Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Bringing Christ's love to the world
St. Josephine Bakhita was born in Sudan in 1869. She was kidnapped and sold into slavery, suffering tremendously in body and soul.
She was eventually bought by an Italian consul and after some years gained her freedom.
She put her faith in Christ and was baptized in 1890.
She discerned the call to religious life and became a Canossian Daughter of Charity. Her life was marked by joyful, heroic virtue.
She died in 1947 and was canonized in 2000. She is the Patroness of Human Trafficking Victims.
On Sunday, January 15 MSC novices Evon Somirla, Evarlyn Ndeti, and Bezunesh Elias spoke at St. Frances Cabrini Shrine about their faith and how they discerned the path to follow in the footsteps of Mother Cabrini.
Eager attendees provided a delicious potluck lunch that featured Filipino, Ethiopian, Dominican, and American dishes. The most common comment: “This was so inspiring!”
Now that classes have commenced for the spring semester, Sr. Christine Marie Baltas, MSC, Campus Ministry Associate, extended an invitation to join in some fellowship to officially welcome Sr. Bridget Zanin, MSC to Cabrini University.
Sr. Bridget’s office is located in the MSC Cottage on campus where she will be serving as a spiritual director. Sr. Bridget has been making the rounds of campus buildings sharing information about spiritual direction.
Already, several members of the University community have made appointments with Sr. Bridget.
The University is grateful for Sr. Bridget’s presence and wish her well in her new ministry
On December 17th, 2022, we celebrated Christmas with the families of both old and new clients. It was a new experience for all of our staff, since we have been in a new facility since May 2022. We had 60 families and 111 children. In order to provide better attention and have more space, we divided the group in two and the result was excellent. We could see the families engaging and expressing their connection to our organization.
We organized different activities: face painting, arts and crafts, games, food, and of course, the presence of Santa! The children received toys and jackets, and some of the older children were given gift cards.
Our staff got very involved in the preparation and coordination of the event. We also had the help of some of our Angel Fund Scholarship students. Every year committed volunteers like Luzmila Limongi de Pizarro, Brigid Sullivan, and Brigid’s team of friends help us ensure the event is a success. As she has for many years, Brigid provided lunch for all of our attendees.
At the end of the day, a sense of joy and accomplishment accompanied all of us. We experienced so many smiling faces, expressions of joy and gratitude.
After long-standing service at Cabrini Health, Australia and the National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Chicago, respectively, Sr. Sharon Casey, MSC and Sr. Bridget Zanin, MSC are now beginning new ministries.
Sr. Sharon Casey, MSC
The following are remarks that Sr. Sharon Casey, MSC shared with the Cabrini Health community:
Greetings during this Advent, Christmas and Hanukkah season!
I’d like to say thank you for your warm welcome to me in 2009 upon my arrival here at a medical facility across the earth! It definitely was a daunting experience. However, your excitement and demonstration of the Cabrinian values which I sensed immediately was heartening.
Your encouragement and support bolstered my determination to fulfil the mission God called me to do in Melbourne.
During these years, a message arose within me, saying, ‘remember who you are’. It was clear, stirring and helped me often to re-ground myself. This message made me pause amid the dizzying pace and consider my roots, beliefs, manner of being and interacting. It gave me the opportunity to remember those upon whose shoulders I stand.
This message was a gift from God. I often remind myself with the grace of God, of who I am, where I’ve come from, and the values that shaped me. These moments, made me conscious of the strong pull from society to become truly self-centered.
I encourage you to remember who you are as a member of the Cabrinian community whether you’ve been here for 30 years or three months. I encourage you to remember the commitment that you made to be faithful to our Ethic of Care when you came here.
When social media and society lure you into believing in acting in another way, I encourage you to go and spend some time by the sculpture that was designed and made over a number of years due to the COVID pandemic.
The sculpture VIGIL – The Heart of Cabrini is a memorial of thanks to the sisters who first came here, carrying the spirit of Mother Cabrini and each of you who have made Cabrini what it has become thus far.
When you need encouragement, consider going out and sitting by this sculpture, helping you remember who you are.
On behalf of all my Sisters of the Sacred Heart throughout the world and our lay collaborators and partners, I thank you for your efforts to work according to the Cabrinian values, Ethic of Care, and legacy.
