peace
congregation of the sisters of st. joseph of peace
The mission of Living Peace, a free occasional publication of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, is to build community with a diverse audience by engaging our readers in contemplation and action for justice and peace through informative and reflective articles, poetry and prayers.
If you wish to change your address, or if you or someone you know would like to be added to our Living Peace mailing list, please contact Cristina Turino at cturino@csjp.org or 201-608-5401.
Copyright: Articles in Living Peace may be reprinted. Please include the following on reprints: “Reprinted with permission from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, 399 Hudson Terrace, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, www.csjp.org” Please send us a copy of the reprinted article.
Jan Linley, Editor
Susan Francois, CSJP, Leadership Team Liaison Cristina Turino, Editorial Assistant and Distribution Manager
Cover Art: Elizabeth Rydall is a spiritual practitioner and artist who has ongoing painting relationships with trees, nature, women in society, and spiritual ideas. She shows in galleries and has a few online stores at Eliryarts.com, Artfinder EliryPalettes and Saatchi. She resides in a beautiful southern California town with her husband and kids. Her painting “The Healing Power of Curiosity” is on our cover.
Design
Beth Ponticello, CEDC, www.cedc.org
Healing Our Wounds and Healing the World
Healing of any sort of pain, whether physical, emotional or spiritual, can be a long journey. I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that whenever I encounter pain and woundedness, my first tendency is to run away from it. Most often, when I am in emotional pain, rather than dealing with it, I try to distract myself by watching a movie, surfing social media, reading a book, going shopping – anything rather than facing it head-on. Other times, I want to vent to someone whom I trust to get rid of the immediate frustration of what is hurting or upsetting me. Pain can be persistent, and when it keeps trying to force me to pay attention to it, my resistance only gets stronger. I try to push it away. I continue this tug of war with pain until avoidance stops working. Then, I am forced to take the time to sit with my pain and hold it consciously and trustfully like a unique, unwanted gift. It is then that I find myself open to learning and allowing myself to be healed and transformed by the wounds and their pain. Richard Rohr says, “If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it—usually to those closest to us: our family, neighbors, co-workers, and, invariably, the most vulnerable, our children.”
by Sheena George, CSJP
a luminescent sheen over a person’s skin. Brockemeier explores how the world changes when people can no longer hide their pain. It takes courage to admit it. Brockemeier reminds us that true healing comes from transforming ourselves from the inside out.
This requires being vulnerable and developing a deep and ongoing relationship with oneself through practices such as prayer, meditation, mindfulness, journaling, yoga, and others. These and many other practices help us become more self-aware and encourage us to slow down, allowing us to work with our thoughts, feelings, and sensations from a place of compassion, solitude, and nonjudgment. Even though it is not an easy practice in these moments of vulnerability and effort, God’s grace reaches to the most vulnerable part of ourselves where it seeks to change us. How beautiful and freeing not to keep our pain hidden from one another. And when we are in touch with our scars, we become humble and more compassionate to the wounded humanity of which we are a part. Karl Rahner thought that “loneliness, disappointment, and the ingratitude of others can be graced moments because they open us to the transcendent. … When we are in touch with ourselves authentically, we experience God.1”
Many of us are wounded, somehow, someway. We are also part of a wounded humanity that needs healing. We live in a time where bullying and scapegoating—essentially exporting our unresolved hurt—has become all too familiar. Our world is yearning for healing, for unity between nations, and harmony among different faiths and cultures. The lives of individuals are marred by violence, betrayal, and abuse, while our planet and the entire ecosystem are also in crisis, crying out for healing.
In his novel The Illumination, Kevin Brockemeier imagines a world in which one day, for unknown reasons, pulsing light emanates from a person’s wounds, whether it be a headache, sore feet, depression, heartbreak, cancer, the effects of war and violence, or any imaginable pain. Sometimes, it appears as sharp shafts of light, other times as
Healing begins from within and spreads outward like the ripples in a pond caused by a pebble. It takes courage, commitment, and hard work to overcome our instinct to deny pain, fix it, control it, or even try to understand it. Healing involves transformation and is both a personal and collective effort. Our actions and who we are in the world have an impact, and each of us can contribute to restoring wholeness and healing to ourselves and the world.
As we seek new and effective ways to bring healing to our world, may we be ever more aware, despite our instinct to hide our wounds, that divine grace waits and longs to reach out to the most vulnerable part of ourselves where it seeks to heal us—and the healing of us brings the healing of the whole world.
1 Callahan, Annice “Traditions of Spiritual Guidance: Karl Rahner’s Insights for Spiritual Direction,” The Way 29 (1989): 341-47.
FROM THE EDITOR
Healing Is Not a Solo Event
It was important to my parents that my brothers and I become independent and able to take care of ourselves. For the most part, that has served us well. But there are times when we must rely on others, especially when we are vulnerable due to surgery or physical or mental illness. That is when we are reminded of John Donne’s famous words, “No man is an island.” The challenge is not that we don’t know that or understand it, but we often behave in a way that suggests otherwise. Some of us, me included, find it difficult to ask for support or assistance until we’re backed into a corner. We don’t like being vulnerable; however, healing is not a solo event.
There is comfort in communicating with others who have gone through the same things we are going through. It connects us. In nature, that happens organically. We don’t have any problem looking at a spider’s web and seeing how all the strands of silk are beautifully woven together. That silk is as strong as Kevlar and 100 times tougher than steel, but it’s also elastic, making it both strong and flexible. We can imagine and have seen root systems connected and interwoven beneath the ground. If we could think of ourselves as connected by invisible energy strands like roots and spider’s silk, we might understand that humans are also organically connected. Then we might value the importance of taking care of not only our own health but sustaining and caring for all forms of life. That is what we explore in this issue of Living Peace, understanding our connectivity and the ripple effect of our actions.
by Jan Linley
From the ancient healing modality of acupuncture, which is based on trigger points and energetic pathways throughout our bodies, to a job with the Congregation, healing is happening everywhere.
Care of creation has long been a concern of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. The many Priuses you find in their parking lots are not just for show.
Kelly Marsicano shares some of the different ways the sisters’ sponsored ministries and eastern regional center are implementing sustainability.
Liz Dodd, CSJP, describes how providing consistency, safety and basic human needs creates “ripples of love that ricochet into eternity,” while Kathy Galleher provides some very useful practices that can bring healing and peace to us that translate to ripples of healing in the world.
Both Melody Maravillas and Frank McCann remind us how important our connections and encounters are, and that collective advocacy can and does promote and create positive change. The title of this issue’s cover art is “The Healing Power of Curiosity.” Indeed, Stephanie Peirolo encourages us to be more curious thereby opening a path to compassion and acceptance.
As imperfect beings, we are always in a state of healing, even if we’re simply trying to do and be better. Our emotional states and the behavior that arises from them affect everyone around us. In a world where every time we open our papers or computers or phones, we find truly horrific news, it is easy to be fraught and feel hopeless and helpless. There are situations that are beyond our control, and there are many we can control. The more we can focus on the latter, on our impressive ability to heal and transform wounds, the more we can tip the balance to the healthy side of things.
We are one interwoven, complex and precious divine being. So, get curious! Keep exploring new ways to be healthy and to maintain good mental and physical health. Do an examen of consciousness about how well you are caring for our planet in the choices you make. Be a conduit of change and a force for good. Take care of yourself. Take care of our world.
