Sharing & Caring Spring 2015

Sharing & Caring Volume 25 Number 4 • Spring 2015 Sisters of the Precious Blood • Dayton, Ohio • www.preciousbloodsistersdayton.org

A Listening Presence

From the President’s Desk

Naturally

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hese days of late spring and early summer are wonderful times of the year. There is a lushness in the green: things are still fresh, crisp, clean and varied. Plants and trees cycle through their bloom times offering white and pink and lavender, red and yellow and orange and purple.

Light green growth pushes out of the tips of bushes and trees until with time it mellows to look like the rest. Eventually, either our eyes begin to gloss over the differences and the greens do begin to look alike, or the dust generated by nature and human industry buffers the difference into sameness.

If we get, or take, the chance to really look around ourselves as spring morphs into summer, we also see crops in the fields struggling through the first growth spurts, jockeying with each other for the necessary water and nutrients to develop, mature and become food on our tables. If we’re lucky we might also see young calves dancing beside their mothers, or impossibly white, knockkneed lambs gazing quizzically at our cars as we drive past.

All this new life reminds us that death cannot win in the end. What had appeared lifeless and unproductive just a few months ago is now burgeoning with life. God has a plan for the natural world. Human beings are part of that plan and we thrive most when we cooperate with nature’s rhythms.

In the first creation story in the book of Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve that they 2

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should “fill the earth and subdue it … have dominion over the fish … the birds … and all living things.” In the second creation story in chapter two, God settles Adam in the garden to “cultivate it and care for it.” In that same story, before providing a mate for Adam, God brings the animals to him who then gives each of them a name, thus establishing a relationship with them.

The dynamics in the two stories offer two views of our relationship with non-human creation. We can see ourselves either as dominators or as caretakers. A temptation if we understand dominion to mean domination or “control over” leads us to do so for personal satisfaction or gain. We disrupt nature’s cycles, create organisms that we believe enhance human life by providing greater profit, and assume we will ultimately win over nature and control it. Dominion might also mean “to govern for the common good,” in which case we would care for the planet so that not only we, but also it would thrive.

When we see ourselves as caretakers or stewards, we enter into a relationship with nature, cherishing what we have been entrusted with and respecting its cycles and rhythms by living within their limitations as well as their strengths. We are careful so that what we are doing does not violate the air, the land or the waters that sustain our life and the life of all living things.

If we pay attention and reflect

on the history of our planet, we begin to see that nature has a way of correcting what has been done to it by adapting and evolving. God has placed deep within nature an indomitable urge for fostering life. If humanity does not destroy itself first, God’s natural world may end up “spitting us out,” as one scientist puts it, by generating an atmosphere in which human beings are incapable of living but to which nature can acclimatize and adapt.

As we look around ourselves and enjoy God’s gifts to us given through the natural world, maybe we can take a moment to ask ourselves how we see ourselves in that world … as one who dominates and subdues or as one who stewards and is in relationship with.

Whichever way we relate to this gift of God, may we never cease to thank God in appreciation and gratitude. 

Sister Joyce Lehman President, Sisters of the Precious Blood

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hen I was 12, my right leg got caught under a moving car and broke in two places.

Though the surgeon tried to reset the bones in my lower leg, the result was surgery and a week’s stay in the hospital.

The day after surgery I was alone in my room, watching one of my favorite television shows, leg in a full-length cast and still hurting, when our parish priest came in. He was a friendly Irishman with a ruddy face and wry sense of humor, whom everyone liked.

Yes, I was momentarily annoyed that the TV had to be turned off, but this was my chance to really talk with someone about the accident, my injury and my anxiety about a full recovery. My concerns, mixed with a few tears, poured out and Father reassured me that things would be fine. We prayed together, asking God for strength and healing.

Fast-forward 37 years. I am in a room in that same hospital with my mom who had suffered a massive stroke. The anxiety came back and there

Established in 1989, Sharing & Caring is published quarterly by the Sisters of the Precious Blood, Dayton, Ohio, to communicate news of the congregation, Precious Blood Spirituality, and to promote the sisters’ mission.

All editorial content and photographs in Sharing & Caring are copyrighted. For reprint permission, please contact the editor.

were more questions. Why? What comes next? My mind was numb. At that moment a chaplain came in offering holy Communion. It was an opportune time to again share my concerns with someone. She listened, encouraged me to accept God’s will, and prayed with me.

Those two instances, nearly 40 years apart, gave me an inner peace that I have never experienced anywhere else.

