Franciscan Sisters of the Poor

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SFP VOICES MARCH / APRIL 2011 Vol. VII, No. 2 ©

Table of Contents

Introduction
Community: What a Blessed Place!
Belonging to one Common, Greater and Richer Community
The Practicality of the Theology of Community

Highlighting the Community of Life:
Expressions of our Lived Community
Healing through our Life Together

photo collage

Community life -- living together on the basis of the same gift of the Spirit, sharing the same charism -- is it still attractive to many? As we know very well, consecrated life is going through a crisis. Many aspects are being questioned. This is true regarding the presence of religious women and men in specific places, and in the re-structuring of their works. This crisis is also about meaning, vocation, a sense of belonging and hope for the future.

A COUNTER-CULTURAL CHALLENGE
In European culture there is a strong trend toward individualism, leading adults to live by themselves. Thus, the choice that religious women and men make of living together is truly counter-cultural. There is today, a need for people who live and inspire models of life based on simplicity and who make concrete and livable choices for justice, peace, and integrity of creation. In our culture there is still a deep need for silence and places where a person may find refuge and healing, serenity and balance, and spirituality.

In this situation, looking for the signs of the times, questioning ourselves in order to propose again with courage and trust what Mother Frances and the first Sisters had dreamed and tried to bring about together is not a utopian dream, but a challenge to be faced and overcome. As part of this challenge we need to continue Mother Frances' charism by sharing our lives with each other and with more lay people in addition to our Associates.

COMMUNITY IS A GIFT
Healing through our Life Together is one of the Chapters in our Constitutions. This theme is also based on and supported by the concept of community or fraternity, which is at the origin of the Franciscan charism. For St. Francis, Community since the beginning was understood as a gift. St. Francis says in his Testament: “The Lord gave me some friars as gifts” and wants the friars to be called “minor” from the beginning. The Community never considered itself as a privileged group or as being better than others. Within the Community there is room for everyone, whether poor, rich, educated or illiterate.

In the Community, each one is equal and cares about everyone else. The care is directed in a special way toward the poor – lepers, sick, thieves. Creation participates in this communion, and Francis calls all into this relationship as brothers and sisters: the birds, the wolf, the moon, the sun, worms, rocks and even death. We can say that Francis was the first one to sing and praise the Community of Life.

RRESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGE
So, how can we live this out NOW? How and where can we bring about places for COMMUNION AND CARE? We need to take up this great challenge in order to build our future: Generate compassion and hope in the Community of life.

Sr. Anna Ingoglia, sfp
CCA- Italian Area

Watermark Image: "Beams of Light"Artist: Mary Southard, CSJ
Courtesy of www.Ministryofthearts.org / Congregation of St. Joseph

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COMMUNITY: WHAT A BLESSED PLACE!

Alleluia Community –
“It is God’s call that brought us together.”

The Foyer

Mardi Gras!

Franciscan Rays

Fun with Sr. Gemma!

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18: 20). Aware of this promise from Jesus, we constantly remember that it is God's call that brought us together. As part of our communal prayer life, once a month we have activities that give rhythm to our days: We assemble to share the Word of life of the Focolare movement. These are intense times where we can express to our Sisters how the Holy Spirit works in our hearts through his Word.

Our Day begins . . .
In a very ordinary manner, we begin our days with our Morning Prayer of praise. Then, in love and kindness, we unite with our brothers and sisters and lend our voices to the whole of creation, blessing God and singing His wonders. Every Monday, we have the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. After Morning Prayer, each attends to her work.

Sister Gemma leaves home early in the morning because she goes to school. Sister Laura, between one telephone call and another, works silently, and is always ready to welcome the Sisters and struggle with the numbers during her accounting sessions! Sister Sophie comes and goes . . .besides shopping for the schools, she takes care of the education of about 60 pupils of the adoption project.

Our Ministry . . .
Other Sisters diligently go to the Social Center: Sister Elisabetta is responsible for this center, and along with Sylvia, takes care of the literacy lessons. We have our meals together and these are moments of intense sharing. Every fifteen days, we have a community meeting; each Sister speaks and freely expresses her opinions. All this is done to make the community, which is a place of forgiveness and reconciliation, function even more fully.

On some weekends, we spend time in the Foyer with the young women who are seeking their vocation in our Congregation. There are also the Associate gatherings and meetings with the Franciscan Rays Youth Group.

We are also engaged in the activities of Mary Immaculate Parish of Parcelles Assainies and participate in the life of this community through daily Mass and through teaching catechesis. We participate in the main parish events like the pilgrimage that took place on March 27 at Mount Roland in preparation of the 25th Jubilee Celebration of the parish.

