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An Interview with Annemarie Barrett

Editor’s Note: As Franciscan Mission Service celebrates its 35th anniversary, we had the gift of interviewing Annemarie Barret (OLM Class 27, serving in Cochabamba, Bolivia from 2013-2016). Read her interview below to learn more about her journey as a lay missioner, her art, and her life in Bolivia. Can you share with us how you…

A Sacred Yes: How FMS Shaped My Life of Mission and the Birth of Casa Rosa

Editor’s Note: As Franciscan Mission Service celebrates 35 years, lifelong missioner Erin McHugh shares how FMS has impacted how she views her lifelong mission, from serving in Guatemala as a lay missioner to returning to Guatemala to establish Casa Rosa. Franciscan Mission Service has profoundly shaped how I view my lifelong call to mission—not as…

Fostering the Franciscan Charism as a Franciscan Mission Fellow

Editor’s Note: Following this year’s Sending Forth Mass, Franciscan Mission Fellow Joe Costa shares a reflection on how he grew in the Franciscan charism during his program year with Franciscan Mission Service. July 20, 2024 On July 16, 2024, a Sending Forth Mass was held at the Capuchin College Chapel honoring the DC Service Corps…

FMS Lifelong Missioner Feature: Tim Shelgren

Program Director Emily Norton had the gift of interviewing Tim Shelgren (Mission Class 33, Serving from 2018-2020 in Kingston, Jamaica) via a Zoom call. Below is the interview.  Q: How have you chosen to live out Franciscan simplicity since returning to the US? The day I left Jamaica, I remember standing in the airport on…

My American Penance and Reconciliation

Editor’s Note: Lifelong missioner, Janice Smullen describes how her way of thinking continues to shift as she learns more about the history of the United States and ways she can live out a journey of reconciliation after returning from mission in Jamaica. I have to admit that I am not a regular attendee of weekly…

2019 Re-Commissioning Mass

On January 27, Franciscan Mission Service held its annual Re-Commissioning Mass celebrating three recently returned missioners Anna Klonowski, Cindy Mizes, and Misty Menis-Kyler, who lived in solidarity with the marginalized of Bolivia, Jamaica, and Guatemala, respectively, for two years. The special Re-Commissioning Mass not only brought a close to the missioners’ time serving with FMS…

Prayers for Christmas: Comfort and Hope

Kathy Snider on mission in Guatemala, 1998 to 2000. Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from returned missioner Kathy Snider: “My prayer for Christmas is for those who have experienced loss of a loved one due to death or separation, of home due to natural disasters or foreclosure, of food and due to drought and poverty,…

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