In this Issue:

Poetry from Our Sisters

Brazil CARE

ACOR Grant

SEMS Grant Application

St. Joe's Child Trafficking

Motherhouse Annual Retreat

Gather the Wisdom, Weave a Dream

June Birthday List

Send Us Your News

Poetry from Our Sisters

We recently asked the Sisters to share their original poetry with us. Now, we’re going to share three of the many poems we received with you.

We will be sharing more in future newsletters.

Any Sister who would like to share her poetry may still send it to anne.holliday@fsallegany.org or

Anne Holliday, PO Box W, St. Bonaventure, NY, 14778

Three Haiku

By: Janet Sullivan, OSF

Frogs: tuning up for

The celebration of day

With a brand new score. 

Pray-ers up early

Responding to God’s presence

Chant the psalms of praise.

Charming waters run

Hurling rainbows as they chant

"Mighty God be praised."

My Reflections of Receiving a Diagnosis of Autism

at the Age of 50 – Part II

By: Margaret Foley, OSF April 2024

My Autism was with me during my birth. Autism has journeyed with me throughout my life. At the age of 50, my Autism no longer was nameless or overlooked on my life journey. Autism received an identity and transformed the woman I see in the mirror.

By the Sea

By: Judith Terrameo, OSF

By the sea

it was there that I met my Lord.

He washed clean

the recesses of my being

pouring forth new life.

By the sea

the crystal blue sea

covered with a coat of freshly fallen snow

My Lord warmed my cold-hearted soul.

He filled me with the warmth of

His everlasting tender love,

cuddling within His hands

the coldness of my heart.

By the sea

stand so many barren trees

yearning for the warmth of a spring day.

So my soul …

… barren

… empty

… yearning

for the birth of new life.

One Life –

the life of my Lord within.

He alone can fill the barrenness

with life giving waters

not of the sea

but from the wellspring of His very being.

And, yes

my soul has been quenched

at the foot of the sea

by the hand of a loving God.

Observations

By: Rose Bernhardt, OSF

The early morning sunlight streams

through the huge oak tress

simultaneously casting elongated shadows

of the thick round trunks.

Suddenly a temporary shield moves

across the sun covering its bright light.

Behold, a dim meadow is now seen

for the contrasts have disappeared

only to reappear once again.

This playfulness of the sun and clouds

transforms the landscape and changes its 

appearance time and time again.

So too in one’s life the inner light shines

sometimes strong, full and bright

other times it reflects more muted and hidden tones.

Each portrays the artist’s use of color and shade

with textures and strokes both bold and fine.

Beauty captured and embraced

Oh, divine Creator!

Brazil CARE

Sisters met earlier this month at Admirable Mother Convent in Brazil for the last stage of C.A.R.E. (Conversational Approach to Relational Effectiveness) training.

For more information on ACOR Grants, please visit: https://afmfl.org/mission-inspired-grants/acor/

SEMS Grant Application

By: Laura Whitford, President

St. Elizabeth Mission Society is pleased to accept applications for its 2024 grant cycle (due July 15, 2024) for projects in which the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and their Associates are actively engaged and provide services to those who are poor at home and abroad. As a reminder, Congregational grants are no longer offered and are now included with the Mission Society grants.

The application is attached in Word and PDF format.

All applications are due July 15, 2024, complete with signatures of BOTH: an actively engaged Sister or Associate AND a Leadership Contact.

For ANY questions, please contact: Laura Whitford, Mission Society President, at (716) 373-1130 or LWhitford@FSAllegany.org.

St. Joe's Child Trafficking

St. Joseph’s Women’s Hospital recently partnered with law enforcement in the recovery and care of victims of child trafficking as well as the protection of at-risk youth.

The hospital created a recovery hub, where officers brought 27 children for temporary refuge before they were placed in the care of child welfare agencies or the Department of Juvenile Justice. 

