Month: December 2014
2014: Year in Review
As 2014 draws to a close, we reflect with gratitude on the past year and those who make our ministries possible. Here are a few organizational highlights from another fruitful year of encouraging the laity to follow the Franciscan mission tradition of sharing in the lives with those on the margins. Thank you for supporting us as…
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10 Days in Istanbul
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Following my junior year of college, I went on a 10-day study abroad trip to Istanbul, Turkey, mostly because an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain made me obsessed with the ancient city in high school. It was my first…
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Bonds of Friendship
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Mariam is a former employee and close friend of FMS. My two closest friends from childhood are Marjie, a Conservative/Orthodox Jew, and Sehreen, an Ismaili Muslim. As an Orthodox Christian, I have always been thankful to have their perspectives along my…
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The Best Shoes I Ever Had
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Anusia Dickow is a good friend to FMS. In college I volunteered in an emergency women’s shelter in North Saint Louis. One night, there was only one woman at the shelter, Deborah. This twenty-year-old, Caucasian, college student did not know how to…
Read MoreMerry Christmas!
Jesus is happy to come with us, as truth is happy to be spoken, as life to be lived, as light to be lit, as love is to be loved, as joy to be given, as peace to be spread. -St. Francis of Assisi Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus when he crossed the great…
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Seeds of Change
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World” through Mary’s thoughts and experiences. Working in Carmen Pampa at the University, I get the privilege of working alongside the students in the campus gardens. As we weed next to each other I get to hear about their lives, where they come from, and what…
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Reality Strikes
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” As part of his ministry, Jeff works alongside the work delegates in the different prisons to coordinate material purchases and machinery upkeep for the inmates’ workshops. Through his relationships with the artisans and leather workers, he also works as one of their…
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Growth Through Faith
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Michael is the former communications associate at FMS. We Irish-Catholics are known for many things, but ecumenism isn’t one of those things. In my own heart, I’ve felt a need to resist feelings of clannishness and pride that keep me from…
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Making a Fashion Statement
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” On a recent weekday afternoon, I was reviewing my Quechua homework while waiting to process some of my immigration paperwork in the local immigration office. Quechua is one of the two most widely spoken indigenous languages in Bolivia and is commonly…
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A Shared World at Home
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” I can still remember how nervous I was my first night hosting at Claremont Homeless Advocacy Program (CHAP); I laugh when I think about it now. I started volunteering at CHAP in preparation for formation with FMS in Washington, DC. CHAP…
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An FMS Night Before Christmas
Trying to find a simple and fun way to celebrate the holidays with your community, Secular fraternity, or office? This year, the Franciscan Mission Service staff played the following game at our annual Christmas party and it was a big hit. We sat in a circle and each person had in front of him or…
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God’s Surprises
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” I know now that the squeals were not the finish line. I recently brought flowers to a woman in a nursing home that I visit regularly, and they were received with squeals of delight. I’d met Gladys* the week before at…
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Brother Santa
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Fr. Tom Washburn, OFM, is the newly elected board president of FMS. My first real experience of ministry took place the very first year that I entered into religious life as a Franciscan. It was 1991, and finally entering religious life was…
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Why You Should Talk to Strangers
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” With my nose stinging of chlorine and my legs treading wildly, I tried to focus on the teary-eyed woman bobbing before me. I had seen her at the pool before. Her face had always reminded me of my mom’s, even though…
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Time Well Spent
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World” through Nate’s thoughts and experiences. Last week a faculty member from the Unidad Académica Campesina-Carmen Pampa came into my office and asked if I could go through the filing cabinets to clean out old papers and documents left behind from previous…
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A Special Connection
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Fr. Michael Della Penna, OFM, is the Director at Valley of the Angels school in Guatemala. I am sharing one of the most touching letters I have ever received here at Valley and perhaps in my 15 years as a priest.…
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Sharing is Caring
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” It started with a story. It was Holy Week of my senior year of high school and I was volunteering with Bissonnette House, a home for recently released convicts looking to get back on their feet. While we took a break…
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Building Bridges
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Fr. John Ullrich, OFM, is a close friend of FMS. As a Franciscan friar who’s been professed for more than forty years, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to reach out and serve people in serious need, be it physically, economically, socially…
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A Journey of Love
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Akisha Townsend Eaton is a friend of FMS and Candidate for the Secular Franciscan Order. Shortly after getting married this past summer, my husband Jack and I set off for what would be a European honeymoon adventure of a lifetime. Despite…
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A Humble Mission
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Fr. Joe Nangle, OFM, is a former FMS executive director and board member. The originating vision of Franciscan Mission Service remains compelling today, thirty years after it was articulated by FMS founder, Anselm Moons, OFM. Called by Franciscan leadership in North…
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We are One
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” The way I have come to see human beings as the same is not in one event, but in a series of small gestures. It is in the way people interact with me as if I understand everything: whether at my…
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Learning in the House of Mary
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” January 12, 2010: the day the whole world turned its eyes towards Haiti. The day I began a lifelong journey. The day I started to fall in love. I was 18 years old and in my freshman year of college. I…
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How Did I Get Here?
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” When my best friend Meghan asked if I wanted to go on a mission trip to Jamaica with her the summer after our freshman year of college I was a little skeptical. As much as I don’t like to admit it,…
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The Shared [Captive] World
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Teresa is a Secular Franciscan with a long-standing relationship with the FMS family. “To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners…” (Is 61:1) About 12 years ago, I received an invitation from Andrew, one of the first prisoners from when I…
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Kind Gestures
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” The director of Manos Con Libertad, one of my ministry sites, is from the UK. This past winter, she decided to head home for a few months. She said it was to rest, but I think she actually spent a lot…
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One Big Home
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” Today Br. Brian Stacy, a Capuchin Franciscan, shares about the world of Franciscan friars. He also volunteers as a spiritual director for FMS members. Capuchin College is a post-novitiate formation house for the Capuchin Franciscans in Washington, D.C., and it’s what I’ve…
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One Ear at a Time
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” New missioner Brandon talks about an experience that lead him to Franciscan Mission Service and his mission call. I walked up a very steep hill along an ever-narrowing pathway towards what would be my home for the next eight weeks in…
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Sharing the Mission
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” On December 3rd, we celebrate the feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, the namesake of my house in college. For those of you who don’t know, Saint Francis Xavier was from the Basque region of Spain, and was one of the first…
Read More#GivingTuesday – Meeting the Needs of the World
As we celebrate our shared world this holiday season, we reflect on the needs of our Church and world today: Franciscan Mission Service meets these needs with a Franciscan spirit. Our ministries transform lives around the globe. Today, on this #GivingTuesday, we hope that you’ll show your support of these ministries by 1) making a…
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The Power of One
Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” New missioner Maeve talks about an experience that lead her to Franciscan Mission Service and her mission call. On the surface, Wendy and I don’t appear to have much in common. When we met she was fourteen and I was nineteen. She…
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