Volume 9.08 | August 23, 2021
In this Issue:


LCWR Assembly

Season of Creation

Homecoming in Allegany

Happy 102nd Birthday, Sr. Therese Joyce!
Sr. Therese Joyce celebrated her 102nd birthday on Tuesday, August 10, 2021!
LCWR Assembly Explores Dismantling Racism and Reimagining Religious Life for the Future 
By: Margaret Magee OSF
The LCWR Assembly once again held a virtual gathering, August 11-13, with over 1,000 participating from across the U. S. and fourteen countries.  The presentations, prayers and small breakout conversations focused on the theme, “The Realm of Transformation: Creating Space for the Future.”
In the hope of broadening and diversifying this assembly, the LCWR presidents and executive director invited over three hundred guests from organizations including the National Black Sisters Conference, the Association of Latin American Missionary Sisters, Giving Voice, Nuns & Nones, the Leadership Collaborative.

The presidential address by Sr. Elise García, OP was a call to women religious to carve deeper grooves of conscious relationality by learning our history and telling the truth with regard to racism. She addressed the need to dismantle the artificial constructs of race and caste and to more deeply know Christ crucified through the dark wisdom and experience of those who suffered the injustice of slavery. Elise stated, “Our human ancestors…carved into evolution a pathway of Christ consciousness available to us today. Let us now make our own evolutionary contribution by intentionally carving deeper and wider grooves of conscious relationality among us all… Prophets of communion! Let us leave as a legacy for the future of religious life – and for the common good of our whole blessed Earth community – permanent capabilities for creative communion and deep cosmic tendencies for transforming love.”

At the conclusion of her address Elise led the assembly in a prayerful ritual of repentance acknowledging our complicity as religious women in actions and attitudes of racism, asking for forgiveness from all those harmed by racism committed today and throughout the past.

The Assembly keynote address “Creating Space for the Future" was presented by Sr. Mercedes L. Casas Sánchez, FSPS. Her address examined the essentials of our lives and what is needed to sustain us and bring about true transformation. Mercedes offered the invitation and the challenge to be women of the Spirit; to give new meaning and witness to our communal life; to create spaces to transform mission, creativity and collaboration. She said we must ask ourselves: Why are we here? For whom are we here? Why do we do what we do? What makes our consecration recognizable?

On the final day, the Assembly recognized and honored Helen Prejean, CSJ; Joyce Meyer, PBVM; and Amata Miller, IHM, with Lifetime Achievement Awards for their work and witness to social justice.

Click on these links to read the full presentations:
Season of Creation 2021 - A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God
September 1 - October 4
Our 2021 Chapter Directional Statement calls us to be led by the Holy Spirit to interior conversion and life-long transformation responding to the new realities of our world today as prophetic witnesses by living and serving in relationship to one another, our sisters and brothers, and all of creation.
 
Let us take up the work of promoting an integral ecology in collaboration with others and in this Season of Creation. Amid crises that have shaken our world, the global Christian family was awakened to the urgent need to heal our relationships with creation and with each other during the ecumenical Season of Creation.
 
During the 2021 Season of Creation, from September 1 through October 4, thousands of Christians on six continents will come together for a time of restoration and hope, a jubilee for our Earth, and to discover radically new ways of living with creation.
 
More than ever before, the global Christian family will unite to pray and take action for our common home.
Visit the Season of Creation website for resources, prayers and guides for organizing events in your local areas:
Allegany Homecoming
By: Cheryl Maggio, FSA Associate
“Where does love begin, to tell the story of how great a love can be…”

Amazing how these simple lyrics of a song from the 70’s capture so well our memorable week spent in Allegany!

It seems that it was only yesterday when each of us felt called by God to serve in a new way and began our individual journeys with the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany.

The years we entered may have been different, the locations assigned and ministries varied, and of course the experiences unique, yet a crossing of our paths combined with a common set of Franciscan values united us both as Sisters and lifetime friends. Perhaps we were drawn to the charism of being at home with all people or the simple joy found in just laughing, singing or praying together, but through it all our hearts were forever joined to the Allegany family. Challenges arose and circumstances changed which led each of us to follow God’s call to share our Franciscan spirit outside the vowed life, yet the roots once formed there remained a part of our daily life and continued in our various ministries serving God’s people.

Over the years we have stayed in touch by mail, email, phone calls, visits and more recently Zoom calls. We have met up for dinner, stayed at one another’s homes and even traveled and vacationed together! Through the years, we have formed what we have lovingly called our own Allegany version of the “Bay Area Franciscans,” with Paula Lyn covering the west coast of the US in California, Laura Grasso once covering the east coast of Florida and now NJ, and Barbara Sousa, Linda Dees and myself covering the west coast of Florida. This bond has expanded well beyond just one another to include so many of our Sisters, both living and deceased, as well as so many other former members who will forever remain friends and a treasured part of our history, our lives and our being. We have joyfully maintained both individually and mutually so many wonderful, Allegany rooted relationships with Sisters we once lived with, as well as former bandmates and friends from our years in Formation. Perhaps that is the real meaning behind Laura’s sentiments of “what happens in Allegany, stays in Allegany,” because it is there that our hearts were ignited with the charisms of those who came before us and will remain with those who follow us. Though many years have passed, carrying each of us in different directions, we have loved and prayerfully supported one another through both the celebrations and challenges that life has brought. Is that not what family does? As such, it was only fitting that we, upon Laura Grasso’s request, return home to Allegany where we are forever “Associated” with one another and have often expressed a desire to return again.
 
Thankfully, in addition to God providing us the opportunity to fly in from our various homes in June, He too graced us with the reopening of the Motherhouse after a very long 15 months amidst a historical pandemic. Our time together could not have been more blessed and healing for all! We are and will FOREVER be grateful for the warmth and hospitality received - the opportunity to attend Mass, pray and sing together again both with our Sisters at St. Elizabeth’s Motherhouse, as well as our Friar Brothers at Mt. Irenaeus, share delicious meals and delight in an ice cream social with so many of those who have imparted their wisdom, modeled Francis and Clare, and nurtured our Allegany roots early on, and in doing so left an indelible mark on our hearts and our lives!

Thank you one and all for allowing us to “come home,” to renew friendships that we will forever hold dear through shared laughter, stories and cherished memories! Be assured, the life-giving love shared and received has been multiplied one-hundredfold and we are so very grateful! You see, once an Allegany Franciscan, always an Allegany Franciscan! As former members and lifetime Associates of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, we are forever connected to one another, because it is LOVE that binds us to God and to one another! Hence, why we left rejuvenated to passionately carry on the mission and share the charisms of our Allegany Sisters in our own corners of the world. As Susan Buckley, a mentor, prayer partner and dear friend to so many of us once shared, “our home is in God’s heart and God’s heart is our home.” Therefore, through Christ we remain one with each of you, continuing to journey with Jesus, in the footsteps of Francis and Clare, in life, in death and in resurrection.