News from: Kenmare Press
There are now six books available under the Kenmare Press imprint in both paperback and eBook format. Find Kenmare Press on our website: https://bit.ly/kenmarepress.
Peace Pays a Price by Dorothy Vidulich, CSJP
The Sparrow Finds Her Home: A Journey to Find the True Self by Doris J. Mical, CSJP
Traveling Empty – Poems by Susan Dewitt, CSJP
My Friend Joe: Reflections on St. Joseph by Susan Rose Francois, CSJP
Images of Refuge by Margaret Jane Kling, CSJP
Beyond all Galaxies: Poetry and Reflections for the Journey by Kathleen Pruitt, CSJP
Kenmare Press is an imprint of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace and carries on the Congregation’s long tradition of writing and publishing. Our founder, Margaret Anna Cusack (Mother Francis Clare), was a prolific writer, most often publishing as M.F. Cusack or Mary Francis Cusack. By 1870, more than 200,000 copies of her works had circulated throughout the world. Profits from the sale of her books were used for the sisters’ work with the poor. Today, many of her books are in the public domain and available to read or download online.
Little Ripples of Love that Echo into Eternity
By Liz Dodd, CSJP
I was showing a young guest from Eritrea around our home recently. Referred to us by a local homelessness charity, she had fled the family member upon whose visa she relied, becoming street homeless and, without any recognised status, effectively destitute. As we stood in our hall - the bright space whose tall windows most recall its history as a church - she said: “This house talks the same way you do.” I thought she meant incessantly. She meant it made her feel safe.
This guest - a teenager - returned to our house of hospitality in Carlton, Nottingham, again and again, rebounding against the complex and segregated means of support left open for a young homeless refugee in Nottingham. There are few, because the city is in crisis. Like many local councils in England, Nottingham City Council has been starved of funds by central government, suffered the fallout of poor financial decisions, and struggled to meet the rising demand for social care in the city. Last year it declared itself bankrupt, and government commissioners stepped in to create a budget that slashed funding for charities and adult social care. What this means in practice is that when a guest is referred to us for emergency accommodation, usually on the night they are made homeless, there is
nowhere for them to move on to. Some are children, some are fleeing domestic abuse, many are refugees; there is rarely space for them in a hostel, refuge or shared accommodation. Disquietingly, we have the potential to make matters worse: known, now, to the council as a safe place to stay, extended time with us can ruin a guest’s chance of being treated as a priority need. Why can’t they just stay with the nuns?
So, the charity that refers guests to us is ruthless where we can’t be. A teenager with learning difficulties left us in tears for the Winter Night Shelter, a temporary dormitory that moves around the city. A girl fleeing abuse comes back occasionally to root through the luggage she left, too much to carry as she is moved between different hotel rooms every night, each further from her college. No one wants to leave: it is heartbreaking to let them. To what extent, I rage to God sometimes, are we helping anyone?
Healing, I am beginning to realise, does not mean solving problems. It is deeper, and it is outside our control. When we began our ministry in Carlton, success was easy to define: settled status for an asylee, space in a shared house, occasionallywonderfully - a furnished home. WhatsApp-ed photographs of babies who’d been the size of blueberries when they were under our roof; notes and
Sisters Maureen Boggins, Liz Dodd and Margaret Byrne pause from tending the garden
phone calls and endless thankyous. All we had to do was hold space, do laundry, defrost oven pizzas, wrangle over curfews, and wait for the happy ending.
How do we measure success when there is no happy ending? We don’t: we create, I think, an environment where healing can take place; we work to dismantle the systems that keep people homeless; we trust God with the rest.
And we have to surrender space, to change, in order to create it. Where better to start than with food: we have a longer-term guest, an asylee, who cooks magnificent Kurdish meals for us all. When we break bread - usually round and unleavened - with her, we say “alhamdulillah” as our grace. A girl from Yemen taught me how to make samosas one evening while we listened to Taylor Swift. It took five hours, and we made 100, because that is how you make samosas in Yemen. I love it when we have guests from Ethiopia; when, done being polite about sliced bread, they come home with stacks of sour injera and lay it in the middle of the table for us to tear and share, because that is how you eat in Ethiopia.
I’d met a boundary, until she said, quietly, that one of the few happy memories she had of home was watching her mum do the same. We surrender time. A blessing of community living is its varied chronotypes. A night owl, I am content to enforce the evening curfew, to be a listening presence late at night over a snack. I am not there - but Margaret and Maureen are - when guests who’ve stayed out ring the doorbell at 7 a.m., or need breakfast before college. It’s as simple as asking questions when “I’m ok” doesn’t sound ok, as making a trip to the store together; it’s cleaning bathrooms and washing sheets when you want to put your feet up. What happens within that surrendered space is extravagant. One girl who, when she arrived, shook so badly she couldn’t carry her bag, left behind a note saying she’d never felt as loved as she had with us. A tough, resilient woman recognised Maureen downtown, wanted to say we’d kept her off the street, but couldn’t finish that sentence. I hear these stories and think: all we did was set up her Xbox? Didn’t we row, constantly, about curfew?
We make room for schedules and social lives. One anxious young guest ate almost nothing until one weeknight, around 10 p.m., she descended to the kitchen and cooked herself a whole roast dinner. Strange foodstuffs appear in the fridge; the freezer is populated by things only teenagers would eat. We hook up games consoles to the TV; our Netflix history is so diverse that its predictive algorithm has given up. When a guest with severe mental health appeared every morning to hang out while I did yoga, I thought
Last year we provided 170 nights of emergency accommodation and welcomed two asylees as longterm guests. I wish I could list the number of homes secured, of visas granted, but I can’t: all we have to show is negative space. But over those 170 nights, healing has taken place, and I know that from the whispered goodbyes, the scribbled notes and tearful hugs, those little ripples of love ricochet into eternity.
Carlton House
Fresh Voices
From HR Generalist to Fitness Trainer to Acupuncturist: Talking with Une-Hi
Song
Most of the articles in Living Peace are written by sisters, associates, or staff. Fresh Voices is a column written by, or focusing on, someone outside the CSJP community to help raise awareness on specific issues.
When I was younger, my mom always made us take our vitamins and eat our veggies. I was the only one of the four of us she never had to chase down to make sure we did. She also made us drink this dark herbal concoction she made in the crockpot that she learned from her father who was an herbalist in Korea. She told us stories about how he would go up the mountains every day and scavenge fresh raw herbs to sell to local pharmacies. I gladly drank the tea because I liked how it tasted. She would sprinkle a few toasted pine nuts on top, and because one of the herbs in the tea was licorice, it had a mild sweetness to it and made it palatable. So, I always used to say it was in my blood to become the first acupuncturist in the family. It just took me a little time to discover that.
LP: When did you move to the United States? What was it like for you growing up here?
I am a proud Korean-American immigrant who came to America from South Korea on March 28, 1978, with my parents and older sister when I was about to turn three years old. We came to this country with the American dream: to have land, a place to call home, and have freedoms we didn’t have in Korea. We were fortunate to have a relative invite us here and help us get situated. My parents came here with just the clothes on their backs and maybe a couple hundred dollars in their pocket and did everything they could to learn the language and put a roof over our heads and food on the table.
