Sister’s service in Missouri featured in diocesan paper

Sister Nancy Meade was featured in a lengthy front-page article in the March 27 edition of “The Catholic Missourian,” the newspaper of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo. The “news event” was Nancy’s golden jubilee Mass March 19 in Boonville, Mo., where she served for many years. But the feature story also gives wonderful detail about her years as a CSJ and all of the children she taught while in Boonville. To read it, click HERE.

New documentary airs for first time

Before the first-ever screening of “Interrupted Lives” Monday evening, Sister Mary Savoie asked her audience to watch the so-called rough cut of the one-hour documentary with a couple of thoughts in mind:

“There’s a lot of information in this one hour,” she told the 60 or so sisters gathered in the auditorium of the Motherhouse, “but what we want you to focus on is what inspires you… Not just information but inspiration.”

The question she urged her fellow Sisters of St. Joseph to consider was this: “What seed allowed these women to persevere?”

It’s clearly a question that has driven Sister Mary and her partner, Sister Margaret Nacke, in the early six years they have devoted to meeting sisters in eight countries in Eastern Europe and researching the impact of Eastern European communism on those women as individuals and on their religious orders. Ultimately, it has been the question that led to the collaboration with NewGroup Media and the development of the documentary, which was aired for the first time Monday night.

The next step will be to send a version of the film, produced by NewGroup Media of South Bend, Ind., to the Catholic Communication Campaign of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for its OK. The USCCB donated $185,000 of the $350,000 Sisters Mary and Margaret said they needed to raise for the documentary.

After that, they will work to finalize a tentative agreement they have with ABC Television to air the documentary this fall. Their hope is to also produce a study guide to accompany the film, and a web site to complement is already in the works.

The sisters at Monday night’s screening clearly found the work worthwhile as they struggled with the answer to Sister Mary’s question.

The film covers the era from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, and spans Eastern Europe from Lithuania to Slovakia and the Ukraine. The story is told in relatively straightforward historical terms, interspersed with the horrific personal stories of religious women who survived it.

Through their stories, with explanation from the narrator, viewers learn there was not a single universal experience for religious women in that time and place; while all sisters were oppressed under the governmental atheism of the Soviet Union, the degrees of that oppression varied from country to country. Some orders were disbanded and the sisters displaced or assigned to what became known as “concentration convents,” while other sisters were imprisoned, tortured and even killed for refusing to forsake their beliefs.

“I am ashamed of every complaint I’ve ever had,” said one of the older Sisters of St. Joseph at the end of Monday night’s showing. “We are asked to give so little,” said another, “and they were asked to give so much.”

For more on the work of Sisters Mary Savoie and Margaret Nacke, go to http://tinyurl.com/sistersproject

To meet some of the Eastern European sisters, go to http://tinyurl.com/facesoffaith

Mexican Rotary group tours Motherhouse

Five young business professionals from three different areas of Mexico visited the Motherhouse this morning as part of the Rotary International Group Study Exchange program.


Sister Jean Rosemarynoski, who is a member of the local Rotary club, led the tour. Serving as translator for Sister Jean and the group was Sister Judy Stephens.


Also taking part were local Rotarians Rich Underbakke, president of the Concordia club, and state Rep. Elaine Bowers.


The Mexicans will be in Kansas for a month, under the sponsorship of the Salina Rotary District. They had already been to Wichita and Salina, and the Concordia stop was part of a planned three-day stay in the Beloit area.


The five were from the Mexican cities of Tepic, Colima and Guadalajara.


Rotary’s GSE program is designed for business and professional men and women ages 25 to 40 who are in the early years of their professional lives. GSE provides travel grants for four to six weeks for teams of non-Rotarian professional men and women to exchange visits between paired Rotary districts in different countries.

‘Neighbor to Neighbor’ draws excited response

As community members at a “working lunch” Thursday chowed down on sandwiches, chips and potato salad, the topic of most interest was a planned downtown center that may, among other things, teach mothers how to cook for their children.


This was the first time in this series of community forums and working lunches, all hosted by the Sisters of St. Joseph at their Concordia Motherhouse, where the sisters unveiled plans for “Neighbor to Neighbor,” which will open in late 2009 or early 2010 at 103 E. 6th St.


