On Friday, June 12, 2015, the Administration and staff Cabrini of Westchester celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart with a beautiful Mass in the Chapel. Several Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as well as four Cabrini Lay Missionaries donned red corsages and renewed their vows and commitments to Jesus and the work of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. A celebratory luncheon followed in the Board Room.
Serving with the Sisters – Celebrating The Year of Consecrated Life
In celebration and commemoration of Pope Francis’s declaration of this year being the Year of Consecrated Life, the National Religious Vocations Conference Region 3 hosted an inter-congregational day of service on Sunday, May 3rd in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.
Sisters from eight religious congregations and young adults were invited to join each other in serving communities in need of some TLC and what a beautiful day we had!
We kicked off the day at 11 a.m. with a gathering at Community Center at Visitation where we had a lovely “sending forth” with our groups to our respective worksites. The air was palpable with excitement for what the day was to hold for each of us.
When I signed up for the event, I really had no idea what kind of impact we were going to have on the communities in which we were going to be serving. [However, due to the cadre of volunteers] La Salle Academy now has fresh, new ground murals of the United States and the world, a new foursquare court, and a beautiful hopscotch court. Several local churches have fresh coats of paint on their walls and doors and the Providence Center has a charming community garden.
I had the great honor of floating from worksite to worksite, taking photos of what was being done at each place. Leaving each site, my heart was filled with joy and gratitude to be able to witness the good work that was being done with a shared objective – to permeate each location with the insurmountable love, joy, and hope of Jesus. Throughout the day, a verse from the book of Matthew kept coming to mind – “For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” What a privilege to serve alongside Jesus.
Around 3:00 p.m., we once again gathered at the Community Center at Visitation for pizza, snacks, and group sharing. The room buzzed with enthusiastic chatter as each person described their individual experiences from the day. Throughout the time of sharing, there existed a common thread of beauty seen in these communities that have been hit so hard by poverty; beauty in the people they encountered, beauty in the sites themselves, and beauty in the experience of service. Each reflection contained not only pride in the work that had been done, but a sense of privilege to have been a part of it all. With humble gratitude, I can say that I am so very blessed to have had this opportunity to serve alongside so many beautiful servants of the Lord. What a privilege, indeed! ~ submitted by CMC missioner Ashley Block
World Day of Prayer for Vocations is April 26th
The Message of Pope Francis for the 52st World Day of Prayer for Vocations was released this week. This commemoration is traditionally the fourth Sunday of Easter and will be celebrated this year on April 26.
You can read the Holy Father’s Message at https://nrvc.net/256/article/message-of-pope-francis-for-the-52nd-world-day-of-prayer-for-vocations-7482
New Provincial Council Appointed
Sr. Pietrina Raccuglia, MSC, Provincial of the Stella Maris Province has announced the appointment of the new Provincial Councilors who will assist in the governance of the Stella Maris Province: Sr. Lucy Panettieri, MSC and Sr. Arlene Van Dusen, MSC.
Sr. Pietrina expressed her thanks to these sisters for their “yes” to this call of service and asks everyone in the Cabrinian community to support them with your prayers.
Sr. Pietrina expressed her thanks to Sr. Catherine Garry, MSC, Sr. Tommasina Lanski, MSC and Sr. Diane Olmstead for their service on the Provincial Council over the last six years.
Pope Francis’ 10 Secrets to Happiness
Members of the Stella Maris Province Vocation Promotion Team (VPT) are always seeking opportunities to engage others in conversations about faith and discernment – prayerfully seeking guidance from God on all matters of life.
One such gathering happened this week at The Cottage in Radnor, PA where the MSC Mission Offices are based. VPT member Sr. Patricia Spillane shared Pope Francis’ 10 Secrets to Happiness with a small group of Cabrini College community members, CMC missioners and Mission Office staffers. Sr. Christine Marie Baltas, MSC and Sr. Grace Waters, MSC joined in the conversation.
Sr. Patricia was full of missionary zeal as she spoke about her call to religious life and the many roles she has held throughout her years as a Missionary Sister. She told the group that she has had a wonderful life – some years spent as Superior General and Assistant General of the Missionary Sisters, some years in the Philippines and early years spent on the Cabrini College campus as a student and as the Dean of Students.
Sr. Patricia led a dialogue on the 10 Secrets to Happiness by Pope Francis. Members of the group read each “secret” and a discussion ensued. For each secret, Sr. Patricia offered her own insights and wisdom. All of the participants were fully engaged in the discussion and the interaction was animated and heartfelt. We felt blessed by Sr. Patricia’s presence and so grateful for this opportunity to share these practical aspects of our faith journey.
As Sr. Patricia reminded us, “all of this challenges us to be authentic disciples of Jesus in the 21st Century and to promote true peace and reconciliation wherever we can.”
Pope Francis’ 10 Secrets to Happiness are:
1. Live and let live. – How would your life be happier if you stopped trying to change the lives of others?
2. Be giving of yourself to others. – How have you experienced happiness through reaching out to help others?
3. Proceed calmly. – In what ways can you cultivate peacefulness in your life?
4. Develop a healthy sense of leisure .- How do you balance work and leisure in your life?
5. Make Sunday a holy day. – What kinds of things would you have to change in your life in order to reclaim Sunday as a holy day?
6. Create jobs for young people. – How can you help young people find dignity and happiness through meaningful work or service?
7. Respect and take care of nature. – What is something you can do to become a better steward of God’s creation?
8. Stop being negative. – What steps can you take to eliminate negativity in your life?
9. Respect others’ beliefs. How do you respect others’ beliefs and at the same time witness to your own.
10 Work for peace. – In what ways do you work and pray for peace?
Feast Day of St. Katharine Drexel, Friend of Mother Cabrini
March 3 is the feast day of St. Katharine Drexel, who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
Frances Cabrini and Katharine Drexel were contemporaries.
