Photos from the Province Assembly in North America

Vocations Promotion

Your recent responses to the questions on Vocations was a unanimous ‘Yes!’ to “Do you want Vocations?”

We now urgently need Sisters/Associates willing to actively promote the Sisters of the Cross and Passion. You are never too old to tell your story in schools, parishes or wherever you minister!

There will be a day at: The Briery Retreat Centre, Ilkley, West Yorkshire LS29 9BW for sharing ideas and resources on Thursday 28th  January, 2010.

10.00 am for coffee – 3.30pm afternoon tea

Morning Coffee, a simple lunch & afternoon tea will be provided.

Make reservations by emailing the sisters.

World Food Day, 16 October 2009

According to the estimates of United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) there were 1,020 million undernourished people in the world in 2009, equivalent to one in seven persons alive today. As noted by the FAO Director General, Jacques Diourf, this last year produced “a dangerous combination between a declining global economy and high unemployment rates in many countries, causing an increase of 105 million more people to experience chronic hunger and poverty.”

As a response to this reality, FAO proposed the expression: “Achieving Food Security in the time of crisis” as the motto for the 2009 World Hunger Day.

It would not be a small thing if the celebration of World Hunger Day would produce this result: those who have an abundance of material goods would commitment themselves to a simpler lifestyle, one of reasonable asceticism and share their overabundance with those who do not have the resources to feed themselves. Faithful to our Savior’s recommendation, we pray daily the prayer He taught us. The petition, “Give us this day our daily bread,” is in the plural. The Christian knows very well that he or she cannot hide behind an attitude of self serving egoism. Jesus teaches us to be responsible for others in their need. This prayer becomes truly authentic when it leads to a sincere commitment of solidarity in explicit ways.

We also pray that the steps taken to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are motivated by a deep respect for and the valorization of farm workers and their cultures. The 1996 Agreement to Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger proposed to reduce it in half by the year, 2015. The reality is that there are more people with hunger today (820 million) than there were in 1996. This statistic increases by four million every year. (cf. Oración y Servicio, 2008.3)

Faithful to our Lord’s recommendation, we pray the prayer He taught us. We pray to the Father for bread, and we use the plural formula: “give us this day our daily bread.” The “Our Father” is the prayer of communion, which gives us the awareness that we do not approach God only by ourselves alone. Rather it gives us the confidence approach to God in union with one another. We are invited to see the face of God in the face of our neighbor, the neighbor we are obliged to be interested in, especially when he or she is weak and lacks necessary nourishment. Jesus himself tells us, “when you do this to one of my least brethren, you do this to me.” (Matt. 25:40) With this prayer, Jesus gives us the direction to move out of our own egotistical nature and to take on the needs of others as our own needs. It is then when our prayer becomes sincere, leading to a commitment of solidarity which is explicitly expressed.

Passionist Sisters in Botswana Battle HIV/AIDS

Sister Angela Kebakile combats AIDS in Botswana

Botswana is experiencing one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. The national HIV prevalence rate among adults ages 15 to 49 is 23.9 percent, which is among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.  The primary mode of transmission is heterosexual contact, with the military and young women at higher risk of HIV infection than other populations.  Young men ages 15 to 24 experience an HIV prevalence rate of 5.1 percent, while young women in the same age group experience prevalence rates of 15.3 percent.  HIV infection rates also vary by geographical region and are highest in towns, lower in cities, and lowest in villages. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that by 2010 more than 20 percent of all children in Botswana will be orphaned. Extended families and communities have exhibited resourcefulness and generosity in their willingness to absorb and care for these orphaned children, but this capacity is being exhausted, especially as the current generation of grandparents begins to die.

Passionist Sisters in Botswana work with and accompany people living with HIV/AIDS and offer HIV preventative education.

Photos from the Congregational Gathering In Chile

Sr Mary Magdalen and her sisters

Bridget Murphy and Claire Cooney

Sisters Anne Hammersley, Moya O'Cleary and Brigid Murphy

Sr Vicki Astorga, Mary Ann and Angela

The Sisters of the Cross and Passion (Part 4)

Today we find Passionist Sisters ministering to people as far apart as North America and Africa, Papua New Guinea and Peru, Chile and Jamaica, Argentina and Australia, Ireland and Bosnia, England, Scotland and Wales, diverse climates and cultures.

The challenges of yesterday are still the challenges of today but on a global scale.

Todays Concerns:

• The Dignity of the Person
  
• God in our world
  
• Retreat work
  
• Education
  
• Respect for life Abortion, Euthanasia
  
• Hospice movement
  
• Poverty, Injustice, Exploitation
  
• Trafficking
  
• Prisons
  
• Refugees,
  
• Asylum Seekers
  
• Migrants
  
• Prejudice and bigotry
  
• Social Exclusion on grounds of Race, Colour, Sexual Orientation, Language, Religion
• The Aids Pandemics
  
• Family Life
  
• Planet Earth
  
• South American Missions
• United Nations

The Sisters of the Cross and Passion (Part 3)

The Congregation began small, a little seed sown in Manchester in 1851. But from the beginning Elizabeth dreamt of an international missionary congregation limited only by the limits of the earth. This was not achieved in her lifetime.

After her death only a handful of Sisters remained. But among them were exceptionally talented and inspired leaders. Numbers grew. New works were undertaken. Convents were opened throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire, Scotland and London. Sisters were missioned to make a foundation in Bulgaria in 1873 and in Ireland in 1878. The tide had turned.

The Sisters of the Cross and Passion (Part 2)

Elizabeth Prout’s Institute was a new venture. The Sisters lived in community combining a humble, austere and prayerful life with an active ministry outside the convent. Anyone who was truly virtuous and could work for the support of the Institute could be admitted. There was no class distinction among members.

Passionist Sisters on YouTube!

This is Part 1 of The Sisters of the Cross and Passion, a video about the history of the Congregation made by the sisters of St. Paul’s Province. It is really well done. Hopefully, it will get a lot of exposure on YouTube.

Next installment coming soon!

Combating Social Exclusion in Chile

This semester I have been busy with a new project of a library and open center for children and youth. It has involved building cupboards, protections for windows, getting books and encyclopedias, etc also computers which I hope to have installed soon, getting people to help out, doing propaganda for the center which by the way is called St. Patrick’s Center. Its aim is to give an opportunity to the children and youth here to advance in their studies by providing access to books, computers etc which their peers have in the town nearby. I think it should be a means in the future to avoid that the children and youth here will be excluded later on in life. It is slow work as it is hard to get workmen people to help and take responsibility. Keep this in your prayers as it is just taking off and we are learning by degrees.

I was interviewing a lady from here on social exclusion and decided to send to you what she said.

1. How people experience exclusion in the society or village where they live.

“I see it as an injustice the fact that people exclude me. The people don’t take the time or the bother to hear my story and my point of view but form their opinions from what they hear and on that basis exclude me.”

2. This lady says she doesn’t participate in anything in the village except school meetings for her children, which are obligatory. Any richness she could have contributed to the area has been stifled by the exclusion she feels and receives.

3. Name a few actions that you have done to help people reach their potential.

The lady says that we as Passionist sisters have not excluded her but we have listened to her story, have helped her and given her strength to go forward.

4.What would help you and your people to be part of a construction of a more inclusive society.

If people were more united. If they would be interested in helping the rest of the community as a whole. If they would organize activates for the youth and get them to participate.

Affectionately,

Ann Langan, C.P.