Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it.

—  Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

— Ronald Reagan

Sister Frances Cabrini Wahlmeier: April 4, 1930-Sept. 18, 2011

VIGIL: 7 p.m., Sept. 19, 2011, at the Nazareth Motherhouse

EULOGIST: Sister Pat McLennon

“The strange paradox of the Gospel is that the first effect of God’s love is our own self, and our transformed self is God’s love made present to all whom we encounter.”

— Francis Bauer, OSF

While reflecting on the life and spirit of Sister Frances Cabrini it was clear to me, and to so many of us, that her journey with God was never half-hearted. In her quiet and unassuming way she was attentive to God’s love and it was this selfless love and presence that she brought to all of us and to all whom she encountered.

Sister Frances Cabrini didn’t write a life-review and we only have a few articles about her life and years of service during the 63 years she lived as a member of our community. Tonight we simply want to remember and celebrate her life among us and how she touched so many of us throughout the years with her gentle, compassionate, and loving heart.

Mae Catherine Wahlmeier was the sixth child of 15 children born to Aloysius and Ruth Sphorer Wahlmeier, April 4, 1930 in Jennings, Kansas. She was preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Norbert, Paul, and Robert and her sister Virginia.  She is survived by her sisters Loretta, Rita, Elaine, and Jane, and her brothers Vincent, Hugh, Galen, John, Louis, and Carl. She is also survived by her sister-in-laws Francia, Catherine, Kay, Janet, and Linda and her brother-in-law John as well as, nieces and nephews. This large family has been a wonderful support to Sister Frances Cabrini and she often expressed her love and appreciation for them. The family also counted on her prayerful support and enjoyed her visits.

Mae grew up on a farm in Jennings. Being a middle child in a large family she and her brothers and sisters helped milk the cows by hand every day, helped with the younger children and some of the house chores. Mae attended the Jennings Consolidated Grade and High School. She loved music and taught herself how to read music and play the piano.  Later she had some music lessons and played other instruments in the school band. She was a good student, popular, and enjoyed going to dances and other school events.  Mae graduated from high school June, 1948 and enrolled at the St. John’s School of Nursing in Salina, Kansas.

Mae was only in the nursing program a short time when she felt called to religious life. She wrote a letter to Mother M. Chrysostom December 2, 1948 indicating that while she was home during Thanksgiving vacation she secured permission from her parents become a Sister of St. Joseph. She requested an application to enter with the class in February. She was 18 years old and felt that she could better serve God by following this vocation and expressed her belief that she could really be happy. She was accepted and Mae entered the postulancy February 2, 1949 with Sister Maureen Kelley, Sister Mary Agnes Drees, and Sister Francine LaGesse.  She was received as a novice August 15, 1949 and was given the name Sister Frances Cabrini.  She professed First Vows August 15, 1950 and Perpetual Vows August 15, 1953.

After she completed the novitiate, Sister Frances Cabrini returned to St. John’s Hospital to complete her studies and she received an R.N., degree from Marymount College in 1953. Her first mission was at the hospital in Sabetha, Kansas where she worked for nine years.  She was then sent to Rawlins County Hospital in Atwood, Kansas, where she served for six years as the hospital administrator, as well as a lab and x-ray technician– a skill she had learned out of necessity in Sabetha.  She reflected about this in an interview saying, “We were almost frontier people. We were finding our way and trusting God.”  In 1968 she was sent to St. Mary’s Hospital in Manhattan as assistant Administrator.

During the many years she ministered in the hospitals there were a few times when she sacrificed the work she was doing in order to fill a needed position in the hospital. One example of this was when an Administrator at the Manhattan hospital was fired and she was asked to be the interim-Administrator.  The hospital was going under financially and employee morale was low.  In her usual way she responded to these challenges wholeheartedly and her calm and kind presence brought a sense of well-being to the situation. With her leadership the hospital got out of the red and the employees felt secure in their job.  Sister Frances Cabrini is highly respected by the Manhattan people.

After 20 years of service at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manhattan she was asked to serve as administrator of St. Mary’s Convent, the retirement center for our community in Concordia. Ten years later, St. Mary’s was closed and the Sisters moved to the newly remodeled Stafford Hall at the Motherhouse. Sister Frances Cabrini was asked to serve as coordinator of health-care services at the Motherhouse and in 2004 her position was expanded to include our Sisters residing at Mt. Joseph until her retirement in June 2008.

During the years that I served on the Council and worked closely with Sister Frances Cabrini, I was struck by the gentle and quiet way she went about the care of our Sisters at St. Mary’s, the Motherhouse, and Mt. Joseph.  She was totally self-giving and attentive to God’s presence in the ordinary and extraordinary life experiences of the Sisters in her care. We can’t begin to count the times she was called during the day or in the middle of the night to accompany a Sister to the hospital or to be with a dying Sister. The next day she would be up doing her daily visits with each Sister at Mt. Joseph and Stafford Hall. She brought them their mail, news of the day, and checked to see how they were feeling and if they had any other needs.  She never complained of being tired or over-worked.