That’s why it was so special to watch Sister Terry Maher make her rounds as assistant manager of spiritual care at St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino, California.

She held the hands of patients in the emergency room and asked how they were feeling.

She listened to their concerns and fears. She prayed with them. I recalled my own experiences with hospital chaplains.

Sister Terry is the face of Christ to those in vulnerable and anxious moments. She brings God to where God is most needed. She’s a listening presence, knowing what to say and when to say it.

It’s a powerful ministry, and CPPS Mission Statement Urged by the redeeming love of Jesus the Christ and rooted in Eucharistic prayer, we Sisters of the Precious Blood proclaim God’s love by being a life-giving, reconciling presence in our fractured world.

Editor Dave Eck, Director of Communications Layout and Design Michelle Bodine, Media Specialist

Editor’s Notes

Chaplaincy is a powerful ministry

I’m grateful for it.

In this issue of Sharing & Caring, we also learn about Sister Karen Elliot’s address to the National Conference of Vicars for Religious during their annual gathering in Chicago.

An engaging speaker and popular professor at Mercy College of Northwest Ohio, Sister Karen utilized her own experiences as a woman religious in sharing with the vicars a message on the Year of Consecrated Life.

Thanks for reading Sharing & Caring and if you have comments or story ideas for future issues, please contact me at 937.274.2707 or communications@cppsadmin.org. 

Dave Eck Director of Communications Address communications to: Office of Communications Sisters of the Precious Blood 4000 Denlinger Road Dayton, OH 45426 Phone: (937) 274-2707 E-mail: communications@ cppsadmin.org Printing Progressive Printers, Inc., Dayton, Ohio PRINTED WITH SOY INK ON RECYCLED PAPER

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News

IHM Sister visits Salem Heights to discuss multiculturalism

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rowing up on a farm in a small Michigan town, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Kathryn Pierce assumed everyone in the world was white, Catholic, Irish and a Democrat. It wasn’t until she joined her religious community and began ministering in Puerto Rico that she realized just how limited and biased her cultural experience was.

Sister Kathryn, executive director of Intercultural Consultation Services, shared that recollection during a workshop on multiculturalism Feb. 28 at Salem Heights. The story helped illustrate how narrow we can be in thinking about culture.

“That was my cultural upbringing,” Sister Kathryn said.

“I think if we all look back into our families, we can see what was there. What were the values and beliefs? That’s how we started out and until there was some kind of a change, we continued living that way.

More than 50 people attended the workshop including Precious Blood Sisters and members of the Congregation’s Vocation Ministry Committee, who will use the information in their efforts to promote vocations to the Sisters of the Precious Blood.

In her presentation, Sister Kathryn urged participants to identify things they can do – as individuals and together to promote multiculturalism.

“We know that as commu4

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nity builders our business is to be able to recognize the differences in culture, in religion, and to be able to not let those differences separate us because it would be pretty boring if we were all the same,” Sister Kathryn said. “Each one of us is a cultural being. We come with a unique culture, but we come together to form a group.”

In opening the workshop, Sister Kathryn distributed an image by artist Wade Davis depicting numerous symbols.

She asked the participants to envision the image as a prayer collage and identify the symbols associated with various cultures.

Among the symbols was the depiction of a white person as being dominant. Although that has been the norm in the United States, it is changing.

“Very soon the white will not be the dominate culture here in the United States,” Sister Kathryn said. “Very soon, even though we may act and think we are. That’s what we have to be very careful of, and that’s what makes intercultural living so difficult because we think we come from the dominant.”

Davis’ image also had a reflection that the participants contemplated: “The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”

That can be a blow to the

IHM Sister Kathryn Pierce. Contributed photo

egos of some in the United States because we have the impression that everyone wants to be like us, Sister Kathryn explained. We think we might be the superior race. Still, she continued, think of how different the world would be if we accepted each other. It has to start with each of us and the communities to which we belong.

“It’s got to start here,” she said. “How can we do that?

It’s going to demand a real transformation. We need to be missionary in our everyday activities.”

In helping to bridge the gap between cultures, Sister Kathryn also discussed various elements of effective conversation across cultures and the analogy of culture as part of the daylong workshop.  Story by Dave Eck

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s the assistant manager of the spiritual care department at St. Bernardine Medical Center in San Bernardino, California, much of Sister Terry Maher’s ministry boils down to one simple thing: listening.

Be it with the family of a patient in the emergency room, the parents of a newborn fighting for life, or a co-worker experiencing a personal loss, Sister Terry is there, listening through tears and fears.

