick Warren has noted that most people fall into three categories: caretakers, undertakers and risk takers. Our communities are filled with people who dwell in each of these categories. Which category do you dwell in?
Most of us are caretakers – that is the nature of religious life. We take care of one another and those we are called to serve. We take good care of those we love and even those we find difficult to love.
But we also know some undertakers in our communities – those who take us under, whose cynicism and sarcasm serve as sharp shovels to dig a grace and bury us. Sometimes we are the undertakers and we dig our own graves with our negativity. We sense the life drain from us as our energy is depleted by the shadows of doom and gloom that often shroud our world. When we fee on this negative energy of those who take us under, we will experience an acid reflux disease of the soul. Its symptoms are anger and bitterness.
We need to surround ourselves with people who are not bitter, who do not suffer from lethargy of spirit, with people who remain grounded in hope. We need to surround ourselves with risk takers, people who enlarge our minds, hearts, and imaginations and instill hope.
The biblical tradition is filled with risk takers. From Abraham and Sarah to Elizabeth and Zechariah to Mary and Joseph; from the prophets of old to the first disciples and witnesses to the resurrection, we have numerous examples of ancestors in faith who took the ultimate risk to trust God and say yes to what seemed incomprehensible and unimaginable.
What allowed them to be risk takers? Is has something to do with this understanding that we are formed, known, dedicated, and appointed by God. Those are the verbs expressed in the call of the prophet Jeremiah (1, 5). He could be the patron saint for vocation directors because he thought he was too young to be a prophet. He needed more time in community to understand the history and spirituality, and to deepen his relationship with God.
In reflecting on the call of Jeremiah, we often focus on his excuse instead of the original call of the prophet. Notice the actions taken by God: formed, knew, dedicated and appointed. God forms us and has a purpose for us before we are born. Our vocation reaches back to the very mystery of life. We are formed and known by God.
Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet was his purpose in life. Discerning one’s purpose is at the heart of vocation ministry. When time get tough and losses mount, it is important to return to the original source of our call and to ask ourselves: what risks are we willing to take to promote and propel the reign of God in our lives? What risks are we willing to take to make our charism, spirituality, community and ministry know to those who are seeking to belong? What risks are we willing to take in calling forth from our congregations a deeper and wider commitment that will shake, rattle, and roll those undertakers in our community who have their sights set on death rather than life? Next week: Preserve your perspective.