lay missioners
Hope Springs in the Desert
Editor’s Note: During this spring season, lay missioner Mary Liston Liepold, OFS recognizes how hope springs in nature and in her ministry sites. March 25, 2025 In DC, my home for most of my adult life, the cherry blossoms are blooming in the rain. El Paso typically gets about 9 inches of rain each year,…
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A Poem for the Aqui Estamos March and Vigil
Editor’s Note: On March 24, 2025, members of the El Paso community gathered in downtown El Paso for the “Aqui Estamos March and Vigil” to show support and be in solidarity with our immigrant neighbors. In this blog, lay missioner Kim Wagner shares her reflections after this march and vigil in a poem. In a…
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The Kindness of Strangers and the Goodness of God
Editor’s Note: Having arrived in Guadalajara for language school, lay missioner Mary Liston Liepold, OFS recounts some of her first experiences navigating the train station, attending class, and studying. If you know me at all, you probably know I can be a bit ditzy – AKA lost in space. When we were kids, my missing…
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A Poem for World Day of Migrants and Refugees
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Kim Wagner recognized World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday, September 29, 2024. She wrote this poem as she reflected on what she learned from serving at Annunciation House. As I watch the children laughing and screaming with joy run past me, I faintly hear the women staying with Annunciation…
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Pondering My New Home
Editor’s Note: As she begins her time on mission in Jamaica, lay missioner Susan Sarkissian embraces this season of transition. I just arrived in Jamaica for two or more years of service, and I am experiencing what is commonly known as transition. This is that period where you are unfamiliar with your surroundings, clueless to…
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A Jamaican Music Playlist
Editor’s Note: Lay missioner Joleen Johnson has curated a playlist of songs that reflect the culture of Jamaica. For this blog, I have created a playlist of some of my favorite Jamaican songs to share with you. Many are folk songs and are sung in Patwah, the local language, so I chose videos with lyrics…
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Agony and Joy
Editor’s Note: Along with a Servite Sister, lay missioner Joleen Johnson contemplates the connections between agony and joy, especially in regards to Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection. As the Easter season begins, I wondered: What is the connection between agony and joy (or ecstasy)? I asked this question to a very wise Servite Sister* living here…
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Waiting Through the Seasons
Editor’s Note: As Kim Wagner anticipates beginning her time on mission, she relates her waiting to the liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas. As I have worked to unpack my bags in my new home in Douglas, Arizona, I have begun to reflect on the past month and a half at home and the Advent…
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Holy Ground
Editor’s note: Reflecting on the Scriptural concept of “holy ground,” missioner Joleen Johnson ponders how each person she encounters, created in the image of God, is inviting her to holy ground. Have you ever thought about why God told Moses to take off his sandals when he came over to the burning bush? The story…
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A Tribute to Our Lay Missioners
Editor’s Note: As this year’s Overseas Lay Missioner Formation comes to a close, DC Service Corps member Bohdan O’Shaughnessy dedicates this blog to FMS’s three recently commissioned missioners. In the not-too-distant future, the Casa is losing our three lay missioners as they embark to their international ministry sites. Last Saturday was their Commissioning Mass, and…
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Throwback Thursday: “Laity Co-Lead with Clergy” by Anselm Moons, OFM
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 1991 in which our founder, Anselm Moons, OFM, describes the changes that need to be made to the idea of evangelization and the role the laity have to play in…
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“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…
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