Sr Sharon Casey, MSC – December 2022 To view a video of Sr. Sharon’s sharing her message: https://vimeo.com/780550489/e1cd1d118c
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Sr. Bridget Zanin, MSC
Bridget Zanin, MSC, joined the Cabrini University community on Tuesday, November 29. She has served as a Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) since 1962. As a teenager in Brazil, she was called on a spiritual path that led her from her home to the United States Midwest and eventually Radnor, PA. Get to know Sister Bridget through the Q&A below. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity. ~ submitted by Matt Nestor, Cabrini University
What are your first impressions since arriving here at Cabrini University?
Sister Bridget: The campus is beautiful. I feel a little bit isolated because I’m so used to living in a city where you step out and can go anywhere and do anything. Here, you need a car.
Which city were you in before you arrived here?
SB: Chicago. I was the Director of the National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini in Chicago. I was at the Shrine for 10 years. And before that, I was in the city of Des Plaines [Illinois]. I was working as a chaplain at the Holy Family Hospital. And, before that I worked at Mercy Family Hospital in Chicago.
What kinds of service did you do there and elsewhere?
SB: My first profession was as a nurse. I worked as an ICU nurse in medical/surgical. It was kind of getting heavier and heavier, so I went in to chaplaincy so I could talk to patients and their families. Having the nursing background, being a chaplain I think was a blessing for me, because I could understand the patient’s diagnosis—what they were going through. I could talk to them not as a nurse, but as a chaplain.
You grew up in Brazil, correct?
SB: Yes, I was born in Brazil. My grandparents migrated from Venice, Italy to Brazil where they worked very hard to get themselves through a hard time. They moved there during the Second World War, when people were moving out to look for a better life. So, they struggled a lot. But, I see now their struggles were not in vain, because I see now my family are in good positions. I have a judge, two lawyers, and a doctor in the family.
How did you choose religious life?
SB: I always felt a call. I used to go and pray every day. I had two other friends and they wanted to go [to the convent]. Two months later, my dad rented a car and took us to the convent. I was only 15. Can you imagine? Then, we did our profession and took our vows. And, I was missioned to the United States.
Obviously, you are a Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an order founded by Mother Cabrini. What does it mean to you to come here to Cabrini University, the only Cabrinian University in the world?
SB: I think it’s very special. And, the people who I have met so far, they’re so nice. I had a passion for the [Shrine] that I was at, and seeing that the people here have the same values and are part of the Cabrini family, has encouraged me to keep on giving and do whatever I can.
What attracted you to the MSCs?
SB: It was their simplicity and their faith. I like simplicity. I knew nothing about Mother Cabrini but they gave us books to read. And, the more I read, I saw she had this big devotion to the Sacred Heart. She kept saying the Sacred Heart is the fountain of all virtues.
What do you hope to accomplish here at Cabrini, and what do you hope to send students out in the world with?
SB: If I can make a difference in someone’s life, this life will go on to make a difference in the world. I feel that we all have a mission. Sometimes, people think they have to have a vocation to do the mission. No, you don’t. Life is an attitude. So, we can have a positive attitude—a faith attitude. I have my certificate in spiritual direction and I’m also a chaplain. And, I was a nurse. I am hoping to bring these skills to my present mission, everywhere I go and in everything that I do. I hope I can make a difference in campus life. To read the full interview with Sr. Bridget, please click here
On Sunday, December 4th, (from left) Missionary Sisters Christine Marie Baltas, Bridget Zanin, Lucille Souza and Grace Waters joined in the Christmas festivities on the University’s campus including a concert, Mass, a live Nativity and a festive dinner. 
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12
Even before the sun breaks through the horizon on December 12, the burst of firecrackers rings throughout Mexico to announce the greatest national fiesta of the year—the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
At la Villa de Guadalupe, the National Sanctuary near Tepeyac Hill, pilgrims begin to arrive days earlier to camp out on the plaza surrounding the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Many travel for days to get there, entering la Villa on their knees as a sign of their devotion and gratitude for la Virgen Morenita’s protection. Much like a family member holding a beloved’s picture close to the heart, pilgrims carry images of their Mother Guadalupe on their backs, banners, and bodies.
Celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe always culminates with the reenactment of the familiar story. In 1531, just a few decades after Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, the Mother of God appeared three times to a humble Chichimeca Aztec baptized as Juan Diego. Our Lady asked him to be her special messenger and provided proof of their encounters for a skeptical bishop in the form of two signs: a cloak full of fresh roses in December and a miraculous image of herself on Juan Diego’s tilma, or shawl. Yet the Guadalupe apparition is not only one of the earliest Marian apparitions. It is also the only time in history that Our Lady has shared her portrait.
The Heart of the Guadalupe Message
“The Blessed Mother has an interesting way of empowering the poor like Juan Diego,” explains Mark Zwick, founder and director of Casa Juan Diego Catholic Worker House in Houston. “You can’t speak that kind of empowerment. She chooses an indigenous person—and that’s revolutionary!”
Throughout history, Our Lady “chooses to appear almost exclusively to those who wouldn’t have a respectable place in society.”
Patroness of the Americas
It is hardly a coincidence that in 1945, the year that World War II ended, Pope Pius XII looked at the suffering, fragmented world and declared Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of the Americas.
He knew that both continents North and South, in many ways, share a common heritage—and future. In the words Our Lady spoke to Juan Diego: “I am your Compassionate Mother, yours, for you yourself, for everybody here in the land, for each and all together, for all others too, for all folk of every kind . . . here I shall listen to their groanings, to their saddenings; here shall I make well and heal up their each and every kind of disappointment, of exhausting pangs, of bitter pain.”
Let us pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of our Guadalupe Province, in a special way on her feast day and each day that she may guide and protect our ministries, all those who serve within, and all those whom we serve.
On November 13, 2022, the Church celebrated the Feast of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Patron Saint of Immigrants, and at the end of her jubilee year in honor of the 75th anniversary of her canonization.
Two of the CLINIC’s (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.) affliliate organizations bear the name of Mother Cabrini: The St. Frances Cabrini Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance, which is part of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas and Cabrini Immigrant Services in New York City.
Cabrini Immigrant Services of New York City or CIS-NYC, remains close to the mission of Mother Cabrini in its location: after a recent office move, it is now located right in the building of the Mother Cabrini Shrine in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
Ella Nimmo, Director of Community Programs and Development, said that this location has allowed them an even closer relationship with the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, who founded CIS and several of whom still work at Cabrini Immigrant Services. Donations from pilgrims visiting the Shrine sometimes go toward supporting CIS-NYC, and sometimes immigrants who are visiting the Shrine will happen upon their office and request help. The Shrine staff often refer immigrants in need to visit CIS. CIS offers a wide variety of services for the immigrant community, from legal services to social support programs.
Beyond the outward connections to Mother Cabrini – its name, if founding by the Sisters, it location, Nimmo say CIS-NYC carries on the spirit of Mother Cabrini’s approach. “The Sisters often talk
about Mother Cabrini having a sense of urgency about her, a ‘scrappy’ way of being,” Nimmo said. “If there was a need, Mother Cabrini was going to find a way to meet it. She would get things done. We try to take that approach, as well.” Nimmo said that CIS-NYC is always rising to the challenge of new developments facing immigrant communities in New York City. The biggest challenge for them lately has been finding a way to meet the needs of the thousands of migrants who have been bused to the city from Texas.
“We have helped at least 120 families from the buses so far,” said Nimmo. “It’s difficult because they are arriving with nothing – no contacts, no cell phones even, few job prospects, and often, no pathway to legal residency. We are having to be creative in how we help them and demonstrate support and solidarity.”
“The last few years have been really difficult, what with the pandemic and political changes,” Nimmo continued. “Now we have these migrant families arriving on buses from the border. Creating a supportive space for them amid these challenges is sometimes the most we can do. But we do all we can; we look for any source of support that we can provide, as we imagine that Mother Cabrini would have done.”
To read the complete article, please click here
During the month of November we are reminded to pray for the repose of the souls of our departed family and friends.
The Missionary Sisters at the Sacred Heart Convent in New York City put together this lovely display in remembrance of their departed loved ones who were remembered at Mass.
~ submitted by Sr. Renee Kittelson, MSC