From Congregational Leadership
 

   During the recent meeting of the Board of Directors, Maureen Clare, OSF was appointed the Education Coordinator in Jamaica.

Some of her responsibilities include:

• Representing the Congregation on all the Boards of the Allegany Franciscan Educational Institutions

• Acting as the official liaison for the Congregation with the Ministry of Education, The Archdiocesan Education Board and Director of Education and with all the Chairpersons of all the Boards and all the Principals

• Acting as the Coordinator of the Sponsorship Council to ensure that the Franciscan Charism is continuing in each of our Institutions

We are very grateful to Maureen for accepting this position.

   This weekend the sisters gathered at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida for the April Assembly weekend. They were welcomed by staff members of the hospital with a sign that featured a picture of the Motherhouse with its Welcome Home banner and these joyful words, "St. Anthony's would like to welcome the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany to your home away from home". The entrance of the hospital was decked with beautiful hanging flowers baskets and a bright red carpet of welcome. Hospital staff also volunteered as parking valets dressed in St. Bonaventure University t-shirts. The assembly took place in the hospital auditorium which was beautifully decorated with Easter colors and plants thanks to the local assembly committee and at each sister's place was a gift bag from the hospital.

   The Saturday assembly schedule was full with presentations, reflections and sharing on topics of the Year of Consecrated Life, the continued work on the Initiative for our Sister Mother Earth, a report and follow-up on the October 2014 assembly panel on Social Issues, reports from the Franciscan Spirituality Committee, the Formation and Vocation ministry and updates from the Congregational Leadership.  The day concluded with a festive Eucharistic celebration in the hospital chapel with Anthony Carrozzo OFM as presider and Cathy Cahill OSF as homilist. After communion the sister jubilarians celebrating 25, 50, 60, 65 and 70 years were acknowledged and presented with gifts. This celebration ended with the singing of the blessing of St. Francis for the jubilarians.  

   The Leadership Conference of Women Religious of Region V (the Southern Region of the United States) chose to meet in Lake Providence, LA, the ministerial project supported by the communities Region V, among them the Allegany Franciscans.  Sr. Angela Cools-Latigue, an Allegany Franciscan, was one of the founding members of the ministry there and is still fondly remembered.

   Lake Providence was featured on CNN as the "most unequal place in America",  the very wealthy living on one side of the Lake and the abject poor on the other.  We experienced the poverty of the area through a tour and learned of the disparity and economic reality of the people in the community through a presentation of the demographics by Jenny Hodge, a social worker missioned to the area by the Baptist Convention  We experienced the strength of the interfaith community through sharing in a Lenten Luncheon.  Every Friday of Lent a different church hosts a meal with interfaith sharing and a sermon by pastors of different denominations creating an atmosphere of openness to each other and the God within.  Our time at the lunch was not only fulfilling spiritually, but an opportunity for those gathered to share the economic challenges of their church communities.  Lake Providence was a welcoming community proud and hopeful for a better future despite their daily challenges.  Sr. Bernie Barrett SHSP, a Sister of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate who is carrying on this ministry, expertly planned our time, was ever present to the group and is tirelessly working within this community, to bring in better housing and job opportunities.

Dare to Image - Franciscan Federation Sabbath Monthly Reflections 

   As we, the members of the Franciscan Federation, prepare for our Sabbath year let us, individually and communally, enter into prayerful contemplation. May this Sabbath time awaken the unfolding mystery and the challenge before us. May we Dare to Image!

April - Listen and reflect:

WHAT MAY BE THE NEWNESS AND GRACE IN WELCOMING OTHERS?

• Ponder the Word, "Enlarge the place of your tent...stretch your tent curtains wide...do not hold back..."  (Isaiah 54:2)
•  In your mind 's eye Dare to Image: GENEROSITY AND OPENNESS

   What insights have come to you or your group, cluster, local community in this contemplative sharing?

    This month in Activities, the sisters and I held a discussion about the history of the hospitals that the sisters founded. We focused on the time period between 1883, when the sisters acquired St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Boston, and 1960, the year of the death of Mother Alice Henry, who had a hand in the foundation of no fewer than six of the sisters' hospitals. Materials that we reviewed included this rare early photo of Mother Alice, taken on the occasion of her perpetual profession in 1906, and this 1914 photograph of a hospital room at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in New York City.

    The sisters contributed wonderful insights about what it was like to work in the hospitals during those years, as well as several humorous anecdotes about Mother Alice! For example, although she was a brilliant 

hospital administrator who was renowned as "The Doctor of Sick Hospitals," Mother Alice was a terrible driver! Once, when pulled over by a police officer and informed that she was driving the wrong way on a one-way street, Mother Alice retorted, "I'm only going one way!"

Discussing history with the sisters in the Motherhouse is always a rewarding experience for everyone; through our dialogue, we each deepen our understanding of where the Congregation has been, and where it is going.