Annemarie Barrett
Throwback Thursday in honor of Laudato Sii: Mother Earth Teaches
Today Pope Francis releases his environmental encyclical “Laudato Sii,” whose name comes from Saint Francis’ of Assisi’s Canticle of Creation. In celebration, we reshare last summer’s series “Earth Mother Teaches: Digging Deeper into Faith, Community and Justice” in which Franciscan lay missioner Annemarie Barrett reflects on what she has learned from working with communities in Cochabamba, Bolivia,…
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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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School Raises $5,000 in Support of Alumnae, Lay Missioner
Love of others through charity and justice is a core value at Holy Spirit School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Each year the parish school selects a social justice focus to encourage students to think beyond the community and act on behalf of those in need. One year they supported Heifer International, another they built a…
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Learning from Weeds
Lay missioner Annemarie Barrett completes our series, “Mother Earth Teaches: Digging Deeper into Faith, Community and Justice.” At the end of the day, I am learning that Mother Earth is our greatest teacher. When we look close at the garden, it is all there. “Greatest teacher” of what? What is “all there”? In reconnecting…
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Mother Earth Teaches: The Sacred Nature of Seeds
Lay missioner Annemarie Barrett continues our series, “Mother Earth Teaches: Digging Deeper into Faith, Community and Justice.” “In the Andean cosmovision, we recognize that we are part of our environment. We are not superior to the Earth, nor owners of her, but we coexist in harmony with her, in relationship with the Pachamama, and…
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The Marginalization of Farmers and Learning from Communities
Lay missioner Annemarie Barrett continues our series, “Mother Earth Teaches: Digging Deeper into Faith, Community and Justice.” In connecting with the land, I am also growing closer to farmers. And in our time spent together I am learning more about their reality, their suffering and their resilience. In knowing the women in Santa Rosa,…
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The Disconnection from our Earth and the Call of Franciscan Mission
Lay missioner Annemarie Barrett continues our series, “Mother Earth Teaches: Digging Deeper into Faith, Community and Justice.” Living in the city, shopping at grocery stores, and watching a lot of TV, I never had to think much about how my food arrived at my table. I could answer that easily, “From the grocery store.”…
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NEW SERIES! Mother Earth Teaches: Digging Deeper into Faith, Community, and Justice
Today we launch a new series by lay missioner Annemarie Barrett about what she has learned from her time working in the parish garden alongside rural communities in Bolivia. Okay, so I am just going to say it again. I grew up in the city, disconnected from the land. In my parents’ house, we grew…
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Mission Monday: A Third Year of Service for Annemarie and Jeff!
Today’s post features an exciting update about two current missioners in Cochabamba! Great news: second-year missioners Annemarie Barrett and Jeff Sved have each decided to stay in Bolivia for a third year of mission! When our lay missioners are commissioned, they agree to a minimum of two years of service, but they can renew their…
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Mission Monday: “You’re Going to Have to Wait”
In today’s post, missioner Annemarie Barret reflects on the privilege of time and how waiting on others, on events, and life in general has personally affected her and informed her toward deeper ministry of presence. “You are going to have to wait.” I remember Hermano Ignacio’s warning when he visited during our formation in Washington,…
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Short-Film: Reconciliation and Mother Earth
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, today we share a short film titled “El litio: La Siguiente Batalla de Bolivia” or (roughly translated) “Lithium: The Next Battle of Bolivia”. “Care for Creation” is hugely important in Franciscan Spirituality. This film is about concrete political realities, but it also is…
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“Necesitamos menos ciencia y más Pachamama”
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, current missioner Annemarie Barrett writes about her relationship with the Earth, its presence in her life, and her ongoing conversion. When I am in Santa Rosa, time is relative. We spend less energy worrying about what time it is or when we need…
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“Blackberry Picking”: St. Francis would love it
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, full-time volunteer Michael Carlson writes about his experience reading Seamus Heaney’s poetry with St. Francis in mind. Reading Annemarie’s writings this week about the Eucharist and creation (another post is coming tomorrow!) reminded me of one of my favorite poets, Seamus Heaney. Every…
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Spirit, Body, and Earth: A Missioner’s Transformation
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, current missioner Annemarie Barrett writes about her relationship with the Earth, its presence in her life, and her ongoing conversion. I did not grow up gardening. I never got much into my science classes. I preferred reading and writing and making art to…
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Sacraments and Social Mission: The Eucharist as Mystery
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, current missioner Annemarie Barrett writes about her relationship with the Earth, its presence in her life, and her ongoing conversion. As a Catholic, my faith has taught me to reverence the mystery in myself, in others and in all of creation, to honor…
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Report: Kim and Mariam Visit Missioners in Bolivia
On December 4, Franciscan Mission Service Director Kim Smolik and Associate Director Mariam Kaldas traveled to Bolivia for twelve days to visit the current missioners and provide a retreat for them. Annemarie Barrett, Kitzi Hendricks, and Jeff Sved are the current missioners serving in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Annemarie works in a parish garden with local women and…
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The Light of One: Mother. Administrator. Agronomist. Jefa. Friend.
