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Our Journey is published three times a year by the Community Relations Department for donors, friends, relatives and employees. This publication shares the journeys of our sisters and associates as they work in joyful service in the spirit of Saints Francis and Clare. The following articles are excerpts from the Spring 2008 issue of Our Journey. |
Associate relationship flourishes in Ecuador
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Associate relationship flourishes in Ecuador
Ecuador is home to two groups of Franciscan associates: one in the sierra (Quito area) and one on the coast (Guayaquil-Durán). The associates are the result of Franciscan Sisters M. Joan Gerads, Bertha Gerads and Ramona Johnson sharing their lives and living in solidarity with the people of Ecuador. Sister Joan began working in the sierra in 1981 with the Parish Neighborhood Renewal program. She and Maryknoll Father Thomas Maney (an associate and now deceased) trained lay people to assist with forming small Christian communities (CEBs in Spanish) in parish neighborhoods to which they were invited by the diocesan bishop and local pastor. Many of the 18 associates in the sierra are members of the CEBs, as are some of the 33 associates on the coast. Their work is to share each other’s joys and sorrows, support one another and help each other as needed. But this extends beyond their CEBs to the entire neighborhood. Their way of life is transformative; indeed, Sister Joan says that CEBs are known throughout Latin America as “the hope of the church” and “the hope of society.” Verónica Rivadeneira, an associate from Quito, works with the Spanish-speaking associates and applicants in South and Central America. She translates orientation materials into Spanish for use with applicants and prepares materials for monthly ongoing formation of the associates. Recently she began translating articles from Spanish into English and from English into Spanish for the bimonthly newsletter that goes to all Franciscan associates. She works closely with the Office for Associates in Little Falls. Associates on the coast grew into their awareness of the Franciscan charism within themselves through the work of Sisters Bertha Gerads (now deceased) and Ramona Johnson. These two dedicated missionaries lived and worked among them for nine years until health issues forced them back to Little Falls a few years ago. The associates on the coast continue to hold these two sisters in high esteem because of the sisters’ impact on their lives. Associate Vilma Zambrano, who lives in Durán, works with Verónica to facilitate the monthly gathering of associates on the coast. The Franciscan way of life continues to attract followers in Ecuador as evidenced by the 11 applicants currently preparing to become associates. How much the world needs their witness! Click here ... to learn more about Franciscan Associates.
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Candidate sets her heart on becoming a Franciscan
As part of this journey, Aurora made her first visit to Minnesota from San Rafael, Mexico, where she lives community life and works in ministry with our Franciscan Sisters. We were excited to welcome Aurora “up north” for her month-long visit in September. Aurora arrived with an open heart ready to receive and give and with a mind ready to learn. Throughout her visit she had nary a dull moment as she spent personal time with our sisters in central Minnesota and visited some of their ministries. Aurora quickly put names to the faces of the sisters of whom she had heard stories and seen pictures. She remembered something about each one as they shared their lives with her. Sitting around the table at the Franciscan Welcoming House, we experienced a part of Aurora’s culture as we savored a Mexican meal she prepared for us. Aurora appreciated the opportunities to accompany Sisters Adela Gross, Donna Zetah and Carol Virnig in their ministry with Hispanics and to meet the students of various cultures in Sister Tonie Rausch’s English class. She even tried her skill at playing the guitar with Sister Bernice Rieland. Finally, she cherished some quiet time for prayer in the hermitage at Clare’s Well. A woman seeking to become a Franciscan Sister first becomes a candidate, but really a candidate’s journey begins with a mutual sharing of love and acceptance between her and the Franciscan community. Truly, our candidate Aurora’s visit was such a time. Click here ... to learn more about becoming a Franciscan Sister. |
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Franciscans committed to move from marginalizing to embracing
Our first commitment, to engage deeply with our Franciscan charism, “nudges us to go deeper into how we understand ourselves as Franciscans,” Sister Mary Obowa explained. Our second commitment, to dedicate ourselves to rebuilding the church, follows the call heard by Francis of Assisi in the early 1200s. Today, this call means rebuilding the Body of Christ by finding new unity in our contemporary experience of diversity, Sister Michelle L’Allier suggested. The third statement commits us to address the sources of Mother Earth’s wounds. Sister Doretta Meier described us as being called to more active and responsible stewardship of creation. Our fourth and last commitment statement is to embrace those whom we as society and church marginalize. So what does “marginalize” mean? One dictionary definition is “excluded from or existing outside the mainstream of society, a group or a school of thought.” (*1) Marginalization, self chosen for the