Cross now ready to top Motherhouse tower

Removal. Check.


Repair and restoration. Check.

Signatures filling the inside surfaces. Check.

And this morning, Feb. 27, a special blessing. Check.

Now all that remains is to return the 107-year-old cross to its honored spot at the highest point on the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse in Concordia.

The lightweight metal cross had graced the top tower of the historic Nazareth Convent and Academy since it was built in 1902. It was removed in September 2008 when maintenance workers discovered damage to both the cross and its base.

Over the last several months, maintenance employees repaired the damage and strengthened and repainted the structure. All this week the nearly-6-foot-tall structure has been on display at the Motherhouse and available for sisters and staff to sign its inside surfaces.

Then, the cross was blessed as part of the 11 a.m. Mass at the Motherhouse this morning.

The next step will be for Geisler Roofing of Concordia to put it back atop the seven-story tower, 110 feet off the ground. The timing of that will depend on the weather; a windfree day is needed for what could be a dangerous task.

Sister Ann Loretta Moore, Aug. 14, 1910-Feb. 23, 2009

Eulogy for Sister Ann Loretta Moore
Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas
Eulogist: Sister Norma Schlick
Vigil: Feb. 25, 2009

Many of us know that Sister Ann Loretta hailed from the “show me state” of Missouri, and true to form she asked me to write her eulogy and show it to her before her death. So tonight for a brief time I will share with you this pre-approved and nicely packaged story of her life.

She was, indeed, from Missouri, born to John and Frances Koenig Moore on Aug. 14, 1910. She was given the name of Lucille at baptism in the St. Lawrence Church in Monett. In her family, now all deceased, she had five sisters, Mary, Frances, Margaret, Loretta and Agnes, an infant who died at birth. Her three brothers were John, Joseph, and Clarence.

Sister Ann Loretta described her family life this way: “My parents were good, religious, hardworking people and were my greatest inspiration. They taught us to work and to love one another.” She maintained strong bonds with her family throughout her life, enjoying many visits to her sisters and families in Oklahoma and Missouri. Sister Ann Loretta always carried with her the pain of losing her sister, Loretta, at age 14.

This happened in 1929 after Sister entered Nazareth Convent as a postulant. She was given the choice of going home for the funeral and a time away with her family or remaining as a postulant. She left at that time and returned to her home. She entered again a year later in1930.

Sister Ann Loretta’s early education was with the Sisters of St. Joseph in Monett. All through high school she felt a deep desire to enter religious life and she prayed daily for this vocation. She had great devotion to the Blessed Mother and asked for her guidance. The rosary was her favorite prayer throughout her life.

Relative to her request to enter in Concordia, her pastor in Monett wrote on her behalf: “Lucille Anna Moore was born here and always lived here, so to Monett her life is an open book without stain or shadow. I hope she will be suited to religious life and that it will suit her.” After re-entering the community in 1930, she was happy to receive the name of Ann Loretta in honor of her sister. She received the habit on Aug. 15, 1930, made first vows in 1932 and final vows in 1935.

Sister Ann Loretta’s entire religious life centered around nursing and health care. In 1932 she began nurses’ training at St. Joseph Hospital in Concordia, then located at the site of the present Manna House. She completed the three year course in 1935, earned her R.N. and continued to serve at that hospital until 1939. Her other mission assignments then took her to EI Paso, Texas, and to hospitals in Sabetha, Atwood, again to Concordia, and Manhattan, Kansas and to Belvidere, Illinois.

As a professional obstetrical nurse, Sister Ann Loretta was a department supervisor in many of the places in which she served. In later years she fondly recalled the times she assisted at births and saved a number of babies from death in infancy. One birth in particular stood out for her. In Belvidere she assisted in the birth of a baby weighing less than two pounds. The doctor was not enthusiastic about the chances of the child surviving. Sister took charge and gave the infant one drop of milk at a time and nursed it into life. The baby, baptized immediately, was named Mary Ann. In recent years, after correspondence over a long period of time, it gave Sister Ann Loretta great joy to meet this baby again in the person of Mary Ann and her husband, Harold Henning, who came to visit her in Concordia. Sister Ann Loretta never tired of telling this story.

Later in life, Sister Ann Loretta put her nursing skills to good use serving elderly people, often visiting them in their homes. She spent several years living with Sister Dolorine helping to care for Sister’s elderly mother. In Stafford Hall and the Motherhouse she often volunteered to sit with the dying until her own failing health no longer allowed her to do so. At the age of 94, Sister Ann Loretta accepted the new assignment of becoming a resident of Mount Joseph Nursing Home in Concordia. This was a difficult transition for her, but she appreciated the nursing assistance she received there and she enjoyed the many visits and support of other members of the community.

As a native of Missouri, a fact we referred to earlier, she retained her outspoken attitude when dealing with life in general, a trait that might remind us of another Missourian, Harry Truman. She loved sports of all kinds and never tired of watching games on TV played by her beloved St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals. She kept abreast of the individual statistics of team members and often could be found saying the rosary for them during the games. She loved for them to win!

