They worked on two homes for families who have waited over six years to return, under the auspices of Phoenix-PNOLA, a recognized not for profit dedicated to the rebuilding of New Orleans. We also arranged local visits to sites where sisters are ministering, and to neighborhoods still recovering from Katrina. The women spent long days doing finishing work that included cutting and laying floor, drywall prep and painting . The weather cooperated except for the first day when it was unseasonably cold.

S. Carol Wirtz SC, Cincinnati, S. Nancy Gerth SCN, Nazareth, and two of our young women participants, Kaytee and Cheyenne.

Once returned to the House of Charity, a fine dinner was always prepared for them and evenings of reflection and prayer through the lens of the Charity charism helped the group to bond in deeper ways. The women considered how Christ was revealed through the events of their day, often inspired by a word or phrase sent to accompany them from morning prayer. During the time after evening reflection there was time to sit and talk with a sister or to play board games together.” Bananagrams” was a favorite for this group.

Some of the women were early in their liberal arts education, while others were in focused studies preparing them for careers in social services, physical therapy, and law. Several were post college and open to the possibility of religious life. Some of them had been on prior service trips to Appalachia or across the Mexican border. Each expressed gratitude for the opportunity to spend time with Sisters while giving service. The week wasn’t all work and prayer. On Friday there was the opportunity for seeing a bit more New Orleans life and culture with a visit to the French Quarter and some real “Cajun” food and music to experience a bit more New Orleans culture and her people.

From what was shared on the evaluation forms, it was a treasured and memorable experience for all involved. With social networking what it is, many made new “Friends” on Facebook as a result of time together in New Orleans.

The House of Charity is open to groups from Congregations in the Sisters of Charity Federation including: vocation discerners, young adults through parish or campus ministry, Sisters in the Federation, and volunteer groups from Sister of Charity related parishes, staffs or other related ministries where prayer and formation in the Vincentian spirit as well as an experience of service are of value. Vocation discernment time integrated with direct service has also been part of the Federation collaboration. Much of our outreach is focused on young adults yet many groups of Sisters from across the Federation have also enjoyed the House of Charity hospitality and opportunity for a grassroots Federation experience. The NUNs BUILD event for this year is scheduled for November 11 – 17, 2012. If you wish to schedule a group or be part of NUNs BUILD, you can contact Sr. Monica Gundler at (504)866-4830.

We appreciate all the many Sisters we have come to know while here at the House of Charity. We are grateful for your kind words, gifts, and donations toward our ministry. We look forward to many future visits from across the “branches” of our Charity roots!

Team members who provide this service are members of a base Christian community whose founding member retired in January 2012. A position is available for a LEFSA Team Member with a coordinating role to join the Life Experience and Faith Sharing Association. Grants writing experience and proficiency required. Position includes NY Archdiocesan Religious stipend. Persons interested can contact Karen Helfenstein, SC, Director of Sponsorship Services, Sisters of Charity of New York, at khelfenstein@scny.org by March 15, 2012 for further details.

As of January 31, 2012, the Vincentian Family has raised over $520,000 (including matching grants) that will be used to reach out to Haitians living on the margins of society. About 350 new families will be able to enroll in Chemen Lavi Miyò (Pathways to a Better Life).

Families chosen to participate are usually headed by women with several children, who may be malnourished and are not enrolled in school. The family’s health needs are not addressed by professionals, and the family has no reliable source of income.

When a family commits to the 18-month CLM approach, they receive construction materials to build a house with a sturdy roof and a floor. They also build a separate and sanitary latrine. They gain access to free health care, a water filter and receive weekly visits from a case manager, who reinforces what they have learned to ensure progress along the path to prosperity. The children may for the first time in their lives attend school, while the mom chooses several ways to earn an income through a micro business or an agricultural enterprise. All the while the mom learns skills for life that build her confidence in her ability to guide her family out of poverty and weather inevitable setbacks.

Within a year and a half the family can graduate from the program if the mom and her children are properly nourished and food secure, the house has a good roof, the mom has proven successful in at least two income-generating activities and the family has assets of at least $150. The final criterion for success is that the mom believes that she can stay on this path to success and has a plan for an economically stable future. The program has a 96% success rate.

Thank you for your generous support of Zafèn and of those living in dire poverty in Haiti.

Click here to view and download.

Each year the SCNs offer a vacation week for Sisters at Camp Maria Retreat Center on Breton Bay in Southern Maryland, which is one of their ministries. The dates they have scheduled for vacation week for 2012 are July 3–10. The Sisters of Charity-Nazareth invite all Sisters of the Federation to join them. Click here for the registration form. 

The Vincentian Family at the United Nations (the Daughters of Charity, the Sisters of Charity Federation and the Congregation of the Mission) is co-sponsoring a UN Orientation for their members from April 18-20, 2012. The orientation will provide participants with an overview of the UN system, the work of the Commissions and committees, a visit to the mission of one of the member states (e.g. Haiti, Bolivia, etc.) and/or the U.S. mission, the charism of the Vincentian Family at the UN and the work of the NGOs, and updates on current world issues. Registration forms must be received by April 6, 2012.