I grew up in Rochester, New York, in a small suburb called Victor. We were the only Asian family amongst a mostly Caucasian community. Growing up was very difficult as we faced so many prejudices, racism and discrimination. I never allowed that to get the better of me because I grew up with so much love and
support from my family and a tightknit community that my parents found through our Korean Presbyterian church. Having that strength from our faith in God and the strong work ethic instilled in us from my parents has largely contributed to my tenacity to get through all of life’s ups and downs.
LP: Your path to becoming an acupuncturist wasn’t straightforward. Tell us a little about that. My parents exposed us to traditional Korean values at home—respect for elders and learning about food and culture so we wouldn’t lose or forget where we came from, and I developed a strong curiosity about the human psyche and wanting to study human psychology, which I did. Upon graduating college with a B.A. in Psychology and Elementary Education, I was not satisfied and didn’t want to become a teacher. I had this unquenchable thirst for something more and didn’t know yet what it was, but I knew teaching was not it for me.
My passion for health, nutrition, fitness, dance, and performance was still stronger than anything else. However, with my college degree, if I wasn’t going to teach, I thought the best career path I could take was in human resources. I landed a great job working for a large investment bank as a Benefits Administrator and HR Generalist for three years, providing me with great benefits and a steady paycheck. But I couldn’t see myself spending the rest of my life in that career. I quit my secure job to pursue a career in personal fitness training in Connecticut.
You can imagine the uproar when I told my family and friends that I quit my job to move to another state and start a whole new career! After just one year of working as a trainer, I quickly realized that something was still missing and that wasn’t the final career path either. I wanted to strengthen my knowledge in nutrition and was just about to go back to school for that when a fellow trainer at the gym, who was studying acupuncture and was in his last year at school, suggested I check out his school.
He was an intern and gave me my first acupuncture treatment. I sat in on all his classes, and that was it! That day changed my life forever, and I fell in love with acupuncture and oriental medicine. It brought the whole picture together for me, because acupuncture encompasses the whole person: mind, body and spirit. It made sense to me to treat the whole being from all aspects of health.
I decided to go back to school for acupuncture for the next four years and ended up going to Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Manhattan.
LP: How long have you been in practice?
I graduated in 2005 and started my own private practice in 2006 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and have been in private practice ever since. Currently, I am proud to say that I am entering my nineteenth year of practicing acupuncture and still loving it!
LP: What are some of the benefits of acupuncture?
Acupuncture has been around for over 3,000 years and has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health and World Health Organization for its efficacy in treating and preventing everything from stress and tension headaches and migraines to general pain in the body and even chronic illness and allergies, digestive disorders such as Crohn’s and irritable bowel syndrome, hormone imbalance, PMS, menopause, infertility and the list goes on.
It is a natural form of therapy using hair-thin needles that are inserted gently into known trigger points along very specific energetic pathways that travel closely along the same pathways as our blood vessels and nervous system throughout every square inch of our bodies. These points, when needled on a consistent and regular basis, gently tap our hair-like nerve endings stimulating our bodies to increase our natural pain blockers, our endorphins, raise our serotonin levels, reduce inflammation, and increase blood flow to that area of the body where we may have blockage and pain to free up that “clog in the pipes” so to speak.
Acupuncture taps into our body’s natural endocannabinoid system, which comprises a network of chemical signals and cellular receptors densely packed throughout our brains and bodies and impacts functions such as learning and memory, emotional processing, sleep, temperature control, pain control, inflammatory and immune responses, and eating. With acupuncture, patients can experience a natural high like a runner’s high. This is especially beneficial for pain patients who can’t move and exercise due to pain and swelling and limited range of motion. In some cases, acupuncture can provide a natural remedy eliminating the need for pain medications or surgery.
When treatments are done closer together, they have a cumulative effect on the body and strengthen the body’s ability to heal faster by increasing blood flow to that area and reducing inflammation and kicking up those natural pain blockers.
LP: You mentioned that acupuncture treats the whole person. Where does the spiritual component come in?
Acupuncture is an energetic medicine that can influence a person’s overall being and spirit. We are all spiritual beings, not just made up of skin, bones and muscles. There must be a constant flow of energy moving through our veins to keep us alive and feeling alive and that can, of course, mean different things to different people. This is where having compassion and a keen understanding of the human psyche, in addition to having the knowledge of basic human anatomy and biology, comes into play. And then being able to look at the person, taking into consideration all the other aspects of what makes us human—like lifestyle, work, family, nature vs nurture, and how that plays a role in each and every individual that comes into my space—truly makes my job so special and requires a lot of attention to detail. I feel overjoyed with the gift I believe God has given me. I am blessed to meet and work with people of all different backgrounds and paths that entrust me with their stresses and ailments. And I am humbled every day with what I get to do for a living.
LP: What keeps you grounded and centered?
I stay grounded by practicing what I preach. I believe in the power and principles of acupuncture and oriental medicine. It’s about self-care and preventive care, and if I didn’t live, eat, and breathe everything I preach to my patients, then I wouldn’t be able to authentically give my best treatments or put my head on my pillow every night and sleep well. Taking time to slow down and spend quality time with family and friends helps keep me balanced as well as grounded. My strict and loving parents and my faith in God have brought me to where I am today and given me the strength to get up each day and share my energies and spirit with everyone around me, including my husband, my dog, my family and friends.
Using a Collective Voice to Heal the World
By Melody Maravillas, Congregation Chief Financial Officer
On the second floor of Shalom Center, just by the elevator, hangs a banner bearing Mother Teresa’s reminder: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
I like reminiscing with my children. My childhood in the Philippines is markedly different from theirs. I remember weeks of water rationing and rolling blackouts as El Niño dropped Manila’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels. We learned to be conscientious in using our resources because they were so scarce. Sometimes, I would recount the 1987 coup d’état and hearing the distant sound of gunfire from our apartment or share my mother’s stories about hiding in the forest during World War II. But when I ask my kids what they think, they shrug and say, “It’s not our reality. To us, they’re just stories.” A comfortable life makes it easy to slip into indifference.
There is a glaring contrast of realities in today’s world as well. According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report of 2023, 46 percent of the
world’s wealth is concentrated in 1 percent of the population. At the same time, the United Nations estimates that two billion people, or a quarter of the world’s population, live in conflict-affected areas. Twice that number live in poverty. The world’s wealthiest nations are also the worst at producing greenhouse gases to the detriment of the poorest nations, who are most vulnerable to climate change.
Insulated by glass offices and pressured to generate profits, large corporations can easily slip into apathy. When executives receive lucrative compensation packages, how can they empathize with a worker earning unfair wages in deplorable conditions? When a financial institution profits from the weapons industry, do they truly grasp the devastation of war? When oil pipelines on native land generate financial gain, do businesses see free, prior and informed consent from indigenous people as a necessity or a nuisance? Think about all the turbulence and unrest in the world today; it is because we have truly forgotten each other.
“Think about all the turbulence and unrest in the world today; it is because we have truly forgotten each other.”
With growing inequity, advocacy is needed now more than ever to remind the upper one percent about their relationship to Earth and the rest of the world. For the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, shareholder advocacy is a crucial component of our Resources for Mission efforts. Each share of stock that we own is a voice. It represents influence and the power to raise awareness when wealth has been blinding.
