Sharing & Caring Winter 2014

Sharing & Caring Volume 24 Number 2 • Winter 2014 Sisters of the Precious Blood • Dayton, Ohio • www.preciousbloodsistersdayton.org

An Oasis in the Neighborhood

From the President’s Desk

God's love is unconditional, persistent

W

e find ourselves in the winding down part of another calendar year while also beginning a new church year. The events of this past year are memories now, some delightful, others perhaps a bit less so. We have seen the election of a new pope whose first nine months have been the birthing of a renewed sense of being church. We have seen violence in many forms – some natural like earthquakes, tornados, and typhoons, and others truly unnatural like gun violence that takes the lives of innocent children and bystanders and the generous response of good hearted people. Immigration, no matter which side of the debate you stand on, remains a broken system. Our country, both a democracy and a republic, too often becomes mired in ideology and rhetoric, the common good lost to partisanship.

How do we hold both the good and the bad, the pleasant and the difficult, the beautiful and the ugly? One basket large enough to hold the whole kit and caboodle is our spirituality, our personal relationship with God. Each of us relates to God depending on our image of God. A young mother once told me that a few days after her two young sons found a bird’s nest with young hatchlings and a hovering mother bird nearby, her three-year-old son made the pronouncement during his 2

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evening bath that “God is like a great white bird.” No doubt watching the mother bird keeping her young safe, fed and warm in the nest fit his experience of God’s love and care for him.

While this young boy saw God as a caring mother bird, some relate to God as though they are an offender or supplicant before a judge.

For others it is as a child to a loving father while still others see God as friend or beloved. Some have a spirituality formed in the “Little Way” of the Carmelite St. Therese of Lisieux who saw true love lived in the ordinary actions of daily life.

Others follow the way of St. Ignatius, a reformed soldier, whose spiritual exercises see our fundamental relationship with the Father through Jesus and all our actions done “for the greater honor and glory of God.” St. Francis of Assisi, a merchant’s son who gave away everything, even his clothes, inspires with his love of God’s creation, the church and the poor.

St. Gaspar del Bufalo and Maria Anna Brunner experienced their relationship with God through the saving, redeeming Blood of Jesus.

Among many symbols that inspired them, the cross and the chalice were two that expressed so well Jesus’ gift of himself to us and for us. The cross is the place where his great act of self-giving brought about our redemption and the

forgiveness of our sins. We look at a crucifix and are called to the belief that life does not end with death or sin, but that God’s love carries us beyond the grave into everlasting life and union.

The chalice, like the cross, holds new life. It is a symbol of transformation, of resurrection, of loving presence.

Knowing he would shed his blood for us on the cross, Christ chose to give himself to us in the Eucharist so we would remember how precious love, like blood, is.

Whatever our spirituality, we know that God is persistent and unconditional in loving us. Like the “Hound of Heaven,” God pursues us until we relent our errant ways and fall into the Divine and loving embrace. May this year’s end and new year’s beginning find us more deeply in love with Love Itself. 

Sister Joyce Lehman President, Sisters of the Precious Blood

D

uring my years as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Cincinnati, I spent much of my time on the police beat covering the inner-city. It was a busy environment of raw emotion mixed with pure adrenalin.

I’d ride with officers as they responded to robberies, assaults and even murders. We encountered people at some of the worst moments of their lives, be they victims or suspects. There was fear, sadness, anger and pain on all sides.

Later, I would follow these cases through the system. Trials would run their courses and often plea deals would be cut. Otherwise good people were sent to jail for years or life. Twice I watched as an offender was sentenced to death.

Cases were closed, justice was served and the emotions remained.

What always struck me, though, was a lack of opportunity for healing. Justice doesn’t heal nor does the system. There can’t be closure without it.

That’s where the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation comes in. Sisters Donna

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.

Liette and Carolyn Hoying, along with Missionaries of the Precious Blood Fathers Dave Kelly and Denny Kindermann, utilize healing circles and outreach to high-risk youth in a tough south Chicago neighborhood. Their work can be heart-breaking, but so lifechanging.

In this issue of Sharing & Caring, we meet some of the youth who visit the reconciliation center and share their stories. We see how a young offender and victim form a relationship during the circle process, giving the offender hope for a brighter future. We detail the positive impact the center is making on the youth it serves in the heart of a fractured neighborhood.

We see the healing that the system ignores.

This issue also celebrates the work of Sister Rose Wildenhaus, as she and her co-worker, Dick McBride, retire from St. Mary Development, the non-profit they established nearly 25 years ago. They left a beautiful legacy of more than 1,000 housing units for the poor and a thriving development company.

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

Healing and reconciliation

Finally, we are introduced to Mary Ann Lee, a 1944 graduate of San Luis Rey Academy. For decades she has wanted to visit the Sisters of the Precious Blood central house, but never had the chance. She finally fulfilled her wish with a tour, reminiscing and plenty of smiles.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Sharing & Caring. If you have an item for future issues or have a comment, please contact me at 937.274.2707 or communications@cppsadmin. org. We appreciate your feedback. 