“A lot of what I do is being a listening presence,” Sister Terry said. “It’s being able to be present to a lot of needs.”

Through peace, comfort and compassion, Sister Terry brings God to where God is most needed.

She recalls a woman in the emergency department who was about to have a medical procedure. Sister Terry noticed

a rosary in the patient’s hand and asked the patient if she would like a priest to stop by.

The woman nodded and Sister Terry saw relief in the woman’s face.

“Sister Terry is absolutely amazing,” said Donna Grisham, former emergency department manager. “She’s very supportive of all of our emergency room patients and their families as well as the staff. She’s been very instrumental in encouraging our patients.”

In other instances, patients speak of the warmth they feel when Sister Terry prays with them. Sometimes patients feel lost and continually burdened.

Prayer comforts them.

Those are the moments when she most clearly sees God working through her.

“Whatever their faith is or isn’t, we meet people at their

Cover Story

Sister Terry brings compassion, comfort to patients at St. Bernardine Medical Center

On the cover and above, Sister Terry Maher at St. Bernardine Medical Center; bottom left, Sister Terry with a patient at St. Bernardine Medical Center.

most vulnerable time,” Sister Terry said. “In my mind it’s how to be present, open and accepting of them because I can be the face of the church.

It’s not necessarily a specific denomination but I can be that welcoming, open face of God that they may not have seen.”

As chaplain for both the neonatal intensive care unit and the emergency department, Sister Terry often prays over babies who are struggling. She leaves notes for the parents, and if a parent is still in the hospital she’ll go visit them to see how they are doing and find out what they need. Often she’ll consult with the medical staff on the child’s condition and relay the information in ways they can understand.

A most challenging part of Story and photos by Dave Eck

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Cover Story

her ministry is consoling a family who has lost a loved one. In supporting others in times of crisis, she draws upon the deaths she has experienced in her own life, including that of her brother, a police officer who was killed in the line of duty.

“I can use the scars that experience gave me to be present to people and to know if I need to say something or if I just need to be with them,” Sister Terry said. “Sometimes it is just sitting quietly.”

When she joined St. Bernardine seven years ago, she was asked to initiate a program in which someone stays with patients who are near death.

Volunteers stay with dying patients who have no one, or just to give family members a break. They leave notes of support for the families.

Patients who have died are remembered at a Mass the Sunday following their death and at quarterly memorial services.

The program is modeled after one in Oregon. In that case, a patient asked a nurse to sit with him, but by the time she had finished her nursing duties, he had died.

A native of Philadelphia, Sister Terry’s father spent his career in the United States Navy, which took the family to many places, including cities along the east and west coasts while she was growing up. Her family moved back to California when she was in her teens and she established roots there.

Her nieces and nephews are in California while her extended family lives in the east.

Entering religious life was never something Sister Terry 6

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Top, Sister Terry prepares for daily Mass at St. Bernardine Medical Center; bottom, Sister Terry chats with a co-worker in the ER.

expected, but she got to know the Precious Blood Sisters through the parish school her siblings attended. While studying history and religion at the University of San Diego, Sister Terry began thinking about religious life more seriously. She worked as director of religious education at a parish in Oceanside, California, after graduation and continued to contemplate a religious vocation.

“I call it a niggling,” she said.

“You never know where God is going to pull people from. I had to pursue it.”

A highlight of her journey thus far was an internship at the United Nations in New York during graduate studies at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union. For four months she lived in SpanishHarlem, took the train to Grand Central Station and walked to the U.N. She was

Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s youth office. It was all a good foundation for her current ministry at St. Bernardine.

“It’s a different sense of community,” she said. “Once I was able to think of the hospital as a parish, it made sense to me.”

Though no day is the same, each workday brings Sister Terry new opportunities to ex-

perience God. She reflects on those moments and continually looks to see God’s face.

It can turn up anywhere, in a smile, in a prayer or the in the relief of a nervous patient.

“It can be extremely humbling, depending on the experience I’ve had,” Sister Terry said. “I get to reflect on pieces of life that I’m not sure I ever would have.” 

Cover Story

studying the social teachings of the church and the impact of Catholic nongovernmental organizations.

“That was a good experience,” she said. “I enjoyed that very much, hobnobbing with all those delegates and ambassadors.”

After profession, she continued parish work in California and Ohio, and worked in the

Letter We love to hear from our readers. Letters for publication in Sharing & Caring can be sent to Dave Eck at communications@cppsadmin.org or 4000 Denlinger Road, Dayton, Ohio 45426. We reserve the right to edit letters and withhold those that contain libelous statements or lack civility.