This year, we will once more use our investments to lift the voices of those who could be harmed by corporate activities. In partnership with Investor Advocates for Social Justice (IASJ) and the Northwest Coalition on Responsible Investing (NWCRI), we will call on food producers, automobile manufacturers, financial institutions, and technology companies to consider the welfare of children, the rights of indigenous people, the suffering of war victims, and the unintended consequences of artificial intelligence.
Recently, we expanded our efforts by providing public testimony on responsible investing to the New Jersey State Investment Council and the Senate
Environment and Energy Committee. We stood alongside youth groups, our eco-spirituality ministry Waterspirit, and DivestNJ to urge our government to divest from fossil fuels and use their billiondollar investments to protect the Earth for future generations.
When more people speak up, it becomes very difficult to ignore them, so we support other advocacy efforts that align with our charism of peace through justice. Last December, the Congregation provided a grant to Africa Faith & Justice Network (AFJN) to help their efforts to empower communities to advocate for themselves and combat systemic injustices. Their Just Governance for Africa program works with communities in Ghana and Sierra Leone to stand against land-grabbing by international corporations. Without intervention, predatory companies lease native land at a price of $5 per hectare (2.47 acres) for 99 years. In addition to displacing populations, their operations also pollute the surrounding land and water. When AFJN steps in, landowners learn to speak up, tribal leaders listen, and onerous land agreements are overturned.
The most successful advocacy efforts rely on a collective voice reminding us about our connections to creation and each other. We repeat it again and again until transformation happens because healing cannot happen without empathy. Advocacy reminds us of who we are at our core. To quote Coldplay’s song “Humankind:”
I know, I know, I know
We’re only human.
I know, I know, I know
How we’re designed.
Oh I know, I know, I know
We’re only human.
But we’re capable of kindness
So they call us humankind.
Sister Susan Francois testifying on responsible investing to the New Jersey State Investment Council and the Senate Environment and Energy Committee
pause
Listen—
There is no difference between healing your body and healing the Earth or helping another to heal. It is all the same Body.
There is no difference between healing Earth’s body and healing your own or helping another to heal. We are all the One Body. Begin anywhere. Begin with one tree, or a bird.
Begin with your own heart or skin, clean out your liver, clear your mind.
Begin with the growth of a child, your family’s good. Then continue to include one small part at the time. You will be healing the Whole.
The beauty that emerges from woundedness is a beauty infused with feeling; a beauty different from the beauty of landscape and the cold beauty of perfect form. This is a beauty that has suffered its way through the ache of desolation until the words or music emerged to equal the hunger and desperation at its heart. It must also be said that not all woundedness succeeds in finding its way through to beauty of form. Most woundedness remains hidden, lost inside forgotten silence. Indeed, in every life there is some wound that continues to weep secretly, even after years of attempted healing. Where woundedness can be refined into beauty a wonderful transfiguration takes place.
- Excerpt from Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue
From This Is My Body: Praying for Earth, Prayers from the Heart by Alla
Renée Bozarth
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. - Matthew 4:23-25
Compassionate God,
Shed the light of your healing love on all who are sick in body, mind, or spirit, that they may find new wholeness illumined by your grace.
Knit together in your love all whose relationships have frayed, that they may find reconciliation and new beginnings.
Bless all who work to improve the health of others, that they may bring hope, care, wisdom, and skill to all they serve.
Hold in the palm of your hand all who are near death and all who care for them, that they may know the peace that passes all understanding.
Adapted from “A Litany for Healing” by Rev. Adam Thomas
Comfortable
by Al Lemieux
Help me be comfortable in you God, Creator, Father, Mother
Help me with new cues and Clues as to your love and support
Help so that now and forever We will be comfortable with one another Tap me on the shoulder
Kiss my cheek
Embrace me with an everlasting Silent hold
Let me be comfortable –finally Not anxious Let all of us be comfortable
No dis-ease Just safe and comfortable With one another
I think it’s a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. That there isn’t their life and our life. Nor your life and my life. That it’s just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us, are entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes. – Author unknown
Healing Ourselves, Healing the World
by Kathy Galleher, Ph.D
Dr. Kathy Galleher is a clinical psychologist in Silver Spring, Maryland, who specializes in working with religious congregations and individuals in ministry. She offers facilitation and workshops on healthy ministry, self-care, deepening community, conflict, and transitions. Contact her at: KMGConsultation@gmail.com
The theme of the Congregation’s assembly this year, “Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World,” was the same as this issue of Living Peace, and was taken from the Congregation’s Chapter Call: “Urged by a burning desire to speak and act boldly with open, loving and adventurous hearts… we now commit to addressing, healing, and being present to the wounds and broken relationships among ourselves and all of God’s Creation.”
Acknowledging and embracing our collective woundedness with tenderness can bring deeper peace within ourselves and allow us to bring greater tenderness and peace to others and the world. As priest and author Gregory Boyle writes, “Once we are reached by tenderness, we become tenderness.” Anything that brings healing and peace to our own hearts can bring healing and peace to the wider world. Sister Pat Farrell, OSF, says, “Transformation on any level is contagious, always creating a ripple effect. The reign of God is within, yet continuously unfolding outward.”
In this article, I share some practices that can bring healing and peace in ourselves and to the world.
Our Brain
Our brain has developed throughout evolution to help us survive. All of us have basic longings for safety, connection (love), and satisfaction (from pleasure or doing things with meaning). Although we long for peace, security, and happiness, our brains are hardwired to pay attention to signals of danger, scarcity, and threat. We remember negative interactions far more than positive ones. Evolutionarily, this makes sense. When our ancestors had to choose between noticing a beautiful flower or an approaching tiger, it was better to keep their eyes on the tiger! The problem is that our modern world is full of paper tigers—traffic, alarms, images of disaster on the news—stressors that activate our ‘alarm’ system, and we miss a lot of beautiful flowers in the process. This can leave us chronically depleted, anxious, and stressed, even though we are not in actual danger. We need to learn how to turn off some of these false alarms, notice the good things, and restore our sense of peace. One way to do this is to train ourselves to look for the good things. When we focus on the good, on love and connection, on safety, or on happiness, it activates the part of our nervous system that signals “I’m safe,” and we can rest and be calm.
The more we live in this calm/ safe state, the more we feel open, resilient, peaceful, and at ease. We can calm ourselves in difficult circumstances, or when remembering old pain.
Here are some ways to help cultivate greater peace:
Pausing
Have you ever felt like you were running from one thing to the next, with no opportunity to catch your breath? For many of us, this is a daily experience. Our lives can be filled with non-stop appointments, to-do lists, checking social media, etc. Why not experiment with the art of pausing? Pausing helps us arrive in the present moment where all of life is taking place. When you finish an activity or meeting, take three to five minutes to pause and do nothing before the next task.
Sit still, close your eyes, and pay attention to your body. Inhale deeply, then exhale slowly (like you are blowing out a candle) two or three times. You should sense your body relaxing.
Try enjoying a cup of tea or stepping outside to feel the warmth of the sun on your face. We can return to the next activity more refreshed and peaceful.