The sisters purchased the building, which was formerly the home of Conn’s TV & Appliances, on April 1 and are now beginning a fundraising drive to renovate and refurbish it. Sisters Pat McLennon, Ramona Medina and Jean Befort, who will operate the new center, all spoke at Thursday’s meeting.


The three hope to provide what they called “practical, hands-on help” for women and their pre-school children. Services offered at Neighbor to Neighbor will likely include nutrition and parenting classes, workshops on healthy living, personal counseling and information on what help is available through other agencies. The center will also have small facilities to meet what Sister Pat described as “basic needs” — showers, at least two washers and dryers and a small kitchen.


But all three sisters emphasized that whatever help is offered will be tailored to the needs of the women they serve.


The money for the center will all come from private donations. “There will be no government funds,” Sister Pat stressed, “so we can be focused on meeting the needs of women who come to us.”


Sister Ramona added that services and volunteer opportunities will be added and developed as the need for them is identified.


Identifying needs has been a focus throughout the series of meetings the Sisters of St. Joseph began last fall, when the sisters met individually with a variety of community leaders to ask them their views on the most pressing issues facing Concordia and Cloud County. The conclusions from those informal conversations and other research became the basis for a “community needs report” the sisters presented in a forum in mid-January.


Then, in February, the sisters invited the public to join the conversation in two more forums designed to come up with solutions. So far, almost 70 individuals representing 35 organizations and agencies from throughout the community have been involved.


At Thursday’s working lunch, a number of small groups gave reports on the projects they’ve taken on:


• Sue Sutton of Cloud County Community College, speaking for the group that has focused on nonviolence, said she had dubbed the participants “the old hippies.” She said they will ask local government entities and agencies to proclaim a year of peace, and to focus on classes or workshops designed to help people understand nonviolent communication and ways to resolve conflict.


• Rose Koerber of the Cloud County Medical Center said the small group discussing health care is “in the very beginning stages” of a plan that would create a mid-level clinic for people who cannot afford basic medical care. The county Health Department, the hospital and volunteers would work together to create the collaborative service, she said, and any fees would be based on a sliding scale.


• Judie Deal of OCCK Inc. said her small group hopes to form a larger local committee to push for some form of countywide public transportation. “We’ve been fighting this battle for a lot of years,” she noted.


• Cecelia Thrash of Manna House of Prayer, a part of the group working on creating an updated community resource guide, said the Community Resource Center had just learned it received a grant that will pay for creating an online guide and updating the current printed guide. She had no other details on the grant yet, and expects a fuller report at the next working lunch.


Sister Marcia Allen, president of the Sisters of St. Joseph and one of the organizers of the forum series, asked those attending Thursday’s meeting to take part in a short survey, primarily aimed at determining whether they see value in the sessions.


The responses were unanimously positive, Sister Marcia said. And most hope to continue the process of meeting every six weeks or so in the large group to report on progress and brainstorm more.


The sisters will host the next session in June, and the small groups will continue to work until then. If you are interested in being a part of any of the groups, you can contact Sister Jean Rosemarynoski by phone at 785-243-2149, or by email at sisterjean@csjkansas.org.


“We discovered (in this process) that we could not only consult, but we could collaborate,” Sister Marcia said at the end of Thursday’s meeting. “It allows our community (of sisters) to give back to the broader community of Concordia and Cloud County.”

Bishop celebrates Mass, visits sisters

Bishop Paul S. Coakley celebrated Mass in the historic Sacred Heart Chapel at the Motherhouse this morning, then joined the sisters for dinner before meeting with the Leadership Council early this afternoon.


During the Mass, Bishop Coakley made special mention of the Easter season and the beauty of the chapel that makes up the east end of the Motherhouse. The 40 or so sisters who live in the Motherhouse and most of those who live elsewhere in Concordia attended the service.


Before and during the dinner meal in the Motherhouse’s dining room, the bishop chatted with many of the sisters — some of whom he was meeting for the first time and a number he has known for years.

Joining the bishop at his table for dinner were Sisters Barbara Bader, Anne Martin Reinert, Mary Reiter and Marcia Allen, as well as Father Jack Schlaef, chaplain at the Motherhouse.