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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Three new members join vocations committee

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s a high school student, Eillien Mendez wanted to become a nun. She was considering religious life, but her direction changed when a Sister at her school noticed in Mendez a stronger desire to become a mom. The Sister mentioned it. Mendez ended up marrying and having a son and a daughter.

“That definitely was the Lord’s plan,” she said. “That opened my eyes to understanding that there are different calls and all of them are needed and great.”

That’s the perspective Mendez will bring to her work as a member of the Sisters of the Precious Blood Vocations Ministry Committee. She joins Sister Terry Maher and Missionary of the Precious Blood Brother Juan Acuña as new members. The team, which works with Vocations Coordinator Sister Mary Yarger to develop strategies for raising awareness of vocations to the community, consists of lay people and Precious Blood Sisters.

“We’re excited to have the new members and what they bring,” Sister Mary said.

“They bring different cultural backgrounds to the committee. We are looking to expand the cultures represented on the committee in order to better connect with those from other parts of the world.”

A native of Puerto Rico, Mendez is the liturgy coordinator at St. Bernardine Parish in San Bernardino, Calif., and works as a part-time secretary 4

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there. She is a floral designer by trade.

As part of the committee she wants to help parents be understanding and open if their child has a call to religious life.

She also wants to help with the committee’s communications.

“I think as parents we have the responsibility to teach our children to be open to the gift of a call,” she said. “Our kids are gifts and they belong to the Lord, not to us, so we have to be sure to expose them to vocations.

We need to give them space and give them the option of becoming a priest, or nun or brother so they can live their lives to the fullest if that’s God’s plan.”

Her Hispanic heritage will also enable her to help the Congregation relate to other cultures.

“I think I will bring another dimension of how my people think and see things,” she said.

“You have to integrate everybody, no matter where they come from. You have to bring that melting pot together. You don’t have to let language and culture be a barrier to inclusion.”

Likewise, Brother Juan, a native of Santiago, Chile, brings a Latino perspective.

“There are always cultural issues that can make communication difficult,” he said. “I can help cross that barrier.”

Brother Juan began formation with the Missionaries in 2007. He made temporary incorporation in 2010 and definicontinued on page 18 Story and photos by Dave Eck

tive incorporation in 2012. He works as a learning specialist at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind. His work

Above, Eillien Mendez, Brother Juan Acuña, Sister Terry Maher. Contributed photos

T

here were plenty of smiles Sept. 26 as Precious Blood Sisters, employees and construction workers celebrated the completion of the Salem Heights repurposing project with prayer and fellowship. The community hosted contractors and sub-contractors involved in the project at an open house and reception. The event included tours of Salem Heights and a prayer service recognizing St. Joseph, the carpenter/ builder, for the protection he has provided all those involved in the project.

The nearly 20-month project created 51 new apartments from 110 bedrooms and other areas in the Sisters’ central house in Trotwood.

The 80,354-square-foot building at 4960 Salem Ave. is home to about 40 retired Precious Blood Sisters. The new apartments - which can

accommodate more than 51 residents because six of the apartments have two bedrooms - feature complete kitchens, full bathrooms, updated wiring and plumbing, and more living space. Other areas of the building were remodeled as needed.

The project was designed

by CR Architecture + Design.

Miller Valentine Group was the general contractor.

Construction crews worked around the needs of the Sisters living in the building as the project progressed.

Sisters were relocated in different parts of the building during the construction and some Sisters moved multiple times.

“The construction at Salem Heights over the past year and a half has been quite an experience for the Sister residents as well as for all the members of the Congrega-

News

Sisters of the Precious Blood complete repurposing of Salem Heights

Above, a stairwell is covered in plastic during construction on the second floor; lower left, representatives from Miller-Valentine Group and CR Architecture + Design receive plaques of appreciation from the community; lower right, the exterior of Salem Heights during the construction.

tion,” said Sister Joyce Lehman, president. “The various contractors and subcontractors did their work diligently and with evident respect for the Sisters who remained living in the building while it Story by Dave Eck; photos by Michelle Bodine

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was being repurposed.

“The project provides not only more living space for the Sisters who live here now or will do so in the next 10 or 15 years, but also makes the facility more attractive to lay people at some point in the future,” Sister Joyce added.

In addition to the apartments, the building includes a library, fitness area, beauty salon, nurse's office and parlors. The adoration chapel was enlarged to accommodate more people and improve ventilation.

Sister Dianne (Daniel Marie) Skubby moved to Salem Heights from Cleveland last May. She enjoys the lifestyle and hospitality she’s seen at the central house, and her relatives jokingly ask how they can secure an apartment for themselves.

“I like it here. I like the nuns and routine. The (employees) are so kind,” she said. “It is so welcoming. It is a place I wanted to invite my family and friends to come and see.”

Converting the building to apartments adapted the central house to its fullest potential by creating larger living spaces, providing areas to care for the Sisters and maintaining a facility in which the congregation can continue its spirituality.

The decision to repurpose the building was made by the community during the 2011 Assembly and construction began in March 2012.  From top to bottom (from left), Sisters Dianne Skubby, Claire Sharpshair, Ruth Ann Meyer, Pat Dieringer, Laura Will, Rosemary Lindemann (left) and Ann Catherine Lemkuhl show off their new apartments in Salem Heights.

