In this Issue:

Welcome New Staff Members

Sisters, need help with Technology?

Thea Bowman - "Shooting Star"

"Pathway to Peace & Inner Freedom:

Reflections on the Twelve Steps"

Mission Society Easter Cards

House of Prayer Annual Report

Motherhouse Happenings

Mardi Gras - Kokomo Time Band

Tuesday, February 21st, we welcomed Anne Holliday and Ryan Swick to the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and the Congregational Office Staff!

We asked each of them to answer some questions about themselves so we may begin to get to know them.

We hope that everyone will join us in welcoming our new staff members!

The FSA Information Technology Department

(a.k.a. Steve Blue and Ryan Swick) are happy to assist!

No issue with technology is too small –

so please reach out for assistance.

Do not hesitate to reach out if you need assistance!

"Speaking prior to a FutureChurch viewing of the documentary, “Going Home Like a Shooting Star: Thea Bowman’s Journey to Sainthood,” Sister Anita Baird, DHM offers remarks and reflections on her own experience and relationship with Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman. FutureChurch hosted the viewing in celebration of Black History Month as a part of its Women Witnesses for Racial Justice series."

Sister Lucy Cardet actually met Sister Thea and said she was very impressed by her. 

Something that stayed with her was Sister Thea telling students in integrated schools how fortunate they are to grow up and go to school together. Having grown up in the segregated South, Sister Thea stressed to the students how important it was get to know and understand people who are not the same as they are.

Sister Lucy also said Sister Thea, while she worked as a teacher, would make 7th grade girls look in the mirror while telling them they were beautiful.

“That was so important to them,” Sister Lucy said.

To purchase a copy at $5.00 each, please send a check payable to

“Franciscan Sisters of Allegany” and mail to:

Franciscan Sisters of Allegany; Attn: Claire Majot; P.O. Box W, St Bonaventure, NY 14778.

Or if you are visiting the St. Elizabeth Motherhouse cash can be accepted.

Send your special prayer blessings to friends or loved ones this Easter with Mass enrollment cards from St. Elizabeth Mission Society. As members of the Mission Society, their intentions will be remembered at Easter Sunday Mass and in other Masses celebrated throughout the Easter season in the Motherhouse Chapel. They will also share in the prayers and good works of our Sisters in Bolivia, Brazil, Jamaica, Mozambique and the United States. 

As a sponsored ministry of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, the St. Elizabeth Mission Society shares in its spiritual aims, one of which is to advance the awareness of God's love. Donations given for the cards are used to support the ministries of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany who work to educate, heal, clothe, and feed those who are experiencing poverty in Bolivia, Brazil, Jamaica, Mozambique and the United States.

Jubilee & Easter cards, as well as various other enrollment cards, can be ordered online at https://www.franciscanhope.org/shop/ or you can call the Mission Society office at (716) 373-1130 or e-mail the staff at StEliz.Office.Manager@FSAllegany.org for more information about ordering the enrollment cards. Jubilee & Easter cards will also be available in the Mission Society office. 

On January 31, 2021, I took up residence at the House of Prayer for All People. With 2022 also behind me, I can appreciate the growth of the HoP alongside the Mission Statement:

The House of Prayer for All People is a place where individuals and groups come to worship and pray for peace and reconciliation. It is not a church or a mosque or a synagogue but a place made holy by the people who come there. 

All are welcome to the House of Prayer for All People as sisters and brothers of one human family under God. They are encouraged to pray for peace

with words agreed to by all.

Over the past two years, 45 individual visitors signed the HoP Guest Book, some on multiple occasions. COVID held back the development of this central aspect of the HoP Mission. It should be noted, however, that the Guest Book is not an exact record of the actual number of HoP visitors.

As the Guest Book reminds me of HoP visitors, and I hold them close, so does the HoP Prayers Book, but in a more focused way. The visitors and I add names and intentions to the Prayers Book almost daily. I pray over these entries nearly to the point of memorizing all for whom and for what I have been asked to pray.

The Mission has flourished in other ways. The Psalm Prayer Hour brings together by Zoom a lively group of 8 or so from a pool of 12 “regulars” every Monday from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. Since the first meeting of this group on January 3 to year’s end, we met thirty-six times and considered thirty-five psalms.

