News from Blessed Sacrament Province
The Sisters at Villa Maria after a prayer and supper to celebrate Consecrated Life on February 2. In the back row are Sisters Guadalupe and Cecilia, members of the Sisters, Servants of Mary who have been our neighbors on Country Club Rd since 1927, serving as nurses and companions to the sick in their homes.
We are pleased that five CNDs (three from our province) who are under the age of 65 were able to participate in the recent ¡Esperanza! Hope! gathering with almost 200 Sisters in the same age cohort from many congregations. We noted that those who made profession from 1966-1999 had the opportunity to share with others from their cohort in the Congregation a few years ago, but those who made profession between 1958 and 1965 have not had a similar experience. So they will be receiving an invitation soon!
Sisters Jackie Hanrahan and Sally Norcross presenting “Spirituality of Women in the 21st Century” at the Catholic Daughters Women’s Retreat at St. Matthew Church, Norwalk.
In April 2024 we will be celebrating the presence of a CND community at Andrus for 20 years. Over that span of time there have been many changes at the facility. Currently there are major plant renovations that will affect us.
The second floor—where most of our sisters resided over the years and which housed a community room and adjacent chapel and office space—will become the rehab unit. In the new configuration we will use Andrus meeting areas for community gatherings, and the office will move to the first floor in space currently used by the Andrus administration. The CND office will move to a temporary location for at least six months. In the interim office there will not be a chapel.
Ours has had very little use since the pandemic and increased mobility issues of the residents.
Please keep us in your prayer as we try to adjust day by day. Also include Sister Joann Compagno in prayer; she has been invaluable in recycling and disposing of 20years of collected items!
by Marilyn Hammill, CND
ASSOCIATE RELATIONSHIP
by L. Mendez
In recent months, we have seen news in the media that thousands of people and families leave their countries, fleeing violence, organized crime, and poverty. Emigrating with the hope of reaching the United States and having a better life, and exposing themselves on their journey to unimaginable dangers, going hungry, cold, and most of the time exposed to the contempt and discrimination of many people who, instead of helping them, judge them and make their journey more difficult.
We see this news every day, but what happens when it is no longer news; it becomes a reality in your life. This happened to my family: one Sunday in September 2023, Father Mateo called my husband and me after finishing mass to ask for help. They had taken to the church a young man with his 7-year-old son, of Ecuadorian origin, who had been found sleeping on the street, and they needed help and a shelter to receive them. Unfortunately, we realized that in Kankakee, no shelters received families with children, so my husband and I decided to take them home to provide them with food and rest a little while we found a way to find them a place to live. And so, some families from the Parish of St. John Paul II (Kankakee, IL) approached us to support them; some brought clothes, others brought food, and another family lent them an apartment for a month while the father began to work. We contacted someone working for the school district, and the child was enrolled. Little by little, help for them began to arrive, and after a week, more families were coming, and a chain of help was created for all these newly arrived migrants.
It should not surprise me how God acts and moves kind hearts to provide where there is need.
On the other hand, we come upon people who ask us how we are going to bring someone we don’t know into our home or why we are going to help someone who may be fleeing from his country because he is a thug. Sometimes, we judge so quickly and selfishly that the world would be worse if we listened to those voices.
As a CND Associate, we were given a book, “CALLED TO COMPASSION,” which I like very much.
Making a retreat with St. Marguerite Bourgeoys with this book has awakened in me the desire to be compassionate, and the meaning of the word compassion has profoundly penetrated my heart, awakening in me the ability to feel the pain of my neighbor and take the next step to respond more actively, with concrete actions, leaving my indifference and putting my grain of sand, sometimes it is difficult, but when God moves you, he takes care of placing the help you need.
Executive House celebrates Mardi Gras.
The novitiate community gathers on the feast of St. Marguerite.
Associates, Sisters, and friends join Sr. Catherine McDermott in celebrating 95 years of grace.