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News Top, the library under during construction; on the left, boxes are stacked in the space as books are being shelved, while the right picture shows the finished area; lower left, the beauty salon in its former location on the fourth floor; lower right, the new beauty salon relocated to the first floor.

Thanksgiving Tea Sisters living at Salem Heights kicked off the holiday season Nov. 26 with a Thanksgiving-themed tea.

About a dozen Sisters sipped tea, munched on homemade pumpkin bread, and reminisced as Salem Heights Activity Director Kim Jaynes read poems and told the story of the first Thanksgiving. “The Sisters enjoy the tea and sitting, talking and reminiscing about past times,” Jaynes said. “I always try to make the tea parties interesting and tie them in with a theme.”

Left, Sister Bernice (M. Erwin) Krieg enjoys tea and pumpkin bread as part of a Thanksgiving tea at Salem Heights; right, fancy teacups line a table. Dave Eck photos

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Sister Rose retires from leadership at St. Mary Development

S

ister Rose Wildenhaus didn’t set out to help create St. Leonard’s Senior Living Community in Dayton, start a preschool, sponsor a GED program, begin a day care or help change the grading culture at St. Mark’s School in Cincinnati, where she was principal for 11 years.

She never expected to oversee a construction company and she certainly didn’t have any idea of co-founding one of Ohio’s largest non-profit developers of affordable housing for low to moderate income people.

“I just took each challenge on as I figured I could,” Sister Rose said, explaining that she simply saw needs and worked to address them one at a time.

Sister Rose and Dayton business executive Richard McBride have been working together on social service

activities in Greater Dayton for more than 30 years, but they are best known for creating St. Mary Development, an organization that develops affordable housing for the poor.

Founded in 1989, St. Mary has developed more than 2,400 units, including low-income senior apartments, emergency housing and single-family homes.

The two retired from St. Mary last October, but will remain connected with the organization. McBride has been asked to be a consultant while Sister Rose is volunteering as director of volunteers. In her new role, Sister Rose will serve St. Mary residents with programs, food and supplies. Tim Bete has been named St. Mary president/CEO. Sister Rose met McBride in the early 1980s when they

Above, Sister Rose writes a thank you letter to one of St. Mary Development Corporation's donors; lower left, Sister Rose discusses a new low-income housing construction project with other members of St. Mary Development Corporation's senior management team. File photos

both served on the Cincinnati Archdiocesan Social Action and World Peace Commission. Through that effort, they noticed that redlining was a problem in west Dayton, and that the poor and minorities were being excluded from home ownership.

They eventually teamed up with Precious Blood Sister Jeanette Buehler and Brian Forschner to acquire the former St. Leonard Seminary near Dayton to provide affordable housing for seniors with low to moderate incomes. They opened St. Leonard Center in 1983, with other Precious Blood Sisters helping to build the facility as staff or volunStory by Dave Eck

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Sister Rose Wildenhaus with Dick McBride, center, and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner at an Oct. 24 retirement ceremony for Sister Rose and Mr. McBride. The two of them have been working together on social issues in Dayton for 30 years and are the co-founders of St. Mary Development Corporation. Courtesy photo

teers. The complex continued to grow and is one of the largest retirement communities in the region.

“I really believe the success of St. Leonard’s and St. Mary is really due to the impact that Sisters have made on staff people, residents and the neighborhoods,” Sister Rose said. “They gave a whole lot without asking.”

By 1989, Sister Rose and McBride were ready to move into other areas of mission and went on a short retreat.

“During that 3-day retreat we felt God was calling us to continue to do housing for the poor, but to do it in the inner city,” Sister Rose said.

“A lot of Dayton was falling apart.”

Sister Rose grew up in St. Mary Parish on the city’s east side so she knew the property had an empty school building and a lot of land. Soon McBride and

Sister Rose brokered a deal to use the school building as a base for their operations.

They named their company after the parish.

The two of them sat in a classroom mapping out plans, writing projects on an old chalkboard. Sister Rose would work on the task list when McBride was busy with his full-time marketing job.

She started a preschool in a nearby building, got a GED program for mothers going in the school building and eventually opened a day care center. Meantime, St. Mary Development began rehabbing houses in the neighborhood for poor seniors. Weekly bingo funded it all.

“I did physical labor,” Sister Rose said. “I painted and stripped walls. I learned how to do a lot of things in construction.”

Her ministry to housing and the poor helped Sister Rose

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live out her Precious Blood spirituality.

“I always saw Precious Blood spirituality as total giving,” she said. “I think that through my personal life, I’ve inspired people to understand, support, pray and give thanks for what we’ve been able to do. I think people trusted me a whole lot. That was important to our mission.”

In 1993, McBride retired and began working full-time at St. Mary. The first big project came about a year later, when they built Twin Towers Place, a 100-unit apartment building for low-income seniors. The building was funded through state tax credits, which is a primary funding mechanism for St. Mary’s Development.

The tax credits are sold to investors, who can apply the value of the credits to federal income tax liability for 10 years.