sake of a larger good—such as living simply amidst a broader norm of acquisitive overabundance—can be a human good. Social exclusion that is not self chosen and that dehumanizes some for the benefit of others, however, is a troubling reality. As we have wrestled with what it means “to marginalize,” I’ve realized how much easier it is to see “marginalizing” as something that other people do or something that is given, and how much more difficult it is to know how we (and I) participate in such marginalizing. We want to read our commitment statement as a call to be the ones who embrace those whom others marginalize, or those who are marginalized, rather than a call to embrace those whom we marginalize! Familiar forms of marginalizing include exclusion by virtue of skin color, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, age, social class and/or religion. Understanding how we marginalize means, in part, not taking social inequity as a given, but delving into how we create it. For example, this might include not only praying for those in prison but asking why it is that the U.S. government reports that blacks were almost three times more likely than Hispanics and five times more likely than whites to be jailed between 1990 and 2006. To ask why is also to pray for and work on the injustices in our prison system and the ways we wrongly imprison some.(*2) One of the most profound stories of reaching out to the marginalized is Francis’s encounter with the leper. Upon meeting the leper, Francis found himself called to turn his own life around and to embrace the man with a kiss. In giving himself to embrace what he had previously rejected, Francis found that what was bitter became sweet. The one he named as less than human, the other, became instead his kin, a brother. 1 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. |
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Students in Residence program reports early success It was our first year of having young Mexican women come to live with us so that they could have the opportunity to attend high school. We could accommodate four students. At the last minute one young woman could not come after all, which left us with just three. School started, and we still had one empty bed. Two days later we were surprised to meet one of the professors from the school at our door. By his side was a shy, young woman dressed in black, a sign that someone in her family had died recently. They came seeking a favor: could we possibly take one more student to live with us? And so began our relationship with Alejandra Perez. During her first two years of high school, Alejandra endured a 20-mile commute that included a 5-mile bike ride followed by hitch hiking to reach San Rafael. Each day was filled with uncertainty and fear. Some days rides were scarce and she was late for class. She also feared that her bicycle wouldn’t be in the bushes where she’d left it. Going home after school was a repeat of her morning experience. Quiet and shy, Alejandra is also very intelligent and studious. During her time with us, she completed the 480 hours of community service required for graduation by spending weekends working in the public health clinic in her village of Artesillas. She graduated last June with very high grades and the hope of going to the university in August. Her family’s poverty now was her biggest obstacle. She is the oldest of five children and her father, the only wage earner, has a weekly salary of $60. School was about to start when we learned that she had not applied to any of the colleges or universities in Saltillo. With no money for the tuition, she had not yet taken the pre-admission examination at any school. Click here ... to learn more about our Mexico Mission.
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Students in San Rafael receive high school education
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Sisters in Alexandria contribute to Franciscan Gift Shop
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Franciscans can be found all over the world. They are sisters, brothers, priests and lay associates, all living the charism (spirit and values) of Saint Francis of Assisi according to their state in life. Associates of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota, are located throughout the United States as well as in Mexico and South America.
Frequently, I am asked: “What is the first step toward becoming a sister?” Our candidate, Aurora Tovar, could respond very well to this question. She has taken that first, bold step of the journey, setting her heart on becoming a Franciscan Sister. 
Over the past year, Our Journey readers have heard about the commitment statements our Franciscan Community adopted during our fall 2005 Delegate Assembly. In an effort to carry out these new commitments, we divided ourselves into small groups of sisters and associates; each group chose one commitment statement to work and reflect with, study and act on. 
We are well into our second school year in which five young students are living with us while attending the only “senior high” that exists in the 54 villages of San Rafael Parish. Sarahi, Cruz and Fabiola have returned for their second of three years, and Lorena and Dulce are in their first year.
Three sisters, living together in Alexandria, minister to others during the day and use their leisure time to enchant still more through their creativity.  |
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Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota
116 8th Avenue SE, Little Falls, MN 56345
(320)632-2981m info@fslf.org