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Peacemakers celebrate 50th Jubilee and are honored
at Franciscan Federation Conference

“The fiftieth year you shall make holy by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants,” is the announcement of jubilee in the book of Leviticus. This year is, indeed, that kind of jubilee for Sisters Carol Schmit and Aggie Soenneker, who on August 12, 2007, each celebrate fifty years as Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls.

It is difficult for any of us to believe it has been that many years that these young women have been simply putting one foot in front of the other walking in the footsteps of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. Where have the years gone? The last nineteen of them Carol and Aggie have spent here at Clare’s Well, which they founded together in 1988. The years prior to that found them on other paths, shaping structures to support liberty and justice for people through works of health care, education, and community and spiritual development in various states and in Venezuela. The last eight years have included annual weeks of heart-to-heart exchange with peoples of Nicaragua.

Both Carol and Aggie have been celebrating jubilee all the way to jubilee.

Each year the National Franciscan Federation presents Peacemaker awards to Franciscans for distinguished and prophetic service toward peace and reconciliation in their ministries. At the Peacemaker Banquet during this year’s annual conference in Minneapolis July 11, 2007, the Peacemaker Award will be presented to Sisters Aggie and Carol for their community-building leadership at Clare’s Well and for their service to the poor of Nicaragua. We are all so proud and happy for this recognition of their achievement. Congratulations, Carol and Aggie, and thank you!
-- Sister Jan Kilian

At times of crises we almost always ask ourselves, “What can I do?” or “What difference can I make?” There is something you and I can do and we can make a tremendous difference. We can gather friends and family and send out peaceful loving energy to the world. We can take time to know in our deepest of hearts that we are all one. We can make a conscious effort to let go of judgment and all critical thought that separate us from one another. Now is the time to send love and peace to those who may look different, or speak another language or worship God in a different way. Here is a simple suggestion that may help us be channels of peace, help us face violence with a heart of peace, help us build bridges of understanding and connections of love.

Prayer can change the world
We can each change the world by changing the energy we put out into the world. Most of us have seen the halo around the flame of a candle especially when looked at with soft eyes. This halo is the energy of the heat coming from the candle. Each of us, too, has this halo of energy around us which we call the aura. We are putting out energy to those around us. This energy can be filled with light—peace and joy—in other words, a very positive energy or we can put out fear, anger and sadness and a negative energy. The following ritual prayer is one simple way for us to give loving, kind, peaceful energy to ourselves, others and the world.

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