missioners
World Care Benefit and Celebration 2016 Recap
When everyone gathered in St. Francis Hall on May 13 for the 2016 World Care Benefit and Celebration, the spirits of generosity and gratitude were almost tangible. This annual celebration at Franciscan Mission Service is more than a fancy catered event; it’s a call to action. It’s a reminder of how important it is to…
Read More
Class 31 Commissioning
At the end of August, our missioners-in-training all arrived at the Casa San Salvador mission house in Washington, DC to begin formation training with Franciscan Mission Service. During the next three months, they would attend classes on scripture, Franciscan spirituality, and cultural sensitivity together. Through all of this, in the classroom and out, a group of acquaintances…
Read More
“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…
Read More
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…
Read More
Franciscan Friday: Combating Hunger in D.C.
In honor of September’s Hunger Action Month, we’re sharing experiences of combating hunger. In Washington, D.C. one in eight households struggles with hunger. D.C.’s poverty rate is the third highest in the nation, and on any given night, 6,000 people here are homeless. While our short and long-term international mission programs focus our attention on…
Read More
Join Us For An Open House At Our New Offices
August has been a busy month for our staff as we prepare to welcome five new lay missioners to training in September. Part of that preparation has been moving our administrative offices out of our Casa San Salvador on Quincy Street and into space in the Theological College’s McCormick Pavilion at 415 Michigan Avenue, Northeast.…
Read More
Mission Monday: Wine and Cheese Make a Reunion
To welcome home our returning missioners we held our traditional Wine and Cheese Open House. On this Thursday evening, snow threatened the roads and dark had already fallen, but Casa San Salvador soon filled with friends, new and old, to welcome home missioners who had been away for two to three years. The missioners came…
Read More
Encountering God in the Face of Missioners
While our missioners encounter God in those we serve, we often find ourselves experiencing God through our missioners themselves. Development Director Br. Paul O’Keeffe, OFM, shares how our missioners inspire him: Br. Paul O’Keeffe, OFM, with some of our missioners in Bolivia: Kitzi Hendricks, Lynn Myrick and Joel Vaughn “My ministry with Franciscan Mission Service…
Read More
Mission Monday: Hospice Residents Celebrate Feast Day
Domestic Volunteers who staff the office at our headquarters are taking Wednesday afternoons to serve at various sites around the D.C. area. Each volunteer is partnered with a non-profit and spending a few hours each week there through their service commitment at Franciscan Mission Service. So far, volunteer Chelsea has had a festive experience at…
Read MoreNew Mission Candidates get a taste of Bolivia
Over the Labor Day weekend the new mission candidates started arriving from all over the country. And what good timing! It just so happened there was a Bolivian festival going on at the Prince William County Fairgrounds in Manassas, VA. Many of these candidates are interested in going to Bolivia for their two years, so…
Read More