Mission and Service Archives | Page 11 of 14

Making do

The second week of April we celebrated two confirmations in my parish. Obviously the ideal misa for confirmations and baptisms is the Easter Vigil, but in my parish we often work with what is less than ideal. My parish community is a group of around 40 men who are currently inmates in El Penal de San…

It is in giving that we receive

Editor’s Note: Current office associate Melissa Montrowl is a veteran volunteer at Lourdes. Her recent blog post on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes illuminates the impact the pilgrimage site has made. We all know what it feels like to be in the swirling vortex of chaos and busyness known as life. For…

Learning to be present

“Just be with some people.” Those were Elaine’s words of wisdom to me last week at Calvary Women’s Services. She oversees my work as part of the LEAP program there, and those five words reminded me of my purpose for that afternoon. Ministry of presence is something I am still trying to grasp—even though I’ve…

Making an impression

Editor’s Note: The following post was written by Nate Mortenson. Pastoral Universitario This is the group Mary and I have been participating in since we moved to the UAC – Carmen Pampa. It’s a wonderful group—usually about 7 to 15 attend the Tuesday evening gatherings where we sing, pray and read from the bible, and…

“The Challenge of Lay Missioners” by Fr. Anselm Moons

Editor’s Note: In celebration of our 25th year of preparing and supporting lay missioners, we look back to our archives at a World Care newsletter from 1990 in which our founder, Fr. Anselm Moons, OFM, describes the importance of lay missioners and the challenges they face. On 22 September 1990, after many months of paperwork…

“I thirst…”

As Jesus hung on the cross, he proclaimed the words “I thirst.” Jesus called out in need of something to drink, but these two words encompassed more than the desire for a drink of water. Jesus was thirsting for a world filled with peace, joy, hope, and most of all a world filled with love.…

Eternal fulfillment

Last week we celebrated a funeral for one of the parishioners here in Jamaica. The woman had been sick for a long time, so she was now free from the pain and in God’s loving embrace. The Jamaicans have interesting traditions for funerals. Since most people in Jamaica are not Catholic, the mass is separate…

Embracing God’s Plan

I have been a planner my whole life. I rely on my color-coded calendar, countless to-do lists, and multiple email tabs everyday to keep myself organized and structured. I generally don’t enjoy being spontaneous or going with the flow. When I committed to FMS I liked knowing that I had a plan and a goal…

Libre Soy

Editor’s Note: The name of the individual involved has been changed. During my first year in Bolivia, I was visiting a group of inmates in Hospital Viedma when I met Jose. He had been sent from the prison to the hospital to receive treatment for TB and to prevent an outbreak in the prison. After…

At Long Last!

Well I finally did it. I made it to Jamaica. After about a month of being at home and ending the sadness of the Superbowl, I have arrived to this beautiful country of Jamaica. A country known for it’s beaches , resorts, and heat. The week that I came to Jamaica was the start of…

Making the Comfortable Uncomfortable

In July, 2009 I attended a social justice immersion summer camp with the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The week long camp challenged high school students from different parts of Maryland to learn about the injustices that were affecting Baltimore City and how we could be advocates for justice and change. During the week we visited many…

San Damiano Servant Leadership Award Winner Announced

Editor’s Note: Award winner Emma Laut pictured on far left of featured image. Franciscan Mission Service is proud to present the first-ever San Damiano Servant Leadership Award to Emma Laut of Marian University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Through her extensive work with several social justice-minded organizations and her dedication to her faith in Christ, Laut embodies…

Hard Times

I was sure that when my mother died it would be the most difficult experience of my life. But somehow looking back, life seems more challenging right now. I don’ think I’ve ever felt as alone as I do here. Or as lost. Or as disconnected from God. This may sound confusing if you are…

New Semester Brings New Opportunities

Editor’s Note: The following post is from Mary Mortenson. The school year at Carmen Pampa University starts this week. Please keep Mary and Nate in your prayers as they begin another semester of guiding young scholars. Recently Nate and I had the opportunity to accompany a group of 8 Pastoral students (a Catholic Young-adult group)…

Happy two year anniversary to Jeff!