Touching Joy
We may encounter a lot of suffering in our daily life, such as friends or family who are ill, physical pain, or tragic news stories. In the face of this suffering, we need to touch joy. Take time to connect to the beautiful and joyful things around you and let those become real: a bird singing, a child smiling, a delicious strawberry. These joyful moments are every bit as real as the suffering. Touching and savoring these can replenish us, broaden our horizon, and make the suffering easier to bear. (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Velcro versus Teflon Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, Ph.D. observes that our brain is like Velcro for negative events and Teflon for positive events. The good moments slide off and are easily forgotten, yet we recall an embarrassing moment from high school like it was yesterday! One way to retrain our Teflon brain is by reviewing and savoring the good moments of our day. Take time daily to recall the moments of kindness, laughter, and accomplishment, or a feeling of love. Let these moments soak in, re-experience them, and really savor them, so they “stick.”
Notice What’s Right
Our brain focuses most of its attention on what is wrong, so we miss the multitude of things going right at every moment. Thich Nhat Hanh points out that most of us never enjoy the fact that we don’t have a toothache right now. We can develop the muscle of positive attention by asking, “What’s right right now?” In everyday life, (especially in moments of frustration) try
expanding your focus to notice what is still right in that moment: “Yes, the traffic is terrible, and I am stressed about being late, but my eyes can see colors, the sunset, the faces of those I love. My heart is beating. My lungs are working. I have food and shelter. I am safe. And no toothache!” So many wonderful things are going right, right now! Practice noticing them and your sense of peace will naturally grow.
Acceptance
Tara Brach, psychologist and mindfulness teacher, talks about the power of practicing ‘radical acceptance,’ and saying yes to all our experiences. When we do this, we don’t waste energy fighting our circumstances or our feelings. When we take a stance of acceptance, we can bring deep unconditional tenderness and compassion to our difficult moments and to those of others. We can also replace our negative judgments (“I’m too impatient”) with curiosity (“I wonder why this delay is bothering me so much?”).” She offers the acronym RAIN to guide us (Recognize, Allow
the experience, Investigate my feelings, and Nurture myself). This four-part process can help us embrace and accept the difficulties we experience. (See tarabrach.com)
Dealing With Pain
All of us carry some wounds, some grief, some past baggage. To bring healing to these, we begin by acknowledging them. “What am I carrying? What experiences of loss, grief, or illness are affecting me now? Is there pain from the past that is still unresolved?” Are there patterns of conflict that repeat in your life, always the same story but with new players? Or painful doubts that recur in relationships (feeling like no one loves or appreciates you, wondering if you are worthy or good enough, feeling lonely or left out)? I call these our hotspots. These are places where we always seem to get reactive, angry or anxious, fearful or controlling. These are often rooted in our childhood.
Thich Nhat Hanh offers a beautiful image: “Do not fight against pain; do not fight against irritation or jealousy… Embrace them with great tenderness, as though you were embracing a little baby.”
Can we listen to our pain and hurt when it arises with tenderness,
asking with curiosity: “What hurts? What is wrong?” When we do this, we can often see the young child in us (or others) who is simply hurting, vulnerable and in need of love and acceptance.
Self-Compassion
Many of us long for someone to acknowledge our pain and offer us compassion and support. Yet, we naturally give this gift freely to friends and others we encounter. We listen, we respond with love and compassion. We already carry the powerful tool of compassion in our hearts, but we don’t always think to use it for ourselves.
The principle of self-compassion is simple: always speak to yourself as kindly and supportively as you would to a good friend. It’s learning to put an arm around your own shoulder to offer comfort in moments of difficulty. Visit Kristen Neff’s website for a three-step process on how to do this (selfcompassion.org).
1. Acknowledgment/Recognition of Suffering - Just being willing to notice and accept that you are experiencing suffering or difficulty, rather than trying to ignore or repress it. “Yes, this is a really hard moment for me.”
2. Compassion - Responding to the suffering by saying
something supportive, “I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” or “Of course you feel like that…”
3. Universality - It can be powerful to recognize all the people in the world who, at this moment, are also feeling the same way (lonely, frustrated, powerless). This reminds us of our shared humanity and that we are not alone. We can then offer a prayer for peace and consolation for all of us. “May we all be kind to ourselves;” “May we all know we are enough.” (Neff, 2011)
If we practice self-compassion regularly, we cultivate a softer, more supportive inner voice, which can lead to decreased anxiety and depression and increased resilience.
Together, all of these practices can help bring healing and compassion to ourselves and help bring peace and healing to the world. I strongly encourage you to find one or two practices in this article that speak to you and begin to try them for just five minutes a day. Even better if you can practice these in a faith community or with friends. Together, let’s be part of the reign of God, continuously unfolding outward.
Planting Seeds for a Sustainable Future
By Kelly Marsicano, Communications Coordinator
“We ask that those who nourish and sustain these ministries may be good stewards of all that is given into their hands — people, resources, Earth itself.”
This statement comes from the foundational document Hopes and Aspirations for the Future of Our Ministries, 2012, which expresses the commission entrusted to Peace Ministries by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
We believe that creation is a gift of God, deserving our reverence and care. We show our respect for creation by acting as stewards, mindful of our responsibility to future generations.
Sustainable Peace Ministries was founded in 2019. The committee consists of representatives from each of the five sponsored ministries—Holy Name, Peace Care, St. Joseph’s School for the Blind, Waterspirit, and York Street Project—who gather quarterly to share best practices and sustainability efforts. Leaders meet to collaborate on resources and ideas for making each ministry more sustainable and contribute to the Congregation’s desire to live a “Covenant of Peace with Earth.”
Sustainable Peace Ministries was formed after the Congregation developed a Land Ethic that names ecological sustainability as one of our time’s most urgent religious and moral challenges. There are five foundational principles of the CSJP Land Ethic, including Earth is sacred; land has its own intrinsic value; Earth is endangered by human activity; care of creation, justice for the poor and peace are inseparably connected; and intergenerational justice.
The group works to incorporate Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ and the 2023 apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, which speaks to the global climate crisis. The Congregation’s continued efforts incorporating the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform are deeply connected to the work and endeavors of Sustainable Peace Ministries.
Here is a look at some of the productive efforts being made within the sponsored ministries of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
Holy Name
Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck has been awarded a second PSE&G Carbon Abatement Grant. This $12 million project includes energy efficiency upgrades and mechanical equipment replacements that include new LED interior lighting, central plant chillers, and cooling towers and pumps.
The project is financed upfront by PSE&G, which then pays about a third of the total project cost. Another third is through an interest-free loan, which is covered by the savings in utilities. And the final third is paid for by the hospital.
This Carbon Abatement Project will provide a total energy savings of about $683,000 annually. This saved energy equates to removing 4,175 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This reduction has an environmental benefit equivalent to any of the measures seen in Figure 1 on page 19.
“The environmental impact is significant. The financial impact is huge. Those are the two main drivers,” said Steve Mosser, executive vice president of operations at Holy Name.
Peace Care
Many initiatives are underway at both campuses of Peace Care in Jersey City. At Peace Care St. Ann’s, a Go Green Committee has long been in place and focuses on single-stream recycling, eliminating Styrofoam, replacing fluorescent lighting with LED, composting, and utilizing rain catchers to water plants.
They are currently working on solar connectivity for its Adult Medical Day Care building and continuing a window replacement project in the resident building. The first phase of that was completed in 2022. The final phase is anticipated to begin this year with the assistance of a Jersey City Community Development Block Grant. The facility will also replace the boilers with high-efficiency water boilers.
