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SFP VOICES MAY 2010
Vol. VI, No. 4 © |
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Dear Sisters, Associates and Friends, The Spirit of God abundantly gifted Blessed Frances with our charism of healing on Pentecost, 1845. Her life stirred into flame a fire that has spread across our globe and to this day continues to burn in our own hearts. This May issue of SFP VOICES celebrates the depth and the rich, diverse ways that the healing charism continues to burn brightly among us today.
Within this issue, may you discover how the Spirit of God speaks anew as…..
May the same Spirit of God, that enflamed the heart of Blessed Frances over 165 years ago, set your heart ablaze as you enjoy SFP VOICES…… United as your sister, Marilyn Trowbridge, sfp |
[Blessed Frances cover design taken from the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis website and used with permission.]
Being an Instrument of God’s Healing
Sister Maria Lúcia Oliveira Interviews Sister Bernadete Batista
“I recognized my divine Lord in the poor and suffering
as clearly as if I had seen him in them with my own eyes...” (Mother Frances)
Introduction to the Interview
Since she was a child, Mother Frances Schervier had an immense desire to help others. She was always open to God’s grace and was faithful. God was merciful toward her, marking Frances with the seal of God’s love in the depths of her being, empowering her to share her talents for the service of others. She tirelessly sought to fulfill the will of her Divine Master by following with complete trust the direction she had chosen. Few are those who, traveling on the journey of religious life, are able to persevere due to the obstacles encountered on the way – uncertainties, darkness, pain, fears...
Following the example of Mother Frances, there are consecrated women today who seek to respond to God’s call, dedicating themselves to serving God faithfully with love, care and zeal. This is why I am interviewing our dear Sister Maria Bernadete Batista, who has given her life to continuing the Charism of Healing of our Foundress in service to the poor, the sick and the excluded in the city of Ipamerí, Brazil.
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— Sister Maria Lúcia: Sister Bernadete, do you experience yourself as participating in the healing ministry of Jesus?
— Sister Bernadete: Oh, yes!
— How do you live out this healing ministry?
— Sister Bernadete: Whenever I serve my sisters and brothers who are sick, by visiting them at home, being a presence of consolation when someone loses a dear one, by providing for the basic needs of the poor who are excluded from our society, and by helping promote young people by teaching them arts and crafts to prepare them for the job market.
— How do you think you can deepen your experience of the process of healing?
— Sister Bernadete: First of all I need to constantly seek my own healing to become an instrument of healing to others. The most difficult is to be such an instrument to those closest to me, for example, the other members of the community in which I live and with whom I deal on a daily basis. However, this search is an inherent part of any process of continuous conversion. I seek conversion by means of prayer and dialogue, through sharing with the community, sharing life...
— Are you still finding new ways to be an instrument of healing?
— Sister Bernadete: Yes! I recently had a different kind of experience that made me very happy . . . a begging wanderer, who is also an alcoholic and walks from town to town often comes to me and asks for food and clothing. I provide this and give him my time as well, talking with him so he will feel like a beloved son of our Father. He began to trust me and one day asked if I would contact his mother. I wrote her a letter and included our telephone number so that she could get in touch with us and set up a day to meet with him. How happy that mother was when she realized that her son was alive and that we were caring for him. And what a joy it was for him to speak with his mother after so many years of estrangement!
— Sister Bernadete, thank you very much for your openness, work and generosity in serving others. May Mother Frances continue to bless you and send her healing touch!
— Sister Bernadete: You are welcome. I hope to have contributed something about my experience. Until the next time, God willing!
The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor Charism
“I offer my knowledge for free because I’m moved by love.”
Associate Léopold Bianquinch
 Léopold witnessing to the SFP Charism |
 The children in class |
As an Associate in Senegal, I express the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor charism through my life and witness in my daily activities. In the realm of education, I tutor children from primary school as well as low middle school for which I manage to receive small pay. Sometimes I meet children whose parents do not have the means to pay anything. I offer my knowledge for free because I’m moved by love.
 A student of Leo |
This is my way of living out our healing charism, which has actually changed my life. I have been deepening in this charism throughout the span of my Associate commitment imitating Mother Frances Schervier, who said:
- “Words alone can do nothing...”