The Millennium Consumption Goals and Rio+20

The Millennium Consumption Goals (MCGs) idea was proposed by Professor Munasinghe of Sri Lanka in January 2011 at the United Nations in New York. According to Professor Munasinghe, “MCGs could help make our development path more sustainable, by focusing on the 1.4 billion people in the richest 20 percentile of the world’s population. They consume over 80% of global output, or 60 times more than the poorest 20 percentile. Instead of viewing the rich as a problem, they should be persuaded to contribute to the solution.”  The MCGs will complement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) designed to help the world’s poor. The (MCGs) aim to provide consumption targets designed to motivate the world’s rich to consume more sustainably. They will make human consumption and production more sustainable in economic, environmental and social terms, thereby improving overall well-being, reducing the burden on natural resources, freeing up resources to alleviate poverty, and ensuring intra- and inter-generational equity.

The MCGs are still a work in progress. Suggested MCGs include the following:

1.  Greenhouse gas emissions reduction
2.  Energy use (conservation, fossil fuels, renewable energy, transport, buildings,  etc.)
3.  Water use (conservation, quality, re-use, etc.)
4.  Land and biomass use
5.  Ores and industrial minerals
6.  Construction materials and minerals
7.  Pollution and waste (air and water effluents, solid waste, toxic waste and chemicals, etc.)
8.  Food and agriculture
9.  Health and obesity (Diet, smoking, exercise, etc.)
10.  Livelihoods and lifestyles (working hours, work conditions, etc.)
11.  Economic-financial systems (progressive taxation, banking reform, measures of well-being, etc.)
12. Military expenditures

A summary of the proposal submitted to Rio+20 reads as follows:

“Establish a set of Millennium Consumption Goals for the period 2012-2020 and for subsequent decades, complementing the Millennium Development Goals, and helping to ensure that the basic needs of the poor are met, preserve and strengthen earth’s natural resource base on which human society depends, and enhance global prosperity, while ensuring a good quality of life and well-being for everyone by 2020, improving intra- and inter-generational equity, and accelerating the shift to more sustainable consumption and production as an essential step towards the ultimate goal of sustainable development.”

Action:  During Lent choose one or two of the suggested MCGs listed above and evaluate yourself. What are you doing to reduce your use of water? What can you do to conserve energy? What are your eating habits? Is your lifestyle a healthy one?  Take the time to discuss the MCGs with someone else or with a small group. Encourage each other to make changes to reduce the use of natural resources and enhance quality of life.

For further information on the MCGs go to the following website: www.millenniumconsumptiongoals.org

Living the Days of Lent 2012,

The introduction reads as follows:

Each year the Church gifts us with forty days of Lent, followed by fifty days of Easter. During this quarter of the Church year we have the opportunity to enter into the Paschal Mystery as fully as possible. Our everyday lives are filled with times of suffering and dying as well as times of rising and renewing. In Lent we are invited to unite our individual times of suffering and death with those of the broader Church and ultimately with those of Jesus.

The pages that follow were written by Sisters of Charity of New York and Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth of New Jersey. As daughters of Elizabeth Ann Seton, they minister to those who suffer in many ways: in hospitals and hospices, in classrooms and clinics, and in parishes and pastoral centers.

May our Lenten journey this year be one that will enable us to touch our pain, the pain of others, and the pain of the world in a way that will open us all to the healing touch of Jesus.  To purchase Living the Days of Lent, click here

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/living-the-days-of-lent-2012-ellen-dauwer/1102960734?ean=9780809147113

or

http://www.paulistpress.com/bookView.cgi?isbn=978-0-8091-4711-3

In the summer of 2010, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill at the generalate in Chicago initiated a program to bring together sisters from both the United States and Korean provinces for an Interprovincial Experience of Charism and Mission. Five sisters from each province are invited to gather at the generalate for the first ten days of the program to reflect, pray and share insights on the charism and heritage of founders Saints Vincent DePaul, Louise DeMarillac and Elizabeth Ann Seton. The sisters also spend one afternoon in volunteer service in outreach agencies in the Chicago area. So that there is full participate in all aspects of the program, translation is provided not only for formal presentations, but for shared prayer and informal conversations at meals, outings and doing household chores. Following the time spent steeping themselves in charism study and prayer, the sisters then travel together to Ecuador for a ten-day mission experience to work with the sisters from the Korean province who are assigned to administer the school and clinic in Pedro Carbo.

Last summer, General Superior Sister Marlene Mondalek accompanied the group to Ecuador. They were joined by Cincinnati Sister of Charity Janet Gildea and her assistant Tracy Keeme. Sister Janet and Tracy came from their ministry at the clinic in El Paso to volunteer their services in health care and also serve as Spanish translators. As program participants soon discovered during their time together in Ecuador, language is no barrier to a ministry of presence as they engaged the children in a variety of classroom activities in the school, assisted with health services in the clinic, and traveled to mountain villages on home visits to poor families.

Reflecting on the overall experience, Seton Hill Sister of Charity Colette Hanlon tells what compelled her to undertake this adventure and why she encourages others to try it! Cincinnati Sister of Charity Janet Gildea shares her insights on her blog which can be accessed at http://janetsc.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/scs-in-ecuador/  Select entry titled Ecuador: No se preocupe: don’t worry! (dated August 21, 2011).

Download/read: A Chance to Address My “Bucket List”