In addition to the on-site care Sister Frances Cabrini gave to the Sisters she spent many hours accompanying Sisters to doctor appointments, visits to their families, shopping, and just out for an enjoyable ride to see the autumn leaves, Christmas decorations, or the wheat fields.  She was especially sensitive to Sisters suffering from memory loss.  It was not unusual to see them sitting in her office, taking them for a walk, assuring them that they were in the right place. She gave each one a sense of security and peace.

Her life was not all work and no play.  She thoroughly enjoyed traveling.  In 1990 she and Sister Rose Alma Newell went on a two week American Heritage Tour. She kept a journal of all the places they visited and she was very interested in learning American History.  Later, she accompanied Sister Myra Joseph to Ireland to visit her family.  It was Sister Myra Joseph’s last trip home.  They stayed with one of her nephews and he took them all around.  Sister Frances Cabrini kept a very detailed journal of their trip.  It was obvious that she enjoyed every minute of it.

Her yearly mission statements reflected her commitment to being available to those in her care and provide spiritual, medical, and nursing care for them as well as, to help create a home-like atmosphere for the Sisters at the Motherhouse and Mt. Joseph. She was also sensitive to our employees. She saw to it that they were respected for their contributions and provided resources for their work. Sister Frances Cabrini knew that to love with the love of God required the will to be attentive and self-giving. These qualities formed and shaped Sister Frances Cabrini’s life in mission.

In 2008 Sister Frances Cabrini visited with the members of the Executive Council and asked to retire after 20 years of service to our retired Sisters at St. Mary’s, the Motherhouse, and Mt. Joseph.  She told us that she was experiencing extreme fatigue and wanted to move to the Motherhouse and rest. During the past three years her health has consistently declined. She died early Sunday morning, September 18, 2011.  May she now be at peace in the fullness of God’s love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011

“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.”

— Stanley Horowitz

Monday, Sept. 19, 2011

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.

— Willa Cather

Peace Fair features discussions, songs & prayer

It was a peaceful day at the Nazareth Motherhouse today (Sunday) as discussions, songs and prayer filled rooms throughout the building in celebration of the International Day of Peace.

• • • • • • •

FOR A YouTube VIDEO OF PATRICK SIEBEN LEADING THE AUDIENCE IN “A LITTLE PIECE OF THE PEACE,” CLICK HERE.

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the commemoration established by the United Nations, explained Sister Esther Pineda, director of the Justice and Peace Center in Salina and one of the major organizers of Sunday’s Peace Fair. So it seemed appropriate, she said, to look at a broad range of issues that have peace and nonviolence at their core. Those topics ranged from telling the children taking part how they can write letters or emails to “pen pals” around the world to the 2010 documentary “The Forgotten Bomb” and a discussion of nuclear proliferation.

The afternoon’s program was sponsored by the Justice and Peace Center, which is a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia; Pax Christi of Salina; and the Concordia Year of Peace Committee.

The Year of Peace, in fact, was a prominent part of the afternoon’s program. Patrick Sieben, Cloud County Community College music director and a member of the Year of Peace Committee, helped get the activities started by teaching the audience the words to “A Little Piece of the Peace,” which he wrote as part of launching the Year of Peace idea in September 2009.

There was also a breakout session where other Year of Peace committee members — including Sue Sutton and Sisters Jean Rosemarynoski, Julie Christensen, Anna Marie Broxterman and Mary Jo Thummel — talked about all the various projects over the past two years and the impact they have had on Concordia.

In another breakout session, Janet Hansen of Pax Christi Salina showed a 16-minute clip of “The Forgotten Bomb,” which looks at the damage done by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, and at nuclear weapons today. Hansen then led a discussion on the impact nuclear proliferation continues to have worldwide.

In the third breakout session, Phil Holman-Hebert, who owns and operates Sweetlove Farm in Oskaloosa, Kan., discussed “Peace in Family Life” and what he and his family have done to live without damaging the environment.

Meanwhile, the children taking part had a chance to create miniature “Peace Poles,” decorated with the words “May peace prevail around the world” in different languages. Sister Carm Thibault of Salina organized the crafts project.

Sieben and Sarah Harvey also led the children in a number of songs, while Sister Regina Ann Brummel and Janet Lander assisted.

The formal activities ended with a Peace Walk to Lourdes Park, on the Motherhouse grounds, where five monks from the Buddhist Temple of Salina chanted their prayers. After walking along the circular paths of the park, the participants paused in prayer or reflection as the monks completed their chanting.

The afternoon ended with an ice cream social in the Motherhouse dining room, hosted by the Sisters of St. Joseph.

The Motherhouse has hosted International Day of Peace ceremonies for the past few years, but this is the first year for a “Peace Fair” involving the entire family, said Sister Esther.