On a more serious note, Sister Ann Loretta was a very prayerful person who faced her own last illness and death with dignity, and she accepted her sufferings, uniting them with the sufferings of Jesus. She died at Mount Joseph on Feb. 23, 2009, at the age of 98. We pray that she is now united with Jesus in his resurrected life for all eternity.

Los Alamos Peace Vigil, 2008

Every year the Pax Christi NM sponsors a peace vigil commemorating the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In 2008, the vigil began on Aug. 1 with Liturgy celebrated by Father John Dear.  Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ spoke on the escalation of death when we disrespect the dignity of life. Death of folks on death row, war, violence of every kind is able to be “justified” when we loose our moral fiber as a nation, as a people. She kept asking “How did we get to this point?”

Praying for Peace at Fort Riley, Kan.

Response to social justice requires not only direct service but advocacy/action for change. On March 19, 2008, St. Joseph’s Day and the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War moved us to pray for peace. At Freedom Park, we prayed for an end to the war, for the safe return of our loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan; we prayed for their families and children as they try to cope with the rigors of one parent home; we prayed for the Iraqi soldiers, their families and children; we prayed for the environment. And, lastly, we prayed for us as a nation asking God to help us regain a sense of the common good, where the most vulnerable among us is attended to.

Peace and Justice

• Praying for Peace
• Los Alamos Peace Vigil

Sisters, staff leave their mark in cross

With the refurbished cross ready to be returned to its place atop the seven-story tower of the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse, there was only one thing missing: “Personalization” by those who were here when the 107-year-old structure was taken down, and who will be here when it goes back up.

Sisters and employees at the Motherhouse had the opportunity beginning Tuesday, Feb. 24, to sign and date the inside of the lightweight metal cross, which had graced the top tower of the historic Nazareth Convent and Academy since it was built in 1902. The cross was removed in September 2008 when maintenance workers discovered damage to both the cross and its base.

Over the last several months, maintenance employees repaired the damage and have strengthened the structure and repainted it, and Geisler Roofing of Concordia will be called in to put it back on the tallest point of the Motherhouse.

The cross, which is nearly 6-foot tall, will be blessed at the 11 a.m. Mass Friday and then will be returned to its tower-top perch 110 feet off the ground as soon as weather permits.

Sister Survivors of European Communism

The 40-plus year silence and oppression of sisters under European communism is slowly becoming known through a research project, Sister Survivors of European Communism.

Initiated in 2003 by Sisters of St. Joseph Margaret Nacke and Mary Savoie, who volunteered in Romania after the fall of communism, hundreds of testimonies, photographs, books, and other documents have been collected and archived at Catholic Theological Union’s Bechtold Library in Chicago.

Preserving the stories of the extraordinary courage and unwavering commitment of these sisters is important historical data for the archives of the Catholic church.  Every effort was made by the Soviet communists and their satellite countries to suppress all activities of the sisters, depriving them of ministries that would in any way influence others and placing them in works that would negate any contact; therefore, whether on farms, in factories, caring for the elderly or incarcerated in prisons, sisters seemed undeterred in living their faith.

Aware of the urgency of interviewing many of the sisters because of age, the authors of this project worked with major superiors in the eight countries of focus to collect data.  The project has taken various paths since its inception; for example, a PowerPoint presentation titled “Witnesses to Faith” offers a background of historical information, specific photographs of sisters with their testimonies, and a variety of situations of sisters during this period.  “Faces of Faith” is a traveling exhibit of sixteen 11 x 20 inch photographs of sisters with information about their lives under communism.  In 2006, Sisters Margaret and Mary — in collaboration with the Ukrainian Catholic University’s Institute of Church History — presented a conference in Lviv, Ukraine, with the theme “Our Common Mission and Commitment: Lessons from Sister Survivors of European Communism.”

THE CONFERENCE

Sisters Margaret and Mary in July 2006 planned and facilitated a conference in Lviv, Ukraine. The conference was held at Holy Spirit Seminary and brought together sisters from eight former communist countries.  The goal of this conference was to examine fundamental values guiding sisters who lived under communism and to explore ways in which these values can be integrated into our lives as sisters.

The Rev. Dr. Borys Gudziak, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, in his opening address focused his remarks on the history of the persecuted Greek Catholic Church, how that history has been recorded and his personal thoughts and hypothesis about female religious relative to the underground church.  Dr. Gemma Simmonds, Congregation of Jesus, lecturer in Theology, Heythrop College, University of London, gave the major presentations.  Her remarks anchored the universal relevancy and value of the work of the conference for the church and especially for women religious.

Some of the lessons expressed by conference participants as they reflected on the lives of those who experienced communism:

• Human life is characterized by conflict and tragedy; however, through the witness of faith our lives can become a revelation, not of the hopelessness of the human condition, but of the hope that is to be uncovered in tragedy.

• We need to examine our current religious lives, not only as affected by our past, but more importantly in light of today’s church and social realities.

• The hardships of the past were clear and we endured them.  We are now experiencing the slavery of freedom.

• We are called, as T.S. Eliot said, to a condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything.