St. Mary has developed seven apartment buildings and thousands of single-family homes over the last 25 years.

All of them for those with low incomes.

“When we sit back now and look at it, it’s just an amazing thing that God has worked through us and we were smart enough in most instances to wait until God told us what to do before we jumped in,” Sister Rose said.

“That’s what we hope for the (new leadership) team to understand, to wait for the Lord to tell you. It’s not a business (type of) business.

It’s for people, and you have to see what the need is before you jump in.” 

Cover Story

'Negatives turn into

positives'

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HICAGO – In a room at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation (PBMR) Center the police officer was waiting for the young man. Precious Blood Sister Donna (M. Dolorine) Liette sensed the officer was anxious. She was, too.

On the cover, at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation Center in Chicago, Sisters Donna Liette, left, and Carolyn Hoying stand before a cross covered with the names of local youth killed in the neighborhood; above, young men socialize at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation Center in Chicago. The center provides outreach to youth in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood with programs, food, mentoring and healing circles.

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The 16-year-old had been convicted of breaking into the officer’s home. As part of the criminal case, juvenile court gave the young man and the officer the option of participating in a healing circle at PBMR where they could meet, share their stories and mend a fractured relationship.

Though the officer had agreed to the session, he acted curt as he arrived at the center, his voice clipped as he asked when the young man would arrive.

During the circle, the young man expressed his remorse and regret for his actions. The officer spoke of the harm done to his family; telling how his young daughter was frightened by the break-in and had trouble sleeping in their home.

As they talked, they began to understand each other. Attitudes softened. At the end of the session, when asked what each would need to begin to heal, the officer took out a piece of paper, jotted down his phone number and gave it to the young man. He urged the Story and photos by Dave Eck

Cover Story Left, Precious Blood Sister Donna Liette watches as Darius Clark works on a rap song at the Precious Blood Ministries Center; right, Joe Montgomery plays pool at PBMR; below, Sister Carolyn Hoying chats with Paris Smith at the center.

young man to stay in school and to call him, offering to be a friend, someone to talk with, a father figure.

Sister Donna likes to tell that story as an example of the restorative work being done through (PBMR) in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood on the city’s violent south side. Hurting people hurt people and healing is needed for the violence to stop.

“That’s what we’re really about, restoring broken relationships,” said Sister Donna, who has ministered at PBMR since 2010. “Victims and offenders need to tell stories and see that their lives aren’t really that much different. Negatives turn into positives.”

Based in a former parish school, the PBMR Center sits about 10 miles and a world away from the glitter of Chicago’s Loop. In the neighborhood, however, it is an oasis, where local youth can come for recreation, enrichment, social time, companionship, mentoring and food. It’s an alternative to the streets.

“The center is very impor-

tant to the community,” said Jonathan Little, a college student who is employed at PBMR. “It’s the only place in the community that reaches out to the youth. It gives them somewhere they can go and be themselves. There are people they can talk with about personal issues.”

The core PBMR staff includes Sisters Donna and Carolyn (M. Agnese) Hoying, Missionaries of the Precious Blood Fathers Dave Kelly and Denny

‘Eventually, life does come out of all this suffering. It is our hope.‘ – Sister Donna Liette

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Cover Story Left, a mural at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation Center in Chicago honors neighborhood youth who have been killed; right, Missionary of the Precious Blood Father Dave Kelly, director of PBMR; below, the PBMR Center is housed in a former parish school in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood.

Kinderman in a collaborative ministry along with other staff and volunteers. In addition to operating the center, they offer healing circles, minister to youth who are incarcerated and to mothers who have lost loved ones to violence or incarceration. They participate in a project that enables juvenile offenders to earn money to make restitution to their victims.

Sister Donna is all smiles as she hugs and high-fives

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the youth at the center, some of whom stand a head taller.

Weekly she ministers to kids in detention. She’s with them when they go to court and supports their loved ones through the process.

She prays each night that they are alive the next morning.

The neighborhood is peppered with vacant lots, boarded up homes and businesses protected with iron bars. Gang-violence and shootings are routine. Last September a group opened fire on a basketball court a few blocks from PBMR, wounding 13 people, including a 3-year-old and making international news. It’s here, in the heart

of a fractured community, that Sisters Donna and Carolyn see Precious Blood spirituality manifest itself and challenge them.

“You see the Pascal Mystery every day,” Sister Donna said.

“Every day you see suffering. Every day you see hurt and pain, but you can also see transformation and new life. You can feel that it’s all redeemable. It’s all transformable. Eventually, life does come out of all this suffering.

It is our hope.”

Blood flows from the violence, yet the Precious Blood restores life, she explained.

She further experiences her spirituality in the building of relationships and bringing “those far off” close through peacemaking circles and restorative practices.

At the same time, the heartbreak is unavoidable. On a

Cover Story

wall in the center a cross made of foam board is covered with the names of youth who have been lost to violence. She recalls a young boy she met in juvenile detention being fatally shot while sitting in front of his house. The center is decorated with murals of youth who have been killed.

The Sisters turn to prayer and their community to cope and gain strength.