“These projects are important to Peace Care St. Ann’s because we want to reduce our normal energy and utility reliance on electricity and water sources to save our planet,” said Facilities Director Earl Leonardo.
Peace Care St. Ann’s, as well as its sister facility Peace Care St. Joseph’s, host many Earth Week activities with employees, clients and residents. One of those activities includes planting fruits and vegetables with residents in the Sensory Garden at Peace Care St. Ann’s, which is then harvested by the dining services staff to use for resident meals.
St. Joseph’s School for the Blind
A greenhouse has been built for the adult services program at St. Joseph’s School for the Blind in Jersey City. The project is funded through a grant the school received from Hudson County.
The director of adult services, Maureen Weining, and facilities manager, Brandon Horton, collaborated with fellow Sustainable Peace Ministries committee members Anne Price and Rachel Dawn Davis of Waterspirit to come up with ideas regarding location, ventilation, types of plants, and some greenhouse options.
According to Horton, the goal is to make everything that will be planted sensory-friendly, incorporating smell, texture and sound.
“The installation of the greenhouse is an exciting endeavor for our adult program. By incorporating sensory-friendly plants, we will have created an environment that caters to [our clients’] unique needs. The scent of the flowers, textures of the leaves, and eventually taste of the garden provides a multisensory experience that connects them with nature in a profound way,” said Horton. “This project not only adds beauty to our grounds but also fosters a sense of independence and accomplishment as we actively engage with the seeding, potting, watering, and growing of our plants.”
St. Michael Villa
Last spring, the grounds at St. Michael Villa in Englewood Cliffs underwent a beautification with the addition of a native wildflower garden. It stretches along the 550-foot paver path to the gazebo located at the northeast end of the property known as “the Point.”
In addition to its beauty, the garden serves a greater purpose—attracting pollinators, such as hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Native plants provide nectar, pollen and seeds that serve as food for native animals and insects. These plants also help promote biodiversity and stewardship of the natural heritage.
York Street Project
Similar to the other ministries, York Street Project in Jersey City will undergo a lighting retrofit, replacing fluorescent lighting with energy-saving LEDs. The organization consists of three buildings—St. Joseph’s Home at 81 York Street, York Street Project at 89 York Street, and St. Mary’s Residence at 240 Washington Street.
Once the retrofit is complete, each building will have a significant positive environmental impact. St. Mary’s will see the biggest effect with nearly 110,000 pounds of carbon dioxide saved from the atmosphere annually. That’s the equivalent of almost 5,600 gallons of gas consumed. See Figure 2 for further impacts.
Waterspirit
While Waterspirit may not undergo energy-saving changes to its Rumson office as a tenant of its current space, it is making significant waves regarding caring for and protecting God’s creation.
As the eco-spirituality ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Waterspirit helps inform, inspire and empower people through a multitude of programs and advocacy. The organization holds beach cleanups, rain barrel workshops, nature walks, and microplastic beach surveys.
Waterspirit Program Manager Anne Price recalls when a volunteer sifting for microplastics came upon a very tiny clam and was moved during that moment. “I knew asking people to help me protect the waters would help foster a deeper appreciation for all creation,” Price said. “All of Waterspirit’s events are like this. We think we are just hosting a program, but it is so much more. We are truly promoting transformations of our participants.”
Waterspirit provides engaging programs for schools, churches, businesses, and other community groups. “When we invite participants to tour a supporter’s sustainable home, educate a club on the value of native plants, or even invite guests to join us for a celebration of a solstice or equinox, we are offering our followers a sense of community. We help them strengthen their personal commitments to live a more sustainable life,” Price added.
In addition, Waterspirit advocates for environmental justice and equitable access to clean water; stormwater management and green infrastructure; and renewable energy; and Executive Director Blair Nelsen serves as one of the representatives for the Congregation at the United Nations.
Through these acts of stewardship, the co-sponsored ministries are heeding the Chapter Call of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. They are reading the signs of these new times, which demand a change of heart: to be, think and act differently.
FIGURE 2
109,641.2 lbs. CO2 Saved (leading cause of global warming)
10.6 Cars Removed from Road (4.67 metric tons of CO2/passenger vehicle)
5,592.3 Gallons of Gas Consumed (0,008887 metric tons of CO2 per gallon of gasoline)
1,289.5 Tree Seedlings Grown (0.039 metric tons of CO2 per urban tree planted for 10 years )
58.6 Acres of Forest in 1 Year (1.06 metric tons of CO2 sequestered annually by 1 acre of U.S. forest)
FIGURE 1
This is equivalent to the Elimination of 4,175 Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere:
929 gasoline powered vehicles driven for one year
10,702,816 miles driven by an average gas-powered passenger vehicle
4,676,641 pounds of coal burned
69,034 tree seedlings grown for ten years
469,787 gallons of gas consumed
812 homes electricily powered for one year
FrankTalk Healing Happens through Encounters
by Frank McCann, Congregation Peace through Justice Facilitator
Franciscan Sister Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso’s diminutive size and beautiful smile disguise her formidable commitment and passion. Sister Laura is a descendent of the Indigenous Kariri people who no longer exist. She now lives one week each month with her religious sisters in Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil, and the rest of the month with the indigenous Karipuna people whom she accompanies.
Sister Laura sees that the Indigenous people’s way of life and their very lives are being threatened by changes in Brazil. The government, once a protector of the people, is influenced by corporations seeking trees, oil and minerals, and no longer safeguards the land of Indigenous people. Sister Laura’s personal, communal and religious desire to preserve the indigenous way of life may one day cost her her life. As a land defender, she is a target of assassins funded by corporations that try to still the voices of opposition. The land defenders are also not being protected by the Brazilian government.
Sister Laura is buoyed by the Spirit of Jesus whom she faithfully serves, although life as a woman in the Church is not without its own struggles. She prays that Pope Francis will recognize the women of the Amazon who do the daily work of deacons but are not recognized as such. She took her requests directly to Pope Francis in Rome and at Assisi. This energetic sister is not simply a radical voice; she is one of the four vice presidents of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA). This new, ecclesial institute has religious and lay representatives from nine nations and was formed by Pope Francis after the Amazon Synod.
A group of us were invited by Felipe Witchger to meet Sister Laura and hear her stories at a meeting in lower Manhattan. Felipe is the co-founder of the Francesco Collaborative, a community of investors who align their investments with the values and principles of Catholic Social Teaching. He has
educated many of us about the economic system Pope Francis has in mind and has assisted with understanding impact investing. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace have a three-pronged approach to ecological economics: impact investing, charitable giving, and shareholder advocacy. When companies do not follow their commitments to human rights, to environmental targets, or racial equity goals, we dialogue and, if necessary, file resolutions pointing out the reputational risk to the corporation and the risk to our own investments.
At the time of our meeting, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace were deeply involved with Citibank over the
Sacred symbols arranged for prayer ritual.
damage to the land and water of Indigenous people in Canada and in the Amazon. Citibank claims that they respect the rights of Indigenous people and that they obtained Free, Prior and Informed Consent (a United Nations business standard) from these groups while also admitting that they never engaged Indigenous people in a dialogue.
Many of us wanted to hear a firsthand account of what losses Sister Laura had experienced. We never did discuss Citibank specifically, but I heard more than the words Sister Laura spoke at that meeting. Her eyes filled with tears as she talked of the land being taken because, she said, “We are the land, and the land is us.” She spoke of youth being killed trying to protect the land and of people who never knew hunger being hungry. She asked nothing for herself but requested that we help the Indigenous people who are being radically exploited by having their trees felled, land taken, and their waters polluted.