The theme of the day may have been a poem quoted by Janet Hansen as the program opened. By Lao Tzu and written sometime around 500 B.C., it says:

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

The United Nations established the International Day of Peace in 1981, and the first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. Since 2002, it has been observed on Sept. 21, which the U.N. has declared as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence.

Saturday program focuses on ‘the agrégée movement’

The “agrégée team” played host Saturday to two women who wanted to learn more about this form of religious life offered only by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.

The women came from Douglasville, Ga., and Wakeeny, Kan.

Team members Sisters Bette Moslander, Pat McLennon and Rosabel Flax were joined in the five-hour presentation by other sisters, both agrégée and canonically vowed, and three of the five current agrégée candidates.

The term agrégée — pronounced ah-gre-ZHEY — comes from the French for “attached to” or “aggregated with.” It is a form of membership in the religious congregation that dates back to our founding in 17th-century France, when Sisters of St. Joseph were either canonically vowed “principal sisters” or so-called agrégée or “country” sisters. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia re-established — and revitalized — this form of religious life in 2006. Today there are six women who have professed the vow of fidelity to God and to the congregation as “agrégées.” Another four are in varying stages of the process of deciding if this form of religious life fits them and their spiritual needs.

Saturday’s “Agrégée Information Day” at the Nazareth Motherhouse was designed to allow more women to learn about this alternative. It also provided something of a crash course in the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the mission and ministry of the sisters in Concordia. The two “inquirers” were not asked to make a commitment during the day, but they were encouraged to use the information as part of their process in discerning the next steps in their religious life.

“The faith life is something more than doctrine or following rules,” Sister Bette said in her presentation to the group. “It requires that we ask ourselves the deeper questions: Who am I? Why am I here.

“A Christian vocation is a personal yielding to God’s love for us,” she added. “It is not a stage in life — like married, single or religious; it is a direction in life. …”

Sister Bette, who is considered the author of the agrégée movement for the Concordia congregation, urged the two women to give careful thought and prayer to their next step.

“A Christian vocation is a risky undertaking,” she said with a slight laugh. “Much is asked of you, as much was asked for the first disciples who followed Christ. But like those first disciple, it is a choice.”

If either of the two women decide that they want to pursue agrégée membership in the congregation, she will make a formal commitment to enter into a period of study and discernment with a mentor. That period has generally been about three years. The next step would be profession as an agrégée, which would take place as part of a Mass at the Nazareth Motherhouse in Concordia.

Also taking part in Saturday’s presentations was Sister Marcia Allen, president of the Concordia congregation, a historian who described herself as the “chief educator” for agrégée candidates. Also on hand to introduce themselves to the two “inquirers” and answer questions were Sisters Jean Befort, Regina Ann Brummel, Agnes Bernita Green, Sharon Hayes, Loretta Jasper, Janet Lander, Jan McCormick, Mary Esther Otter, Liberata Pellerin, Carolyn Teter, Jean Ann Walton and Sylvia Winterscheidt. Several of those sisters serve as mentors to agrégée candidates.

Agrégée candidates who were able to attend were Beth Weddle of Concordia, Kathy Schaefer of Augusta, Kan., and Susan Klepper of St. Louis, Mo.

To learn more, contact Sister Bette at 785/243/4428 or by email at bmoslander@mannahouse.org.

Or, CLICK HERE to read everything that’s been published about the agrégée movement of the Concordia congregation.

Saturday & Sunday, Sept. 17 & 18, 2011

“By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer.”

— Helen Hunt Jackson

Sept. 16, 2011: Finding peace in simple joys, by Cheryl Lyn Higgins

Peace is hard to find these days, be it within ourselves or with others.  The economic and political landscape is in constant flux, and national and international finger-pointing seem to be the model of leadership — even though that model is both disconcerting and unproductive.

I am not an authority on either personal peace or world peace, or any subject for that matter.  But since childhood, I have generally found peace and comfort in two places — my church and my home.

I find peace in God’s house.  I find peace in the rituals of the service.  I also find peace when I sit alone in his house and talk with God.  I try to attend church regularly, but find myself being far more devoted when matters in my life are out of sync or I am troubled.

I find peace sharing time with my children and my grandson.  My son and I spend countless hours on the deck talking about anything and everything — laughing, arguing and dreaming.

The conversation always takes on new and interesting turns when my daughter joins us. She views things so much differently than my son and I.

My grandson serves as conversation bookends. He cuddles and shares his planned adventures at the start of each day and then cuddles again as he recounts his exploits before crawling into bed each night.

It is the walk to the church and the road home that helps me find inner peace and comfort.  My church and my home are the essence of what matters to me.  They give me strength to endure the disquieting aspects of life. They give me peace.

 

— Cheryl Lyn Higgins is coordinator for Neighborhood Initiatives Inc., an office of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.

Friday, Sept. 16, 2011

“The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard.”

— Abraham Maslow

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