Messages Home: The true heroes of war

Sister Loretta Jasper is a “military life counselor” serving in two “off-post” schools neear Fort Riley, Kansas. This is one of her regular dispatches on the work she’s doing.

Sisters, Agrégées, Associates and Friends of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia,

As a Military Family Life Consultant, currently working in two off-post elementary schools in the Fort Riley area, I have the opportunity to soften and to re-direct the edge of stressors for teachers, staff, parents and children in schools where the majority of families serve in the military.

Given the high level of deployment and re-integration within Fort Riley, the enrollment of “my” schools changes daily. Friends come and go; parents come and go. Some children change schools, friends, and geographic areas as frequently as the Midwestern seasons change. As a result they are tasked with changing roles in the family as a parent leaves and then returns — to stay focused on school work, to sleep peacefully at night, to not be worried sick about the absent parent’s safety and sometimes to be concerned about the present parent’s ability to manage the household (aka, to parent effectively) during one more deployment. The child is concerned not only IF the military parent will return alive, but HOW will Dad/Mom be upon returning home.

Within the past month, while chatting with a classroom of 26 third-graders, only three were not affiliated with the military. Of those 23, half of them have at least one parent deployed, several have a parent who had just returned from Iraq, and several have a parent who was about to be deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

These children bubbled over as they shared how tough it is to change friends, to change neighborhoods and teachers, to be in schools which do not match up to other schools they have attended, or to currently be in a really good school knowing they will be moving.

Kara recently moved from an Army base in Alaska and enrolled in the first-grade of one of the two off-post schools I serve in the Fort Riley area. Kara’s first three weeks in “my” school included multiple emotional “melt-downs.” New school, new town, new friends, Dad gone, in addition to being behind her classmates in phonics and writing.

Her 6-year-old language was unable to sort through all of her frustrations, losses, and changes. Me, the o’-timey-teacher, opted to help mend Kara’s heart by teaching her “how to fish”…to help her with basic phonics and writing. She literally blossomed with each new step of learning. She loves learning and school. What a delight to see this little person bloom with eagerness and personal satisfaction. Meltdowns? Stopped.

Zach, a second-grader, was enrolled by his soldier/mother in early October while she was given a seven-day emergency leave from Iraq. Mom’s commanding officer in Iraq had evidence that Zach was indeed being physically abused by maternal grandparents and uncle, which resulted in multiple trips to the emergency room.

Within 24 hours, Zach changed towns, friends, schools, custodial parent ( who was Mom’s spouse prior to August deployment). Mom was soon to return to Iraq. Not only was Zach losing his mother again, but he was fearful of her safety in Iraq, and of his and his stepfather’s safety given the threats from maternal grandparents following hotline calls related to the abuse.

The maternal grandparents were Mom’s only option for the care of her son since her first of now third deployments. When she enlisted in the National Guard, deployment was not a given, much less multiple deployments. Mom enlisted in the National Guard to break her abusive family cycle and to increase the quality of her life: college education, financial sustenance, etc. Little did Mom realize at the time of her original enlistment she would be deployed three times and that her only option for the care of her son would be her abusive parents, hoping upon hope that they had changed through the years.

These are merely three of many instances of the true and unsung heroes of war: the children.

Loretta Jasper

‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…’

As winter swept through Concordia with the first real snow of the season, elves arrived in force at the Motherhouse Sunday afternoon to decorate throughout the 107-year-old building.


The elves in this case were nearly a dozen members of the local Catholic Youth Organization and their sponsors, as well as members of the Sisters of St. Joseph and other helpers.


The Motherhouse needed to be dressed for the season before next Sunday’s Christmas Open House. Friends, neighbors and supporters are invited to the open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13. Those who plan to attend are asked to RSVP to Sister Carmel Garcia, at 785-243-2113, ext. 1225, or at cgarcia@csjkansas.org.


The CYO members and their sponsors attended 11 a.m. Mass first, and their shared dinner with the Sisters of St. Joseph who live at the Motherhouse. Then they fanned out throughout the public areas on the first and second floors to deck the halls with Christmas trees, wreaths, garlands, lights and other decorations.


One featured tree — just outside the second-floor Sacred Heart Chapel — is decorated with cards bearing prayer requests and other messages, sent in by friends and supporters of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Today only about the top third of the tree was decorated, but it will be covered with colorful “Joy” cards by the end of the season.


Several sisters who live and work at Manna House of Prayer in Concordia also came to help, as did at least one sister from Topeka.


Meanwhile, outside the building, snow that began mid morning became heavier as the afternoon progressed. By the time the CYO members and sisters had finished with the decorations, at least an inch covered the grounds of the Motherhouse and the rest of Concordia.


