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Message from the Congregational Minister
A time to reconnect, pray and celebrate Dear Friends, Peace and all good be with you. “Summer time and the living is easy,” is a favorite saying as we celebrate this season. The campus invites a spirit of reflection and prayer with all of the natural beauty of the greenery and flowers and, of course, activity. At the north end of our campus we continue serious construction of the new Maria Hall, a congregational independent living environment for our Sisters. The whole campus is humming with Lourdes University students in summer school, registration sessions for the fall semester, orientation and our new Lourdes University President is beginning to find his way around. During these days of summer many of our Sisters come home to reconnect with each other, go on retreat, pray, celebrate, enjoy the campus and just “Be.” All these experiences of beauty and spirituality are open to each of you too. Our campus, the center of our Sylvania Franciscan Village, invites you to participate in events at Lourdes University and the Franciscan Center. Experience one of our Hermitages for a day of prayer and recollection. Visit the Canticle of Praise Prayer Garden, or one of our many shrines and beautiful art that surrounds the campus. The opportunities for personal growth are many. Whether on our campus or in any place where we minister, the Sylvania Franciscan mission extends the meaning of the Franciscan Village. The Franciscan Village is to nurture the legacy and growth of the mission of the Sisters of St. Francis. We are called to build relationships with our partners and friends, to extend the values and the mission of the Sisters as all are present to, and involved in, Franciscan Village activities. The Sylvania Franciscan Village publishes a village e-mail newsletter. If you do not receive it and would like to receive it, e-mail jdoyle@sistersosf.org. Join us in any or all of the ways mentioned and be a Sylvania Franciscan Villager. Thank you for all that you do and share with the Sisters. We appreciate you and your support of our congregation.
In the peace of St. Francis,
Sister Mary Jon Wagner, OSF
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“Everyone on our staff, from the counselors and social workers to those conducting evaluations and providing clerical support, whole heartedly believe in our Sylvania Franciscan mission of helping the poor and marginalized.”
After receiving a master’s degree in psychology, she taught at then Lourdes College before earning her doctorate and opening the Sophia Center. “My first calling was to be a teacher,” said Sister Rachel. “My second one was to be a counselor. It was a natural fit for my personality to meld the two. I get a great deal of energy from being with people and great satisfaction when the spirit allows me to say the right words to heal them.” The reason she counsels is because she wants to help people who are overwhelmed with problems they don’t know how to fix. She still remembers a young couple who came to her in the early years. They couldn’t have children of their own so they adopted a three-year-old who had serious behavioral issues because of his alcoholic parents. She worked with the toddler and his new parents to develop a plan to correct the problems. He has since gone from a child who couldn’t even talk to one who is now successfully traversing the challenges of being a high school teenager. Her goal is to get people to a place where they understand their problems and realize they can fix them on their own, because, after all, she can’t do it for them. When that happens, she knows the spirit has worked through her to lead them out of their chaos. Sophia began with a partnership with Bethany House, a longterm shelter for battered women and children in Toledo, and has expanded to providing counseling and testing for Lourdes University, both sponsored ministries of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania. In 1996, Sophia became part of what is now known as Sylvania Franciscan Health, the health and human services sponsored ministry of the Sisters.
Executive Director/Psychologist Sister Rachel Nijakowski, Ph. D.