“I have to have time for prayer,” Sister Donna said.

“I feel it when I don’t have quality time for prayer.

Prayer is really, really important. You just have to stay connected to Scripture and prayer. I need to have that spiritual foundation or I couldn’t do it.”

Sister Carolyn joined Sister Donna at PBMR in late 2012 after a sabbatical. She oversees a vegetable garden, visits youth in juvenile detention, helps track finances and provides community with Sister Donna. She also enjoys ministering to the kids.

“They’re all just children of God,” Sister Carolyn said.

“They’ve just been born into a story they can’t change.

It’s hard to break out of some of it.”

PBMR dates to 2001 when four Missionaries of the Precious Blood began talking about the issues surrounding youth coming out juvenile detention or victims of violence, explained Father Dave Kelly, who directs PBMR and has worked for years with those incarcerated. Churches were closing and the priests realized a need for something new.

Fathers Kelly and Kinder-

Top, Sister Donna Liette with her flower garden at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation Center in Chicago; bottom, a mural at the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation Center in Chicago honors neighborhood youth who have been killed.

man began the ministry in a small apartment at a parish and soon moved to the current location. Today they share the building with a Chicago Public School program for at-risk kids who are working on graduation.

The school, courts and social service agencies partner with PBMR. They work with about 75 kids at the center and hundreds more who are incarcerated. In solidarity with the

‘It’s the only place in the community that reaches out to the youth.‘ – Jonathan Little

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Cover Story Left, Sister Donna Liette, third from right, leads a circle of girls from the Second Chance School in Chicago; right, a banner hanging in the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation Center in Chicago.

neighborhood, they live near the center.

“We’ve developed a niche,” Father Kelly said. “I think we have a good reputation among those we serve and have a good reputation with our collaborative partners.

We’re dealing with a lot of young people who have pretty severe needs and so it’s pretty labor intensive.

The ministry is about relationships, not about physical things.”

Little by little, PBMR is making a difference. Seven youth associated with the center are attending college. Another young man, Darius Clark, is a budding rapper who has garnered more than 165,000 views on his YouTube video. Clark uses keyboards and computers available at the center to develop his music. “After I came here I just fell in love with it. All my friends come here, too, and we are all together anyway,” Clark said.

“Sisters Donna and Carolyn are angels! They help me out 14

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and support me. I love them so much.”

Through their ministry, Sisters Donna and Carolyn advocate for their kids. Most people don’t understand that the youth have little support at home, limited resources and minimal access to a decent education. They live in generational poverty. Yet, they have more talent, creativity and survival skills than many people.

All of which can be brought to the table.

That’s why the Sisters shudder when they see people dismissing their youth with labels and stereotypes, refusing to see all that these youth have to offer.

“Our society is losing out because we haven’t given these kids the opportunity to be everything they can be,” Sister Donna said. “We’re often a voice for the voiceless.

We’re just doing what we’re supposed to do as women and men dedicated to the Precious Blood and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” 

'Victims and offenders need to tell stories and see that their lives aren’t really that much different.'

– Sister Donna Liette

One of the young men Sisters Donna and Carolyn work with at PBMR shares his story in his own words on pages 19-20.

I

t was a visit nearly 70 years in the making.

As a high school student at San Luis Rey Academy (SLR) in the 1940s, Mary Ann Lee often heard the Precious Blood Sisters at the California school talk of their motherhouse back in Dayton, Ohio. They spoke of the complex with reverence, pride. As Mrs. Lee grew closer to the Sisters, she wanted see the central house herself.

A visit to Dayton remained on her wish list for decades as life kept getting in the way.

She graduated from San Luis Rey in 1944, married a naval submarine officer and had two sons. Once her boys were grown, Mrs. Lee took a job as a receptionist at an assisted living facility near her home in San Diego and eventually became its administrator. After her husband retired from the U.S. Navy, he took a job with a federal agency and the two

travelled for his work. They were once passing through Dayton, but weren’t able to stop and see the Sisters’ house.

The wish remained just that.

“It would pop up every now and then,” Mrs. Lee said.

In 2006, while still living in California, Mrs. Lee received Sharing & Caring from a neighbor. Precious Blood Sisters Katie Lett and Eleanor McNally met the neighbor by chance, learned that Mrs. Lee was a SLR graduate and provided the Sharing & Caring issue.

Mrs. Lee held onto the newsletter when she moved to Illinois in 2007, a year after her husband’s death, to be near her sons. Fast forward to last fall, when she came across the old copy of the newsletter and made a call to Dayton. She asked if she could tour Salem Heights.

She and her son, Charles “Skip” Lee, arrived Sept. 23, 69 years after her high school

Mary Ann Lee, center, with her son, Skip Lee, and Sister Katie Lett pose during the Lee’s visit to Salem Heights on Sept. 23.

graduation. They toured the house, chatted away the afternoon with Sisters Katie and Eleanor, and reminisced.

“It was just a wonderful experience and I’m so thankful I was able to go,” Mrs. Lee said.

“It more than fulfills my wish.”

She recalled Sister Mary Anetta Schneider, who ministered at the school from 1913 to 1950. Mrs. Lee was homesick during her first months at SLR and wanted to leave.