Scattered snowfall is expected to continue at least through Tuesday, but there are no solid predictions yet on the likelihood of a white Christmas.

Volunteers join sisters, employees in construction work

A volunteer work crew converged on the Neighbor to Neighbor center this week, continuing the renovation of the 122-year-old downtown Concordia building.


The big jobs Thursday, today and Saturday are placing insulation in the newly reframed walls and then putting up sheetirock throughout the two-story structure at 103 E. Sixth St.


Volunteers from Salina — including Al Gerstner, Janie Stein, Sister Lucille Herman, Marty Bates, Ralph Kresin and SIster Esther Pineda — worked with maintenance employees from the Nazareth Motherhouse who have done the bulk of the renovation work so far. And there is a lot of renovation required: The structure was built in 1888 and had been remodeled numerous times over the years. But for this project, the interior has been gutted to remove those later add-ons and to modernize plumbing, wiring, heating, cooling and all other functional aspects of the building.


With the new interior framing completed by Motherhouse employees, the volunteers are spending three days getting the interior ready for the next steps — painting, flooring and finishing.

The hope is to have the new center open in early February.

When it opens, Neighbor to Neighbor will provide a wide range of programs and services — and a place just to get to know each other — for women and women with young children. Three Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia — Pat McLennon, Jean Befort and Ramona Medina — will operate the center and design the programs offered there.

Dec. 4, 2009: What is a gift? And what does it have to do with peace? by Sister Julie Christensen

This month we celebrate the season of giving and receiving. I know a certain sense of joy and contentment when I have received a gift that resembles my desire and have given a gift that resembles the likes of another.

I believe being from the heart of the country has given us generous and caring souls, but why?

Is it the way the earth gives us wheat so abundantly that inspires us to share our gifts so freely? Maybe it is the wind that constantly shares with us a renewed spirit of our humanity and that nudges us into action? Perhaps it is the sun that shines on the land in plentitude that stimulates growth that cannot be contained by any boundary.

For any and all the reasons I feel blessed to be able to acknowledge these innate gifts and see them gently multiply as time passes. These gifts bring me peace and certainty about the goal of life. They remind me of my responsibility and desire to do the same. They also remind me that gifts are never given in a closed circuit structure. The experience of a gift is felt by all, especially the more challenging gifts.

As I reflect, I ask myself, what does it mean to give? More importantly, where does my giving or gift come from? Who is the giver or the receiver? How does the gift resemble the giver? How am I giving what I have been gifted?

I think in the act of giving, sometimes we find what is fashionable, but mostly we give of our talents and of our abundance. In the act of receiving sometimes we open nicely wrapped packages, but more importantly we open our hearts and our lives and, if we are able, we receive what the giver is gifting. In this awareness, we are changed by each gift we receive and by each gift we give.

In light of the many questions and the certainty of the many gifts in my life, I know a desire to be more intentional about fostering that generosity. I want to give it a place to multiply and expand beyond the boundaries.

I know that with every breath I take I become more capable and strengthened in my awareness of the gifts in my life merely by the act of taking a breath. I know this awareness is what drives me to be more attentive to the gifts both given and received, in my life and in the lives of all those around me.

I find fostering generosity like one of the many important elements, gusts or rays of the Kansas Plains that make peace possible. This peace is a challenging gift that is awareness, strength and commitment in all of our experiences.

— Julie Christensen is a native of Concordia and is a Sister of St. Joseph living and studying at Manna House of Prayer. She is a member of the Concordia Year of Peace Committee.

New exhibit focuses on little-known history of five religious sisters

As the 19th century ended, five tiny orphan girls were loaded on trains in New York City bound for new families and new lives in the still-wide-open mid section of America.


The toddlers — none older than 2 — were not related; their only connection was that they were among the smallest victims of the poverty, mass immigration, inadequate housing and financial depression that plagued the teeming streets of New York.


They became connected in history as five among an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children who were placed on “Orphan Trains” in New York and shipped to adoptive families in towns along the railroad lines.


They remained connected in life as Orphan Train riders who entered religious life — two as Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.


On Saturday, Dec. 12, the National Orphan Train Museum is hosting an open house to unveil its newest exhibit, “From Orphan Trains to Convents: Five Stories of Religious Women.” The open house is from 6 to 8 p.m., and those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to 785-243-4471.


The museum is part of the National Orphan Train Complex at 300 Washington St. in Concordia, and is open Tuesday through Saturday. The center is dedicated to the preservation of the stories and artifacts of those who were part of the Orphan Train Movement from 1854-1929.