I have recently received the Winter 2015 edition of Sharing & Caring. On the back page is a photo which features Sister Beverly Bodnar (better known to myself as Sr. Mary Emmanuel), whom I believe was the best Algebra teacher ever to take chalk to a blackboard at Assumption School (now

sadly closed) in Dayton.

We had contact some years earlier by mail. I want her to know that I still am very grateful for Sister’s Catholic example and her excellent ability to teach algebra. Her ability affected me so well and permanently that, subsequently through the years, I was able

to have a fruitful professional career in laser engineering and, subsequently, provided for my family very well.

Very respectfully, Bruce Armstrong Assumption School Class of ‘67

Happy Birthday In each issue of Sharing & Caring we recognize the birthdays of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. Congratulations to the Sisters celebrating Summer and Fall birthdays.

JULY 2 Mary Garascia, Rita Manriquez 3 Patricia Dieringer 4 Barbara Jean Backs 8 Marla Gipson 9 Elizabeth Westgerdes 14 Amy Junk, Nancy Wolf 16 Laura Will 22 Dolores Keller, Judy Niday 24 Helen Weber

27 Joyce Langhals 9 10 13 21 24 26 30 31

AUGUST Noreen Jutte Jeannine Kloeker Edna Hess, Margo Young Jeanette Buehler Judy Kroeger Bernice Krieg Ann Clark Joyce Kahle

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12 16 22 29

SEPTEMBER Cleophas Schumacher Nadine Kaschalk, Ruth Ann Meyer Mary Anne Mozser, Florence Seifert Noemi Flores Della Mae Meyer Rita Rogier Rosemary Laux Spring 2015

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In Brief Left, Sister Ruth Ann Meyer with her Excellence in Discovery award. Dave Eck photo; middle, Sister Genny Volk with her Distinguished Volunteer award. Contributed photo; right, Sister Nancy Raley wih her 2015 Volunteer Service Award. Dave Eck photo

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ister Ruth Ann Meyer received an Excellence in Discovery award from Western Michigan University. A retired math professor at Western Michigan, Sister Ruth Ann helped secure more than $1 million for the school from 2009 until 2011. The money helped fund a program that provides workshops to math teachers across the state.

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ister Paula Gero was awarded the St. Anne Medal by the Diocese of Lansing at a ceremony at St. Mary Cathedral on March 22. The ceremony, conducted by Bishop of Lansing Earl Boyea, honored Scouts and other youth groups for their work on religious awards. Sister Paula accompanied four Girl Scouts who had completed the requirements for the I Live My Faith medal. She did not know that the four girls had written tributes to her, and was quite surprised by the honor.

Initiated by the United States Catholic Conference in 1957, the medal recognizes adults who have contributed notable service in developing girls’ activities and who have demonstrated a willingness to serve as a leader of the activities for at least five years.

Sister Paula had previously received the Elizabeth Ann Seton award for similar work.

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ister Genny Volk received the Distinguished Volunteer Award for Sacred Heart Academy at the San Bernardino Catholic Schools Banquet in January.

The award recognizes volunteers who have impacted Catholic schools in the diocese with Gospel values so that students’ lives are filled with hope, and who are held in high regard by 8

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members of the school community. Sister Genny volunteers four days a week at the school tutoring younger students in reading and phonics skills.

“I was surprised,” Sister Genny said about receiving the award. “I felt honored that the principal and the teachers had selected me and it’s an indication that what I’m doing is helping the children to learn more in phonics skills and getting them up to par in learning how to read.”

A resident of Redlands, California, Sister Genny began volunteering at Sacred Heart about five years ago. She was looking for an opportunity to volunteer and offered her skills to the school. She ministered in education for about 30 years and then spent about 17 years in spiritual direction and retreat work.

“The children (and parents) at Sacred Heart Academy are so blessed to have Sr. Genny,” said Sacred Heart parent Linda Hook. “Her tutoring helps children that would otherwise be struggling. She does this with a compassionate heart, never expecting recognition. Her award is so well deserved.

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ister Nancy Raley received the 2015 Volunteer Service Award from Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley during a ceremony on May 12. For 10 years, Sister Nancy has been volunteering at the agency’s Choice Food Pantry and the Development Office. In addition to helping process clients, she writes acknowledgment letters to donors. Sister is a retired dietician and nursing home administrator who worked in nutrition and management in the public sector and for the community. She was on the Community Council for 12 years. 