Editor’s Note: Also pictured in the featured photo is fellow FMS class 28 lay missioner Annemarie Barrett. Jeff Sved is beginning his third year serving in Bolivia this January. Working with many prisons in the Cochabamba area to ensure the inmates are receiving spiritual guidance and materials to make goods to sell for an income,…

Happy one year anniversary to Hady!

Editor’s Note: Also pictured in featured image is Maryknoll lay missioner Caitlin. One year ago this moth, Hady Mendez, of FMS’ 29th class of missioners, arrived in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Since then, Hady had used her time work with Manos Con Libertad to help women in prison to better their spiritual life and their financial situation,…

Happy two year anniversary to Annemarie!

Editor’s Note: The following was written by FMS. Also pictured in feature image is former FMS lay missioner Kitzi Hendricks. 2015 is the beginning of Annemarie’s third year as a FMS lay missioner, and we could not be more proud. The work that she has done with the agriculture of the community in Cochabambato to…

Finalists for First-Ever San Damiano Servant Leadership Award

We are pleased to announce the five finalists for our first-ever San Damiano Servant Leadership Award. Launched in conjunction with our 25th anniversary, this honor recognizes a faithful, service-oriented young leader dedicated to building the kingdom of heaven on earth today. The winner, who will be announced the first week of February, will be given a $500 scholarship…

Missioners begin language school

As we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord this past Sunday, signifying Christ beginning his ministry, several of our 30th class of missioners have left for their respective countries this weekend to begin their own ministries. While Jesus went to the desert for 40 days and 40 nights to reflect and pray in preparation for…

Friendly Support

“One day more means one day less.” This is something my girls at prison say. It’s sort of an inside joke. Once I understood what it meant, I got to thinking, “Shoot, sometimes I feel the same way when I’m homesick.” In the same way, I too have “time to complete” before I can go…

The Search for the Heart – Remembering Margaret

It is with great sadness that we share news of the death of Margaret Hughes, a returned missioner and former board member. Margaret passed away at the age 51 on Christmas Day after a long battle with stage IV breast cancer, leaving behind Eddie, her husband of 15 years, and Thomas, her 12-year-old son. Having…

What Does it Mean to be Sent?

After 13 weeks of formation filled with classes, early mornings at service sites, and plenty of community time, the 30th mission class of Franciscan Mission Service walked into the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the Franciscan Monastery filled with our family and friends for our Commissioning Mass to celebrate our being sent out on mission. During…

Sharing Life

Editor’s Note: The following is part of our daily holiday series celebrating “The Shared World.” This is not a story of an epiphany, of one overwhelming moment of clarity or a life-changing event that altered my perspective of the world. More so, this is a story of a journey, one that started slowly and continues slowly,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

#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…

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…

An Invitation to Change

Last weekend I was able to witness the past, present and future of the Catholic Church. On Saturday I attended the USCMA conference in Arlington, Virginia, where I was surrounded by hundreds of years of mission experience from all over the world. It was a humbling situation to have the opportunity to listen and share with…

The Big Reveal

They’ve been waiting. And praying…and waiting and praying some more. With much anticipation, the five members of Mission Class 30 learned this week which countries they will each be traveling to in January to being at least two years of service and solidarity. Brandon Newland and Patrick Montine are on their way to Jamaica to…

Walking Together on the Journey— US Catholic Mission Association Annual Mission Conference

Three years ago I was on my way to Miami, Florida for the annual Mission Conference hosted by the United States Catholic Mission Association (USCMA). At the time, I had no idea what I would be getting myself in to. I was a college sophomore, had only been an intern with USCMA for two months, and…

Prison Ministry – It’s No Joke

My family and friends laugh at me when I say,“ Talk to you later. I gotta go to jail,” “It sounds funny,” they tell me. But for me it’s the most natural thing in the world. It’s what I do. I started prison ministry roughly six months ago. When I first started going to jail,…

Overcoming Discomfort and Making Friends

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) In the weeks leading up to Christmas last year, my siblings and I received a group text message from our mother explaining the details of a caroling outing at a local convalescent home. When the time came, our family of seven trudged into…

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