“Many recovered youth have significant physical ailments, mental illness and histories of substance misuse,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Mario Price, who led Operation Seminole Saber. “These children were also restricted by limited or no access to health care. Partnering with BayCare filled these critical gaps ensuring recovered kids had the medical care they desperately needed.” 

Tracey Kaly, director of clinical operations at BayCare Behavioral Health, said BayCare is the only health care system in the Tampa Bay area equipped for this initiative since the request was for a pediatric hospital partner that operates in both Pinellas and Hillsborough. “BayCare welcomed the opportunity to share our compassionate care with this vulnerable group of children and to be part of such important work,” Kaly said.  

You can read more here:

https://baycare.org/newsroom/2024/may/baycare-supports-us-marshals-operation-seminole-saber-ensuring-care-for-recovered-children

Motherhouse Annual Retreat

June 29 - July 6, 2024

COURAGE, WISDOM, AND COMPASSION:

LESSONS FROM VISIONARY LIVES.

A Retreat with Gillian T.W. Ahlgren

Inspired by the lives of Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi, Oscar Romero and Dorothy Day, Gillian will reflect on the spiritual practices that anchored their lives and gave them the strength for the journey. By remembering how people before us experienced the call to love in a needy world, we find courage and wisdom for today.

Gillian is an educator and writer known for her ability to open up the Christian mystical tradition as a practical resource for living. She is the author of several books, including Entering Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle: A Reader’s Companion, Spiritual Exercises for 21st Century and the Tenderness of God: Reclaiming our Humanity.

Gather the Wisdom, Weave a Dream

by: Ted Dunn

Gather the Wisdom, Weave a Dream is a resource for leaders and planners who wish to guide their faith communities through the turbulent waters of deep change and transformation. It is for communities at a crossroads who can no longer go on as they have in the past, yet do not wish to simply care for their remaining members, settle their affairs, and come to “completion.” It is for those who wish to discern a deeper invitation at these Graced Crossroads and create a vision for the future that is truly transformative, one that promises to bring forth new meaning and purpose to the lives of their members.

This book o:ers an approach to visioning that is novel, one that includes and yet transcends conventional planning methods. It is an approach integrally connected to the soulwork I believe is too often neglected but nonetheless essential for the successful transformation of persons and communities. This work is an e:ort to directly connect the outer work of change with the inner work of transformation.

While faith communities resonate with the idea of transformation and possibilities for new life, little is written on how to go about it. Although I have long cautioned communities that there are no formulaic solutions for such transformative endeavors, neither are we completely at a loss with what to do. There are universal principles and processes known to be involved in both personal and communal transformation. And there is an array of possible approaches that has proven to be successful, as well as a host of pitfalls that 

ought to be avoided. 

It is the application of these principles and processes that has yet to be sufficiently spelled out and this book aims to address this gap. I will put forth ideas, guidelines, and concrete examples as departure points to help leaders and planners create their own approach. Each community will need to creatively draw upon and tailor these ideas to fit their unique circumstances. The material provided will give leaders and planners the working 

knowledge they will need to maximize the possibility of personal, communal, and systemic transformation.

This book is meant to be a resource, not some kind of blueprint for transformation. There is no such thing. I do not presume to think that what I am o:ering is the only way to approach visioning or communal transformation. However, this is one way I have used and evolved over the years that I have found to be highly e:ective. The communities who I have accompanied, and who have engaged in this work, have found it to be integral to their larger 

e:orts to transform their lives and birth a new way of being.

Available on their website (CCS), Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or other bookstore.

Happy Birthday!

We Want to Hear From You!

We would love to include more news from Brazil, Bolivia, Jamaica and Mozambique in our newsletter. If you have any pictures, tidbits of information or bigger stories you’d like to share please email them to

FSA Communications Coordinator

Anne Holliday anne.holliday@fsallegany.org

If you have any questions about whether it’s something that could or should go in this newsletter, you can ask Anne about that, too. But she’ll probably say, “Yes, send it.” 😊