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he elderly man was kneeling on cobblestone outside of an 18th century convent in Antigua, Guatemala, hands outstretched, totally absorbed in prayer. He was oblivious to the traffic, chickens and tourists behind him.

Sister Karen Elliott, who was visiting the convent on a yearly trip to Guatemala with her students from Mercy College of Ohio, watched the man pray.

As she stood quietly, she was struck by the heritage of the Sisters who had lived there.

It was their legacy of prayer and spirituality that called the elderly man to that very spot more than 200 years later.

Inside the convent, Sister Karen marveled at its beauty, the construction and how it was built in a manner to provide community for the Sisters.

It’s the same sense of community Pope Francis calls men and women religious to today in order for them to enliven and encourage each other.

Those were among the stories Sister Karen shared in her keynote address to the National Conference of Vicars for Religious at the group’s annual gathering March 15-16 in Chicago. About 70 vicars from across the United States and abroad attended, including an official from the Vatican. Vicars serve as their bishop’s representative to the religious communities working in their diocese.

Speaking on the gift of consecrated life, Sister Karen used

the tale of the elderly man at the historic convent to illustrate that a religious community’s spirituality transcends geographic boundaries and ages, bringing Christ to people today.

“The Sisters’ lives gave birth to a spirituality that still lives on,” she said in an interview after her presentation. “That’s what I believe is the gift of consecrated life.”

She opened her presentation with a prayer from St. Teresa of Avila that calls us to be Christ’s physical presence on earth. While in Guatemala, Sister Karen took her students to a museum and showed them a statue of Jesus from the 16th century. The hands of the statue had deteriorated away over the centuries, but one of the students, recalling St. Teresa’s prayer, placed her hand in front of the statue where the missing hand had been. Sister Karen was overjoyed that the student not only read the prayer, but really understood the message.

Such teaching is what religious are called to do, Sister Karen explained to the vicars.

Despite being chairperson of the religious studies department at Mercy College and a popular professor, Sister Karen admits she was “very humbled, but very nervous” to address the vicars.

“This was a very, very large net in terms of the sphere of influence within the church and the United States,” she said. “I tremendously respect

Ministry

Sister Karen Elliott shares experience of religious life in address to vicars

Sister Karen Elliott during a trip to Guatemala with Mercy College.

the ministry of the vicars.

They encourage those of us who are already ministering in religious life. They minister to those who minister.”

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Marilyn Kerber, director of the Office of Religious in the Cincinnati Archdiocese, said Sister Karen focused on gratitude, passion and hope the themes Pope Francis outlined in his letter on the Year of Consecrated Life.

“For me, she brought the message on the Year of Consecrated Life alive,” Sister Story by Dave Eck; contributed photos

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Ministry

Marilyn said. “She did it with sharing who she is as a person, sharing life experiences and touching photos as part of her presentation.”

Sister Marilyn said she enjoyed that Sister Karen wove personal stories from religious life, ministry and, even, her childhood into the address.

“I was certainly inspired,” Sister Marilyn added. “She talked about us being called to inspire. She talked about how the gifts we have been given as individuals are not just for us.”

Ursuline Sister Nancy Mathias, vicar in the Toledo Diocese and president of the national conference, said Sister Karen resonated with the group.

Sister Nancy had asked Sister Karen to speak at the gathering.

“The vicars loved her,” Sister Nancy said. “She shared her own experience of being a religious and living out the gifts of consecrated life. She was so real and sincere.”

As a result of the presentation, Sister Karen has been asked to present in the Brooklyn and Long Island, New York dioceses and the Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Top, Students from Mercy College of Ohio place their hands over a historical statue while on a mission trip to Antiqua, Guatemala. Bottom, St. Teresa of Avila calls us to be Christ’s physical presence on earth.

Annual Employee Service Awards

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he Sisters of the Precious Blood recognized the employees April 16 at the annual service awards ceremony with a special luncheon at Salem Heights. Employees celebrating milestone anniversaries of service are (from left) Brenda Gabbard, dietary, 15 years; William Jones, dietary, five years; Tamiko Morrison, housekeeping, 10 years; Michael Wilemaitis, finance, five years; Sister Pat Will, liturgy, 10 years; Steve Klosterman, finance, five years; Elton Benson, dietary, 15 years; and Kimberly Jaynes, activity director, 20 years. Michelle Bodine photo  10

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April 1924 — March 27, 2014

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esurrection liturgy for Precious Blood Sister Martha DeBrosse, was held at the Salem Heights Chapel, 4960 Salem Ave., Dayton, Ohio, on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Visitation immediately preceded the liturgy. Sister died at the Maria Joseph Center in Dayton on Friday, March 27, 2015. Martha had been a Sister of the Precious Blood for 75 years.