Felipe invited us to make donations to Sister Laura’s work and to think of other ways in which we could offer support to her and her people. There were several investors and fund managers in the room as well as two filmmakers. It will be interesting to learn how creatively we all respond, perhaps when we meet Sister Laura again at the United Nations Climate Change Conference that will be held in Brazil in 2025.
The next morning, I went to a parallel event, sponsored by religious at the United Nations during Indigenous Peoples’ Week, that brought voices together from the Global North and South. I should not have been surprised to find that Sister Laura was part of the predominantly male delegation from the Amazon. I was delighted when she stood up to begin our gathering with a movement inviting the Spirit to join us, followed by her singing several songs. There were Indigenous representatives there from Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, the Philippines, West Papua, as well as a Native American representative. Our closing prayer was for unity in our common work for justice.
I suppose that engagements like these are what Pope Francis, a great proponent of “encounter,” hoped would happen when he invited congregations to start the Laudato Si’ journey. Personal encounters with people experiencing injustice, much of it perpetrated by corporations from industrialized countries and unjust governments, is not something that can be found in a report. Reports do not convey emotions in the way that the tears welling up in Sister Laura’s eyes shared the truth about the extermination of the Indigenous people of the Amazon. It is through these encounters that hearts are changed, and true healing is made possible.
Indigenous people from around the world, including Sr. Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso (far right), gathered at the UN during Indigenous Peoples’ week and were welcomed by members of the Religious at the UN.
Stepping out of Comparison into Curiosity
by Stephanie Peirolo, CSJP-A
We can’t be truly open to another person’s grief unless we have metabolized our own. To be effective partners in healing for others, we need to be engaged in the healing process ourselves. Not finished with it, not done, because some griefs may never be processed or complete in the way that society expects. But if we are engaged with our woundedness, we can be more helpful to others who are wounded.
I see people fall into the comparison trap, especially older white women like me. When faced with coworkers experiencing grief or challenges that we have not experienced or may not understand, we can compare it to our own untended wounds. Why is this woman at work so concerned with a war on the other side of the world? Doesn’t she understand what I had to put up with when I was starting out?
This is human nature. An old friend and I both had very tough experiences as young mothers. We experienced financial insecurity, difficult spouses. I became a single mother when my two children were still toddlers, working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
We could look at the experiences of our now grown children and focus only on the fact that they are
fortunate to have financial security and supportive spouses, good careers, and the opportunity to travel and play. We could stop there.
My friend and I have been able to process and metabolize much of our grief around our experience as young mothers, often in long phone conversations over the ensuing three decades. Because of that, we can get curious about what our children experience that we did not. Today, parents are bringing children into a world with impending climate disasters, a lack of bodily autonomy for girls and women in many of the United States, and the financial challenges of buying even a modest home, paying for childcare, saving for retirement when social security is threatened or college when a year’s tuition can be more than what we older people paid for our houses. Parents today have navigated a pandemic and face an epidemic of school shootings and gun violence and a drug abuse crisis. It is very different to have a family now than it was in the eighties and nineties. And we can’t have empathy for those differences and the fear and grief they may cause unless we have the space to get curious about what they experience that we did not.
Curiosity requires humility, admitting that we can’t know another’s experience. It doesn’t mean that our experience is any less valid or important. It is just different. In a society that encourages conflict and division, in a social media universe that seems like the Outrage Olympics, stepping out of comparison into curiosity is deeply countercultural.
Making assumptions about the validity of another’s grief or pain in reference to our own can be harmful to everyone involved. Everyone’s suffering matters, hurts, and deserves to be healed, and we each have a deep need for our stories to be heard, honored, held. Rejecting another’s story because you don’t think it “qualifies” is harmful.
Most adults understand how challenging it must be for a young person to practice active shooter drills at school, to sit through lockdowns, or maybe even experience gun violence firsthand. But are we always mindful of the other ways in which young
Image by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi from Pixabay
people are impacted by social media, the climate crisis, and evolving gender identities? For those who experienced childhood or adolescence as enjoyable and free, it may take work to understand the freedoms we experienced may not be available to youth today. Really listening to young people, traveling with them into the worlds of online gaming, social media or even skincare videos on YouTube with curiosity might help us better understand what it is like to be young now and make us more compassionate for what younger generations are facing.
Our culture is unkind to people who are grieving, with little or no corporate bereavement leave and very little tolerance for those of us who grieve in years and not weeks or months, which can shortcircuit the grief process. I understand why many of us put off the deep work of tending to our old wounds. We might think, “Why dredge that up?”
People who help other people as caregivers, first responders, medical professionals, or parents, often have trouble stopping and caring for themselves, their old wounds. But buried pain or trauma has a way of working to the surface. It may show up as illness, physical pain. Or it may obscure our understanding, placing trauma goggles over our perception of something in the here and now that
echoes a traumatic experience we had in the past. There’s a reason that therapists and psychiatrists go through therapy themselves, so they can understand the myriad ways in which we transfer our emotions onto others, or which trauma goggles we might need to remove to be truly present to another. It’s counterintuitive, but the more time I spend tending my grief and healing my old wounds, the more available I am to others who may be suffering. When I am clear about my hurt and honor it, I step out of that cultural march to competition and into a place of compassion. I’m no longer afraid of my grief, which means I’m not afraid of yours. I don’t push away my difficult emotions, which means I can make space for yours. When old narratives or comparisons come up, which they do, I think of it as a spiritual practice to reframe those narratives, and step into the nonviolence of non-judgment, compassion and acceptance.
Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay
MEET AN ASSOCIATE
A Job that Led to So Much More Pat Weidner Reflects on Her Journey with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
By Pat Weidner, CSJP-A
Being an associate with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace for the past 23 years has been so lifegiving. My journey with the sisters began with my employment on May 30, 1994, when I became administrative assistant to the Provincial in St. Joseph Province, Sister Ann Rutan (RIP). Having been raised in a Catholic household and educated in a Catholic grammar school, I always had a deep respect for nuns and an admiration for all they do.
Part of my job was to take minutes at the monthly Province Council meetings. I soon learned about all the sponsored ministries that the sisters founded and were involved in. I got to meet and know many of the sisters and was amazed at how much they had accomplished over the years through their various ministries.
One of the council members, Sister Gail DeMaria, happened to be the co-director of the Associate Core Group. She asked if I would be interested in coming to the monthly meetings and taking the minutes for their group. How could I say no? Through these meetings, I learned about the associates, lay women and men who were part of the Congregation and who believed in and carried out the charism of peace through justice. I knew I wanted to be a part of this at some point.
In addition to continuing my work as administrative assistant, I became a mother to my first-born son, Joseph, in December 1995 and then John in September 1997. Right after my second son was born, we were told that my husband, John, who had
congestive heart failure, needed a heart transplant. This news, while devastating, deepened my spiritual life through the encouraging support and prayers of both the sisters and associates.
I made my first associate covenant in March 2001. It was a very special day for me as I was now part of the Congregation as an associate. Being an associate has been very meaningful to me. When my husband passed away in January 2002, I had the love and support of the CSJP community, which helped me get through it. I raised my two sons using the charism of peace through justice by treating people kindly, respecting all, and helping those in need. I am happy and proud to say they have both turned into fine young men.
