love
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Mission Monday: I’m Happy Here!
In today’s post, we share the joy, wonder, and happiness expressed by current lay missioner Hady Mendez at the beauty of mission service. I’m happy here in Bolivia. And even as I write these words, I’m knocking on wood because I don’t want to somehow jinx myself. I’ll admit it. I didn’t expect to be…
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Franciscan Friday: 5 Questions about Marriage as Mission
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, returned missioners Lorenz and Patty Sollmann write today about their faith’s relationship to the Sacrament of Marriage and their call to mission as a married couple. Patty and Lorenz Sollmann were married in September 1989, and were the first married couple to enter FMS in…
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Sacraments and Social Mission: The Holy Spirit at Work
Continuing our series Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples, current missioner Hady Mendez writes today about her faith’s relationship to Confirmation, the Holy Spirit, and her response to God through her mission service. When I was sitting in my JustFaith class back in late 2012, the spirit truly moved me to give…
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A Window into a Soul
Mateusz Stachowski Missioner-in-training Valerie Ellis reflects on the powerful effect love’s presence has made on her in her relationship with a woman at her volunteer site. I was offered a window into Angela’s* life. I saw a woman who looked much younger than ninety-seven. I heard of a life, just the inklings of understanding about…
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Franciscan Friday: Prayers from South Africa
South Africa is on our hearts and in our minds as we lead seven college students on a Short-Term Mission and Global Awareness Trip this week. By engaging with locals, the students will learn about nation’s history of apartheid as well as current realities faced by some of its residents, including HIV/AIDS and poverty. Each…
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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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Valentine’s Day – Celebrating the Ability to Love
Do you have a favorite love quote? There are many, too many to sort through. Quotes by saints, celebrities, historical figures…. the list goes on. And it can be interpreted in different ways – love for family, Christ’s love, love is patient, love is kind, etc. But by far my favorite quote comes from a…
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Walking in Solidarity this Lent
“Solidarity” is a word that is often used in social justice circles to describe the unity or oneness we strive to have with others, especially those who are experiencing poverty or inequality. There are many more ways to describe solidarity, and even more ways to live it out. This is something we will continue to…
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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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Les Misérables and the Ministry of Presence
Domestic Volunteer Anna didn’t expect to feel the spirit of St. Francis in a movie theater. And yet she couldn’t help but hear a familiar Franciscan message in the context of this pop-culture film. Les Misérables, the movie that everyone seems to be talking about struck an unexpected chord when I finally viewed it a…
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Encountering God in Community
I encountered God this year in the warmth with which the community I have here has continually expressed to me, comforting me in times of sadness, laughing with me, and sharing themselves and their cariño (affection) for me in so many ways. Sincere relationships, it is there that I experience God´s acceptance, love and beauty.…
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“To be loved as to love” – Saying Goodbye
Part of the journey toward Easter peace is moving away from “me” and toward “thee,” thinking less of myself and more of others — we are trying becoming “Little Christs.” Like Christ, we are called to love. We are to open our hearts with abandon. Our missioners travel abroad to serve with open hearts. Years later,…
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Prayers for Christmas: Wisdom and Strength in the New Year
The Christmas liturgical season is just beginning! Join us through the new year in praying with our missioners and those they serve overseas. Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from Noemi, a teacher at an after-school program in Bolivia where our missioner Catherine serves.“Lord, for the next year I ask you to continue to bless me, and to…
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Prayers for Christmas: Why Christmas?
Original photo by Ambuj Saxena “Why Christmas? Our vision, our purpose, our goal: to know, to love, and to serve God. To know God, to know the love between the Trinity, to know the Son, and through Him the Father, and the love that is the Spirit. To know the almighty, the creator, the everlasting,…
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Prayers for Christmas: Reason for the Season
“My prayer for Christmas is that the REAL reason for the season takes ahold of our hearts and grows us more in God’s unabounding love.” – Michael Redell, FMS lay mission class 27 Kitzi and Michael at their commissioning. Photo by Gerald Martineau. It is because of God’s love that Michael and fellow missioner Kitzi…
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Prayers for Christmas: Kindness
Paul in Ghana Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from Br. Paul O’Keeffe, OFM, of Holy Name Province, who served as a lay missioner to Jamaica and Africa in the mid-’90s. “This Christmas I am thankful for the many people God has placed in my life the past year. For those people who have loved me,…
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