Continuing our daily Advent reflection series, Missioner Annemarie Barrett writes about a woman who continues to greatly influence her life in more ways than one. Mother. Administrator. Agronomist. Jefa. Friend. Working with Casta, our parish administrator and jefa in the parish garden, has been one of the many transformative relationships that I have encountered in…
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When My Story and Your Story Becomes Our Story
Lay missioner Annemarie Barrett reflects on what she’s learned about solidarity in the past few months of serving in Bolivia. I once heard solidarity defined as, “When my story and your story becomes our story.” That definition touched my very core. It resonated with my experiences of accompanying families in El Salvador and my time…
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Mission Monday: Sharing Stories in Sacred Spaces
A watercolor by Annemarie that was inspired by the women of Santa Rosa First-year missioner Annemarie Barrett reflects on the conversations she has had with the women she has come to know in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Work. More work. Children. Husbands. Cooking. Cleaning. More cooking and more cleaning. Domestic violence. Machismo. More violence. And no justice.…
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Mission Monday: Sharing and Solidarity with Workers
On this Labor Day edition of “Mission Monday,” we share a reflection from first-year lay missioner Annemarie Barrett who serves in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I had white paint all over my paints, sandals and even in my hair. I was painting the inside of one of the sheds in the parish garden of Santa Vera Cruz…
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Franciscan Friday: No Violencia – En Español!
Missioner Annemarie Barrett on the Onda Verde radio show with Bolivian friar Efrain in Cochabamba This week, Franciscan Mission Service missioners took to the airways to discuss nonviolence. The discussion between current missioner Annemarie Barrett and former missioner Nora Pfeiffer took place on Onda Verde, a Franciscans International – Bolivia radio show on which Nora…
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Paz y Bien: The Importance of Community
In concluding this Paz y Bien blog series, I have taken time to consider what element is the most essential to these nonviolence workshops that we have been engaging here in Cochabamba. What makes these experiences sacred? What about these workshops lays the foundation for personal and social transformation? My experience has led me to…
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Paz y Bien: “Pieces of the Truth” activity
Lay missioner Annemarie Barrett continues her non-violence series by sharing an activity inspired by Mohandas Gandhi that she has done with groups in Bolivia. “Gandhi’s nonviolence maintains that no one possesses the entire truth. Rather, each of us possesses a piece of the truth and the un-truth. In a conflict, nonviolent action seeks to reveal…
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Paz y Bien: Living as Minority
The third part of the Paz y Bien nonviolence series by lay missioner Annemarie Barrett: “Poverty is a way of being by which the individual lets thing be what they are; one refuses to dominate them, subjugate them, and make them the objects of the will to power. One refuses to be over them…
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Paz y Bien Part 2: A Posture of Nonviolence and Balance
The second part of the Paz y Bien nonviolence series by lay missioner Annemarie Barrett: “With one hand we say to one who is angry, or to an oppressor, or to an unjust system, ‘Stop what you are doing. I refuse to honor the role you are choosing to play. I refuse to obey you.…
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Paz y Bien Part 1: Engaging the Nonviolent Journey in Cochabama
Today we kick-off a special series written by lay missioner Annemarie Barrett. “You can feel it. You can feel the energy!” She told me, beaming, the two of us surrounded by a room full of women sharing hugs and laughter and walls covered in poster board and notes. We had just finished another nonviolence…
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Mission Monday: Mother and Community Love
For this Mission Monday post, Missioner Annemarie shares a story of the pain of a mother’s love and the healing power of a supportive community. Missioner Annemarie with her mom before she leaves for Bolivia. In the CEB that I have come to know in the northern zone of the city, there is a woman…
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Mission Monday: Saying Yes
New lay missioner Annemarie Barrett shares what her time so far in Cochabamba, Bolivia has taught her about being open to new opportunities and the unknown. I have been reflecting lately on what it means to live as a lay missioner and to constantly be saying “yes,” and on what it takes to be able…
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Mission Monday: Community Gardens in Bolivia
As a Franciscan organization rooted in the commitment of caring for creation, Earth Day is a very special time for us. We are especially joyous today because our newest lay missioners in Cochabamba, Bolivia have been recently participating in some great ecological endeavors while exploring the ministries in which they’ll serve. From community gardens to…
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Update From Bolivia: Patience and an Open Heart
New lay missioner Annemarie Barrett has been in Bolivia since January 2013. Here is her update on her experience so far. Without the comfort of familiar schedules, places and plans, I can tell you now that the process of growing into a new context is even more challenging than I had expected it to be.…
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Postcard from Bolivia: Carnaval in Oruro
About 28,000 dancers and 10,000 musicians parade over four miles at the Oruro Carnaval. Just because new missioners Annemarie Barrett and Jeff Sved are in language school right now doesn’t mean they can’t have some fun. Our missioners joined about seven other classmates from the Maryknoll Language Institute to experience the most famous of Bolivia’s…
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Franciscan Friday: Look At Our Reality From the Perspective of the Poor
Recently I found myself in a small upper room in a Franciscan Spirituality Center in Tarata, a town about an hour drive outside of Cochabamba, Bolivia. I was sitting in a plastic chair in a circle of Franciscan volunteers from around the world, some from Germany, others from Brazil, and me from the United States.…
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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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Mission Monday: Prayer as a Space for Gratitude
Photo from flickr, KateWares How does gratitude open my heart? While at Loyola University Chicago, learning about Ignatian Spirituality, I was introduced to the examen as a form of prayer. Recently, I have returned to this practice. In our sessions on contemplative prayer with Patience Robbins, we have been developing a deeper understanding of prayer.…
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Mission Monday: Sharing in Christ’s Fellowship
During their training in D.C., our mission candidates take a morning each week to volunteer in the local community. For this Mission Monday, Annemarie Barrett shares what it’s like to work alongside Christ’s chosen company. Photo: www.fathermckennacenter.org Every Wednesday morning during formation, I visit the Father McKenna Center, a daytime drop-in center for men who…
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