On February 12, 1891, Drexel professed her first vows as a religious, dedicating herself to work among the American Indians and Afro-Americans in the western and southwestern United States. She took the name Mother Katharine, and joined by thirteen other women, soon established a religious congregation, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Mother Frances Cabrini had advised Drexel about the “politics” of getting her new Order’s Rule approved by the Vatican bureaucracy in Rome.[5] A few months later, PhiladelphiaArchbishop Ryan blessed the cornerstone of the new motherhouse under construction in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
At the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Bensalem, PA, there is a bench in a parlor upon which Mother Cabrini and Mother Katharine sat to discuss the need for Mother Katharine to travel to Rome to see about getting her Order’s Rule approved. It was at Mother Cabrini’s insistence that Mother Katharine travel to Italy and wait there until the Rule was approved. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament enjoy sharing this insight and remain grateful to Mother Cabrini for her sage advice.
The Missionary Sisters launch new Stella Maris Province website
It is with great excitement that the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus announce the launch of our new website – www.mothercabrini.org.
“The principal mission of the Church is evangelization,
bringing the Good News to everyone.”
~ Pope Francis
For the Missionary Sisters, the website is a means of evangelization. Through it, we share the Good News of our Charism: “To be bearers of the Love of Christ in the World”. We express this through the stories of our missionary efforts, our corporate stances, the sharing of our vocational call, and the witness of the many people who labor with us to express God’s love.
We wish to express our gratitude to the team of people who worked tirelessly for over a year to create this new edition of the website. In particular, we want to thank Nancy Costello, Gina Scarpello, and Sr. Arlene Van Dusen, MSC. Of course, they were helped by many others but without their time, dedication and expertise we would not have the website we have today.
We encourage you to take the time to explore the site. We also ask for your feedback and suggestions. Finally, we ask that you send ideas for content and stories to Nancy Costello at cabrini-news@mothercabrini.org. With this new site and the flexibility it offers we can now post stories in a more timely manner. We want this site to be vibrant and alive and we need your help in doing this.
Let us be Good News in the world today!
World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life
A New CARA study was published just before the observance of the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life on February 2nd
Findings: Religious Profession Class of 2014 Highly Educated, Very Likely To Have Attended Catholic High School and University…study finds two-thirds of new religious entered community life with a bachelors degree or higher.
WASHINGTON — Men and women religious who professed perpetual vows to the nearly 800 communities of religious life in the United States in 2014 are highly educated and more likely than the average Catholic adult to attend Catholic high schools and universities. These were among the findings of the annual survey on new men and women religious conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.
About four in 10 (42 %) attended a Catholic elementary school, which is the same as that for all Catholic adults in the United States. They are more likely than other U.S. Catholics, however, to have attended a Catholic high school (31% of responding religious, compared to 22% of U.S. adult Catholics) and much more likely to have attended a Catholic college (34 percent of responding religious, compared to just 7 % of U.S. adult Catholics.)
Eighteen percent of responding religious earned a graduate degree before entering their religious institute. Two in three (68 %) entered their religious institute with at least a bachelor’s degree (61 % for women and 80 % for men).
Most religious did not report that educational debt delayed their application for entrance to their institute. Among those who did report educational debt, however, they averaged one year of delay while they paid down an average of $15,750 in educational debt. Several of the women, but none of the men, reported receiving assistance in paying down their debt.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations commissioned the survey and released the results before the annual celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life, February 2 which is also celebrated in parishes on this coming weekend. The survey also comes amidst the Year of Consecrated Life, which began November 30, 2014. During this year, Catholics are invited to learn more about religious life by participating in the Day of Open House with Religious on this Sunday, February 8. Resources for the World Day of Consecrated Life, the Year of Consecrated Life and the entire CARA survey can be found at www.usccb.org/consecratedlife.
“Given the fact that 89 percent of those responding to the recent CARA survey of new religious had participated in some form of a ‘Come and See’ experience prior to entering their religious institute, we know it is important for our youth and young adults to have greater exposure and familiarity with the community life of religious,” said Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh, North Carolina, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. “I encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunity to visit local religious communities in their own area during the Day of Religious Open Houses, Sunday, February 8.”
CARA received a response from 454 of 799 major superiors, for an overall response rate of 57 percent among religious institutes.
Among the major findings:
- The average age of responding religious of the Profession Class of 2014 is 37.
- Half of the responding religious are age 34 or younger. The youngest is 24 and the oldest is 64.
- Two-thirds of responding religious (67 %) identify as white, more than one in seven (15 %) identifies as Hispanic, and one in seven
(14 %) identifies as Asian.
- Most responding religious (76 %) were born in the United States. Of those born outside the United States, the most common countries of origin are the Philippines and Vietnam.
- Among those identifying as Hispanic/Latino(a) two-thirds (67 %) are U.S. born and one-third (33 %) are foreign born
- Nearly nine in 10 (86 %) responding religious have been Catholic since birth. More than eight in 10 (83 %) come from families in which both parents are Catholic. Nearly all of the religious of the Profession Class of 2014 (89 %) participated in some type of vocation program or experience prior to entering their religious institute. Most commonly was a “Come and See” experience (59%) or a vocation retreat (50 %). Men were more likely than women to have participated in a “Come and See” experience (66% and 56%, respectively) or in a vocation retreat (59% for men compared to 45% for women).
To read the full CARA report:
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/consecrated-life/upload/PR-15-018.pdf