Month: January 2013
Meet the new Domestic Volunteer: Sarah
It took 12 hours to drive from her hometown of Newton, Illinois, but Sarah Hoffeditz has made it to our headquarters in D.C. to join our staff and become the newest Domestic Volunteer. Sarah graduated in the spring of 2012 from Bellarmine University, a Catholic university where she appreciated the emphasis on social justice and…
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Mission Monday: Wine and Cheese Make a Reunion
To welcome home our returning missioners we held our traditional Wine and Cheese Open House. On this Thursday evening, snow threatened the roads and dark had already fallen, but Casa San Salvador soon filled with friends, new and old, to welcome home missioners who had been away for two to three years. The missioners came…
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FMS Podcasts: History of the Church and Franciscanism
Franciscan Mission Service is making resources from our mission formation available to the public, including podcasts from the classes. Our missioners get to learn some interesting subjects while in formation: history, theology, geography, environmentalism, social justice issues, cross-cultural communication… the list goes on! Now you can also be enriched and inspired by these same lessons…
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What Would Dr. King Say To The First Black President? (Part 2)
Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM shares part two of his message for this historic weekend. For part one, please see Friday’s post. By The White House from Washington, DC (P012009PS-0477 Uploaded by Ekabhishek) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons In preparing for today’s homily, I spoke with an African-American Jesuit theologian and asked him what Dr. King…
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What Would Dr. King Say To The First Black President? (Part 1)
By Trikosko, Marion S. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM shares part one of his message for this historic weekend: The coincidence of the Dr.. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and the 2013 Inauguration of America’s first African-American president for a second term must be seen as truly historic. Just 150 years…
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What is an adequate response to the love that I have received?
“What is an adequate response to the love that I have received?” New Missioner Annemarie tries to answer that question after spending the last month saying goodbyes to friends and family before leaving for her two-year mission in Bolivia. How can I not smile? When I am surrounded by so much love from family, from…
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Les Misérables and the Ministry of Presence
Domestic Volunteer Anna didn’t expect to feel the spirit of St. Francis in a movie theater. And yet she couldn’t help but hear a familiar Franciscan message in the context of this pop-culture film. Les Misérables, the movie that everyone seems to be talking about struck an unexpected chord when I finally viewed it a…
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Recommended Reads – Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi
For today’s book review, Domestic Volunteer Anna Robinson shares a title that inspired the first steps of her Franciscan journey. Cover art of Spoto’s Book In 2010 I was selected to go with a group of students from my university to Italy on a Franciscan Pilgrimage. At the time I knew little about Italy and…
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Mission Monday: “Death ends a life, not a relationship”
This week, missioner Nora returns to Casa San Salvador, along with seven other returning missioners, to begin the process of re-entry from her time in Bolivia. As Nora recalls her service abroad, she reflects on the memories that center around life’s biggest transition – death. Memorial in honor of Bolivian Protesters. For me, one of…
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Blessings in the New Year
Just as we are blessed to begin a new day, we are thankful to begin a bright new year! 2012 was a good year for us and we have much to look forward to in 2013. – The homecoming of eight missioners from Bolivia, South Africa, and Zambia. Nora Pfeiffer (Bolivia) Catherine Giller (Bolivia) Lynn…
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