The Trinity Lane – Gulph Mills Women’s Group, co-founded by Julie Moore, Melissa Davis and myself in 2022, is evolving into a new source of HoP friends and prayer intentions. The purpose of the WG is to foster neighborhood friendship and support. A major activity for me and some others in the WG is simply called “neighborhood walk-abouts.” It is then that ringing doorbells and knocking on doors, including at Trinity Nursery School, to say “Hello” and, e.g., offer invitations to the WG Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper (free!), brings attention indirectly to my location at the HoP. I take this opportunity to invite my neighbors to visit the HoP and let them know I am there to pray for them and their needs.

My lifestyle at the HoP is also evolving “at a slow pace,” so to speak. In the first year, three women accompanied me for different lengths of time covering about five months of 2021. Many at Trinity Church will recall fondly Sister Barbara Bartkowiak, Rosemary Weiss and Susan Kerin. Several other persons have shown an interest in coming but the practicalities of life and health restrictions have unfortunately stalled their decisions.

The HoP lifestyle is evolving in another direction: One woman spends each Thursday at the HoP “to pray, cook and clean,” as she so graciously puts it; and another comes for a monthly day of prayer. The HoP is open and grateful for such blessings!

Thus, while I am living alone, hermit-style, I am quite content. As a Franciscan, it feels right and good. Indeed, I meet by Zoom every other week with a “Cluster” of my Franciscan Sisters for camaraderie and Congregational discussion topics. So, I am far from lonely, with the love, friendship, ministries and fun of Trinity Church and Nursery School, the Women’s Group and the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, NY! 

February has been packed with fun at the Motherhouse! 

We started the month off with a Thank You party for Sister Mary Lou! It was very nice to have staff and Sisters gather to watch the slideshow presentation put together by the Activities Department. 

For Valentines Day we had a spirit week, complete with kindness day, a basket raffle, and sweet treats provided by our very own Dietary Department! 

At our Fat Tuesday celebration, we welcomed the Kokomo Time Band! The Sisters and staff very much enjoyed this entertainment, as well as the decadent desserts, again prepared in house! (aren’t we lucky!) 

Coming up in early March is National Catholic Sisters Week. We have prepared some fun events in house to celebrate! We have also set up a can and bottle drive in the name of the Motherhouse to benefit a great local environmental preservation, Pfeifer Nature Center! 

We look forward to what the month ahead has in store for the Motherhouse!

Look for the special edition newsletters for Catholic Sisters Week in March.

We will make sure to remind you about the Community Can & Bottle Drive!

A unique Christmas gift turned into a lively Mardi Gras celebration at the St. Elizabeth Motherhouse.

It all started on August 30 when sisters Lucy Cardet and Michele Dolyk took Sister Toni Pellegrino to lunch at Angee’s Restaurant in Olean to celebrate the birthday of Sister Sandy Teevens with whom Sister Toni was especially close, and who recently passed away. While the sisters took advantage of the restaurant’s outdoor dining they were surprised that the restaurant also had live music provided by the Kokomo Time Band from Fredonia, New York.

They enjoyed the music so much that they said, “We’ve got to bring this back to the Motherhouse.”

Fast forward a couple of months when Sister Michele said, “Christmas is coming. What can we do for the Sisters that’s different?”

She and Sister Lucy then remembered the band, took the idea of hiring them to their housemates – Sister Margaret Magee and Sister Pat Reid – and the four of them decided to give the gift of live music in the form of Kokomo Time.

The Motherhouse staff decided Mardi Gras would be the perfect time to use the gift and add to it by treating the sisters and staff to decadent desserts like peanut butter truffle pie, chocolate hazelnut cake and chocolate covered strawberries, among others, while the band performed.

It took the sisters a few songs to get warmed up, but most of them were at least tapping their toes while enjoying the delicious desserts.

Then the song “Sweet Caroline” “really got them going,” Sister Michele said. And, yes, they did the “bom, bom, bom.”

She and Sister Lucy said everyone had a great time dancing and singing, and 103-year-old Sister Therese Joyce even did all the motions to the song “YMCA.” 

Sisters Lucy and Michele hope live music becomes a regular happening at the Motherhouse.