Sister Anetta gave her two choices: “She said I could either stay there and be miserable or stay there and enjoy myself,” Mrs. Lee explained.

“I enjoyed myself.”

In her working life, Mrs. Lee followed Sister Anetta’s policy of keeping an open door for employees. Sister Anetta also encouraged her to find her place in the world and that she can accomplish anything to which she sets her mind.

“I was very close to Sister Anetta,” Mrs. Lee said.

After graduation, she maintained a relationship with the Sisters at SLR and still visits the former school.

“She loved it. San Luis Rey was probably one of the happiest times of her life,” Skip Lee said of his mother. “I can remember as a kid her talking about the importance of the Sisters and the importance of San Luis Rey.” Since returning home, Mrs. Lee continues to talk about her trip to Dayton.

“When I came away from visiting, I felt I could lay down that night and be very content.

It was wonderful to be there.”  Story and photo by Dave Eck

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San Luis Rey graduate reminisces at Salem Heights

In Memoriam

Sister Angela Therese Ballard August 1933 — November 27, 2013

On the occasion of her 60th Anniversary as a Sister of the Precious Blood, Sister Angela Therese wrote, “I have accepted and enjoyed many challenges because I was helping others. I have been able to meet and assist numerous wonderful people.” It is very evident that God has been present deeply to this gentle, giving, and compassionate woman who was sister to all of us.

In August, 1933, Patricia Jean Ballard was born to James and Mary (Hagan) Ballard in (as she loves to call it) the Holy Land of Kentucky — in Loretto. This close-knit family of four boys and 3 girls in 1934 moved to Dayton, where she met the Sisters of the Precious Blood. “At an early age,” wrote Angela, “I was inclined toward prayer and religious ideas,” remembering so well the religious beliefs and practices of parents, grandparents and other family members.

Later the family moved to Tipp City where the children were taught religion by the Sisters of the Precious Blood, and Patricia Jean, after graduating from Tippecanoe City high school, worked for six months as a stenographer at Wright Patterson Air Base. On December 5, 1951, she answered the call to religious life. She

received the name, Sister M. Angela Therese (although her family endearingly called her “Sister Pat”) and was finally professed on August 15, 1957. Many years later Sister exclaimed, “To me, religious life was and is pure gift — a gift given, a gift received.”

In 1954 Sister began ministering as a teacher at Christ the King School in Denver, Colorado.

She earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees and continued teaching children in grades 5-8 in Ohio in Coldwater, Vandalia, Norwood, Ottawa, St. Marys and Dayton. Three of her 40 years in education were spent as a principal at Queen of Angels in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Along with ministering as an educator, Angela assisted the sick and elderly in need. She retired in 1996 and served the sick and elderly in Maria Joseph Living Care Center and Salem Heights in the capacity of Eucharistic Minister and “beautician.”

In her personal prayer journal, Sister Angela wrote, “Compassion is a precious gift of contemplative attendance to the people of our lives.”

And now dear Sister Angela Therese, you are in His loving arms — in His loving presence for all eternity.

— Sister Nancy Kinross

For the full texts of the eulogies given at the sisters’ funerals, go to: www.preciousbloodsistersdayton.org; click on About Us>In Memoriam.

In Sympathy Sister Donna Liette on the death of her sister, Helena Frantz.

Sister Catherine Nader on the death of her sister-in-law, Sheila.

Sister Della Mae Meyer and her family, on death of her mother, Esther.

Sister Rose Helene Wildenhaus on the death of her brother-in-law.

Sister Maureen Mangen on the death of her sister, Audrey McEldowney.

Sister Joyce Kahle on the 16

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death of her sister-in-law, Barbara Kahle.

Sister Eva Roehrich on the death of her sister-in-law, Mary.

Sister Brendan Jordan on the death of her brother-inlaw, Fred Assing.

Sister Rosemay Laux on the death of her brother, Victor.

Sister Deb Huss on the death of her step-mother, Mary Huss.

Remembering...

Father Roger Bonifas, brother of Salem Heights nurse

Velma Frei.

Hanna Eck, mother of communications director Dave Eck. Leo Buehler, brother of Salem Heights Choir Director John Buehler.

Former member Norma Stang, class of 1950.

We received word of Sister Rita Herman’s death as this issue of Sharing & Caring was going to press. Please look for her obituary in the Spring issue or on our website at preciousbloodsistersdayton.org.

In each issue of Sharing & Caring we recognize the birthdays of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. Congratulations to the Sisters celebrating Winter birthdays.