Sisters take dream program on the road

(Published April 17, 2009)
By Sister Carmel Garcia

The Sisters of St. Joseph’s Diocesan Tour is an idea conceived by a dream team of Sisters whose goal was to explore opportunities to talk about religious life. Based on an assumption that young people may not be knocking at the doors of religious communities asking to become Sisters due to a lack of experiences with Sisters, a tour throughout the Salina Diocese surfaced as the format.

The very first stop was a visit with Bishop Paul Coakley. He eagerly endorsed and blessed the idea. Bishop Coakley joined the journey by writing a letter to the parish priests and administrators announcing the diocesan tour. Sister Jean Rosemarynoski followed with a call to confirm a date for the tour in each parish. The Salina Register featured the diocesan tour.

A half hour program is the dream that carries the Diocesan Tour. The program is inspired by Joseph dreams—Joseph, in the old Testament, using the song “Any Dream Will Do” from the stage play; Joseph, the husband of Mary; and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia. The common thread is that these three Josephs experience dreams as their call to God. After Mass, the parish invites all to the parish hall for the Diocesan Tour and provides coffee and doughnuts. Complementary to the PowerPoint dream presentation, are story board displays and brochures featuring works of the Sisters of St. Joseph and information about becoming a Sister of St. Joseph and newer forms of membership–Associates or Agrégées

Were we to re-name the tour, we might call it the Diocesan Pilgrimage. As is true of any pilgrimage, we come home transformed by the experience and share the stories.

The most significant outcome is re-connecting with folks, re-igniting relationships and finding new partners and friends. Young girls decide to come to the discover camp, become camp counselors and author a teen newspaper. Women and men chose to attend a retreat at Manna House or ask Manna House to provide a retreat day in their parish. Many call to schedule a tour at the Motherhouse, sign up to receive the CSJ Newspaper now (The Messenger). The spirit of the faithful in the Salina Diocese and your relationship with the Sisters of St. Joseph is as vibrant and full of zeal as ever! Thank you for hosting us in your parishes and hosting our Motherhouse within the diocese! Our lives are enriched by you!

Communities look more like a ‘movement’

(Published April 3, 2009)
By Sister Marcia Allen

India! For the last year and a half I have had India on my mind. In January, 2008, I had the good fortune of going to India to help teach a course on what it means to be a Sister of St. Joseph or, more exactly, what it means to be a member of the Community of St. Joseph as an associate or agregee. The India experience taught me more than I taught those who came for the course. The internationality of the participants convinced me that communities of St. Joseph are not just static groups of women living locked in a geographic setting somewhere. Rather, these communities belong to what looks more like a movement – a “Joseph movement.”

Communities of St. Joseph dot the map. They are located in almost every country – from the reaches of the Far East in China, Japan, and India; throughout Latin America; in the middle east and Africa; across Europe and the North American continent. They are communities of women with canonical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Some are committed through a non-canonical vow of fidelity. They also contain many kinds of lay associations of women and men. All of these facets are growing and robust. Each community is part of a wide ban of enthusiasm for the values that make life fulfilling and give it meaning.

Where communities of St. Joseph exist one can feel the restless energy inspired by the Holy Spirit. They enter the human struggle to live a fully human life with “glad and practical cooperation.” They grow up where there is need for healing, for hope, and for the struggle to live a fully human life. Their main purpose is to witness through community and personal service to the love of our God who wishes to be known in the experiences of being human.

Consequently, members and associates of communities of St. Joseph are found in every profession and most helping services throughout the world. They are always ready to move toward need; they live with their eyes and ears open, with sleeves rolled up, and with a heart that is ready. They specialize in listening – a special kind of listening for what the heart of the human desires. Always, they are mindful of community – the Christian community who are followers of Jesus, the Catholic community of which they are an integral part, and of their own communities – the special family of St. Joseph.

Why am I a part of this movement, this community of St. Joseph situated in Concordia, Kansas? The reason is simple – once I had met this community, I knew that I had found the love of my life! You, too, can join this vibrant life and make a difference for our world.

Sister Veronica Ann Baxa, in Minneapolis, Kan.

(Published Jan. 16, 2009)

I moved to Minneapolis, Kansas in 1990 from Clyde, Kansas where I had been for two years. Before that I was at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse in Concordia where I worked for twenty-three years until August 15, 1988.