During the last 12 years, I got into running with the encouragement of my younger son. I’ve participated and finished over eight marathons, including the New York City Marathon in 2018 and more recently the Marine Corps Ultra Marathon in Washington, D.C. in 2023. I find I do a lot of spiritual reflection during these long runs!
I come from a large, loving family with whom I am very close and met a wonderful man, Arthur, a.k.a. Butch, who also shares the same family values and has a family who has been very welcoming to me.
I continue my ministry as a lector in my parish, which I’ve been doing for over 49 years. I enjoy participating in associate sponsored events, regional assemblies as well as the Congregation Chapter, which I got to experience for the first time
in 2021 and 2022. Being together with the sisters and associates from the three regions made me really feel like part of the community. While I still record the minutes for the Associate Core Group, I also participate in the meetings themselves. I am also enjoying my time on the Land Ethic Committee, where several sisters and associates from all three regions meet bi-monthly via Zoom, researching, discussing, and putting together valuable information in response to the climate change crisis, which is very important to me as it affects the future for not only my children but for generations to come.
As I approach my 30 years of employment with the sisters, I look forward to continuing my journey as an associate with the Sisters and Associates of St. Joseph of Peace as we strive for a better and more peace-filled world where all are welcome at the table.
WHO ARE ASSOCIATES?
Associates of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace are individuals who live out the spirit and mission of the CSJPs in their daily lives. They commit to an ongoing mutual relationship with the sisters, other associates, and the charism of peace through justice. They do this in family life, in the Church, and in society. Associates “strive to respect the dignity of all persons, to value the gifts of creation and to confront oppressive situations” and to “promote social justice as a way to peace.” (from Constitution 11)
Visit csjp.org/join-us to learn more.
Pat and her brother Tom, 2023 US Marine Corps Ultra Marathon in Washington, DC
History&Roots Sister Alphonsus Mooney
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace were healers early on in their founding, starting healthcare ministries in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Many sisters have been nurses, caregivers or administrators of hospitals, nursing homes, and healthcare systems. In this issue, we bring you Sister Alphonsus Mooney, who received the Royal Red Cross decoration from King George V for her service during World War I. Sister Alphonsus later came to the United States and was the first administrator of Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey, founded by the sisters in partnership with local doctors.
What follows is an excerpt about her included in From Dusk to Dawn, a history of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace by the Reverend P.R. McCaffrey, published 1932. Sr. Alphonsus would have been 34 years old when she cared for the injured in England during World War I.
“When war was declared between England and Germany in 1914, Mother Evangelista offered to the government the services of two Sisters who had been trained in the care of the sick. Since nurses were scarce, she felt it was her duty to do so. The offer was readily accepted by the authorities, and they were at once assigned to duty at one of the military hospitals in Nottingham. The two selected were Sisters Alphonsus and Monica. But they were received with a decided coldness by the nursing staff. Even the Catholic soldiers were suspicious of them, doubtful if they were in truth nuns of their religion, since it was unusual in Protestant England to find Catholic nuns received on the staff of non-Catholic hospitals. Indeed the “not wanted” attitude was so marked that the Sisters were not anxious to stay. They were therefore transferred to another hospital, this time a long trolley ride from the convent. They were received here with a somewhat better spirit; still, the reserve persisted. After a while, however, it began to yield to the attractive personalities of the two sisters, who found it especially easy to make friends with the nurses from Australia and South Africa. A piece of clever work on the part of Sister Alphonsus raised them considerably in the estimation of all. One of the soldiers had a piece of shrapnel lodged in his
hip. For over a year it had baffled the probing of the surgeons. Then Sister found it and removed it so successfully that the patient was able to return home very shortly after.
The coldness that had marked the reception of the Religious proved to be chiefly due to that peculiar shyness of the layfolk of other denominations in their dealings with priests and nuns. All soon admitted that they had had quite wrong opinions about them and were generous enough to say that their advent had “raised the tone of the place.”
Very soon Sister Alphonsus was recommended for the Royal Red Cross decoration in recognition of extraordinary fidelity to duty, but it was withheld on the plea of her period of service being too short. By now the hospital authorities were going out of their way to show the Sisters every courtesy. Amongst others, each evening an orderly was told off to conduct them safely along the long and lonely road
Sister Alphonsus Mooney before entering the order, circa 1899
to the street car. They were next transferred to a hospital nearer home, but one in which the work was exceedingly hard, as there was always a scarcity of nurses to look after the two hundred or more patients. The soldiers became very much attached to the Sisters, for they soon recognized the vast difference between the nurse who works for wages and the one who works only for God. Frequently they called at the convent, where Mother Evangelista welcomed them with a motherly kindness and by her sympathy induced them to talk of wife and children and home, a good influence for any man on active service. Here the Sisters continued to nurse till 1919, when most of the emergency hospitals were closed, including the Mapperley Road Military Hospital. Sister Alphonsus, who had now become universally known as “The White Sister,”* was again recommended for the R.R.C. in recognition of distinguished service. This time the conferring of the honor had the warm backing of all concerned. The elaborate ceremony of investiture took place at Buckingham Palace on May 15, 1919, amidst all the pomp and panoply of an English Court. His Majesty, King George, warmly thanked her for all she had done for the suffering soldiers and shook hands with her in congratulation, whilst Her Majesty, Queen Mary, remarked on the picturesqueness of the garb of a Catholic nursing Sister. The decoration is a cross patté, eight pointed, of red on white with a circle in the middle. On the front a bas-relief portrait of the King is included in the circle. In the circle on the reverse is His Majesty’s monogram, whilst the bars bear the date of the institution of the decoration (1883) and the words: Faith, Hope, Charity.”
*The White Sister refers to Sister Alphonsus’ white nursing uniform.
Consider becoming a Sister
In the USA contact: Sister Chero Chuma, CSJP, U.S. Vocation Director, cherochuma@csjp.org
In the UK, contact: Sister Maureen Brennan, CSJP, UK Vocation Director, maureenbrennancsjp@gmail.com
Consider becoming an associate Women or men who share our concerns and charism, visit: https://csjp.org/join-us
request prayer Support
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
—Philippians 4:6
Our sisters and associates pray daily for friends, supporters, all who ask our prayers and those linked with us through the Pious Union of Prayer. The original purpose of this Union was to form a network of prayer for peace in homes and in families. Send a request online by selecting “Prayer Request” from our website home page menu, www.csjp.org or by mail in the U.S. using the return envelope.
Subscriptions/Feedback
We invite you to subscribe to Living Peace at no cost. Subscribe online by selecting About Us/ Publications and Media from our website homepage menu.
Sister Alphonsus in habit, date unknown
Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
Congregation Office
399 Hudson Terrace
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
Pursuing justice, we seek God’s gift of peace.
Urged by a burning desire to speak and act boldly with open, loving and adventurous hearts, and in collaboration with others, we now commit to addressing, healing, and being present to the wounds and broken relationships among ourselves and all of God’s Creation.
It is time to be who we have always said we are. It is time to live our words. We embrace these promptings of the Spirit with courage, humility, hope and trust.
(Extracted from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace 2023 Chapter Call – To Be Who We Say We Are)
