Month: September 2017
Take Us Out to the Ball Game
Editor’s note: Missioner Stephanie Ashley Caban shares her community bonding experience at the Nationals’ game, thanks to Liz Hughes and Board President Patrick Martin, OFS. In preparation for our tailgate party, SarahJane, Sam, PJ, and Anne-Marie spent the morning heating up hot dogs and buns, excitedly chattering before walking to the Metro. Alessia and I…
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Love Can Be Kept Only By Being Given Away
Editor’s note: Missioner Maggie Van Roekel describes a meal that she and her campus ministry group organized in the Carmen Pampa community. “Love can be kept only by being given away.” —Tomas Merton, No Man is an Island This month our campus ministry group, pastoral, organized a lunch for older people in the Carmen Pampa…
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Cooking and Community at Casa San Salvador
Editor’s note: Missioner SarahJane Cauzillo gives a glimpse of the Casa San Salvador community’s evening meal and prayer time. [unitegallery casadinner] Reflection question: How do you make mindful connections through meal time?
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Heavenly Food to the Faithful
Editor’s note: DC Service Corps volunteer PJ Herrera reflects on life with his fellow community members at Casa San Salvador. “He is The Bread sown in the virgin, leavened in the Flesh, molded in His Passion, baked in the furnace of the Sepulchre, placed in the Churches, and set upon the Altars, which daily supplies…
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Introducing DC Service Corps member Anne-Marie Elsinger
Editor’s note: Learn more about Anne-Marie Elsinger, DC Service Corps member and volunteer at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School. Anne-Marie Elsinger joined DC Service Corps shortly after graduating with bachelor’s degrees in music and social work from Loras College, a Catholic school run by the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa. Born in Herndon, Virginia, she…
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Full Arms, Fuller Heart
Editor’s note: Missioner Amanda Ceraldi shares her interactions with the families of the children she cares for at Valley of the Angels School in Guatemala. I could hear them from across the parking lot. A group of girls screaming my name: “Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, we have a surprise for you!” They pulled me into the…
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A Sant’ Egidio Experience: Seeing Christ and Fueling Fires
Editor’s note: Missioner-in-training Tim Shelgren tells the story of the FMS community joining Sant’Egidio, a group of volunteers in DC who meet every Friday night to prepare foods, walk out into the streets, and offer their goods to men and women who are experiencing homelessness. As we set out for 21st Street tonight, we originally thought…
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Give the Gift of Presence on World Alzheimer’s Day and Every Day
Editor’s note: Missioner Anna Klonowski reflects on her personal connections to people with Alzheimer’s on World Alzheimer’s Day. In 2010, I was on the brink of newfound freedom, sitting in the backseat of a Driver’s Ed car waiting for my turn to cruise (or rather, slowly and nervously jolt) down Main Street. My friend was…
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An FMS Welcome to PJ Herrera, New DC Service Corps Member
Editor’s note: DC Service Corps member PJ Herrera shares his background and motivation for becoming a volunteer at SOME, a nonprofit serving people who have experienced homelessness. Last week I sat down with PJ Herrera, a DC Service Corps member serving at So Others Might Eat (SOME), an interfaith organization serving people who have experienced…
Read MoreInner and Outer Beauty: An Interview with Alessia Catena
Editor’s note: Tim Shelgren deepened his acquaintance with DC Service Corps member Alessia Catena in an interview last week. I have known Alessia Catena for two weeks. My first impression of Alessia reflects maturity and both inner and outer beauty. She presents herself in a way that shows she has confidence and does not hesitate…
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Many Passions: An Interview with Stephanie Ashley Caban
Editor’s note: Missioner SarahJane Cauzillo compiled her interview with fellow missioner in training Stephanie Ashley Caban, who shared her journey to FMS and towards a sense of cultural identity. It’s early in the morning. The sun has yet to grace us with its presence, and the grass still glistens with the night’s dropping of dew.…
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A Mantra for the Possible: An Interview with Lay Missioner Tim Shelgren
Editor’s note: Missioner Stephanie Ashley Caban shares an interview with fellow missioner in training Tim Shelgren. Tim Shelgren is one of those people you can’t possibly forget. His kind nature and listening ability stand out of the crowd more so than the loudest person in the room. Always the first to clean up after dinner…
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The Dump
Editor’s note: Missioner Misty Menis-Kyler shares a glimpse of Guatemala City’s dump and the people who live and work there. Last month I had the privilege of taking the Holy Spirit mission group from Texas to a site off campus called the dump. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is the dump where…
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United by God’s Mercy
Editor’s note: Missioner Cindy Mizes shares two powerful experiences of human hands rescuing people in need and relates them to our call to unity with others. This past spring while visiting the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, I was given a tour of Hope Hospice. There I met the lovely and memorable “Miss Daisy.”…
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Dancing (and Running) with the Spirit
Editor’s note: New missioner Stephanie Ashley Caban relates the adjustments to her fitness commitment as part of her Formation experience. I don’t always like New Year’s Resolutions, possibly because I never saw a need to make one. However, I do enjoy the concept of learning to better oneself and encourage that to be done at…
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Old Money Bag—A Voice of Simplicity from the FMS Casa Community
Editor’s note: New missioner Tim Shelgren writes a post about practicing simple living with the other members of the intentional community at FMS’ Casa San Salvador. My job is to hold currency. I have been at my job for quite some time. My once vibrant purple and yellow stripes are fading, my plastic is getting…
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Humbling Myself and Embracing My Imperfections
Editor’s note: Missioner Erin McHugh relates how embracing vulnerability has allowed for deeper relationships with her students. I have always found myself feeling pressured to be “perfect,” whether it is because people tell me I have a “perfect” body, or that I say the “perfect” things. I have been called a “perfect” little angel because…
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Unpacking Simplicity
Editor’s note: New missioner SarahJane Cauzillo reflects on her search for a simpler and more intentional life at the start of Formation. As I stood in the living room of my parent’s home, all my clothing, shoes, books, and other various personal items strewn out around me, and an empty suitcase beside me, I asked…
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Jesus Commands Us to Love, Part 2: Down in the Depths
Editor’s note: Missioner Janice Smullen continues her blog series, “Jesus Commands Us to Love,” by tracing Jamaica’s movement for social justice. God is always offering grace and unconditional love to us, but history has shown us that human beings are capable of displaying a dark and desperate side.Young Miss Bev (from Bat Mitzvah Girl, a…
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