- “Let us thank our Lord from the bottom of our hearts for all the graces he has granted us in his immense love by making the effort of faithfully collaborating with them,”
and this marvelous thought of hers: - “I hope that you will fully take advantage of all that God makes for your own good. This could actually take place if you make the effort of walking always in the spirit of faith.”
These words have touched me and marked the deepest part of my being, thanks to the witnessing of the Sisters. I often ask myself – if people had only talked without taking action [when I had my kidney failure illness], my life would have ended in 2005. It is with great simplicity, but above all with heroic courage, through their concrete actions that the Sisters give continuity to the works of Mother Frances. Through their deeds many men, women and children are able to bloom in their dignity.
I simply thank the Sisters for everything and I wish them much courage as they walk the paths of the world.
“ . . . the love of my Sisters . . . has made me feel that our healing charism is alive and active.”
Sr. Giovanna Dada at the Welcome Center
Sr. Giovanna Dada, SFP
 The Sisters at Casa Betania: L to R: Srs. Francesca Maria Tramonte, Tina Ventimiglia, Vincenza Scassillo, Giovanna Dada |
I place myself in God’s presence, my heart full of wonder and gratitude. I thank God for this time in which I have been receiving the gift of experiencing the healing power of God’s Word. This Word was sown in my heart sometime during a retreat and has been growing. Now it is bearing fruit.
Thanks to the concern, prayer, love and care of many dear brothers and sisters who walk with me on this journey, I am learning to see myself as God sees me– that same God who rejoices in his creation. It was not and still is not easy to believe that whatever good things others see in me is what God also sees, and this is truly who I am.
The Ongoing Miracle of God’s Healing
Since I began to welcome God’s loving gaze upon me, it is as if some of my wounds have been healed. This gives me peace, and changes my own way of living out my ministry to the elderly and the sick. I relate to them with simplicity as a Sister and give them the space they need to talk about who they are: their loneliness, concerns, suffering, anxiety, and to accept and keep their “secrets.”
 Rembrandt, Return of the Prodigal Son |
I ask myself if I am really worthy of receiving all the blessings they invoke upon me each time I visit them. Now I realize that, inasmuch as I believe that God also uses me to care for these brothers and sisters, the miracle of healing within me and around me happens again.
I have learned how important it is to take care of oneself, to let (or allow) others to take care of me. This helps me grow in the way I am with them, expressing the presence of God’s healing love.
This past year especially -- the love of my Sisters who took care of me more than I have taken care of myself -- has made me feel that our healing charism is alive and active.
I ask Mother Frances to continue to walk with and support me as I journey to go “back home” to the arms of the Father who is waiting for me, and say again that I am precious in His eyes, worthy of respect, and loved totally.
| UNDERSTANDING AND WORKING WITH A HEALING CIRCLE |  |
Sister Joanne Schuster, SFP
| How often have we tried to make God’s creative power flow through us, saying, "Oh, God, please do this or that!" And God has not done this or that, so naturally we secretly doubt either the willingness or the ability of God to actually produce within our lives and bodies the results we desire. We do not doubt our own ability to come into God's presence and fill ourselves with God, but rather God's willingness to come into us and fill us with Himself. And this despite the fact that God has reassured us time and again, told us that all things are possible with Love....and we do believe this in a nice, pious sort of way, but such things were for Apostles and saints, not for us. Yet through the simple act of laying on of hands, we can become a receiving and transmitting center for God's healing love. It is a natural impulse to hold a fevered hand, soothe an aching brow or hold a fretful child in one's arms. In doing so, we convey the power of love to one another. Physiologically, the slightest touch releases a cascade of chemical changes in the body. Psychologically, we convey the power of love to one another, not through the understanding of the mind, but through the tenderness of the heart. Science today informs us that we live in a world of total interconnectedness and consciousness where matter and spirit distinctions become obsolete. All is either energy or space, differing only in the density of the energy and the level of vibration of the energy. Even thought is energy, we are told, and affects its surroundings. Learning how to capture and apply this information, and to do so consciously and prayerfully, is the essence of prayer of healing. The Way Jesus Healed and Taught His Disciples |
Copyright 2010 Franciscan Sisters of the Poor