A New Daughter of Charity!

The Daughters of Charity welcomed a new Sister on January 11 at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Seton! Sr. Salvatrice signed on the dotted line! She will now enter the seminary (not THE seminary). We call our novitiate the seminary. The Daughters of Charity are the first community of non-cloistered Sisters. We are a Society of Apostolic Life. Terminology for the Daughters is often different from other communities so that back in the 1600s we could remain outside the cloister in order to serve the poor.

Sr. Salvatrice will leave in a couple days for Evansville, Indiana where our seminary is currently located. She will be there for a year and a half. It is a time of intensive prayer, study, and reflection. Her studies will include that of the Church, the heritage of the DCs, the vows (we make 4 annual vows), spirit of the community, and personal development. Once a week Sr. Salvatrice will have an apostolic day (service). She will leave Evansville for a period of about 6 weeks for an extended apostolic experience "on mission" with a local community of Daughters of Charity. Then she will be "sent on mission"once her seminary experience is over. She is sent forth in the name of the community. She is not only serving in her name, but also that of the Daughters of Charity and the Church. Our mission to serve Christ in the poor is a corporate mission, one we accomplish together. Sr. Salvatrice will not make her vows for the first time (first time since she will redo them every year) for another 5-7 years. So, there is the basic process once a woman signs on! I pray that many women have the courage to take that step in faith to follow the call of Christ in this radical way!

Roe vs. Wade Anniversary

We are coming up on another anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade case. Recently, we have become aware of the Freedom of Choice Act which abortion advocates are pushing. Thankfully, it is extremely controversial and as an NPR columnist wrote, "FOCA has as much chance of passage as the 0-10 Detroit Lions have of winning the next Super Bowl." However, I believe it is a great opportunity for us to raise our voices and make some noise! You can get the fact sheet and other information at the United States Council of Catholic Bishops website:
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/FOCA/FOCA_FactSheet08.pdf

As we prepare for our first African-American president to take office, I can't help but be amazed about how far we have moved forward since slavery in our country in recognizing the equality of people no matter the color of their skin. There has been such significant progress in civil rights. One day the rights of the pre-born will be fully valued in the eyes of the law also. The young people will look back and be horrified that the pre-born were not considered human just as we wonder how slavery could have been tolerated. It won't likely happen in my lifetime. But, then again if you talk to older African Americans who experienced life without civil rights, they will repeat what a great surprise it is to witness a black man becoming President of the United States in their lifetime. All things are possible through Christ--right? Right!

The photo to the right is St. Gianna Berretta Molla. She is the partron saint of mothers, preborn children, and physicians. She is part of the Vincentian Family--a member of the Vincent de Paul Society in Italy. She died shortly after the birth of her fourth child. To read about her go to: http://famvin.org/wiki/Gianna_Berretta_Molla

So, keep up the prayers for the preborn, but also make your voice heard with your senators and representatives!