Our Community is a place of passage and welcome . . .
The community is for us a blessed place where we can experience the joy of feeling like a family and supporting each other through prayer and listening. Courage and the sense of responsibility in the different activities are positive factors that make the community a place of peace and communion. Our Alleluia Community is a place of passage and welcome for the Sisters of other communities and this is for us a source of immense joy and reunion!

A Place of Challenges and Joy
However, this beautiful community life presents challenges. We know moments of tension due to lack of understanding and consistency between our beautiful prayers and our human misery (because of our nature wounded by sin). Discouragement follows us sometimes, and the challenges can be cultural. Sometimes one doesn't see things in the same way because our sensitivities can differ or because there may be a difference of age and character, which may be significant reasons for divergence of opinions.

We live in a world where technology is always becoming more advanced and we benefit from it in our community life. For example we found some beautiful PowerPoint documents on the Internet and so prepared a presentation on Advent. We also watched the live feed of the beatification of Chiara Luce, which filled us with joy and happiness.

How do we see the future of community life?
We envision it with enthusiasm because it is a gift from God to the Church. We hope that this life may be penetrated by the Gospel so that it can be alive and filled with hope. Otherwise, the spirit of the world will gain ground in our communities.

Community life is a permanent miracle. May Saint Francis and Mother Frances help us so that our community is truly a place of healing. Through their powerful intercession, we can give to others and especially give to poor people the comfort that they come to seek from us.

The Alleluia Community
Sr. Laura Cantello
Sr. Sophie Dioh
Sr. Elisabetta La Manna
Sr. Gemma Toupane

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Belonging to one Common, Greater and Richer Community

Time for prayer for the Novitiate

Casa Sant'Antonio Community

Casa Betania Community

On February 26th, Cinzia la Calce entered the Novitiate at Casetta Nova. This was a gift for the Italian Area and the whole Congregation. We rejoiced with her and asked Cinzia to share with us the experience in the Pre-Novitiate spent with Casa Sant’Antonio Community in Frascati and Casa Betania Community in Pistoia. Cinzia worked at the Hospital in Pistoia as a radiologist.

During these past two years I realized more and more clearly that the discernment journey I had begun is already a gift in and of itself. It was like a Russian doll, because inside there was an even greater gift – community life.

My experience of the Pre-Novitiate was lived in part in the Formation Community and part in Pistoia, which allowed me to experience community life in circumstances that may be different from the usual way, but it was all “Providential.”

Thus I found that I belonged simultaneously to two communities, realizing that I really belonged to a greater and richer community of the SFP family. This community has its unique style and different expressions.

I learned to live in the community as a “daughter,” accepting and appreciating the gifts and the instruments that were given to me to foster my growth. I was attracted by learning to live in a way that is perhaps more demanding, but more beautiful as a “sister among sisters,” through mutual love and care.

Attracted and surprised by the many ways our charism was shaped and how it built the Community, thanks to each one’s ministry, I tried to give my small contribution by serving my sick brothers and sisters at the hospital.

Even the simple service at home in the kitchen helped me learn that I could do my part with joy for the common good.
Cinzia La Calce

A collage created during prayer presenting the ministries
of the Sisters in Italy

Casa Betania aims at re-living the experience of that other “House in Bethany” where Jesus used to visit as a friend.

Reiterating hospitality as a community goal, we did not know which “Jesus” would show up at the door: what a surprise when we found out it was the Pre-Novice!

This was a new challenge, but also an opportunity to trust and accept God’s plan, manifested in this novelty.

Along the way, we received the grace of being daughters of Mother Frances with Cinzia, offered to God for humanity, and finding ourselves mutually enriched by this experience.

Cinzia’s desire of sharing her ministry at the hospital opened our house to her colleagues who came for dinner, making us feel part of that world as well.

With Cinzia’s step, we contemplated God’s work, which goes beyond our smallness and uses everything and everyone to bring about God’s loving plan for each one.
The Sisters at Casa Betania
Sr. Giovanna Dada
Sr. Vincenza Scassillo
Sr. Tindara Ventimiglia

As the Formation Community, we shared in Cinzia’s discernment through various trips, and alternating times together with times of being far away.

The gift was widening the space of welcoming and participation, and helping Cinzia settle into the normal community life when she was with us.

The challenge was to consider her a full community member in every way, and be flexible in planning and in her formation besides collaborating with the community in Pistoia to ensure Cinzia’s holistic growth.

We rejoiced in seeing her blossom and act upon her desire to follow God, with the joys and struggles that come with this choice.
The Sisters at Casa Sant’Antonio
Sr. Viera Farinelli
Sr. Jenny Favarin
Sr. Raffaella Maresca
Sr. Michela Refatto
Sr. Marina Triglia
Sr. Giuliana Vitale

Novice member:
Cinzia La Calce

February 26th, the day of Cinzia’s Entrance in the Novitiate, was an opportunity to thank God for God’s work and each one for the little brick she gave to build our beautiful Community life.