JANUARY

29

2 3 6 8 10 12 15 17

18 19 20 24

FEBRUARY

Anne Schultz Brendan Jordan Nancy Raley Joanella Whaley Pat Gist Madonna Ratermann Margaret Daniels Katie Lett Ceil Taphorn Mary Anne Schiller Carolyn Hoying Margaret Morris Evelyn Monnin

6 8

12 16 18 19 24 28

Rosemary Lindemann

Dorothy Dennis Paula Gero Marjorie Huelsman Theresa Rizzo Regina Albers Barbara Ann Hoying Marita Beumer Eva Roehrich Verlina Mescher Tish Rawles Margie Zureick

MARCH 1 Claire Sharpshair 4 Irene Holz 5 Jane Francis Hoffman 6 Mary Lou Schmersal 12 Nancy Kinross 13 Dorothy Koenig 17 Dorothy Schmitmeyer 23 Rose Margaret Broerman 27 Martha Ann Bertke

Celebrating Sister Ellie

The Weavers Cluster gathered Dec. 2 for a meeting, but also for a very important occasion: to celebrate Sister Ellie (M. Thomas) McNally’s

birthday. The group was all smiles as Sisters shared refreshments, sang and socialized. From left, Sisters Katie Lett, Rosemary Goubeaux,

Pat Will, Judy Kroeger, Ellie McNally, Madonna Ratermann, Helen Weber, Jeanette Buehler and Mary Yarger.

Winter 2014

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News

Happy Birthday

In Brief From left, Trotwood Mayor Joyce S. Cameron, left, presents the Trotwood Chamber of Commerce Large Business of the Year Award to Sister Helen Weber on behalf the community; a picture of the chamber award; Sister Brendan Jordan.

T

he Trotwood Chamber of Commerce named The Sisters of the Precious Blood the 2013 Large Business of the Year during a November 7 banquet at Friendship Village in Clayton.

The congregation was recognized for more than a century of service on local, national and international levels, in addition to the repurposing of Salem Heights. A chamber committee reviewed nominations for the award as part of the selection process.

“We are looking for an organization that has invested in our community and has stability in the community. We’re also looking for businesses or service organizations that are involved both locally and nationally,” said Marie Battle, the chamber’s executive director. “The Sisters of the Precious Blood certainly met those qualifications.”

The community received recognition from the Ohio Senate, the Ohio House of Representatives, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, U.S. Rep. Michael Turner and the Montgomery County

Board of Commissioners, and a Milestone Award from the chamber. State, county and city officials attended the banquet along with representatives from about 40 chamber members.

Sister Helen Weber accepted the awards on behalf of the congregation.

M

ullen High School in Denver, Colo., recently established the Sister Brendan Jordan Scholarship Program in honor of Precious Blood Sister Brendan, an academic advisor at the school.

In creating the scholarship in Sister Brendan’s honor, the school noted her devotion to education as both an administrator and faculty member. Sister Brendan is the founder of the school’s De La Salle program and has played a major role in the development of many educational programs at Mullen. She has devoted her life to ensuring all students have access to the school.

The program will offer scholarships of $2,000 to Mullen High School.

continued from page 4

tive incorporation in 2012. He works as a learning specialist at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind. His work with college students dovetails into vocations work, he said, as most people entering religious life are older.

“It looks like an interesting group,” Brother Juan said of the vocations committee. “It looks like a very diverse group and I look forward to working with them.”

For Sister Terry, a hospital chaplain at St. Bernardine’s Medical Center in San Bernardino, the committee is an extension of vocations efforts she 18

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has been involved in while living in the west.

“One of the things that drew me to the Sisters of the Precious Blood, and I try to present that, is a sense of honesty about call and how much God appreciates what one has called her to,” Sister Terry said. “It’s important to be present to the story of the person who’s coming and to listen to how this particular person feels called to religious life without barriers or pre-conceived notions.

I get excited by it because it allows me to share who we are as Sisters of the Precious Blood and to share the God experience between two people.” 

Introduction and closing by Sister Donna Liette “How long, O Lord, I cry for help, but you do not listen.”

These words are taken from the Book of Habakkuk and the experience of more than 900 Chicagoans murdered in 2011 and 2012. They were the inspiration behind a play and a book, How Long Will I Cry: Voices of Youth Violence. Students from DePaul University in Chicago interviewed youth whose lives were directly affected by the bloodshed of the Chicago streets and challenged us to listen. How long will our children cry for help and we do not listen?

One of our own PBMR youth, Ronald Sims, was among those interviewed. He gives his story the title: “A Message for Stupid People.” Here is his story, in his own words: All I got to say is you don’t got nobody else but yourself. Even me. I'm a twin, but no matter what, you still by yourself.

I was born and raised in the neighborhood. It was tough, rough. I been shot, gangbanged, but I’m not in a gang no more. I ain’t been in a gang — all right, you could say I’m affiliated, yeah, but I don't sit on the corner no more. I don't hang with the wrong crowd anymore.

I live with my grandma. She my guardian. Me and my brother had drugs in our system when we was born. That’s why my grandma got custody of us. My parents, they on drugs, both of them. But my mama, she straightened out a little bit.

She live a block away. She got a little job at a little junkyard. But I don't really see her that much.

When I was growing up, there was a lot of us in my grandma’s house. Like, 10 or 11 peoples.

And the sad thing is — three bedrooms. Me and my brother used to sleep on the let-out couch. Grandma used to sleep on another couch in the dining room. And my uncle and his friends, they used to smoke weed in the house. He would leave ten of them in one room, playing games and shooting dice for money, so we'd just go outside and play basketball.