The stories include those of the five little girls who were eventually to become Sisters Roberta Dreiling, Eva Marie Vale, Mary Delphine DuVal, Mary James Fabacher and Justina Bieganek.


Museum curator Muriel Anderson is creating an exhibit that includes their life stories as well as family mementoes, religious items and personal keepsakes.


Those mementos include an eighth-grade photo of Sister Mary Delphine DuVal, who was the earliest Orphan Train rider of the five. She was born in 1898 in New York and put on a train to Little Rock, Ark., by the New York Foundling Hospital when she was 2, in 1900. She eventually joined the Sisters of Mercy in Little Rock and remained there until her death in 1990.


Genevieve Dreiling — who would become a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia and take the religious name of Sister Roberta — was born in New York in 1899. Like the other Orphan Train sisters, she was placed in the care of the New York Foundling Hospital and eventually put on a train west. She was just over 2 years old when she arrived in Victoria, Kan., to be adopted by a Catholic family there.


In 1917, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph and served in numerous missions until her death in 1995.


Gertrude Vale — who would also become a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia and would take the religious name of Sister Eva Marie — was born in 1900. She was barely over a year old when she was sent to a family in Schoenchen, Kan. She remained with that family until she was 9, when they decided to return her to the orphanage in New York.


But a priest in Tipton, Kan., stepped in and asked his housekeeper to care for the girl. A year later, the housekeeper’s sister, who lived in Walker, Kan., adopted Gertrude into their family. She remained there until she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1921. Sister Eva Marie died at the Nazareth Motherhouse in 1982.


Sister Mary James Fabacher was born in 1907 in New York and was sent on the Orphan Train to New Orleans in 1909. It was there that she eventually entered the Dominican Sisters of Peace. Sister Mary James died in 2006.


Sister Justina Bieganek was the last of the five to ride the Orphan Trains and the only one still surviving. She was born early in 1912 and was sent at the end of 1913, when she was not yet 2, to Little Falls, Minn., where she would eventually enter the Franciscan Sisters. Sister Justina celebrated her 80th anniversary as a Franciscan Sister earlier this year, and will celebrate her 98th birthday in January 2010.


These five toddlers, like thousands of others, had become the wards of two aid organizations in New York City.


The earliest group was the Children’s Aid Society, which had been formed in 1853 to help care for neglected children. Those in the care of Children’s Aid would be taken in small groups of 10 to 40, under the supervision of at least one “western” agent, to selected stops along the rail line.


The agents would plan a route, send flyers to towns along the way, and arrange for a “screening committee” in towns where the children might get new homes. The committee then helped in finding parents and placing the children who arrived.


The second organization grew out of St. Peter’s Convent, which served the oldest Roman Catholic parish in New York City. In 1869, the Sisters of Charity needed more space for abandoned children than their convent provided, so with the bishop’s blessing, they opened the New York Foundling Hospital.


All five of the little girls who became sisters were in the care of the Foundling Hospital.


Instead of hired agents or local screening committees, the Foundling Hospital worked with priests along the railroad routes to match abandoned children with Catholic families.


When the Orphan Train Movement began in 1854, it was estimated that 30,000 abandoned children were living on the streets of New York City. By the time the last Orphan Train delivered children to waiting families in 1929, this period of mass relocation of children was widely recognized as the beginning of documented foster care in America.

41 Concordians remembered in Tree of Lights

A simple and dignified ceremony marked Cloud County’s first Tree of Lights Wednesday afternoon at the Nazareth Motherhouse, when Meadowlark Hospice helped friends and family remember 41 people from Concordia who have died in the past year.


It was the first-ever Tree of Lights ceremony hosted at the Motherhouse, but a tradition that has been going on for more than 15 years in communities served by the Clay Center-based hospice organization. Meadowlark serves communities in Cloud, Clay, Marshall, Republic, Washington and western Riley counties. Other ceremonies are planned in the next week in several communities served by Meadowlark.

Father Jack Schlaf, chaplain for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, gave the opening and closing prayers Wednesday. Sister Regina Ann Brummel, accompanied by Sister Beth Stover on piano, sang four solos. Sister Dorothy Hoover led a responsive prayer taken from the Jewish tradition of “yizkor,” or memorial prayer.

Local Meadowlark volunteers had planned the simple ceremony, including lighting individual candles as they read each of the 41 names. Meadowlark program director Kendra Schurle said that while Tree of Light ceremonies have been held in Concordia for several years, this was the first time the organization had been invited to the Motherhouse for the event. “The sisters who are among our volunteers volunteered use of your auditorium,” she explained. “We’re very grateful to be invited to this beautiful place.”

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