THE DOCUMENTARY

A recent initiative is the production of a one-hour broadcast documentary, “Interrupted Lives — Catholic Sisters Under European Communism,” that will reach a broad audience in this country and abroad.  Expected to be completed by April 2009, the documentary will include reflections from Eastern European historians, re-enactments of life in prison and escape, and on-site interviews to bring to life the story of Sister Survivors.

The Sister Survivors project is an example of international cross-border collaboration among congregations of women religious who lived under communism.  Although the project reveals the over 40-year oppression of sisters in some Central and Eastern European countries, directors are aware that substantial research remains to expand learning about the oppression of sisters under European communism but also in other parts of the world.

Maxim for the Week

The Maxims of the Little Institute
Maxim 52

Interpret all things from the best possible point of view

In English, in French it says what it says! Is this the way of Maxim 51? Always ascribe the best intentions to even the nastiest disposition?! Is this not a challenge to engage the dynamic of memory, understanding and will… learning how to seek and to find God in all things? Even asking the question, I feel douceur yearning to have a hand in this…

Do I have a personal story about this Maxim?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Maxims, written by our founder, Father Jean-Pierre Medaille, in the late 1600s, are the essence of the spirituality of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

The reflections here are taken from Love’s Design by Marcia Allen, CSJ. There are 100 maxims in all. A new maxim will be posted each week. We invite you to read the maxim and contemplate what it is saying to you. We also invite you to join us in praying for the prayer requests listed on this page. Blessings!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For more information about the booklet, “Love’s Design” by Marcia Allen, CSJ

contact cthrash@mannahouse.org

Tower cross returns to Motherhouse this week

Roughly five months after being removed from its place of honor atop the 110-foot tower of the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse in Concordia, the distinctive metal-clad cross will soon be gracing the historic building again.

Geisler Roofing of Concordia was called in last September to remove the cross, along with its base and decorative “crown” piece — which together measure nearly 6-feet tall — after workers at the Motherhouse discovered water damage to the cross and the surrounding structure.

It was believed to have been the first time the 107-year-old red brick building had been without its cross. When the Nazareth Convent and Academy was built in 1902, the metal cross was mounted over an 8X8 timber that extended up through the roof. And while the main part of the building is five stories tall, the tower that the cross caps reaches into the sky two more stories.

Geisler workers began the process of restoring the cross — made of a light-weight “bonderized” metal that resists rust and corrosion. Then Jim Helton, who this year is celebrating his 30th anniversary as a maintenance worker at the Motherhouse, took over the work of repairing and strengthening the original metalwork. The final step was a new coat of paint that mimics the appearance of the stone on the building.

Today (Feb. 23) members of the Sisters of St. Joseph will have their first chance to see the repaired and refurbished cross, and they will be able to sign the inside surfaces. Then, on Friday (Feb. 27) it will be blessed in a special Mass at the Motherhouse.

Soon after that, workers from Geisler Roofing will return to put it back where it belongs, said Greg Gallagher, facilities administrator at the Motherhouse.

“Every time I drive in, my eye goes right there, to where it should be,’ Gallagher said recently. “The building just isn’t complete without it.”

Messages Home: Feb. 23, 2009

From Loretta Jasper, CSJ, who is working for a month at Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany. To learn more about her mission, click HERE.

For those of you who are interested: Google “Fasching” to learn more about (pre-lenten) Karneval ala’ Germany/Bavaria.

Vilseck where I stay is a small town…7000, population I would guess. Their Fasching parade which brought in folks from the neighboring towns “rocked”. There were probably 100 different groups who paraded the four blocks. There was no jewelry pitched but an endless supply of individually wrapped candy, and popcorn. And shots of spirits. Of course, since there is “no water” in Germany/Bavaria, it was a rare adult who walked in the parade without a containor of spirits–to sustain strength. So fun to be a part of. All ages, sizes; colors of costume and who knows the theme! Just fun! And this was a small parade!

Of course, Angelika’s (hotel owner) 23 y.o. son and friends were in and out the previous night and all day Sunday preparing for the parade. One of the male friends, a trumpet player in one of the parade bands, came to the hotel wearing a pink wig, black dress, make-up, and two of his little girl’s soft squeaky toys which he borrowed to complete his womanly look. In order to use the toys, he promised her a post-parade surprise.

Generators were anchored to either the large farm tractor (John Deere, of course, my brother!), or the hitch between the float and the tractor to amplify the sound system on each float. Please understand: this was NOTHING compared to the inaugural parade of several weeks ago. The parade in DC was quieter and more regal. Did I take photos? Of course! The small cluster of us who walked to the parade from the hotel had a great time.

Saturday was a 2-hour drive to Regensburg for exploration. Four of us went. Once again buildings dating at least to the 7th century of mammoth size and spectacular architecture. Of course, we had to test a few of the breads and ethnic menus.

I have discovered, with being in Germany, that it is best to first pay for a tour of the city to get a bird’s view and the historical explanation. Highlights for further visiting and exploring can then follow.

Loretta Jasper

Next Page »