I am presently ministering at the Good Samaritan Society Minneapolis Nursing Home in Minneapolis, Kansas working in the inventory control department for the nursing staff. I order the medical and nursing supplies needed to take care of our residents.

The system of ordering has been updated over the years. At first all ordering was done by telephone. Then we went to bar-coding items which was also done with the telephone. Now ordering is done on the computer. You have to keep learning to keep up with the times!

The staff and residents are happy when I make sure they have the supplies they need and I am happy to serve them in this way. Seeing their gratitude gives me great joy.

We try to make our home very much like their own home for the residents. When I come to work in the morning they are ready to greet me with smiles and a “Good Morning” welcome. I am eager to greet them back and ready to be of service for them for another day. My Christian faith calls me to empty myself in service for those in need. I am grateful to have the opportunity to do that for these dear residents.

When a resident passes away I conduct a bedside memorial service. This helps the staff to deal with the death of a resident. It is a privilege to be able to help us all through these sorrowful times and to share my faith in the risen Christ.

I am also a member of the Immaculate Conception Parish where I am in the adult choir. When our organist is away on a Sunday I take care of the music for our Sunday Liturgy. I am also Eucharistic Minister and belong to the Council of Catholic Women. I have previously been a member of our parish council.

God has been so good to me over the years. I enjoy living in Minneapolis and treasure the people I have met. In 2010, I will have been a Sister of St. Joseph for fifty years. I am grateful that God called me to this vocation. It has brought me much joy and peace!

Sister Anna Marie Broxterman, on vocations

(Published Jan. 9, 2009)
By Sister Anna Marie Broxterman, CSJ
Vocation Ministry Coordinator

The essence of a vocation is best captured for me through the following story: There was once a rabbi named Zushua, and as he was dying, his follower gathered around him and one asked him, “Rabbi Zushua, give us a wise word before you die.” And this is what Zushua said. “When I stand before God on Judgment Day, God will not ask me, ‘Zushua, why weren’t you more like Abraham or Moses.’ God will ask instead, ‘Zushua, why weren’t you more like Zushua?’”

To become who God created us to be is, indeed, the call for each of us – the call to holiness. The vocational path each is called into is the one in which the person can become the best person she/he can be. To discern that call requires listening to the “still small voice” that is within us as well as living a reflective life that is able to sift through the various chorus of voices that we experience and learn to recognize which voice is God’s. It helps to have a spiritual guide along the journey for it is so easy to be deceived. Deception is as old as Adam and Eve! We know and tell their story. The challenge is to know our own patterns of deception and be willing to share if it is of service to God and the neighbor.

My own call as Sister of St. Joseph is gift! The words from Pedro Arrupe, a former Superior General of the Jesuits express for me the quality of the gift of my vocation, falling in love with God.

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, what you know and what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

I seek to live that with abandon and my prayer is that on Judgment Day, God meets me and says, “Anna Marie thanks for being Anna Marie!”

Helping Hands Assistance Program, Concordia

(Published Nov. 21, 2008)
By Betty Suther, CSJ
Manna House Administrator

Among the services offered at Manna House of Prayer in Concordia is our Helping Hands program. From its very inception as a House of Prayer in 1978, Manna House has always had an outreach to the poor in our area. We believe that a part of the function of a prayer house is putting prayer into action, and one of the ways we try to do this is through service to the poor.

Helping Hands offers various services to the less fortunate in Cloud County and beyond. Personnel from Manna House supervise the program. Among the services we offer is assistance for utilities, clothing, medical help (pharmacy bills), travel (for transients or those traveling through town), food (from our food closet), and overnight housing in a motel for transients.

We work with the local agencies in town and in particular with the Family Resource Center. Various ministers in town and the local police know to send transients to our door. We receive assistance from Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish through the Catholic Thrift Shop, St. John the Baptist youth group from Clyde, the Sisters of St. Joseph and their Associates and employees, and several regular individuals who give generously. We are always in need of more assistance, and sometimes we run out of funds and need to turn people away.

Each year there are more and more poor persons who can barely squeak by. The little bit that we can help them gives them some hope. We continue to trust in the Providence of God that there will always be some way that we can be of assistance to those less fortunate. At this time of Thanksgiving and in a spirit of gratitude we trust that many will give generously to our Helping Hands fund. Thank you to all of those who partner with us in this way.

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