The second oldest of 12 children, Martha was born in Piqua in April 1924 to Benjamin P. and Agnes (Guillozet) DeBrosse. Many years ago the Piqua Daily Call newspaper spoke in wonderment of these nine sons and three daughters. It seems all nine boys delivered their newspaper and, had they formed a ball team, they would be “heavy on brains as well as brawn.” The daughters too were considered endowed with smartness. At the age of 10 Martha delivered in church a speech (written by Precious Blood Sister M. Manetta) on the occasion of the First Mass of her uncle, Father Edmund Guillozet, CPPS. The Piqua paper went on to say Mr. and Mrs. DeBrosse “admit it’s not easy to rear 12 [children] during the world’s deepest depression. They found, however, that a large family is a crucible for perfecting old-fashioned virtues.”

On July 16, 1940, at the age of 16, she formally entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. In religious life she was given the name of Sister Mary Carmel and later returned to using her baptismal name.

Sister was an elementary school teacher for 53

years, teaching primary grades in Fort Wayne, Indiana; in Linton, North Dakota; and in Norwood, Cincinnati, Glandorf, New Riegel, North College Hill, Hamilton, Dayton and Celina, Ohio. For 16 of those 53 years she served as principal. Beginning in 1996 she began fulltime retirement first at Minster, Ohio, and five years later joined other Sister retirees at Salem Heights in Dayton.

On the occasion of her 60th Jubilee, Sister Martha wrote, “My life as a Sister of the Precious Blood has been very fulfilling. I give thanks daily for the many sisters who are and have been part of my life. Their love, prayers and support are deeply appreciated.” Martha also was so appreciative of her family, especially her sister, Theresa, who lovingly spent time in weekly visits during Martha’s later years. She was loved by her God, her community of Sisters, her family and those to whom she ministered.

Martha crocheted afghans, did needlepoint and gained much fame for her ceramic pieces.

In addition she loved to read and take long walks. She joined her sister Theresa in traveling extensively while she had good health.

A motto of Sister Martha was “Do your best.

Let God do the rest.” Her life has been a testimony to that. We shall miss her but rejoice with her beginning a new life in heaven.

Sister Martha is survived by her Precious Blood Community of Sisters, her brother, William and sister, Theresa DeBrosse, both of Piqua, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Interment was in the Salem Heights Cemetery.

— By Sister Nancy Kinross

In Sympathy Sister Carolyn Hoying on the death of her sister, Doris Ann Prenger, March 26 Sister Carmelita Monnin on the death of her sister-in-law, Georgiana Monnin, April 11 Sister Verlina Mescher on the death of her brother, Vernon “Vernie” Mescher, April 26 Sister Joyce Kahle on the

death of her brother, Louis “Lou” Kahle, April 21 Sister Brendan Jordan on the death of her sister, Mary, May 11 Sister Angeline Hoffman on the death of her sister, Marjorie (Marge) Stang, May 26 Candidate Bela Mis on the death of her brother, Jose Fran-

cisco Mis Mendoza, June 4

Remembering Mary Eileen Wilemaitis, mother of Michael Wilemaitis in the finance office Daniel Skubby, brother of our deceased Sister Dianne Skubby Spring 2015

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In Memoriam

Sister Martha (M. Carmel) DeBrosse

4000 Denlinger Road Dayton, OH 45426-2399

Sister Pat visits Tanzania, Africa

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ast year, Sister Pat Dieringer and Father Bill O'Donnell left from Dayton to visit Sister Daria Mushi in Tanzania, Africa. Sister Daria, a native of Tanzania, lived with the Sisters of the Precious Blood while studying at the University of Dayton to become a doctor.

Right, a grant from the Maria Anna Brunner fund enabled the Precious Blood parish in Itigi, Singida to purchase sewing machines and tailoring materials to start the St. Gaspar Tailoring School; bottom right, Sister Pat, Our Lady of Kilimanjaro Sister Urban Lyimo, Father Bill and Sister Daria stand in front of the St. Joseph Hospital, where Sister Daria works and lives with 24 Sisters. The hospital is run

by Our Lady of Kilimanjaro Sisters; bottom left, Sister Daria, Father Bill and Sister Pat after Mass at the Missionaries of the Precious Blood at St. Gaspar Hotel. Contributed photos

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