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The Practicality of the Theology of Community

“To live in community, you have to give, to give in and to forgive.”
[Mother Frances]

Sr. Marie Clement Edrich, SFP

Preparing to cut the cake at Sr. Marie Clement's
Birthday Party.

It is all well and good to talk about community and study the theology about it, but it is far more important to understand how one takes something and turns it into a practical possibility for daily living…which, undoubtedly is why we have spent time studying, discussing, praying about and trying to live the "spirituality of communion".

It is easy to fall prey to the illusion that external structures put us into community. They do not, and they cannot. Living under the same roof does not mean that you live in community. People can live under the same roof, and be very unkind, very uncharitable to one another – and that is the antithesis of community.

Calling someone ‘sister’ does not make it so if you are unwilling to reach out in her need or reach out for her in your own need. One can be many miles away from one another and yet truly be in community. Some ‘communities’ are made up of persons living completely separate lives, indifferent to the joys and sorrows of the others. They have no time for each other. Community is so real to me! It is gift to me, as well as to others. Community involves not being irritated or annoyed with others, but rather to take joy in the gift that they are.

At the Heart of Community is Love
As I re-read parts of John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter on the “Spirituality of Communion” (Novo Millennio Ineunte), I was moved by several things. The first was his reference to the Trinity as the perfect example of community: the Father loved the Son, and this love was so real that it actually became a third Person, the Holy Spirit …of love.

And this Love was so real that it had to flow outward to create and encompass all of creation…So, at the heart of Community is love – expressed in a practical way through kindly courtesy, concern, understanding, and support (especially in times of trial). It is an ideal, I know…which is why our wise Mother Frances counseled us to also “give in” perhaps even when we think we are in the “right” and to “forgive” others as we undoubtedly will need forgiveness ourselves.

Spirituality of communion means that we make time for one another…that we are not so engrossed in our own projects or worries that we do not take the time and effort to listen to each other, share happiness and sorrows, encourage and support each other. The heart of community is mutual love – shared love for God and one another that in turn gives us the desire to reach out to others, to help, to heal – and to share community…and the return gift is part of the hundredfold!

A Leap of Faith Bears Fruit
Years ago when I was in Italy, we (Srs. Benedicta Scheidweiler, Cristina Di Nocco, Annunciata Marino and I) conceived of the idea of starting a ‘Youth Center’ located near our Novitiate in Vermicino. We wanted to reach out with love to the young women around us, to share our loving community, offer them a place to live and a way to live the Gospel values in concrete, daily life. The Youth Center would be open to young women who would live the Gospel Values together with the Sisters.

We took this idea to the General Council, and the Council members asked many questions:

How many young women? (We did not know.)
How much would it cost? (We did not know.)
How would the young women support themselves? (We did not know.)

So the questions went – we had no way to answer, until finally Sr. Rose Margaret Delaney, who was our Congregational Minister at the time, said: “Well, it looks like we will just have to take a leap of faith!” And against all odds, we were given approval for the project. While many of the young women who came to the Youth Center went on to marry and became mothers, many chose to become Franciscan Sisters of the Poor – the result of living Gospel Values in community (…and part of our hundredfold)!

Extended Community that Embraces Others
Today I live in community under the same roof with two other Sisters but our community extends to embrace two other Sisters who live elsewhere and an Associate too. We meet together routinely to share “where we are and what we are doing” and to pray together. We also take the time – schedule it if we must – to celebrate together various things: birthdays, feast days, graduations, name days… We also try to be there for each other during the hard times: a sister or a brother who is dying; a time when someone needs understanding and support. We not only pray with each other, but also for each other. From a practical perspective, the way you demonstrate community is by working, praying and playing together – and supporting one another through times of personal crisis.

Our concept of community is not limited to those who are part of our ‘formal’ little community. For example,

One of our Sisters is involved in almost every aspect of our parish community.
Our house is open to anyone who wants to share our celebrations and days of prayer
We are well aware of – and pray for – the larger Community of SFP’s in Italy, Brazil, Senegal and the Philippines
We involve ourselves also in the larger Community of Life…

Making Room for Our Sisters and Brothers
A spirituality of communion means in the end to ‘make room’ for our sisters (and brothers!); to ‘bear one another’s burdens’ and to take joy in the presence of others in our lives. As for the future of ‘community’? I have no predictions, but this I know: people will be people, and the human needs for relationship, mutual love, connection, unity…and community .. will still be there!

Pinecroft House of Peace Community Members
Sr. Maria Grazia Attanasi (until June 2011)
Sr. Dorothy Ann Bolser
Sr. June Casterton
Sr. Mary Jacinta Doyle
Sr. Marie Clement Edrich

Watermark image "Angels" by Luiza Vizoli

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