Me and my brother, we were just raw with basketball. We used to play ball in the cold.

We used to bring shovels and shovel the snow so we could play. We couldn’t really bounce the ball, it was so wet and cold. And then, in summer, we used to play tag, throw water balloons, then we'd go back playing ball. Ball, ball, ball, basketball, basketball. We was just outside having fun. Then, that’s when all the drugs, all the guns, came to the area. And that’s when everybody just became bad. Became negative. It’s just the hope, like, went away.

"Rough twins," they used to call us. Bad twins. Like, if anything would go wrong, they’d say, "They did it." But we ain’t never used to do it! We would just steal bikes, but we were never going in people’s houses.

But the more we grew up, the more stuff we seen, and the more we wanted it. It’s like, you see people with new shoes, so you want new shoes, so you want this, that, that. We seen

drug dealers; they had females and cars. So we just wanted to make a name for ourselves.

That’s how the bad stuff started. There wasn’t no joining no gang. It was just, you born in it. The guy that shot me, we used to be friends. I probably know him all my life.

We used to be cool. One of my close friends be his cousin.

Then, when my close friend moved out of town, that’s when he stopped hanging with us. He went back across the park. You know how it is.

The gang split. Divided. And it was just them against us. They hated us. I don’t even know why. Me and my brother and my friends had summer jobs, and we had bought two cars.

We used to just drive around there, everything looking good. We had new clothes, but we wasn’t really stunting.

We weren't showing out. We were just — us. We wasn’t thinking about them. Them — they be thinking about us.

June 16, 2010 — it was daytime. Sherman Park, kids was out. It was hot. It was a sunny, sunny day. Everybody was out. So he approached us like, "Hey!" And he said something, so we got to chasing him. He just shot, like bam. I think he wanted to shoot one of us, but, like, he didn’t care if it was me.

He just finna to shoot. He shot like at least nine times. Doon, doon, doon, doon. Doon, doon, doon, doon.

I didn’t know I was hit. I thought it was a paintball gun. I was laughing: "Take a look, they shooting paintball guns!" But then, I felt it. I get Winter 2014

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Ministry

Ronald’s story of violence and redemption

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID DAYTON, OH Permit No. 966

4000 Denlinger Road Dayton, OH 45426-2399

to the alley, and I felt a burn, it was hurting. And I just seen the blood: "Dang, I been shot. I been shot."

I remember everything. I thought I was going to die. I was like, "Yeah, this could really kill me right now." But I wasn’t really panicking; I was just calm.

I was walking slow. I walked two blocks. I sat down when I made it back on Bishop Street.

And the ambulance people, the paramedics — they wasn’t trying to help me. They was just, "Who did it?" That’s all they wanted to know, the police and all of them.

I was in the hospital for a day and a half. They wanted to keep me for a week, but I didn’t want to stay in. I knew I was in pain, but I just wanted to go back home.

So I went home. And after that, when I tried to walk to the store, I'd just have to pause and stop for a minute or two, 'cause it would get to burning and stuff.

I’ve still got the bullet in me.

After the shooting, that’s when I started getting mature. I had a friend named Martez who got killed. A lot of people in the neighborhood were getting killed. Before that, we ain’t killing anyone. We just thought it was fun, you know.

Then, it went to killing people, 20

Sharing & Caring

so that’s a big change. That’s a big difference. People right now are still getting their friends killed, and still just wanting to do dumb things. Don't wanna make a change.

Sometimes I’ll say, "Forget the community, man. Forget everybody. I just want to go away, be rich and never come back." But then I got my other good side when I feel like I ain’t going to give up on the community. I’m just going to go do good and come back and help the community. I think about the time I get grown — like 25, 26 — the violence will probably have died down. I don’t think the violence is going to be here forever. It’s going to be violence, but not like how it is now. There’s a lot of violence, because it’s the money, people broke, the poverty. It’s like hot water. Steam. You know, when steam needs to just open up the cap and you just let it go, and you see the hot air and stuff. That’s like people, and they just shoot you — boom, boom, boom!

From now on, I got my eye on the future. You shoot at me, I’m not finna come back and shoot at you. I’m telling you, you shoot me, I’m running; you ain’t going to see me no more. You trying to make me get a felony. You trying

to make me throw away my future.

You just want me to fall for you.

And I'm not going to fall for you.

Stupid people, I’m wise. I’m just going to focus on school, get my grades back up. I been trying to get in college. I think I’ll study marketing. I’m hoping to go to Saint Joseph’s College in Indiana. I been there three, four times. They’ll help you out. So it’s up to me to be successful. I ain’t depending on nobody but myself. I gotta make that change.

You want the jewelry, you want the girls — but I want the future.

This is one of the many stories of our youth; violence and crime do not just happen. These stories come from pierced hearts and souls; from abandonment, fear, pain, loneliness. As Ronald so powerfully acknowledges, even though he is a twin, he is alone.

At PBMR, we see our mission as building a restorative community where all are welcome, where families support one another and neighborhoods are safe, where there is healing of wounds and hope for a future without violence.

This story originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of the Cincinnati C.PP.S. Newsletter - reprinted with permission.